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Ben Affleck
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt
Born August 15, 1972 (1972-08-15) (age 35)
Berkeley, California
Spouse(s) Jennifer Garner (2005 - present) 1 child
Children Violet Anne Affleck
[show]Awards
Academy Awards
Best Original Screenplay
1998 Good Will Hunting
Golden Globe Awards
Best Screenplay
1998 Good Will Hunting
Golden Raspberry Awards
Worst Actor
2003 Daredevil ; Gigli ; Paycheck
Worst Screen Couple
2003 Gigli
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Best Cast - Motion Picture
1998 Shakespeare in Love
Other Awards
Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
2006 Hollywoodland

Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is a Golden Globe Award-nominated American film actor, director, and Academy Award-winning and Golden Globe Award-winning screenwriter. He became known in the late 1990s, after his involvement in the film Good Will Hunting, and has since become a Hollywood leading man, having starred in several big budget films.





Biography

Early life

Affleck was born Benjamin Géza Affleck[1] in Berkeley, California to father Timothy Affleck, a social worker and drug rehab counselor, and mother Chris Boldt, a school teacher. The family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts when Ben was very young. Affleck's ancestry is Irish and Scottish;[2] his parents divorced in 1984. Affleck's younger brother is actor Casey Affleck. At the age of eight, Affleck met ten-year-old Matt Damon, who lived two blocks away. Through the encouragement of their parents, Affleck and Damon would later attend Cambridge Rindge and Latin School together, although they were in different year groups. Affleck grew up in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area and attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, as well as the University of Vermont.


Career

Affleck worked as a child actor, appearing on the PBS kids' series The Voyage of the Mimi and in several made-for-television movies. Throughout the 1990s, Affleck had a role in LifeStories: Families in Crisis as a steroid abusing athlete as well as several notable films, including 1992's School Ties (with Matt Damon and Brendan Fraser), 1993's Dazed and Confused, 1995's Mallrats and 1997's Chasing Amy; Mallrats and Amy began his collaboration with writer/director Kevin Smith. Affleck has appeared in every film Smith has made with the exception of Smith's first film, Clerks.

Affleck had a one line speaking role as a high school basketball player in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. Affleck and fellow Boston Red Sox fanatic Matt Damon had roles as extras in the movie Field of Dreams when Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones go to Fenway Park.

Affleck came to national attention working with his best friend Damon in Good Will Hunting (1997). They shared credit and both received the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Along with Damon and producers Chris Moore and Sean Bailey, Affleck founded the production company LivePlanet, through which the four created the documentary series Project Greenlight, as well as the failed mystery-hybrid series Push, Nevada amongst other projects. Project Greenlight was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Reality Program in 2002, 2004 and 2005.

Following Good Will Hunting, Affleck had starring roles in many successful movies, including Armageddon, Forces of Nature, Pearl Harbor, Changing Lanes, The Sum of All Fears and Daredevil, establishing himself as a Hollywood leading man throughout the early 2000s. However, after the release of several critically panned, box office flops, including Gigli (2003) and Surviving Christmas (2004), Affleck's career waned considerably. He did not appear in any films until 2006 when he appeared in Clerks II.

In addition to being a fan of the Daredevil comics (Frank Miller's run specifically), he wrote the introduction to the trade paperback Daredevil: Guardian Devil which reprints Daredevil (Volume 2) #1-8 (written by Kevin Smith).

Affleck made what can be considered a comeback with the September 2006 release of the critically acclaimed George Reeves biopic-noir Hollywoodland, directed by HBO TV-series veteran Allen Coulter. His performance was impressive enough that he was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival and has also won the Best Supporting Actor award at the Hollywood Film Festival[3] and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. Affleck recently completed directing his third film, Gone, Baby, Gone, for which he also co-wrote the screenplay, about two Boston area detectives investigating a little girl's kidnapping and how it affects their lives. Based on the book by Dennis Lehane, it is in post-production and scheduled for a 2007 release starring Affleck's brother, Casey.


Personal life

Affleck had a high-profile romance with actress Gwyneth Paltrow in 1998, following her breakup with actor Brad Pitt. In 2002, he began dating actress/singer Jennifer Lopez, whom he had met prior to filming Gigli. The same year, his engagement to Lopez was announced, and the relationship between the two received a lot of attention by the entertainment media who dubbed the couple "Bennifer". The couple broke up in 2004, both blaming the media attention - including an alleged incident in which Affleck partied with Christian Slater and some lap dancers in Canada[4]. This negative publicity and media attention was also brought along to the 2004 Jersey Girl, which also was a box office failure.

Affleck subsequently dated his Daredevil co-star, actress Jennifer Garner, and the two were engaged after nine months of seeing each other. In May 2005, it was announced that Garner was pregnant and the couple were married on June 29, 2005 on the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos. Garner gave birth to a daughter, Violet Anne Affleck, on December 1, 2005 in Los Angeles, California. The couple currently lives in Santa Monica, California and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Affleck has a holiday home in Savannah, Georgia.

Affleck is an avid poker player, regularly entering local events. He has been tutored by poker professionals Amir Vahedi and Annie Duke, and won the California State Poker Championship on June 20, 2004, taking home the first prize of $356,000, which qualified him for the 2004 World Poker Tour final tournament. Affleck is a Boston Red Sox fan.

Affleck supports a non-profit organization called the A-T Childrens Project.[5] He started supporting the A-TCP after meeting Joe Kindregan when filming Forces of Nature. Kindregan, who was then 9 years old, has a rare disease called ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T). Affleck has attended benefits and spoken to Congress to advocate for the A-T Childrens Project. The disease, described as like having muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, immune deficiency and cancer all at once, is progressive; children with A-T usually do not live beyond their late teens.


Political activism

In the final weeks of the 2000 Presidential campaign, Affleck promoted the Democratic ticket, supporting Al Gore and repeatedly delivering a get-out-the-vote plea: "It's very important to vote. The president will appoint three or four Supreme Court justices."

During the final week of the race, Affleck spoke on behalf of Gore in California, Florida, and Pennsylvania. During a stop in Pittsburgh, the star?-along with Helen Hunt, Martin Sheen, Rob Reiner and other actors?-spent an hour at a phone bank calling registered Democrats. "People in my generation have a low voter turnout. One of the reasons that I'm here is to demonstrate that no matter who you are going to vote for... I think it's important to get involved and get out and vote," Affleck told reporters. "But I'm going to tell people to vote for Gore."

On October 28, 2000, Affleck flew with Hillary Clinton, who was running for a Senate seat, to Ithaca, New York, where he introduced her at a Cornell University rally. Affleck told the college crowd that Clinton had been advocating for women and working families since "Rick Lazio was running around the frat house in his underwear". Lazio, then a Long Island congressman, was Clinton's Republican opponent.

On November 6, 2000, the final day of the campaign, Affleck was one of several high-profile celebrities summoned to Miami Beach by Miramax Films boss Harvey Weinstein for a late-night Gore rally, just hours before polls opened nationwide. The Gore campaign's last event, a final effort to energize South Beach voters, did not end until about 1:00AM, but Affleck flew back to New York that morning and made a surprise live appearance on The Rosie O'Donnell Show. It was 10:15AM when he made his final public pitch from a Rockefeller Center studio, noting that he was "a little bit tired... I've been out getting involved, doing stuff and trying to get people to vote. And that's why I came by here". Also, "Today is the get-out-the-vote day and...I think this is the time to get involved, especially the young folks who are here ... I'm about to go vote," He then said, "I am personally gonna vote for Al Gore".

As votes were tallied that night, Affleck told Salon.com's Amy Reiter, "I'm nervous this evening, but one of the things that's exciting to me is the amount of people who voted. No matter who wins, I think it's a healthy thing for our country that so many voters have come out and participated in the process. Either way, I think the most important number will be the turnout". However, as The Smoking Gun later discovered, Affleck himself did not vote that day.[6]

In the May 2001 issue of GQ, Affleck said, "My fantasy is that someday I'm independently wealthy enough that I'm not beholden to anybody, so I can run for Congress on the grounds that everyday people ?- be they singers or poets or bankers or lawyers or teachers ?- should be in government". In the March 2003 issue of Vanity Fair, Affleck again proposes the possibility of a future run for Congress. "I think there's a real nobility to public service... It would be fun to run on a platform I really believed in, without being beholden to the win-at-all-costs mentality".

In 2004, Affleck actively campaigned for Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. During the first day of the Democratic Convention, Affleck was featured on Larry King Live with Tucker Carlson and Al Sharpton. Larry King asked Affleck if he would consider running for office, and Affleck admitted to contemplating the proposition. Specific attention focused on whether he would run for Kerry's open Senate seat (as Affleck was from Massachusetts). He noted that the line between politics and entertainment is becoming increasingly blurred, as political figures Ronald Reagan, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, both came from the entertainment business, although both were members of the Republican Party.

He appeared in a print ad with his openly gay cousin, Jason, in support of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.[7] He once said, "Everyone has the capacity for being bisexual." He has, however, never suggested that he himself is bisexual.[8]

As a Democrat, Affleck has spoken diplomatically of George W. Bush as a person in an interview with Bill O'Reilly (July 27, 2004), saying, "I had the pleasure of and the honor of meeting the President of the United States at the Daytona 500. I found him to be a collegial, affable, kind guy." He went on to say Bush "is a patriot and he's a man who believes in the country. He's trying to further an agenda he believes in. I happen to disagree with most of his policies, but I respect the man."


Affleck in popular culture

Affleck was mentioned in "I'll Sue Ya" in "Weird Al" Yankovic's CD, Straight Outta Lynwood: "I'll sue Ben Affleck...... aw, do I even need a reason?"
On Will & Grace, after the character Jack has his voice dubbed over in his most recent TV series, he explains to Josh Lucas that Lucas is Matt Damon and that he's "Ben Affleck in Gigli...or Paycheck...or Bounce...or Jersey Girl...or Surviving Christmas." This is a joke on how many films he has had bomb.
Affleck appears to embrace some of his failed movies; in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Affleck is seen alongside Damon on the fictitious set of Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season, where Damon mocks the failure of Afleck's Reindeer Games while the two discuss their movie choices.
Affleck has been prominent in two South Park episodes. In "How to Eat with Your Butt", Affleck was found to be the missing child of a couple suffering from a facial deformity in which their heads were encased in buttocks. In "Fat Butt and Pancake Head", Affleck was portrayed as Jennifer Lopez's boyfriend, until he left her for Eric Cartman's hand puppet, also named Jennifer Lopez. The puppet pronounces her name as "Hennifer Lopez," because of her strong, forced Puerto Rican accent.
Affleck is a favorite target of Mike Nelson's RiffTrax.
Affleck has also been parodied on Family Guy, in a flashback scene in which he was lying on the couch while Damon wrote Good Will Hunting, with the joke that he contributed nothing to the script, and added his name only after adding a word to a sentence.
Affleck is mentioned in The Simpsons episode "See Homer Run", saying that he ran most of Homer's political campaign.
In the movie Team America, Affleck is mentioned in a song when the vocalist makes a joke about how he needs his girlfriend more than Affleck needs acting school.

A lady about 7 months pregnant got on a bus.
She noticed the man opposite her was smiling at her.
She immediately moved to another seat.
This time the smile turned into a grin, so she moved again.
The man seemed even more amused.
When on the fourth move, the man burst out laughing.
She complained to the driver and had the man arrested.

The case came up in court.
The judge asked the man what he had to say for himself.

The man replied, "Well your Honor, it was like this: when
the lady got on the bus, I couldn't help but notice her
condition. She then sat under a sign that said "The Gold
Dust Twins are Coming" and I had to smile. Then
she moved and sat under a sign that said, "Sloan's
Liniment will reduce the swelling" and I had to grin.
Then she placed herself under a sign that said,
"William's Big Stick Did the Trick" and I could hardly
control myself. BUT....when she moved the fourth time
and sat under a sign that said, "Goodyear Rubber could
have prevented this accident" I laughed out loud!"

hey, hawkman. Great celeb bio's today. Thanks for the smile, and I wonder if the judge dismissed the suit. Hmmm, perhaps the Good Year blimp would have been appropriate as well.

Since I had read the book Something of Value by Robert Ruark, I thought that I recalled a movie based on that book. Sure enough, folks, Wendy Hiller was in that movie about the Mau Mau uprising. I vaguely recall that Ruark's theme had to do with the idea that if one cultural was going to try and deprive another of its inherent practices, they better be ready to replace it with "something of value". Good advice for everyone in the modern world, no?

Well, I watched the dvd about the mystery of George Reeves and was surprised to find this song by Don McLean.

I don't want to be like old George Reeves
Stuck in a Superman role.
I've got a long way to go in my career
And some day my fame will make it clear
That I had to be a SupermanÂ

Verse 1
He came from another place deep in his mind
As far as the planets in space.
As galaxy's mysteries start to unwind
Some changes are bound to take place.

Though gravity constantly weighs on my travels
My mission is close to adrift
Though I can be strong when my power unravels
I still come to you for a lift.

(Chorus)

Verse 2
I know I can fly when my plane hits the sky
I believe I've got nothing to lose.
But when I'm alone with the bed and the phone
I get the terminal metropolis blues

I flew to the coast where Superman's Ghost
Lay shot on the bedroom floor
He said "Watch out for TV it crucified me,
but it can't crucify me no more."


(Chorus)

Verse 3
"I'm red white and blue, I've got justice to do
I'm the man of your fantasy dreams
But I'm an alien man from an alien land
Who's alive on your orthicon screens.
I once ruled the world and when flags were unfurled
I performed for you live not on tape.
But the public is cruel when played for a fool
As you see by the blood on my cape."

(Chorus)

Verse 4

"Well I never was real or stronger than steel.
I'm a figment of Freudian need.
And the video screen is a psychotic scene
And it's all done with mirrors and green

My agent just called, the talks have been stalled
I soon will be pulled from the air.
But the image persists in the video mists
That a Superman still will be there!"

Good afternoon WA2K.

Letty, I commented with a lot of synchro info, and posted pictures and then "poof" (Internet Explorer cannot display this page, or something to that effect) so I think I'll just keep quiet today and hope my pictures take.

Ethel Barrymore; Edna Ferber; Julia Child; Wendy (Eliza Doolittle) Hiller and Ben Affleck.

Raggedy, I know what you mean, but your photo's always say soooo much.

Guessing, now, folks, but I will wager that our puppy synchronized with me on the Mau Mau and things that are valuable.

Great quintet today, PA, and will you look at that rather large and ugly fish that Julia is holding?

Can't think of one more song to play that will honor those faces, but here is something that Stoat's appearance brought to mind.

A stoat and a haggis may well be the same.

Address To A Haggis by Robert Burns.

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o' need,
While thro' your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An' cut ye up wi' ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they strech an' strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve,
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
'Bethankit!' hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi' perfect sconner,
Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro' bluidy flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An' legs, an' arms, an' heads will sned,
Like taps o' thrissle.

Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o 'fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!

Love calls you by your name

You thought that it could never happen
to all the people that you became,
your body lost in legend, the beast so very tame.
But here, right here,
between the birthmark and the stain,
between the ocean and your open vein,
between the snowman and the rain,
once again, once again,
love calls you by your name.

The women in your scrapbook
whom you still praise and blame,
you say they chained you to your fingernails
and you climb the halls of fame.
Oh but here, right here,
between the peanuts and the cage,
between the darkness and the stage,
between the hour and the age,
once again, once again,
love calls you by your name.

Shouldering your loneliness
like a gun that you will not learn to aim,
you stumble into this movie house,
then you climb, you climb into the frame.
Yes, and here, right here
between the moonlight and the lane,
between the tunnel and the train,
between the victim and his stain,
once again, once again,
love calls you by your name.

I leave the lady meditating
on the very love which I, I do not wish to claim,
I journey down the hundred steps,
but the street is still the very same.
And here, right here,
between the dancer and his cane,
between the sailboat and the drain,
between the newsreel and your tiny pain,
once again, once again,
love calls you by your name.

Where are you, Judy, where are you, Anne?
Where are the paths your heroes came?
Wondering out loud as the bandage pulls away,
was I, was I only limping, was I really lame?
Oh here, come over here,
between the windmill and the grain,
between the sundial and the chain,
between the traitor and her pain,
once again, once again,
love calls you by your name.

Leonard Cohen

Well, edgar, I was thinking of playing The Yellow Rose of Texas in honor of Edna Ferber's Giant, but I decided against it.

For once, folks, I understand completely that Cohen song. Yes, love calls you by your name, and as Sarah observed in the last line of one of her songs:

"Love is more than desire"

Speaking of giant, how about this one.

Fe fe fi fi fo fo fum
I smell smoke in the auditorium

Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown,
He's a clown that Charlie Brown
He's gonna get caught
Just you wait and see
(Why's everybody always pickin' on me?)

That's him on his knees
I know that's him
Yelling seven come eleven
Down in the boys gym.

Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown,
He's a clown that Charlie Brown
He's gonna get caught
Just you wait and see
(Why's everybody always pickin' on me?)

Who's always writin' on the wall
Who's always goofin' in the hall
Who's always throwin' spit balls
Yeah, who (who me) yeah, you

Walked in the classroom cool and slow
Who called the English teacher Daddy-o

Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown,
He's a clown that Charlie Brown
He's gonna get caught
Just you wait and see
(Why's everybody always pickin' on me?)

--- Instrumental ---

Who's always writin' on the wall
Who's always goofin' in the hall
Who's always throwin' spit balls
Yeah, who (who me) yeah, you

Walked in the classroom cool and slow
Who called the English teacher Daddy-o

Charlie Brown, Charlie Brown,
He's a clown that Charlie Brown
He's gonna get caught
Just you wait and see
(Why's everybody always pickin' on me?)..

rumors of a deluge here were a mite exaggerated, but here's a Johnny Cash oldie bout what might have been

My mama always taught me that good things come from adversity if we put our faith in the Lord.
We couldn't see much good in the flood waters when they
were causing us to have to leave home,
But when the water went down, we found that it had washed a load of rich black bottom dirt across our land. The following year we had the best cotton crop we'd ever had.

I remember hearing:

How high's the water, mama?
Two feet high and risin'
How high's the water, papa?
Two feet high and risin'

We can make it to the road in a homemade boat
That's the only thing we got left that'll float
It's already over all the wheat and the oats,
Two feet high and risin'

How high's the water, mama?
Three feet high and risin'
How high's the water, papa?
Three feet high and risin'

Well, the hives are gone,
I've lost my bees
The chickens are sleepin'
In the willow trees
Cow's in water up past her knees,
Three feet high and risin'

How high's the water, mama?
Four feet high and risin'
How high's the water, papa?
Four feet high and risin'

Hey, come look through the window pane,
The bus is comin', gonna take us to the train
Looks like we'll be blessed with a little more rain,
4 feet high and risin'

How high's the water, mama?
Five feet high and risin'
How high's the water, papa?
Five feet high and risin'

Well, the rails are washed out north of town
We gotta head for higher ground
We can't come back till the water comes down,
Five feet high and risin'

Well, it's five feet high and risin'

Always a delight to hear something from the man in black, M.D. Thanks, island man.

Isn't it ironic that it takes a hurricane to replenish the planet with water?

A strange answer to that song.

[ Johnny ]
When God shut Noah in the grand old ark he put a rainbow in the cloud
When thunders rolled and the sky was dark God put a rainbow in the cloud
God put a rainbow in the cloud( God put a rainbow in the cloud)
Well it looked like the sun wouldn't shine anymore God put a rainbow in the cloud
[ steel ]
Away down yonder in Egypt's sand God put a rainbow in the cloud
Just to lead his children to the promised land God put a rainbow in the cloud
God put a rainbow...
[ guitar ]
When they put old Daniel in the lion's den God put a rainbow in the cloud
Just to prove his promise to the sons of men God put a rainbow in the cloud
God put a rainbow...

Wanted to do Mahalia Jackson's "Balm in Gilead" because it reminds me of a line from Poe's The Raven...."Is there, is there a balm in Gilead?"

May not have "quothed" that exactly, listeners, but I'll check it out.

Yep, folks, I was correct but the Raven told the narrator, "Nevermore".

Ok, E.A. here's another view

Harry Belafonte - Balm In Gilead

Sometimes I feel discouraged,
And think my work's in vain,
But then the Holy Spirit,
Revives my soul again,

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul

If you can't pray like Peter,
If you can't pray like Paul,
Go home and tell your neighbor,
"He died to save us all"

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul

Recorded by hank williams
Words and music by marcel joseph

Intro: [c] [g7] [c] [g7]
[c] youre window shoppin
Just [f] window shoppin
[c] youre only lookin a-[g7] round
[c] youre not buyin
[f] youre just tryin
To [c] find the [g7] best deal in [c] town. [c7]

You [f] give away your kisses
But you [c] never give your heart
To [d] anyone whos fool enough to [g] fall ...[g7]
[c] you dont feel love
You [f] dont want real love
[c] youre window [g7] shoppin thats [c] all.

Repeat both verses.

a pretty similar theme, penned by William "Smokey" Robinson & Berry Gordy: (incidentally, as i recall, Bob Dylan holds high regards for Smokey Robinson's song writing).

[Spoken:]
When I became of age my mother called me to her side
She said 'son you're growing up now, pretty soon
You'll take a bride'...

[Sings:]
And then she said...
'Just because you've become a young man now
(Man, now)
There's still some things that you don't understand now
(Son, now)
Before you ask some girl for her hand now
(My son)
Keep your freedom for as long as you can now'

My mama told me...'you better shop around'
(Shop, shop around) a-whoa-yeah
You better (uh-huh) shop around!
(Shop, shop around)
Uh-uh-uh

'There's some things that I want you to know now
(Uh-huh-...ooo)
A just as sure as the winds gonna blow now
(Uh-huh-...ooo)
The women come and the women gonna go now
(Uh-huh...ooo)
Before you tell 'em that you love 'em so now
My mama told me...'you better shop around'
(Shop, shop around) whoa-yeah
You better (uh-huh) shop around
(Shop, shop around)

'A-gotta get yourself a bargain son
Don't be sold on the very first one
A-pretty girls come a dime a dozen
A-try to find one who's gonna give ya true lovin'
(Uh-huh...ooo)
'Before you take a girl and say I do now
A make sure she's in love with-a you now'
My mama told me
(You better shop around)

[Instrumental]

Oh-hey-hey-hey
(ooooooh)
'Try to get yourself a bargain son
Don't be sold on the very first one!
(First one, first one)
A pretty girls come a dime a dozen
A try to find one who's gonna give ya true lovin'
(Uh-huh...ooo)
Before you take a girl and say 'I do' now
Make sure she's in love with a-you now
Make sure that her love is true now
I'd hate to see you feelin' sad and blue now'
My Mama told me
'You better shop around'
(Shop, shop around)
(Uh-huh 'don't let the first one get you')
(Shop, shop around)
On no,cuz I don't wanna see ya 'wicher'
(Uh-huh shop, shop around)
Uh-huh 'before you let 'em hold you tight'
(Shop, shop around)
A-yeah-yeah (shop around)
'Make sure shes alright'
(Uh-huh, shop, shop around)
'Uh-huh before you let 'em take your hand my son'
(Uh-huh, shop, shop around)
'Understand my son'
(Uh-huh, shop, shop around)
'Be a man my son'
(Uh-huh, shop, shop around)
'I know you can my son'
(Uh-huh, shop, shop around)
I love it
(Uh-huh shop, shop around)
A shop around...

Good morning, WA2K. (reminds me of Good Morning, Viet nam)

I had forgotten that Hank Sr. was pronounced dead in Oak Hill, West Virginia, but there are those who believe he was dead before that. Such a waste, folks.

Thanks, edgar and M.D., for the Hank and Smokey songs.

It's still dark here in my small studio, and I'm thinking of Jethro Tull.

Pussy Willow
Artist: Jethro Tull
Album: A Little Light Music

In the half-tone light of a young morning
She sighs and shifts on the pillow
And across her face dancing, the first shadows fly
To kiss the pussy willow

In her fairy-tale world she's a lost soul singing
In a sad voice nobody hears
She waits in her castle of make-believing
For her white knight to appear

Pusy willow --- down fur-lined avenue
Brushing the sleep from her young woman eyes
Runs for the train --- see, eight o'clock's coming
Cutting dreams down to size again

Pussy willow --- down fur-lined avenue
Brushing the sleep from her young woman eyes
Runs from the train. hear her typewriter humming
Cutting dreams down to size again

She longs for the east and a pale dress flowing
An apartment in old mayfair
Or to fish the spey, spinning the first run of spring
Or to die for a cause somewhere

Pussy willow --- down fur-lined avenue
Brushing the sleep from her young woman eyes
Runs from the train. hear her typewriter humming
Cutting dreams down to size again

Elvis Presley - And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind

Listen easy, you can hear God calling
Walking barefoot by the stream
Come on to me, Your hair's softly falling
On my face as in a dream
And the time will be our time
And the grass won't pay no mind

Saying nothing, lying where the sun is
Baking down upon our sides
My lips touch you, with their soft wet kisses
Your hands gentle in reply
And the time will be our time
And the grass won't pay no mind

Child, touch my soul with your cries
And the music will know what we've found
I, hear a hundred good-byes
But today I hear only one sound
The moment we're living is now
Now now now now now now now

Young bird flying, and a soft wind blowing
Cools the sweat inside my palms
Close my eyes, hear the flowers growing
As you lay sleeping in my arms
And the time will be our time
And the grass won't pay no mind
No the grass won't pay no mind

Take This Longing

Many men have loved the bells
you fastened to the rein,
and everyone who wanted you
they found what they will always want again.
Your beauty lost to you yourself
just as it was lost to them.

Oh take this longing from my tongue,
whatever useless things these hands have done.
Let me see your beauty broken down
like you would do for one you love.

Your body like a searchlight
my poverty revealed,
I would like to try your charity
until you cry, "Now you must try my greed."
And everything depends upon
how near you sleep to me

Just take this longing from my tongue
all the lonely things my hands have done.
Let me see your beauty broken down
like you would do for one your love.

Hungry as an archway
through which the troops have passed,
I stand in ruins behind you,
with your winter clothes, your broken sandal straps.
I love to see you naked over there
especially from the back.

Oh take this longing from my tongue,
all the useless things my hands have done,
untie for me your hired blue gown,
like you would do for one that you love.

You're faithful to the better man,
I'm afraid that he left.
So let me judge your love affair
in this very room where I have sentenced
mine to death.
I'll even wear these old laurel leaves
that he's shaken from his head.

Just take this longing from my tongue,
all the useless things my hands have done,
let me see your beauty broken down,
like you would do for one you love.

Like you would do for one you love.

Leonard Cohen

edgar, what an unusual combination-Elvis and Leonard. It was rather like Dali and Disney, no? Thank you for both, Texas.

I taught fairy tales as literature, but I never read them, I told them one on one. Her name was Carmanita Hunt, and she bordered on rebellious. She was a big girl and always assumed the gothic dress. One day, during free reading time, I went to the back of the room and sat with her. I told her the story of the magic cottage whose moral was," when unsurmountable chores face you, do one thing at a time." I had her rapt attention, and it occurred to me that no one had ever told her a fairy tale before. Her attitude changed from that point on. One of my successes that I recall. No, teachers do no make a great deal of money, but there are compensations. When you touch the mind of a young person, that is worth more than money.(plus one gets to spend summers with their children)

I think, folks, that I became a little wistful when I played that song by Jethro Tull.

Back later with a wonderful song about a lake with a Vietnamese translation.

The Lake

And thus forever pushed to a newer shore,
In the darkness eternal carried ne'er to return,
Will we ever in the ocean of the ages
Cast anchor for one day more?

Oh lake! The year has scarcely ended
Than near the cherished waves she was to revisit,
Behold, on this stone I came alone to linger
Where you have seen her sit.

As you roared beneath these deep rocks,
Smashed your waters against their torn sides,
So the wind threw the foams of your billows
Onto her feet beloved.

One night, remember? As we cruised along silently,
One heard from afar on the waves under these skies,
Only the noises of rowers who struck in rhythm
Your harmonious waters.

Suddenly of the tones unknown to the earth
Of the charmed shore struck your echoes;
The waves grew attentive, and the voice to me dear
Thus spoke these very words:

"Oh time, suspend your flight! and you, blessed hours,
Delay your course!
Let us savor the fleeting delights
Of the happiest days of ours.

Enough unhappy souls in this world implore you:
Flow on, and for them flow on;
Remove the days with the cares which consume them
And spare the happy ones.

"But in vain I ask for a few moments more,
Time evades me, and takes flight.
I say to this night, "Tarry." But the dawn
Will dissipate the night.

"So let us love, let us love; and the transient hour
Let's enjoy in a hurry;
Man has no harbor, time no shores;
It flows, we fade merely!"

Jealous time, can it be that these drunken moments
When love fills us with bliss to overflow
Fly from us at the same speed
As do our days of woe?

Alas, could we at least freeze their traces?
Why, gone forevermore? Why, lost forevermore?
This time that gave them, this time that kills them,
To yield them nevermore?

Eternity, void, past, gloomy abyss,
What have you done with the days you buried?
Speak; will you surrender the sublime ectasies
From us you had ravished?

Oh lake, mute stones, grottoes, forests obscure!
You that time spares and rejuvenates,
Will you keep of this night, fair nature,
At least its memory pure?

Let it abide in your repose or your storms,
Beautiful lake, in the face of your smiling hills,
And in these dark firs, and these wild rocks
Which hang o'er your waters still!

Let it be in the zephyr that shudders in passing,
In the sounds of your shores and by them repeated,
In the silver-faced star that whitens your expanse
With its softened brightness!

Let the wind that groans and the reeds that sigh
The gentle perfume of your balmy air,
Let all that is heard or seen or breathed
All say: "In love they were."

Translated by Thomas D. Le

since i just posted a pix of the lone ranger , i thought i should also give the lyrics to his song - sure hope nobody will be offended by it .
hbg

Well, folks, I think that I had better stick with a language that I know. I did make myself smile, however.

How about this song that observes as Ragman has pointed out, is a useless emotion.

Jealousy, night and day you torture me.
I sometimes wonder if this spell that I'm under,
Can only be a melody for I know no one but me,
Has won your heart but when the music starts:

My peace departs,
From the moment they play that lovely strain
And we surrender to all its charm again.
This jealousy that tortures me is ecstasy, mystery, pain.

We dance to a tango of love.
Your heart beats with mine as we sway.
Your eyes give the answer I'm dreaming of:
That soft word your cruel lips will never say.

Well, I fear that the music will end,
And shatter the spell it may lend.
To make me believe when your eyes just deceive,
It's only a tango you love.

I fear that the music will end,
And shatter the spell it may lend.
To make me believe when your eyes just deceive,
It's only a tango you love.
It's only a tango that you love.

This isn't my day, hbg. I think I need to tell myself a fairy tale. Hmmm, loved that Ranger song, and did I hear the William Tell Overture in the background?