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Wow! Those lyrics made me feel winsome. What a beautiful tribute, Texas.

Earlier, folks, I was looking at hbg's picture of a lovely tree in fall. It reminded me of Virginia and the sugar maple that stood in my front yard at my Virginia house. That maple led me to another thing, and that, in turn, led me to find out that the following song was considered as an interim for the Virginia state song. The only thing that kept it from replacing the present one is that it had no mention of Virginia in the lyrics.

Here is what I found.

Bob Dylan

Oh, Shenandoah's my native valley.
Aa-way, you rolling river!
Shenandoah is my native valley.
Ah-way, we're bound to go, 'cross th' wide Missouri!
Oh, Shenandoah, it's far I wander.
Aa-way, you rolling river!
Shenandoah, it's far I wander.
Ah-way, we're bound to go, 'cross th' wide Missouri!
Oh, Shenandoah has rushing waters.
Aa-way, you rolling river!
Shenandoah has rushing waters.
Ah-way, we're bound to go, 'cross th' wide Missouri!

Oh, Shenandoah, I long to hear you
Look away, you rollin' river
Oh, Shenandoah, I long to hear you
Look away. We're bound away
Across the wide Missouri

Now the Missouri is a mighty river
Look away, you rollin' river.
Indians camp along her border
Look away. We're bound away
Across the wide Missouri

Well a white man loved an Indian maiden
Look away, you rollin' river
With notions his canoe was laden
Look away, we're bound away
Across the wide Missouri

Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter
Look away, you rollin' river
It was for her I'd cross the water.
Look away, we're bound away
Across the wide Missouri

For seven long years I courted Sally
Look away, you rollin' river
Seven more years I longed to have her
Look away, we're bound away
Across the wide Missouri

Well, it's fare-thee-well, my dear,
I'm bound to leave you
Look away you rollin' river
Shenandoah, I will not deceive you
Look away, we're bound away
Across the wide Missouri

Shenandoah means "child of the stars".

Oops, Ragman I missed your brief message. I am delighted for you as you seem so happy. Congratulations on your new PERMANENT job and your relationship. It seems that she is your lucky star. <smile>

UhOh, I may have done the wrong song by Dylan. Let's try it another time.

Bob Dylan - Shenandoah Lyrics

Oh, Shenandoah, I long to hear you
Look away, you rollin' river
Oh, Shenandoah, I long to hear
Look away, we're bound away
Across the wide Missouri.

Now the Missouri is a mighty river
Look away, you rollin' river
Indians camp a long her border
Look away, we're bound away
Across the wide Missouri.

Well, a white man loved an Indian maiden
Look away, you rollin' river
With notions his canoe was laden
Look away, we're bound away
Across the wide Missouri.

Shenandoah, I love your daughter
Look away, you rollin' river
It was for her I'd cross the water
Look away, we're bound away
Across the wide Missouri.

For seven long years I courted Sally
Look away, you rollin' river
Seven more years I longed to have her
Look away, we're bound away
Across the wide Missouri.

Well, it's fare-thee-well, my dear, I'm bound to leave you
Look away, you rollin' river
Shenandoah, I will not deceive you
Look away, we're bound away
Across the wide Missouri.

Now. That's better.

Thank you, Letty. Incidentally, I looked up who wrote the song. While he performed the song, he did not write it. It's a traditional folk song- possibly it originated with the Scots-Irish settlers of the mid-Atlantic coast.

Oh, I know that, Ragman. I was just surprised to find out that Dylan did one version. Virginia is much older than Bob.

What a surprise, folks. Look at this and who it's by

Tokyo Blade - Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia,
On the trail of the lonesome pine

In the pale moonshine, our hearts entwine
She carved her name and I carved mine

Oh, June. Like the mountains I'm blue
Like the pine, I'm lonesome for you...

In the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia,
On the trail of the lonesome pine.

picked up another stack of cd's at the library , including the three-disc-set
"happy birthday , newport" !
here is ella singing "i've got a crush on you" .

The Twelfth Of Never Lyrics

(Words & music by Livingstone - Webster)

You ask how much I need you
Must I explain
I need you oh my darling
Like roses need rain

You ask how long I'll love you
I'll tell you true
Until the twelfth of never I'll still be loving you

Hold me close
Never let me go
Hold me close
Melt my heart like April snow

I'll love you 'till the blue bells forget to bloom
I'll love you 'till the clover has lost its perfume
I'll love you 'till the poets run out of rhyme

Oh, until the twelfth of never
And that's a long long time
Until the twelfth of never
And that's a long long time

Ah, hamburger. We all know that one, and love it. Such timing tonight. Just thought about all the crushes on our forum.

Know The Twelth of Never as well, edgar. Lovely song, and thank you.

Well, here's the connection, folks. hbg said "tree house" on the picture forum, and I thought of tea house.



and this song matches the picture

Marie-Lynn Hammond

something about you I realize
Japanese, Japanese
not your hair or your cheekbones or your blue eyes
none of these, Japanese
but some kind of stillness at the core
a mask that tells a story but hides much more
Japanese

the way you fold our bodies together
origami
light as paper or a feather
floating from me
now we are two white cranes
in an ink-black sky
embracing in silence
as they fly
Japanese

your little house floats in the island mist
self-contained, serene
time opens like a fan with a flick of your wrist
there we are in the painted scene
have we not been here forever
taking tea in the garden green
tea in the garden green

you speak in haiku
when you speak at all
Japanese
spare with the words
careful how they fall
Japanese

crimson lily caught
in a porcelain bowl
the tiger of passion
in the net of control

and even though we are only starting
I can see now how will be the parting
smiling and bowing, no tears please
Japanese

(Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night
Tom Waits

Well you gassed her up
Behind the wheel
With your arm around your sweet one
In your Oldsmobile
Barrelin' down the boulevard
You're looking for the heart of Saturday night

And you got paid on Friday
And your pockets are jinglin'
And you see the lights
You get all tinglin' cause you're cruisin' with a 6
And you're looking for the heart of Saturday night

Then you comb your hair
Shave your face
Tryin' to wipe out ev'ry trace
All the other days
In the week you know that this'll be the Saturday
You're reachin' your peak

Stoppin' on the red
You're goin' on the green
'Cause tonight'll be like nothin'
You've ever seen
And you're barrelin' down the boulevard
Lookin' for the heart of Saturday night

Tell me is the crack of the poolballs, neon buzzin?
Telephone's ringin'; it's your second cousin
Is it the barmaid that's smilin' from the corner of her eye?
Magic of the melancholy tear in your eye.

Makes it kind of quiver down in the core
'Cause you're dreamin' of them Saturdays that came before
And now you're stumblin'
You're stumblin' onto the heart of Saturday night

Well you gassed her up
And you're behind the wheel
With your arm around your sweet one
In your Oldsmobile
Barrellin' down the boulevard,
You're lookin' for the heart of Saturday night

Is the crack of the poolballs, neon buzzin?
Telephone's ringin'; it's your second cousin
And the barmaid is smilin' from the corner of her eye
Magic of the melancholy tear in your eye.

Makes it kind of special down in the core
And you're dreamin' of them Saturdays that came before
It's found you stumblin'
Stumblin' onto the heart of Saturday night
And you're stumblin'
Stumblin onto the heart of Saturday night

Warm Beer and Cold Women
Tom Waits

warm beer and cold women, I just don't fit in
every joint I stumbled into tonight
that's just how it's been
all these double knit strangers with
gin and vermouth and recycled stories
in the naugahyde booths

with the platinum blondes
and tobacco brunettes
I'll be drinkin' to forget you
lite another cigarette
and the band's playin' something
by Tammy Wynette
and the drinks are on me tonight

all my conversations I'll just be
talkin' about you baby
borin' some sailor as I try to get through
I just want him to listen
that's all you have to do
he said I'm better off without you
till I showed him my tattoo

now the moon's rising
ain't got no time to lose
time to get down to drinking
tell the band to play the blues
drink's are on me, I'll buy another round
at the last ditch attempt saloon

warm beer and cold women, I just don't fit in
every joint I stumbled into tonight
that's just how it's been
all these double knit strangers with
gin and vermouth and recycled stories
in the naugahyde booths

with the platinum blondes
and tobacco brunettes
I'll be drinking to forget you
lite another cigarette
and the band's playing somethin'
by Johnnie Barnett
and the drinks are on me tonight

Liliuokalani
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Liliuokalani of Hawaii)

The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.
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Queen Liliʻuokalani

Her Majesty Liliʻuokalani, Queen of Hawaiʻi
Birth name Lydia Kamakaʻeha
Reign January 20, 1891 - January 17, 1893
Successor none
Predecessor Kalākaua
Consort John Owen Dominis
Born September 2, 1838
Died November 11, 1917

Liliʻuokalani, Queen of Hawaiʻi (September 2, 1838 - November 11, 1917), originally named Lydia Kamakaʻeha, and Lydia Liliuokalani Paki. And she was also known as Lydia Kamakaʻeha Paki, with the chosen royal name of Liliʻuokalani, and later named Lydia K. Dominis, was the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.





Early life

Hawaiʻi's last sovereign queen was born on September 2, 1838, in Honolulu. In accordance with Hawaiian tradition, she was adopted at birth by Abner Paki and his wife, Laura Konia (a granddaughter of King Kamehameha I). Liliuokalani's childhood years were spent studying and playing with Bernice Pauahi, the Pakis' natural daughter.

Liliuokalani received her education at the Royal School originally known as the Chief's Children's School and became fluent in English.


Reign

On September 16, 1862, she married John Owen Dominis, who became Governor of Oʻahu and Maui. They had no children; Liliʻuokalani's heiress for several years was her niece Victoria Kaʻiulani (1875-1899), although Kaʻiulani predeceased her. Liliʻuokalani inherited the throne from her brother Kalākaua on January 17, 1891. Shortly after she gained power, she tried to abrogate the existing "Bayonet Constitution", so named because it had been signed by the previous monarch under the threat of force, and draft a new constitution that would restore power to the monarchy. American and European subjects of the Kingdom of Hawaii, threatened by the elimination of suffrage by the queen's proposed constitution, asserted that the queen had "virtually abdicated" by trying to subvert the constitution and organized to depose her. Besides the threatened loss of suffrage, business interests within the Kingdom were concerned about the removal of foreign tariffs in the American sugar trade due to the McKinley Act (which effectively eliminated the favored status of Hawaiian sugar due to the Reciprocity Treaty), and considered the possibility of annexation to the United States (and enjoying the same sugar bounties as domestic producers) as a welcome side effect of ending the monarchy. During the overthrow in 1893 the American minister in Hawaiʻi at the time, John L. Stevens, ordered troops from the U.S.S. Boston ashore, to protect American businesses and property. The Queen was deposed on January 17, 1893, and a provisional government was instituted.

The administration of Grover Cleveland commissioned the Blount Report, and based on its findings, concluded that the overthrow of Liliʻuokalani was illegal and offered November 16, 1893 to give the throne back to her if she granted amnesty to everyone responsible. She initially refused, and it was reported that she said she would have them beheaded - she denied that specific accusation, but admitted that she intended them to suffer the punishment of death.[1] With this development, then-President Grover Cleveland sent the issue to the United States Congress. Although she changed her mind on December 18, 1893, and U.S. Minister Willis demanded her reinstatement by the Provisional Government, the Provisional Government refused. Congress responded to Cleveland's referral with another investigation, and submitted the Morgan Report by the U.S. Senate on February 26, 1894, which exonerated both Minister Stevens and the U.S. troops from any responsibility for the overthrow. On July 4, 1894, the Republic of Hawaiʻi was proclaimed and Sanford B. Dole, one of the first people who originally called on the institution of the monarchy to be abolished, became President. The Republic of Hawaiʻi was recognized immediately by the United States government, although Walter Q. Gresham, Cleveland's Secretary of State, remained antagonistic towards the new government.[2]


Abdication

Liliʻuokalani was arrested on January 16, 1895 (several days after a failed rebellion by Robert Wilcox) when firearms were found in the gardens of her home, of which she denied any knowledge. She was sentenced to five years of hard labor in prison and fined $5000, but the sentence was commuted to imprisonment in an upstairs bedroom of ʻIolani Palace until she was released in 1896, with the establishment of the Republic of Hawaiʻi. After eight months, she abdicated her throne in return for the release of her jailed supporters. Failing in her appeals to the American government to regain her throne, she unsuccessfully entered against the federal government claims totaling $450,000 for property and other losses, making personal claim to the crown lands. The territorial legislature of Hawaii finally voted her an annual pension of $4,000 and permitted her to receive the income from a sugar plantation of 6,000 acres (24 km²). She went home to Washington Place, where she lived as a private citizen until her death in 1917 due to complications from a stroke. She was 79. Along with Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, Hawaiʻi was annexed to the United States as a result of the Spanish-American War through a joint resolution of the United States Congress in 1898. Cuba, where the precipitating event of the war occurred (the explosion of the battleship USS Maine in Havana), was never annexed by the United States.

Liliʻuokalani was an accomplished author and songwriter. Her book, Hawaiʻi's Story by Hawaiʻi's Queen, gave her view of the history of her country and her overthrow. Some of her best-known musical compositions include the song, "Aloha ʻOe".

Hugo Montenegro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hugo Montenegro (September 2, 1925 - February 6, 1981) was an American composer of film soundtracks.


Biography

Hugo Mario Montenegro was born in New York City. He attended Manhattan College while studying composition and leading his own band for school dances. In the middle 1950's, he was directing, conducting, and arranging the orchestra for Eliot Glen and Irving Spice on their Dragon and Caprice labels. It was he who was directing the Glen-Spice Orchestra on Dion DiMucci's first release when Dion was backed by Dragon recording artists, the Timberlanes. Released on Mohawk #105 in 1957, the songs were "Out In Colorado" and "The Chosen Few", which were soon issued on the Jubliee label for better distribution. He was later hired by Time Records as a musical director producing a series of albums for the label, and moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s where he began working for RCA records, producing a series of albums and soundtracks for motion pictures and television themes, such as two volumes of Music From The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. Montenegro began scoring motion pictures with the instrumental music from "Advance To The Rear" in 1964. Following the success of his albums, he was contracted by Columbia Pictures where he did such films as Hurry Sundown (film) and two Matt Helm pictures and Screen Gems where he is most famous for his theme from the second season of the television series I Dream Of Jeannie and The Outcasts (TV series). During the mid‑60's he started producing some of the most renowned works from the space age pop era, featuring electronics and rock in albums such as Moog Power and Mammy Blue.

Montenegro's electronic works were decisive and influential for the future generations of electronic musicians, giving a retro/futuristic edge by the use of the Moog synthesizer, and helped to push its popularity. He will be also remembered by his versions of classics such as Ennio Morricone's The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

In the late 1970s severe emphysema put an end to his musical career, and he died of the disease in 1981.

Hal Ashby
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Born 2 September 1929
Ogden, Utah, USA
Died 27 December 1988
Malibu, California, USA

Hal Ashby (September 2, 1929 - December 27, 1988) was an American film director and Academy Award winner born William Hal Ashby.





Birth and early years

Born in Ogden, Utah, Ashby grew up in a Mormon household and had a tumultuous childhood as part of a dysfunctional family which included the divorce of his parents, his father's suicide and his dropping out of high school. In his late teens, Ashby married but soon after divorced.


Hollywood and career peaks

As Ashby was entering adult life, he moved from Utah to California where he quickly became an assistant film editor. His big break occurred in 1967 when he won the Academy Award for Film Editing for In the Heat of the Night. At the urging of its director, Norman Jewison, Ashby directed his first film, The Landlord, in 1970. While his birth date placed him squarely within the realm of the prewar generation, the filmmaker quickly embraced the hippie lifestyle (perhaps as a reaction to his repressed upbringing), adopting vegetarianism and growing his hair long before it became de rigueur amongst the principles of the Hollywood Renaissance. In 1970 he married actress Joan Marshall, today probably best known for her guest appearance in the Star Trek episode "Court Martial" as antagonistic prosecutor Arleen Shaw. While they remained married until his death in 1988, the two had separated by the mid-seventies, with Marshall never forgiving her husband, Warren Beatty, and Robert Towne for dramatizing certain unflattering elements of her life in Shampoo.

Over the next 16 years, Ashby directed several acclaimed and popular films, including the off-beat romance Harold and Maude and the social satire Being There with Peter Sellers, resuscitating the career of a brilliant actor who many felt had lapsed into self-parody. Ashby's greatest commercial success was the aforementioned Warren Beatty vehicle Shampoo, although the director effectively ceded control of the production over to his star. Bound for Glory, a muted biography of Woody Guthrie starring David Carradine, was the first film to utilize the Steadicam.

Aside from Shampoo, where he was by all accounts a creative adjunct to Beatty and Towne, Ashby's most commercially successful film was the Vietnam War drama Coming Home. Starring Jane Fonda and Jon Voight, both in Academy Award-winning performances, Ashby earned his only Best Director nomination from the Academy for his work. As Voight had reportedly been difficult and uncooperative during production, many feel that it was Ashby's skillful editing of a particularly melodramatic scene which earned him the award. Arriving in the post-Jaws and Star Wars era, from a production standpoint Coming Home was one of the last films to encapsulate the ethos of the New Hollywood era, earning nearly $15 million dollars in returns and rentals on a minuscule $3 million budget.


Decline

Because of his critical and (relative) commercial success, shortly after the success of Coming Home Ashby formed a production company under the auspices of Lorimar. Entering into a drug-induced spiral after Being There (his last film to achieve widespread attention), Ashby became notoriously reclusive and eccentric, retreating to his spartan beachfront abode in Malibu, where he smoked prodigious amounts of marijuana and frequently refused to eat in the presence of other people.

The productions of Second-Hand Hearts and Lookin' to Get Out − a Las Vegas caper film that reunited him with Voight and featured Voight's young daughter, Angelina Jolie − were plagued by the director's increasingly erratic behavior, such as pacifying former girlfriends by hiring them to edit Lookin' To Get Out. Studio executives grew less tolerant of his increasingly perfectionist editing techniques, exemplified by his laboring over a montage set to the Police's "Message in a Bottle" for nearly six months. Initially set to helm Tootsie after two years of laborious negotiations, reports of these bizarre tendencies resulted in his dismissal shortly before production commenced.

Shortly thereafter, Ashby − a longtime Rolling Stones fan − accompanied the group on their 1981 American tour, in the process filming the documentary Let's Spend the Night Together. The occupational hazards of the road were too much for Ashby, who overdosed before a show in Phoenix, Arizona. Although the film was eventually completed, it was relegated to cable TV.

The Slugger's Wife, with a screenplay penned by renowned playwright Neil Simon, continued the losing streak. Ostensibly a commercially-minded romantic comedy, Simon was reportedly horrified when he viewed Ashby's rough cut of the first reel, sequenced as an impressionistic mood piece with the first half hour featuring minimal dialogue. Remaining defiant in his squabbles with producers and Simon, Ashby was eventually fired in the final stages of production; the completed film was a critical and commercial failure. 8 Million Ways to Die, written by Oliver Stone, fared similarly at the box office; by this juncture Ashby's post-production antics were considered to be such a liability that he was fired by the production company on the final day of principal photography.


Death

Attempting to turn a corner in his declining career, Ashby ceased to use drugs, trimmed his hair and beard, and began to frequent Hollywood parties wearing a navy blue blazer so as to suggest that he was once again "respectable". Despite these efforts, word of his unreliable reputation had spread throughout the entertainment industry and he could only find work as a television director, helming the pilots for Beverly Hills Buntz (a Dennis Franz vehicle that purloined the premise of Beverly Hills Cop and lasted for thirteen episodes) and Jake's Journey (a planned collaboration in the Arthurian sword and sorcery vein with Graham Chapman of Monty Python fame that never came to fruition because of the creators' ailing health).

Longtime friend Warren Beatty advised Ashby to seek medical care after he complained of various medical problems, including undiagnosed phlebitis; he was soon diagnosed with malignant pancreatic cancer that rapidly spread to his lungs, colon and liver. Some friends of Ashby grew incensed when his girlfriend, a New Ager who insisted upon homeopathic treatments, refused to let them see him. Ashby died on December 27, 1988 at his home in Malibu, California.

Sean Penn's directorial debut The Indian Runner is dedicated to Ashby and his contemporary, pioneering independent filmmaker/actor John Cassavetes, although Penn collaborated with neither.


Legacy

Today Ashby stands as the most underappreciated filmmaker of the New Hollywood era, [citation needed] with only one web site dedicated to his works and no critical retrospectives of note as of 2006. Some have attributed this to his lack of a distinctive "style", with his oeuvre ranging from heartfelt drama to dark, biting social satire to farcial comedies with no consistent pattern. It could be argued that story was of secondary concern to Ashby, who came from a technical background and continued to serve as de facto editor on most of his films (of his work, Being There has always elicited the most criticism, but this is mostly in regard to its controversial ending). In the opinion of actor Bruce Dern, "What happened to Hal Ashby, both what he did to himself and what they did to him, was as repulsive as anything I've seen in my forty years of the industry".

Keanu Reeves
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Keanu Charles Reeves
Born September 2, 1964 (1964-09-02) (age 43)
Beirut, Lebanon
Years active 1985 - Present

Keanu Charles Reeves (pronounced in IPA: [ki'anu]) is a Canadian actor, born September 2, 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon, and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is well known for playing Neo in the action film trilogy The Matrix. He is also well known for playing Ted in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Other notable roles include Scott Favor in the drama My Own Private Idaho alongside River Phoenix, Kevin Lomax in the supernatural thriller The Devil's Advocate, and starring roles in the action films Speed and Constantine. He has played bass guitar in the grunge band Dogstar during the 1990s, and more recently in the band Becky. In an ETonline survey in 2006, he is in "Top Ten of America's Favorite Stars". He is of Polynesian, Portuguese, and Irish descent.





Biography

Early life


Reeves was born to Patricia Taylor, an English showgirl and costume designer who was working in Beirut when she met Reeves' father (Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr., born 1942) at a local nightclub. His father was born in Hawaii, the son of Charles Reeves, an Irish American from Tennessee, and Rose Miguel of Portuguese, Chinese and Hawaiian ancestry.[1] Reeves' father worked as an unskilled laborer and earned his GED while imprisoned in Hawaii for selling heroin at the Hilo airport. Reeves does not currently have any relationship with his biological father.[2]

Reeves was named after his uncle Henry Keanu Reeves. "Keanu" is a derivation of Reeves' great-great-uncle Keaweaheulu, whose name means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian. When Reeves first arrived in Hollywood, his agent thought his first name was too exotic, so during the early days of his film career he was sometimes credited as K.C. Reeves. Contrary to information at IMDb, he has no movie or TV credits under the names Norman Kreeves or Chuck Spadina (an avenue in Toronto).


Reeves has one full sister named Kim (born 1966 in Beirut). Kim was diagnosed with leukemia in December 2002. Reeves visits her often at the home he purchased for her on the island of Capri, Italy. Through his mother he has a half-sister named Karina Miller (born 1976 in Toronto). Through his father he has a half-sister named Emma Reeves (born 1980 in Hawaii).

Reeves' parents divorced in 1966. In 1969, his mother moved to New York City with her children where she met and married Paul Aaron, a Broadway and Hollywood director. The couple then moved to Toronto but would divorce in 1971. Reeves' mother was later married to Robert Miller (between 1976 and 1980). Subsequently, Reeves grew up primarily in Toronto and worked at a pasta restaurant, sharpened skates at an ice rink, and was voted MVP on his high school ice hockey team (De La Salle College "Oaklands").

Within a span of five years, Reeves attended four different high schools, including the Etobicoke School of the Arts, from which he was later expelled. Reeves began his acting career at the age of 15, appearing in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet at the Leah Posluns Theatre. After leaving De La Salle College "Oaklands", a Roman Catholic boys' high school where he played ice hockey, he attended a free school, which allowed him to obtain an education while working as an actor; he later dropped out, never obtaining his high school diploma.[3]


Career

Reeves made his screen acting debut in Alberta, Canada, in a 1979 CBC Television production, Hanging In. Throughout the early 1980s, he appeared in commercials (including one for Coca-Cola), short films including the NFB drama One Step Away[4] and stage work in Toronto.


His first studio movie appearance was in the Rob Lowe ice hockey film Youngblood, which was filmed in Canada. In it, he played an ice hockey goalie. Shortly after the movie's release, Reeves drove from Toronto to Los Angeles in his 1969 Volvo. His ex-stepfather Paul Aaron, a stage and television director, gave him a place to stay and got him Erwin Stoff as a manager and agent before he even arrived in Los Angeles.

After a few minor roles, he gained the notice of the critics in 1986's River's Edge, a teenage drama that received positive reviews. Following the film's success, he spent the late 1980s appearing in a number of movies aimed at teenage audiences, including Permanent Record, a dark film about teenage suicide, and the successful 1989 comedy, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, which (along with its 1991 sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey) typecast Reeves somewhat during the next few years, as much of his subsequent portrayal in the press has been influenced by his portrayal of the comically airheaded character, Ted. Reeves was originally offered the role of Pvt. Chris Taylor in Platoon (1986) but turned it down as he disliked the violence involved; the role went to Charlie Sheen.[citation needed] At the same time, Reeves also played a notable role in the Oscar-winning film Dangerous Liaisons.

During the early 1990s, Reeves appeared in high-budget action films like Point Break and lower-budget independent films, including the well-received 1991 film, My Own Private Idaho, and the critically panned 1994 film, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.

In 1992, Reeves starred in Bram Stoker's Dracula, which was a box office success. However, his acting was criticized by many, and director Francis Ford Coppola claims that Reeves was only cast because he wanted a male character that teenagers could look up to. In 1994, Reeves also starred in the action film Speed. His casting in the film was questioned since previously he'd mostly been known for comedies and had never been the sole headliner on a film. The summer action film had a fairly large budget and was helmed by novice cinematographer-turner-director Jan De Bont. The success of the film invoked a similar situation for studio Twentieth Century Fox with Die Hard (a large summer action film with a lead mostly known for comedies). Its commercial success and raised his profile, leading to his casting in films like Johnny Mnemonic and Chain Reaction, both of which failed at the box office.

Hitting a low in his career, Reeves then turned down the role of Jack Traven in the Speed sequel (which was ultimately a critical and financial disappointment), to tour with his band Dogstar. He was reportedly offered $11 million dollars for the sequel but opted instead to star in the horror/drama The Devil's Advocate with Al Pacino and Charlize Theron. Reeves deferred his salary for The Devil's Advocate so that Pacino would be cast, and he did the same for The Replacements, guaranteeing the casting of Gene Hackman. Returning to theatre in 1995, Reeves performed the title role in a Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Hamlet in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

His 1999 science fiction hit, The Matrix, re-established him as a Hollywood leading man after a few years of films that received only moderate box office success and mixed critical reception.

In between the first Matrix film and its sequels, Reeves appeared in several films that received mostly negative reviews and average box office grosses, including The Watcher, Sweet November and Hardball. However, the two Matrix sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions co-starring Carrie-Anne Moss, as well as his supporting role in the 2003 movie, Something's Gotta Give, co-starring Jack Nicholson and his 2005 horror-action film, Constantine, proved to be box office successes and brought Reeves back into the public spotlight. Movie producer Lauren Shuler Donner stated in a November 18-19, 2006 interview that writers are currently developing a script for Constantine 2. She claims that Keanu Reeves is willing to reprise his role as John Constantine.

On January 31, 2005, Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Reeves accompanied former Speed costar Sandra Bullock to the 2006 Academy Awards. This caused some controversy, as Bullock is married to motorcycle builder Jesse James. It was later revealed to be a publicity stunt to coincide with the release of their romantic film The Lake House.

His latest film, A Scanner Darkly, based on the science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, co-stars Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., and Woody Harrelson. It was released on July 7, 2006.

On November 3, 2006, he co-hosted, with Alanis Morissette, the premiere of the environmentalist documentary The Great Warming.

Reeves is acting in the remake of the 1951 science fiction movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. [5]


Personal life

In December 1999, Reeves' girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, gave birth to a stillborn daughter who was named Ava Archer Syme-Reeves. In April 2001, Syme was killed in a car accident. She was buried next to their daughter in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Reeves was a pallbearer at Syme's funeral.

Reeves enjoys riding his numerous motorcycles and coined the term "demon ride" to describe how he often rides with no headlights at night. On one of his "demon rides" in 1988, he crashed near Topanga Canyon and broke several ribs and ruptured his spleen; he has had an abdominal scar ever since: when the paramedics arrived, an emergency medical technician trainee dropped one end of the stretcher by mistake.


For nearly a decade following his initial rise to stardom, Reeves lived a vagabond existence in hotels, opting not to buy a house or find a permanent place of residence, despite earning millions. Reeves has lived in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles since 2003, but also has an apartment in New York City. Although it is commonly assumed that he believes in Buddhism because he studied the religion while filming The Little Buddha, he said: "I wasn't raised in any special denominations and I haven't taken on any so far."[6] After Syme's death, he said he doesn't believe that things happen "for a reason."[7]

Reeves is fond of chess, motorcycles, ice hockey, and table tennis. He is left-handed, but plays the bass guitar right-handed and loves punk rock bands such as The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and The Clash, he also has a taste for Indie Rock citing to be a fan of They Might Be Giants and Crooked Fingers, as well as Mary J Blige and RnB legends Stevie Wonder and Otis Redding

In a 1992 New Year's Eve party show, Reeves filled in on bass for punk rock band The Vandals while bassist Joe Escalante was at a wedding. He began playing the bass with rock band Dogstar, which has now gone "into hibernation." Reeves also had a part in New York thrash metal band Anthrax's "Safe Home" music video. More recently, he played bass in a band called Becky with former Dogstar drummer Rob Mailhouse, guitarist Paulie Kosta and singer Rebecca Lord. In early 2005, he announced that he was leaving the band and his musical career for good.

Reeves is reported to be very generous with his time and money, lending both to a variety of causes. He took a significant amount of the profits from his Matrix series and treated the 12 stuntmen who worked on the films to Harley Davidson motorcycles, among other things.

Each Friday night after work, Bubba would fire up
his outdoor grill and cook a venison steak. But,
all of Bubba's neighbors were Catholic ..

And since it was Lent, they were forbidden from
eating meat on Friday. The delicious aroma from
the grilled venison steaks was causing such a
problem for the Catholic faithful that they finally
talked to their Priest.

The Priest came to visit Bubba, and suggested
he become a Catholic. After several classes and
much study, Bubba attended Mass ... And as the
Priest sprinkled Holy Water over him, he said,
"You were born a Baptist, and raised a Baptist,
but now you are a Catholic."

Bubba's neighbors were greatly relieved, until
Friday night arrived, and the wonderful aroma
of grilled venison again filled the neighborhood.

The Priest was called immediately by the neighbors
and as he rushed into Bubba's yard, clutching a
rosary prepared to scold him, he stopped and
watched in amazement.

There stood Bubba, clutching a small bottle of
holy water he carefully sprinkled over the grilling
meat and chanted: "You wuz born a deer, you
wuz raised a deer, but now you'se a catfish!"

Good morning, WA2K folks.

dj, It is great to see you back in the company of Tom Waits. We were concerned about you, buddy. Thanks for the Saturday night specials and we all enjoy your late evening songs. Thanks, Canada.

Well, we know that our hawkman has completed his celeb bio's when he ends with a very humorous story about a "bubba". That guy wasn't as clueless as his neighbors thought, right?

When our Raggedy gets here, we'll know more about how the celebs appear. Until then, we would like to dedicate this song to the yitwails, Merry Andrew and seaglass, and any others who dwell on the big island.

First the lyrics in Hawaiian

Aloha oe

Ha`aheo ka ua ina pali,
Ke nihi aela ka nahele
E hahai ana i ka liko,
Pua ahihi lehua o uka

Aloha Oe,
Aloha Oe,
E ke onaona noho ika lipo
A fond embrace,
a hoi ae au,
Until we meet again.

O ka halia`loha i hiki mai,
Ke hone ae nei ku`u manawa.
O oe no ka`u ipon aloha,
A lo ko e hana nei.

(Chorus)

Mao popo ku`u ike i ka nani,
Na pua rose o Maunawili,
Ilaila hiaai na manu
Miki ala i ka nani o ka liko

(Chorus)

Now, in English

Proudly swept the rain cloud by the cliffs,
As on it glided through the trees
Still following ever the "liko"
The "Ahihi lehua" of the vale...

Farewell to thee,
Farewell to thee,
Thou charming one who dwellst among the bow'rs.
One fond embrace,
Before I now depart,
Until we meet again.

Thus sweet memories come back to me,
Bringing fresh remembrance of the past
Dearest one, yes, thou art mine own,
From thee, true love shall ne'er depart.

(Chorus)

I have seen and watched thy loveliness,
Thous sweet Rose of Maunawili,
And 'tis there the birds oft love to dwell
And sip the honey from thy lips.

It truly is a shame the way we acquired Hawaii, folks.

From the place where I obtained the lyrics, a note from the manager.

Liliuokalani wrote this song and from behind her prison wall, she heard the footsteps in the hall - her captors pacing out the fall. But never did she fail to give the gift of song that words should live beyond her time, a sad goodbye, Farewell Hawai'i!

Elvis Presley - Hawaiian Wedding Song

This is the moment
I've waited for
I can hear my heart singing
Soon bells will be ringing

This is the moment
Of sweet Aloha
I will love you longer than forever
Promise me that you will leave me never

Here and now dear,
All my love,
I vow dear
Promise me that you will leave me never
I will love you longer than forever

U-a, si-la
Pa-a ia me o-e
Ko a-lo-ha ma-ka-mea e i-po
Ka-'u ia e le-i a-e ne-i la

Now that we are one
Clouds won't hide the sun
Blue skies of Hawaii smile
On this, our wedding day
I do love you with all my heart

Well, edgar, I vaguely recall that one by Elvis. There's a wedding chant, too, I think.

I thought that Elvis did this one, and perhaps he did as it was sung by so many.

Here's the crooner's version.

Night and you and Blue Hawaii
The night is heavenly and you are heaven to me
Lovely you and Blue Hawaii
With all this loveliness there should be love

Come with me while the moon is on the sea
The night is young and so are we, so are we

Dreams come true in Blue Hawaii
And mine could all come true this magic night of nights with you

Come with me while the moon is on the sea (the moon is on the sea)
The night is young and so are we (so are we)

Dreams come true in Blue Hawaii
And mine could all come true this magic night of nights with you

Speaking of Bing, I briefly caught an interview on Turner classic movies that showed him talking to himself. The only thing that I recall is him having observed that his ears were like a taxi with both doors open.

Aaah.
WA2K has me drifting and dreaming today. Lucky people. <sigh>

Here I am enraptured
By the thrill of my Hawai`i
While I live I'll tell of you
The spell of you, Hawai`i


Sing me a song of the islands
My serenade that the tradewinds blow
Sing me a song of the islands
Where hearts are high when the moon is low


Where rippling waters seem to say
Aloha wau ia `oe


Bring me the fragrance of ginger
Strum your guitars while I dream away
Sing me a song of the islands
Aloha wau ia `oe


<and another SIGH>

Liliuokalani; Hugo Montenegro; Hal Ashby and Keanu Reeves

Well, there's our Raggedy singing an island song. Ever since I read Mitchner's book, I have wanted to go to Bora Bora. I think that section of his book was called "From the sun swept lagoon"

Great photo's, PA. Unfortunately, the only ones that I recognize are Queen Lili and Keanu. I thought that he was an Inuit, and although many people in our forum think that he is a bad actor, I thought he was really good in The Devil's Advocate.

Time to replay an oldie, folks.

For you from Bing, Raggedy.

Sweet Leilani, heavenly flower oh.
I dreamt of paradise for two. (My lovely Leilani)
You are my paradise completed. (My lovely Leilani)
You are my dream come true.

Sweet Leilani, heavenly flower oh,
Tropic skies are jealous while they shine. (My lovely Leilani)
I think they're jealous of your blue eyes. (My lovely Leilani)
Jealous because you're mine.

I think they're jealous of your blue eyes. (My lovely Leilani)
Jealous because you're mine.

Sweet Leilani, heavenly flower oh,
Nature's fashion roses kissed with dew. (My lovely Leilani)
And then she placed them in a bower. (My lovely Leilani)
It was the start of you.
My lovely Lei-lan-i.



Looks like my hibiscus