edgar, that was a wonderful song by Harry and the lady who sang with him is unfamiliar to me. The lyrics were as lovely as the melody, Texas. Thanks, and I hope your maintenance Monday goes well.
How about a little jazz to start off our week, folks. This lady is great, but I am not familiar with her.
Of course the lyrics mentioned fireflys, firefly. That's why I played it; that and the fact that I sang that song in the fifth grade. and once again when I sang with a pick up band. Recall vividly Santa Tomas e Lucas complimenting me, and that is something that Mexican did NOT do often.
My word, folks, just found out that Kay Starr was born on a reservation and had full blooded Iroquois parents. That was quite a surprise.
Robin wasn't too bad on that Beatles song, but obviously he didn't quit his day job.
I recall vaguely that "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was based on this Bach classic, and it's aptly named for today. (loosely based, incidentally)
It's Ernest Hemingway's birthday today. One of his non-fiction works was Green Hills of Africa, which described his hunting safari through East Africa. He relished killing the wildlife there, I'd prefer we just listen to some music from that part of the world.
You know, firefly, I'm not certain that anyone is really tone deaf. I think it might be a matter of genetics, but I also think one can learn to sing through practice.
Loved the "brown" and "white" songs, dear.
Ah, do I ever recall Ernest Hemingway. Read The Old Man and the Sea and liked it. Tried to read The Snows of Kilimanjaro because I saw in the preface that a frozen leopard was lying at its peak. I was eleven years old. How strange that the man should survive for two weeks on the ledge of a mountain side after a small plane crash then kill himself with a shotgun.
Your African song reminds me of "The Child Inside."
Here's another WA2K song that fits yours, firefly.
Oh, my, folks. Mondays are still downers as I have so much that must be done today. Back later ,and I am delighted to hear so many contributions to our cyber radio.
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firefly
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Mon 21 Jul, 2008 08:19 am
Trust me, Letty, I could never learn to sing. I also cannot learn to speak foreign languages, because I cannot reproduce the sounds properly. My father had a beautiful singing voice, so does my brother (and he has perfect pitch), but I must have inherited my mom's genes in that area, because she sounds almost as bad as I do. You wouldn't want to hear us do a duet.
Here's a guy who has no trouble singing the colorful Red Roses for a Blue Lady.
Birth name Katherine Laverne Starks
Born July 21, 1922 (1922-07-21) (age 86), Dougherty, Oklahoma, United States
Genre(s) Traditional Pop
Years active 1939-1950s
Label(s) Capitol, RCA Victor
Website KayStarr.net
Kay Starr (born July 21, 1922) is an American jazz and popular singer.
Life and career
She was born Katherine Laverne Starks on a reservation in Dougherty, Oklahoma. Her father, Harry, was a full-blooded Iroquois Indian; her mother, Annie, was of mixed Irish and American Indian heritage. When her father got a job installing water sprinkler systems for the Automatical Sprinkler Company, the family moved to Dallas, Texas. There, her mother raised chickens, whom Kay used to serenade in the coop. Kay's aunt Nora was impressed by her 7-year-old niece's singing and arranged for her to sing on a Dallas radio station, WRR. First she took a talent competition by storm, finishing 3rd one week and placing first every week thereafter. Eventually she had her own 15-minute show. She sang pop and "hillbilly" songs with a piano accompaniment. By age 10 she was making $3 a night, which was quite a salary in the Depression days.
When Kay's father changed jobs, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she continued performing on the radio. She sang "Western swing music," still mostly a mix of country and pop. During this time at Memphis radio station WMPS,misspellings in her fan mail inspired her and her parents to change her name to "Kay Starr."
At 15, she was chosen to sing with the Joe Venuti orchestra. Venuti had a contract to play in the Peabody Hotel in Memphis which called for his band to feature a girl singer, which he did not have. Venuti's road manager heard Kay Starr on the radio and suggested her to Venuti. She was still in junior high school and her parents insisted on a midnight curfew.
Although she had brief stints in 1939 with Bob Crosby and Glenn Miller (who hired her in July of that year when his regular singer, Marion Hutton, was sick), she spent most of her next few years with Venuti, until he dissolved his band in 1942. It was, however, with Miller that she cut her first record: "Baby Me"/"Love with a Capital You." It was not a great success, in part because the band played in a key more appropriate for Marion Hutton that, unfortunately, did not suit Kay's vocal range.
After finishing high school, she moved to Los Angeles and signed with Wingy Manone's band; then from 1943 to 1945 she sang with Charlie Barnet's band. She then retired for a year because she developed pneumonia and later developed nodes on her vocal cords, and lost her voice as a result of fatigue and overwork.
In 1946 she became a soloist, and in 1947 signed a solo contract with Capitol Records. Capitol had a number of other female singers signed up (such as Peggy Lee, Ella Mae Morse, Jo Stafford, and Margaret Whiting), so it was hard to find her a niche. In 1948 when the American Federation of Musicians was threatening a strike, Capitol wanted to have all its singers record a lot of songs for future release. Since she was junior to all these other artists, every song she wanted to sing got offered to all the others, leaving her a list of old songs from earlier in the century, which nobody else wanted to record.
Around 1950 Starr made a trip back home to Dougherty and heard a fiddle recording of Pee Wee King's song, "Bonaparte's Retreat". She liked it so much that she wanted to record it, and contacted Roy Acuff's publishing house in Nashville, Tennessee, and spoke to Acuff directly. He was happy to let her record it, but it took a while for her to make clear that she was a singer, not a fiddler, and therefore needed to have some lyrics written. Eventually Acuff came up with a new lyric, and "Bonaparte's Retreat" became her biggest hit up to that point, with close to a million sales.
In 1955, she signed with RCA Victor Records. However, at this time, traditional pop music was being superseded by rock and roll, and Kay had only one hit, which is sometimes considered her attempt to sing rock and roll and sometimes as a song making fun of it, "The Rock And Roll Waltz". She stayed at RCA Victor until 1959, then returned to Capitol.
Most of her songs have jazz influences, and, like Frankie Laine and Johnnie Ray, are sung in a style that sound decidedly close to the rock and roll songs that follow. These include her smash hits "Wheel of Fortune" (her biggest hit, number one for 10 weeks), "Side by Side", "The Man Upstairs", and "Rock and Roll Waltz". One of her biggest hits was her cover version of "The Man with the Bag", a Christmas song, which can be heard non-stop every holiday season in stores, restaurants, and on the radio. Her career declined in the late 1950s but she continued to work.
In 2006 a remix by Stuhr of Starr's vocal of the classic "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" was used in a commercial for Telus.
As of 2007 she resides in Bel Air, California; married six times, she has a daughter and a grandchild.
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bobsmythhawk
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Mon 21 Jul, 2008 09:41 am
Don Knotts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Jesse Donald Knotts
July 21, 1924(1924-07-21)
Morgantown, West Virginia, US
Died February 24, 2006 (aged 81)
Los Angeles, California, US
Years active 1953 - 2006
Awards won
Emmy Awards
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor - Comedy Series
1961 The Andy Griffith Show
1962 The Andy Griffith Show
1963 The Andy Griffith Show
1966 The Andy Griffith Show
1967 The Andy Griffith Show
Jesse Donald Knotts (July 21, 1924 - February 24, 2006) was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show (a role which earned him five Emmy Awards), and as landlord Ralph Furley on the television sitcom Three's Company in the 1980s.
Biography
Early life
Knotts was born in the university town of Morgantown, West Virginia, the son of Elsie L. (née Moore) and William Jesse Knotts. His father's family had been in the United States since the 17th century, originally settling in Queen Anne's County, Maryland.[1] His father had been a farmer, but suffered a nervous breakdown and lost his farm. The family (including Don's two brothers) was supported by Don's mother, who ran a boarding house in town.[2] Knotts' father suffered from schizophrenia and alcoholism and died when Don was 13 years old.[3] Some time later, Knotts graduated from Morgantown High School.
At 19, Knotts joined the Army and served in World War II as part of a traveling GI variety show and as a nurse, including in the Pacific Theater. He did not serve in the Marine Corps as a drill instructor, as has been the subject of a popular urban legend.[4] After the war, Knotts graduated from West Virginia University in 1948.
Career
After performing in many venues (including a ventriloquist act with a dummy named Hooch Matador), Knotts got his first major break on television in the soap opera Search for Tomorrow where he appeared from 1953 to 1955. He came to fame in 1956 on Steve Allen's variety show, as part of Allen's repertory company, most notably in Allen's mock "Man in the Street" interviews, always as a man extremely nervous. The laughs grew when Knotts stated his occupation -- always one that wouldn't be appropriate for such a shaky person, such as a surgeon or explosives expert.
In 1958, Knotts appeared in the movie No Time for Sergeants alongside Andy Griffith. The movie, based on the play and book of the same name, began a professional and personal relationship between Knotts and Griffith that would last for decades.
In 1960, when Griffith was offered the opportunity to headline in his own sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968), Knotts took the role of Barney Fife, the deputy -- and originally cousin -- of Sheriff Andy Taylor (portrayed by Griffith). Knotts' five seasons portraying the deputy on the popular show would earn him five Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Comedy.
A summary of the show from the website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications describes Deputy Barney Fife: "Self-important, romantic, and nearly always wrong, Barney dreamed of the day he could use the one bullet (which he kept in his shirt pocket) Andy had allowed him to be issued. While Barney was forever frustrated that Mayberry was too small for the delusional ideas he had of himself, viewers got the sense that he couldn't have survived anywhere else. Don Knotts played the comic and pathetic sides of the character with equal aplomb and aploom."
When the show first aired, Andy Griffith was intended to be the comedic lead with Don Knotts as his "foil", or straight man. But, it was quickly found that the show was funnier the other way around. As Griffith maintained in several interviews, "By the second episode, I knew that Don should be funny, and I should play straight". The years during which the two worked on the show cemented Griffith's lifelong admiration for Don Knotts and their lifelong friendship.
Believing earlier remarks made by Griffith, that The Andy Griffith Show would soon be ending after five seasons, Knotts began to look for other work, and signed a five film contract with Universal Studios. He was caught off guard when Griffith announced he would be continuing with the show after all, but Knotts' hands were tied. Knotts left the series in 1965. (Within the series, it was announced that Deputy Fife had finally made the "big time", and had joined the Raleigh, N.C. police force.)
Knotts went on to star in a series of film comedies which drew on his high-strung persona from the TV series: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964), The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), The Reluctant Astronaut (1967), The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968), The Love God? (1969) and How to Frame a Figg (1971). Knotts would, however, return to the role of Barney Fife several times in the 1960s: he made five more guest appearances on The Andy Griffith Show (gaining him another two Emmys), and later appeared once more on the spin-off Mayberry RFD, where he was present as best man for the marriage of Andy Taylor and his longtime love, Helen Crump.
After making How to Frame a Figg, Knotts' 5-film contract with Universal came to an end. He continued to work steadily, though he did not appear as a regular on any successful television series until his appearance on Three's Company in 1979. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Knotts served as the spokesman for Dodge trucks and was featured prominently in a series of print ads and dealer brochures. On television, he went on to host an odd-variety show/sitcom hybrid on NBC, The Don Knotts Show, which aired Tuesdays during the fall of 1970, but the series was low-rated and short-lived. He also made frequent guest appearances on other shows such as The Bill Cosby Show and Here's Lucy. In 1970, he would also make yet another appearance as Barney Fife, in the pilot of The New Andy Griffith Show. (This was particularly odd, as Andy Griffith did not play Sheriff Taylor in this series.) In 1972, Knotts would voice an animated version of himself in two memorable episodes of The New Scooby Doo Movies. He also appeared as Felix Unger in a stage version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple with Art Carney as Oscar Madison.
Beginning in 1975, Knotts was teamed with Tim Conway in a series of slapstick movies aimed at children, including the Disney film The Apple Dumpling Gang, and its 1979 sequel, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. They also did two independent films, a boxing comedy called The Prize Fighter in 1979, and a comedy/mystery movie in 1981 called The Private Eyes. Knotts co-starred in several other Disney movies, including 1976's Gus, 1977's Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo and 1978's Hot Lead and Cold Feet.
In 1979, Knotts returned to series television in his second most identifiable role, landlord Ralph Furley on Three's Company. The series, which was already an established hit, added Knotts to the cast when the original landlords, a married couple played by Audra Lindley and Norman Fell, left the show to star in a short-lived spin-off series (The Ropers). Though the role of the outlandish, overdressed, nerdy-geeky-buffoon landlord was originally intended to be a minor recurring character, Knotts was so funny and lovable as a character who fantasized that he was an incredibly attractive lothario, that the writers greatly expanded his role. On set, Knotts easily ingratiated himself to the already-established cast. Knotts remained on the show until it ended in 1984. The Three's Company script supervisor, Carol Summers, went on to be Knotts' agent--often accompanying him to personal appearances.
In 1986, Don Knotts reunited with Andy Griffith in the 1986 made-for-television movie Return to Mayberry, where he reprised his role as Barney Fife yet again. In 1989, he joined Griffith in another show, playing a recurring role as pesky neighbor Les Calhoun on Matlock until 1992.
After his run on Matlock ended in 1992, Knotts' roles became sporadic including a cameo in the 1996 flop Big Bully as the principal of the high school. In 1998, Knotts had a small but pivotal role as a mysterious TV repairman in Pleasantville with Reese Witherspoon. That year, his home town of Morgantown, West Virginia, changed the name of the street formerly known as South University Ave (US 119, SR 73) to "Don Knotts Boulevard" on "Don Knotts Day". Also that day, in a nod to Don's role as Barney Fife, he was also named an honorary Deputy Sheriff with the Monongalia County Sheriff's Department.
Knotts was recognized in 2000 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Though he continued to act on stage, much of his film and television work after 2000 was voice only. In 2002, he would appear again with Scooby-Doo in the video game Scooby-Doo: Night of 100 Frights (Knotts also sent up his appearances on that show in various promotions for Cartoon Network and in a parody on Robot Chicken, where he was teamed with Phyllis Diller). In 2003, Knotts teamed up with Tim Conway again to provide voices for the direct-to-video children's series, Hermie & Friends which would continue until his death. In 2005, he was the voice of Mayor Turkey Lurkey in Chicken Little (2005), his first Disney movie since 1979.
On September 12, 2003, Knotts was in Kansas City in a stage version of On Golden Pond when he received a call from John Ritter's family telling him that his former Three's Company co-star had died of an aortic dissection that day. Knotts and his co-stars attended the funeral four days later. Knotts had appeared with Ritter one final time in a cameo on 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. It was an episode that paid homage to their earlier TV series. Knotts was the last Three's Company star to work with Ritter.
During this period of time, macular degeneration in both eyes caused the otherwise robust Don Knotts to become virtually blind. His live appearances on television were few. In 2005, Knotts parodied his Ralph Furley character while playing a Paul Young variation in a Desperate Housewives sketch on The 3rd Annual TV Land Awards. He would parody that part one final time, in his last live-action television appearance, an episode of That '70s Show, ("Stone Cold Crazy"). In the show Don played Fez and Jackie's new landlord. Knotts' chilling final masterpiece was Air Buddies, the 2006 direct-to-video sequel to Air Bud, voicing the sheriff's deputy dog Sniffer.
Personal life
The actor was married: To college sweetheart Kathryn (Kay) Metz from 1947-64 and to Loralee Czuchna from 1974-83. He had two children from his first marriage, Karen and Thomas. He was married to actress Francey Yarborough at the time of his death.
Death
Don Knotts died on February 24, 2006, at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California from pulmonary and respiratory complications related to lung cancer. He had been undergoing treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in recent months, but went home after he reportedly had been getting better [1]. Long-time friend Andy Griffith visited Knotts' bedside a few hours before he died. His wife and his daughter stayed with him until his death.
Knotts' obituaries cited him as a huge influence on other entertainers. Musician and fan J.D. Wilkes said this about Knotts: "Only a genius like Knotts could make an anxiety-ridden, passive-aggressive Napoleon character like Fife a familiar, welcome friend each week. Without his awesome contributions to television there would've been no other over-the-top, self-deprecating acts like Conan O'Brien or Chris Farley."
Knotts is buried at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles. [2]
His hometown of Morgantown, West Virginia, has begun creation of a statue of the actor's likeness that will be placed in a special memorial park along the river and Don Knotts Boulevard.[5][6]
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bobsmythhawk
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Mon 21 Jul, 2008 09:45 am
Robin Williams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Influences Richard Pryor
Jonathan Winters
Peter Sellers
Mel Brooks
Stanley Kubrick
Influenced Frank Caliendo[1]
Conan O'Brien
Paul Livingston
Spouse Valerie Velardi (1978-1988)
Marsha Garces Williams (1989-2008)
Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actor
1997 Good Will Hunting
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1987 Good Morning, Vietnam
1991 The Fisher King
1993 Mrs. Doubtfire
Best Actor in a Television Comedy or Musical
1978 Mork and Mindy
Cecil B. DeMille Award (2005)
Grammy Awards
Best Comedy Album
1980 Reality...What a Concept
1988 A Night at the Met
1989 Good Morning, Vietnam
Best Spoken Comedy Album
2003 Robin Williams - Live 2002
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Best Cast in a Motion Picture
1996 The Birdcage
Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
1997 Good Will Hunting
American Comedy Awards
Funniest Male Performer of the Year
1987, 1988
Funniest Male Stand-Up Comic
1987, 1988, 1989
Funniest Male Performer in a TV Special
1987 Robin Williams: Live at the Met
1988 Comic Relief '87
1990 Comic Relief III
Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role)
1988 Good Morning, Vietnam
1994 Mrs. Doubtfire
Robin McLaurim Williams (born July 21, 1951)[2] is an American TV, stage and film actor and comedian who has won an Academy Award for his performance in Good Will Hunting, as well as six Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and three Grammy Awards. His film career began in 1980 following his success in the television series Mork & Mindy, and he remains active as a film actor and stand-up comedian. He was voted 13th on Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.
Biography
Early life
Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Laura McLaurim (née Smith, 1922-2001), was a former model from Jackson, Mississippi. His father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams (September 10, 1906-October 18, 1987) was a senior executive at Ford in charge of the Midwest area. Robin originates from Scotland and Wales. Williams was raised in the Episcopal Church, though his mother practiced Christian Science,[3][4] and he grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Marin County, California. He has two half-brothers: McLaurin and the late Todd (deceased August 14, 2007).[5] In Michigan, he attended Detroit Country Day School, an exclusive college-preparatory school, which boasts other famous alumni, including Steve Ballmer from Microsoft and Courtney Vance from Law and Order: Criminal Intent.[6]
Williams has described himself as a quiet child whose first imitation was of his grandmother to his mom. He did not overcome his shyness until he became involved with his high school drama department.[7] In high school, he won an award for "Most Likely To Not Succeed".[8][9]
Career
In 1973, Williams was one of only 20 students accepted into the freshman class at Juilliard. Even more impressively, Williams, along with Christopher Reeve, were the only students accepted by John Houseman into the Advanced Program at the school that year.[10] Reeve and Williams had several classes together in which they were the only two students. In their dialects class, Williams had no trouble mastering all dialects quickly, whereas Reeve was more meticulous about it. Williams's manic comedy did not impress all of his teachers, but his dramatic performances impressed everyone. Williams and Reeve developed a close friendship, and they remained good friends for the rest of Reeve's life. Williams visited Reeve after the horseback riding accident that paralyzed him from the neck down and cheered him up by pretending to be an eccentric Russian doctor (similar to his role in Nine Months). Williams claimed that he was there to perform a colonoscopy. Reeve stated that he laughed for the first time since the accident and knew that life was going to be okay.[10]
After appearing in the cast of the short-lived The Richard Pryor Show on NBC, he was cast by Garry Marshall as the alien Mork in a guest role in the TV series Happy Days.[11]
As Mork, Williams improvised much of his dialogue and devised plenty of rapid-fire verbal and physical comedy, speaking in a high, nasal voice. Mork's appearance was so popular with viewers that it led to a spin-off hit television sitcom, Mork and Mindy, which ran from 1978 to 1982. Williams became an overnight sensation, and Mork was featured on posters, coloring books, lunchboxes, and other merchandise.
Starting in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Williams began to reach a wider audience with his standup comedy, including three HBO comedy specials, Off The Wall (1978), An Evening with Robin Williams (1982), and Robin Williams: Live at the Met (1986). His standup work has been a consistent thread through his career, as is seen by the success of his one-man show (and subsequent DVD) Robin Williams Live on Broadway (2002). He was voted 13th on Comedy Central's list "100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time" in 2004.[12]
After some encouragement from his friend Whoopi Goldberg, he was set to make a guest appearance in the 1991 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "A Matter of Time", but he had to cancel due to a scheduling conflict;[13] Matt Frewer took his place as a time-traveling con man, Professor Berlingoff Rasmussen.
Williams also appeared on an episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Season 3, Episode 9: November 16, 2000). During a game of "Scenes from a Hat", the scene "What Robin Williams is thinking right now" was drawn, and Williams stated "I have a career. What the hell am I doing here?"[14]
He has been accused, especially in recent years, of stealing jokes from other comedians and even paying for material after the fact.[15]
Cinema career
The majority of Williams' acting career has been in film, although he has given some memorable performances on stage as well (notably as Estragon in a production of Waiting for Godot with Steve Martin). His performance in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) got Williams nominated for an Academy Award. Many of his roles have been comedies tinged with pathos, for example The Birdcage and Mrs. Doubtfire.
His role as the Genie in the animated film Aladdin was instrumental in establishing the importance of star power in voice actor casting. Later, Williams once again used his voice talents in Fern Gully, as the holographic Dr. Know in the 2001 feature "Artificial Intelligence: A.I.", the 2005 animated feature Robots, the 2006 Academy Award winning Happy Feet, and an uncredited vocal performance in 2006's Everyone's Hero. Furthermore, he was the voice of The Timekeeper, a former attraction at the Walt Disney World Resort about a time-traveling robot who encounters Jules Verne and brings him to the future.
Williams has also starred in dramatic films, earning himself two subsequent Academy Award nominations: First for playing an unorthodox and inspiring English teacher in Dead Poets Society (1989), and later for playing a troubled homeless man in The Fisher King (1991);[9] that same year, he played an adult Peter Pan in the movie Hook. Other acclaimed dramatic films include Awakenings (1990) and What Dreams May Come (1998).
In 1998, he won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his role as a psychologist in Good Will Hunting.[9] However, by the early 2000s, he was thought by some to be typecast in films such as Patch Adams (1998) and Bicentennial Man (1999) that critics complained were excessively maudlin. In 2006 Williams starred in The Night Listener, a thriller about a radio show host who realizes he's developed a friendship with a child who may or may not exist.
He is known for his wild improvisational skills and impersonations. His performances frequently involve impromptu humor designed and delivered in rapid-fire succession while on stage. According to the Aladdin DVD commentary, most of his dialogue as the Genie was improvised. He is a talented mimic and can jump in and out of characters and various accents at an extremely fast pace.
In 2006, he starred in five movies including Man of the Year and was the Surprise Guest at the 2006 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. He appeared on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that aired on January 30, 2006.
At one point, he was in the running to play the Riddler in Batman Forever until director Tim Burton dropped the project. Williams had earlier been a prime candidate to play the Joker in Batman. He had expressed interest in assuming the role in The Dark Knight, the sequel to 2005's Batman Begins,[16] although the part of the Joker was taken by Heath Ledger.
He was portrayed by Chris Diamantopoulos in the made-for-TV biopic Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Mork & Mindy (2005), documenting the actor's arrival in Hollywood as a struggling comedian and becoming an overnight star when he landed the role in Mork & Mindy.
Personal life
His first marriage was to Valerie Velardi on June 4, 1978, with whom he has one child, Zachary Pym (Zak) (born April 11, 1983). During Williams' first marriage, he was involved in an extramarital relationship with Michelle Tish Carter, a cocktail waitress whom he met in 1984. She sued him in 1986, claiming he gave her herpes without notifying her. The case was settled out of court.[17]
On April 30, 1989, he married Marsha Garces, his son's nanny who was already several months pregnant with his child. They have two children, Zelda Rae (born July 31, 1989) and Cody Alan (born November 25, 1991). However, in March 2008, Garces filed for divorce from Williams, citing irreconcilable differences. [18]
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Williams had a serious addiction to cocaine; he has since quit. Williams was a close friend and frequent partier alongside John Belushi. He says the death of his friend and the birth of his son prompted him to quit drugs: "Was it a wake-up call? Oh yeah, on a huge level. The grand jury helped too".[9] He was also quoted as saying, "Cocaine is God's way of telling you, you're making too much money."[19]
On August 9, 2006, Williams entered himself into a rehabilitation center for alcoholism. His publicist delivered the announcement: "After 20 years of sobriety, Robin Williams found himself drinking again and has decided to take proactive measures to deal with this for his own well-being and the well-being of his family. He asks that you respect his and his family's privacy during this time. He looks forward to returning to work this fall to support his upcoming film releases."[20]
On August 20, 2007, Williams' elder brother, Robert Todd Williams, died of complications from heart surgery performed in July.
He is currently a member of the Episcopal Church. Williams has described his denomination as "Catholic Lite -- same rituals, half the guilt."
Other interests
Williams is an avid enthusiast of games, enjoying pen-and-paper role-playing games and online video games, recently playing Warcraft 3, Day of Defeat, Half-Life,[21] and the first-person shooter Battlefield 2 as a sniper.[22] On January 6, 2006, he performed live at Consumer Electronics Show during Google's keynote.[23] In the 2006 E3, on the invitation of Will Wright, he demonstrated the creature editor of Spore while simultaneously commenting on the creature's look: "This will actually make a platypus look good."[24] He also complimented the game's versatility, comparing it to Populous and Black & White.
A fan of professional road cycling, he was a regular on the US Postal and Discovery Channel Pro Cycling team bus and hotels during the years Lance Armstrong dominated the Tour de France.[25]
Charity work
Williams and his former wife, Marsha, founded the Windfall Foundation, a philanthropic organization to raise money for many different charities. Williams devotes much of his energy doing work for charities, including the Comic Relief fund-raising efforts. In December 1999, he sang in French on the BBC-inspired music video of international celebrities doing a cover of the Rolling Stones's "It's Only Rock & Roll" for the charity Children's Promise.[26]
Williams has performed in the USO for U.S. troops stationed in Iraq for four years.
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bobsmythhawk
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Mon 21 Jul, 2008 09:49 am
English Language Mysteries
There's no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France.
Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, two geese. So one moose, two meese? One index, two indices?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through the annals of history but not a single annal?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preacher praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?
Have noses that run and feet that smell?
Park on driveways and drive on parkways?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike?
How can the weather be hot as Hell one day and cold as Hell another?
How you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love?
Have you ever run into someone who was dis-combobulated, grunted, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all).
That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it!
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bobsmythhawk
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Mon 21 Jul, 2008 09:58 am
I was reading my last entry and realized I may have posted it before. So before Letty beats me up I offer this as an alternative.
More fascinating test results
These are from my temp job as a reader for the Psychological Corporation (a division of Harcourt-Brace. Yes, the textbook people). At the Scoring Center we graded standardized tests. I got off okay, though, I could have been one of the people running the Scan-Tron portions through the machines for eight hours a day. Instead, I graded essays. I worked on two projects: the Oklahoma sixth-grade test and the L.A. high school test. To keep our sanity, we posted some of the more creative statements on the bulletin board at the front of the room. So you can rest assured that these *are* true, and haven't been running around the Net (except when I posted them to alt.grad.skool.sux last year) and gaining fake examples.
These two examples are from the Oklahoma test. Students were told to write an essay taking a stand on whether or not you should be able to wear headphones while riding a bicycle. They were mostly really boring, and occasionally inexplicable (none of us could ever figure out what an "obtuse pothole" was), but here's three ... different ... ones:
If you wear portable radios with earphones, you could be in the way of a major emergency trying to take place.
The car honked, he didn't hear and was ran over. His name was Jason and I did not like him anyway. So I think that people should be able to listen to radios on their bikes.
I also feel a sense of comfort and ease when I am associating with complete musical sounds that are objective upon my contrast and knowledge.
**Now for the L.A. ones. Keep in mind as you read that these are high school students. They were given a list of jobs available in a mall and told to write a job application essay describing their qualifications. You can figure most of the jobs out from context; when it's not clear I added it in brackets. [salesperson at clothing, music or pet stores, food service cook or cashier, security guard, gardener, childcare service] Actually, a lot of them were heartrending, because this was only a few months after the L.A. riots, and a number of kids told about losing their jobs because their workplaces had been burned down. Original spelling and grammar has been preserved, and sometimes I couldn't refrain from editorial comment [in brackets].
I am the star basketball.
I have had a lot of experience with gardening. When I was in kindergarten I had the only bean that sprouted. [Better than mine!]
My name is Charles Xavier.
My past experiences include a part-time job as a lawnmower for half a year.
When it comes dwon to education Im a geniuos...
I am Albert Einstein's illegitimate son...I've also built an atomic bomb in my room.
I am the three oldest of six children.
I can cook good and respect costumers as well. [Good thing to do in L.A....]
I had 2 very good childhood.
My credit is as clear as a young child. [And mine is a clear as an old man...]
I'm...intneding to graduate as a valivictorian.
My grades are superior with a 5.2 average.
My background is personal because I dont like tell people my business.
Trust me. I'm a really nice person.
I can sell dirt to a streetperson.
I can cook real food. Not like tacos and burgers.
I graduated school with a. I.Q.
My goal as an adult is to be a European fashion designer. [As opposed to am *American* fashion designer?]
Animals are my favorite living things next to humans.
Alot of people tell me that I can sell the Brooklen Bridge back to Brooklen.
I used to do that but I got fired because the store broke.
I'm the present of the class.
I would take good care of the cash register and this store if I am haired.
I am a member of "Save the Extinct Animals."
I've washed many animals.
I would be glad if you would hire me for this job. You would regret it.
I have good educational background. My parents went to school.
I worked in a flower shop as a flower's assistant.
I enjoy the smell of food.
I used to teach english in Highschool.
I would like to work with a cashier because Ive experienced many machines like cashiers at my school.
In my spare time I dance with Janet Jackson dancers.
They are sometimes wild, but I could clam them down.
I love any kind of fiction or faction.
Im applying for this type of job [security guard] because I feel Im a very large person.
Im very interesting in that job. [I don't doubt it]
Im 7 years old and Im in eleven grades.
I can hold my breath for 4 minutes [applying for gardener's assistant.]
I have work in a pet stop before.
I heve experience as a cash register.
The reason I am fit for this job is because I have a vulgar display of power.
I will keep the mall safe from unwarted hoodlums.
I think it would be harder for a teenager to sell a teenager something than for a teenager to sell another teenager something.
I will threat the customers in a good manner.
I work at a college where I teach children behavioral problems.
I pick been a fast food cook because I wanted to serve the people food like cakes, meat, bears, soda, fruits...
[security guard] I'm big and mean. I'm not talking large and pissed off, I'm talking tremendous and terrible. The main reason for this is that I don't like people very much and wnat them dead whenever possible. In most fields this would be a turn off but in this field I hope it isn't. [A man after my own heart!]
Im very good in math and I already know how to use a cashier.
I have studied up on the nuances of strange and rare animals, such as the outer Mongolian puffwart and the rare and beautiful pygmy wart hog.
My education label is high and I have too much experience in cooker.
I beleive to unit all of requered for you job.
...and I am a stunedt in all my classes.
I know this job is very hard for non-experimented people.
...I have a lot of experience using a cashier faster and correctly with no mistakes at all.
My father was a zoologist and my mother was an ignoramus.
I learned many skills like computer bricklayer.
My reason for being unemployed was due to my migration to a new home.
I feel that I have had great experiments with animals.
I performed karate on the intruders.
I worked as an ass. to a vet.
I myself have read books.
I read over0 books in my past life that number will increase once I start finishing other of my books.
[security guard] I'm a Black Belt in Karate. I have a Masters degree and a PhD in Philosophy, to outsmart the bad guy and make them understand reality.
My innocence makes me likeable while my charisma keeps me strong.
I like the way organization works.
I have no criminal record at this time.
I liked to feed my animal and be lovely with them.
My personal quality is grammer.
...and if you don't give me this job I will hunt you down and I will bug you and be a pest until you give me a job.
I have a PhD in fast food cooking. I am a highschool graduate and a former employee at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.
Guys at school wil beat me up if I don't get the money in a month. Please, I need the job so badly.
I've had certain experiences with my aunt's lingerie shop and my uncle's statue shop. [This is my favorite. The mind boggles...]
I would also like to meet nica and Pretty women, but do assure you that they will not enterfere with my work.
[If I get this job] I will make it wroth your wall.
I got a B+ in math! It would have been an A if I turned in my agendas.
I myself was once a child.
I now how to spell.
I have work in this occupation before and have mostly good experiences. Except the time I sat on a rat. Se I am truthful.
I am a direct descendant of Elliot Ness.
I am frequently punctual.
I have only one arm so people will feel sorry for me and buy anything I ask them to.
There I took vegetarian classes.
You can get alone with me easy.
I was raised by wolves in the San Joaquin Valley.
...animal viabior...
...earthquack...
I also think my past personalities would work at this job.
and once again when I sang with a pick up band. Recall vividly Santa Tomas e Lucas complimenting me, and that is something that Mexican did NOT do often.
