Wow! We're listening to a little jazz and classical mix this late afternoon. Temper that with a bit of Roger Miller and we have a great combo.
Thanks, edgar. I'm not familiar with Abbey Lincoln either. Great vocal by that lady.
firefly, I love Schubert and that trumpet man was awesome.
I have to smile when I remember my trip to New York City. Walked out of the hotel and some guy put a hand on Bud's shoulder and said, "Hey, man. Wanna buy a stick of tea?" I had no idea what he meant, but it turned out to be pot. Good grief, that scared me senseless.
firefly, had to check out Steve Miller. My source said that he broke his neck in a car accident. Wow! I may know "Fly Like and Eagle", but not certain.
While we were in NYC, we did hear this guy at The Embers along with The Don Shirley trio.
Great song, firefly. Men at Work is one of the cosmic eagle's favorites. I think the rest of those Aussies/Ozzies like that song as well. Strange, the kids from Orlando and I went to The Outback last weekend. Great food and every other word was "mate". I was too young to understand New York, so I didn't know if we were rejects or not.
edgar, I remember that song, Texas. Thanks for the Band of Gold. Looking at mine right now.
Well, folks, time for me to say goodnight, and I think I'll do it with music from Spain. Don't remember Liberache doing this, but I had forgotten how well he played.
firefly, that was indeed a class act. I love the theme of it, gal. It's not always those who get top billing who are the real stars. What an unusual song, and thank you.
Here's one that I heard played at the end of Cold Case Files. Often, y'all, the songs that are the most poignant are heard accidentally.
edgar, I had no idea that some of those scenes were from Lost. Only watched one episode of that TV show and didn't like it. The other one was by chance when I heard a woman singing The Sea in French and I flipped. Still love Le Mer.
Thanks for the Hank Snow song, Texas. Really appreciate The Singing Ranger, but Waco brings back some unpleasant memories. Yes, We all will have a good day.
Today is B.J.Thomas' birthday, y'all, so let's listen to one by him. Had no idea this was done in a Mork and Mindy episode.
Today is also the birthday of Aussie singer, Lana Cantrell. Haven't heard from her in a very long time. And I just found out she was once the table tennis champion of New South Wales.
Billie Burke
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke
August 7, 1884(1884-08-07)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Died May 14, 1970 (aged 85)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation Film, stage actress
Spouse(s) Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (1914-1932)
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke (August 7, 1884 - May 14, 1970) was an Oscar-nominated American actress primarily known to modern audiences for her role as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz.
Early life
Known as Billie Burke, she toured the U.S. and Europe with a circus because her father, Billy Burke, was employed with them as a singing clown. Her family ultimately settled in London where she was fortunate to see plays in London's historic West End.
She wanted to be a stage actress. In 1903, she began acting on stage, making her debut in London, and eventually returning to America to become the toast of Broadway as a musical comedy star. She was praised by The New York Times for her charm and her brightness.
Career
Thanks to her representation by famed producer Charles Frohman, Burke went on to play leads on Broadway in Mrs. Dot, Suzanne, The Runaway, The "Mind-the-Paint" Girl, and The Land of Promise from 1910 to 1913, along with a supporting role in the revival of Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's The Amazons.
There she caught the eye of producer Florenz Ziegfeld, marrying him in 1914. In 1916, they had one daughter, Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson(1916 - 2008).[2] She was quickly signed for the movies, making her film debut in the title role of Peggy (1916). She continued to appear on the stage, and sometimes she starred on the screen. She loved the stage more than movie-business, not only because it was her first love, but also because it allowed her to have speaking parts (impossible in silent movies). But when the family's savings were wiped out in the Crash of 1929, she had no choice but to return to the screen.
In 1932 Billie Burke made her Hollywood comeback, starring as Margaret Fairfield in A Bill of Divorcement, directed by George Cukor, though the film is better known as Katharine Hepburn's film debut (Burke played Hepburn's mother). Despite the death of Florenz Ziegfeld during the film's production, Billie Burke resumed filming shortly after his funeral.
In 1936, MGM filmed a biopic of her deceased husband (The Great Ziegfeld), a film that won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Actress (Luise Rainer as Ziegfeld's common-law wife, Anna Held). Burke was herself a character in the film, but she was not cast as herself. Instead, prominent actress Myrna Loy essayed the role of Burke. Coincidentally, Ray Bolger who was later cast as the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz (1939) also starred as himself in the movie.
In 1933, Burke was cast as Mrs. Millicent Jordan, a scatterbrained high-society woman hosting a dinner party in the comedy Dinner at Eight, directed by George Cukor, co-starring with Lionel Barrymore, Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Jean Harlow and Wallace Beery. The movie was a great success, and revived Burke's career. She subsequently starred in many comedies and musicals, typecast as a ditzy, fluffy and feather-brained upper-class matron, due to her helium-filled voice.
In 1937 she appeared in the first of the Topper series of films, about a man haunted by two socialite ghosts (played by Cary Grant and Constance Bennett), in which she played the tremulous and daffy Clara Topper. Her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live (1938) resulted in her only Oscar nomination.
In 1938 (at age 53) she was chosen to play Glinda, "the Good Witch of the North", in the Oscar-winning seminal 1939 musical film The Wizard of Oz, directed by Victor Fleming, with Judy Garland. Another successful series followed with Father of the Bride (1950) and Father's Little Dividend (1951), both directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor.
She wrote two autobiographies, both with Cameron Van Shippe: With a Feather on My Nose (Appleton 1949) and With Powder on My Nose (Coward McCann, 1959).
Radio and television
On CBS radio, The Billie Burke Show was heard on Saturday mornings from April 3, 1943 to September 21, 1946. Sponsored by Listerine, this situation comedy was initially titled Fashions in Rations during its first year. Portraying herself as a featherbrained Good Samaritan who lived "in the little white house on Sunnyview Lane," she always offered a helping hand to those in her neighborhood. She worked often in early TV, appearing in the short-lived sitcom Doc Corkle (1952).
Burke tried to make a comeback on the New York stage. She starred in two short-lived productions: This Rock and Mrs. January and Mr. Ex. Although Burke got good reviews, the plays did not. She appeared in several plays in California as well, although her mind became clouded, and she had trouble remembering lines. In the late 1950s, her failing memory led to her retirement from show business, although her explanation for that was, "Acting just wasn't any fun anymore."
Memorial statue at Billie Burke's grave in Kensico CemeteryHer last screen appearance was in Sergeant Rutledge, a Western directed by John Ford in 1960.
Death
Billie Burke died in Los Angeles, California of dementia, thought to be Alzheimer's and natural causes, aged 85, in 1970 and was interred at Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, Westchester County, New York, survived by her daughter, Patricia, and four grandchildren.[3]
Legacy
For many years, Burke's framed photo was displayed above the exit staircase at New York's Ziegfeld Theatre, but it curiously vanished after renovations to it. However, an opening night program, bearing a picture of Burke, from her 1912 triumph The Mind The Paint Girl (Sir Arthur Wing Pinero) is still displayed in the lobby of the Lyceum Theatre in New York City.
Quote
"Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese."
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bobsmythhawk
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Thu 7 Aug, 2008 06:56 am
Ann Harding
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Dorothy Walton Gatley
August 7, 1901(1901-08-07)
San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Died September 1, 1981 (aged 80)
Sherman Oaks, California, U.S.
Years active Stage 1921-1927; 1964
Film 1929-1956
TV 1952-1965
Spouse(s) Harry Bannister (1926 - 1932)
(divorced)
Werner Janssen (1937 - 1962)
(divorced)
Ann Harding (August 7, 1901 - September 1, 1981) was an American theatre, motion picture, radio, and television actress.
Early years
Born Dorothy Walton Gatley at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, the daughter of a career army officer, she traveled often during her early life. Her father, George C. Gatley, was born in Maine and served in the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. He died in San Francisco, California in 1931. The family finally settled in New York, and young Dorothy attended Bryn Mawr College.
Acting career
Following school, she found employment as a script reader. She began acting and made her Broadway debut in 1921. She soon became a leading lady.
In 1929, she made her film debut in Paris Bound, opposite Fredric March. In 1931, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Holiday.
First under contract to Pathé, which was subsequently absorbed by RKO studio, Harding co-starred with such luminaries as Ronald Colman, Myrna Loy, Herbert Marshall, Leslie Howard, Richard Dix, and Gary Cooper, often on loan out to other studios, such as MGM and Paramount. At RKO, Harding, along with Helen Twelvetrees and Constance Bennett, comprised a stellar trio who specialized in the "women's pictures" genre.
Her performances were often heralded by the critics, who cited her diction and stage experience as assets to the screen, and she became one of Hollywood's highest salaried stars. In only her second film, Her Private Affair, in which Harding portrayed a wife of questionable morality, she undeniably projected a captivating and charismatic presence -- in spite of several scenes in which her untempered histrionic acting was apparent. However, the film was an enormous commercial success, and with gratifying results, she refined her stage acting which became more appropriately nuanced for the screen.
Such was her talent and her increasing sensitivity to the new medium of the "talking picture" that critics offered these encomiums for her work in several early 1930s films:
"Miss Harding is a sensitive performer and possesses a complete and sympathetic understanding of her rôle. Her voice has a vibrant, dramatic quality."
"...Devotion, the present production at the Mayfair, succeeds in being quite a pleasing entertainment, owing principally to the excellent cast, headed by the radiant and talented Ann Harding..."
"... there is no little fascination aroused by Miss Harding's restrained portrayal."
"Throughout this film Miss Harding gives a charmingly restrained impersonation." (New York Times)
During this period, she was generally considered to be one of cinema's most beautiful women, with her long waist-length blonde hair as one of her most noted physical attributes. Her films during her peak include The Animal Kingdom, Peter Ibbetson, When Ladies Meet, The Flame Within, and Biography of a Bachelor Girl.
Harding, however, eventually became stereotyped as the innocent, self-sacrficing, young woman, and with lukewarm responses by both the critics and the public to several of her later 1930s films, she eventually quit making movies when she married the conductor Werner Janssen in 1937. However, she returned in 1942 to make Eyes in the Night and to take secondary roles in other movies. In 1956, she again starred with Fredric March, this time in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.
The 1960s marked her return to Broadway after an absence of decades -- she had last appeared there in 1927. In 1962, she starred in General Seeger, directed by and co-starring George C. Scott, and in 1964 she appeared in Abraham Cochrane. Both productions had astonishingly brief runs, with the former play lasting a mere three performances (including previews).
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Thu 7 Aug, 2008 07:02 am
Garrison Keillor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Gary Edward Keillor
Born August 7, 1942 (1942-08-07) (age 65)
Anoka, Minnesota, United States
Medium Radio, Print
Nationality American
Years active 1969-present
Genres Observational comedy, Satire
Subject(s) American culture (esp. the Midwest); American politics
Spouse Mary Guntzel (1965-1976)
Ulla Skaerved (1985-1990)
Jenny Lind Nilsson (1995-present)
Notable works and roles Himself, Guy Noir, Lefty, Bob Burger, and Lake Wobegon narrator in A Prairie Home Companion
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, columnist, musician, satirist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion (also known as Garrison Keillor's Radio Show on Britain's BBC 7, as well as on Australia's ABC and in Ireland).
Biography and personal life
Keillor was born in Anoka, Minnesota, the son of Grace Ruth (née Denham) and John Philip Keillor, who was a carpenter and postal worker.[1][2] He was raised in a family belonging to the Plymouth Brethren, a fundamentalist Christian denomination he has since left. He is six feet, three inches (1.9 m) tall[3] and is of part Scottish ancestry. Keillor is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. He is currently an Episcopalian,[4] but has been a Lutheran.[5] His religious roots are often worked into his material: he often remarks that most Minnesotans, being of Scandinavian descent, are Lutherans. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in English in 1966. While there, he began his broadcasting career on the student-operated radio station known today as Radio K.
Keillor has been married three times:
To Mary Guntzel, from 1965 to 1976. The couple has one son, Jason, born in 1969.
To Ulla Skaerved (a former exchange student from Denmark at Keillor's high school whom he famously reencountered at a class reunion), from 1985 to 1990.
To violinist Jenny Lind Nilsson (b. 1958), who is from his hometown of Anoka, since 1995. They have one daughter, Maia, born in 1997.
Between his first two marriages he was also romantically involved with Margaret Moos, who worked as a producer of A Prairie Home Companion.[6]
The Keillors maintain homes on the Upper West Side of New York City and in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
His brother, the historian Steven Keillor, is also an author.
On Feb. 3, 2008, Keillor endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic Primary. In a letter to the Obama campaign, Keillor stated "I'm happy to support your candidacy, which is so full of promise for our country."[7][8]
Ancestors
Keillor has many noteworthy ancestors, including Joseph Crandall, who made progress in the studies of Native American languages and was also an associate of Roger Williams (who founded the first American Baptist church as well as Rhode Island) and Prudence Crandall (who founded the first African-American women's school in America).
Career
Radio
Garrison Keillor started his radio career in November 1969 with Minnesota Educational Radio (MER), now Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), and distributing programs under the American Public Media (APM) brand. He hosted The Morning Program in the weekday drive time-slot, 6 am to 9 am, which the station called "A Prairie Home Entertainment." During this time he also began submitting fiction to The New Yorker, where his first story, "Local Family Keeps Son Happy," appeared September 19, 1970.[9]
Keillor resigned from The Morning Program in February 1971 to protest what he considered an attempt to interfere with his musical programming. The show became A Prairie Home Companion when he returned in October.[10]
Keillor has attributed the idea for the live Saturday night radio program to his 1973 assignment to write about the Grand Ole Opry, while flying an autogyro for The New Yorker, but he had already begun showcasing local musicians on the morning show, despite limited studio space for them, and in August 1973 The Minneapolis Tribune reported MER's plans for a Saturday night version of A Prairie Home Companion with live musicians.[10][11]
A Prairie Home Companion debuted as an old-style variety show before a live audience on July 6, 1974, featuring guest musicians and a cadre cast doing musical numbers and comic skits replete with elaborate live sound effects. The show was punctuated by spoof commercial spots from such fictitious sponsors as Jack's Auto Repair and Powdermilk Biscuits, "the biscuits that give shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done."[10] Later imaginary sponsors have included Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery ("If you can't find it at Ralph's, you can probably get along without it"), Bertha's Kitty Boutique, the Catchup Advisory Board[12] (which touted "the natural mellowing agents of ketchup"), the American Duct Tape Council, and Bebop-A-Reebop Rhubarb Pie ("sweetening the sour taste of failure through the generations"). The show also contains parodic serial melodramas, such as The Adventures of Guy Noir, Private Eye and The Lives of the Cowboys. After the show's intermission, Keillor reads clever and often humorous greetings to friends and family at home submitted by members of the theater audience, in exchange for an honorarium. Also in the second half of the show, the broadcasts showcase a weekly monologue by Keillor entitled News from Lake Wobegon, based in part on Keillor's own hometown of Anoka, Minnesota. Lake Wobegon is a quintessential but fictional Midwestern small town "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." A Prairie Home Companion ran until 1987, when Keillor decided to end it; he worked on other projects, including another live radio program, "The American Radio Company of the Air"--which was virtually identical in format to "A Prairie Home Companion"--for several years. In 1993 he began producing A Prairie Home Companion again, with nearly identically-formatted programs, and has done so since.[13] On A Prairie Home Companion, Keillor receives no billing or credit (except "written by Sarah Bellum", a joking reference to his own brain); his name is not mentioned unless a guest addresses him by his first name or the initials "G. K." However, some sketches do feature Keillor as his alter ego, Carson Wyler, which is a play on his name.
Keillor is also the host of The Writer's Almanac which, like A Prairie Home Companion, is produced and distributed by American Public Media. The Writer's Almanac is also available online[14] and via daily e-mail installments by subscription.[15]
Writing
Keillor has written many magazine and newspaper articles, and nearly a dozen books for adults as well as children. In addition to his time as a writer for The New Yorker, he has written for The Atlantic Monthly and Salon.com.
He also authored an advice column on Salon.com titled "Mr. Blue". Following a heart operation, he resigned on September 4, 2001 in an article entitled "Every dog has his day":[16]
Illness offers the chance to think long thoughts about the future (praying that we yet have one, dear God), and so I have, and so this is the last column of Mr. Blue, under my authorship, for Salon. Over the years, Mr. Blue's strongest advice has come down on the side of freedom in our personal lives, freedom from crushing obligation and overwork and family expectations and the freedom to walk our own walk and be who we are. And some of the best letters have been addressed to younger readers trapped in jobs like steel suits, advising them to bust loose and go off and have an adventure. Some of the advisees have written back to inform Mr. Blue that the advice was taken and that the adventure changed their lives. This was gratifying. So now I am simply taking my own advice. Cut back on obligations: Promote a certain elegant looseness in life. Simple as that. Winter and spring, I almost capsized from work, and in the summer I had a week in St. Mary's Hospital to sit and think, and that's the result. Every dog has his day and I've had mine and given whatever advice was mine to give (and a little more). It was exhilarating to get the chance to be useful, which is always an issue for a writer (What good does fiction do?), and Mr. Blue was a way to be useful. Nothing human is beneath a writer's attention; the basic questions about how to attract a lover and what to do with one once you get one and how to deal with disappointment in marriage are the stuff that fiction is made from, so why not try to speak directly? And so I did. And now it's time to move on.
In 2004 Keillor published a collection of political essays called Homegrown Democrat, and in June 2005 he began a syndicated newspaper column called "The Old Scout," which often addresses political issues. The column also runs at Salon.com.
Keillor wrote the screenplay for the 2006 movie version of A Prairie Home Companion, which was directed by Robert Altman. (Keillor also appears in the movie.)
Bookselling
On November 1, 2006, Keillor opened an independent bookstore in the historic Cathedral Hill area of Saint Paul, Minnesota. "Common Good Books, G. Keillor, Prop."[17] is located at the southwest corner of Selby and N. Western Avenues (in the Blair Arcade Building, Suite 14, in the basement, below Nina's Coffee Cafe). Cathedral Hill is in the Summit-University neighborhood.[18] The bookstore opening was covered by the St. Paul Pioneer Press.[19]
Awards and other recognition
In 1994, Keillor was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.[20]
"Welcome to Minnesota" markers in interstate rest areas near the state's borders include statements such as "Like its neighbors, the thirty-second state grew as a collection of small farm communities, many settled by immigrants from Scandinavia and Germany. Two of the nation's favorite fictional small towns -- Sinclair Lewis's Gopher Prairie and Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon -- reflect that heritage."[21]
In 2007, The Moth, a NYC-based not-for-profit storytelling organization, awarded Garrison Keillor with the first The Moth Award - Honoring the Art of the Raconteur at the annual Moth Ball. [22]
Controversies
In 2005, Keillor's attorneys sent a cease-and-desist letter to MNSPeak.com regarding their production of a T-Shirt bearing the inscription "A Prairie Ho Companion".[23]
In 2006, after a visit to a United Methodist Church in Highland Park, TX, Keillor created a local controversy with his remarks about the event,[24] including the rhetorical suggestion of a connection between event attendees and supporters of torture and a statement creating an impression of political intimidation: "I walked in, was met by two burly security men ... and within 10 minutes was told by three people that this was the Bush's church and that it would be better if I didn't talk about politics." The security detail is purportedly routine for the venue, and according to attendees Keillor did not interact with any audience members between his arrival and his lecture.[25] Prior to Keillor's remarks, participants in the event had considered the visit to have been cordial and warm.[26]
In 2007, Keillor wrote a column which, in part, criticized "stereotypical" gay parents, who he said were "sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers."[27] In response to the strong reactions of many readers, Keillor said
I live in a small world...in which gayness is as common as having brown eyes.... But in the larger world, gayness is controversial...and so gay people feel besieged to some degree and rightly so.... My column spoke as we would speak in my small world and it was read by people in the larger world and thus the misunderstanding.[28]
In 2008, Keillor created a controversy in St. Paul when he filed a lawsuit against his neighbors' plans to build an addition on their home, citing his need for "light and air" and a view of "open space and beyond". Keillor's home is significantly larger than others in his neighborhood and would still be significantly larger than his neighbors' planned addition.[29] Keillor came to an undisclosed settlement with his neighbors shortly after the story became public.[30]
In May 2008, Keillor wrote a controversial article entitled "The Roar of Hollow Patriotism", criticizing the "Rolling Thunder" parade in Washington D.C. on Memorial Day.[31] The "Rolling Thunder" parade is an event that honors and commemorates all United States veterans, and is sponsored by Rolling Thunder, Inc. - a class 501 C-4 non-profit organization that participates in veterans charities and legislation lobbying for military veterans and personnel.[32] The article depicts the biker subculture with negative imagery. He describes the participating bikers as "fat men with ponytails on Harleys" and further depicts them as "grown men playing soldier, making a great hullaballoo without exposing themselves to danger, other than getting drunk and falling off a bike".[31]
Voiceover work
Due to his distinctive voice, Keillor is often used as a voiceover actor. Some notable appearances include:
Voiceover artist for Honda UK's "the Power of Dreams" campaign. The campaign's most memorable advert is the 2003 Honda Accord commercial entitled "Cog", which features a Rube Goldberg Machine made entirely of car parts. The commercial ends with Keillor asking, "Isn't it nice when things just work?"[33] Since then, Keillor has voiced the tagline for most if not all Honda UK advertisements, and even sang the voiceover in the 2004 Honda Diesel commercial entitled "Grr". His most recent advert was a reworking of an existing commercial with digitally added England flags to tie in with the World Cup. Keillor's tagline was "Come on England, keep the dream alive".
Voice of the Norse god Odin in an episode of the Disney animated series "Hercules."
Voice of Walt Whitman and other historical figures in Ken Burns's documentary series The Civil War.
Cultural references
His style, particularly his speaking voice, is often the subject of parody. The Simpsons parodies Keillor in an episode where Homer is shown watching a Keillor-like monologist on television, and upon hitting the set, exclaiming "Stupid TV! Be more funny!", which has become one of The Simpsons' oft-quoted catchphrases.[34] One Boston radio critic likens Keillor and his "down comforter voice" to "a hypnotist intoning, 'You are getting sleepy now'", while noting that Keillor does play to listeners' intelligence.[35] Keillor rarely reads his monologue from a script.
Fellow Minnesotan Michael J. Nelson spoofed Keillor in his novel Death Rat, set in Minnesota and basing several fictional characters on other well-known Minnesota personalities such as Prince and Jesse Ventura.
The popular online cartoon Homestar Runner once announced on their public radio station that Keillor would be "wrestling his own soothing voice in a steel cage" during their "Public Rage-O" wrestling event.
In the bonus DVD material for the album Venue Songs by band They Might Be Giants, John Hodgman delivers a fictitious newscast in which he explains that "The Artist Formerly Known as Public Radio Host Garrison Keillor" and his "legacy of Midwestern pledge-drive funk" inspired the band's first "venue song".[36]
Fellow Minnesotan, radio host, comedian, actor and political candidate Al Franken, defending his decision to leave Minnesota for a career in show business, commented during a speech in February 2004 in Manchester, New Hampshire that "we can't all be Garrison Keillor." Pennsylvanian singer-songwriter Tom Flannery wrote a song in 2003 entitled, "I Want a Job Like Garrison Keillor's."[37]
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bobsmythhawk
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Thu 7 Aug, 2008 07:04 am
B. J. Thomas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Birth name Billy Joe Thomas
Born August 7, 1942 (1942-08-07) (age 66)
Origin Hugo, Oklahoma
Genre(s) Country, Pop
Years active 1966 - current
B. J. Thomas (Billy Joe Thomas, b. August 7, 1942, in Hugo, Oklahoma) is an American popular singer known for his chart-topping hits in the 1960s and 1970s.
Career
Thomas was reared in and around Houston, Texas. He graduated from Lamar Consolidated High School in Rosenberg. Before his solo career, Thomas sang in a church choir as a teenager then joined the musical group The Triumphs[1]. In 1966, B. J. Thomas and The Triumphs released the album, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Pacemaker Records). The album featured a hit cover of the Hank Williams song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". In the same year, Thomas released a solo album of the same name (Scepter Records).
Thomas achieved mainstream success again in 1968, with the single "Hooked on a Feeling", which featured the sound of an electric sitar, first released on the album On My Way (Scepter Records). The 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, featured Thomas performing the (Burt Bacharach - Hal David) song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", which became the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1970. The song was also released on an album of the same name. Other hits of the seventies were "Just Can't Help Believing" (Billboard #9 in 1970, covered by Elvis Presley), "Rock and Roll Lullaby", "No Love", "Everybody is Out Of Town" and "Mighty Clouds of Joy". In 1975, Thomas released the album Reunion (ABC Records), which contained what would become his second number one hit single, "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song." On ABC, he also charted with "Songs" and "Don't Worry Baby"(the Beach Boys classic).
Noted tracks of the 1980s include, "Two Car Garage", "Whatever Happened to Old Fashioned Love" and "New Looks from an Old Lover" (see 1984 in music). Thomas scored another hit, recording "As Long As We Got Each Other", the theme to Growing Pains with Jennifer Warnes. A later version, used for the show's fourth season, was recorded with the British singer Dusty Springfield. Thomas first released this track on his 1985 album Throwing Rocks At The Moon (Columbia Records).
Thomas has also authored two books and starred in the movie "Jory". Several commercial jingles, to include Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Bell phone systems, featured his voice and music.
During the mid-1990s, rumors cropped up that Thomas had died, but to the best of common knowledge, he is alive and well. The singer has continued to record and tour, maintaining a smaller but loyal fan base. He is very popular in Brazil, where his songs "Oh Me Oh My" and "Long Ago Tomorrow" (by Burt Bacharach and Hal David) were big hits in the seventies. The singer also found some new fans in Contemporary Christian Music. In 2002, he charted his first single since the late 1980s, with "You Call That A Mountain" from an album of the same name. In October 2007, B.J. Thomas released "Love To Burn", an album of all new material. On The January 15, 1998 edition of the Howard Stern Show, he would not cooperate and sing a song about Rosie O'Donnell that Stern had requested by saying "I am a Christian and I don't want to do that." Stern then replied saying "you're no fun!"
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Thu 7 Aug, 2008 07:17 am
Charlize Theron
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born August 7, 1975 (1975-08-07) (age 33)
Benoni, South Africa
Occupation actress, producer
Years active 1995 - present
Domestic partner(s) Stephan Jenkins (1998-2001)
Stuart Townsend (2001-)
Official website
Awards won
Academy Awards
Best Actress
2003 Monster
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
2003 Monster
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Outstanding Actress - Motion Picture
2003 Monster
Other Awards
Silver Bear for Best Actress
2003 Monster
Critics Choice Award for Best Actress
2003 Monster
NSFC Award for Best Actress
2003 Monster
Charlize Theron (IPA: ʃar ˈliz θə ˈron; born August 7, 1975), is a South African-American actress and former fashion model. She is best-known for her portrayal as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster which won her an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Biography
Early life
Theron was born in Benoni, Gauteng, South Africa, the daughter and only child of Charles Theron and Gerda, who is of German and French descent and took over her husband's business after his death. Theron's first language is Afrikaans. She is also fluent in English and speaks some Xhosa. "Theron" is a Occitan surname (originally spelled Théron) pronounced in Afrikaans as "Tronn", although she has said that she prefers the pronunciation "Thrown".[1] The pronunciation commonly used in the United States involves two syllables, with stress on the first.
Theron grew up on her parents' farm near Johannesburg (Benoni). She attended Putfontein Primary School (Laerskool Putfontein). At the age of thirteen, Theron was sent to boarding school and began her studies at the National School Of The Arts in Johannesburg. At fifteen, Theron witnessed the death of her father, an abusive alcoholic; Gerda shot him in self-defense when he attacked her. The police laid no charges against her.[2]
Acting career
At the age of sixteen, Theron traveled to Milan, Italy, on a one-year modeling contract, after winning a local competition. She went to New York with Pauline's Model Management. She decided to remain in NY after her contract ended, attending the Joffrey Ballet School, where she trained as a ballet dancer. A knee injury closed this career path when Theron was nineteen.[3][4]
Unable to dance, Theron flew to Los Angeles on a one-way ticket her mother bought her.[3] During her early months there, she went to a bank to cash a check her mother had sent her to help with the rent. When the teller refused to cash it, Theron immediately started into a shouting match with her. Afterwards, a talent agent in line behind her handed her his business card and subsequently introduced her to some casting agents and also an acting school.[5][6] She later fired him as her manager after he kept sending her scripts for films similar to Showgirls and Species, which would have traded solely on her appearance.[7]
After eight months in the city, she was cast in her first film part, a non-speaking role in the direct-to-video film Children of the Corn III (1995). Larger roles in widely released Hollywood films followed, and her career skyrocketed in the late 1990s with box office successes like The Devil's Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and The Cider House Rules (1999).
After appearing in a few notable films, Theron starred as the serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003). Film critic Roger Ebert called it "one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema".[8] For this role, Theron won the Best Actress Oscar at the 76th Academy Awards in February 2004,[9] as well as the SAG Award and the Golden Globe Award.[10] She is the first South African to win an Oscar for Best Actress.[11] The Oscar win pushed her to The Hollywood Reporter's 2006 list of highest-paid actresses in Hollywood; earning $10,000,000 for both her subsequent films, North Country and Æon Flux, she ranked seventh, behind Halle Berry, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Renée Zellweger, Reese Witherspoon, and Nicole Kidman.[12]
On September 30, 2005, Theron received her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[11] In the same year, she starred in the financially unsuccessful science fiction thriller Æon Flux,[13]. Additionally, Theron received Best Actress Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for her lead performance in the drama North Country.[9][10] Ms. Magazine also honored her for this performance with a feature article in its Fall 2005 issue.
In 2005, Theron portrayed Rita, Michael Bluth's (Jason Bateman) mentally challenged love interest, on the third season of FOX's critically-acclaimed television series Arrested Development.[14] She also received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her role of Britt Ekland in the 2004 HBO movie The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.[15]
In 2008, Charlize Theron was named the Hasty Pudding Theatricals Woman of the Year, preceded by others such as Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball and Julia Roberts.[16]
Other notable appearances
Having signed a deal with John Galliano in 2004, Theron replaced Estonian model Tiiu Kuik as the spokeswoman in the J'ADORE advertisements by Christian Dior.[17] From October 2005 to December 2006, Theron endorsed Raymond Weil watches. In February 2006, she was sued by Weil for breach of contract.[18]
In May 2006, Maxim magazine named Theron #25 in its annual "Hot 100" issue.[19]
In October 2007, Esquire magazine named Theron The Sexiest Woman Alive in its annual issue.[20]
Personal life
Theron dated the lead singer of Third Eye Blind, Stephan Jenkins, from January 1998 to July 2001. They broke up after Jenkins failed to take her requests of marriage seriously.[21] Theron now resides in Los Angeles in the home of late 1930s actress Helen Twelvetrees, with her long-time boyfriend Stuart Townsend, with whom she starred in the 2004 film Head in the Clouds, as well as in the 2002 film Trapped and uncredited 2005 Æon Flux. She, like Sarah Silverman, has said that they will not marry until same-sex couples are able to have their marriages recognized.[22] Townsend recently stated he considers himself and Theron to be husband and wife. "We didn't have a ceremony," he said. "I don't need a certificate or the state or the church to say otherwise. So no there's no big official story on a wedding, but we are married. ... I consider her my wife and she considers me her husband".[23]
While filming Æon Flux in Berlin, Germany, Theron had suffered a herniated disc in her neck, specifically the disc between the third and fourth vertebrae, which occurred as a result of her suffering a fall while filming a series of back handsprings. This required her to wear a neck collar for a month.[24]
Theron is also involved in women's rights organizations.[25] In 2006, Theron won GLAAD's Vanguard Award at the GLAAD Media Awards for increasing "visibility and understanding".[22] Theron is a supporter of animal rights and active member of PETA. She recently appeared in a PETA ad for their anti-fur campaign.[26]
In a 2008 interview, she repeatedly mixed up two European cities, Budapest and Istanbul.[27] The deputy mayor of Budapest responded by inviting her to spend a luxurious weekend in the Hungarian capital in order to get to know the city.[28]
Theron became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 2007.[29]
0 Replies
bobsmythhawk
1
Reply
Thu 7 Aug, 2008 07:19 am
A policeman pulled over a car, walked up to the driver's window, and asked the man if he knew why he was pulled over. "No," the man replied. "You failed to stop at the stop sign," the cop explained. "But I did slow down!" the guy argued. The cop shook his head. "You are required to stop. That's why they're called stop signs." The man started to get belligerent. "Stop, slow down -- what's the difference?" The cop pulled out his baton. "I can show you. I'm going to start hitting you with my baton. You tell me if you want me to stop or slow down."
0 Replies
Raggedyaggie
1
Reply
Thu 7 Aug, 2008 08:02 am
Good morning.
Cute one, Bob.
The Birthday Gallery:
0 Replies
Letty
1
Reply
Thu 7 Aug, 2008 09:01 am
firefly, loved the Lana Cantrell tribute. Don't know the lady, but it's obvious that "Nothing Can Stop Her Now".
Thanks, hawkman. Lots of good bio's today and your traffic cop funny was, well..Funny!
Hey, puppy. Thanks again for the montage of notables.
You know, folks, it's hard to believe that the woman who did this
I was too young to understand New York, so I didn't know if we were rejects or not.
Good morning.
Is that how she looked in "Monster", Letty?
