A very cute commercial Lucy and Desi did for Philip Morris Cigarettes. You must have QuickTime movie player to view. Or subscribe to my podcast on iTunes..

Some of the greatest blues musicians of the 20th century made their mark in Chicago, Illinois. Among them, music pioneers Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon. The memory of these and other modern blues maestros lives on with a new tribute album titled Chicago Blues: A Living History. When blues musicians from the Mississippi Delta looking for work gravitated north to cities like Chicago, a more polished, urban style of blues was born. Caught up in the city’s fast pace, they traded their acoustic guitars for electric guitars, and turned up the volume with a full ensemble of amplified harmonicas, thumping bass guitars and drums.

Leading the tribute to their hometown heroes are four veterans of Chicago’s ever-growing blues scene, guitarists Lurrie Bell and John Primer, and harmonica masters Billy Branch and Billy Boy Arnold. Producer Larry Skoller, who recruited the all-star lineup, assembled the backup band and handpicked the songs, explains how the arrival of Muddy Waters in 1940 signaled a whole new era in Chicago blues.

“The Delta blues musicians, notably Muddy Waters who came from the Delta to the north for work and for better living conditions, went to Chicago, which had lots of opportunities,” Skoller says. “And, people would go up through Kansas City and St. Louis; and Chicago was the big center. It attracted a lot of people from the south, and when people like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf came up from Mississippi, Muddy Waters was pretty much the person, if you had to pinpoint one bluesman from the Delta who really electrified the music, and really was the foundation and link between it, it’s Muddy Waters.”

“We, of course, couldn’t pay tribute to everybody that had an influence on the music, but we really picked the ones we felt were the most important people in sound innovators,” Skoller adds. “Without question, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon were two of the giants who really had, on multiple levels and for multiple reasons, had just an amazing influence and (were) probably the most important among them; certainly, Willie Dixon (who was known) for his songwriting and the kinds of songs that he wrote, and his producing abilities and his ability to bring people together for Chess Records.”

Chicago Blues: A Living History spans the years 1940 to 1991, beginning with the band’s version of John Lee Williamson’s “My Little Machine.” It continues in chronological order with tracks by Elmore James, Lowell Fulson, Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy and other “Windy City” legends.

In the rural south of the United States, a godly young woman is accidently wounded by her unchurched husband. She succumbs to the injuries, whereupon a good angel bids her to journey with him to the Crossroads of Life. Before she can travel far, the devil lures her with the temptations of juke joints and the city. Can she regain the straight and narrow before it’s too late? And what is to become of those she left behind? To watch this extraordinary film, subscribe to my itunes feed, or simply click the download link below. Ipod/or QuickTime is required.

his surprisingly great film made about photographic processes features a VERY tongue in cheek narrator popping into a studio to find out how they make those dames look so good in photographs. To do this, we meet quite possibly the funniest character ever introduced in a Jem Handy film. This VERY disgusted photographer grudgingly lets us take a tour while he photographs his latest model, but the narrator’s camera always seems to get in the way, and the photographer yells at us. A very well put together short, this is a MUST SEE on this site! To see clip, please subscribe to my iTunes feed, or click the download link below. Remember that you need either QuickTime movie player Or an ipod to view.

Richard Pryor

Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III (December 2, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American comedian, actor, and writer. Pryor was known for his unflinching examinations of racism and customs in modern life, and was renowned for his frequent use of colorful, vulgar, and profane language and racial epithets. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style. He is widely regarded as one of the most important stand-up comedians of all time: Jerry Seinfeld called Pryor “The Picasso of our profession”; Bob Newhart has called Pryor “the seminal comedian of the last 50 years.”

His body of work includes such concert movies and recordings as Richard Pryor: Live and Smokin’ (1971), That Nigger’s Crazy (1974), …Is It Something I Said? (1975), Bicentennial Nigger (1976), Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979), Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982), and Richard Pryor: Here and Now (1983). He also starred in numerous films as an actor, usually in comedies such as Silver Streak, but occasionally in dramatic roles, such as Paul Schrader’s film Blue Collar and roles like Gus Gorman in Superman III (1983). He collaborated on many projects with actor Gene Wilder. He won an Emmy Award in 1973, and five Grammy Awards in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1981, and 1982. In 1974, he also won two American Academy of Humor awards and the Writers Guild of America Award.

Born in Springfield, Illinois, Pryor grew up in Peoria in his grandmother’s brothel, where his mother, Gertrude Leona (née Thomas), practiced prostitution. His father, LeRoy “Buck Carter” Pryor was a former bartender, boxer, and World War II veteran who worked as his wife’s pimp. After his mother abandoned him when he was ten, he was raised primarily by his grandmother Marie Carter, a violent woman who would beat him for any of his eccentricities.

He was expelled from school at the age of 14. His first professional performance was playing drums at a night club. Pryor served in the U.S. Army from 1958 to 1960, but spent virtually the entire stint in an army prison. According to a 1999 profile about Pryor in The New Yorker, Pryor was incarcerated for an incident that occurred while stationed in Germany. Annoyed that a white soldier was a bit too amused at the racially charged sections of Douglas Sirk’s movie Imitation of Life, Pryor and some other black soldiers beat and stabbed the white soldier, though not fatally. According to Live on Sunset Boulevard, when he was nineteen, he worked at a Mafia-owned nightclub as the MC. On hearing that they would not pay a stripper, he attempted to hold up the owners with a cap pistol. The owners, amazingly enough, thought he was joking and were greatly amused.

During this time, Pryor’s girlfriend gave birth to a girl named Renee. Years later, however, he found out that she was not his child. In 1960, he married Patricia Price and they had one child together, Richard, Jr. (his first child and first son). They divorced in 1961.

In 1963, Pryor moved to New York City and began performing regularly in clubs alongside performers such as Bob Dylan and Woody Allen. On one of his first nights, he opened for singer and pianist Nina Simone at New York’s Village Gate. Simone recalls Pryor’s bout of performance anxiety:

“He shook like he had malaria, he was so nervous. I couldn’t bear to watch him shiver, so I put my arms around him there in the dark and rocked him like a baby until he calmed down. The next night was the same, and the next, and I rocked him each time.”

Inspired by Bill Cosby, Pryor began as a middlebrow comic, with material far less controversial than what was to come. Soon, he began appearing regularly on television variety shows, such as The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show. His popularity led to success as a comic in Las Vegas. The first five tracks on the 2005 compilation CD Evolution/Revolution: The Early Years (1966–1974), recorded in 1966 and 1967, capture Pryor in this era.

The biggest folk hero in modern American film is the serial killer. Cold, calculating and above all cool, the serial killer is always one step ahead of the law and constantly working on new and imaginative ways to dispense with his victims. Most of this popularity can be traced to Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter and his Oscar-winning portrayal by Sir Anthony Hopkins. But in the decades since “Silence of the Lambs” we’ve seen plenty of imitators: John Doe in “Seven,” the entrepreneurs in “Hostel” and the mechanically minded villain (hero?) of the “Saw” franchise.

Here’s the thing, though: There are serial killers in the real world, but they’re not cool, cold or calculating. They’re disturbing, desperate men who take innocent lives. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a good serial-killer thriller, but every so often, you should sprinkle a bit of reality in with all that fantasy. Two recommendations:

“Manson”: Released to cash in on the 40th anniversary of the Manson murders, this History Channel production combines slick re-enactments with interviews of actual participants.

Prosecutor (and “Helter Skelter” scribe) Vincent Bugliosi is present, along with Manson family member Linda Kasabian, who was there the night of the Sharon Tate murders. Tate’s sister, Deborah, also comments on the crime, and it’s her input — along with the gruesome crime photos — that convey the horror of what Manson and Co. did.

As for the re-enactments, they’re a bit too slick. Adam Wilson, who plays Charlie, can’t compete with the genuine article (or, for that matter, with Steve Railsback’s portrayal in the 1976 TV movie). He’s too smooth and handsome — and not nearly crazy enough. It is fascinating to watch him try to buddy-up to Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, though, and you do hear a tantalizing clip of Manson singing a folk-rock song. If only his music career had taken off …

“Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer”: This 1986 film (just released on Blu-Ray) is fictional, but it manages to feel more horrifyingly real than the re-enactments in “Manson.” Inspired by the crimes of Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toole, “Henry” follows a quiet, deliberate murderer (Michael Rooker in a chilling performance) as he moves in with his buddy Otis (Tom Towles, even creepier) and Otis’ innocent sister, Becky (Tracy Arnold).

There’s not much plot; Henry just kills people, talks about killing people, then goes and kills more people. Eventually, of course, Otis and Becky get involved in very different ways, and — spoiler alert! — the film does not end on a happy, life-affirming note.

Thanks to the actors’ dead-on performances and John McNaughton’s low-budget, low-key direction, “Henry” is terrifying because it seems so real, as if McNaughton just happened to catch footage of these screwed-up souls when they weren’t looking. It’s not fast-paced, and it’s not fun, but it is one of the most chilling, most disturbing movies I’ve ever seen. Watch it at your own risk.

Will Pfeifer writes about new DVDs on Tuesdays and older ones on Fridays. Contact him at wpfeifer@rrstar.com or 815-987-1244. Read his blog at blogs.e-rockford.com/movieman/.

Another fun 1954 episode of the TV series “The Pinky Lee Show”, a fast-paced kids show. This is in the Public Domain. Subscribe to my itunes, or right-click the download link and choose “save as”.

The GOLDEN GATE (JUBILEE) QUARTET

In 1925, four students at Booker T. Washington High in Norfolk, Virginia – Henry Owens, Clyde Riddick, Willie “Bill” Johnson, Orlandus Wilson – founded the Gates. It is of interest to know that another group called the Golden Gate Quartet was organized in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1892. In this podcast, I would like to share a negro-spiritual called “Anyhow” by The Golden Jubilee Quartet, song in 1943. Now in the public domain. Please click download to listen to song. Or subscribe to my podcast.

Worcester Art Museum ---- Thomas Gainsborough, ‘Portrait of the Artist's Daughters,’ about 1763-1764, oil on canvas.

A woman sits in bejeweled finery, the perfect image of elegance and comportment. Her posture is impeccable and enviable, especially to those of us living in an age when office chairs and long hours at computers do little to keep our vertebrae in alignment. Of course, we can always use lower lumbar cushions or head out to the chiropractor or yoga class. For hundreds of years, ladies of means had another solution – the corset.

“Bound by Fashion,” on view at Worcester Art Museum, is curated by John Garton of Clark University and includes 13 European paintings of women in corsets dating between the 16th and 20th century – all rich with messages about sexuality, status, beauty and wealth. In short, corsets were excruciating to wear and virtually impossible to put on without help. But some women, it seems, wore them gladly, knowing that owning a corset signified status, wealth, and restriction of movement that meant the wearer had the luxury of doing little or no work. But corsets also had health consequences, including diminished respiratory capacity, restriction of internal organs and fainting, as depicted humorously in the film, “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

Because of these problems, it is easy to dismiss the corset as yet another illustration of ways in which women in the past were made to suffer in order to create an attractive and compliant vision for men. But, as the exhibit suggests, this is a much too simplistic view and little about women’s history is this straight forward. The corset does speak to a mostly-failed effort to suppress female sexuality (witness the number of tracts railing about how the corset promoted lewdness of thought in public and probably actions in private.) It’s hard to argue that corsets did more to limit mobility than, say, high heels — or had any more attendant medical risks than cosmetic surgeries, liposuction or injections of dubious substances to plump the lips to elasticize the skin.

Strange to tell, the corset became an unexpected partner in the economic liberation of women, when the industrial age ushered in mass-production and countless jobs, including the making of garments such as corsets. The city of Worcester became home in the 1880s to the Royal Worcester Corset Company, which employed hundreds of female employees, allowing them to support their families through the manufacturing of these undergarments. Overall, this exhibit is intriguing and sure to make the viewer take a second look at his or her own closet. That said, it’s a little hard to follow; the paintings are mixed in with others and it’s not entirely obvious at first which ones belong to the exhibit.

Additionally, the beautiful space of this museum is difficult to enjoy fully with the plethora of over-vigilant staff. This is an unfortunate a and diminishes what would otherwise be an illuminating and memorable experience of any exhibit program. If you can overlook that, go, stand straight and tall, and breathe freely – and perhaps see fashion sense and sensibility  more clearly.

If you go..

‘Bound by Fashion’

Where:  Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury St., Worcester

When:  Through Jan. 10.

Hours:  Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Dec. 31.

Admission $10 adults, $8 seniors and college students with ID; free to children 17 and under and for members. Free admission Saturdays 10 a.m. to noon.

For more information Call 508-799-4406 or visit www.worcesterart.org.

Margaret Smith is Arts and Calendar editor at GateHouse Media New England’s Northwest Unit. E-mail her at msmith@cnc.com.

Medieval days re-enactment in Pennsylvania

For two weeks every summer, a campground in (the U.S. state of) Pennsylvania is transformed into a medieval village where people dress and act as if they were living back in the middle ages. There are tournaments, musical performances and, perhaps most importantly, battles in nearby fields just for the honor and glory of it all.

It looks like the real thing. Knights under the command of kings battle for personal honor and the glory of their kingdoms. While the weapons are wooden and the “dead” leave the battlefield on their own feet, the passions of the warriors are real. Excitement drives them on. They train at home during the year to prepare for these events and go by names of their choosing. Many return year after year. This commander of a Roman cohort, who calls himself Dominus, is a veteran of 14 such wars. “It gives me and my friends some great stories, some great experiences, some great adventures to share, to talk about and remember together for years to come,” Dominus said.

A code of honor governs what happens. The warriors determine for themselves the seriousness of their wounds. Marshals responsible for safety and order declare timeouts to regroup. The Society for Creative Anachronisms organizes the event. “We work very, very hard at our safety,” says, Master Maceanruig, “In 40 years of the society we haven’t lost anybody in the battle yet.” A full authentic set of regalia and weapons can cost $10,000. And, in one concession to the modern age, warfare is not only for men.

“You get a real challenge when you go out there,” Caecilia Decurion explains, “because when you’re wearing a helmet not many people realize you’re a girl. You kind of get like a fair fight and that’s cool.” But most of the 12,000 people here do not participate in the fighting. They choose less violent pleasures. They go to the bazaar and sample goods that would be available to a person who lived between the sixth and sixteenth century. They learn crafts that were popular in a slower and less complicated age.

“Pennsic – as a whole, is an experience where I can get away from the hustle-bustle of everyday life,” Issac Rothstein says, “and get to know the meaning of community with my friends.” There is even a daily newspaper, which publishes news of village life, including news of who is winning the tournaments, which dedicated to honoring women. “Today our theme is definitely the pleasure of the ladies. In fact, the ladies have directed these gentlemen, who are currently fighting at a barrier, to fight for their pleasure,” Mistress Marcele De Montsegur states.

The winner of the war this year was the Eastern Kingdom, comprised of warriors from the eastern parts of Canada and the United States. And as their reward? They had the right to claim the city of Pittsburgh, a claim they understand probably won’t be honored by any of the city’s modern-day politicians. As for the losers, their pride may have been injured, but they know that they can come back again next year.

Weegee’s photos from the 1930s and ’40s defined Manhattan as a film noir nightscape of gansters, bums, slumming swells and tenement dwellers.

Theodore Roosevelt

In an age when “green,” as in environmentally friendly, is all the rage, one of the most prominent U.S. historians has written a book about a man who provided the foundation for much of the conservation movement, former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt. In his new book, “Wilderness Warrior,” Douglas Brinkley portrays President Roosevelt as a crusader for the cause of protecting America’s wild heritage, in the form of national parks, forests and grasslands. Brinkley teaches atf Rice University in Houston. The wilderness has been a feature of the American experience since the nation’s beginnings, but present generations might not have had much opportunity to enjoy such natural splendors had it not been for a sickly easterner who went to live on a ranch in North Dakota in 1883. Theodore Roosevelt overcame illness and mental depression by roughing it in the Dakota badlands, according to Historian Douglas Brinkley. “So Roosevelt came to a very modern conclusion … that we needed to save nature, not just because it is pretty, but because it had redemptive spiritual value and was the great replenisher of the soul. And he felt that urbanization was destroying souls,” he said.

In his book, Brinkley focuses on Theodore Roosevelt’s lifelong commitment to preserving nature by reserving large areas as national parks and protected zones. “Although my book, ‘The Wilderness Warrior,’ is about history, it is about Theodore Roosevelt’s life from 1858 to 1919. It resonates today because all over the country people are looking to save land, to rehabilitate endangered species, to clean up rivers and lakes and create a sustainable environment for us to live,” he said.

Roosevelt was a Republican, but his appeal crosses modern party lines and Brinkley thinks Republicans of today are beginning to reconnect with the conservationist policies he triumphed. “There are many Republican conservationists who are saying what the modern Republican Party has lost is T.R.’s vision of the environment. In fact, Newt Gingrich, of all people, is saying that the modern Republican Party should be the leader on environmentalism,” he said.

Douglas Brinkley

At the same time, Brinkley says some of the people who call themselves environmentalists today need to look at Roosevelt’s practical side and his promotion of economic development. “There are people who are stopping building over a snail darter. That is taking the endangered species act in a kind of anti-development extreme,” he said. In addition to the books he has written about such historic persons as Theodore Roosevelt, Brinkley has written about contemporary figures like writer Hunter S. Thompson, newsman Walter Cronkite and rock singer and poet Bob Dylan, all of whom he met personally.

“There are huge boons and advantages because you actually get to know the human being, you are not just writing out of the cardboard boxes of letters,” he said. But in the end, he says, whether the subject is from a century ago or today’s world his task is to share what he learns about them. “When you are a historian you feel a bit of an obligation to communicate your findings to the public at large and hopefully get them interested. I am an enthusiast for history, so part of my job is to get people excited about it,” he said. Brinkley shares many of his insights on a regular basis on television news programs, where he is a frequent guest. But he says his own celebrity is sometimes a burden, taking him away from what he really loves, which is researching and writing.

This well done TV Movie, starring Richard Pryor, Rosie Greer, Billy Dee Williams, and Stephen Boyd, depicts racist attitudes toward black soldiers in World War Two. Richard Pryor gives a fine performance as does the rest of the cast. This movie is now in the public domain. To watch film, subscribe to my itunes feed, or right click on the download link below and choose save as.

American Telephone & Telegraph Co. (AT&T). A sponsored infomercial by AT&T about the process of telecommunications. This is in the public domain. To view movie, subscribe to my itunes podcast or click the download link below.

This undated photo shows Mary Travers, who was one-third of the popular 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary

Mary Travers, the glamorous blond who sang into the middle microphone with folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, died September 16 at 72 after a long battle with leukemia. Born in 1936, Mary Travers was two years old when her parents moved the family from Kentucky to Greenwich Village in New York City. By the time she was a teenager, Mary was a full-fledged member of the 1950s Village folk scene, though, at the time, she said music was just a hobby, and she had no plans to sing professionally.

That changed in 1961, when Mary met Bob Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman. Grossman had decided to put together a folk supergroup to rival the chart-topping Kingston Trio. He introduced Travers to Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey. The story of how the group was formed caused many fellow folk singers to brand Peter, Paul and Mary as “too commercial,” and not “authentic”, but Mary Travers always defended the group’s sound and founding, saying they made the music accessible to everyone. There is no dispute that the trio made folk music popular. Their first album, “Peter, Paul and Mary,” reached Number One shortly after its March 1962 release, and remained at the top of the charts for seven weeks. The album contained two hit singles: “If I Had A Hammer”; and “Lemon Tree.”

“Peter, Paul and Mary everyone loved,” said singer-songwriter Gretchen Peters. “And it’s not that it was ‘watered down’ at all. That’s not why it worked. I’m not exactly sure why it worked, except that Mary’s voice was just a thing of beauty. It was a classically-beautiful voice.” Peters took up the guitar at age 7, and Peter, Paul and Mary songs were the first she learned to play. But it wasn’t just Mary Traver’s voice that attracted Gretchen. The harmony singing was equally important.

Peter Yarrow, Mary Travers and Paul Stookey in 1965

“That was a great education, just picking apart who sang what on the albums,” she said. “Because sometimes she actually sang lower than one of the guys, she would sometimes sing lower than Peter. And you’d have to kind of weed out who’s singing what in the harmonies. It was not simple, simple stuff, but it was beautiful.” While the group’s music proved commercially successful, the group did not play it safe when it came to politics. Like Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey, Mary Travers was quite outspoken in her support of civil rights and the anti-Vietnam war movement. Peter, Paul and Mary performed at the historic 1963 March on Washington, and also took part in the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

After the group disbanded in 1970, Mary Travers continued to perform at political events around the world. The trio reunited in 1978, intending to perform just one show at a benefit to oppose nuclear power. It was such a success that they continued to perform as a trio until Mary Travers retired in May of this year. It’s no exaggeration to say that Mary Travers and the trio of Peter, Paul and Mary took folk music from the coffeehouse to the mainstream, and helped spread a message of peace and harmony around the world. Their recordings also proved that folk music could be commercially successful. Peter, Paul and Mary’s music won five Grammy Awards and scored six Top Ten hits, eight gold and five platinum albums. They also introduced millions to the music of Bob Dylan, and turned “Blowin’ In The Wind” into an anthem of the 1960s’ protest movement.

How Britain developed her civil airlines since the war. commercial jet-aircraft. De Havilland Comet. Bristol Brabazon. air travel. To see video, subscribe to my itunes podcast, or click the download link below.

Copyright © 2009

Mary Travers

Mary Travers, one third of the famous 1960s folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary has died of cancer. She was 72. A publicist for the group says Travers died Wednesday at a Danbury, Connecticut hospital where she was being treated for leukemia. The publicist said she had been battling the disease for a number of years.

Travers and her band mates, Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey made up one of the most popular American music groups of the 1960s. Peter, Paul and Mary mixed folk music with political activism, promoting civil rights and protesting the U.S. war in Vietnam with such songs “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “If I Had a Hammer” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?.”

The group also scored major hits with “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” “Lemon Tree,” and “Puff (The Magic Dragon).” Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.

JAMES EARL JONES

Jones had his acting career beginnings at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan. In 1953 he was a stage carpenter. During the 1955 – 1957 seasons he was an actor and stage manager. He performed his first portrayal of Shakespeare’s Othello in this theater in 1955.

His first film role was as a young and trim Lt. Lothar Zogg, the B-52 bombardier in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in 1964, which was more famous for the work of Peter Sellers and Slim Pickens. His first big role came with his portrayal of boxer Jack Jefferson in the film version of the Broadway play The Great White Hope, which was based on the life of boxer Jack Johnson. For his role, Jones was nominated Best Actor by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, making him the second African-American male performer (following Sidney Poitier) to receive a nomination.

In 1969, Jones participated in making test films for a proposed children’s television series called Sesame Street; these shorts, combined with animated segments, were shown to groups of children to gauge the effectiveness of the then-groundbreaking Sesame Street format. As cited by production notes included in the DVD release Sesame Street: Old School 1969-1974, the short that had the greatest impact with test audiences was one showing bald-headed Jones counting slowly to ten. This and other segments featuring Jones were eventually aired as part of the Sesame Street series itself when it debuted later in 1969 and Jones is often cited as the first celebrity guest on that series, although a segment with Carol Burnett was the first to actually be broadcast.

In the early 1970s, James appeared with Diahann Carroll in a film called Claudine, the story of a woman who raises her six children alone after two failed marriages and one “almost” marriage. Ruppert, played by Jones, is a garbage man who has deep problems of his own. The couple somehow overcomes each other’s pride and stubbornness and gets married.

Read more of this article on Wikipedia

Sherlock Holmes takes a vacation and visits his old friend Sir Henry Baskerville. His vacation ends when he suddenly finds himself in the middle of a double-murder mystery. Now he’s got to find Professor Moriarty and the horse Silver Blaze before the great cup final horse race. To watch movie, click the download link below, or subscribe to my itunes feed.

Episode of “The Perry Como Show” from 1952. This broadcast features Perry Como singing several relaxing 50′s pop songs. As with most 50′s Variety shows, This show was done live, and is now Public Domain.

Time of Apollo
NTIS AVA03129VNB1, 1975

The program presents President Kennedy saying “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safety to earth” in 1961. Proves that Project Apollo has been successful. Click the download link to see film, or subscribe to my podcast on itunes.

On October 16, after an afternoon meeting at the White House with Booker T. Washington, President Theodore Roosevelt informally invited Washington to remain and eat dinner with him, making Washington the first black American to dine at the White House with the president. A furor arose over the social implications of Roosevelt’s casual act.

Richie Haven's iconic performance as the opening act at the 1969 Woodstock Festival is etched deeply into Americans' memory of the event

There were a great many great musical performers at the historic three day Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, whose 40th anniversary is being celebrated this August 14-16. But few are as etched into the public mind as singer-songwriter Richie Havens, whose rendition of “Freedom/Motherless Child” and others songs were featured in the Oscar-winning documentary about the legendary festival.

Richie Havens played his now-iconic medley end of the opening act before a crowd of between 300,000 and 500,000 music fans, hippies, counterculture activists and drug-soaked pleasure seekers. Havens was later followed onstage by superstars like Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Ravi Shankar, Santana, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and Janis Joplin. That might also help explain why Havens’ long African-style tunic was soaked with sweat during his performance.

Havens recently told this reporter that he had already been onstage for nearly three hours when he played that song, which suddenly sprang to mind from his doo wop and gospel days back in Brooklyn.  “To tell you the truth, I had sung … all the songs I knew, and I am going ‘What am I going to do now,’” he said. At the same time, Havens was deeply moved by the camaraderie and free-spiritedness and of the Woodstock audience.

“And in my mind I’m going ‘you know, this is the freedom that my generation is looking for,” he said.  Havens was onstage for as long as he was because Woodstock producers were waiting for the other performers to arrive. The roads to the festival site were choked with cars backed up for over 100 kilometers in all directions. So Havens and the others had to be flown in by helicopter.  Havens remembers hovering high above that city of youth massed in what days before had been a peaceful cow pasture, and being awed by the size and the power of the gathering.

“And when I looked down and I saw all those colors, I said to myself ‘If the newspapers get hold of this shot, we’ve won,’” he said.  Woodstock was billed as entertainment, not politics. But as it swelled, the watching world was aware that the vision of peace, music and community it represented was a gentle protest against the previous generation’s way of life.

But music and rebellion were nothing new, says Havens. “We were protesting in the 1950s!” he said with s smile, and began to sing – in a perfect “doo wop” falsetto “No, no no! I’m not a juvenile delinquent!’” Those lyrics, to his ear, expressed the spirit of youthful protest too. “It was about being something our parents don’t understand you are. It’s [asserting] the freedom to have a voice!”

Richie Havens during an interview with VOA

With escalating racial tensions and increasing public anger over the Vietnam War, the Sixties was a time filled with strident voices. But Havens says that for those three muddy days at Woodstock, politics and activism took a back seat to peace, love and cheerfully dealing with the rain and mud. “Many of the fans that I came in contact with, they were so mellowed out, you could feel there was real joy,” said Havens, who added that he was hugged “thousands and thousands” of times over the course of the event.

As August 1969 fades farther into the past, the Woodstock Festival continues to enjoy a near-mythic status, both for those who were there and for the millions who wish they’d been there. But many of the tens of millions more who’ve been born since, and who know only the music, the legend and the media hype, are still inspired by the free-spirited and communitarian values that Woodstock has come to symbolize.

“There was just such an open door [that] even the least of us could have a vision,” Havens said. “This is the challenge we have now: to open a lot of those doors.”  For his part, Havens, now nearly 70, continues to express the Woodstock ethos with new songs like “The Key,” which is featured on his new album Nobody Left to Crown, Meanwhile, in a role he seems to relish, Havens will continue to act as a benign, bearded ambassador for the Woodstock state of mind.

A cool video remix of the classic hit TV movie SHAFT. This movie is open source. Subscribe to this itunes feed, or simply click the download link below.

A vintage RCA Victor commercial, advertising the latest of songs back then. Year of this clip is unknown.  This is in the Public Domain. Subscribe from itunes, or click the download link below.

Liberty Bell

Philadelphia is known as the birthplace of the United States, the nation’s cradle of liberty. It began back in 1776 when the 13 American colonies announced their independence from the British Empire with their Declaration of Independence. And Philadelphians, along with other Americans, mark this day of freedom every July 4th. As the nation prepares for its 233rd birthday.

The first stop for many tourists to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is Independence Hall — the place where the founding fathers met to discuss and write the Declaration of Independence.

“People want to come to see the birthplace of the United States,” Bill Caughlin said. Caughlin is a ranger with the National Park Service. “This is it. It all starts right here (in Philadelphia). I think what attracts people the most is the fact that we are a nation that is founded on ideals, on equality and freedom. And I think that attracts a lot of people from around the world. They want to come and see that room where that Declaration of Independence came out of.”

And those ideals are memorialized not just in that declaration, but also elsewhere along Independence Mall. Actors dressed as key early American patriots — George Washington, Ben Franklin — add to the historic ambience, and talk to tourists. Famous relics and sites such as the Liberty Bell, Carpenters’ Hall, and the house where legends says seamstress Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag attract more than three million visitors to Philadelphia each year.

The Liberty Bell was rung on July 8th, 1776 to summon Philadelphians to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. In 1846, after a tiny crack expanded to the point that the bell could not be rung, it was removed from the Independence Hall tower and put on display. “It’s such a powerful symbol, really, I see that on a regular basis. The bell, by the time it did crack, was already an important relic from the time of independence,” Caughlin explains. “But also would become a symbol of freedom for people in the United States, pretty soon around the world.”

And more people from the United States and around the world visit Philadelphia for the 4th of July holiday than at any other time of the year.

“July 4th is our time to shine here!” Caughlin proudly proclaims.

Barbie premiered in 1959 wearing a black and white bathing suit. One original doll sold at auction for $27,45

For Barbie collectors, this year’s convention in Washington, D.C. was a must-attend event. The 1,200 tickets sold out a year in advance. Convention-goers entered their dolls in competitions, mingled with other collectors and shopped.

Ship wrecked Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea) crawls ashore on a mysterious island and finds his way to a creepy castle inhabited by a Russian Count named Zaroff (Leslie Banks). There he meets the lovely Eve (Fay Wray) and her drunken brother Martin (Robert Armstrong), who were also ship wrecked. It turns out that the “Game” of the title is the mad Count hunting down and killing human prey. Subscribe to my itunes feed, or click the download below.

An unknown musician plays outside Small's in Greenwich Village

From the mid-1930s until the early 1960s, jazz was one of the nation’s most popular styles of music. Rock ‘n’ roll and other genres ultimately eclipsed jazz’s mainstream appeal. But there is a place in New York City where one can still experience the spirit, the inventiveness and the community that was jazz in its heyday.

It was well past midnight one cool summer evening, but the jazz was hot as the noonday sun downstairs at Small’s, where the Dwayne Clemons Quintet held the stage. The hole-in-the-wall club in the heart of Greenwich Village is where many of the world’s greatest jazz musicians come to play.

“…You come down here and see that these guys are sincerely living on that creative energy, that spark,” said Small’s co-founder and guiding bohemian Mitchell Borden, while nodding in time to the music. “That spark is what keeps them going. When they dig deep and pull up something that is so beyond them, that’s jazz.”

Forging musical, magical connections

Nearby, Harry Whitaker, a jazz piano veteran, was sitting in his accustomed chair and taking in the music with half-shut eyes. He wistfully recalls when he came to New York from Detroit. The year was 1961, and New York was America’s jazz mecca. “I was in [the] Birdland [jazz club] every single night. I nearly killed myself,” he recalled with a laugh. “But there was music all over… and the music was so intelligent!”

Whitaker vividly remembers hearing now-legendary greats like John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and Sonny Rollins. “We learned from the masters!” he said. Whitaker is a strong advocate for the “give and take” between musicians that he says live jazz requires. “A lot of groups – and a lot of people – don’t listen to each other. They are just listening to what they’re doing.” In contrast, he added, when band members are “in sync,” they are “in the zone.” “If you are really connected to the other musicians, that’s what makes the music cohesive. That’s what creates this thing.”

Music that makes you think

Master jazz musician Hank Jones

Now in his 60s, Whitaker still performs with his quartet, which includes Stacy Dillard on the saxophone, Renee Marie Cruz on bass, and Brandon Lee Lewis on drums. All agree that the quality jazz one can hear at Small’s is far more than mere entertainment. “This music is celestial,” says Lewis. “It’s eternal. It’s like you just grab it in the air. It’s like you ‘re breathing it. That’s what’s so beautiful about it, and that’s why it’s so fun.”

Lewis, who is 28 years old, acknowledged that most people his age overwhelmingly prefer hip-hop, rock ‘n’ roll and country music to jazz, but that he is “OK with that.” “Small’s is one of the few places in New York where it encourages people to get in touch with that part of their soul that causes them to think about things. And society in this day and age do not want anybody to think,” Lewis says. To him, jazz improvisation is like a shared code. “We’re actually talking. And this is a community place where somebody can get in touch with the community, for real!”

A community committed to authenticity

The jazz community at Small’s has made all the difference to Kyoko Oyobe, a promising young jazz composer and pianist from Japan who recorded her first CD – Cooking at Small’s – at the club. “It’s a special place for me. Everybody gathers like a family. That makes me feel warm,” said Oyobe, who lives in a tiny apartment upstairs and had just finished practicing on the club’s piano. Oyobe especially like the huge variety of musicians – from the famous to the unsung, from the foreign-born to local – who come to Small’s to play, to hang out, and to create music, both for audiences and for each other. “That makes [a] special vibe, a New York vibe, an American vibe and [a] human vibe!” added Oyobe happily.

In the opinion of Small’s co-owner Lee Kostrinsky, the club is one of the last vestiges of a more lively and interesting New York. He believes that corporate culture and mass media are sanitizing the Big Apple. “And it’s not going to happen on my watch!” Kostrinsky says there can be a certain coldness to New York, and that jazz that “brings things to life.” “It’s blue and it’s black and it’s white and it’s green. It’s all these colors, but it’s still under the gray fog rolling over the Brooklyn Bridge up to Harlem and back,” he says, adding, perhaps unnecessarily, “and I love it!”

Heartfelt notes Jazz fans love it, too. “This is the place to come,” said 19-year-old Brian, who had come with to the club with his wife Lisa to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. “Jazz all night,” swooned Lisa. “Oh, it’s perfect!” Both said they appreciated the friendliness of the Small’s staff and clientele. But it’s the music itself that keeps them coming back. “We listen to jazz all the time – at work and in the car…” said Lisa. “To us, it’s just music in its most natural form.” Natural, free flowing, urbane and democratic, jazz often has been called America’s classical music.

“In fact,” said Small’s founder Mitchell Borden, “jazz lies under everyone’s fingers. The piano has all the notes, true. But jazz comes from the heart. Go for it with all your glory! It has to be that way each and every time. Jazz symbolizes that attitude.” Small’s Jazz Club offers a live webcast of its performers, generally between 2330 UTC and 730 UTC the following morning at http://www.smallsjazzclub.com/index.cfm.

Whitney Houston was in London on July 14 for the world premiere of her new album, I Look To You. She described the long-awaited album as “a labor of love” and said, “I hope that these songs stay with you for a lifetime.” Arista Records will release I Look To You in the U.S. on September 1. Whitney collaborated with some of today’s top songwriters and producers, including Diane Warren, Alicia Keys, R. Kelly and Akon.

This week’s video podcast is about a reality TV show in the 1950′s called “What Are The Odds?” It consists of 4 real life stories of people beating dangerous odds, and were alive to tell about it. I think you will enjoy this extremely rare TV show; which is now in the public domain. Click the download link below, or subscribe via itunes.

In this podcast, I would like to share with you great works from Duke Ellington. These are several performances that fell into the Public Domain some time ago. They range from 1926 – 1929. Enjoy..

Photo by: Gordon Parks / Wikipedia

May 15, Panel 2 EFF 4th Proposed Exemption – Public domain motion pictures released on CSS-protected DVDs

EFF has sought a narrow exemption for audiovisual works and movies that are in the public domain in the United States, and that are released solely on DVD format, where access to the content is prevented by Contents Scramble System, and possibly other technological protection measures.

First, I’d like to address the applicability of section 1201 to these works. EFF believes that section 1201(a)(1) does not apply to public domain works because they are not works protected under title 17. However, there is legal uncertainty about this, particularly as to the application of section 1201 to compilation DVDs containing public domain works bundled with copyrighted works. Therefore, to the extent that the Copyright Registerand the Librarian of Congress consider public domain works released on CSS-protected DVDs to be within section 1201′s scope, we have requested an exemption for this class of works.

The creation of a healthy and rich public domain for the benefit of all society, is one of the core principles underlying copyright law, as recognized by the Supreme Court in Twentieth Century Music Corporation v. Aiken, The public domain is an important source of ideas, information and cultural exchange.

With the transition to DVDs and away from VHS tapes as the predominant medium for releasing and viewing movies in the United States, public domain movies are now beginning to be released only on DVD format. As public domain works, this material is not subject to copyright law and consumers’ use is, by definition, non-infringing. However, consumers’ use of these works is inhibited where the public domain material is released on a DVD with CSS protection. An exemption is therefore required to allow consumers to exercise their full range of rights in this class of public domain material and preserve the constitutionally-mandated copyright balance.

Opponents of this exemption have made three main arguments:

First, they have argued that EFF is mistaken in arguing that public domain works released on DVDs subject to CSS protection will become less available to the public. The joint commenters argue that copyright owners will have no incentive to re-release public domain material on DVD in the absence of a legal regime that prohibits circumvention of technological protection governing access to these works. In support of their argument, they quote from a section of the Register and Librarian’s 2000 final rule discussing the availability of copyrighted content for alternative minority operating systems such as Linux.

This argument is irrelevant to the question of whether copyright owners should be entitled to use technological measures and the legal norms of section 1201 to preclude access to public domain works. An important -indeed fundamental- distinction exists between the case in issue, and the quoted comments on playability on alternative playback systems. Copyright owners do not have copyright rights in public domain works. The joint comments’ claim to user facilitation proceeds on a mistaken reliance on copyrights that DVD publishers do not control.

If studios choose to release or re-release a public domain motion picture on a DVD, they may do so in order to obtain revenue from the sale of the physical DVD, but they do not thereby obtain copyright in the public domain motion picture. To argue that a major studio requires technological protection measures backed by legal norms to give them an incentive to release works in which they do not hold the copyright, is either factually false, or else amounts to an inappropriate attempt to assert private rights over a public asset.

It’s factually false, since motion picture studios are, and will continue to re-release these works in order to obtain revenue – even though it’s a public domain work and they don’t hold the copyright in it. Studios will continue to release public domain movies, in the same way that book publishers have successfully continued to publish the works of Shakespeare, even though they don’t hold the copyright in those works. Granting an exemption to permit circumvention by consumers who have already purchased a public domain DVD has no impact at all on a copyright owner’s profit from the DVD, and does not impact any copyright they own. The existence of legal sanctions for circumventing technological measures controlling access to works that they don’t own copyright in, cannot have any bearing on a studio’s decision to re-release a public domain movie on DVD.

The situation is no different where copyright owners have a thin copyright – for instance, where they choose to release a compilation DVD with a public domain work bundled with works in which they do hold the copyright. In either case, the copyright owner would obtain, at best, a thin copyright in the non- public domain elements, but does not thereby obtain copyright in an uncopyrightable public domain work. As recognized by numerous cases, including the Supreme Court’s decisions in Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises and Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 345 (1991), and the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Sega v. Accolade, the public continues to retain the right to access the uncopyrightable parts of the compilation. An exemption is required to allow consumers to exercise their right of access and to prevent copyright owners from using technological protection measures as a bootstrap to extend their thin copyrights over public domain works.

Second, our opponents claim that this exemption confuses access and copy controls. This claim is based on two misunderstandings: first, about the merged nature of CSS as both an access and copy control, as recognized by Judge Kaplan in the Corley case and the Register and the Librarian of Congress in the 2000 Final Rule. Second, a misunderstanding about the applicability of section 1201 to a public domain work. Even if section 1201 applies to a DVD compilation which includes public domain and copyrighted parts, the requested exemption will permit circumvention only for the purpose of accessing and copying public domain works within the compilation. Since public domain works are not copyrighted or subject to copyright law, there is no prohibition in copyright law on copying a public domain work once access has been gained through a permitted circumvention of the CSS measure which controls access to that work.

Third, our opponents have argued that we have not met the burden of proof on proponents of establishing a substantial adverse impact on consumers.

I’d like to make two comments in response to this claim. First, as I noted in the previous panel, if interpreted as the joint commenters have suggested, the standard of proof would raises serious questions about the equity of this

by: Laihiu - Creative Commons

rule-making process. It is simply not feasible for consumers to provide an authoritative listing of every public domain motion picture available only on DVD. As a result of considerable effort by EFF and a team of researchers, including reviewing and cross-checking several sources, several databases, and including a review of records held by the Library of Congress, EFF was able to identify and provide evidence that 9 public domain motion pictures are currently available as solo works only on DVD and not on VHS format. The joint commenters have not disputed this claim. They have instead argued that this is an insignificant number of titles and that there are alternative sources for these movies in existing VHS compilations, so an exemption shouldn’t be granted.

The fact that nine titles that have been released as individual works solely on DVD is evidence of current actual harm to the public interest. Whether or not some of them may exist in a compilation in an unprotected format does not detract from the fact that public domain works are now being re-released solely on CSS protected DVDs. Since these works are in the public domain, the public is harmed by the fact that consumers are currently precluded from accessing or using them by virtue of technological means. That harm occurs irrespective of whether there’s an alternative unprotected source. Public domain works are unique. They’re not fungible. Precluding the public’s access to one version of one of them harms the public interest and upsets the careful copyright balance. And this is true even if the work might exist in another format.

In the next three years this trend is only likely to increase, as DVDs overtake VHS as the most common format for home viewing, and as the existing stock of VHS tape deteriorates. My colleague, Ren Bucholz, is displaying a graph showing the comparative sales of DVDs versus VHS tapes over the last three years. DVD sales overtook VHS tape sales in 2002. The pie chart Ren is currently showing displays DVD rentals versus VHS rentals for the last three years. DVD rentals overtook VHS rentals in March of this year.

As DVD players continue to penetrate the market and DVDs replace VHS tapes over the next three years, public domain movies will increasingly be released or re-released only on CSS-protected DVD format. This is already occurring. Ren is currently showing a slide which quotes a Warner Home Video executive announced this year that Warner decided in January to phase our releases on VHS because, “for us, VHS is dead”.

Finally, I wish to emphasize that the exemption we have requested is narrow and does not permit widespread copyright violation. If a consumer went beyond the scope of the exemption, and sought to reproduce or otherwise infringe the copyrighted part of a DVD compilation, the copyright owner could bring an action for infringement, and would continue to have the full range of copyright infringement remedies currently available under Chapter 5 of Title 17.

Thank you

© 2009 EEF – Electronic Frontier Foundation

Many of the images we have of pirates today come from the versions we see in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series and the Errol Flynn films of the early screen era.  This romanticized version of pirates originated with Howard Pyle, a Delaware artist who was one of the most influential American illustrators of the late 19th century.

Through his art and that of his students and imitators, Pyle’s portrayal of a pirate with a headscarf, earring, and sash has become the accepted image that continues to be popular today.

This program is presented by David Rickman, an Exhibits Coordinator with the State Division of Parks and Recreation and an illustrator himself. Rickman will discuss how his admiration of Pyle’s art led him to research why the famous illustrator created the image of pirates that continues to thrive on movie screens and in the American imagination.

The presentation will take place at the Delaware Public Archives on Aug. 1, at 10:30 a.m.  This is a free presentation and no reservations are required.  The Delaware Public Archives is located at 121 Duke of York Street in Dover, Delaware.  For more information, contact Jessica Carmichael (302) 744-5081, jessica.carmichael@state.de.us.

Ravenswood, W.Va. -

It didn’t seem possible that another baseball season could be here and gone. Ten months of planning, preparation, and high expectations followed by a two-month season. There were the usual highs and lows. Four players (Luke Corley, Spencer Drake, D.W. Mahan, and Jake Hughes) earned All-LKC honors, one recognized as 1st Team All-State (Corley), and there was losing to a team bound for their third straight state tournament appearance. Where are the boys of summer? The answer defines the difference between the Ravenswood baseball season and that of other team sports. While baseball has become a two-month afterthought, basketball and football season lasts all year. As I applaud basketball, football, and cross country for all their success, I wonder where some of these students are when it comes to baseball? Thirty years ago, at a time when Ravenswood graduated over 200 students, participation in three sports was common. Now, while we have a handful of crossover athletes, the numbers do not compare with other schools of similar size. Three-sport-athletes have remained common at other small schools, unless that school has a Division I college prospect in one sport, which can be rare in this area. Success in other sports has had an effect on baseball. Kids who have played multiple sports, up to and including middle school are choosing AAU and summer league basketball or off-season football weight training over high school and summer league baseball. I believe there is room for baseball. Although we had a very talented 2009 team, additional players could have made a positive difference.

Many volunteers, including our coaching staff, worked hard to start a baseball program at Ravenswood Middle, and we believe this will benefit Ravenswood High School. ‘The middle school program was a success, however the same result occurred following a two-month season- we lost the kids to other sports. Less than half of the eligible middle school players and returning varsity players chose to come out for summer league baseball. For the first time in twenty years, we did not have enough players to have a summer league team. I hope this is not a trend that continues to repeat itself. Ravenswood High School under the tutelage of Coach Doug Parrish has produced two Major League Baseball players in Paul Fletcher and Larry Carter. Carter is now a pitching coach for the Kansas City Royal organization entering into his 12 season with the club. We are also proud to graduate a two-time Collegiate All-American, 10 Division-I players and over 30 small-college players. Numerous teams have made it to the state tournament, culminating with a 1999 state title and a runner-up in 1977. Although proud of our past, we continue to provide these opportunities to current players. Baseball is unbiased. Whether you are 5’1” or 6’10”, 120 or 290 pounds, you can play baseball in high school, college, or even in the major leagues. What other sport can make this claim? So, where are the boys of summer? If you find them, send them our way.

Sincerely,

David Sullivan
Assistant Baseball Coach
Ravenswood High School

African countries could boost their economies by increasing high-speed Internet access and affordability, according to a report by the World Bank.

For every 10 percentage-points of increase in high speed Internet connection, the authors found that economic growth rises 1.3 percentage points.

“In this report there’s a lot of evidence that where you have broadband, you have innovation, you have lower transaction costs, and you have higher trade and exports,” said the report’s editor Christine Qiang.

Sub-Saharan Africa Ranks Lowest

The seven countries that ranked lowest on affordability, access and usage of Internet and Communication Technologies were all in sub-Saharan Africa.

The reason less than one percent of Africans have access to high-speed Internet is because it is still too expensive and the quality is sub-par, explained Philippe Dongier, another author on the report.

Still, progress is being made, he says. For example, in countries along the east coast of Africa, the World Bank is working with private investors to install underwater fiber-optic cables.

Mauritius a Tech Success Story

Mauritius also serves as good example.
In 2000, before the government started implementing reforms, Mauritius was ranked near the bottom, along with Ethiopia.

“The government was very vigorous in terms of sector reform,” Qiang explains. “And now eight or nine years later, Mauritius scores about an eight, on a scale of one through 10, which I think is quite outstanding.”

Public-Private Initiatives Key

The authors say the report is proof of how important it is for governments to create a market mechanism for the Internet and communications industry.

“This is a sector where the private sector has been really the engine for growth. And in that sense, it’s not about aid. It’s really about policies to make markets work so that the economies can grow.

“It’s also important for governments to partner with industries, to go even faster than what the market can do, so that they can really take part of this global phenomenon and be part of the global economy,” Dongier says.

Do you remember all those Folger’s commercials? I do. In fact, I still drink Folgers, and I do think its still one of the best tasting coffees on the market. Download this now public domain classic!

On February 3, 1959, a small plane crashed in a corn field in Iowa, killing three rock and roll stars – Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, known as “The Big Bopper”.

Earlier this month people from around the world gathered in the small city of Lubbock, Texas, to remember singer/ songwriter Buddy Holly, who died 50 years ago.  His influence on popular music continues even today, and is observed in a new three CD album by Decca called, Buddy Holly Memorial Collection.

Charles Hardin Holly, known to his family and friends as Buddy, was only 22 years old when he died, but he had by that time created a guitar-driven rock and roll style that would live on among rock bands around the world.

In only a few years, the Lubbock native created hit songs that are still played today – classics like “That’ll be the Day,” inspired by a line John Wayne spoke in the western movie “The Searchers”.

Holly rocked his fans with songs like “Peggy Sue” and “Maybe Baby” and then soothed them with ballads like “Everyday”.

The song marked the first use in pop music of a celesta – an instrument mainly associated with classical music performances.

Fans say Holly’s music still relevant

Holly’s style and musical experimentation appealed to many up-and-coming musicians, especially in Britain, where he has many fans even among people born long after his death.

Among the British visitors to Lubbock for the 50th anniversary of Holly’s death are Phil and Caroline Jenkins.

“The Beatles and the Rolling Stones – they all credit Buddy as being a major influence,” Jenkins said. “It seems that you get more in England than you do here. He is bigger there than he is here. You know, he is bigger there than he is here. Lots of people here we talk to go, ‘Who?’ They don’t know the name.”

Jessica Camacho helps run the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, which is holding panel discussions and special events to commemorate Holly’s death.

Camacho is only 26 years old, but she says she recognizes the importance of Holly – not only to her hometown, but also to the world of music.

“I don’t know how many younger people realize what kind of influence Buddy Holly had even on the music that they hear today that they love. I think his influence was far reaching,” Camacho said.

Friend says Holly strove for recognition

There are still many people living here in Lubbock who knew Buddy Holly well. Among them is former musician and disc jockey Jack Neal, who was Buddy Holly’s first musical partner on a local radio show. He sat in on jam sessions with Holly and a young rock singer from Memphis, Tennessee named Elvis Presley, just months before Elvis went on to become a legend himself.

“I truly believe that if Buddy had still been living, he would have been as big as Elvis, if not bigger, because of the two different styles of people that they were,” Neal said.

Neal knew Buddy Holly as a close friend as well as an artist, and he misses him still. He recalls one of his last conversations with him, not long before he died.

“He was in town and we were at one of the drive-ins and it was just before he left to go on that last tour and he said he wanted people to know Buddy Holly,” Neal recalled. “He wanted them to know the name. He said the money was nice, but he wanted people to know the name. And so that was his goal and that is exactly what he did.”

The fatal plane crash in Iowa was commemorated in 1971 by singer/songwriter Don McLean in his hit song, “American Pie,” which spoke of “the day the music died.” But most Buddy Holly fans say his music never died and that it lives on in the rock and roll he helped create.

Legendary blues singer Koko Taylor died June 3 in Chicago, Illinois of complications from intestinal surgery.  She was 80 years old.  Taylor was not only a magnetic performer but an important influence on entire generation of female blues artists.

It was Koko Taylor’s earthy growl and heartfelt delivery of blues classics like “Wang Dang Doodle” that earned her the title, “Queen Of The Blues.”  The song was a million-selling hit on the R&B charts in the 1960s, and over the years, it became Taylor’s most-requested show tune.

Koko Taylor was born Cory Walton near Memphis, Tennessee.  She earned the nickname “Koko” because of her love for chocolate.  Her passion for the blues began at home, where she listened to records by Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie on the radio.  Although her father encouraged Koko to pursue gospel music, she would sneak out of the house, and sing the blues with her brothers accompanying her on homemade instruments.

Determined to leave the cotton fields of rural Tennessee for the bright lights of Chicago, Koko packed her bags and moved there with her future husband Robert Taylor.  Her big break came in 1962, when famed blues producer and arranger Willie Dixon spotted her in a nightclub and signed her to Chess Records.

Koko achieved international success on the Chess label, turning out a string of best-selling blues hits like “I Got What It Takes.”  When Chess folded in 1975, Koko went on to record nine albums with Alligator Records, eight of them nominated for Grammy Awards.

Koko’s 40-plus-year career includes an impressive list of honors and awards.  Among them, a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album, 29 Blues Music Awards, the Blues Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, induction into the Blues Hall of Fame, and a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship Award.

Koko Taylor gave her last performance on May 7 at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis.  She died on June 3 at her home in Chicago.

Since 1965, Welsh singer Tom Jones has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Tom says his career highlight was being knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2006. He has influenced many singers in the music industry and has made significant contributions to the industry with his powerful baritone voice and magnetic stage presence. At 69, Tom continues to attract fans of all ages and has no plans to slow down.

Tom Jones’ soulful voice and sexy stage presence earned fans around the world and helped sell millions of albums Tom Jones’ soulful voice and sexy stage presence earned fans around the world and helped sell millions of albums Thomas Jones Woodward grew up in South Wales in the United Kingdom. He spent his teenage years working as a laborer during the day and singing in pubs at night. By the mid-1960s, Tom had met songwriter and manager Gordon Mills, dropped his last name and recorded one of Mills’ songs as Tom Jones.

“It’s Not Unusual” sold three million copies. Tom’s success led to a U.S. network television show. He was in demand by the day’s top songwriters, recording the Burt Bacharach-Hal David song “What’s New Pussycat?”

Performer and lover of music Known for his powerful voice and a sexy stage presence, Tom’s legacy is his resilience and versatility.

“I love to listen to music, and I want to know what is going on. I have always been into sound – ever since rock ‘n’ roll began in 1955. ‘Rock Around the Clock’ was a great record. The sound was so different… the sound of it was so different from stuff that had been recorded before.

“I listen to the radio a lot, and I am always listening to who’s producing what … who’s coming up with some interesting sounds. I enjoy that. I do not only do it so I can stay in the business; I do it because I really enjoy it.”

Early in his career, Tom was booked to perform in Las Vegas. He became one of the town’s biggest attractions, and it led to friendships with Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.

“And I remember once I did an album of standards. Elvis said, ‘I do not think you should do that.’ He said, ‘We do not do that … we leave that to Frank Sinatra.’ So I said, ‘OK.’ He said ‘we’ so I thought that was great … great company. And then I met Frank Sinatra, and he was telling me I should be singing more big swing songs and more standards, and there is Elvis telling me I should be singing more rock ‘n’ roll and less standards.

“Coming from two greats like that, both of them giving me advice of what I should be doing … I thought, ‘Well, this is tremendous.’”

The song he should have sang

Tom Jones missed an opportunity to record Paul McCartney’s “The Long and Winding Road,” but says he still sings it occasionally
Although many songs came his way over the years, Tom remembers one in particular that got away.

“Paul McCartney [Beatles] … I was with him in a club in London, and I asked him, would he write me a song? He said, ‘OK.’ And he sent it to my house, and I have a single [record] coming out on Friday. Paul said, ‘If you are going to do it [record the song], it has to be your next single.’ The record company said, ‘We will have to stop this one [the original song] from coming out now,’ and this, that and the other. The song was ‘The Long and Winding Road.’

“So, you know, I missed it. After that, I have sung it since … after the fact.”

Tom Jones co-wrote most of the songs on his new album 24 Hours, a career landmark for him
“I co-wrote most of the songs on it, so it is more of a personal album. For me, it is a first. On all the other albums I have done in the past, the songs have been written for me, and some of the songs I covered that have been done by other people.”

This now 69-year-old sex symbol is still drawing audiences and is comfortable with his place in the music industry.

“People tell me that I am not trying to be somebody that I am not. I am not trying to be younger than I am. Kids have told me that as well. ‘We like you because you are real … what you see is what you get, and you are not trying to be something you are not.’ I think that is it. If you do have what is known as sex appeal, I do not think it goes away overnight because you get older … as long as you wear it well.”

In 1948, Evers enrolled at Alcorn State University, majoring in business administration. In college he was on the debate team, played football and ran track, sang in the school choir and served as president of his junior class.

He married classmate Myrlie Beasley on December 24, 1951, and completed work on his degree the following year. Myrlie Beasley and Medgar Evers had three children, two boys and a girl.

The couple moved to Mound Bayou, MS, where T.R.M. Howard had hired him to sell insurance for his Magnolia Mutual Life Insurance Company. Howard was also the president of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL), a civil rights and pro self-help organization. Involvement in the RCNL gave Evers crucial training in activism. He helped to organize the RCNL’s boycott of service stations that denied blacks use of their restrooms. The boycotters distributed bumper stickers with the slogan “Don’t Buy Gas Where You Can’t Use the Restroom.” Along with his brother, Charles Evers, Medgar also attended the RCNL’s annual conferences in Mound Bayou between 1952 and 1954 which drew crowds of ten thousand or more.

Evers applied to the then-segregated University of Mississippi Law School in February 1954. When his application was rejected, Evers became the focus of a NAACP campaign to desegregate the school, a case aided by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education 347 U.S. 483 that segregation was unconstitutional.

Read more of this article on Wikipedia…..

The classic 3 little pigs in a cartoon musical – Public Domain

Porky finds out that Ali-Baba and his Dirty Sleeves plan to attack the fort; it’s up to him to go warn the fort. He gets there to discover everyone has left for the Legion convention in Boston. Porky and his rented camel fend off the attackers themselves for a while, but when the situation gets dire, the young camel summons its mother. Momma takes care of the attacker that’s menacing them. The secret weapon, who has been sitting on the bench with an artillery shell strapped to his head, now comes in, but runs right through the fort and into Ali-Baba.  Subscribe to my podcast, or simply click the download link below to watch video.

I would like to discuss the importance of rating your favorite podcast. By rating your favorite podcast, it helps the podcastER, know how well he or she is doing. In addition, it helps to change the search positions or rank. It can also change the order in which the search results are presented. Thus, The more you rate a podcast,  the more popular it becomes, the easier it is for others to find your favorite podcast.

I say all this because, we as podcaster’s need your feedback, sure it’s nice receiving wonderful e-mails from you, but it’s even more important for us to recieve your ratings. It’s not hard, Just go on itunes, blueburry, podcast ally, where ever the source is, just rate it!  You have no idea how much this helps!!

While I am on the subject, another good reason why you should rate your podcast and or webcast is, it takes a lot of work to produce a podcast feed. You may not realize it, but to produce a podcast, sometimes a lot of research, editing, retouching, converting, uploading,  paying for hosting, so YOU can download files for free….

Believe me, its not about just getting on a mic, and think about a hot topic to talk about. It can take hours just to produce one podcast. It’s nice if podcasters’ can not only know how well they are doing, but let other podcast listeners, what you recommend.  So please take the time to rate your podcasts. it only takes less than a minute….

A quick word about public domain/creadtive commons & podcasting……………….

Free and legal media are extremely valuable; in all aspects of the internet, including itunes. When I purchased my first video ipod, there was barely any free movies to download.  There are many talented, unknown Producers, artists, performers, that are waiting to be discovered. Public domain allows us to stay in touch with our history. We need  more podcasters to come out, and take their technical abilities and use them for good use. There are literally over 350+ million people who own ipod videos alone; there is no reason why so little of us are making podcasting available.

In July 1956, the five-member Barstow family of Wethersfield, Connecticut, won a free trip to newly-opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in a nationwide contest. This 30-minute amateur documentary film tells the fabulous story of their fun-filled, dream-come-true, family travel adventure, filmed on the scene at Walt Disney’s “Magic Kingdom” by Robbins Barstow.

In December 2008, “Disneyland Dream” was named to the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress. You can watch this podcast by clicking download just below.

College student Nan Barlow visits the village of Whitewood as research for her paper on witchcraft in New England, particularly the case of Elizabeth Selwyn. Her tutor, Professor Alan Driscoll(Lee), recommends the Raven’s Inn, run by a Mrs. Newless. Rather unwisely, given the amount of low-hanging fog outside(and against the advice of Mrs. Newless), Nan takes an immediate interest in the basement. Subscribe to my itunes podcast, or just select download just below this article.

I’m so very sorry that the quality of this movie is so poor, however it is enjoyable and woth the watch. A woman tells the story of the events leading up to her death. Bela Lugosi’s only color film. Just click download, or play now!

Presents the experiences of a teenage African American, who relates his views of the System, war, revolution, the Watts community of Los Angeles, the Black Panther Party and the police. The importance of the discussion is the necessity of being one’s own self. Director: Richard Wells. Editor: Andrew Stein. Photographer: Robert Grant. Sound: Wendell Handy. Assistant Camera: Clifford Stewart. Production Manager: Edward Kutner. Assistant Production Manager: Gene Kopp. Executive Producer: George Schlosser. Producer: Peter Schnitzler.

Donna Summer (born LaDonna Adrian Gaines December 31, 1948) is an American singer and songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of music. Summer was trained as a gospel singer prior to her introduction to the music industry and has always been known for her “Powerhouse” Vocal delivery. Though she is most notable for her disco hits, Summer’s repertoire has expanded to include contemporary R&B, Rock, Mainstream pop, and Gospel. Summer is one of the most successful recording artists of the 1970s and 1980s and was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums hit #1 on the Billboard charts. She also became the first female artist to have four number-one singles in a thirteen-month period. Billboard magazine has noted that Summer’s extensive career has landed her as the “Eighth” most succesful career by a female. Summer’s website reports an estimate that she has sold more than 130 million records worldwide.

Born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, she was one of seven children raised by devout Christian parents. She sang in church, and in her teens joined a funk group called The Crow, so named because Donna was the only black member of the group. At eighteen, Gaines left home and school to audition for a role in the cast of the Broadway musical, Hair. Unsuccessful in getting the part in the Broadway show (Melba Moore got the role), she was offered the European Tour when the show moved to Germany, where Summer also performed in the German versions of several musicals including Godspell and Show Boat. She settled in Munich and also performed with the Viennese Folk Opera and the pop band Munich Machine.

In 1971, Gaines released a single in Europe entitled “Sally Go ‘Round The Roses”, her first solo recording. The single was unsuccessful, however, and she had to wait until 1974 to launch a solo career. Gaines married Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer (“Summer” is an Anglicization of his last name) in 1972 and gave birth to daughter Mimi the following year. Summer did various musical jobs in studios and theaters for several years, including the pop group FamilyTree from 1974-75.

After her divorce from Sommer, she married her second husband, American musician Bruce Sudano, in 1980. They have two daughters named Brooklyn and Amanda. Sudano was a member of the ’70s groups Alive N Kickin’ and The Brooklyn Dreams. You can read the rest on Wikipedia.  Click Download to listen to short podcast.

Buck Rogers and his pal Buddy (Jackie Moran) are released from suspended animation after 500 years. They discover that the world is under the thumb of modernistic mobster Killer Kane (Anthony Warde), and are enlisted in the fight against Kane by Wilma Deering (Constance Moore) and Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw). Download Podcast.

Night of the Living Dead, directed by George Romero, is a 1968 independent black-and-white horror film. Ben (Duane Jones) and Barbra (Judith O’Dea) are the protagonists of a story about the mysterious reanimation of the recently dead, and their efforts, along with five other people, to survive the night while trapped in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse.

George Romero completed the film on a $114,000 budget, and after a decade of cinematic re-releases, it grossed some $12 million domestically and $30 million internationally. On its release in 1968, Night of the Living Dead was strongly criticized for its explicit content. In 1999, the Library of Congress registered it to the National Film Registry as a film deemed “historically, culturally or aesthetically important”.

Night of the Living Dead had a great impact upon the culture of the Vietnam-era United States, because it is laden with critiques of late-1960s U.S. society; a historian described it as “subversive on many levels”. Although it is not the first zombie film, Night of the Living Dead is the progenitor of the contemporary “zombie apocalypse” sub-genre of horror film, and it influenced the modern pop-culture zombie archetype. Night of the Living Dead (1968), is the first of five Dead films directed by George Romero, and twice has been remade, as a film of the same name in 1990, directed by Tom Savini, and as Night of the Living Dead 3D in 2006. Read the rest of this article on Wikipedia.

Excerpts from “The Magic Clown”, a TV series which filled an unimportant time-slot on NBC. These excerpts are among the few remaining examples of this program. This compilation of clips actually lasts longer than the original episodes themselves. Click download to see clip.

Interview with Alice Gaston, Gee’s Bend, Alabama, 1941

Alice Gaston: We was talking about in the old war time, the old slavery time. I can remember when, uh, I can remember when the Yankees come through and, uh, they carried my father away and carried away, my si, two sisters and one brother. And, uh, they left me. And I can remember when my missus used to run in the garden, from the Yankees and tell us if they come, don’t tell them where they at. Told, don’t tell nobody where they at when they come and they all come and they told me, don’t get scared now and tell them, where they is, where they is. I told them no, we told them no. And uh, when they come and ask for them I told them I didn’t know there they was, and they was in the woods. And this was at the house. And my father, when my father left, he carried with the, he went away with the Yankees, and carried two, carried two, two girls and one son, the oldest one. Carried them with him. And he with the Yankees. And I can remember that. And uh, my old missus was named Mrs. M., and the master was name Mr. F. I. [pause]? Mr. F. I

Robert Sonkin: They treat you pretty good?

Alice Gaston: Yes sir, they treat me nice. They treat me nice as they could treat me. And then after they left, after they died, then I heard, still here and am here until yet. And the white folks all been treating me mighty nice ever since they? knowed me. They treating me all now, that knows me, they treating me nice. I’s came up here over here from Mr. Y., from over to [unintelligible] and come to Mr. Y.’s place up here. And he kept me there until he, he died, him and his wife. And then I come on then from that, on down here, and I’m here yet. An’ they all treating me mighty nice, all the white folks that know me, they treats me nice. And if I want anything, I’ll ask for it. I was taught in that a way by my old master. Don’t steal, don’t lie, and if you want anything, ask for it. Be honest in what you get. That was what I was raised up with. And I’m that a way today.

Robert Sonkin: What’s the government been doing for you here?

Alice Gaston: They been treating me fine. Ever since I been, ever since I been here with the government they treat me nice. I was in a old house down there, took me out the old house and put me up there in a good house where they could take care of me. And I’m in there yet. I don’t find no fault. Give me enough food to eat, give me clothes to wear. They been treating me just as nice as they can. I can’t find no fault.

Robert Sonkin: Pretty, pretty happy then.

Alice Gaston: Yes sir, yeh.

**************

Click Download to listen to the original recording.

This is one of Red Skelton’s early tv shows (1960). It was one of those goofy skit comedy shows similar to Soupy Sales. Guest star George Raft. Click download to watch, or subscribe to my iTunes feed.

Amii Stewart’s father Joseph Stewart II, signed her up for singing and dancing lessons in 1960, at the age of four, and this eventually led to a very successful career as one of the most highly regarded disco artists. Before being signed to Ariola Records, Stewart was in the touring company of the stage production Bubbling Brown Sugar in 1975, firstly in Miama, then Broadway, and eventually London’s West End, where she met Barry Leng, a record producer for Hansa records.

At the end of 1977, “You Really Touch My Heart” a Barry Leng/Simon May composition, produced by Leng, was Stewart’s first recording. An album followed, which contained five Leng/May songs, one Leng/Morris song and three cover versions.

Her first single, a disco cover version of the 1966 Eddie Floyd hit “Knock on Wood” (Floyd/Cropper), reached number one in the U.S. in April 1979, and earned her a platinum record and a Grammy Award nomination. It also reached number 6 in the U.K., and number 2 in Australia, in the same year. It was her only American pop chart hit and as a result she is considered a one hit wonder there, although she also achieved several Top 10 and Top 20 hits in the U.S. dance chart. You can read the rest of the article on Wikipedia.  The Best of Amii Stewart: Knock on Wood.

My mom used to use this product alot. In fact, as I remember it, a whole lot of women and some men used to use Aquanet. To my understanding it still sells in a few stores. This product made your hair very stiff, and it had a very strong distinct fragrance. Once you walk down the street, everyone knew if you used Aquanet. 

Do you remember the Simon game? I remember having one as a kid and it was a lot of fun. It was basically a memory game using colors and sounds. The key objective was to remember all the sounds that corresponded to the color (or vise versa). The more sounds/colors, the harder it becomes. Try the new hand Simon Hand Held

Actress Beatrice Author,has died today at the age of 87. She was best known for her character “Dorathy” from the hit TV show, the Golden Girls.  A very sarcastic, quick witted Dorathy, lived with 3 other women, Blanch Devero, played by Rue McClanahan, Rose Nylund, played by Betty White, and Sophia patrillo, played by Estelle Getty. Golden Girls was, and still remains, one of the most entertaining shows in comedy. Showing the interpretations of life,  through the eyes of 4 older women.

Beatrice Author Also had her own show in the seventies, called Maude.  Living with her not so smart husband,  played by Bill Macy,  a very liberal daughter, played by Adrienne Barbeau, and a somewhat militant maid, played by Esther Rolle, This was a spin off of the show “All in the family”.  Maude was the Female version of Archie Bunker.  The show dealth with a lot of sensitive racial issues, at a time were racism very previlent during that time.

Rent Season 1 of “Maude” on Netflix

Rent Season 1 of “The Golden Girls” also on Netflix

This is a wonderful ford commercial from the 1960′s. In this clip, ford is introducing 3 new cars; The Galaxy, The Falcon, and The Thunderbird. For some reason, this particular commercial reminds me of the movie called “Cindafella” starring Jerry Lewis; kinda like a after ball party. I hope you enjoy it. Just click download to watch.

Why would two young filmmakers be interested in the topic of aging in America? For Aaron Naar, the reason was personal. Seth Cuddeback was inspired for a different reason.

Aaron Naar and Seth Cuddeback co-produced a new dramatic film called
Aaron Naar and Seth Cuddeback co-produced a new dramatic film called Fades with Age, which explores the issue of aging in America
Naar and Cuddeback are recent graduates from the film school at Vassar College, a small liberal arts institution in New York.

They are the co-producers of a new dramatic film called Fades with Age, which Naar says explores the issue of aging in America. “Fades with Age is a short, 23-minute fiction narrative film about an elderly man in New York City who’s trying to reconnect with his son and grandson in an increasingly fast-paced world,” Naar says. “And it’s basically a critique of the marginalization of the elderly in a business-oriented America.”

Naar says he wanted to make Fades with Age because, for him, the issue of aging in America is personal. The cast and crew of The cast and crew of Fades with Age
“I wanted to make Fades with Age because my grandparents’ generation actually, unfortunately, died off this year, and it was pretty alarming and unfortunate to see how little health care and aid and support there was among many of these elderly communities that they’re involved in…” he explains.

Naar says that it isn’t just a lack of social services that causes the elderly to suffer. He says many of them feel isolated even within the circle of their own families. That, he says, is the sentiment he tries to convey in his film, which follows a day in the life of an elderly man named Roger and the encounters he has with his family and society at large.

Cuddeback, writer and co-director of Fades With Age, says his reason for making the film was to present a view of the senior population that isn’t typically portrayed in American films. Cuddeback says a scene in which Roger is ignored by a receptionist provides a typical example of how elderly people are treated by society Cuddeback says a scene in which Roger is ignored by a receptionist provides a typical example of how elderly people are treated by society
“I wanted to write something and make something that showed more accurately what the aging process might be like for somebody in America today,” Cuddeback says.

An example of that comes in a scene where Roger, needing to make an important phone call, approaches the reception desk in an office building, where a young receptionist – wearing ear buds and enjoying his music – is indifferent to the old man’s pleas. Cuddeback says that scene is, unfortunately, a fairly typical example of how elderly people are often ignored by society. But what really hurts, he says, is how they’re ignored by their own families.

“Even though we see him interacting with his son and his grandson, you know, family members who love him, but in sort of a different way, they’re sort of each involved in their own lives to an extent that they never, ever, think about this person,” Cuddeback says.  Roger interacts with many people in the film, but no one seems to really understand him Roger interacts with many people in the film, but no one seems to really understand him As the film develops, we learn that while Roger’s family may not always understand him, his best friend, Janet, does.

“Throughout the day, we see him interact with a lot of people, but none of them are people that he really connects with until this moment that he shows up at his friend’s house, somebody who he’s known for years, somebody that he shares a connection with personally and generationally,” Cuddeback says.

Janet, says Cuddeback, is the only person Roger feels can commiserate with him about his isolation and his loneliness. Roger and his friend Janet share their feelings of isolation and loneliness Roger and his friend Janet share their feelings of isolation and loneliness During one scene from the film, Roger and Janet have just finished dinner and are relaxing in her living room when Roger asks Janet if she ever wonders where they’re at.

“Sure, Roger, all the time,” Janet replies.

Cuddeback says most Americans are preoccupied with life in some form or another, which prevents many of them from connecting in a meaningful way with the elderly people in their lives. That, he says, is what needs to change.

“Our culture is very individualistic in a lot of senses, and, sort of, we all have this one specific thing that we want for ourselves, and oftentimes that comes at the expense of others,” he says.

Naar and Cuddeback hope their movie will help younger generations see the elderly in a more compassionate light and maybe even inspire them to put away that Blackberry, just for a few minutes, when Grandpa is visiting.

© VOA 2009

Barney Miller is a comedy television series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village that ran from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker. Noam Pitlik directed the majority of the episodes.

Captain Miller tries to remain sane while leading the 12th Precinct’s detectives crochety, nearing-retirement Jewish-American Philip K. Fish, naive but goodhearted Polish-American Stanley “Wojo” Wojciehowicz, ambitious, arrogant African-American Ronald Nathan Harris, philosophical, wisecracking Japanese-American Nick Yemana, and Puerto Rican Chano Amanguale. He also has to deal with his unapologetically old-school superior, Chief Inspector Frank Luger, and diminutive (and obsequious) Officer Carl Levitt, who passive-aggressively badgers Miller constantly about being promoted to detective. Amanguale was replaced by intellectual Arthur P. Dietrich from the third season on.

The show’s focus was split between the detectives’ interactions with each other and with the suspects and witnesses they detained, processed, and interviewed. Some typical conflicts and long running plotlines included Miller’s frustration with red tape and paperwork, his constant efforts to maintain peace, order, and discipline, and his numerous failed attempts to get a promotion; Harris’s preoccupation with outside interests, mainly his novel, and his inability to remain focused on his police work; Fish’s incontinence and reluctance to retire; Wojciehowicz’s impulsive behavior and love life; Luger’s nostalgia for the old days with partners Foster, Kleiner and Brown; Levitt’s (eventually successful) quest to become a detective; the rivalry between the precinct’s resident intellectuals, Harris and Dietrich and continually – but reliably – bad coffee.

In addition to Barney’s wife Liz (played by Barbara Barrie), recurring characters included Barney’s son David (Michael Tessier) and daughter Rachel (Anne Wyndham). After two seasons, Barney’s family was largely written out of the show, although Ms. Barrie would continue to make very occasional guest appearances for the remainder of the series run. Ms. Wyndham also reprised her role in one later episode. Read more on Wikipedia.

John Fitzgerald “Jack” Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.

After Kennedy’s military service as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 during World War II in the South Pacific, his aspirations turned political. With the encouragement and grooming of his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., Kennedy represented Massachusetts’s 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat, and in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated then Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election, one of the closest in American history. To date, he is the only Catholic to be president. He was the second-youngest President (after Theodore Roosevelt), and the youngest elected to the office, at the age of 43. Kennedy is also the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Events during his administration include the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement and early events of the Vietnam War.

Kennedy was born at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts on Tuesday, May 29, 1917, at 300 p.m., the second son of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr, and Rose Fitzgerald; Rose, in turn, was the eldest child of John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, a prominent Boston political figure who was the city’s mayor and a three-term member of Congress. Kennedy lived in Brookline for his first ten years of life. He attended Brookline’s public Edward Devotion School from kindergarten through the beginning of 3rd grade, then Noble and Greenough Lower School and its successor, the Dexter School, a private school for boys, through 4th grade. In September 1927, Kennedy moved with his family to a rented 20-room mansion in Riverdale, Bronx, New York City, then two years later moved five miles northeast to a 21-room mansion on a six-acre estate in Bronxville, New York, purchased in May 1929. He was a member of Scout Troop 2 at Bronxville from 1929 to 1931 and was to be the first Scout to become President. Kennedy spent summers with his family at their home in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, also purchased in 1929, and Christmas and Easter holidays with his family at their winter home in Palm Beach, Florida, purchased in 1933. In his primary school years, he attended Riverdale Country School, a private school for boys in Riverdale, for 5th through 7th grade.

For 8th grade in September 1930, the 13-year old Kennedy was sent fifty miles away to Canterbury School, a lay Roman Catholic boarding school for boys in New Milford, Connecticut. In late April 1931, he had appendicitis requiring an appendectomy, after which he withdrew from Canterbury and recuperated at home. In September 1931, Kennedy was sent to the Choate School, a private university preparatory boarding school for boys in Wallingford, Connecticut for 9th through 12th grades, following his elder brother, Joe Jr., who was two years ahead of him. In January 1934 during his junior year at Choate, Jack Kennedy became ill, lost a lot of weight, was hospitalized at Yale-New Haven Hospital until Easter, and spent most of June 1934 hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for evaluation of colitis.

© 2009

Popeye and Bluto both run a taxi service. Bluto bullies Popeye and gets him to turn over all of his cab fares. Popeye eventually gets the better of Bluto. Animation by Tom Johnson and Frank Endres. Music by Winston Sharples. Produced in 1954.  Please Click Download to view.

This is a very cool little movie, and YES, the soundtrack is very good. Bay Area residents will recognize the Castro theater, some liquor stores, and even the town of Alviso, which is now incorporated as part of San Jose. There’s a mix of black kids, Mexican kids, Asian kids, and even some American Indian kids. There’s some great stock shots of cruising, smoking, drinking, eating, dancing, construction work, bridge-building, and even some activism as the kids get involved with petitioning Washington DC for some social change. There’s some cool newspaper headlines from 1958 on this particular youth project.

Kellogg Company (often referred to as Kellogg or Kellogg’s) is the world’s leading producer of cereal and a leading producer of convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, toaster pastries, cereal bars, frozen waffles, and meat alternatives. Its global headquarters are in Battle Creek, Michigan, USA.

The company owns the Kellogg’s, Keebler (acquired in 2001), Morningstar Farms, and Kashi divisions or subsidiaries. It also owns the Bear Naked, Natural Touch, Cheez-It, Murray, Austin, Famous Amos, Eggo’s Waffles, Carr’s, Gardenburger (acquired 2007) and Plantation brands.  This is a fun classic!! I remember watching this as a child. Too bad you can’t find any of their old packaging anymore. Please click download to view clip.

© 2009

Mandela belongs to a cadet branch of the Thembu dynasty, which reigns in the Transkeian Territories of South Africa’s Cape Province. He was born in Mvezo, a small village located in the district of Umtata, the Transkei capital. His patrilineal great-grandfather Ngubengcuka (who died in 1832), ruled as the Inkosi Enkhulu, or king, of the Thembu people. One of the king’s sons, named Mandela, became Nelson’s grandfather and the source of his surname. However, because he was only the Inkosi’s child by a wife of the Ixhiba clan (the so-called “Left-Hand House”), the descendants of his branch of the royal family were not eligible to succeed to the Thembu throne.

Mandela’s father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, served as chief of the town of Mvezo. However, upon alienating the colonial authorities, they deprived Mphakanyiswa of his position, and moved his family to Qunu. Despite this, Mphakanyiswa remained a member of the Inkosi’s Privy Council, and served an instrumental role in Jongintaba Dalindyebo’s ascension to the Thembu throne. Dalindyebo would later return the favour by informally adopting Mandela upon Mphakanyiswa’s death. Mandela’s father had four wives, with whom he fathered a total of thirteen children (four boys and nine girls). Mandela was born to his third wife (‘third’ by a complex royal ranking system), Nosekeni Fanny. Fanny was a daughter of Nkedama of the Mpemvu Xhosa clan, the dynastic Right Hand House, in whose umzi or homestead Mandela spent much of his childhood. His given name Rolihlahla means “to pull a branch of a tree”, or more colloquially, “troublemaker”.

After appearing in Broadway plays, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930, but her early films for Universal Studios were unsuccessful. She joined Warner Bros. in 1932 and established her career with several critically acclaimed performances. In 1937, she attempted to free herself from her contract and although she lost a well-publicized legal case, it marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career. Until the late 1940s, she was one of American cinema’s most celebrated leading ladies, known for her forceful and intense style. Davis gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative, and her confrontations with studio executives, film directors and costars were often reported. Her forthright manner, clipped vocal style and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona which has often been imitated and satirized.

Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen, and was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Her career went through several periods of eclipse, and she admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. Married four times, she was once widowed and thrice divorced, and raised her children as a single parent. Her final years were marred by a long period of ill health, but she continued acting until shortly before her death from breast cancer, with more than 100 film, television and theater roles to her credit. In 1999, Davis was placed second, behind Katharine Hepburn, on the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest female stars of all time.

Ruth Elizabeth Davis, known from early childhood as “Betty”, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Ruth (“Ruthie”) Augusta (née Favor), and Harlow Morrell Davis, a patent attorney; her sister Barbara (“Bobby”) was born October 25, 1909. The family was Protestant, of English, French, and Welsh ancestry. In 1915, Davis’s parents separated and Betty and Bobby attended a Spartan boarding school called Crestalban in Lanesborough, which is located in the Berkshires. In 1921, Ruth Davis moved to New York City with her daughters, where she worked as a portrait photographer. Betty was inspired to become an actress after seeing Rudolph Valentino in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and Mary Pickford in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921), and changed the spelling of her name to “Bette” after Honoré de Balzac’s La Cousine Bette. She received encouragement from her mother, who had aspired to become an actress. Read more about Betty Davis on Wikipedia.

Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), best known by her stage name of Patti LaBelle, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter and actress.

She fronted two groups, Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, which received minor success on the pop charts in the 1960s, and Labelle, which received acclaim and a mainstream breakthrough in 1974 with their song “Lady Marmalade”. She went on to have a solo recording career well into the 1990s, earning another U.S. #1 single in 1986 with “On My Own,” a duet with Michael McDonald.

She is renowned for her passionate stage performances, wide vocal range and distinctive high-octave belting. Her biography, Don’t Block the Blessings, remained at the top of the The New York Times best-seller list for several weeks.

LaBelle was born Patricia Louise Holte in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Henry Holte, a railroad worker. The fourth of five children, including three sisters and a brother, LaBelle began singing at the age of 14 in church. A shy girl, LaBelle had a voice of a torch diva. A school teacher advised her to start a singing group.

© 2009

12 Lena Horne Quotes to Celebrate the Life Of An Entertainer and Activist

by:  Noel Jameson

Why celebrate Lena Horne’s birthday with ten Lena Horne quotes? Because her words have so much to teach us. The woman overcame a day and age that wasn’t exactly hospitable to those of her ancestry. These twelve quotes give us some insight as to how special she is. Happy Birthday Lena. Thank you for these wonderful words.

1. “Always be smarter than the people who hire you.”

2. “Don’t be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it’s just death.”

3. “I was lucky, as many of my generation was, in having a man like Dr. King in our lives. He came at a time that we needed to take a long look at each other and see how similar we were.”

4. “I’m still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don’t know.”

5. “Malcolm X made me very strong at a time I needed to understand what I was angry about. He had peace in his heart. He exerted a big influence on me.”

6. “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”

7. “It’s so nice to get flowers while you can still smell the fragrance.”

8. “After I got over the terrible pain of having something of mine taken from me, I began to think how bad everybody else must be feeling. It wasn’t a nice time.”

9. “I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become. I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.”

10. “Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now; everybody’s got to stand up and be counted.”

11. “I’m not alone, I’m free. I no longer have to be a credit, I don’t have to be a symbol to anybody; I don’t have to be a first to anybody.”

12. “I told them I belong to the same organizations and clubs Mrs. Roosevelt belongs to, but with a few brave exceptions, I was still unable to do films or television for the next seven years.”

Lena Horne is many things. She is a role model, an entertainer, a civil rights activist. Most of all, she is her own person and I think that’s what we like best about her. Her birthday is right around the corner. Here’s to hoping she gets hundreds or thousands of flowers (she seems to like them) and that some of us learn a bit from these twelve Lena Horne quotes.

*******************

About the Author

For more music quotes, check out the popular music quotes section of Famous-Quotes-And-Quotations.com, a website that specializes in ‘Top 10′ lists of quotations in dozens of categories. http://www.famous-quotes-and-quotations.com/music-quote.html

© 2009

Sarah Lois Vaughan (nicknamed “Sassy” and “The Divine One”) (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having “one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century”. She had a contralto vocal range.

Sarah Vaughan was a Grammy Award winner.[3] The National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award in 1989.

The Vaughans lived in a house on Newark’s Brunswick street for Sarah’s entire childhood. Jake Vaughan was deeply religious and the family was very active in the New Mount Zion Baptist Church on 186 Thomas Street. Sarah began piano lessons at the age of seven, sang in the church choir and occasionally played piano for rehearsals and services. She was their only natural child, although in the 1960s they adopted Donna, the child of a woman who traveled on the road with Sarah.

Vaughan developed an early love for popular music on records and the radio. In the 1930s, Newark had a very active live music scene and Vaughan frequently saw local and touring bands that played in the city at venues like the Montgomery Street Skating Rink. By her mid-teens, Vaughan began venturing (illegally) into Newark’s night clubs and performing as a pianist and, occasionally, singer, most notably at the Piccadilly Club and the Newark Airport USO.

© 2009

Mae West (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol. Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedienne, actress and writer in the motion picture industry. One of the more controversial stars of her day, West encountered many problems including censorship.

When her cinematic career ended, she continued to perform on stage, in Las Vegas, in the United Kingdom, on radio and television, and recorded rock and roll albums. She was born Mary Jane West in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City. She was the daughter of John Patrick West and Matilda “Tillie” Doelger (also spelled Delker).

This is a video podcast about the beauty and danger of volcanoes.

I absolutely love this group. Shalamar  consisted of 3 people; Jody Watley, Jeffrey Daniel (later on Miki Free), and Howard Hewett. Some of their biggest hits were, “Second Time Around”, “dancing in the streets”, “A night to remember”, “full of fire”, and more. They have taken on the pop/rock era by storm in the 80′s. Check out their stuff on itunes.

Too my understanding, they all went solo. Jody Watly has done more dance music, and Howard Hewett has gone on to do gospel. Although I’m not sure what has happend to Miki Free & Jeffrey Danial. I am assume they is/was working in the background, song writing etc.,

Duke Hair products has been around for years. I remember using it as a child. Duke really became popular when guys start putting waves in their hair. Once you’ve seen a guy with a Doo Rag on his head, chances are, he was using a Duke product. I loved their fragrances. The only thing about this product was that, if your hair was too long, you could not use the wax like cream.

© 2009

Sigmund & The Sea Monsters, boy do I remember this show. God, It must have been the cheeziest ever!! The monsters apeared to be in a one piece rubber outfit. When the monster’s spoke, it looked like the person under the costume was trying to clap both hands to speak. They seemed to be more like hand pupets than looking at a full bodied (migit) person. The monsters kinda remind me of a Flinstones episode, were Fred had these new neighboors called the “Groosomes” I believe.. They looked just like the cartoon.. Hahaha.  The co-star Johnny Whitaker also stared in another TV show called “Family Affair”. If you want a fun, silly, and safe show to watch with your children?  This classic is the one for you.

Jim Kelly was Born 1946. He became one of the most well known black martial artist during the 70′s. He stared in movies such as “The Black Samuri”. In almost all his movies, he’s had a cool demeanor about him. Never did I see him once try to get his cloths dirty. He was like the kung fu version of “James Bond”, in that he had ALL the ladys; the only difference is Jim did not use hi-tech gadgets.

He also maybe best remembered for his appearance in “Enter The Dragon” Starring Bruce Lee”. This is one of my all time favorite martial arts movie. However, I was dissappointed that they did not allow Jim kelly to do more fighting in this movie. But then again, Bruce Lee was the star.. LOL

Happy New Year

from

VintageNewscast.com

Star wars can be said as an epic in space opera franchise conceived initially by George Lucas. Star wars was released on May 25, 1977 under 20th Century Fox banner and soon became popular worldwide. Star wars films has generated a total of $4.3 billion box office revenue, making it the third-highest grossing film series. The franchise has also spawned other media starting from television series, books, comic books and video games resulting in the development of the series fictional universe.

The events developed in the star wars media take place in a fictional universe. The expanded universe and the alien creatures are depicted. Space travel is a very common thing that can be seen in the entire series. One of the most prominent element of the star wars is the Force, a form of energy that is omnipresent and can be harnessed by those who have ability to do so. The force allows the user to perform certain things that are supernatural and also amplify certain physical traits such as speed and reflexes. It is also looked as the dark side, when pursued, imbues the user with hatred and aggression leading to violence.

The series features many elements like Jedi knights, princesses and witches which are usually related to archetypes of the fantasy genre. The series feature sleek and futuristic settings, portrayed as dirty and grimy. In the early stages the concept of star wars was rejected but later the 13-page treatment written by Lucas lead to the remake of Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress. Later on certain elements were added to the treatment such as the Sith, the Death Star, and a young boy as the protagonist named Annikin Starkiller, who later on became Luke’s father, a wise Jedi knight. Here the force was introduced as a supernatural power.

The film became more satisfying as a self-contained film, ending with the destruction of the Empire by way of destroying the Death Star. With the success of the Star Wars, the film was elaborated as a series creating an independent film making centre. The term expanded universe is widely used and explained well in Star Wars. George Lucas retains artistic control over the Star Wars universe. The elements of the Expanded Universe has been well adopted in the film. To date, six films and three animation series have been produced for the television, with a live action series and a 3D-CGI animated series as well as Full length theatrical movie. In addition to the trilogies, several authorized films have also been produced. The Star Wars saga has also inspired many fans to create their own apocrypha set in the Star Wars galaxy.

If you want to know more about star wars auctions check out the star wars blog at http://www.starwarsstuff.biz/

© 2008

Pamela Suzette “Pam” Grier (born May 26, 1949) is an American actress. She came to fame in the early 1970s, after starring in a string of moderately successful women in prison films and blaxploitation films, starring in B-movies such as 1974′s Foxy Brown. Her career was revitalized in 1997 after her appearance in Quentin Tarantino’s film Jackie Brown.

Grier was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S., the daughter of Gwendolyn Sylvia (née Samuels), a homemaker and nurse, and Clarence Ransom Grier, who worked as a mechanic and Technical Sergeant in the United States Air Force. Grier is African-American, and also has Native American, European, and Asian ancestry. She has one sister and one brother, and is a cousin of football player Rosey Grier. Because of her father’s military career, her family moved frequently during her childhood, to various places such as England, and eventually settled in Denver, Colorado, where she attended East High School. While there she appeared in a number of stage productions, and participated in beauty contests to raise money for college tuition toward Metropolitan State College.

Grier moved to Los Angeles, California in 1967, where she was initially hired as a receptionist at the American International Pictures company. She was discovered by director Roger Corman, who cast her in his women in prison films The Big Doll House (1971) and The Big Bird Cage (1972). She became a staple of early 1970s blaxploitation movies, playing big, bold, buxom roles, beginning with 1973′s Coffy, in which she plays a nurse who seeks revenge on drug dealers; her character was advertised in the trailer as the “baddest one-chick hit-squad that ever hit town!” The film, which was filled with sexual and violent elements typical of the genre, was a box office hit, and Grier was noted as the first African-American female to headline a film, as protagonists of previous blaxploitation films were all male. In his review of Coffy, film critic Roger Ebert noted that Grier was an actress of “beautiful face and astonishing form” and that she possessed a kind of “physical life” missing from other actresses. Grier subsequently played similar characters in the films Foxy Brown (1974), Friday Foster, and Sheba, Baby (both 1975).

With the demise of blaxploitation, Grier’s career went on hiatus for many years. She acquired progressively larger character roles in the 1980s, including a prostitute in Fort Apache the Bronx (1981), a witch in Something Wicked this Way Comes (1983), and Steven Seagal’s detective partner in Above the Law (1988). She made guest appearances on Miami Vice, Night Court and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and also had a recurring role in the TV series Crime Story between 1986 and 1988. Read more on Wikipedia.

Lena Horne sings the song that made her a huge star. “Stormy Weather”.

Esther Rolle

Esther Rolle was best known for her sitcom character as “Florida Evens” in the hit TV 70′s show Good Times. She was one of the rare natural actresses of her time. She was also best known for her character roll in another hit tv show called Maude, with B. Author. Ms. Rolle had come from caribbean immagrant family; and has become Americas best loved actors. Although I loved Ms. Rolle, I hated the fact that she was constantly typecast in rolls featuring a cleaning lady, maid, a poor black mother cleaning, or a owner of a cafe, and she’s the only one doing the chores; as in the movie “Cleopatra Jones”.

THE NEW ZOO REVUE (1970′s)

This was one of my favorite shows growing up. The begining theme song actually got me off my feet. However, that turned out to be the only song the program that kept me from falling asleep; haha. I thought Henrietta Hippo was just hilarious. Looking back at the show now as an adult; I did not realize how many insults the characters had between each other. The show was probably more adult than the creators realized. If you can get past the borring musical solos in the show, they did deal with some heavy subjects at that time; such as greed, friendships, creativity and so forth. This was definately a made for kid TV.

A group of local women visit the field where the dead were buried by other prisoners

The Dictator Hunter, by Dutch filmmaker Klaartje Quirijns, begins with Human Rights Watch lawyer Reed Brody on a trip to Chad. That’s the Central African nation where Hissene Habre took power in 1982 with U.S. backing. Habre founded a secret police force and began imprisoning and murdering thousands according to human rights organizations and the U.S. State Department.

“If you kill one person, you go to jail,” said Reed Brody, Human Rights Watch lawyer in the film. “You kill 40 people, they put you in an insane asylum. You kill 40,000 people – you get a comfortable exile with your bank account in another country. And that’s what we want to change here.”

Former Chadian political prisoner Souleymane Guengueng is the other main character in Qurijins’ film, which screened at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York. After Hissene Habre was ousted in 1990 – and fled to a luxurious exile in Senegal – Guengueng was released from prison. He founded a victims’ organization and collected testimony until threats drove him from Chad. He says that only his faith in God helped him endure his own torture.

“I live very much in God. I pray all the time,” said Souleymane Guengueng, a former political prisoner. “I say in this situation, God knows why I am here in this jail.”

Filmmaker Quirijns met Guengueng and Brody together at the New York office of Human Rights Watch as they planned their campaign to bring Habre to justice.

“I immediately saw a film in these two men, one believing in the law, the other in God, but both extremely driven,” said filmmaker Klaartje Quirijns. “I thought from a dramatic point of view that it’s really interesting that you have this black guy here stuck in New York, can’t see his family, is without any papers. And they are chasing togethe/r this dictator, but the action takes place in Africa.”

In one scene in Chad, a former prisoner describes how every night a few people died or were taken to be executed. Later, a group of local women visit the field where the dead were buried by other prisoners.

“And the sign where they held up their hands is actually a sign that they are really upset and really angry,” Quirijns said. “So I was watching there, and I didn’t know, I couldn’t believe what was happening in front of the camera, and also you have to realize that most women have never been there and maybe they had family members or husbands buried there, so it was an extremely emotional moment for them.”

Most of the action of The Dictator Hunter centers on the international campaign to bring Hissene Habre to trial. After an African Union ruling, Senegal agreed two years ago to try the former Chadian dictator – but has not yet done so. Reed Brody and Souleymane Guengueng say that when it finally happens, it will put other human rights abusers on notice that even if governments do not pursue them, their victims will.

By Carolyn Weaver
New York

©2008

By Sabina Castelfranco
Rome
17 June 2008

A unique musical about the life of the Virgin Mary will premiere at the Vatican Tuesday evening. Mary of Nazareth – An Ongoing Story is the first musical to be made of the life of Mary. It traces the battle between good and evil, God and the devil, in Mary’s life. For VOA, Sabina Castelfranco reports from Rome.

Mary of Nazareth – An Ongoing Story is an Italian production sponsored by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

The story chronicles Mary’s life – from her Jewish childhood, the Annunciation, her marriage to Joseph, the birth of Jesus and her Assumption*. It traces the battle between good and evil – God and the devil – in Mary’s life as she grows up.

The producers say the goal of the musical is “to narrate the most extraordinary story that ever occurred, giving pride of place to the figure of Mary.” They add that the musical seeks to show Mary as “an ideal bridge between yesterday, today and always: a story that continues.”

The musical stems from an idea by writer and director Maria Pia Liotta who says it’s the first time in history that a musical has been made about the life of the Virgin Mary.

Liotta says the musical is a very effective instrument to tell the story because it can reach everyone’s heart, especially because it is made up of words, notes, melodies, dance and gestures.”

Actress and soprano Alma Manera, who is Liotta’s daughter, plays Mary. She says that she took the role of starring in her mother’s musical with “responsibility, happiness and joy.”

Manera adds she tried to interpret her role in the most natural, spontaneous and simplest way – first, as a young woman, then as a mother who is aware of her choice and whose ‘yes’ changed the history of humanity.

Well-known Italian composer Stelvio Cipriani, wrote the music. He says he tried to make it both spiritual and modern.

Cipriani says he tried to respect the spirituality and sacredness of this work while at the same time keeping it up to date.

Show organizers are hoping to schedule an international tour of the musical in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

* – clarified 19 Jun 2008. The word initially used was ascension.

Actor, Telley Savalas

Documentary film maker focuses lens on pioneering African American Chemist.

*

This is a quick, basic introduction, of what the show is about.

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Funky Phantom -

Cowardly ghost from the Revolutionary War who befriended a group of teenagers and their dog on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series FUNKY PHANTOM/ABC/1971-72. The Funky Phantom was, in reality, the ghost of a man named Jonathan Wellington Muddlemore who sought refuge in a mansion inside an old grandfathers clock to hide from approaching British soldiers back in 1776. READ MORE…..

The Vintage period in the automotive world was a time of transition. The car started off in 1919 as still something of a rarity, and ended up in 1930 well on the way towards ubiquity; in fact, automobile production at the end of this period was not matched again until the 1950s. During this period, most industrialised nations built a nationwide road system, with the result that towards the end of the period, the ability to negotiate unpaved roads was no longer required.

Cars became much more practical, convenient and comfortable during this period. Car heating was introduced, as was the in-car radio. Antifreeze was introduced, allowing water-cooled cars to be used year-round. Four-wheel braking from a common foot pedal was introduced, as was the use of hydraulically actuated brakes. Power steering was also an innovation of this era. Towards the end of the Vintage era, the system of octane rating of fuel was introduced, allowing comparison between fuels.

During this period, as well as the car adapting, society began to adapt to the car. Drive-in restaurants were introduced, as well as suburban shopping centers, and motels began lining major roads in the United States.

The early anime series that began in Japan as Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (1972-74) aired in the U.S. in two very different versions. For Battle of the Planets (syndication, 1978), much of the violence was excised and the R2-D2-esque robot 7-Zark-7 was added; G-Force (Turner Broadcasting, 1986) was darker in tone and closer to the original Gatchaman. All three series focus on the adventures of five teenagers in bird suits. In Battle they tackle the evil Spectra in “outer space,” although the backgrounds are clearly Earth, where G-Force and Gatchaman are set. Episode 3 illustrates the difference between the series: In Battle, when a whiny little boy gets in the way of a giant mummy attacking an airport, the evil Zoltar warns him away; in Gatchaman, villainous Berg Katse tells the mummy to step on the child. Unrated; suitable for ages 10 up. 

From Tatsunoko Productions, the award-winning Japanese animation team that created Speed Racer. Attack of the Space Terrapin – Center Neptune, a world defense base, lies off the West Coast, 900 fathoms beneath the surface of the ocean. There, the precious Vitaluman is mined, an amazing one that renews the depleted soil of Earth and the other planets, and without which, all life would cease to exist. Guarding the base against attack is the invincible, transmutable G-Force: Keyop, Jason, Princess, Tiny, Mark and 7-Zark-7, their robotic protector. When Zark’s scanners pick up a radio-controlled attack monster from Spectra heading for one of the Vitaluman vaults, he’s baffled. Why would anyone want to steel something that’s been given away free? The answer, of course, is Zoltar, who wants to control it, and thereby, the universe. And so begins the cataclysmic Battle of the Planets, with the entire galaxy hanging in the balance. Rescue of the Astronauts – Two astronauts find startling evidence of giant alien bases, underwater on Mars. Returning from their top-secret mission, they mysteriously disappear on re-entry. 7-Zard-7 calls in the G-Force. Their assignment: rescue the astronauts and get the taped evidence. Only problem, the astronauts have been hijacked by the aliens who don’t want anyone to know about their bases, and Zoltar is their leader! G-Force locates their huge underwater headquarters and Mark transmutes into a diver to gain access. Zoltar’s aliens attack with drill-like precision, finally ordering Mark to surrender or never see the astronauts again. Now the G-Force Fiery Phoenix is the only thing that stands between Mark and oblivion.

Redding was born in the small town of Dawson, Georgia. At the age of 5, he moved with his family to Macon, Georgia. He sang in the choir of the Vineville Baptist Church, and became somewhat of a local celebrity as a teenager after winning a local Sunday night talent show 15 weeks in a row.

In 1960, Redding began touring the South with Johnny Jenkins and The Pinetoppers, primarily as the group’s driver. That same year he made his first recordings, “She’s All Right” and “Shout Bamalama” with this group under the name “Otis and The Shooters”.

In 1962, Redding made his first real mark in the music business during a Johnny Jenkins session when, during studio time left over, he recorded “These Arms of Mine”, a ballad that he had written. The song became a minor hit on Volt Records, a subsidiary of the renowned Southern soul label Stax, based in Memphis, Tennessee. His manager was a fellow Maconite, Phil Walden (who later founded Capricorn Records). Otis Redding continued to release for Stax/Volt, and built his fan base by extensively touring a live show with support from fellow Stax artists Sam & Dave. Further hits between 1964 and 1966 included “Mr. Pitiful”, “I Can’t Turn You Loose” (which was to become The Blues Brothers entrance theme music), “Try a Little Tenderness” (a remake of the 1930s standard by Harry Woods, Jimmy Campbell, and Reg Connelly , later featured in John Hughes’ film Pretty in Pink), “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones), and “Respect” (later a smash hit for Aretha Franklin).

© 2008

As Americans observe the annual holiday set aside to honor Martin Luther King, Junior, a new book for young people explores the life and impact of the famous civil rights leader. Don’t Know Much About Martin Luther King Jr. (HarperCollins) is the latest in a series by Kenneth C. Davis, whose previous best sellers include Don’t Know Much About History. In his new book, Mr. Davis uses his trademark question and answer format to illuminate both landmark events and little known incidents from Martin Luther King, Junior’s life.

The famous “I Have a Dream” speech is played and replayed every year on Martin Luther King Day. Kenneth Davis calls the 1963 address a “clarion call for the nation,” but just one of the many achievements for which the Reverend King deserves to be remembered. “I think he’s been frozen in time in that wonderful moment at Washington where he delivers that speech, and there’s so much more to his story. It’s so much more complex, and that’s what I tried to bring to this new book.”

In Don’t Know Much About Martin Luther King Jr., Kenneth Davis tells the story of the minister and activist who worked to bring about massive social change without violence. The Reverend King believed so firmly in the principles he espoused that he refused to strike back even when he was attacked, and he taught his children to do the same.

Kenneth Davis calls him a man “who practiced what he preached. This was an astonishing notion that had never been tried on a mass scale in American history before. Of course Martin Luther King was profoundly influenced by two figures in particular–Thoreau, who wrote about civil disobedience back in the 19th century, and then later on Gandhi, the great leader of India’s non-violent independence movement. They suited very much his own ideas as a Christian of how to change the world through these non-violent techniques.”

Kenneth Davis traces Martin Luther King, Junior’s drive and commitment back to his early years in the southern state of Georgia, where he was born in 1929, first called Michael Luther King. “His father, when young Michael was five years old, went to the Holy Land,” Mr. Davis says, “and had a bit of an epiphany, came back and changed his own name to Martin Luther King in honor of the Protestant reformer Martin Luther from the 1500s, and changed his son’s name as well.”

While the book describes the young Martin Luther King as a typical little boy, who got into his share of mischief, he also showed signs of the charismatic leader he would become. Kenneth Davis says the Reverend King grew up loving language. “And one of his first experiences going away from home was to a young orator’s contest. His father and his grandfather were ministers in a very prominent church in Atlanta, and he was used to hearing them speak. His love of language helped him get into college very early, even though he said he didn’t read very well, only on an eighth grade level. But he was clearly a thinker, a writer and a person who was drawn to not only big words but big ideas.”

Kenneth Davis says the future civil rights leader was first exposed to integration after finishing high school, when he went north to Connecticut to pick tobacco. “He worked alongside white folks, and for the first time in his life he went to eat in restaurants where there was no segregation. He could sit anywhere he liked. When he rode back, he rode on trains that were no longer segregated until he reached Washington, D.C., and then the dining cars would be curtained off. So this was his first contact with a world perhaps he’d read about or heard about, but had never seen for himself. And it had a profound influence on him.”

Martin Luther King, Junior began to rise to public prominence in 1955, with his guiding role in the boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama. In the years that followed, he criss-crossed the American South leading protest marches and taking part in sit-in demonstrations. He even went to jail for his actions.

Some of his fellow African Americans complained that his tactics were not radical enough, while others believed he was too aggressive, that civil rights issues could best be decided in court. But Kenneth Davis says television and newspaper images of the Reverend King and his followers profoundly affected American public opinion. “When they saw peaceful demonstrators simply walking across a bridge or trying to ride a bus and being met with dogs and water hoses and water cannons–the viciousness and violence of the response to this essentially non-violent approach I think shocked many Americans into a new sense of reality about what was happening in America. It certainly also shocked the powers-that-be in Washington.”

Kenneth Davis describes Martin Luther King, Junior’s agenda for social change as becoming broader and more revolutionary in his later years. “I think he became more radical in terms of what he was thinking of accomplishing. I don’t think he really planned to change tactics. Dr. King came to see that the problems were not just segregation and racial discrimination but there were real issues of poverty in America that cut across race lines, and he also saw a tremendous connection between discrimination and poverty and the war in Vietnam. And as a non-violent person he came increasingly to oppose the war.”

Martin Luther King, Junior was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. By that time, new laws had been passed that guaranteed African Americans equal access to jobs and voting privileges. Kenneth Davis says today’s young readers might find it hard to imagine a time when such rights were not a way of life in the United States. But if Martin Luther King, Junior were alive today, the author suggests he would still view his country with mixed emotions.

“I think Doctor King would look at the White House and see a black woman as Secretary of State, and he might smile and think, she’s a Republican, but still we’ve come a long way. On the other hand he’d look at the poverty, which was highlighted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We saw that this is still a problem that deeply devastates a great many people in America. So in many ways we’ve come a long way, but he would probably say we still have a lot of work to do.”

© 2008/VOA

We live in a visual age in which news events from around the world appear on televisions, computer screens and even cellular phone screens, sometimes within seconds of occurring.  But several decades ago, the only way people could see moving images of events was in newsreels shown in local movie theaters.  Many of the early films are lost, but hundreds of hours of such material are being restored and protected at a special library archive at the University of South Carolina. VOA’s Greg Flakus has the story from Columbia, South Carolina.

Greg Wilsbacher in the newsreel storage room archive at the University of South Carolina

From around 1911 to the dawn of television in the early 1950s, newsreels provided a window on the world.  People around the United States would see these news films when they went to their local theater to be entertained by movies.

“Americans saw visual images of their news only in their theaters and they saw them twice a week,” said Greg Wilsbacher, Director of The University of South Carolina’s Newsfilm Library.  “There were five major newsreels a week, two issues a week and people saw those before the feature film that they went [to the theater] to see. At best, you might see five newsreels twice a week that would give you a total of ten different newscasts in a given week in America, in a big city.”

Newsreels really came into their prime with the introduction of sound and moviegoers were able to follow such events as World War II campaigns, even if the battles had happened weeks before they were shown.

Today, people can see video images almost instantly via satellite and digital line connections and there are now millions of professional and amateur photographers around the world shooting video with small digital cameras. But in the early part of the 20th century, images were captured on film using bulky devices that either had to be cranked by hand or operated with simple spring-driven motors. At the archive, Greg Wilsbacher maintains a large collection of old cameras.

Greg Wilsbacher with a Bell & Howell camera

“This Bell & Howell 35 millimeter camera was considered portable in its day,” he explained.  “It was spring driven. It had no electric motor. It weighs about 10 pounds [4.5 kilograms] and when the magazine is filled it can roll for a little over two minutes.”

Newsreel cameramen went around the world to cover events. Sometimes they were able to be in the right place at the right time to capture something extraordinary.  Wilsbacher says this happened to Fox Movietone News cameraman Al Brick when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.

“He happened to be riding into Pearl Harbor with a friend of his who was an officer on the USS Arizona the morning of the attack and was on site with his camera equipment when the bombs were falling and was there to document a lot of the carnage,” noted Wilsbacher.

Nearly 30 years ago, the company then known as Twentieth Century Fox donated its Fox-Movietone newsreel collection to the University of South Carolina with the understanding that it would be restored, protected and archived for public use.

Greg Wilsbacher examines old film at the University of South Carolina’s Newsfilm Library

Greg Wilsbacher says his archive is working with the Library of Congress to digitize every frame of the old film at very high resolution. “That will allow us, in the future, if we needed to, to take all those digital frames and reprint them back on to a modern film stock if we needed to and run it through a projector,” he explained.  “We could show prints of films in a theater even if the film is already decayed, because we made such high-quality digital scans of it.  It will also allow us to distribute the material in very high quality over the Internet.”

The university provides hundreds of hours of video copies for viewing at its facility and puts many shorter clips on its Web site.  Higher quality copies are available for a fee to professional filmmakers and broadcast organizations. What once served as a window on the world’s current events now serves as a window into history.

© 2008 VOA/Greg Flakus

The Indian Hindi language movie industry – popularly known as Bollywood – is stepping up its fight against film piracy both at home and overseas. As Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, Bollywood films lose billions of dollars because of infringement of copyright laws.

Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi takes part in anti-piracy campaign in Mumbai (file photo)

In a busy market in Central Delhi, pirated CDs and DVDs of popular Hindi movies produced by the Mumbai-based Bollywood film industry are freely available. Ask a shop owner for DVDs of the latest Hindi movie hits and he produces them from under the counter. A quick bargain drives down the price from two dollars to just a dollar and a half.

Infringement of copyright laws is rampant in India, where Bollywood’s colorful stories, peppered with song and dance, are a rage. A recent study estimates that India’s entertainment industry loses $4 billion, and 800,000 jobs, each year, because of piracy.

These losses are not unique to India. Piracy is also a growing problem in Western countries, like the United States and Britain, which are home to large Indian populations. For these people, Bollywood films provide an important cultural link with their homeland.

Film Federation of India Secretary Supran Sen says tens of thousands of people in these countries buy illegal DVDs of Hindi films. He says these are easily available in small retail stores, usually owned by Indians. “There are certain pockets where we have a sizable population of Indians, but then there are no theatrical releases there,” Sen explained. “I do not know what is the reason. Those Indians would definitely like to see the films. So, in that scenario, they are bound to take certain films, certain cassettes which may not be legally released there.”

The Western markets have become so big that Bollywood film producers are basing some of their biggest blockbusters on Indians living overseas. In Mumbai, Komal Nahata is publisher of a Bollywood trade magazine called “Film Information.” He says Hindi movies casting top stars earn big money in countries such as the United States and Great Britain.

“In some cases, the overseas market is almost as huge as the Indian market,” Nahata noted. “Which means theatrical revenues – 50 percent of the revenues come from India and 50 percent sometimes from the overseas circuit, alone.” The huge scale of the problem has prompted Bollywood to step up the fight against piracy both at home and overseas. On a recent visit to Washington, Indian filmmakers urged American enforcement agencies to help plug the losses suffered by them.

An advocacy group, the U.S.-India Business Council, and American film companies are collaborating with Bollywood to combat piracy by raising awareness of the problem with American authorities. And, as Hollywood promises to help Bollywood’s efforts to curb piracy in the United States, Bollywood says it will do the same for American movies in India, which also lose revenue because of piracy.

In India, Bollywood is urging authorities to take more stringent action against copyright violators. New Delhi based lawyer Chander Lall represents the American Motion Pictures Association in India. He says, a decade ago, enforcement agencies treated piracy more as an economic rather than a criminal offense, and action against offenders was slow. But he says that is changing.

“They have realized that copyright piracy has almost 800 percent profit margins,” Lall said. “So all elements who are indulging in heinous crimes are all now dealing with pirated software and pirating copyright works. So there is a change. The magistrates are getting more sensitive to the fact that this is a very serious crime. Police is getting sensitized to it. As the industry raises its voice it is being heard by different elements. So, it is changing, slowly but surely.”

But Bollywood wants faster change. It is asking authorities to create a separate police and judicial system to enforce copyright laws in India, because it says India’s judicial system moves too slowly to be effective. Bollywood is the world’s most prolific film industry, producing more than 800 films every year. Its global audience is estimated at 3.5 billion people. But, is probably much larger, if the audiences for pirated movies are also taken into account.

For instructions, please click on “how to” on the top right hand corner.

For those of you who may ask the names of the Mother and Father, they are Betty Garrett and Roger Price. Betty is most remebered for her roles in “All in the Family” and “Laverne and Shirley”. Roger was a writer an early television ficture on Jack Paar and Merv Griffin’s television shows. He was also the creator of “Droodles”. PS..the references to “the Kennedy’s” place the time frame of this short around the very early ’60s

In 1967, 16 states still had laws against interracial marriage, but attitudes were changing. In July of that year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned those state laws. In December 1967, a classic movie that looked at an interracial relationship was released in Los Angeles – Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

The film came close to not being made, says Karen Kramer, who worked with her late husband Stanley behind the scenes on the movie. Kramer enlisted actors Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, and Sidney Poitier, and actress Katharine Houghton, who was Hepburn’s niece.

The story concerned a young African-American doctor, played by Poitier, who wants to marry Houghton, a young white woman. They have not known each other long, but he is an ideal prospect, respected in his field and well mannered. But parents Hepburn and Tracy must deal with the fact he is black at a time when interracial marriages were frowned on.

Poitier’s character’s parents are also opposed to the marriage. In one scene, the doctor’s father tries to dissuade him: “Have you thought what people would say about you? Why, in 16 or 17 states, you would be breaking the law. You would be criminals. And say they changed the law, that don’t change the way people feel about this thing.”

Karen Kramer says at the time, the topic was sensitive and the director did not tell the studio what the story was about as the film was being made. “He knew that if Columbia pictures knew what the subject matter was, they probably would not have allowed him to make it. So they kept asking him, ‘Stanley, what is this film about?’ ‘Well, it is a love story, he would say. Well, it is a love story.”

They started filming in San Francisco. “We had a week up in San Francisco to shoot all the exterior shots, and then everything was really shot right here in Los Angeles at the old Columbia Pictures. But when we were in San Francisco, the studio demanded to see the screenplay. And once they read it, they canceled the film,” she said.

The studio said it was canceling the film because star Spencer Tracy was in failing health, and if anything happened to him, they would lose their investment.

“We all came home, and Stanley was devastated. He did not know what to do. But he suddenly got an idea. He grabbed me by the hand. He put me in the car, and we rode over to see Katharine Hepburn. And he said, ‘Kate, look, you and I both know this is not the reason why they are canceling this film. It is subject matter,” she said.

Kramer and Hepburn put their salaries up for collateral and ensured the film was finished.

It opened quietly at a small theater in Los Angeles.

“And the minute the doors opened, there were lines around the block. I do not mean two blocks. I mean 15 blocks long. And the people just never stopped coming. And it still remains today as one of the highest grossing films of all time for Columbia Pictures,” she said.

Some critics loved the film, while others did not, one calling it sanctimonious drivel. Some viewers were outraged by an interracial kiss.

But attitudes were changing, like the changing attitude of Katharine Hepburn in the film, as she talked with Spencer Tracy about their love-struck daughter.

HEPBURN: “Until today, I would never have believed that I could say such a thing, but when she fights you, I am going to be on her side.”

Karen Kramer says young people, in particular, responded well to the film when it previewed at Stanford University and after it opened.

Spencer Tracy died just weeks after filming was completed, leaving behind a body of work of nearly 80 films, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is an important part of his legacy. Hepburn won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work in the film, one of four Best-Actress Oscars she won in her career.

The American Film Institute has included Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner among the top 100 films of the 20th century.

The anniversary release is included in a new DVD set with four other Kramer films, including another classic, The Wild One, with Marlon Brando.

Juke joint owner Tyrone Purvis, played by Danny Glover, is the central character in “Honeydripper”

A rundown music joint in the woods outside a small town called Harmony becomes an unlikely stage for change in the old, segregated American South.

Tyrone Purvis is an old bluesman and a proud entrepreneur. He has a lot to lose if his juke joint, the Honeydripper, does not get some serious crowds this weekend. Shady lenders are on his back. They want to get paid, or they will snatch away his business. So Tyrone lets the word out. Guitar Sam from New Orleans is coming to play exclusively at the Honeydripper.

Actor and musician Gary Clark Jr. plays Sonny in John Sayles’s new film “Honeydripper”

But Sam is a no-show. Instead, a starry-eyed guitar player, fresh out of the army, arrives in Harmony.Sonny arrives just in time to save Tyrone. But before he has the chance to play, the local sheriff arrests him for vagrancy. He does his time at the local cotton plantation. Tyrone tries to bail him out, and the corrupt sheriff smells a deal. He asks Tyrone to pay fifty dollars for Sonny’s release.

In “Honeydripper,” as in many of his movies, John Sayles focuses on small-town characters. In this case, most of them are members of Harmony’s black community. The owner of the Honeydripper, Tyrone Purvis, is played by veteran actor Danny Glover. His religious wife Delilah must choose between the gospel or her husband’s earthy lifestyle. The young guitarist Sonny symbolizes change. And Tyrone’s lovely daughter, China Doll, dreams of a career as a hairdresser. Sayles throws light on

Tyrone Purvis (Danny Glover)and his wife Delilah (Lisa Gay Hamilton) at the Honeydripper lounge

these people and how they coexist with whites in the racially divided American South. “Things in the South were very personal,” says the director. “They may not have been good but they were personal. You knew somebody’s father. You knew their grandparents. There were people in town who had your name when they were a different color than you were. And you knew why. You didn’t speak of it,” he smiles.

Director John Sayles with actor Danny Glover

Director Sayles says the music is an organic part of his story. “After World War Two,” he says, “there are fast cars, and airplanes and rockets were going off and just life was speeding up. The world got noisier. And so, the music got noisier and more busy and a little more assaultive.”

Although a northerner himself, John Sayles says the South has made a deep impression on him since he was a kid. “I was born in 1950, which is the year that ‘Honeydripper’ is set and I had relatives in the South. We used to either drive or take the train all the way down to Florida to visit them. So I remember people picking the cotton, which even from the train window looked like awfully hard work. I remember the colored drinking fountains and the white drinking fountains, two of everything,” he concludes.

Sonny, played by Gary Clark Jr. lights up the Honeydripper lounge in John Sayles’s “Honeydripper”

But “Honeydripper” does not dwell on the pain and indignities these injustices caused. Instead, it expresses the joy that permeated the lives of black people in the South. Although most of the leading characters are actors, some are established musicians, such as rhythm and blues guitarist Keb Mo. He plays Old Possum, who symbolizes the spirit of the music of another day. Texan Gary Clark Junior plays Sonny, whose electric guitar strums the beat of a new day. This is a small independent movie with a big heart.

*

By: Penelope Poulou, Washington DC

Photographer unknown. Photograph, undated. Daniel Alexander Payne Murray, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of a freed slave. At the age of nine, he moved to Washington, D.C. to work for his brother, a caterer and manager of the United States Senate Restaurant. Ten years later, in 1871, Murray became a member of the twelve-person staff of the Library of Congress as the personal assistant to the Librarian of Congress, Ainsworth Rand Spofford. Murray was the second African-American to hold a professional position at the Library of Congress. In 1881, he was promoted to assistant librarian.

In 1899, Spofford’s successor, Herbert Putnam, asked Murray to compile a collection of books and pamphlets by black authors for an exhibition of “Negro Authors” at the 1900 Paris Exposition. Murray published a preliminary list of titles in 1900, appealing to the public for donations of listed works, as well as suggested additions. Within several months, his list had grown to eleven hundred titles; his collection became the core of the Library of Congress’s “Colored Authors’ Collection.” Although Murray planned to expand his collection and create an encyclopedia of African-American achievement, the project never received sufficient support to become a reality.

Murray was widely acknowledged as an authority on African-American concerns. He was the first African-American member of the Washington Board of Trade, and he testified before the House of Representatives about Jim Crow laws and the migration of African-Americans from rural locations to urban areas. He was twice a delegate to the Republican National Convention and was a member of many other councils and organizations. He was also a prolific author, and a frequent contributor to African-American journals, in particular The Voice of the Negro. Murray’s personal library of African-American works was bequeathed to the Library of Congress upon his death in 1925.

A very funny vintage look, at various head fashions of that time. From caveman to Egypt, to the future. Very entertaining.

The Library of Congress has announced the selection of fifty sound recordings to be added to its National Recording Registry, the Library’s two-year-old audio preservation program for the past year. From be-bop to hip-hop to the spoken word, the Registry celebrates the richness and variety of 20th century American recorded sound. Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act passed by Congress in 2000, the Recording Registry must choose fifty recordings every year that are deemed culturally significant.

Some of this year’s selections include Flatt and Scruggs’ “Foggy Mountain, Breakdown,” first recorded in 1949. It set benchmarks for generations of banjo players and bluegrass musicians. But the song might be more familiar to movie audiences, who first heard it as the soundtrack to a famous chase scene in the 1967 movie, “Bonnie and Clyde.”

James Brown

And in 1965, James Brown’s 1965 best-selling album “Live at the Apollo” was the recording that made the high-energy blues singer a household name, and the first of its kind to reach a mainstream audience. . .Shakespearean actor Alexander Scourby recorded all sixty-six books of the Bible for the American Foundation for the Blind. It became a best-seller when it was commercially released in 1966. . .

And few people who lived through World War II could ever forget Edward R. Murrow’s famous eyewitness news broadcasts of a London air raid during the Battle of Britain in 1940, where he was “standing on a rooftop looking out over London . . .”

The head of the Library of Congress’s Registry office, Greg Lukow, explained some of the criteria for selecting recordings. “Recordings that are at least ten years old (so we have a bit of the judgment of history on our side), they must be, to quote the law, ‘esthetically, culturally or historically important to the American citizenry.” Mr. Lukow says the recordings should not be thought of as “the Best of” or “Greatest Hits” of the Library. Rather, he says, “the Registry establishes a canon of sound recordings of significance to the history of the American people.”

Music scholar Michael Feinstein at George Gershwin’s piano during the program announcing additions to the National Recording Registry VOA Photo – R. Rupli

A favorite song of pianist Michael Feinstein is the 1924 recording of George and Ira Gershwin’s “Fascinating Rhythm,” featuring Fred and Adele Astaire, with George Gershwin himself at the piano. Now a member of the Library’s National Recording Registry’s board, Michael Feinstein was a teenager when he worked as a discographer for lyricist Ira Gershwin. Sitting at a piano that belonged to Ira’s brother George Gershwin, Mr. Feinstein played his own version of “Fascinating Rhythm,” but not before sharing his excitement at once again playing the historic instrument.

“I used to play this piano every day,” he said. “It was in Ira Gershwin’s home during the six years that I worked for him. So it’s sort of coming full circle to be here playing this piano for the purpose of the announcement of the registry.” He added, “This piano, for quite a few years has been behind a rope on exhibit in the Gershwin room. This year the categories of hip-hop and grunge music were also represented, with Public Enemy’s 1989 hit, “Fight the Power,” and Nirvana’s 1991 hit “Nevermind,” featuring lead singer Kurt Cobain – a troubled artist who committed suicide in 1994.

One of the benefits of programs like the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry is that the selection process often brings to light other recordings that have rarely been heard before. Such is the case of one of the Library’s most exciting new discoveries announced at the Library press conference, although it was not included on this year’s (2004) Recording Registry list. It’s an extraordinary 1957 jazz concert in New York’s Carnegie Hall featuring such luminaries as Ray Charles, Sonny Rollins, the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra and the Thelonious Monk Quartet featuring legendary tenor saxophonist John Coltrane. The master tape of the concert, recorded for the Voice of America and hosted by Willis Conover, was analyzed and preserved by a Library of Congress jazz specialist just a few months ago. It is just one of many important recordings and stories that Library archivists are collecting each year for the new National Recording Registry. Archivists hope that by doing so, they can ensure that these important sounds will be available to the public for all time.

© 2007/VOA

It’s been 110 years since motion pictures were first projected. Some of the early films, and others of note, are being collected and cared for so future generations can see this history.

This short length of film is the first attempt to synchronize sound with projected moving image.  It was made in 1895 at Thomas Edison’s workshop and shows some of his engineers playing a violin and dancing.  This valuable piece of history could have been lost, but was restored and is now preserved in the Library of Congress by its National Film Registry, a program that protects artifacts from American film history.

“There are many reason why a title may be placed on the Registry, but most important is that it has been important to the American people in the 100 year history of film,” says Gregory Lukow, who is head of  the film Division at the Library..

Movies are a cultural reference point in America.  They form a common experience, a shared understanding that also can cross international boundaries. The National Film Registry now designates 400 films for preservation with more added each year. The choices are not always obvious. Gregory Lukow “It’s not just the best of Hollywood, it’s not the Academy Awards, or the Peoples Choice or the Golden Globes. It represents other niches and crannies of film making that have been important to the country but haven’t stood in the glare of the spotlight,” said Mr. Lukow.

Some of the Registry’s films have little commercial value and therefore no one else to make sure they are preserved. “There is a whole category of what we call ‘orphan films’, the films that don’t necessarily  have a rights holder, no one to protect them. The saddest era is the era of silent films, 70% to 80 % of silent films no longer exist in any form,” said Mr. Lukow. The Film Registry restored and preserves this 1909 special effects gem called Princess Nicotine. Its shows early special effects tricks like stop motion animation and double exposure. At only 5 minutes in length, Princess Nicotine is a novelty in today’s entertainment world but it shows where today’s special effects originated.

“Where the film, years ago, might not have been stored in the proper conditions and so the acetate within it starts to debase and break down.” Steve Leggett also works with film at the Library of Congress, and deals with the physical aspects of film preservation. Steve Leggett “Films before 1950, there’s another problem, they were made on nitrate film stock which is very flammable. So in a lot of cases that has deteriorated beyond recognition.  After 1950 films sometimes start smelling like vinegar and curl up.  And then again, that’s another problem,” says Steve Leggett.

It’s not just a question of preserving negatives, sometimes whole segments are gone. The restoration of this 1930 film about the First World War, called All Quiet on the Western Front, required an international search for missing parts. “It’s an international hunt.  The Library of Congress has worked with other archives to coordinate major international repatriations of large groups of lost American films from the silent era and beyond that no longer existed in the United States anywhere but have survived over the decades in places like Czechoslovakia or Australia or New Zealand or the Netherlands.  In some cases these countries were at the end of the global distribution chain and once they reached there, there was no incentive to pay to send them back, so they stayed there,” says Gregory Lukow.

The movies are one of America’s most important exports, and a vivid expression of its culture. “It’s the way we communicate with each other.  It’s a way we share our culture with each other.  But mostly it has become a collective history,” says Gregory Lukow.

Vintage commercial – oldsmobile. See their hot new cars & airplanes back then. Very nostalgic. This clip is in the Public Domain… Click play to watch.

Mid 1960′s commercial, from Palona Pizza. Very cool video. You can truly see the difference between, the pizzas now, and the way they where made then. Please click play to watch

This film documents the Youth for Service project in San Francisco during the 50s; a project that recruited youth gangs to do various community service projects, usually involving construction, maintenance, or environmental work. The project itself looks quite successful in channeling the gangs into constructive activity; one wonders if it is still going on today and if not, why not. But beyond that, this film is a wonderful document of 50s gang life and teen culture. Gang members narrate certain parts of the film themselves, using almost unintelligible gang lingo.

History of THE BLACK PANTHERS.

To that end, Bobby Seale, along with a small group of fully-armed followers, marched on the California State Legislature in May of 1967 in order to protest a gun control bill that would have limited blacks’ ability to arm themselves against police and government brutality. This audacious act, along with the arrest in October of Huey Newton for the alleged murder of a policeman, propelled the Party to the national stage. The Party renamed itself the Black Panther Party and new branches began forming all across the country. Soon, the Panthers had their own newspaper, edited by Eldridge Cleaver, the Party’s Minister of Information. In it, and in other forms of the establishment media apparatus including television, the Panthers perfected what would become a very powerful propaganda machine. This machine spread the party’s socialist and nationalist messages to very great effect, so much so, that despite the Party’s demise nearly three decades ago, the clenched fist continues on as a powerful symbol today.

The socialist tendencies of the Party were very important to the creation of its Ten-Point Program, a list of what were basically demands from the government. The Program calls for, among other things, an end to the Vietnam War, free health care, housing, full employment, and the payment of reparations promised after the Civil War. This extremely ambitious list of demands represented all the things that the Party believed black people deserved from the government, but seemed almost to call more for the dissolution of the government, since the demands are probably more than what any government, short of a socialist one, could achieve. Since the U.S. government wasn’t interested in providing for any of the Panther’s demands, they, in the spirit of self-reliance, decided to provide the black community with some of the programs themselves. The so-called “Survival Programs” of the Black Panthers were grassroots efforts to effect the real life problems of poor blacks and included ground breaking programs such as free breakfast for inner-city children, free clothing drives, healthcare clinics, tenants’ rent strikes, and campaigns for community control of schools, police, and gun and drug violence. They also formed the Liberation School for grade-schoolers and the first ever hospital program to address sickle cell anemia, a disease that affects black children disproportionately./p>

The socialism of the Party, along with its agenda of armed self-defense, caused J. Edgar Hoover to dub it “the greatest threat to the internal security of America.” He launched a counter intelligence program, called COINTEL PRO, in order to destroy the Panthers using many different means. These included sowing internal dissent within the party through covert operatives, forging documents, murdering members in raids on Party offices and residences, and imprisoning the leadership of the party, including Huey and Seale. The FBI even pitted the Black Panthers, through spies and forged letters, against other black nationalist groups, such as US (United Slaves) and a black gang called the Blackstone Rangers. These groups, though they had similar problems and goals, would end up killing each other in violent confrontations, in effect killing two birds with one stone for COINTEL PRO.

This internal and external fighting during the late 1960s and early 1970s, along with the later focus on installing members of the Party in Oakland political office, led to the gradual decline and death of the party by 1980. The legacy of the party lives on mostly in the effect it has had on social programs. Shamed by the success of the free breakfast programs, the U.S. government took over control of these programs and expanded programs that work for the benefit of poor urban children. The government even began funding research on sickle cell anemia. Though the ten-point program’s demands were never met, the Black Panthers helped spur the government on to a more comprehensive treatment of the ill effects of poverty and showed just how powerful small revolutionary groups could be in the U.S.

Those interested in watching footage about the history of the Black Panthers can visit online educational videos publishers.

THE AUTHOR:

Beth Schelle is an educational video consultant for the historical film company Quality Information Publishers, who maintain a library of historic film and video collections at http://www.qualityinformationpublishers.com. She’s cuurently sifting through their Civil Rights Movement collection of film footage.

Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe co-star in a crime drama directed by Ridley Scott and based on the true story of the man who ran the illegal drug trade in New York’s Harlem 40 years ago. Alan Silverman has a look at American Gangster.  Frank Lucas was ‘somebody’ in the shady underworld of New York in the 1960′s. A protege of ‘Bumpy’ Johnson, the local crime boss who ran the streets of Harlem for decades, Lucas took over when his mentor died.

Lucas smuggled heroin in the coffins of dead American soldiers returning to the United States from Vietnam. Uneducated – except for what he learned on the streets – Lucas used his innate business sense to build a criminal empire that was rivaled only by the Italian Mafia. He was brought down by dogged investigator Richie Roberts, a New Jersey police detective-turned-prosecutor who headed a special narcotics task force.

When he was finally arrested and convicted, the crime boss formed a remarkable alliance with the prosecutor; and in return for a shortened sentence, Lucas helped bring down the network of bribed officials and high level drug dealers. American Gangster stars Denzel Washington in the title role and he spent time with the real Frank Lucas to understand the character and his world. Washington describes Lucas as ‘charming;’ but says he tried to give an accurate portrayal of the man who, by his own admission, is a murderer.

“If you hang around long enough you’ll get the real story,” Washington says. “I worked with (journalist) Bob Woodward doing research for The Pelican Brief and he used to say ‘let the silence bring out the truth.’ So you hang around and listen to Frank, let him brag …’I was this, I was that’ … but you just keep hanging around and some days, after 11 hours, somebody is tired and another side comes out. You see how a person treats his nephew or somebody who works for him and you go ‘oh, okay.’ You see a look in his eyes and you go ‘oh, all right. Quite a few people who aren’t here any longer saw that look.’ So you get below the surface.”

Russell Crowe plays Richie Roberts and, like the real investigator and prosecutor, Crowe admits to a grudging respect for the convicted drug baron. “You educate Frank Lucas in a different way and you probably end up in a situation where you’d name universities after this guy. He was smart. He was a good businessman. He took the attitude of a regular product into the dark, murky depths of the heroin business; but he operated it like it was a MacDonald’s,” explains Crowe. “He sold a higher quality product cheaper. He put it out on the streets at the right time, timed for when welfare payments were made and all that sort of stuff …he was a clever businessman.”

But does making his story into a major motion picture celebrate that death-dealing lifestyle? Screenwriter Steven Zaillian insists that his script was not meant to lionize Lucas or makes his world look attractive. “I didn’t worry about that,” he says. “I think that when I write a script I approach it from dealing with the events and the behaviors of the characters and what they did, tell the story in as straight a fashion as I can and let people come to their own conclusions. I certainly didn’t go out of my way to make him sympathetic. You see him kill three or four guys in cold blood. You see people dead from his product, so that was never a problem for me.”

Director Ridley Scott says the real Frank Lucas spent considerable time on the film set as a ‘technical advisor;’ and the filmmaker says he recognized something familiar in the now-retired gangster. “These guys are all performers and my life is with performers, so in a funny kind of way, with Frank it is like talking with an actor,” says Scott. “It’s as if he didn’t do it. That makes him a true sociopath. There is lots of memory, but there is no association with anything emotional.”

American Gangster features British actor Chewitel Ejiofor as Lucas’s younger brother and right-hand henchman. Screen and stage legend Ruby Dee plays their aged, but strong-willed mother. Josh Brolin plays a corrupt police detective; and the cast also includes contemporary music stars RZA and Common.

By Alan Silverman

Rock and Roll Legend Ike Turner Dies

One of the founding fathers of rock and roll, Ike Turner, died Wednesday December 12 at his home near San Diego, California.  He was 76.  The cause of death was unknown.  While an architect of the modern rock sound, he was also notorious for his abusive relationship with his wife, Tina.  Mention Ike’s name, and most music fans will likely peg him as the drug-addicted, abusive husband of superstar singer Tina Turner.

Laurence Fishburne earned a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Ike in the hit 1994 film, What’s Love Got To Do With It.  While Ike disputed those claims, they have overshadowed his real contributions to the birth and development of rock and roll.  Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Ike Turner was eight years old when he began doing odd jobs at a local radio station.  He carried amplifiers for blues guitarist Robert Nighthawk while learning boogie-woogie piano from his idol, Pinetop Perkins.
 
In the late 1940s, Ike formed his own group, The Kings of Rhythm.  In 1951, he recorded “Rocket 88,” which some critics call the first true rock and roll record. While working with the Kings of Rhythm in the St. Louis area, Ike Turner also became a session musician and talent scout for Sun Records.  He helped such later stars as Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and Otis Rush sign contracts.
 
In the late-1950s, Ike hired a young singer from Tennessee named Anna Mae Bullock. Changing her name to Tina, after the popular action heroine “Sheena, Queen of the Jungle,” Ike featured her in his popular soul review. After enjoying a hit single in 1960 with “A Fool In Love,” the pair wed in Mexico, and embarked upon a stormy 16-year union. Throughout the 1960s and early-70s, Ike and Tina were one of the most exciting and influential acts in rock.  They toured with the Rolling Stones, and in 1971 performed in Africa.
 
Shadowing their success, however, was Ike’s treatment of Tina.  Acting as the group’s manager and musical director, he allegedly treated his wife in a ruthless manner. In her 1986 autobiography I, Tina, she wrote that he regularly isolated and abused her, often in the form of vicious beatings.
 
By the mid-1970s, Ike Turner was in the grip of a cocaine habit.  In July, 1976, Tina fled Ike, reportedly carrying only 36 cents.  She declined to comment on his death. In 1989, Ike went to prison on drug charges, and was still behind bars when he and Tina were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.  He reportedly maintained sobriety after leaving prison in 1993, and in 2001 published an autobiography, Takin’ Back My Name.  In it, he admitted to physically abusing Tina, but denied beating her.  He also continued to perform with the Kings of Rhythm, and in 2007 won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. You can buy some of, both Ike & Tuna’s songs; by clicking HERE for my 99c music store. Select Ike & Tina.

By: Ray Mcdonald

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