Bright Moments

but nobody owns them all . . . . . .yet!

all i can say is . . .WOW!

ditto that big wheel! although we all know that the real foolball team in miami are the HURRICANES!!! B-)

RRK! B-)

Well, I just got box set #10 (Teddy Wilson) and I was wondering where I stood in the "mosaic community." B-)

B-) http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...c=9377&hl=wingy

B-)

this is cool! B-) http://www.shillpages.com/faywray/fwaud-kingkong.htm

i like recycling!

Actress Fay Wray of `King Kong' Fame Dies 8 minutes ago By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer NEW YORK - Fay Wray, who won everlasting fame as the damsel held atop the Empire State Building by the giant ape in the 1933 film classic "King Kong," has died, a close friend said Monday. She was 96. AP Photo Canadian Press Slideshow: Actress Fay Wray Dies at 96 Wray died Sunday at her Manhattan apartment, said Rick McKay, a friend and director of the last film she appeared in. There was no official cause of death. "She just kind of drifted off quietly as if she was going to sleep," said McKay, director of the documentary "Broadway: The Golden Age." "She just kind of gave out." During a career that started in 1923, Wray appeared with such stars as Ronald Colman, Gary Cooper and Spencer Tracy, but she was destined to be linked with the rampaging Kong in movie fans' minds. "I used to resent `King Kong,'" she remarked in a 1963 interview. "But now I don't fight it anymore. I realize that it is a classic, and I am pleased to be associated with it. Why, only recently an entire issue of a French magazine was devoted to discussing the picture from its artistic, moral and even religious aspects." She wrote in her 1988 autobiography, "On the Other Hand": "Each time I arrive in New York and see the skyline and the exquisite beauty of the Empire State Building, my heart beats a little faster. I like that feeling. I really like it!" "King Kong" obscured the other notable films Wray made during the '30s. They included adventures "The Four Feathers" (with Richard Arlen and William Powell) and "Viva Villa" (Wallace Beery), Westerns "The Texan" (Cooper) and "The Conquering Horde" (Arlen), romances "One Sunday Afternoon" (Cooper) and "The Unholy Garden" (Colman) as well as horror films "Dr. X" and "The Mystery of the Wax Museum." After appearing in Erich von Stroheim's 1928 silent "The Wedding March," playing a poor Viennese girl abandoned by her lover, a playboy prince, Wray became a much-employed leading lady. In 1933, the year of "King Kong," she appeared in 11 films, co-starring with Beery, George Raft, Cooper, Jack Holt and others. In 1980, she told of her dissatisfaction with roles of that period: "In those days, the female characters never knew who their parents were. Leading ladies were not supposed to be funny but were supposed to stand there and look beautiful. That was frustrating as an actress." In her autobiography, the actress recalled that she had been paid $10,000 for "King Kong" (budget: $680,000), but her 10 weeks' work was stretched over a 10-month period. "Residuals were not even considered, because there were no established unions to protect us," she added. In "King Kong," she plays an unemployed actress who agrees to take a job with a movie company that is going on location to a mysterious island. Kong is the huge ape that inhabits a part of the island. When the film company discovers him, Kong is attracted to Wray and abducts her. But he is eventually captured and brought to New York and put on display. Kong escapes and finds Wray, with terrifying results, but eventually meets his death on the Empire State Building. She was proud that "King Kong" had saved RKO studio from bankruptcy. Of Kong she wrote: "He is a very real and individual entity. He has a personality, a character that has been compelling to many different people for many different reasons and viewpoints." She was the guest of honor in 1991 at a ceremony marking the 60th birthday of the Empire State Building, saying that if she were mayor of New York, "I would want to run the city from this building ... and get up every morning to see the sun rise." Although Kong appeared huge, the full figure was really only 18 inches tall. Miss Wray knew him by the arm, which was 8 feet long. "I would stand on the floor," she recalled, "and they would bring this arm down and cinch it around my waist, then pull me up in the air. Every time I moved, one of the fingers would loosen, so it would look like I was trying to get away. Actually, I was trying not to slip through his hand." By the late '30s, the actress was appearing in low-budget films, and she quit working in 1942 to be a wife and mother. Her first husband was John Monk Saunders, who wrote such air films as "Wings" and "The Dawn Patrol." She was 19 and he was 30 when they married. She discovered he was an alcoholic and a drug addict, and the marriage became a nightmare. After a divorce, she married Robert Riskin, the brilliant writer of "It Happened One Night," "Lost Horizon" and other Frank Capra films. In 1950, he suffered a stroke from which he never recovered. He died five years later. Returning to work in 1953, Wray appeared mostly in motherly roles in youth-oriented films like "Small Town Girl," "Tammy and the Bachelor" and "Summer Love." In 1979 she played opposite Henry Fonda (news) in a TV drama, "Gideon's Trumpet." She was born Vina Fay Wray on Sept. 15, 1907, near Cardston in rural Alberta, Canada. Her parents moved to the United States when she was 3, first trying farming in Arizona, and eventually returning to Salt Lake City, where Wray's mother was from. Later, they settled in Los Angeles. As a teenager she haunted studio casting offices and won an occasional bit role. Despite her mother's fears that the movie crowd was sinful, Miss Wray was allowed to accept a six-month contract with Hal Roach at $60 a week. Wray had a daughter, Susan, from her first marriage and a daughter and son, Victoria and Robert Jr., by the second. Sixteen years after Riskin's death, she married his physician, Dr. Sandford Rothenberg. ___ Associated Press writer Bob Thomas in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

dusty came later that day. not to bad.

happy birthday! are you having a beach party?

brubeck - Time Out B-) (or the new "time" box set!)

just picked up this puppy and boy is it smokin'! B-)

dave you are one lucky so and so!!!! have a GREAT time! B-) btw brubeck (age 83) is playing!

ordered from dusty, django and cdbaby all on the same day early last week. cd baby received last friday. django received monday. dusty. . . . .still waiting

oh, i really DID order it! B-)

me too! based on this recommendation (not really ) The Ordered Universe of Teddy Wilson Well, I disagree with the first reviewer, and yet at the same time I see his point. This music is so well-performed, so well-conceived, and so stylish that it can seem lackluster on a cursory listen. I see things differently though, after a lot of study of Teddy Wilson recordings. I hear the work of a master, who has diligently created an ordered musical universe where everything fits, where it was safe and warm and the sun shines. Lord knows the real world isn't this way. I enjoy stepping into this ordered, bright world of Teddy Wilson. There are excellent accompanists here for Teddy, and the sound is very good. If you like elegant piano playing, and swinging, relaxing, thoughtful music, give this set a spin. Lon Armstrong, Austin, TX

i saw him play 2 years ago and he was GREAT!!! B-)

Strange News - AP 3-Letter Word Sparks Scrabble Scramble Thu Aug 5,11:05 PM ET Add Strange News - AP to My Yahoo! NEW ORLEANS - It wasn't a four-letter word, but it was close enough to cause a stir at the National Scrabble Championship Thursday. AP Photo In the final round, eventual champion Trey Wright played the word "lez," which was on a list of offensive words not allowed during the tournament. Normally, no word is off-limits, but because the games were being taped for broadcast on ESPN, certain terms had been deemed inappropriate, including the three-letter slang for lesbian. "There are words you just can't show on television," Scrabble Association Executive Director John Williams said. Wright, a 30-year-old concert pianist from Los Angeles, played the word and then drew two replacement tiles so quickly that the referee didn't notice at first. When he did, he said the slang term had to go. ESPN officials told Williams the word could stay, but the issue was that Wright had already selected new tiles. "He violated the rules. But there were also people who were upset that the word was played," Williams said. Eric Chaiken, a tournament participant and director of "Word Wars," a documentary about the Scrabble championship, said the definition of "offensive" was open to interpretation. "The ultimate absurdity is that you can't play the word 'redskins' on ESPN," he said. Williams spoke with Wright and his opponent, David Gibson, then called an emergency meeting of the Scrabble Advisory Board. The board unanimously agreed to remove the word. Wright then returned the two tiles he had selected and played a different word, Williams said. "We kind of took two steps back," he said. Wright, using more innocent words like feijoa (an evergreen shrub) and zebu (a domesticated ox), won the best-of-five final round in three games and pocketed a $25,000 prize. "Meaning has no consideration when I play," Wright said.

so, i guess i am the ONLY one who noticed this? hmmmmmm......................................

Great article! thanks for sharing! B-)

Happy Birthday!

has anybody else noticed the lick from "hey jude" that RRK slipped into "Volunteered Slavery"? pretty cool! B-)