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I'm left wondering: What do you call the kid for short? Which reminds me of one of GRACIE ALLEN'S favorite lines of mine. "My name is Grace, but you can call me "Gracie" for short!" Glad you revived this topic, RM. Sepiatone

It shows up on page four on my PC screen under the title "They Sang Their own Songs...or Didn't" Hope this helps Sepiatone

I actually don't HATE *The Bishop's Wife* , but I'm not one of those who wistfully hold it in high regard. And I certainly DON'T consider it really a holiday movie. Incidentally, when I first saw it as a kid, it was the first time I heard the phrase, "Get a ROOM!", uttered by my Mother during one of Grant and Young's scenes together. Took me years to figure out what she meant. And as saccharine and syrupy any here might think it is, or how dreadful, you'll change your mind once viewing the Whitney Huston/Denzel Washington remake *The Preacher's Wife* . OY! Sepiatone

It HAD to be "cliche after cliche" Hibi. Burton and Taylor's life, after all, was one BIG cliche after another! I only managed to catch about ten minutes of it somewhere in the middle, until my wife grabbed the remote and proclaimed, "That's enough of THIS sh**!" So I can't really judge it fairly. To be fair to Lohan, there isn't ANY actress who can portray Taylor convincingly. She was one of a kind. The best they could hope for was to at least get some of the LOOK, through hair pieces and make up. Taylor DID have the distinction of being able to, naturally, display the kind of behavior it now takes actresses huge amounts of pills and gallons of booze to achieve, something Lohan has been working on fervently of late. So maybe she WAS the right choice? Sepiatone

James, I was lucky to have a MENTOR, of sorts, a guy at the plant I worked who is(was? Haven't seen him since the plant closed up) a die hard Be-Bop enthusiast. He would loan me albums, and if I liked them, would sell me the LP as he could always get a replacement from an old friend of his at Ann Arbor's Schoolkids record shop. Through him, and a friend of mine who also moved into Jazz guitar playing(it was HE who introduced me to Earl Klugh), I became familiar with people like Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Fats Novarro, Max Roach, Red Garland, John Coletrain, Larry Coryell, Roy Eldridge, Gillespie, and Oscar Peterson. Myself, I could never accquire the chops for Jazz, and settled in for being a Rock and Folk hack. Bildwasser claims that Bob Dylan's favorite cause was Bob Dylan...no doubt. Ever the opportunist, he played folk music when it was nationally popular, and saw the writing on the wall when he "went electric". Notice even the "Born Again" Jewish kid from Minnesota released his Christian LP at the same time the US music scene was going through a spiritual search, and how quickly it was abandoned when the direction changed. Incidentally, never a REALLY big Springsteen fan, I did like much of his early work and contradictorally always considered his most heralded album, "Born In The U.S.A." to be his worst. I've always found it intersting that many an actor or actress who display convincing performances as doctors or lawyers or academics in movies, seem to come off as dunces when they show up on talk shows. I just thought of this the other day when I was watching *A Time To Kill* in which MATHEW McCONNEGHEY(or however spelled) played a well articulated attorney. See him on a talk show, he comes off as a likeable but not too bright kind of guy. Of course, this too, can be a case of HIM separating his "actor" and "citizen" roles. A few people I know who are academically astute can seem to separate their academia intellectualism from their just being "regular Joe's" behavior. Sepiatone

Have to say Wayne's "Sinbad" was far better than John Phillip Law's. Which STILL doesn't say much I guess... Sepiatone

I'd say both, too. In some cases, as fast as fashion seems to move, Hollywood seemed to be BEHIND. Sepiatone

Can't do that, finance. I'm in agreement. Sepiatone

Yusuf's(Cat Stevens)conversion to Islam was though a group influenced by Ayatolla Khomeni, in which the making of music is considered immoral. There are Christian denominations which have the same doctrine. My brother married a girl from one of those denominations. No music at the wedding reception nor at the church ceremony. As a wedding photographer, I worked three weddings of that sort. Stevens over the years, moved away from his original sect, and found his way back to music again. At least, that's the story I get. After all these years, and all subsequent recordings, my favorite Dylan song remains "It's Alright, Ma(I'm Only Bleeding)". The song's lyrics articulated what I was feeling about life and the world around me at the time, and is still amazingly relevent. For me, swithin, by the mid '70's, after saturating myself with the "prog-rock' of ELP and Yes, I moved into Jazz and Jazz "Fusion" ie; John McLaughlin, Weather Report, Return To Forever, Herbie Hancock's stuff etc. It's also when I started seriously listening to classical. I had always liked classical music, but at that time didn't know the difference between Mozart and Mendelsohn or Bach and Beethoven, and wanted to learn more. All while STILL listening to all the other stuff. In music, as WELL as movies, I have no specific preferrences. Sepiatone

Don't worry, Sans. You're not the only one without a connection to someone famous. The most famous people I ever met were the late Michigan governor George Romney(yep, Father of Mitt), who only shook my hand and said "Glad to meet you, kid." . That was when I was 13. The other was guitarist Earl Klugh, through a friend of mine who is also a jazz guitarist. It was a few years before Klugh made it, and today I can confidently state that he wouldn't know me from Adam! Sepiatone PS: Oh, and I once shook John McLaughlin's hand while in a group of autograph seekers. I insisted "The LEFT hand, sir!" and he smilingly obliged.

The best Christmas gifts I've ever recieved in adulthood were homebaked goods or something small, inexpensive yet appealing to my tastes. I never saw the need to spend thousands on Christmas gifts. A true believer in "the thought that counts". I saw a clip on the news showing a "Black Friday" shopper balancing SIX 32" flat screens on his cart! REALLY?? If all those "Black Friday" shoppers were donating those savings to good charities, I might feel different about it. But I sincerely doubt that it's the case. Sepiatone

As a long time Dylan fan, MissW, I have to say you've pretty much hit the nail on the head. In one Dylan bio, it's stated that musically, all he aimed for was to be a rock'n'roll star. even called himself BOBBY VEE for a while( no, he WASN'T THAT Bobby Vee). When he got to college, he found out music was headed in another direction. After arriving in New York, Dylan moved into the folk scene, and even enjoyed the making of much of that music. But he was like a sponge, soaking in different musical influences, like old country, acoustic blues and such. After making it big, he made maybe only a small, short list of what could truly be called "protest" songs (Blowin' in the Wind, Masters of War, A Hard Rain's A-gonna Fall, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol, Ballad of Hollis Brown, The Times they are A-changing). Go over his discography, you'll notice that it compiles only a few songs over two LPs. That they were very GOOD "protest" songs is what likely made him be seen as a "protest" singer. Joan Baez has often mentioned her disappointment in Dylan's not wishing to use his time in the follow up of causes. Dylan felt he had already spoken his piece, knew that it probably wouldn't make much of a difference(he was right), and moved on. His reputation for not being much of a "good" singer came about the same way he claimed he didn't mean what he said in his "protest" songs. When starting out, Dylan did actually HAVE a decent singing voice. Listen to his first LP for good examples. He didn't, however, have a "pretty" singing voice, like Phil Ochs or Rick Von Schmidt, and was disliked by other folkies for that reason. So in subsequent recordings, he deliberately didn't put much effort into the singing as a "screw you" reply to his detractors. Apparently, it became first nature to him, and didn't repel his true fan base. By the way, Cat Stevens, or Yusuf Islam now, is back to making music. And it's somewhat as good as his well known efforts. Sepiatone

Nah, James, I see her as a loser. Sure, she might achieve the illusion of a "winner" as she flits from one poor rich man to another and accquires great wealth as a result, but just WHAT has she won? She can only be percieved as a winner to those who equate money with greatness. but in the end, she'll die alone with greedy buzzards circling overhead, waiting to pick her portfolio clean. She's lost her children, family and the only man who truly loved her while obsessing over other unimportant things. LOO-ZER! Sepiatone

Wow. I can't compete with any of that. Yeah, I know it's NOT a competition, but you all know what I mean. On the other hand, mine was a pretty much unremarkable upbringing. Typically(somewhat) American. When MY mother was five or six months pregnant with ME (1951), she found out my bio-dad loved being married so much, he took on a SECOND wife. When she found out, she confronted him. He then made the mistake of telling her, "Don't make me CHOOSE between the two of you." The story goes that she informed him that SHE already chose FOR him, letting him know that the smouldering pile of rubbish in the alley behind the house was all of his clothes! While I never met the man, I was told by my older brother, who went to live with him for a few years, that I wasn't missing much. So I was raised by a single mother for the first eight years of my life. My Mom remarried to a man my Grandfather knew at the Cadillac plant he worked. He wheedled him to come in for a cup of coffee when the guy drove him to our house after work. Grandpa then introduced him to Mom, and the rest is history, as they say. The cool thing was that he was the uncle of a friend me and my brother had who lived around the block! It did become exasperating that I, a nine year old school student, would have to explain to my teachers, who were SUPPOSED to be educated, WHY my Mother's last name was different from mine! Duh! The man who became my step-father was immediately called "Dad" without any hesitation or apprehension. I never once tossed that stupid retort "YOU'RE not my REAL father!" when in disagreement with him over the years, because for all fact and purpose, he WAS my "real" father, more so than the bigamist my mom threw out before I was born. I could never understand other kids in similar situations using that argument. And besides, he was a really nice guy. I used to joke with people that he was a nice guy up until I was 13 or so. THEN he became a real jerk, and stayed a jerk until I was about 19 or 20. Then he became a nice guy again. They understood it was ME, becoming a typically rebellious kid at 13 who was the REAL jerk in the story. What of any of this has to do with my love of old movies? None of it, actually. It DOES have something to do with the course my musical tastes have taken, though. My Mom was a "swing" and "big band" fan, and had several old 78s of those types of music in the house. I was fascinated by the "phonograph" for some reason, and would spend many an hour on rainy or cold winter days spinning these records, listening to the music, reading the labels and such. When she remarried, a step sister(one of three)came to live with us for a couple of years, and SHE had a great collection of early rock'n'roll, country and rock-a-billy records that she didn't mind my going ahead and listening to as long as I handled them carefully. She also had several blues recordings that I liked. I already liked blues, but the story behind that is another one for another day. PLUS she played guitar a little, and started me off on that by showing me a few chords and finger styles. It's surely the reason I, a lefty, play guitar right handed. As how most kids grow up generally in one area have local "customs" and slang and preferrence for activity, having step siblings who lived in another community introduced me to the different ways other people live. Until then, I thought ALL people were pretty much the same all over. That other kids anywhere else all played the same games by the same rules. And I found out that it isn't neccessarily true. I discovered that some of the things the kids did "over there" were more fun than the stuff WE did in our neck of the woods. I suppose that's where I learned "VIVA LE DIFFERENCE!" I also believe that's what helped me adjust to major changes later in life. I discovered that many people I knew, my ex-wife included, had difficulty adjusting and settling into new family environments when their new spouse is also previously divorced. The rift caused by my ex's not being able to adjust to the ways of her second husband's family caused THAT relationship to crumble. She asked me once how I managed it, and I suppose I could have told her, "Well, I kinda grew UP that way." She grew up in a typically nuclear "Leave it to Beaver" family situation. Kids from "broken homes" were to be avoided and all that nonsense. I noticed that I'm rambling a bit here, so I'll end this by saying that I got used to many different people in many differing situations and from all walks of life. I made many poor and often disasterous choices in my time, but somehow I think much of this background made me able to take it all in stride and not sweat the small stuff. I don't think I'm better than most everybody, and also not worse. My wife tells me I have a natural "Assisian" type personality, and until I re-read that addage from St. Francis of Assisi, had no idea what she meant. My guess is somewhere along the long line, I must have recieved advice of that nature from somewhere. I also try hard to live up to the advice my grandmother, a wiser woman than her education would indicate, gave me as a quote from a source she had long forgotten... "My life is in the hands of any fool who can cause me to lose my temper." Sepiatone

Willbe, I faced my disillusionment back in '79 when I pulled that annoying buzzer that let you know you left your key in the ignition from under the dash. Clear as day it said "Made in Mexico" on the cover! But the "protectionism" idea is based on cars MADE in America, regardless of where the parts come from. And as many Japanese based auto corporations have assembly plants in the U.S., the whole argument seems pointless. Sepiatone

In more recent times, GEORGE CLOONEY and BRAD PITT worked well together in those OCEAN'S flicks, and are good friends off screen as well. They should try working in different films more often. Sepiatone

Unless I missed it, there was no mention of *To Have Or Have Not* where a very young ANDY WILLIAMS dubbed the singing of LAUREN BACALL. And there was an old western with a very young JOHN WAYNE riding into town strumming a guitar and singing a tune, dubbed by GENE AUTRY. Sepiatone

*Hell's Heroes* and *Flight of The Phoenix* could have replaced *Zabriski's Point* on that list as far as I'm concerned. And what about *Raiders of The Lost Ark* ? Sepiatone

The only correct comment in all this is the statement that we're not always right, yet not always wrong. Some people judge good literature by Tolstoy. Others by Mickey Spillane. Not everyone thought Orson Welles was a genius. Some would rather give that status to Blake Edwards. No matter. That most of us here can civilly agree to disagree is a good thing. But sometimes it's fun to keep the administrator on his toes. Sepiatone

I agree that those holding on to "lost" films thinking the longer they hide them away increases their value are only fooling themselves. But the only recourse I can see(that STILL might not work)is to keep putting the word out that possible deterioration will make them worthless. So why NOT release them for public enjoyment? Maybe attaching their names to them will somehow appease them. After all, many people with valuble private art collections often loan their art for display given the fact that their names will be mentioned on some plaque in the gallery. Sepiatone

The HIGHEST? Fred, that's obviously Montgomery Cliff! Yeah, coming up with "stage names" is one thing. But how many besides Harry Dean Stanton and Louis (OR Lois) Gossett JR. have ADDED to their names over the years? Sepiatone

Hell, the "oldies" station in my area is playing a lot of 80's music! Drives my kids nuts. THEY came of age in the 80's! I just LOVE that! Sepiatone

It was YOU, willbe, who said "you know who". I merely used the dialouge bubble on SansFin's post as a jump on point to reply. Yes, people DO argue about cars. As a retired GM worker, I'm often blindsided by those who think "protectionism" is wrong. You know, the whole "buy American" thing when it comes to cars. They assume, because of my GM association, and UAW membership, that I'm "pro-protectionism". I am not. As long as I'm not making the payments, I don't care WHAT car you buy. And as long as you're an American citizen, I STILL think you should buy the car you want. What patriotic sense does it make for someone to put on his finest clothes, made in Indonesia or Bangladesh, pull into the parking lot of a Mexican or Italian restaraunt he saw advertised on his Korean made TV set in his American made car? As for arguing politics or religion at family functions? In my family, they're too busy arguing amongst themselves about OTHER stupid sh** to allow politics and religion to get a foot in the door. Like who's kids are the biggest brats or who's wife is the biggest shrew and such. As for SansFin, I never saw Felix Ungar's behavior as some kind of "message" in the movie. Simply an oddity of the CHARACTER. Sepiatone

I was going to start a thread about this, but this one sounded adequate... The first time I ever saw *It's A Wonderful Life* was on a Thanksgiving day. After the J.L. Hudson's annual parade, there would be a PLETHORA of Christmas based programming right up until the football game started. The first time I ever saw *Miracle On 34th Street* was on a Thanksgiving day. Same for *A Christmas Carol* (1951). Many other holiday based movies would hit the tube on Thanksgiving day when I was a kid. NOW, I surf through the gauntlet and can find NO holiday based entertainment save for the "original" saccharine slop on LIFETIME or HALLMARK! Get WITH IT, TCM! If you're going to claim to be a "classic" movie channel, showing films that hark us back to times gone by, why NOT extend that to the type of PROGRAMMING that will do the same? I mean, *Little Women* ? Really? Why, even a local station aired *Saw II* on Thanksgiving a couple of years ago! Many of us STILL consider the day to be the kick off of the CHRISTMAS season, NOT just the Christmas SHOPPING season. Has society allowed the day to be reduced to the glut of football and food, and the mindless avarice of "Black Friday"? PLEASE provide some of us old traditionalists a toe-hold on TRADITION. Because without TRADITION, life is as shaky as a fiddler on the roof!(groan!) Sepiatone

I think it's misnamed. They have a corresponding color for many things; Red for anger, blue for sadness, green for envy, white for purity etc. I think whichever color that's used to represent stupidity is the color that should indicate this day. As for me, I'll be busy tending to both my clogged arteries AND clogged plumbing today. Sepiatone