We are all about nature and the great outdoors or, at least, what makes one think about nature. You might find my picks weird but, that’s ok. You should head over to Curious As A Cathy for the Monday Music Moves Me challenge. Here are the songs that make me think about being in nature.
1. THE WAYWARD WIND SUNG BY GOGI GRANT-1956
I love this song that makes me think of travelling but in the wind. To be honest, I like a nice wind, not a tornado or hurricane, but a good ole fashioned wind which is when I like to walk. This is such a beautiful song that was written by Stanley Lebowsky (music) and Herb Newman(lyrics).
2. QUE SERA, SERA SUNG BY DORIS DAY-1956
Why this song? Well, when I was going through some tough times, I was taking a lot of nature walks with my dog, Katie, and this song always went through my head every single time. I would end up singing it and, thankfully, no one was around or their eardrums would have burst. It’s amazing how much this song helped me while I walked in nature even though it made its debut in a Hitchcock movie, “The man Who Knew Too Much.”
3. RIDERS OF THE STORM SUNG BY THE DOORS-1971
I love this song…and the Doors and this song is a great one that makes me always want to walk in the rain. I actually like walking in the rain, when properly attired and this song goes through my head. Now, for some of you, you have had enough rain but I thought of this song and thought it worked.
And one more for the road and it’s a biggie…
4. THE 6TH SYMPHONY OR THE PASTORAL BY BEETHOVEN-1965
This is my favourite symphony by Beethoven who completed this symphony in 1808 when he was deaf. He could hear very loud bangs but he really couldn’t hear a thing and yet, he composed this great work of art plus all the other great masterpieces when he couldn’t hear what they were playing. Beethoven loved nature and took many long walks in nature so this whole symphony is based on nature from the sunny meadows, rolling hills to a very dark thunderstorm before the sun comes out again in all its glory. It can’t be beat and, I thought, Bernstein gave it justice.
What songs makes you think of the outdoors and nature?
I was thinking of my friend, VJ, who, in a few short months, will be basking on a beach somewhere in Indonesia. I took bold colours for the background and sponged them on. I took the individual stamps and coloured up the birds. I stamped the flowers in pink and purple dye ink and heat embossed them all 4 times to get the glossy look. I fussy cut them out and glued them on with pop up dots. It's kind of a simple card but it's fun.
I took glitter stickers , coloured a piece of white scrap paper in blue and placed the bell sticker on the paper. I fussy cut them out along with the snowflakes which I, also, coloured in blue. I placed them on the Kraft background. I have this nifty plastic in iridescent blue which I cut down to size and placed it in my snowflake folder. I ran it through my cuddlebug and then, took a light sandpaper to it to lighten the raised images. I glued all the pieces together and I have another Christmas Card.
1952 was a stellar year with many great films like “The Quiet Man”, “High Noon” and “Singing in The Rain” but I kept thinking of the actors and went to Best Supporting Actress because, to me, there was one actress who should have won the Oscar and I still feel she was robbed. I will let you know from the get go who won, who should have won, in my humble opinion, and who was not even nominated and should have been.
1. JEAN HAGAN IN SINGING IN THE RAIN
This is the gal who should have won the Oscar for her tour de force performance as a silent screen star with a less than stellar voice or personality. Jean plays Lina Lamont a famous actress and famous partner to Don Lockwood, played by Gene Kelly. They are making their umpteenth swashbuckler movie when everything is halted due to the big blockbuster of “The Jazz Singer”, a talking picture. The studio shuts down to make it ready for sound and that’s when real hilarity ensues because they are now curtailed by the ever present Mike. We can laugh but everything shown on screen is pretty close to what really happened. Jean shines as the guttersnipe actress who is as stupid as she is conniving. A fun anecdote is that when you hear Debbie Reynolds character dub Lina’s voice with her own, it’s actually Jean Hagen’s voice that you hear.
2. KATY JURADO IN HIGH NOON
This Mexican actress really made a name for herself when she made this film that starred Gary Cooper and a young Grace Kelly. Gary Cooper has just married the sweet blonde Quaker girl when he finds out this old gang is coming to town to kill the sheriff, namely Cooper. Everyone tells him to take off with his new wife but he turns the buggy around to face his foes much to Grace’s chagrin. While Coop tried to find people to support him, we meet his old girlfriend, Katy who still loves Cooper and is not too happy that he got married nor happy how his new wife does not seem to support him. Katy shone in her role but she was not even nominated which is a crime.
3. GLORIA GRAHAME IN THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL
I couldn’t find a scene with just Gloria Grahame so I chose the film trailer and , yup, Gloria won the Oscar for a role that, if you blink, you missed it. Ok, she’s on a bit longer than Beatrice Straight was ( for her role in Network) but I just don’t get why Gloria was even nominated never mind winning for this role as the wife of writer Dick Powell. She plays a slutty wife who wants all the Hollywood glitz so her hubby capitulates and goes to Hollywood to write a script for scumbag producer, Kirk Douglas. Gloria is a very good actress and deserved Oscar nominations and maybe even a win for another year but not this year. The film is excellent showcasing how the producer helps the writer, an actress and a director make it big but for a price. It’s a good film but she didn’t deserve this.
Can you think of someone else who should have won this year’s best supporting actress Oscar?
It’s still hotter than Hades which I don’t like unless I’m by a pool sipping some nice drink. I decided to continue with tropical heat and take a fun approach where I danced to these songs more than once. I’m joining over at Monday Music Moves Me but on Wednesday.
1. LAMBADA BY KAOMA-1989
So, this is one I didn’t really dance to because I could not dance the sexy Samba or Lambada but I watched how some got down and dirty and loved it!
2. WALKING ON SUNSHINE BY KATRINA AND THE WAVES-1983
I love this song and dance to it whenever I hear it, even when I’m in the car. Yup, I’m one of those nuts you see moving and grooving to the music. This came out the year I was starting university and the start of many a weekend partying it up and loving it.
3. FEELING HOT, HOT, HOT BY THE MERRYMEN- 1988
I like this song which came out a year after I graduated from University but still took a couple of classes so I could continue to have fun at our local bar called Alphie’s Trough. I danced quite a few times to this fun diddy but I have a great friend who despises this song. He works at a big travel agency (CAA) and this song was played at every conference and weekend festival they had to promote the latest all inclusive resorts and cruises they were showcasing. To this day, he still can’t listen to it..of course I love to have fun with him.
What fun hot songs do you think of and love to dance to?
BIRTH: August 19, 1899 ( some say 1900 or 1902 but, I believe it is 1899)
DEATH: January 25, 1988
AGED: 88 yrs old
DIED FROM: Cancer
REAL NAME: Kathleen Morrison
MARRIED: 4 times. The 2nd 2 were stockbrokers. Her 2nd marriage seems to have been the happiest lasting until his death in 1964. She did marry a 4th time when she was 81!
CHILDREN: No children but she raised her 2nd husband’s 2 kids with him and they loved her very much.
AFFAIRS: King Vidor started an affair in the early 1920s but ended it only to fall right back into it some 40 yrs later when they were investigating the murder of William Desmond Taylor ( Major Hollywood Director at that time).
TALENT: knew how to make money and keep it! Wrote a book about it.
KNOWN FOR: Her incredible fantasy doll house now in Chicago museum of Science and Industry. She had one green eye and one blue eye. Her extensive travelling, often to China. Her many charitable donations.
I thought of the great Myrna Loy, Ingrid Bergman etc, but my brain kept going back to the lovely Colleen Moore who is hardly remembered now but was a huge name back in the Roaring Twenties. Due to her film, “Flaming Youth” now lost and would be considered a huge, huge find if ever a copy survives ( probably in Romania in some guy’s barn attic), the term Flapper was coined. She played a wild and free gal who has lots of fun, hence the term, Flapper. Even though she did not originate that famous haircut ( Louise Brooks had a haircut like this since she was a kid), she made it world famous and is still replicated today. If Colleen used perfume, women would go out and buy that perfume in droves so, to say she was a big star, would be an understatement. She always maintained that she came from a loving home where both her parents loved each other and had a good childhood. Her Uncle was an editor for the Chicago Tribune and was the basis for one of the main reporters in the films, “The Front Page” and “His Girl Friday”. Her Uncle knew the famous director, D. W. Griffith, and got the teenage Colleen a screen test. From there, she rose in the film industry and after getting her famous haircut, known as “The Bob” her star rose and rose. When some haughty exec looked at the tiny actress in 1928, and sarcastically said, “ I bet you probably make something like $10,000 per week”. She said, she meekly answered, “No,…I make $12,500.” She retired in 1934, because her sound films were not making money despite that she had a fine voice, she just had her day, as it were but she never lost money, in fact, she knew how to invest very wisely and made a few million. She helped her, old director and lover, King Vidor “solve” the murder of William Desmond Taylor although it is still considered unsolved but when he was on a mission to look into this old case ( he wanted to make a movie about it), he sought the help of Colleen which reignited their affair but, with her help, it seems the …well, you have to read the book:).
The other big feat Colleen created is this amazing doll house that is at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry that attracts over 1.5 million visitors each year. I love miniatures and didn’t know about this amazing doll house that was inspired by her dad. She got set designers involved and was in on the process every step of the way with its creation. It has famous books written by famous authors with one signed by the author. She has a miniature Gutenberg Bible, a tiny sliver from the true cross ( they are everywhere) which was given to her by the pope. She has some very old relics from ancient Egypt and China and suits of Armour that Rudolph Valentino had. I have the link to view it here.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “I was the spark that lit up the flaming youth, and Colleen Moore was the torch. What little things we are to have caused all that trouble.” Although, I have to say Colleen Moore remembered it as “ caused all that conflagration.”
I will be honest, I still have not seen any of her movies since almost all of her Silent films are lost including the famous “Flaming Youth” which she had a copy of and donated it to a museum but, since silent films were not highly thought of, it decayed.
I'm under the wire for the Color Throwdown. I had a scrap piece of paper with a butterfly already cut out for a previous card. I liked the sprays I used which work perfectly with this week’s challenge. I took my distress inks and sponged on some more Color and glued it to gold paper. I cut out the butterfly with my sizzex machine as well as the underling panel that I coloured in the same colors and glued it in place. I added the ribbon, stamped the saying which I embossed in psychedelic glitter, and added the crystals. Before I go on. I am going to add this to their Color throwdown.
I haven’t made a Christmas card in a while and had fun. I stamped Santa and had fun colouring him in using my tombow markers but with water. I cut it out with my die cut in my Sizzex machine and cut the red glitter card in those triangle look. I placed it in an embossing folder and rolled it through my cuddlebug machine. I took my green dye ink and lightly rubbed it on to bring out the design. I glued it all together but used pop up dots on Santa.
Ok, I think the first 2 challenges talk to each other…lol. The colours are quite similar and I used a dusty rose, light green, olive type green, light and dark pink and even a peach. I bought a 3D embossing folder and rolled it through my Sizzex. I coloured it with gelatos with my watercolour brush. I adhered it to the dusty rose card and then the white card. I glued on the pearl string to complete this. This is for a friend of mine who just lost her mom to dementia, probably pneumonia, but no matter what…it’s tough and now their dad is in his own and he is one lost puppy. Hope you had a good weekend. We had a long weekend due to Civic Holiday..very happy until I am back to work tomorrow.
We just came back, Monday, from vacation in Quebec. We made our Neal visit to visit hubby’s Aunt and Uncle who live right on the Richelieu River about 20 min. from the Vermont border. They do have a little bit of heaven where they live with a nice breeze, hummingbirds, and very large boats driving past their home. We had one day where it was quite windy and cool but, otherwise, it quite humid and now, here at home it’s downright tropical which I hate unless I’m by a pool sipping a pina colada. Since the Monday music was about the tropics, I thought I would continue with films set in the tropics. Here are my picks…
1. DOWN ARGENTINE WAY-1940
This film made a star out of Betty Grable who became the It gal of the cinemas and the GI Joes of WW2. Her very shapely legs were insured for 1 million and she starred in many musicals, often taking place somewhere hot. Starring with her is Don Ameche, an amiable film star who often did co-star with her. In this film, he is the son of a wealthy Argentinian man who owns horses and instructs his son to go to New York and sell some horses but make sure never to deal with a family who took his money from long ago. Of course, Don meets Betty who is from this family and he decides against selling a horse to her. He goes back home but she follows bent on finding out what happened. Of course, they fall in love, dance, sing, meet Carmen Miranda and watch the Nicholas Brothers dance like no one ever could ever do. It’s a fun movie that heralded the many movies that were to take place in South America and Mexico. Argentina did not like this film because just about everything was wrong about their country but, even with glaring errors, it’s a fun movie that introduced Carmen and The Nicholas Brothers to a larger audience.
This is one of my favourite Rogers and Hammerstein musicals that not only has some great music, but takes place during World War 2 and deals with racism. You have the spunky Mitzi Gaynor ( who is still with us at 92 years young) as a nurse on an island with a bunch of navy men bored but still able to have fun. She meets French plantation owner, played by Rossano Brazzi and is very much attracted to him even if she wants to wash that man right out of her hair. On a subplot, you have John Kerr meet Bloody Mary’s daughter, played by the beautiful France Nuyen and they, immediately, (of course) fall in love but he can’t marry her because of his wealthy family’s prejudice as well as his own. Nellie ( played by Mitzi) finds out that her Plantation guy was with a woman before who passed away but they had 2 children and she was Polynesian. Nellie realizes she, too, has issues with her own racist beliefs. This is all set against the idyllic backdrop of these wondrous islands soon to turn ugly by war. It’s well acted including a funny part of a sailor with a tattoo of a ship on his stomach played so well by Ray Walston.
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