Woodstock, Vermont. Uploaded by florida-sportsman-magazine.com.
You don’t have to go to Madison County, Iowa to see them. Most are on small, out-of-the-way byways, since they’d have been replaced if they were carrying lots of traffic. While Pennsylvania has more than any other state, you can find them throughout the country, and most are now protected as historic landmarks.
But why talk about them when we can see them?
Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Uploaded by en.wikipedia.org.
Old Bennington, Vermont. Uploaded by sonatina.com.
Elizabethton, Tennessee. Uploaded by tdot.state.tn.us.
Randolph County, North Carolina by neatorama.com.
Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Uploaded by wvdot.com.
Jackson, Wyoming. Uploaded by sourcesanddesign.com.
Beaver Creek State Park, Ohio by neatorama.com.
And then there are those bridges of Madison County:
The Stanford band thought the game was over. Bad band. Bad, bad band. Uploaded by cdn2.ioffer.com.
Of all the plays in all the football games ever contested, why is this one known simply as The Play? First, it happened in a major rivalry game, California vs. Stanford. And second, it came after future hall of fame quarterback John Elway had led Stanford to a field goal with four seconds left that everyone thought ended the game.
Stanford squib-kicked the ball down the field, and Cal’s only choice was for a player about to be tackled to lateral the ball to a teammate, keeping the play alive. They did that; in fact, they lateraled the ball five times.
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to play trombone. Uploaded by 3bp.blogspot.com.
Meanwhile the Stanford band, all 144 members, thought the game was over, and started onto the field. The last lateral was completed in the midst of the band, obscuring the view of the officials. And then, in one of the most memorable moments in football history, Cal’s Kevin Moen scored the game-winning touchdown by knocking over a trombone player.
A couple of interesting notes. It was John Elways’ last regular-season game for Stanford. Cal only had ten players on the field. If Cal hadn’t scored, Stanford would have been penalized for the band coming onto the field. And as exciting as the play is visually, it’s made even better by the radio call of Cal announcer Joe Starkey.
Well, you can talk about it all you want, but you’ve just got to see The Play to believe it. Here’s Starkey’s call of the last minute, “Only a miracle can save the Bears…”:
Grits with butter. Excellent. Grits with cheese. Even better. Grits with shrimp. Best. Uploaded by southernplate.com.
I can hear it now from our readers outside of the South. “Grits? What exactly are grits? They look like colorless mush – what’s the big deal? To which I reply, you haven’t had good grits. With butter, or even better, with cheese. And if you want to go for the gold, with shrimp. As my mama never said, “Hush my mouth.”
Grits are nothing more than coarsely ground corn. If you ground it any further, you’d have cornmeal. If you like polenta, you’ll be happy to know that grits are a first cousin. They’re white because they don’t use the whole kernel of corn, just the hulled kernels. Quaker makes an instant grits product which really isn’t too bad. (Don’t tell this to the purists, but sometimes you just don’t have the time to make the real thing.)
It’ll come as no surprise that 80 percent of alll grits are consumed in the South, the area between Virginia and Texas being called the “grits belt.” Grits are the official processed food of the state of Georgia. In fact, Georgia and South Carolina are engaged in a friendly dispute about which is more committed to grits.
Warwick, Georgia (uploaded by blogcdn.com) and
...St. George SC seem to have lost perspective. Uploaded by journalscene.com.
The town of St. George, S.C. calls itself the “official” Grits Capitol (sic) of the World, certified by no less an authority than the Piggly Wiggly as eating more grits than any other town. Next April 16-18, the town will host its 25th Annual World Grits Festival. Don’t tell that to the good folks of Warwick, Georgia, however. It proclaims itself the Grits Capital of the World, and it even knows how to spell “capital.” It’s going to hold its National Grits Festival on April 10 next year. So those who are truly dedicated could go to the competing festivals on back-to-back weeks and make their own determination about who’s top grit.
If all this sounds corny to you…that’s because it is.
The Spoleto Festival USA goes on for seventeen days. Woodstock lasted just three. Wimps. Uploaded by myislandtown.com.
Many cities and towns have arts festivals, often quite impressive ones. But Charleston, South Carolina’s Spoleto Festival USA stands out for its breadth of offerings, the talent of the performers, and the support that allows a moderate-sized Southern city to bring it all to reality.
Spoleto includes opera, theater, musical theater, the visual arts, and dance, as well as chamber, symphonic, choral, and jazz music. This past May and June, over a period of 17 days, the Charleston region was treated to more than 120 performances that ranged from favorite classics to brand new works, from established artists to exciting new talents.
The official 2009 festival poster. Uploaded by greatercharleston.com.
If that weren’t enough, Charleston also hosts a companion festival to bring the arts even further into the community. Piccolo Spoleto has more than seven hundred additional performances, including a film festival, a literary festival, organ recitals, and blues and jazz at outdoor venues all around town.
Spoleto came into being in 1977 under the inspiration of composer Gian Carlo Menotti. The festival derives its name from the town of Spoleto in Italy, which has long hosted a similar festival, Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of Two Worlds).
Festival director Nigel Redden sums up this year’s festival: “I happen to believe that (Spoleto founder) Gian Carlo Menotti’s ideas for this festival were pretty damn good ideas – to bring all the arts together, to make daring and unusual choices, to bring young artists along with a sprinkling of the more seasoned, to let people who have passion about something have their way, even if you may not agree with them.”
If you’d like to plan ahead, the 2010 festival takes place May 28-June 13.
The movie cast was better, but no one became a character more than Alan Alda became Hawkeye. Uploaded to Flickr by timwilliamson.
The 4077 Unit in Korea apparently was where funny doctors were stationed. Now, 26 years after the series left the air, it’s not the plots that we remember, as with other comedies. It’s the writing, the repartee that’s still sharp to our twenty-first century ears.
Uploaded to Flickr by Troy G. Artwork.
In my opinion, the casting of M*A*S*H was never up to the high standards of the writing. Alan Alda was brilliant, so was Harry Morgan. But Larry Linville? Loretta Swit? Wayne Rogers? Just adequate.
So instead of chronicling the show’s achievements, I think it’s more appropriate to remember some of the great one-liners from the show:
Frank Burns: Funny thing, war: never have so many suffered so much so so few could be so happy.
Margaret: We’re lucky to be two of the few and not the many.
Frank Burns: I know, darling, and I love being both of us.
Hawkeye: No wonder they execute people at dawn. Who wants to live at six A.M.?
Col. Potter: I said fire that weapon.
Hawkeye: All right. [to the gun] You’re fired.
Hawkeye: [to Potter] I did it as gently as I could.
Col. Potter: That was an order, Pierce.
Hawkeye: [Snapping his fingers] Oh waiter, would you take this man’s order, please?
Col. Potter: The General answers his own phone. Must be a Unitarian.
Radar: Sir, I was just crossing the compound when…
Frank Burns: I have no interest in the compound.
Klinger: He has no compound-interest.
B.J.: [Hawkeye and B.J. had walked into the woods to try and find civilization] Just woods and more woods.
Hawkeye: I met a little girl with a basket for her grandma.
B.J.: Wearing a little red riding hood?
Hawkeye: Actually she was with seven little dwarfs.
B.J.: She’s in the wrong woods.
Hawkeye: Or the wrong story.
Col. Potter: Are you finished, doctors?
Hawkeye: Are you…?
[B.J. nods]
Hawkeye: Yes.
Hoke tries to talk Miss Daisy back into the car so he can drive her to the Piggly Wiggly. Uploaded by fujishobo.np.infoseek.co.jp
Can’t you see the pitch meeting in Hollywood for this movie? WRITER: “It’s about an old Jewish woman in Atlanta and how she comes to respect her black chauffeur.” MOVIE EXEC: “Does something blow up? Do they have to run from the fireball?”
Miss Daisy was a 72-year-old woman who’d had an accident, and her son felt it was no longer safe for her to drive. So he hires a chauffeur to take her around town. She resists the idea, even telling her driver, “This is not the way to the Piggly Wiggly!”
Uploaded to Flickr by Web 2.
Although Driving Miss Daisy was a successful play before being adapted to the screen, I think the film’s success depends almost entirely on the performances of Jessica Tandy as Miss Daisy Werthen and Morgan Freeman as Hoke. Morgan Freeman was nominated for an Oscar (he lost to Daniel Day-Lewis’s wonderful performance in My Left Foot), and Jessica Tandy was named Best Actress, becoming the oldest winner (81) of that honor.
Speaking of awards, this movie has a couple of unusual distinctions. Alfred Uhry wrote the screenplay, based on his own Pulitzer award-winning play. It’s only the second Pulitzer winner that was adapted and became Best Picture, following Frank Capra’s You Can’t Take it With You (1937). Driving Miss Daisy is also the first film since 1932 to win Best Picture without its director (Bruce Beresford) even being nominated.
Isn't that a beautiful sight? No rock climbing walls or bowling alleys, though. Uploaded by oldgloryprints.com.
It had no rock climbing wall. No Olympic-size pools. You couldn’t play miniature golf, or go bowling, or ice skate. What you could do, however, was travel across the Atlantic in true style. And fast – faster than any passenger liner before or since.
On its maiden voyage begun, appropriately, on July 4, 1952, the S.S. United States broke the transatlantic speed record held by the Queen Mary. Broke it by ten hours.
Uploaded by cruiselinehistory.com.
The ship was built at the famous Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, and remains the largest ocean liner built entirely in America. Its secret was aluminum – more aluminum than any ship had used at that time. The United States was also virtually fireproof – it was said that the only wood aboard ship was in the grand piano and in the kitchen’s butcher block.
The US Navy helped fund its construction, and was prepared to appropriate it for use as a troop carrier should the need arrive. Except for a brief alert duing the Cuban Missile Crisis, however, it was never needed for that purpose.
The United States has not been seaworthy since 1969. It now sits at Pier 82 in Philadelphia, awaiting its fate. The SS United States Foundation is today lobbying to keep the ship from being sold for scrap, and for its restoration. I’m not sure if the ship could ever compete in today’s huge cruise ship environment, but she is a beautiful lady who deserves a better fate than neglect and decay.
There was actually a song written about the ship, and tell me you can’t find almost anything on YouTube!
When you can sing songs as Nat did, you don't need all those look-at-me riffs. Uploaded by warchild13.com.
Is this the smoothest voice in American music history? I think you could make the case that it is. Nat is almost as popular today as he was in his prime, because everyone loves that voice. The amazing thing is that he made his name not as a singer, but as a jazz pianist. And he was great at that, too.
The King Cole Trio began performing in 1937, and was a big success in the L.A. area. Nat would sing between sets, and it wasn’t long before people were clamoring for more vocals.
Uploaded by mensxp.com.
His first hit record was “Straighten Up and Fly Right” in 1943. His last hit was “That Sunday, That Summer,” which happens to be one of my favorite Cole songs. In between, he hit the charts with such classics as “Mona Lisa,” “Too Young,” “The Very Thought of You,” “Smile,” “When I Fall in Love”, “A Blossom Fell,” “Ramblin’ Rose,” “Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer,” and of course the haunting “Unforgettable,” which his daughter Natalie inserted herself in and made a hit again in 1991.
If you look around the TV dial, you might happen upon broadcasts of The Nat King Cole Show from 1956-57. If you’re lucky enough to find them, you’ll see that Nat was a natural in front of the camera. The primary reason the show is memorable, though, is that it’s the first network broadcast (NBC) ever hosted by an African-American. Sadly, the series only lasted one year, largely due to lack of a sponsor willing to stand up and be identified with a black entertainer.
Oh, one more thing. It doesn’t matter what time of year it is, it’s always a good day to hear Nat’s iconic recording of Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song”:
It's easy to see why Kona berries are called cherries. Uploaded to Flickr by punawelefarms.
I was surprised to learn how small the Kona coffee-growing region actually is. It’s only in the state of Hawaii, only on the Big Island, only in its Kona District on the west side of the island, and only on the slopes of Mount Hualanai and Mauna Loa. No wonder it’s a bit pricey.
Uploaded to Flickr by mr tentacle.
At the risk of sounding like a commercial, it’s the unique climate and soil of this region that gives the coffee its richness. The Kona Coffee Council puts it this way: “Rocky volcano slopes nurture it. Sun-drenched mornings ripen it. Misty afternoons refresh it. Six hundred farmers meticulously handpick it.”
That’s right, six hundred farmers. There are no huge corporate farms on Kona. Only about 2,300 acres are available, and most local growers have less than five acres each. And because of the topography of the land and the uneven ripening rate of the “cherries” that hold the beans, Kona coffee is all picked by hand.
Uploaded by kona-coffee-council.com.
One word of warning before you buy – be careful of the wording on the package. Genuine Kona has a label with the words “100% Kona” on it. Be wary of “Kona Blend”, “Kona “Roast”, and “Kona Style.” Oh, and if you’re heading to Hawaii, how about bringing me back a couple of pounds? I’d be happy to put on a pot and share…
Pickett performs his big hit outside the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Uploaded by daylife.com.
It was the biggest hit ever for Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Cryptkickers. Okay, it was their only hit. “Monster Mash” was released back in the days when new dances were introduced by songs (think “The Twist” and “Mashed Potato”), and this one is about a Frankenstein-type monster rising and introducing a new hit dance.
Uploaded by ipt.ru.
Bobby Pickett was an aspiring actor who sang with a band called the Cordials at night. He sometimes used his Boris Karloff impression during the act, and a fellow band member suggested they write a song for Bobby “Boris.” A new dance? Why not? And “Monster Mash” was, uh, born.
The song became a number one hit just before Halloween in 1962, and “comes back to life” every October since. It’s actually been re-released and made the charts three other times, oddly enough not in October, but in December (‘62), August (‘70), and May (‘72).
The song was essentially Pickett’s whole career. He tried to capitalize on the rap craze by releasing “Monster Rap” in 1985. And most desperate (and strange) of all, he did a version to combat “global warming” in 2005 called “Climate Mash.”
Oh, one interesting bit of trivia – one of the “members” of the Cryptkickers went on to make a name for himself in the music world – Leon Russell.
Handsome, self-assured, and cool, that's James Garner. Uploaded by images.digitalmedianet.com.
This is one cool dude. From his earliest days as Maverick, through the halcyon era of The Rockford Files, into mature roles in movies such as Space Cowboys, James Garner is quintessentially cool.
The words used to describe Garner pretty much tell the tale. “Charming.” “Amiable.” “Self-possessed.” “Likable.” He tended to be featured as a rogue on the verge of trouble who had to find his way out by using wit and charm.
While his television roles will probably be what people remember most, Garner also made a number of significant and success films. He co-starred with Steve McQueen in The Great Escape, with Julie Andrews in The Americanization of Emily and Victor/Victoria, and with Walter Brennan in Support Your Local Sheriff!
Uploaded by moviegnome.com.
But my favorite James Garner movie was the sweet Murphy’s Romance. He owned a pharmacy in a small town, and along came Sally Field, trying desperately to make it as a single mother. The development of their relationship is a lovely bit of storytelling, and no one could have made it as real as did James Garner. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the role, and he won an Emmy for Rockford.
Here’s how James Garner described his acting style: “I’m a Spencer Tracy-type actor. His idea was to be on time, know your words, hit your marks and tell the truth. I don’t think acting is that difficult if you can put yourself aside and do what the writer wrote.”
This is my favorite scene from Murphy’s Romance, in which Garner offers a toast at his birthday party:
Hank Aaron is Major League Baseball’s legitimate all-time leader in home runs. Of course I say “legitimate” because he has since been passed by Barry Bonds, who took advantage of baseball’s passive acceptance of steroids to…but wait, I don’t want to get distracted from the achievements of Aaron.
Aaron never really had the spotlight that his remarkable career deserved. All he did was play baseball the way it was meant to be played for 23 seasons. While he played he was overshadowed by flashier stars such as Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. When he finally found the spotlight near the end of his playing days, he was reviled for having the nerve to break the career home run record set by baseball’s greatest icon, Babe Ruth (Great American Thing No. 117).
Though he dealt with physical intimidation and death threats, Aaron endured with grace and dignity. Now we can look back and see both his accomplishments and his character in a fresh light.
Uploaded by www.kskssports.com.
He not only held the record for the most home runs, but probably more significantly, still has the most RBIs in history. He hit more than 30 home runs for 15 seasons. He has the most extra base hits ever. He’s in the Hall of Fame, of course. But here’s an interesting factoid – of his 755 home runs, 70 came off of pitchers who are fellow Hall of Famers. Tell that to today’s stars who are hitting against essentially minor league pitchers in the big leagues because of the dilution of talent.
Aaron is the last Negro League player to move to the Majors, having played one season for the Indianapolis Clowns. Following that year, he was offered contracts by the New York Giants and the Boston Braves. He later said, “I had the Giants’ contract in my hand. But the Braves offered fifty dollars a month more. That’s the only thing that kept Willie Mays and me from being teammates — fifty dollars.”
Fiery lava cascades into the Pacific Ocean. Uploaded by ballslist.com.
You’ll find Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the island of Hawaii, home to one of the world’s most active volcanoes (Kilauea) and its most massive one (Mauna Loa). The Park spreads out over 520 sq. mi. of land, and goes from sea level all the way up to the rim of Mauna Loa at 13,677 feet.
The Park offers vistas unavailable anywhere else in the country. You can see flaming lava break off a cliff and fall into the Pacific Ocean. You can walk right up to slow moving floes of lava. You can – well, shoot, let’s see if these pictures don’t say all that needs to be said about this otherworldly location:
Remember when that mustache was cool? And that hair? Uploaded by pladevenderne.dk.
Paul Simon wrote it. Art Garfunkel sang it. And America loved it. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” won the Grammy Awards for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1971. And Rolling Stone named it number 47 in its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
But, coming as it did near the end of Simon and Garfunkel’s partnership, it didn’t come into being without some travail. Although Simon wrote it for Garfunkel’s voice, he has stated that he wishes he’d sung it himself. “He felt I should have done it,” Simon told Rolling Stone in 1972. “And many times I’m sorry I didn’t do it.”
It was their last album together. Uploaded by images.amazon.com.
Since the recording industry organization BMI named it the 19th-most-performed song of the twentieth century, it should come as no surprise that several excellent covers have been recorded. Aretha Franklin won a Grammy for Best Female R&B Performance for her 1972 version. Johnny Cash (Great American Thing No. 59) and The Jackson 5 recorded it.
And perhaps those who know that Elvis (Great American Thing No. 121) sang a lot of gospel music might have expected his outstanding version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” He recorded it in 1970 and performed it in two documentaries: Elvis – That’s the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour.
By the way, when Simon and Garfunkel sing the song now during their regular reunion concerts, they alternate singing the verses. “Your time has come to shine…”
Paul Harvey received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. Uploaded by thedryspot.files.wordpress.com.
What was it about Paul Harvey that catapulted him to the top of his profession? Was it the interesting mix of stories he chose, alternating between the serious and the quirky? Or was it his distinctive style and dramatic delivery, evident from his opening: “Hello, America, this is Paul Harvey. Stand by for news!
Uploaded by wgngold.com.
His broadcasts ranged from the intimate (“Harold and Joan Pershing in Sausalito, California are 75 years on their way to forever together”) to the whimsical (“You say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, let’s see about that. You give me a thousand words, and I’ll give you the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd psalm, and the Hippocratic oath and a sonnet by Shakespeare and the preamble to the Constitution and Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, and I’ll still have just about enough words left for the Boy Scout oath.”).
Another of Paul Harvey’s signatures was his “The Rest of the Story” broadcast. He’d tell a remarkable story about someone famous, using a name we’re not as familiar with (for example “Tommy” might turn out to be Thomas Edison), and after revealing the identity of the subject, he’d conclude with, “And now you know…the…rest of the story.”
Paul called his wife “Angel”, both in person and on the air. The “rest of the story” about Angel was that she was very influential in her husband’s career. She produced his show, and indeed was the first producer inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. “The Rest of the Story” feature was her idea, and she was always Paul’s inspiration.
Paul Harvey was consistently listed in the Gallup Poll’s list of Most Admired Men. In 2005, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush.
It wouldn't be easy to eat this all by yourself. Not easy, but worth it. Uploaded by micuisine.com.
For a small town (2000 population: 7,634), Latrobe, Pennsylvania has a lot to brag about. It’s the original hometown of Rolling Rock beer. It was the hometown of golf legend Arnold Palmer and TV legend Mr. Rogers. And if that doesn’t do it for you, it’s also the town where the banana split was born. Now we’re talking.
It was created by one David Strickler, an apprentice pharmacist who worked in the Tassel Pharmacy’s soda shop. He loved inventing sundaes, and in 1904 he created one with three scoops of ice cream and a halved banana. It sold for the outrageous price of ten cents, and it was a hit with the students at the town’s St. Vincent College.
Uploaded to Flickr by Richard-o
As you might expect, there are other jealous towns that said, “We did it first.” Boston, but they had one problem – they didn’t peel the banana! And Wilmington, Ohio – but they weren’t even original enough to be the first town named Wilmington, so they’re obviously copycats. No, Latrobe has been certified as the birthplace of the banana split by no less an authority than the National Ice Cream Retailers Association. And when NICRA speaks, they give the authentic scoop. “Scoop,” oh man, I crack myself up.
Supposedly, Walgreens helped make the banana split a national phenomenon by offering it as a feature dessert at its soda fountains. Let’s all take a moment and mourn the loss of the drug store fountain, a wonderful piece of Americana that today’s mega-pharmacies will never replace.
Split a banana lengthwise in a “boat” dish. Add one scoop of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream. Top with pineapple or butterscotch (on the vanilla), chocolate syrup (on the chocolate), and strawberry topping (on the strawberry). Add nuts, whipped cream, and a cherry.
John Steinbeck was one of the three greatest American novelists of the twentieth century. Uploaded by stripes.com.
O ye aspiring writers, harken unto the story of John Steinbeck. Who dropped out of college. Who moved to New York to be a writer, but got nothing published. Whose first three published novels are all but unknown. Who went ten years before finally achieving some critical success with Tortilla Flat.
Once the literary world discovered Steinbeck, it recognized his giant talent. The list of his books reads like your high school summer reading list: Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, East of Eden, The Winter of Our Discontent, and Travels with Charley.
He served as a war correspondent during World War II for the New York Herald Tribune. He chronicled commando raids against the Germans on Mediterranean islands, and published many of his columns later in the book Once There Was a War. The book was made into a documentary, joining 17 other filmed versions of his works.
The National Steinbeck Center, uploaded by discovernortherncalifornia.com.
And, aspiring writers, don’t forget this: John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom From President Lyndon Johnson.
If you ever make it to Salinas, California, be sure to visit the National Steinbeck Center and appreciate this literary shrine. Who knows – there may be a museum built in your honor some day.
From Tim Considine (top left) to Annete Funicello (bottom right), the Mouseketeers embodied the boomers as kids. Uploaded by jungleredwriters.com.
This listing is for the 1955-59 series, not its reincarnations. (Justin Timberlake, Brittney Spears, and Christina Aguilera? Ack.) No, the baby boomer generation was won over by the one with Annette Funicello and Cubby O’Brien, Spin and Marty, and cast members wearing Mousket-ears.
The Mickey Mouse Club was essentially an after-school variety show for kids that offered serials, newsreels, talent performances, and reminders of good moral behavior by show host Jimmy Dodd. Annette quickly became its star, and had a serial based around her – Walt Disney Presents: Annette.
Spin and Marty. Actually, Marty and Spin. Uploaded by en.wikipedia.org.
Of the other serials, the two I remember best were Spin and Marty and The Hardy Boys. Both featured actor Tim Considine. Spin Evans and Marty Markham were two boys at the Triple R Ranch who had to learn to get along despite coming from different backgrounds. The Hardy Boys was aired in 19 episodes of 15 minutes each that were produced for the extravagant sum of $5700.
Though original shows were only shown for three seasons, the original Mickey Mouse Club was brought back in half-hour episodes for syndication, and maintained a presence on TV through the early 1960s.
Now’s the time to say goodbye to all our company…M-I-C (See you real soon!) K-E-Y (Why? Because we like you!) M-O-U-S-E.
Seldom has there been a movie, or at least one not written by the Coen Brothers, that has as many memorable lines as Forrest Gump:
“I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is.”
“My mama always said, Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.”
“You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich.”
“Stupid is as stupid does.”
And on and on. Director Robert Zemeckis did a wonderful job turning what could have been another “disabled person overcomes handicaps” movie into a masterpiece of storytelling.
Uploaded by i467.photobucket.com.
Part of what made the movie such a spectacle was the way Forrest Gump interacted with actual history, from Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to Bear Bryant to a march for peace in Washington, DC. And while many of the supporting characters weren’t as strong as a film of this importance required, casting Gary Sinise as Lieutenant Dan was brilliant. He helped propel the film, and the film in turn helped propel his career.
Forrest Gump was nominated for 13 Academy Awards, and won 6, including Best Picture. It ranked 71st in the American Film Institute’s countdown of 100 Years…100 Movies.
One more thing…the soundtrack. It must have been the dream job to have picked the songs that accompanied Forrest’s lifetime. It’s essentially a Greatest Hits of the 1960s and 70s.
Is this the face of bluegrass music? Let's hope so. Uploaded by img.gactv.com.
If you had to choose a face for modern bluegrass music, you couldn’t choose one much more appealing than that of Allison Krauss. She sings with that gentle soprano voice and plays a mean fiddle. And here’s a fact I found amazing – she’s won 26 Grammy Awards, making her the most-awarded female artist in Grammy history. Some face!
Uploaded by puremusic.com.
She began as a child phenom, garnering her first record contract at the age of 14. She had begun by studying classical violin, but switched to fiddle (more comfortable for the chin) and won talent contests at the ripe old age of eight. I’m not sure if she’d have received exposure to bluegrass in her hometown of Champaign, Illinois, but she was fortunate that her parents were from Columbus, Mississippi. The result is pure bluegrass without the mountain twang that alienates so many outsiders.
Through the years she’s collaborated with a number of artists, often from other musical genres, and has created a rich diversity of songs. Among the artists she’s performed or recorded with are Dolly Parton, Sting, Elvis Costello, Brad Paisley, and John Waite.
Her most recent collaboration was with rocker Robert Plant, with whom she recorded the album Raising Sand. Not only did the album produce the Grammy Record of the Year (“Please Read the Letter”) but it also went on to capture Album of the Year honors. It beat out Coldplay, Radiohead, Lil Wayne, and something called Ne-Yo.
I have to admit it was her performances on the soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou? that won me over.
Copyright 2009, Robin G. Chalkley. All material on these pages and the listing of items as Great American Things, is copyrighted. The exceptions are the photographs and videos, which remain the property of their respective owners.
