Kristoffer Kristofferson was an American country music singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a pioneering figure in the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, moving away from the polished Nashville sound and toward a more raw, introspective style. He was a three-time Grammy Award winner, out of 13 total nominations.
He was 88.
Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, Music, News, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
James Earl Jones was an American actor known for his film roles and for his work in theatre. He was one of the few performers to achieve the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). Jones has been described as “one of America’s most distinguished and versatile” actors for his performances on stage and screen. He has also been called “one of the greatest actors in American history”. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985. He was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1992, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2009, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2011.
Posted in Because I Can, News, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
Jimmy Buffett was an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and businessman. He was best known for his music, which often portrays an “island escapism” lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett recorded hit songs including “Margaritaville” (ranked 234th on the Recording Industry Association of America’s list of “Songs of the Century”) and “Come Monday”. He had a devoted base of fans known as “Parrotheads”.
Aside from his career in music, Buffett was also a bestselling author and was involved in two restaurant chains named after two of his best-known songs; he owned the Margaritaville Cafe restaurant chain and co-developed the now defunct Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chain.
Buffett was one of the world’s richest musicians, with a net worth of $1 billion by 2023.
Buffett died from lymphoma on September 1, 2023, at the age of 76. The singer’s death was announced on his social media pages and on his website. In a statement released by the family, they said “Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs. He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many.”
Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, Events, Music, News
I somehow missed this.
On May 17, 2024, at 5:29 p.m., WWII Triple Ace Brigadier General Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 102.
Interview Part 1:
Interview Part 2:
Posted in Because I Can, News, Patriotic, Planes Trains and Automobiles
From Wikipedia:
Donald McNichol Sutherland CC (July 17, 1935 – June 20, 2024) was a Canadian actor. With a film career spanning over seven decades, Sutherland received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards. He is cited as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination, but received an Academy Honorary Award in 2017.
Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, and later moving to Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Sutherland rose to fame after starring in films such as The Dirty Dozen (1967), MAS*H (1970), and Kelly’s Heroes (1970). He subsequently starred in many films both in leading and supporting roles, including Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), Klute (1971), Don’t Look Now (1973), The Day of the Locust (1975), Fellini’s Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), 1900 (1976), Animal House (1978), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Ordinary People (1980), Eye of the Needle (1981), A Dry White Season (1989), Backdraft (1991), JFK (1991), Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Without Limits Fallen with Denzel Washington(1998), The Italian Job (2003), and Pride & Prejudice (2005). More recently, Sutherland portrayed President Snow in The Hunger Games franchise.
Sutherland also received accolades for his television roles. For his portrayal of Colonel Mikhail Fetisov in Citizen X (1995) he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. He played Adam Czerniaków in Uprising (2001), and Clark Clifford in Path to War (2002) earning the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.
Sutherland received various honours including inductions into the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2000 and the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in 1978, a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2012 and received the Companion of the Order of Canada (CC) in 2019. He was the father of Kiefer, Rossif, and Angus, all actors. In October 2023, Canada Post issued a stamp in his honour, commemorating his career as one of Canada’s most respected and versatile actors.
Posted in Because I Can, News, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
Jimmy Buffett was an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and businessman. He was best known for his music, which often portrays an “island escapism” lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett recorded hit songs including “Margaritaville” (ranked 234th on the Recording Industry Association of America’s list of “Songs of the Century”) and “Come Monday”. He had a devoted base of fans known as “Parrotheads”.
Aside from his career in music, Buffett was also a bestselling author and was involved in two restaurant chains named after two of his best-known songs; he owned the Margaritaville Cafe restaurant chain and co-developed the now defunct Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chain.
Buffett was one of the world’s richest musicians, with a net worth of $1 billion by 2023.
Buffett died from lymphoma on September 1, 2023, at the age of 76. The singer’s death was announced on his social media pages and on his website. In a statement released by the family, they said “Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs. He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many.”
Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, Events, Music, News
Robert William Barker was an American television game show host. He hosted CBS’s The Price Is Right from 1972 to 2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American television history. He also hosted Truth or Consequences from 1956 to 1975.
He was 99 years old.
Posted in News, The Little Screen (Television)
Sled driver you ask. That’s what they called the pilots of the world’s faster airplane, the Lockheed SR-71 ‘Blackbird’.
Brian Shul was an American pilot and photographer. A Vietnam War-era attack pilot and a Major in the United States Air Force (USAF), he flew 212 combat missions and was shot down near the end of the war. He was so badly burned that he was given next to no chance to live. Surviving, he returned to full flight status, flying the SR-71 Blackbird. Major Shul completed a 20-year career in the Air Force. He wrote four books on aviation and ran a photo studio in Marysville, California, until his death in Reno, Nevada.
Here are two of his fantastic talks… a wonderful inspirational speaker:
And, of course, the short version of the SR-71 Blackbird ‘Speed Check’:
Posted in Because I Can, News, Patriotic, Planes Trains and Automobiles
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. CC OOnt (November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023)
Gordon Lightfoot was a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s. He has been referred to as Canada’s greatest songwriter and was known internationally as a folk-rock legend. Lightfoot’s biographer Nicholas Jennings said, “His name is synonymous with timeless songs about trains and shipwrecks, rivers and highways, lovers and loneliness.”
Lightfoot’s songs, including “For Lovin’ Me”, “Early Morning Rain”, “Steel Rail Blues”, “Ribbon of Darkness”—a number one hit on the U.S. country chart with Marty Robbins’s cover in 1965—and “Black Day in July”, about the 1967 Detroit riot, brought him wide recognition in the 1960s. Canadian chart success with his own recordings began in 1962 with the No. 3 hit “(Remember Me) I’m the One”, followed by recognition and charting abroad in the 1970s. He topped the US Hot 100 or AC chart with the hits “If You Could Read My Mind” (1970), “Sundown” (1974); “Carefree Highway” (1974), “Rainy Day People” (1975), and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (1976), and had many other hits that appeared in the top 40.
Several of Lightfoot’s albums achieved gold and multi-platinum status internationally. His songs have been recorded by artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr., Jerry Lee Lewis, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Harry Belafonte, the Grateful Dead, Olivia Newton-John, and Jim Croce. The Guess Who recorded a song called “Lightfoot” on their 1968 album Wheatfield Soul; the lyrics contain many Lightfoot song titles.
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” on Wikipedia
Read the fantastic history of Gordon Lightfoot over on Wikipedia here.
Posted in Because I Can, Music, News
Per Wikipedia:
David Van Cortlandt Crosby was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They had their first number-one hit in April 1965 with a cover of “Mr. Tambourine Man” by Bob Dylan. Crosby appeared on the Byrds’ first five albums and produced the original lineup’s 1973 reunion album. He subsequently formed Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1968 with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash.
Posted in Because I Can, Music, News
Christine Anne McVie (née Perfect) was an English musician, and the vocalist and keyboardist of Fleetwood Mac, which she joined in 1970. She also released three solo albums. Her lyrics focused on love and relationships. Steve Leggett of AllMusic described her as an “unabashedly easy-on-the-ears singer/songwriter, and the prime mover behind some of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits.” Eight songs written or co-written by her, including “Don’t Stop”, “Everywhere” and “Little Lies”, appeared on Fleetwood Mac’s 1988 Greatest Hits album.
Posted in Because I Can, Music, News
Rest in Peace French-born American actor Robert Clary (March 1, 1926 – November 16, 2022), well known for his roles as Corporal Louis LeBeau on Hogan’s Heroes (1965–1971), Robert LeClair on Days of Our Lives (1972–1987), Pierre Roulland on The Young and the Restless (1973–1974), and Pierre Jourdan on The Bold and the Beautiful (1990–1992).
Posted in Because I Can, News, The Little Screen (Television)
Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr., known mononymously as Gallagher, was an American comedian who became one of the most recognizable comedic performers of the 1980s for his prop and observational routine that included the signature act of smashing a watermelon on stage with a sledgehammer. For more than 30 years, he played between 100-200 shows a year, destroying tens of thousands of melons with the sledgehammer he called the “Sledge-O-Matic”. Gallagher’s 13 TV comedy specials is second most all-time, behind only George Carlin.
Sledge-O-Matic
Though it varied from performance to performance, Gallagher would usually end each of his shows with his signature “Sledge-O-Matic” routine.
It traditionally began with the following preamble:
“Ladies and gentlemen! I did not come here tonight just to make you laugh. I came here to sell you something and I want you to pay particular attention!
The amazing Master Tool Corporation, a subsidiary of Fly-By-Night Industries, has entrusted who? Me! To show you! The handiest and the dandiest kitchen tool you’ve ever seen. And don’t you wanna know how it works!?
Well, first you get out an ordinary apple. You place the apple between the patented pans. Then you reach for the tool that is not a slicer, is not a dicer, is not chopper in a hopper! What in the hell could it possibly be?! The Sledge-O-Matic!”
Gallagher would then produce a large, usually wooden, mallet, roughly the size of a sledgehammer, and smash it down onto the apples, hurling chunks of produce into the audience. People in the first several rows were usually prepared with tarps and raincoats, and many comedy clubs took great measures to cover up and protect their interiors with tarps and plastic sheeting.
Edit: I found my favorite one! With One and Two, and a “graphical” Bomb-Tomb-Comb..
Posted in Because I Can, Literary, News, The Little Screen (Television)
Angela Lansbury was an Irish-British-American actress and singer who played various roles across film, stage, and television. Her career, one of the longest in the entertainment industry, spanned eight decades, much of it in the United States; her work also received much international attention. She was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema at the time of her death.
Many a night I sat and watched Murder, She Wrote, and many times I have enjoyed watching The King and I. Thank you very much for the memories.
Posted in Because I Can, Events, News, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
Loretta Lynn was an American singer-songwriter. In a career which spanned six decades in country music, Lynn released multiple gold albums. She had hits such as “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)”, “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)”, “One’s on the Way”, “Fist City”, and “Coal Miner’s Daughter”. In 1980, the film Coal Miner’s Daughter was made based on her life.
Posted in Because I Can, Events, Music, News
Posted in Because I Can, Events, News
SAN ANTONIO, April 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — DeLorean Motor Company has announced a new reveal date and released its first sneak peak of their electric vehicle. The concept car is now slated to premiere Thursday, August 18 at the prestigious Awards Ramp at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
Click here to the read the announcement.
Posted in Events, News, Planes Trains and Automobiles
C.W. McCall, the Omaha, Nebraska adman who jumped to country music stardom with 1976’s “Convoy“, died yesterday at the age of 93 after battling cancer.
“Breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck” introduced America to CB Jargon in the mainstream. Selling more than 2 million copies, and inspiring a 1978 movie of the same name starring Kris Kristofferson, would bring “10-4, good buddy” and many more into America’s lexicon.
Born Nov. 15, 1928, in Audubon, Iowa, as William Dale Fries Jr., Fries created the character of C.W. McCall in 1974 while working at an Omaha ad agency. The goal then wasn’t to record radio hits but to sell loaves of bread with country-sounding jingles.
“I wanted to name the truck driver something that would be easily remembered. A lot of the truckers wore initials on their shirts,” he told Milwaukee deejay Bob Barry. “We thought it was sort of a country-western sounding track, so that’s where the C.W. came from.”
The first commercial, “Old Home Filler-Up an’ Keep on a-Truckin’ Café,” proved so popular (it won a Clio Award) that Fries began to write a series of truck-driving songs with Chip Davis, who’d go on to form the neo-classical group Mannheim Steamroller. “Old Home Filler-Up an’ Keep on a-Truckin’ Café” appeared on McCall’s debut album, 1975’s Wolf Creek Pass. The title track hit Number 12 on the country charts and Fries — by now fully transformed into the character of C.W. McCall — set about recording the follow-up.
Black Bear Road arrived in September 1975 and its title track stalled at Number 24. But McCall released another song off the album: “Convoy.” The tale of a caravan of big-rig drivers led by “The Rubber Duck” caught the national consciousness with its vivid cross-country imagery and playful lingo — “Smokies” for the cops, “bear in the air” for a police chopper, “What’s your twenty?” for location, and, of course, “10-4” for “affirmative.” The track spent six weeks atop the country charts and hit No. 1 on the pop survey.
“This here’s the Rubber Duck on the side. We gone, ‘bye, ‘bye”
Posted in Because I Can, Events, Music, News, Planes Trains and Automobiles
