birthday Archives - Page 34 of 50

Helen Mirren is 70 (tomorrow)

Mirren’s paternal grandfather was in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War.

In June 2015, Dame Helen Lydia Mirren won the Tony Award for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play. Here is her acceptance speech.

I had forgotten that she had been nominated for Tonys twice before. In her win for The Audience, she portrayed Queen Elizabeth II. Playing the same personage, she won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2006 in The Queen. Like much of her stage work, the role was developed in the West End, London’s equivalent to New York City’s Broadway.

She had won the first of her four Emmy Awards in 1996, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special, for Prime Suspect: The Scent of Darkness, making her a Grammy shy of an EGOT. I’ve watched her in much of her seven seasons of Prime Suspect.

She’s done a great deal of voice work. On TV, she was Becky’s Inner Voice on Glee and a caller on Frasier; in the movies, the dean in Monsters University (2013), and the queen, per usual, in The Prince of Egypt (1998).

I think of her primarily as a film actress, but I’ve not seen as many movies as I would have thought. On-screen, I’ve seen her in:
2014 The Hundred-Foot Journey
2006 The Queen
2003 Calendar Girls
2001 Gosford Park
1999 Teaching Mrs. Tingle
1994 The Madness of King George (playing Queen Charlotte)
1985 White Nights
1973 O Lucky Man! – here’s the O Lucky Man! trailer

From the Wikipedia:

“Mirren was born Helen Lydia Mironoff in … London. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Mironoff (1913–1980), was Russian…and her mother, Kitty (née Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda Rogers; 1909–1996), was English.

“Mirren’s paternal grandfather, Colonel Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, was in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat and was negotiating an arms deal in Britain when he and his family were stranded during the Russian Revolution. The former diplomat became a London cab driver to support his family and eventually settled down in England.

“Helen’s father… anglicised the family name in the 1950s and changed his name to Basil Mirren. He played the viola with the London Philharmonic before World War II, and later drove a taxi cab… before becoming a civil servant with the Ministry of Transport.

“Mirren’s mother was a working-class Londoner… and was the 13th of 14 children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria… Mirren was the second of three children; she was born three years after her older sister Katherine (“Kate”; born 1942), and has a younger brother…named Peter Basil…

“Mirren married American director Taylor Hackford (her partner since 1986) on 31 December 1997, his 53rd birthday…. The couple had met on the set of White Nights. It is her first marriage, and his third (he has two children from his previous marriages). Mirren has no children and says she has “no maternal instinct whatsoever.”

“On 11 May 2010, Mirren attended the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds London.”

Her Bio piece.
CBS Sunday Morning February 2015 (updated in June 2015).

Matt & Sweat, and derecho anniversary

The Wife went to college in the North Country, and taught school in the midst of the Adirondack mountains.

Once upon a time, I used to complained that The Wife did not follow the news enough, mostly because events I thought were commonly known, she was unaware of. She does pay more attention now, checking out 5 minutes of the NPR news each weekday morning, plus catching news at other times of the day.

There was one recent story for which she definitely took notice, which was two convicted murderers, Richard Matt and David Sweat, breaking out of prison, the Clinton Correctional Facility at Dannemora in (WAY) upstate New York on June 6. Truth is that it would have been very difficult to have avoided, with the local cable news station using special dramatic music frequently while the men were loose.

The prison break ended with Matt being shot and killed, and a few days later, on June 28, Sweat being shot but captured alive. It was such a great soap opera that people were casting characters for what seems to be an inevitable TV movie. Some folks were sad that the situation ended. The Wife was NOT one of those people, and she was a bit bummed that Sweat was brought to Albany Medical Center, only a couple miles from our home, for treatment.

She seemed to relate to the vastness of northern New York. She went to college in the North Country and taught school in the midst of the Adirondack mountains. Part of her interest was her concern for those isolated folks in their homes and summer cabins, some of the latter of which Matt and Sweat did break into.

That said, she was bemused by the saga, which involved one prison employee, Joyce Mitchell, who was apparently romantically involved with one or both of the prisoners, procuring tools for the breakout. Mitchell put them in some ground beef, froze it, and then gave the meat to another prison worker to give to the felons. Both employees have been indicted.

True: the Daughter knows more about this case than either my wife OR myself.
***
I should also note that this is the 20th anniversary of a derecho that started in the Midwest and eventually struck the Adirondacks and Albany. A derecho is “a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds.” Those 70+ mph winds rattled the windows and woke us both from a sound sleep a little before 7 a.m.

It tore up some trees in nearby Washington Park. But a member of our church had dozens of broken bones when a tree fell on her up in the aforementioned Adirondacks.
***
Happy birthday to my bride. I love you.

Carly Simon is 70

Mockingbird also charted in Canada , New Zealand, the UK.

Long before I knew the name Carly Simon, I was listening to the folk music of the Simon Sisters, especially Winkin’, Blinkin’, And Nod, which managed to get to #73 on the pop charts back in 1964. Here’s Winkin’, live, from 1968, with middle sister Lucy; Carly was the youngest girl. Listen to The Simon Sisters sing for Children.

The three Simon sisters, including opera singer Joanna, the oldest, are all accomplished singers, influenced heavily by their parents. Their father was the co-founder of the book publishing house Simon & Schuster. Watch this piece about the sisters from the early 1980s.

From Wikipedia: “For her 1988 hit ‘Let the River Run’, from the film Working Girl, Simon became the first artist in history to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for a song both written and performed entirely by a single artist. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994, inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for ‘You’re So Vain’ in 2004, and awarded the ASCAP Founders Award in 2012.”

The folks at the Grammys named her best new artist of 1972, a choice that has proved sage over time. She beat out Bill Withers; Chase; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; and Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds.

10. Better Not Tell Her. My favorite Carly Simon album is Have You Seen Me Lately?, which only got to #60 on the Billboard charts in 1990. This song, despite the video, did not chart at all.

9. Nobody Does It Better (#2 for three weeks in 1977). One of the two or three best James Bond songs, this from The Spy Who Loved Me. It was kept out of the top slot by You Light Up My Life, which was #1 for TEN weeks.

8. Legend in Your Own Time (#50 in 1972). Reportedly about Cat Stevens, who she dated for a time, I always it took as a sarcastic dig of a “legend in your own mind.” Yet it seems sweetly delivered.

7. Mockingbird (#5 in 1974). A duet with then-husband James Taylor, I like how they switch off harmony and lead vocals. From here: “It also charted in Canada (#3), New Zealand (#6), the UK (#34)… In recent years Taylor has performed ‘Mockingbird’ live with his daughter (by Simon) Sally Taylor and Simon has performed the song live with her and Taylor’s son Ben Taylor.” I could find only this live version.

6. You’re So Vain (#1 for three weeks in 1973). I actually never much cared WHO the song was about. It evidently is NOT about Mick Jagger (who sings on the song), Warren Beatty, James Taylor, Kris Kristofferson, Cat Stevens, or David Geffen, though she once said it was about Geffen. Here’s a strange 2011 video.

5. Haven’t Got Time for the Pain (#14 in 1974). At the end of this song is one of my favorite uses of strings.

4. Fisherman’s Song. This shows up on a recording for children and with Judy Collins and Lucy Simon on her 1990 album. Here’s Carly Simon talking with Joan Lunden, before singing it.

3. It’s Not Like Him. ALSO from Better Not Tell Her. Song of marital betrayal.

2. Anticipation (#13 in 1972). Almost ruined by its association with a Heinz catsup commercial, it still ends with the most hopeful line, “These are the good old days.”

1. That’s The Way I Always Heard It Should Be (#10 in 1971). I find this song unrelentingly sad, with ***
Carly Simon’s feet.

Gary Brooker of Procol Harum is 70

My friends would muse about whether there really WERE 16 Vestal virgins.

Gary Brooker, the guy with the mustache, is the founder, keyboard player, and lead singer of the progressive rock group Procol Harum through its entire run (1967–1977, 1991–present).

I have three LPs by the group, all from 1972 or earlier. But I had a cassette greatest hits, which I absolutely loved before it wore out.

I now own a greatest hits album on CD which is a different collection. And it was on that disc I heard the song called Boredom, the B-side of the 1969 single The Devil Came From Kansas, for the very first time

It contains the lyrics:

Some say they will and some say they won’t
Some say they do and some say they don’t
Some say they shall and some say they shan’t
And some say they can and some say they can’t

This made me do a double-take, because I had written, many years ago, a song called Inconsistency, which rhymed “shan’t” and “can’t”.

“Brooker also toured with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band in 1997 and 1999.”

My favorite Procol Harum songs:

8. Whiskey Train (1969). This is just a hard-rocking tune that is different from what I associate with the group.

7. In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence (1968, B-side of Quite Rightly So). Love the syncopation of the organ line.

6. Homburg (1967, #34 US, #6 UK).

5. Quite Rightly So (1968, #50 UK).

4. A Whiter Shade of Pale (1967, #5 US, #1 UK). The first big single. Vestal was a suburb of Binghamton, NY, my hometown. When I was 14, my friends would muse about whether there really WERE 16 Vestal virgins.

“In July 2009, [original Procol Harum organist] Matthew Fisher won a British court judgment awarding him 40% of the music royalties from 2005 onwards for 1967’s ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’, which had previously gone 50% to Brooker for the music and 50% to [Keith] Reid for the lyrics.” Coincidentally, Fisher and I share a birthday.

3. Shine On Brightly (1968) Love this from the very first notes. Surprised it wasn’t a single.

2. Conquistador (1972, #16 US, #22 UK, with different B-sides). From Live In Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. WAY better than the studio version.

1. A Salty Dog (1969, #44 UK). Maybe it’s a Pisces thing, but this song has viscerally affected me from the first hearing.
***
Coverville 1080: Creedence Clearwater Revival and Procol Harum Cover Stories

John Fogerty is 70

Just last year, I wrote a lengthy piece about Creedence Clearwater Revival, a fine band. In it, I mentioned the continuing strife between lead singer/songwriter John Fogerty and the other living members of the group, plus his brother’s widow. As of December 2014, the lawsuits continue.

So I’m just going to link to some solo John Fogerty for his birthday number three score and ten:

With the Blue Ridge Rangers: Jambalaya (On The Bayou), #16 in 1973. This was #1 country hit in 1952 for Hank Williams.

Rockin’ All Over The World, #27 in 1975.

Almost Saturday Night, #78 in 1975.

The Old Man Down The Road, #10 in 1985.

Rock And Roll Girls, #20 in 1985. Its B-side,
Centerfield, #44 in 1985, was
honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.

(All chart citations refer to the US Billboard pop listings.)
***
John Fogerty and Sawyer Fredericks on The Voice finale, May 2015, singing a CCR medley. BTW, Sawyer is the area kid who won the competition.