Saturday, December 28, 2013

My Online "Empire"

Websites
-dedicated to George Harrison's widow and Dhani Harrison's mother. It's the first website I created
-a fun little site exploring the friendship of John Lennon and Ringo Starr's ex wives Cynthia Lennon Charles and Maureen Starkey Tigrett
-Actress (from the movie Metropolitan and a recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) and Author (Happens Every Day, A Year and Six Seconds and Starry Night)

Yahoo Groups
-dedicated to Julian Lennon, Zak Starkey, Jason Starkey, Mary McCartney, Lee Starkey, Stella McCartney, Sean Lennon, James McCartney, Dhani Harrison and Beatrice McCartney
-dedicated not only to The Beatles but to their families, their friends, the people who loved them. It's my first Yahoo Group I created
-dedicated to one of the James Bond's leading ladies and the wife of Ringo Starr. I made this group because the other one that's around is full of spam of porn and get rich quick schemes
-a showcase of Mary's photography work, including her food recipes and other side projects 
-to go along with my website to announce updates and other news, photos related to the website
-created before I started both Enchanting Isabel Gillies and The Stabler's Blog; a place for Elliot and Kathy Stabler fans from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
-I'm one of the moderators; dedicated to the first wife of John Lennon and the mother of Julian Lennon with photos and articles
-I'm one of the moderators; dedicated to Pattie Boyd, the first wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton, covering the years of birth until the early 1970s
-I'm one of the moderators; dedicated to the first wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton, covering the years from the early 1970s to present day
-I'm one of the moderators; dedicated to the fashion and career of model and photographer Pattie Boyd
-I'm one of the moderators; dedicated to Ringo Starr's daughter
-I'm one of the moderators; dedicated to Queen

Blogs
-photographs of actors and musicians who entertain me as well as admiring and amusing. It's my first blog
-I love to cook and experiment
-you are here now- I like to write. I write everything here from opinions, to facts, to my personal poems, etc. on paper and pen...well keyboard and typing. 
-a fun blog of the characters from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; created to help defend one of my favorite TV couples from other viewers who either look down upon or doesn't know anything and are willing to learn more about them. 

The Beatles' Wives & Girls
-dedicated to Cynthia Lennon, Maureen Starkey, Pattie Boyd, Linda McCartney, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison, Barbara Bach, Heather Mills, Nancy Shevell as well as Jane Asher, Dorothy Rhone, Astrid Kirchherr, May Pang, Nancy Andrews and many other women who loved the Beatles and the Beatles loved them. Run by Jeannette (that's me), Heloisa, Vio, Sentimentalist, and Lynn
Twitter -The Beatles' Women
YouTube -Women of the Beatles
Instagram -The Beatles' Women/The Beatles' Wives & Girls

The Original Blonde Bombshell

Before there was Madonna
Before there was Anna Nicole Smith
Before there was Jayne Mansfield
Before there was Marilyn Monroe
There was Jean Harlow. To me, she's the original blonde. She was the first American screen actress to appear on the cover of LIFE magazine. Jean only lived for 26 years before dying of kidney failure. Jean also had quite a stage mother herself, who was overly possessive and used Jean as the breadwinner of the family. Jean (or Harlean, as that was her real name) was called The Baby and actually thought that that was her name until she went to school and learned that Harlean was her actual name! Jean's parents divorced and her mother kept Jean away from her father- who she loved and tried to reach out to him but her mother tried to keep them separately. Jean married young (at 16) to her first husband, possibly trying to escape from her overbearing mother and to gain independence but that didn't last long. I truly believe that Jean wanted to settle down to be a wife and mother but her mother and Hollywood came knocking and took her away for a ride. Plus, I've heard her first husband was quite a drinker, so that didn't help at all. From my understanding, Jean did get pregnant but was forced to have an abortion. After her divorce, Jean's career took off. Jean remarried again to Paul Bern but the marriage was short after he committed suicide. I've heard the rumors that he may have been gay, impotent, sex problems, his first marriage coming to haunt him, what have you. Paul was also old enough to be her father but I honestly don't think that was the BIG problem. His suicide was questionable and was believed that he could've been murdered but I don't think that will ever be solved. Jean was devastated by his death, hysterical enough to be sedated. Jean remarried for a third time but that marriage lasted less than a year. She then moved on to William Powell, it's been said that they were each other's love of their lives. From what I know of the couple, William was good friends with his ex-wife Carole Lombard (who I love) who was then dating/married to Clark Gable- who Jean worked with before...then again who hadn't worked with Clark Gable in those days? Or had an affair with Clark? They used to have some double dates and gatherings. Sadly, after two years together, Jean fell ill and died. She came down with uremic poisoning (resulted from the scarlet fever she had in her childhood) and kidney failure while filming a movie and died at the hospital. These were the days before dialysis and treatments, transplants. I bet if she had been alive together, Jean would've been saved and would've lived a lot longer than her 26 years. However, the poor girl seemed to have one illness after another without any lucky break that her immune system was weakened. The film (Saratoga) was not completed by the time she died so they made due with long shots of using her double and different kinds of angle shots. Her mother had William pay for everything of the funeral.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Queen Will Always Rock Me

 As far as I can remember, Queen was always a part of my life. I grew up with Queen- they got really hot in the 1980s (Freddie Mercury in his mustache) after being together since 1971. There was Live Aid, the Wembley Stadium in 1986 before they quietly quit touring after when Freddie discovered he had AIDs and was dead in 5 years. I remember seeing their music videos on MTV- when the channel was all about music before it became a reality network and Brian May doing some introductions and little stories here and there behind the hits. I think I have those still on VHS tapes. Freddie with his powerful operatic voice that could range from opera to head-banging rock. John Deacon with this heart-beating bass, Roger Taylor and his drums and Brian with his lead guitar- they were such a great band. Yes they fought but only because they had a vision and knew what they wanted and in the end the main songwriter would win. They were also creative and open-minded- Freddie loved Brian's guitar at the end of Bohemian Rhapsody while Brian thought it should've just been the piano but, as I just wrote not that long ago, the songwriter (Freddie) would win at the end. They were also encouraging with one another- Freddie, Brian and Roger convinced John to submit any songs so that he would have a financial pillow cushion rather than his bass playing so he could live comfortably many years to come without going broke. They had management and financial issues in the 1970s from being screwed and banded together- John was their money man who managed to sort out their earnings.
After Freddie died and John retired, Brian and Roger continued on with Queen. First they enlisted Paul Rogers from Bad Company. I wasn't too thrilled with that one. Don't get me wrong- I do like Paul Rogers- he has a great singing voice but it wasn't fit for Queen's music. Maybe for the hard rockers like Liar and Tie Your Mother Down but not for Killer Queen. I honestly thought just end Queen and form another band in another name if Brian and Roger wanted to play in a band. Then came Adam Lambert. Now I'll admit that I haven't watched American Idol after quitting mid-way into season 2 as I lost interest but once I heard about Queen being a guest to play on American Idol with Adam, I thought "Now we are talking!" I do think Adam is a much better suited singer for Queen. He has that Freddie vibe about him- they are both showmen, powerful singers, and yes, both are gay. Adam can get away with singing Killer Queen or Bohemian Rhapsody. I approve of this replacement. Thankfully, Roger and Brian did realize that Paul wasn't fitting into their mold as I already realized before.
 Freddie...the picture above is my kind of Freddie. Man he was hot in the 1970s. Yes, I know, gay. And dead. But do I care? No. He's fascinating to me. He's also a cat lover like me. His birthday is in September, like me (except different days and different horoscope). Freddie has a voice like no other. As I mentioned before, Freddie had a huge range of his voice to be able to go anywhere from rock to opera; if he was alive today I wouldn't have any doubt that he would be involved in more genres- like Country, Hip-Hop/Rap. Freddie died in 1991 from complications of AIDs. I remember very clearly of hearing the news that Freddie was dead. I was 10 years old. I had just gotten home from seeing a magic show (David Copperfield) with my grandmother. Mom was home watching TV and there was Freddie, showing a clip from Bohemian Rhapsody's music video with those two year-dates of his birth and death. When I went to bed, I cried my eyes out. Next thing I know, AIDs was everywhere- in ads, news, being discussed in school. It was a heavy topic. He had released the news of him having AIDs after being hounded by the press and rumors and the following day, Freddie was gone. I honestly don't remember the announcement- I could've been just too young to understand what was going on until after his death and the AIDs awareness spread like wildfires. Freddie's death was the first death that really affected me to remember- like "Where were you when JFK or John Lennon died?". Well I take that back- Lucille Ball's death had an impact on me but the memory is sketchy- I was still a little girl and I do recall hearing about it but I don't know where I was, who I was with, how I heard the news nothing like how I heard about Freddie's death. Perhaps it was because Lucille was in her 80s and had heart surgery, dying of a heart attack so it wasn't as shocking. I suppose I can say that although Lucille's death was my first celebrity death, Freddie's death had the most impact.
I remember back in the mid-2000s, my grandmother, Mom and I were on a road trip and we had music in the car- Bohemian Rhapsody came on during our CD circulation/rotation. The first time it came on, Grandma got a good kick out of with the opera bit. The second time it came on, this time around Grandma listened to the lyrics and had a freak out. The song was talking about killing a man and she wasn't thrilled, realizing that ever since I was a child I was crazy about them and hearing about this. She gave my mother a hard time about it "How could you let her listen to this????"...Wait a minute! First of all, the song came out in 1975 while my mother was a teenager and at the time, Grandma didn't say anything. Second of all, my Mom pointed out to her that there's other classic songs that talked about murder- Mack the Knife by Bobby Darin was an example. Grandma eventually got quiet and Mom and I quietly took Bohemian Rhapsody out of it's rotation of playing. I am wondering what Grandma was really afraid of- was she scared that I would turn into a murderer? I'm sure Grandma gave Freddie a third degree interrogation after when she died some time later.
After Freddie's death, John went on to perform with Roger and Brian to work on Made in Heaven with the remaining tracks Freddie left behind to release and three live performances before retiring. John was always the shy one- Freddie was shy too but once he got on the stage, his showman persona came out and he was fearless of anything. John kept quiet- he did perform, letting Brian, Roger and Freddie have the spotlight of their performances. It's been said that John suffered depression after Freddie's death. I think of all the members of Queen, John took Freddie's death the hardest. I suppose that to him, his musician days were over the moment Freddie died with very few exceptions. Although, according to both Roger and Brian, John wrote them a letter saying that he approves of whatever they do with Queen (he does get his fair share of percentage of the pie). He was last seen at Queen's Broadway production of We Will Rock You premiere, Roger thought he was there to see what his investment was all about. Other than that, there's ideas that John was playing golf and enjoying retirement. I'm sure he is and I hope he is too. John was (and still is) a very talented bass man. I do miss his presence in Queen whenever I see Roger and Brian perform.
I have this picture as a poster, hanging in my bedroom

My Favorite Songs of Queen (in no particular order other than what's coming to my mind)
Bohemian Rhapsody
Killer Queen
You're My Best Friend
Now I'm Here
Tie Your Mother Down
Liar
One Vision
The Miracle
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Breakthru
Invisible Man
Another One Bites the Dust
Headlong
Seven Seas of Rhye
Millionaire Waltz
Keep Yourself Alive
It's a Kind of Magic
Stone Cold Crazy
Death on Two Legs
We Will Rock You (both fast and classic versions)
Sheer Heart Attack
Under Pressure
Bicycle Race
Fat Bottom Girls
I'm Going Slightly Mad
Princes of the Universe
I Want It All

I would put down These Are the Days of Our Lives but decided not to- it makes me cry. I love I Want to Break Free's music video where Queen dressed as women but the song is a take it or leave it. I must have been one of the very few people in America who thought that the music video was funny while the rest weren't too thrilled. 

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

The Saga of Bonnie & Clyde

Clyde Chestnut Barrow was a troubled man
that only a few could understand
His family was very poor
but everyone had his or her own chore

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was only a girl
who wanted to see the world
She thought that she had found her knight
but he kept going out of sight

Bonnie's husband went to jail
with no one to give him bail
By then Bonnie met her true love
who she could only think of

Bonnie and Clyde met through a friend
aware of the vibe messages that they sent
Bonnie and Clyde were soul mates
who carried the same fates

Clyde was a working man
doing the best that he can
being free from jail
making robbery plans without fail

Believing that they were right
they were willing to fight
Living together during the Depression
Bonnie and Clyde entered the beginning of their destruction

With Ray Hamilton, the Barrow Gang committed several crimes
trying to go through the hard times
Running away from the law
with weapons and a punch to a jaw

The Barrow Gang left without Ray
to the police, he had nothing to say
Inviting W.D. Jones along
barely going to Dallas, where they belong

Trying to go for a fun ride
looking for a place to hide
Joined by Buck and Blanche Barrow
nobody was feeling sorrow

Breaking the rules that they were supposed to follow
they had their days, high and low
Inseparable was the love between Bonnie and Clyde
they were being joined by others to enjoy the ride

One day, Bonnie caught on fire
is this the life that she desire?
Missing their families, they stayed in touch
telling them that they loved them very much

Not very long, Buck was dead
after being shot in the head
Blanche surrender
she became a prisoner

W.D. quit the dangerous game
changing his story to put Bonnie and Clyde on blame
saying that he was kidnapped and held hostage
secretly knowing that his lie was full of garbage

Clyde's younger brother, L.C., joined the wary pair
trying to divide the money fair
Robbing banks and gas stations
finding themselves in several difficult situations

Setting some Clyde's old jail buddies free
a mistake that was never meant to be
An old friend of Clyde's had his own plan
giving the police a hand

Betraying Bonnie and Clyde, his dear old friends
sending the lovers to their end
They died together, like they planned
only to each other, they understand

But Mrs. Parker didn't want them buried together
hoping that things will get better
The love between them was so strong
They will always be together, their bond was strong

Originally written in 2000
Dedicated to Bonnie and Clyde
In my teenage years (and even to this day) I had a fascination interest in these two love-struck crime pair. I don't remember exactly how I got interested in them or how they entered my life- probably saw a documentary and got hooked and started to research as it usually happens when I get interested in something or someone. I've seen the 1960s movie with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty as well as two TV mini-series/movies, the most recent aired earlier this week (December 2013) on Lifetime/A&E/History channels. 

Come Back, My Guardian Angel

Every time I think of you
memories haunt me
the dreams felt so true

My eyes shed it's own tears
listen to my cry
with your ears
tears drain into my eyes

A night bird sings
spreading it's wing

Being in love enough to inspire
very deeply to admire

It seems that I never let go
my heart never felt so low
I want to let you go

My Guardian Angel, whom I believe
a special bond that has been conceived
the memories will never leave
all the thoughts that I grieve

The angel is stuck in my heart
not knowing when to leave

Come back alive, to me
so I could see
for the beautiful image that I remember
keeping memories alive, not to fade

I will always think about you
my love will always come true

You didn't deserve to die
of all the time that goes by

I know that you will always be by my side
to have all my troubles go down slide
But, I want you back to be with me
this isn't what it was meant to be
for me to lose you

Originally written in 1998; revised in 2002
In Memory of David Alvarez