Would Star Wars 7 end differently if George Lucas had written the script?

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not seen “Star Wars 7”  do not read any further.

Would Star Wars 7 end differently if George Lucas had written the script?  At least, Han wouldn't have been killed by his son.  

Of course, when Disney bought Lucasfilm, they were only thinking of making more money.  With Harrison Ford already getting a paycheque around $20 million or may be more to reprise his role as Han Solo, and Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher each getting a pay in the low seven figure range, that means their profit will be quite slim unless it turns into a huge box office success.  That's why Harrison Ford's Han Solo got to die in the first sequel trilogy, ensuring he will have no part in the second and third sequels.  It's all money talk!  I am sure George Lucas must have made a few suggestions to Disney, one of them must be keeping his heroes alive, including Han Solo, but Disney did not use his ideas!  Why?  Money, of course!

Also, it doesn't make sense that the son of Leia and Han would turn to the dark side and kill his father.  If anyone would turn to the dark side, it would make sense that would be Luke Skywalker's son.  After all, it's been a Skywalker who had turned to the dark side in the past!  Okay, the marriage of Leia and Han broke down, just like most marriages, but given their personality, their son couldn't have turned out to be such a brat, so cruel and heartless!  Neither Leia nor Han was a cold blooded killer, so their son Ren couldn't have turned out to be that bad!

I think J. J. Abrams would have a lot of explaining to do in the sequel that follows!  What exactly went wrong!  Here I would like to pick on Abrams...  What an awful scene when Leia saw Han again, after, God knows, how many years!  It was supposed to be a very moving scene, but it was quick and hardly touching!  There was no chemistry between the two, no compassion of any kind, no feelings, no agreement or disagreement.  Just NOTHING!  They vaguely talked about their son and she asked Han to bring him home, that's all!   I was very disappointed.  I feel there should be more interaction between these two actors...more talk, more scenes together!  Abrams must be taking his Mission Impossible speed here...no wasting of time...jumping quickly from one action scene to another!

Also, J J Abrams really isn't quite creative in this movie!  The battle scenes were old...we'd seen them all before in Star Wars 6...the TIE-Fighters, the X-wing Fighters.  Except...I like the Millennium Falcon and love to see it again!  The Starkiller Base or the white ball didn't look intimidating enough as the Death Star in the Star Wars prequels!

However, perhaps Disney sees the great profit they are making now, with its global bow at a record $1.5 billion as of January 6, 2016, they may reconsider bringing Harrison Ford back in the next sequel.  We all know that in science fiction movies, they can always revive dead characters.  And Harrison Ford can almost always guarantee box office success and great profits!  Remember, Han Solo was revived once in Star Wars 6, The Return Of The Jedi.  And in Star Wars 7, Han's body was never found!  

I will put in a petition to Walt Disney Studios to revive Han Solo for the sequel!!!  I hope you will do the same too! 

After all, Disney, as a major movie maker for children's movies, cannot teach kids to kill their father!

Love Is A Many-Splendoured Thing - 生死戀

Love Is A Many-Splendoured Thing - 生死戀

The book, "A Many-Splendoured Thing", was written by Han Suyin in 1952; the movie was made in 1955 by Twentieth Century-Fox, starring William Holden and Jennifer Jones as Han Suyin.

The song with the same name from this movie written by Sammy Fain and Paul Webster had won an Oscar for the best original song in 1955.   The song was subsequently recorded by the Four Aces. 

Jennifer Jones (1919 -2009) was a great actress.  She won an Oscar for Best Actress in The Song of Bernadette (1943).  She also appeared in great movies such as, Duel In The Sun (1946), Carrie (1952), Good Morning Miss Dove; Love Is A many-Splendoured Thing (1952), The Barretts of Wimpole Street; Farewell To Arms (1957), Tender Is The Night (1962).  All my favourite movies!

William Holden (1918 - 1981) was also a great actor.  He also won an Oscar for Best Actor in 1953 in Stalag 17, a movie I haven't seen before.  But I always love him in Picnic with Kim Novak!  Who can forget Hal, the handsome shirtless drifter who came to town and stole the hearts of all women!

Hear this song:    By the Four Aces;  by Johnny Mathis; By Connie Francis

The story tells an Eurasian doctor, Han Suyin falls in love with a married (but separated) American correspondent played by William Holden.  The story was also an autobiography of Han Suyin, who while working in Hong Kong, fell in love with a married Australian correspondent, Ian Morrison.  They encountered prejudice from her family and from the Hong Kong society.  The movie ended when Morrison being killed in Korea in 1950. 

Han Suyin was born in China as Rosalie Matilda Kuanghu Chou (Chinese:周光瑚; Zhōu Guānghú).

Her father was an engineer educated in Belgium and her mother was Flemish.  She went to London to study Medicine in 1944, graduated in 1949 and returned to Hong Kong to practice medicine at Queen Mary Hospital where she met and fell in love with Morrison.  He was killed in 1950 in Korea.

In 1952, she married a British Officer, Leon Comber and went with him to Malaya, now Malaysia.  In the same year, she wrote the book, A Many-Splendoured Thing.

【生死戀（Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing）是一套根據中國籍亞歐混血女作家韓素音於1952年出版的自傳小說《A Many-Splendoured Thing》改編而成的美國荷里活電影，由二十世紀霍氏公司於1955年出品。影片的故事背景為1949至50年的香港，當時正值國共內戰的關鍵期及韓戰的爆發，飾演美國藉記者馬克的威廉·荷頓邂逅中歐混血兒醫生韓素音（由珍妮花·鍾絲飾演），但由於韓的家庭背景和當地社會壓力使到這段感情無法開花結果，最後馬克更在採訪過程死於韓戰戰場。影片大量在香港取景拍攝，景點包括香港仔漁港、淺水灣及維多利亞港等，呈現不少當代殖民地風格的建築。影片獲得奧斯卡金像獎的最佳服飾設計、最佳原創音樂及最佳音樂等獎項。】

韓素音原名周光瑚，出生於中國河南省，父親曾在比利時留學，母親出自比利時貴族家庭。1944年、韓素音到英國讀醫學，1949年在香港瑪麗醫院任職，並結識了外國記者 Ian Morrison。可惜他已婚，他們的戀愛遭到家庭和社會壓力，時遇越戰爆發，Morrison 到前線採訪而遇難身亡！之後韓素音再婚，除了這部自傳小說之外，還有其它著作。

Remembering Maverick... as played by James Garner

James Garner - 1928 - 2014

First, he was the funny and cardsharp hero as Bret Maverick (1957 - 1962).
Then he played Jim Rockford in Rockford Files (1974 - 1980), as the quiet and unsung hero who always helped people solve their problems without getting much in reward.

From Wikipedia:
"James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner; April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014) was an American actor. He starred in several television series over more than five decades, including such popular roles as Bret Maverick in the 1950s western comedy series Maverick and Jim Rockford in the 1970s detective drama series The Rockford Files.

Garner also starred in more than 50 films, including The Great Escape (1963),The Americanization of Emily (1964), Grand Prix (1966), Blake Edwards' Victor Victoria (1982), Murphy's Romance (1985), for which he received an Academy Award nomination, Space Cowboys (2000), and The Notebook (2004)."

His movies I like:
Boys' Night Out with Kim Novak
Move Over, Darling with Doris Day
The Thrill Of It All with Doris Day
Support Your Local Gunfighter with Suzanne Pleshette

And he was the Polaroid Guy on TV commercials in the '70s and early '80s.
Remember his Polaroid Christmas commercial with Mariette Hartley in 1979?  
on YouTube ( http://youtu.be/pt82z_GUCKw )

And this one was done in 1981
On YouTube ( http://youtu.be/MA8f2L-FCmE )

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Tears On My Pillow - Little Anthony and Doo-wop music

Doo-wop - a kind of vocal-based rhythm and blues music developed in the 1940s, becoming popular in the 1950s and early 1960s.  The musical ensemble usually features a solo artist and a backing group; the group would harmonize to a simple beat sometimes with little or no musical instruments.  

In 1958, a new Doo-Wop group was born - Little Anthony and The Imperials recorded "Tears On My Pillow" and it became an instant hit.  Here's the YouTube link to the song: 

Tears On My Pillow by Little Anthony and The Imperials on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/DqUG6YBgLAw

Little Anthony left the group in 1961 but returned in 1963 and recorded another hit in 1964 called "Goin' Out of My Head".

Another Doo-Wop group of the time was Tony Williams and The Platters.

This same song - Tears On My Pillow - was re-sung by another group called Sha Na Na in the 1970s.  It was sung just as good.  Sha Na Na appeared in Grease, the movie, as Johnny Casino and the Gamblers. Their tracks on the Grease soundtrack include "Those Magic Changes", "Hound Dog", "Rock & Roll Is Here to Stay", "Blue Moon", "Born to Hand-Jive", and "Tears On My Pillow".

Tears On My Pillow By Sha Na Na on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/W3He_gyNG6A

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David McCallum

 明星迷 in the old days...

This guy was the reason why I played hookey while I was still in junior high!  I wrote a letter to my teacher saying I was sick (of course, faking my mom's signature) and went to the airport to meet "my idol at that time", David McCallum, the star from "Man From U.N.C.L.E."!

He was so gorgeous then!

Now at 79 (born in 1933), he still looks great! He is starring in the current popular CBS TV series, NCIS.

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

I finally saw this movie "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" on TMC the other day.  I'd seen this movie when I was little (above 5) and couldn't understand the movie nor could I remember what it was all about.  I could only remember that the very beautiful Ava Gardner swimming towards the ship to meet James Mason and then something happened and the ship sank.  I kept waiting for all these years to see this movie again to find out what had happened and why the ship sank.  I must say this was a very powerful movie, played by some very fine actors and actresses.  Hollywood just could not make movies of this kind again!

From Wikipedia: "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) is a British drama film made by Romulus Films and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the United States. The film was directed by Albert Lewin and produced by Lewin and Joe Kaufmann from his own screenplay, based on the legend of The Flying Dutchman.

The film starred Ava Gardner and James Mason, featuring Nigel Patrick, Sheila Sim, Harold Warrender, Mario Cabré and Marius Goring. The cinematographer was Jack Cardiff. Most of the movie was shot on location in Tossa de Mar, Catalonia, Spain, where a statue of Gardner has been erected on the hill overlooking the town's main beach.

MGM delayed its release until Gardner's star-making role in 1951's Show Boat. The tactic worked, and this film solidified her status as a rising star."

Carly Simon - You're So Vain

The first song I listened to Carly Simon was her 1973 number 1 hit "You're So Vain". I like her voice, I like the lyrics and I love the song. Carly was a hippie and a rebel of our time, and she reflected her belief and her spirit in most of the songs she had sung and written. She married singer/song writer James Taylor in 1972 (divorced in 1983). People often wonder who the guy was in Carly Simon's "You're So Vain"; it was rumoured to be Warren Beatty whom Carly had a brief relationship...

"You walked into the party
Like you were walking onto a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf it was apricot
You had one eye in the mirror
As you watched yourself gavotte
And all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partner
They'd be your partner, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

You had me several years ago
When I was still quite naive
Well, you said that we made such a pretty pair
And that you would never leave
But you gave away the things you loved
And one of them was me
I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga
And your horse naturally won
Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun
Well, you're where you should be all the time
And when you're not, you're with
Some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend
Wife of a close friend, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you? Don't you?

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you

You're so vain (so vain)
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you? Don't you?"


You're So Vain

Where Do I Begin? From Love Story - 1970

Where Do I Begin? From Love Story sung by Andy Williams - 1970

記得那個年代看這部電影，覺得故事平平無奇，像白燕張瑛一類的粵語長片，兩年青人相愛、卻因門不當戶不對而遭父母從中作梗，後因女方染有絕症而離世，終於悲劇收場，使觀眾哭得眼睛又紅又腫的踏出影院，這一類影片、荷李活是很少拍的，通常都是粵語片的橋段，但幾十年後，這套荷李活電影卻成為了經典電影，男女主角 (Ryan O'Neill & Ali MacGraw) 以這套電影一舉成名，主題曲更是流行一時，先後有許多歌星都灌錄這首曲，我當然最愛聽 Andy Williams 的版本!

From Elton John to Sting and The Police

(以下是我在於阿立粵曲天地之談天說地網頁的分頁 "兩日一曲共夜闌" 寫的：http://ceipui.ahlap.net/cgi-bin/p3_patio.cgi?mode=view&no=273)

阿光 (Anthony)，

Elton John 的 Sacrifice 亦是我愛聽的一首曲，Blue 跟 Elton John 合唱得很和諧。

在 YouTube 聽了你介紹的歐洲歌曲大賽後，覺得來自Azerbaijan的那隊冠軍 - Eldar & Nigar 演唱的 "Running Scared" 是實至名歸。不過想向你問問：為什麼在這個歐洲歌曲大賽中，來自不同歐洲國家的參賽者，大多數不唱自己國家語言、而多數用英文唱曲呢？

從 Elton John 說到 Sting，他是 1977 年新組成的英國樂隊 The Police 成員之一、他彈低音結他 (bass guitar) 兼是樂隊主唱歌手 (lead singer)。

大概在 1987 年左右，The Police 解散了，樂隊成員各自繼續個人灌錄唱碟和演唱，Sting 的音樂風格很廣泛，他可以把不同風格的音樂融合在一起、從爵士音樂、古典音樂到搖擺音樂、更夾雜一些新浪潮 (new wave) 和 punk rock 等。

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阿光 (Anthony),

再次謝過 JOEJOE 兄在阿立這兒開墾這塊園地、好讓我們三人能在此地認識及互相交流，那是二零零七年九月、不覺已三年多了！這塊園地似乎已荒廢了一段很長的日子，不如讓我們再回來耕耘、希望能再次種出花果來！

“He Ain't Heavy... He's My Brother” 是一首很感人的曲，先後有很多歌星和樂隊都唱過，這首曲是來自 Manchester 的The Hollies 最好聽的其中一首，我還喜歡他們唱的 Bus Stop 和 Sorry Suzanne。曾聽過 Joe Junior的 Sorry Suzanne，覺得 Joe Jr. 唱得更好！

總是覺得六十與七十年代、甚至八十年代初期的樂隊，從 The Beatles 到 Abbas、Fleetwood Mac等等，外型都甚整齊 (cleancut)，通常都穿上一律的套裝 (The Rolling Stones 除外)，不過大多數現代的樂隊、都是奇裝異服、標奇立異，外型打扮真是看見都不敢恭維，這大概是我們年代叫的 Generation Gap！唉，時代不同，真是、吾老矣！

阿光，你提起 Elton John，我便想起 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road，我最喜愛的舊曲之一首！



Yellow Brick Road 源來自 Judy Garland 的舊電影 “The Wizard of Oz”，但歌詞又和這套電影卻沒有關連！

Donny Osmond and Marie Osmond In Toronto

前幾天到 downtown 多倫多 Four Seasons (即 The New Opera House) 看了 Donny & Marie Show，也不錯， 兩兄妹在舞臺上有說有笑，能歌善舞，不過無論她唱 country songs 或 rock songs 也好，我都好像聽不清楚她在唱什麼，隔座的觀眾、都沒有給她熱烈的掌聲，後來她改唱了一首 opera - Pie Jesu，才能博得全場 standing ovation。看來她應該考慮改變唱 Broadway 或 opera 了！

不過 Donny 卻不同，他咬字清晰，聲線比年青時還雄厚得多，聽來很是悅耳， 他應當還有很多的發展空間，rock songs 或 Broadway，都很不錯呢！

最令人失望的是 Marie 只唱了幾句 Paper Roses，是跟著七十年代時的錄音後才唱幾句、Donny 也是一樣、跟著銀幕上播出的七十年代錄音的 Puppy Love 而唱最後幾句！

Can you remember the very cute young Donny Osmond? And his singing "Puppy Love"? And his younger sister Marie's "Paper Roses".

Now they are together again performing at Flamingo, in Las Vegas. But before their Vegas show, they are making a stop in Toronto for 14 shows at the Toronto Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Back in the seventies, Donny and Marie were on TV every week for their "Donny and Marie Show" from 1976 to 1979. I can still remember Marie sings, "A little bit country," and Donny replies with "I"m a little bit rock and roll". He was 18 and she was 16 then when the show premiered in 1976.

Christine McVie & Stevie Nicks - Fleetwood Mac

Christine McVie 和 Stevie Nicks，我兩個都喜歡，這隊英國樂隊 Fleetwood Mac 的成員似乎終日在變更，在七零年代初有：Danny Kirwan – guitar, vocals; Jeremy Spencer – vocals, guitar; Christine McVie keyboard, vocals; John McVie – bass; Mick Fleetwood – drums。在一九七五年加入了 Lindsey Buckingham - guitar, vocals; 及他的女朋女 Stevie Nicks - vocals. 跟著的幾年便是 Fleetwood Mac 的黃金時代，他們出了 "Rumours" (1977)這唱碟，是 1977 Grammy Award 的最佳唱碟 (album of the year)！記得那年代，幾乎每家每戶都買有兩隻唱碟，一是 Saturday Night Fever，二便是這 Rumours！

這隻碟內有好幾首歌都上了流行榜，其中有家傳戶曉的 Buckingham's "Go Your Own Way", Nicks's "Dreams",和 Christine McVie's "Don't Stop","You Make Loving Fun"...

其後，Christine McVie 不願跟樂隊到美國發展，所以脫離了 Fleetwood Mac。

Rumours - Track Listings: -

1. Second Hand News
2. Dreams
3. Never Going Back Again
4. Don't Stop
5. Go Your Own Way
6. Songbird
7. The Chain
8. You Make Loving Fun
9. I Don't Want To Know
10. Oh Daddy
11. Gold Dust Woman

經過許多變動，這樂隊在 1987 重組 1977 Rumours 時代的成員、包括 Christine McVie 再灌錄了 Tango In The Night，其中 Christine McVie 唱了 Little Lies 和 Everywhere，再上流行榜！

Who Shot JR? - Do you remember???

On March 21, 1980, J.R. Ewing was shot by a mysterious assailant! The whole world was shocked and wanted to find out who the assailant was. But the truth wouldn't be revealed until November that year when the third season of Dallas began to air on TV. During those few summer months in 1980, the question of "Who shot JR?" was a hot topic on almost every social occasion.

The following has been copied from another website: "Streets had emptied on March 21st 1980, the night JR got shot; they emptied again on November 21 when Kristin coughed......as brazenly as ever... Fifty three countries tuned in to the shooting, the headline making news of which helped sell the series to another eleven countries by the time it came back on air again..."

The person who shot JR turned out to be Kristin Shepard, the sister-in-law and JR's mistress, played by Mary Crosby.

Sue Ellen Ewing, JR's long suffering wife, was played by Linda Gray.

JR Ewing, played by Larry Hagman as the greedy oil baron in Dallas was the most popular actor in the eighties! Before playing the scheming JR Ewing, Larry Hagman played the handsome astronaut in I Dream Of Jeannie with Barbara Eden, the 2000-year-old genie! He was so lovable then! Well, as JR Ewing, he was also lovable in another sense - a cunning character with so much shrewdness that viewers just loved to hate!

Summer of '42 - Jennifer O'Neill 一套難忘的電影

這是一套難忘的電影，女主角 Jennifer O'Neill 真的很美，難怪她使一位正在成長的十多歲少年 Gary Grimes 動心，一個簡單的故事、配上優美的主題曲，再加上藍天碧海與沙灘，當是一套賣座的電影！這片在 1971 推出，我只是後幾年在電視上看過，但片商卻拍了一部不能賣座的續集叫 "Class of '44"，也由 Gary Grimes 當男主角，但卻沒有 Jennifer O'Neill，我也沒有看過，不能賣座的原因、想是沒有好的題材和一個能吸引觀眾的美麗女主角呢！

Can you remember the movie "Summer of '42" starring Jennifer O'Neill and Gary Grimes?

I didn't see this movie when it was released in 1971; I saw it on TV years after. Jennifer O'Neill was so beautiful in the movie and Gary Grimes - he was just a teenager playing his age in the movie. It's a coming-of-age film and it was so well received when it came out, so they made a sequel in 1973, but this time without Jennifer O'Neill. And of course, it flopped!

The movie was beautifully filmed - set in a small town with sandy beaches and summer skies - combined with a simple love story and a beautiful theme song - the result is a romantic classic film!

Gary Grimes, now 56, had retired from show business after making the sequel of this film (Class of '44) in 1973, and went on to do some minor roles in the '70s and '80s. He said he's happy with his decision.

Gary Grimes 現已年屆五十六，早在八十年代已退出影壇，他拍完 Summer of '42 後拍了續集及在一些影片當不重要的角色後，因未有接到合心意的角色，所以索性不幹了，最近訪問他時，他說並沒有後誨當日的決定！

Dirk Benedick in Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV Series)

From Wikipedia:

"Glen A. Larson, the Executive Producer of Battlestar Galactica, has stated in many interviews that he originally conceived of the Galactica premise, which he originally called Adam's Ark, in the late 1960s. However, he was unable to get the project greenlit for many years.

Battlestar Galactica was finally produced in the wake of the success of the 1977 film Star Wars. In fact, 20th Century Fox sued Universal Studios, claiming that it had stolen 34 distinct ideas from Star Wars. Universal promptly countersued, claiming Star Wars had stolen ideas from the 1972 film Silent Running (notably the robot "drones") and the Buck Rogers serials of the 1940s.

Initially, Larson envisioned Battlestar Galactica as a series of made-for-TV movies (a three-hour pilot and two two-hour episodes) for the ABC television network.

In 1979 at the 6th Annual People's Choice Awards, the series won for Best New TV Drama Series.

The initial episode of the series was broadcast on September 17, 1978. However, approximately 60 minutes into the first episode, the broadcast was interrupted for a significant period—almost an hour—by the announcement of the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli Camp David Accords, deeply marring the broadcast of the initial episode."

Dirk Benedict as Lt. Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica ----- How can you forget him when he played the con-man Lieutenant Templeton Peck (Face) in "The A Team" during the 1980s action TV series?

Debbie Reynolds - Am I That Easy To Forget?

Am I That Easy To Forget?  sung by Debbie Reynolds - click below to listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcDueBnQfpg&feature=related

Debbie Reynolds sang this song, "Am I That Easy To Forget?" to Eddie Fisher, her ex-husband who had deserted her to have an open affair with Elizabeth Taylor. But this song made her hit Billboard top 25, proving that the whole world was behind her! Her daughter, Carrie Fisher was the famous Princess Leia in the original Star Wars movies, episodes 4, 5 and 6.

Excerpt from Wikipedia: -"Reynolds was born Mary Frances Reynolds, the second child of Maxine and Raymond Francis Reynolds. Her family moved to Burbank, California in 1939. At age 16, Reynolds won the Miss Burbank Beauty Contest and a motion picture contract with Warner Brothers. That's how she acquired her new first name.

Reynolds regularly appeared in movie musicals, most notably "Singing In The Rain", during the 1950s and chalked up several hit records despite an only intermittent career as a recording artist. Her song "Aba Daba Honeymoon" was a top 3 hit in 1951. She is also remembered for her smash recording of the theme song "Tammy" which earned her a gold record and was the best-selling single by a female vocalist in 1957 and was number one for 5 weeks on the Billboard pop charts. Reynolds also scored two additional top 25 Billboard hits with "A Very Special Love" in 1958 and 1960's "Am I That Easy To Forget", a pop version of a country hit made famous by both songwriter Carl Belew in 1959, Skeeter Davis in 1960, and several years later by Engelbert Humperdinck."

Sophia Loren - All Italian Woman; Lean On Me - Lean On Leaning Tower of Pisa

Lean On Me By Bill Withers


This is the Leaning Tower of Pisa - it really deosn't stand upright on the ground. However it's not that tall either - about 7 - 8 storeys tall only! It does give the impression that it is about to fall...

A lot of tourists hold up their hands to support this Leaning Tower when they take pictures of this world famous tower. That's puzzling!

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Italian men are so charming and flirty at the same time. Italian women are so dedicated to either their family and to their jobs, just like our tour guides - they wasted no time to introduce the Italy they know to us and they did it with such a passion. Italian film star Sophia Loren is one of them - she dedicates her whole life to her family and to her film career.

Missing Him - Paul Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008)

ELVIS - THE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL!!!

My Way

Heartbreak Hotel

Jailhouse Rock

Greece & Turkey + George Chakiris!!!

Pic 1) The Grand Library, Ephesus in Turkey; Pic 2) Parthenon, Athens

It's rather funny that in Greece, all older men look like Anthony Quinn in "Zorba The Greek" although Anthony Quinn hailed from Mexico and not Greece! However, not all older women look like Melina Mercouri in the movie, "Never On Sunday"! Everywhere we went in Athens or in the islands, we could hear the song "Never On Sunday" being played, and sometimes they might play "Zorba The Greek".

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Do you remember George Chakiris in "West Side Story"? He was born to Greek immigrants from Greece, so he's very much a Greek! I had the misconception that he's a Puerto Rican due to the way he spoke in "West Side Story". Boy, I was so wrong for when I heard him sing with Nana Mouskouri; he didn't sound like a Puerto Rican at all but a real Greek. Listen to him sing on YouTube with Mouskouri in "Plaisir D'Amour", a very lovely song:

Thanks to Anthony who gave me some of his songs to listen; he's really a very good singer! Too bad he didn't sing more! And too bad he didn't make any more movies! I like him a lot in "Diamond Head"!

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The Evergreen Voice From Greece - Nana Mouskouri

In a couple of days, I'll be vacationing in Greece for 10 days. Before I go, I would like to introduce you to the evergreen voice from Greece, Nana Mouskouri. I will talk more about her when I return from my holidays. In the meantime, please enjoy her "Amazing Grace" from YouTube below:


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