Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison

the man behind the glasses...

In the early 60s Roy Orbison left his glasses on a plane and had to wear his prescription sunglasses on stage. He found that he preferred them to his regular glasses and so began the original "man in black" persona.

Black clothes, dark glasses, standing still while singing on stage

all lent an air of mystery

"Crying" really shows his fantastic range

and it was the song that made me a Roy Orbison fan.

This one was performed on his TV show in 1964.

This was before I discovered him -- I didn't even know he had a TV show!

But I would have watched it if I had known!

"Only the Lonely"

Performed in the 1988 TV special, 

Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night

It was performed entirely in black and white and an album was released afterwards.

You'll see Elvis Costello singing background and, if you look really fast, k.d. lang with the female vocalists.

This was when she was still wearing dresses and that looks really odd to me now.

I think k.d. lang is a fantastic singer, by the way!

I vaguely remember seeing this performance -- 

 I might have to check around for the DVD and watch it again!

I picked this video of "Pretty Woman" because of that fabulous blue jumpsuit he's wearing!

Oh my, and form fitting, too.....

(I think Roy's been eating a little too much ice cream!)

Oh, Roy, what happened to your basic black clothes?

This was performed in 1972 and I guess he was just following the fashion trend!

>^.^<  

Oliver made me promise to mention his O post from last year because he is very proud of his writing abilities. If you would like to read about the king kitty just click here for Oliver Helps!

He's such a stinker....

♥♥♥  Linking Roy over at Miss Jenny's for Alphabe-Thursday where we are studying the letter O.

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Good Sundays on Wordless Wednesday

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A Red Challenge starring Fruits and Veggies

It's time for another challenge on the BBArtisans Etsy team and this time it was Edi of Memories for Life who gave us our prompt for this month. She says that February is about hearts, love, roses.... and challenged us to create any project we'd like using the color red.

I decided to make a bunch of red fruits and veggies for my shop -- after filling a large custom order before Christmas and then having the flu for the first half of January (or so it seemed!), I was tired of looking at crocheted food! But now I needed to get some made and listed, and the challenge was just the right thing to get me going again!

I thought of the various reds I could make -- apples, strawberries, tomatoes, watermelon, radish. Maybe a slice of cherry pie? Well, I got some of those made. No cherry pie -- maybe later!  I tried the watermelon but I couldn't get it to come out right and attaching the rind was making me yell and scream so.... no watermelon.

I have some strawberries in my shop but they are made of acrylic yarn and I have decided to make all my foodies with cotton yarn -- I think that it will hold up better as a toy and I like the smoothness of cotton too. These are also larger so as to be a safer toy for the little guys.

Red Delicious apple!

Then I went crazy and made a Granny Smith and a Golden Delicious (my personal favorite). I plan to offer them as a set of three and also individually using Etsy's new listing variations tool -- that way the customer can choose which flavor of apple they would like.

A cute tomato for your pretend sandwich or salad....

How do you fix a broken tomato?
Tomato paste!!

couldn't resist  :)

A radish for that salad! 

After I hassled around with that watermelon I decided I needed to turn away from the food and do something else. I decided to make a cute mushroom pot holder -- OK OK, I realize that it's food too, but not, you know, play food that your kid would pretend to eat.... Anyway, I had this pattern from Lion Brand and thought it would be a fun change.

Isn't this just the cutest?!! 

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♥  See the other red challenge projects from the BBArtisans team here on the team blog

♥  I'm linking at It's a Very Cherry World for Rednesday

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Neil Diamond

Oh yeah

Neil Diamond

my favorite singer of all time

of all time.... yes!!

"Sweet Caroline" is probably his most well known recording. 

Did you know that Caroline Kennedy was the inspiration?

Or that it's played at Boston's Fenway Park at every Red Sox home game?

.... before the bottom of the 8th inning

Sweet Caroline 

"dum-dum-dum"

the audience participation is the fun part!

"so good, so good, so good!"

This concert is from 2008 at Madison Square Garden.  I saw him around that time -- probably on the same tour -- and let me tell you, he commands as great an audience now as he ever did when he was first recording (maybe even bigger) and who cares that he speaks most of his songs now rather than sing every note! He is, hands down, the best of the best! In my humble opinion. Yes, yes, he's my first love....
Yes, yes I have albums, CDs, know all the songs -- even the lesser known ones and maybe they are the best...

"Solitary Man" was the first song written and sung by Neil Diamond, about Neil Diamond.  He had been writing for other performers, but this one kicked off his career as a singer-song writer. 

It was the song that introduced me to Neil Diamond, and is still one of my favorites.

"Brooklyn Roads"

You may not be familiar with this one

It tells the story of Neil's Brooklyn upbringing and was recorded in 1968

Says Neil....

"I had just signed with MCA Records and wanted to stretch my creative wings. This is the most literal and personal story I had written up to that point. 'Brooklyn Roads' told of my youth and my aspirations. I loved the freedom of being able to write something without the charts in mind."

"Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show"

live performance on the Johnny Cash Show in 1970

a little fun first with Johnny Cash and then he really belts out this song!

Pay attention to the part where he is talking about the tent revival that he attended in Mississippi

(this is not a part of the song -- but is very telling about Neil himself)

and then he continues with Brother Love preaching...

From the very emotional evidence in this performance, I would say that Neil is singing, not only from his heart, but also from his soul.

♥♥♥   Linking Neil over at Miss Jenny's for Alphabe-Thursday where we are studying the letter N.

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Oliver and the Dolls ~ Wordless Wednesday

Hey

ManCats like to play with dolls too

>^.^<

A Special Dress for Noli!

We had a sleepover this past weekend! Noli had an "event" at school -- a sock hop! Since it was over at 8:30 and going home would put them there pretty late, they slept over at my house (I'm conveniently about middle ways between Noli's two houses) and then they stayed over on Saturday too! It was a pretty fun time!!

Noli is still pretty sleepy on Saturday morning!

(Sorry about the yellow cast -- didn't do the proper settings!)

Wild woman!

I wish I had curls like that!

Stephanie got an attack of "clean-out-itis" and cleaned up the very cluttered closet in my office.... yay! I'd been fixin' to do it for a long time, but procrastination reared its ugly head and I put it off, and off, and off. So this was a HUGE help to me!

Anyway, in that closet were hanging the three dresses I had made for Stephanie's first day of school in Kindergarten and first and second grades. Naturally, Noli had to try them on! Kindergarten was way too short but the other two were a good fit.

The first grade dress is a red jumper with a white blouse and hearts and bows all over! And heart buttons. And ruffles! Oh my, I can't believe I did all those ruffles! 

Noli loved it and wanted to wear it to school on Valentine's Day! 

I just couldn't get the color right, but the red is like that first pic above.

But doesn't she look cute in her mama's dress!

Still showing off that lost tooth!

When Stephanie was in first grade, they celebrated Johnny Appleseed Day -- wore red, bobbed for apples, played apple games. 

The newspaper took photos and the kids were in the paper! 

You can see Stephanie in her red dress!

I did a blog post about it a year or so ago --

  click here if you'd like to read it!

Ha! If Noli were bobbing for apples, she'd have a hard time with only one front tooth!!

And, it's loose!!

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♥♥  Linking Noli's dress over at Claudia's for A Favorite Thing. Because the dress is definitely a favorite thing.... and so is Noli!

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The Moody Blues

Oh, how I love the Moody Blues!

I don't think there is one song that they have recorded that I didn't like...

The full orchestra behind them was just the icing on the cake...

The Moody Blues then....

from the inside cover of the album On the Threshold of a Dream

and now....

not too shabby for "old guys"

"Never Comes the Day" from the album On the Threshold of a Dream

Recently, I saw one of their performances on our local PBS station -- and decided to take some photos from the TV (if you've seen some of my other Alphabe-Thursday posts, you know I like to play with the camera and the TV).  :p

Love this song... 

First official video of "Nights in White Satin" from 1967

♥♥♥   Linking the Moody Blues over at Miss Jenny's for Alphabe-Thursday where we are studying the letter M

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Snaggletooth! ~ Wordless Wednesday

Take a shower, loose a tooth!

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Liberace could really play a mean piano....

Fabulous costumes. Huge diamond encrusted rings. Candelabras. Fantastic pianos. A smile that wouldn't stop.

And just a bit of talent....

I loved watching Liberace on his TV show back in the 60s. His costumes fascinated me. His music made my heart skip a beat. Now THAT was a reality show!!

Of course, he was famous as a classical pianist but he also played more popular tunes too. That's what I'm going to share with you today -- some beautiful music and some fun videos.

And a lot of bling!

Music video and his entrance to one of his Las Vegas shows - 1981

(be prepared... apparently he was not an animal rights activist!)

Audience requests -- he put them all together in medley form, made up as he went along!

"Memory" 

"Send in the Clowns" 

"New York, New York"

"As Long as He Needs Me" 

"Chariots of Fire"

Chopin - "Nocturne in E-Flat"

"The Bumble Boogie" 

"You Made Me Love You"

"Beer Barrel Polka"

What's My Line was a game show that played from 1950 to 1967.  Four celebrity panelists would question the contestants to try to figure out their occupations. There was always a famous mystery guest that the panel had to question and determine their identity. (I know, sounds kinda boring -- but it was really pretty funny at the time!)

Liberace was on this episode -- check out his signature!

He could even play "Chopsticks" 

♥♥♥  Linking Liberace over at Miss Jenny's for Alphabe-Thursday where we are studying the letter L

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Comfy Oliver ~ Wordless Wednesday

Scroochin' in Daddy's coat

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