Word of the Day: ineffable (in\EF\uh\buhl); incapable of being expressed in words, unspeakable, utterable, indescribable
Weight: 220 pounds
Goal: lose 100 pounds in one year duration
Pounds to lose: 88 pounds
Waist Size: 46.5 inches
Rowing Duration: 62 minutes, 11 seconds
I was very sick yesterday morning, spending all of the early part of the day in the bathroom, and Zac, Winter and I had to postpone an early departure from the cottage on the lake to an afternoon departure. We left the cottage about two o'clock pm. and were on the road by two-thirty pm. It takes approximately one half-hour to get across the lake and to get the car all loaded up with our luggage.
Yes, I've actually gained three pounds, no doubt this is a result of my eating pizza, but today I am back on track and next Sunday, I hope to see my weight, once again, decline, at least I hope it will decline.
The drive home was a pleasant one, my stomach pain had subsided and I had stopped throwing up, thank goodness. We made one stop at the Tim Horton's store in Gravenhurst. Beside the donut shop were huge lineups at the Shell Gas station, as they were selling gas for 96 cents a litre and every other place was selling gas over one dollar, so that was quite a saving.
We also stopped at McDonalds to grab a quarter pounder with cheese meal, Zac got a big Mac and a chocolate milkshake because neither one of us felt like cooking, the stop at Mickey D's postponed our home arrival until seven o'clock pm.
There were a plethora of messages on the answering machine, even though we had recorded a message asking people to contact us at the lake, I guess I'm not the only one who needs to improve his listening skills.
"Desperate Housewives" was hilarious last night, but I was sadded to see the character of Rebecca leave the show "Brothers and Sisters," I guess they have to do stuff like this to keep the show interesting, no doubt Justin will get a new love interest.
Tonight, well, early evening, the Turner Classic Movie (TCM) channel has a great lineup of movies to watch. Beginning at six o'clock pm. is the drama "The Children's Hour," which stars Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. Every time I see this film, I think back to my high school days when our Theatre Arts class put on the play "The Children's Hour." I was just one of two men in the class,and I had to play the love interest as the other male in the class, named Barry, was directing, I was clearly not cut out to play this part, my love interest was played by a girl that was over six feet and we looked like a really odd couple indeed.
Julie Andrews is whom I chose to talk about today: Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, born 1 October 1935 is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. Julie is the recipient of the Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honours.
Miss Julie Andrews was a former British child actress and singer who made her Broadway debut in 1954 with "The Boy Friend," and rose to prominence starring in other musicals such as "My Fair Lady" and "Camelot," and in musical films such as "Mary Poppins (1964)," for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and "The Sound of Music (1965)" a role she was nominated for the Academy Award and should have won except for Julie Christie's win. Anyway, "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music" are two of the roles for which Julie Andrews is still best-known.
Julie Andrew's voice spanned four octaves until it was damaged by a throat operation in 1997.
Julie Andrews did have a major revival of her film career in 2000s in family films such as "The Princess Diaries (2001)," its sequel "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004)," and the "Shrek" animated films (2004–2010). In 2003 Andrews revisited her first Broadway success, this time as a stage director, with a revival of "The Boy Friend" at the Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor, New York (and later at the Goodspeed Opera House, in East Haddam, Connecticut in 2005.)
Julie Andrews is also an author of children's books, and in 2008 published an autobiography, "Home: A Memoir of My Early Years."
Julie Andrews' mother, Barbara Wells (née Morris), was married to Edward C. "Ted" Wells, a teacher of metal and woodworking, but Julie was conceived as a result of an affair her mother had with a family friend, my goodness, what would Mary Poppins have to say about that revelation, I ask you!!!!!
With the outbreak of World War II, Barbara and Ted Wells went their separate ways, big surprise, I mean Miss Barbara did commit adultery. Ted Wells assisted with evacuating children to Surrey during the Blitz, while Barbara joined Ted Andrews in entertaining the troops through the good offices of the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA).
The Andrews family was "very poor and we lived in a bad slum area of London," Andrews recalled in her memoir, adding, "That was a very black period in my life." In addition, her stepfather was an alcoholic. Ted Andrews twice, while drunk, tried to get into bed with his stepdaughter, resulting in Andrews putting a lock on her door, I would have put two padlocks on my door.
Julie Andrews got her big break when her stepfather introduced her to Val Parnell, whose Moss Empires controlled prominent venues in London. Julie Andrews made her professional solo debut at the London Hippodrome singing the difficult aria "Je Suis Titania" from Mignon as part of a musical revue called "Starlight Roof" on 22 October 1947. She played the Hippodrome for one year. Andrews recalled "Starlight Roof" saying, "There was this wonderful American entertainer and comedian, Wally Boag, who made balloon animals. He would say, 'Is there any little girl or boy in the audience who would like one of these?' And I would rush up onstage and say, 'I'd like one, please.' And then he would chat to me and I'd tell him I sang... I was fortunate in that I absolutely stopped the show cold. I mean, the audience went crazy."
On 1 November 1948, Julie Andrews became the youngest solo performer ever to be seen in a Royal Command Variety Performance, at the London Palladium, where she performed along with Danny Kaye, the Nicholas Brothers and the comedy team George and Bert Bernard for members of King George VI's family.
On 30 September 1954 on the eve of her 19th birthday, Julie Andrews made her Broadway debut portraying "Polly Browne" in the already highly successful London musical "The Boy Friend." To the critics, Andrews was the stand-out performer in the show. Near the end of her "Boy Friend" contract, Andrews was asked to audition for "My Fair Lady" on Broadway and got the part.
Andrews auditioned for a part in the Richard Rodgers musical "Pipe Dream." Although Rodgers wanted her for "Pipe Dream," he advised her to take the part in the Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner musical "My Fair Lady" if it was offered to her. In 1956, she appeared in "My Fair Lady" as Eliza Doolittle to Rex Harrison's Henry Higgins. Rodgers was so impressed with Andrews's talent that concurrent with her run in "My Fair Lady" she was featured in the Rodgers and Hammerstein television musical, "Cinderella." "Cinderella" was broadcast live on CBS on 31 March 1957 under the musical direction of Alfredo Antonini and attracted an estimated 107 million viewers.
Miss Andrews married set designer Tony Walton on 10 May 1959 in Weybridge, Surrey. They had first met in 1948 when Andrews was appearing at the London Casino in the show Humpty Dumpty. The couple filed for a divorce on November 14, 1967.
In 1960 Lerner and Loewe again cast her in a period musical as Queen Guinevere in "Camelot," with Richard Burton and newcomer Robert Goulet. However movie studio head Jack Warner decided Andrews lacked sufficient name recognition for her casting in the film version of "My Fair Lady;" Eliza was played by the established film actress Audrey Hepburn instead. As Warner later recalled, the decision was easy, "In my business I have to know who brings people and their money to a movie theatre box office. Audrey Hepburn had never made a financial flop."
As a result of her performance in "Mary Poppins, Andrews won the 1964 Academy Award for Best Actress and the 1965 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Julie and her "Mary Poppins" co-stars also won the 1965 Grammy Award for Best Album for Children. As a measure of "sweet revenge," as Poppins songwriter Richard M. Sherman put it, Andrews closed her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes by saying, "And, finally, my thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie and who made all this possible in the first place, Mr. Jack Warner."
Image via WikipediaIn 1981 Julie Andrews appeared in Blake Edwards's S.O.B. (1981) in which she played Sally Miles, a character who agrees to "show my boobies" in a scene in the film-within-a-film.
I was so shocked when I saw Julie do this, as I guess many people were!
Miss Andrews was forced to quit the Broadway show "Victor/Victoria" towards the end of the Broadway run in 1997 when she developed vocal problems. Julie subsequently underwent surgery to remove non-cancerous nodules from her throat and was left unable to sing. In 1999 she filed a malpractice suit against the doctors at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, including Dr. Scott Kessler and Dr. Jeffrey Libin, who had operated on her throat. Originally, the doctors assured the singing legend that she should regain her voice within six weeks, but Andrews's stepdaughter Jennifer Edwards said in 1999 "it's been two years, and it [her singing voice] still hasn't returned." The lawsuit was settled in September 2000.
In the 2000 New Year's Millennium Honours List, Andrews was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to the performing arts. Julie Andrews also appears at #59 on the 2002 List of "100 Greatest Britons" sponsored by the BBC and chosen by the public.
In 2001 Andrews received Kennedy Center Honors. The same year she reunited with "The Sound of Music" co-star Christopher Plummer in a live television performance of "On Golden Pond" (an adaptation of the 1979 play). If there are any of you who have a dvd or videotape of this performance, please get in touch with me as I would also like to have a copy.
In January 2007 Andrews was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Screen Actors Guild's awards and stated that her goals included continuing to direct for the stage and possibly to produce her own Broadway musical. Julie Andrews published "Home: A Memoir of My Early Years," which she characterised as "part one" of her autobiography, on 1 April 2008. "Home" chronicles her early years in UK's music hall circuit and ends in 1962 with her winning the role of "Mary Poppins." For a Walt Disney video release Julie again portrayed "Mary Poppins" and narrated the story of "The Cat That Looked at a King" in 2004.
On November 25, 2009, it was announced that "Andrews will be singing in a concert at The O2 Arena (London) on May 8, 2010. Accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and an ensemble of five performers, she will sing favourites from her stage and film career". However she appeared on British television on December 15, 2009, and said that rumours that she would be singing were not true. Instead, she said she will be doing a form of "speak singing".
Sex
Blogging
Andrea McArdle
No comments:
Post a Comment