Remembering Dick Clark on New Years Eve

In recent years, as I watched the ball drop on New Years Eve with Dick Clark, I wondered if it would be the last.  The pop culture icon, who will always be remembered as "America's oldest teenager," seemed to never age until recent years.

It was evident after his stroke in 2004 and made me so sad to watch the changing times through Dick Clark's deteriorating health and his struggle to simply speak.  Since then, I had so much more respect for Dick Clark as a person for putting himself out there instead of going into hiding, although it was very difficult to watch.  He so loved his place in our lives!

As a lover of pop culture in general, it is my opinion that Dick Clark was the pop culture king of our times . . . an entertainment innovator extraordinnaire and super media mogul!

In the beginning, he landed a gig as a DJ at WFIL in Philadelphia in 1952 with a show he called "Dick Clark's Caravan of Music." Little did he know that he was about to change pop music as we knew it back in the day . . . or did he?  Dick Clark broke into the big time, hosting Bandstand, an afternoon dance show for teenagers.

American Bandstand was born in 1957 as ABC took over the show with the whole country watching.  The show gave many new music artists their first exposure to national audiences . . . anyone who was or was going to be anyone in the music industry showed up on the show, launching the careers of too many megastars to mention.  He was a starmaker who brought the music AND the performers to the masses and we loved him for it!  American Bandstand ran from 1957 to 1987.

How many of us learned all the latest dance trends watching the show?  I know I did!!

Dick Clark Productions formed in 1963 and cranked out one hit show after another with the "$25,000 "Pyramid" to "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes" to the "American Music Awards." 

In 1972, Dick Clark became synonymous with one of the biggest nights of the year and we have celebrated New Years Eve with him since.

Ryan Seacrest, who has taken the lead in recent years, will be ushering the new year for the first time without his mentor.

"Ryan Seacrest tells TMZ ... the countdown to 2013 will be a special one, because he'll be honoring his late friend and mentor ... the great Dick Clark."  Read more here. 

This year, ABC is set to air “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve: The 40th Anniversary Party,” a two-hour celebration of the show, which will lead into “Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest” . . . but it will never be the same again.

For now, Dick Clark. So long!

Holiday Classics

Would you believe I saw The Miracle on 34th Street

for the first time the other night?  

The holiday classics hold special nostalgic feelings for me . . . 

they capture a place in time that was so magical.  

The movie took me back to the days when we would go with my Nana to visit her sisters and brothers on Thanksgiving morning.  I remember the smells of Thanksgiving dinners being prepared and tables of pastries laid out on tables in the dining rooms.  The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade was always playing in the background.  I felt so special joining the adults in a cup of cafe con leche to go with the pastries.  Great memories I will never forget!

It also made me think of how the world would react if Santa came to us as a real person as he did in the movie.  Would we be skeptical or believing?  Since I was devastated to find out he didn't really exist, it always made me think of how awesome it would be if he were real and imagine what he would be like as a person.  The movie pleasantly helped to fill in some of those gaps.

It made me sad to see Natalie Wood as a sweet little girl, knowing her life was cut short by a horrible accident.  She was so beautiful, even as a child!

Although I love the old movies, the animated holiday cartoons of my time really bring back the warm and fuzzy Christmas magic.  Rudolf and the Grinch That Stole Christmas were my favorites, although I still love them all.  The Grinch always reminded me of my dad . . .

Happy Holidays!

The Death of the Clothesline

My mom and I were having a good laugh about the dogs in our past and the crazy little pranks they pulled to drive us crazy.  She was telling me about one of the many dogs of her youth that loved pulling the laundry off the clothesline and scattering them all over the yard.  Hilarious now, but I'm sure not so funny back in the day for my grandmother, who had to gather them up and start all over again.

My thoughts were taken back to the days of my youth, where one of my jobs was hanging the laundry out on the clothesline.  While many homes enjoyed the convenience of having a clothes dryer, we didn't.  My dad did not embrace new technology and he held on to the conventional ways of doing things.  Poor mama didn't have a microwave oven until after daddy died.

Anyway, the job of hanging out the laundry to dry and bring them back in was mine . . . one that I was not fond of.  It was a particularly frustrating job here in Florida during the summertime, when we get the afternoon storms like clockwork.  Procrastination meant more work when the storm hit before the clothes came in.

It is amazing how something that was so much a part of every housewife's  life has just disappeared from life as we knew it.  The clothesline just died in our society . . . or I am assuming that it has. 

Now that I think of it, I have a new found gratefulness and appreciation for my trusty clothes dryer.

The poles that housed the clothesline at my house now hold up plant trellises.  As a working young adult, I had no time or desire to hang the clothes out to dry.  Taking the clothesline apart was one of the first things I wanted to do when we bought this house.

I'm also grateful that I was born after the death of the washboard . . . what a workout that must have been!

Romantic Movies . . . The Bodyguard

One of my favorite romantic movies!  It is one of those movies that I have seen many times and will watch many more times.

It was Whitney Houston's acting debut as a stalked music superstar tormented by death threats who hires an ex-Secret Service Agent to protect her, played by Kevin Costner.  

The romantic-thriller was the second highest-grossing film of 1992 and was nominated for four Grammy Awards, winning three, including Album of the Year for its soundtrack album.  CNN reported that Whitney Houston's film album for "The Bodyguard" was "one of the top 10 best-selling albums of all time" according to Billboard.

The movie was written by Lawrence Kasdan back in the 1970's, originally intending the leading roles for Steve McQueen and Diana Ross.

Warner Bros. announced in 2011 that a remake of the film is in the works in order to update the movie to reflect the Internet world.  The rumor is Brittany Spears is up for the lead role.


RIP Whitney Houston . . .

Romantic Movies . . . The Notebook

The Notebook is my favorite

 romantic film of all time!

Social differences in the early 1940's separate a poor, passionate young man and a rich young woman who fall in love.  Their story is narrated from the present day by an elderly man telling the tale to a fellow nursing home resident.

The Notebook is a 2004 romance film starring James Garner, Gena Rowlands, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, directed by Nick Cassavetes, based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. 

This movie is a must-see for hopeless romantics!

Check out the trailer for the movie :)

Valentine Series . . . Favorite Romantic Movies

In celebration of Valentine's Day, I'll be featuring some of my favorite romantic movies from the past . . .

What are some of your favorite romantic movies?

Music From Another Room is one of those romantic comedies that I love best . . . a story of love, romance, fate and destiny. 

This entertaining movie released in 1998 follows the adventures of Danny (Jude Law), a young man who grew up believing he was destined to marry Anna, the baby girl he helped deliver as a five year old boy when his neighbor went into emergency labor. Twenty-five years later, Danny returns to his hometown and finds the irresistible Anna Swan (Gretchen Mol) and falls madly in love with her, but she barely notices him since she is already engaged to Eric (Jon Tenney). 

In pursuit of Anna, Danny finds himself involved with each member of the Swan family including blind, sheltered Nina (Jennifer Tilly), cynical sister Karen (Martha Plimpton), big brother Bill (Jeremy Piven) and dramatic mother Grace (Brenda Blethyn). 

The movie follows his fight to prove that fate should never be messed with and passion should never be practical. 

Click here for a video trailer of the movie . . . it is an awesome movie . . . check it out sometime if you love romantic comedy movies.

Another video from the movie

The "Leave It To Beaver" Boys now

The magic of television reruns and syndication seems to take a place in time and freeze it.  The actors are always as they were in our eyes . . . until someone posts a modern day photo and brings us back to the realization that we are all getting older.