Ronn's Blog

Don Cornelius, ‘Soul Train’ Creator, Enters Transition

2012-02-01T11:36:00.000-08:00

Don Cornelius, ‘Soul Train’ Creator, Is Dead!

Don Cornelius, the producer and television host who created the dance show “Soul Train,” was found shot dead in his Los Angeles home early Wednesday morning in what appears to be a suicide, the Los Angeles Police Department and the county coroner’s office said. He was 75 years old.

A person called the police from Mr. Cornelius’s house on Mulholland Drive in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood just before 4 a.m. and reported shots had been fired, a police spokesman, Chris No, said. When officers arrived, they were let into the house and found Mr. Cornelius lying lifeless on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head that appeared to be self-inflicted, said the Los Angeles County assistant chief coroner, Ed Winter.

Mr. Cornelius was taken to Cedar-Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 4:56 a.m., Mr. Winter said. “It was reported as a suicide, a self-inflicted wound,” he said. “I have investigators at the hospital.”

“Soul Train” was one of the longest-running syndicated shows in television history and played a critical role in spreading the music of black America to the world, offering wide exposure to musicians like James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson in the 1970s and 1980s.

“I am shocked and deeply saddened at the sudden passing of my friend, colleague and business partner Don Cornelius,” said Quincy Jones, according to the Associated Press. “Don was a visionary pioneer and a giant in our business. Before MTV, there was ‘Soul Train.’ That will be the great legacy of Don Cornelius. His contributions to television, music and our culture as a whole will never be matched. My heart goes out to Don’s family and loved ones.”

Mr. Cornelius, a former disc jockey, created the show in 1970 in Chicago on WCIU-TV and served as its writer, producer and host. Quickly becoming a success, the show was broadcast nationally in 1971, beginning its 35-year run. Besides the performers, the program showcased young dancers who would strut their stuff, laying the groundwork for countless dance programs, including current hits like Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” and MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew.” “We had a show that kids gravitated to,” Mr. Cornelius said.

In a 2010 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Mr. Cornelius said he was excited about a movie project he was developing about the show. “We’ve been in discussions with several people about getting a movie off the ground. It wouldn’t be the ‘Soul Train’ dance show. It would be more of a biographical look at the project,” he said. “It’s going to be about some of the things that really happened on the show.” Mr. Cornelius stopped hosting the show in 1993, and “Soul Train” ceased production in 2006. Two years later, he sold the show to MadVision Entertainment. Exporting Soul “Soul Train,” hosted and produced by Don Cornelius, offered important exposure to many notable African-American acts. The list is much longer than this. But here are just a few of the Names that owe a debt to Don and his brand of exposure. Aretha Franklin The Jackson 5 James Brown Marvin Gaye Rick James Barry White Gladys Knight and the Pips DJ Jazzy Jeff and theFresh Prince!!!

SOUL TRAIN: THE HISTORY

Legendary SOUL- BLUES singer Etta James dead at 73.

2012-01-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

At Last…………….

Slide Show http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/01/20/arts/music/20120121-JAMES.html?ref=music

Her GREATEST SONG of MANY GREAT SONG

Etta James, whose powerful, versatile and emotionally direct voice could enliven the raunchiest blues as well as the subtlest love songs, most indelibly in her signature hit, “At Last,” died Friday morning in Riverside, Calif. She was 73.

Her manager, Lupe De Leon, said that the cause was complications of leukemia. Ms. James, who died at Riverside Community Hospital, had been undergoing treatment for some time for a number of conditions, including leukemia and dementia. She also lived in Riverside.

BEFORE THERE WAS ARETHA...........THERE WAS ETTA JAMES

TELL MAMA!

Ms. James was not easy to pigeonhole. She is most often referred to as a rhythm and blues singer, and that is how she made her name in the 1950s with records like “Good Rockin’ Daddy.” She is in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame.

She was also comfortable, and convincing, singing pop standards, as she did in 1961 with “At Last,” which was written in 1941 and originally recorded by Glenn Miller’s orchestra. And among her four Grammy Awards (including a lifetime-achievement honor in 2003) was one for best jazz vocal performance, which she won in 1995 for the album “Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday.”

CLICK BELOW:

All of Etta's Albums Over Her Long Career

The Etta James Biography

By Bill Dahl

Few R&B singers have endured tragic travails on the monumental level that Etta James has and remain on earth to talk about it. The lady's no shrinking violet; her autobiography, Rage to Survive, describes her past (including numerous drug addictions) in sordid detail.

But her personal problems have seldom affected her singing. James has hung in there from the age of R&B and doo wop in the mid-'50s through soul's late-'60s heyday and right up into the '90s and 2000s (where her 1994 disc Mystery Lady paid loving jazz-based tribute to one of her idols, Billie Holiday). Etta James' voice has deepened over the years, coarsened more than a little, but still conveys remarkable passion and pain.

Jamesetta Hawkins was a child gospel prodigy, singing in her Los Angeles Baptist church choir (and over the radio) when she was only five years old under the tutelage of Professor James Earle Hines. She moved to San Francisco in 1950, soon teaming with two other girls to form a singing group. When she was 14, bandleader Johnny Otis gave the trio an audition. He particularly dug their answer song to Hank Ballard & the Midnighters' "Work With Me Annie."

Click Below for The Full BIOGRAPHY

A Little of Etta's Great Music

Something's Got A Hold On Me

DANCE WITH ME HENRY

GOOD ROCKING DADDY

LONG BEFORE ARETHA...........THERE WAS ETTA JAMES

DO RIGHT WOMAN NEEDS A DO RIGHT MAN!

Obama and Osama

2011-05-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

As a fledgling politician in Chicago, Barack Obama was advised more than once by consultants that he might want to consider changing his name—all three of them, in fact. “Barry” would be a great deal less foreign-sounding than Barack, one media consultant told him, and “Hussein” was a middle name reminiscent, for many, of an Iraqi tyrant and worth consigning to oblivion. As for his last name, well, to carry around a perfect rhyme for the most notorious terrorist in the world was a political liability beyond imagining. In the post 9/11 world, “Obama” was a cheap tabloid pun waiting to happen. Nevertheless, the young South Side politician ignored the advice, won a U.S. Senate seat, in 2004, and took the oath of office as President on January 20, 2009 using the same name that appears on his Hawaiian birth documents (both the long and short versions): Barack Hussein Obama, II.

As Obama said Sunday night from the East Room of the White House, he had long ago promised to make a priority of bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. Now “justice has been done,” the President said as he announced that a team of American intelligence operatives killed bin Laden in a firefight in Pakistan. His late-night statement—sober, direct, even, at times, thick-tongued with nervousness—rightly avoided any note of triumphalism, any hint of the “U.S.A! U.S.A.!” “Yes We Can!” cheering coming from the crowd outside the White House gates in Lafayette Park. But there could be no mistaking his relief, the national relief, that the symbolic and ideological head of a hideous multinational terror organization, responsible for the deaths of many thousands, was gone at last.

Steve Coll has brilliantly outlined the life of bin Laden and his family in his book “The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century” and Lawrence Wright has done no less in describing the rise of Al Qaeda and bin Laden’s Egyptian deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri in his “The Looming Tower.”

But what of Obama’s history with Osama bin Laden?

In September, 2001, Obama was an obscure state senator from Hyde Park. He had just lost badly in an attempt to win away a congressional seat from the former Black Panther and local favorite Bobby Rush. In the wake of that humbling, Michelle Obama was hoping that her husband would quit politics once and for all, and Obama was thinking about it.

On September 19, 2001, little more than a week after the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade towers, Obama’s local paper, the Hyde Park Herald, published a series of reactions to the events from the two U.S. senators from Illinois, Richard Durbin and Peter Fitzgerald; Bobby Rush; and minor local pols like Obama.
In his brief article for the Herald, Obama started out by writing some routine lines about renewing security standards at airports, strengthening intelligence networks, and “dismantling” the networks of those who carried out “these heinous attacks.” Ordinary stuff. But he also talked about “the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness.”

“The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity and suffering of others,” he wrote. “Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent, is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion, or ethnicity….”
“We will have to make sure, despite our rage, that any U.S. military action takes into account the lives of innocent civilians abroad,” he went on. “We will have to be unwavering in opposing bigotry or discrimination directed against neighbors and friends of Middle Eastern descent. Finally, we will have to devote far more attention to the monumental task of raising the hopes of embittered children across the globe—children not just in the Middle East, but also in Africa, Asia, Latin American, Eastern Europe, and within our own shores.”

It was precisely that kind of talk that was branded as “soft” in the wake of 9/11 and throughout the Bush years, straight through the 2008 election campaign. It was precisely that sort of attempt to talk not merely in the register of prosecution and military aggression, but also of understanding root causes, whether at an anti-Iraq war rally in Chicago or at a Presidential speech in Cairo, that left so many wondering if Barack Obama would have the strength to “go after” Osama bin Laden. Now there is an answer.

There is no getting around the fact that Osama bin Laden—a murderer of the most vicious sort—succeeded on his own terms in so many ways. He was the inspiration not only for the most catastrophic attack on American shores since the Second World War, as well as many other bloody attacks around the world; he also managed in his ugly lifetime to distort, confuse, and undermine the course of political history all over the world, not least in the United States. The day of Osama’s death is a great relief, a moment of real justice. It is no less joyful to know that at the root of the “Arab Spring” is a yearning to end tyranny, not to bring it on in its most fundamentalist forms. But the work of conquering bin Ladenism does not end with the work of killing bin Laden. The fight against obscurantism and terror remains infinitely complex and demands, among other things, political leadership that acknowledges the importance of mind and heart, as well as muscle.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/05/obama-and-osama-bin-laden.html#ixzz1LEvr2lOL

Why Is It?

2011-03-28T06:25:00.000-07:00

Why is it that a Black Man can create a tiny piece called a filament (electric light - Lewis Latimer) that allows people to see in the dark? But can't be seen as fit to lead a country to the true light.

Why is it that a Black Man can create an instrument (clock - Benjamin Banneker) that all people use to tell time? But people don't think it is time for him to run a country.

Why is it that a Black Man can design a place for the high authorities to meet in and a place for the president to live in (The Capital and the White House Phillip Reid (a slave) and Pierre L'Enfant)? But not good enough to lead these meetings or live in himself.

Why is it that a Black Man was brilliant enough to do the first open heart surgery (Dr. Daniel Hale Williams) and show the world how to get and preserve plasma (Dr. Charles Drew)?But not good enough to put a program in place where everyone can afford this surgery.

Why is it that a Black Man was creative enough to design an instrument (traffic light - Garrett Morgan) to bring multiple people (traffic) to a halt? But not seen creative enough to design a plan to bring all this unnecessary and worthless fighting between countries, to an end.

Why is it that a Black Man could create the soles (shoes - Jan Matzeliger) that people walk on every day? But not seen good enough to fill the shoes of a bad president.

Why is it that a Black Man was smart enough and brave enough to teach himself (Fredrick Douglas and Thomas Fuller - both slaves) and others how to read, write and/or calculate math? But not seen smart enough and bold enough to calculate a platform to be President to a country that sure needs another first by us.

So you see my Brothers and Sisters, what I am saying is, let us not forgot our past which led us to our present and can definitely be the backbone to our future. We were good enough, smart enough, creative enough, and bold enough then, so let us all give Obama the chance to show that we are still these things and more. We all are as strong as our weakest link, so do not be that weak link that denies our people that chance to show we still can OVERCOME AND BE THE FIRST!

THE PRESIDENT OF THESE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA !

LET US ALL CONTINUE PRAYING THAT THIS PRESIDENT WILL ADHERE TO AND BE LED BY FAITH.

Singer Angela Bofill makes a comeback without voice that made her famous VOICE!

2011-02-04T18:17:00.000-08:00

Angela Bofill waits in a plain, beige dressing room at the Birchmere, preparing to go onstage without something she has lost. It's not a small thing.
Most people, says one fan of the '80s R&B balladeer, would shut down, would be content to live out their lives offstage, out of the spotlight, wherever it is that old singers go to fade away. The music business demands perfection. A certain look. At the least, it demands a voice.

"I love perform," says Bofill, 56, her syntax fractured, her rhythm stop-and-start. She's illuminated by bright lights but not an ounce of glitter or sequins. Instead, she wears a black-print blazer. A cane leans against the dressing table. "I used to study opera. Used to teach voice.
I Used to have perfect pitch. Now, no pitch. Bad pitch. Frustrated - little bit. Half my life, singing. First time. No sing." She says she sounds like an old movie. "Me, Tarzan. You, Jane," she jokes.Jazz singer Angela Bofill makes a comeback without voice that made her famous.
In case You hadn't Guessed by now Angela Bofill suffered a Major Stroke

This is a tribute to her courage. I don't know when that stroke happened. Some time ago I suspectbut she has recently staged a comeback in a most unique way. The story is an inspiration to me and I hope it will be to you as well. But first some music from the fabulous voice!!

"I used to study opera. Used to teach voice. Used to have perfect pitch. Now, no pitch. Bad pitch. Frustrated - little bit. Half my life, singing. First time. No sing."
She says she sounds like an old movie. "Me, Tarzan. You, Jane," she jokes.
Outside in the dark, cold parking lot, a sold-out crowd lines up for Sunday night's show: "The Angela Bofill Experience." After two strokes and a five-year absence from the stage, Bofill's name is again on the marquee. Fans have come from as far away as New Jersey, some cradling Bofill's original albums, which show an absolutely gorgeous woman.

Outside in the dark, cold parking lot, a sold-out crowd lines up for Sunday night's show: "The Angela Bofill Experience." After two strokes and a five-year absence from the stage, Bofill's name is again on the marquee. Fans have come from as far away as New Jersey, some cradling Bofill's original albums, which show an absolutely gorgeous woman.
Bofill closes her eyes as a makeup artist paints on thick black liner. Not many entertainers would have the courage to do what Bofill is about to do. Not many would be so bold.

"I feel happy performing again," Bofill says. "I need crowd. In the blood, entertain. Any time a crowd comes to see me, I'm surprised. No sing no more and still people come. Wow. Impressed." She laughs. But before she will get to the stage, she has to get out of the chair. She leans forward. No. She leans forward again. "I conquer my chair - damn it! Nose over the toes. Nose over toes." Up. She grabs her cane, covered in butterflies. "I love the cane. Mother told me J. Lo uses cane dancing. Sweet!

Behind the wall, she can hear the singer Maysa onstage performing Bofill's signature hit, "Angel of the Night." Maysa's voice is big and powerful, blowing through the thin walls of the dressing room.

There is a flash of envy from Bofill. "Used to play timbale to that song before the stroke," Bofill says. "Now, cowbell." Her big brown eyes look down. "Oh, well. One day, this arm awake. I don't know. Strange disease, stroke. Before no idea why person walk funny. Now, I get it - stroke." "It really slows my roll up, you know. But grace, still alive. Some people no make it. No eat a long time. Need a feeding tube. Awful. Only good thing I lose weight. A stroke diet. It works!"
Eventually, she began talking again. "But my voice no sing. I rather not sing. Awful. Crack me up! Funny! I laugh about it. But very grateful - still living. Never take things for granted. I think a stroke - no joke. Yes. But, I think a better a person."

She is laughing now, but a few years back, she was severely depressed. She had no voice and no health insurance. Her hospital bills piled up. Celebrities held benefit concerts across the country to raise money for her. Some singers she thought were friends called with empty promises of help. She had to sell her house in California. She moved in with her sister. Despondent, she spent most days in front of the television, flipping channels.

"First time very depressed," Bofill says. "Crying all the time. Turns out a side effect of the stroke. Made me depressed." Still, she seemed to be recuperating. Doctors said she might sing again. But a year later, she had another stroke that left her without the one thing a singer needs.

"It was devastating to lose her singing voice," Engel said. "When you take a voice away from a singer, nothing is worse. A lot of it was like, 'What do I do now, now that I can't sing?' That was her life. Her livelihood was being onstage."
Engel used to call her daily. "She was just down," he said. "That is all she did was hang around and watch TV. She didn't try writing any music. She didn't try writing any stories. I'd say, 'How you doing, Angie?' She would say, 'I'm bored.' " Engel would make suggestions.

"Finally, I said, 'You got to get off your ass, Angie! You are a good-looking woman. It's not like you are dead!' "

That's when the idea came to him. He would create a show starring Bofill. Just like old times. She wouldn't be able to sing, but she could tell her stories. He called members of her old band. They were game. He called Dave Valentin, the legendary flutist who helped Bofill get her first record deal.

He said, 'Angie wants you. Without Dave Valentin, I'm not doing the show,' " Valentin recalls. "I told him, 'Of course, I'm doing it.' "
Engel sought soul and jazz singer Maysa, who grew up in Baltimore listening to Bofill. Maysa, who was a member of the British band Incognito, agreed to join the show.

"I have been listening to her since I was 12 or 13 years old," Maysa says of Bofill. "That is how I cut my teeth. Mother had to buy new albums, because I would wear them out. When you listen to someone so long, it is amazing to be onstage. She is looking at me singing her music. It's like a student getting approval from the teacher.

"At first, I was nervous. I wanted her to be proud. I don't know if I could have the strength to sit there and watch someone singing my songs. But she is happy."
The first five "Angela Bofill Experience" shows sold out in San Francisco. Fans came, knowing Bofill couldn't sing. They just wanted to see her again. The show - even without her voice - drew rave reviews. Engel says he wants to get a movie made of Bofill's life. "Ultimately, I'd like to take the show to Broadway."
At the Birchmere, Bofill is wheeled up a ramp. She doesn't like the wheelchair. When she gets to the edge of the stage, she rises and the crowd applauds - an ovation that grows louder as she walks haltingly across the stage. The house lights go up. She sits in a chair and tells stories. Maysa sings.

Bofill moves her mouth. "Lip-syncing," she tells the crowd.
The audience laughs. Videos flash of Bofill in her heyday. The crowd is quiet. The show is like a memorial concert, except Bofill is still very much alive. Laughing but unable to sing.

"Sometimes," Bofill says, "I crack me up. Better to laugh than cry. Turned out, me a comedian." She laughs. "Instead of a stand-up comic - a sitting-down comic."

I INTEND TO SHARE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HER and HER MUSIC ALL MONTH LONG!I Hope your comments will post your favorite music by her as well. Come on everybody, LETS CELEBRATE ANGELA'S COURAGE!

Koch Brothers Feel the Heat In DC, as Broad Coalition Readies Creative Action to Quarantine the Billionaires Gathering in California Desert | | AlterNet

2011-01-27T11:05:00.000-08:00

Koch Brothers Feel the Heat In DC, as Broad Coalition Readies Creative Action to Quarantine the Billionaires Gathering in California Desert | | AlterNet

President Barack Obama ...TWO YEARS INTO IT!

2010-11-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

This is a Link of a great blog posting that I found on another site!

http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/

One Year has Passed Since MJ Transcended!

2010-07-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson left behind an incredible amount of music, a lot of it not really known by the masses. Here are some favorite unreleased MJ tunes, obscure collaborations, and other goodies!

This early version of “Mama’s Pearl” features completely different lyrics and is absolutely hilarious!

Mama’s Pearl only Different

Teenage Symphony

Michael Jackson & LL Cool J “Serious Effect”

for the Dangerous album features a guest verse from LL Cool J. The song was almost released as part of the deluxe edition of Dangerous in 2001.

Kenny Loggins “Who’s Right, Who’s Wrong”
Michael only sings background vocals on this song, but it’s still a great tune!

LaToya Jackson “Night Time Lover”

Michael wrote, produced, and sings background vocals on this song that from LaToya’s 1980 self-titled debut album. The song was originally written for Donna Summer.

Michael Jackson “Carousel”

The full version of this song is kinda difficult to come by… legally. A snippet was included on the 2001 remaster of Thriller (the song was intended for the album, but ultimately replaced by “Human Nature”). However, the full version was eventually released only on a special edition of the French version of his 2008 King Of Pop compilation. The King Of Pop compilation received diffeent tracklists in each country it was released in, and fans in each country voted for the tracklist. Only the French were smart enough to ask for the full version of this gem.

Michael Jackson & Freddie Mercury “State Of Shock”

Michael Jackson worked with Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, off and on from 1981 to 1983. One of the songs they recorded together was an early version of “State Of Shock.” The song was eventually reworked in 1984 for The Jacksons’ Victory album and Mercury was replaced by Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones.

Dave Mason “Save Me”

In 1980, rocker Dave Mason teamed up with Michael for this duet from his Old Crest On A New Wave album. The Jackson 5 frequently covered Mason’s composition “Feelin’ Alright” in concert.

Michael Jackson “Love Never Felt So Good”

Michael Jackson wrote this song with Paul Anka and Kathy Wakefield and recorded this sparse vocal and piano demo. The song was eventually recorded and released by Johnny Mathis on his 1984 album, A Special Part Of Me.

Michael Jackson “Starlight”

I won’t give it away, but this unreleased song went through a few lyric and rythmn changes before it became one of Michael’s most well-known songs…

Actress Vonetta McGee Dead After Heart Failure!

2010-07-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Vonetta McGee, who starred in “Blacula,” “Shaft in Africa” and “Thomasine and Bushrod,” died last Friday at a hospital in Berkeley after suffering cardiac arrest and spending two days on life support, The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. She was 65.

Family spokeswoman Kelley Nayo told The Times that although McGee had been diagnosed as a teenager with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, her death was unrelated to the disease.

As word of her death began to circulate Thursday, postings began showing up on a Facebook fan page, as well as on Twitter and the blogosphere.

In addition to starring with actors Richard Roundtree in “Shaft in Africa” (1973) and Max Julien in “Thomasine & Bushrod” (1974), McGee also appeared with Fred Williamson in “Hammer” and Clint Eastwood in “The Eiger Sanction,” an action thriller.

"I was pleased to see her get a role with Clint Eastwood," said Williamson, who knew McGee before they made "Hammer," told the Times. "Not many black actors had that opportunity to be in a movie where color doesn't matter,”

"Vonetta McGee was like a lot of actors and actresses at that time, like myself, Jim Brown, Richard Roundtree, Billy Dee Williams and Pam Grier, in that we had more talent than we were allowed to show because everything was perceived as a black project," Williamson said. "Once they categorize you, your marketability becomes limited."

Vonetta's film credits include the following:
• Johnny B. (1998)
• The Man Next Door (1996)(Tv Movie)
• Cagney & Lacey: The Return (1994)(TV Movie)
• Wonderworks: You Must Remember This (1992)(TV Movie)
• Perry Mason: The Case of the Reckless Romeo (1992)(TV Movie)
• Stormy Weathers (1992)(TV Movie)
• Wonderworks: Brother Future (1991)(TV Movie)
• To Sleep with Anger (1990)
• Hell Town (1985)(TV Movie)
• Repo Man (1984)
• Scruples (1981)(TV Movie)
• Superdome (1978)(TV Movie)
• Woo fook (1977)
• Brothers (1977)
• The Eiger Sanction (1975)
• Thomasine & Bushrod (1974)
• Detroit 9000 (1973)
• Shaft in Africa (1973)
• The Norliss Tapes (1973)(TV Movie)
• Hammer (1972)
• Blacula (1972)
• Melinda (1972)
• Crucified Girls Of San Ramon (1972)
• The Kremlin Letter (1970)
• The Lost Man (1969)
• Faustina (1968)
• The Big Silence (1968)

Vonetta has been married to actor Carl Lumbly since 1987 and they have one child.

The couple married in 1986 and had a son, Brandon, two years later.

In addition to her husband and son, she is survived by her mother, Alma McGee; three brothers, Donald, Richard and Ronald McGee; and a sister, Alma McGee.

Thoughts of Vonetta………By Her Brother!

Her brother left this note on her imdb page:

My sister did pass away this past week, thank you all for the strong positive feelings, I didn't know these posts existed. As beautiful as she was on the outside she was even more beautiful on the inside, a force of nature.

I'll try to answer some of the questions posted

1. She was born in 1945, not 1940.
2. She did go to Italy and became famous over there first, I can remember us being chased down the streets by fans.
3. Her first actual appearance on film was a walk on role in "Guess who's coming to Dinner", uncredited, at the airport, in 2 spots. Sidnet Poitier connected her with people in italy.
4. She did not do any other italian westerns besides the "Big silence".
5. Both of our parents are Black, all of our Grandparents are black.
6. Yes her first name really is Lawrence, my mother's sense of humor I guess.
7. She stopped acting to raise their son.

Thank You All

Rick McGee

Facebook (59) | Jazz Trombonist, Jimmy Wilkins

2010-07-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

Facebook (59) | Jazz Trombonist, Jimmy Wilkins: "Members:
Jimmy Wilkins' impressive portfolio includes 36 years fronting a big band in Detroit, and countless sessions with Motown artists such as Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight and Junior Walker. On the jazz side Jimmy has worked with Clark Terry, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie.Genre:
Big Band JazzHometown:
Currently living in Las VegasRecord Label:
None"

THE BLACK RACE DATES BACK 7000 YEARS

2010-02-01T18:49:00.000-08:00

The First Race - THE BLACK RACE DATES BACK 7000 YEARS

2010-02-01T18:21:00.000-08:00

Achievements of Black Civilizations
Feb 24, '08 6:38 AMfor everyone
The roots of "Western" civilization, culture, science, technology and religion are to be found not in Greece, but in Black Egypt and Nubia-Kush. From as early as 10,000 B.C. to 1500 A.D., Blacks were in the forefront in the development of science, culture and technology. Black empires and civilizations from the prehistoric Zingh Empire of 15,000 B.C. of Mauritania to ancient Khemet (Egypt) and Nubia-Kush, which existed about 17,000 years ago, experimented in various aspects of science and technology. Some of these sciences and technologies were so advanced that stories of flying machines and the invention of advanced machines has been passed down through ancient writings. Later Black civilizations such as Khemet and Mali experimented and created various sciences and technologies such as the chemical and mystery sciences of ancient Khemet and the surgical sciences of Mali, in West Africa. As early as about 400 B.C., a Black Pharaoh named Pi Di Amen built a model glider to conduct experiments in flight. Centuries before, the Black Egyptians had already invented gunpowder for use in their temples and mystery schools.
The mathematical and astronomical sciences necessary for high technologies such as those used in space technology and industries were first began by Blacks in Khem (Egypt) and Kush (Sudan). These sciences and high technologies were then passed on to the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites (all originally Black civilization), Greeks, Hebrews, Romans and Arabs In fact, it was the Black Sabeans of South Arabia, members of the Kushitic branch of the Black African race who established the first civilization in the Arabian Peninsula...thousands of years before the emergence of the Bedouin Arabs
Black medicinal sciences began in Khemet (ancient Black Egypt) and led to later Greek medicinal sciences. These ancient African sciences were copied by the Greeks and others from the ancient Papyrus texts composed by the ancient Khemites and Nubians.
From about 711 A.D. when the Moors, a Black people from Senegal, West Africa and Morocco, invaded Europe. They introduced Black Moorish science, technology, civilization and education to Europe and raised the Europeans from the Dark Ages of about 400 A.D. to 711 A.D. The Black Moors introduced advanced learning to Spain, similar to what had been taking place in Ghana, and at the university city of Jenne in Mali for hundreds of years. They introduced advanced learning to the cities of Toledo, Seville and Cordoba. These cities became centers of Black Moorish and European scholarship, science and culture, where Europeans and others learned new and advanced sciences, arts and technologies. That led to the European Renaissance of later years. The Black Moors introduced art, architecture, sciences, medicines, animal husbandry and other advanced disciplines to Spain and the rest of Europe. This was the catalyst which led to the European Renaissance
Compared to Africa and East Asia where the Europeans learned more technology from the Chinese such as the making of gunpowder and guns, Western and Eastern Europe, (excluding Rome, Greece, etc.) have very little history of great civilization and achievements before the Middle Ages. Africans and the Blacks of India, have had thousands of years of great contributions to world culture and civilizations. The British, French, Spanish, Dutch, Scandinavians, Germanics, Celts, Russians, Poles and many of these groups who claim "superiority" to Blacks and others, were from prehistoric times until the 1500's A.D., much less advanced economically, culturally, intellectually and scientifically as well as socially than most Black nations, kingdoms and empires during that period. From the time of the Roman conquest of Europe about 400 B.C. to the about 1200 A.D., much of Northern and Western Europe was in a stage or barbarism and backwardness. The Roman settlements and cities built by the Romans were the only areas of advanced culture
The claim by some people of racial superiority over Blacks is based on recent developments The introduction of gunpowder to Europe from China via the Arabs played a major part in elevating the Europeans to a level of military superiority. This advantage over some Africans made colonialism and the theft of African lands as well as the defeat of some African armies easier than in past eras. When the Europeans fought with sword and lance against sword and lance, their victories against Africans were few. For example, Hannibal, the African from Carthage defeated Rome's legions with as little as 15,000 men and ruled Italy for many years. However, even with modern weapons during the modern era, Europeans were sometimes soundly defeated. Nations such as the Zulus, Mossi States, Ashanti, Dahomians, Ethiopians, Herrerros and others defeated the Europeans in a number of wars and battles.
Black people were the original inventors of the disciplines that helped bring the world into the technological age. Mathematics, physics, astronomy, building in stone and bricks, metallurgy and all the root subjects that were necessary to push the world into today's modern age, were begun by Blacks in Egypt, Nubia-Kush, Mesopotamia, Sabea and Black Naga India. Therefore, even if people of European origins have made improvements in ancient technologies and ancient inventions, such as rocketry, computer technology, aerodynamics and others, the basic mathematical formulas and ancient prototypes were invented by Africans and Chinese. For example, the Africans invented the binary system which is still used in the Yoruba oracle and was copied by German scientists and applied to computer programming. Many ancient formulas in trigonometry, calculus and physics as well as chemistry (Khem mysteries) came from the scientific discoveries of Blacks in Egypt and Nubia-Kush.
Most Western European scientific discoveries or rather copies of the original discoveries of Africans and Chinese were put to use during the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. It was during this crucial period that some of the great scientific and technological discoveries and inventions were made. Yet, these discoveries and inventions were and are merely improvements on ancient discoveries made by Africans, Chinese and Black Kushite Arabs. For example, gunpowder was invented by the ancient Egyptians and Nigerians who used the cola nut to make gunpowder. The Chinese reinvented it and used it in fireworks and explosives. Steel was invented by Africans in ancient Tanzania, where ancient cone-like blast furnaces with bellows still exist to this very day and are still used. The hydraulic pump for lifting water and irrigation was invented by Africans in Egypt
Susu Economics: The History of Pan-African Trade, Commerce, Money and Wealth
The greatest book ever written on the history of Africans and others from prehistoric times to the 1600's. Susu Economics is a complete history of African civilizations, the prehistory of planet earth and how the ancients developed civilizations throuigh trade and commerce. All the cultures listed and previewed in the "Black History Chart are included in this book and a thorough history is given. This book will inform, delight and impart knowledge. It is a fabulous work that deserves to be read and cherished. There are no pictures in this work, yet some of the pictures on this website are the only examples of the cultures and civilizations discussed in this great book. Published by 1stbooks Library, www.1stbooks.com

2008-11-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

The 'Moment'.........That Very MOMENT!

2008-10-14T02:06:00.000-07:00

The 'Moment'
Posted by Casey On MULTIPLY on Oct 14, '08 1:46 AM for group barackobama
Monday 13 October 2008
Originally produced by: John Cory, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Arizona Senator John McCain. (Photo: Gunby / AP)
Senator McCain. Was this the moment? The epiphany? The realization that stoking the flames of bigotry and fear had come home to roost?
As I watched your town hall gathering, I wondered what was going through your mind when you came face to face with the incendiary results of your campaign tactics. What did you see and feel when that elderly woman said Obama was an Arab? Or the man who said he feared an Obama presidency? And all the others?

I saw your face. I watched your body language as you took the microphone and quickly distanced yourself from that one.

At that moment, did you see your reflection in the mirror of her eyes? A reflection, not of a maverick, but a pariah? Did you see the decades of American scar tissue? Birmingham? Burning crosses? The noose? Did you see that awful year in American history when Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated, cut down in the prime of their dreams for a better America?

Did you hear the echo of Dr. King's words about being "judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character," and suddenly realize that it was not your opponent's character in question - but yours? Perhaps you heard the whisper of Langston Hughes when he asked, "What happens to a dream deferred ...? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?"

Did you suddenly smell the rot and fetid acrid aroma of fear and hate, the carcass of mendacious political tactics decaying at your feet? Or did you sniff the flop-sweat of your own campaign standing in a puddle of decimating poll numbers?

I watched your mouth dry up and wondered if you could taste the bitter words like "Arab," "terrorist," "treason," "kill him," - all served up on the plate of red meat politics by your campaign. Did it make you choke and want to spit out the rancid flavor of ignorance and violence? Or did you want to savor the success of the politics of personal destruction?

Did you feel the cold chill of defeat? Did your heart pound with the all-encompassing realization that you would never be president? Could you sense that the America you appeal to is stale and dying out and being replaced by the freshness of hope and tolerance and a rainbow of change?

No doubt, the media will genuflect before your image and be pushed by your campaign spinners to reanoint you as a maverick and honorable man in rising to the defense of your opponent. But your ads still sully the airwaves. Your surrogates still spew their venom. After all, this is just politics. People need to understand that. Nothing personal - it is just politics.

But here was this moment. And you know it, regardless of whether or not you were reading from cue cards or just looking down to avoid having to face the ugliness before you - you know.

And when the crowd booed as you struggled to use words about decency and honorable character to defuse the situation you created, you must have recalled the words from Proverbs, "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind ..."

This is not a moment for you to be proud of in this campaign. Garnering credit for coming to the defense of Senator Obama is like an arsonist claiming heroism for saving lives after having set fire to the building in the first place.

It does not matter how the media or your advisers and consultants spin this moment because it can only reflect badly on you. If it is tossed off as politics as usual, your campaign appears shallow and less interested in what's best for America than what is best for John McCain. If it is said that there is no room for this kind of rhetoric in a presidential campaign, then you look weak and unable to control your own staff that continue to push these messages. If it is about leadership and going against the flow, then we see that a McCain presidency will be divisive and reinforce the meme of "two Americas." We have already had eight years of a divided country from the man who ran as a "Uniter not a divider."

This was a defining moment.
And you, sir, lost.

Sarah Palin Needs to Stop The Bull or is that “MOOSE”

2008-10-11T05:39:00.001-07:00

Information provided by:

For Palin, some pork is kosher
By: Kenneth P. Vogel
October 10, 2008 09:25 PM EST
Last year, when a Juneau Pentecostal church asked the Alaska state government for cash for a new youth center, Gov. Sarah Palin, who had recently started worshipping at the church, vetoed the legislative appropriation from the capital budget, explaining it was “not a state responsibility.”

But by the time this year’s budget negotiations rolled around, Palin had become very involved in the Juneau Christian Center, attending an increasing number of services there, touring the youth center with her family, citing the pastor as among her spiritual guides, and appearing with the pastor at a Martin Luther King Day celebration and a religious conference where he laid hands on her while praying.

During this year’s capital budget writing process, Palin penned a letter to lawmakers “in support of the Juneau Christian Center’s new state-of-the-art youth center,” and she approved $25,000 for the center in May, even as she sparked a backlash from officials around the state for slashing spending from projects they deemed crucial to their areas.

Her reversal on the church funding is one small example of what both her critics and supporters in both parties in Alaska say is a trend in Palin’s political track record: She supports spending taxpayer cash on initiatives that tickle her fancy, even as she rails against funding for other — sometimes similar — projects and does little to slow overall government spending.

It’s a pattern that runs counter to the cost-cutting, anti-pork crusader persona that Palin has fashioned for herself from the dawn of her political career in the hometown municipal politics of Wasilla, Alaska, through her 22 months as Alaska’s governor, and now in her surprise turn as John McCain’s running mate on the Republican presidential ticket.

On the campaign trail, Palin’s denouncements of wasteful government expenditures — and her boasts of vetoing “nearly a half a billion dollars in reckless spending” from Alaska’s capital budget — dovetail with McCain’s own pledges to veto pork barrel spending.

But Palin over the years has approved billions of taxpayer dollars for discretionary projects, including some to which she had personal, political or parochial connections.

From the $25,000 for the Juneau Christian Center to $2 million for an academic conference meant to dispel the broadly-accepted idea that climate change is threatening polar bears (she actually preferred the money be used for the state’s lawsuit arguing the bears shouldn’t be listed as threatened) to $630,000 for a kitchen in a hockey arena complex the self-described hockey mom built during her second term as Wasilla’s mayor, Palin has tended to approve line items in Alaska’s capital budget — essentially the state version of federal earmarks — for projects favored by her and her supporters.

“Anything she proposed is a good earmark,” said Bob Weinstein, mayor of Ketchikan, Alaska, and a supporter of Palin’s Democratic rival Barack Obama. “Anything that somebody else proposes is not necessarily a good earmark,” added Weinstein, whose city was stung when Palin last year withdrew her support from the infamous bridge to nowhere, which would have connected Ketchikan to its airport.

On the campaign trail, Palin joined McCain in denouncing the bridge as epitomizing government waste. But Weinstein points out that Palin has not withdrawn her support for the Knik Arm Crossing, which has also been lampooned as a "bridge to nowhere,” but which would cut commute times for Palin’s neighbors in Wasilla and the surrounding Matanuska-Susitna — or Mat-Su — Valley.
Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Palin, pointed out that Palin has called for an independent cost analysis of the Knik Arm bridge before there’s any further state action. Comella said the Juneau church’s teen center had widespread community support and that Palin “saw firsthand how this nonprofit organization meets community needs.”

As for Palin’s overarching approach to government spending, Comella said Palin has fulfilled pledges to fight wasteful spending and reduce pork and inefficiencies “by cutting more than $500 million from the state budget in the last two years, vetoing wasteful spending and putting an $8 billion surplus to good use, including setting aside billions of dollars in the state's savings account.”

Palin did, in fact, veto $499 million alone in state lawmakers’ hometown projects from the two capital budgets that came across her desk as governor.

But absent from her stump speech and campaign talking points is that the $4.8 billion in capital spending she approved ($3.2 billion of which was proposed by her own office) made her average capital budget $264 million a year costlier than those signed into law by her predecessor Frank Murkowski, whom she had blasted as a free-spender during her 2006 Republican primary campaign against him.

Likewise, Palin had campaigned for mayor of Wasilla pledging to slash government spending. Once in office, however, she spent heavily on big-ticket projects — including the hockey complex, which was primarily funded by a $15 million voter-approved bond but was still requiring payments from the city last year, and major street and water improvement projects. She also managed to find at least $10,000 to help fund the snowmobile race her husband has won several times. All told, she took the city’s long-term debt from $1 million when she took office to $25 million when she left.

To be sure, both Wasilla and Alaska were raking in revenue during her stints at the helm — the city from rapid retail expansion, which brought a growth in sales taxes that allowed her to cut property taxes, and the state from taxes on oil companies, which she increased, allowing the state to sock away $7 billion while suspending its gas tax and adding $1,200 a year to its payments to citizens.

But during her tenures as both mayor and governor, operating budgets ballooned by 55 percent in Wasilla and 25 percent in Alaska.

It was easier — and splashier — for Palin to slash the capital budget than to rein in the operating budget, said state Sen. Bert Stedman, a Republican who co-chairs the Senate Finance Committee.

“Vetoes make great sound bites, politically,” he said, “but the capital budget is not the side of the equation that will cause long-term troubles for any state. The issue is growth of the operating account, because you’ve got to feed it every year, regardless if you have excess revenue or if you have tight years.”
Stedman, who said he supports Palin and is “very proud of her being nominated on the VP ticket,” nonetheless said she based her vetoes on “arbitrary decisions” and did not consistently adhere to the criteria she said she used for approving funding for capital projects: that they be related to education, public safety, health or infrastructure.

In 2007, Palin slashed funding from the capital budget for 40 sports-related projects, ranging from school baseball and soccer fields to $2.5 million in roof repairs at an Anchorage arena, because she asserted sports did not constitute an essential government service. Yet she approved cash for Wasilla’s hockey complex and several other sports projects in the Mat-Su Valley, including new lights at one high school field and new bleachers at another.

And after this year’s round of capital budget cuts, officials in the Mat-Su Valley, unlike those in many other parts of the state, expressed relief that their top projects were mostly spared Palin’s veto ax.

On the flip side, last year leaders in Anchorage complained that their capital projects got shortchanged. A state budget analysis obtained by Politico shows the vetoes last year and this year inordinately zeroed out projects in Southeast Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula — areas represented by some of the lawmakers who most often butted heads publicly with Palin, including Stedman.

“There were projects that I was astounded were vetoed in light of some of the projects that made it in the Mat-Su Valley, and particularly Wasilla,” said Bruce Botelho, the mayor of the state capital of Juneau, located in the southeastern part of the state.

Palin eliminated the $347,000 Juneau was seeking to improve safety at its schools, access to a park and drainage at a city ball field, and she slashed in half the $2.8 million the city was seeking for its top priority, an extension of power lines to a weather-monitoring station essential for its airport.

Meanwhile, Botelho also wrote a letter supporting the Juneau Christian youth center’s state funding request, even though he said the city considered it a low funding priority and that he wrote letters supporting many local nonprofits seeking state cash.

In fact, Juneau’s City Assembly rejected the church’s request for $45,000 from the city, partly because the arrangement raised church-state separation concerns for some City Assembly members.

“That was my judgment,” said Botelho, an Obama supporter, who noted that funding the center would “kind of open the Pandora’s Box.”

Representatives from the church, which created a separate nonprofit group to run the youth center, did not return telephone and e-mail messages from Politico inquiring about Palin’s involvement with the church or the funding push.

“She’s certainly in a position to favor those projects that she likes and that satisfy her personal interests,” said Botelho. “Every executive has that prerogative.”
This post was published to Ronn's Blog at 7:38:43 AM 10/11/2008
Sarah Palin Needs to Stop The Bull or is that “MOOSE”

John McCain UPLUGGED...UNDRESSED...UNHINGED

2008-10-09T16:51:00.000-07:00

During this week's debate, John McCain said we need "a cool hand at the tiller," but McCain has proven to be a loose cannon. He has accosted his Congressional colleagues on both sides of the aisle on everything from the federal budget to diplomatic relations. He is known for hurling profanities rather than settling disagreements calmly. His belligerence is legendary. Even conservative Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi has said, "He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

When someone earns the nickname "Senator Hothead," the public ought to call his character into question. McCain's propensity to explode undermines his abilities as a rational decision maker, particularly on national security issues -- which could prove disastrous considering our country is already involved in two wars.

McCain's temper is critical to his decision-making abilities, and his character must be discussed. As Drew Westen writes, "The political brain is an emotional brain. It is not a dispassionate calculating machine, objectively searching for the right facts, figures and policies to make a reasoned decision." That why it's so crucial people know the real Senator Hothead.

Take a GOOD LOOK!

Trust Me we have only scratched the surface! The plain and simpe truth is that there is NO STRAIGHT TALK EXPRESS......and never has been, evidently! John McCain represents the very worst in American Politics, he is an opportunist for sure...and if the videos can be believed he is not fit to lead our great NATION!

There will be more evidence on my next post!

MY HOLIDAY WITH THE McCAINS

2008-10-06T08:11:00.000-07:00

Editor's Note..............

I have't been able to verify the truth of this with www.snopes.com But It sounds True what do you think?

It was just before John McCain's last run at the presidential nomination in
2000 that my husband and I vacationed in Turtle Island in Fiji with John
McCain, Cindy, and their children, including Bridget (their adopted
Bangladeshi child).

It was not our intention, but it was our misfortune to be in close quarters
with John McCain for almost a week, since Turtle Island has a small number
of bungalows and their focus on communal meals force all vacationers who are
there at the same time to get to know each other intimately.

McCain arrived at our first group meal and started reading quotes from a
pile of William Faulkner books with a forest of Post-Its sticking out of
them. As an English Literature major myself, my first thought was "if he
likes this so much, why hasn't he memorized any of this yet?" I soon
realized that McCain actually thought we had come on vacation to be a
volunt eer audience for his "readings" which then became a regular part of
each meal. Out of politeness, none of the vacationers initially protested at
this intrusion into their blissful holiday, but people's buttons definitely
got pushed as the readings continued day after day.

Unfortunately this was not his only contribution to our mealtime
entertainment. He waxed on during one meal about how Indo-Chine women had
the best figures and that our American corn-fed women just couldn't meet up
to this standard. He also made it a point that all of us should stop Cindy
from having dessert as her weight was too high and made a few comments to
Amy, the 25 year old wife of the honeymooning couple from Nebraska that she
should eat less as she needed to lose weight.

McCain's appreciation of the beauty of Asian women was so great that David
the American economist had to move his Thai wife to the other side of the
table from McCain as McCain kept aggressively flirting with and touching
her.

Needless to say I was irritated at his large ego and his rude behavior
towards his wife and other women, but decided he must have some redeeming
qualities as he had adopted a handicapped child from Bangladesh. I asked him
about this one day, and his response was shocking: "Oh, that was Cindy's
idea ‐ I didn't have anything to do with it. She just went and adopted this
thing without even asking me. You can't imagine how people stare when I
wheel this ugly, black thing around in a shopping cart in Arizona . No, it
wasn't my idea at all."

I actively avoided McCain after that, but unfortunately one day he engaged
me in a political discussion which soon got us on the topic of the active US
bombing of Iraq at that time. I was shocked when he said, "If I was in
charge, I would nuke Iraq to teach them a lesson". Given McCain's personal
experience with the horr ors of war, I had expected a more balanced point of
view. I commented on the tragic consequences of the nuclear attacks on Japan
during WWII ‐- but no, he was not to be dissuaded. He went on to say that if
it was up to him he would have dropped many more nuclear bombs on Japan. I
rapidly extricated myself from this conversation as I could tell that his
experience being tortured as a POW didn't seem to have mellowed out his
perspective, but rather had made him more aggressive and vengeful towards
the world.

My final encounter with McCain was on the morning that he was leaving Turtle
Island. Amy and I were happily eating pancakes when McCain arrived and told
Amy that she shouldn't be having pancakes because she needed to lose weight.
Amy burst into tears at this abusive comment. I felt fiercely protective of
Amy and immediately turned to McCain and told him to leave her alone. He
became very angry and abusive towards me, an d said, "Don't you know who I
am." I looked him in the face and said, "Yes, you are the biggest asshole I
have ever met" and headed back to my cabin. I am happy to say that later
that day when I arrived at lunch I was given a standing ovation by all the
guests for having stood up to McCain's bullying.

Although I have shared my McCain story informally with friends, this is the
first time I am making this public. I almost did so in 2000, when McCain
first announced his bid for the Republican nomination, but it soon became
apparent that George Bush was the shoo-in candidate and so I did not act
then. However, now that there is a very real possibility that McCain could
be elected as our next president, I feel it is my duty as an American
citizen to share this story. I can't imagine a more scary outcome for
America than that this abusive, aggressive man should lead our nation. I
have observed him in intimate surroundings as he r eally is, not how the
media portrays him to be. If his attitudes toward women and his treatment of
his own family are even a small indicator of his real personality, then I
shudder to think what will happen to America were he to be elected as our
President.

Mary-Kay Gamel
Professor of Classics, Comparative Literature, and Theater Arts
Cowell College
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California 95064
831-459-2381 (office); 831-429-8803 (home)
mkgamel@ucsc.edu

Peace, Shirley

Georgia adds here: Just read on www.truthout.com that McCain has ties to
gambling interests Check it out on the link here.

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
Albert Einstein

We become what we think about all day long.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Blessings and Love to ALL Creation,

Defining Popular Music - Its Genesis!

2008-07-01T17:41:00.000-07:00

In The Air Tonight! One of the most successful rock acts of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Genesis enjoyed a longevity exceeded only by the likes of the Rolling Stones and the Kinks, in the process providing a launching pad for the superstardom of members Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. The group had its roots in the Garden Wall, a band founded by 15-year-olds Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Johnny Trapman, Chris Stewart and Rivers Job in 1965 at Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey, where fellow students Anthony Phillips, Robert Tyrell, Rivers Job, Michael Coleman and Richard McPhaeil were members of another group called Anon. Mike Rutherford was in The Climax, with Chris Stewart (drums), Chris Pigott (bass guitar), Duncan James (lead guitar) and Tim Hobart (vocals). The Scarlet and Black group included Toby Ward (drums), Guy Ross-Lowe (bass guitar), Michael Slack (piano), Mark Weeks (piano and guitar), Richard Apley (saxophone), Andrew Bruce (trombone) and Paul Gabriel (vocals).The groups initially merged out of expediency as the older members of each graduated; Gabriel, Banks, Rutherford, Phillips, and drummer Chris Stewart soon joined together as the New Anon, and recorded a six-song demo featuring songs primarily written by Rutherford and Phillips. The Charterhouse connection worked in their favor when an ex-student, recording artist and producer Jonathan King, heard the tape and arranged for the group to continue working in the studio, developing their sound. It was also King who renamed the band Genesis!!!!!! World of Confusion Invisible TOUCH Another Day In Paradise In Too Deep Hold On My Heart! I Can’t Stop Loving You One More Night Turn It on Again Abacadabra That’s All I Can’t Dance Against All Odds Easy Lover SUSUDIO

src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gB775nB3YBI&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="none" width="425" height="344">

Phil Collins and GENESIS did indeed define a whole area of Rock as well as popular music during their time!

I REMEMBER THE MUSIC!!! DO YOU?