My favourite composer, Gioachino Rossini would be 220 years old. My favourite piece of music ever written.

The timeless Glenn Miller ~ 1904:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...zbOo&feature=related

and, of course:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...XL-k&feature=related

Happy Birthday and many more to writer William F. Nolan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Nolan

http://williamfnolan.com/

Happy birthday to a wonderful and accomplished writer with whom I have had the honor to correspond and meet!

We met Mr. Nolan a few years ago in Glendale, CA, at Mr. B's b'day celebration. Amidst all of the celebs and activities, he took time to chat and share a few anecdotes with our family. A fine gentleman and true friend of Mr. Bradbury!

Contrary to the M&I Bookstore's signing guidelines of the day, I slipped my long-timed classroom used copy of F451 out of my pocket and requested of Mr. B to sign it. He smiled broadly when I flipped through and showed him all of my underlines and textual notes from the countless times the story had been shared with my students!

Outside on the sun bathed sidewalk during our exchanges with Mr. Nolan, he kindly scrolled his name on the title page of "The Hearth and the Salamander." Later, To complete a nice trifecta, Capt. Beatty himself, Michael Pritchard signed the portion he had read in honor of Mr. B (the card game with Montag in the firehouse).

So, Thanks Much and Happy Birthday to Mr. Nolan. Many, many more!

Also, A MAD 91st for Al Jaffe:
http://www.brainpickings.org/i...in-collection-jaffe/

quote:

Originally posted by fjp451: A fine gentleman and true friend of Mr. Bradbury!

Cool thing about this forum, are all these stories that are shared.

I love his The Ray Bradbury Companion. My copy is an ex-library, but I fixed it up a nice dustjacket and slipcase.

Born 1911: L. Ron Hubbard (known as a pulp fiction writer and something else.)

Awkward moment today. Some things went wrong at work and my boss became agitated, so I said, "Well, it's the 13th. You can't expect everything to go right on the 13th." Then it turned out it was his birthday.

quote:

Originally posted by jkt:
Born 1911: L. Ron Hubbard (known as a pulp fiction writer and something else.)

4E agented him in the early days. He once told me that once L. Ron slept on his couch. 4E said he had to throw the couch out.

No fan of Scientology, he!

Born 1879: Albert Einstein

Classic Old Blues: Samuel "Lightning" Hopkins (1912)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...V0gk&feature=related
(DS: This is wonderful piece of filming!)

Class Big Band, melodiously, Harry James (1916)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...7aQU&feature=related

Both musicians represented great eras of Americana!

Happy 66, Jerry Jeff Walker!

Born 1789: Physicist Georg Ohm (not the inventor of the mantra)

Born 1926: Jerry Lewis (National Holiday in France?)

Happy 90th, Carl Reiner!