Kenny Rogers passes away at 81

On March 20, 2020, singer, song writer, and actor Kenny Rogers passed away from natural causes. He was 81.

Rogers was a huge star in the 1970s and 1980s, with songs topping both the country and pop music charts. He began his professional music career in the mid-1950s and recorded in genres ranging from jazz, to psychedelic rock, and, the country music genre for which he will forever be remembered. In 2015, after one final tour and 60 years spent on stages. Rogers retired.

In addition to his musical career, Rogers published a book of photographs he took--a hobby that became a passion, an autobiography, and he starred in several movies.

On a personal note, Rogers' 1978 hit, "The Gambler", has been a favorite song of mine since I first heard it as a little kid. As I've grew up and grew older, my love for this song has remained, even as the reasons for that love have evolved.

Thank you, Mr. Rogers, for a life spent enriching existence for the rest of us.

Here's a link to a video of Rogers performing "The Gambler."

The Milla Jovovich Quarterly

"Hey, Winter. C'mere. Yeah, you. I'm talking to you. Just come here."

"Don't be afraid... I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just gonna put you in the closet with this big coat, because IT'S SPRING NOW, AND YOU ARE DONE!

"Because I'm sick of it being too cold for me to ride my motorcycle in my underwear!"

Georges and the Magic Bubbles

Soap Bubbles (1906)
Starring: Georges Méliès
Director: Georges Méliès
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Come one, come all! Witness a performance by the magician (Méliès) who eschews smoke and mirrors in favor of smoke and bubbles!

"Soap Bubbles" is a straight-ahead showcase for Georges Méliès trick photography-created special effects. There's no narrative framework for the movie magic here, as the viewer is treated to a literal performance by a stage magician. I imagine that audiences in 1906 were awestruck by what they saw unfold on the screen, since special effects were still quite rare in films. For the modern viewer, this may be a little hokey, and if you've already seen several of Méliès's films there won't be any surprises here. Still, the effects hold up nicely, given that "Soap Bubbles" is over 110 years old, and there's really only one that I found myself disappointed with.

I invite you to take a few minutes to check out "Soap Bubbles" below, especially if you're new in these parts. Georges Méliès was a pioneer in the area of special effects, and I feel he deserved to be remembered and that movie lovers should continue to watch his work.

Wonder Woman Wednesday

We're counting the days until Wonder Woman swoops across the Big Screen again... and we're making the time go by faster by posting great portraits of her, by great artists. Look for a post like this every other Wednesday until June 4 is here!

This week, we have portraits of Wonder Woman with her fellow DC Comics Superstars, Batman and Superman!

By Stjepan Sejic

By John Byrne

By Kevin Nowlan

By Ivan Reis

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Toby Wing is here to drive out some snakes!

Musical Monday with Spirit Animal

Since Covid19/Coronavirus/whatever-the-acceptable-shorthand-for-the-global-pandemic-is-today is turning many of us into shut-ins, we here at Shades of Gray have teamed up with Spirit Animal (a band from Brooklyn, N.Y.) to bring you an exercise regiment that will keep you physically fit.

Please follow the instructions in the video carefully.



(Come to think of it, this is also a perfect illustration of this blog's unifying theme!)

'Bimbo's Initiation' is nightmarish fun

Bimbo's Initiation (1931)
Starring: Billy Murray (voice of Bimbo) and Mae Questel (voice of Betty Boop)
Director: Dave Fleischer
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A secret society wants Bimbo to join their ranks, and its members won't take no for an answer.

"Bimbo's Initiation" is another one of those 1930s cartoons that starts goofy, turns weird, and dives headlong into the nightmarishly insane before its over. It's also an extremely funny. Further, even by today's standards, this 90-year-old cartoon features some very impressive, almost 3D-feeling animation of Bimbo's trek through the bizarre house of horrors the secret society traps him in after he turns them down. The film's best gag comes at the very end, though, when Bimbo is made an offer to join that no male can refuse!

This fun and freaky cartoon is sure to brighten your day, as well as make you marvel at how it can be so creepy and so amusing at the same time. If you have an interest in pop culture, you'll find added value in the fact that this film is one of the last times Betty Boop appeared in her original anthropomorphic poodle-like form, as well as one of the last time Bimbo had a leading role. Soon, Betty would be redesigned into the character we know today, and Bimbo would be relegated to ever-smaller parts until vanishing from the series entirely in 1934.

Please take a few minutes to enjoy "Bimbo's Initiation", right here in this post. You're also invited to leave comments here if you agree or disagree with my comments, or have an observation you wish to make.

Firearms Friday with Livia Gullo

Livia Gullo is a model, soccer super-fan, and Miss Brazil USA pageant runner-up who occasionally does photo-shoots with guns and very little else.

It's Friday the Thirteenth!

Wynne Gibson and the rest of us here at Shades of Gray all hope all visitors and readers make it through this Friday the Thirteenth okay. With the recent full moon, unfolding global pandemic, and contestants from "The Masked Singer" roaming about, anything can happen on a day like this!

'Half Shot at Sunrise' is more than halfway decent

Half Shot at Sunrise (1930)
Starring: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Dorothy Lee, Leni Stengel, George MacFarlane, Edna May Oliver, and Jack Rutherford, and Edgar DeLange
Director: Paul Sloane
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A couple soldiers (Wheeler and Woolsey) are having the time of their lives AWOL in Paris during WWI, ducking MPs and happily hitting on every woman they see. When one of them  falls in love with the Colonel's teenaged daughter (Lee), and she decides to help his military career, things start to get complicated.

"Half Shot at Sunrise" is a supremely silly movie  that is light on plot but heavy on shenanigans and clever quips and offhanded double-entrendres. You'll hardly notice the lack of plot though, as Wheeler and Woolsey keep the jokes and tricks flowing non-stop, and when Dorothy Lee is added to the mix things get even wilder. If you like madcap military comedies, I think you'll enjoy this film quite a bit.

That said, it's not a perfect movie. The main drawback are the songs/musical numbers--which are . They are not all that good, and they interrupt the film's momentum and stop it dead in its tracks. I did enjoy the goofy dance routines that came with each song, but they were not enough to make up for the lameness of the music. These dragged my rating of this otherwise fun movie down from a low Eight to what was almost a Six on my 0-10 scale.

Another flaw was a serious romantic subplot involving the colonel's oldest daughter and a straight-laced Army lieutenant that ran along side the antics of the three main characters. While it served as a nice counterpoint to the Wheeler/Woolsey/Lee clown show, and brought a little dimension to some of the supporting characters, it really just made me wish for more of the clown show. It wasn't as damaging to the flow of the film as the weak musical numbers, but it didn't really add that much in the final analysis.

"Half Shot at Dawn" is one of nine films included in the Wheeler and Woolsey: RKO Comedy Classics Collection. That collection is a broad sampling of their films for RKO that stretches from the beginning of their contract until its end, and it includes some of their biggest hits.