June 1: Lisa Marie Presley

February 1, 1968 – January 12, 2023

• Lisa Marie Presley was an American singer and songwriter.
• She was the only child of singer and actor Elvis Presley and actress Priscilla Presley.
• She was she was the only heir to her father’s estate after her grandfather and great grandmother died.
• Her musical career spanned over three studio albums. They were called To Whom It May Concern in 2003, Now What in 2005 and Storm and Grace in 2012.
• The record called To Whom It May Concern was a gold record.
• She released singles including duets with Elvis that were released before her father died.

Early Life

• Lisa Marie was born on February 1, 1968. She was the only daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley.
• She was born at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis Tennessee.
• Interestingly she was born nine months the day after her parents Elvis and Priscilla were married.

• After her parents divorced, she lived with her mother in Los Angeles but visited a lot with her father at Graceland in Memphis Tennessee.
• Her parents separated when she was only four years old. She was only nine years old when her father died in August 1977.
• She became the joint heir to his estate with her 61-year-old grandfather Vernon Presley and Vernon’s 87-year-old mother Minney Mae Presley.
• After the deaths of her grandfather in 1979 and her great-grandmother in 1980 she became Elvis ‘only heir on her 25^th birthday in 1993.
• She inherited the whole estate which was worth an estimated $100 million.
• She sold 85% of her father’s estate in 2004.
• A year or two after her father’s death Lisa Marie attended her first rock concert. She saw Queen at the forum in Inglewood California. She gave Freddie Mercury scarf of her father’s and said that she enjoyed his theatrics.
• Shortly after her father’s death Lisa Marie’s mother started dating the actor, Michael Edwards.
• In an interview with Playboy magazine 2003 Lisa Marie stated that Michael would enter her room when he was drunk and was inappropriate with her.
• She has a half-brother named Navarone Garibaldi from her mother’s 22-year relationship with Marco Garibaldi.
• Lisa made a video of Don’t Cry Daddy in 1997.
• This video was presented on August 16, 1997, At the tribute concert that marked the 20^th anniversary of Elvis ‘death.
• This video has Elvis’s original voice with new instruments and Lisa Marie voice was also added.

Career

2003 to 2005: To Whom It May Concern

• Lisa Marie released her debut album Whom It May Concern on April 8, 2003.
• It got to number 5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and was certified Gold in June 2003.
• She wrote all the lyrics for the album except the song called The Road Between and she co-wrote every melody.
• To promote the album, she did a concert in the UK.
• The album’s first single called Lights Out reached number 18 on the Billboard Hot adult top 40 charts and number 16 on the UK charts.

• She worked with Billy Corgan for a song called Saviour which was included on the other side of the record.

• When the album was reviewed by the Los Angeles times critic Robert Hilburn, he didn’t give it a very good review. However, he said Lisa Marie had a gutsy blues edged voice with a very distinctive tone and flair.
• Pat Benatar and Lisa Marie performed at the VH1 Divas Duets concert to benefit the Save the Music Foundation.
• It was held at the MGM grand Garden Arena on May 22, 2003, in Las Vegas.
• They sang Benatar’s hit called Heartbreaker and Lisa Marie started to perform the song during her tours after the benefit.

• In 2003 Lisa Marie also sang a version of Silent Night for the NBC holiday collection Sounds of the Season.

2005 to 2012: Now What and Further Singles

• Her second album is called Now What. It was released on April 5, 2006, and went to number 9 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
• She co-wrote 10 songs and recorded covers of Don Hanley’s Dirty Laundry and the Ramon’s song called Here Today and Gone Tomorrow.
• The song called Idiot is her way of getting back at different men in her life.

• This album even has a parental advisory sticker on it.
• Pink even made a guest appearance on the song called Shine.

• The video that was made for her rendition of Dirty Laundry featured George Michael in it.
• Lisa Marie appeared in the music video for Johnny Cash’s song called God’s Going to Cut You Down in 2006.
• This video featured many different celebrities and won a 2008 Grammy award for Best Short Form Music Video.
• The single called In the Ghetto was released in August 2007. Elvis originally released the single in 1969.
• In the newer version Lisa Marie duets with her father. The video and single were released at the same time and reached number 1 on iTunes and number 16 on Billboards Bubbling under Hot 100 Singles Chart. This Song was recorded to commemorate the 30^th anniversary of her father’s death.
• Lisa Marie decided not only to sing but sing with him.
• The proceeds from the sale of the single went to Presley Place Transitional Housing Campus in New Orleans.
• She even got to appear on the Oprah Winfrey show form this song with the Harlem Gospel choir using vintage footage of her father.

2012 to 2018: Storm and Grace and Final Releases

• Her third album was called Storm and Grace. It was released on May 15, 2012. People describe this album as a much stronger, more mature and more effective work than people would expect.
• In the music industry, people noticed that Lisa Marie was finally developing a musical personality that really suited her.
• Entertainment tonight praised her song called You Ain’t Seen Nothing yet.
• In 2018, Lisa Marie was featured on the title track of the compilation called Where No One Stands Alone.
• It was a collection of her father’s gospel songs. The song was reworked into a duet between her and her father Elvis. A music video for the song was released with videos of her father and Lisa Marie together.

Charity Work and Humanitarian Efforts

• The Elvis Presley charitable foundation was formed by Graceland/Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. in 1984.
• It was to continue our office’s own tradition of generosity and community service and honour his memory.
• Lisa Marie was the chairperson and was on the management team of Graceland/Elvis and Presley Enterprises Inc.
• In 2001 Presley Place opened to welcome its first residents. Presley Place provides homeless families up to one year of rent-free housing, child day care, career and financial counselling, family management guidance and other tools to help them break the cycle of poverty and we gain their self-esteem and independence.
• Also, the Elvis Presley music room is where young people of Presley Place and others can enjoy learning to play musical instruments and participate in special related programs.
• Her father’s foundation, the EPCF help create the Elvis Presley and endowed scholarship fund at the College of communication and fine arts at the University of Memphis to help students majoring in the areas of the arts.
• She joined Oprah Winfrey and her Angel network to help assist in the relief efforts after hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and surrounding areas.
• In 2011 Lisa became a patron of the Dream Factory. This is a charity based in London.
• She was one of the celebrity guests at the Snowball held at the Prince Regent in Chigwell.
• With Lisa’s and other celebrities’ help they were able to raise $59,000 towards granting the wishes of terminally ill children and those with life-threatening illnesses or disabilities. This went towards granting 83 dreams in under three years.
• She even provided a big framed picture of Elvis that raised $5000.

Grammy Foundation

• She was involved with the Grammy Foundation’s Gold Grammy Signature schools program.
• It recognizes the top US public high schools that are making an outstanding commitment to music education during an academic school year.
• On November 11, 2005, she participated in a Grammy sound check at LA’s House of Blues where she along with other industry professionals worked with a group of music students to discuss career opportunities available to them within the music industry.

Awards and Honours

• On June 24, 2011, Lisa was officially honoured by the governor of Tennessee Bill Haslam.
• He proclaimed the day of recognition for her charitable efforts.
• Two days later she was issued a certificate of proclamation by the mayor of New Orleans Mitchell J. Landrieu in recognition of her dedication and contributions to the city.

Personal Life

• In 2005 she decided to allow us to have a brief look into her personal life when she appeared in the TV movie called Elvis by the Presley’s.
• Between 2010 and 2016 she lived in the 15^th century manor house in Rotherfield, England. It was about 15 miles east of the British headquarters of the Church of Scientology.

Relationships and Children

• On October 3, 1988, she married Chicago born musician Danny Keough. They had two children, a girl named Riley Keough and a son named Benjamin Storm Keough.
• Riley became a model and an actress. Unfortunately, the couple divorced in Dominican Republic on May 6, 1994.
• On May 26, 1994, 20 days after her divorce from her first husband, she married Michael Jackson. They first meant when she attended his concert when she was six years old.
• Their friendship became stronger in 1992 when Michael needed emotional support to help them deal with the court case against him.
• She appeared in Michael’s You Are Not Alone video in June 1995. In January 1996 she filed for divorce because of irreconcilable differences.
• After that he met and married Nicholas Cage. They were married on August 10, 2002. They were divorced on May 24, 2004.

Scientology

• Lisa along with friend and fellow Scientologist Isaac Hayes opened the Literacy, Education and Ability Program (LEAP) in October 1997.
• Because of her efforts to help US children learn study skills she received the Humanitarian Award from the Church of Scientology on January 5, 2002.
• She got this award from Isaac Hayes, Chaka Khan and the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr.
• That same year she addressed a U.S. Congress national hearing to oppose the use of medication in treating ADHD.
• She left the church of Scientology in 2014 after years of being discontent with the organization.

Elvis through His Daughter’s Eyes Exhibit

• In February 2012, she opened a new exhibit called Elvis through His Daughter’s Eyes.
• It is included in the Graceland VIP tour and features 200 items put together by Presley and the Graceland activity staff.
• This exhibit shows Presley’s experience of growing up with the famous father. Home movies, toys and rarely seen family mementos are among items on display.

Aircraft Lisa Marie

• In November 1975 Elvis named one of his private aircraft after her. It cost $1 million to refurbish it and use it as his main plane while he was on tour.

Death

• On January 12, 2023, Lisa suffered a cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas California.
• She unfortunately died later that day at the age of 54.
• Her last appearance was two days before at the 80^th goal in gold awards which she attended with her mother. Her memorial service was public and was held at Graceland on January 22 and more than 1.5 million people watched the service via lifestream.

This is a picture of her graveside in Graceland Meditation Garden.

Let’s finish class by watching a video remembering Lisa Marie.

May 30: ABBA

• ABBA is a Swedish pop music group. The band was the most commercially successful pop group of the 1970s, and they remain beloved among fans of all ages to this day!
• The name “ABBA” is made from the first letter of each member’s first name: Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
• ABBA became very popular after they won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974. They had many hits. These included “Dancing Queen”, “SOS”, “Mamma Mia”, and “Waterloo”. Most of their songs were written by Ulvaeus and Andersson.

Becoming a Group

• All 4 ABBA members had local music careers before ABBA even formed. Frida and Agnetha were both solo singers. Benny and Bjorn both had their own individual bands.
• In 1966, Benny and Bjorn both met and decided to write songs together.
• In 1969, Bjorn met Agnetha and Benny met Frida. All four friends met together and decided to work together to record songs.
• By 1970, they were known as “Bjorn & Benny (With Svenska Flicka)”. Later they were called Bjorn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida.
• Their first hit was a song called “Hej, gamle man”.

Rise to Fame

• By 1971, Bjorn and Agnetha were married and Benny and Frida were engaged. “Ring Ring” in 1973 was when the group achieved success throughout much of Europe and Africa.

• It wasn’t until 1973 that the group became officially known as ABBA. The name was suggested by their manager, Stig Anderson.

• In 1974, ABBA was given a chance to perform in the Eurovision Song Contest. With “Waterloo”, they won and soon got global success.

• In 1976, ABBA released Dancing Queen, which is often known as ABBA’s “signature song” and “one of the greatest pop songs ever written”.

• During 1977, their huge popularity became known as “Abbamania”.
• “ABBA: The Movie” was also released in 1977 during the height of the group’s popularity.

• Throughout the mid and late 1970’s ABBA performed in Europe, The United States, Japan and Australia.

• In early 1979, Agnetha and Bjorn divorced. In early 1981, Frida and Benny also got divorced. This led to many sadder and more mature songs over the next few years.

• By 1981, ABBA’s popularity was declining. Their last album “The Visitors” was not a big success like previous albums.
• The Day Before You Came was the last song ABBA ever recorded together, while Under Attack was the last song ever released, both in 1982.

• ABBA broke up shortly before 1983 and all members continued on their independent music careers, just like before they had met.

Mamma Mia!

• Mamma Mia! is a 2008 jukebox musical romantic comedy film directed by Phyllida Lloyd and written by Catherine Johnson, based on her book from the 1999 musical of the same name.
• The film is based on the songs of pop group ABBA, with additional music composed by ABBA member Benny Andersson.
• The film features an ensemble cast, including Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, Pierce Brosnan, Dominic Cooper, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Meryl Streep, and Julie Walters.
• The plot follows a young bride-to-be who invites three men to her upcoming wedding, with the possibility that any of them could be her father. This is a surprise to her mom, who is overcome with stress!

• In 2005, all four members of ABBA appeared at the Stockholm premiere of the musical Mamma Mia!

• On 4 July 2008, all four ABBA members were reunited at the Swedish premiere of the film Mamma Mia!. It was only the second time all of them had appeared together in public since 1986.

• A sequel to the 2008 movie “Mamma Mia!”, titled “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”, was released on 20 July 2018.

ABBA Revival

• On 27 April 2018, ABBA announced that they had recorded two new songs and one of them, “I Still Have Faith In You”, would be performed by their digital selves in a TV special produced by NBC and the BBC aimed for broadcasting in December 2018.
• On 27 April 2018, all four original members of ABBA made a joint announcement that they had recorded two new songs, titled “I Still Have Faith in You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down”, to feature in a TV special set to air later that year.

• Voyage, their first new album in 40 years, was announced to be released on 5 November 2021, along with ABBA Voyage, a concert residency in London featuring the motion capture digital avatars of the four band members alongside a 10-piece live band, due to start in May 2022. Fältskog stated that the Voyage album and tour are likely to be their last.
• The announcement of the new album, Voyage, was accompanied by the release of the previously-announced new singles “I Still Have Faith in You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down”.
• The music video for “I Still Have Faith in You”, featuring footage of the band during their performing years and also a first look at the ABBAtars, earned over a million views in its first three hours.

• “Don’t Shut Me Down” became the first ABBA release since October 1978 to top the singles chart in Sweden.
• In October 2021, the third single “Just a Notion” was released, and it was announced that ABBA would split for good after the release of Voyage. The fourth single from the album, “Little Things”, was released on 3 December.

In Conclusion…

• Although the band broke up in 1982, their music remained popular and influential over the decades.
• The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2015, their song “Dancing Queen” was inducted into the Recording Academy’s Grammy Hall of Fame.
• To ABBA, we have to say, Thank YOU for the music!!

Sources: https://kids.kiddle.co/ABBA & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamma_Mia!_(film)

May 25: Tina Turner

November 26, 1939 – May 24, 2023

Who is Tina Turner?

• Tina Turner started performing with musician Ike Turner in the 1950s. Their group was known as Ike and Tina Turner revue, they became popular because of their live performances and recordings.
• The song Proud Mary was a top-five hit for them.

• Tina left Ike in the 1970s after experiencing years of domestic abuse.
• Her solo career began slowly but she achieved amazing success with her 1984 album called Private Dancer.
• She continued to deliver more chart-topping albums and hit singles and was twice elected to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
• She won 8 Grammys and later became involved in the spiritual Beyond project.
• Tina died May 24, 2023, at the age of 83 after a long illness.

Early Life

• Tina was born and may bullock on November 26, 1939, Nutbush Tennessee.
• Her parents were Floyd and Zelma Bullock. They were poor sharecroppers. They split up and left Tina and her sister to be raised by their grandmother.
• When their grandmother died in the early 1950s Tina moved to St. Louis to be with her mother.
• Tina was barely in her teens when she got very interested in the St. Louis R&B scene.
• She spent a lot of her time at Club Manhattan.
• In 1956 she met rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Ike Turner at the club. He often played there with the band called the Kings of rhythm.
• Soon after she met him, she began performing with the group and quickly became the highlight of the show.

Making the Chart: “A Fool in Love”

• In 1960 another singer didn’t show up for a Kings of Rhythm recording session, so Tina sang the lead vocals for the track titled A Fool in Love.

• The record was sent to a radio station in New York and released under the name of Ike and Tina Turner.
• The song was a huge R&B success and soon crossed over to the pop charts.
• The group began touring with the name of Ike and Tina Turner Revue.
• The tour was a huge success and as a result more singles were released. Some of them were called It’s Gonna Work out Fine, Poor Fool and Tra La La La La.

Ike and Tina Get Married

• As they were becoming more popular, they decided to get married in Tijuana Mexico in 1962.
• They had their son Ronnie two years later.
• They had four sons altogether, one from an earlier relationship of Tina’s and two from an earlier relationship of Ike’s. Tina decided to adopt Ike’s sons.

Famed Interpretation of Proud Mary

• In 1966, Tina and Ike had more success when they recorded the album called River Deep, Mountain High with producer Phil Spector.

• The title track wasn’t popular in the United States but was a top-5 hit in England and made the duel more famous.
• However, they were more known for their electrifying live performances without having a lot of hits.
• In 1969 they became even more popular when they toured as an opening act with the Rolling Stones.
• In 1971 they released the album called Workin’ Together which featured a remake of the Creedence Clearwater revival track called Proud Mary. It reached the top five of the US charts and won the two their first Grammy.
• They had another top-five UK hit with a 1973 song called Nutbush City Limits.

• It was a rock country soul song written by Tina herself.
• It was sort of an autobiographical story about her life and what she went through.
• In 1975 Tina appeared in her first film called Who’s Tommy. She played an acid Queen.

Divorcing Ike

• Even though they had a huge amount of success their marriage wasn’t working. Tina later revealed that Ike was often physically abusive.
• By the mid-1970s the couple separated both personally and professionally. This was after an altercation in Dallas when Tina fought back.
• They were officially divorced in 1978 with Tina saying there was a lot of infidelities, increasing drug use with alcohol abuse as well as him being physically abusive to her.
• To make ends meet and to care for her children she had to use food stamps and worked cleaning houses.
• She continued to perform in lower profile venues and made guest appearances on other artists’ records in order to survive.

Solo Come Back: Private Dancer and What’s Love Got to Do with It

• In 1983, Tina’s career finally began to take off when she recorded a remake of Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together.

• The song went to number 5 on the domestic R&B charts and the top 10 among UK pop songs.
• The following year she released the solo album called Private Dancer.

• It went on to win 4 Grammy Awards and eventually sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.
• What’s Love Got to Do with It went to number 1 on the US pop charts and earned a Grammy for record of the year.

• Private Dancer and Better Be Good to Me both reached the top 10 as well.

• By the time Tina was in her mid-40s she was becoming even more known for her energetic performances and raspy singing technique along with her signature look.
• She typically performed in short skirts that exposed her famous legs with punk styled hair.

Beyond Thunderdome and Foreign Affair

• in 1985, Tina starred with Mel Gibson in the film called Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome which she sang the number 2 pop song called We Don’t Need Another Hero.

• One year later she published her autobiography called I, Tina which was made into a film in 1986 called What’s Love Got to Do with It starring Angela Bassett and Tina Turner and Laurence Fishburne as Ike.
• Tina did the soundtrack for the film with classic tracks and offered up a new Top 10 hit called I Don’t Wanna Fight which went Double Platinum.
• She also released her second solo album called Break Every Rule which featured the fun song called Typical Male. It went to number 2 on the pop charts.
• In 1988 the album Tina live in Europe won the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Performance. The album Foreign Affair released in 1989 included the top 20 hit single called The Best. It did even better than Private Dancer in worldwide sales.

Wildest Dreams and Final Tour

• Tina released the album called Wildest Dreams in 1996. It featured her cover of John Waite’s song called Missing You and in 1999 she released the album called Twenty-Four Seven.
• She also made a lot of recordings for film soundtracks including the James Bond title song called Goldeneye which became a UK top 10 hit and He Lives in You for The Lion King 2.

• In 1991 Ike and Tina Turner were inducted into the rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Fame. Ike did not attend the ceremony.
• In 2008 she started a 50^th Anniversary Tour which became one of the highest selling ticket shows of 2008 and 2009.
• She announced that it would be her final tour and essentially retired from the music business.
• She appeared on the cover of a 2013 Dutch Vouge magazine that was widely shared all over the world.

Religion

• Tina collaborated with spiritual musicians Regula Curti and Dechen Shak-Dagsay to release Beyond: Buddhist and Christian Prayers in 2010 and two other follow-up albums called Children Beyond in 2011 and Love Within in 2014.
• They believed that the experience of singing prayers together allowed them to deeply connect on an emotional level.
• Tina said to Billboard Magazine in 2010 that it comes from a place of love and respect where worldly differences fade.
• Tina followed the teaching of the largest Buddhist organization called the Soka Gakkai International. It consists of about 12 million Buddhist practitioners.

Second marriage to Erwin Bach

• In 2013 Tina now 73 years old got engaged to her longtime partner German record executive Erwin Bach. They were married in July 2013 in Zürich Switzerland only months after Tina had gained her Swiss citizenship. She and her new husband lived in Switzerland near Zürich.

Later Years

• In 2018 Tina returned to the spotlight when she received a Grammy Life That Lifetime Achievement Award. People like Neil Diamond and Emmylou Harris received the same award that year.
• A few months later the musical Tina: The Tina Turner Musical opened at Aldwych Theatre in England. It was a showcase of all her greatest hits.
• In October 2018 Tina published another memoir called My Love Story.
• She was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame again as an individual in October 2021.
• She died at age 83 on May 24, 2023, at her home in Switzerland near Zürich. A family representative said she died peacefully after a long illness.

May 23: Family Guy

• Family Guy is an American animated sitcom originally thought of and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company.
• The series premiered on January 31, 1999, following Super Bowl XXXIII. The rest of the first season aired two months later beginning April 11, 1999.

Setting

• The primary setting of Family Guy is Quahog, a fictional city in Rhode Island that was founded by Peter’s ancestor, Griffin Peterson.

• MacFarlane, in an interview with Providence’s Fox affiliate WNAC-TV, stated that the town is modeled after Cranston, Rhode Island.

• MacFarlane lived in Providence during his time as a student at the Rhode Island School of Design.
• The show contains distinct Rhode Island landmarks similar to real-world locations.

• MacFarlane often borrows the names of Rhode Island locations and icons such as Pawtucket and Buddy Cianci for use in the show.

Premise

• The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children, Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog, Brian.
• Since its premiere, Family Guy has received generally positive reviews.
• In 2009, it was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, the first time an animated series was nominated for the award since The Flintstones in 1961. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Family Guy the ninth-greatest TV cartoon.
• Although highly satirical in nature, the series has also garnered considerable amounts of criticism and controversy, for everything from storylines and character stereotypes, to allegations of racism, homophobia and sexism.
• The show exhibits much of its humor in the form of metafictional cutaway gags.

History of the Show

• The family was conceived by MacFarlane after developing two animated films, The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve.

• MacFarlane redesigned the films’ protagonist, Larry, and his dog, Steve, and renamed them Peter and Brian, respectively.

• MacFarlane pitched a seven-minute pilot to Fox in December 1998, and the show was greenlit and began production. Family Guy’s cancellation was announced shortly after the third season had aired in 2002, with one unaired episode eventually premiering on Adult Swim in 2003, finishing the series’ original run.
• Favorable DVD sales and high ratings from syndicated reruns since then convinced Fox to revive the show in 2004; a fourth season began airing the following year, on May 1, 2005.

Main Characters

Peter Griffin

• Peter is the main protagonist of the American animated sitcom Family Guy. He is voiced by the series’ creator, Seth MacFarlane.
• Peter Griffin is a middle-class Irish American in his mid‑forties, who is a bespectacled, blue-collar worker with a prominent Rhode Island and Eastern Massachusetts accent.
• Peter’s voice was inspired by the security guards that MacFarlane heard at his school.
• Peter’s favorite pastime is watching TV, with his favorite shows consisting of Star Trek, Three’s Company and Charles in Charge. He is also a huge KISS fan and followed them during the KISS Stock shows.

• He frequently gets drunk with his neighbors and friends Cleveland Brown, Joe Swanson and Glenn Quagmire at “The Drunken Clam,” Quahog’s local tavern.

Lois

• Lois is the mother and matriarch of the Griffin family.
• Lois speaks with a distinctive nasal New England accent. Lois is voiced by Alex Borstein.
• Lois Griffin was born to affluent WASP parents, Carter and Barbara Pewterschmidt.
• Lois’s personality has evolved throughout the episodes. She is commonly the voice of reason to Peter’s shenanigans, but in some episodes she can act darker than normal.
• Lois primarily works as a housewife throughout the series, though she did give piano lessons in early episodes.
• She has also had various jobs in single episodes, including the new reporter for Fox News Channel, the mayor of Quahog, a call girl, and a post office worker.
• Lois is a championship boxer which she retired from with a record of 18–0. Lois is also a Black belt in Tae-Jitsu, which she quickly achieved in the episode “Lethal Weapons”.

Meg

• Meg is the eldest child of Peter and Lois Griffin and older sister of Stewie and Chris, but is also the family’s scapegoat who receives the least of their attention and tolerates the brunt of their abuse. She is often bullied, belittled, ridiculed, and ignored, especially by Peter.
• Meg is a self-conscious and insecure adolescent girl. While Meg is usually a pushover, she can get angry when pushed too far, though such occasions are usually rare. 

• Among the members of his family, he tends to treat Meg with the least respect; in “Peter’s Daughter”, for example, he reminisces about the various pranks he played on her, including tripping her, flicking her nose with his finger, and even shooting her at one point.
• He is known to embarrass her at times. However, some episodes of the series show Peter developing greater respect and unity between himself and his daughter, though these moments tend not to last for very long. It is revealed that his reason behind frequently bullying Meg throughout the years is the abuse he suffered from his sister Karen Griffin.
• Despite her persistent mistreatment, Meg has proven a variety of times throughout the series that she is more talented and has greater potential than most people bother to realize, such as bird calls, playing the saxophone, speaking and singing in foreign languages, and even sports such as bowling, field hockey, basketball, roller derby, and even Olympic sports. However, she seldom earns any notable accolades for these abilities, mostly due to her family’s lack of regard or interest in her or her inability to stick up against them.
• Many of the show’s storylines about Meg involve her trying to improve her life, find a boyfriend, being a Russian sleeper agent, and reaching breaking points with her family and others who victimize her. She often becomes obsessed with men who show any kindness or affection to her.

Chris

• Chris is voiced by the American actor, producer and writer, Seth Green.

• Similar to his sister Meg, Chris is portrayed as a typical adolescent, albeit one who comes off as being good-natured and easy-going.
• Chris is seemingly repeatedly willing to take drastic measures to get what he wants or needs, particularly when it comes to keeping up with his below-average grades in school.
• He also shares his father’s cartoonistic lack of common sense, tends to be absent-minded, gets confused easily, and appears to be extremely naïve
• Despite frequently displaying Peter’s characteristic stupidity, Chris is portrayed as usually a faster learner than Peter.
• Though Meg is humiliated or embarrassed by his actions like she is with Peter’s actions, Chris usually loves and cares for her deeply, and the two are frequently shown to get along very well.
• As the series progresses and Meg is seen more often with her group of friends, Chris’ social status is reduced to the point of being unpopular and virtually friendless at James Woods Regional High School.
• While just as socially looked down upon as Meg (though to a lesser extent of being bullied), he is outwardly confident and spirited, mostly when dealing with the ups and downs of being a teenager, such as running for Homecoming King, standing up to bullies, lashing out against his date, and frequently acting out against Peter’s hurtful ways.

Stewie

• Stewie was created and designed by MacFarlane, who is also the one who voices him.
• Stewie Griffin is portrayed as a two-year-old prodigy who has a sophisticated voice and can speak very fluently in an upper-class English accent with quite advanced vocabulary.
• However, Stewie succumbs to other childish tendencies; he believes Peter has truly disappeared in a game of Peekaboo, often has difficulties understanding the concept of shapes, talks to his teddy bear Rupert as if he were alive, is overcome with laughter when Lois blows on his stomach; and has no idea how to use a toilet.
• There is much debate over which characters in Family Guy can understand Stewie. In an interview, MacFarlane said that everyone can basically understand him, but they ignore him or just think to themselves “oh how cute” when he talks.
• However, at the 2011 Comic-Con panel, he compared this to Wile E. Coyote in the old Merrie Melodies cartoons. MacFarlane went on to say that Brian always hears Stewie, and more recently so does Chris, but the writers usually strive for Peter, Lois, and Meg (apart from “Leggo My Meg-O”) not to hear him.
• Once Stewie leaves the house, the question of who can hear him depends very much on the story. MacFarlane also states that these rules can be broken for the sake of comedy, so this could change from one episode to another.
• He began the series as a megalomaniacal sociopath, initially obsessed with violence, matricide, and world domination.
• Throughout the series, particularly following the two episode arc “Stewie Kills Lois” and “Lois Kills Stewie”, the violent aspects of Stewie’s personality were toned down.
• In the episode “Stewie loves Lois”, after Lois recovers and repairs a lost Rupert and serves Stewie a meal he likes, he rethinks Lois and accepts her as a loving mother. When he becomes too dependent on her, she deliberately takes no notice of him; when he hurts himself, she tries to show notice of him again, and he returns to hating her.

• Throughout the show, he has evolved into an eccentric, friendly, bisexual and flamboyant scamp.
• He has also come to have a very close friendship with the family’s anthropomorphic dog, Brian, whom he originally used to antagonize in the earliest episodes. Stewie is considered to be the show’s breakout character and has received numerous award nominations from writers such as Jodiss Pierre.

• He generally thinks of Peter as an inferior—regarding him simply as “the fat man” and, at one point, harboring doubts that Peter could be his father —but does bond with him over a shared love of practical jokes made at Lois’ expense.
• While Stewie typically regards Chris as a stooge, he considers him his only friend aside from Brian, and even helped Chris to dress when he felt too shy to date and assists him in dealing with bullies.
• On a more frequent basis though, Stewie constantly disrespects Meg, as he does with most elders (and as most people do to Meg), often being rude to her and subjecting her to the malice of his misbehavior.
• MacFarlane has been nominated for two awards for voicing Stewie Griffin. In 1999, he won a Primetime Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Voice-Over Performance.
• In 2006, he received an Annie Award in the Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television, Production category, for his voice work in the episode “Brian the Bachelor”.
• Stewie was also named the best Family Guy character on a list of “Top 25 Family Guy Characters” compiled by IGN. In 2010, Entertainment Weekly placed him 45th on its list of the “Top 100 Characters of the Past Twenty Years.”

More Videos if there’s time!

May 18: The History of Mother’s Day

History of Mother’s Day

• Different celebrations of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans.
• They had festivals in honour of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele.
• It also can come from the early Christian festival known as Mothering Sunday.
• This tradition came from the United Kingdom and parts of Europe.
• It normally fell on the fourth Sunday in Lent and was originally seen as a time when faithful people would return to their Mother church, which was usually the main church closest to their home for a special service.
• In time the Mothering Sunday tradition turned into a more common holiday, and children would present their mothers with flowers and other gifts of appreciation.
• This custom began to fade in popularity and became popular with the American Mother’s Day in the 1930s and 1940’s.

Fun Facts

Did you know more phone calls are made on Mother’s Day than any other day of the year? These holiday chats with your mom often cause phone traffic spike by as much as 37%.

Ann Reeves Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe

• The history of Mother’s Day as celebrated in the United States dates back to the 19th century.
• In the years before the Civil War, Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start “Mother’s Day work clubs”. These were to teach local women how to properly care for their children.
• These clubs later became a way for people to come together even though the country was still divided through the Civil War.
• In 1868 she organized “mother’s friendship day”, where mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation.
• Another person responsible for contributing to the history of Mother’s Day is Julia Ward Howe.
• In 1870 she wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation which was a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace.
• In 1873 Howe campaigned for the “Mothers’ Peace Day” to be celebrated every June 2.
• Another Mother’s Day pioneer was Juliet Calhoun Blakely. She was an activist who inspired a local Mother’s Day in Albion Michigan in the 1870s.
• Mary Towles Sasseen and Frank Hering both worked to organize a Mothers’ Day in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.
• Some People Have Even Called Hering “The Father of Mother’s Day.”

Anne Jarvis Turns Mother’s Day into a National Holiday

• Mother’s Day officially came to be in the 1900s because of the efforts of Anna Jarvis.
• She is the daughter of Anne Reeves Jarvis. After her mother’s death in 1905, Anna Jarvis thought Mother’s Day would be a good way of honouring the sacrifices mothers made for their children.
• After getting financial backing from a Philadelphia department store owner named John Wanamaker, in May 1908 she organized the first official Mother’s Day celebration.
• It was at a Methodist Church in Grafton West Virginia. There was also an event at one of Wanamaker’s retail stores in Philadelphia that thousands of people attended to celebrate Mother’s Day.
• Because of the success of her first Mother’s Day celebration Anna Jarvis dedicated herself to ensuring Mother’s Day was added to the national calendar.
• She argued that many American holidays were biased towards male achievements and decided to start a massive letter writing campaign in newspapers to prominent politicians urging them to adopt the special day honouring motherhood.
• By 1912 many states, towns and churches celebrated Mother’s Day as the annual holiday and Jarvis established the Mother’s Day international Association to help promote Mother’s Day.
• Her persistence paid off in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a declaration officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day around the World

• Mother’s Day is celebrated worldwide but traditions vary depending on the country. In Thailand Mother’s Day is always celebrated in August on the birthday of the current Queen Sirkit.
• In Ethiopia Mother’s Day is celebrated when families gather each fall to sing songs and eat large feasts as part of Antrosht. It is a multi-day celebration honouring motherhood.
• In the US Mother’s Day is celebrated by giving mothers and other women in our lives gifts and flowers.
• It has become one of the biggest holidays for consumer spending. Families also celebrate by giving mothers a day off from activities like cooking and other household duties.
• Sometimes Mother’s Day has also been a date for launching political or feminist causes.
• For example, in 1968 Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr. used Mother’s Day to host a march in support of underprivileged women and children.
• In the 1970s women’s groups also used Mother’s Day as a time to highlight the need for equal rights and access to childcare.

Fun facts You Didn’t Know about Mother’s Day

1. Mother’s Day in Canada isn’t Mother’s Day in the UK

Mother’s Day in Canada and the US is celebrated on the second Sunday in May. In the United Kingdom however it’s called Mothering Day it takes place on the fourth Sunday of Lent. This year for example it was celebrated on Sunday, March 19.

• M is for Mother

Did you know that across languages in the world most words for mother start with the letter M.

• Our Moms Are Our Heroes

A 2018 study from Welch’s revealed that the average mom works the equivalent of 2 ½ full-time jobs. Also, a 2012 study quoted in Reader’s Digest found that 84% of Canadians think that being a mother is one of the hardest jobs there is and 64% of us consider mom to be one of our heroes.

• In the United States alone around 122 million phone calls are made to moms every Mother’s Day.
• Approximately $14 billion is spent on moms on Mother’s Day.

Here is a cute video about what kids think of their mothers.

There’s been a lot of historical facts about Mother’s Day so I thought we could look at some funny videos and a few songs to end class.

Here is the movie Mother’s Day with Jennifer Aniston.

Here is a motivational speech about mothers.

Here are some well-known movies and shows about moms. Let’s see how many of Them we remember.

Bad Moms

TV series Mom

Here is a show I used to watch with my dad. Maybe some of you have seen it as well.

May 16: That 70s Show

• Fun fact: the actor who plays Steven Hyde is the one who yells “Hello, Wisconsin!” at the end of the theme song in the first season. In the first season, the lyrics were the same except that instead of shouting “We’re all alright!” twice, they shout “Whoa yeah!”

Premise

• That ’70s Show is an American comedy series, centered around the lives of a group of teenagers living in the fictional town of Point Place, Wisconsin, USA during the mid to late 1970s.
• The soul of the series takes place in the basement of the Forman house.
• The show often shoots scenes in a circle where the characters are sitting around table and having conversations while high. This format highlights the characters’ different personalities and perspectives on the same topic.

Main Characters

The show follows the life of nerdy Everyman Eric Forman and his five teenaged friends:

• Donna Pinciotti, the feminist next-door neighbor and Eric’s girlfriend
• Steven Hyde, a cynical, hard-rocking stoner and Eric’s childhood friend
• Michael Kelso, a goofy, narcissistic ladies man
• Jackie Burkhart, a self-involved high school cheerleader who is overly preoccupied with wealth and status, and
• Fez, a foreigner, whose country of origin is ambiguous, whose real name is unknown to all but him, and whose hormones are, at times, out of control.

The gang seems to have been formed just before the events of the pilot episode, with Fez having just joined it (in the pilot, Kelso refers to him as “the foreign kid Fez”, as if to remind Eric who Fez is, and Jackie meets him for the first time) , and Jackie only hanging around because of Kelso and being accepted by nobody else.

Other main characters include Eric’s family:

• Red Forman, Eric’s very conservative and overbearing war veteran father, who is obsessed with making “…him a man, which he’s not”.
• Some running jokes with Red are him saying the word “dumb-ass” plus always threatening people with putting his “foot in their ass.” Eric drives a 1969 Vista Cruiser, a station wagon given to him by his father in the first episode.

• Kitty Forman is Eric’s super positive but overprotective and high-strung mother. Like many women in the 70s, she is caught up in trying to be a full-time mom and housewife, while maintaining a job as a nurse in a local hospital.

• Last but not least, there’s Laurie Forman, Eric’s promiscuous older sister. They are often antagonistic towards each other, but they do care for each other. Fans say that this is a realistic portrayal of siblings. In Red’s eyes, Laurie can do no wrong and is still his little girl. However, Kitty sees Laurie for who she really is and isn’t afraid to hold her accountable and parent her. This video shows the family’s dynamic:

The show also follows the relationship of Bob Pinciotti and Midge Pinciotti, Donna’s parents, both of whom are slow-witted and easily influenced by the movements and fads of the ’70s, which sometimes places stress on their marriage. Midge and Bob were high school sweethearts. It is hinted that they got married because Midge became pregnant with Donna while still in high school. They often argue with one another.

Another main character is Leo who plays the stoner owner of the Foto Hut.

Major Relationships

That 70’s Show is much more focused on the relationships between its characters than any consistent plot. Here are some of those relationships and how they developed over time:

Donna & Eric

• Donna has been lifelong friends with Eric, having grown up next door to each other.
• In the pilot episode, the first episode of the series, Red gives Eric the Vista Cruiser and gives explicit instructions to not take it out of town. Later that episode, Donna convinces Eric to drive her and the rest of the gang to a concert outside of town.
• At the end of the episode, they’re lying on top of the car looking at the stars. Eric is too nervous to kiss her, so she kisses him. This goes against what many sitcoms do, where they make the audience wait multiple seasons to see the two love interests kiss and get together.
• During the majority of the time since the show aired, Eric and Donna have been in a serious, stable relationship, and they often act as the “parents” of the group, being mature and responsible when their friends are not so.
• Unlike many TV girlfriends, Donna is not just the “girl next door” whose stories revolve around her boyfriend, the main character. She is a feminist, free-thinking, physically strong and sarcastic main character in her own right.
• During the majority of the time since the show aired, Eric and Donna have been in a serious, stable relationship, and they often act as the “parents” of the group, being mature and responsible when their friends are not.

Eric and Hyde

• Eric is the best friend and foster brother of rebel Steven Hyde.
• When Hyde’s mother left town at the end of the first season, Eric tried to persuade his parents to do something about his best friend’s living conditions and thus Hyde was invited to live with the Formans, which he does for most of the series. When Red was quick to throw Hyde out after an arrest for possession, Eric actually attempts to come to his rescue. This is surprising as usually Eric is afraid to stand up to Red.

Jackie & Kelso

• As I mentioned before, at first, Jackie only joined the group because she was interested in dating Kelso. The two characters were also on and off throughout the series.
• Jackie eventually becomes a member of the friend group, but many people find her annoying because she is richer, spoiled, and more appearance-obsessed than the rest of them.
• Jackie and Kelso break up for a time where Jackie dates and eventually marries Hyde. However, the two break up and she marries Kelso.
• Still, Jackie and Kelso had undeniably strong chemistry. The two actors, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, got married in real life when the show ended, and they are still happily married and have two children.

Jackie & Donna

• Although Donna also found Jackie annoying at first, and Jackie found Donna too masculine, the two become close friends.
• Though they are as different as night and day, Donna eventually accepts Jackie and decides to keep an eye on her and keep her out of trouble, since Jackie does not always show the best common sense, but eventually around early season two the two become best friends.

Jackie & Hyde

• Speaking of opposites attracting, throughout the show, Jackie and Hyde develop a strong friendship that turns romantic.
• Despite initially loathing Jackie for all that she represents (she is spoiled, shallow, and rich), Hyde has his first real romantic relationship of the series with her.
• Hyde also took Jackie to his junior prom in the first season, and he is the one Jackie goes to for comfort when she and Kelso encounter problems in their relationship, prompting him to ask, “Why does she always come to me?”
• However, when they are dating, Hyde is constantly paranoid that Jackie is cheating on him with Kelso, which she never did.

Fez & Hyde

• Hyde and Fez start out by sharing the commonality of being more aware of how to romance girls than Eric and Kelso, while also being the competition to the latter two guys’ respective girlfriends, Donna and Jackie.
• Especially around Kelso, Fez and Hyde always share knowing looks and appreciate each other’s burns where Kelso is oblivious.
• They also take to defend each other to the group or protect each other. Fez is also arguably the only guy not scared of standing up to Hyde and speaking his truth in the face of Hyde’s potential retribution.

Red & Kitty

• Red & Kitty’s relationship is the longest running relationship of the show, remaining steady for all 8 seasons.
• Throughout the series, Kitty and Red are the healthiest couple on the show. They never have any major problems that could have affected their marriage.
• Red and Kitty are very different in temper and demeanor, Red being the outwardly tough, yet deep down vulnerable and emotional person (hence the temper), while Kitty, a nurse, provides the outwardly caring, yet deep down incredibly strong character. This provides the couple with a balance, both in their parenting and in their work to keep their family afloat during the economically trying 70’s.

• They are the “parents” to all the kids on the show. Even though Red is constantly angry with them, he proves he does care about them. Kitty listens to their problems and feeds them to cheer them up. They discipline the kids much and deal with much of their consequences rather than their own parents.
• Of the gang, Red is closest with Hyde. He has more respect for Hyde than Eric because Hyde is more masculine. Kitty is arguably closest with Donna, although they fight more in the last season, and Fez, who sees her as the mom he never had.

Spin-Off: That 90s Show

• The spin-off, That 90s Show, came out earlier this year! You can watch it on Netflix.
• The original That 70s Show cast members make guest appearances!

Source

https://that70sshow.fandom.com/wiki/Groovypedia

May 11: King Charles III

Who is King Charles III?

• He is the oldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip and is the King of the United Kingdom.
• He ascended to the throne after the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022.
• He is the oldest person ever to assume the British throne.
• He has been under constant scrutiny during his life. He graduated from Trinity College before starting a military career.
• He was the commanding officer on the HMS Bronington.
• He married Diana Spencer in the summer of 1981 with a lot of media attention and fanfare. The couple eventually divorced in 1996. They were under constant they were under years of gossip and scandal.
• Charles later got married to his longtime love Camilla Parker Bowles. However, it was years after Princess Diana died.
• Charles is the father of Princes William and Harry and a grandfather.
• He has many environmental causes that are important to him including Prince’s Trust and the Prince’s Rain Forest Project.

Early Life, Siblings and Education

• King Charles III was born Charles Philip Arthur George on November 14, 1948, in London England.
• He is the son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
• Charles became part of the Royal hierarchy at an early age. His mother became Queen when he was only three after the death of his grandfather King George VI in 1952.

• Because he was Elisabeth’s oldest child, he became the heir apparent to the British throne and received the title of Duke of Cornwall.
• Even back then Charles was destined to become Britain’s oldest heir apparent with his mother remaining Queen for 70 years.
• He has younger siblings. They are Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
• In 1956, Charles attended the Hill House school in London before he went to boarding school at the Cheam School in 1957.
• In addition to his education, he also had more responsibilities as he was made the Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester at the age of nine.
• Starting in 1962 Charles changed school again to go to Gordonstoun in Scotland.

• Later he also studied in Melbourne, Australia as an exchange student.
• He studied archaeology, anthropology and history at Trinity College, part of the University of Cambridge from 1967 to 1970.

He was very active in campus life. He was involved in such activities as polo and drama. Here is a funny video of him acting at Cambridge University.

After he received his degree in 1970, he started a career in the military. By the way he was the first Royal heir apparent to get a university degree.

Military service

• After six months of aviation training with the Royal Air Force, Charles joined the Royal Navy in 1971. He went to serve on HMS Norfolk and was promoted in 1973 to acting lieutenant. During the mid-1970s he joined the Royal Naval air station to receive helicopter training.
• He served as a helicopter pilot for the 845^th Naval Air Squadron based on the HMS Hermes.

While he was on the Hermes, he toured the Caribbean and Canadian waters before he decided to continue his education at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich.

• In 1976 Charles ended his military service as commander of the HMS Bronington.
• That same year he established the Princes Trust which was a charitable organization dedicated to helping improve the lives of disadvantaged youth.
• After that Charles decided to expand his military skill set with parachute training because he had already done that as the pilot for the Queen’s Flight.
• This is what they call the Monarchies Official Aircraft.
• He was eventually promoted to Group Captain for the Royal Air Force in 1995 and in 2000 he was promoted to the rank of Air Chief Marshall.

Marriage to Diana

• The public saw Charles as intelligent, somewhat aloof and a bit awkward.
• He was used to having his every move scrutinized and judged by the public and press but even he couldn’t have imagined what a sensation his relationship with Lady Diana Spencer would be.
• They knew each other when they were young but were reintroduced in the late 1970s.
• Even though they had a 13-year age difference and very different interests, the couple became engaged in February 1991.
• The public began to really love his shy, former kindergarten teacher fiancé. They found her to be more accessible than the Prince was at that time.
• They were married on July 29, 1981, in a lavish ceremony that was broadcast around the world and watched by millions of people.

Divorce and Diana’s Death

• They had two children together. Their first son Prince William Arthur Philip Louis was born on June 21, 1982, and their second son Prince Henry “Harry” Charles Albert David was born on September 15, 1984.
• Unfortunately, their love for their children was not enough to hold what was thought to be a fairytale marriage together.
• The marriage became strained over the years with Royal responsibilities, personal conflicts, media pressures and infidelities.
• It was reported that Charles reignited a relationship with his former girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles while he was married to Diana. The couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996.
• Diana Princess of Wales unfortunately died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.
• Even though they had differences Charles travelled with her sisters to France to accompany her body back to England.
• During the funeral procession he walked with their sons William 15 and Harry 12 and Diana’s brother Earl Spencer.
• Charles took his role as the father to grieving sons very seriously and requested that the media respect his family’s privacy and let them grieve on their own.

Marriage to Camilla and Philanthropy

• Charles and Camilla spent years quietly maintaining their relationship.
• Charles married Parker Bowles on April 9, 2005. She became the Duchess of Cornwall and accompanied him regularly on many of his official visits.
• Besides his royal duties Charles has become a leading philanthropist. In addition to his trust, he backs a huge amount of charitable organizations. These include supporting efforts to improve educational services, funding arts initiatives, supporting sustainable business endeavours, and providing employment opportunities to older citizens and helping the environment.
• In 2007 Charles launched the Prince’s Rain Forest Project. It is a global initiative with corporate and celebrity backing to stop tropical deforestation and help the quest to stop climate change.

• To increase religious diversity and the multicultural nature of modern England, Charles also promised to have a multifaith coronation when he took the throne.
• Charles is also a very good water colourist and has published several books including the 1980’s children story called The Old Man of Lochnagar, 2010’s Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World and 2012’s The Prince’s Speech: On the Future of Food. The Old Man of Lochnagar was even made into a play.

• In the spring of 2019, Charles announced that he had opened a new bed-and-breakfast in Caithness, Scotland.
• It was called the Granary Lodge.
• The B&B is located on the grounds of The Castle of Mey. This was the former Retreat of Charles’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth.

Grandchildren

• In 2013, Charles took on a new role. He became a grandfather with the arrival of George Alexander Louis. He is also known as his Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge. He is the son of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton. He was born on July 22, 2013.
• Soon after Charles released a statement that said, “both my wife and I are overjoyed at the arrival of my first grandchild. It is an incredibly special moment for William and Catherine, and we are so thrilled for them on the birth of their baby boy.”
• Charles soon had a granddaughter named Princess Charlotte. Her name was honouring both her grandfather and maternal aunt. She was born on May 2, 2015, on April 23, 2018, Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge welcomed Charles’ second grandson, Prince Louis. The following year on May 6, 2019, Prince Harry and his wife Megan Markel gave Charles another grandson with the birth of their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten Windsor.

Controversy over the “Paradise Papers”

• In November 2017, there was a leak of 13.4 million electronic files known as the Paradise Papers.
• They revealed that Charles was among many world figures and celebrities who had offshore investments.
• In Charles’ case specifically a Bermuda run business.
• Reports indicated that in 2007 Charles had campaigned on amending climate change policies without disclosing that he would financially benefit from those amendments because of his foreign business.
• Since these papers have become public, Charles has claimed he has no direct involvement in the offshore account.
• His spokesperson added that he voluntarily pays taxes and his foreign investments do not get him any tax advantage based on their location or any other aspect of their structure.

Commonwealth Leadership

• During an April 2018 Summit of the Commonwealth Queen Elizabeth nominated Charles to succeed her as head of the 53 nation Association of Britain and its former colonies.
• She said, “it is my sincere wish that the Commonwealth will continue to offer stability and continuity for future generations that will decide that one day the Prince of Wales to carry on the important work started by my father in 1949.”
• The Commonwealth leaders announced that they were going to abide by the Queen’s wish.
• On September 8, 2022, Prince Charles became King Charles III following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II. She was the queen for more than 70 years.

I thought we could finish class by watching a couple of videos from the concert at the coronation. I hope everyone enjoyed learning about King Charles III.

May 9: Gordon Lightfoot

November 17, 1938- May 1, 2023

Who is Gordon Lightfoot?

• Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. was a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. Lightfoot was born in Orillia, Ontario on November 17, 1938 and he achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music.
• Lightfoot is credited with playing a part in defining the folk-pop sound of the 60s and 70s. Many have referred to Lightfoot as Canada’s greatest songwriter and some of the world’s most acclaimed musical artists have recorded some of his songs.
• Lightfoot’s biographer Nicholas Jennings said, “His name is synonymous with timeless songs about trains and shipwrecks, rivers and highways, lovers and loneliness.”
• Lightfoot has won many awards, including seventeen Junos and the Governor General’s Award, and he has been nominated for five Grammys. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor, and a member of the Order of Ontario, the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame, the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. 

Early life

• Lightfoot was born to Jessie Vick Trill Lightfoot and Gordon Lightfoot Sr.. They owned a local dry cleaning business. He had an older sister, Beverley (1935–2017).
• His mother recognized Lightfoot’s musical talent early on and raised him to become a successful child performer. He first performed publicly in grade four, singing the Irish-American lullaby “Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral”, which was broadcast over his school’s public address system during a parents’ day event.
• As a youth, he sang in the choir of Orillia’s St. Paul’s United Church . Lightfoot appeared periodically on local Orillia radio, performed in local operettas and oratorios, and gained exposure through various Kiwanis music festivals. At the age of twelve, after winning a competition for boys whose voices had not yet changed, he made his first appearance at Massey Hall in Toronto, a venue he would ultimately play over 170 more times throughout his career.
• As a teenager, Lightfoot learned piano and taught himself to play drums and percussion. He held concerts in Muskoka, a resort area north of Orillia, singing “for a couple of beers”.
• Lightfoot performed extensively throughout high school, and taught himself to play folk guitar. A formative influence on his music at this time was 19th-century master American songwriter Stephen Foster. He was also an accomplished high school track-and-field competitor and set school records for shot-put and pole vault, as well as playing the starting nose tackle on his school’s Georgian Bay championship-winning football team.

Canadian Railroad Trilogy

“Canadian Railroad Trilogy” is a story song that was written, composed, and first performed in 1966 by Gordon Lightfoot. 

This song was commissioned from Lightfoot by the CBC for a special broadcast on January 1, 1967, to start Canada’s Centennial year. Writing and composing it took him three days.

The song was preformed in 2004 on Canadian Idol by the top 6 contestants who also played their own instruments.

While Lightfoot’s song eloquently describes the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway , it also chronicles the cost in sweat and blood of building “an iron road runnin’ from the sea to the sea.”

The slow middle section of the song is especially touching, vividly describing the efforts and sorrows of the nameless and forgotten “navvies,” whose manual labour actually built the railway.

(A navvy is a person who is employed to do hard physical work, for example building roads or canals.)

Gordon Lightfoot’s song was later turned into a book, illustrated by Ian Wallace and originally published in 2010.

Canadian folk music icon Gordon Lightfoot, whose evocative and poetic songs are etched into the musical landscape of Canada, has died at the age of 84, according to his longtime publicist Victoria Lord.

Lightfoot died at Sunnybrook hospital on the evening of May 1st, 2023 of natural causes.

Idea floated to rename Yonge-Dundas Square to Gordon Lightfoot Square

May 4: Al Bundy from Married… with Children

• As requested, today’s lesson is on Al Bundy from the 80s and 90s sitcom Married… With Children.
• Let’s continue our tradition of playing the show’s theme song at the beginning of the lesson!

• Al Bundy is a working class shoe salesman, father of two children, and husband.
• Al frequently complains about his life, especially his obnoxious family, their spending habits, and his debt. He’s actually a very difficult person to be around, too.
• However, in a crisis, he stands by them and shows wit and self-sacrifice.
• He and Peggy were rated the 59th best characters on television by Bravo. Fans often praise how the actor, Ed O’Neill, played the character.
• In a 2016 interview, Ed said he based his interpretation of Al Bundy on one of his uncles.

Background Info on Married… with Children

• Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine Fox news as a small and unpopular news channel. But before this show, it was the new fourth network television channel in the United States.
• Married… with Children was the first series to be broadcast in Fox’s primetime slot.
• The early success of Fox News is due to the success of this show.
• The show was created by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt.
• It was originally broadcast from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997.
• In addition to the show’s original run, one unaired episode (that was filmed on January 6, 1989) was aired on FX on June 18, 2002. This is five years after the series’ conclusion.
• To this day, it is the longest-lasting live-action sitcom that aired on Fox.
• For anyone who hasn’t seen this show, this video is a good summary of what it was about, including some reasons why it ended.

• Because the show was canceled due to plummeting ratings and stars’ soaring salaries, producers were not given time to create a series finale that wrapped up the Bundy family’s story.

Now Back to Al…

• Al was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, which is where the show takes place.
• As a teenager, he was a star player on his high school football team. He constantly attempts to relive his high-school football days, when he was an “All State Fullback”.
• His most noted achievement was having scored four touchdowns in a single game for his school, Polk High.
• However, he peaked in high school. A broken leg prevented him from attending college on a football scholarship. He had a shotgun-marriage to his high-school sweetheart Peggy Wanker (played by Katey Sagal) because he got her pregnant when he was drunk.
• In the present day, he constantly rejects her sexual advances and almost always insults her. Meanwhile, she insults him back and steals his money for male strip clubs and clothes, putting Al in even more debt.
• A recurring joke in the series is that both Al and Peggy regret having married each other, although on occasion they will show affection towards each other.

• Al and Peggy have two children: Kelly (played by Christina Applegate) and Bud (played by David Faustino). Kelly is the dumb blonde stereotype, and Bud is an intelligent but unpopular teenage boy. They are both obsessed with sex.

• This video clip shows the family dynamic pretty well. Also, it features Matt LeBlanc before he was on F.R.I.E.N.D.S.!

• Everyone in the Bundy family is very selfish and involved in criminal activities to try and get rich by scamming others.
• The Bundy’s next door neighbor, Marcy (played by Amanda Bearse), is Al’s archnemesis.
• The two frequently bicker and squabble about everything, including their opposing political views.

• Marcy is also Peggy’s best friend, and Peggy often leads Marcy into trouble.

• One thing that Al is known for is his cutting insults. He especially makes fun of women for their weight. Like the video we watched earlier said… this show pushed the limits of what jokes could be made on TV!

Fun Facts about Al Bundy

• Ed O’Neill became so synonymous with Al Bundy that he had to be cut from a war film because audiences laughed whenever he was on screen.
• Because Al was a shoe salesman, when Ed O’Neill got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011, it was perfectly placed in front of a shoe store.
• From Married… with Children, the actor was nominated for two Golden Globes for his role as Al.
• Since 2015, there have been murmurings of a potential continuation of the show, centered on a grown up Bud. Katey Sagal (who plays Peggy) said the entire cast would be on board. But thus far, it has not become a reality.
• Ed O’Neill continued to play a grumpy father character, Jay Pritchett, in the award-winning ABC sitcom Modern Family. He’s a main character on the show, the father of two adult children and one baby, and the step-father to Manny (played by Rico Rodriguez).
• Unlike Al, Jay is a very successful businessman and the wealthiest character on the show. Like Al, Jay’s wife, Gloria (played by Sophia Vergara), is very over-the-top and dramatic.
• However, the two are much kinder and more loving to each other. The character still has a tough and sarcastic way of talking to his children, but this character is less intense than Al Bundy.

• I hope you enjoyed today’s class! Next week’s topic is Family Guy!

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Bundy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Married…_with_Children

Source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Modern_Family_characters#Jay_Pritchett

May 2: Famous Cars in the History of TV

Pontiac Trans Am “KITT” (1982)

Knight Rider

• This car was used in the show Knight Rider with David Hasselhoff. Its name was KITT. This car did it all. It had fire rockets, sniff bombs, spray tear gas, it could even ski on 2 wheels and dispense money. It used artificial intelligence and could talk. The car also had a red scan bar peeking up from the front hood that was called the anamorphic equalizer and served as its eyes that stated when it was in surveillance mode. A fun fact is that it was modelled by the roving eye of the cyclones in Battle Star Galactica. It seemed like Kitt was driving itself when actually a person controls the car by laying in the passenger foot well. Most of them were destroyed after the show but it is said that 5 or 6 remain with private collectors.

The Munster Coach-Model T Hot Rod/Hearse Hybrid

• Parts from three model T’s and one hearse were used to create a creepy car. Added details like casket handles, blood red velvet upholstery and spiderweb headlights helped to make the car used in the Munster series called the Munster Koach. The car was 18 feet long and included many hand formed elements such as the brass radiator and fenders. It was powered by 289 in.³ Ford cobra V-8 engine. It was a tight fit for star Fred Gwynne who was 7 feet tall in his sermon Munster cost you. The seat cushion had to be removed for him to fit behind the wheel.

The Batmobile-Lincoln Futura Concept Car (1955)

• The concept of the Batmobile began when it was built in Italy based on a Lincoln Mark II. in 1965, Tinseltown customizer George Barris bought it for only one dollar. 20^th century fox asked him to design Batman’s ride for its upcoming series and only gave him a few weeks to do it. He made modifications like those aluminum bat symbols bolted to the hubs and a steering wheel from a 1958 Edsel. Sadly for the stars in the movie Adam West and Burt Ward the car never had air conditioning. In 1966 moulds were taken of the number one Batmobile 3 replicas were made. In 2013 the original Batmobile was sold for $4.6 million to an Arizona businessman.

Volvo P1800 S (1962, 1964 and 1967)

The Saint

• Before he was James Bond, Roger Moore was the character named Simon Templar in the British spy thriller called the Saint. The production primarily used three Volvo P1800 sports cars. They use these because of the famous tail fin on the car. After Volvo updated the 1800 S design in 1965, the show went to the newer model after it was blown up behind a hedge. The newer model had an interior fan for actors working under hot stage lights. Another one of the series became Roger Moore’s own personal car.

Dodge Charger-The General Lee (1969)

The Dukes of Hazzard (1979-1985)

• TV cousins Bo and Luke Duke would always get in the car the same way. They would swing into the front seat of their muscle car that they called the General Lee by leaping over its welded shut doors. This car was famous in the jumping department itself. During the opening credits the car jumped 82 feet. It could only do this because the back trunk was weighed down with cement so it would be top-heavy. It is estimated by the cast and crew that more than 300 1968 and 69 Chargers were used as The General over the seven seasons. Golf pro Bubba Watson purchased the first car used in the Hazzard Intro at an auction in 2012 for $110,000.

GTS Ferrari Daytona Spyder GTS/4 (1972)

Miami Vice (1984-1990)

• During the first two seasons of Miami Vice detective Sonny Crockett played by Don Johnson drove a black Ferrari Daytona Spyder. He did this so he could fit in when he went in undercover in Miami’s highflying drugs and prostitution scene. However, it wasn’t a true replica of the car. The manufacturer of this iconic Italian sports car declined a request to provide authentic vehicles, so the production team bought replicas built on top of a Corvette chassis and modified it with fiberglass body panels. Ferrari sued the replica builder over making these cars but offered producers of Miami Vice two free genuine Testarossas if they agreed to stop using the imitation spiders.

Ford Gran Torino (1975)

Starsky and Hutch (1975-1979)

• The Ford Gran Torino with its signature white stripes and musclebound 351 Windsor V8 was as much a star of the late 70’s series as the lead actors were. The main stars did not like the car at all because they said it had poor handling and they were frequently jostled during the chase scenes due to slippery vinyl front bench. They later put in the bucket seats to remedy the problem. The series went through 10 Gran Torino’s during its 4-year run and eventually they built 1100 tomato replica Gran Torino’s for sale to the public.

Herbie the Love Bug

• Herbie the love bug is a fictional 1963 Volkswagen beetle who has been featured in several Walt Disney motion pictures. It started with the 1968 feature film called The Love Bug. He has a mind of its own and can drive himself. He is often a serious contender in auto racing competitions. Throughout the movie franchise Herbie is distinguished by red, white and blue racing stripes from the front to the back bumper with a pearl white body. It has a racing style number 63 on the front luggage compartment lid, doors, and engine lid and a yellow on black 1963 California license plate OFP857.

I was watching James Cordon’s last show and saw him do something with Tom Cruise. I thought we could and class by watching the video.