Friday, February 1, 2019

RIP James Ingram 1952 - 2019


 
gregjoens.com
 
RIP, R&B singer, James Ingram
(February 16, 1952 – January 29, 2019)

James Edward Ingram was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and instrumentalist. He was a two-time Grammy Award-winner and a two-time Academy Award nominee for Best Original Song.

Since beginning his career in 1973, Ingram had charted eight Top 40 hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart from the early 1980s until the early 1990s, as well as thirteen top 40 hits on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. In addition, he charted 20 hits on the Adult Contemporary chart (including two number-ones). He had two number-one singles on the Hot 100: the first, a duet with fellow R&B artist Patti Austin, 1982's "Baby, Come to Me" topped the U.S. pop chart in 1983; "I Don't Have the Heart", which became his second number-one in 1990 was his only number-one as a solo artist. In between these hits, he also recorded the song "Somewhere Out There" with fellow recording artist Linda Ronstadt for the animated film An American Tail. The song and the music video both became gigantic hits. Ingram co-wrote "The Day I Fall in Love", from the motion picture Beethoven's 2nd (1993), and singer Patty Smyth's "Look What Love Has Done", from the motion picture Junior (1994), which earned him nominations for Best Original Song from the Oscars, Golden Globes, and Grammy Awards in 1994 and 1995.

Thursday, January 31, 2019

Jackie Robinson - Born Jan 31, 1919

Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era.[2] Robinson broke the baseball color line when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base on April 15, 1947. When the Dodgers signed Robinson, they heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s.[3] Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.[4]
Robinson had an exceptional 10-year MLB career. He was the recipient of the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, was an All-Star for six consecutive seasons from 1949 through 1954, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949—the first black player so honored.[5][6] Robinson played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Series championship.
In 1997, MLB retired his uniform number 42 across all major league teams; he was the first pro athlete in any sport to be so honored. MLB also adopted a new annual tradition, "Jackie Robinson Day", for the first time on April 15, 2004, on which every player on every team wears No. 42.
Robinson's character, his use of nonviolence, and his unquestionable talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation which then marked many other aspects of American life. He influenced the culture of and contributed significantly to the civil rights movement.[7][8] Robinson also was the first black television analyst in MLB and the first black vice president of a major American corporation, Chock full o'Nuts. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American-owned financial institution based in Harlem, New York. After his death in 1972, in recognition of his achievements on and off the field, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Conway Twitty


Harold Lloyd Jenkins (September 1, 1933 – June 5, 1993), better known by his stage name Conway Twitty, was an American country music singer. He also had success in the rock and roll, rock, R&B, and pop genres. From 1971 to 1976, Twitty received a string of Country Music Association awards for duets with Loretta Lynn. Although never a member of the Grand Ole Opry, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Tom Selleck

Thomas William Selleck  (born January 29, 1945) is an American actor and film producer. He is known for starring as private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series Magnum, P.I. (1980–1988) and as Peter Mitchell in Three Men and a Baby. Selleck had a recurring role as Lance White, the likeable and naive partner of Jim Rockford (played by James Garner) on The Rockford Files. He also played Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on Robert B. Parker novels. Since 2010, he has starred as NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan in the hit crime drama Blue Bloods on CBS.

Selleck has appeared in more than 50 film and television roles since Magnum, P.I., including Three Men and a Baby, Quigley Down Under, Mr. Baseball, and Lassiter. He appeared as Dr. Richard Burke on Friends and as A.J. Cooper on the TV series Las Vegas. He also had a lead role in the television western movie The Sacketts, based on two of Louis L'Amour's books.

Monday, January 28, 2019

Chris Christie



Christopher James Christie (born September 6, 1962) is an American politician, former federal prosecutor, and political commentator who served as the 55th Governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018. During his governorship, he chaired the Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission in 2017. Christie became an ABC News contributor in 2018 after leaving office.
Christie was born in Newark and raised in Livingston. He volunteered for Thomas Kean's gubernatorial campaign at age 15. After graduating in 1984 from the University of Delaware, he earned a J.D. at Seton Hall. He practiced law from 1987 to 2002. He was elected county freeholder (legislator) for Morris County, serving from 1995 to 1998. By 2002, he had campaigned for Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush; the latter appointed him U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, a position he held from 2002 to 2008.
Christie won the 2009 Republican primary for Governor of New Jersey, defeating the incumbent Jon Corzine in the general election. During his first term, he was credited with cutting spending, capping property tax growth, and was praised for his response to and recovery efforts after Hurricane Sandy, and was re-elected by a wide margin in 2013.[1] Christie is a moderate Republican relative to the national GOP.[2][3] After the start of his second term as governor, Christie's standing was damaged by the Fort Lee lane closure scandal.[4][5][6][7][8] Since then, he has ranked among the least popular governors in the United States; for example, a September 2016 poll found that he was the third least popular governor in the country, with an approval rating of 29%.[9] By June 2017, he was found to have an approval rating of 15%, the lowest recorded for any New Jersey governor.[10][11] As of July 2017, his disapproval rating of 69% was the highest of all governors in the nation.[12]
Christie chaired the Republican Governors Association for the 2014 election cycle.[13] On June 30, 2015, he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election. He suspended his candidacy on February 10, 2016,[14][15][16][17][18][19] and soon after endorsed Donald Trump, who named him head of his transition planning team.[20] Christie was strongly considered to be Trump's running mate but was not chosen. Soon after the election, Christie was replaced on the transition team by Mike Pence, as were three of Christie's associates.[21][22][23] He chaired the Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission in 2017 after being appointed by Trump.[24][25] He has been offered numerous positions in Donald Trump's cabinet, but only considered being the Attorney General.

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (born Bonickhausen dit Eiffel;[1] /ˈfəl/; French pronunciation: ​[ɛfɛl]; 15 December 1832 – 27 December 1923) was a French civil engineer. A graduate of École Centrale Paris, he made his name building various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit viaduct. He is best known for the world-famous Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, and his contribution to building the Statue of Liberty in New York. After his retirement from engineering, Eiffel focused on research into meteorology and aerodynamics, making significant contributions in both fields.

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Brent Spiner

Brent Jay Spiner (/ˈspnər/; born February 2, 1949) is an American actor, comedian, and singer best known for his portrayal of the android Lieutenant Commander Data in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and four subsequent films. In 1997, he won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Data in Star Trek: First Contact, and was nominated in the same category for portraying Dr. Brackish Okun in Independence Day, a role he reprised in Independence Day: Resurgence. He has also enjoyed a career in the theatre and as a musician.