Peter O'Toole

I was eating at restaurant and found a pile of old magazines. Among them was an old Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue. I love the Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue! I love the actor and actress photographs, dreamed of being photographed by Annie Leibowitz and hope I can make that happen somehow someway.

That old Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue had a photograph of Richard Harris and a laughing Peter O'Toole, sitting at at table.

O'Toole is one of my favorite actors and inspired me. I admire the older United Kingdom actors. I saw a few minutes of Harris in This Sporting Life and was blown away.

Woody Allen chose O'Toole as the lead in his directorial debut What's New Pussycat. Mind you, O'Toole with the great Peter Sellers in the same film is indeed great casting.

The Lion In Winter is my favorite of his movies. I've never seen Lawrence, even though I own the DVD. I watched What's New Pussycat again not too long ago and wondered if people knew he was a great actor back then. They must have.

A few years ago, he was a Best Actor Oscar nominee for his role in Venus. I wanted him to win so badly. To my knowledge, he is he only living multiple Oscar nominee to have not won. An actor of his calibre should have won at least twice in his career. I wished he had won for Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion In Winter and even for My Favorite Year.

He received the Academy Honorary Award a few years prior to his nomination for Venus. At least the Academy got to honor him before he passed away.






















Late one night, I stumbled onto Venus on CBC. I had a feeling it was Venus because I remember Vanessa Redgrave was in it, the plot had something to do with a young girl and a scene where O'Toole's character falls in the art class. It was a nice film. His greatness as actor is present as an old man. He sure as hell must have been amazing on stage and in the 1960s.

I don't watch movies like I used to. My life has been music for most of the last few years since I left theatre school. I'm surprised to be writing this much about Peter O'Toole but he deserves it. He was part of the standard of actor I aimed to be. If I ever act again, I will always carry Peter O'Toole's influence with me. Hopefully they give me an Oscar sooner than later :)

Peter O'Toole passed away on December 14, 2013.

The Shocking Blue

With regards to The Shocking Blue, my luck appears to be better in finding the album with Venus more than finding the album with Venus and a clean sleeve.

I was at a Plateau record shop and found a copy of the album I just mentioned for $8.



I would've left with it but the first songs on each side were warped. I made the tough decision of leaving it there.

I've been fortunate to find two copies of the album with their smash hit and they each have tears in the top right corner where the price tag used to lay.

The tear is where a band member's face is and makes him look like the inspiration for Mike Tyson's tribal face tattoo. 



In 2008, a non-warped record was placed in my hands. That was my best dig discovery for the year.

I can't complain about those vinyl copies. They have stood the test of time and have been spun on my Suite Delight show and in DJ sets whenever I got the chance. 

I love the album so much that it reaches near-retirement stages. I'm a few cuts away from having played the entire album on my show.

I managed to find more Shocking Blue songs to play last year and will do what I can to spread them evenly throughout upcoming shows.

Who would have thought the band that sang Venus originally would be so close to my heart?

I have Mark Ronson to thank for that. A while back, I was listening to an East Village Radio show and heard a song that blew me away! It was called Send Me A Postcard and quickly became obsessed.

The flame was lit from my first time hearing Send Me a Postcard.

After two CDs and vinyl copies of their Venus album, the way I’ve added The Shocking Blue’s music to my collection is shocking.



 I went to check the playlist and was expecting to see some modern rock band, not the group that sang Venus! I immediately went on a hunt for music by The Shocking Blue.