Dodge going strong

This week, my Dodge Stratus reached 100,000 miles and is going as well as it did when I bought it five and a half years ago.

St George's Day

St. George is the patron saint of England. His emblem and ours, a red cross on a white background, is the flag of England. It was adopted by Richard The Lion heart and brought to England in the 12th century. The King's soldiers wore it on their tunics to avoid confusion in battle.St. George's Day is on April 23rd, so, in a sense, this is England's National Day.

Winston Churchill wrote, "There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word,which means more to me than any other.That word is ENGLAND."

Eddie Izzard

If you have never seen any of Eddie Izzard's DVD's, I would suggest renting one and I bet after watching him, you would want to own at least one of his dvd's. The one that seems to have the best reviews, is called, 'Dress To Kill'. Everyone I know that has seen it has loved it. I have just bought three more dvd's, as we find him so funny. He is Nigel's voice (the Koala in The Wild) and makes that film.
Called "the funniest man in England" by John Cleese, actor-comedian (and transvestite) Eddie Izzard refined his shtick as a street performer in Covent Garden, sitting on a unicycle, performing handcuff escapes and engaging in heavy-duty swordfights ("Our deaths for your entertainment" was the shill) while developing the ability to "talk and talk and talk and just not stop." Although he has starred in the 1994 world premiere of David Mamet's "The Cryptogram" (as a gay man) and played the title role of Christopher Marlowe's "Edward II", he far prefers a world of his own "carefully crafted rubbish" to that of serious acting, playing his various one-man shows to sold-out houses in England, France (in French) and, most recently, the USA. It is not transvestite humor; he just happens to be a cross-dresser who does comedy, specializing in stream-of-conscious fare that rarely touches on sexuality ("I'd be the perfect one-parent family").
Izzard made his feature acting debut (sans purple nail polish and Jean Paul Gaultier Chinese housecoat) as the devious anarchist-ambassador Vladimir of "The Secret Agent" (1996), Christopher Hampton's take on the Joseph Conrad novel. He later played a gum-chewing, old lady-thumping bad guy in "The Avengers", the disappointing feature based on the 60s series, and wore fantastic 70s suits (and, ironically, less makeup than anyone else in the film) as "a very can-do, gonna-make-you-a-star" band manager in Todd Haynes' "Velvet Goldmine" (both 1998). Something of a cult figure in England, Izzard was the subject of "TX", a BBC documentary made of him on tour, as well as Peter Richardson's behind-the-scenes film "Glorious: The Road Movie", which aired on Channel 4. For American TV, he acted in a 1996 episode of HBO's "Tales From the Crypt", performed on HBO's "Comic Relief VIII" and narrated the "David Bowie" segment of VH1's documentary "Legends" (both 1998). Izzard also portrayed evil disco king Tony Pompadour in the feature "The Mystery Men" (1999), battling a host of cast-off comic book superheroes played by Ben Stiller, Geoffrey Rush and Janeane Garofalo, among others. In 2002, he portrayed Tony Parker in the war-comedy feature, "All The Queen's Men", co-starring with Matt LeBlanc.

Born:- on 02/07/62 in Aden, Yemen
Job Titles:- Actor, Comedian
Family:- Father: John Izzard. worked for British Petroleum
Mother: Dorothy Ella Izzard. died of cancer at age 41 c. 1968
: has an older brother
Education:-
St John's School, Porthcawl, Wales, 1968
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England

Milestones:-
* 1985 Went public as a transvestite at age 23 (date approximate), incorporating it into his act at a later date
* 1994 Starred in West End stage productions of David Mamet's "The Cryptogram" and "900 Oneonta"; also played the title role in Leicester revival of Christopher Marlowe's "Edward II"
* 1995 Appeared in solo show "Definite Article"
* 1996 American TV debut in the "Confession" episode of HBO's "Tales From the Crypt"
* 1996 Feature debut in "The Secret Agent" as devious anarchist-ambassador Vladimir
* 1997 Performed his one-man show "Glorious" at NYC's P.S. 122
* 1998 Appeared at U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado, winning the Amstel Light jury prize for best one-person show, "Dress to Kill"
* 1998 Brought "Dress to Kill" to NYC's Westbeth Theatre, later taking it to San Francisco and Los Angeles
* 1998 Portrayed a silent baddie guarding Sean Connery in "The Avengers" and played band manager Jerry Devine in Todd Haynes' "Velvet Goldmine", about glam rock musicians
* 1999 A San Francisco performance of "Dress to Kill" was aired as an HBO comedy special; received two Emmy Awards
* 1999 Played one of the villains fighting a rag-tag group of superheroes in "The Mystery Men"
* 1999 Starred on the London stage in as American comic Lenny Bruce in a revised version of Julian Barry's play "Lenny", directed by Peter Hall
* 2000 Portrayed German silent actor Gustav von Wangenheim in "Shadow of the Vampire"
* 2000 Toured USA with one-person show "Circle"
* 2001 Portrayed Charlie Chaplin in "The Cat's Meow"; released theatrically in the USA in 2002 * 2001 Returned to the British stage replacing Clive Owen in the revival of "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg"
* 2002 Cast opposite of Matt LeBlanc in "All The Queens Men"
* 2002 Co-starred with Derek Jacobi and Christopher Eccleston in a modern version of "Revenger's Tragedy" helmed by Alex Cox
* 2004 Cast in "Ocean's Twelve" directed by Steven Soderbergh
* 2005 Cast in John Turturro's big screen musical "Romance & Cigarettes"
Dropped out of college and got comedy experience as a street performer
Family left Yemen and moved to Bangor, Northern Ireland c. 1964, later relocating to Skewen, Wales before father finally settled in Bexhill-on-Sea in 1969
Will play the film's main villain, a baddie named Professor Bedlam in the Ivan Reitman comedy "Super Ex" starring Uma Thurman (lensed 2005)

The Wild

We took Katee to see 'The Wild' today. It was a very funny movie. The Koala was especially funny and the voice is played by 'Eddie Izzard' who we like very much.

In this computer-animated comedy-adventure, an assortment of animals from the New York Zoo - including a lion, a giraffe, an anaconda, a koala, and a squirrel - discover what a jungle the city can be when one of their own is mistakenly shipped to the wild and they embark on a dangerous mission to rescue him. The film has a vocal ensemble - Kiefer Sutherland (as the respected lion leader, Samson), Greg Cipes (as Samson's son, Ryan), Jim Belushi (as Benny, the street savvy squirrel and Samson's best friend), Janeane Garofalo (as a quick-witted giraffe), Richard Kind (as a dim-witted anaconda), William Shatner (as a wicked wildebeest), and Eddie Izzard (as Nigel, an acerbic koala).

Black & Gold are in ...

Oil has reached a new high today of $73 p/barrel (June contract) and Gold has climbed to $623 p/oz. I think the up-trend will continue, as the travel season is just about to start, possible distruptions with this years' hurricane season and Bush increasily making everyone nervous with comments towards Iran , as well as the Iraq situation not improving and China & India increasing their consumption of oil. Add the fact that the housing market looks to be running out of steam, domestic spending will no doubt slow down as fuel costs climb, the currency will continue to be under pressure, the safe haven for now, is Gold.

17th April 06:-
Gold prices rose over 3 percent today on concern that growing tension over Iran's nuclear ambitions may disrupt oil supplies.Crude-oil prices reached $70 a barrel for the first time since Hurricane Katrina, with investors fearing rising inflation. Spot gold closed up $18.20 to $614.50/oz., while silver rose almost 4 percent on hopes the first silver exchange-traded fund with soon launch.
Concerns about oil supply disruptions in Nigeria also contributed to the rise in crude prices.

Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher admitted Friday that the U.S. dollar is a "faith-based currency" dependent on the credibility of a central bank. "In addition to a faith-based currency, we are the currency of the world and we must maintain its integrity," he said. Commented Craig R. Smith, CEO of Swiss America: "The rise of gold prices signals a loss of confidence in all 'faith-based' currencies worldwide. We're witnessing an amazing transfer of wealth from West to Mid-east. OPEC is raking in historically high profits, turning petrodollars into gold and divesting of U.S. dollars in the process. In my view, we're only one major oil-terrorism-economic crisis away from $100 oil, $5 gas and $1,000 gold."

Too much luggage?

While the pilots were going over their checklist, the plane started to lift off the ground. After a few seconds of panick, the pilots calmed down when they realised they hadn't even started the engines. Further investigation found that Mrs. Y. Poulter of Dorset, England, had packed everything, including the kitchen-sink, on a recent holiday trip.

Bunny hit & run

I have some bad news to report.

The Easter bunny has been involved in a tragic hit and run. Complete story to follow.

Happy Easter everyone...

When The Wind Blows

Latest prediction. Here is Dr. William Gray's projection for the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season:

Storm type l forecast l Avg.
Trop. storms 17
Hurricanes 9
Major Hurricanes 5

The nation's most prominent hurricane forecaster and his team today updated predictions for the 2006 season, echoing an earlier report: It will be a busy and dangerous year. Dr. William Gray stuck with projections from his December 2005 forecast: There will be 17 tropical storms, nine of them strengthening to hurricane status and five of those becoming major hurricanes with sustained winds of 111 mph or higher.

Names retired:

Never will Katrina be so little missed. Nor Dennis, Rita, Stan and Wilma - four other hurricane names from last year's devastating storms that have now been officially retired.

Normally six lists of names are used in rotation for storms in the Atlantic-Caribbean-Gulf of Mexico region, but names of particularly destructive storms are retired. The decision to retire these five names was made by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization meeting in Puerto Rico, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced. They were part of a record 27 named storms and 15 hurricanes that occurred in 2005. The retired names will be replaced by Don, Katia, Rina, Sean and Whitney.

Some 67 names have been retired since storms were first named in 1953. The first to be dropped, in 1954, were Carol and Hazel. Last year's five is the most retired in a single year.

This year's hurricane names will be: Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby,Ernesto, Florence, Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk, Leslie, Michael,Nadine, Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sandy, Tony, Valerie, William.

Mother Nature Playing Games

It is April, Spring is here, well not in our region today. After having nice warm temperature's in the 60's and low 70's this week, it snowed this morning, coupled with winds in excess of 50mph!

Glamour Girls