The Grand Master Plan

With age comes responsibility, and with responsibility comes...wise and obvious ideas?  Yes, it's true.  You all know I'm obsessed with Rosemary Clooney.  (Wait, you don't?  ...)  However, it has only just recently dawned on me that I'm doing everything wrong.  She may be gone (and may she rest in peace), but that doesn't mean I can't get closer to her in some way.  "Bailey, you've gone off your rocker."  Thanks for finally catching on, but let me further explain: George Clooney.
Yes, that George Clooney.
"Okay, you've totally lost me."  Yeah, not many people seem to be able to follow my thought process.  George Clooney, the ultimate bachelor, just so happens to be Rosemary Clooney's nephew.  Seeing as I can't posthumously marry Rosie (yeah, that would be really weird...), I've decided to turn my sights onto someone else.  Sorry, Cary.
Of course, some people might view me as a gold digger for this decision.  I assure you, I am not.  More like a...relative digger.  I'm in it for the relation and the relation only.
"But, Bailey, you're not even 16."  Shut up.
"He's the ultimate bachelor for a reason..."
"Isn't that called a football marriage or something?"  Not one for football...
"He's old enough to be your father."  Stop rubbing it in.
"He's famous and you're...when was the last time you ever even went outside?"  I understand you are fluent in Tumblr problems.
"Good luck.  Not."
Thank you.  I have taken all of your comments into consideration.  The back-up plan?  Yahoo! is a very nice area to read about stuff I don't even need to know about.  And that, my dear reader(s?), is how I came across a certain key point in my back-up plan: Adelia Clooney, George's (yes, now we're on a first name basis) sister.  George's unfamous sister.  George's unfamous sister with children.
Oh, this just keeps getting better and better!
If George refuses to marry me, there are two other Clooney children I can marry.  And if they're already married?  Well, they should have some kids.  Of course, I might be removed a generation, but that's totally fine with me.  So long as I marry a Clooney somewhere down the line.
As I was telling my two best friends my Grand Master Plan yesterday (They both have boyfriends, and I wanted to change up my boyfriend jokes.  You know, the ones about how my boyfriend doesn't celebrate Christmas, doesn't live near me, doesn't give me presents?  He's a little...stiff.  Interpret that how you will.), pointed out the one problem in my Grand Master Plan: I'm a fangirl.
Never have I been so cursed.
Picture it: George and I are sitting in the living room around the Christmas tree with the rest of the family, and everyone's telling old stories about Rosie while her records play.  And then it'd be my turn to talk.  "Did you know Rosemary Clooney started singing with Tony Pastor's Big Band with her sister Betty?  When Betty decided to give up singing, Rosie went solo.  I have some of the coolest pictures of her on my laptop!"  *awkward silence*
So there's the only thing that will bring me down.  It's really not my fault that I absorb (*cough cough* obsessively wiki-stalk *cough cough*) my favorites!  "Yes, it is."  Shh...
But it will work.  I assure you.  He'll go from this:

To this:

Mrs. Clooney OUT!

The Best Lady Ever and She Doesn't Have Any Good Quotes

Inspired by Nat's post who was inspired by Marcela's post, I am happy to announce that it is...PICTURE TIME.
Rosemary Clooney is my role model.  Yes, I write English speeches and papers on her.  Yes, I have trouble cutting out information and staying within the given time frame/number of pages.  But she was truly an amazing and strong person.  One of the number one things I love about her is her smile and her laugh.  Half the time words cannot express how much I admire her.  So, here are some of my favorite Rosie pictures:

Her smile is just always so bright.

The fact that she's with dogs should be enough.

This I "received" as a "gift" from Nat last year in the birthday collage she made me.

Her laugh.  She lights up.

One of the few colored photos I have of her.  So pretty.

This one's one of my all-time favorites.

Her smile again.  It never looks forced or fake to me.

With Jim-Jim.

Starting out with dear ole Tony Pastor.

This is a close second for favorite Rosie pictures.

I feel like this picture shows her true, other side, her more depressed side.

What I would give to have been in that crowd...

Again with the laughing and the smiling!

Two of my favorite things: Rosie and pools.

First: Admit it.  This lighting is so cool.

So young and with Frankie Sinatra!

With daughter Maria.  She looks like such a caring mother.

With sister Betty!

The entire Ferrer gang: Rosie, Jose, Miguel, Maria, Gabriel, Monista, and Rafael (probably not in that order.)

And there's that smile again.

If you ever feel like getting your ear talked off, ask me about Rosie.  I would give you a quote here, but I'd have to look through This For Remembrance if I wanted to find a decent one.  Instead, I shall turn off my sad Band of Horses song, take out my contacts, brush my teeth, and head to bed.  I shall leave you with a Rosie song!

Don't you just love how she smiles when she sings and you can hear said smile in her voice?  If not, listen to this then Come On-a My House.  You can totally tell she's not happy to be singing that song; she sounds so angry when she's singing.

Yes, I'm going, I'm going!
~B.
And someone help me remember that I still need to write a letter to dear Rosie before next Friday!

And this is exactly what I'm talking about...

Wow, time flies.  Yupp, this is exactly how every website/blog/whatever that I've created/worked on/whatever became neglected.  It's been nearly 3 weeks: shame on me.  School started Wednesday the 15th, so between that, swimming, homework, Tumblr, Psych, and other things I have neglected something very important.

Onward ho!

Last night I finally finished one of the books I highlighted three weeks ago, Alicia: My Story.  Can we all just take a moment to appreciate people like Alicia Appleman-Jurman?  If you read the post, you might recall that Alicia is a Polish Jew.  The book is about 433 pages long and covers 8 years.  The whole story is so heartbreaking; she goes through so much.  Living through the pain that both Alicia and her mother live through is terrible.  At one point her mother, knowing she is going to die anyway, throws herself in front of the bullet meant to kill Alicia.  This was maybe the saddest part of the book for me.  Sitting in Algebra 2, I had to take a deep breath and quickly close the book before my tears started to fall.  After the war is completely over and Alicia is allowed to return to Buczacz, her hometown, she still does so much more for so many people.  Remember, Ala is only 14 or 15 when the war ends.  She goes on to run an orphanage consisting of roughly 24 children who survived the concentration camps, work for the Brecha, learn 2 more languages, find at least 3 surviving extended family members, and travel to Eretz Israel (Palestine) only to be captured by the British and be imprisoned for 8 months.  You could really say the war doesn't end for Ala until 1947.  But this is a wonderful book, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone.  It's really capturing.

Lately, I've really gotten into (okay, maybe really is an understatement) a show called Psych on USA Network.  Now, I'm not one for modern TV shows or movies or TV in general.  But this is one awesome show.  It's full of culture and I guess that's one of the reasons I respect it.  It's packed full of references mostly to movies from the 1980's.  While not my favorite decade, I still like watching movies from then.  Besides that, you do get the very, very occasional CH reference (Ginger Rogers, Phantom of the Opera 1940's, etc.), and some modern references to awesome book series (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson).  Plus, the random breaking out into song sometimes seen in the show (but mostly in the bloopers.)  While I love the whole cast (have you ever seen a modern-day couple as cute as Maggie Lawson and James Roday?!), I really respect and envy Corbin Bernsen.  That name probably doesn't ring a bell: why do I like him so much?  Well it's really the fact that he was in the movie Radioland Murders, something I really want to see.  Sure, the movie looks pretty good.  But my dear Rosie (Rosemary Clooney) is in the movie, according to her Wikipedia filmography list.  Now, whether she really was in it or her voice/a clip of her was used from the CH days I'm not sure.  But the fact that he was in a movie that I associate with Rosemary Clooney just makes me all happy and warm inside.  If I ever meet or write to him, my first question will be about Radioland Murders.

Schpeal over; have a picture!

...Or two.  :D
Top: Rosie, who seems fakely surprised with her book
Bottom: Jaggie, or James Roday and Maggie Lawson

~Bailey

Leibster Blog Award. Well This is New!

Hello dear two followers and any possible readers!  (Maybe I should start going out and promoting this or something...Things to consider.)
I've heard the Leibster Blog Award is going around.  I've only ever heard of it once or twice but never knew what it was or the point of it.  Ha.  But Natalie over at In the Mood decided to tag me, so it's game time!  The rules (because, according to Natalie, they've changed since this last time around):

1. The tag-ee must tell eleven things about themself
2. The tag-ee must then answer the eleven questions given to them from by tagger
3. The tag-ee tags eleven more blogs (we'll see how this turns out for me...)
4. And then the tag-ee assigns their eleven blogs eleven new questions

Oh boy what fun!  Moving on.

11 Things About the Fan Girl Behind the Blog

• I'm going through a Psych craze.  Hiatus sucks.
• Repeat songs included, I have 160 Rosemary Clooney songs from 6 CDs, plus a yet-to-be-listened-to Rosie record with Harry James.
• My main reason for being on Tumblr is all the pictures.  I have over 3000 photos in my Classic Stars picture folder on my computer.
• I was a toe-head as a child.
• I will be entering my Sophomore year in high school in 11 days.  (How fitting...)
• Not including my second grade class's production of E-I-E-I Oops, I have acted in 11 productions, starting with Alice in Wonderland, Jr. in 6th grade as the Caterpillar.
• I really geek out on the Holocaust.  I've read numerous books, fiction and non, and really enjoy learning about it.
• I don't have a favorite animal.  If I really had to choose, though, I'd pick dolphins.
• Yes, Wikipedia is reliable, and yes, I use it to look up everything I want to know.
• I really dislike the color pink.  Purple has been my favorite since 1st grade.
• I tend to pick at my lip when concentrating.  Because I like having the dry skin to pick at, I'm not very good at having chapstick handy, much less using it.

11 Questions (from Nat)

1. In film do you prefer black&white or color?
Black and white.  Color can be a nice change, but there's really nothing that says Classic Hollywood like black and white.

2. In photographs do you prefer black&white or color?
Toughie.  Black and white photos are nice because you can color them in Photoshop.  Color photographs are always nice, especially for stars who you are accustomed to seeing in black and white films.  I'll have to pick color, though, because right now my desktop background is a snazzy colored picture of Myrna Loy.

3. Your favorite era in music?
1950s baby!  Rosemary Clooney all the way!

4. Do you have a tumblr?
Yes.  Yes I do.  Tumblr  Please don't be alarmed by the Psych spam.

5. Your second favorite actress?
Uh...Who on EARTH am I suppose to choose for that?  Um...well, seeing as I've seen the most Ginger Rogers movies (behind Minnie, of course) let's go with her.

6. Your favorite movie starring your second favorite actress?
I think picking Ginger was a mistake...Yeah, I'm going to go with 1940's Primrose Path.

7. Your second favorite actor?
Jimmy Stewart, yo!

8. Your favorite movie starring your second favorite actor?
Ooh...This is the part where I wonder if I should choose It's a Wonderful Life, The Stratton Story, or Rear Window...In honor of Yin, let's go with Rear Window.  Pure suspense perfection.  Mmm!

9. Favorite foreign film?
This is the part where I have to go back through all my films and find a foreign one...This is a real problem here!  Found one!  That Hamilton Woman.  It's the first foreign film I came upon...

10. Ice cream or french fries?
ICE CREAM!

11. If you could see your favorite actress in any movie role (real or imagined) what would it be?
Ooh.  You know, I'm still feelin' like The Proposal should be remade to star Minnie and Bill Powell, so let's go with that!

Tag.  You're it.

• Film-Classics
• The Shades of Black and White
• The New Andrews Sisters
• and anyone else who would like to play along!  I'm still new to the blog world here.

Question time!

1. What was your first classic?
2. Favorite classic TV show?
3. If you could spend a day with any one classic star, who would it be?
4. Least favorite classic actor?
5. Least favorite classic actress?
6. Musical remakes from the '50s: yes or no?
7. Hayes Code: yes or no?  Why?
8. Silent or Talkies?
9. What do you think of movies like The Artist?
10. What role did your favorite actor deserve an Oscar for?
11. What role did your favorite actress deserve an Oscar for?

Thanks for taggin' me, Nat, and have at it everyone else!