The banjo is a four, five or six stringed instrument with a piece of plastic or animal skin stretched over a circular frame. Simpler forms of the instrument were fashioned by Africans in Colonial America, adapted from several African instruments of similar design.
The banjo is usually associated with country, folk, Irish traditional music and bluegrass music. Historically, the banjo occupied a central place in African American traditional music, before becoming popular in the minstrel shows of the 19th century. In fact, slaves influenced early development of the music that became country and bluegrass, through the introduction of the banjo and through the innovation of musical techniques for both the banjo and fiddle. The banjo, with the fiddle, is a mainstay of American old-time music.
There are several theories concerning the origin of the name banjo. It may derive from the Kimbundu term mbanza. Some etymologists believe it comes from a dialectal pronunciation of the Portuguese "bandore" or from an early anglicisation of the Spanish word "bandurria", though other research suggests that it may come from a Senegambian term for a bamboo stick formerly used for the instrument's neck.
David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC. Letterman recently surpassed friend and mentor Johnny Carson for having the longest late-night hosting career in the United States of America.
Letterman is also a television and film producer. His company Worldwide Pants produces his show as well as its network follow-up The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Worldwide Pants has also produced several prime-time comedies, the most successful of which was Everybody Loves Raymond, currently in syndication.
In 1996, David Letterman was ranked #45 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.
Letterman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Harry Joseph Letterman (April 1915 – February 1973), was a florist of British descent; his mother Dorothy Letterman (née Hofert, now Dorothy Mengering), a Presbyterian church secretary of German descent, is an occasional figure on the show, usually at holidays and birthdays.
Sleepy Man Banjo Boys is a bluegrass music trio from Lebanon Township, New Jersey, United States. It is composed of the Mizzone brothers: Jonny (age 10, banjo), Robbie (12, fiddle) and Tommy (14, guitar). The trio has appeared on the David Letterman show and twice on Huckabee. They have played at several bluegrass festivals, including one with J. D. Crowe and the New South, and benefits. A YouTube video of Jonny Mizzone and his brothers practicing Earl Scruggs's Flint Hill Special has been viewed more than 2 million times. The Sleepy Man Banjo Boys made their Grand Ole Opry debut on August 20, 2011. The group's first CD, America's Music, was released in September 2011.
Earl Eugene Scruggs (January 6, 1924 – March 28, 2012) was an American musician noted for perfecting and popularizing a three-finger banjo-picking style (now called "Scruggs style") that is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. Although other musicians had played in three-finger style before him, Scruggs shot to prominence when he was hired by Bill Monroe to fill the banjo slot in his group, the Blue Grass Boys.
Scruggs was born near Shelby, Cleveland County, North Carolina, to Georgia Lula Ruppe and George Elam Scruggs, a farmer and bookkeeper, who played banjo and died when Scruggs was four years old. His older brothers, Junie and Horace, plus his two older sisters, Eula Mae and Ruby, all played banjo and guitar. Scruggs' mother played the organ. He grew up in Cleveland County, North Carolina.
Scruggs joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in late 1945, and quickly popularized his syncopated, three-finger picking style. In 1948 Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt left Monroe's band and formed the Foggy Mountain Boys, also later known simply as Flatt and Scruggs. In 1969, they broke up, and he started a new band, the Earl Scruggs Revue, featuring several of his sons.
Roy Linwood Clark (born April 15, 1933) is an American country music musician and performer. He is best known for hosting Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969–1992. Roy Clark has been an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and helping to popularize the genre. Most of all, he is an entertainer, with an amiable personality and a telegenic presence.
During the 1970s, Clark frequently guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and enjoyed a 30-million viewership for Hee Haw. Clark is highly regarded as a guitarist and banjo player, and is also skilled in classical guitar and several other instruments. Although he has had hit songs as a pop vocalist (e.g., "Yesterday, When I Was Young" and "Thank God And Greyhound"), his instrumental skill has had an enormous effect on generations of bluegrass and country musicians. He is a member of the Grand Ole Opry and The Country Music Hall of Fame.
Born in Meherrin, Virginia, Clark grew up in Staten Island, New York and lived as a teenager in Washington, D.C. where his father worked at the Washington Navy Yard. At 14, Clark began playing banjo, guitar, and mandolin, and by age 15 he had already won two National Banjo Championships and world banjo/guitar flatpick championships. He was simultaneously pursuing a sporting career, first as a baseball player, and then as a boxer, before dedicating himself solely to music. At 17, he had his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.
Plot
Former dentist, Dr. King Schultz, buys the freedom of a slave, Django, and trains him with the intent to make him his deputy bounty hunter. Instead, he is led to the site of Django's wife who is under the hands of Calvin Candie, a ruthless plantation owner.
Keywords: 1850s, 19th-century, actor-playing-multiple-roles, actor-plays-multiple-roles, alias, ambush, animal-attack, australian, bag-over-head, ball-peen-hammer
Life, liberty and the pursuit of vengeance.
This Christmas, Django is off the chain.
The "D" is Silent. Payback Won't Be.
Django: [upon being asked his name] Django. The D is silent.
Calvin Candie: [to Django and Schultz] Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. But now you have my attention.
Dr. King Schultz: How do you like the bounty hunting business?::Django: Kill white people and get paid for it? What's not to like?
Calvin Candie: [about Django] He is a rambunctious sort, ain't he?
Django: [to Big John Brittle] I like the way you die, boy.
Betina: [from trailer] So you're really free?::Django: Yes.::Betina: You mean, you wanna dress like that ?
Calvin Candie: [to Schultz] Come on over. We got us a fight going on that's a good bit of fun.
Stephen: You said you ain't know him.::Broomhilda: Huh?::Stephen: I said, "You said you ain't know him."::Broomhilda: I don't.::Stephen: Yes, you do.::Broomhilda: Mister Stephen, I don't.::Stephen: Why is you lying to me?::Broomhilda: [on the verge of tears] I ain't.::Stephen: Then why is you cryin'?::Broomhilda: You scaring me.::Stephen: Why is I'm scarin' you?::Broomhilda: Because you're scary.
Stephen: I count six shots, nigger.::Django: [pulls out a second revolver] I count two guns, nigger.
Billy Crash: [after Django attacks one of Candie's men, pulling him off his horse] Oh, you are one lucky nigger!::Django: You better listen to your boss, white boy!::Billy Crash: Oh, I'ma go walkin' in the moonlight with you!::Django: You wanna hold me hand? [Billy Crash laughs]
The greatest magic is the power of love.
Plot
Misfits in their lives back home, a group of young people live it up at musical-theater camp. While the sports counselor is completely ignored, the kids' spend all their time in rehearsal for a grueling schedule that involves a new show every two weeks. Several personal stories come to the fore. Is talented golden-boy Vlad honest in his feelings about Ellen? Can cross-dressing Michael have a relationship with his parents? Will one-hit-wonder musical playwrite and now camp counselor Bert Hanley remain mired in drink and cynicism? Fireworks are in store when Fritzi, who slavishly serves glamour girl Jill, is finally told to get a life, and the parents of Jenna, whose jaw has been wired shut in a compromise to avoid being sent to "fat camp", learn a valuable lesson at the summer's big end-of-season benefit.
Keywords: acting, acting-class, actor, actress, alcoholism, aspiring-actor, aspiring-actress, audition, backstage, band
A Comedy About Drama
You can't fit in when you already stand out.
Ellen: When I was eight years old I told my dad that I wanted to take an acting class. He said, "There are five billion people in this world, if one-tenth of 1% of them wanted to be actors, that would still be five million people. Do you really think you're prettier than five million people? You're not even the prettiest girl in your class."::Vlad: I think you're very pretty.
Vlad: Have you ever experimented with heterosexuality?::Michael: What? You mean sleep with a straight guy? What for?
Vlad: Are you blushing?::Michael: Are you kidding? I'm doing everything but bat my eyes!
Ellen: Thirty foot rule?::Spitzer: What's that?::Ellen: Means Michael has to stay thirty feet away from him until we find out if he's straight or gay.
Jill: Don't worry. You're only a few pounds heavier then Ellen.::Spitzer: I think I've met your sister, Cinderella.
Michael: I can't even straighten my hair!
Director: Now, do it again. And try not to screw up the blocking this time, eyes, eyes, nostrils, silent scream!::Jenna: I have to go to the bathroom.::Director: Piss in the dumpster! Again!
Michael: [after Vlad kisses his girlfriend, Julie] I give up!
Jill: Are you new?::Fritzi: No, I was here last year. Don't you remember me? [on her negative] We were in 'Night, Mother together.
Bert: I'm gonna call it off.::Glen: I think you'd better.::Fritzi: Wait!::Bert: Fritzi, what in the hell are you doing here?::Fritzi: Well I... I knew you'd be discussing stopping the show and I just thought how disappointed all the kids would be after...::Bert: You scheming little bitch!::Fritzi: Oh please! I'm a child.::Bert: If you think for one...::Fritzi: Oh save the speech, rummy. She's fucked, I'm ready, and the goddamn show must go on. So let's get cracking, shall we?
Plot
Stanley Evans is a Welsh teacher who heads to Austalia after an unsuccessful romance. Yearning for the good old days when he was a choral director in Wales, Secombe organizes his Aussie students into a children's choir. Along the way, Secombe finds lasting happiness with down-to-earth local woman.
Keywords: australia, australian-outback, children, choir, independent-film, love, naivety, pupil, school, small-town
He's playing a Pommy teacher landed in the promised land with a bunch of cheeky kids, a fractured love affair and the Kookaburra Springs sexpot . . . you have to LAUGH!
Plot
Several pillars of society have robbed an Army safe containing $100,000 so they can buy the land upon which the coming railroad will be built. But they haven't reckoned on the presence of the master gunslinger, Sabata.
Keywords: 19th-century, acrobat, acrobatics, ambush, anti-hero, banjo, bank, bank-robbery, bar-fight, bar-shootout
The man with gunsight eyes comes to kill!
Sharky, Gunman Hired by Stengle: Hey! Sabata! [Pulls pistol, steps forward] When I stop laughin', you're dead. [Begins laughing]
Sabata: I'm on the right side.::Banjo: Which side is that?::Sabata: Not the side against the law.
Banjo: [Sees Carrincha reaching to scratch his head, which is actually a stealthy attempt to grab his hidden knife] Carrincha... leave your fleas alone.
Carrincha: [Said to Banjo, after he and Sabata had an armed confrontation] Hey, amigo! That's Sabata... and you lost, eh?
Stengel: [Believing he's got Sabata beat] Before you die, you should know that those men with superior talents... and consequently with superior powers... always have one last card to play.::Sabata: You know, Stengel, I wouldn't bet a dollar on that last card.
Carrincha: Hey, amigo! Who in hell are you, anyway?::Sabata: Didn't I ever mention it? [Turns his horse and rides off]