'King of Cool' lecture at ASU

Steve McQueen: A Tribute to the King of Cool
ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation
550 N. Third St. Phoenix, AZ, 85004
PHONE: 602-496-0638
April 7, 2011
Thursday, 6:30 PM

ON THE WEB: http://asunews.asu.edu/20110315_kingofcool

PRICE: Free


Synopsis:
Barbara McQueen, widow of Steve McQueen, and Marshall Terrill, author of the biography, Steve McQueen: The Life and Legend of a Hollywood Icon, discuss and answer questions about the late star known as "the king of cool." Copies of Terrill's biography and the 2007 photo book, Steve McQueen: The Last Mile by Barbara McQueen and Terrill are signed. The fourth event in ASU's spring 2011 Humanities Lecture Series.

Categories:
Book Event, Book Lecture/Discussion, Book Signing/Reading, Event

Features:
Free and open to the public

Cars keyboardist records Beatles tribute CD

The Beatles Uke

by Greg Hawkes

Greg Hawkes is paying tribute to The Beatles almost 45 years after they enticed him to get into the music business.

The famed keyboardist and co-founder of The Cars, said everything musically begins and ends with the Fab Four.

“My first concert was seeing the Beatles in 1964,” Hawkes said. “They changed my life. Indeed, they changed the world.”

The release of The Beatles Uke (Solid Air Records, 2008), a cover of Hawkes’ favorite Beatles classics – is a timeless testament to the inspiration and influence of the legendary group’s music and on his career.

The 15-song collection of Beatles songs is played entirely on the ukulele and multi-tracked to create a “Ukesymphonic” orchestra.

Perhaps it’s not such a far-fetched idea after all when you consider that George Harrison, a known ukulele enthusiast, is considered the spiritual leader of the current wave of interest in the music. Fellow ex-Beatle Paul McCartney also plays the instrument, and compellingly so when he paid tribute to his fallen friend on “Something” during his 2002 world tour.

Hawkes, who helped define the sounds of the 1980s with his signature keyboard stylings on Cars hits such as “Just What I Needed,” “Let’s Go”, and “Shake It Up,” and “Heartbeat City,” took a new direction with his music in 2001 when his wife gave him a ukulele as a gift. He’s been hooked ever since.

Hawkes started collecting ukuleles and got involved in the “Uke” scene in and around Boston, which led him to try duplicating Beatles string parts. Longtime friend and former Cars guitarist, Elliot Easton, put Hawkes in touch with James Jensen of Solid Air Records, who suggested an entire CD of Beatles tunes. The result is The Beatles Uke.

“The ukulele has made playing music fun again,” Hawkes said.

For more information on The Beatles Uke, visit www.greghawkesmusic.com or www.acousticmusicresource.com.

Track listings for The Beatles UKE:

1. Penny Lane

2. And I Love Her

3. Strawberry Fields Forever

4. Here Comes the Sun

5. Eleanor Rigby

6. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite

7. The Fool on the Hill

8. Yellow Submarine

9. Piggies

10. She’s Leaving Home

11. Honey Pie

12. For You Blue

13. Yesterday

14. Blue Jay Way

15. Goodnight

Santa Paula pays tribute to Steve McQueen

Santa Paula Airport hosts Steve McQueen events on December 6 & 7

Steve McQueen fueling his plane at Santa Paula Airport, May 1979.

Steve McQueen's last hometown is paying tribute to its most famous resident with a weekend of aviation and family-related activities.

The Aviation Museum of Santa Paula will welcome home Barbara McQueen with a VIP reception, dinner and booksigning on Saturday, December 6 at the Santa Paula Airport. The 5 p.m. reception will include a catered dinner, slide show and booksigning for Steve McQueen: The Last Mile.

“Santa Paula was the beginning and end of Steve McQueen's aviation roots, and realized the airport had never recognized him before. Steve used to say, 'Santa Paula Airport is my kinda country club,'” said Mike Dewey, a museum board member who has a long history with the privately owned airport. “We also felt this was a good opportunity to promote our new 3,000-square foot museum headquarters.”

This is Barbara McQueen's first trip back to Santa Paula since her late husband's 1980 death.
“Santa Paula was Steve's church and he really loved the city with all of his heart and soul. He was treated like a normal person there where he could relax and be himself, hang out with friends and fly his planes,” McQueen said. “I'm really looking forward to coming back because it was a big part of my life. It'll be good to renew some of those old ties and make new friendships.”

The tax-deductible (as allowed by law) dinner is $50 with proceeds benefiting the Aviation Museum of Santa Paula. Seating, however, is limited and attendees are asked to RSVP by December 1, 2008. Please call (805) 525-1109 or e-mail mcqueenevent@amszp.org to RSVP.

The Santa Paula Airport will salute the life of Steve McQueen on its “First Sunday Open House,” on December 7. Privately owned hangars open their doors to unveil a variety of vintage aircraft, cars, and memorabilia, which are on display for the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Several other aircraft owners will put their antique aircraft on static display and many vintage aircraft also fly in each month. Car and motorcycle clubs will also display their machines on the airport's taxiways and the Museum Tram will provide travel between hangars. The Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 723 offers free airplane rides to kids ages 7-17. Barbara McQueen will also sign, Steve McQueen: The Last Mile at the five-hour extravaganza.

Steve McQueen: The Last Mile is a photo book that captures wonderful and unique images that the very private actor allowed to no one else. Barbara soon discovered that the screen legend she had idolized since a kid was a determined individualist who loved vintage planes, motorcycles and cars and admired the men who flew and drove them above all others.

For more information on both McQueen events, visit www.amszp.org.

Book Soup hosts Robert Relyea on Sept. 10

Movie executive was Steve McQueen's right hand man

Producer Robert E. Relyea, a fifty-year veteran of the movie industry and Steve McQueen’s right hand man at Solar Productions, will appear at a world famous book store on the Sunset Strip this month to promote his new action-packed autobiography.

The two-hour signing will take place 7 p.m. Wednesday, September 10 at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. Relyea will be signing copies of Not So Quiet On The Set: My Life In Movies During Hollywood’s Macho Era, which promises to become a must read for anyone who yearns to know the “real” stories about the movies.

Co-authored by son Craig Relyea, Not So Quiet On The Set provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes, first person look into Hollywood’s movie-making landscape during the turbulent pre-and post-Kennedy years in America. The book also chronicles Relyea’s friendship, business relationship and canon of films with McQueen, which includes Never So Few, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Bullitt, The Reivers and Le Mans.

The 348-page work includes candid photos of Relyea on the sets of epic films and presents rare insights into the mechanics and politics of film making, defining a dynamic period in motion picture history. A unique collaboration between father and son, Not So Quiet On The Set not only illustrates how the movie industry really works, but also provides a revealing portrait of Hollywood’s loss of innocence.

For more information, go to www.booksoup.com or www.NotSoQuietOnTheSet.com.

2nd annual Steve McQueen Days March 28-29

Steve McQueen fans from around the world will gather in Slater, Missouri, the actor’s boyhood hometown, to celebrate the life and work of the legendary actor on Friday and Saturday, March 28 and 29.

The 2^nd Annual Steve McQueen Days is timed around the actor’s birthday; McQueen would have been 78 years old on March 24^th. McQueen was born in Beech Grove, Indiana but moved to Slater, when he was an infant and remained there for most of the next decade. Slater is located in central Missouri in Saline County and has approximately 2,100 residents.

Among those attending will be McQueen’s widow, Barbara McQueen, who will be signing copies of her book Steve McQueen: The Last Mile about her years with McQueen. Also attending will be McQueen’s friend from his early days in Greenwich Village and later, in Hollywood, Richard Martin. Martin has just produced a documentary on McQueen’s life titled An American Rebel. The film is based on the book Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel by noted biographer Marshall Terrill, who will be a key speaker during the festivities in Slater.

McQueen’s stuntman, Loren Janes, who worked with McQueen throughout his professional career from his television western series, Wanted: Dead or Alive to the last film he made, The Hunter will be presenting rare behind the scenes footage from Nevada Smith and The Sand Pebbles.

Highlights of the festival will include a Steve McQueen Lookalike Contest and a Classic Car and Motorcycle Show. McQueen was an accomplished and competitive semi-professional car and motorcycle racer who owned over 100 antique motorcycles. An auction of McQueen-related memorabilia to benefit the Boy’s Republic School in Chino, California will also be held during the weekend. McQueen attended the Boy’s Republic shortly after he left Slater and continued to visit and support the school throughout his life.

McQueen was a worldwide box-office champion in the '60s and '70s and starred in such blockbuster films as The Great Escape, Papillon and The Sand Pebbles, which garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. This year also marks the 40^th Anniversary of Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair, which are among McQueen’s most acclaimed films. At the time of his death in November of 1980 from asbestos-induced cancer, McQueen was the most-popular and highest-paid actor in the world.

For additional information about the 2nd Annual Steve McQueen Days visit www.cityofslater.com.

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