Jackie Chan

The greatest action star of them all!!

[[dmii]]

Jackie Chan has spent the better part of his career
redefining *action movie*. He doesn’t even call most of the high
concept thrillers being cranked out by Hollywood today that, but rather
*special effects movies*.

In a Jackie Chan movie, there are no blue screens and no stunt doubles.

* “Jackie Chan Homepage”
* “Temple of Jackie Chan”
* “Project A Site”
* “Jackie Chan News List”
* “Jackie Chan Mailing List Homepage”
* “Jackie Chan at Yahoo”

Charles Francis Carney

This is my father, who died too young. He was a great man.

##March 18, 1930 – May 15, 1996

[[cfc-airforce]]

Charles Francis Carney of Weston, West
Virginia, son of “Ella Rebecca Kraus” and “Thomas Edward Carney”. Nickname
was Babe (got it because older brother John couldn’t pronounce Charles or
Francis when he was born, so he called in the Baby which evolved into
Babe). To this day, the people of Weston only know him as Babe Carney.

###St. Patrick’s Catholic School

###Lifeguard at the family owned Lake Riley Golf and Country Club
Learned to play and love the game of golf from his uncle John Kraus who
ran the golf course at Lake Riley

###Air Force

###Masters of Business Administration

###Go West Young Man

Decided that his place was not in West Virginia, so he packed up his car
and started driving west. He almost didn’t make it to California. After
driving for days through the desert basins in Utah, Colorado and Nevada he
was ready to turn back. But when he found his way over the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and saw down into California, he knew that he had found
the place he wanted to live. He found a job at Philco, and settled in
Mountain View.

[[mom-and-dad]]

###Marriage

Jeanne Marie Layden on June 26, 1965. They met at a party in
Carmel, CA and were married at the Carmel Mission. They first lived in an
apartment in Mountain View, CA, but soon moved into a house in Sunnyvale,
CA where they lived for the next 27 years. After he retired, he and Jeanne
moved to Santa Rosa, CA in the middle of the famed California Wine Country.
He joined the Santa Rosa Golf and Country Club.

###Children:


  • Michael David Carney: April 24, 1966

    Married to Danae L. Waters on May 26, 1990. 2 Children

    • Vanessa L. Carney: September 12, 1991

    • Madison M. Carney: February 21, 1994


  • Scott Layden Mark Carney: July 3, 1968

###Soccer Referee in AYSO

###Comments

Died
May 15, 1996 due to complications arising from heart attack
Always found a reason to laugh. Was never spiteful. Went out of his way to
help others.

###Autopsy Summary by Dr. Thomas E. Dunlap, M.D.

[[cf*carney*headstone]]


Please find enclosed a copy of the autopsy report from Santa Rosa Memorial
Hospital dated 5/16/96.


If you look on page 4 of this describes the provisional gross diagnosis as
of 7/17/96. The two areas to note on this report are Item V which
indicates that there is a state of the right coronary artery having been
manipulated with the placement of a stent with the vessel being completely
intact with no evidence of rupture. This means that the result of the
coronary operation that was performed on Monday preceding your father’s
death was successful and was not the cause of his death. Item VI you will
note description of interstitial hemorrhage and describing a condition
called cardiac tamponade. This is a post-mortem or post-(after death)
diagnosis. Cardiac tamponade usually refers to the heart being restricted
in its mobility because of surrounding pressure. There was never any
indication that this occurred and this is an observed anatomic abnormality not a description of interstitial hemorrhage which involves 1/3rd of the
volume of the heart and primarily the posterior wall. This is the region
of the heart where there was an anatomic abnormaility left over from the
time of your father’s original bypass surgery. This is also the region of
the heart where there was an indication that damage had occurred prior to
his hospital admission. If you then refer to page 2 of the microscopic
examination of the autopsy report which is futher along, please refer to
the comment underneath the diagnosis. This comment indicates the presence
of hemorrhage or bleeding which was likely as old as 7 days and was
associated with fat necrosis and extensive interstitial hemorrhage or
bleeding into the muscle of the heart. This was due to a “heart attack”
occurring before your father presented to the hospital.


In considering the potential cause of your father’s demise it appears that
the cause of this was due to bleeding or hemorrhage into the muscle of the
heart located on the back side of the heart or the posterior wall from
myocardial infarction. It appeared that this process began some days before he was admitted to the hospital and before the angioplasty/stent
procedure. It is likely that the heparinization given to him at the time
of the angioplasty/sten procedure allowed extensive bleeding to occur
within the muscel of the heart and subsequenntly the resultant failure of
both the right and left ventricle occurred.


This was a complication that was not predictable nor do I feel likely
preventable. The indications to proceed ahead with treating your father’s
progressive coronary artery insufficiency were clear. The performance of
the procedure was very straight forward with no real difficulties occurring
during the procedure that would have predicted further complications.
Unfortunately for your father heparinization is indicated during the
angioplasty/sten procedure. This is done routinely and the degree of
heparinization is quite extensive to prevent blood clot from performing
within the vessel that is being dilated or stented. In your father’s
circumstance this permitted the area of his heart muscle, which had already
been damaged, to experience excessive bleeding and lead to the resultant
complication.


I hope that this answers your questions about the untimely nature of your
father’s death. Again please accept my condolence and if you have any
further questions or concers or would like to meet with myself or Dr.
Price please feel free to contact us.

Operation Condor

Jackie Chan returns as Condor in search of lost Nazi gold. If only all action movies could be this fun!

##Look out Indiana Jones, we’ve got Jackie now

[[operationcondor]]
I remember seeing this as the second movie of a Jackie Chan
double feature playing with [[Project A: II]]. This oneis an interesting
cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond, and Charlie Chaplain.

The story begins (after a lengthy introduction that pokes fun at the
Indiana Jones movies) with Condor getting an assignment to recover a cache
of Nazi Gold for the United Nations. If he successfully gets the gold, he
keeps 1% for himself. 1% doesn’t sound like much until he finds out that
he’s searching for 640 million dollars worth! So he agrees to take the
job. His patron then gives him the only clue available as to how to
retrieve the gold: an oddly shaped key.

All Condor knows for sure is that the gold is somewhere in the Sahara desert.

For those of you who have seen his recent North American Releases “Rumble
in the Bronx”, [[Supercop]], or “First Strike”, this movie will be quite a surprise. These movies aren’t really [[Jackie Chan]] movies (for those of
you long time fans, you know what I mean). Although they are all quite
fun, each of them was written, produced and directed by someone else.
Jackie’s big creative input on these movies was in the fight choreography
and stunt work. His best efforts have always been when he had complete
control over the production of a movie (see [[Project A]] and [[Project A: II]]
for a couple of great examples).

Jackie wrote, produced, directed and starred in this one, so there’s much
more of his trademark action, humor, stunts and fight choreography.

There are several action set pieces in this film worthy of note. The first is
a chase that has Jackie on a motorcycle and a bunch of Nazi bad guys in
black cars. The scene climaxes with a great stunt where Jackie rides his
motorcycle off a ramp on a dock, releasing the bike, and latching onto a
cargo net suspended about a hundred feet above the water while the cars
that are chasing him fly off the dock into the water. For my money,
however, the stunt he pulls off earlier in the chase while hanging from the
rafters of a warehouse is one of the greatest ever put on film. It’s too hard to describe here, but see the movie and you’ll know which one I’m
talking about.

The finale takes place in a wind tunnel where Jackie is fighting with a
couple of Nazi thugs. Friends of his are at the controls of the wind
tunnel fans, and he uses these to help him defeat his opponents. I don’t
want to ruin it for you, but it’s a real hoot!!

Project A: II

Jackie Chan returns as Dragon Ma in the sequel to Project A.

##Dragon Ma is back, and more nimble than ever

[[projecta2]]
This was the first real [[Jackie Chan]] movie I ever
saw ([[The Big Brawl]] doesn’t count). And it’s still by far my favorite
(yes, even better than [[Drunken Master II]]).

I’ve come to realize that the thing I like best about what Jackie Chan
does is not the huge stunts (although those are great), and not the
awesome fight choreography, but the little things that he does that appear
to defy logic. Remember him running up the wall in “Rumble in the Bronx”?
That sort of thing. This movie is full of those.

Drunken Master II

Jackie Chan gives us a tour de force of kung fu magic. Who else in todays movies can give you a fight between one drunk guy and 10 adversaries and pull it off in such a way that the results are both believable and hilarious!

##Drunk or sober, Jackie knows how to kick some butt!

[[dmii]] What can you say
about this movie except that it achieves near perfection in the Jackie Chan
movie style.

The movie centers around the Wong Fei-Hung character of Chinese legend.
The character grew out of a historical figure known for fighting against
injustice coming from foreign occupiers. The injustice that is the hook
for this movie revolves around a plot by the British to smuggle out
ancient Chinese artifacts, in particular a Jade statuette.

With the Drunken style of fighting, the practitioner attempts to mimic the movements of an inebriated person in order to confuse his opponent. At the
same time, the relaxed state of the body helps him to counter with
unexpected techniques. Does this make sense? In any case, when you see
this movie you really get an idea of why a drunken style might be
effective.

The fight choreography in this movie is so inventive and
entertaining that it could make a movie all by itself. But beyond that
there’s some very effective comedy thrown in for good measure. I remember
one of the times I saw this on laser disc with a friend whom I was sure
would find it to be just another bad kung-fu movie like the ones that used
to play on Sunday morning when I was growing up. But he absolutely loved
it! He was laughing so hard at times I thought he was going to loose
control (and the version we saw didn’t have subtitles and wasn’t dubbed,
so the comedy was purely physical and universal in its appeal). He also
loved the fight choreography. I can’t tell you how many times we backed up
the disc to watch a scene again. And each time his jaw dropped in
amazement (mine too)!

February Trip Report

We visited my family in Montreal, Quebec. We had a great time, and got to dig ourselves out of an ice storm!

Feb. 20, 1997

Well, the Carney clan (boston chapter) headed to the Great White North[trademark] this past February to visit the Layden half of the family. What a great trip! We’d like to thank everyone there for making the trip so much fun, but mostly to Debbie and Steve for letting us stay at their little Chateau. We’ll definitely have to make the trip more often!

We arrived on Thursday evening just in time for dinner after having driven through Vermont and New Hampshire. The scenery was just beautify the whole way. I think we made the drive at just the right time. The skies (and roads) were clear and the air crisp. However, I was hoping to see a bit more snow by the time we hit Montreal. But alas, we made the trip one week too late (or early, see Debbie’s email regarding “Test and question”). We got to see Meghan for the first time. She’s a doll! In fact, Vanessa wanted to play with her like a Doll (just kidding). But Vanessa and Madison both love babies, so they enjoyed watching Meghan explore her world.

On Friday the weather turned nasty (freezing rain), so we didn’t do too much with the kids in the snow. We went to a fun place for kids for lunch. I can’t remember the name of it, but it had slides, tubes, and balls to play in. The kids had a ball! After that we went to visit Grammy Layden with Aunt Kathy. I was so happy to see her even though I don’t think she recognized me. She seemed very happy and content. Aunt Kathy took some pictures (we forgot our camera!), and I can’t wait to see how they came out.
Saturday began with much better weather, and Steve and I built a sled run for the kids off their deck in the back yard. They had quite a bit of fun. Steve even helped Vanessa build a little snow fort. Thanks Steve! That afternoon Vanessa and I went to a matinee of The Empire Strikes Back. It was great. She got scared a couple of times, but overall she really enjoyed it. We’re going to go see The Return of the Jedi next weekend.

On Saturday night, we went out to dinner with all of the Cousins that could make it, along with The Outlaws[trademark]. We went to Barbie’s and had a ball. But the night was only beginning. After dinner we all went back to Debbie and Steve’s. The conversation got a little raucous and we all had quite a few good laughs (Hey Carolyn, what was it that cat was doing??).

We left Sunday for the long ride home. Thanks again for making the trip enjoyable. We can’t wait to have some of the Canadian Cousins visit us next. So, when are you going to make the trip guys?

Ella Rebecca Kraus Biography

My grandmother on my father’s side. Incredibly sweet woman. I’ve heard people around her home town say that if there’s a heaven then she’s surely a saint in it.

Worked in Charleston for Oscar Nelson at United Carbon. She got the job from Tom Whelan. Tom Whelan, Oscar Nelson, Thorn Kobelgard founded United Carbon

Married Thomas E. Carney when she was 28 years old.

Obituary

WESTON– Ella R. Carney, 90, of 216 Cottage Ave., died at 3:00 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13, in Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital, following an extended illness.

She was born May 9, 1890, on Crooked Run, Lewis County, a daughter of the late Michael J. and Margaret Rush Kraus.

Her husband, Thomas E. Carney, preceded her in death Jan. 23, 1952.

Surviving are two sons, John J. Carney, Mt. Vernon, Wash., Charles Francis Carney, Sunnyvale, Calif.; three daughters, Margaret M., Joanne and Helen Carney, all of Weston; two brothers, John A. and Francis Patrick Kraus, both of Murphy’s Creek; eight grandchildren, three great-grandchildren.

Also preceding her in death were three sons, one of which was Joseph T. Carney, one daughter, one brother and three sisters.

Mrs. Carney was a homemaker and a member of the Catholic Daughters of America, Court Victory 379 and St. Patrick’s Catholic church. Friends may call after 6 p.m. today at the Boyle Funeral Home where Rosary will be recited at 8 p.m. Monday, A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Tuesday, in St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.

Thomas Edward Carney Biography

My grandfather. I never actually met him (he died before I was born), but from what I’ve been told, he was a stern and honorable man.

[[thomas*edward*carney1]]

Born in a Bed and Breakfast in Orlando, Braxton County, WV. Met Ella R. Kraus when he was teaching school in Braxton Co. WV, and she was working for uncle John Riley for the summer. They had a courtship there, but then she went home.

Arizona

Went traveling when his father died. (Do the math to find out how old he was) Got stuck in Wyoming for the winter but it was too cold Went to Oklahoma and met up with his brothers Vincent Vincent was selling “Oklahoma” magazine on the corner yelling “Oklahoma” and that’s how Thomas found him. Finally took the railroad to Arizona Worked in a steel mill during WWI Returned at the age of 33 to Weston to marry Ella R. Kraus, and then came back to Arizona. Worked in the office of a copper mine. “Wobblies” tried to form a union. Management gave him a gun to help break the union.

Weston’s Champion Skeet Team

From the Weston Democrat
Pictured here is the Weston Skeet club team, which won the state championship at Charleston on October 2. Members of the team are: (left to right) John Kafer, Oral Fulks, Thomas Carney, Duff Heater, and Orie Perrine, captain. The Weston Skeet club will hold its annual shoot here May 30 and at that time the state championship will again be shot off.

Mr. Fulks holds the state official long run record for having shot 174 clay pigeons without a miss

Sayings of T. E. Carney

“It would take an Archimedean fulcrum to raise you to the level of total depravity”

“I’ve seen dumb people in my lifetime. Idiots and imbeciles have been my companions. But when it comes to a straight A striped African jackass– you take the cake.”

“You’re a sapheaded, pie faced, liver lipped, knock-kneed, pigeon toed son of a cockeyed Mexican boll weevil.”

Project A

There’s pirates, fights, coast guard, more fights, police, still more fights, and stunts galore in Jackie’s breakthrough movie. The stunts are among the best ever put on film, and the plot isn’t bad either.

##Jackie and Samo and Yuen Oh my!

[[Jackie Chan]] finally got his big break with this movie. His first attempt
at breaking into Hollywood a failure, he went back to Hong Kong determined
to do things his way. He got his shot with [[Project A]]. He wrote,
produced, directed, starred, and coordinated the stunts. And it shows.

The plot (such as it is) has Jackie playing “Dragon Ma”, a young and
enthusiastic member of Hong Kong’s coast guard. He is assigned to be part
of [[Project A]], designed to take down a group of pirates ravaging the
local waterways. The plan fails miserably when the coast guard’s ships are
blown up. At this point, the coast guard is disbanded and the sailors are
told to report to duty as police men (their arch rivals), reporting to
their new captain played by Yuen Biao. After some adventure as a police man, Dragon decides to give it up and goes into business with his old
buddy played by Samo Hung. After some more misadventure, Jackie decides
that the only way to clear his name is to infiltrate the pirate gang and
take it down from the inside. Got all that?

Well, never mind. This movie works because of the energy of the “Three
Brothers”, namely Jackie, Samo, and Yuen. The comedy is wonderful, as is
the fight choreography and the stunts. It’s really hard to describe how
infectious this movie is, but when I saw it at the “Towne Theatre” in San
Jose, CA, the audience cheered out loud many times during the movie. They
also “ooood” and “aaahhhh” at the right times and booed the bad guys. It
was almost like watching an old melodrama from the early days of film.

What else can I say? If you ever get a chance to see this on the big
screen, jump at it. You’ll have more fun than you’ve had in a long time at
the movies.