November 28, 2006 – Prattling Before the Pratfall

Chipmunks Revealed

His name was Ross Bagdasarian, but he called himself David Seville. When I was a kid I wished my voice could sound like his.

But at the time I didn’t realize that the other voices I heard on his records and his TV show — with the singing chipmunks Alvin, Simon and Theodore — were also his.

On the audio player is a fun and familiar Christmas song. Let it play through, then listen to it again when it starts playing automatically a second time. A simple, cheap and appealing effect.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/NOV06/Alvin.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/NOV06/Chipmunks.mp3]

Happy Holidays, Charlie Brown!

Tonight is the annual showing of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on network TV. The show was quite a breakthrough when it first aired in 1965, which is something I couldn’t fully appreciate until I became an adult.

Schulz makes an unabashed plug for his Christian faith and The New Testament, and I would be disingenuous if I claimed it never had an influence on me. He also offers another message, which is IT’S OK TO BE DEPRESSED DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON.

Click here here to go to the gallery to see an adaptation of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” published by Family Circle magazine in 1977. Be sure to click “full” to enlarge the images.

Vince Guaraldi’s music for “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is the subject of a feature on NPR that can be heard by clicking here.

Just what is “graphic blandishment,” anyway?