Month: August 2007

FiOS TV 2.0 Interactive Media Guide

A couple of weeks ago Verizon sent a flyer promoting the long-anticipated update to the FiOS TV 2.0 Interactive Media Guide. Sometime between last night and this evening the update was installed on my DVR.

I like having the ability to program the duration of the skip-ahead button on the DVR, and having a 60 minute playback buffer, but I prefer the old user interface. It was clear and bright with easy to read lettering. The characters are too small on the new display, with a color scheme that’s too gray, and a few layers deep into the menus the screen looks rather cluttered. Here’s a video sample of what it looks like.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/NewFiOSGUI.flv 400 300]

(Note to my friend Sam: Watch this and you will see a bit of your crazy cousin making a guest appearance.)

Cinéma la Morte

Film students from the 60’s and 70’s got a real one-two punch recently with the deaths of Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni. The latter directed L’Avventura (1960), a movie that I must confess nearly put me to sleep back in college. If I want to see a boy and a girl on an island, I’ll watch Gilligan and Mary Ann.

A much more interesting Antonioni film is Blowup (1966). It’s notable for a number of things, including some nude scenes that were daring for the time. I won’t be posting those — sorry! — but towards the end the Yardbirds, with Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck in the line-up, make an appearance.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/BlowUp.flv 400 300]

Siskel & Ebert At The Movies Again

Movie critic Gene Siskel died in 1999, in the city where I was born — Evanston, Illinois. In recent years Siskel’s cohort, Roger Ebert, has had serious health problems of his own. Some of the movie reviews from the Siskel & Ebert days are now available on the Web site At The Movies TV.

Gene Siskel

A review Siskel & Ebert did of the re-worked version of Return of the Jedi is at this link, and it includes a reference to the good, old Laserdisc format.

Way back in 1983 I taped Siskel and Ebert’s original preview of Jedi. They devoted a show to the Star Wars series, and this video runs a little over 20 minutes. It looks like an old VHS recording, because it is! It was recorded off of a rabbit ear antenna a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away!
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/SiskelEbertJedi.flv 400 300]

Youngest Sweetheart Petula Clark

A gigantic thank you goes to my twin sister Jean for spotting this video on YouTube. And thanks to “MrNatashaRostov” for posting it! But having learned the hard way to not depend upon anything staying on YouTube, I’ve grabbed it and will put it on my server.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/PetChildStar.flv 400 300]

Seeing this, I think I can now understand why the English were so reluctant to see their little Pet as a grown-up.

Signs and Songs of Those Times

A Pet Clark video that’s readily available online is “A Sign of the Times,” a perfect piece of Mod Sixties exuberance. I’m relatively sure it’s from “Where the Action Is,” an ABC-TV show produced by Petula Clark’s brother Dick. Kidding! The transfer on YouTube isn’t bad, but it’s not good enough to really appreciate the quality of the original source material, so I’ve made a better one.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/SignOfTheTimes.flv 400 300]

Great stuff! The recording seems to be a different take from the studio release, and the sound quality is outstanding for a TV show. The British sports cars are a nice touch. Besides the fabled Jaguar XKE there’s an Aston Martin DB5, the James Bond car.

In the documentary This Is My Song, Pet says she enjoyed being on a set with dancers, and this video has a wild bunch of them doing some crazy moves! The choreography bears the unmistakably distinctive style of Toni Basil. Below is a video clip of Toni dancing with somebody that I assume you recognize. He was in a band with a guy named Mickey.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/DaddysSong.flv 400 300]

I’ll toss in the studio recording of “Daddy’s Song,” taken from a Japanese import LP I bought many years ago. Once again I point out that vinyl, at its best, sounded not too bad at all.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/AUG07/DaddysSong_Monkees.mp3]

…and this is the song recorded by the guy who wrote it.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/AUG07/DaddysSong_Nilsson.mp3]

In 1982 Toni Basil had a hit single of her own, called “Mickey.” It went like this.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/AUG07/Mickey.mp3]

ADDENDUM: Mr. D.F. Rogers points out that the Petula Clark number is actually from, of all things, The Ed Sullivan Show. Although it seems a little too groovy for old Ed, it makes sense given the lavish production and the quality of the video tape and audio. This photo is from Sunday, April 17, 1966.

Petula Clark on The Ed Sullivan Shows 17APR66

The Ed Sullivan Show was produced in New York, of course (David Letterman now originates from the same studio). This puts doubt into the choreography being that of Toni Basil, who primarily worked in California. Never let it be said the DogRat blog isn’t interested in getting the facts right!