Year: 2007

Puttin’ on the Ritz

Lyle Ritz

NPR has a super nice feature on session musician Lyle Ritz, who played acoustic bass on many famous recordings in the 60’s, including Brian Wilson’s Pet Sounds. Ritz has also had great success with his sideline of playing the ukulele.

Here are some comments by Ritz, taken from the booklet “The Making of Pet Sounds” taken from The Pet Sounds Sessions CD box set.

What made Brian’s sessions different was the family kind of atmosphere. At first, as I recall, Brian didn’t have any preparation. He didn’t write anything down; he would dictate notes to us on the piano.

What I remember from Pet Sounds was that during that time, his craft was more honed. He brought in music and parts that were written. And he was more intense, more focused.

Gas-Powered Movie

The power is back on, after 15 hours. And Internet access is working, too. Whew!

Yesterday afternoon we were hit by a sudden and violent thunderstorm with some of the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen, and hail to boot. Carol, Eric and I were watching the storm when we heard a thunderclap that was so loud it sounded as if it were next door. Well, it was. Lightning hit a large tree, the tree hit the utility wires, and out went the power on our street.

We ate out with friends from across the street, then we all watched a movie at our place. No, we didn’t gather around a portable DVD player. My portable generator came to the rescue.

Coleman Portable Generator

It has two household outlets, 110V/15A. I bought it over five years ago in case we ever need the sump pump running during a power outage. That situation hasn’t happened yet, but it did fine last night powering the 32-inch TV and DVD player.

Our neighbors brought over Bridge To Terabithia. It’s an enjoyable family movie, with a surprise plot twist. The gas tank on the generator isn’t very big, but it ran for two hours and the movie is only 90 minutes long.

Girl-God Raises the Yamato

An episode of the previously-blogged anime Kamichu took us rather by surprise. Girl-god Yurie’s spirit form travels to the bottom of the Pacific ocean to raise the spirit of the Japanese battleship Yamato, for an elderly man who left the crew before the ship’s sinking in 1945. I’ve spliced a few scenes together.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JUL07/KamichuYamato.flv 425 240]

What surprised us was how the episode rejoices in the legend of the ship — the largest ever built — without political overtones or, for that matter, ever mentioning WWII. The PBS program NOVA has a good section about the Yamato on its Web site. The old man in the cartoon who rhapsodizes about sailing on the Yamato says he was born in 1920, so either he’s supposed to be well into his 80’s, or the show takes place some time ago.