Year: 2007

Colbert is Colbert

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Some of the pass-offs from Jon Stewart to Stephen Colbert are real gems, even when they manage to flub it. This one from a couple of weeks ago I couldn’t find on Comedy Central, so I’ll resort to posting it myself. Colbert provides some bedtime reading from Ayn (A is A) Rand.

I went through an Ayn Rand period in college, when I read both “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged”. Like the science-fiction writings of L. Ron Hubbard, I genuinely enjoyed Ayn Rand’s novels. If nothing else, they’re solid romantic soap operas. But as I did with Hubbard’s Dianetics, I decided Rand’s Objectivism wasn’t for me.

More Henry Mancini Music

It’s generally believed that the Hitchcock movie North By Northwest with Cary Grant influenced the development of the James Bond movies. After the first Bond movie Dr. No proved to be such a hugely successful hit, in 1963 Cary Grant, almost 60, was featured in a less physical spy movie called Charade.

Henry Mancini wrote the Charade score and Andy Williams sang the theme song. Compare this to Matt Monro singing the theme to From Russia With Love, also from 1963.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/Charade.mp3]

Nice, huh? Well, here’s a Russian duo performing a decidedly different version of “Charade” at a rowdy German club last year. That’s Zombie Girl playing bass.

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Peter Gunn Theme

Peter Gunn

There was an earlier statement of appreciation made for the theme to the old TV show Peter Gunn. It’s certainly a favorite of Bismo’s. Here’s the theme, recorded in 1958 and taken from boring, old vinyl LP. That’s Johnny Williams, as he was known then, on piano.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/PeterGunn.mp3]

The Peter Gunn soundtrack is fun and evocative of its era. Well worth getting, and it’s available cheap on Amazon. Click here. Dig that crazy, mixed-up artwork! What are those red vein things supposed to be — bullet holes in a sport coat, or something?

More with Pet and Cousin Brucie on PBS

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Here’s another slice and splice with Petula Clark and legendary NY DJ Cousin Bruce Morrow from the PBS special My Music: The British Beat. I don’t actually agree with Pet’s comment that the Beatles were her big break in America. Her success was her own, of course, but if anybody deserves some credit for paving the way for Petula it was Julie Andrews, who had been in America for nearly ten years by that point. And before the Beatles the James Bond movies were hugely influential in opening up the U.S. to all things British.