Year: 2007

It Was The Best of Buys, It Was The Worst of Buys

Best Buy
Note: Yes, I edited this image

Best Buy, a store I like visiting (I bought my new Canon Pixma MP600 there), is coming under scrutiny for deceptive pricing and poor customer service.

George Gombossy, of the Hartford Courant, reports that the Connecticut Attorney General is now investigating the existence of an internal Web site used by Best Buy sales people to convince customers that items are no longer posted on bestbuy.com at the “previously” listed sale price. Click here.

A quick search reveals there are other unhappy recent Best Buy customers. They tell some interesting stories; this one in particular, because it involves a soldier stationed in Afghanistan.

George Martin Instrumentally Salutes the Beatle Girls

George Martin Salutes Beatles Girls

My twinster Jean spotted this eBay auction for an original 1966 LP copy of George Martin Instrumentally Salutes the Beatle Girls. Sir George as Hugh Hefner!

I can’t find reference to this record in George Martin’s autobiography, “All You Need is Ears”, nor do I see mention of Martin’s better-known instrumental recording, “Off the Beatle Track”, from 1964. The book is poorly indexed, so I’ll keep looking.

Off the Beatle Track

The American soundtrack to A Hard Day’s Night included instrumentals arranged and conducted by George Martin. Here’s one of them, taken from an ancient US LP. Sounds so-so.

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

The year 1964 was a very good one for George Martin. Undoubtedly his best-known non-Beatles production of that year, and perhaps any year, is this one, taken from an old UK LP. Sounds super.

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

Netflix Watch Now

Fahrenheit 451

My friend Bismo reports that he finally has the Netflix Watch Now service. I’ve had some trouble with it. Every so often it insists I don’t have enough available hard drive space, and that’s annoying. My 20 gigabyte C: drive is, I admit, tight but my 200 gigabyte D: drive is wide open.

The movie selection is still rather limited, but the service is a free add-on to the subscription. When the player isn’t telling me I don’t have enough hard drive space, and the connection speed measures high, the picture is DVD quality, as seen in this reduced frame from Fahrenheit 451.

Petula Clark 2002 Interview

Petula Clark as Carmen MirandaIf you click here, there’s a great interview from 2002 with Petula. It’s from a BBC radio show called “Woman’s Hour”, and in a short 13 minutes, including musical breaks, it covers all of the personal stuff — her pushy father, her career setbacks, her marriage arrangement, and her daughter’s drug addiction.

The show starts with an excerpt from a hilarious archive recording of Pet at 10. She was imitating Carmen Miranda, as seen in the picture at left.

The audio quality sounds like a 60’s pocket transistor radio, and it’s in Real format. So go to the link, but you may find it’s easier to listen to the interview here.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/PetInterview2002.mp3]

Petula Clark in Wales

Petula in Wales

Petula Clark is half-Welsh, and she spent a goodly part of her childhood in Wales. A few weeks ago, before her San Francisco concert, Pet was in Wales, visiting her grammar school. A TV show about the visit was shown tonight in Wales. Maybe it will show up somewhere online.

In the meantime, you can click here to go to a BBC page with pictures and a 15-minute interview from Welsh radio. Petula is 74 now, as charming as ever, in fine form, and still singing beautifully.

The radio interview is in Real format, which is often a problem, so I’ll provide it here on the trusty MP3 player.

[audio:https://dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/Pet2007.mp3]