Ringo and His All Starr Band put on a super show tonight, at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston! Nearly two and a half hours. I’m tired, and I have an early meeting, so I’d better hit the sack.
Year: 2008
Going to Ringo
This is where Dennis, Eric and myself will be this time tomorrow!
Special Guest Post — Petula in Croydon
David Moncur is back home in Scotland, having seen Petula Clark perform live in London on 5 June. Thanks for the report and photos, Dave!
Not long back from London, having spent longer there than I anticipated.
The concert was fantastic. Petula was better than I have ever seen her. There are some new songs in the programme…..
From the new album….. “It’s Ok” and “Heaven’s Door” recorded by my friend David Hadzis in Geneva. There is also a beautiful version of “These were the days of our lives”, (Queen). “Memphis”, is amazing, and “Come along with me” is fantastic……
It was also nice to hear “People get Ready” from 1970 back in the concert. I swear it sounded just like the record.
She just keeps on getting better.
I wouldn’t worry about calling her Pet by the way. I’m sure she doesn’t mind it at all from fans…. after all, if you listen to the song “My name is Petula” she does sing…
“Well I been round and round this great big world
And I haven’t heard it said right yet,
So if you’re gonna call me,
And I’d really would like you to call me,
But if you’re gonna call me
Why don’t you call me Pet,
Just Pet!”
Well… she asked for it.
You can hear excerpts from “It’s ok”, and “Heaven’s Door”, on this page.
Hope you’re well
Dave
Slippery Slope
I’m interested in hearing what conclusions come from the various panel hearings in Congress, of the effect that speculators are having on the price of oil. Oil being a worldwide commodity, combined with rising demand in China, and the weak dollar, are factors of course. But the rise being so fast and so steep has me concluding that after the Dot Com bubble burst the money went into real estate, and after that collapsed it’s now in oil.
What Is Illusion?
For over a year I’ve been meaning to watch The Illusionist. We’ve exhausted, for now, the anime series worth watching, so it finally went to the top of the Netflix queue. We really enjoyed The Illusionist. It’s fun in the same way that Sherlock Holmes stories are, but it’s also a romance with a strong fantasy element. Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti are both exceptionally good.
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Hajdu, Don’t Make It Bad
Peanuts, June 22, 1952
Comic books, like the movies, were under attack in the 1950’s. Movie people were accused of being communists, and comic book people were accused of causing juvenile delinquency. A book by David Hajdu, called The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, gives some serious thought to what happened and how it influenced later events beyond comic books themselves. Stephen Colbert, who’s obviously a comic book fan, interviewed Hajdu a couple of weeks ago.
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There’s irony in the “TV 14” rating that’s so prominent during Colbert’s introduction. It’s almost like the Comics Code Authority seal that appeared on comic books after the big scare. Oh no! How did that commercial get left at the end of the interview?
EC Comics publisher William Gaines did a lousy job testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1954. His entire testimony is at this link. He should have emphasized that his horror comics were inspired by radio shows such as Inner Sanctum, Lights Out, and The Whistler. But there was probably no defense against the public sentiment of the day. In a way, losing the comic book business was the best thing that could have happened to Gaines, because he was left with MAD Magazine, which was far more subversive and influential anyway, and it ended up being vastly more successful.
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