Month: March 2009

45 is 60

Today is the 60th anniversary of the humble, yet mighty, 7-inch 45 rpm single. It was developed by RCA, at the same time CBS had come up with the 12-inch 33.33 rpm LP.

Originally there was competition to see which format would dominate, but each found its best use — singles were for kids, and albums were for adults, although that changed after The Beatles made albums the thing to have for anybody over 13. Stereo came along in the late 50’s, but mono would still prevail for nearly another ten years after that, until the rise of alternative FM radio crushed AM for music, and transistors made stereo record players cheap.

The combination of magnetic recording and vinyl records was a huge advance in audio technology. It replaced 78 rpm shellac disks and dominated home music listening for the next forty years.

Bismo recently asked me to convert a couple of 45’s to MP3, and this is them. First, the flip side to the Blue Brothers 1978 single, “Soul Man”…

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/MAR/Excusez_Moi_Mon_Cherie.mp3]

… and a real rarity, Stars on 45, featuring The New Sam & Dave Revue.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/MAR/New_Sam_Dave_Revue.mp3]

My achilles is my Achilles

The header at the moment shows the Boston Marathon course elevation. If your computer’s monitor maxes out at 1024 pixels across you aren’t seeing all of it. To do that you can click this graphic.

Boston Marathon course elevation

I want to use this header as an annual tradition, but I’m not getting off to a good start, because I won’t be running the Boston Marathon this year. I was on track to do it, but then my Achilles began to act up and it kept getting worse, even with ice and ibuprofen. The podiatrist said the sheath-like tissue around the tendon is badly inflamed and there’s nothing to be done but what I’ve been doing, and wait until it heals.

So, having taken myself out of the running, this morning I helped staff one of the running club’s water stations for the obligatory 21-mile practice run from the starting line to the top of the notorious Heartbreak Hill. Bill Rodgers, the legendary Boston-based marathoner, was supposed to be running with the club today, but to everyone’s disappointment he ran the course yesterday, to avoid today’s heavy rain.

Where’s Denro?

If you scamper over to the AAUGH! Blog, you’ll see where the ever-vigilant D.F. Rogers has caught and corrected Nat Gertler in an error about Charlie Brown’s All Stars.

Dennis has further defected from DogRat to make an appearance on the web site of Fred Hembeck, cartoonist of comic book topics. Den caught up with Hembeck at The National (aka: Big Apple Con) last November when I wasn’t looking, and he promised Fred he’d pull up some old fanzine drawings going back nearly 40 years. Click this link, and look for the section called “Yesterday and Today” (Fred has got to get himself some permalinks).

K3 meters of separation

This was the K3 display at Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam before Kathleen Aerts announced this week that she is quitting the Belgian Pop music group.

K3 in wax at Madame Tussauds, Amsterdam

After Kathleen’s announcement, the museum symbolically moved her figure three meters away from Kristel’s and Karen’s still lifes in wax (or whatever material is used nowadays), and the sign now says ‘K2’. “We find the picture of Kathleen still an important piece in our collection,” says Annemiek Dolfin of Madame Tussauds. “She has sung for ten years for K3 and remains a celebrity.”

K2 at Madame Tussauds, Amsterdam

When I first saw K3 in wax, I thought it was a surreal display for the museum to put together, but now it seems prophetic to have the ladies frozen in time this way, because K3 has stopped, and where they go from here is unknown.

On Monday, Studio 100 released a statement about Kathleen and the future of K3. I’ve taken a Google translation and edited it for easier reading.

Continue reading K3 meters of separation

Glicknicks Mourn

Today there is the sad news for longtime Bostonians that Larry Glick has died. For many years Glick was WBZ 1030’s overnight radio man.

Glick was the inspiration for ‘BZ’s recently fired-and-rehired overnight personality, Steve LeVeille. Steve would have Glick on his show every so often by telephone, and I expect LeVeille will devote a lot of time next week to talking about his idol.