Hal Blaine, the keeper of the beat at the heart of the Wrecking Crew of studio musicians, has passed away. Hailing from Holyoke, Massachusetts, the irrepressible Blaine’s drumming can be heard on an uncountable number of recordings, including these favorites.
All three records were produced at the now-defunct Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles. There it is, the glamorous home of the enormous Wall of Sound, around the corner on the left.
Ken Jennings’ team placed second in the recent Jeopardy! All-Star Games, but I doubt that his 74-game winning streak will ever be broken. Ken has an interesting take on Alex Trebek in The New York Times. He places Alex alongside Walter Cronkite and Johnny Carson as one of the great television broadcasters. I can see his point, having a game show host to complement a journalist and a talk show host (who hosted game shows himself).
There sure is plenty of zapping done in the Captain Marvel movie, and Brie Larson is certainly the best-looking incarnation of the character I’ve seen over the past 50+ years. The original Captain Marvel will be appearing in Shazam! next month, but this is the one I knew when I was a kid.
One little movie semi-spoiler I’ll offer is that Nick Fury loses his left eye the same way I almost lost my right eye when I was 12. Before leaving the house for the school bus stop I decided to say goodbye to the family cat, while he was eating breakfast. With the inside of my eye oozing out of a large gash, I never made it to the bus stop that day.
Just a day after the fun and excitement of the Jeopardy! All-Star Tournament, there is this very worrisome news from Alex Trebek.
Hard to believe that it’s been almost eleven years since my first post in this Jeopardy! category. Congratulations to Brad Rutter, Larissa Kelly, and Dave Madden for their fantastic win in the All-Star Tournament!
A fantastic too-short newsreel from 1964, featuring the Rolling Stones.
I’ve been listening to, and blown away by, a 96 kHz/24-bit download of The Rolling Stones in Mono. Some detailed background information on the technical work that went into mastering the set is at this link.
