Author: DOuG pRATt

Anakin and Padme… Obi-Wan and Petula Clark??

As I have said numerous times, when Petula Clark burst onto the American Pop music scene with Downtown, we had no idea that she had been in the entertainment biz for 20 years. For a long time she was better known for being in English movies than for her singing. One of those movies is The Card, with Alec Guinness.

[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/2011/Nov/TheCard.flv 512 384]

Pet arrived here as an unknown, and what a thrill it must have been for her to start all over and be such a huge success on her own terms. Happy Birthday, Petula!

Starring Margaret Phillips and….?

Tales of Tomorrow was a science fiction anthology show in the early days of live television. On May 1, 1953 episode 80 of the 85 that were broadcast in the series was The Evil Within. It starred the Welsh-born actress Margaret Phillips. The Evil Within opens with no mention of two relatively unknown actors who appear, named Rod Steiger and James Dean. Hulu includes their names in the complete end credits, but to avoid commercials I’m embedding a copy that’s on archive.org that cuts off the last few seconds. Dean appears starting at the 17-minute mark. I’m not so sure Steiger’s rather overwrought style of acting worked well here.

P.S. According to the BLS inflation calculator, one of those $10 Kreisler watch bands would cost $85 today.

All the Whos down in Whoville

Before I took time off from blogging I linked to a delightful and spirited Doctor Who video with the cast and crew before David Tennant left the series. The video was made poignant by the presence of Elisabeth Sladen, who passed away earlier this year. The song is I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by the Scottish duo of identical twin brothers who call themselves the Proclaimers.

Note: the movie clips are from Benny & Joon, with Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson.

Comfort tune

Eric and I got the leaves raked up this weekend, it’s a Sunday Autumn evening, I’m in a contemplative mood, and this recording evokes a strong feeling of nostalgia in me.

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Nov/MR1.mp3|titles=Moon River by Henry Mancini]

Why I don’t subscribe to the Economist

The Economist, published in England, is supposedly one of the few weekly print magazines that’s making money. I’ve thought about subscribing to it, but I don’t care for its editorial slant. Here’s an example from the October 28 issue.

“Thousands of anti-capitalist protesters” it says. I grant you that some in the Occupy Wall Street crowd are nascent Socialists who feel they have found an outlet, but a blanket statement that they’re all anti-capitalist is an inaccurate and slanted assertion, and that’s why I don’t buy The Economist. I subscribed to Business Week for years, until I got fed up with the puff pieces that offered uncritical praise of sham “job creator” corporations like Enron and Worldcom.

Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party both believe the big banks should be held accountable for what they did to trash the economy. This is where left and right meet, and I think politicians should take the hint and realize they’re going to get squeezed if they don’t start representing the voters instead of vested financial interests.