Author: DOuG pRATt

Hergé today, gone tomorrow

Tintin is huge! Created by the late Georges Remi, aka Hergé, spunky and intrepid boy reporter Tintin is hugely popular everywhere — except in the United States. Way back in March 2007, I noted that Stephen Spielberg intended to produce a Tintin movie, and I posted a bit of video from the documentary Tintin Et Moi.

[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/2011/Oct/Tintin.flv 400 250]

For some more background on Hergé and Tintin, watch this short video with Michael Farr, author of the excellent book, Tintin: The Complete Companion. I own a copy of the original 2002 edition. The book has been out of print, but it’s scheduled to be republished.

As things turned out with The Adventures of Tintin, Peter Jackson produced and Spielberg directed. The movie opens this week exactly where it should, in Europe. But even if it’s a blockbuster success there, will it catch on here in America, when it’s released on December 21?

http://youtu.be/nlE4kXKwG7Y

Despite excellent early reviews for The Adventures of Tintin I’m not a fan of this sort of motion capture animation, but seeing the name Steven Moffat in the credits gives me hope. Moffat is an outstanding writer, whose work on the BBC’s Doctor Who is some of the finest, most enjoyable television I have ever watched.

http://youtu.be/vY_Ry8J_jdw

BBC Radio 4 Extra is running audio dramatizations of Tintin adventures that you can hear at this link. And while you’re on Radio 4 Extra, don’t miss a repeat presentation of Brian Sibley’s outstanding adaptation of the Titus Groan books, by Mervyn Peake and his wife Maeve Gilmore.

Hi-Five for Hi-Fi

The death of pioneering radio producer Norman Corwin, age 101, received some attention this week, but I’d like to point out another recent death. Edgar Villchur, only seven years younger than Corwin, was a pioneer in home audio. Villchur can take some of the credit — some would say blame — for the home hi-fi craze in the 1950’s that drove many a wife crazy, if not out of the house.

Villchur started Acoustic Research in Cambridge, MA, and his sealed box design, the so-called acoustic suspension speaker, proved that low frequencies could be reproduced in a home without a gigantic cabinet like another legendary speaker had, Paul Klipsch’s Klipschorn. The trade-off was efficiency. Acoustic suspension speakers require a lot of power.

In 1957, the year before Villchur introduced the legendary AR-3 loudspeaker, Herman Horne on Hi-Fi was a 3-part parody on The Stan Freberg Show, a radio series on CBS. The entire run of the show is on archive.org, but with only so-so sound quality. I’ve assembled the Herman Horne segments, taken from the Smithsonian Historical Performances CD collection of the show, and it’s obvious that only part 3 came from the original magnetic tape.

[audio:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Oct/HermanHorne01.mp3,http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Oct/HermanHorne02.mp3,http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Oct/HermanHorne03.mp3|titles=Stan Freberg: Herman Horne on Hi-Fi,Stan Freberg: Herman Horne on Hi-Fi,Stan Freberg: Herman Horne on Hi-Fi]

Note how Freberg changed the voice of the character, making it more comical in the second and third installments. A lot of what he made fun of about audio fanatics is still quite true today. I think the only real difference is there isn’t much of an emphasis on sound effects.

Boston, you’re my home

Boston radio station WGBH is named after the Great Blue Hill, the site of the station’s antenna (the TV tower is elsewhere). In addition to its three over-air HD stations, WGBH has online stations, including one that plays The Jazz Decades, the long-running series about the music of the era between WWI and WWII that was hosted by the late, great Ray Smith.

For those who prefer being up-to-the-minute, there’s WGBH Local Indie, a service devoted to Boston area indie bands. Last night on the Roku player I caught the tail end of a song that sent me grabbing for the netbook to find out what it is. It’s When He Comes Home, by the Banditas. The timeless, essential, stripped-down sound of garage bands lives on!

And now… sports! The Boston Red Sox had their all-time worst end-of-season collapse this year, and it’s all my fault, as Denro explained to me:

I still say that you cursed them after that rainy rescheduled “Irene” game in late August. That’s when it all fell apart. They never won two games in a row after that. It came out today that some players resented the owners for the rescheduling of the games, so you sowed the seeds of dissension, as they all read your blog.

Yes, I know, and I’m truly sorry! But let’s please try to forget the unpleasantness of this terrible year’s debacle and its front office fallout, and look back with our friends across the pond at the BBC, to the stunning success of 2004, when the Sox broke the Curse of the Bambino.

[audio:http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/witness/witness_20111015-0900a.mp3|titles=BBC Witness: 2004 Red Sox]

Happy Birthday, Joe Sinnott!

Marvel Comics art legend Joltin’ Joe Sinnott is 85 today. Hover over the picture to see Joe “back in the day,” as he likes to say. The thing about Joe is, looking at the artwork he does now, there’s no “back in the day” about it, because it’s as perfect as ever.

I didn’t start collecting comic books until early 1966, after the Batman TV show premiered, so I’d missed a lot of great Sixties issues and I really appreciated comics with reprints (although later I was dismayed to learn the artists and writers received no reprint royalties). Marvel Tales #10, September ’67, reprinted the Thor story from Journey into Mystery #92, May ’63. That was the first time I saw art that Joe had both penciled and inked. From that I was able to get a better appreciation for what Joe did to give Jack Kirby’s forceful Fantastic Four art such an attractive and clean appearance.

For much better printing quality than this scan from Marvel Tales #10, I recommended The Mighty Thor Omnibus, Vol. 1, which I was happy to get for my birthday. I don’t know how much of the book was taken from original art, but this particular story sure appears as though it was.

Joe will be appearing at the Albany Comic Con in two weeks, Sunday, October 30, and you can be sure Denro and I will be there!

Meeker behind the wheel

It seems almost every time I see Ralph Meeker in something, he’s driving a car.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955) – with Cloris Leachman

Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 1, episode 1, Revenge – with Vera Miles

Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 2, episode 20, Malice Domestic – with Lili Kardell

Food of the Gods (1976) – with Pamela Franklin

If you have never seen Revenge, I insist. It was based on a short story by Samuel Blas, and had already been adapted into an EC comic book story before Hitchcock got hold of it. Hitch himself directed Revenge, with one of his favorite actresses, and mine, Vera Miles. Don’t miss Francis “Aunt Bee” Bavier’s reaction to Vera in a bathing suit.