Author: DOuG pRATt

Spider-Man In The Sunday Papers

Spidey

I’ve previously highlighted the Spider-Man reprint comics that are found in certain Sunday newspapers. They disappeared from my paper for a few weeks, but they’ve been back for the past four weeks.

Almost all of the art in these stories, now over 40 years old, was done by Steve Ditko. I don’t know about you, but I consider these figure drawings to be compelling and unique. Superb representations of the human form in space and motion, accentuated and made abstract by the best super-hero costume ever designed.

Randy Newman Defends Our Country


As told back in October (before I figured out how to do embedded audio and video right), I was once a huge fan of Randy Newman, back in his satirical days. Newman is in Newsweek, and I caught him today on BBC radio, talking about his new composition, “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country”.

Newman’s never-great singing voice seems to be failing him, so he just talks his way through this, and it isn’t one of his catchier tunes, but it’s good to have him despairing over Presidential politics enough to write about it.

Lonnie Donegan

Before I post another video with Pop songtress supreme Petula Clark, let’s back up a little to 1955-56 and put her career into perspective. Rock and Roll was on the horizon, and the Skiffle music craze was huge in England. Pet’s style obviously wasn’t going to mesh with that.

Lonnie Donegan

Skiffle was popularized by Lonnie Donegan, who had a huge influence on British kids, including John Lennon. Donegan seemed to have a wide range of musical interests and influences, including Woody Guthrie, who was later a primary inspiration for Bob Dylan. Donegan performs Guthrie’s “Grand Cooley Dam” in this video:

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/FEB07/LonnieDonegan.flv 320 235]

Donegan had a gigantic hit with “Rock Island Line,” a song that he apparently first heard on an old record by Leadbelly. It was such a big hit for Donegan that it crossed over to America, and Stan Freberg did a parody of it.

The audio player has Donegan’s “Rock Island Line”, along with a follow-up hit, “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour On The Bedpost Overnight?”

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/FEB07/RockIslandLine.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Audio/FEB07/ChewingGum.mp3]

And here is Leadbelly doing “Rock Island Line”, along with Freberg’s parody of Donegan:

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/FEB07/Leadbelly.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Audio/FEB07/StanFreberg.mp3]

Watching Netflix Watch Now

I thought screen captures weren’t possible with the Netflix Watch Now player, but not so. I grabbed the picture above and shrank it. Another bit of good news is my connection speed is now consistently being rated as fast. On the downside, I’ve found a couple of issues with using the TV output from the computer, but these are within my NVidia graphics adapter, and have nothing to do with Netflix.

Obituary: Tige Andrews

Tige Andrews

Tige Andrews has died. My mother knew him at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts long ago, as I mentioned here.

Tige Andrews; nominated for Emmy

By Valerie J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times | February 3, 2007

LOS ANGELES — Tige Andrews, a character actor who earned an Emmy nomination for portraying Captain Adam Greer, the officer who recruited the undercover police officers of television’s “The Mod Squad,” has died. He was 86.

Mr. Andrews, who often played detectives during a career in television that spanned five decades, died of cardiac arrest Jan. 27 at his longtime home in the San Fernando Valley, his family said.

“Dad was really proud of `The Mod Squad.’ He felt the show made a big difference because it was one of the first television series to address social issues, such as drugs, prostitution, and teen pregnancy, that were more hush-hush before that time,” said Barbara Andrews, one of his six children.
Continue reading Obituary: Tige Andrews