Here’s Friday’s The Writer’s Almanac.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/WritersAlmanac121506.mp3]Author: DOuG pRATt
Waiting for Wonderland
Got your software synthesizer enabled? Great! Click here for a MIDI version of Winter Wonderland. I’m sure snow is on its way here in the east, but it’s taking its time this year.
Who’s willing to claim they like Thomas “Painter of Light” Kinkaide paintings? Anyone? How about Hummel figures?
In the Public Domain
On the Media, The NPR show, seemed for a long time to be a bunch of newspaper reporters sitting around talking about the newspaper business, so I’d flip past it. But a while ago I found myself stopping to listen to the show, sometimes intently.
One item today that caught my interest is about American music labels pushing to get European copyright laws changed. As my buddy Dennis Rogers recently pointed out, the 50-year limit on copyrighted material in Europe means there’s a flood of CD’s headed our way from overseas from the era of Elvis and beyond. He predicts the laws will change when the Beatles’ material nears the 50-year mark.
America’s copyright laws extend 95 years, and that’s what the U.S. music labels want Europe to also set as their standard. Open the audio player and listen to what was hot 95 years ago. Gene Greene performing “King of the Bungaloos.” Greene does a bit of jazzy scat and for a moment he sounds like the voice of Popeye, as done by Jack Mercer 25 years later.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/GeneGreene.mp3]Puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? Let’s compromise. How about 60 years?
Here’s a link to On the Media’s piece, which I would rate as a must-listen. If you have any problems with it, and you shouldn’t because it’s done the same way I do my embedded audio, let me know and I’ll put it here.
Spam a Lot
Besides the spam e-mail that everybody suffers, I’ve had to contend with spam comments in this blog. That’s why comments now have to be approved by moi before they appear.
But now there’s yet another variation of spam. Spam links to blogs. Here’s my first:
Speakering of Sound
Nobody is asking me what my computer speakers are, that make differences in audio quality so apparent. So I’ll ask for you!
These are my speakers — the Logitech Z-3. c|net gave them only a so-so review, but I think they’re very good, and besides, J&R Musicworld had them for only $45, plus $5 shipping. They’ve been replaced by the Z-4.
Quiet … You Eee-de-ot!
Animator John Kricfalusi, or John K., was born the day before my identical twin sister and I were born. One day total.
I suppose John K’s characters Ren and Stimpy are the sort you either hate or love. But I fell in the middle. Although I liked the show, I wasn’t absolutely wild-crazy for it, as many were. I could say I was too old to get into Ren and Stimpy’s scatological anarchy — but, like I said, John K. is one day older than me.
So with those comments out of the way, if you don’t already know about John K’s blog, go there now! I won’t rave about Ren and Stimpy, but I’ll rave about John K.’s blog. The man’s heart is so absolutely in the right place. Anybody who labors over a discussion of color theory in Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear cartoons from the late 50’s is AOK!