Author: DOuG pRATt

A Couple More Pet Pics

Petula Clark’s American fan club, PetulaClark.net, has this announcement:

40th Anniversary of the NBC

Petula Clark Special “Petula”

with Harry Belafonte

POSTPONED UNTIL SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Hey, that must mean Petula will be back in the area! Here’s hoping she does another show here.

D.F. Rogers caught the moment last night that my moment with Petula Clark was caught. Thanks, Dennis.

Victor Lukas, Petula Clark, DOuG pRATt

Even with her head down, Petula takes a lovely picture, and she displays her unmistakable flourish and sense of style even when signing an autograph. Pet has the Rap and Hip-Hop section behind her! Talk about contrasting styles.

Petula Clark signing autograph at Mohegan Sun, May 11, 2008

PETULA CLARK IN PERSON!

Petula Clark put on a wonderful 75-minute show Sunday night, at the Mohegan Sun Cabaret!

Petula Clark at Mohegan Sun, May 11, 2008Petula Clark at Mohegan Sun, May 11, 2008

The place was packed, and it was a truly magical show, with Petula looking her loveliest and performing her absolute best. What a consummate entertainer! Pet is a singer, a story teller, and even a poet. She has a full band touring with her, with horns, and they put out a super sound. I was very pleased to have 60’s Pop Music maven D.F. Rogers there with me, to share the fun of seeing Pet live for the first time.

I sneaked just a few seconds of video. We were sitting too far back for this to look like much, but here it is.

[flv:/Video/2008/MAY/PetulaMoheganSunCabaret.flv 440 330]

After the show there was a meet-and-greet signing with Petula at the Spin Street record store in Mohegan Sun. I grabbed a few moments of video from there, as well.

[flv:/Video/2008/MAY/PetulaMoheganSunSigning.flv 440 330]

That’s Petula’s stage manager, Victor Lukas, with her. Last year, having spotted my blog, Victor asked me to do a favor for him and Petula, and I was of course more than happy to oblige. I introduced myself, and Victor took this picture of me with the one and only Miss Petula Clark. Thank you, Victor!

Petula Clark with DOug pRATt

Petula and I had a lovely little exchange, that went something like this:

Pet: “You’re all dressed up!”
Me: “Uh, yeah….”
Pet: “People don’t get dressed up anymore for shows.”
Me: “Well, it’s for, you know, the occasion.”
Pet: “I think you look very nice.”

You can imagine how I felt about that comment! I thanked Pet and Victor and, as Dennis can attest, I left Spin Street in a daze. I would have loved a longer chat with Pet, of course, but there were a lot of people waiting behind me. I wanted to ask how Thursday evening went at the Paley Center, with the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of her TV special featuring Harry Belafonte. I’m hoping there will be a write-up about it in the next issue of Petula & Company.

Thank you, Petula Clark, for a delightful evening that I shall always remember. Truly you are a superstar talent and the finest of ladies.

Collar ID

Tonight I see Petula Clark. For the occasion I bought some new clothes, including a shirt with collar stays. I do believe this is the first shirt I’ve ever owned with collar stays. It has buttons on the sleeves, so no cuff links are required, but should I get a cummerbund?

Ralph Lauren Polo Shirt Collar Stay
Ralph Lauren Polo Shirt Collar Stay

Geoff Emerick In Florida

Recording engineer Geoff Emerick, who I’ve featured probably half a dozen times now, has been in Florida lately, working on a Beatles tribute by Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander. Here’s the article. For once a local piece, in this instance from the St. Petersburg Times, and not something from the AP and picked up by everybody.

R2D2 Projector

Bismo has pointed out a rather unique item. An R2D2 DVD video projector. It’s the sort of thing The Sharper Image would sell — if they hadn’t gone out of business. But don’t despair, because you can order one directly from Nikko Home Electronics for only $2900 plus shipping!

[flv:/Video/2008/MAY/r2d2.flv 440 330]

It’s odd that R2D2 isn’t shown projecting scenes from Star Wars. The projector has a typical computer screen resolution of 1024×768. The feature list says it uses DLP, but the spec sheet says LCoS. I’m inclined to assume the spec sheet didn’t get updated when the product was finalized, because DLP is much less expensive and simpler to implement than LCoS.