Category: Music

Two of a Kind From ’35

This is something I meant to do years — and years! — ago. Early in 1935, Walt Disney Studios released a Mickey Mouse cartoon, his first in color, called ‘The Band Concert.’

At the end of 1935, the Fleischer Brothers Studio released Popeye’s (much funnier) cartoon “answer” to Mickey, ‘The Spinach Overture’.

I’m making the comparison while QC-ing the replacement Popeye DVD set. There has been some cost-cutting, with DVD+R discs and basic packaging, but it plays without messing up, unlike the now-rotting 2007 box set.

Video on Demand

A few days ago, I received this missive in the DogRat mailbox:

Hi Doug — I came across your January 29, 2009 post “Category Crossover: Colbert meets McCartney.” You had captured the Paul McCartney appearance on The Colbert Report yourself and posted it as ColbertMcCartney.flv.

I’ve been trying to find that particular interview, which seems to have disappeared when Comedy Central removed the old Colbert archive. By any chance do you still have your FLV file or the original recording? I’d be enormously grateful just to be able to watch it again.

Thanks!

Daniel

My reply:

Hi Daniel,

That file wasn’t transferred when I switched to Bluehost in 2010. It should be on a backup hard drive here. I’ll look for it.

Ideally, I kept the original AVI capture format, but I didn’t always do that when storage was a lot more expensive than it is now. If not AVI, the greatly reduced FLV Flash Video file should be in there. Assuming I find either one of them, I’ll convert it to MP4 and make it available online.

I’ll get back to you in a couple of days.

Thanks,

Doug

I found the FLV file and converted it to MP4. The first ten seconds are blank, then the video kicks in and all is well. Here you go, Daniel!

The Pre-Fab Four @ 60

ABC-TV had Batman kick off 1966 with a BAM! and a POW! NBC-TV had the knock-out one-two punch in September, with Star Trek and Hey, Hey, The Monkees!

The Monkees TV series is now available for viewing on the best free streaming video service, Tubi. The premiere episode, ‘Royal Flush’, features family friend Vince Beck as Sigmund.

https://tubitv.com/series/300006871/the-monkees

Dark Pink

For the second time, I have enjoyed seeing and hearing the fantastic ‘Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon – Official Planetarium Show’ at this venue.

I wasn’t able to confirm the model(s) of the two video projectors, but they’re the JVC DLA-NZ9 and/or the newer NZ900 model. Special lenses are used to fill the image across the huge dome ceiling.

The audio quality was just as good as the image, and easily the best I have ever heard playing The Dark Side of the Moon. An album that was released — ulp! — just as I was about to graduate from high schoool.

The sound was effortlessly loud and completely free of harshness in the way that professional grade systems can be. The bass was massively powerful and deep, with no breakup whatsoever. Such an audio/video treat!