Eddie Van Halen five years ago…
… and Eddie Van Halen yesterday.
Category: Music
Wake up and move!
I’m not terribly big on Broadway shows, but there are two musicals that stand out as favorites. The older I get, the more I appreciate Robert Preston’s thoroughly winning performance in Meredith Willson’s The Music Man. Like Rex Harrison in my other favorite musical, My Fair Lady, Preston wasn’t a singer, but what he brought to the stage has, in my admittedly limited exposure, never been equaled.
One of my earliest blog posts was of Preston singing that Baby Boomer gym class favorite, Chicken Fat. I have Carol’s permission to make this song the alarm clock sound… “for a while.”
Flash in the post
I don’t do very much video capturing anymore, partly because it’s a royal pain, but mostly because YouTube has most everything anyway. But I have some video clips I’d like to post later that aren’t on YouTube, so tonight I spent way too much time testing a new video editor. As is always the case, there are good and bad things about the software, but at least I got it working.
This is a comparison between the 1987 LD (LaserDisc) release of HELP! and the 2007 DVD edition. The LD is full frame, the way the film was shot.
[jwplayer config=”std” mediaid=”17311″]
And this is from the DVD. The movie has been cropped top and bottom to create a wider image, as it would have been shown in movie theaters in 1965. The color has been corrected, but it has much harder video contrast and louder sound than the LaserDisc.
[jwplayer config=”wide” mediaid=”17305″]
It’s a mad, Mad World
I watched Donnie Darko once, probably more than five years ago, and it didn’t hit the spot for me. Maybe I’m too old for the material. If it becomes available on Netflix Watch Instantly I’ll give it another try. But something that stuck out from it was Mad World, a remake by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews of the Tears for Fears song. This version was #1 in England and I hear it played every so often on BBC Radio 2.
http://youtu.be/4N3N1MlvVc4
Lady doesn’t sing the Blues
Petula Clark is in NYC, for a series of cabaret-style shows, like the ones she did in France fifty years ago. NPR has this interview with the lovely lady, who is now, if I’m not mistaken, entering her 70th year in showbiz. This evocative portrait of Petula at fifteen is from a 1947 issue of Vogue magazine.
TCM Alert – Petula Clark in ‘Runaway Bus’
Wednesday at 6:30 PM ET, Turner Classic Movies is showing The Runaway Bus, a nifty little caper comedy with Petula Clark, from her years in British film. No singing, just Pet being perfectly perky as Nikki, a resourceful stewardess.
And this coming Sunday night/Monday morning at 4 AM ET, TCM is showing Petula in one of her teen roles from the popular Huggetts series, The Huggetts Abroad. Thanks, TCM!