Category: Music

Some Brussels sprouts

What a coincidence that this year two major movies — Smurfs and Tintin — are based on Belgian cartoon characters. Brussels is going green (and, uh, brown) by bringing back horses to the city’s streets…

…and Kristel Verbeke looks into experiments to increase the intelligence of apes (what could go wrong?)…

http://youtu.be/Ub1i9YFf764

…while Josje teaches girls how to dance the K3 way.

http://youtu.be/Cad7TI0P4fE

The psychecology of ’68

In 1968 America exploded politically, between the war in Vietnam, the assassinations of MLK and RFK, and the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, all of which ultimately led to the election of Richard Nixon. It was a difficult year for me personally, between the second half of 7th grade sucking, family problems, and having to move. Also, I went from thinking about girls to thinking about girls, girls, and girls.

A HUGE bright spot for me in 1968 was the premiere of Laugh-In, a TV show that I enjoyed with great, even painful, intensity. And, as always, reading comic books and listening to the radio helped to get me through my troubles. 1968 was the year sandwiched between the Summer of Love, with the Monterey Pop Music Festival, and Woodstock. It was looking like a light year for Beatles singles, until Hey Jude dominated the charts for weeks, but there were plenty of other songs I loved hearing that year. Here are my top 5, in no particular order. One of them is the Troggs song I already featured.

http://youtu.be/S8-knbCtXdQ

http://youtu.be/nWxm5YRmzEU