After a couple of days off, it’s time to shake myself out of my Christmas stupor. I’ll start with another photo of ravishing Prudence Bury by Astrid Kirchherr. Here she is with Pattie Boyd on the “Hard Day’s Night” train.
© Astrid Kirchherr
Category: Music
Merry Christmas!
This song is called “Grandma’s at the Top,” and it has what sounds sort of like Christmas bells, so I’ll go with that.
http://youtu.be/AwPyy-S-JQU
Playing DJ with theRADIO.com
Thanks to my dad’s cousin Lawrie for tipping me off to (yet another) new online music service. This one is theRADIO.com. Type in a song or artist and it takes you to whichever category it belongs to. theRADIO.com is from some outfit called American Media Services Interactive, and at this point I feel almost overwhelmed by the choices available today for music, whether online on cable TV, and I don’t even have XM/Sirius or HD Radio.
What I’d really like is a free-form option — except no rap or hip-hop, thank you very much. I love playing DJ, so I played with theRadio.com for a while and skipped around genres while recording. The selection includes the Turtles, a Johnny Ramone instrumental (I checked the volume in the middle of it), Lucinda Williams (a fave of Carol’s), followed by my all-time #1 favorite Bob Dylan tune, and finishing with “Reason to Believe”, recorded while I was called away, so I’m not sure who it is. Some of the inflections almost sound like Petula, but it isn’t her. Marianne Faithfull, maybe?
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/DEC/RadioDotCom.mp3]Speaking of lovely Petula, Dave Moncur sent a link with some photos of our favourite glamour girl, who was performing in Utreht, Netherlands (K3 country!) recently. Thanks, Dave. She looks even better than when I saw her in May!
Astrid’s View
Once again I am pleased to feature photos of gorgeous Prudence Bury, a classic British beauty and ballet dancer, and by far my favorite girl on the “Hard Day’s Night” train with the Beatles. These were taken by none other than Astrid Kirchherr.
© Astrid Kirchherr
© Astrid Kirchherr
And this is, of course, Astrid with Stu Sutcliffe. An iconic couple, who had a brief but powerfully resonant relationship. Their story is, by itself, almost as compelling as that of the Beatles. But, then, it was love, after all.
© Astrid Kirchherr
Studio 100, Je Hebt Een Vriend
I’ve just made a visit to the official K3 website…
… and look what I found there. At last, a high quality copy of “Kusjesdag” that blows away what’s on YouTube, and it doesn’t even need the aspect ratio corrected. I’ll scale it up from 480×270 to 640×360. Even the best of the Belgian brewmeister monks can’t bottle something this good.
[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/K3/KusjesdagHQ.flv 640 360]
This is more like it! If it were in stereo I’d say it’s as good as can be for streaming FLV. But, sad to say, not all of the K3 music videos that Studio 100 has posted in flash format are of this technical quality. Most are unwatchable. Why? For that matter, this is the size of the player they used for “Kusjesdag”.
Why reduce it? The bandwidth required by the video stream is the same regardless of how big the presentation.
Studio 100 — Please get a clue
A YouTube user who goes by the handle zazazebra has been my primary source for videos by K3. It would seem that Studio 100 is now turning the screws and zaza’s videos, and those posted by others, are starting to disappear.
Dear Studio 100: PLEASE get a clue! Don’t squash guys like me and zazazebra. We’re just trying to help promote K3 and Studio 100. Zazazebra had 2.5 MILLION hits on his post of “Kusjesdag”, and while my coverage can’t match that, I’m the lone voice in America pushing K3. To increase interest in your own posted videos, get high quality versions of “Kusjesdag”, “Hart Verloren”, “Tele Romeo” and “Verliefd” in stereo on YouTube. I’d love to link to those. “I Love You, Baby” too, because it has some English. Think about it. Please. The songs are wonderful, but it’s not just the format that makes it all work, it’s Karen, Kristel and Kathleen, one of the best pop music trios I have ever enjoyed.
Addendum: Now here’s something interesting. Studio 100’s UK account, that had the UK3 audition, has been suspended by YouTube (or perhaps shut down by Studio 100?). Click the link and see for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/user/studio100UK
Noticed on Jan 1: The Studio 100 UK account is back.
March 23: It’s over. Kathleen has quit. K3 is done.