There’s a documentary DVD called “Stuart Sutcliffe: The Lost Beatle” that doesn’t sit right with me, because of assertions made by Stuart’s sister, regarding Stu and John. But one part that rings true is about Astrid. In an interview with Terry Gross on NPR, Astrid gives Stuart all credit, claiming that he was an original, and a visionary. But I think what’s said about Astrid in this video clip gives a more complete and accurate characterization.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/DEC/Astrid.flv 640 360]
Category: Music
Pattie and Prue
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
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.