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Abbey Road notes

A few Beatles-related items:

  • Mike Smith has passed away. He was the A&R man who, on January 1, 1962, signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes to Decca Records, instead of the Beatles.
  • Back in October I noted that EMI was going to be bought by the rich Russian who bought Warner Music. But a last-minute deal between EMI and Universal Music was worked out.
  • Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, co-authors of Recording the Beatles, have sold out four talks at EMI’s Abbey Road recording studios on the 80-year history of the facility.

Nifty gifts

I don’t consider myself to be a particularly good gift giver, but a couple of my sisters can have a knack for finding fun and/or unusual presents. For Christmas my sister Jean gave me a Peanuts wall clock that plays the “Linus and Lucy” theme on the hour, but not when it’s dark. It’s hanging in my office now.

My sister Marianne found some cool things this Christmas. 3D Holiday Specs look like 3D glasses, but when you look at Christmas tree lights with them you see them transformed into Santa’s face, or snowflakes, or stars, etc. It’s fun seeing which patterns give the best effects.

Something else Marianne found, that’s both fun and practical, is a type of wallet I’d never seen before, made of a folded sheet of Tyvek. Mighty Wallets come in all sorts of designs, including some with Star Trek themes. Highly recommended!

Party like it’s 2009!

It’s already New Year’s Day in Belgium and the Netherlands. Three years ago K3, the Flemish Europop queens, recorded this New Year’s message.

[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/2011/Dec/K3_2012.flv 640 360]

“United As One”? Well, no, because a few months later in 2009 Kathleen Aerts quit. She was replaced by “Josje” Huisman, who seems to have been the perfect choice for the girl group.

For you K3 fans here’s a recent picture of Karen, looking sort of like Lindsay Lohan did before she discovered meth, or whatever it was that wrecked her.

This was Karen about twenty years ago.

Christmas Eve!

This is me, Christmas 1976, shortly after I had my first paying radio station gig. My brother-in-law Marc is in the background…

… and this was what I was reacting to. A beautiful, old Zenith console tube radio that my brother Jeff gave me. He traded an enlarger for it. (Back in the age of analog photography there were these little things called negatives and to make a print you had to… oh, never mind.) Years later, I had it refinished and restored.

The radio was one of the last made before war production took over, so it was 35 years old on that Christmas Day, which was… 35 years ago?? Yike! I’m not going to think about that and instead I’ll go get some ‘nog.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Will there be Tintin fever or failure in America?

Personally, I don’t think Steven Spielberg was the right talent to bring Tintin — who is only a couple of years younger than Mickey Mouse — to the big screen. But it’s too late now, because ready or not, America, Tintin is coming to a movie theater near you for Christmas. Last week, Tom Ashbrook, who apparently has a soft spot for the intrepid boy reporter, devoted an installment of his radio show On Point to the world of Tintin.

[audio:http://audio.wbur.org/storage/2011/12/onpoint_1216_2.mp3|titles=On Point with Tom Ashbrook: Tintin!]