The two topics on today’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook on WBUR/Boston provide a brilliant contrast of Capitalist idealism vs. realism. The first hour was about Ayn Rand…
[audio:http://audio.wbur.org/storage/2011/04/onpoint_0427_1.mp3|titles=On Point WBUR – Ayn Rand]… and the second hour was about Bernie Madoff.
[audio:http://audio.wbur.org/storage/2011/04/onpoint_0427_2.mp3|titles=On Point WBUR – Bernie Madoff]It’s Easter, and a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the lovely and wonderful Prudence Bury. As promised, here is a very special picture of Prue. It was taken by Ringo Starr on the set of A Hard Day’s Night.
The caption reads, “This gorgeous girl is Pru Berry. She plays my girlfriend in our movie. Too bad it’s only make believe!” Amen to that! Ringo was actually paired with Tina Williams for the famous hair-combing publicity photos, and Prue was with Paul. She was 22 at the time, and Prue says of this portrait, “I love it, I look grown up!!” (Oh, the lure of evil ciggies to make one appear grown up!)
Prue had told me that Ringo was “snap-happy” with his camera during the filming of A Hard Day’s Night, and she said that he had taken some snapshots of her. (The sequence where Ringo went “parading” around town was built around him taking pictures.) Prue and I have been wondering if Ringo’s pictures had appeared anywhere, and the answer is yes. They’re in Ringo’s Photo-Album, published in 1964. Hover over the image below to see the back cover.
I have scanned the entire magazine and it’ll be featured later. My thanks go to noted Rock journalist Marcus Gray, for finding this treasure. I’ve seen many Beatles-related items, but I’d never spotted this one before. Marcus is the leading expert on The Clash, having written two books on the legendary British Punk Rock band — one a comprehensive and authoritative biography, the other a definitive study of their landmark album London Calling. Having been a Clash fan myself, I have both tomes and they are in my must-read stack. Marcus is also, to his credit, a Prue fan.
Originally from Boston, the guys of Guster ask, Do You Love Me? I liked this immediately, no waiting.
This Easter Sunday is Prue Bury’s birthday, and for it I’ll be posting a very special photograph of her, taken by a Beatle on the set of A Hard Day’s Night. Prue’s on the right in this photo, age 17, at the Royal School of Ballet in London.
In 1958, Antony Armstrong-Jones, later titled the First Earl of Snowdon, was appointed the court photographer for the Royal Family. That same eventful year, Armstrong-Jones took this portrait of Prue.
Soon afterwards, Prue would meet Mary Quant and Vidal Sassoon, and be a witness to, and a part of, the start of what later came to be known as Swinging London.
http://youtu.be/uyIZtrvzGEM
OMG! NFW! I actually agree with Karl “Weasel” Rove about something. The idea that Donald “Gasbag” Trump running for President is a joke.
I suspect the reason why Rove doesn’t like the presence of Sarah Palin or Donald Trump on the national political stage is that they’re wild cards. They don’t play the Republican game by the rules in Rove’s playbook. Trump simply has no credibility, and not just for the birther nonsense. For example, he says…
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/19/us-donaldtrump-idUSTRE73I5Z620110419
If we stop buying from China, China will go down like no other country has ever gone down before. China needs us more than we need them.
Poor, uninformed Donaldo is wrong, because one way or the other we have to buy from China.
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/37344/With worldwide demand for the materials exploding, the site’s owner, Molycorp Minerals, restarted mining at Mountain Pass last December. It is now the Western Hemisphere’s only producer of rare-earth metals and one of just a handful outside of China, which currently produces 95 percent of the world’s supply.
The GOP’s best bet for the 2012 ticket are the Massachusetts Republicans — Mitt Romney and Scott Brown. Go for it, guys.
And while I’m feeling all politic-y, with the tax returns out of the way, and with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert off this week, I’ve been getting caught up on NPR Planet Money podcasts. This pair of reports from a couple of weeks ago is good, about what Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were…
… and what they should be — if anything.
I dropped off some friends at the Worcester, Massachusetts airport today, and on the way back home I stopped at Paul Howley’s super-duper store, That’s Entertainment, to spend some of my unexpectedly big tax refund. I was very pleased to see LP copies of Bob Dylan: In Concert, Brandeis University, 1963, so I bought one of those. I was equally inspired when I spotted The Beatles Box of Vision, an item I’ve been tempted to get many times, but had never managed to pull the trigger until today.
Both of my new acquisitions exceeded my expectations, which were high to start with. Dylan’s concert was recorded well, especially considering when it was done, and the LP sounds great. This is Bob Dylan at the height of his early folk period, with his politics freshly awakened by his passionate girlfriend, Suze Rotolo.
Although the Beatles Box of Vision came out with the remastered CD’s in 2009, my idea was to use it to dress up the original CD’s released nearly 25 years ago. Well, that’s what I did, and I’m very pleased with the results. The only problem is, I’m missing a couple of the discs, so now I’ll have to get those or forever be bugged by the empty slots in the sleeves.
One of the more interesting Beatles reissues is Yellow Submarine Songtrack, which is in the picture. This must-have CD offers a generous sampling of tracks that weren’t only remastered, they were remixed. In terms of sheer sound quality, they’re noticeably superior to the 2009 remastered stereo master tapes, and they’re proof that the Beatles catalog will need yet one more release.
