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Baby for Karen, Wedding for Kathleen


K3 — Kristel Verbeke, Kathleen Aerts, Karen Damen

Having just posted an ABBA video, I can’t resist saying something about K3. Karen Damen gave birth to a son, named Sky, on February 17, and she’s already returned to work. Former K3 member Kathleen Aerts is getting married in June, and her replacement, Josje, seems to be working out well.

It’s been almost two years since I first caught onto K3, and it’s been over a year since Kathleen quit. If anyone doubts these women have given everything to their craft, and if you think Kathleen’s departure from the group didn’t matter to them personally, take a look at these pictures of Kristel and Karen from Kathleen’s farewell performance last year — two uncommonly beautiful women, only 33 and 34 years old, respectively, at the time. Obviously, losing Kathleen meant everything to them.


Here’s the K3 original lineup, with one of the finest Pop songs I have ever heard, Hart Verloren (Lost Heart).

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BABA O’ABBA

A long time ago I posted a video of ABBA’s winning performance at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. I just spotted a super high quality copy that somebody’s posted. This is where the magic pixie dust sound of ABBA began.

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IRONy at the movies

Iron Man 2 is out, and while watching it in IMAX yesterday I couldn’t help but thinking it’s ironic that we’ve gone from this…

…to this, because by the time I was in high school, reading comic books was decidedly not cool. It’s amazing to me that the Marvel Comics I loved as a kid in the 60’s have become the basis for widely popular and hugely successful major movies.
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The second Iron Man movie has been getting mixed reviews. My capsule comment is there’s an incredibly stupid drunk party fight in the middle, but other than that it’s absolutely terrific, if you can stand the usual mayhem of excessive explosions at the end. Here is the Boston Globe’s take on Iron Man 2. I agree with everything they say, but I don’t take as many points off as they do for the movie’s failings.


P.S. There’s a kicker after the end credits that has me a bit worried about the upcoming introduction of Thor, and how well the character will translate to the semi-reality of the big screen.

Is Colbert’s desk like Snoopy’s doghouse?

Everybody’s favorite diskinetic Parkie, Michael J. Fox, dropped in on Stephen Colbert last night. I’ve always loved the fantasy aspect of Snoopy’s doghouse, with its pool table and Van Gogh original, and I enjoy it when Colbert has the same sort of fun with his desk.

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Census censorious

Bismo asked,

Ever hear of the American Community Survey? Separate form from the Census Bureau, sent to smaller sampling of homes than the full census. Just got one.

No, I never had heard of the American Community Survey, and my initial reaction was that it must be a fake census form sent by a marketing outfit. But no, it’s for real, from the United States government, and you’ll find it at this link.

The questions get a bit particular. Click here to see a PDF sample of the form that Bismo received. Here are a couple of examples.

I can understand where the Census Bureau is coming from. For example, they want to know not only if grandma is living at home, but how impaired she may be. Does grandma have unofficial custody of her grandkids? How many people work off-hours shifts, or have flex time? But considering that the American Community Survey is mandatory for those who receive it, with a maximum fine of $5000, I can also see where the Tea Baggers would say, “they’re steppin’ on our freedoms.”

Three live in Apollo, four dead in Ohio

Spring, 1970 saw yet another crazy time in American history, at the end of an impossibly eventful decade that was full of so much change in every aspect of life, from music and culture, to politics and technology. I remember it well. First, there was the drama of Apollo 13.

It sure seemed as though Lovell, Swigert, and Haise had only a 1% chance of making it back safely; but, incredibly, they did.

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The following week there was the first Earth Day, which to me seemed to have a feeling of desperation about it, because air and water pollution really were bad back then.

Then there were the Kent State killings, 40 years ago today. Hoo boy, did that leave an impression. Two years after Walter Cronkite had declared Johnson’s Vietnam War to not be winnable, Kissinger and Nixon decided that escalating the conflict into Cambodia would be a great idea.

I don’t think I’m supposed to hotlink to BBC “Witness” podcasts, but I’m going to do it anyway for their piece on Kent State. Listen to how many gunshots there were. The Guard opened fire on unarmed students. There’s no other way to describe it.

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What galls me is how, in the Sixties, conservatives told student radicals to love America or leave it. Now the conservatives are the ones who are protesting — with some of them armed — because they don’t like the ways things are. I don’t hear anybody telling them to love it or leave it.