Jon Provost says that, “For the first time in 50 years of public appearances, I am meeting children who do not know about Lassie.” So it’s a good thing that Lassie will be returning to TV in the next year or two in a computer animated series. You can read more at this link.
I haven’t done too many cute pet photos. In fact, I think this is the first one. My oldest sister sent this. Hmm… saying “oldest” no longer sounds right, considering our ages. How about eldest? Or first born?
That’s Mogul on the left, and Riva on the right. What great expressions!
Eric’s repaired Xbox 360 has been returned and it’s once again working. Summer is saved! Recently, The Onion had a special segment examining the importance of video games in preparing today’s youth for their inevitable future…
Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?
Thanks to the Roku Digital Player, my guilty pleasure has been watching the revived BBC series Dr. Who. I’m almost through the second season with David Tennant, who took over from Christopher Eccleston. The Doctor always has a young lady along for his adventures, and Billie Piper as Rose appears in both seasons.
Dr. Who retains the preposterous stories and hokey monsters of past incarnations, but I’m impressed by the human interest elements of the new series. The love triangle between Rose, her boyfriend, and The Doctor had a curious end. One episode in particular, “Love and Monsters”, uses the ludicrous sci-fi trappings of the last Time Lord as an excuse for memorably quirky character portrayals. The scenes with Rose’s hopeful mum and a younger man are both a funny and poignant. The episode features the delightfully mouse-voiced Shirley Henderson, who is Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter movies.
England in the early 60’s was the source of some of the all-time best theme music. The James Bond theme was composed by Monty Norman, but arranger John Barry disputes that claim. A man named Laurie Johnson wrote the theme for The Avengers, and the Dr. Who theme was composed by Ron Grainer at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Any idea who this is? As an adult, her face became the most famous in the world — not one of, but the most. Even knowing who she is, I can’t say identifying her from this photo is easy, but as far as I can determine the snapshot is genuine.
Hover over the picture and you’ll see that it’s Diana Spencer as a child.
Do I have anything good to say about the late Allen Klein? No, I don’t. He was an opportunistic, dishonest, unscrupulous scumbag. Eric Idle and John Belushi were dead-on with their Ron Decline parody in “The Rutles”. Hey look, there’s Al Franken, the new senator from Minnesota, with his old comedy partner Tom Davis.
The first LP I ever bought with my own money was “Let It Be” the day it was released, and I immediately noticed that Apple Records had become “an abkco managed company”. Even as a kid of fourteen I was suspicious of what that meant.
In this picture the second scan is from an 80’s British LP copy of “Let It Be”, and you’ll notice that the name Harold Seider is missing. Seider was Klein’s attorney, and later he was John Lennon’s lawyer.
Since “Let It Be” I have tried to avoid Allen B. Klein Company products, with the only exceptions being on vinyl. As a consequence, my Rolling Stones collection is minimal. One of the exceptions is the Stones outtakes LP, “Metamorphosis”. I bought it for a couple of bucks in college as a cut-out, only a year after its release in 1975.
“Metamorphosis” has a some tracks worth noting, including the Dylan-influenced “Memo From Turner” and a good alternate version of “Out Of Time”. The best song, I think, is “Each and Every Day of the Year”. Unfortunately, it’s in fake stereo that includes phase shifting as well as frequency separation, so it sounds lousy if forced into mono.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JUL/EachAndEveryDay.mp3]