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STEVE LEVEILLE RETURNS TO ‘BZ!

Here’s the great news:

Friends:

Exciting news! I just got off the phone with Program Director Peter Casey–Steve will be back on the air in his old time slot starting Sunday!

See WBZ’s front page story: http://wbz.com/Steve-LeVeille-and-Lovell-Dyett-to-return-to-WBZ/3735627

Wanted to make sure you got the story ASAP! Thanks for all of your hard work!

I’ll “‘BZ-ing you!”

Ben Goodman
BringBackSteve.com

I’m ashamed to admit that Steve’s own comments about his departure took the wind out of my sails about the chances of his return to the Boston nighttime airwaves. Thanks go to Ben Goodman for hanging in there!

Netflix on Xbox 360

The Senate has delayed the end of analog TV transmission, which I think is a mistake, but in our house we’re using the absolute latest in TV technology. Because we’re finally set up to play Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature on Eric’s Xbox 360.

Whether SD, or Netflix’s limited selection of HD material, the video quality isn’t up to FiOS TV, but it’s certainly watchable, there are no glitches, and the operation of the user interface is fast and smooth. Here’s an example — one minute of the series “Heroes” in a somewhat grainy HD rendering, as seen on the Panasonic 720p front projector.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/JAN/NetflixHD.flv 480 360]

CD+G Face-off: Chris Isaak vs. Lou Reed

Eric has become a collector of defunct game consoles, and he spent some of his Christmas money on a used Sega Saturn. It’s in very good condition, with excellent construction quality, and considering it was introduced in 1995, I’m impressed by the technology.

Sega Saturn control padSega Saturn console

A nifty feature of the Saturn is it supports CD+G. Today, CD graphics are found only on Karaoke discs, but originally CD+G was envisioned as a multimedia format for music. Among the very few titles that have CD graphics are Lou Reed’s New York, and Chris Isaak’s Silvertone. I own the Isaak disc, and my friend SamJay lent me his copy of Reed’s CD.

There’s no comparison. Silvertone totally blows away the graphics on the Lou Reed CD. Every song on “New York” follows the format that’s seen here in “Dirty Blvd”…

[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/2012/LouReed.flv 480 360]

… while each song on Silvertone has unique and creative graphics that push the limit of what can be done within the very limited CD+G format. This song is “The Lonely Ones”.

[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/2012/ChrisIsaakCDG.flv 480 360]

I’m even more impressed, considering the graphics were done by John Dennis nearly 25 years ago, in 1985. I might post a couple more of these Isaak tracks.

Beat up by The Beatles

A couple of years ago I featured comedian Morty Gunty’s lead-in to The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show from February 23, 1964. This week’s This American Life on NPR has a fascinating segment about the comedy act that preceded The Beatles, before the second set on their first Ed Sullivan Show appearance, February 9, ’64. Click here to listen to it, then watch this video, through the commercial and on to the fab boys. I’m one of those who feels what happened that evening cannot be overstated. And it wasn’t only the kids getting caught up in the excitement. Look for the grown woman in the audience.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/JAN/McCallBrill.flv 480 360]

There are two Star Trek connections in that video. When I tell you what they are I’ll show you Davy Jones, later of the Monkees, who was also on the bill that night.

P.S. According to WordPress this is post #1500, but I actually passed that number a while ago. Unfortunately, nearly 100 posts were lost in the great database debacle in June ’07.

High School Headphones

This will give my son a shock. Here I am when I was exactly the age he is now, about to turn seventeen.

DOuG pRATt in high school

I used rabbit ears for FM reception and, yes, I was seated to give the impression I had antennae coming out of my head. Ah, my first stereo — Pioneer SX-440 receiver, Radio Shack MC-1000 speakers, Garrard 40B turntable, Shure M91ED cartridge, and Pioneer SE-20 headphones.

When I was in high school I listened to the classics — The Who, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath. Today, with the departure of Bush and Cheney, I’m reminded of this song.

https://youtu.be/bYgpv5clf3Y