Category: All Posts

Bose Wave MP3 Test

You may recall that a while ago we had to replace our defective Bose Wave that broke after only six weeks of light use. It cost us $25 to ship it back, which bugged me, but so far the new one has been working all right. Yet I remain wary, because I’ve seen “disc error” flash a couple of times when ejecting a disc.

Until now I hadn’t tested the MP3 playback of the Wave. So I burned a data CD with five hours of high quality MP3 files. You’ll never guess what’s on it. 😉
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/OCT/BoseWaveMP3.flv 440 330]

The missing piece vis Prudence Bury

I’ve used this photo of Prudence Bury-Fuchs before, but I’m so taken with it I’m posting it again.

Prudence Bury-Fuchs
Prudence Bury-Fuchs

On August 13, 1994, I posed a question on Usenet. “Who was girl with Patty [sic] Boyd?”

Newsgroups: rec.music.beatles
From: (Astrid)
Date: 19 Aug 1994 19:53:08 GMT
Local: Fri, Aug 19 1994 3:53 pm
Subject: Re: Who was girl with Patty Boyd?

(Douglas Pratt) writes:
>For obvious reasons, Patty Boyd has always been a part of the Beatles
>story. But I’ve always wanted to know who the brunette girl is who’s
>sitting across from her in the train in A HARD DAY’S NIGHT. She’s one of
>the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. Does anybody have any info on
>her?
>- Doug Pratt

Here was the first clue.

Astrid
Aug 19 1994, 5:02 pm
I didn’t post this earlier because I couldn’t remember where it was, but
I finally found it last night. In the Hunter Davies book, (p. 201 in my
1985 paperback version; It’s toward the beginning of Ch. 24: Britain and
Back to the U.S.A.) Pattie is quoted as saying that George “came into our
carriage later and talked to Pru and me. She was the other schoolgirl in
the film.” Well, there were really several other schoolgirls in the film,
but I would assume that she was talking about the one in that scene with her.
It’s not much, but at least it’s a name.
—
Leigh Meydrech

“Pru” was her name. Then on the 26th, there was the rest of the answer.

Newsgroups: rec.music.beatles
From: Katherine Hardy
Date: 26 Aug 1994 00:36:00 GMT
Subject: Girl with Patty Boyd

The girl with Patty Boyd in A Hard Day’s Night was Pru Hooper. Her husband
was the good looking baccarat dealer in the casino scene.

This is why, when I asked about lovely Prue back in May, I said I believed her name is Hooper. Here’s a short explanation from Terry Hooper.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/OCT/TerryHooper.flv 440 330]

“I had a wife” he says???? Excuse me??? He sounds as though he’s saying “I had a cat!” Frankly, I’m quite taken aback by his tone. No wonder Prue didn’t stay with him. But at least Hooper confirms what I was originally told.

For 14 years that was all I knew about Prudence Hooper, until Janis appeared this past August 4 with the missing piece of information — Pru’s present last name. Thank you again, Janis (Lia Pamina’s old Net handle).

Prudence has a LinkedIn listing. Who among ye is brave enough to contact her? If Prue and Pattie ever appear together in America, I’m sure they could name their price.

Big HD Boggin

Front projectors for home video aren’t for everyone. They’re not good for casual TV viewing, especially in SD. But for sports in HD, and a true home theatre experience, if you can manage a front projector it’s the way to go.

I’m very happy with my Panasonic PT-AX200U, a 720p model. Regular widescreen DVD’s look awesome, and FiOS HD is jaw-dropping good. The price on this model has just been cut to $999. This is the best front projector deal going.

With the $300 savings compared to last year, you can get a projector cart like the Da-Lite PH 800-1250, avoiding the expense and difficulty of a ceiling mount. If you need to mount the projector on a wall, there’s a shelf at Target for less than $40. The Epson Duet portable screen can be set up and taken down in two minutes. It’s called “duet” because it can be adjusted for 4:3 and 16:9. Very nifty.

Those Nazi Bastards

This past 3-day weekend I watched two movies. Both are about WWII — the fictional tragic romance Atonement, and The Counterfeiters, based on a true story. In this scene, the forger Salomon Sorowitsch uses his artistic talents to curry favor and improve his condition in the Mauthausen concentration camp.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/OCT/Counterfeiters.flv 448 252]

In this regard Sorowitsch paralleled Dina Gottliebova Babbitt, who survived Auschwitz by painting portraits for the Nazis, most notably the infamous Josef Mengele. Babbitt was later an artist at the Disney studio. Babbitt is still alive, and she’s trying to regain ownership of her Auschwitz paintings. In that effort she is being helped by two comic book artists — Neal Adams and Joe Kubert.

I knew an artist who escaped the Nazis. He was my drawing teacher in college. His name was Arno Maris.

Arno Maris

Arno had been a champion gymnast in his native Holland. He wasn’t a tall man, but he was powerfully built. As I recall Arno telling me the story, after the Nazis had occupied the Netherlands, he took a row boat and, in the darkness of night, headed out into the open ocean, with no idea what would become of him. As luck would have it, he was picked up by a Merchant Marine ship, and he lived to tell the tale.

“Those Nazi bastards,” Arno would say, with great emphasis. In my mind right now I can still hear Arno talking to me, in that unmistakable Dutch accent of his, calling me “Dock-less.” Arno Maris was an excellent art instructor, and a wonderful man.

Another side of K3

If you go through the conveniently categorized K3 posts, it’s obvious there are two different acts — one primarily for kids, and another for their parents. Here’s an example of the latter. According to Google, “Een Rustige Ouwe Dag” translates into “A Quiet Old Day.” A while ago I linked to another take of this video on YouTube, but the audio cuts out in places. This copy is OK. Does it sound to you as though they’re singing “Tom Hanks”?

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/OCT/K3EenRustigeOudeDag.flv 440 330]

This is how the studio version sounds. Very nice.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/OCT/K3EenRustigeOudeDag.mp3]

I’ve always been fascinated by what works and doesn’t work in popular music, but somewhere along the way, after getting out of the radio business, I stopped keeping up with much of anything new. A few bands caught my attention, including REM and Green Day (Eric can’t stand Green Day!), but for the most part I continued to enjoy the old stuff. Carol got me listening to Steve Earle and Lucina Williams, along with a local singer-songwriter here in Massachusetts named Lori McKenna, who’s had some national success.

Not that I feel the need to justify my appreciation of K3, but as a popular music act, I think they have it. The fact that I don’t understand Flemish is inconsequential.

Catchy songs and production values, with cute costumes and dances, aren’t enough. Thirty seconds of Wir3 performing a K3 song is proof of that. Karen Damen, Kathleen Aerts and Kristel Verbeke are why K3 has been successful for ten years, and seem to be more popular than ever.