Category: All Posts

Pratt Attack – 7

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/DEC06/PrattFamily.flv 400 300]
I had mentioned my late mother was a fan of Phyllis Diller. Another comedienne she enjoyed watching was Carol Burnett. Before Burnett’s long-running variety show, she did a series of TV specials with Julie Andrews.

One of shows included a musical sketch with Andrews making fun of her role of Maria in The Sound of Music. The only catch was, the movie wasn’t yet in production and she hadn’t even been cast for the part!

A little wordplay turned the large Trapp family into the Pratt family. We had only six kids in our Pratt family!

The video quality is shaky, but the sound is very good. Burnett looks concerned at the end after hitting Andrews because Julie was pregnant.

Hackers On The Net – 4

One popular new feature on the Net is [the] Associated Press service. From anywhere on the Net you can log in and get the news that’s coming live over the wire or ask for all the items on a particular subject that have come in during the last 24 hours. Plus a fortune cookie. Project that to household terminals, and so much for newspapers (in present form).

Stewart Brand
Rolling Stone
December 7, 1972

In 1972 a truly astounding educational film was made, with the thoroughly boring title, “Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing.” It’s a bunch of academics and engineers in Boston explaining how they were changing the world forever.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/DEC06/ComputerNetworks.flv 440 330]If you’re not into technology, probably only the last few minutes of this 25-minute film will be of interest. The original format of this video prevents me from extracting excerpts, but I can offer you a few minutes of audio. Listen to this, and keep in mind that it’s from 1972. The voice at the start and the end is J.C.R. Licklider, who died in 1990.

Hackers On The Net – 3

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/DEC06/iPod.flv 400 240]

Here’s a brief bit of video about the iPod. Watch that, then read this quote.

Since huge quantities of information can be computer-digitalized [sic] and transmitted, music researchers could, for example, swap records over the Net with “essentially perfect fidelity.” So much for record stores (in present form).

Stewart Brand
Rolling Stone
December 7, 1972

When vinyl was king, and FM Album Rock had yet to completely take over from AM Top 40 radio, Stewart Brand made the conceptual leap past CD, all the way to Napster.

DeSouze, Glick, Maynard, LaPierre

lapierre

You’ll recognize the names in the subject of this post only if you live around Boston. Gary LaPierre, the morning man on WBZ 1030 AM, is the fourth major ‘BZ radio announcer that I can think of at the moment to retire since my family moved to Massachusetts when I was 13.

Carl DeSouze, Dave Maynard and the uniquely quirky Larry Glick all called it quits many years ago. I believe DeSouze is now deceased, but the voices of Maynard and Glick can still be heard from time to time as guests.

LaPierre’s last day on the air was Friday. At 64 he’s still in fine form, but he had coronary bypass surgery last year. A couple of years ago he was cornered into making the embarrassing admission that during the winter he was rattling off the school snow cancellation lists from his home in Florida.

I admire anybody who can make a lifelong career in the radio business, let alone become something of an institution in a major market. Gary LaPierre is a top-notch announcer who I enjoyed listening to, and he deserves a long and comfortable retirement.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/GaryLaPierre.mp3]

The audio player has some of LaPierre’s farewell, and a three-minute tribute. Take note of the Acton and Acton-Boxborough (the regional junior and senior high) school cancellations. What a perk it was, going to a school that’s always first on the list!