Biting Barack At Hillary

Until today I was only vaguely aware of the Hillary 1984 “Vote Different” ad, but my friend Tom got me to watch it. In case you haven’t seen it, and in case it gets pulled from YouTube, I’ll post it here. See the iPod the woman is wearing?
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/MAR07/Hillary1984.flv 400 300]

Tom did a little research and determined the iPod was added by Apple itself, and that version was the basis for the anti-Hillary edit. For comparison, here’s the original Apple Macintosh TV ad, directed by Ridley Scott, shown during the 1984 Super Bowl.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/MAR07/Apple1984.flv 400 295]

A Democratic operative named Phil de Vellis claims credit, or blame, for the video. De Vellis has been fired from a company called Blue State Digital, which is on the Obama payroll. Blue State Digital has released a statement.

The ad is an incredibly stupid stunt, because just like the original commercial it goes after the wrong target. The 1984 ad labeled IBM as The Enemy, when it should have been Bill Gates’ face up on the screen. Hillary isn’t the evil enemy. Bush is.

Although Bush and Cheney must leave office in January 2009, it is absolutely critical to the future of the United States that they be replaced with Democrats. For all anybody knows this early in the game, Hillary and Barack may become running mates.

The fake 1984 ad does nothing to further the Democratic cause. It’s counterproductive, and it smacks of a Republican dirty trick. If de Vellis is, in fact, a Democrat, he should get a clue.

Phil Spector

Phil SpectorPhil Spector’s songs are sometimes thought of as being so pre-Beatles. The old man producer whose orchestrated post-Do-Wop creations couldn’t compete with the fresh, new Fab Four’s guitars.

But Spector was with the Beatles on the plane that brought them to America for the first time (ignoring George’s prior solo trip), and Spector is, in fact, two months younger than John Lennon. And without Brian Wilson’s admiration of Spector there most certainly wouldn’t have been the stunning Pet Sounds.

Who knows when it happened, but Spector almost certainly must have crossed the line from eccentricity to insanity. And now he’s on trial on suspicion of murder, only a week after his ex-wife Ronnie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, eighteen years after receiving the same honor himself.

Here are three Ronettes songs in glorious stereo, presented as a single track, encoded at 256 kbps. The Phil Spector Wall of Sound, taken from a British LP I bought used 25 years ago and have played dozens of times.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/Ronettes.mp3]