What a week, seeing so much truth and reality in the news.
I simply cannot believe all of the coverage the “death” of Captain America is receiving. Because the whole thing is, of course, a non-event. It’s nothing more than a publicity stunt by Marvel Comics.
When I was a kid in the 60’s and early 70’s, being a comic book fan was both a reason why I was something of a social outcast, and my coping mechanism for dealing with being relatively unpopular. The idea that the Marvel Comics characters would become as widely accepted as they are today, and Stan Lee would be a cultural institution, was beyond the most fantastic adventures of any comic book hero.
Yet on Thursday I heard both the BBC and NPR cover the “story” of Captain America’s assassination — a manufactured event! I wish Cap co-creator Jack Kirby were alive to see it. Fortunately, Joe Simon is still with us. I met Kirby in ’72, and Simon in ’80. Here’s the NPR feature.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/CaptainAmerica.mp3]
The Dog Rat gallery has two tellings of the origin of Captain America. The first is from the Golden Age of comic books, and the second is from Cap’s return in the Silver Age of comics. Click the pictures to go to each of the gallery albums.
If there’s one thing that’s for sure in the realm of comic books, death is a common event, and it’s never permanent. So at some point in the future, expect Marvel to hype the return of Captain America. Undoubtedly around the time the movie is about to be released.
Click the thumbnail pictures to check out this fancy ad in last week’s Newsweek. Honorable son Eric was the first to spot this unintentionally powerful print media slip-up.
The ad has a cardboard cover with some cut-outs. The picture on the left shows the ad with the cover opened. But look what appears on the other side through the cut-outs when the page is turned.
Stephen Colbert comments on a Christian doctor who refuses to treat people who aren’t to his liking, even if the person isn’t the patient, but the parent of a sick child. This seems so totally un-Christian to me. Here’s a link to the TV story Colbert mentions.
There’s a PBS TV special that’s starting this week, called My Music: The British Beat. It’s hosted by none other than Petula Clark. No, I haven’t seen it yet! But I will. It sounds like a fun show, but I think it’s one of those specials that’s run in between pledge requests. Here’s a blurb about it:
In February 1964, a young English rock ‘n’ roll quartet called the Beatles arrived on U.S. shores, kicking off a musical explosion that took the country by storm – and reverberates to this day. PBS revisits the time when the nation’s airwaves grooved to the swinging sounds of London in MY MUSIC: THE BRITISH BEAT. Britain’s first lady of song, Petula Clark, hosts this all-star reunion of some of the best of the British Invasion and performs her #1 million-seller “Downtown.” Beloved duo Peter and Gordon reunite for the first time in nearly four decades to perform their hits “World Without Love” and “I Go to Pieces.” Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent of the Zombies bring back the British psychedelic pop sound with the Brit-rock anthems “Time of the Season” and “She’s Not There.”
THE BRITISH BEAT includes numerous #1 Billboard hits such as “Wild Thing” by the Troggs, “To Sir With Love” by Lulu and “Game of Love” by Wayne Fontana, original lead singer of Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, who also reprises the favorite “A Groovy Kind of Love.” An archival performance of her 1966 worldwide smash “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” pays tribute to the late Dusty Springfield, while vintage clips from “The Ed Sullivan Show” provide era-defining moments from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
It’s a brother’s lifelong duty to torment his sisters, and this post will most assuredly do that. The picture above was scanned from a very old record from our childhood — Children’s Sing-A-Long, by Frank Luther and the Children’s Chorus.
The audio players below have the record, with each side played through as a single track. The total time is well under 30 minutes. The song titles are given as they appear on the record jacket. Luther is noteworthy in the history of American popular music, and some background information on him is provided at the bottom of this post.
Side One
Side Two
One of the first urban cowboys, Frank Luther (August 4, 1905 – November 16, 1980) made a career out of supplying urban listeners with their fix of traditional country music. A Kansas native, Luther was a professionally trained pianist who played in several vocal groups in his home state before moving to New York in 1928 and meeting fellow Kansas transplant Carson Robinson. The duo wrote and recorded several songs targeted at urbanites [including “Barnacle Bill The Sailor” – DogRat] and regularly guested on a country radio program hosted by Ethel Park Richardson. When Luther met and married a fiddler who had once played with Robinson named Zora Lyman, he began to move away from country music, preferring to write and perform children’s music. ~ Steve Kurutz, All Music Guide
