Sixty-Seven Minute Man at 67

I’ve finally returned to running for more than an hour straight. The pace isn’t what it was in my younger years, but I’m very pleased with being able to go the distance without ankle trouble. I’ve been carefully working my way back up to this since Daylight Saving Time.

Here’s a bit of what Jim Dawson says about “Sixty Minute Man” in his book, What Was the First Rock ‘N’ Roll Record: 30th Anniversary Edition, Updated and Revised.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947521969

Why important: It was the first raucous, bluesy R&B hit to cross over to the pop charts, the first shamelessly double-entendre pop it, and the first million-seller by a formative R&B vocal group.

Onkyo Lives and Updates

Another nice tech surprise. Onkyo, operating as a unit of VOXX/Sharp, has updated its phone app, and it’s a significant improvement. Unwanted sources listed for my versatile TX-NR676 receiver, that I enjoy using very much, can now be hidden in the app. Yes, I want to keep AM radio as an option!

A major functional fix is the Music Server client now works as it should with my DLNA server, which runs on an old Windows netbook concurrently with Logitech Media Server. The receiver still can’t play the lossless WMA format, but almost nothing outside of Windows and LMS does. I’m in the process of re-ripping those CD’s to FLAC anyway.

The BIG enhancement is the addition of — be still my heart — GAPLESS PLAYBACK! Yet another niceness is the ability to play albums by either track number or by the song title. A very good job by Onkyo.

They Said They Said

Click the pic to hear an interview with John and Paul from August ’66, upon the release of Revolver, although the album is not even mentioned by name. You’ll hear some cover versions of Beatles songs you probably haven’t heard before. The BBC will expire this link in one week.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon during rehearsal for “Saturday Club” on 21st December 1963.

P.S. The sound on this tape is in pristine condition. With headphones, even a clock ticking in the background at Paul’s house is clearly heard.

Toth’s Angel and Ghost

My first exposure to “comic book art” wasn’t in comics, but from the syndicated Space Angel cartoon series on TV.

Alex Toth (pronounced with “toe”) was the artist behind Space Angel. Toth hired Doug Wildey to help produce the series, and Wildey in turn hired Toth to help him with Hanna-Barbera’s Jonny Quest. After Quest, Toth designed H-B’s less ambitious animated series, Space Ghost.

I loved this stuff when I was a kid, and I still love it. Space Angel had a 6-page promotion in the children’s magazine Jack and Jill.

I borrowed those scans from a Facebook post by author Ken Quattro, who wrote Invisible Men, a history of Black comic book creators.

https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Men-Artists-Golden-Comics/dp/1684055865

The Narrow Margins

With so many midterm elections too close to call between the Democratic and Republican candidates, I’m watching The Narrow Margin. Directed with great tension by Max Fleischer’s son Richard, Charles McGraw is perfectly cast in a rare leading role. There is no music, except in bits from a record player that becomes an important plot device. This one is really, really good. Really!

Two thoughts about the possible influence of The Narrow Margin on other movies with action aboard trains. Jacqueline White begs a comparison to Eva Marie Saint in North By Northwest, seven years later. It’s almost as if Hitchock had Saint watch White’s scenes and instructed her, “do it exactly like her.” The big fight scene between McGraw and one of the thugs reminds me very much of the life-and-death struggle between Sean Connery and Robert Shaw in From Russia With Love, more than ten years later. If I can think up a comparison with the train scenes in A Hard Day’s Night, I’ll update this post. 😉