When the timing works out, I listen to the CBS Evening News during the drive home from work, on WBZ radio in Boston. Yesterday, when the report began, as soon as I heard the voice of the person filling in for Scott Pelley, I shouted out loud, “JANE PAULEY!” What a pleasant surprise on such a terrible news day, with the murders of a TV reporter and cameraman in Virginia, by yet another deranged shooter who had no trouble getting a gun.
Feeling loopy
8-track tape. The timeless hipster music format.
His other teapot scandal
Excited fans of Warren G. Harding are tittering on Twitter about the confirmation that he sired a child with one of his mistresses. Well, that puts an end to those nasty, lingering rumors that he was a sterile President! Dead of a heart attack at age 57 in a San Francisco hotel. Hmm… a Nelson Rockefeller sort of a death?
From Asgard to the Louisiana Hayride
Tom Hiddleston is always fun to watch as the master of mischief, Thor’s nemesis Loki.
I don’t know how much general interest there is in a biopic of Hank Williams, but the British actor sure does seem to be the right choice to play the country music legend.
A Sure Lock on viewing fun
I missed noticing that the BBC had released this teaser for the next installments of “Sherlock.” My thanks to Brian Sibley for pointing it out.
I haven’t seen “Elementary,” the Americanized version of Sherlock Holmes that Bismo says is good. The character, now in the public domain, holds up very well in the BBC update, but moving him out of London to New York, where the CBS series is located, doesn’t work for me. However, with the addition of Natalie Dormer, who has worked with Brian, I should reconsider. Natalie has been busy, appearing not only in “Elementary” but two “game shows” — “The Hunger Games” and Game of Thrones” — and “The Scandalous Lady W.”
Blaine Wreck on the tracks
The Wrecking Crew was a rag-tag band of the top studio musicians in Los Angeles who weren’t a band. With Hal Blaine on drums, they played on an uncountable number of hit records in the Sixties.
From Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound to the Mama’s and Papas, to the first Monkees records, the Wrecking Crew was there. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass was actually Herb Alpert and the Wrecking Crew. Brian Wilson gave guitarist Glen Campbell his first public exposure by plucking him out of the crew and putting him on tour with the Beach Boys.
The Wrecking Crew ran from studio to studio, working gig upon gig, playing on track after track, and now “The Wrecking Crew” documentary, produced by the son of late guitarist Tommy Tedesco, is available streaming on Netflix.