Marketplace has a feature on the backstage backbiting between studios over the movie rights to the Marvel Comics characters.
The news dissector
In a past life, after earning a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, I earned a modest living doing the news for a radio station. The inspiration for wanting to do that, as well as studying Economics, was Danny Schechter, the News Dissector on WBCN 104.1 FM in Boston. Danny died yesterday.
Passing the torch
The news has just come in that Kristel, Karen, and Josje are calling it quits. K3 is no more, at least with the present lineup.
Moses supposes
The history of comic books has its Golden Age, that roughly lasted from 1940 to the mid-50’s, then the Silver Age, lasting until the early 70’s. I sort of think about popular music the same way, and one of the most popular publications of the Silver Age of Pop music was Tiger Beat magazine, featuring the writings of Ann Moses. Here’s an hour-long interview with Ann, talking about her life and work. Fun fact: Ann, like Steve Martin, worked at Disneyland.
Staying chummy with Chumby
The Chumby was, at its core, an Internet radio and alarm clock with a touch screen. Not quite a consumer product, yet not quite a hobbyist platform, its design now seems rather quaint compared to today’s smart phones. After Chumby ceased operation I assumed that my Chumby One would be nothing more than a clock forever, so I turned it off and put it on a shelf. But then, last year, it was announced that the Chumby servers were coming back online.
I haven’t subscribed to the fully reborn Chumby service, so I don’t have any of the apps that are offered, but my Chumby One lives again as a radio for background sound while I’m reading, and it does a good job of it. I have the URL’s of about ten different Internet radio stations entered, it works with my Pandora account, and I gave it a USB drive holding MP3’s of the complete Beatles and Beach Boys catalogs. Viva le Chum!
Underground Sunshine
On Facebook Andrew Sandoval (“Come to the Sunshine”) posted this photo he took this afternoon in New York, of Little Steven (“Underground Garage”) with legendary D.J. Cousin Brucie, getting ready for the British Invasion Tour show.
