Desperately Seekering Judith

One of the most distinctive female singing voices of the Sixties, right up there with Mary Travers and Linda Ronstadt, belonged to Judith Durham, who is best remembered in America for this song…

… Georgy Girl was the biggest hit for the Seekers, the folk quartet from Australia. Before that, their breakthrough song was I’ll Never Find Another You, written by Dusty Springfield’s brother Tom.

http://youtu.be/lVL-u09z-io

So why is the name of shimmering soprano Judith Durham not better known in the United States? The short answer is, she broke up the act.

Judith went solo, returned to Australia, and got married. She was not in the New Seekers, who sang I’d Like To Buy the World a Coke…

http://youtu.be/1azQR2LQtKQ

… but Judith sang Things Go Better With Coke.

http://youtu.be/_wp7EFVYyAg

Happiness is feeling Crumb-y

A week ago I called Robert Crumb a curmudgeon, and he is, but he enjoys talking about his collection of 78 rpm records. Michael Cumella, aka MAC, snagged an in-person interview with R. Crumb for his Antique Phonograph Music Program on WFMU. The first hour of two is on the audio player, and some of it is on YouTube. MAC will post the rest of his conversation with Crumb next week.

[audio:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Apr/WFMU_Crumb.mp3|titles=WFMU – Robert Crumb talks about 78 rpm records]

Schulz brothers have their say

Since losing her husband to colon cancer, Katie Couric has urged people over 50 to have a colonoscopy. Monte Schulz lost his father to colon cancer, and he made this PSA for the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance.

Since the death of Charles M. Schulz, Monte has been writing novels and his brother Craig has been in charge of their father’s studio, Creative Associates. Craig talks about the studio’s new DVD, Happiness is a Warm Blanket with Geek To Me at this link. Check the AAUGH Blog for a review and more information.

Apple-cation

This quote had me spitting up my tea.

“Apple is a very canny company that doesn’t necessarily originate ideas, but its core strength is in the implementation,” said Little. “This what is what Apple is about: it may one day be a first mover, but in most cases it’s a second mover where it has implemented things across a platform and ecosystem in a much, much better way than others do it.”

It’s from this article on the Huffington Post, which has more second-guessing about Amazon’s Cloud Player service. So it’s come to this, huh? Apple is now like Microsoft — an imitator, but an excellent implementer? I don’t think Apple’s at that point yet, with the iPhone and iPad being innovative, market-leading products (I own neither). However, in a couple of recent examples, Apple has been a follower. Apple took Roku’s lead with a small, diskless streaming video player, and Amazon is offering a service that Apple doesn’t. This quote in the article also seems off-the-mark to me.

“I’m not convinced that there is a huge consumer need” being filled by the offering, said Carl Howe, director of consumer research at the Yankee Group. “I have yet to see this as a big deal for consumers. It goes back to whether consumers are looking for a cloud-based music streaming service for music they already own. Do consumers really want to pay more for music they already own?”

The first five gig on Amazon Cloud Drive are free and available for uploading whatever music files you already have — the catch being they need to be MP3’s. (Correction: AAC is also supported.) For $20/year you can get 20 GB of online music streaming. Maybe that’s not enough for an entire music library, but it’s plenty for what you’re currently into hearing. Once Amazon offers Cloud Drive access on other platforms, especially the Logitech Squeezbox Radio and Roku player, it will be servicing my consumer need very well.

Roxette’s got something on the radio

I still don’t know if I’ve ever heard something by Lady Gaga, and I’m not even sure she’s not a guy with a gimmick. But thanks to BBC Radio 2 I know about the music duo Roxette from Sweden, aka: ABBAland. When I first heard their new song, She’s Got Nothing On (But the Radio), with its great Europop sound, I was surprised to learn they’ve been cranking out tunes for 25 years.

Roy Lichtenstein – the master of found art

Roy Lichtenstein couldn’t draw. I’ve seen Lichtenstein paintings in person, in New York, and the sheer scale of them is impressive; but I’m sorry, the man was a total fake. He swiped art done by others, some of them comic book greats, others not so great. In the video at this link (sorry, can’t embed), look for the examples of his early work, and it’s obvious that Lichtenstein was no draftsman, and had to resort to tracing. The latest outrage that has set me off is this news item.

Lichtenstein Drawing Acquired for $10 Expected to Achieve over $1,000,000 at Christie’s

A million dollars for a 6″x6″ drawing that any Silver Age comic book fan can see was traced from a John Romita Sr. panel in a DC romance story! Romita should sue for a cut of the proceeds. Heck, even I can draw better than Lichtenstein. This is a panel I did for a failed comic strip submission many years ago, with a character inspired by John Lennon’s I Am the Walrus.

© DOuG pRATt

It’s no longer acceptable to justify what Roy Lichtenstein did by saying he helped elevate comic books to an accepted art form, and thereby brought them recognition they wouldn’t have otherwise had. Nonsense. David Barsalou reveals the truth in his Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein project.