As I blogged a while ago, Denro and I will be at Andrew Sandoval’s British Invasion show at the Wilbur Theater in Boston on February 26. Something that I am enjoying more than pretty much everything else these days is Sandoval’s “Come to the Sunshine” podcast. Here is his latest edition, featuring Gerry and the Pacemakers in the second half of the show. Unfortunately, Gerry Marsden can’t join the British Invasion tour, but he’s there in spirit.
Acoustic Kate
This is the second time I have posted a video with Kate Davis, who has already cemented her future as a New York jazz club attraction, and I bet we’ll soon see her with the Boston Pops.
Once and Future soon to be Past
Yikes! There are only a few days left to catch Brian “Friend of the Blog” Sibley’s six-part BBC Radio adaptation of T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King”. The King is, of course, King Arthur, and his wizard is the great and grand Merlyn [sic]. “The Sword in the Stone” is part two. Click here to listen.
A Walt Disney Adventure in Art
It’s my opinion that Walt Disney is, so far and by far, the greatest CEO of all time. He wasn’t perfect and, yes, I know about the strike and his testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and, no, I don’t believe the exaggerated “dark side of Disney” allegations. The breadth of Disney’s accomplishments remains unmatched, and I feel that no other entrepreneur before or since has achieved his level independence, originality, and creativity.
Disney was supposedly uncomfortable being the host of his own TV series, but you wouldn’t know it from watching him explain how artists need to each develop their own style in order to be proficient at collaborating on creating art the Disney way. It’s interesting that Marc Davis’ rendering of the tree is the most conventional of the four paintings. Davis was primarily an animator, not a background artist.
They report, I decide
I now have 115 miles on my new 2015 Honda CR-V EX, and with that mileage I suppose it’s redundant to say that the car is new. Here’s what Consumer Reports has to say about it.
They’re right about the on-screen audio console. It really sucks. Not only that, the MP3/WMA player has a buggy file manager, and there’s no pause control. It would be nice if Honda comes up with a software update to fix the screen controls. On the plus side, with ear-level tweeters on the front doors the sound quality is outstanding.
I can’t say if the ride isn’t as good as it was over the past several model years, but I know that on our 2011 CR-V the ride improved greatly after replacing the original equipment Bridgestone tires with Michelins. Something that I miss compared to the 2011 is the tray under the passenger seat. There’s now a center console, but it isn’t very useful for storage.
Of greater concern is a possible weakness in the operation of the all-wheel drive feature on the 2014 CR-V, as demonstrated in a Swedish magazine review. Watch the video, and if you’d like to read about the controversy it’s at this link. Who knows if the 2015 AWD models behave the same way? Obviously this didn’t stop me from buying the car, but I’ll sure be watching for any problems driving uphill in snow.
Snoop-y Dog 2015
Santa came through once again with the latest box set of “The Complete Peanuts”. It’s been ten years since Fantagraphics began publishing the collection, and they’re now up through 1994, which means the next two-volume set will leave only 1999 and the nine strips from 2000 to be done. Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the final daily “Peanuts” installment.
Next Christmas will see the premiere of the first “Peanuts” animated feature in many years. It’s spear-headed (not block-headed!) by Craig Schulz, and I think the final look of the computer animation is very appealing. Here’s hoping the movie will do well in theaters and on video, so that the Peanuts gang — a perennial favorite in TV rerun ratings — will gather new generations of fans and continue to be popular when the characters are 100 years old, in 2050.