I’ve only recently begun to get caught up on the original Doctor Who series, starting with Tom Baker’s run and featuring Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. From the episodes I’ve seen, including her recent return with David Tennant as the Doctor, I can understand now why the words “beloved” and “iconic” are used by fans discussing Elisabeth as Sarah Jane. Bismo and I were talking about her just last night.
Elisabeth Sladen died today. The news that she’d had cancer for some time was a sad surprise and a tragic shock to everyone.
Another Marathon Monday, with me merely a spectator. I’ve done Boston seven times, and maybe I have one more in me, but it’s too early to say. It’s been a long, slow road back from the injuries I’ve had, but I’m getting there.
The online tracking system was working until a few minutes ago, but the service has crashed.
Server Error
The server encountered an internal error and was unable to complete your request.
Application server is busy. Either there are too many concurrent requests or the server still is starting up.
I dropped off some friends at the Worcester, Massachusetts airport today, and on the way back home I stopped at Paul Howley’s super-duper store, That’s Entertainment, to spend some of my unexpectedly big tax refund. I was very pleased to see LP copies of Bob Dylan: In Concert, Brandeis University, 1963, so I bought one of those. I was equally inspired when I spotted The Beatles Box of Vision, an item I’ve been tempted to get many times, but had never managed to pull the trigger until today.
Both of my new acquisitions exceeded my expectations, which were high to start with. Dylan’s concert was recorded well, especially considering when it was done, and the LP sounds great. This is Bob Dylan at the height of his early folk period, with his politics freshly awakened by his passionate girlfriend, Suze Rotolo.
Although the Beatles Box of Vision came out with the remastered CD’s in 2009, my idea was to use it to dress up the original CD’s released nearly 25 years ago. Well, that’s what I did, and I’m very pleased with the results. The only problem is, I’m missing a couple of the discs, so now I’ll have to get those or forever be bugged by the empty slots in the sleeves.
One of the more interesting Beatles reissues is Yellow Submarine Songtrack, which is in the picture. This must-have CD offers a generous sampling of tracks that weren’t only remastered, they were remixed. In terms of sheer sound quality, they’re noticeably superior to the 2009 remastered stereo master tapes, and they’re proof that the Beatles catalog will need yet one more release.
In the post right before this one, while discussing the composer Leroy Shield, R. Crumb said that he prefers Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks to the Dutch dance band The Beau Hunks. Let’s do a comparison. First, the Nighthawks…
http://youtu.be/P8y_AglUPR8
… and now the Beau Hunks, with the same three tunes by Leroy Shield.
[audio:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Apr/26+Look+at+Him+Now.mp3,http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Apr/02+Beautiful+Lady.mp3,https://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Apr/05+Bells.mp3|titles=The Beau Hunks – Look At Him Now,The Beau Hunks – Beautiful Lady,The Beau Hunks – Bells]
