The Decemberists in December

My friend tastewar’s favorite band is The Decemberists. Their site is very intelligently organized and presented, except it could use a favicon. Give it a try.

Stephen Colbert is also a Decemberists fan, although for him it’s perhaps more of a mutual admiration society. The connection started three years ago…

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Earlier this year, Colbert had The Decemberists on his show to promote their new album, “The Hazards of Love.”

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The Decemberists
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In an era where playlists and homemade compilations rule, I applaud The Decemberists for doing what Green Day did five years ago with “American Idiot” — they’ve put together an album that needs to be heard in its entirety, as a complete work.

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The Decemberists – The Wanting Comes in Waves
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At this moment it says the last video is no longer available. Don’t know if this is one of Comedy Central’s usual glitches, or if it’s really been pulled. So let’s go with a substitute…

I love the solo bit that sounds like Grace Slick in The Jefferson Airplane. I’ll use that as a springboard for this delightfully trippy live take of Donovan’s “Fat Angel” by the Airplane.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/DEC/FatAngel.mp3]

Here is Donovan’s original recording of “The Fat Angel.”

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/DEC/TheFatAngel.mp3]

As Donovan says on his “Sunshine Superman” DVD, that I excerpted here, he was interested in the development of what he called Celtic Rock. Another musical group that comes to mind when listening to The Decemberists, that can be categorized as Celtic Rock, was The Incredible String Band. They did a sort of mini-Rock Opera, like the Who’s “A Quick One,” with their evocative “Darling Belle.” Listening to this, I’m reminded of how much I enjoyed Jethro Tull’s “Thick As A Brick” when I was in high school.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/DEC/DarlingBelle.mp3]

K1 Christmas

Kathleen Aerts, formerly of K3, turns “Somethin’ Stupid” into a Christmas song, of sorts.

K3 fan Theo Hendriks, pictured here, wrote and said that Kathleen is his favorite. Kathleen’s replacement, Josje, is on the left. It’s good to see Kristel Verbeke and Karen Damen looking bright and happy again, because they were so miserable at Kathleen’s farewell performance.

For myself, I’m miffed that Kathleen left the group, but I feel that Kristel and Karen are so strong together they could have carried on just fine as K2. That doesn’t mean Kathleen was any less essential to the success of K3, but it seemed to me that she got tired of the ride. So when she quit the group I was disappointed, but not surprised.

Follow-up: Theo sent another picture of himself, with Kristel. It’s at this link.

Verizon’s knock at att

tastewar reminded me of Verizon’s ad featuring the Island of Misfit Toys. It doesn’t knock the iPhone, just the network that supports it.

I was a Cingular customer when the iPhone was first announced three years ago, and I was surprised when the AT&T brand name prevailed. It’s completely outdated. “American?” No, international. “Telephone?” OK, I guess that still applies. “Telegraph?” Uh, no.

Last spring I switched the family from AT&T to Verizon. My basic Samsung flip phone had been handy for checking e-mail, but it got so slow as to be useless. Obviously, the phone didn’t slow down, the GSM EDGE network had. When I visited the AT&T store at the big local mall it was apparent I was no longer part of a customer demographic they wished to serve. It was 3G or nothing, and I was a voice customer.

The incredible success of the iPhone — my buddy Bismo is a fan — makes AT&T seem like a winner, but its monopoly can’t last. Once Verizon starts rolling out the LTE 4G network that uses the former UHF TV band, I bet you’ll find the next generation of iPhone there, and then AT&T will be in a world of hurt.

Name the girl

I’ve just made an addition over on my Hollywood page. In the intro of the video is this scene…

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/DEC/HelenMack.flv 512 384]

… and I recognized the girl immediately. She made a big impression on me when I first saw her as a wee lad, in the weak sequel to a gigantic old movie. In fact, I’ve been intending to feature this actress, along with another 30’s “B” movie favorite, Jean Rogers, who was in the first two Flash Gordon serials.

Hermey or Herbie?

Hard to believe it’s been 45 years since the secular, stop-motion Christmas favorite “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” first appeared on TV. As a kid’s show, Rudolph is both unusual and inspired. For example, King Moonracer, ruler of the Island of Misfit Toys, seemed to have been based upon Aslan, who symbolizes Christ in “The Chronicles of Narnia.” So perhaps there’s a religious element to the show, after all.

The most significant aspect of Rudolph was the groundbreaking introduction of a gay elf with an oral fixation. This clever subtext was lost on most people for many years, just as John Lennon’s reference to a–holes filling the Albert Hall wasn’t obvious.

Curiously, the controversy most often mentioned about the elf character in Rudolph isn’t the question of him being gay, but whether his name is Hermey or Herbie. The answer is here, in an article by Rick Goldschmidt:

http://www.tvparty.com/xmasrudolph.html

One thing I should make clear is that the elf who wants to be a dentist is named Hermey. Why everyone is calling him “Herbie” I will never fully understand.

OK, so it’s supposed to be Hermey. But what I don’t understand is why Goldschmidt doesn’t understand, because the answer is obvious the first time the character’s name is spoken by Boss Elf. The ReadSpeak captioning on the DVD of Rudolph has it right, but listen to the pronunciation.

Quite clearly, it’s “Herbie.” Boss Elf says “Hermey” the second time, but then two of the elves seem to say “Herbie.” So why is there any confusion about the confusion?