by Rodney Eric Griffith | Armour of Rod | |
Astonishing news via The Mausoleum Club regarding a deal between Granada and Network, the company responsible for the much-praised Strange Report DVD set, that gives Network an exclusive UK license to issue some 250 series from the ITV catalogue, initially including Man In A Suitcase, Department S, Jason King and Return Of The Saint and eventually including upgrades of The Saint, The Champions, The Persuaders!, Danger Man, The Prisoner and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). !
Rodney | 5:27:00 PM [permalink]I misread the subject line of a recent press release to read “Vixen Is Back To Throttle VH1.” (Vixen being a bad 1980s band for a change. Their two EMI albums were supposed to be reissued this month but I think there has been a delay. The resale price on the original editions would not seem to encourage remastered editions; about 1/100th the going rate of Pacific Ocean Blue.)
Rodney | 4:14:00 PM [permalink]Warner Bros. is equally capable of extolling bad taste by reincarnating horrible records from the ’70s. Quoting from PR: “trends come and go but solid songwriting and true artistry is always going to be essential.” It would not be inaccurate to characterise many of the original performers on this collection as “one-hit wonders”, however.
Rodney | 3:59:00 PM [permalink]After a few promising Motown releases and a reissue of the A&M/Phil Spector Checkmates Ltd. LP, Hip-O Select seem to be squandering opportunity.
Their 4 November announcement promised a “long-awaited and previously-unreleased” Peter Frampton live recording, four “classic” Pointer Sisters albums and a Paul Williams A&M compilation among 20 new Hip-O Select releases in the coming weeks. The fact that these are being spotlighted does not encourage hope for any of the remaining discs.
Warner Music Group’s Rhino Handmade have released a lot of collections I’m not particularly interested in, but they haven’t filled me with revulsion, either. Universal Music’s holdings encompass the libraries of Decca, Polydor, Motown and Verve. With such a huge slice of recording history for them to draw upon, I can’t fathom this flirtation with the 70s banality that nearly suffocated popular music in North America altogether.
NP: Rock ’n’ Roll
Exhausted, but alive. Reading that my favourite movie, Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was surprisingly faithful to reality was the only bright thing that happened today.
“I’m a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing.”—Walter Cronkite on Larry King Live, 29 October
Rodney | 7:14:00 PM [permalink]“God? Help us! God, are you there? Surely this is a really bad fucking joke, God… This B actor idiot fuckin’ illiterate bozo-looking fuck can’t be the president of the country, can he, God, not really? Reach your hands down from the clouds and pinch my butt… make sure I’M NOT DREAMING!”
—Bill Hicks, Dinosaurs in the Bible
(from Arizona Bay)
Of course, I had prayed to be able to post The Elephant is Dead instead.
It’s not dark yet/but it’s getting there.—B.D.
Rodney | 6:55:00 AM [permalink]The suppressed Diana Rigg films Das Diadem and Minikillers are available on DVD from 5 Minutes to Live, an outift dedicated to “finding films you thought you’d never see,” and in some cases, had probably hoped to never see. (OTOH I had no idea that Serge Gainsbourg had such an extensive filmography.) Even the descriptions are irresistably disturbing.
Rodney | 9:01:00 AM [permalink]
