by Rodney Eric Griffith | Armour of Rod | |
The BBC reports that Elvis Costello is composing an opera, entitled The Secret Arias, based on Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen’s unrequited love for Swedish soprano Jenny Lind.
Rodney | 11:45:00 PM [permalink]Sleigh bells ring. Are you listening?
Rodney | 9:03:00 PM [permalink]Near-blizzard conditions in NE Ohio this morning.
Much Squeeze to contemplate, including the December release of the book Squeeze: Song by Song (even available Stateside, which surprised me), and in a matter of weeks, Glenn Tilbrook is releasing a 4 CD-set of his demos from 1974-1998.
I think Michael Ian Black must surely have had more airtime on VH1 for loving the 90s, 80s and 70s than he did during the collected run of The State on MTV. I’ve only just sussed the core appeal of it: I Love the 90s/80s/70s is really the only modern panel show on US television.
Rodney | 11:00:00 PM [permalink]I couldn’t believe how quickly the Stop Ashlee Simpson petition story hit Annanova. It’s the only good outcome, since I have heard that online petitions are basically a harvesting ground for spammers. Ashlee is horrible, but this really isn’t going to impede her rampage greatly.
Rodney | 8:02:00 AM [permalink]Hip-O Select, which has come into its own of late with its Motown reissues, has announced a collection of every single a- and b-side released by Motown between 1959 and 1961, totaling 155 tracks (some impossibly rare) on a 6-disc set enclosed in a “78-style record album” which includes a 7" vinyl replica of Barrett Strong’s “Money” (Tamla 54027).
This set is merely the first in a proposed series of twelve volumes at $119.98 each (individual tracks are exclusive to iTunes).
Don’t hold your breath waiting for a version of this advert for the VW Polo to air in the US.
Rodney | 7:02:00 PM [permalink]The Bush soundboard has moved.
Rodney | 8:04:00 AM [permalink]Elvis Presley has the distinction of having the 1,000th number one single in the UK with “One Night”. Elvis was at the top of the chart last week, too. (SonyBMG inaugurated a reissue series of his 18 number one singles, beginning with “Jailhouse Rock”, in order to celebrate the 70th anniversary of his birth.)
Rodney | 8:01:00 AM [permalink]I should mention that, for us, the weather is back to normal: at least six inches of fluffy, white snow is covering everything in sight.
Rodney | 4:01:00 PM [permalink]Why do I go on about TV? My earliest vivid memories of the outside world are of pop singles and TV: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Alvin Show, even Laugh-In. On tape, the period of 1966-1969 is even more vivid than on film (for a while, GSN was the only network with live-in-studio programming like this—late 1960s runs of panel shows like To Tell The Truth and What’s My Line? The style, perfectly preserved, is more than the game.
TV is like a Stargate, but throughout the 1970s and most of the 1980s it was a Stargate without a cartouche—nothing to dial to, with precious few exceptions. This is the reason why SCTV is so special, because for many of us, it was the only doorway to quality.
