When I was in the 11th grade, for Christmas I wanted nothing but records, and one of those albums I wanted because of one song in particular…
… later, in 1975, Paul McCartney did this song:
Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo are Iron Man villains. The comic book stories I read forty years ago were wild and unbelievable, but today what’s even more unbelievable is those same super-hero stories are the basis for major high-budget movies. The Superman movie in 1978 I thought of as an exception to the rule. The Hulk TV show, a re-working of the The Fugitive, was more typical of what was being done with comic book material.
The previews for the new Iron Man movie look good, and it’s getting generally favorable reviews. Hey, it’s better than playing Grand Theft Auto 4. Now that’s trash!
I’m glad that the comics I loved as a kid are finally socially acceptable, because believe me it was tough remaining a comic book fan past junior high school. It’s beyond my comprehension how we got to this slick, crowd-pleasing, powerhouse movie from these humble, semi-animated beginnings that nobody over twelve dared admit to enjoying…
No, 100.3 isn’t the frequency of a favorite FM radio station, it was my temperature last night. My fever has broken, but I’m still miserable with a very bad cold, the worst I can recall having in many years.
Carol says because of the fever and muscle aches, it must be the flu.
Well, that certainly is a fun account Dennis wrote about seeing, hearing, and meeting Les Paul, the legendary guitar impresario, virtuoso, and recording engineer. Thanks again, Den.
Les Paul had first played around with sound-on-sound using disc recording, but as soon as magnetic tape recording came along he took full advantage of it. At its simplest, by disabling the erase head on a monaural tape recorder, a second recording can be placed over another. Added to that was the trick of the recording the first pass at 7.5 inches per second, then running the overdub pass at 15 ips. This sped up the first pass, giving it a weird, yet compelling, sound, if it’s done right. Listen to this 17-second Les Paul clip.
Hear that guitar that’s pitched impossibly high? Now listen to the same clip played at half speed.
The guitar sounds right, but everything else is slow. Ross Bagdasarian used the same technique for his chipmunks, and the South Park guys make liberal use of audio speed manipulation.
