I am not John Galt

The two topics on today’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook on WBUR/Boston provide a brilliant contrast of Capitalist idealism vs. realism. The first hour was about Ayn Rand

[audio:http://audio.wbur.org/storage/2011/04/onpoint_0427_1.mp3|titles=On Point WBUR – Ayn Rand]

… and the second hour was about Bernie Madoff.

[audio:http://audio.wbur.org/storage/2011/04/onpoint_0427_2.mp3|titles=On Point WBUR – Bernie Madoff]

Prue Bury, by Ringo Starr

It’s Easter, and a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the lovely and wonderful Prudence Bury. As promised, here is a very special picture of Prue. It was taken by Ringo Starr on the set of A Hard Day’s Night.

The caption reads, “This gorgeous girl is Pru Berry. She plays my girlfriend in our movie. Too bad it’s only make believe!” Amen to that! Ringo was actually paired with Tina Williams for the famous hair-combing publicity photos, and Prue was with Paul. She was 22 at the time, and Prue says of this portrait, “I love it, I look grown up!!” (Oh, the lure of evil ciggies to make one appear grown up!)

Prue had told me that Ringo was “snap-happy” with his camera during the filming of A Hard Day’s Night, and she said that he had taken some snapshots of her. (The sequence where Ringo went “parading” around town was built around him taking pictures.) Prue and I have been wondering if Ringo’s pictures had appeared anywhere, and the answer is yes. They’re in Ringo’s Photo-Album, published in 1964. Hover over the image below to see the back cover.

I have scanned the entire magazine and it’ll be featured later. My thanks go to noted Rock journalist Marcus Gray, for finding this treasure. I’ve seen many Beatles-related items, but I’d never spotted this one before. Marcus is the leading expert on The Clash, having written two books on the legendary British Punk Rock band — one a comprehensive and authoritative biography, the other a definitive study of their landmark album London Calling. Having been a Clash fan myself, I have both tomes and they are in my must-read stack. Marcus is also, to his credit, a Prue fan.

Pretty ballerina

This Easter Sunday is Prue Bury’s birthday, and for it I’ll be posting a very special photograph of her, taken by a Beatle on the set of A Hard Day’s Night. Prue’s on the right in this photo, age 17, at the Royal School of Ballet in London.

In 1958, Antony Armstrong-Jones, later titled the First Earl of Snowdon, was appointed the court photographer for the Royal Family. That same eventful year, Armstrong-Jones took this portrait of Prue.

Prudence Bury, age 17

Soon afterwards, Prue would meet Mary Quant and Vidal Sassoon, and be a witness to, and a part of, the start of what later came to be known as Swinging London.

http://youtu.be/uyIZtrvzGEM

Donald toots his own Trump-et

OMG! NFW! I actually agree with Karl “Weasel” Rove about something. The idea that Donald “Gasbag” Trump running for President is a joke.

I suspect the reason why Rove doesn’t like the presence of Sarah Palin or Donald Trump on the national political stage is that they’re wild cards. They don’t play the Republican game by the rules in Rove’s playbook. Trump simply has no credibility, and not just for the birther nonsense. For example, he says…

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/19/us-donaldtrump-idUSTRE73I5Z620110419

If we stop buying from China, China will go down like no other country has ever gone down before. China needs us more than we need them.

Poor, uninformed Donaldo is wrong, because one way or the other we have to buy from China.


http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/37344/

With worldwide demand for the materials exploding, the site’s owner, Molycorp Minerals, restarted mining at Mountain Pass last December. It is now the Western Hemisphere’s only producer of rare-earth metals and one of just a handful outside of China, which currently produces 95 percent of the world’s supply.

The GOP’s best bet for the 2012 ticket are the Massachusetts Republicans — Mitt Romney and Scott Brown. Go for it, guys.

And while I’m feeling all politic-y, with the tax returns out of the way, and with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert off this week, I’ve been getting caught up on NPR Planet Money podcasts. This pair of reports from a couple of weeks ago is good, about what Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were…

… and what they should be — if anything.

Roku XDS $10 off at BJ’s Warehouse

Roku’s top streaming video player, the XDS, is ten bucks off at BJ’s Warehouse stores until May 1st. The package includes a 6-ft. HDMI cable.

If you aren’t into iTunes, and you’re a Netflix user, Roku is the best streaming video player to get. I say that having also used a Wii, Xbox 360, and Sony Blu-ray player for Netflix Watch Instantly. The Wii interface is fun but it doesn’t do HD, the Xbox starts up really fast but it only does Netflix, and the less said about the Sony the better, because it’s a mess by comparison, which makes me wonder about their Blu-Ray player with Google TV.

My wish list for Roku channels includes Slacker and Amazon’s Cloud Player, but the offerings are otherwise excellent. One of my players is on Wifi (802.11g), the other is wired, and they perform identically. Standard definition Netflix videos are encoded at 1.5 Mbps, which shouldn’t be a problem on most broadband connections.