Why don't I own this already?

Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society dish towel.


Pop culture roundup: Comics are for 45-year-olds; the real Dear Prudence; TARDIS spotted on Google Maps; rare McCartney recording; John Lennon's last visit to Liverpool!

Via Boing Boing: A quote from a DC Comics exec recounted by comics creator Paul Pope exemplifies the sad state of creativity at the company, which would rather cater to a dwindling group of aging fanboys than build a newer, younger audience.
Asked by Yang if he had tried to do an all-ages book with a franchise character, Pope said he did test the waters, only to be knocked back. "Batman did pretty well, so I sat down with the head of DC Comics. I really wanted to do 'Kamandi [The Last Boy on Earth]', this Jack Kirby character. I had this great pitch… and he said 'You think this is gonna be for kids? Stop, stop. We don't publish comics for kids. We publish comics for 45-year olds. If you want to do comics for kids, you can do 'Scooby-Doo.' And I thought, 'I guess we just broke up.'"
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Read an interview with Prudence Farrow-Bruns, sister of Mia Farrow and the woman who inspired the Beatles' "Dear Prudence."
The first time I heard the song was when my mother played it for me shortly after the record came out. But, initially, I was apprehensive about the song, because John had written at least two negative songs about his experience in India ["The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" and "Sexy Sadie"], so I was a bit worried what he would say about me. But I was relieved when I realized the song was very sweet, innocent and even flattering.

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Via Jalopnik: Doctor Who's TARDIS appears on Google maps!
Click this link to the map of Earl's Court Road, then click the double-white arrows directly in front of the call box. Immediately you're transported inside the Doctor's famous time machine, complete with a detailed 360 degree view of its interior and various controls.


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The unreleased test recording of Peter and Gordon's "Woman" featuring the song's composer Paul McCartney on drums sold on eBay for more than $2,500 this week.
“Woman” (Capitol 5579) debuted on the Billboard charts on Feb. 12, 1966. It was written by Paul McCartney under the pseudonym Bernard Webb as an experiment to see if a song without the Lennon and McCartney label would make the charts. It was a top 20 hit, peaking at #14 after 12 weeks on the chart.


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See rare pics of John Lennon's final visit to Liverpool, with Yoko Ono at the tail end of the 60s.


Fab Friday: Vintage Beatles pics

Ringo!







New pictures from Amazing Spider-Man 2

Some new images from the next Spidey film, set to open next year.








Consumer alert: New Flash Harry CD reissue by Nilsson reportedly sub-standard

Riding on the coattails of the new, huge box set containing all of Harry Nilsson's RCA recordings, Varese Sarabande has issued a new edition of the singer's final LP, Flash Harry.

The release gives fans an opportunity to own Nilsson's complete catalog on CD (they'll also need Spotlight on Nilsson, released during Harry's pre-RCA days on Tower), which is great.

What's not so great, is hearing that the new Flash Harry is a pretty shoddy affair. A person posting on the great Beatles'-focused 910 board reports:
I analyzed the recordings against a remastered needledrop, with bonus tracks, and guess what I found? This legit CD is a needledrop itself, with clicks and pops still audible on the fade-outs, and visible and audible FFT noise reduction. The indexing is poorly done. One of the tracks starts with a cowbell riff that has been chopped off at the head, picking up during the decay of its reverb. The pirate of this sounds a lot better.

If that were not bad enough, I went to the bonus tracks, excited to hear them from the master tapes. But they sound like shit. So I compared them to the same material on "Secret Tracks" and "Flash Harry" on RMW, and the legit CD bonus tracks are sourced from 128 kbps mp3s found many years ago on the net, that are lossless on the RMW issues. I can tell they're the same because the DAT mistracking noises are in the same places.
Disappointing news. Although my own feeling is that Nilsson really didn't record much of consequence after Pussy Cats, having this lost LP in print would've been nice. But now it sounds like fans who want the whole works in decent quality will need to wait until someone does a better job.

I hope to post my review of the RCA box in the next week or so, stay tuned.

See the trailer for Miyazaki's The Wind Rises




Pop artifact: Barbie dictionary