BBC Airs Long-Lost Beatles Interview
Here’s another footnote for the Beatles anthology.
A 1964 interview with the Fab Four that was only broadcast once has been discovered in a South London garage, where it had been tucked away in one of 64 film canisters for who knows who long.
Beatles historians have determined that the recording came from a sit-down that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr had with a Scottish television station on April 30, 1964, not long after their historic first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The interview was never even heard in the rest of the U.K., let alone anywhere else.
BBC Radio, which played excerpts from the nine-and-a-half-minute interview on Monday, aired the full conversation Tuesday afternoon.
During the segment, the mop-topped Lennon and McCartney discuss their first meeting in Liverpool and answer questions about their songwriting process.
“Normally we sit down and try and bash one outbut then again, there’s no formula, because he [Lennon] could come up with one one day, completely finished,” said McCartney, who was 21 at the time. “We still say we both wrote it though.”
So how did this charming recording end up moldering away in a damp garage for 40 years?
Richard Jeffs, the Radio 4 producer and film enthusiast who came across the film canisters, told BBC Radio that his best guess is that they were discarded along with the telerecording machine that made them once the equipment was replaced by a video machine.
“I’ve got 63 other cans to open to see what we’ve got,” Jeffs said. “It is very much like being a man with a million-pound note.”
Petra Nemcova is the New Face of Otto
Petra Nemcova is the New Face of Otto
Playfully posing for photographers on hand, supermodel Petra Nemcova made her first appearance as the spokesperson for Otto, a German mail order company in Hamburg, on Monday (June 30).
And with the money that’s rolling in from her numerous endorsement deals, the 29-year-old Czech cutie has been helping out those in need, as well.
According to a recent press release, Petra donated over 150 computers - along with other educational technology equipment - to The Andrew H. Wilson Charter Elementary School in New Orleans a week ago.
“While the Happy Hearts Fund has provided children and schools in disaster-stricken, underprivileged communities with computers around the globe, the Andrew H. Wilson Charter School is the first recipient in New Orleans, and in the U.S.,” Nemcova told.
“It’s evident that after disaster strikes, once the cameras disappear, so does much of the help. Each and every one of these students is a survivor of Hurricane Katrina, and we hope that by supporting them, not only will their lives and educational opportunities improve, but also those of future Wilson School students,” she added.
Jennifer Aniston Cheers On Mayer at Hyde Park
Jennifer Aniston Cheers On Mayer at Hyde Park
Continuing to follow her man around Europe, Jennifer Aniston was spotted attending boyfriend John Mayer’s show at Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park on Saturday (June 28).
With camera in-hand, the former Friends star walked the lot with a few companions before finding an ideal spot to shoot a few personal pictures of the “Why Georgia?” singer doing his thing onstage.
The night before, Miss Aniston made what was her first appearance at one of the gigs on his European tour (despite being overseas for nearly a week).
According to People magazine reports, “The actress arrived at a side entrance of the concert in gritty Brixton, south London, around 8.30 p.m., looking casual in dark blue jeans and stepping out of a red Range Rover.”
During the show, John told the crowd: “Every relationship someone steps into might somehow shake you up a bit. So I’m gonna take my time a little bit.”
Doctor Who: Forest of the Dead
In our last episode, the Doctor and Donna were trapped on a planetary repository of books called The Library along with a archaeological team and a microscopic, carnivorous species that hides in the shadows called the Vashta Narada. And somehow, all this is linked to a little girl who seems to be watching the events within the Library the same as the viewer.
And now, part two.
Steven Moffat delivers in his Herculean task of writing a second part of a fantastic episode that is every bit as good as the first part. We learn that the little girl is actually the planetary database called CAL (patterned after a little girl named Charlotte Abigail Lux), who managed to save the 4,022 survivors of the Vashta Nerada invasion as data in an enormous hard drive. The same fate had befallen Donna at the end of the last episode.
There were a few very interesting aspects of this episode that really struck me. The first was River Song’s relationship-to-be with the Doctor. Since they “initially” meet in her past, the actress will have to appear younger to pull it off properly. Or perhaps the whole “time is always in flux” concept in Doctor Who will reign supreme and timelines will change to prevent the whole thing from happening. Or, they’ll just forget about it (just like it’s been forgotten that some day the Doctor will have to become Merlin).
Second, we got to see Donna live her dream. It seems that for all her wishes for travel and excitement, her true heart’s desire is to settle down with a nice man and have a family (wearing the exact same wedding dress from her first appearance, apparently). It’s a lifestyle choice that seems to be downplayed in the Who-niverse as a valid alternative. I hope she achieves it at the end of her character arc.
Third, why do the Vashta Narada have to eat? They survived a hundred years without anything to feast on, yet they consume like zombies on the rampage once fresh flesh shows up. My guess is that they don’t consume for nutrition but rather to learn. Essentially, rather than reading or writing or listening or watching to learn, they consume and absorb the knowledge. It would certainly fit into the library theme of the episode. It would have also made it extra-important that they did not eat the Doctor.
Wasn’t that a great bluff at the end? The Vashta Narada had the Doctor dead to rights, and his reputation saved him. Apparently, from eating all those people, the Vashta Narada learned to browse the Internet without even requiring a computer.
I loved how Charlotte reacted with her head in a pillow when the deformed face of Miss Evangelista was shown. It’s exactly the sort of reaction that Doctor Who monsters always got out of children. In effect, we’re watching a child watch an episode of the show. That’s utter brilliance.
The theme of the Doctor’s true name is once again revisited. I hope the current and future producers of the show don’t do anything as stupid as reveal the Doctor’s real name. That would be the final nail in the coffin regarding the character’s mystique.
Exactly how is it saving a life (or group of lives) when you turn them into electronic impulses in a virtual reality machine? Beats the alternative, I suppose.
In CAL’s home there was a picture of a blond girl with a wolf next to it. A little more foreshadowing.
River Song could still return, and not just as a prequel. She just needs a new body.
Here’s what we have. A frightening enemy. A sinister mystery. A possible flame for the Doctor. An excellent episode.