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Still don’t know what I was waiting for …

January 7, 1972 –David Bowie released Changes as a single in the UK on this date. The track peaked at No.49 on the UK chart and later at No.41 on the US chart. According to Bowie, this started out as a parody of a nightclub song – “kind of throwaway” – but people kept chantingContinue reading “Still don’t know what I was waiting for …”

Flash Gordon debuted

January 7, 1934 – Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon comic strip was first published in newspapers across the United States on this date. In addition to the comic strip, Flash has also starred in a live-action serial, a radio show, novels, comic books, animated cartoons, and he even appeared on his own U.S. postage stamp. Continue reading “Flash Gordon debuted”

The King’s Speech premiered

January 7, 2011 –Tom Hopper’s historical drama, The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter, opened in United Kingdom on this date. Screenwriter David Seidler stammered as a child, and heard King George VI’s wartime speech as a child. As an adult, he wrote Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (widow ofContinue reading “The King’s Speech premiered”

Sadly, we only have a partial episode

January 7, 1961 –The pilot episode of The Avengers – Hot Snow, starring Ian Hendry and Patrick Macnee premiered in the UK on this date. The vast majority of the first series of The Avengers is missing from TV archives and likely lost forever – only the first 15 minutes of this first episode andContinue reading “Sadly, we only have a partial episode”

I guess it was fun to stay there

January 6, 1979 –The Village People appear on American Bandstand, where the crowd does the soon-to-be famous arm movements spelling out “Y.M.C.A.” Host Dick Clark makes sure they learn those moves, and they do.

Odor-able Kitty opened

January 6, 1945 – This Chuck Jones’ Looney Tunes outing, Odor-able Kitty, premiered on this date. This was Pepe LePew’s debut. The only time we see that Pepe already has a wife and children.

Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom first aired

January 6, 1963 –See Jim try to swim to his dugout canoe through a lake of piranhas, while I watch safely from the studio, confirming the second pitcher of martinis is properly chilled. Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins began on NBC on this date.

Three is a magic number

January 6, 1973 –The animated lesson series Schoolhouse Rock premiered on ABC with the Multiplication Rock series. You have to love a children’s cartoon that celebrates ménage à trois.

Life is just a long succession of small epiphanies.

There are those who know and those who don’t know. And for every ten thousand who don’t know there’s only one who knows. That’s the miracle of all time–the fact that these millions know so much but don’t know this. – Carson McCullers It’s the Feast of the Three Kings (Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar), LittleContinue reading “Life is just a long succession of small epiphanies.”

Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night

January 5, 1973 –Produced by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos, Bruce Springsteen’s debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., was released on this date, but sold just 25,000 copies in its first year. After eight years playing in bars where audiences usually didn’t listen to or couldn’t hear the words, Springsteen used his first albumContinue reading “Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night”