Beatle News Briefs - 1/5/09 - Norwegian podcast series opens Beatle catalog for free downloads

January 5, 1:49 PMBeatles ExaminerSteve Marinucci

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 May Pang (Photo by Tyler Gaaee) 

• A new three-minute podcast series from Norway available free beginning today tells the story of songs in the Fab Four's catalog, reports CNET and Rolling Stone.com. The podcast, called “Vår daglige Beatles” (“Our Daily Beatles”) and available from this link, originates from Norway's NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Co.). The shows, which are in Norwegian and were first aired in 2007 but without music, according to the company's website, tell the story about a single Beatles song in each episode, which is heard in the revised version of  the podcast. NRK's website says its agreement with Norwegian music rights holder TONO allows them to repeat the 2007 shows that contain less than 70 percent music. Lest anyone be fooled, this is not the same as having the catalog available on iTunes. And there are many  podcasts about the Beatles in English already available free through iTunes.
   
• The Beatles make it to the Library of Congress! If you're in Washington, D.C. today (Jan. 5), you'll want to take in author Richie Unterberger's talk on his excellent and very comprehensive book, "The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film," at 7 p.m. D.C. time tonight at the Library of Congress, 101 Independence Ave. SE, Washington, D.C. Admission is free. Here's a short item on the lecture from the Washington Post.
   
• Yoko Ono's latest blog on MySpace, also on her Imagine Peace website, is in answer to the question "What can I do to help the peace movement?" that was posed by a MySpace user. "We should first imagine peace, since we create our destiny by first imaging what destiny we want for ourselves. We should ask others to imagine peace as well.  One thing that is interesting is you cannot be violent while you are imagining peace. If all of us in the world imagined peace at all times, there will be no time for us to create dis-ease of any kind," she said partly in response.

• We asked May Pang, who had an 18-month relationship with John Lennon and is author of "Instamatic Karma," a book of photographs of her, John and friends, what she thought of the John Lennon One Laptop Per Child TV ad. Here are her exclusive comments: 

I think John would have supported any charity that is for a good cause.  The giving of laptops to the underprivileged children would be great as long as they have the understanding of how to use it.  Since this is for a third world country, the hopes of shelter, food and health should come first before the laptop.  For me personally, I am not sure if I liked the video of John "speaking."  It is nice to want to keep John contemporary but this TV ad is totally strange to me. 

•  There's a new biography of one of our favorite '60s British Invasion singers, Dusty Springfield. It's called "Dusty: Queen of the Postmods" by Annie J. Randall. Just the subject matter makes us excited about this one. Dusty Springfield was a standout talent among '60s singers. Should be a good book.
   
• Here's an article from Auctions and Antiques Examiner Auction Wally on the values of old newspapers Civil War, Elvis, Beatle editions & more. The Beatle newspapers covered are vintage issues of Mersey Beat.
   
• Universal is releasing a three-disc set called "The Secret Policeman's Balls" on Jan. 29 that will includes appearances by Beatle friends and associates. The set, which will feature highlights of five classic editions of "The Secret Policeman's Ball," will includes appearances by members of Monty Python's Flying Circus (John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman and Terry Gilliam), Peter Cook and Dudley Moore of Beyond the Fringe. (Trivia: Cook and Moore entered Beatle lore with their song "L.S. Bumble Bee" that, for a time, appeared on bootlegs as mistaken for the Beatles. Fringe's live album of their Broadway show was recorded under the supervision of Sir George Martin in 1961.) Also appearing on the set are Billy Connolly, Rowan Atkinson ("Mr. Bean"), Jennifer Saunders of "Absolutely Fabulous" and Hugh Laurie of "House M.D.", with musical appearances by Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Mark Knopfler and Kate Bush.
   
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