Rock Star Dogs: Anna Karina

Anna Karina, who we lost in 2019, was a true renaissance woman who became famous as an actor before going on to produce, write, and direct movies, and publish novels.

That is her third husband in the photo — taken when she was already middle-aged — to give you some idea of her lasting beauty.

Karina, born Hanne Karin Bayer in Denmark, also had a side career as a recording artist and put a handful of records out during her long career. Her late life release, Une Histoire D’Amour (2000), is highly recommended but its hard not to dig the perfect 1960s magic combination of music (by Serge Gainsbourg) and images found in the video to “Roller Girl.”

Bobby Timmons, This Here Is Bobby Timmons

People can end up taking non-stop excellence for granted.

Kraftwerk wisely limited their release of content. If they flooded the market with music, like Tangerine Dream, their music probably would have started being considered commonplace and predictable instead of fresh and innovative.

If listening to non-stop excellence gets dull you can always find an underdog to champion. Not always attaining excellence can be papered over by underdog status.

Jazz, in general, is an underdog genre and you can’t get more underdog than Bobby Timmons, one of the founders of the Soul Jazz style who cut his first LP, This Here Is Bobby Timmons, in January of 1960.

Canine Covers: The Divine Comedy, Bang Goes The Knighthood

The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon has a love of dogs that matches his love of yesteryear’s Upper Crust eccentricity. The Divine Comedy has never really broken through in the States — though from Ireland (born in the North and living in the South), Hannon’s music may just be (ironically) too English for America.  But, he’s enjoyed a nice career in Europe, where he often plays in classical venues to harness the power of the local orchestra. A future post will spotlight the Hannon family’s rescue dogs but for now lets show a bit of Irish/Spanish solidarity with Neil joining forces with Madrid’s Coque Malla on one of my favorite Divine Comedy tunes. Yes, Laika the ill-fated Russian pup flung into space, is mentioned in the lyrics.