Philly wins Super Bowl (music-wise, anyhow)



NPR's Philadelphia-based "World Cafe" assembled a local music playlist for this weekend's Super Bowl and Boston's WBUR quickly countered with a Patriots playlist.

There's good music on both, but Philly's wins out for me, thanks to some choice soul picks and a track by saxophonist John Coltrane, who live in Philadelphia early in his career.

Boston:



Philadelphia:

Music new releases Feb. 2, 2018: Roxy Music; James Hunter; Frank Zappa; Louis Armstrong; Ron Wood and Ronnie Lane

New and notable. Click the links to order from Amazon.






Pop Culture Roundup: Mort Walker; Rudy Nebres; Marvel Comics calendars; cosplay 1939

So long, Mort Walker. The creator of "Beetle Bailey" and "Hi and Lois" died this week at age 94. The Comics Journal has an obituary.



Meanwhile, comic strip historian Ger Alperdoorn looks back at some of Walker's early, New Yorker-style cartoon work and Beetle Bailey in a two-part tribute on his Fabulous Fifties blog.


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Diversions of the Groovy Kind shares a portfolio of Robert E. Howard-inspired illustrations by the great Rudy Nebres.


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Back in the Bronze Age looks back on Marvel Comics cool calendars of the 1970s and 80s.

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Rip Jagger shares Charlton Comics' 1973 guide for comics artists and writers.


Via Syfy Wire: Cosplay 1939.



New documentary explores Chris Claremont's X-Men

See the trailer below.

Details:

Chris Claremont came to Marvel as a young man, and was assigned a book that no one else wanted, a book on the brink of cancellation: X-Men. Over the next 17 years, his work on the title turned it into the biggest franchise in comic book history. Forty years later, his work has been adapted into ten films, three TV series, countless video games and become a part of our cultural mythology. But, it all started with one writer and his commitment to emotionally honest storytelling and real character building.


Vintage ad: "This Guy's in Love With You" by Herb Alpert



Time Capsule: Magazine covers from February 1968




Listen: BBC Radio drama about Bowie's last recording sessions


Listen here.

Details:

The Final Take: Bowie in the Studio

 
This special drama is an imagined account of David Bowie as he works on his last album, Blackstar, to give a moving and revealing portrait of the star as he reflects on music, love, drugs, fame and death.

Impressionist Jon Culshaw, in a rare serious role, plays David Bowie. It is 2015, and music star David Bowie is secretly working in New York’s The Magic Shop studio, with his long-time producer Tony Visconti. The resulting tracks will become David Bowie's final album, Blackstar, which was released in January 2016, just two days before his death. The dialogue in this drama is partly constructed from Bowie’s own words, taken from the many hundreds of interviews he gave since the 1960

Vintage ad: Jimi Hendrix for Esquire Strings


New comics Jan. 31, 2018: Black Lightning; Superman; Grendel; Steve Canyon; Werewolf By Night

New and notable. Click the links to order from Amazon.