A couple of days ago on Twitter, I expressed my disappointment over the fact that the Oklahoma Legislature refused to elevate the Flaming Lips song Do You Realize?? to the status of first Official State Rock ’n’ Roll Song. Apparently some members of the House were ticked off by one of the band members wearing a red T-shirt with hammer and star imprint to a Senate visit. Now, Do You Realize?? is a really great song (and the Lips are a remarkable band), so it came to pass that today, Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry proclaimed it the official rock ’n’ roll song by executive order. Never mind the shirt.

And in a gesture that will thrill Lips fans everywhere, the Governor proclaimed April 28 “Flaming Lips Day.”

The 80-year old author will be at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA, signing merchandise at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Los Angeles Times Pavilion. The book is celebrating its 40th year in print and has sold 29 million copies in 45 languages.

Any guesses?

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J.P. Morgan Chase has arrived in California. After buying Washington Mutual Bank (minus unsecured debt or equity claims) from the FDIC last September, they are now renaming the WaMu branches in California to Chase. This is accompanied by a TV ad campaign, which has, of all the possible music, a cover of John Lennon’s Instant Karma as sound track. To be fair, they don’t use the beginning of the song

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you right on the head
You better get yourself together
Pretty soon you’re gonna be dead

but the much less karma-ish sounding portion

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev’ryone come on

Still – is this an attempt at irony or simply ignorance of what the song’s about?

A curious coincidence: The 1970 Instant Karma marked the first time that Phil Spector produced a Beatles song, well, sort of a Beatles song. Many thought it was his job interview for the post-production of Let It Be. On April 13, 2009, Phil Spector was found guilty of second-degree murder by a Los Angeles jury.

A life in translation was far from my mind in 1968, the year the German version of the musical Hair premiered in München. Yet, seeing the stage performance and listening to the album I noticed, for probably the first time, how the (translated) German lyrics were different from the usual fare of German popular music and how successfully they seemed to convey message and feeling of the English original. As it turned out, the German translation was done by Walter Brandin, a songwriter (“Es wird Nacht, Senorita”), scriptwriter (“Herr Hofrat war verhindert”), and translator (“Sweeney Todd oder der Barbier als Mörder”). Is my judgment of the translation of Hair colored by nostalgia?  Perhaps. You can find a sample below the the fold and see for yourself.

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Once upon a time, dial-in phone numbers for CompuServe were the easiest and safest way to the Internet from any place in the world – whether you were in Tokyo, Japan or in Moscow, Idaho. I therefore felt a pang of sadness when I received this message last Wednesday:

After many years of providing online services, we regret to inform you that as of June 30, 2009 the CompuServe Classic service will no longer operate as an Internet Service Provider.

After a fitful start in early 80s with a number of different providers, our company in Japan quickly settled on CompuServe for e-mail because it offered compatibility. Earlier attempts with The Source and BT Gold had been less successful. I kept my original 5+4 numeric CompuServe address through all those years, but did not use it very much recently. CompuServe introduced me to CheckFree, an on-line bill pay service, which I have been using in its different incarnations since MS-DOS. Fellow translators on CompuServe’s FLEFO (Foreign Language Forum) helped me with advice and referrals when I moved from Japan to the U.S.

I guess the dial-up Internet access model had run its course a while ago and it is actually surprising that CompuServe held out that long.

Dan Neil’s car reviews in the L.A. Times should be compiled and published as a book. They are educational and very entertaining. Mr. Neil knows how to turn a phrase (as far as I can make this judgment about a language I don’t speak natively) and he can talk in-depth about the inner workings of automotive machines. Yesterday, he ruminated about the 2010 Camaro SS.

…the 2010 Camaro SS is not really what you’d call a sports car, unless you tend to shave with a chain saw or sign your name with a piece of burning timber or make scrambled eggs by dropping a piano on a chicken.

Other Dan Neil reviews I enjoyed included the BMW 750Li write-up (entitled The dance of the electronic fairies) and the Cadillac CTS-V review.

You can also check out Dan Neil’s Most Popular Car Reviews of 2008.

What a great idea: A font trailer with soundtrack and all.

Working repeatedly long hours on a keyboard, or even worse, with a mouse, is a certain road to problems with your tendons and carpal tunnel. Here some simple exercises to prevent the worst. (Note: For pain or other unexplained conditions, it is important that you see a medical professional who can give you an accurate diagnosis.)

[from: Video podcasts, episode 13b, at framedrums.net]