On Sept. 21, 1984, CBS opened up the first American compact disc pressing plant in Terre Haute, Ind. The first disc to come off the production line was Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A., which had been released three months earlier. Given the album’s title and the spotlight on the plight of the American worker contained in many of his songs, it made perfect sense that Springsteen’s album became the first American-made CD. The format had been […]
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Strange But True – The world’s The world’s most successful pirate in history was a lady named Ching Shih. She was a prostitute in China until the Commander of the Red Flag Fleet bought and married her. But her husband considered her his equal, and she became an active pirate commander in the fleet. The Rest of the Story When one thinks of the world’s most notorious pirates, names like Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, and Calico […]
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In 1970, John Pasche designed a logo for the Rolling Stones. He was paid £50. Almost 30 years later, the V&A bought Pasche’s original artwork at auction for $92,500. He met with Jagger again where the singer “talked about things he liked and things he didn’t like, nothing too specific,” explains Pasche, “and then I just had this idea.” While an obvious reference to Jagger’s features (not especially flattering, but Jagger didn’t seem to mind), […]
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Rhyme + Reasoning “Humpty Dumpty” is an egg right? Historical evidence suggests that Humpty Dumpty was a cannon. Used by the Royalists during the English Civil War. During a vicious battle in 1648, the cannon fell from a battlement. It was unable to be recovered (i.e., put back together again). Tellingly, the lyrics of the nursery rhyme never describe Humpty Dumpty as an egg either. Let us dig deeper “Humpty Dumpty”—with its simplistic lyrics and surrealistic […]
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