Jean-Jacques Perrey, 1929–2016

Jean-Jacques Perrey, French composer and electronic music pioneer, died Friday at his home in Switzerland. He had been ill with lung cancer.

Perrey first started recording electronic music in 1952, long before the Moog synthesizer was first made for sale in 1967. His synthesizer music was featured on The Simpsons, and South Park. Perrey was also featured prominently at Disneyland and Disney World, where his “Baroque Hoedown” played over the Main Street Electrical Parade.

I have never been to either Disneyland or Disney World, but I have been to Paris, where Perrey was born, and to New York, where he lived during the 1960s, and produced 1966’s The In Sound From the Way Out. 

Below is a clip from the American TV show I’ve Got a Secret, with the great Steve Allen hosting. You may also recognize panelists Betsy Palmer, Bill Cullen, Bess Myerson, and of course, Henry Morgan. Check out the incredible song at 07:40. If they would play this song at Mass, I would have never stopped going to church.

Rest in Peace, Jean-Jacques.

Jean-Jacques Perrey featured on  I’ve Got A Secret TV Show

REVIEW: The Ardennes – A Biblical showdown to a Belgian Christmas 

The name of director Robin Pront film for non French speakers can trick them into imagining a gang film of two brothers whose last names is Ardennes. Fortunately it is not.

Two brothers plan and execute the robbery. Kenny (Kevin Janssens) takes the fall for it, and spends years in jail, while , Dave (Jeroen Perceval) makes a run for it, begins a fresh start, and falls in love with his brother’s ex-girlfriend Sylvie (Veerle Baetens). The camera forwards four years later, sober and clean, Dave and Sylive are having a child, while vowing to live a 9-5 “dull” life, away from their past.

READ THE FULL FILM REVIEW AT source: REVIEW: The Ardennes – A Biblical showdown to a Belgian Christmas – 9th Euro Film Panorama – Arts & Culture – Ahram Online

Beer, bière, bier 

Next summer, my wife and I will be visiting Belgium for the first time. Linda loves chocolate and waffles. I have been known to enjoy an occasional beer. Sang the Ink Spots, “My prayer, is to linger with you, at the end of the day, in a dream that’s divine.” It will be something like that. We’re coming, chocolate, waffles and beer. We’re coming. [ – Pas De Merde – ]

In Belgium, beer (bière in French, bier in Flemish but said just like beer in English) is an institution. As much as the Mannekin Pis (terribly disappointing and underwhelming) and frites (delicious in every which way), beer is an integral part of Belgian identity (…)

READ MORE: Beer, bière, bier – Saturday Features – The Kathmandu Post

Eiffel Tower lit green in honor of Paris climate change deal

The Eiffel Tower lit up in green to mark the success of the Paris Agreement, Friday Nov.4, 2016 in Paris.

The Paris Agreement on climate change enters into force Friday faster than anyone had anticipated, after a year with remarkable success in international efforts to slash man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other global warming gases. Inscription reads, “Paris Agreement it’s done”.
(AP Photo/Michel Euler)