[Dixielandjazz] Google honors Les Paul

[Robert Ringwald]

Google honors Les Paul
Google Alert: Les Paul-Themed Doodle Lets You Play, Record Songs
by Allison Cross
Toronto Star, June 9, 2011
In honour of what would have been jazz and country guitarist Les Paul's 96th birthday,
Google has turned their homepage into a miniature recording studio.
The Google "Doodle" homepage, which replaces the logo, is an interactive guitar that
allows users to strum using their mouse, play using their keyboard and share songs
through a link generator.
The link can be sent to others and when they paste it into the address bar, two can
play a duet.
The doodle went live at 12:01 a.m. Thursday morning.
Les Paul, who died in 2009, is considered a rock and roll icon, partly because of
his role in creating the first solid-body electric guitar.
Google started posting doodles, which often coincide with major holidays like Mother's
Day and Halloween, in 1998.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the game Pac-Man, Google rolled out a fully
functional version of the game on their homepage in May 2010.
It featured the game's original graphics and sounds and was a massive hit among Internet
users.
____________________________________
Les Paul: Today's Great Playable 'Google Doodle' Guitar Marks Legend's 96th Birthday
by Michael Cavna
Washington Post blog, June 9, 2011
When unveiling a classic Doodle, Google sure knows to pick 'em.
In terms of interactivity, Google has designed what is arguably its coolest home-page
logo yet -- surpassing even its Pac-Man banner and the colorful and initially mysterious
"Google Balls."
Today, the California company offers an animated Doodle you can strum and share --
a gift of music entirely befitting a birthday celebration for the legendary guitarist
and inventor Les Paul.
The pioneering designer of the solid-body, "rounded sound" electric guitar, who died
in August of 2009, would have been 96 today.
Today, thanks to Google, the trill isn't gone.
You can hit the record button (near the bottom of the second "g" in Google), pluck
a tune -- then send the URL of your recorded music to other people, who can even
"duet" with your recording.
Paul himself never seemed to cease sharing his talents and ideas.
Paul first burst onto the scene as a flashy jazz guitarist during World War II, backing
the likes of Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters while in the service. His style
openly revealed the distinct influence of the great Django Reinhardt, whom Paul would
befriend. (BTW: Another guitar-playing Django enthusiast, Johnny Depp, coincidentally
was born today, too.)
Not content with how the guitar once had to compete sonically with so many other
instruments on the bandstand, Paul ended up revolutionizing music.
"With a solid-body, guitarists could get louder and express themselves," Paul once
said. "Instead of being wimps, we'd become one of the most powerful people in the
band. We could turn that mother up and do what we couldn't do before."
Just a few of the rock gods who would eventually wield Gibson Les Paul guitars are
Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend.
Paul, who became known as to "the Wizard of Waukesha" (a nod to his native Wisconsin)
-- as well as "the father of the electric guitar" -- also was an innovator with overdub
tracks in the studio.
As the day goes on, Comic Riffs is curious to see just how virtuosic some of these
Google recordings become.
Les Paul is celebrated for building a state-of-the-art guitar. Kudos to Google for
building a state-of-its-art Doodle.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/les-paul-the-coolest-google-doodle-yet-is-picked-for-guitar-greats-96th/2011/06/09/AGWVysMH_blog.html


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
530/ 642-9551 Office
916/ 806-9551 Cell
Amateur (Ham) Radio K6YBV

I've just been so pre-occupied with this Anthony Weiner deal.  
Will he attempt to retain his congressional seat or accept the job offered to him 
to be spokesman for Oscar Mayer???