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  <id>tag:dashes.com,2009:/anil//1/tag:www.dashes.com,2007:/anil//1.6639-</id>
  <updated>2009-12-24T08:27:56Z</updated>
  <title>Comments for Prince&apos;s Pretty Patent</title>
  <subtitle>A Blog About Making Culture</subtitle>
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  <entry>
    <id>tag:www.dashes.com,2007:/anil//1.6639</id>
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    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://dashes.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=1/entry_id=6639" title="Prince's Pretty Patent" />
    <published>2007-01-05T08:24:02Z</published>
    <updated>2007-01-05T08:40:14Z</updated>
    <title>Prince&apos;s Pretty Patent</title>
    <summary>Sure, everybody&apos;s linking to Ironic Sans&apos; (admittedly entertaining) Celebrity Patents, since Waxy pointed them out, but did you know Prince actually has a real patent?...</summary>
    <author>
      <name>Anil</name>
      <uri>http://anildash.com/</uri>
    </author>
    
    <category term="music" />
    
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      <![CDATA[<p>Sure, everybody's linking to Ironic Sans' (admittedly entertaining) <a href="http://www.ironicsans.com/2007/01/celebrity_patents.html">Celebrity Patents</a>, since <a href="http://waxy.org/links/">Waxy</a> pointed them out, but did you know Prince actually has a <em>real</em> patent?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPATD349127&amp;id=-F8oAAAAEBAJ&amp;dq=prince+rogers+nelson">Patent <span class="caps">D349127</span></a> is for a portable electronic keyboard musical instrument. But Prince prefers to call the monstrosity the Purpleaxxe&trade;.</p>

<p><img alt="Purpleaxxe!" src="http://www.dashes.com/anil/images/purpleaxxe.png" width="296" height="123" class="imgcenter"/></p>

<p>It's a horrible 80s-style keytar, though it wasn't created or actively used until well into the 90s. Prince, of course, didn't inflict the ungainly shoulder-mounted funk launcher on his own frame -- he made his then-keyboardist Tommy Elm play it. But no, this sort of humiliation wasn't enough for Prince to inflict on the young man, he also renamed the poor fellow Tommy Barbarella, after -- you guessed it! -- the 1968 Jane Fonda sci-fi cheesecake flick. As you might guess, it's one of Prince's favorite movies.</p>

<p>Though the Purpleaxxe&trade; has fallen into disuse in the interceding decade and a half, Elm is <a href="http://www.tommybarbarella.com/">still saddled</a> with his unfortunate sobriquet (joining such stalwart Prince-named talents as <a href="http://www.dashes.com/anil/2003/04/16/cereal_boxes_li">Carmen Electra</a>). And you can find mention of the Purpleaxxe&trade; in various liner notes on Prince's albums, as well as the lyrics to a b-side remix on an out-of-print CD single from 1992. You know, if you're in to that sort of thing.</p>]]>
      
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  <entry>
    <id>tag:www.dashes.com,2007:/anil//1.6639-comment:114961</id>
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    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://dashes.com/anil/2007/01/princes-pretty.html#c114961" />
    <title>Comment from Jemaleddin on 2007-01-05</title>
    <author>
        <name>Jemaleddin</name>
        <uri>http://tanglebones.com/</uri>
    </author>
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://tanglebones.com/">
        <![CDATA[<p>Well, a real <em>design</em> patent. Not exactly the same thing as Hedy Lamarr's invention of spread-spectrum communications, but at least it's a patent.</p>]]>
    </content>
    <published>2007-01-05T11:25:04Z</published>
  </entry>

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