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30 Day Challenge – Day 30: Whomever You Find Most Attractive In This World

Rebecca and Rico were dubbed “Lightning” and “Thunder”, respectively.

Jeez, Louise. I started this thing on May 6. I posted Day 29 on November 14. 30 days? HA!

This picture of my wife and daughter is from April of 2008 in Virginia, probably Jamestown or Norfolk, someplace near Williamsburg.

Oh, my niece Rebecca, who had one of those Kickstarter things to raise the $3000 to put together a music album reached her goal! It was interesting because, with less than a week to go before the Christmas deadline, she seemed stuck at about $2350. Got $1000 in the last week.

And speaking of my niece Rebecca, did I mention that she and her husband Rico both appeared on a peculiar TV competition program called Wipeout back in September? It’s Season 3, Episode 16: Food Fight. Annoyingly, I cannot find it either on the ABC.com site or on Hulu.com, though other episodes can be found there. Oddly, though, there is a transcript of the show.

The hosts try to create artificial tension between Rebecca and another woman over Rico’s affection. Also, Rebecca and Rico were dubbed “Lightning” and “Thunder”, respectively. Though Rico was the third to cross the Shape Shifter (don’t ask), and the first to cross without riding in a shape, he was eliminated in the first round. Rebecca made it to the finals, where she ultimately came in second.

Beatles Island Songs, 113-104

Paul played the drums.

JEOPARDY! answers-
SONGS OF THE ’60S $400: The Beatles’ 8th No. 1 hit, it begins “I think I’m gonna be sad”
MUSIC $600: 42 members of the London Symphony are heard in “A Day In The Life” on this Beatles album
“LONG” SONGS $100: Phil Spector overdubbed this last number-one Beatles hit

Did the Beatles appear in Albany movie theaters BEFORE “A Hard Day’s Night”? Yes, they did…
And that concert film, also starring the Beach Boys and Lesley Gore, will be shown again in Los Angeles on February 11, 2011.

The rules of engagement

113 Long Tall Sally from EP release (UK), Beatles’ Second Album (US). McCartney doing his best Little Richard impression.
112 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The trouble with the segued songs is that they don’t feel as complete. I like it well enough.
111 I Call Your Name from EP release (UK), Beatles’ Second Album (US). This was first released, I believe, by Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, then done pretty much as a throwaway by Lennon, but works for me.
110 Bad Boy from Beatles VI (US). Yet another Larry Williams song, covered by Lennon. How is it that this song was released in the US but not in the UK until a collection of oldies came out after the fact? That’s what ranks this over Dizzy Miss Lizzie.
109 The Ballad of John and Yoko from A-side of the single. The story song by Lennon, banned on some stations for the repeated use of the word “Christ”, and featuring only John and Paul, who played the drums, among other things.
108 Good Day Sunshine from Revolver. The song sounds like a stroll. The daughter has taken to singing the chorus, and I’m not sure she heard the McCartney song from me.
107 Baby, It’s You from Please Please Me (UK), Introducing the Beatles/The Early Beatles (US). The oft-covered Shirelles song by Burt Bacharach, Hal David, and Luther Dixon has a nice Lennon vocal. The BBC version of this song charted in the UK three decades later.
106 All I’ve Got to Do from With the Beatles (UK), Meet the Beatles (US). Like this from the first strummed chord.
105 I’ll Get You from the B-side of She Loves You (UK), The Beatles’ Second Album (US). Nice early Lennon and McCartney.
104 Lovely Rita from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Cheerful McCartney tune which made me rethink meter maids. But my favorite part is the darker outro.

What is “Ticket To Ride”
What is Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
What is “The Long and Winding Road”; re: the latter, the original clue also said, “John and Paul’s original version is not for sale”, but this is no longer true, thanks to the release of Let It Be…Naked.

The Quick 2010 Fandom Meme

“If St Elsewhere exists only within Tommy Westphall’s mind, then so does every other series set within the same fictional sphere.”

Since I’ve found myself unable to create any Best Of for the year, I guess I’ll force myself to do this meme from Sunday Stealing instead. Only requires one response per question required.

1. Your main fandom of the year: tossup between the perennial Beatles and visiting the folks at ABC Wednesday.

2. Your favorite Film this year: The King’s Speech, though I was mighty fond of Toy Story 3. And BTW, I went with my wife, not my daughter; the conveyor belt scene would have freaked her out, I’m guessing.

3. Your favorite Book read this year: well, haven’t read it as such, but I am thoroughly picking out stories and descriptions from Finishing the Hat by Stephen Sondheim.

4. Your favorite Album or Song this year: probably National Ransom by Elvis Costello.

5. Your favorite meme site of the year: other than ABC Wednesday, that’d be Rock ‘n’ Roll Fridays, I guess.

6. Your Fandom that you haven’t tried Yet, but want to: not applicable

7. Your best new Fandom Discovery of the Year: also n/a

8. Your biggest Fandom Disappointment of the Year: too many 3-D movies that don’t warrant the technology, and the added ticket price. Ken Levine talked about this recently, and Roger Ebert is virulently anti-3D.

9. Your TV Boyfriend of the year: n/a

10. Your TV Girlfriend of the year: I suppose it’s Lauren Graham, whose presence in the show Parenthood got me to watch it occasionally.

11. Your most Missed Old Fandom: don’t know if I miss it as much as it has nostalgic resonance, but a lot of online fandom was stuff that USED to happen by mail. I did a little of that re the BEATLES maybe 20 years ago.

12. Your Biggest Anticipations of the New Year: that 3-D movies as a selling point will crash and burn.

13. Your favorite post (of yours) of the year: difficult to choose. Probably an ABC Wednesday post. I’ll pick L is for Loving Day because it generated lots of comments.

14.Your favorite new blog (to you) of the year: Peripheral Perceptions. Don’t always agree with Lisa, but I do respect her opinion.

15.Your favorite new website of the year: Well, it’s new to me – Tommy Westphall’s Mind: “If St Elsewhere exists only within Tommy Westphall’s mind, then so does every other series set within the same fictional sphere.”

16. Your favorite news story of the year: the Chilean miners’ rescue.

17. Your favorite actor of the year: Colin Firth. I liked him in the last two movies I’ve seen him in, The King’s Speech and A Single Man.

18. Your favorite drama TV show of the year: Based on the time from recording to the time I watch it, it must be The Closer.

19. Your favorite comedy TV Show this year: Using the same criterion, Modern Family.

20. Your favorite cartoon of the year: Pearls Before Swine newspaper strip.

Beatles Island Songs, 123-114

At least it’s less self-important than Within You, Without You on Sgt. Pepper.

JEOPARDY! answers-
LICENSE PLATES $300: A car with plate #LMW 28IF on this Beatles album cover furthered rumors that Paul was dead
GOLDEN OLDIES $200: It’s easy to grasp the fact that this Beatles song was their 1st to go to #1 in the U.S.
ROCK ‘N ROLL $200: Beatles song about purchasing affection that was 1st to hit #1 in U.S. & Britain at same time

The Beatles Complete on Ukulele

The rules of engagement

123 Dizzy Miss Lizzy from Help! (UK), Beatles VI (US). Another Larry Williams tune, well covered by Lennon.
122 I’ll Cry Instead from A Hard Day’s Night (UK, US), Something New (US). “I’m gonna have myself a way/hey”? But I loved it.
121 Here, There, and Everywhere from Revolver. Pretty McCartney.
120 Julia from the white album. Lennon lost his mother twice, once when she abandoned him when he was five, and again at 17, when she died. It is a gentle portent to the more primal screams of Plastic Ono Band’s Mother.
119 It Won’t Be Long from With the Beatles (UK), Meet the Beatles (US). Good use of “yeah”.
118 Love You To from Revolver. Harrison got three songs on the album, and while this is the least of the three, at least it’s less self-important than Within You, Without You on Sgt. Pepper.
117 When I Get Home from A Hard Day’s Night (UK), Something New (US). Muscular tune from Lennon.
116 Let It Be from Let It Be. Yet another overplayed McCartney song, though a fine one.
115 Don’t Bother Me from With the Beatles (UK), Meet the Beatles (US). Harrison’s first writing credit in the canon, and it spoke to a theme in his life.
114 Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) from Rubber Soul. A very nice Lennon song, mysterious, the first song with sitar, and all that, and slightly overplayed in my time.

JEOPARDY! questions-
What is Abbey Road?
What is “I Want To Hold Your Hand”?
What is “Can’t Buy Me Love”?

Joan Baez

This fall, I finished watching some program on the DVR, and the TV defaulted back to the PBS station. I wasn’t really paying attention, but, even with my back turned, I knew INSTANTLY that the speaking voice I was hearing was that of Joan Baez. It turned out to be a rebroadcast of Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound, “American Masters explores fifty years of folk legend and human rights activist Joan Baez,” which originally aired in October of 2009.

There was an album in our household that was played quite often when I was growing up, the oddly-named The Best of Joan Baez from 1963, an edited version of Folksingers ‘Round Harvard Square from 1959. The original came out before her “official” first release, “Joan Baez” on Vanguard Records in 1960. The Best of album, in fact, was the template the Green Family Singers (my father, my sister and I) used when we sang So Soon In the Morning.

Watching the PBS show, I was reminded how some people now may not have known that when she hit the national spotlight, it was her fame and connections that helped popularize her boyfriend for a time, Bob Dylan. She performed several of his tunes over the years, including a whole album, originally released as 2 LPs, called Any Day Now, which I own.

But it wasn’t just her beautiful and distinctive soprano that made her iconic. She believed that music could be used as a tool for change in the areas of civil rights, nonviolence, and worker’s rights. She (and Dylan) performed at the March on Washington in August of 1963, just one of a string of events where she put her voice, and occasionally her body, on the line for issues of justice.

I remember in the mid-1970s when I was at the home of one of my professors. He was playing Joan’s then-new album Diamonds and Rust. I was half listening to A Simple Twist of Fate, a Dylan song, when, at about 2:19, she breaks into this wicked Dylan impression. I howled with laughter.

She performed at the Troy Music Hall in the fall of 2010. I didn’t get to go, as the show sold out quickly. But I hear it was a great performance. The only time I KNOW I saw her perform live was August 9, 1998 in Saratoga Springs, NY as part of the Newport Folk Festival along with Lyle Lovett, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Nanci Griffith, Marc Cohn, Lucinda Williams and others; THAT was for sure a great show.

Anyway, Joan is 70 today, and I thought I needed to acknowledge that. Here’s one of the relatively few songs she wrote, the title tune to the aforementioned Diamonds and Rust album.

“Action is the antidote to despair.” – Joan Baez