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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

Halls of Fame QUESTIONS

The Baseball Hall of Fame votes were announced this week. I totally agree with the choices of Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven; I wanted Blyleven years ago. If I had had a ballot, I would have probably voted for the people who came in 1-7, plus 11: Roberto Alomar, Bert Blyleven, Barry Larkin, Jack Morris, Lee Smith, Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, Mark McGwire.

Yes, I’d be voting for Mark McGwire, who, assuming he was taking steroids during his career – OK, he was – took them when they were not effectively banned by Major League Baseball. Rafael Palmiero, he of the finger-wagging to Congress that he was clean, then later suffers a suspension over the use of a banned substance, did much worse in the voting than a 500-HR/3000-hit batter would have in a pre-steroid era. I have publicly theorized that his performance in DC definitely cost him; he was not going to make it in his first chance.

Why can’t reliever Lee Smith get more love?

Eventually, I’d vote for Edgar Martinez; it’s difficult for me to pick a pure Designated Hitter, mostly because STILL hate the DH rule. And now that Alan Trammell has only five more years, I would likely start selecting him too. Rafy too, in a couple of years. My working theory is that once a bunch of steroid-era players are on the ballot, McGwire and Palmiero will get inducted, maybe in years 12 to 15 of their 15-year window of eligibility.

Meanwhile, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction list was released a last month, with the ceremony to be held in March. I was really happy to see Neil Diamond on the list, and also Leon Russell as a sideman, or as they are now calling it, the “musical excellence award”; I should get that album Russell did with Elton John. But, of the nominees for this year, the most disappointing omission was the late Laura Nyro. If not as a singer, then she ought to get as a songwriter. Through the pictured album, which is a bunch of cover songs, she’s deserving as a performer as well. -inductees
Alice Cooper, Beastie Boys, Bon Jovi, Chic, *Neil Diamond, Donovan, *Dr. John, J. Geils Band, LL Cool J, * Darlene Love, Laura Nyro, Donna Summer, Joe Tex, *Tom Waits, Chuck Willis

For either or both Halls of Fame, who would you have picked for this year?

Beatles Island Songs, 133-124

The verse and chorus don’t really fit together very well, and somehow, that’s endearing.

JEOPARDY! answers-
BILLBOARD NO.1 HITMAKERS: In May 1964 this New Orleans native was 62 years old when he bumped the Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love” from the No. 1 spot
BEATLES SONGS: The title of this Beatles song is a Yoruba phrase that means “life goes on”
THE BEATLES: Fittingly, the cover of this Beatles album shows the Fab Four engaging in a semaphore message
Questions below.

The rules of engagement

133 Slow Down, EP release (UK), Something New (US). Larry Williams’s cover adeptly done by Lennon.
132 In My Life from Rubber Soul. Another song that should rank higher except that I just burned out on it. Jaquandor, who is a relatively new Beatles convert, wrote a nice piece on the song, which is all true.
131 Martha My Dear from the white album. My first girlfriend in high school was named Martha, probably when the album came out. Yes, I know it’s about McCartney’s sheepdog.
130 Mother Nature’s Son from the white album. Pretty McCartney song.
129 The Fool on the Hill from Magical Mystery Tour. Especially like the instrumental bridge of this McCartney song.
128 Wait from Rubber Soul. Pretty ordinary song, considering it’s on a great album, but the Lennon and McCartney vocal byplay elevates it.
127 Sun King from Abbey Road. Lennon’s nonsense lyrics at the end are a hoot.
126 Hold Me Tight from With the Beatles (UK), Meet the Beatles (US). A driving McCartney tune.
125 I’ll Follow the Sun from Beatles for Sale (UK), Beatles ’65 (US). I always thought this was a pretty McCartney song, with occasional tight harmonies.
124 Baby, You’re a Rich Man from Magical Mystery Tour. Probably the least well-known song on the album, originally the B-side to All You Need Is Love. The verse and chorus don’t really fit together very well, and somehow, that’s endearing.

BeatlesNews.com– 24 Hours A Day, Eight Days A Week…

JEOPARDY! questions:
Who was Louis Armstrong?
What is Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da?
What is Help?