60s Girl Groups.

I have a girl group itch. I don't know what happened. I started thinking about The Shangri-las and it just came rolling over me like the heroin. I WANT MORE.

I started digging deeper and I found out that Beatlemania (and no, I cannot go 20 minutes without a reference) began this craze of girl groups. It seems like a lot of them came from New York. You've got the most famous one, and I think, the only one that lasted through 1966, The Supremes.

The Supremes - The Happening (From 1967) And OMG how I forgot how much I LOVE this song.

There's The Ronettes (Ronnie Spector was married to that guy),

Then there's The Dixie Cups

And so on. I found the COOLEST album though, in my travels through Netland. It's called Girls In The Garage. Holy Awesome, Batman!

There are skulls and a devil right on the cover of the album! Right there, that equals Rockstar. They have the album for listening over on Lastfm.com (there are multiple volumes too. ::in auditory heaven::)

DENISE & CO.: Take Me As I Am

THE PUPPETS: Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart

THE MODELS: Bend Me, Shape Me (1966)

THE CHYMES: He's Not There Anymore (1966)

THE BITTERSWEETS: Hurtin' Kind (1965)

THE ID: Those Ever-Lovin' Baby Blues (unreleased)

THE BELLES: Come Back (1966)

THE BELLES: Melvin

THE LUV'D ONES: Up Down Sue (1966)

KIM & GRIM: You Don't Love Me (1965)

LYDIA MARCELL: The Girl He Needs (1967)

THE CONTINETNAL CO-ETS: Medley Of Junk (1966)

THE BEATLE-ETTES: Only Seventeen

ALTHEA & THE MEMORIES: Worse Record Ever Made(1964)

THE BLUE ORCHIDS: Oo Chang-a-Lang

THE GIRLS: Chico's Girl

THE LADYBUGS: How Do You Do It?

THE BOOTLES: I'll Let You Hold My Hand

THE TERMITES: Tell Me

THE SANSHERS: Gonna Git That Man

THE WHYTE BOOTS: Nightmare

LYN & THE INVADERS: Boy Is Gone

THE CHYMES: Quite A Reputation

THE DAUGHTERS OF EVE: Don't Waste My Time

THE CONTINENTAL CO-ETS: I Don't Love You No More

THE CHIMES OF FREEDOM: Jungle Rock

THE STARLETS: You Don't Love Me

And yes. On the album there is a band called The Beatle-ettes (You think this isn't right up my alley!? Ha!)

And The Bootles?! NICE!

Maybe it's just that I live my life subconsciously to become as awesome as The Carrie Nations in Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls. Complete with gay vampire manager guy.

If I could Punk Rock, I would be a Shangri-La

I have long wished I was in a girl group. I used to joke that I wanted to be a Monkee so I wouldn't have to learn an instrument (I know, Monkee people, I know, I'll get to the talent of the Monkees in a later post). Problem is though, I can't really sing either. I suppose I could be in a punk band, just not too hard core and I don't want to have to wake up bloodied in vomit on a dirty floor somewhere with a safety pin through my nose. Which brings me to The Shangri-Las. Holy crap these girls were cool!

In 1964, the average American teenaged girl looked like this:

And here come these four girls, aged 15-17 from Queens who are wearing leather and singing about a biker boyfriend who DIES.

Even though they look a little Lavern and Shirley here,

They were tough, they were rumored to carry guns, they scared the guy groups they were on tour with. Earlier I said there were four of them and you only see three, right? Well one of the girls, she was even too cool to tour.

This is Mary Weiss, the lead singer. She's my favorite. She's totally awesome, right?!

I found a really cool blog while looking for stuff for this little spittle from my fangirl brain. Check it out. RAD!!! www.theshangri-las.com

And this song, Remember (Walking in the Sand) was in Goodfellas. It's tough.

Beatles First US Visit.

Must be that I'm in an early Beatles mood lately. Must be. Anyway, First US Visit is Fab, it's Gear, it's switched on. If you've never seen it, well, here you are. It's a documentary of literally their first visit to the U.S of A. February 7, 1964 they landed in New York and Beatlemania became official. This film is from the inside looking out on the craziness. While you watch this, you get the sense that it might not have been the music or the hair-styles that made them, it was just them. As a matter of fact, they had been turned down by all the major record labels and as a last resort, their manager, Brian Epstein took a demo to their eventual producer, George Martin who hated the demo, but decided to take a chance and meet them in person.

"The infamous first meeting began with a well timed comment (George Martin asked the Beatles what they thought of Parlophone, to which Beatle George replied, “I hate your tie”), which broke the ice, and set the stage for their future collaborations. Martin later noted that though he really liked John, Paul and George, he didn’t necessarily think they showed any signs of being great songwriters."

It was all about the charisma. And did they ever have it. So, enjoy.

Part One.

Part Two. (By the way, is that the beginning of Strawberry Fields that John is working out at about 8mins 30 in?!)

Part Three.

is missing. Hmm. Guess you'll have to go rent it to see it or something, anyhow,carry on.

Part Four. (This might be my fave one. Ringo's dancing, "Lingerie, Ladies' underwear, floor 12". My fave fans EVER roll out of the Women's Restroom at about 4:30. Oh, and then there's other fans, It's good stuff)

Part Five. ("George and John. Buddies and Pals")

Part Six.

Part Seven. ("Look, Ringo, I doon an abstract" Oh Paul.)

Part Eight.

Beautiful Boy - Man. And hot. Did I mention hot?

Sean Lennon. *Sigh*

Yes. At first I bought a Sean Lennon album only because of who his parents are. I admit that. But something happened that I wasn't expecting. I enjoyed it.

Being a Beatle fan, it's impossible to not know who Sean Taro Ono Lennon is, who his mother is; "She who broke up the Beatles!" As a Beatle fan or a John Lennon fan, the image of Sean goes something like this.

In the 90s sometime, he reemerged from pop-culture trivia (to my knowledge anyway) looking a little...um...,

“When I was 15, a cabdriver asked me if I was Paul McCartney’s daughter.” -Sean Lennon.

I've read that that is what made him decide to cut his hair. Thank god! Because OMG. So after seeing him looking like the male version of Saffron from AbFab about 15 years ago, I didn't expect to be so overcome by how impossibly COOL he's become.

I guess that must be what happens to you when you come from a Beatle and a conceptual artist. And you grow up in Central Park. And someone calls you Paul McCartney's daughter.

His last album was "Friendly Fire." Buy it. It is amazing and still finds daily play on my ipod.

The coolest part about this album, the genius part is that he did a short film to go along with the album. Like videos, but they tell the story of the album as a whole. Here's a little snippy snips.

After obsessing over Friendly Fire, I saw Sean Lennon in concert. He blew my mind. So I came home and wrote this.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Sean Lennon makes me swoon... Tonight I came to a realization. I am that fan. I am her. I am the one I always laughed at when I'd watch A Hard Day's Night with my friends. You know the one. The one that would grab her ears and scream until she passed out. This one. I always thought that I MIGHT be that girl. But it had never happened exactly like that. I have seen weezer more times than I can count, I met Rivers Cuomo a couple of those times. And I'm in love with Rivers Cuomo. It was awesome. But I never once got dizzy, blacked-out and tried to hold back that feeling of vomit. I didn't think it existed. At least not on Earth. Perhaps, though, Disneyland no longer counts as Earth... Even though it is its happiest place. For me anyway. After tonight. April 27th, 2007 will be the day that I became her. I became the fan. Sean Lennon played the House of Blues in Anaheim. Downtown Disney. There was an opening band called Women and Children". They were alright, but for their last song, they brought out a "friend" and as Sean Lennon stepped out and tossed a guitar onto his shoulder, it happened. I tried shifting my weight because I thought that I was locking my knees or something. I kept trying to swallow the mass amounts of saliva that were now pooling under my tongue. I was very uncomfortable. And I could not take my eyes from him. I was mesmorized. And all I could think of was that little boy craddled by JOHN LENNON that I'd seen in pictures a million times. A million times I'd seen these pictures and believed they didn't exist. They weren't real. There was no way that any of it could be real. But it is real. And he looks like him. Just like him. And I became that girl. I regained composure between acts, and I could see him as I had before, as a hot guy who played awesome music, but for that one moment..... This and this became this and this which lead to this

So he's in this new band with an impossibly beautiful, and dumb girl, girlfriend, whatevs. And they're hot together and they make real good music and it just makes me, it makes me hate her and love her all at once. Anyway. They are called Ghost of a Saber Toothed Tiger

I think they are making an album right now. That will definitely be mine. So in the mean time, you can stalk him here on YouTube and at seanonolennon.com - which is a super rad site, by the way, and you can see some really great photos by older (half)bro, Julian.

Oh, also enjoy this little viddy that I cannot stop watching.

You say it's your birthday. Well it's my birthday too, yeah.

So yes, 'tis my birthday. And yes, I listen to "Birthday" by The Beatles (White Album ;)) every year. I am also obsessed by people who share my birthday. Truth. So here are some of the many.

Joe Torre. (July 18, 1940) Longtime manager of The Yankees and current manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. I love him. One of the most winning managers in baseball history. Like 5th or something. Made his major league debut on Sept 25.

Torii Hunter (July 18, 1975) Center fielder currently for the Angels, longtime center-fielder for the Minnesota Twins. Has like 8 Gold Gloves. And is one of my "fave!" baseball players. He's also HILARIOUS!! !

Hunter S. Thompson (July 18, 1937 - February 20, 2005) He wrote that book you may have heard a little something about, "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas". You know the one. He got all into the drugs and rebellion and politics and all that. He became friends with Johnny Depp (who is very hot) later in life as Depp lived in his house with him in Colorado to prepare for the role in the "Fear And Loathing..." movie. Hunter S. Thompson shot himself in the head in '05 and his ashes were shot out of a cannon in a ceremony funded by Depp. They played some Bob Dylan song and "Spirit in the Sky" (I hate that song).

Dion DiMucci (July 18, 1939) Of Dion and the Belmonts fame. They were on tour with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. On the night of February 2, 1959 Dion decided he didn't have enough money for the $36 plane ticket so he and the Belmonts lived while the others died in a firey plane crash. Feb. 3 - "The Day The Music Died." Dion eventually got all wrapped up in a heroin addiction and decided to ride the fame train solo. Anyway, he was one of only 2 pop stars to be featured on The Beatles' Sgt Pepper album cover. The other was Bob Dylan. He did, later on get heavily into the religion. He probably still is for all I know. Did I mention that I LOVE Dion?!

Screamin' Jay Hawkins (July 18, 1929 - February 12, 2000) Screamin' Jay was a performer of wild and weird theatrics, going so far as to come out of a coffin in a leopard print suit, 'cause someone dared him to, oh and paid him like $300. It is said that he was so blindingly drunk when he recorded "I Put A Spell On You" that he had to relearn the song to record it again to get rid of the "grunting". That's awesome. He died in Paris of an aneurysm. He is thought by some to be the first Shock Rocker.

Jared Hess (July 18, 1979) Director and writer of such classic films as Nacho Libre and Napoleon Dynamite. Devout Mormon.

Nelson Mandela (July 18, 1918) While leading an activist group against the apartheid in South Africa, he was jailed for 27 years. He is absolutely amazing receiving hundreds of awards and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. He became South Africa's first black president and oldest president. He retired in 1999. He is an amazing person. Look into him for yourself, there is WAY too much to even try to paraphrase up in here.

Martha Reeves (July 18, 1941) She is Martha from Martha and the Vandellas. Early on in her career, before she had a career, she stumbled upon a job in which she set up an audition for a struggling group that later called themselves The Temptations. She eventually got involved religion and politics.

John Glenn (July 18, 1921) First American to orbit the Earth. That's the coolest title EVER! Dude, no one can top that. He fought in the Korean war alongside future Hall of Famer Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox (well, he was at one time. He's dead and frozen now, Ted Williams is). Then in '98, at 77 years old, he became the oldest astronaut to go into space. Fifth person ever to go into space, first American to orbit Earth and then oldest?! He also got into religion and politics. (I'm seeing a weird trend here....)

There's a lot of weird coincidences that I see. I may stay away from the drugs, religion and politics, if Hunter S. Thompson teaches us anything... But this I know. I do share my birthday with a cool bunch of people. Crazy. Sexy. Cool. Here's the Beatles. =)

"The world isn't big enough for John Lennon" - Stu Sutcliffe, 'Backbeat'

I just finished watching 'Backbeat'. I must have subconsciously figured it might be a good idea to watch a movie about brain aneurysm while nursing my own, though hopefully not as serious head pain. If you haven't seen it, HIGHLY recommended, even if not a Beatle fan.

'Backbeat' is, yes, technically a movie about The Beatles. But the leather-clad, not yet famous, not even yet mop-top, tearing up Hamburg, Germany with prostitutes Beatles. And yet, it's not really even about that. It's more about the relationship complexities of John Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe, Astrid Kirschher, art and Rock 'N Roll. If you want to read up more on it, here's the imdb bits.

There was a line in the movie, Stuart (Stephen Dorff) says to Astrid (Sheryl Lee) something like "The world isn't big enough for John Lennon"which, is probably a true statement, as seen from "the world". However, it got me thinking that John Lennon as seen in 'Backbeat' and the John Lennon portrayed by just about everyone who knew him seems a very fragile child, almost always the second fiddle to someone else- completely opposite of the above quote.

John Lennon played sidekick to his mother, Julia.

John Lennon played sidekick to Stuart Sutcliffe.

John Lennon played sidekick to Paul McCartney.

and finally, John Lennon played sidekick to Yoko Ono.

And that is how I believe he viewed himself. A sidekick.

Yet, to the world, he might just be...

"More popular than Jesus."

Baseball. =)

So I'm watching the Angels game and as I type this the Angels are down 6-4 in the 7th inning. The game is in Anaheim and so naturally, being down a few runs past the 6th inning brings out Rally Monkey. So they show all the fans dancing to "Jump Around", the official Rally Monkey jam.

And then back to the action. Now, as a casual fan, sitting at home, drinking a beer and half watching / half playing online Scrabble, hearing the Rally Monkey just means that the Angels are losing by less then 4 runs and it's sometime after the 6th inning and there's one out and someone is on at least 1st (there are RULES people!). Whatever right? But I looked up at the screen and I saw all the adults, swigging down the last of their beer so they can snag another before cutoff time, some Orange County housewives yapping on their cell-phones and looking up the aisles and then they showed this kid. This tan-faced, dirty looking boy, maybe 11 years old, hat on inside out and backwards, and he's praying. His night is made or broken by the outcome of this game. How friggin' exciting is THAT?!

This is why I love baseball. I love that for a lot of people, outside life ceases to matter. I love that that it's like that kick the can scene from Twilight Zone Movie were all of a sudden all the old are young again(and if you're dying to see 8 mins of it, you're welcome)

A ball field is a place where no matter how old you are, you can be that little dirty faced boy wearing the rally cap. And you can go with your dad or your grandpa or your brother or your son, your girlfriends, your husband, your mom (insert joke here) and everything is just smells of grass and hot dogs and onions and summer. And those are the best smells anyone could have in their nose.

You know what else I love about baseball? It's still the same as it ever was. You could totally be sitting next to a guy from the 30s in his tweed suit and hat, just the same as a teenager from the 50s with his rolled-up jeans and whiffle hair. Well, in my idealistic mind. But it's there. That magic and ideology, it does exist at the ballpark, like Christmas(!)

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come" –Terrence Mann - "Field of Dreams"

Oh yeah, and make sure you see this movie.

Think anyone will notice if I wear Support Hose in the swimming pool?

Would they?

So I'm battling the enemy that is my self-esteem, who's teamed up with guilt. I'm barely holding on! If I were a normal person, I would've already called the YMCA and signed my small child up for Mommy & Me swim lessons. I feel the butterflies in my stomach just writing that last sentence. But no, the crazy person in me is absolutely incapacitated from fear.

To start: I don't know anyone who looks like Twiggy.

And I can tell you that I most certainly don't. But MY GOD! how I wish that I did. But most people don't. So why should this stop me from getting into a bathing suit? Here's my failing rationalization. If nobody is looking like Twiggy (except maybe Alexa Chung),

Then why do I feel as sick to my stomach as I do to pudding my way into a swimsuit? I know most of my ladies probably feel the same way that I do, but I don't see it. I feel like I'm the only one who looks rotten in a suit. The only one. I won't wear shorts either. Fact. And I could blame it on the baby, but let's be honest, I wouldn't have been caught dead in a swimsuit or shorts even before I ever thought of being pregnant.

It's sad to me, because you couldn't keep me out of the pool when I was younger. And I rocked the Dive Team in high school. Until I hit puberty. Then I gained like 40lbs in a semester of school. And I started becoming painfully aware that I had body that didn't do what I thought it should. Dimples where there shouldn't be dimples. Ruined my summer life for as long as I live probably.

So now I'm stuck. I need to be a mother and not a self-obsessed fool. How do I get over this little brain rebellion?

I'm going to start a revolution. NO MORE SUITS! Except maybe this thing.

But even then I'd be worrying about my calves.

So If I could get my hands on the above suit, it wouldn't be the end of it. Because then I battle the need not to fail. And I don't feel comfortable doing things I've never done before, like calling and even asking about it. And what do I do once I'm there? I know I shower... can I wear a bathrobe while I do so? I don't like looking stupid. (This is why the above suit would probably never get worn, huh?)

I need my mind to shut-up and just call the Y. Oh, somebody get me a drink.

weezer (and OMG! Chloe O'Brien?!)

So I've been feeling a little insecure these past couple days (Happy Birthday to Tom Cruise, by the way). I'm not really sure why, so naturally when I get to feeling teenage-y, I get to thinking about weezer. Aw weezer.

Weezer is good now, but there was something... more about the Matt Sharp days. Pinkerton is what I'm talking about.

Okay, let me back track here. The Blue Album blew my mind. I fell held over heels for Rivers Cuomo. No. Joke. And I had three friends Vicki, Jenny and Michelle who fell for Matt, Brian and Pat respectively. SQUEEEEE!!!!

Vicki heard El Scorcho, the new single on the radio before any of us making her the luckiest person TO LIVE! After several calls to local radio stations, of which I think Jenny got on the air, we all heard it, too. It was awesome. It still is awesome. Right?

Okay, anyway, when Pinkerton came out, Vicki and I were at college in Denver. There was a record store on campus and we ditched class to run over and buy the cd the moment the doors opened. I might have exaggerated that last part a bit, I think, for dramatic effect but, dude, we were stoked! I don't think we slept. Honestly. We were obsessed. They were our soul mates and here was even MORE proof.

We rushed to the Ogden Theatre to see them in concert. Sigh. We met them after the show. We almost drove to Salt Lake City, their next stop. Rivers talked about veggie hot dogs and boxing. He had to tell someone he wasn't in The Rentals but signed the album anyway. Michelle ran across the street and bought him a Pepsi 'cause he said he was thirsty. We met Matt back by the tour bus. Michelle kissed him on the neck. Actually, Michelle started hitting on ALL of them, which almost caused a complete breakdown of all things Manhands (the name of our band that we were going to be famous with once we learned instruments).

Now, I'm not going to rat out anyone else (ahem) but I did write a fan letter after meeting Rivers. I've never written one before and I've never written one since. But it's true. And I've thought about it ever since. It's silly, but it's sort of also totally rational to me that I thought he would read it and go "Oh yeah, totally soul mates".

Well, 12 years later. I'm not married to Rivers. But 2 years ago this month, Vicki and I went to a Rentals show here in L.A. at Spaceland. We still giggled and talked about Denver days. We did so with Matt Sharp.

He smiled.

He knew.

Soul mates.