Those snarky Starkeys.

Two things of great note in my life have happened in two days of each other. First off, Monday was Ringo's star getting. YAY RINGO!!!

More on that later.


On to more pressing matters. Zak Starkey.

Did anybody watch that football thingy on Sunday? Well, I drifted in and out of boredom / living room and when I was near the television, I saw a couple of commercials that were not to the hilarity standards that I expect my Superbowl commercials to be. So the fact that I even caught The Who during half-time is amazing in itself. The fact that I am now, several days later still thinking about Zak Starkey, of all people, is blowing my mind. 

For those TWO people that are reading this (and I say two so that I feel like I'm popular, as opposed to the real number of "just me") who may not  have a weird Beatle son obsession like I do, might be unfamiliar with this guy.


Now, I feel guilty admitting that Ringo's never been my fave Beatle and at times, I've even sworn to like Jimmy Nicol more, (he was a filler-in for Ringo once). And in that, all things Ringo have been passed by for the glitz, the glamour and the sexiness of the others. I mean... you know?

So, Ringo, I'm sorry for my selfish, shallow, fangirl ways.  And really soon I will break away from the above picture, from gazing into Paul McCartney's face and get back on with this post... and George. And John... sigh. Oh yeah, Ringo.


So this Ringo fellow has a son named Zak.

Zak grows up all drummer like and rockstar with rockstar hair and that's all I knew about him. I knew he was in Oasis for a bit. I knew he drummed with The Who. But who could have imagined that he would, on drums, overshadow The Who at the Superbowl in front of millions of people?! The drummer- a man most people haven't heard of- overshadowing a band that most people have. Amazing. And SO amazing because, unlike all the other Beatle kids, Zak doesn't have a "Beatle" name to carry him. I mean, you have to be really gone to have never heard the names "Lennon" or McCartney" and, though a little less famous to the peeps outside of my world, it's completely unforgivable to have never heard of "Harrison", but there are even casual Beatles fans that don't know Ringo's real name so "Starkey" doesn't hold much weight.


Zak is just totally awesome!


And a really good drummer. His form is just so amazing! If you watch his dad, it looks as though the drums are swallowing him and he's fighting his way out of it. Zak owns his drums. That's not to say anything about Ringo's drumming. I've played and failed Beatle Rockband. That's real life, man. Ringo is tough. Examples, yes?

I know, pictures aren't doing justice to what I'm talking about. Just trust me. Oh, okay. And videos. Videos will show you. Then you'll trust me forever. And ever. Does that scare you?


Links first. Then winks. Then videos.


Ringo's awesome star gettin'.
Zak's wiki-ness
reviews on Zak's Superbowl awesomeness.

The sum of its leftover parts.

Paul McCartney.

Ringo Starr.

I love you.

This Ringo guy has a new album out called Y Not and I know that everyone else on the planet has talked about it too, but I must join in. That's what I do. I bandwagon surf. So this new album of his, I haven't heard it yet, but I want to. I don't know if it's a desperate cling to the last of The Beatles for me or what it is, but I am oddly drawn to this album and I'm not usually drawn to The Ringo.  But why not? (hahaha! I'm the only one laughing. Don't drink and blog on a Friday night, friends).

Actually, I do know what it is. It's because of that other Beatle. The "famous" one. It's because they're the last two left. It's because they're working together again. It's because, (I think?) that the last time they sung on an album together, George was alive and it was kind of a reunion thing called "Anthology" or something. It's because this is kind of a big deal.

This is kind of a really big deal.

Now these two living Beatles, I don't understand them. They don't seem as "real" as the dead ones. They don't seem as vulnerable. They don't seem as open. They seem grumpy. They seem isolated. They seem locked in a bubble, where the other two seem to drift freely in the universe. Oh wait, maybe I do get them. It also makes you think that maybe being in the biggest rock band this world has ever seen might not have been so awesome. It's like Beatlegan's Island and Paul and Ringo are the only ones left. And it's maybe not so bad for Ringo these days, but imagine being "SIR PAUL McCARTNEY". Imagine being the most successful songwriter of the world, EVER. Imagine losing everyone who's ever meant the world to you except for your brother and Ringo (and children, but that's a different trust).  And in all of that, not that I know, but I honestly believe Paul was never as close to anyone as he was to John Lennon - even Linda. And maybe Paul is transferring that need to Ringo. Awkward, but still, totally cute.



I love Paul and I always seem to be trashing Paul and I really don't mean to. However, (sorry Paulie) Paul has always seemed too good for the other Beatles (other than John.) I mean, look at "When We Was Fab" by George Harrison. Ringo's in it but they have a stand-in in Paul's "Walrus" outfit. Was that Paul's choice, or George's? Either way, weird.



  I remember reading some interview, perhaps the Playboy interview that I'm too lazy to reference right now, that John was quoted as saying that he and Paul were The Beatles and that Ringo and George could've been anybody. (Ah crap, now I feel like I should find it. Hold up. Whatevs, it'll be an afterward. Don't look at me like that. You go look for a John Lennon quote and see what Google pulls up for you! - Actually, let me know if you find it. Bighelpthanks.)** Anyway, John said that he and Paul were The Beatles and if you read any book about this band, or you watch Anthology, you'll see that in this Beatle family, John and Paul were like the parents and George and Ringo were like the children. And you can see that George and Ringo still feel they are being treated that way, but without John, Paul looks like a diva who's trying not to look like a diva.

And then they go from 3/4 to 1/2.

And now it's just them. Paul. Ringo.

They roomed together on tour during the Beatlemania thing. They were homies. They are homies. When Ringo went all crazy saying he wasn't going to sign autographs anymore...



 Paul defended him on Letterman.

And Ringo had this little album coming out with a song called Walk with You, Paul made it better. And it totally just makes me cry.

Anyway, I feel a new love for Ringo. Thank you, Paul McCartney.

** UPDATE (Jan 29, '10) This is as close to that mysterious Lennon quote that I've found so far. Still quite accepting of help, by the way, wink wink.

George Harrison. =(

George Harrison.-- 
Feb. 25, 1943 - Nov. 29, 2001.
I have a problem with my dead Beatles. I love and respect them even more than the living ones and much more than I could ever put into words, or into a pointless blog. I love them for their beauty, their wit, their want to change the world. They both played a major role in sculpting the future of all things music and within a week and a half, the world has to mourn them both (albeit one will get a lot more attention than the other). A lot of people know December 8, 1980 as the date that a friggin' idiot, madman lunatic gunned down the outspoken John Lennon. Very few people realize that November 29, 2001 "The Quiet Beatle" George Harrison quietly slipped away to lung cancer in Los Angeles with his loved ones by his side, Paul McCartney holding his hand and laughing at his jokes. So Johnny, I'm going to deal with you next week. Georgie deserves his moment. But first...



George was, by far, funniest Beatle. That's definitely my favorite part about him. So let's get the biography stuff out of the way and start laughing (and then I'll probably start crying, 'cause I'm insane and even though I don't know him, I feel like I do. And he makes me cry.)

George was born. He met a chubby schoolboy named Paul McCartney on the bus when he was like 13 or so and then after Paul met a drunk John Lennon, Paul introduced John and George.

They formed some little band, fought a whole bunch, and then broke up. George then did some producing, he allegedly told BFF Eric Clapton to leave Cream 'cause they were holding him back. He made Ravi Shankar famous. He had a concert for Bangladesh to help the peeps there. He produced a couple movies like Monty Python's Life of Brian and that Sean Penn/ Madonna piece of crap Shanghai Surprise.

George got all into racecar-ing and in doing so, he met and became really tight with the main dude for Cirque du Soleil and developed the idea that would later become THE GREATEST CIRQUE SHOW THIS WORLD HAS EVER SEEN! Or that I've seen, anyway. Love.

FYI- If you've not see this show than you should really make it a priority in your life. AMAZING!!!! Sad part about all of that is, George died in 2001,  Love didn't become a reality until 2006.

So, if you want a good dousing of cry, go check out the Larry King interview clips on YouTube about the show's premiere.

Okay, one more sad from our man Ringo and then laughing, because high notes are way better to go out on.

That one with Olivia Harrison looking down on her late husband gets me EVERY TIME! And lastly receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

I love you George Harrison. Hare Krishna.

Good Day Son-Shine!

Oh boy. Even I see the absurdity about to bust through my brain. I'm not going to question why I allow it to continue, though. I'll merely document the insanity to make it easier for the therapists later on.

So I see this today from The Sun.

The article goes on to say that Mr. James McCartney put on a secret, debut gig with his band 'Light'. He's apparently very good. *tee hees*. I don't know why and I've never really thought much about him before, but seeing James up there with his little guitar, I kinda feel a crush coming on.

Which brings me to this. It's POSSIBLE I heart Beatle boys.

Okay, I'll yell it! I'm in love with Beatle offspring! I've already made it quite clear my Sean Lennon Obsession. He is a total crush. Sean Lennon supersedes the "Beatle son" criteria. He's pretty.

Sean Lennon (Oct 9, 1975)

Then there's Dhani Harrison. He's adorbale!

Dhani Harrison (August 1, 1978)

And even Zak Starkey isn't looking too shabby.

Zak Starkey (Sept 13, 1965)

And now James McCartney <3 (who is DEF second fiddle to Sean in the Beatle Son race)

James McCartney (Sept 12, 1977)

And, because I'm giving into the crazy, here we go. Beatles from Oldest to youngest.

Ringo Starr

John Lennon

Paul McCartney

George Harrison

Beatle sons from oldest to youngest (yeah)

Zak Starkey

Sean Lennon

James McCartney

Dhani Harrison

Weird.  Next up on the crazy train, pictures of them together. (Sean and James... I'm very disappointed in you boys. Meet up, and bring a photographer.)

Dhani- good work on picture hogging. Okay here's what they're up to, Zak, he was with Oasis, I don't know what he's doing now, whatevs.

Oh, and lols Zak!



Dhani is my hero. If it weren't for Dhani, Beatle friggin' Rockband wouldn't exist. AND he's in a band called thenewno2

Seany-poo is doing Ghost Of A Sabor Toothed Tiger. And just being hot, in general.

And James, he's doing the 'Light' thing finally.

All feels right in my world.

YOU'RE LUCKY IT'S TUESDAY! (Stupid, bloody Tuesday...)

So there's a movement rollin' down the horizon called Don't Be A Jerk Tuesday. Much like McCartney's Meat-Free Monday, but it's on Tuesday and not really about meat, but more about not bein' a buttface.

The idea is that if for just one day a week everyone on the planet had to play nice or stay home, we may just achieve the ever elusive World Peace! Totally think it could work, too. If for no other reason, wouldn't it be nice to have one day that you could just chillax 'cause you knew people weren't likely to crap all over your day?!

Now I sound like a friggin' hippie. Whatevs. I like it.

"Peace and Love. Peace and Love" - Ringo Starr.

So, if you have the facebooks and you would like to be on the ground floor of this awesomeness, fan it. Love it. Live it. Don't Be A Jerk Tuesday facebook page. Soon there will be shirts available on Cafe Press maybe and they will say funny things like "You're friggin' lucky it's Tuesday" or something equally as side-splitting and other things and proceeds will go to charities that are non-jerk - i.e. battered women's shelters and child-abuse prevention, the ASPCA, things of this nature.




Oh, and speaking of peace and John Lennon and all that, the Imagine Peace Tower is up and going from October 9 through December 8. Read about it here.

Here's a live view of the tower in Iceland and go check out Yoko Ono's www.IMAGINEPEACE.com

And please take a second, or 5 minutes 15 seconds to watch this. It's called "I Met The Walrus" and it's really cool. And remember.





Be nice. It's Tuesday.

John Lennon. (And during the playoffs too. Humpf.)

"I make it a point not to get involved with a woman when the World Series is about to start, but for you I'll make an exception" -Lou Landsky Mermaids

It's Friday night. Here it is, a nail-biting BoSox/ Angels playoff game #2. A tie-scored, 7th inning playoff game (I'm all about Angles btw, if you needed to know. In this game anyway. Dodgers are who I'm screaming the loudest for). I wasn't going to, but how could I not. I love John Lennon. I really do and I was thinking about it today. I've gone back and forth about favorite Beatles, each one getting a chance at "Bee's Knees"- well, okay, not Ringo, but the other three, and I've come to this conclusion. It's totally John. Don't tell anyone though,  because it's suppose to be Paul otherwise, what kind of fangirl would I be?!

Paul is the cute, charming one. George was the funniest. Ringo drummed and John... I don't know what to say about John Lennon. I guess he was the walrus. *cues rimshot*.

I guess what it boils down to is not what I love about them, but what I don't like. Paul is plastic. Paul is a Barbie. I love Paul heart and soul, but I get why people, like my hubby, can't stand him. I get it. He's a product, he's no longer a person. He's afraid to fail. He's afraid to let anyone see him fail, and when he divorced Voldemort, even then he tried to put on "The Face". And in not lettin' 'em see him sweat, he looks a fool. I blame Linda (sorry Linda). I do because at least when he was with Jane Asher, he was the Swingin' 60s. He was hip and with it.

Then Linda comes along and makes him go all goody-two-shoes and grow a mullet. And then he became "mullet Paul". And then John dies, and he feels he has to right some wrong about his public image,  trying to be "hip and with it Paul" which doesn't work when you've been out of the game on your farm in Scotland with a sycophant as your only meter of self. (Writing that just broke my heart. I'm really sorry Paulie. I totally love you!)

And as much as I love George and Ringo, they were and are (increasingly) bitter old men, respectively.

And the fact that overly optimistic Paul is now forever coupled with cranky pants, Ringo till death do them part makes me sad for them both.

It has to be worse for Paul because he seems to want so much for Ringo to like him now. It's weird. He's Ringo. But for Ringo, it must totally be annoying, you know? It wasn't always bad with them though....

So on to John. You could argue that John Lennon would be just as much a stereotype of himself had he not been gunned down nearly 29 years ago, but he never bought into himself the way that Paul has and though he was a bit bitter, it was never to the extent of George or Ringo. And John wouldn't do another paid concert once he stepped off the stage at Candlestick in August of 1966 (Paul's tickets go for thousands of dollars, I'm just sayin') AND Lennon is said to have been the only ex- Beatle to treat every fan that came up to him with respect. The Only One. Mr. Perfect McCartney, I've seen video on TMZ of him being rude to a fan. Mr. Righteous Harrison, I've totally heard of him being rude. Aaaaaaand Ringo...?

And though that fan respect most definitely lead to his becoming dead, you can't say that John Lennon didn't care. Now, it must suck to really have been a Beatle and I can't say that I wouldn't be rude. I'd bust  out all Ringo Starr on you, but that just proves my point about John even more. He was awesome, he'd invite crazy fans into his house for tea!

John was vulnerable and so much more than the other three. Well, more than George and Ringo, anyway. John just chose to say, "Yo, this is me. Suck it" and Paul, well, Paul didn't. John was angry, and drunk and funny and mean and sweet and all those things and he just was. So happy birthday Johnny. You're my fave. Right now.

1990

Wayne's World was on the other day and I couldn't get over the fact that the movie came out in 1992, only 'cause I started doing some math in my head. 17 years?! That movie could've come out 5 years ago for all I could remember. And then, because I can't do my figuring correctly, I was trying to compare 1961-1980 (which is actually 19 years) to the Wayne's World thing. Since it's a flawed scale, let's bump it back two years to make it fair. 1990.

In 1961, the world had no idea who The Beatles were. They didn't even know. Ringo hadn't even joined the band yet, and in 1980, 19 years later, the world was collectively mourning the loss of John Lennon.

1961

1980

And whether you like them or not, it's hard to deny The Beatles' legacy and how they OWN music as we now know it (or the Yoko Ono and the estate of Michael Jackson do anyway).

So let's see what's happened in 19 years for us. That takes us back to 1990.

Top 10 songs of 1990. =)

1. Hold On, Wilson Phillips
2. It Must Have Been Love, Roxette
3. Nothing Compares 2 U, Sinead O'Connor
4. Poison, Bell Biv Devoe
5. Vogue, Madonna
6. Vision Of Love, Mariah Carey
7. Another Day In Paradise, Phil Collins
8. Hold On, En Vogue
9. Cradle Of Love, Billy Idol
10. Blaze Of Glory, Jon Bon Jovi

Who knew, or remembered that 1990 was so RAD music-wise?! I could tangent this for hours, but we're going to hone in on my FRIGGIN' FAVE of 1990. Bel Biv DeVoe... Now you know. Yo, Slick, blow.

The Poison album is a party in a small, plastic box. No jokes about it.

Then there was the tv.

And guess what debuted in 1990.  Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air




And Beverly Hills, 90210.



Oh snaps.

And then the movies...

And as great as that all is, Carnie Wilson is now hosting Newlywed Game, Madonna is adpoting Malawian babies, Will Smith is earning Oscars, 90210 is seeing a second go, I think Bel Biv Devoe might be reuniting and Goodfellas is still the greatest movie in the entire planet. But I can't really say that any of it has the same impact that the 60s and 70s gave to the world. I know it's objective but say that to my face! I'll  throw down in a dance off! 

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.