Snopes.com

Have you ever heard that if you eat Pop Rocks and drink soda you will die? Well, it's not true.

No, I know, you know a guy whose cousin's college roommate's little brother did it and his stomach exploded. But no, that never happened. How do I know? I read about it on snopes.com.

Snopes is a website that deals with Urban Legends. Just about anything you've ever heard is on there. The website kind of freaks me out, though, mostly because I now know way too much about how many people have ever died at Disneyland and how (surprise: It's usually on Grad Night).

Anyway, here are five legends that surprised me. Are they true or false? You'll have to read them to find out... if you dare!

1. Music: The Beatles recorded an unreleased song called "Pink Litmus Paper Shirt"
2. Movies: One of the munchkins died on the set of The Wizard of Oz.
3. Old Wive's Tales: Chewing gum takes seven years to digest.
4. Horror: A fake mummy in a Haunted Fun House turns out to be real!
5. And from the Lost Legends section: Mr. Ed was a zebra!

iPod Set to Shuffle

I like Feministe. It is a blog. They just did one of those posts where you set your MP3 player to shuffle and post a list of the first ten songs that come up. Their songs were all Neko Case and Tom Waits and everything, because they are cool (I just learned who Tom Waits was two weeks ago). Here is my random Top 10:

1. Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenocerous - Flight of the Conchords

2. Home - Depeche Mode

3. Norwegian Wood - The Beatles

4. This Never Happened Before - Paul McCartney

5. About a Girl (Live) - Nirvana

6. I Started a Joke - The Bee Gees (this is the only song by the Bee Gees that I have, I swear. I just think it is funny).

7. April Come She Will - (Simon and Garfunkel - one of only two S&G songs I have).

8. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - Bob Dylan (I also have the version by The Hollies, which is better)

9. Girlfriend - Phoenix

10. West Coast - Coconut Records

OK... I'm not a total nerd.

Feminite also does really funny recaps of LOST. And they talk about abortion and stuff.

Phobias

Scary!!!!

I live in Southern California, so most of my Sunday mornings are spent listening to Breakfast with the Beatles on 95.5 KLOS. This show always has quiz questions and gives away prizes (usually tickets to see something I would not want to see, like a Beatles tribute band or something). Today was actually the first day that I actually knew the answer to BOTH of the quiz questions AND they were giving away some pretty good prizes that I would actually like to have! I added the KLOS number to my phone and called in. The second time, instead of a busy signal, the phone rang!

And then I hung up.

Ever since I was a little kid, listening to the terrible top 40 in the early 90's ("Informer" by Snow, anyone?) I have had a fear of calling in to radio stations. It freaks me out. My heart starts beating really fast.

I am not afraid of public speaking - I like public speaking. My job requires me to speak in front of large groups all the time. So, I don't know what this fear of radio station calling is about.

I HAVE called radio stations before, and been on the air. I even won a contest once where the question was "What is Shakespeare's birthday?" for tickets to a play. But today, I just couldn't pull it out for the Ringo CD set. Hmmm.

Speaking of phobias, I also have a (somewhat mild) fear of maps - especially Google Earth. I read about this recently; it's not that uncommon. It's actually a form of acrophobia - the fear of heights! You see, by looking at a map, it's almost like you are high above the earth looking down on it! Isn't that crazy?

Do you have any unusual phobias? If you leave your thoughts in the comment section, I promise not to make fun of you!

Not Guilty

This is the seventh in a series of blog entries about songs picked at random from my itunes library. For the post on the last song, "Flume" go (here). For "Ras Trent" go (here). For "Hole to Feed" go (here). For "Every Little Thing" go (here). For "No Surprises" go (here). For "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Love Version)" go (here).

"Not Guilty" is a George Harrison song from his 1979 self-titled album, but actually written years earlier in 1968 while The Beatles were in Rishikesh.

As Wikipedia notes, the original version (featured on The Anthology 3) is "harsher, driven by electric guitar and harpsichord." That is the version that popped up on my itunes. I don't think I've ever actually heard the 1979 version. The only George Harrison albums I have are Living in the Material World, the Concert for Bangaladesh, and, of course, All Things Must Pass (My favorite album)! I haven't listened to the first two yet.

So, I decided to go on itunes and get the George Harrison version and write a comparison here! The thing is, once I listened to the free 30 second demo I could see I didn't need to buy it. The '79 version is all mellow and has none of what I love about the original. The '68 version is angry and heartfelt - why don't you guys let George have more than a couple of songs on the album!? The '79 version is a little too 1979. The soft keyboards (or whatever that bell-like sound is) in the background make it seem more like (gasp) elevator music. I don't want to hear dentist-office soft strains played to lyrics like, "Not Guilty of looking like a freak, making friends with every Sikh" (which, by the way, I always thought until now was "making friends you didn't seek").

For my money (which would be 99 cents if you could buy Beatles music on itunes) the 1968 version is the best. Go listen to it. Somehow.

Every Little Thing

This is the third in a series of blog entries about songs picked at random from my itunes library. For the post on last week's song, "No Surprises" go (here) for "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Love Version)" try (here).

This week's song is an Early/Mid Beatles Tune, "Every Little Thing."

I remember the first time I heard this song... OK, not really, but there is one thing I'm sure of, this entry will not be very long even though I plan to tell you every little thing I know about this song. I can't stop thinking about it now ;)

Now, in no particular order, a list of things I know about "Every Little Thing" without having to look anything up:

1. I once made a fake Beatles fan-newsletter for some reason to send to a friend of mine who was away at school and I titled it after this song, which I thought was a vastly clever title. The one real Beatles fan newsletter I knew about was called "Good Day Sunshine" which is an OK title.

2. There is a Japanese band called Every Little Thing (or ELT) but I don't know if the name has anything to do with this song. Also, it's been about four years since I have heard anything about Japanese music, so I don't know if they are still together.

3. This is kind of an unusual Beatles song in that Paul wrote it, but John sings it. (Usually they sang their own songs).

4. Ringo plays some kind of weird drum on this. I recall reading about it somewhere and also you can hear it.

5. This was on the album Beatles for Sale which was their fourth album.

This is a good song; I like it. It's not my favorite song or anything. Well, were you expecting this put-my-itunes-on-shuffle experiment to shell out nothing but the hits?

Lucy in the Sky

I like listening to vinyl (see this earlier post) but I have a computer, an ipod, and an iphone like many people. I also listen to the radio every day. This makes the songs on my itunes a little unusual. You see, most of the music I like to listen to I get to hear on the radio - so I don't buy the songs on itunes. For the most part, my itunes library is made up of weird songs I bought for various personal reasons and is often not a very good indicator of my musical tastes. Still, when I set it to random (as I usually do when I am working on this blog) the occasional gem will show up and make me smile. I decided, therefore, to introduce a new feature to this blog. Every once in a while I am going to press "random" on my itunes library and write a blog entry about whatever song happens to pop up. As you can probably tell from the title of this post, this week's entry features a certain girl in a certain celestial location with certain precious gems.

Friday July 10th, 2009 - "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Love Version)"

So most of my music is Beatles-related. The odds were that a fab tune would show up. Here we have "Lucy" from the soundtrack of the Cirque du Soleil Beatles spectacular, Love.

For Thanksgiving 2008, my dad decided to come to sunny So. Cal to visit me from out of state. I was all for a visit from my dad, but I wasn't really sure what we were going to do. I mean, I wasn't going to cook... So, he suggested we go to Vegas, since he has never been. To me, Vegas mostly means going to clubs and drinking alcohol, then seeing a weird expensive French Canadian circus show. I did not want to do the first two things with my dad, so I settled on taking him to see LOVE. Being a fan of the Beatles I had an interest in seeing the show, which features the music of the Beatles re-arranged by their original producer Sir George Martin and his son. I didn't really know much about the show. (My dad, by the way, waits until we are in our seats to mention that he "never really cared for the Beatles" but OK). The show was really not at all like the other Cirque production I have seen, "O", it was more dancing and less circusing. Still, it was OK at first. I mean, it had it's moments. I know that Paul and Ringo and Yoko and Olivia all signed off on it. The last half, however, left me with my mouth hanging open in shock and disgust. A fun circus-dance about pre-teen John Lennon's mother getting hit by a car is not exactly my idea of fun.

Anyway, the song. A lot of those LOVE songs are fun re-arrangements of the classic. This one, though, out of all of them seems the most like the original and that's not really a good thing. Not that the original isn't amazing, but compared to other songs on the soundtrack like the brilliant mix of "Here Comes the Sun/The Inner Light" (I remember thinking while watching the show, "This is the George Harrison show starring George Harrison!" Yay!) "Lucy" falls a bit flat. One reviewer calls it "largely unsullied."

The Wikipedia page about the album goes into some of the details of how the Martins used "elements from 130 individual recordings of the Beatles" to create the 26 tracks on the album. Here is an excerpt from the article:

• "Drive My Car"/"The Word"/"What You're Doing" – As reported, the medley features the guitar solo from "Taxman" and the horns section from "Savoy Truffle".
• "Gnik Nus" – As suggested in its title, the track contains the vocal arrangement of "Sun King" played in reverse.
• "Something" (with "Blue Jay Way" transition) – The track contains vocal elements from "Nowhere Man".
• "Strawberry Fields Forever" – A review of the album noted that this version builds from an acoustic demo. It includes the orchestral section from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", the solo piano from "In My Life", the brass included in "Penny Lane", the cello and harpsicord arrangement from "Piggies" and the coda of "Hello, Goodbye".

Don't those make the songs sound like the fun and new versions of beloved classics that they are? Well, "Lucy" is not mentioned in the list - probably because it's not as interesting. It's just not as different from the original. In defense of the show, I do recall the "Lucy" part (along with "Something") being one of the most interesting circusy parts of the show - it's just that the album version of the song is not that amazing.

Don't those make the songs sound like the fun and new versions of beloved classics that they are? Well, "Lucy" is not mentioned in the list - probably because it's not as interesting. It's just not as different from the original. In defense of the show, I do recall the "Lucy" part (along with "Something") being one of the most interesting circusy parts of the show - it's just that the album version of the song is not that amazing.

That having been said, are you still thinking it's about LSD? Stop thinking that. Any good Apple Scruff worth his or her salt will tell you that John got the title from a drawing made by his then young son Julian of a classmate named Lucy. The real-life Lucy, in fact, recently re-kindled her friendship with now 46 year-old Julian. Lucy Vodden, unfortunately, has been diagnosed with Lupus, a condition which attacks the internal organs of the body and leaves one exhausted and often depressed.

Don't let me review scare you away from LOVE (the album) but you might consider letting it scare you away from wasting $250 on LOVE (the show).

Best wishes to Lucy!

References:
Alternative Health Journal
Wikipedia - LOVE (the Beatles album)
PopMatters Review