Nancy Carr • Hey Dullblog, the Beatles fan blog

All You Need Is Love–And To VOTE!

By Nancy Carr|2020-11-03T07:57:41-08:00November 3, 2020|Beatle History, Beatle-inspired, Politics, Uncategorized|

Please, if you're legally able to do so in the United States, get out and vote today. If you have an absentee or mail ballot, drop it off at an authorized collection place (preferably one that is attended by an actual person), and track the status of your ballot online. I believe that most of us who contribute to or read this blog are drawn to the Beatles at least in part because their music offers us a measure of hope and encouragement. They wrote plenty of songs about sadness, and even despair. They didn't shy away from the complexity of reality, [...]

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Mob Psycho 100 and the Beatles’ Mop Tops

By Nancy Carr|2020-09-12T08:41:14-07:00September 12, 2020|21st century references, Beatle-inspired, Beatles on the Web, cartoon, fans, Fashion, Television, Uncategorized|

A few days ago Eric Trump inadvertently sent the anime series Mob Psycho 100 to the toppermost of the Twitterverse when he Googled "mob." He signally failed to grasp why the popularity/relevance algorithm Google uses put images of the show early in the search results. Fans of the show reacted with predictable glee, and the Mob Psycho 100 Twitter account posted this, featuring an image of Shigeo Kageyama, the character familiarly known as "Mob": Doesn't that image remind you of someone? Or four someones? Doesn't it seem as though that look might be a merchandising opportunity for, I don't know, maybe a [...]

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Rob Sheffield on the Beatles’ breakup and Peter Jackson’s upcoming film

By Nancy Carr|2020-09-10T10:56:56-07:00September 2, 2020|Allen Klein, Breakup, Brian Epstein, Documentaries, Film, Let It Be|

This piece by Rob Sheffield (whose most recent book is Dreaming The Beatles) just came out in Rolling Stone. Sheffield uses the lens of the new Peter Jackson documentary due out next August and put together from the same sessions that yielded Let It Be to consider, again, just why the Beatles came apart as and when they did. There's nothing especially new in Sheffield's analysis, but he deserves credit for making some good points trenchantly. Peter Jackson, of "Lord of the Rings" fame. Sheffield summarizes the situation thus: "In the end, it’s really a story about four friends trying to hold [...]

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Craig Brown’s “One Two Three Four”

By Nancy Carr|2020-08-13T09:21:58-07:00August 13, 2020|Allen Klein, books, Brian Epstein, Mark Lewisohn, Reviews, Uncategorized|

Is it possible to write anything fresh and interesting about the Beatles in 2020? Improbably, Craig Brown has managed to pull off this feat in One Two Three Four: The Beatles In Time. It helps enormously that Brown departs from the marching-in-strict-chronological order structure used, understandably enough, in many accounts of the band. Brown is the author of 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret, as well as multiple parodies, and he brings a light (but not lightweight) touch to the proceedings. He's willing to go down rabbit holes after interesting tidbits, to summarize long-drawn-out situations simply, and to share his own investment in [...]

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Cirque de Soleil’s “Love” at the Mirage

By Nancy Carr|2020-09-10T10:58:03-07:00June 30, 2020|Beatle-inspired, Beatles tributes, concert, Covers, Covers, Live, Sgt. Pepper|

Back on March 7, my husband and I saw Cirque de Soleil's Beatles-themed show Love at the Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas. I've been meaning to write this post for a while now, but the way things snapped shut right after that trip due to covid-19 has made it hard to figure out what to say about the experience. Please bear with this somewhat rambling account. I'd wanted to see the show for quite a while, and my husband proposed that we finally just go to Las Vegas for a weekend. We could combine seeing Love with catching up with [...]

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Global Beatles Day 2020

By Nancy Carr|2020-06-24T07:30:04-07:00June 24, 2020|1967, Beatle History, Beatles on the Web, Psychedelia, Television|

Tomorrow–June 25–is Global Beatles Day. Begun in 2009, this is a day "honoring and celebrating the phenomenon and ideals of the Beatles, collectively and individually, for their gifts to the world including their promotion of peace and love, of truth and youth, and of the expansion of human consciousness." This specific day was chosen because it's the anniversary of the Beatles' performing "All You Need Is Love" live on the BBC program Our World, in 1967, using the first live satellite TV link. If we ever needed a time to promote peace, love, truth, youth, and the expansion of human consciousness, I'd [...]

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Go Fug Yourself: John and Yoko at Cannes with matching couple shirts

By Nancy Carr|2023-04-22T20:00:37-07:00May 13, 2020|Fashion, Film, john and yoko, John Lennon, Movies, Yoko Ono|

The consistently illuminating and funny duo who run the comedy fashion site gofugyourself.com, Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, just posted a photo of John and Yoko at Cannes in 1971 to promote their film Apotheosis. I highly recommend checking out Heather's comment on the photo, and the site as a whole. I'd never heard of this film. Wikipedia summaries it thus: "The film depicts a 17-minute-long journey on a balloon as it ascends and finally rises into the clouds. Lennon and Ono appear at the start of the film dressed in dark cloaks and hoods." I dunno about the cloaks and hoods, but taking [...]

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RIP Little Richard, Unique Trailblazer

By Nancy Carr|2020-09-10T11:02:03-07:00May 11, 2020|1960s, Beatle History, Obituaries, Other bands, Paul McCartney|

Richard Penniman, whose music and performance stylings reshaped rock 'n' roll, died on Saturday at the age of 87. His full-throated, emotion-packed singing, piano playing, and songwriting had a profound influence on the Beatles, as well as on a wide range of other musicians and performers through the decades. I wrote about seeing Paul McCartney perform "Long Tall Sally" at Candlestick Park back in 2014, and that performance was such a strong reminder of the many, many influences that go into creating a musical moment. There are a multitude of reasons to celebrate Little Richard's legacy; his impact on the Beatles [...]

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Shenk’s “Powers Of Two”: 3 Takes

By Nancy Carr|2020-03-24T07:41:53-07:00March 24, 2020|Uncategorized|

When Joshua Wolf Shenk's book Powers Of Two: Finding The Essence Of Innovation In Creative Pairs was published in 2014, Michael Gerber, Devin McKinney and I each wrote a post about it. Since Shenk's book has come up in recent comments, I thought I'd bring those posts back to the forefront. You can read take 1 here, take 2 here, and take 3 here. Add your own take in the comments!

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Three Cheers for the Girls School Bus

By Nancy Carr|2020-01-21T10:49:51-08:00January 21, 2020|Photos, solo, Uncategorized|

These dark days, I'll take opportunities to laugh wherever I can get them. On a recent trip to Indianapolis I saw this bus, and immediately imagined it as on its way to the imaginary, wink-wink-pornographic girls school Wings celebrated in song back in 1977. It was released as the B side of "Mull of Kintyre" and reached #33 on the U.S. charts. I so want to think that everyone on this bus is cheering "Hip, hip, hooray!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAkoYyo1yyU

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About Nancy Carr