The Never-Ending Beatles Trivia Quiz Challenge — Question #2
GUEST POST BY EUGENE • I guess the trivia torch has been passed. I really enjoyed answering Devin's cleverly-crafted connect-the-dots challenge, so here's another one for you all. After seeing Ozzy Osbourne (a self-proclaimed Beatlemaniac) at MSG in December, I was inspired to think of this question... Over the decades, each of the Beatles worked on a musical collaboration that included a member [...]
Screen memories
Final graf of NYT obit for the Maharishi: In the last years of his life he rarely met with anyone, even his ministers, face-to-face, preferring to speak with followers almost exclusively by closed-circuit television. From my piece on Mladen Dolar's A Voice and Nothing More (2006), in Modern Painters:Both the Baumian and Freudian setups...owe something to the idea of the acousmatic voice, [...]
What Sexy Sadie did
"Hey guys, could one of you introduce me to Mia Farrow's sister?" MIKE GERBER • "Which one of you geniuses," Ed emailed this morning, "is on the Maharishi beat?" As the least-employed member of our merry band, I guess that's me (Mike). I admit to having a real fondness for The Giggling One, and not just because I spent yesterday afternoon [...]
You gave me the answer
DEVIN McKINNEY • Polythene Eugene Cho gets half-credit and a $1 gift certificate at the Keychain Connection for figuring out most of the first installment of our Never-Ending Beatles Trivia Quiz Challenge. For the benighted and clueless, though, let's start at the fat bottom and work upwards, pyramid-style, to blue sky and pointy revelation... The question, you'll recall, was: What one factor [...]
Multipronged!
ED PARK • I. Has anyone seen/heard of I Met the Walrus? It's nominated for an Oscar, for Best Animated Short Film.In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview. This was in the midst of Lennon's "bed-in" phase, during which [...]
Happy ever after in the marketplace?
In 1966, after a secret car accident, bassist Paul McCartney was replaced in the group by actress Angela Lansbury MOLLIE WILSON REILLY • This week, Mimi Smartypants expresses a dislike of the Beatles. Generally I feel like this is her funeral (and it's amusingly put as always) -- but the specific circumstances have me puzzled:During these last few workdays I [...]
I read the news today: "Oh Boy!"
49 years ago today, a Beech Bonanza craft went down in a farmer's field five miles north of Clear Lake, Iowa. The plane had just taken off from the Mason City Municipal Airport and was on its way to Fargo, North Dakota. The cause of the crash was uncertain, but it was almost certainly due to the icy winter conditions. Inhabitants included [...]
The Never-Ending Beatles Trivia Quiz Challenge — Question #1
DEVIN McKINNEY • What one factor connects the Beatles to three major American filmmakers of the 1970s—Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, and Alan J. Pakula? Hint: What you talkin' 'bout, Lightfoot? Put your guesses in the comments; if nobody gets it, I'll give the answer on Wednesday.
Oh! Our mistake
Harmless-seeming Pied Piper of the Get High Generation From Many Years from Now, Paul McCartney's memoir/bio, page 314: "...Another inaccurate but frequently told story is that 'Fixing a Hole' was about heroin. This track is actually about marijuana."