Yee-up. In the course of trying to find the horrific Macca fan painting immortalized in "The Compleat Beatles" referenced by commenter J.R. Clark, I stumbled across this really neat blog specializing in photos of our Fabs. Enjoy, but browse at your own risk. You'll lose some time. Like, a day. Another Beatle photo blog I like is the memorably titled "Paul McCartney, Sex Gladiator."
I saw this painting on Regretsy, the site that comments snarkily on products offered for sale on Etsy. Readers of Hey Dullblog, which Beatle comes off worst here? Best?[Note that this is an old listing -- you can't buy this painting, but you can read the Regretsy post about it.]
NANCY CARR • “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is now routinely underrated. I recently read Robert Rodriguez’ new book, Revolver: How the Beatles Reimagined Rock n’ Roll, and the introduction threw this underrating into sharp relief. I highly recommend Rodriguez’ book in all other ways—it's a fascinating look at Revolver’s creation, artistry, and context—but the introduction made me grind my teeth. The path Rodriguez treads in his introduction is now very well worn: people used to think Sgt. Pepper’s was the thing, but now we know Revolver is. Fair enough, to a point. Revolver is excellent, and preferring it to Sgt, Pepper’s is defensible. [...]
[Update August 2013: I just found this elegant little video from a group trying to discourage music piracy. It's Beatles-authorized, and makes the point that "[l]oving The Beatles is a shared experience." And I'd add a sweet, life-affirming one, too. How many of those do we have anymore? That's why we do Dullblog.] http://youtu.be/K0_MeHq8o-o As an admitted collector of Beatle bootlegs, you might think that I have a free-and-easy attitude when it comes to downloading music. But I don't, and why I don't was expressed very nicely by Niall O'Conghaile over at Dangerous Minds: "I may be wrong, but I believe that [...]
Not only did we not do the seemingly obligatory "Paul is 70" post, we are going to share with you the following much less well-noted events: "Rishikesh George" made of felt (via Dangerous Minds)-- Rishikesh George by Felt Mistress --as well as the sad news of Victor Spinetti's death. I always feel a slight resentment towards the people of my childhood imagination when they die, but I am trying not to hold it against him. He was 82. Lord knows how old that makes me. Best not to think about it. I met Vic once (that's what people were calling [...]
The original Mad Men. Look at that hat, for example; that's MAD. Did Matthew Weiner follow the structure of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the recently-completed fifth season of “Mad Men”? Yi! News site contributor Emily Viviani thinks so, and has developed this thesis over three posts, the first of which you can read here. Thanks go to commenter Craig for drawing the attention of Hey Dullblog to her pieces. -- Nancy Carr Viviani's case Some of the parallels Viviani draws are interesting (“At the Codfish Ball” as a take on “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”, [...]
http://youtu.be/ePaHG6g7uFw Just in case you'd never seen it.BTW, Kate and I went to see the newly refurbished "Yellow Submarine" last month, which looks gorgeous. That recent viewing reminds me just how wonderful and detailed this parody really is. Two thumbs up from the toughest parody critic you know. :-)
El Topo poster by Graham Humphreys. Reading this post on "El Topo" at BoingBoing.com made me recall that I read somewhere it was John Lennon's favorite movie. Anybody ever seen it? Should I seek it out? I have an insatiable desire to watch pre-1980 movies, especially foreign ones, but I have a low tolerance for symbolism (Bresson's "Au Hasard Balthazar," for example, left me cold...well, the humans did. The donkey was superb). Opinions? Here's the movie's page on Rotten Tomatoes—surprisingly positive for an underground flick, right? Here's the trailer… http://youtu.be/ceHH3QGXvNw While researching this post, I ran across this post, which [...]
Been saying it for years, glad Mr. Richards agrees. Around 2:20 of this interview with Hunter S. Thompson. Just a little something for the next time you're having the old Beatles vs. Stones debate. http://youtu.be/iTq4fEHiJhI