| | I’m as big a Beatles fan as anyone, but I recently read a couple articles that make the statement: enough already. The Beatles have been canonized aplenty, and even though I never stopped loving them, I recognize that maybe there were some other pop/rock bands that made some pretty good tunes. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has appeared at the top of lists of the best albums “of all time,” pretty much since it first appeared in 1967. But is it? Really? Depends on who you talk to. I actually wasn’t crazy about the album when I first purchased it, but it grew on me. Today, the Beach Boys’ magnum opus Pet Sounds seems to have highest honors, and in many ways, it deserves it. The point is, there isn’t any “greatest of all time” anything. In the spirit of fairness, here’s a list of what I would vote as the worst songs the Beatles ever recorded — commenters , you can add your own. - Blue Jay Way – Absolute worst thing they ever recorded — boring, snoring drivel.
- Dear Prudence – From the White Album — just boring and droning.
- Don’t Let Me Down – I don’t know why I don’t like this — it’s boring, for sure, and not nearly as badly written as some others, but it seems like a throwaway tune to me.
- Love Me Do – No tune, with harmonica backing.
- Good Night – Ringo sings this, which is not always a good thing, but that’s not the main problem. It’s a syrupy, draggy amorphous blob, with too much orchestra behind it.
- The Long and Winding Road — same problem as Good Night. Phil Spector’s orchestration ruined an ok song, but there’s just no energy in this one.
- Long, Long, Long — a Harrison song off the White Album. Weak whiny vocal, and a melody that just drifts around.
- Dizzy Miss Lizzy — nice energy but boring. It’s a Little R
- The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
- Yer Blues
- Taxman
 The video here is only a taste of the outside activity. For a really good look inside, check the project’s photo gallery at its website. Some great photos here – only problem is you can’t stop the slide show and the pictures change a little too quickly. But you’ll still get an idea of the scope of this wonderful project for the city of Elkhart.  Dave Dufour I’ve been a fan of Andrew Sullivan for a long time. Recently, and perhaps unfairly, I’ve found his constant drumbeat about torture to be a huge overreaction, given the kinds of people we’re fighting in the war on terrorism. But I think, perhaps, reasonable people can disagree, and Andrew is one of the most reasonable. Today he posted this, regarding many of the same conflicted feelings I’ve had about the institutions that continually let us down, to the point that we stop believing in them. Continue reading Shared conflicts  Maybe it has escaped some (not all) observers, but the set for the Obama event tonight looks way too much like some of the scenes in “Triumph of the Will,” Leni Riefenstahl’s Hitler propoganda film. All that neo-Roman looking grandiosity screams “cult of personality.” If they go for some low camera angles on the speaker, we’ll know where they got the idea.
One of our best, if not the best playwrights writes about his departure from liberalism. In the Village Voice no less. I don’t agree with absolutely everything here, but 99% of it rings true. A couple of money quotes: What about the role of government? Well, in the abstract, coming from my time and background, I thought it was a rather good thing, but tallying up the ledger in those things which affect me and in those things I observe, I am hard-pressed to see an instance where the intervention of the government led to much beyond sorrow. Continue reading Brilliant insights from David Mamet
Today’s Elkhart Truth ran a great story by my friend Marcia Fulmer about the upcoming renovation of Elkhart’s Elco Theatre, along with a nice history of the venerable old building, it’s ups and downs, etc. The announcement of the $13.5MM project is here. The history piece has some of the photos from the print version, but some of the really rare old historical photos are missing online, and there’s an odd conglomeration of photos from the Elkhart Jazz Festival instead. If you have a chance to look at the printed paper from today, do so. It’s a job well done by Marcia and The Truth. As usual there are some naysayers who feel as though the Elco is not worth saving, or that the money should go to “help poor people” or some other thing. I say nonsense. Elkhart’s cultural life has suffered a good bit with the loss of companies like Miles, Whitehall and others. Arts funding has not been as strong since the town lost the upper-management types who patronized the symphony and other venues. Jack Boyd Smith and Gaska Tape, as well as Coachmen Industries, the Rex and Alice Martin Foundation and others have provided a lot of great support, but they can’t do everything, especially without a focal point in the community that says “here’s where the arts live — here’s where your money goes.” For years, the Elco (along with the late, lamented EHS Auditorium) was that focal point. With this project, it can be again. The arts are a tremendous addition to quality of life in any community. When the quality of life is high, more industries and business will locate here, and more quality individual will do so as well. It’s a win-win for everyone. This is a no-brainer, especially when the alternative could be yet a nother vacant lot with nothing in it to attract people downtown. The city owes a huge debt of gratitude to Jack Cittadine, who headed up the study group, as well as those on the study group itself, for providing some great direction and an actual plan of attack. Long live the Elco.  Camera phone picture of tonight’s performance of The Man Who Came to Dinner at the Bristol Opera House. Nice performances from Dan Johnson, Scott Fowler Jeanne Drust, Carl Wiesinger and and several others whose names I can’t remember now (sorry folks, you really were good).
This picture, however, proves that camera phones without flashes are pretty much designed for daylight, not small, brightly tungsten-lit stages. Elkhart Truth review of “The Man who Came to Dinner” is here. |
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