I’m taking a short break from the great Anthony Colpo smackdown to report on all the goings on with the ‘wretched’ choral society and the Beatles concert.  As I’ve mentioned before, MD has been pushing for a Beatles concert since she’s been the president (her three-year term will be mercifully over on June 30, and I’ll have my wife back).  It’s all come to pass with a whole lot of help from a whole bunch of people. And, thanks to all this effort by all these people – especially Brooks Firestone – it has turned into a much, much huger event than she had ever imagined.

The event kicked off last night with a small reception with Sir George Martin.  About 50 people came to a wine and hors d’oeuvres at the Founders Room of the Granada theater.  Sir George gave a wonderful talk about his early career and his first meeting with the Beatles.  At that time non-Sir George was heading EMI records and his specialty was comedy records.  Brian Epstein had arranged an appointment (Martin said he still has his diary, which lists Epstein as Bernard Epstein) and when Martin told him that he wasn’t interested, Epstein looked so dejected, that Martin relented and said, “Okay, I’ll give them one hour next week.”

The Beatles came in at the appointed time, were terrible as musicians, but were absolutely charming.  Martin took them into the control room to listen to their audition recording and told them to tell him if there was anything they didn’t like.  George Harrison promptly said,”For starters, I’m not crazy about your tie.”  The other Beatles were mortified because they thought George may have blown the deal for them.  George Martin, on the other hand, thought it was hilarious.  At the end of the day, he agreed to give them a recording contract.  Then, as he said in his talk, “As we all know, the rest is history.”

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I figure it’s about time for another grab bag of a post updating everyone on what’s going on at Casa Eades and throwing up a few interesting articles and websites.

The Verdi Requiem

The Santa Barbara Choral Society’s Verdi Requiem was a triumph last weekend.  As you can see from the photo above, MD was pretty whipped when it was over.  Apparently, it’s pretty demanding on soloists, orchestra and chorus.  And, as you can see from the photo above, the listeners don’t have the same burden.  Other photos here.  A recent review of the concert here.

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I’ve been looking for a theme song for this blog for a long time when one came to me over the in-store music system.  I heard it when my eldest son and I were grabbing the fixings for dinner at a natural foods grocery in Dallas a few days ago.  As the infectious beat thumped down around me, I hustled to position myself under a speaker so I could hear better.  I listened and was taken back to what was probably my social awakening as a gawky, pimply teenager.

My father had been transferred to Detroit, Michigan when I was just starting junior high.  We drove from our home state of Missouri to Motor City, as it was later to be called.  Prior to this, I had grown up in small towns and had just been living with my parents, two brothers and two sisters in an old army barracks in Jefferson Barracks, MO, which was on the Mississippi River near St. Louis.   There were eight families living in each one of these barracks, and each living space had a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and one bath.  Needless to say, the seven of us were in cramped quarters.

We moved to a blue-collar suburb of Detroit and I started junior high.  I met a girl in one of my classes who invited me to a party at her sister’s boyfriend’s house.  We went to this party – my very first teenage party experience – and I thought I had hit the big time.  My date and I were the youngest ones there – all the other kids were in high school.  I couldn’t believe that I – a real social neophyte – was there hanging out with actual high schoolers.  And not only hanging out with them, they acted like we were a part of their crowd.

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Messiah ad Dec 5, 2008

The day started off today with a mad tear by the bride to make sure the full-page ad for the Messiah was in the entertainment section of the local paper.  You can see her above brandishing it proudly.  She’s holding the paper as she is because she doesn’t want anyone to see her bed head.

Chocolate shake Dec 5, 2008

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