George Harrison and Me

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dennis miller, George Harrison

My husband’s gift to me on my birthday. I went back in time to meet George Harrison. Lucky me.

all those years ago: happy 20th anniversary

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George Harrison, love, wedding anniversary

Happy 20th wedding anniversary to my husband Tim.  This year I dedicate “All Those Years Ago” by George Harrison if only for these lyrics:

You were the one that they said was so weird

all those years ago.

nineteen years

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George Harrison, Here Comes the Sun, wedding anniversary

19 years ago today I married Timothy Keith Jones.  This is for him, my annual dedication of a George Harrison song.  After a poll on Facebook, I chose this one:

we need a holiday: george harrison day

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Adam Carolla, Beatle, George Harrison, Rumer Godden, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Wisconsin

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There’s too much fighting and protesting and anger today.  We got Libya, Egypt and Wisconsin holding up signs and marching through streets to the tunes of bongo drummers (I’m from Wisconsin and I never thought I’d ever lump my home state with Libya and Egypt).

Yesterday morning while Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana senators played Midwest Chinese Fire Drill, I strolled into my Starbucks.  A showdown between two sisters played outside:

“**** you!” said one.

“I’m telling you the truth!” said the other.

“I don’t have a sister!”

“You have plenty of sisters!”

“Yeah, but I don’t have a sister named Julie.”

I assumed it was Julie the other sister yelled at.

With all this unrest there is no better time for a holiday.  I hereby declare February 25th, George Harrison‘s birthday, a spiritual holiday.

Do we give each other gifts on this holiday?  No.  We use the gifts God gave us. Rumer Godden, author of the children’s book “The Story of Holly and Ivy” said:

“There is an Indian proverb that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.”

With the help of Mr. Harrison’s songs, here’s my outline on how to celebrate this day in those four rooms:

• I’m Happy Just to Dance with You: Physical

Take a yoga class.  My orthopedic surgeon and dentist, both of Indian descent, recommended yoga for my back and thyroid.  Indians in the medical profession got it goin’ ON.  I can see why George was so fascinated with Indian culture and learned how to play sitar.

• I Got My Mind Set on You: Mental

Play Scrabble online.  You’ll learn new words when the computer gets away with words you never heard of, like Qi and Ka.

Read to improve your mental well-being.  Adam Carolla‘s In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks is good for laughter but it’s also eye-opening.  Did you know you can get rid of a zit by taking a shower, sterilizing a pin to pop it, then covering it with Oxy-10?  That’s what Adam says.  Why didn’t I know this as a teenager?  I just covered it with make-up with an icky way-overused sponge which made my acne worse.

• While My Guitar Gently Weeps:  Emotional

Whenever we apply a method to deal with anger it never works.  So I let Angry Birds take out my rage for me.  Shooting birds shaped like bombs through sling shots to destroy little green pigs is at least a little entertaining.  See if you’re still mad after that.

• My Sweet Lord: Spiritual

One of the easiest ways to enhance your spiritual life is to sign up for a daily e-mail.  I get mine through Heartlight.  They send me a Bible passage and a quote for the day.  Rumer Godden’s quote popped up in my in-box just a few days ago.

Men, on George Harrison Day, grow mustaches.  Respect the ‘stache!  Since George Harrison Day falls on a Friday this year, you get a 3 day weekend to grow it.

So roll out your yoga mats, wear breathable cotton and go barefoot.  Report back to me on Monday.

3 dead people I want to meet

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Buddy Holly, country music, George Harrison, Hunter S. Thompson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, waylon jennings, Willie Nelson

The book My Listography: My Amazing Life in Lists asks me to “List people you would like to meet.” No one comes to mind because I’ve met all the people I want to.  So I changed the title to “List DEAD people you would like to meet.”  Here we go:

1.  Hunter S. Thompson, because I’m p.o.’d at him.  He went too early and I’d love to know what he thinks of the current administration.  I’d love to read more road stories, more campaign stories, more just-anything stories.  But the main reason I’m mad?  He never met ME.  So you blew it, Hunter.  Because I know as hard and crotchety you are, I could have made you laugh.

So, if I were to meet him, I’d run up and tell him off.  Then I’d give him a great big bear hug and run gleefully away as he tells me to get the hell away from him.  Pure bliss.

2.  Waylon Jennings, because I never introduced him to my daughter Holly.  He has a son named Buddy.  Since Waylon was with Buddy Holly the night he died, I always thought the names of our children were bits of pure planned coincidence.  If one was to open the dictionary to MAN, you’d see Waylon’s picture.

The only question I’d ask:  ”How come you quit drugs and clocked out early when Willie Nelson is alive and higher than the Mir space station?”

3.  George Harrison, just so I could ask God why he took away this quiet soul so early.  When George left, he still left a spirit around in the air, like when you shake talcum powder and some of it still floats and lingers before it silently falls to the ground.

I’d ask, “What impression would you most want us to remember?”  And I’d leave it at that, because I can’t begin to answer.

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ba-ba-ba-ba: dedicated to the one I love

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Bob Dylan, BoDeans, Clarence Thomas, David Letterman, George Harrison, happy together, Hollywood Walk of Fame, if not for you, Lady GaGa, love shack, Rock Lobster, the turtles, tom petty

Plinky‘s prompt for the day is to create a playlist for the one I love. You know who you are.

If Not For You by George Harrison

I found this gem while researching George Harrison last year when he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Bob Dylan wrote the lyrics, but it was this performance from 1992 that made me favorite it:

The mustache, the purple jacket, and 1992, the year we married. Definitely first choice.

Love Shack by B-52s

This song was around number one when my husband and I were dating. I first heard the B-52s do it on David Letterman, remembering them from the early eighties as the crazy “Rock Lobster” people. The next day at work I raved about it which was fortunate since I worked in a record store. This CD along with the BoDeans, Tom Petty and the Traveling Wilburys were on constant rotation.

This band was the original Lady GaGa. I heard that the reason they named themselves the B-52s was from the ladies’ hair that was fixed to look like bombs.

Happy Together by Turtles

Tim had this grand plan for me the night he proposed. He hid my ring in a piece of cake (he called it “Carat Cake”) and came over to the house. I had the worst cold and I was watching the Clarence Thomas sexual harassment trial. Romantic, I know.

We went out in the cold and drove around telling everyone the good news, though I was coughing and hacking up a storm. In the car, he played this song with the following lyrics:

Me and you and you and me

No matter how they toss the dice, it has to be

The only one for me is you, and you for me

So happy together

And these thoughtful words:

Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba

Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba

In sickness and in health, we’re still happy together.

the sun, chirping, and the child: 3 songs I never tire of

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Arts, Beatles, Dick Clark, George Harrison, Here Comes the Sun, John Lennon, Lyrics, meet the beatles, music, pleasant prairie, plinky, quiet riot, WI

 

 

Here Comes the Sun by George Harrison

My sister played this album a LOT when I was little. Our family lived in a cozy one floor home in Pleasant Prairie, WI. My sister had all the Beatles albums and when I learned to read, I sat enthralled by the huge album covers and notes.

I saw the boys transforming from half shadows on Meet the Beatles to the four squares on Let it Be. “Here Comes the Sun” reminds me of whatever we lose, it eventually comes back just like the sun never-failing to rise.

Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by Mac & Katie Kissoon

Did Quiet Riot rip off the melody of this song for “Cum On Feel the Noize?” Listen closely, they sound alike. This song came out in 1971 which means I was 2 years old when it was on AM radio. I don’t remember much as a toddler but I do remember music.

I read that this song, about a baby bird who lost its mother, is a statement about boys lost in Vietnam. I’m not sure if that’s true but I do know that it’s a bubblegum pop song with a good beat you can dance to (to quote the many teenagers on Dick Clark‘s Rate-a-Record)

O-O-H Child by The Five Stair Steps

This song I listened to after my first daughter was born with a multitude of medical issues. The week after her birth, NICU kept finding something wrong with her as each day went by. First there were gastrointestinal issues, then a single kidney, and finally a hole in her heart.

Although the doctors swarmed around my husband and I and told us exactly what happened and what we needed to do, it still felt like we were drowning. Then I heard these lyrics: “Ooh child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh child, thing’s will get brighter.” And yes, eventually, we walked in the rays of the beautiful sun.

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what is life: happy anniversary

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Christianity, Christmas, Easter, Easter Sunday, George Harrison, Holidays, Jesus, Religion and Spirituality, Traditions, wedding anniversary, what is life

For my husband Tim. We celebrate 18 years of marriage on Easter Sunday.

discography listography

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Arlo Guthrie, Brian Wilson, Bruce Springsteen, Don McLean, George Harrison, Jimmy Webb, John Prine, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Simon & Garfunkel, Three Dog Night, Tom Waits

Image via Wikipedia

I purchased a writer’s prompt notebook called My Listography: My Amazing Life in Lists. There were many types of these books at Barnes & Noble This one stood out because it’s meant for 8-year-olds and up. To be honest, books for grown-ups scare me.

Here’s the first one:

List Your Favorite Songs (in no particular order):

1. City of New Orleans (written by Steve Goodman, sung by Arlo Guthrie)

2. Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love With You (Tom Waits)

3. Down to Zero (Joan Armatrading)

4. Highwayman (written by Jimmy Webb, sung by the Highwaymen)

5. Please Don’t Bury Me (John Prine)

6. Backstreets (Bruce Springsteen because it’s the only song to mention my name)

7. Shambala – Three Dog Night

8. Black & White – Three Dog Night

9. Here Comes the Sun – George Harrison

10. Holly Holy – Neil Diamond

11. God Only Knows – written by Brian Wilson, sung by the Beach Boys

12. April Come She Will – Simon & Garfunkel

13. Indian Reservation – Paul Revere & the Raiders

14. September – Earth Wind & Fire

15. American Pie – Don McLean

16. Ring of Fire – written by June Carter Cash, sung by Johnny Cash

 

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the rock’s prayer

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Alan Freed, Beatles, Don McLean, eric idle, George Harrison, Hannah Montana, Joan Armatrading, Lord's Prayer, Prayer, Simon & Garfunkel

A kindergarten girl sat at our table at the library the other day. She told us all about the books she carried around with her. She was so proud to display her tomes on High School Musical and Hannah Montana. I prayed to myself my version of the Lord’s Prayer. I call it The Rock’s Prayer:

Dear Lord, in the name of all things holy, please do not let this girl school my daughters in Disney music. Do not undo what I’ve exposed them to, from Don McLean to Simon & Garfunkel. They not only know who Joan Armatrading is, they ask I play her in the car.

May the Beatles enter into her life and may she not know what hit her. May the spirit of George Harrison float around her like a halo. And may her parents turn off that damn Nickelodeon after Spongebob.

In Rock’s name I pray. And all the children of Alan Freed say, “Amen!”

 

George Harrison was also the best pirate ever. I have proof:

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