Posts Tagged ‘Beatles’
“Life is a desire, not a meaning”*…
Mashable created a map of what each state wants (according to Google’s Autocomplete).
The resulting map reads like a list of New Year’s resolutions made by Civil War veterans. Did you know, for example, that more than anything, Wyoming evidently wants an aircraft carrier? Are you close enough to Wisconsin that residents revealed their secret wish to be called “The Mitten State?” Who could forget existential Florida, whose only desire is simply “to know.”
Check out the map below and see what Google thinks your state wants most. If your state happens to be blank, it’s because Google says it doesn’t want anything, which has to count for something, right?
Mashable’s map was inspired by the somewhat more existential work of of Tumblr user Gaysquib, who used Google’s auto-complete to determine what each state is…
* Charlie Chaplin
[Update: here is Europe autocompleted; and here is the Middle East and Asia]
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As we deliberate on desire, we might recall that it was on this date in 1964 that the Beatles occupied the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time, when “I Want to Hold Your Hand” reached #1. It had already ascended to the pinnacle of the British charts: indeed, with advance orders exceeding one million copies in the U.K., “I Want to Hold Your Hand” would ordinarily have hit the top of the British record charts on its day of release (November 29, 1963), but it was blocked for two weeks by the group’s first million-seller, “She Loves You.” The release order was reversed in the U.S.: “I Want to Hold Your Hand” held the number one spot for seven weeks before being replaced by “She Loves You.” It remained on the U.S. charts for a total of fifteen weeks, and became the Beatles’ best-selling single worldwide.
“It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense….”*
What people really think…
Many, many more at Honest Slogans.
* Mark Twain
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As we appreciate the eternal relevance of “caveat emptor,” we might recall that it was on this date in 1961 that Brian Epstein, a lapsed actor who’d studied at RADA with Albert Finney, Peter O’Toole, and Susannah York, but returned to Liverpool to run his family’s record store, visited the Cavern Club… where he first heard The Beatles. Smitten, he signed the group to a management contract, shepherded the group through a series of unsuccessful record company pitches before convincing George Martin of EMI to sign them, and oversaw their meteoric rise until his death in 1967. As Paul McCartney observed, “If anyone was the Fifth Beatle, it was Brian.”
Brian and the boys
The Vice President will see you now…
A firearms instructor accidentally shot a student while teaching a gun-safety class on Saturday in Fairfield County [Ohio] to people seeking permits to carry concealed weapons.
Terry J. Dunlap Sr., who runs a shooting range and training center at 6995 Coonpath Rd. near Lancaster, was demonstrating a handgun when he fired a .38-caliber bullet that ricocheted off a desk and into student Michael Piemonte’s right arm.
Dunlap, 73, also is a long-time Violet Township trustee who is running for re-election in November.
Yesterday, Piemonte said he feels lucky, and it could have been worse.
He and his wife, Allison, both 26 and residents of Pataskala in Licking County, attended the daylong concealed-carry class together.
“My wife was sitting just inches away from me,” he said. “It could have easily hit her.”
Dunlap apparently didn’t know that the gun was loaded, Piemonte said — “That’s my guess”…
Read the full story in The Columbus Dispatch, and here (from whence, the photo above).
Oh, and as Gawker reports, a Republican state senator in Arkansas who is leading a legislative committee on the subject of giving guns to school teachers accidentally shot a teacher during an “active shooter” drill earlier this year.
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As we load and lock, we might recall that it was on this date in 1971 that John Lennon and Yoko Ono landed in New York City, having left London in the aftermath of the break-up of the Beatles. They took up residence at the Dakota, near what’s now known as “Strawberry Fields,” two years later.
“Without music, life would be a mistake”*…
From great songs…
… to the works of great bands…
… Designer Viktor Hertz presents The Pictograms of Pop (among many other graphic delights).
* Friedrich Nietzsche
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As we smile semiotically, we might recall that it was on this date in 1957 that rock and roll’s first great wild man, “The Killer”– Jerry Lee Lewis– appeared on television for the first time.
click here or on the image above to view JLL’s July 28, 1957 appearance on The Steve Allen Show
The British, Invaded…
The Red Navy Singers, Dancers & Musicians bringing down the Iron Curtain with their version of “Let It Be” on a goodwill tour in Cardiff in 1989
… and click here for 14 other so-dreadful-they’re-delightful perversions of the works of The Lads from Liverpool at Open Culture’s “The 15 Worst Beatles Cover Songs.” William Shattner, Sean Connery, Mrs. Miller, Tiny Tim, Mae West, Wing (by all means, do check out Wing!)– the hits just keep on comin’!
[TotH to Pop Loser]
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As we reconsider Muzak and Mantovani, we might recall that it was on this date in 1963 that Japanese crooner Kyu Sakamoto became the first (and so far, the only) artist to #1 hit on the American pop charts with a song sung entirely in Japanese. originally titled “Ue O Muite Aruk” (roughly, “I look up when I walk”), an American record company executive retitled Sakamoto’s ballad “Sukiyaki.” (see/hear it here.)
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