Was I surprised, yeah, was I surprised, no not at all

After my son's six year old iPad finally broke I replaced it. The music that was on the old one did not transfer over for whatever reasons so I ended up doing the selection all over again.

I know some of what he listens to, but most of it was a guess and, I admit, projection on my end. So, yes, I loaded his iTunes with what I would have liked to listen to in 1978.

Who can say what a non-verbal, fourteen year old kid with autism will play? He likes acoustic numbers, or acoustic guitars with jangly electric. Nothing really loud, heavy or punk. He likes watching the early Beatles material on DVD. Yes, this type is very familiar to me.

He's been playing Walking in the Rain by The Ronettes on repeat. I caught him listening to it a few weeks back and he had a very sad look on his face. All I said was, "Yes, that's a beautiful song." This morning's playlist was the opening bars of Badfinger's Come and Get It, the opening riff of Tom Petty's American Girl and Maryanne With the Shaky Hands by The Who.

The huge surprise is his love of Pretty Ballerina, the other hit by the Left Banke. He will play this one over and over. I put a fan made video on for him and he watched it. I even found a copy of the album AND the 45 and played it for him in the backroom, where he sat and patiently listened as he rocked himself back to front while looking at the album cover.

I do not know what's happening in his head, but I am honored that he likes some of the music I do. We are thrilled that he is listening to music that is more grown up. He also does not come up to me when I am playing guitar anymore, the times he stopped me from playing by putting his hand on the strings with a look that said, "Stop Dad." Maybe he likes my rendition of Eight Days A Week on the Rickenbacker?

Things you notice 34 years later

Driving home from work this song came up on my iPod, it was Heart's cover but here is the original.



While listening to the intro I was reminded of the intro to this song.



Cannot believe I have not made the connection until now.

Then I found this online.



I'm glad someone else did too.

If you can read this, you are being tagged

Working on various projects, including the Arts Festival, is taking up some creative time. Wish I was not so distracted and unfocused. A piece of paper flew off the table earlier, written on it are the names of two schools to research. My son will most likely be attending one of them next year. He'll be in sixth grade and in middle school.

Time flies.

I do not read comic books. The published works of DC Comics and Marvel and their filmed editions have no real meaning in my life other than small entertainment.

I have never watched an episode of the Wire and still, somehow, have managed to hold down a full time job.

I avoid doing anything in binge format, although I've watched a few episodes of The Kids in the Hall in a row since finding it on Netflix.

There is not enough Life to watch or click on everything that I'm told is important, or life changing or worth my time.

My own things are going. I do not telegraph everything I do months in advance. I got stuff going on even while I'm looking through who died this month on Wikipedia. You do not want me to post about how my physical health has been the past 48 hours. My TMI has filters that respect the audience. Even if I knew no one would read it, I would not post any details.

I'm in the last few months of 1962 in this fantastic book on The Beatles. I was mistaken in thinking the Bob Spitz book would be the end of a close to definitive biography of the band, but Mark Lewishon's research and scholarship is amazing. I hope to write more about this volume when I finish it.

I like Peter Capaldi as an actor and welcome his interpretation of Doctor Who. Is that a high crime?

I'm disappointed in the new Arcade Fire record, is this reason for me to get spammed?

As I write this, The American Music Awards are on. I have no idea who these people are that my friends are tweeting about. Nor am I particularly concerned enough to change the channel to find out. Life goes forward. No need to hack.

I do not take my pop culture personally when it goes against me, but find something else to take up my time. Maybe even do something that is important and life changing, but I usually watch a soccer documentary about a great player from Hungary on youtube through my television instead. A friend tweeted a link about the Hungarian soccer team in the fifties and I was intrigued, so I found the documentary on youtube. It did not change my life, but it was worth my time.

I hold grudges. Tom Glavine for giving up seven runs in 1 1/3 innings in a game the Mets needed to win. Kevin Dyson for catching that ball. I will go to my death knowing it was a forward lateral. At least one ex-wife hates me enough to block me on Facebook. I did not like Lou Reed after seeing him live.

You do not want to see me with facial hair. I tried it years ago. It looked like crap. I am not making myself look like crap for a month of manufactured awareness of a horrible disease.

And do not be that guy by correcting me about the Glavine stat if I'm wrong. I have not looked it up. I'm just a guy on my couch, watching New England get their ass beat on Sunday night football. It's in the second quarter, the game can change. The game can always change. I'm a Bills fan, I know this. I'm a Mets fan, I know this. I support Everton, I am used to mediocrity. I would never tell anyone that the Bills/Blue Jackets/Everton/Mets/Celtic are important, life changing or worth your time.

It's become much, much easier to scroll past than comment.

Buster Keaton though, you should consider.

Anyway, Arcade Fire's next record might be good, so can Mumford and Sons'.

What happened to the hope in all the vitriol?

I am imperfect though, taking in some schadenfreude while the Patriots are losing badly, at home.

Good Ol' Freda!

Just when you think all the angles of the Beatles story have been covered comes a documentary from the perspective of their fan club secretary. Good Ol' Freda, tells the story of Freda Kelly who, as a seventeen year old in 1962, became an insider to the incredible rise of the band and was there at the fall.

Kelly has an incredible amount of integrity and has protected her privacy to such an extent that many of her close family and friends had no real idea of what she did during the sixties.

The film is far from a tell-all or a money grab. Kelly has specific reasons to document her story and while telling some lovely anecdotes refuses to sling any mud. Kelly is far from destitute but has had some underlying tragedy in her life. She told some incredibly sweet stories about how she befriended the parents of the Beatles, especially Ringo's. Another impressive things about the Kickstarted production is that there are original Beatles songs in the soundtrack, the rights of which were waived by the surviving members of the group. That's the respect they have for Kelly and the film makers.



My one peeve was during a montage of the inner circle who have died, there was no mention of Mal Evans, which was disappointing. Otherwise it's a remarkable documentary about a girl who was a fan of the band who became a key member of the team. For Beatlemaniacs it's a must see part of the canon. Not an exploitative work, but fair and honest insight from an until now unheard of insider.

The Eyes of Truth

Bit of a pity party last night. All is well, but the emotions of the times weighed down on me. Then my friend Sue, who often puts things in her blog that are exactly what I need to hear, said "The torment of having an autistic child is not knowing what he knows, so you don’t know what level to interact. And you don’t know what to hope for."

Which is where I've been with him. He's a very well behaved child but last night he went up in his room and sat in the dark for about half an hour, playing with his toys. He knows how to turn on the light. Then he's just sitting there, on the edge of his bed, feet in the headboard and you can't get him to tell you what's in that brain of his...he looks so lost and I can see he knows I know...it's in his eyes.

He has so many challenges and I feel guilty I cannot erase them.

While watching the Blue Jackets Fall Apart...

I'm returning to the land of the healthier while having a Genny Cream and watching the Blue Jackets' season essentially come to an end in Calgary.

More loss, but it's only a game I have no stake in.

I've been listening to a lot of soccer over the internet the past few weeks. It's become so much easier to find a match through my Tunein Radio app than find a video link online that may get cut off, could be of middling quality or a wonderful Veetle feed that takes up all the RAM so you can't do anything else on the laptop.

While sick on the couch Wednesday I could have listened to Arsenal beat the crap out of Leyton Orient but I found a station similar to ESPN radio and dozed to reports of gambling odds interspersed with updates of the live matches. So I got to hear the reports of the Scottish Cup match when Neil Lennon acted like a thug. Yes, it's an Old Firm match and tempers are in the red zone, but Lennon's really got to tone it down if he's going to be manager long term. The guy's already facing a four match ban.

Watched Nowhere Boy last night. A decent look at John Lennon's awkward teenage years. Most of the film took place during the time he was just beginning to listen to rock and roll and before he met Paul. Aaron Johnson did a good job at portraying Lennon. Thomas Brodie-Sangster was outstanding as a teenage Paul. Just looking at his resume I see that he played Sam, the kid in Love Actually.



Kristin Scott-Thomas was very effective in playing Aunt Mimi, who essentially raised John. The weak link in the film was Anne-Marie Duff, who gave Julia a bit more vacancy and cool mom vibe than was necessary. I'm not going to quibble about historical accuracy, but John's eyes were brown, not blue. First time director Sam Taylor-Wood did a good thing by including a rendition of the opening chord of A Hard Days' Night into this film's opening. She and Johnson also fell in love during filming.

Another film we just watched was The Secret of Kells. A fictional, animated rendition of the writing of the Book of Kells. The animation was gorgeous. The story held together quite well. But this is one I would have liked to have seen on a large screen, the colors and details are a treat.

Brand Extension

Picked this up on cd yesterday. Yoko is now officially scraping the bottom of the barrel with all the remasters and compliations that have been released in the thirty years since John's death. This one though, a Stripped Down version of Double Fantasy, is worth seeking out. Lennon's voice is brought up way up in the mix and a lot of the extraneous noise (choirs, for example) has been taken out. This works well on a few of the songs with a major difference on Woman and turns the rest of side two into a naked mess. I like Starting Over most and Yoko's Give Me Something works with this raw polishing.

You also get a remastered version of the original included. A decent twofer.

You are men?

Have not really said much about the Beatles remasters. At this time, what I will say is that I have what I wanted, and I like what I've heard. The mixes have some punched up bass and a clarity revealed that was not in the previous cds. What the engineers could not improve was left alone. Abbey Road sounds absolutely exquisite. I'm not going to detail the minutia in the stereo and mono mixes here, but there's plenty of material on that in other media and blogs.

Helped a friend move yesterday. Figures the one day it rains in the last two weeks and we get to lug someone elses belongings in it. Could have been worse. I'm feeling the effects of laboring today, as there were only two men to lift a sofa, washer and dryer. No one was injured although one of us got quite damp dealing with a washer hose and nearly busted a hand after said washer nearly fell on it.

Scottish Wife now has her social security card, I'm sure we'll be hearing about the status interview soon!

From the small world department: We went to a birthday party Saturday night and were introduced to a woman who lived in the UK for several years. We talked about immigration and she told us about her now ex husband and how well he's fit into American life by getting involved with the Columbus Crew and also getting their young son involved. I asked her son's name and she told me. I've met them, at Columbus Crew functions and even took their picture.

Even watched a bit of soccer yesterday. A live link for the Celtic/Hearts match provided some fine drama as Loovens scored in extra time to give the Hoops the win. Later, I avoided all websites and updates and watched Everton/Blackburn on delay and was rewarded with a 3-0 Everton victory. Saha scored a brace, the defense rallied and tightened up despite the loss of Phil Neville. Upswing!

I did miss the Crew tie to Chicago entirely, as well as the Bills win.

Coming down to the final two weeks before IWPS. Time to start cramming. There's still time for you to DONATE.

Many thanks if you have!

Coffee After 6PM is Never Good For Me

It's been a rather busy and awesome last few days. In a preview of yesterday's OSU/Navy game we saw this behind a High Street restaurant a few days ago.



Nothing like burning a couch to get pumped up for the first game of the season.

Friday night we celebrated the gorgeous early September weather by going to Schiller Park to see Actor's Summer Theater's presentation of Shakespeare's As You Like It. We brought some beverages, a blanket, and with friends took up a comfortable space in the park. The interpretation of the play had a twist, some of the actors were puppets. I was especially impressed with the Wrestler in the first act.



The acting was sound, better than many of the previous plays I've seen this troupe do. The use of the horn fanfare of Rocky J. Squirrel's from Bullwinkle gave me a good chuckle each time it was used to bring the Duke on stage. Well played.

It was after intermission when the play fell apart. Not the fault of the actors, but the play itself. Characters were introduced for no other reason than to extend the show. Nothing was happening for many scenes and I was grateful it finally ended.

Got to find a nice feed to the Scotland/Macedonia soccer game yesterday morning. It was raining at Hampden as the home team ended up winning 2-0. The victory keeps Scotland's slim hopes at making the World Cup going for another four days. On Wednesday they play a very tough team from the Netherlands. Even if, and I say if, they beat the Dutch they're still going to need help to make it through to the next round. But for now, there's hope.



Yesterday afternoon the Scottish Wife and I went to the city's new metropark. The Scioto Audubon Park is just south of downtown, next to the impound lot. The main building is a marvel of green engineering and architecture from its recycling of rainwater to geothermal heating; quite impressive. The park is still being developed. It looks and feels too new in parts. Once it weathers itself in it will be a standout park in an already fine Columbus Metro Park system, and there are herons!



It was one of those days in which I really liked the city I call home. We kept taking advantage of the weather to venture out to the Gallery Hop for dinner and people watching and we were not disappointed.



With the Buckeyes hanging on to beat Navy, folks were in a good mood. We saw a few people I had not seen in years, some fine looking Navy men in their dress uniforms and crowds of people on High Street. This month there seemed to be more musicians than usual. They were spread out so that every 100 feet you heard a new sound, a different type of music. Hearing the city's diversity kept the good mood going.

Then I came home and there was a nice surprise in my inbox. All I'll say is that I've been enjoying the remastered Beatles catalogue, and that side two of Abbey Road is glorious.