Dig A Pony

Plugs.
The only plug I have for you is Malach's new Orkut Account, so ask me to be your friend, hopefully we can get 1200 like we do on our MySpace Account.

Blogger issue, AGAIN!
Blogger has been down all day for this blog, this is the second time in two weeks and again it is FTP issues, I am not sure if this blog will get up tonight, or tomorrow, but I have about had it . . . Wordpress, here I come.

You Are Listening too . . .
Dig a Pony off of Let It Be. The song was actually the last song played in the famed 1969 rooftop concert and this recording is taken from that, with a few Phil Spector time edits. Lennon wrote and composed the song and actually thought of the song as a "peice of garbage" which I don't agree with. The song, while containing a string of surreal to nonsense phrases in directed at his soon to be wife Yoko Ono. It is also known as one of the "sloppier" Beatles song, much more rock opera in style than their typical fair (much of Let It Be was though). It is defintely a live sounding intense song. The song is also beautifully harmonized with backing vocals from McCartney.

Spector is credited for emphasizing the blueseyness of the track and for really bringing out the "All I want is you" phrase/chorus. Again the lyrics are very funny, kind of a mix of the straightforward and a mix of more esoteric and surreal lyrics.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Well should of saved some runs for the Tigers for the previous nights games, pitching matchups also don't bode well for the Sox until the final game. Mood: Let's get 'em tomorrow.

Micheal Vick.
Ut Oh. Ron Mexico . . . Cash is getting closer to your jugular

Ahh, to be 11 again.
I recall being 11 . . .

Lucky.
Wow, Malach's gotta get this number, can you imagine "Hello this is Paris Hilton."

MMMMM
Chinese Dinosaur Bones.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and I dig a tapir.

Jai Guru Deva Om

No Plugs Tonight.
Hey it's a Holiday!


Happy 4th of July
Rain, New Beford Fireworks were cancelled and rescheduled for Saturday.


So More About Malach at last Saturday's Red Sox Game
Read the blog from a few days ago for more info. I do have a few pics though:
First one is of course Malach the Merciless on the mound at Fenway just before Beckett arrived out of the dugout to meet him, Second is Coach Rick (hence Rick's Ranger); my sister-in-law; Dan, who has Down Syndrome; James who is slight MR, behind Varitek. I got a video, but it is NESN, and MLB property, I am going to transfer it to MPEG format and we will see how long I can keep it up on YouTube before the MLB Police come get me.

You are listening too . . .
Across the Universe and absolute favorite of mine. A version of the song first appeared on the 1968 charity album for the World Wildlife Fund, No One's Gonna Change Our World. A modified and probably better version appeared then on Let It Be.


Lennon was inspired to write the song after listening to his then wife Cynthia speak, and the thought "words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup" came immediatley to his mind. He immediately grabbed a pen and piece of paper, wrote the lyrics, fell asleep and promptly forgot about them. Lennon stumbled upon them the next day, went to his piano, and began to write chords for them. The song is obviously heavily influenced by Lennon's short term interest in Eastern Thought during the time the song was composed. It is also influenced by his interest in Trancendental Meditation, hence the mantra Jai Guru Deva Om which links the verses and the bridge. The phrase roughly tranlates as Salute Teacher Deva, Om, refer to Brahmananda Saraswati aka Guru Dev, and Om being the natural vibration of the universe, and tantrict kind of chant.


The lyrics while straightforward and highly surreal as in much of Lennon's stuff from that 67 - 68 period. They are also hightly image based. Lennon himself stated it was perhaps the most poetic lyrics he ever wrote. The song was initially thought of as a single, but Lennon was not happy with it's direction. They tried a bit of everthing, including a comb harmonica, backing vocals from some Apple Scruffs. The track was put aside and forgotten. They had seriously thought about releasing it with the Yellow Submarine Soundtrack, but Lennon had become disillusioned with Eastern Philosophy by then and did not like the mantra of the song.

The Beatles were convinced after the song was heard by Spike Milligan to be released on the charity album he was putting together. The song was remixed by George Martin, the sonds of birds were added to the beginning and end of the song.


Though never fully satisfied with the recording, Lennon was very attached to the song and played it during the recordings of the Get Back/Let It Be sessions. The Beatles insisted on adding it to the Album, and by the time of the final albums mix, Lennon's contributions were limited anyway, and this was a good way to fill that gap.


The final mix, done by Phil Spector, is slowed several ticks, and full intrementation was added. This is the version most people are familiar with.


The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Gotta love the Devil Rays.


Now this is a real American!
Joey Chestnut!

STEROIDS!
STEROIDS!


Chilean Lakes.
Have a Crack Problem.


Al Gore III
So, when does this kid meet Dubya's two wild girls? And you can get a Prius to go 100 MPH?


Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach, and you will read my blog

Two of Us

A plethora of Plugs
Where to begin. Well Chapter Two of The Story of Jade, part of Tainted Love Erotic Stories is up. Again as always TLES in rated Mature. Also the poetry of Christopher has also updated, with a cool poem called The Line. Also perhaps the best Fetus-X in months is also loaded up, nice job on this one Millikin. Also, a very funny Sunshine number 48 is also up.

Something else . . . many of you sickos liked the Benoit shirt I posted in yesterday's blog. Well, Zazzle took that one day, as it had a digitally altered image of Benoit on the back, so I remade it, along with a Benoit request. Check em' out.

Don't Make Me GO BENOIT on your ass!
by
Malach

Get this custom shirt at Zazzle

Benoit - 3 Family - 0
by
Malach

Get this custom shirt at Zazzle

Yeah, I have no shame, and you people are sick, those 5 of you who bought banned one, I am not sure if you will have to rebuy them, Zazzle I am sure will email you. There is plenty of other stuff going in the store including more of my painting. . . and again, I take requests.

You are listening too . .
The Beatles final album I will explore, Let It Be. Most of Let It Be was recorded before Abbey Road was recorded, but the Beatles were unhappy with the album, our old buddy Phil Spector re-produced the album about a year after it was made, and it became the last album beyond compilations, and box sets, The Beatles released.

Without rehashing the story of these albums, Wikipedia has a pretty article on the finer points of it's development, the numerous production attempts, the bands almost disintegration and such. By the time Spector had gotten a hold of the album, with McCartney's reluctant agreement, The Beatles had all but officially broken up. The album was intially supposed to be a sort of live studio album, with accompanying film. Spector did try to recreate some of that, but McCartney especially was deeply dissastified with the album, Lennon stated: "He was given the shittiest load of badly-recorded shit with a lousy feeling to it ever, and he made something of it." Kind of a compliment.

Interestingly enough, the album is a mix for critics and fans, some really hate it, some like, some are king of so so. Personally Malach enjoys the album very much, thought nowhere near his favorite.

The song we listen to today is Two of Us, a rather interesting song, that might be the final Lennon-McCartney actual collaboration, though both claimed ownership of the song. The song was done as a duet, a rarity in the Beatles catalogue, and while the song is partially about McCartneys courting his soulmate Linda Eastman, it also seems to address the faltering relationship between singers which at the time of the recording was extremely tense.

The song started out as a rocker, but as McCartney worked more on the composition it became much quieter and introspective. It is most acoustic guitar, with a short electric component, and a soft percussion beat. Lennon shouts out "'I Dig a Pygmy', by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids... Phase One, in which Doris gets her oats!". The shout was mixed in by Spector. The Deaf Aids, was a play on words, that the Beatles nicknamed their amplifiers.

The Mood Of Red Sox Nation.
Sox are up 7 - 3 bottom of 7th. They look like the might be back on track after being star struck from Malach the Merciless. Mood: Let's win out to the break.

Ooh, here's a shock.
Pardons anyone?

Benoit just won't go away.
Dr. under arrest now, and people are starting to call for a congressional investigation. Should be interesting.

Hey Toyi . .
Salman Rushdie wants to be your Sugar Daddy.

Why I love Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Becuase he's a cuckoo clock. Cuckoo, Cuckoo. C'mon Mahmoud, you giving Oliver Stone too much credit there.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day.
I found a better version of the Bas Rutten video, Bas in the man.

I am Malach and I never underestimate the kick to the groin.

Carry That Weight

Plugs
A couple today, first Sunshine 47 now up, entitled God's Tank, you will enjoy this one. Also in an attempt to make purchase of this website merchandise easier, I have started loading the stuff in my store. Another advantage to that is you can now see the rated PG13 and R t-shirts, that Zazzle won't show you unless you register, expect more soon. Also, thanks, this Zazzle store had been very successful.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
We are back to the winning ways, squeaking out a win vs. the Rangers. Now, some news. Malach is going to tomorrows game. Malach's unfied Special Olympics Softball Team has been chosen as a representative of MA Special Olympics to attend the game, batting practice, perhaps meet some players, and toss out the first pitch. The Red Sox are sponsoring a Disability Awareness night. Here a bit of Irony. My team is called Rick's Rangers (named after our coach). The Sox are playing the Texas Rangers. We will probably also get on TV sometime, so keep a lookout for Malach (6' about 225lbs, glasses, I will try to sneak in some type of ad for my site). Mood: Tossing out the first pitch.

You are listening too . .
The last 5 minutes of the side 2 melody on Abbey Road. The songs Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, and The End. This is how most of the word is used to hearing it, it is played this way on the radio. They are actually three seperate short songs, that fit extremely well together. We will go over each. This will also be the last songs I play off of that Album.

Golden Slumbers is the beginning progression and runs right into Carry That Weight. In fact both songs were recorded at the same time as a single piece. Golden Slumbers is based up the ballad of the same name by Thomas Dekker, and borrows heavily from the lyrics. McCartney saw the sheet music at his father's home, but being unable to read music, he was fascinated by the lyrics and went about creating his own arrangement. McCartney uses some very strong vocals in the mid part of the arrangement, and the song harkens to some of his solos hits of the 70's. The song fits beautifully in the time and place of this band. Lennon was not present for the recording owning to his auto accident, but did provide some vocal overdubs.

Carry That Weight is the climatic meledy that not only starts the end of the album, but also brings in a number of elements from early parts of the side 2 melody. It quickly segues into The End, with change of pace. The middle bridge of the song reprised You Never Give Me Your Money and also feature some rifts from Here Comes the Sun. This song again is about the break up of the Beatles; part of it is Lennon "carrying the weight" of guilt for his part of ending the band and Yoko coming in the middle, and the other part is McCartney reflecting upon himself taking on the majority of the business management of the band after Brian Epstein death, another contributing factor the bands demise. Many of the band members also echoed the sentiment that anything the every did solo, would never equal the whole, so the would always be "carrying the weight" of the Beatles.

The End is the last song to appear officially on the album (beyond a short 30 second "hidden" track), the last song of the melody, and one of the last songs ever recorded by the band. The song is very symbolic and interesting, all four Beatles have a solo in the song, including Ringo only drum solo he ever recorded. Ringo despises drum solos and had to be convinced to do it. They actually recorded the song with guitar accompaniment, but turned the volume down in mixing to get the effect of a drum solo. Each Beatles also has a guitar solo McCartney's poppy crunch (which has been heavily sampled in the hip hop community), followed by Harrison's techincal romp, followed by Lennon dirty feedback, you can hear each particular style in each solo. The song also ends with the famous line: And, in the end, the love you take; Is equal to the love you make. That line perhaps simply best describes the Beatles music and career.

More Chris Benoit
This is becoming almost and weird as the JFK assassination. The person who posted the death of Nancy Benoit 14 hours before they found her body, left a statement at Wikipedia today. You can read it here. It was also interesting to hear the first comments from Benoit's father, and comments from Chris Jericho and Bret Hart, friends of Benoit. It good actually to see Bret after his 2002 stroke.

YUUUCK
Veggie Booty. Seriously, what the hell kind of name is Veggie Booty? Story time. Malach full time employer has the largest food pantry in Southeastern MA. I work one floor above it. Kind of nice, I can get tons of food for my clients when needed, and if I forget lunch . . . well, the other day, we got this new cup of soup in. It was called Cock Soup, yes it was chicken . . .

My God.
I wounder if I can view this garbage in YouTube? Why did I even ask?

Why fix it?
Just invade that part of Mexico. BEHOLD THE POWER OF MALACH!

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and I read in Cosmo . . . ew.

Have you seen Polythene Pam?

A couple of plugs today.
8 1/2 by Eleven updated, with episode number 548 more of the unrequited love Cinn has for Nillian.

Also there is a very well written article about recovery written by the recently ressurected Dr. Murk over at the WoW. Malach apologize for the tongue in cheek jokes he made in the comments section.

Also Just Me wrote a very intesting article at her blog, worth a read.

KMP Softball.
After Malach's worst pitching performance in 10 years, walking 6 batters in the first inning (I rarely do one) and giving up 7 I buckled down and we won 16 - 10. We are now 16 and 4, with 10 games left to play.

Prints of my work.
After a couple request, Malach is going to convert all his painting to prints at his Zazzle Gallery. You will find them all in my Art sub gallery. It will be many of the images you can see here and here. The beauty of Zazzle is they will put together any type of print you may want, based on you budget, you could spend as little as $10 or goes crazy and spend $500.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Every year, they is one team they can't beat, this year it is Seattle, the past few it has been Baltimore. Mood: glad to be returning home.

You are Listening too . . .
Polythene Pam, part of the 16 minute medley on the second side of Abbey Road. A very weird song, that follows Mean Mr. Mustard and runs into She Came in Through the Bathroom Window. A sort of Limerick type of song, Lennon admitted in the 1980 Playboy interview the song was about an evening Lennon spent with poet Royston Ellis and his girl friend Stephanie, the three wore polyethylene bags and slept together experimenting and exploring kinky sex. He also stated Ellis was the first person to show the Beatles how to get high, from the strips inside a Benzedrine inhaler.

The song is also linked lyrically to Mean Mr. Mustard, as it is stated in the song that Mr. Mustard has a sister named Pam. Another interesting feature is the song is sung in a Scouse accent.

More on Chris Benoit.
It is even more interesting to find out his son was diagnosed with Fragile X Syndrome and some of the things going around the family at the time . . . still there are A LOT of questions.

Well always have Paris.
Won't we?

And speaking of of the Beatles.
So what are the odds that Ringo and McCartney reform the band with Yoko and Olivia Harrison?

Queen Hatshepsut.
The Queen is HUNGRY!

MMMMMMM
Bald Eagle.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day
Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual world as masturbation to sexual love. - Karl Marx

I am Malach and be prepared, I am growing my hair and a beard just like Karl Marx.

RIP Chris Benoit.

Plugs.
There is a new 8 1/2 by Eleven, number 547, and actually has a joke about copulation. There is also a new Fetus-X, this one is kind of above my head. Also after a few requests, I made the background image for the Ben Byrd story, Duty purchasable. You can find it here. As you can see it is fully customizable from size, paper quality, and framing.

Chris Benoit.
40 year old WWE superstar, his wife, and son were found dead today in their Atlanta home. Obviously this is a weird occurance, and an investigation had begun. Malach was a wrestling fan but hasn't been since 1998. Benoit was a awesome wrestler, tough as nails, and from what I understand a honest guy (strange in that business). Malach always liked his technical skill and tenacity, and how good he made his opponents look.

Unfortunately, Benoit (and his wife) just gets added to that long list of prowrestlers who died before their time. RIP "Snaggletooth".

You are listening too . . .
You Never Give Me Your Money, the opening song for their 16 minutes plus meledy ending the Abbey Road album. The song is penned by McCartney and deals directly with the Beatles money issues, and their lack of wanting to deal with them.

The song has some interesting tempo and styles changes, it begins with a classic ballad style, goes into a double time swing like session where McCartney goes into a barritone (some of readers in my age group will hear a lot of influence here on Radiohead, and Jane's Addition). A tight Harrison guitar compostion follows, that is then followed by a sing songy nursery sung over a Harrison track remiscient of Here Comes the Sun (Badge). The main riff to the song is later part of the Carry That Weight section of the meledy and it segues directly into Sun King.

The Meledy itself in very interesting. As stated previously it contains a number of short songs, developed during the White Album and Let It Be sessions, that were mostly unfinished. This song is then followed by 3 Lennon songs segueing into each other: Sun King, Mean Mr. Mustard, and Polythene Pam. Those in turn are followed by and segued by 4 McCartney songs: She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, and the climax piece The End (notable for containing the recorded Ringo Starr drum solo). Many people not owning the album might not realize the last three songs are seperate songs, and nowadays classic rock stations play the three as a whole.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
I love you Josh Beckett.

Zero Tolerance Football.
So uh, Tank Johnson, um, you still let your 3 year old play with guns?

Some advice . . .
If your a life long criminal, and just escaped from prison after killing a gaurd, complete covering your face with tats is probably not gonna help you hide. Y'know just some advice.

Haven't got to do this in a while.
HEY ALANIS MORRISETTE! This is ironic, not your stupid song about irony.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day.
Many of your know Malach works with the homeless, well this in my typical day.

I am Malach and I am bad.

Because

Because you expect plugs.

Got none for my website, but I will plug a few things. Excellent article from Just Me. What else . . Jerry was a race car driver? And you might also notice, the reincarnated Dr. Murk is stealing artwork.

Because you want to know what you are listening too . .

A beautiful song from Abbey Road, Because. A ballad written by John Lennon, it has obvious influence from the harmonies the Beach Boys made famous. It is a 3 part harmony vocal overdubbed 3 times making it 9 parts. Sung by Lennon, Harrison, and McCartney, this is the song that proceeds the extended 16 minute melody of short song on the second side of the album.

The song music is supposedly Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven played backward. While not completely true, and reverse playing of that song by Yoko One is the inspiration for the piece. Yoko played it backward for Lennon, and he wrote the lyrics around it, gradually chaning the music as the song evolved. The lyrics are very beautiful and pretty straightforward (a shock for a Lennon piece).

This was also the last song of the Abbey Road session to be commited to tape, arguably the last song recorded by the group. The song has a number of instruments not previously commonly used by the Beatles including it's signature electric harpsicord (played by George Martin), a traditional analog synthesizer, and of course the moog synthesizer. One of the first bands to record with a synthesizer, this song has a lot of elements of 80's new wave. It was for it's time a very daring recording as it was not easily pigeon holed in any style of current music.

Because Ben Byrd asked for it.

This was a background behind Duty.

I tossed it together for a background image kind of related to the story. Christopher should like this.

Because you need to know the mood.

Sox won yesterday, and increased their lead to 10.5. Yanks lost today, now it is 11. Down right now 1 - 0 in the 5th. Mood: Very Confident we will have a 12 game lead by the break.

Because you had the need to know.

Anyone find this shocking?

Because your facinated by Paris Hilton.

I bet Larry King marries her . .

Because you expect a quote or a video.

I am Malach, just because.

Here Comes Sunshine

Plugs.

546 of 8 1/2 By Eleven is up as is number 43 of Sunshine. As for Sunshine, Hex has give me 4 - 5 emergency Sunshines, so I will be interrupt starting tomorrow with these, and they are extra weird.

An Interesting Debate.

Christopher and I were discussing digital manipulation today, and how people like me, artists have a personal bias against it. My arguement is that that type of work, relys more on your programs than artistic skill. Pieces like at left, this took me about 15 minutes to put together using various filters, and art media type stuff.

Yeah, I guess I have a personal bias. It's cool and all, but was rather simple for me to do. Part of the debate was could someone get paid selling image like this? I am not totally sure, but I don't think so.

Any other opinions? Again, I am probably biased being a traditional artist.

You are listening too . . .

Here Comes the Sun, off Abbey Road, another extremely popular George Harrison composition. Interestingly, out of the three hits off of Abbey Road, Harrison penned two of them, the other we already explored with Something.

The songs genesis began with a songwriting collaboration Harrison had with Eric Clapton on the song Badge (you can hear that by clicking me), which was recorded by Clapton's groups Cream. Both songs feature a similar guitar rift. The final version of Here Comes the Sun was written in Eric Clapton's Garden while Harrison was avoiding Apple Records meetings. '69 was a difficult year for Harrison; he was arrested for marijuana possession, he had a severe case of tonsilitis, and he had also quit the band for a extended period. He wrote a song as an ending to this period, and perhaps could see the future of the Beatles in front of him. Many believe Harrison was inspired by the grueling Abbey Road shifts, and his sabbatical from Abbey Road Studios during those stressful sessions. At the time, everyone was just trying to get the album done, before their inevitable break up.

Harrison did the lead vocal, acoustic guitar, moog synthesizer, and the handclaps; McCartney: backing vocals, bass, and also handclaps; Ringo of course did the percussion. Lennon did not contribute, at the time he was recovering from a car accident. Various uncredited muscians played many of the backing orchestral instruments.

Here Comes the Sun is argueably Harrison's most beloved song and was voted so in 2006 by GeorgeHarrison.com. Harrison, who's songs before that had a fairly melocholy dourness to them, reversed with this song (and some of his later solo stuff). It was a very positive, upbeat song, without shmaltzy. Also, as the begining of the second side of the album, it made a nice fresh start (something that is lost with the CD age).

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.

Day off . . . and the Yanks lost three in a row, to fall back to 10.5 behind. And Clemens lost again. There is also a interesting article here about Carl Pavano; man does he make the Matt Clement signing look good.

Holy Crap.

I been on these things a number of times . . . mental note, look for cables wrapped around body parts.

What has Malach always told you.

The state motto is "Live Free or Die" and I am serious, there are no laws up in New Hampshire.

Uhh, yeah sorry.

The all powerful Malach has a great and mighty thirst.

Ok.

There seems to be a AWFUL LOT of trust involved here.

Happy Summer Solstice.

Malach would be there, but my druid robes are being cleaned.

Mother Paris.

She wants to change!

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and lil' darlin' it seems like years since it's been here.

Octopus's Garden

Not really a plug, but kind of.
No site updates tonight, I had a night game, and just got back. We won against the team we were tied for second for. Also, the Sandlot Softball site is back up, so you can follow along.

Also read about Ratzy's big plan over at the WoW. Look like most of us are going to Hell.

Malach's Silver Hammer.
I just realized I forgot to tell about Malach's Silver Hammer. First, Geek Alert. Malach is a RPG character I have been using for about 20 years. Know jokingly as Malach the Merciless, full name Malach diMedici. I always revive Malach when I roll really well in character creation, the latest version of Malach was in D20 Dungeons and Dragons and had an 18, a 17, 2 16's, and everything else was above 12. He is always a Mage. His one quirk he always had was his weapon of choice, a warhammer. In one of his most powerful incarnations was in MERP. In that he was some ungodly level, developed spells whose effect included liquefying an groups of enemies skeletons, and had a ultra power warhammer of disintegration and returing.

You are Listening too . . .
Octopus's Garden from Abbey Road. The song was mostly written by Ringo, with a small amount of assitance from Harrison. It was only the second song Starr had ever written, and the second to appear on a Beatles album, and perhaps his best know song.

Starr's inspiration was a boat trip in Sardinia, he was offered Octopus for lunch, which he turned down. The Captain began to relate a story to him how Octopi spend their day on the bottom of the ocean collecting shiny things for their nests. The song is thought to be part of the small collection of Children's songs The Beatles wrote (the other being Yellow Submarine, The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill, All Together Now). The song has been performed by the Muppets, The Wiggles, and Raffi, which futher propogates the notion. The song and many of the other mentioned can also easily be associated with psychoative drugs.

There are a couple of interesting sounds, included McCartney and Lennon's vocals compressed to create a gurgling sound, and Starr adding the sound of bubbles being blow into a glass. The charm of the song lies in it's simplicity and limted over production. It is about a retreat from the hectic life, and one into beauty, happiness, and safety.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Look, they are on a roll, and then a 48 minute rain delay. They are back on though, and Beckett's pitching a gem. Hopefully Schill just has a tired arm, he will go on the 15 day DL, and we bring Lester up. Mood: Let's close it out Beckett.

This is weird.
Of course I think we know where this will all end up.

Yeah, this ain't shocking.
Bloomberg was about as Republican as I am.

Hillary Soprano.
What makes in funny is how bad the acting is. Make sure you watch the video. Perhaps, just perhaps Malach will make an I Got a Crush On Hilary video.

HMMMM.
Will the next Tiennamen Square be the Internet. Oh man, I just got banned by the Great Firewall of China.

Need Help Hiding Your Pot?
Just ask this nice officer for help.

John Travolta dissapproves of Anti-Depressants.
But he very much approves of secret homosexuals romps with random runaways . . that the way Scientology.

Malach's Quote of the Day
If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor. - Voltaire

I am Malach and Paul is Dead?

Malach's Silver Hammer made sure she was dead.

Plugs
Before I give you today's we have a number of them coming up this week, including new stuf from Ben Byrd, Tainted Love's Erotic Stories, and the Poetry of Christopher.

For today we have a new 8 1/2 by Eleven (number 547 ish) and a new Fetus-X (once again something about sexy vampires).

So stay tuned.

An apology.
I forgot to plug C.Rag for pointing out yesterday's video I posted, sorry.

Paul is Dead.
This seems a good time to begin the Paul McCartney is dead urban legend that developed in 1969. I am going to give you a summary and point you to some weird and interesting website who specialize in this.

Basically the legend contends that McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by a look-a-like and sound-a-like. Evidence and clues are found in the various Beatles recordings after 1966, supposedly diliberately placed there, and also hidden in backmasking, and clues are found in the art and album covers (perhaps the most famous in McCartney walking barefoot on the Abbey Road cover).

It has never been clear if this was a joke, or created conspiracy, and how much The Beatles themselves had to do with the initial beginning of it (and how much they propogated it).

The rumor began in earnest on October 12, 1969 when someone phoned radio DJ Russ Gibb indentifying himself as Tom and annouced McCartney was dead. He then asked Gibb to play Revolution 9 backward and supposedly Gibb heard the exclamation "Turn me on dead man".

A couple of University of Michigan students then published a review of Abbey Road and called it: McCartney Dead; New Evidence Brought to Light. In the article the published "clues" based upon Beatles Album covers, and the piece appeared in the Michigan Daily 2 days after the incident with Gibb. Gibb also produced a television documentary appearing about a month later called The Beatle Plot. It was aired on Detroit area television.

The rumor really gained momentum when it was discussed on a New York based top-40 station about October 20th. A powerful WABC station, it signal could be picked up in 38 states, and supposedly could even be heard on the extreme East Coast of Africa. Of course it was then picked up national and internationally by the news, and quickly became a new "Beatle craze".

The most common tale is that on Wednesday, November 9, 1966 at 5 am, McCartney, while working on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, stormed out of a recording session after an argument with the other Beatles and rode off in his Austin-Healey. "He didn't notice that the lights had changed" (A Day in the Life) because he was busy watching the pretty girl on the pavement (Lovely Rita) after narrowly missing her dressed in blue (she's the blur on the back of Abbey Road) jaywalking (Blue Jay Way). He then crashed into a light pole (a car crash sound is heard in Revolution 9). He was pronounced dead on a "Wednesday morning at 5 o'clock as the day begins" (She's Leaving Home), and nobody found out this because the news was withheld: "Wednesday morning papers didn't come" (Lady Madonna). A funeral procession was held days later (as implied in the Abbey Road album cover).

There is no hard evidence for a crash, though McCarney's mini cooper was wrecked by a fried in January of 1967. McCartney himself got into a moped accident the day after X-Mas 1965, which left a noticble scar on his upper lip.

Accodingly, McCartney was replaced by a winner of a look-a-like contest named William Shears Campbell (Billy Shears is the leader of Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club band). Bass Muscians also noted a playing style change in McCartney after 1966, of course the entire music recording of Beatles changed as well.

These rumors, kind of petered out in the mid 70's but have found new life with the advent of the internet. There are a number of supposed clues, and there is good listing about 350 at this site (trust me, you can spend hours at some of these links). You can also go to Iamaphony's youtube account, and he's got a series of about 40 videos about McCartney's death. There is some interesting photo comparisons here, and if you's like a fresh look, go here.

I got Pacman Fever!
It's driving me crazy!

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Still hate Interleague play.

Thank you Issac Newton.
You gave us at least 48 more years long to live than the Mayans did.

Hey Muslims, calm down.
I have read Satanic Verse, very good book by the way, and so what, he poke fun at Muhammed . . he also pokes fun at the Jews and Christians too . . .

Dave Thomas.
Man, you must be rolling in your grave.

Well, uh, Maybe Britney,
You should have not had such an oh so public mental health crisis.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day
If I were a better artist, I'd be a painter, and if I were a better writer, I'd write books-- --but I'm not, so I draw cartoons! - Charles M. Schulz

I am Malach and I have one this to say . . . TURN ME ON DEAD MAN!

Happy Father's Day or Bang! Bang! there goes Malach's Silver Hammer.

Plugs.
As promised The Wraith has been updated with episode 4.6. First, I need to disappoint a number of fans of The Wraith. It is going on hiatus. The main reasons for this are: Lack of time with the web design and commission art I am doing; and I need to focus on my 2 most popular webcomics, JesusMan! and Fat Bug. Now, that does not mean The Wraith is not popular; it is actually the third most popular comic in the Stool Sample Family. It is just right now, JesusMan! and Fat Bug are more popular and make me more money, and something had to give.

Now, I don't know how long it will be on hiatus . . . that depends mainly if this site becomes full time job in the future. This will allow me to update the two other webcomics more efficiently, and hopefully get 6 - 8 episodes a year out for you guys. The next will be Fat Bug.

Happy Father's Day.
To my Dad, and all my friends who are Dads (surprisingly there are not that many). I supposed Maxwell's Silver Hammer is an appropriate Father's Day song, no?

You are listening too . .
Another of those strange Beatles songs, Maxwell's Silver Hammer. A mostly McCartney tune, and once again he shows a bit of his silly humor. It is done in a Vaudevillian style and about a medical student Maxwell Edison who basically goes on a killing spree with a hammer. Despite the subject matter, the song in happy and bouncy, and as George Harrison described it a "bit fruity". Many critics saw this as a subconcous allegory by McCartney regarding the Manson Murders. McCartney himself just describes it as an allegory for the downfalls of life:

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does, as I was beginning to find out at that time in my life. I wanted something symbolic of that, so to me it was some fictitious character called Maxwell with a silver hammer. I don't know why it was silver, it just sounded better than Maxwell's hammer. It was needed for scanning. We still use that expression now when something unexpected happens."

McCartney did everything he could to make the song a single, but it never was. Also according to Lennon, The Beatles spent the most money of any song on Abbey Road, on this song. Most of the band was not particularly thrilled with the song, and this can be seen in the Let It Be movie.
McCartney can be heard semi-laughing during the song as it seem Lennon mooned him while recording.

As for my blog title, Malach's Silver Hammer, only a few people will get that.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Well, Bonds hit a homer in one of the only parks he has never hit one in. Sox still won. Bye Bye Barry Bonds.

You knew this was gonna happen.
In Homeland Securities zeal to deport people, they might accidently deport you or I.

Never buy a Honda Accord . .
Or a least don't own one in Washington State.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and I don't have a crush on Obama, but Christopher does.

Something about Pattie Boyd

Plugs.
There is a new Fetus-X. More anti-war undead stuff. Check out Malach's latest WoW article and make fun of his taste in music.

You are listening too . . .
Something off of Abbey Road. Something was the only George Harrison composition to appear on as an A-side single and the only one to top the American Charts. Both Lennon and McCartney praised the song and the best ever written by Harrison. It also is the second most covered Beatles song of all time.

Something was developed during the recording of The White Album, and based in part of the James Taylor song, Something in the Way She Moves. Most of the White Album was done by the time Harrison had completed the melody of the song, and during a break of editing, began to write the lyrics.

There is some confusion as to what the song is about, most assuming it is about Harrison's the wife Pattie Boyd, and Harrison had told people the song was actually about Ray Charles (Harrison's dry humor). This is interesting as Pattie Boyd might be the woman who has had the most hit songs written about her. Something, Layla, Bell Bottom Blues, Wonderful Tonight are a just a few. As for Pattie herself, pretty hot no?

The original idea was not for the Beatles to record the song, and the song was given to Joe Cocker who released a version of the song 2 months before the Beatles version who had begun to seriously work on it from Abbey Road. The orignal recording was more than 8 minutes long eventually to cut the point it was released at.

Harrison himself has been pretty dismissive of the song, but Lennon called it the best song on the album. By the time they shot the video (I will post it below), they had broken so far apart, they shot the video of the 4 of them in seperate locales and edited it together.

Some of the diverse covers of the song come from Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Elvis, The O'Jays, James Brown, Tony Bennet, Perry Cuomo, and Smokey Robinson. Sinatra was especially impressed with the song and called it "the greatest love song ever written" and his "all time favorite Lennon-McCartney song" (he even introduced it that way for years).

The Mood of Red Sox Nation
Welcome to Boston Barry Bonds.

There are people you don't mess with . .
and the HOFF is one of them.

Ahh the War.
It will be see where this one heads.

Hey the NBA finals are over.
Anyone actually watch any of this?

They are so weird in Oklahoma.
Of course, they would have buried a horse in Texas.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and there is something in the way I move.

Come Together

Some Plugs.
There is new 8 1/2 by Eleven up. This one is number 543 and I think Lucas is on the LSD as it is about Neon Butterflies. Also, the Wand of Wonder has gone a bit nuts with funny and weirdness over the past couple of days.

Also check out one Malach's internet buds psuedo journalistic website about his Philadelphia Phillies team from his Playstation 2 game MLB 07 The Show. Nova Fan is a bucko, and in his late teens. Some well written stuff there, and interesting moves.

Malach also is a huge Beach Boys fan (who rock, Brian Wilson is a fuggin' genius) playing at his MySpace. Also I heard a version of Brian Wilson by the Bare Naked Ladies, sung by Brian Wilson. A bit surreal

Taunton State Hospital.
So, Malach spent half the day doing a presentation and attending a resource fair at TSH. It was fun interacting with some of the populace still there. I wanted to explore some of the abandoned buildings, but I did not have much time. In MA, asylums fell out of favor in the 70's and 80's, and those here now, are those that really can't operate outside, but are not say mass muderers and have hope for release.

You are Listening too. . . .
Come Together off The Beatles Album, Abbey Road. Even though Abbey Road was released before Let It Be, it was the last album to be recorded by The Beatles before their break up. It is considered one of their most tightly constructed albums, even though by this point they were hardly a conhesive band.

After the disaster of the Get Back/Let It Be recordings, McCartney suggested to George Martin that they get back together and create an album just like in the old days, before the band began to disintegrate with The White Album. The Beatles, who at this time all agreed this would probably be their last recording together, agreed to "go out on a high note". The two album sides had highly different characters with side one a collection of single tracks, and side two contains essentially a 16 minutes medley of interconnected short songs, both finshed and unfinished, mainly from the White Album and Let It Be recording sessions. For example many people are used to hearing Golden Slumbers and Carry Weight played together, but they are actually seperate songs.

Why? Many cite Lennon having little involvement on this album, and McCartney wanting to tie a few things up with these remaining Lennon and McCartney shorts. Lennon had actually left the Beatles before finishing up Abbey Road.

This was also the only album recorded by The Beatles on an 8 track recorder one of the reasons for the overall better sound of this album to previous ones. It was also the only one recorded on a solid state soundboard giving it a much rawer sound. It made entensive use of a recent technology, the Moog Synthesizer.

Abbey Road is also famous for it's album art, perhaps the most famous and oft parodied album cover of all time, and a central feature of the Paul is Dead urban legends (more on that later).

Come Together is the opening track on the album and a straight out 70's rocker before 1970. It was written by Lennon, and began with an attempt at writing a theme for Timothy Leary's CA gubenatorial campaign (vs. of all people Ronald Reagan). Of course Leary got arrested for drug possession and sent to prison (yeah, they called him Tricky Dick for a reason). It was transformed into a track that digs at both McCartney and Harrison and also references Yoko and Bagism.

Lennon played rythmn guitar and and sang lead vocal for the track. The exclamation you hear of "Shoot" during the open bassline is actually "Shoot me"; the me is drowned out by a handclap. McCartney played bass and electric piano, Harrison lead guitar, and Ringo all the percussion.

Aerosmith did a extremely popular cover of the song in the late 70's, and many people recognize that version sometime more often than the Beatles original. It would be remembered as Aerosmith's last top 40 hit until the late 80's a decade later.

Man.
I wonder how much my Iranian Porn collection is worth now?

150 year old whales.
Imagine being this whale? I love how New Bedford always mentioned when it comes to old time whaling.

When I was 25 . .
Uh Lynn Spears, shearing off you hair, and having a mental breakdown, is not trying to figure it all out.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
I don't want to talk about it.

So.
Let's go skinny dipping.

Y'know.
Flavor Flav informed about this back in 1990 . . . 911's A JOKE!

MMMMMM
Gigantoraptor.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day
What would one do with a big one that needs to be searched for, if there is a small one that is already in one's hands? - Filipino proverb

I am Malach and I could be making this all up.

Christ you know it ain't easy ..

Plugs.
8 1/2 by Eleven has returned with a new strip about bikini clad cartoon tramps. Speaking of scantily clad cartoon tramps (I am gonna catch Hell for this comment from a couple of people, but what the hey) . . . Welcome back to the US, C.Rag. C.Rag has also promised me some fiction to post too . . . well see if this reminds her

You are listening too . .
Another Malach fave, Ballad of John and Yoko. This was a single released prior to Abbey Road, and recorded during the Get Back session which would basically turn into eventually Let It Be/Abbey Road.

Before we start a little bit about the Get Back sessions. By the end of '68 and the release of The Beatles, McCartney was eager to perform in public again. The other band members, most especially Harrison were very resistent. A compromise was the the band would shoot a television concert in some location and later release the recording as a live album.

The live performance/recording did occur on January 30th of 1969, their famous Apple Building rooftop concert, that was eventually shut down by the police after 20 or so minutes but several of the recorded song did make it onto the Let It Be album.

The Beatles ended up recording hundreds of hours of recordings at Twickenham Studios including a number of songs that would appear on Abbey Road, a number would appear on Beatles solo albums, and a bunch of cover songs.

Those sessions were consider disasterous by all the band members and the groups even discussed breaking up 3 days into the sessions. Lennon was extremely dissatisfied and fighting a growing heroin addiction, and he was eager to explore his solo music. Yoko One being a constant presence at everything John was doing, was at was also a strain on their relationships. McCartney's attempts to keep the band together comes across as controlling. Harrisom walked out on the band for an extended period. Things were so bad, George Martin was reluctant to work on Abbey Road unless things were assured to be better.

So interestingly, the album which was to become Let It Be, was recorded before Abbey Road. But because of The Beatles dissatisfaction with the album; it went through 2 producers, 3 to 4 different final pressings, until you got the Phil Spector produced one you hear today, but that is a later story.

Ballad of John and Yoko was a song, primarily written by Lennon, and only recorded by Lennon and McCartney. Lennon had a inspiration for the song, and instead of waiting for Harrison (who was on vacation), and Starr (who was filiming a movie) recorded it themselves.

The song chronicles fairly obviously, the events surrounding Lennon's marriage to Yoko Ono and their subsequest activities together including the Bed In, their honeymoon, and their bagism philosophy.

Lennon did the lead, played lead and acoustic guitar, while McCartney did the harmony, bass, drums, piano, and maracas.

The song was banned by several US stations for the use of the word "Christ" and the phrase "They're gonna crucify me". Also it was banned in Spain, because of the line saying Gibraltar was near Spain, and that was a hot button issue for that country in 1969.

Paris Hilton, the Second Coming.
See what jail has done for Paris . . . she has found God, she wants to change her celebrity personality . . . Malach has a make over for you Paris, can you say Mother Theresa? Or at least Anglina Jolie (anyone remeber her and Billy Bob Thorton, and the passionate kiss she gave her brother? Look at here now, humanitarian . . anorexic, but a humanitarian.

Speaking of Phil Spector.
Let update your on our favorite nutty genius.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Day off.

The Sopranos.
So Malach doesn't get HBO anymore, at the old house he used to steal it, but now . . I miss the Sopranos, and will get them all on DVD sooner or later. I love to listen to these idiots not understand the show, how it is now all about, gangsters, and violence. David Chase has flimed some of the most intriguing dream sequences ever, and his plots are fantastic. Many people are pissed about the ending. Basically Tony goes into a resturant with the family, and it fades to black with the potential that something could of happened. I love it. You see, this show was about life, and that ending is life.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach, now he got to finish season 6.

Ok Malach what the Hell are you playing now?

No Plugs.
And an early blog, got some RPGing tonight.

You are Listening too . . .
Revolution 9, a 8 minute long, experimental, avant garde sound collage off The White Album. Yes it is rather disturbing, and bothers many people who have listened to it. Very dark also, it is actually very hard and uncomfortable to listen to the entire piece, but try it. This piece marked the the peak of the bands studio experimentation and for a pop music album was unprecedented. The recording was actually begun as an ending to Revoltion 1 and developed into a Musique concrète and sound collage highly influenced by the likes of John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen futher manipulated with editing and sound modification (if you have stereo sound to can hear the panning and fading). The piece is rife with tape loops, vocal and music sound clips, sound effects, and strange noises. As with Revolution the them of the piece is the 1968 French riots, and the piece in an attempt to get the feeling and violence of those riots. At just over 8 minutes long it is the longest Beatles track ever released.

McCartney had little to do, and perhaps nothing to do with the track, and it was the brainchild of Lennon and Harrison, Starr, and Yoko Ono and made varying degrees of contributions. Ono's obvious avant garde's influences are obvious in the track, and McCartney and George Martin were both against releasing the track on the album, but Lennon won out.

The song structure begins with a breif piano intro, and then is followed by the oft repeated "Number 9" loop which fades in and out (and left and right) as a motif of the piece. There is choas, screamng, crowd sounds, feedback, unrehearsed overdubs, and continued tape looping that follows.

Portions of the song are recordings of Beethoven and Sebilius and the piece is one of the earliest examples of sampling (many people don't realize the huge influence the Beatles had on rap and hip hop). Other bits of audio include nonsensical rambling, various food and swallowing sounds, reversed recordings, and NFL chants of all things.

This mix of sound had not only heavy influence on the later "Paul is Dead" controversy, but also Charlie Manson drew odd interpretations from the sound collage, and related Revolution 9 to Revelation 9 (hey Martin Luther, your were right in the money with your opinion about Revelation).

Interestingly, McCartney recorded a similar piece around 13 minutes long called Carnival of Light. A year or so early that thus far has never been released, and very few people have ever heard.

If you would like some more on this song, there is a interesting blow by blow of the entire piece here, and a pretty in depth analysis here. You can also go here and play around with some of the tape loops. And if you want to really drive yourself batty some guy here re-recorded it backward.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
After a long slumber JD Drew came back to life. The Mood: I wish we could always play the NL.

Oh man . .
Do I miss the Pope's blog.

Damn.
Watch those sports cremes people.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day
If you gave me a million years to ponder, I would've never guessed that true romance and Detroit would ever go together. - Alabama Whitman

I am Malach and true romance does go with Malach

Schill, I was right out there on the mound with you today

Plugs.
Just one, a new video of Hobbs von Wackamole and the Angry Piper and their secret fight they had the other day, that Malach happened to sneak into and film, over at the WoW.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation
Schilling was 1 out away from a No Hitter today, which I don't believe he has ever pitched. Also, he was one out and one error away from a perfect game. Kudos to Shannon Stewart from breaking the no no up, and kudos to Curt from breaking the Sox out of a minor slide. 1 - 0, don't see many of those anymore. Schillings off speed stuff was NASTY. His best split finger I have seen from him since 2004. The Mood: We love our Schill.

You are listening too . . .
Mother Nature's Son a ballad written and recorded completely by Paul McCartney and appearing on The White Album. McCartney completely recorded the song without the three other Beatles.

A teaching about nature by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi while on their trip to India kind of stuck with McCartney, and this song is based on that teaching. It was written completely in India. It is a hymn like folk song, with McCartney's pop slant and very similar to Blackbird, but more highly produced. A very subtle arrangement of acoustic guitar, minimal percussion, brass, and some tapping.

This song song also begins to show some of the back to nature hippie influence Linda Eastman was having on him.

So.
Evidently had some type of Get Out of Jail Card. Medical Issues? Many of my incarcerated clients have medical issues too . . . just so to show, your rich and famous, and you can pretty much get away with murder.

Oh but no, MSNBC has some breaking news.

UHHH?
I don't see it. I do see Jesus though.

Yeah . .
There a little backward in Vermont . . . beautiful up there though, except of course for the constant playing of Dueling Banjos.

Hey Kim Jong Il
You need some attention? I thought you were on your deathbed.

Man.
Them Jews just want control of everything.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day.
I saved a special video of Hobbs and Piper during happier times.

I am Malach and that video made me cry.

Revolution!

Plugs.

There is another new 8 1/2 by Eleven strip 540. Also, there are some new requested products in the Zazzle store. One is a t-shirt for this blog, which I have gotten a few requests for. It is customizable so you can add any of my quotes, the on their now is "MMMMM 12 Varieties of Dung Beetles". Also there is a new Tinman and Margaret Sunshine sweatshirt.



I am going to be making a Buckos and a podcast shirt in the next few days.



You are listening too . .
Revolution 1 off The White Album. Perhaps not the version that is most famous which was a beside to the Hey Jude single. There are basically three versions of Revolution, the raucous electric version most everyone had heard, this more acoustic orchestric version, and a strange 8 minute avant garde sound collage from The White Album called Revolution 9 (which I will play for you later). I will treat Revolution and Revolution 1 as the same songs in this blog entry.

Revolution was first to be released and was a product session of The White Album. It features distorted guitars, and a electric piano solo. It is one of The Beatles hardest and agressive tracks beginning with and overdrawn guitar wail, a compressed drum beat and that signature wail (which was recorded by Lennon, but live, McCartney always did it as Lennon could never recover after the scream to start the vocals on time.



Revolution 1 is basically the same song, only done in a different style, with much less distortion and a more acoustic sound. Lennon recorded the entire vocal scheme while lying down in experiment in vocal scheming. This is actually the original version of the song, but the rest of the band wanted a faster heavier version for the single to back up Hey Jude. Lennon irritated decided to amp up the loud. Lennon claims the song was inspired by 1968 French uprisings.



The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
So they are on their first bad series, losing 5 of 6. Last night, I am surprised they even competed with Papelbon, and Okajima unavailable, Lowell, Crisp, Varitek out of the lineup. Lost 5 - 4 in 11 I think. Tonight should be different. Mood: Were still 10 games up.



Ok.
There something a little strange about this, I mean your relationship developing over deaths of your kids . . . Well, You can always listen to JonBenet's ghost on the podcast.



The Mass Factor.
Yeah, most of us Massholes call Uncle Mitt, Satan.



The Vatican, that Nazi Fighting Machine.
Yeah, I can see it . . ."Hey Jews, come hide in here" *Pope Holding door on large over, thinking "Take that for killing Jesus".


Ahh some more embarassing Britney Pics.

Serously, what did we do before the internet? At least this time she is wearing something down there.

Uhh once again.
Ask.com sucks.

Malach's quote/video of the day.
Ladies and gentlemen, DMDSS is proud to present to you, Atlanta Brave Minor League Coach, Phillip Wellman

And you gotta love Al Green's Let's Stay Together playing in the background.

I am Malach and you complete me.

You May Be A Lover But You Ain't No Dancer.

Plugs.
There is a new Fetus-X, some type of strange undead survey, I really don't get it, even with the pie chart. Also number 539 of 8 1/2 by Eleven is also up, and really shows you how much of a wuss Nillian is.

More Beatles History.
Basically one month after the realease of The White Album, the Beatles began filming Let It Be, and recording what became known as the Get Back sessions including there famous rooftop concert on January 30th of 1969. Allen Klein is named their manager in a 3 - 1 descision, McCartney being the dissenter. In March, Harrison and Patty Boyd are charged with Marijuana possession, Paul and Linda marry, and then John and Yoko marry. John and Yoko immediately go a honeymoon which includes first of their famous 7 day Bed-Ins. As the Get Back sessions go on, more things occur, but that is a later blog.

Another one Bites the Dust.
Gotta give Roger Goddell some credit to sticking by his guns or perhaps Tanks Johnsons guns. It will be interesting to see what happens with Micheal Vick.

Hey.
check out the new CNN . . . looking pretty, pretty much like MSNBC.

Darn.
And all I ever find is stuff like a vinyl porch kit, a weird outboard motor part, and stuff like that in hidden places.

FOOD FIGHT.
Man, we never had one of these in high school . . .

Hey Buddy.
You want a joke? I got a joke for you, this one will extend your life for about 20 minutes.

MMMMMM
12 kinds of dung beetles.

Heelys
I hate these friggin' things, especially the pre-pubescent brats that wheel around Wal-Mart like it's a skate park, and their parents don't seem to care, until they get an "accidental" hip check from Malach the Merciless.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and I wonder what Manson thinks of this version of Helter Skelter.

HELTER SKELTER!

No Plugs.
One of those on the 7th day thingies.

You are Listening too . .
Perhaps the most infamous song of the Beatles catalogue, Helter Skelter. This song was the anthem for Charles Manson's supposed prophecy messages from The White Album regarding race war and upcoming apocalypse.

This was was very different than anything the Beatles had done before, proto hard rock, punk, and metal, this song was created mostly by McCartney and was a deliberate effort to create a sound as loud and dirty as possible.

McCartney's inspiration was a interview with The Who's main songwriter Pete Townsend in which he describes their latest single I Can See For Miles as the loudest, rawest, and dirtiest song The Who ever created. McCartney immediatly got inspired to write the most raucous vocals, nastiest drums, wailing guitar he could. He was inspired by a old amusement park ride the Helter Skelter. Using that symbolism of that ride, he went on to sing about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. McCartney also made the song as a response to a number of critics who contended he could only write ballads.

The Beatles recorded the song a number of times over a number of months including a slow hypnotic 27 minute version. The last attempt at recording after 18 previous takes, Ringo Tossed his drumstick across the room, screaming the now famous "I've got blisters on me fingers!" line. The song fades out, the comes crashing back in with Ringo's line ending the piece.

People who were present at the multiple recordings recall strange incidents while recording, such as Harrion lighting a ashtray on fire and running around the studio with it on his head. Ringo has the best quote: "'Helter Skelter' was a track we did in total madness and hysterics in the studio. Sometimes you just had to shake out the jams."

According to Manson, Helter Skelter, along with several other tracks on The White Album, contained coded prophecy of an apocalyptic war in which racist and non-racist whites would be maneuvered into virtually exterminating each other over treatment of blacks. Upon the war's conclusion, after Black Muslims would kill off the few whites they would know to have survived, Manson and his companions, having ridden out the conflict in an underground city, would emerge from hiding and, as the actual remaining whites, rule blacks, who, as the vision went, would be incapable of running things. Manson employed Helter Skelter as the term for this epic sequence of events. In addition, a misspelling of "Healter Skelter" was found scrawled on the fridge in blood at the LaBianca Murder scene. Yeah pretty coo-coo.

Helter Skelter was a huge influence on a lot of bands ranging from Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols in the 70's, Sonic Youth and U2 in the 80's, The Pixies and Nirvana in the 90's and so on. Personally in a fave of mine.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Once again won a game in any way they could, tonight they are in the 4th, 1-0 badguys. Mood: Baseball's version of the Bellichick era Patriots.

His Name is Castro . .
He don't look too scary now do he?

Vladimir Putin.
Now that's more like it. First you poison a spy, now your acting like the good old USSR. Hopefully you can put the kissing little boys stomach thing behind you, you know Catholic Church did.

Man.
Someone needs to put Carl Everett, Torii Hunter, and Gary Sheffield on a debate team. On second thought, if Gary's right, he just gave David Stern the way to clean the NBA.



Funny Pictures
So this group of people has been appearing behind the Yankees on deck circle at Fenway everytime A-Rod goes up to bat . . funny stuff.


Malach's Quote/Video of the Day
Dinosaurs didn't exist. God created the sun, the stars, the heavens and the earth, and then made Adam and Eve. The Bible never says anything about dinosaurs. You can't say there were dinosaurs when you never saw them. Someone actually saw Adam and Eve. No one ever saw a Tyrannosaurus rex. - Carl Everett

I am Malach and yes, the were coo-coo's aplenty in today's blog, oh and uh, Mr. Everett "don't believe in bein' gay".

Feel so lonely . . . Wanna die!

Plugs

Well let see, not exactly a plethora as promised, but we have something new from Fred VanDoo the next part of his Killing All That Holds You series. This one is called One-X. This is a 16 part sci fi pulp style story.

Also we got a bit of a new rant from Twisted Darkness, this one is called Just A Little Thing. Twisted in a very talented writer, albeit young.

I added some cool stuff to my Zazzle Store, Including some left leaning t-shirts like this one. Also there are a couple of rated R and PG13 t-shirt , but you will need to register with Zazzle, prove your age to see them.

The Patterson-Gimlin Big Foot Film.

Perhaps the most interesting film in crytozoologies history, and sparked some conversation at this blog. Wikipedia has a pretty even handed article on it. Now, Malach is not huge into the paranormal and such, but I do have some interest in it. I would not shock me either to find new strange creatures in unexplored parts of the world. I am not kind of balance between believer and skeptic.

But that Patterson-Gimli Film is different. I remember seeing it as a kid, it really freaked me out as it was so real (notice I did not say realistic). M.K. Davis used a PC to clean up the film and take a lot of shakiness out of it in early 2005 edit. He also did this one, which focuses on some interesting muscle movements and the head below.

Very Interesting. Now, Malach is an artist, I am an expert in visual form, proportion, human and animal anatomy, natural movement, and such. Why this really fascinates me? There is no real way I could see this being faked, even with CGI. Again, I stress real vs. realistic. This looks real. And this was shot in 1967 when faking something like this would be extremely hard (think of things like Disney Animatronics and Planet of the Apes both top of the line of this type of stuff back then). It is not like the Alien Autopsy, there is too much going on with this figure to fake it correctly. Just by the proportions alone this is not human, and this does not look like a monkey suit, nor does it act like one. Very interesting if I do say so myself. If it is a fake, kudos guys, but you should of cashed in on that when you could have.

You Are Listening Too .. .

Yer Blues, off The White Album. One of the heaviest song The Beatles did thus far in their career, and obvious influence on Led Zepplin, who would get together the year this album was released. Lennon intended the song to be a parody of British Blues musicians, but the song is sung with such force and spirit many listeners take it very literally with it extremely suicidal lyrics, and references to cosmology.

The song gets it thick deep feeling by being recorded in an Abbey Road studio not much bigger than a large closet. Ringo loved this song, as it's stripped down nature reminded him of the early stuff. This song also shows the proto hard rock direction the Beatles woulds be going in for their next couple of albums, aka the Get Back sessions. There is a quiet backing vocal in this song, that was Lennon basically singing guide vocals during instrument recording. This was mixed with his actual vocal. This backing vocal can be slightly heard in places where the main vocal in not being sung.

Malach loves this song, and for fun, play some Zep along with it.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.

Back to Yankees Sox again, 3rd inning, 3-2 bad guys. It seems Torre is further ostracizing A-Rod also.

Why you should not buy health and beauty aids at a dollar store.

MMMMM Antifreeze toothpaste.

Nice.

Google is officially big brother. It is kind of fun, go fool around with it. Also just found out they purchased FeedBurner.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and I call Mick Jagger, Micheal also.

Half of what I say is meaningless . .

Some plugs for youse guys.
After a number of email requests, I have republished my primer on pitching slow pitch softball from 2005, that was taken down from Hill TV. It is now located at Third Option Media, but there is no direct link yet. You can find it here. I added a quick addendum too. Yes, I am soon remodeling TOM.

Also there is new Fetus-X. Some more weird, morbid, poetry.

You are Listening too . . .
Julia, and Lennon favorite from The White Album. Malach personally doesn't like the song, not really sure why, beyond feeling it is a forced song. This is the final song onrecord one, side two, or CD 1. This is the first and only time Lennon did a solo Beatles song (McCartney did a number of them), and features Lennon on all vocals and guitar. The finger picking style of this song he learned in India from band friend Donovan.

The song is about his late mother Julia who was killed after being hit by a motorvehicle driven by a drunken cop in 1958. Part of the song is also about Yoko Ono, and her name, which in Japanese means "child of the ocean" is alluded to in the lyrics. Some of the song is also inspired by the poem Sea and Foam by the Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran.

The song itself is very restrained and poetic, Lennon's vocals are only double tracked in select sections of the song. The song is also recorded at a low level, and if you have this album you find yourself turning up the volume for this song, only to have some of the other song blow your ears off. Also interestingly, for a intimate, emotion subject, Lennon kind of changes that with this song, which is more spiritual and meditative. Also interestingly, if you did not know the facts of Lennon's mother, your wouldn't get it from the song.

My Garbage.
About a week ago, I told you about my garbage being dragged about 75' across my yard toward the woods . . . well look what mom showed me today.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Well, I suppose they got to lose a game sooner or later. Pitching wasn't all that good tonight and they are currently down by 4 in the 8th. Day off tomorrow, back to the Yankees for the weekend. Mood: Let's win the next one, or this one.

Ca-razy Weather.
Drought at the Okeechobee Swamp. Crazy Hailstorm in Denver! Don't worry it's beautiful here.

Malach's Quote of the Day
Whether or not I like someone doesn't depend on what kind of genitals they have. - Margaret, Liquid Sky

I am Malach and I pitch.

Don't Pass Me By . . .

No Plugs.
Yes, once again no plugs, sorry buckos.

Happy Memorial Day.
Dedicated to all those who served this country, including my Pepere and my Wife's Father who have passed on from this world.

You are listening too . . .
Don't Pass Me By, off The White Album. Another fave of Malach's, and a interesting song. The first solo composition by Ringo Starr to ever make a Beatles album, it actually became a number one hit in Sweeden.

Evidently Starr had been working on this song to get it on a Beatles album since 1964. During a interview, Starr was asked if he had a wrote and song and mentioned Don't Pass Me By, which the rest of The Beatles pretty much mocked. Of course the lyrics and music changed quite a bit over the years, but eventually it was deemed good enough to be included on The White Album. The song has a lot of little indosycracies to it, including Ringo counting the bars toward the end of the song (ending it with Oops), quite a bit of unintelligble shouting over the course of the song, and strange alarm bell going off at the 1:48 mark in the middle of a sung lyric, and a mistaken lyric in the last chorus; but it so much fits the song, and almost redneck drinking song, fiddle and all.

The song was originally recorded with an orchestral arrangement, which was later used in the Yellow Submarine movie.

The lyrics themself, are very strange, mostly straighforward until the last set, I reprint them for you.

I listen for your foot steps
Coming up the drive
Listen for you foot steps
But they don't arrive
Waiting for you knock, dear
on my old front door
I don't hear it
Does it mean you don't love me anymore

I hear the clock a ticking
on the mantel shelf
See the hands a moving
But I'm by myself
I wonder where you are tonight
And why I'm by myself
I don't see you
Does it mean you don't love me anymore

Don't pass me by
don't make me cry
don't make me blue
'Cause you know darling I love only you
You'll never know it hurt me so
How I hate to see you go
Don't pass my by
Don't make me cry

I'm sorry that I doubted you
I was so unfair
You were in a car crash
And you lost you hair
You said that you would be late
About and hour or two
I said that's all right
I'm waiting here just waiting to hear from you

Don't pass me by
don't make me cry
don't make me blue
'Cause you know darling I love only you
You'll never know it hurt me so
How I hate to see you go
Don't pass my by
Don't make me cry

One two three four
five six seven eight Oops
Don't pass me by
don't make me cry
don't make me blue
'Cause you know darling I love only you
You'll never know it hurt me so
How I hate to see you go
Don't pass my by
Don't make me cry

Now, fairly straightforward except for the last set of lyrics that begin "I'm sorry that I doubted you . . " . The whole section with the car crash, and losing hair, is one of the song the fueled the "Paul McCartney is Dead" urban legend that began spring up in 1969 (again more on that on a later date).

This song is actually fairly popular with the modern crowd, and many have done interesting remakes of this song.

The New Painting.
Did a little more work on Livy in the Sky With Diamonds, as the kids love painting with daddy in his studio. Becuase of new blogger labels you can follow along with this link.

Did do anything really major except added a robe-like piece of clothing to the figure, added more color and detail, and the Buttefly. I will move into oils next.

As for this kids, they love the fact my studio has a ton of watercolor paper, and they find this easy to paint on. Between the two of them they must have painted 15 pieces.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation
Trot Nixon is back in Boston, but the Sox are 3 - 1 in the seventh, and Schilling is having an awesome bounce back game. Yeah and Youkilis just hit an inside the park homer, sound like my softball league (when you don't really play with fences . . ) Mood: Let's Go Sox.

RIP Marquise Hill.
Hill, was not a star, but like all members of the team, had his place, and from what I understand a awesome teammate.

RIP Charles Nelson Reilly
OK, Malach can remember CNR from the his days with The Match Game, which used to come on when I was a young lad. Always liked him and his comedy. The other things about CNR is he was a somewhat openly gay actor in the 1950's, 60's, and 70's when it would kill career to be fairly open about it.

His comedy featured gay themed double entendre's, his dress and sense of style pushed the boundaries of television standards. While he never came out of the closet until much later, he never intentionally or purposefully hid his homosexuality.

So, how many drinks . .
Do you think this guy had last night?

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and I am a BLANK.

The Walrus was Paul!?!?!

No Plugs Today.
Sorry Buckos.

So Malach has realized something about himself.
So, today was yet another beautiful pre-summer day, almost 90 degrees. So, I am out in my studio painting, while the kids are playing in their wading pool and with the hose, with the large double doors open watching them while I paint. My 4 year old daughter keeps coming over to help and give advice. I am playing The Beatles album Love. Get into a conversation with my 5 year old son about the meaning of the song All You Need is Love. So, what does Malach realize? I am closet hippie.

So is the a phrase for a geek/hippie? A Gippie?

Speaking of the new painting.

Since I haven't done a painting since the last commission a few months ago. And since so many people liked following along with the painting and what I think about and do while I paint; I decided to do it with this one. Unfortunately, I did not photo my pre-canvas creation process which I will do next time.

So, at left is what I worked on today for about 2 hours. I wanted to do a painting about my kids, but I got inspired by one of the Beatles songs we were listening too, so this painting is about my 4 year old daughter and will be entitled Livy in the Sky with Diamonds.

First is in kind of hard at this stage to see the textures that were applied to the canvas from some of the junk I keep around my studio. It will be a bit more obvious once I begin to work on the piece and highlight some of it. You will also notice, once again, a strange shaped canvas. This is just two similarly sized canvases, put together, but instead of brackets, like usual, I actually just screwed the top canvas onto the bottom, throught the stretcher bars, so the top canvas is raised from the bottom about 1". I then made this haphazard cover up between the two from assorted pieces of fabric, canvas, plastic, and netting. Also added, a some paper (you can see the fringe hanging off the canvas at the right of the image) a gate handle, a squirt gun, and a few other odds and ends including a dredel.

The first 2 hours of this piece is basically blocking in the image, color and composition, very rough, but you can see the basic form of what I am going for. I use fairly straight forward color for this process. I will be building up the star and diamond patterns, adding more light, and defining the figure a bit more next session.

So, later.

Playing baseball with the boy, the boy's got a pretty good swing for a 5 year old. Using a fairly heavy padded bat, and a practice baseball. Line drive up the middle on the old man. This is the first time I have ever taken a ball in the groin, all the years I played. Luckily he's only 5, and I was back to speed in 10 minutes.

Something is stalking my garbage.

So, I live in the suburbs, on a dead end street, in a semi wooded area. We get skunks, raccoons, possum, rabbits, the occasional woodchuck, and occasional deer and coyote. I have a fairly long yard (about 180' which ends in a fence, beyond that fairly dense woodland, slightly swampy, and the about 200' later the highway.

So last night, something dragged my locked garbage can (the one with two bags of fairly heavy garbage in it) about 75' until the top popped open and went to town on the two bags. Now, I am unsure what could have done this. As far as I know there are no bears anywhere near where I live . . .

You are listening too . . .

Glass Onion, off The White Album. A interesting Lennon composition, said by Lennon as a response to those who dug for meaning in his lyrics. He basically did this song to fool around with those kind of people. The song references other lines from other Beatles songs. It references I Am the Walrus, Strawberry Fields Forever, There's a Place, I'm Looking Through You, Within You Without You, Lady Madonna, The Fool on the Hill, and Fixing a Hole.

The line "The Walrus was Paul" became a huge lynchpin for the later "Paul is Dead" conspiracy that developed in 1969. According to Lennon, "Glass Onion was a throwaway song, much like I Am the Walrus. "I threw the line in—'the Walrus was Paul'—just to confuse everybody a bit more. It could have been 'The fox terrier is Paul.' I mean, it's just a bit of poetry. I was having a laugh because there'd been so much gobbledegook about Pepper—play it backwards and you stand on your head and all that."

Musically the song has a killer Ringo drum rift, and is one of the more experimental songs off The White Album in terms of studios wizardy, and sampling. This song in turn has been sampled numerous times by the hip hop community. It also features strange little song samples from each of the songs it references. I like it alot.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.

After a long rain delay, Dice-K only pitching 5 cause of a stomach bug, they still won last night. Yanks have lost 2 in a row, and Cashman in now on the hot seat. Of of this moment they are 11 up, and they are up right now 6 - 4 in the top of 6. The Mood: I hate to say this, but the Division in over.

Oh Dana Plato.

OK, what's the over under before Lindsay Hoehan appear in Playboy?

Hehehehe.

Hey, you guys could always try hanging light up signs around Boston.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day.

I'm not going to deny the fact that I've tried pot. I hated it. But I've never tried cocaine. I've seen my father, I've seen how it messes with families, and, you know, it fucks your life up. If I hadn't experienced that, I may have gone a different route. I don't know. But I've seen how it literally tore my parents apart. - Lindsay "Dana Plato" Hoehan

I am Malach and my groin feels much better thank you.

Rocky Raccoon . . .

Plugs.
Just a new 8 1/2 By Eleven. Strip 537 in which Leyla reveals she is a bit of a swinger. Also some of you may have noticed I am having a issue with Feedburner, and my feed, I am in process of trying to correct it.\

Also if you ever wanted to be a part of Malach's softball team, or are a just a fan, the new uniform is up and available to purchase, along with other stuff, including Stool Sample Webcomics stuff (some of the stuff is rated PG13 and R, so you will need to register to see it. Speaking of the softball team you may notice were are in second place, one game behind the first place teams, and now 3 games ahead of the next competition (we beat the Outlaws this evening).

You Are Listening Too . . .
A Malach family favorite, Rocky Raccoon by The Beatles off The White Album. One of Dad's faves, my fave, and the kids, The Beatles always throw these kooky fun songs in their albums, especially later in the career. The song was written primarily by McCartney and was written in India. McCartney kind of ad-libbed the song while playing guitar for Lennon and Donovan. They thought is a funny, and developed a whole song about it.

There are claims the song is a parody of a Bob Dylan song, just as Back in the USSR is a parody of a Beach Boys song (never admitted by any of the Beatles). But it is easy to see. They not only slighty mock his singing style, but also his particular arrangements and compositions of the time, included the harmonica. For the Beatles, this is a tribute to the man Dylan. The song is quite simple, about a man named Rocky Raccoon, who goes to shoot a man who stole his woman, but instead gets gunned down. The Old West style honky tonk piano is played by George Martin.

The life of an internet star.
So, I get this phone call today, from a obviously foreign dude (Indian/Pakastani) accent, "Mr. Malach, you are a very famous internet celebrity, and we read your website and notice you are a bit of a alternative fuel guy". "Have you ever heard of Ethanol?'

"Why Yes", says Malach.

"Ahh, I represent a company that has developed a way to produce ethanol from organic garbage, not corn like it usually is"

"Really", I say as I feign interest.

"So, we notice your fame and ask if you would be interested in investing, do you invest?"

"Well yeah, a bit," I say trying to stifle a laugh.

"So can I send you some informaton on our company?" Sure I say, and I give them Dr. Murk's Address and Phone number. HAHAHAH he's dead!

Ahh a life of debauchery and sin.
You got be kidding me.

AAAUUUGGGGHHH!
SNAKES ON A PLANE!

Wha'ya sayin' mang?
So, uh, Dubya, we building a fence to keep the alien dolphins out?

Celtics Fans.
Man does this Bill Simmons put it all in perspective.

Whip crack!
MINIMUM WAGE!

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and I don't have no problem with fruit.

OK, I am Convinced; The Boston Celtics are cursed!

No Plugs.
Been busy again!

The Celtics.
Malach has not been a huge fan of the Celtics since their 80's glory days. I lost interest as the direction of the NBA changed dramatically and as the Celtics once great franchise started to wallow in misery. I have recently got a bit more interested in the NBA, and the Celtics as the league has started to shift back to Basketball as opposed to some of the reasons why I left. After tonight, I am now convinced the Celtics are cursed, a yet unamed curse, but I will figure this one out.

Len Bias, perhaps he cursed the Celtics . . . after his death, what happened? Reggie Lewis, the whole Tim Duncan fiasco (that year the Celts had somthing like a 65% chance to get the first pick in that lottery and the Spurs who had one of the worst chances got it), screwed up drafts, Rick Pitino, not waiting for players to mature, and now this draft. With the second worse record in the NBA, they had a 40% chance for the number one or number 2 pick, and they ended up with 5. . . .

What now? Well they will probably package someone like Gerald Green and their pick, maybe for Kevin Garnet, but Oden or Durant would have looked good in green. Of course, Memphis had a better chance than the Celts and they ended up 4th.

You are listening too . ..
Blackbird, from The White Album. Another favorite McCartney ballad and truly beautiful song. The song overall is very simple . . . McCartney playing accoustic guitar, a sample of a blackbird singing, and the sound of a electric metronome in the background. Suprisingly, this was a Manson favorite off the album and he based some his thoughts of an upcoming racewar based on messages he got from the song (yeah I don't really see it in this one).

McCartney's inspiration for the song comes from their stay in India, when he was awoken in the early morning by a blackbird singing. The guitar piece of the song is inspired by Bach's Bouree. Notice the playing of multiple notes at similar times.

Lyrically it is a simple song, but very powerful, and in my opinion very symbolic of where McCartney was in his life, ending a long relationship with Jane Asher, and meeting Linda Eastman.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Well Tavarez and Mussina did not match up well for the Sox, but Tavarez no-hit the Yankees for 4 innings, and then they got into the bullpens, the Sox strength and a Yankees weakness . . . 7 - 2 right now top of the 8th. Tomorrow should be interesting Schilling vs. Petite, with Schill coming off a so-so last start. The Mood: Pretty Confident.

Gangs, EBay, and the Ivory Trade.
I am surprised EBay hasn't stopped this . . . of course this gives me tons of ideas for my Jr. Meth Lab . . .

I find it very shocking that . .
The Spirit amd Opportunity Rovers are still functioning 2 years+ after they were supposed to stop. There is a special on this, I think on the Discovery Channel, they play it everyso often.

Ok, here comes a deep joke.
So scientist are releasing a birthcontrol pill that will stop your period . . . didn't they already release it for text messaging and chatroom? Thank you, I will be here all week.

MMMMMM
Coelacanth

Paula Abdul.
Sorry Paula, Brian Greise already used that excuse.

Malach's Quote Video of the Day.

I am Malach and I faked the moonlanding.

Lisa Lopes, Amaral Bus Company, and various other shiite

First the plugs.
Sunshine number 38 is up, with some digital manipulation by Malach. It is the perfect little piece to toss up in a MySpace or Forum comment when you win argument, for example here.

Lisa Lopes.
For those of you unsure of who she is, check out the Wikipedia entry. Now Malach is not a fan of TLC, but they are much better than some of the crap on the radio stations that play their type music. Last night, VH1 (Also not a huge fan of VH1), played a documentary called The Last Days of Left Eye. Evidently Lopes filmed much of the last two years of her life for a documentary. She discussed her career, here mental breakdowns, her alcoholism, her 7 year relationship with Andre Rison (who house she burned down), how she was turning her life around in Honduras doing some missionary work, moving away from TLC, her spiritual epiphanies there, the strange coincidences of her journey, her mental breakdowns there, and filiming up to the point of her death . . . they were actually filming inside the vehicle she was driving the moment the accident occured she died in. It was all together fairly powerful and surreal, and worth a watch.

Amaral Bus Company.
Don't EVER use Amaral Bus Company. My wife works with kids with Autism. Today, she and a co-worker took an Amaral bus down to Mystic Aquarium for a trip. About an hours trip. First and foremost, the promised bus did not contain a promised DVD player, and the running water and toilets did not work properly (yeah you take a group of thirty 8 - 12 year old Austic kids for a 2 hour ride in that condition). On the way back from the Aquarium, the bus, overheated and broke down, about 10 miles from the Aquarium. It took Amaral's more than THREE hours to pick up this group in another bus, and bring them home. Whoever took their calls for help on the phone was an ASSHOLE and could really seem to care less. To top it off, the CT. State Police were also rather unhelpful. All this busful of special needs kids wanted was for the police to bring them some antifreeze, so they could limp the bus off the highway to the next exit that had a McDonald's, and for some reason they couldn't even seem to do that.

One of the kids parents drove down there, and he happens to be a deisel mechanic, took one look at the underside and engine of the bus and stated . . "Man, I am surprised this bus made it this far, it looks like it has had no maintenance since it was bought".

So, boycott Amaral Bus. If you need a bus locally, go with Furtado Buslines, or Tremblay Bus.

You are Listening too (BANG, BANG, SHOOT, SHOOT!). . .
Happiness is a Warm Gun off The White Album. Very interesting and underated Beatles song. Primarly written by John Lennon, it has five distinct sections in an under 3 minute song. Lennon himself used it call it the history of rock and roll.

The song begins with a lilting surreal part based on a acid trip, drums, bass, and distorted guitar start up, and then the songs jumps to a ominous sound guitar rift and Lennon emploring "I need a fix" (hence many think the song is about heroin, but Lennon denied this). Then there is a punky steccatto off kilter section. The final section is a doo-wop send up. This songs changing tempos became a huge influence to bands like Radiohead, Mr. Bungle, and more avant garde rock bands.

The biggest and most radical accomplishment is the frequent changes in timing, rythmn, and tempo. Begining in 4/4 time it shifts to 3/4 for the guitar solo and next section, then jumps around to 6/8, 3/4 and then back to 4/4 and 3/4 shifts.

As for what the song in about, the most of it is symbolic and very surreal. At the time, Lennon might have been descending into heroin addiction, but Lennon denied the song was about that even though the lyrics easily fit that. Lennon did state, that the idea for the song came from a Peanuts book entitled Happiness is a Warm Puppy (Bang, Bang, Shoot, Shoot).

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Well. 2 out of 3 from the Braves with Kason Gabbards pulled up from AAA Patuckett to start, and lot of starters resting for 3 games in the Bronx nest three days. They are currently 10.5 up on BALTIMORE and 11 on New York and Toronto. Should be some interesting pitching match ups, and they actually favor the pinstripes. Mood: Yankees Sox, AGAIN.

OH MY GOD!
The Brood is coming.

Damn.
I can't even deal with one wife.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day.

I am Malach and happiness is warm ribeye steak.

As Promised

Plugs.
There is a new 8 1/2 By Eleven, this one is a sappy one and is 523.

You are listening too . . . .
While My Guitar Gently Weeps, by the Beatles from the album The Beatles (aka The White Album. This song was fully penned by George Harrison, as a solo song, but was included on The White Album. This song is also one of the only Beatles song to feature a famous guest musician in Eric Clapton who played the solo and lead guitar on the recording. Pretty much a straight out 70's style guitar rock song, Harrison got the inspiration for the song, from of all places reading I Ching. Based on the Eastern idea and philosophy of relativism, Harrison commited to writing a song on the first few words he read by randomly opening a book. Those worlds were "gently weep".

Surprising, even though at the time, this was one of Harrison best songs, The Beatles were uninterested in recording it (One of the many parts of friction developing between the band). Undaunted, Harrison invited Clapton to come play during recording sessions. Clapton was a bit unsure as The Beatles never let anyone record with them, but he came and it served a two fold purpose. A moments relief of the inner turmoil among the band, and Harrison being freed up to concentrate of rythmn guitar and his vocals.

They decided to give Harrison's song a go and were mightly impressed with the sessions and recording. Clapton himself, was in on the mixing and suggested they "wobble up" his guitar a bit to give it a "more Beatley feel".

The song has an almost frenetic, frantic feel to it, with McCartney's piano, and the harmonizing adds to the feel. Even the ghostly off time harmonizing. Harrison had come a real long way from his early Beatles tunes, and it would even get better.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Another rain out, tons of rain today, another double header tomorrow. And as promised, the worlds greatest color man, Jerry Remy.

Remy absolute rocks, and we are lucky to have him. There are time when him and his partner Don Orsillo go on these multi-inning nutty tangents, make fun of everything under the sun, and get the multi-inning giggle fits.

Also Remy sometime has a tendency to disappear, and leave Orsillo hanging for a inning or two, and then come back seemingly high or innebriated. RemDawg rocks.

And the Yanks lost again today increasing the Sox lead to 10 games.

OH YEAH!
This will surely improve the Angry Piper's life!

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day
This morning, prompted by increasing concerns about terrorism, oil prices reached a record high as the cost of a barrel of crude is a whopping $44.34. Wow, it seems shocking that a product of finite supply gets more expensive the more we use it.... Now the terror alert means higher oil prices, which oddly enough means higher profits for oil companies giving them more money to give to politicians whose policies may favor the oil companies such as raising the terror alert level. As Simba once told us — it's the circle of life - John Stewart

I am Malach to the East blackwards . .. . SISSIES!

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Life Goes On, Brah!

Plugs
Rejoice, there is a new Tales of WoW!, Adrift and this one is funny!

You are listening too . . .
A very strange Beatles song, that many people find surprising that was on The White Album. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da . . . is it a fun and popular Beatles song, yet has also been voted worst song of all time (though I can think of thousands of others that fit that bill). Many of the young'uns might remember this being the theme of the TV show Life Goes On.

As for the song, I don't think a lot of people get it. First it is the only reggae song the Beatles ever did or really attempted, and is more in the vein of ska. Of course The Beatles added a bunch of stuff to it (a honky tonk piano rythmn being one), but the killer McCartney bassline is definitely reggae. The song was written mainly by McCartney as a concious nod to the emerging reggae movement. The song employed a number of schemes The Beatles had never used before in a song, and continued to showcase the highly experimental nature of The White Album.

While McCartney mainly wrote the song, Lennon made a major contribution. The song was originally conceived much slower than it's current pace, and Lennon was not pleased with the song. While experimenting with acid, Lennon sped the song up, and the rest of The Beatles were amazed at how good it sounded. It was re-recorded at the higher speed.

The song is rather simple in it's subject matter, and the lyrics are also pretty simple. But listening reveals a whole sub level of sounds, voices, and laughter. In addition, in the second time through the verses, McCartney switches some the wordings as a slip of the tongue, but they never changed it.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is supposedly a greeting in the Yoruba tribe meaning "Life goes on". The Beatles were actually sued over the saying; a Nigerian Singer clamed he taught the saying to McCartney. It was settled out of court.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
BORED! I hate rainouts. And yet the Yankees still fell another half game behind.

Speaking of the Weather.
Huge rain, thunder storms and rare tornado warning all over New England . . . but we got squat here is SouthEastern MA.

Internal Decapitation.
Wow. Pretty amazing.

Half a Million Dollars.
For some interesting reading?

Let's see.
He 10 months old, named Bubba, and got a gun permit, and a gun for his birthday. I would think this was in Texas.

Phil Spector.
Yeah you killed someone with that haircut.

The positive side to having Herpes.
See, every cloud has a silver lining.

You know what I find interesting.
They like to put our founding fathers on our money. But what about guys like these, who came before Washington? Or especially a guy like John Hanson?

Bo Diddley.
Suffered a stroke today would be a shame to lose him.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and The Grey Album is very interesting.

Won't you come out and play?

Mucho Plugo.
There is a new 8 1/2 by Eleven number 532. Lucas hates the art, but I like it. Friday Night RPG Cartoons number 1.10 is also up and has WAY too many inside jokes, so like 3 people will enjoy it. Sunshine number 37 is also up and I must say, I couldm't disagree with Hex more on this one. Also Malach posted a short article at the WoW, some of you might enjoy.

More Beatles.
Aound the time this album was released, many things in the Beatles lives began to change. The big one being Brian Epstein's death. Lennon got divorced, McCartney and Jane Asher finally ended their stormy relationship, Yoko Ono and Linda Eastman enter the picture, Yellow Submarine the movie premiered, the Beatles went to India, and finally, in January of '69, they began filing and recording Let It Be (recorded before Abbey Road, but we will get into that).

Again the major event was Brian Epstein's death. Espstein had this gift, of keeping the Beatles egos in check and smoothing over hurt feelings, he also handled their business affairs admirably. After his death, no one filled that void. Epstein was perfect at reducing Lennon's ego, buttering up Harrison about his lack of songs on albums, and softening McCartney's almost militaristic psuedo-leadership.

After his death, some further events exacerbated Epstein not being there. Yoko came into the picture, and Lennon refused to leave her side, and they began collaborating artistically. This lead to other girlfriends and wives also being there. Epstein was always adamant about that not occuring, and now no one was there they respected enough to listen too.

For a replacement for Epstein, McCartney wanted Lee Eastman (his soon to be wife Linda's father) as their manager, where the rest of The Beatles wanted super manager Allen Klein. In the past decision like this were always unanimous (with Epstein smoothing out what was in the bands best interest) but this time it was a 3 - 1 vote. After this album it becomes a bit of a quick downward spiral so hold on.

Jerry Falwell.
Well he's dead. I am sure there is a warm place in Hell for him.

Really?
I suppose if your into the slutty drug whore type.

Speaking of Slutty Drug Whores.
Paris doesn't like prison . . . WAHWAHWAH!

Be vewy qwiet.
Phil Spector is huntin' B movie actwesses, heheheheheheheheheheh

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
For once the pitching matchup didn't favor the BoSox. Verlander pitched a beauty. And Tavares v. Maroth tomorrow don't look good either. Mood: Hey their still 8 games up and the NL is coming.

Hey you Danes!
My 4 year old is gonna kick your asses if you don't quit it.

See I told you!
Malach's profile didn't get deleted! It is still right there.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day
Are you going to Punch in the Face Town? - C.Rag

I am Malach, and I ask you . . . Are you going to the Punch in the Face Town?

Takei as in Gay

No Plugs today.
But I am working on a ton of stuff for this week. Unless you consider this a plug.

Heroes.
Man, did they not find the perfect part for Georger Takei? And man, they even got him acting. Awesome show, you don't know what your are missing 24 idiots.

You are Listening too . . .
We begin our journey into the album simple entitled The Beatles (Aka The White Album). Now, before I give some background, this is Malach's favorite Beatles album and what I consider the best album of all time. Again that can be argued. What I like about this album is the influence it has had on modern music, and music of the 70's, 80's, and 90's. The Beatles, moved back toward guitar based rock, and this is perhaps there most experimental album. The Beatles heavily influence 70's rock from the Eagles, Led Zepplin, and the Sex Pistols; was a huge influence on the 80's new wave, Sonic Youth, U2, REM, and Fugazi; and influence on Guns and Roses, Public Enemy, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and most of the music of the late 80's early 90's. Even today, it has an influence on musicians as diverse as Beck, Jay-Z, The OutKast, Jimmy Eat World, and many other musicians. After the Beatles broke all the rules with previous albums, they kind of restructured them for everyone who came after to follow with The Beatles.

This is the best selling Beatles album of all time and the ninth best selling album overall in US history. This album took almost a year to make, and turned into a double album. It also marked abandoning of the Hippie psychedelic style, and a move toward the drug infused rock of the 70's. This Beatles also began to show the very diverse and almost divergent songwriting styles of the three main songwriting members. Lennon's hard edges lyrics, McCartney's piano based ballads, and Harrison's guitar driven ballads. In addition, while time passed for creation of this album, each member began writing solo stuff. Lennon's Jealous Guy, McCartney's Junk, and Harrison's Not Guilty were all written in this time period and later appeared on their solo albums.

Tension and factions began to grow within the group during this time (several things influenced this, I will expand on it more in tomorrow's blog): Epstein's death, their first real artistic and financial failure with the Magical Mystery Tour movie, and a disillusioned Lennon returning from their trip to India. Also, in fighting over who should be the group's new manager, new business ventures with Apple, and Yoko Ono become Lennon's girlfriend and artistic partner added to some of the tension. Ono was constantly with Lennon, and for the first time, girlfriends, wives, and significant others were allowed into the recording studio (many of the songs have backing vocals from Ono, Linda Eastman, Patty Harrison, and others). McCartney and Lennon would at times record in seperate studios, and George Martin's studio authority over the band waned. Additionally, Starr walked out on the band for a period of two weeks. The rest of the band pleaded with him to return, but still recorded Back In the USSR and Dear Prudence with McCartney on drums.

Many of the songs turned out to be very personal songs. Dear Prudence is one of them. The song is about Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence. Prudence was on the trip to India with The Beatles to visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Prudence spent the entire time in her room focusing on meditation. Lennon was worried she was depressed and wrote this song for her.

As stated, the song was recorded with McCartney on drums as Ringo had walked out. Lennon also stated this is probably his favorite Beatles song (it is also his son Julian's favorite). The song is very simply written and has a beautiful music behind it. It also shows how the Beatles were moving back to a standard guitar based music.

Those in my age bracket might recall that this song was a huge hit for Siouxsie & the Banshees in the early 80's.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Dice K, complete game win vs. the second best team in the AL, the Tigers. 8.5 up on the Yanks, who are in second. If they win 3 of 4, this could get isane around here. Mood: Unbelieving.

Ahh Eric Rudolph.
I am sure Jesus is proud of you.

The Kinder and Gentler Dubya.
Uh, I guess he back, but what's the catch? I think he has been chumming with Al Gore.

So Chrysler has been sold.
Interestingly to a company that has no experience in automotive. So what's the death pool odds on this one?

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and yeah Goldie's pretty hot.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day.
Especially to my Wife, my Mother, my Memere, and my Mother-in-law. Very special women that deserve celebration on a day like today. This Beatles song is dedicated to yor, and all the mothers out there.

You Are Listening Too . . .
Perhaps the most popular Beatles song of all time, Hey Jude. I know you have heard it a million times, but it is still perhaps the best song ever written by Paul McCartney, so much so that the rest of The Beatles gave it praise, even Lennon felt it was McCartney best song ever.

A rock ballad that was over 7 minutes long, very strange for a single at the time. Even though, the song remained number one in the US for 9 weeks, the longest ever for a Beatles tune. Also it is always listed in the top 10 of numerous greatest songs in Rock and Roll history, by numerous lists and sources.

The songs original title was Hey Jules. McCartney wrote it to comfort Julian Lennon, after finding out John Lennon and Cynthia Lennon were getting divorced. After John and Cynthia seperated, McCartney drove out to see them and give them the support of a friend. Julian and McCartney were very close, at times closer than John and Julian were. "We'd been very good friends for millions of years and I thought it was a bit much for them suddenly to be persona non gratae and out of my life," said McCartney. He composed the song on the way up to see them in the car.

One of the reasons the song is so beloved, and the reason I am using it for Mother's Day, is the subject matter is easily relatable. In fact, John Lennon thought McCartney wrote the song to him after his divorce, Hey John, and the lyrics easily fit that notion well too, Lennon's divorce followed by Yoko. Judith Simmons a friend of the band, also thought the song was about her and issues in her life, and you can even see the song relating to McCartney, being self cathartic in his failing relationship with Jane Asher.

The song itself is about the failings in life, the support and unrequited you get from friends and family, and picking yourself back up, highly appropriate for Mother's Day.

The song was recorded over two nights, with the final recording on a 8 track at Trident Studios (Abbey Road was still 4 track). The song then had an added orchestral section added, and The Beatles asked the members of the orchestra (all 36 of them) to also sing along with refrain and clap, which most did. Also strangely, Ringo, was not in the room for the begining of the master recording, but in the bathroom, and somehow managed to tip toe back into the room, to hit his drum right on cue. There are also a couple of Lennon exclamations around the 3 minute mark, that got accidently left on the record, no one seemed to notice him exclaiming "OH!" and "FUCKING HELL!" after he flubbed a backing vocal and they were left there.

The song was initally recorded during the White Album sessions but it was always conceived as a single and was paired with Revolution. The film also had a promotional music video, I will post below. It is a bit weird, no makeup, McCartney giving bedroom eyes to the camera, and a strange old man dancing around the set.

Lyrics printed for your conveniece.
Hey, Jude, don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better

Hey, Jude, don't be afraid
You were made to go out and get her
The minute you let her under your skin
Then you begin to make it better.

And any time you feel the pain, hey, Jude, refrain
Don't carry the world upon your shoulders
Well don't you know that its a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder

Hey, Jude! Don't let her down
You have found her, now go and get her
Remember, to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better.

So let it out and let it in, hey, Jude, begin
You're waiting for someone to perform with
And don't you know that it's just you, hey, Jude,
You'll do, the movement you need is on your shoulder

Hey, Jude, don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better

The Mood of Red Sox Nation
Back on the winning track again, Mood: Happy and 7 games up.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and I love my Mommy.

LADY MADONNA!

Plugs.
Just a weird 8 1/2 by Eleven today (530). I really don't know what Lucas was smoking with this one. Perhaps he has been enjoying my Beatles blogs.

You are listening too . .
Speaking of the Beatles, Lady Madonna, one of those singles released between Magical Mystery Tour and The White Album.

The song was a number one hit in the US, and kind of indicated a change of direction for the Beatles, away from the more process sounds of the psychedelic era to a more blues, garage rock style. The song owe alot to 50's blues/rock, and McCartney (who mostly wrote the tune) stated he was trying to do a Fats Domino impersonation. Domino would actually cover the song in 1968 and it would be his last hot 100 US hit. Ron Scott provides the sax for the song.

The song is novel mix of music, with a standard semi-blues rock out, and strange nasally harmony (nose horns). Also we see Paul hit his utmost range of vocals to some interesting effects. Personally I love when he goes above his range slightly and belts out these tunes, something he will do with future Beatles albums and his solo career. Vocal track is also doubled up through the song.

The lyrics are pretty interesting.

Lady Madonna, children at your feet
Wonder how you manage to make ends meet
Who finds the money? When you pay the rent?
Did you think that money was Heaven sent?

Friday night arrives without a suitcase
Sunday morning creep in like a nun
Monday's child has learned to tie his bootlace
See how they run

Lady Madonna, baby at your breast
Wonder how you manage to feed the rest

See how they run

Lady Madonna, lying on the bed
Listen to the music playing in your head
Tuesday afternoon is never ending
Wednesday morning papers didn't come
Thursday night you stockings needed mending
See how they run

Lady Madonna, children at your feet
Wonder how you manage to make ends meet

It is a subtle juxtaposition of the familar (Lady Madonna, the references to religion) and the not so subtle (basically about a poor woman who trying to make ends meet).

Some more bad news for Dubya.
His buddy, under some pressure, Tony Blair resigned. And now, Congress has defied his veto threat on the budget. I still wonder where this country would be if Gore was elected.

Just the Good ole' boys.
Is it just me? I really don't picture them Duke boys being all that internet savy.

What has this world come too?
OK, so last night there was a brawl at the Boston Pops Concert. You can see the video here. It gotta be Ben Folds fault . . . Of course it might have be a Yankee vs. Red Sox fan, but there were no Yankees Suck chants after that (you can hear those chant just about anywhere including ballet recitals, wedding, and first communion).

All is not kosher in the Earnhardt family.
Jr. is leaving. Kind of interesting, step mom vs. Dales Sr.'s kids . . .

Steve McNair.
Steve McNair was arrested yesterday for being a passenger in his car that his brother in law was driving drunk. He was immediately singed to a 2 year contract with the Bengals.

Seriouly, who drunk do you think McNair was?

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Wow, up 8 - 0 in the 9th, and Halladay was pitching for the Jays. Amazing. 4 in a row, and a sweep of Toronto. Our Mood: Feeling good!

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and I met Superman

Seriously, all you need is love

Plugs.
Check out the funny ass video the Angry Piper posted at the WoW. Also, no plugs today for RubberSuit Studios, sorry, I promised some, but I am busy with client work.

Also if you live in the New Bedford area, check out The Furniture Place for furniture. Not your typical low brow New Beige furniture discounter. Some mid range to high quality pieces at very good prices. Right next to Flagship Cinema on King's Highway.

You are listening too . .
One of the most beautiful musical anthems ever made, All You Need is Love. Among the most significant, beloved, and famous songs by the group, it was original played for a 2 hours live television special called Our World. It was specifically written by Lennon, with some McCartney contribution for the special, which aired in over 400 million homes in 1967. It was republished as the closing track on Magical Mystery Tour.

Lennon was asked to come up with simple song, that all nationalities of the world could understand. Lennon worked off a song from Rubber Soul, The Word, which has a similar theme. Many were immediatley amazed by the song, the fact it would not be misunderstood in any culture or language. Lennon also considered it a propoganda song, like many of his later solo works.

Ironically it was the last song recorded and released before Brian Epstein death, and perhaps the high point of the interpersonal relationships between The Beatles.

Because of the international feel of the song, it was given a worldly flavor. Hence the opening of the song with La Marseillaise and several other snippets of song during the long fadeout (2-part Invention #8 in F by Johann Sebastian Bach (transposed to G and played on 2 piccolo trumpets), Greensleeves (played by the strings), Glenn Miller's In The Mood (played on a saxophone), one of the Beatles' seminal hits (particularly in Great Britain), She Loves You (spontaneously ad-libbed by John and Paul), and Jeremiah Clarke's Prince of Denmark's March lilting off at the end).

The songs structure is acutually a bit complex. The background repeatedly sing's "love, love, love" while Lennon's verse are in 7 /4 time, and the chorus in 4/4. It is one of only two songs to every reach the top 20 US in 7/4 time (if you can guess the other one correctly you get a prize). The only difference between the album and live recording is that Lennon rerecorded some of the vocals he was unhappy with.

The song message endures today. All you need is love.

That ends our look back at Magical Mystery Tour. The White Album is next, but because it took so long to record, The Beatles had a number of their most famous hits in between, we will explore those next.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Still on a roll. Did I tell you how much I love this team. Mood: Love, and in love with the new Josh Beckett.

The Pillow Angel.
Again, I find what this child parents did, pretty disgusting, and I am glad a advocacy group says so.

Hey here's some shocking news.
The majority disagrees with Dubya about his veto of the Iraqi funding bill. How much longer we got with this idiot?

MMMMMMMM
Moldy Cheddar.

Hey Jeffri Chadiha, of ESPN.com
You sir, are a moron, for this article. The Patriots were not about to give in to Deion Branch. Do your research. The Pats were more than willing to sing Branch. Problem was, Branch was already signed to play 2006 with the Pats. He decided he did not want to wait until 2007, when his contract was up, and then go for the money, he wanted it, when he was signed already.

The Pats have never, nor will they ever deal with a players contract when they are already signed. Branch was going to sit out his last year, so the Pats, being the smart team they are, traded a mid range reciever for a 1st round draft pick. They only payed a 4th rounder for Moss. You are stupid, and since you don't list contact info at ESPN, you can follow backlinks here, at least my contact info is right on the page.

So.
How much whiskey was need to accomplish this? Or, how much whiskey to tear it all apart?

MMMMMMM
Steak.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and I have moon madness

Goo Goo G'joob

Plugs.
There is a very special Sunshine up. Number 35 features an extra special message of brotherly love and peace starring the great and mighty Cthulhu.

You are listening too . .
I am the Walrus. Very interesting song, lyrics wise. The first real use of stream of concious type lyrics in a pop song. You look at these lyrics now, and you see Beck's inspiration for many of his songs.

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.

See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly.

I'm crying.

Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.

Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday.

Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long.

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.

I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.

Mister City Policeman sitting

Pretty little policemen in a row.

See how they fly like Lucy in the Sky, see how they run.

I'm crying, I'm crying.

I'm crying, I'm crying.

Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye.

Crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess,

Boy, you been a naughty girl you let your knickers down.

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.

I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.

Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun.

If the sun don't come, you get a tan

From standing in the English rain.

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.

I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob g'goo goo g'joob.

Expert textpert choking smokers,

Don't you think the joker laughs at you?

See how they smile like pigs in a sty,

See how they snide.

I'm crying.

Semolina pilchard, climbing up the Eiffel Tower.

Elementary penguin singing Hari Krishna.

Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe.

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.

I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob g'goo goo g'joob.

Goo goo g'joob g'goo goo g'joob g'goo.

It is noted as one The Beatles most experimental and striking songs from the psychedelic period. It is also noted as Lennons most experimental songs for wordplay.

Also weirdly, the song was a B-Side to the number one single Hello/Goodbye. Talk about 2 totally different songs. Lennon readily admits he wrote a bit of the song while tripping on acid. In addition the song combines three originally seperate songs Lennon had been working on at the time. Also as a bit of an inside joke, Lennon added a verse of non-sensical words in the last verse, specifically because he had heard a former teacher of his was analyzing the lyric content of Beatles songs in the classroom. The song also carries some references to Lewis Carrol's poem The Walrus and the Carpenter. Unfortunately, Lennon did not realize the Walrus was the bad guy in the poem, and should of used the Carpenter, which readily admitted in an 1980 interview (Quote Lennon: "It never dawned on me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist and social system. I never went into that bit about what he really meant, like people are doing with the Beatles' work. Later, I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the bad guy in the story and the carpenter was the good guy. I thought, Oh, shit, I picked the wrong guy. I should have said, 'I am the carpenter.' But that wouldn't have been the same, would it? [Singing] 'I am the carpenter....'" ).

The song has a pretty rich and well recorded history about many of the lyrics and how they were created. Some is based in real life (ie the police man lyrics, were written while tripping, hearing a siren and singing the lyric along with the siren). There were a number of little song snippets like this, and Lennon began mixing them as one song. Another verse was taken from a nursery ryhme Lennon and his young friends used to sing:

"Yellow matter custard, green slop pie,
All mixed together with a dead dog's eye,
Slap it on a butty, ten foot thick,
Then wash it all down with a cup of cold sick".

Several friends were present when Lennon finished the song, and telling them he was writing it to screw around with people who read into the lyrics is quote as saying: "Let the fuckers work that one out." As for the unsual expression goo goo g'joob, ir has never really been explained by any of The Beatles bu several hypothesis exist. Many feel it is a take off of Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson (koo koo ka choo), but Lennon would not have heard that until the release of The Graduate, which debut almost a month after I am the Walrus was released. Lennon was also a reader of Joyce, and their is a similar kind of exclamation in his final novel Finnegan's Wake. Again, no one is really sure.

Musically the song is very interesting. The song is done in all major or 7th chords, and all the musical letters of the alphabet are used (A, B, C, D, E, F, G). There is also a sample of a radio broadcast of King Lear buried in the song mix. As for the rest of the music, it is accopanied by an orchestra that included violins, cellos, horns, clarinets, and a 16 piece choir.

The song also became instrumental in the Paul is dead rumors that would begin to spread in 1969. Of course Lennon helped to confuse people by stating on a later song, the "Here's another clue for you all, the walrus was Paul."" and then on a 1970 solo album ""I was the walrus, but now I'm John.".

For the video, another innovative early music video, Lennon was wearing the Walrus costume, but on the cover of the album, McCartney was.

HEY!

It is almost 2010, where is my hydrogen car?

Clemens.

Ok bear with me on this. The Yankees signed Clemens for a 1 year $28 million dollar contract. He is basically going to pitch half a year. He just turned 45, and hasn't pitched in the AL since 2003. This will be interesting, for sure. And to make matters worse, he might not get there until the middle of June, what happens in the Bombers are 11 - 12 games out?

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.

We feel like Schilling, disappointed, I would love to see one of my heros comeback to where he started, but honestly, we don't need him. I would rather have Lester, who will be back in a few weeks.

2 out of 3 in Minnesota, not easy to do, and should have won yesturday. The Mood: Missing the Past, but looking forward to the future.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am the Malach!

The Fool on a Hill

Plugs.
A few today. Let's start with the kids. My daughter has some new artwork up, man she is talented, she is going to blow aways her dad by the time she is 16. My son also has some new stuff up. His art is interesting, not the raw talent of the girl, but has some pretty awesome technical know how, loves to invent and experiment with media.

8 1/2 by Eleven 528 is also up, and Nillian is must less whiny in this one. Also something interesting to check out at The Deck of Many Things.

You are listening too . . .
The Fool on the Hill. This is not only from the album, but an acutually song from the Magical Mystery Tour Album. Also a request from my kids today. Out of the movie soundtrack perhaps the best song (although I am partial to I am the Walrus). Analyzing the album, it can be noted that without the addition of the second side, the previously released singles, this would not be a particualrly good album.

Fool shows a interesting depature toward some of their later softer music in the vein of Blackbird, Golden Slumbers, etc. Mainly written by McCartney, there are several thoughts about the songs influence. McCartney himseld stated: "'Fool On The Hill' was mine and I think I was writing about someone like the Maharishi. His detractors called him a fool. Because of his giggle he wasn't taken too seriously... I was sitting at the piano at my father's house in Liverpool hitting a D6th chord, and I made up 'Fool On The Hill'." McCartney's friend, Alistair Taylor recalls that him and McCartney were on Primrose Hill, debating the existence of God, and a strange man suddenly appeared walking with them, and then disappeared soon after not saying a word.

The song went through several incarnation, at first a McCartney Solo piece. Overddubs were added a few days later, and harmony vocals, creating almost a completely different song. The song sat around for about a month, and then the amazing flute trio was added, as well as a bassline.

The flutes were done by the brothers Christopher and Richard Talor and Jack Ellory. The main flute part is a three part harmony that gets that amazing sound. The song ends in a sort of abrupt way, which is intentional.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Well, Dice-K had his worst outing of the year, Papelbon and Okajima were not available, and they still squeaked out a win. As of right now they are up 1 - 0, Big Papi home run. Mood: It kind of weird, but this team has a Patriots vibe about them.

Joey's dream is one step closer to reality.
See you in 45 days, Paris.

Ahh the NRA.
Guys, you really need to focus in another direction, you sounding about as rediculous as PETA.

Hey, John Schneider.
Where's my cut? Ads for this aution were all over my site the past few days.

In Local News.
This was HUGE when I was in high school, very weird case. New Bedford has always had this strange little political machine, and if you were connected you could get away with a lot of stuff. Ponte has some of those connections. New Bedford also had a lot of secret mod connections also. It did not become the #1 Fishing port in the US by pure luck. Some more on this at WoW later in the week.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day.

I am Malach, and yes this is a fave of mine

Living is easy with eyes closed

No Plugs Today.
There will be quite a few tomorrow though.

Some more Beatles info.
After the release of Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles were basically exhausted physically and mentally. After a bit of a respite, they began recording for The Beatles (White Album) in May of 1968, 5 months after the release of Magical Mystery Tour. The Beatles was not released until almost exactly one year after Magical Mystery Tour, the longest amount of time ever between recordings. In that time a number of singles were released, but we will get into some of those after exploring Magical Mystery Tour.

During this period between albums several significant events occured. The Beatles went to India and explored Eastern thought, The Apple Boutique opened up as they expanded the Apple name and then promptly closed a year later in finacial ruin, Yellow Submarine the animated movie made it's premiere, Apple Records began releasing other bands music and began having hits, Cynthia Lennon sues John for divorce which he would grant three months later (he was already living with Yoko), Lennon and Ono are arrested for cannibus possession after a raid of their flat, and Hey Jude is released (a song by McCartney about Lennon's divorce).

I will get more into these events and The White Album looms, it's quite a ride.

Lock her up.
Oh Yeah, they will love Paris Hilton in Prison.

Stupid People are so adorable.
Shocking their ceiling didn't collapse.

No freaking way!
Someone wants to ban coolers at NASCAR events . . way to ostracize your longtime fans.

Hey Cash.
Ron Mexico runs a canine brothel. He raises your young for pooch on pooch violence.

Agreement?
Perhaps. What dissappoints me is there seems no commitment to exploring other forms of less polluting energy.

Another reason not to visit Mexico City.
It seems the crocodiles are also on the crime spree.

Spidey Villain Quiz.
Malach got 75%, which means he a geek.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Man, is Dice-K can get rid of the one bad inning . . won yesterday, tied right now, and Dice-K is out. Mood: Ok.

Malach's Quote of the Day
There are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers. - Ralph Ellison

I am Malach and I am more dangerous than sleepwalkers.

Let take you down, cause I'm going too . .

Plugs.
Sunshine 34 is up starring SKELETOR! 8 1/2 by Eleven has also updated with strip 527. I am also, almost finally done with the Wraith.

Also some stuff to check out at the WoW. First you got to check out today's Hump Day Jokes, more specifically joke number 2. Tainted~Love posts Hump Day Jokes every Wednesday. This one is great, Malach loves to poke fun at the Irish. Also an incident happened today at work where I thought another one of my clients had died. That got me thinking to the 6 that have died over my career in human services, and decided to post a bit of a tribute to them. Read it, comment if you like.

You are listening too . . .
One of The Beatles best songs of all time, by consesus, Strawberry Fields Forever. And if this song don't make you feel trippy, I don't know what will. A double A side with Penny Lane, as stated in previous post, the two songs are a very interesting juxtapostion. Strawberry Fields is perhaps the defining song of psychedelic rock.

Both Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane are actual locations in Liverpool. Both songs address childhood memories, and landmarks of the city. Penny Lane, mostly written by McCartney is a happier version, while Strawberry Fields written by Lennon is much more morose. Both songs were recorded for Sgt. Pepper, but left off to make singles, which George Martin still regrets to this day (how much more amazing would Sgt. Pepper be with these two songs added).

Again the song express an nostalgic view of childhood, but with surrealistic tones. Strawberry Field is an orphanage down the block from where Lennon grew up with his aunt. Lennon used to play behind the building in the woods with his childhood friends. Strawberry Field had a garden party every summer which the neighborhood was invited too, and Lennon loved.

This song was written during a period of change for Lennon. The bigger than Jesus controversy, his failing marriage to Cynthia Lennon, the disastorous last year of touring. Lennon became more introspective, and some of the pain of his childhood resurfaced (his mother died when he was young and you will see his future albums explore these feelings). Lennon was getting heavy into drugs, especially LSD. The song itself has no drug references, but is highly influenced by those mind altering experiences.

One of the nice parts of this recording is the myriad of demos, and outakes saved from the recording of the song. You can see the creation of the lyrics, and the sound through that. The song, over most of the songs of that period (sans perhaps Tomorrow Never Knows, and a Day in the Life), is a masterwork of sound engineering and recording. There is extensive overdubbing, looping, reverse recording, and compression through the song. The arrangement includes a piano, a Mellotron (played by McCartney), trumpets, cellos, and an Indian swarmandel.

One of the most amazing parts of the song and something many people notice, is that the song is two different version melded together. The were two distinct versions of the song, a acid rock style in the vein of Jefferson Airplane, and a more complex orchestral musical arrangement.

Lennon decide he liked parts of both, so he told George Martin to mix them. Problem. Each version is played in both a different key, and a different tempo. Luckily, the faster version was in a higher key this allowed them to slow down faster version and speed up the slower one and match the tempo. Lennon was amazed, and pitch and slight speed differences in the song, give it that otherworldly sound. Lennon always described it as a "swimming quality".

The flute like sound at the beginning is a Mellotron, which Lennon had purchased, but McCartney soon discovered it's potential. Strawberry Fields is the first rock song to use it, and it was quickly picked up by a number of other bands.

Strawberry Fields also had a very groundbreaking conceptual music video. Both (Penny Lane video) were originally broadcast in 1968 on The Hollywood Palace.

Brian Wilson claims Strawberry Fields ruined the anticipated Beach Boys concept album SMiLE. He says The Beatles achieved the sound he was going for and then he shelved the album. Of course Brian Wilson went a even a bit more nuts after that.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Well Papelbon proved he was human, or at least Mariano Rivera. It is currently 5 - 3 Sox in the eighth. Mood: Disbelief.

KFC.
Uh, Doc, don't eat there. Have you even seen their disgusting Flavor Bowls?

Some more good news.
"Global Warming is all in your head".

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day.

I am Malach and you gotta love YouTube.

Happy Birthday Memere

Plugs . . .
There is a new 8 1/2 by Eleven as well as a new Fetus-X. Also you need to read Dr. Murks uproariously funny recent blogs. First read his sports blog on the Randy Moss trade and the state of Boston sports and also read his slang primer of alternative ways to say breasts, add a few of your own.

Also, Malach is a huge fan of Bill Simmons. You need to read his blog on Moss, and the rest of the draft.

Happy Birthday Memere.
We love you, your great grand kids love you, and we hope you have a wonderful year

You are Listening too . . .
Penny Lane, from Magical Mystery Tour, by the Beatles. Actually Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever are both from the Sgt. Pepper recording but were pulled and done as a double sinble, then added to Magical Mystery Tour. Both songs are very interesting, as they are basically the same subject, one from McCartney's point of view, the other from Lennon's. It shows the marked difference and split their music was developing into. It was brilliant to market them together. As a general rule, McCartney was writing very smart pop songs, and Lennon experimenting more. McCartney's songs were generating more hits also. This also created a division among Beatles fans. Malach admits he is more of a Lennon guy, but McCartney was genius too.

First Magical Mystery Tour. A strange album and an even stranger movie (I saw in once in college, but I was a little drunk). The album was a double EP in the UK, and a regular 2 sided studio album in the US (EP did not generally do well in the US). The first side of the album was the soundtrack to the movie, side two contained previously released singles, All You Need is Love, from Our World, and a song for the upcoming Yellow Submarine movie. Much of the music on this album were sessions from earlier albums. It is a strange mix of songs, from things like Hello, Goodbye to I am the Walrus.

The movie itself was a huge disaster one of the only disasters The Beatles had in their career. The hour long movie was specifically created for television, and was a flop. Critic totally panned it, but as time has passed it became a sort of cult classic.

Much of the movie was concieved during an acid trip. There was no script, just a series of handwritten ideas, drawings, and sketches. Much of the movie was stream of concious. The basic plot was a group of people were on a bus tour. During the tour strange things begin to happen at the whim of several magicians (The Beatles and road manager Mal Evans). It is really something you have to see.

While the movie was pretty much destroyed critically in the 60's it has become a bit of a classic, with it's concept, and is a favorite of Stephen Speilbergs.

Penny Lane is a semi-autobiographical song, about a street in Liverpool, where Lennon and McCartney grew up. They would meet as teens at the Penny Lane junction to catch the bus to get to the center of Liverpool. Needless to say, the theft of Penny Lane street signs over the years caused local officials to begin painting it on the side of buildings. The song describes all real and actual places in and around Penny Lane. The song goes through a number of temporal stream of concious moments with McCartney describing sunny weather, rain, Rememberance Day, Summer, and Fall.

Penny Lane's music is very similar to The Beach Boys God Only Knows, which is one of McCartney's favorite all time songs. It is especially notable of the sections of the song, attrubuted to McCartney; the block piano chords, and the rythmn of the base.

Also used was a piccolo trumpet solo, which was the first instance of it's use in a pop song, and that instrument is now pretty common. McCartney was inspired after lackluster solos of other instruments by a Dave Mason performance he heard on the radio. Mason agreed to do a solo for this song. Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields both had extremely influential early"music videos".

Becuase of the song, the real Penny Lane, basically a bus route, became a trendy art and shopping district, which it still is today. In addition in 2006, Liverpool attempted to abolish street names recognizing people of the slave trade, of course Penny Lane was one of them, named after James Penny. Ultimaltely, city elders decided it would be unwise to change the street name.

Penny Lane began setting the groundwork for soft rock, and pop of the 70's. It also begins to show The Beatles slowly moving back to some of their earlier pop garage rock. Magical Mystery Tour is also a very strange transition album from Sgt. Pepper to the White Album.

See what the Yankees do?
They turn people evil. And you know, I don't really see this Steinbrennae press conference as a huge vote of confidence. Hey Joe Torre, if the do fire you, what better way to get some revenge but come work for the Red Sox as a bench coach? Sox are off tonight.

Malach Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach, and I remeber this video from the early days of MTV.

I'd love to turn you on.

No Plugs.
See I told you it was a day of rest.

Randy Moss.
So, for those of you that did not know, Randy Moss was traded to the Patriots today for a 4th round draft choice in this years draft. Needless to say I am pretty speechless. Many were shocked. But before I begin on my why Randy Moss will fit into this team argument, let me give you two things. 1. Moss restructured his contract to come play here, instead of the $9 million he was owed, he cut that to $3million plus incentives, so does this show a change of attitude, time will tell. 2. Bellichick has NO ISSUES cutting any player, no matter the talent, who does not fit in . . see Jonathan Sullivan, Doug Gabriel, Lawyer Milloy, etc, etc.

The Patriots, who have already had a killer offseason, have added the following players beyond Moss. Adealius Thomas, Donte Stallworth, Wes Welker, Kelly Washington . . . Remember also, they were 1 first down away from going to, and probably winning another Super Bowl . . they did this with Rodney Harrison and Eugene Wilson out, Lawrence Maroney hurt, and a 3rd reciever (Reche Caldwell) as their number 1, and 4th reciever (Jabbar Gaffney) as their number 2.

Why will this work and what will it do. Well, Stallworth and Moss now become the best receiving tandem in the Bellichick era, and have the potential to be the best tandem in the league. The Pats have taken plenty of malcontents: Rodney Harrison, Corey Dillion, Brian Cox, and turned them into team players. Dillion is perhaps the best example. Dillion quit on Cincinnati when he was no longer the man, he was sick of losing, and had a bad attitude. That changed with the Patriots. Even now, when he knew he was being replaced by Maroney, he did not put up a whine fest, he just asked to be released. Moss, has quit on teams, he has been on a really bad team in Oakland, and in Minnesota, they couldn't get anywhere deep into the playoffs. One thing about Moss, he wants to win. Imagine to, Moss made Culpepper, Culpepper has not done it without Moss . . . Imagine if Moss can do the same to Brady, already one of the best quarterbacks of all time. The Patriots player police themselves and guys on that team, don't put up with malcontents

Again, here is the Bellichick system. You play hard, you play for the team, if not, you get benched and eventually discarded. Everyone is the same . . the man has even benched Richard Seymour. This is Moss best chance to help cement his hall of fame status.

Only time will tell, but I am damn excited.

Some more Beatles stuff.
We will be moving out of Sgt. Pepper tomorrow. The Beatles get very interesting. They start to break down as a band, and there are many causes for it. They also make some of the most innovative music of all time.

After Espstein died, their business affairs began to unravel. They spent a bit of time healing in India, and upon their return, McCartney and Lennon formed Apple Corps. Dissention began to really develop in the band, and their were many factors: Lennon and McCartney different ideas about the Beatles musical direction, the introduction of Yoko Ono into the band's dynamic, Harrison want more of his own songs, and the division between the band about who should now manage their affairs. We will go more into this later.

Hugo Chavez
Publicist, Castro Administration.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Best record in the league. Seriously, this a very good team, better than the 2004 version. Mood: Happy

Malach's Quote of the Day.
Thank you to every American who has not sued me so far. - Sacha Baron Cohen

I am Malach and are you ready for some football?

I read the news today Oh Boy!

Plugs
Sunshine 33 is up with a questions and a bit of advice for the buckos.

You are listening too . . .
Perhaps the best song every created by The Beatles, or anyone else for that matter, and a song that defintely had a huge influence on all music to follow, A Day in the Life, off Sgt. Pepper . . . .

Before I get into this song, a little bit about Malach and this song. Malach has always been a Beatles fan, even though I was born in 1972. Mom and Pop both listened to The Beatles, though neither were really a fan of their stuff after Rubber Soul. I find this strange, Mom and Pop have very good taste in music and introduced me to things like Janis Joplin; Jimmy Hedrix, Johnny Guitar Watson; Simon and Garfunkel; The Beach Boys; Jan and Dean; Otis Redding; and a host of 70's soft rock classics. As The Beatles became more rock oriented and experimental, my parents lost interest in The Beatles stuff, along with stuff that came after in similar genre (The Who, Led Zepplin, The Doors etc). It wasn't until High School and College that I really started getting into The Beatles on my own, especially their post-Rubber Soul stuff. While I was familiar with many of their radio friendly later hits, I never really listened extensively to any later albums . . . then one day I heard (or for that matter really listened to) A Day in the Life. I got so excited about that song, I dove into much of their later stuff and was hooked. A Day . . really opened my eyes to how great a band The Beatles actually were.

As for the song. One thing that is immiediately notice in this song is a 50-50 Lennon/McCartney split in it's creation, their last real collaboration and one of the only ones in recent Beatles memory. The song is a merging of 2 partial but complimentary compositions began seperately by the two. McCartney's fragment was plastered right in the middle of this Lennon song. Featuring impressionistic surreal lyrics, innovative production techniques and a complex arrangement including a cacophonous, partially-improvised almost otherworldy orchestral crescendo, the song is considered to be one of the most ambitious, influential, and groundbreaking works in music history.

The story of the song and it's creation is also pretty much agreed upon by all The Beatles. Lennon began kind of free from writing of a song based upon the days version of the Daily Mail. The lead story was about the fatal car accident of Tara Browne a socialite and friend to the band. In addition another story that caught his eye was a plan to fill over 4,000 potholes in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire. Lennon took us on a trip form those point of inspiration. McCartney then added the piano of his part of the song, and began singing a song about a morning commuter, almost as fill in lyrics, until they all agreed that is some strange way, it fit really well with the song. McCartney had tried the song on it's own, but hated it, and he too felt this was the perfect vehicle for the song. McCartney explains the song as a wistful recollection of his younger years. McCartney is also given credit for the line "I'd love to turn you on" which transitions into the crescendo. Lennon loved the phrase, and immediately added it. Lennon added a wordless vocal part to transition back out of the McCartney section of the song back to Lennon's.

The biggest problem was how to fill the transition between the two parts of the song. The song sections were seperated by 24 bars and basically only consisted of a repeated piano riff and an assitant, Mal Evans, counting the bars. The assitant's vocal was treated by copious amounts of echo, creating a early sort of crescendo. The transition ended with an accidental recording of an alarm clock. It was to be edited out, but fit so well with McCartney's section it was left in.

McCartney was the one who suggested that an "orchestral freak out" might be what the transition ordered. So, they brought in a 41 piece job, and ordered them to freak out. George Martin was concerned that traditionally trained muscian wouldn't know how to freak out, so he wrote an extended atonal crescendo to follow and also encouraged imporvisation within that guideline of the written piece. Martin basically created a crescendo for each instrument to start at it's lowest note, and in 24 bars reach it's highest note within E major. Of course the orchestra though he was mad.

As the orchestra practiced McCartney tried to lend a hand. They spent most of the day recording, took the best 4 recordings and mixed and overdubbed it, with brilliant results, probably even better than they imagined they could get.

The last crescendo ends in perhaps the most famous final chords and piano chords of all time. A loud crashing end to a amazing song. Lennon, McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Martin, and Mal Evans, simultaneously playing an E-major chord on three different pianos. The final chord was manipulated to last nearly a minute by increasing the sound level of the tape as the chord faded out. Recording levels were turned so high that the sound of papers rustling, a chair squeaking, and someone saying "Shhh!" can all be heard. Some claim you can even hear the Abbey Road Studio air conditioning. Immediately following the chord is a sound too high for most humans to hear, though many animals can. It was added for the bemusment of Lennon to irritate owners dogs. Immediatley after that comes one of the most famous pranks in music history. The Beatles added a ending groove (remember we are dealing with vinyl here), that would not allow most needles to return to their begining point. The groove consisted basically of laughing, gibberish, noise, and a highly sped up voice saying "never could see any other way". What would occur is the needle would hit that groove and settle into it, repeating what you hear at the end of this track, over and over into infinity, unless the needle was manually reset. People have tried to interpret this loop, but no one really has come close, and The Beatles themselves claim it was just random pieces of recording thrown together.

The song was actually banned by the BBC as they felt the song promoted drug use. Both McCartney and Lennon have denied this, staing it is based on a newpaper and some dream like elements, though they have never said drug use did not influence the song. Officially the song was never unbanned by the BBC but like a lot of stuff that has been banned, it has been forgotten and has been played extensively over British airwaves in the past 25 years. The song (and this album) also become a intregal part of the "Paul is Dead legend", but that is later for this history (1969).

Controversy also followed this song in the wake of the September 11th attacks. This was one of the songs Clear Channel banned from it's airwaves as to "not upset Americans" after the attacks. Yeah Clear Channel is weird.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Well, I knew they had to lose one to the Yankees sooner of later. Mood: Still great.

So.
What kind of second mortgage do you think this guy has?

Damn!
You can buy absolutely anything at Wal-Mart!

OK.
I always though you could not bring you Ipod, Cell Phone and such to class. This may surprise you but Malach is also for school dress codes.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day.

I am Malach and I don't know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.

Would you lock the door?

Plugs.
There is a new 8 1/2 By Eleven up. Also, Malach has a new post at the WoW, about the new controversy about Curt Schilling and his bloody sock. I just left a link and a comment at Schilling's blog, so their might be a ton of responses there (comment 101). Here is Malach's feeling.

While Schill is a bit of a publicity whore, he is not a scam artist. He has too much respect for baseball and it's history to do something like that. I also can't picture Schilling who is obsessed with a schedule on the days he pitching, taking time out of said schedule, especially in the playoffs and world series to doctor up a sock. Also the other part that seems really strange is why Thorne would say nothing for two years. As of now there is a retraction from Thorne. Also if you know anything about Mirabelli, he is a bit of a practical joker, and razzer.

It is nice to see this has cleared up a bit.

Your are Listening too . . .
When I'm Sixty-Four, of the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's . . . In one way a cute little song, and a bit strange to be on this album. Again, remember the context of the song. 1967. Very unique compared to much of the music out then. So, what about the song. The Beatles themselves remember that McCartney had penned a version of the song when he was 16 during the Beatles Cavern Club days. The Beatles even played it back then, they used it as a soft song when the electricity or their amplifiers broke down.

The song was obviously about aging, and appealed to many of the parents of The Beatles generation. Why it took them this long to record it? No one has ever really said, and why for this album? Who knows. The song instrumentation feature the famous clarinet duet, that is unique for this song and give it it's cute sing songy signature. In addition it feature piano, cello, chimes and some electic guitar. Lennon liked the song, and said he could have never written a song like this. McCartney also slighty sped up his voice in a attempt to get it to sound younger.

Overall a very strange and interesting song for this album.

Bombing Abortion Clinics. .
Wow, this is so 80's, what next? Gay Bashing? I have always found it strange when religious zealots will kill people to save the unborn, or kill people to make a terrorist statement. Do any of you idiots actually read the teachings of Jesus or Mohammed?

Stephen Hawking.
Congrats on you first zero g experience, see you in space.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Two in a row from the lowly Orioles. Yankees again this weekend. Willie Mo . . . man if the boy could learn to hit a breaking ball. Mood: Mad about the sock.

Malach Quote/Video of the Day
Overall the rap that we're exposed to is maybe 15% of what's out there. What the major companies have done in the last few years is find out that they couldn't find any more Whitesnakes. They took a look at their marketing budget and put it behind hip-hop and figured out how to make it pop. - Chuck D

I am Malach, and here it is, blam, and you say goddamn, this is a dope jam.

For the Beneft of Mr. Kite!

Plugs.
A new 8 1/2 by Eleven, strip 522. And let me tell you, there is nothing like a Canadian based webcomic, having and entire strip dedicated to hockey, eh?

Beatles History, 66 - 67, Sgt. Pepper era
Sgt. Pepper took 120 or so days to record, and in that time several significant things occured. Their manager Brian Epstein merged with the Robert Stigwood Association while retaining sole control over the Beatles. As of March 11th of that year, there were 446 recorded and released version of the song Yesterday. Also in that month, McCartney in a very messy relationship with Jane Asher, meets for the first time Linda Eastman, who would later become his long time wife. After the release of the album, McCartney caused a bit of an uproar by announcing he has experimented with LSD. This seemed to shock much of the world (anyone listening to their recent music?). About a week later The Beatles performed live in one of the highest rated TV events of all time with All You Need Is Love on their 2 hours TV special Our World. This was done during the height of the Vietnam conflict.

To further addled the establishment, The Beatles and Epstein signed their names to a full page advertisement that declared: "the law against marijuana is immoral in principal and unworkable in practice." The list included a number of artists, actors, authors, doctors, and politicians also. They also began their first experiments with eastern meditation and religious thought.

One of the most painful incidents, and a turning point for this band, was Epstein death from an overdose on August 27 of '67. You will see with later years and albums, The Beatles begin to disintegrate without Epstein as the glue holding them together.

More history at a later date.

Interesting Ethical Debate.
Texas v. Gonzales. Of course Texas, the US most killing state, wants the kid ventilator pulled. Mom of course, loves her baby, even though the baby is essentially dead, and waste resources. Where do you stand?

This is in a way similiar to the Terry Schiavo case. On one hand, the optimist in me is to say let the kid live as long as he can, you never know what tomorrow brings. The rehab part of me sees the kid as a lost cause.

And so it begins.
We will soon see just how crazy Phil Spector is . . . is he OJ crazy? Ike Turner crazy? Brian Wilson Crazy?

The View . . .
OK, can't stand the show, can't stand Rosie O'Donnell, but I will miss the little controversies that come up from time to time.

Another reason to be glad Captain America is dead.
He gropes women, get's into bar fights, and sells drugs.

Nice.
You know, I make fun of Canada alot eh? But this should be done in the US, eh? Slowly converting my house to these bulbs also.

Well that nice to see.
Pirate attacks were down in the 1st quarter of 2007!

BAD JOKE ALERT!
So Heather Mills got booted from Dancing with the Stars. She did not have a leg to stand on.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and LGBNAF.

"Manny Just Being Manny"

First the plugs.

Only one, Sunshine number 32 is up, and I must say, Kingy Mingy is my new hero. Also my finger is feeling much better and I should be able to start up finishing off the next Wraith comic. Some people were worried about the finger.

You Are Listening Too . .

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!, of The Beatles magnum opus, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The song is a Lennon/McCartney collaboration, with more of Lennon than McCartney. The entire song is based upon a promotional poster for a circus Lennon purchased at an Antiques shop (Poster is at left). It is perhaps, beyond a Day in the Life, the most musically complex song on the album. In Lennon attempt for the song to have a surreal carnival atmosphere, multiple recording sessions featuring organ noise, harmonica, and overdubbed guitar were used. Lennon told George Martin, he wanted "to smell the sawdust on the floor" in the middle eight bars of the song. In an attempt to do that Martin and sound engineer Geoff Emerick spliced in calliope and circus music, Lennon was not happy. In a sort of frustrated inspiration, Martin and Emerick chopped up the slice into random pieces with scissors, and re-assembled it at random. Lennon was fairly critical of the song, but in 1980 did state the song was "pure, like a painting". This song was one of three songs banned from the BBC for it supposed drug references. "Henry the Horse" at the time was known slang for heroin, but Lennon always denied this.

Musically, there is a ton of mixing, a excellent drum session from Ringo. Some very trippy organ arrangments and mixes . . . cool stuff.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.

Lost yesterday, and getting destroyed by the Blue Jays right now . . mood, bring back the Yankees.

In a related story. Malach talks a bit about Manny Ramirez. Manny is a bit of a flake, quite an enigma, and perhaps and idiot savant. Manny rarely talks to the Boston media, which pisses them off to no end. Of course they all love Bill Bellichick, but he can talk for 2 hours and give you less that what Manny does by not talking, but that is another blog.

Well, Ben McGrath of The New Yorker magazine has a 7 page article in this month's issues called Waiting for Manny. A MUST READ for any Red Sox fan, or any sports fan. You can read it's entirety here. Now you will have some idea when I write it's "Just Manny Being Manny".

We missed this yesterday . .

But that walking bottle of vodka Boris Yeltsin died.

The Russia-Alaska Tunnel.

This could make world travel very interesting. Could be quite a train tour built up from something like this.

Fat Bug would enjoy this.

You see Virginia, there is Kryptonite.

MMMMMM

Elusive two-horned Borneo rhino.

Did you miss?

Heroes last night? Shame on you if you did. Jack Bauer sucks.

So let me get this straight.

If you wanted to get an abortion, and lived in Mexico, you would have to come to the US to do it? That seems a bit backward to me, no? Now that Miss Alanis Morrisette is IRONIC!

Ohh Willie.

I tell my clients this all the time, if you want to smoke pot, do it at home.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day

I am Malach and when I'm called off, I got a sawed off, squeeze the trigger, and bodies are hauled off.

Fixing a Hole

No plugs today.
And on the 7th day, Malach rested.

You are listening too . . .
Fixing a Hole, the Beatles, off of Sgt. Pepper. Very interesting song, explore some of the sing songy circus music they used over much of the album, and the overall circus them of the the Lonely Hearts Club Band psuedonyms. This song was the first song not recorded at Abbey Road Studios while they were recording for EMI records . . . reason, the studio wasn't available that night. Weird looking back on it no? Some interesting overdubbing of McCartney's lead vocal.

Some weiredness about the songs recording. The night they were going to record it a strange man showed up at McCartney home, claiming to be Jesus Christ. McCartney invited him in for tea, then to the studio . . . he never said a word, and left after recording. I suppose your could do this back in the late 60's. Imagine trying this now.

A common theory is that the song is about heroin, but according to McCartney the song was "another ode to pot". He also stated at various times that the song was about letting your mind loose to wander freely, fixing an actual hole in the roof of his home, getting high and watching a road crew fix a hole in the street, and a few other statements over the years.

Some very interesting organ and bass work, adds to the pyschedlic and surreal nature, along with a significant tempo change, with a screaming guitar with some feedback. Nice guitar solo, and good harmonizing.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Games going on now, but I promised several people to write a Red Sox Nation, the mental illness article. Tomorrow on the WoW. Just him 4 homers in a row.

MMMMM.
Missing Children.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Ok, some people and or organization have WAY TOO MUCH MONEY. And I typed this in 8 seconds, with a bum finger.

I wonder what is intentional.
When MSNBC has an article called Black holes exhale enormous gas cloud . . Am I the only one who thinks this is a attempt at humor?

Malach's Quote of the Day

I am Malach and I line my walls with brimstone also.

RIP Uncle Frank

Plugs?

There is a new 8 1/2 by Eleven. Also the WoW is getting crazy again and so is the DOMT.

RIP Uncle Frank.

My Uncle Frank passed away Tuesday night after a long battle with cancer. While we were never super close, and over the years, grew slightly apart, he was still loved, and will be missed. I very much got along with my three cousins for a number of years when we were young, but as life goes on, they moved away, and grew apart. Rest in Peace Uncle Frank.

You are listening too . . .

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds off of the Beatles most famous album Sgt. Pepper . . . Lucy, lots of rumors about this song the most obvious being the abbreviation of the song, LSD, which I assume we all know what LSD is. The Beatles at the time were very heavily into LSD and other drugs. First look at the image at left. This is a image done by Lennon son Julian when he was nursery school and three years old. Julian described the picture as "Lucy - in the sky with diamonds". Lennon claimed that is where he got the title from, and did not make the connotation with LSD until it was pointed out to him.

Even with the trippy nature of the song, and the surreal, very surreal lyrics, the Beatles have always maintianed the song was not about drugs and the whole LSD things was a coincidence. The image also inspired Lennon to look back on a childhood favorite of his, Lewis Carroll's, Through the Looking Glass (talk about an acid trip).

The Beatles have also always been pretty honest about their drug use, and song inspired by drug use, and have never really come out and said this song is about and acid trip.

The song itself, musically is not only dreamy and beautiful, it is a very complex arrangment, mostly done by Lennon. The song not only goes through some metre shift, by key shifts, sung by a very distorted Lennon voice, and a complicated underlying arrangment. It fearture sitar, altered organ. One of my faves by the boys from Liverpool.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.

I told the Angryman they would take 2 of three from the Yanks. You see how good their pitching is, saved Schilling. Our mood, party time. Oh and the green unis before anyone asks, Sox tribute to Red Aeurbach.

New Blogger.

This blog had finally switched, you will like the new features, especially ability to look up posts by catagories. No, I am not going back and adjust the 800 or so other posts.

What the Hell is in the Water at NASA?

First nutty astronauts, and now crazy engineers?

Ghost Ship.

Why does this shock anyone? Jesus came down for the Rapture, and these were the only people who qualified, you sinners.

Malach's Quote of the Day.

I am Malach, and Lucy rocks.

It was twenty years ago today!

Plugs.
Sunshine number 30 asks, have you lost something?

There has also been a ton of cool recent activity at the WoW, read it and enjoy. If you want to join the WoW, contact me.

As for the finger, it is doing much better, especially after watching the latest episode of Deadliest Catch. I wrote a 15 minute speech today (more on that later) and it did pretty well, so I will see how this blog goes.

You are listening too .. .
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, off of the album of the same name by the Beatles.
What can I say about the album? Well the album has been voted not only the best Beatles album, but the best album of all time by a number of music magazines and resources, their magnum opus if you will. Is it so to someone like me? I like the White Album better, but I can why this album is considered in that way.

Immediately upon the albums release it meet with critical and popular success. Innovative from everything to the music and recording to it's famous album cover (a good list of the people and things is on the cover is located here).

Sgt. Pepper was the first of the Beatles studios albums after they stopped touring. Sgt. Pepper took them 129 days to record, by far the longest period ever for a Beatles recording. This album was also a culmination of everything before, and took off from the many experimentations of of the Revolver and Rubber Soul album. Much of the stuff the Beatles were exploring with avant garde, acid and psychedelic rock, eastern music, recording techniques, and strange music, culminated with Sgt. Pepper.

Technically, Abbey Road was advancing as a studio rather rapidly because of the Bealtes. The way the were mixing this stuff on a 4 track recorder, made the development of 8 track recorders speed up (with the first one being invented after the release of this album). Because of the noise generated by this type of recording, the Beatles were one of the first band to use Dolby Noise Reduction.

The Beatles also made extensive use of exotic instruments and sounds on the album; the sitar of course, clarinet, string orchestras, echo, reverb, and double track recording, as well as backward masking, and reverse recording. The album also has their first heavy use of piano and organ.

The album was also a sort of concept album, about a fictional band by the same name. McCartney came up with the idea of creating fictional alter egos for each band member, and base the album upon a show this band was giving. Thus the album starts with the title track introducing "Billy Shears" and runs right into A Little Help From My Friends. There is a reprise at the "end" of Sgt. Pepper which reintroduces the concept. Then, weirdly A Day In The Life follows.

Strangely, the beyond that, the Beatles sort of abandon the whole concept, with many of Lennon's songs not even related to the rest of the album. There is no real overarching theme to the album, but it is one of the earliest version of a concept album/rock opera.

There is a lot of possible drug reference in the album as a whole, we will get into that later. The album itself has an obvious trippy feel.

It can be also argued that this is the last album the Beatles worked of a a real cohesive unit. You will see in later albums, walk outs, argument, and petty head butting matches with later albums. Brian Espstein died 2 months after the release of this album, and that began a end to the cordial relationships, and again, more on that in future blogs.

As for the title song itself, written mainly by McCartney, it is a concept song, an introduction if you will to this fake band. So notable things beyond this, an admitted Hendrix inspired lead guitar, a french horn section, and lots of sampled noise. The song ends abrupty on the CD version and leads into A Little Help From My Friends.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Dice K is going to be good, he just not getting any run support right now. Mood: Disappointed but hopeful.

Well fingers done for now . .
I leave you with part three of Mr. Deity.

I am Malach and the Bishop loves me (not in that way pervert).

Somewhat back on track

First, plugs.
The only one today is a new Fetus-X in which Millikin explores the race war.

The Finger.
Feeling a bit better, still uncomfortable typing, so blog will still be a little worse than usual. I did, work a bit on The Wraith today with the fake holiday and all. I will get him finished by the end of the week.

The Beatles.
Again, involves a bit of research and typing, especially since I will be starting Sgt. Pepper, so we are still holding off on that right now.

The Holiday?
Yeah, today is Patriot's Day in MA. We had our massive Nor'Easter, tree toppled across the street, but no power outage. The Boston Marathon was today in about the crappiest weather ever for the event, though I do believe it snowed one year.

USA #1
So we broke two records today, deadliest mass shooting ever in the US, as well as the deadliest school shooting. USA #1.

Seriously, this whole thing is a messed and really bungled by local law enforcement. They are still not completly sure if it was one or two shooters. Should of locked the school down after the first incident.

Wow.
Another reason not to fly NorthWest.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
This pitching staff is going to be something special. Mood: Estatic.

OK.
Are there really still people who own bidets? And yeah, I would be pretty pissed if it caught fire.

Malach's Quote of the Day.

I am Malach and I am the lizard baron.

Tommorrow Never Knows

No Plugs Today.
Seriously none.

You Are Listening Too . . .
Tomorrow Never Knows, by The Beatles off one of their masterpiece albums Revolver. What can we say about this song, beyond amazing, and one of their best of all time.

First you need to imagine the context. You have heard most of Revolver over the past couple of weeks. This songs is the very first song recorded off that album in April of 1966. That is right 1966. Listen to this song. How modern does it sound? Beck could be doing this song today, and it would not feel outdated. This song is a precursor to industrial, trance, techno, hip hop, and fusion. It was done again in 1966. No samplers, no computers, no synthesizers, no drum machines. This song is one of the reasons The Beatles stopped touring, how do you reproduce a song like this in 1966. For comparison, what was popular in music at the time?

The Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel; Paint It Black - the Stones; These Boots Are Made for Walking - Nancy Sinatra; (You're My) Soul and Inspiration - Righteous Brothers; Monday Monday - The Mamas and Papas ; It's a Man's Man's Man's World - James Brown; Strangers In the Night - Frank Sinatra; Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys; You're Gonna Miss Me - The 13th Floor Elevators; etc.

Wow, some amazing music, but nothing like this song.

The song was mainly written by Lennon, and even though being the first recorded, it is the last track on Revolver (Imagine, your thoughts in 1966 as this song closed the album). Obviously a very experimental and expressive song, it is a very good lead in to their next album, Sgt. Pepper, as this song definitely explores psychedelica.

The inspiration for the song derives from the book The Psychedelic Experience, which in and of itself is based upon the The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Leary's book goes on about the "Ego Death" experienced during a LSD trip and it's correlation with Tibetan death rites. It is reputed the song is a soundtrack of sorts for the process of the psychedlic voyage. In addition, Lennon supposed based much of the song of his own reading of The Tibetan Book of the Dead while tripping.

This is one of the only Beatles songs where the title does not appear in the song. According the Lennon at the time, he was unconfortable with the spiritual nature of the song, and gave it a throw away title based upon a Ringo Starr malapropism. The original title it has been noted was The Void.

The recording of the track, the sounds you hear are a combination of highly compressed drums, reverse and backward guitar rifts, processed vocals, and looped tape effects. This is the first Beatles experiment with tape loops. Some of the more prominent loops include the "laughing seagull" (McCartney laughing, played backward, and sped up) and the sitar loops. There is also a very weird backward guitar solo. Even more amazing is the piece was mixed on a four track recorder. 16 tape machine were also used, the condensed to get all the noise for this song.

The song was a precursor to some more experimental Beatles stuff, including Revolution 9 and Carnival of Light. It also brought helpinfluenced some of their late classics including Day In The Life and the side two of Abbey Road.

Just amazing, and still fresh 40 years later, enjoy this one buckos. This is the song, that will really expand many people thoughts about The Beatles who are only familar with their more popular stuff.

How convenient.
So tell us MC Rove, 5 million missing emails? How does that happen? Nothing is virtual world is ever truly deleted unless someone has the knowledge to do that. Oh well at least no one there has had an affair, or gotten oral sex from an intern.

Google that monster.
So they buy Double Click for $3billion and change. I am telling you, I would part with this website for say $250,000 . . .

Let the Sue fest begin!
Anna Nicole just won't die. Well, not literally.

Spy Games.
In your local Chicago Elementary School.

It nice to see . .
that Hugo Chavez in Fidel Castro's publicist. That is why I love him so.

Even the Birds . .
Want Dick Cheney dead.

So Dubya . .
voted down the stem research bill becuase " . .resist temptation to manipulate life". OK, riddle me this, how many lives have been "manipulated" by Iraq?

So the Pope has a new book.
And in this book he criticizes the capitalist system, and the power of the rich over the power . . . uh, Ratzy, you ever look at the Catholic Church? You guys have more treasure than a pirate. Of course he would hate capitalism, being a nazi and all.

Hey China.
Yeah good luck with that.

Malach's Quote of the Day

I am Malach and I have just given you yet another reason to want to kill Carl Rove . . . . and for that matter, Colin Mochrie. MC Malach signing off, word to your mother