Meet MY Beatles!

I literally stumbled over my albums the other day and thought I'd revisit them once again and figure out what to do with them. A few years ago, I scanned some records and just left it at that. Let's take a closer look at my Beatles and see what I have. I shan't include my White Album with the cool white vinyl because Alex borrowed it decades ago and I haven't seen it since. White Privilege, I guess. I'll start with Magical Mystery Tour because it's the coolest and has all kinds of extras. 

The front above and the back cover below.

An interior shot.

Within is a cool booklet with lots of pictures and various silly shenanigans.

There's a several page illustrated story as well. Some Beatlemaniac has kindly copied the entire thing and if you wish to browse it, click here.

The vinyl is in impeccable shape, it didn't get as much airplay back in Uni. The cover itself is a little ratty, maybe a 6/10.

Hey, there's a cool documentary on the making of the movie if you have an hour and a bit to kill.

The next album in my miniscule collection has an iconic cover featuring a plethora of celebrities, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. 

The back cover has all the lyrics to all the tunes. Handy for those without a Karaoke machine.

Open it up and you get a nice head-spread of the fab four.

Do you want to hear Lennon and McCartney talk about each track? I've got you covered.

Let It Be said that Let It Be is a pretty good song and album. But compared to the other two, it's a fairly boring layout.

That's it! No bonus pics or booklets. Not even a screaming Yoko.

There is a movie and a documentary though, if you want to track them down.

 

The only other Beatles album I have here (I may have a few in Toronto at my friend's place) is The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl. (Not as good as Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, but a good runner-up.)

The centerfold:

A trailer...

That's it for my Beatles. Not as dramatic as I thought it'd be and there's a good chance I may let them go to a good home, if I get a reasonable offer.

When I get around to it, I'll show off my other albums which I shall be selling. 

Yesterday And Today.

The Beatles Beetles made another appearance yesterday, this time as a (slightly hungover) volunteer at a friend's school in Rifu (Mega Bluebird**) for their Halloween party. I'd lost a beetle at the Darts Bar so I replaced it with a Golden Beetle and I left my spare pair of legs behind. Otherwise, it was the same costume as Saturday and it did a wonderful job of freaking out the kiddies. Because I had many dangling appendages, it wasn't prudent for me to be serving drinks to wee ones and quite frankly my presence wasn't really required; all was in order. So I choose the role of "Creep the Kids out", a pastime that I am well suited for.

They had some snacks that I didn't assist in preparing or handing out and just made silly comments or tapped a kid on the should with my mandibles begging for a bite. I never did get any food though it did look yummy.

The decorations were pretty cool as well.

Each of the staff were decked out in great costumes, such as this Camera-Man get up. Awesome authenticity.

 Donald, not Daisy I don't think. The kids were amused when I spoke to her in a Donald Duck voice.

 Olaf, melting the hearts of children everywhere. (My apologies to the cat whose costume I didn't get a chance to photograph.)

 Goku?, believe it or not (I wouldn't), he shaved his head specifically to don this costume.

 And casting the spell, Expecto Patronum, which protects all from evil, Harriet Potter.

Much to my surprise and pleasure, I espied Yvonne grinning away as a Cheshire Cat. (I'm pretty sure she just forgot to change out of her pajamas and stuck on a pair of cat ears.)

 Check out this video and compare it to her costume.



The kids practiced a few tunes and then paraded around the mall. I delighted in frightening passersby whenever possible. After the parade, we gathered to a stage and the kids sang their practiced songs, including one that I had just taught them. I made my public debut singing the numbers 1-24 to the tune of "Let it Go."

En route, a few other store clerks joined in the parade including this gal from a retail shop. I called her Cupcake Girl though more accurately, she should be dubbed D-Cupcake Girl.

After the kiddies went home, I bumped into a former Tokiwagi student whose kids attend Bluebird. Holy crap! I have students out there who have 3 kids one of whom is 7-8! I feel SO OLD.

Being a selfish sort, I couldn't leave empty handed so I asked for a loot bag. This is what I got, cool!

** I can't recall which of my beetles I dubbed Paul McCartney but here he and Wings sing Bluebird:



In order to meet the requirements of today's post heading, here are a couple of pumpkins that my Grade 4s drew today. I have plenty more but I'm too tired to go through and crop/erase kids names right now.
Only one of these was drawn by a girl. Can you guess which one?

I can't believe Halloween is almost upon us and I have been neglecting my Nightmare Before Christmas and Attack On Titan goods. I'll double or triple up tomorrow.

JoJo Was a Man...

ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 (JoJo no kimyou na bouken or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) is a bizarre adventure manga written 25 years ago by 荒木 飛呂彦, Araki Hirohiko from Sendai! (Every other manga writer gets a museum in his hometown, why don't we?**)

**I take that back, according to Wikipedia, a "Hirohiko Araki Jojo Exhibition" will open in Araki's native Sendai at the end of July to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, it will then move to Tokyo in October.

Hirohiko Araki contributed a piece of artwork to promote the historical Hiraizumi ruins which were affected by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster. Despite the devastation caused on March 11 at Hiraizumi and elsewhere in Iwate Prefecture, the 900-year-old ruins were successfully registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site this past June.

Last week, I picked up a pair of chocolate/strawberry waffle-like wafers because doing so entitles you to a JoJo Calendar. I find the artwork to be somewhat Ditkoesque (Spider-Man creator/artist) and appropriately bizarre. On the front of the box, you get a couple of drawings and on the back, you get some punch-out trading cards.

So that's JoJo. Prior to this the only JoJo I was aware of was the Get Back loner.

Imagine.

I know I'm a day late, but yesterday was bad enough without adding the anniversary of John Lennon's untimely demise. I scammed these three questions from Mark Evanier's blog and thought I'd share my insight with you.

1. How I met John Lennon

2. Where I was thirty years ago today when I heard that John Lennon had been murdered

3. What John Lennon's music meant to my life
 
1. Erm, I saw Beatlemania at the O'Keefe Centre in the mid-80s. Does that count?
 
2. In 1980, I was living in a 6-man suite in East Residence at the University of Guelph. Blair, Pat & I were watching TV while consuming beers and possibly engaging in some illicit smoking. John came back from the library in shock and proclaimed, "Did you hear that John Lennon has been shot?" We replied in relative unison and said, "Yeah, we just saw that on Quincy." Sober John was not amused and I think we regretted our flippant answer the next day.
 
3. The Beatle's make up the majority of my repetoire at Karaoke, especially when I am changing their lyrics to accommodate a patron's name (Let It Be is so easy...it becomes, Manami, Hitomi, Megumi...) I must admit that I do a kickass version of Imagine.
 
My favourite PowerPuff Girls episode:



Anywho, yesterday was also a birthday for my dead friend Ed (aka Edge) and add that to a 5-hour session of apologising (Don't Ask.) and Dec. 8th was not a great day.
 
On the other hand, today was great! The threatened rain did not strike and I even got a few nice sunset pics. I got to sing several Christmas Carols, taught the kiddies Rudolph and played Xmas bingo.
 

 

Hey, even my pal Ultraman has caught the Christmas spirit!

 

Top it off with some One Piece Curry for dinner, a Heartcatch Precure bag of chips, a stupid Horror movie (Orphan) and now a Glee rerun and today ended up all right.

 

 

Oh yeah, here is a Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla calendar from 2003 for you.