Was my sister on Oprah?!

I fell asleep with the kids last night and I was awoken by Cristina, who was 99% sure she had just seen my sister Lynn on Oprah (she tapes it every day and watches it after the kids are in bed). She asked me to come take a look but I was half asleep and I thought she was crazy, or I was dreaming, or maybe a bit of both. So this morning she showed me the tape. The Oprah show was in Asheville, and it did look an awfully lot like Lynn's condos, and for a quick flash, it did kind of look like Lynn! You decide:


So was this Lynn? And if so, how come she didn't tell us to look for her guest appearance on Oprah? I'm not convinced. It didn't quite look like Lynn's kind of clothes. But it's definitely possible. Okay, Lynn...tell us!

New Computer

White Album turns 40

Wow. It was 40 years ago that The Beatles was released.

A year after Sgt. Pepper, the Beatles' self-titled double-LP, nicknamed The White Album, signaled the Fab Four starting to go their separate ways. Most of it was written while the Beatles were in India, studying Transcendental Meditation with the Maharishi.

It's always been one of my favorite Beatles albums. I even wrote a review of it for my high school newspaper.

In that spirit, I'd like to post a review of just one of the many songs from this album. Popmatters.com has a review of each song on the album to celebrate the 40th anniversary. I thought this one really nailed it. Great song, too, needless to say.

Happiness Is a Warm Gun
Primary Songwriter: Lennon
Recorded: September 23-25, 1968 at Abbey Road

The Beatles' first side ends with an intricate masterpiece that represents a united—and unusually wonderful and weird—effort amidst so much individuality. Reportedly McCartney’s favorite “White Album” song, “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” is also classic Lennon: a lyric mixture of the psychedelic ("She’s well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand / Like a lizard on a window pane"), the distinctly British ("Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy working overtime / A soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the National Trust"), the obviously sexual ("When I hold you in my arms / And feel my finger on your trigger"), the personal ("I need a fix”, reflecting Lennon’s drug dependency), and the political ("Happiness is a warm gun” came from a magazine article about the American gun lobby).

But beyond its potent poetry of religion, sexuality, violence, and vision, “Happiness” is one of the Beatles’ most musically sophisticated tunes. It is not built on verses and choruses but rather from four or five distinct sections that build in intensity. Lennon claimed it as a miniature history of rock ‘n’ roll, and that’s fair enough. It opens with a delicate verse of guitar and voice only, shifting upward as bass and drums enter. There is a sudden change to 3/4 time for a brief, guttural blues guitar solo that precedes “I need a fix”. Just as suddenly, the triple meter double-times to 6/8 while Lennon starts to sing “Mother Superior jump the gun”, slowing to 3/4 on the second half of the phrase. Which happens six times. But with a measure of 4/4 on the end of the every other repetition. Got it? Needless to say, the familiar doo-woppy “Happiness is a warm gun / Bang-bang, shoot-shoot!” is back in 4/4 again, but Lennon’s spoken interlude ("When I hold you...") is in 3/4 again.

All this intricacy might sound like symphonic prog-rock run amok, except that it takes a scant 2:43, with each section as concise as a dot of color in a Seurat painting. And the wonder of the song is precisely this almost shocking brevity and incongruity: no section repeats, and each part seems like a new world, a revelation. While it is clear that “Happiness” glues together several different tunes, there is also flat-out artistry in how these disparate pieces echo off each other. The toggling between duple and triple meter gives the tune balance, even as the intensity of each section ramps ever upward. There is also a balancing of romantic imagery (starting with a girl and a man) and violent imagery, allowing Lennon to be alternately provocative ("Mother Superior” mixed together with “gun") and playful (is it the woman’s trigger or the gun’s trigger he has his finger on?). As always, Lennon is aware of how the commodification of the Beatles can be exploited: the title of the song is a bitter joke about the gun lobby, but also a reference to the cuddly catch-phrase from Peanuts of the time, “Happiness Is a Warm Puppy”. The joy of this play is that it is also sonic: the beautiful reverb on the opening guitars doesn’t even last a minute, but the vocal falsetto doubling that starts with “I need a fix” is its own kind of candy, which then develops into the mocking harmony of “Bang-bang, shoot-shoot”.

All of which is to say: Wow. Only five years had passed since “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, yet the Beatles were now writing and recording complex poetic suites rather than verse-chorus pop tunes. Radiohead apparently found “Happiness” of inspiration when working on its own multi-part tune, “Paranoid Android”, for OK Computer. But what had not changed for the Beatles was their keen awareness that rock ‘n’ roll—the sublime art of the three-minute symphony—was worth an investment of great wit and passion. “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” is catchy like a pop song, provocative like protest art, effortlessly complex and yet off-the-cuff funny. Which is to say: it is the apotheosis of “Beatle-esque”.

—Will Layman

The Passenger

Tuesday evening, we went on a bike ride. Before we got started, I tried out a new passenger. She liked it!


The Passenger from Wayne Eury on Vimeo.

Sofia's band performance

I know I just posted a Sofie performance, but...when it rains it pours!

Tonight the ASA band department had its fall concert. Her group (Foundations 2) did 3 pieces. I taped them all with my video camera, but since I can more easily post video from our still camera, I also got some footage with that camera.

This is the superhero medley that concluded Sofia's portion of the concert. It's hard to see, but Sofia is playing trumpet at the far right of the screen.


Superheroes R Us from Wayne Eury on Vimeo.

Sofia's Recital

Cristina took video of Sofia's recital last Saturday. I forgot to post it when I blogged about it. So here it is.



That second page of the Entertainer is a tough one!

A Great Five Days

Last Friday, we went to movie night at Desert Marigold School. This is something new they're doing as a fundraiser for the 8th grade. It was a chilly evening, so we wore jackets and brought a blanket. We grabbed some dinner from Chipotle and Ono Hawaiian BBQ and ate it at the school. The movie was Modern Times, one of my favorite Charlie Chaplin movies, and one that I used to teach every year when I taught film studies. I had told Alex about it, so he was anxious to see it. It was cool to see him totally enraptured. When it was over, I asked him what he thought, and he said it was too short (it was 87 minutes long). He loved it. After writing my "movie memory" blog, I wonder if, 25 years from now, Alex will reflect on this as an important night for shaping his movie tastes. You never know.

We brought Vivien with us, too. It's fun when we can take her on outings. It feels like we're including her more than if we just left her in the back yard.

Saturday was crazy full. In the morning, I attended a district training for 4 hours (I'll admit it...I did it for the money). Sofia had a piano recital at her piano teacher's house. She performed "The Entertainer." Then, Alex went to a birthday party. After the training, I picked up picnic supplies at Costco and headed home. Cristina, Sofia, Bella, Vivien and I went to ASA (Sofia's school) for a family picnic in the park. While that was going on, I went and picked up Alex from his friend's house. We all hung out at the park until 4, then headed home. It was a beautiful fall Arizona day (sunny, crisp, high of about 75) I went for a bike ride in the neighborhood with the three kids before the Gator game. The game started at 6 on ESPN2, which meant I could watch it at home. The Gators looked almost perfect. There was never any doubt about the outcome. Sofia went to a symphony performance at 8 with her piano teacher, Danya. After the Gator game, Cristina and I watched a movie. We had a slightly senior moment about 10 minutes into it when we realized that we'd rented the movie before. But we watched it again anyway. We both got more out of it this time. We must have fallen asleep the first time.

Sunday was much more low-key. I cleaned up the garage a little bit, my objective being to enable the bikes to be accessed easily without blocking in the motorcycle. Mission accomplished. That should provide more motivation to do more bike riding now that the weather is so nice. For the third day in a row, we took Vivien on an outing. This time, we hiked the Mormon trail on South Mountain for about an hour. Vivien did great. She was a total trooper on the rocky path. Only once did we have to give her a boost over a big step. It was her first hike, and she's a natural. Bella, on the other hand, managed to arrive at the mountain with nothing but flip-flops on her feet. She did fine too, but Cristina and I were rolling our eyes that neither of us had checked her choice of footware before we had left the house.

Monday, I had to work. Strange to have school on Monday and then be off Tuesday for Veteran's Day, but that's how my district does it. It was an easy day, though. We chose to get Alex and Sofia's passport renewals done that afternoon. Since both parents have to be present, it's been a challenge to find the time to do it. Luckily, we found a passport office on the ASU campus that did not require appointments. And even better, there was no wait, they were super fast, and they were even friendly! I've never had that experience when dealing with passports. We then went straight to Sofia's Junior Youth group. After Junior Youth, we went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. It was DMS fundraiser night, so 15% of our bill went to the school.

Tuesday, we all had the day off. We were having the Eurythmy teacher from DMS over for lunch, so we got the downstairs cleaned up. I bought a new tank of gas for the grill and grilled steaks and stuffed chicken breasts. Lunch was great. Afterwards, we walked down to the park with Vivien and played. 3 of Sofia's old classmates from DMS came by and at one point there were 13 children playing together. Perfect evening, beautiful sunset, Vivien hanging out with us, kids playing...just a great evening.

To recap:

Friday: Charlie Chaplin movie night
Saturday: piano recital, ASA picnic, bike ride, Gators win big
Sunday: hike on South Mountain
Monday: passports done, Sweet Tomatoes for dinner
Tuesday: lunch guest (clean house and grilled steaks), playing at park

It's amazing how different the quality of life is here when the temperature finally drops!