I was elated to see that so many of you tuned into the website over the past month. School's been out a month already and what have I been doing? Maintaining this website? Obviously not. I watched the first two seasons of the Sopranos on DVD, saw the Harry Potter movie, boat, pool, summer stuff, didn't surf, but bought myself a Hollister t-shirt (same mentality). I read a lot and worked around the house.

With that kind of hectic schedule, I don't know if I'll get around to updating the site that often before school starts, but I did want to say thanks to all of you for your support and I look forward to seeing you in the new semester and in class this coming Jan.


I came across the best analogy I can think of regarding the work we've done and will do together, while on one of my Beatles kicks. The first ever video recording of the Beatles was three years into their inception. Originally a "fivesome" with Pete Best on drums who decided their "sound" wasn't for him (good career move) and a bassist by the name of Stuart Sutcliff who really wanted to be a painter and was fully immersed in the German avant garde scene. The Beatles "look" of the early days was Stuart's idea as was the name Beetles (John changed it to Beat-les a little later). Stu Sutcliff died of a brain aneurysm in the early sixties, and when Pete Best left, they picked up Ringo from another band while in Hamburg, Germany, where the Beatles played dives and strip clubs from 1959 to 1961.

That first video of the Beatles showed charming, charismatic young men with energy, drive and certainly talent. But the Beatles of '62, three weeks before the release of their first record (and first #1 hit) "Love Me Do," were just a little rock and roll band: three guitars and a drum, three chords, maybe four and a handful of songs with clever hooks and hummable melodies.

Jump ahead to 1967, the so called "Summer of Love", a mere five years. The Beatles had recently released the penultimate rock record of the 20th Century, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. No one was listening to anything else. Brian Epstein had arranged for the Beatles to represent Great Britain in the first world satellite hook-up known as "Our World." For the occasion, Lennon wrote a song that has held up over the years as worthy of such a monumental day in modern history. That song was called "All You Need is Love." The song begins with a small orchestra playing the French national anthem and quickly transforms into a piece of music that overwhelmed everyone from kids to their parents to Leonard Bernstein. The song was written in a odd phrasing that actually combined 3/4 (waltz time) and 4/4 time in alternate bars and even measures. You musicians may understand the undertaking, but for us lay-people, this was quite an amazing and complex feat, which the Beatles then performed live on satellite to 50 million people worldwide.

To me it's historic. But more important to our purpose together is the juxtaposition of the video of 1962 and that of '68. I see in you people those young and enthusiastic Beatles in the Cavern Club, not one of them yet 25, talented, charismatic, ready to challenge the world. And I envision as well that many of you will become those accomplished Beatles of '67 (in your psychedelic clothes, of course), doing in your fields, what the Beatles did in theirs: defying the norms, challenging the limitations, taking it (whatever IT is) to the next level. I look forward to working with all of you again.