The Culture Club

Sat., Oct. 9, updated 4pm

Since we don't spend all our time trying to defang ed deformers and UFT/Unity Caucus slugs, we are initiating a new feature chronicling the limited amount of culture we manage to absorb. This blog will be updated throughout the day as I try to remember - anything. Let's see--- the great Beatle cover band, "The Fab Faux" celebrating the music of John Lennon (happy B-Day, John) , the Laura Linney play "Time Stands Still" about a war correspondent couple - what a great cast (see NY Times review Friday) and ....


NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me
11am-12 pm- Listen now

Last night we went to Carnegie Hall to see NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." It was the second performance in two nights for this very funny Chicago-based show. Darn, we missed Mayor Bloomberg, who was the featured guest on Thursday. But we much preferred Nora Ephron. You can hear the Thurs. night Bloomberg show right now on 820 AM. Host Peter Sagal just happens to be one of the funniest people in the world. I'm going to listen now. Back later with more on last night and the rest of the Culture Club.

Well, that was fun.


All I am saying....

Two weeks ago we got to see the Fab Faux at Radio City Music Hall - a celebration of John's birthday - 2 hours of his music by a superb band that many say are better musicians than the Beatles themselves. When Lennon was killed we went to the memorial in Central Park on the Sunday after. Other than JFK, no other death of someone outside the family out me in such a state of shock. I was sleepwalking through my classes. I brought in some Beatles albums and played them over and over in my classroom. Years later one of the kids who by then was in the army in Germany wrote me a letter saying that he loved the Beatles - and it was due to those days.

I just loved Lennon's attitude and  humor. He really as the leader of the Beatles - an adventuresome spirit that opened them up to directions no band has ever gone in. I used to take my classes to the playground near the Dakota, dreaming we would one day run into him as he took Sean out to play.

Today is Lennon's birthday. There's a new documentary out that includes a lot from that famous WNEW session with Dennis Elses that I actually listened to at the time. We actually got to meet Elses at Pete Seeger's  Hudson River Festival recently. And a new movie on the boyhood years. Looking forward to seeing both.