I was once asked to name a person that I looked-up to or admired, someone that was influential in my life. Put on the spot, having to think fast, I could only think of one name, George Harrison.  Ok, I know what your thinking, a Beatle, come on you can do better than that!  Well, sorry but its true!  Call me shallow but, its George.  I even strongly considered naming our son Harrison.  I’ve always been a Beatles fan since the very first time I saw them on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.  Sitting around the TV, as we did almost every Sunday night, Ed with his classic “stone-faced” delivery..... 

”Now, yesterday and today, our theater’s been jammed with newspapermen and hundreds of photographers from all over the nation, and these veterans agree with me that the city never has witnessed the excitement stirred by these youngsters from Liverpool who call themselves the Beatles,’’ the audience went wild. Barely able to be heard he continued… “Now tonight you’ll be entertained twice by them—right now and in the second half of the show. Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles!”

Listen to an NPR story on the “Beatles Coming to America” in celebraton of the 40th anniversary.

It is hard to explain the influence the Beatles had on my generation.  Each album and TV appearance was an eagerly anticipated event, often one that had an evolutionary if not revolutionary impact on music and popular culture. Take their appearance on The David Frost show of “Hey Jude” in Sept 1968 for instance. What could better capture the spirit of the era than that setting and song, it has taken on an almost “anthem-like” status in American culture. When Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band was released the sound was so revolutionary that it was shocking and not easy to assimilate. I didn’t like it and promptly put it away, not listening to it again for months.  Now, of course, it is regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time.

George was always my favorite Beatle.  There was something intreging about George. Certainly there were better guitar players and song writers, yet if you look at the body of his work and listen carefully you realize how terrific he really was. He wasn’t flashy but like many of the “greats” he always seemed to do the right thing, add just the right lick at just the right time to make everything work.  If you are a Harrison fan I highly recommend watching the Concert for George DVD. What an incredible concert! When you hear other fabulous musicians (Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynn, Billy Preston, Ringo, Paul, among others) playing George’s songs you get a whole new perspective on his music. Watching it inspired me to write this story!

Beatles fans will recall that the group got involved briefly with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1968.  For the rest of the band this was a fleeting encounter with Eastern thought and practice but for George it was the beginning of a life-long journey. George wrote and sang about the spiritual life about seeking enlightenment, about God.  At a time when many of us were questioning conventional religion, rejecting our own our religious upbringing George was talking openly about seeking God (the Hindu ones that is). 

Forgive me lord
Please, those years when I ignored you, hmm
Forgive them lord
Those that feel they can’t afford you, hmm

Help me lord, please
To rise above this dealing, hmm
Help me lord, please
To love you with more feeling, hmm

“Hear Me Lord”
From: All Things Must Pass

Tyler Swan, 2003For me this helped opened the door to a spiritual quest of my own influenced by such books as:The Natural Mind, Be Here Now, The Autobiography of a Yogi, The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead , The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Doors of Perception among others (hey, I’m a child of the 60s, what do you expect!). Of course I won’t go into the gory details (perhaps at another time) but I credit George, in part, with inspiring my journey as misdirected as it has been at times.  Now, as you have read elsewhere in this site, I’m back home where I belong, the Orthodox Church… namaste George!

When you’ve seen beyond yourself-
then you may find, peace of mind, Is waiting there-
And the time will come when you see
we’re all one, and life flows on within you and without you

“Within You Without You”
From: Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

Early Beatle clip “I Saw Her Standing There” at Google Video
Concert for George Website
Concert for Bangladesh See some great clips from the concert
GeorgeHarrison.com Flash intensive site with some great media
All Things Must Pass Shockwave and Flash intensive and a bit too far-out but some interesting tidbits on this amazing album.
George Harrison Lyrics

My kids have a longstanding habit of calling before coming home at dinner time and asking “what are you making for dinner?” I’m not quite sure if this a vote of confidence in my cooking skills or an attempt to assess their options; I think the latter. I’m the chief cook in our household and have always been one to wait until the last minute to decide what to cook for dinner. Of course I do plan ahead on important occasions but I enjoying playing the game with myself trying to make something out of what is on hand at the very last minute. The phone rings..."I’m on the 5:30 ferry..see you in 20 minutes”, I spring into action. I even amaze myself sometimes because often I have no idea what I’m going to make until I look at what’s hanging around to work with. 

Like most cooks I have my standard repertoire of meals, some family favorites others not so appealing to all. I like to experiment.  I’m not one to do things the same twice.  When asked “what was in that dish you served last week?”, unfortunately I often can’t recall, I rarely write things down, or follow a recipe and thus may only have a general idea. Now this habit is not foolproof, I don’t fail often but when I do it is usually big, rendering a meal that only I will eat.  My daughter Lorean once exclaimed with an anguished look.. “Dad, why don’t you just make regular food?”.  Regular food… what’s that? 

One of the benefits of being a vegetable gardener is that the possibilities for the last minute are greatly expanded. I’ve even been known to pickup a flash light and head out into the woods looking for chantrel mushrooms in my last minute flurry.  Although it is Fall and the garden is on the wane there are still a few things growing.  In the picture above you will note a lovely cauliflower, chard and bok choy (but of course you recognized them!) the eventual ingredients in a last minute stir fry.. very tasty.  You will also note the inserted photo of me showing a cooking aptitude at an early age.  No, that is not the same apron.  Don’t ask me what’s in what I made, I told you I can’t recall such things.

One of my last minute innovations that has now moved to standard family fare and is a universal hit with the kids (when they are all at home that is) is pizza with artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, vegan cheese if we are fasting feta and mozzarella if we are not, garlic, onions, olives, pine nuts, basil on a homemade crust.  It really is great, feel free to give it a try.  I recommend Costco for the main ingredients, their feta is cheap and the best around.... of course this requires that the reader plan ahead!

Now if my family can only get through all the telemarketer calls tonight at dinner time so I know when to start dinner! 

There is something about a great ending that regardless of what has gone on before brings a feeling of elation and fulfillment that leaves one wanting more, to do it all over again. By “great ending” I mean an ending that somehow adds to one’s understanding and appreciation of an event or performance.  A “great ending” need not make one feel “good” or tie-up all the loose ends, that’s the easy way out.  A “great ending” provokes, it stirs, it moves us to a new level of awareness, perhaps allowing us to see things in a new light.

This notion was brought home so clearly this past week by two very different theatrical events. The first is Wagner’s monumental work the “Ring des Nibelungen”, four operas: Das Rheingold , Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung staged over a one week period. I had the great pleasure of seeing the Seattle Opera’s production last week. For seventeen hours over four nights I was drawn into Wagner’s mythic world that explores as no other opera work before it, the depths of the human psyche via words and music. It is an outlandishly twisted tale that draws from both Germanic/Norse mythology, the politics of the mid-19th century, and the influential philosophies of the time.  With three of the four operas at five or more hours at times it is an endurance contest, with moments of frustration and impatience when one thinks .."why can’t he (Wagner) just got on with it!” after taking 30 minutes to have two characters express their love for each other and embrace. Yet, the very next minute Wagner will hook you and draw you back in with a expressive melodic line or leitmotif (see and a hear), it is pure genius.  People literally come from all over the world to see these productions, many avid Wagner lovers who have seen the Ring Cycle many times over (if you think a normal opera crowd is old, you should see a Ring crowd!).  Just being in that kind of committed crowd is enjoyable in itself.  Of course there a a few who take things a bit far and strut around during intermissions wearing a viking helmet but generally speaking it is a very serious enthusiastic crowd.

Back to the idea of a “great ending”.. in the last of the four operas, Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), the final scene in Stephen Wadworth’s Seattle production was breathtaking. The “ring” (the object of everyone’s obscession) has been returned to the Rhinemaidens and order has been restored but the rein of the"gods" has come to an end and Valhalla goes up in flames.  The scene was simply stunning, it left me thinking (in spite of the fact that we sprinted out the door to catch of ferry) “wow, the time and expense ($110/seat/night!) were all worthwhile, this was something really special to be a part of”. 

As I usually do before any opera, I try to listen to the music ahead of time. I’ve been working on the Ring for months. One doesn’t go through 17 hours of music easily.  Wagnerian opera does not make good background music around the house in ways that operas of Mozart, Puccini or Verdi do.  I had a hard time connecting with it quite honestly, as I do with most of Wagner’s operas before I see them.  I listened to Scenes 2 and 3 from Das Rheingold the other day and heard it in a whole new light...it was marvelous.  There is so much going on in these operas that a small foothold helps bring things into focus.  If you asked me after the third opera, Seigfried, if I’d go again the answer would have been NO, now, I’d pony up the big bucks without question.... “great endings” have the power to do that.

Now to the second “great ending”. I have been a longtime fan of the HBO show ”Six Feet Under”. Created by Alan Ball, the Academy Award winning writer of ”American Beauty”, the show takes a “darkly comic look at life and death from the perspective of a dysfunctional family that owns and operates an independent funeral home in California”. From the fabulous opening theme music and credits ,created by a Seattle company Digital Kitchen, to the dark and off-beat story lines it is great television in my view.  I highly recommend renting the first season, it comes on four episode DVDs. As with many programs, I think the first season was the best and most inventive.

At any rate.. I just happened to catch the show’s last episode the other night and the last 15 minutes was one of those “great endings”. In the imagination/daydream of one of the characters, Claire, as she drives off “into the sunset” are death scenes of each of the show’s characters.  Now if you aren’t familiar with the program you are probably thinking “what? how morbid!”, but every episode of the series starts with a death in a short one minute or so vignette.  Remember, the program is centered around the funeral business. The eventual funeral of that person becomes a minor background theme for the episode, it is very clever.  Getting back to what I said at the top, I was left with a feeling of satisfaction, that what I had enjoyed about this inventive program was confirmed by the well done finale.

As they say at the opera… “Bravo!”

The Ring family tree
Great Ring des Nibelungen resource
Six Feet Under at HBO

Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home
the origin of the Weatherman nameI sat with my daughter Alice the other night and watched the documentary “The Weather Underground” about the late 60s early 70s ultra-radical group the Weathermen. It was a fascinating look at the radical political movements of that time.  The Weatherman were an offshoot of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) and literally took over the organization in 1969.

“Outraged by the Vietnam War and racism in America, the organization waged a low-level war against the U.S. government through much of the 1970s, bombing the Capitol building, breaking Timothy Leary out of prison, and evading one of the largest FBI manhunts in history.”

At various points I punctuated the movie with my own commentary in an attempt to help her get a better perspective and understanding for what was going in in this country and the world at that time.  Where to begin?  There is so much to tell.  Riots and fires in the streets.  The nightly body count from Vietnam on the evening news.  Bobby Kennedy and King shot dead. Neal Armstrong walking on the moon.  Amazing stuff! 
Some of the of the big issues of that time: civil rights, Vietnam, the Cold War, the Space Race, to name a few.  The cast of characters is volumous: Dylan, Kesey, King, JFK, RFK, Manson, The Beatles, Nixon, Malcom X, and on and on.

Seeing Timothy Leary briefly in the movie, in reference to Weathermen breaking him out of prison, lead me to try to describe the psychdelic movement.  Now that is an interesting one to try to explain! While a big component of the movement was simply having a good time, there was much more to it that can’t be easily described.  The book “Storming Heaven” by Jay Stevens (free online version) does a great job explaining the bigger picture.  It would be easy to simply dismiss iconic characters like Leary as wackos and criminals but in reality they were profoundly influential on my generation and even me personally. 

She and I watched “The Fog of War” (a must see!) about six months ago and had a similar experience.  I think it important to share something about that time with young people in order to give them a broader understanding of the events of today and perhaps better see what helped shape their parent’s generation.  Of course this is no easy task.  Now that my kids are older I hope they can begin to understand and appreciate just a little of what made me (and their mother) who I am today. And perhaps more importantly, that many folks of my generation struggled and fought (literally and figuratively) to bring about changes in this country and the world that are a lasting legacy. 

An excellent chronology and background on the Weatherman

PBS website devoted to the movie.  See what the Weathermen are up to now

The Fog of War website

A few McNamara quote excerpts from Fog of War movie

People of note in the Sixties