Frank Gutch Jr: My Six Degrees— Brushes With Greatness and Life, Featuring Brian Cullman and a Cast of Thousands… Plus Notes

I received an email this morning from Brian Cullman.  He claims he is writing a book.  For the past number of years— in fact since I “met” him in May of 2011— I have been pushing him to write a book.  My exact words over the years have been, “Brian, you should write a book,” to which he inevitably would reply, “I’ve thought about it but I don’t think there is enough there” or something to that effect.  I prodded him again this morning and, lo and behold, he said he is doing it.  Or going to do it.  Or is thinking about maybe doing it.  You can never tell what the guy is thinking.  Sometimes I think he thinks too much.

JAIMIE VERNON – THE BEATLE GOES ON

We live in a very unique time. Pop culture is such a big part of our everyday existence that we are able to watch a rare breed of genius rise and zenith in real time. It’s hard to imagine being there when Bach or Beethoven performed their most celebrated Sonatas and Symphonies for the first. It is so long ago that their stories and their music seem like stuff of myth – we don’t even have recordings just modern interpretations from the sheet music they left behind.

Doug Thompson: THE BEATLES: FROM CANADA WITH LOVE!

Usually, any 50^th anniversary is a cause for celebration.  But the 50^th anniversary of The Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan TV Show in New York was especially fun.  And if you’re not tired of all The Beatles coverage, here’s a little more for you to digest.  As most of the world knows by now, these four Liverpool lads – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – along with manager Brian Epstein and record producer George Martin, revolutionized music, fashion and merchandising from 1964 through to the end of the decade.  And Canada played a major part in much of it.

JAIMIE VERNON – 50 YEAR CONFLUENCE

As the media has been very cognizant of pointing out all week, Sunday, February 9^th marks the 50^th Anniversary of the night the Beatles stepped on stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan and destroyed America – one sobbing, hormone filled teenager at a time. It was a typical scenario that had become de rigueur to Rock and Roll dating back to the Elvis Presley hip swivel and even Frank Sinatra simmering blue-eyed allure before him. The media and parents alike were quick to write these four Liverpool lads off as yet another passing adolescent fad. But they were so wrong.

Roxanne Tellier: Every Day I Write The Book

Since very young, I’ve been a reader. Not just casually, as in checking out the latest Stephen King novel, or flipping through the pages of a tabloid, but a hard core, genuinely addicted, unable to live without books, reader. I’m helpless in the face of the printed word. My books surround me, on shelves reaching to the ceiling, in every room, on every subject. If I were a literary Scrooge McDuck, I’d be diving into a vault full of books, and rolling in vellum.

Gary Pig Gold: A World Without George

“Music is at the core of our being. Can you imagine a woman rearing a child and not humming to it? It’s as natural as breathing.”

Just in case you haven’t already been listening over the past sixty-some-odd years, Eagle Rock Entertainment’s grand new Produced By George Martin documentary demonstrates once again, via a wealth of vintage clips and contemporary interviews with clients past (Paul McCartney, Cilla Black, Jeff Beck, Bernard Cribbins even) and protégés present-day (Rick Rubin, T-Bone Burnett) the sheer magnitude of the man’s sonic innovations on, and indelible contributions to, the music industry. Or what remains of it, I should say.