Day: April 10, 2006

Got this e-mail entitled “Billy Preston medical intrigue” indicating that the keyboardist is very sick, and that there is a big fight between his family and his manager. The details of the story are largely confirmed here. I wish him well.

Pictured, my first Billy Preston album, on Apple Records, produced by some guy named George Harrison.
***
And speaking of George, The Capitol Albums Vol. 2 is coming out tomorrow, featuring stereo and mono versions of The Early Beatles, Beatles VI, Help! and Rubber Soul. Though I never got the first Capitol Albums, I may have to get this one, if only for the Help! instrumentals, and some of the false start bits on Rubber Soul. But what comes next? Yesterday and Today and Revolver, but then you have all of the albums that were virtually identical in the U.S. and the U.K. Will the next box set feature Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour, trying to lure people to buy those songs, in that order, yet again? The only other Beatles album not released in the UK at the time was the Hey Jude/Beatles Again disc, but that was on Apple.

Stolen from Kelly:

Pure Nerd
73 % Nerd, 34% Geek, 43% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd.

The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the “dork.” No-longer. Being smart isn’t as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful.

Congratulations!

Thanks Again! — THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

OK, I admit it: I DO look up words I don’t know. And I’m OK at Trivial Pursuit. Oh, yeah, I’ve gotten a World Almanac every year since I was 10. Is that so wrong?
***
Friend Sarah addresses our cultural obseession with violence, both in our TV programs (CSI/Cold Case-types) and in the news. I have similar feelings about this. We share a particular disdain for alleged newsperson Nancy Whatsherface, who seemed to wallow in the missing-teenage-girl-in-Aruba story. Don’t know what’s she’s up to presently, for when I see her face, I change the channel.