Tag: John Lennon

I’m SO Tired

On the TV show Grey’s Anatomy. Meredith and Derek are exhausted with a new baby. On another show, Parenthood, there’s a couple with a new, crying-all-the-time, infant.

For reasons I mostly don’t understand, for the last couple of weeks, I have been going to sleep, waking up anywhere between three and four and a half hours later, and then being unable to go back to sleep. I stay in bed for as long as an hour, then finally get up and check my e-mail, or, rarely, watch TV for an hour, then go back to bed, pretty much in time for the alarm clock. I usually DO fall asleep in that brief time between when my wife wakes up and when she returns from the shower; I know this because I am likely to have quite vivid dreams.

The annoying thing is that I’m often too unfocused to write a comprehensible blog post, to even start one. Yet the IDEAS are still there, which is actually worse.

I’ve experienced this condition before, for a day or two, and I can operate OK in the short term. But in this extended bout, not so much. There was a First Friday event I plugged in this blog, and which I remembered at 2 pm Friday. But by 5:30, when it was time to leave work, I totally forgot, went home, and at 6:20, I was too tired to go back out.

In case you’re wondering, I’ve tried having a glass of wine, or having nothing to drink; different times of going to bed (yeah, I know you’re supposed to go at the same time, but that only applies when that’s working.) I had been staying off caffeine until the last few days when I feared dozing at my desk.

Saturday afternoon, with absolutely no energy, I watched a little of the TV show Grey’s Anatomy. Meredith and Derek are exhausted with a new baby. On another show, Parenthood, there’s a couple with a new, crying-all-the-time, infant. Then it hit me: the last time I was THIS tired was nine and a half years ago

I HATE using them, but, in desperation, I took one of those OTC medications that are supposed to let you sleep for 3 or 4 hours, and it DID work.

But my friend Jon said that had a better idea – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 see hear feel. You open your eyes and note five things you see, 5 things you hear then 5 things you feel. Then 4, 4, 4, then 3, 3, 3, et al. Always worked for him. Well, not for me; I found that it was so focusing – where am I at, 4 hear or 3 feel? – that it made me alert, and even the pill didn’t help.

To boot, I must have slept wrong one night, because the back of my neck aches much of the time lately.

My problem is, paraphrasing John Lennon (whose birthday is today), I have a tough time turning off my mind, relaxing, and floating downstream.

Beatles songs:
I’m So Tired
Tomorrow Never Knows.

The Beatles reunion, and our Christmas tree

I’d say that Paul’s stuff in this century has been better more frequently.

More questions from western New York’s finest blogger, Jaquandor:

If Lennon hadn’t been shot in 1980, do you think there would eventually have been a Beatles reunion? If so, what form? A one-shot performance at something like Live-Aid? A new album?

John and Yoko’s album Double Fantasy comes out in the fall of 1980. It does all right [not as well as it did in response to Lennon’s death]. They put out Milk and Honey a year later; ditto. They tour for a few months.

Around 1982, George, whose career was in a bit of a downturn – no All Those Years Ago hit single – plays on a John and Yoko album. John and George play on Ringo’s comeback album.

Live Aid in 1985 becomes the venue in which the Beatles get together for a one-off reunion. But they enjoy it so much, they put together an album a year later. They get together periodically but primarily continue with their solo careers.

Whose post-Beatles material do you prefer, Lennon’s or McCartney’s? (Wow, I just wrote that as “McCarthy”. I have GOT to get politics out of my brain.)

Difficult to say. I liked the first two Lennon albums a lot, then parts of most of the rest, though the New York City album was a bit too pedantic, and Rock ‘N’ Roll totally unnecessary. It’s impossible for me to judge the two albums with Yoko because they are so tied to John’s death, but I do love most of John’s songs.

I liked Paul’s first two albums, less enamored by the next two, thought Band on the Run was a classic, but pretty much think that his output since then, including the period with Wings, was terribly uneven – a good album, followed by one had a few good songs or might even be an outright dud.

I’d say that Paul’s stuff in this century has been better more frequently, though I didn’t “get” his Firemen album, and HATED his post 9-11 song. And Paul has the luxury of owning his Beatles roots and not needing to run away from it. His 2009 live album, a solid mix of Beatles, Wings, and solo material, was tremendous.

So I’d say it was about a tie, percentage-wise. But, of course, Paul has had a far greater output.

I’m sure you HAVE to have done this in the past, as prolific as your blogging is, but how about a tour of your Christmas tree? Favorite ornaments and such? (If you have a tree, that is.)

Actually, I never have done a tree tour. Yes, we have a tree. It’s artificial, green. We had a real one until three or four years ago, when…actually, I don’t recall the conversation anymore.

Most of the decorations were my wife’s, from years before I knew her. The angel on top, bulbs, Santas, and, notably, various Biblical characters that she hand-painted when she was a child.

A couple of moves ago, my favorite decorations got lost; I loved some of them. Then the red sneakers ornament got lost or broken more recently. So, there are very few that were originally mine: a Pez snowman, and, of all things, a Barry Bonds Hallmark piece one of my sisters gave me a number of years ago. There are also pictures of The Daughter inside ornaments.

This year I felt particularly distanced from the process. The Wife was sick on the Friday before Christmas, the Daughter on Saturday. I slept most of that Sunday, with various ailments, during which time, the tree got put up.

It’s become obvious: I need to buy some ornaments. For ME. Or maybe my baby sister has something from my childhood…

“War Against Christmas” Is OVER (If You Want It)

The parties have agreed to be COOL with being greeted with “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” without getting all bent out of shape about it.

(Dateline: Albany, NY) Roger Green, founder, and president of the organization Christmas Or Other Labels (COOL), has declared the war on Christmas in the United States to be officially over. People celebrating the holiday religiously, those celebrating it socially, and those not celebrating it at all were all declared victors in emotional celebrations across the country.

The Christian folks have decided that, while it IS approaching Christmas in December, there ARE people who practice other religions, or no religions at all, and they are determined to be COOL about it.

Besides, the period called Christmastide on the Christian calendar doesn’t actually start until December 25, and running to early January, the 12 days of Christmas. And the Pope is clear that we’re celebrating the birth of Christ at the wrong time of the year anyway.

The Christians also acknowledge that the declaration that there was a “war” on Christmas was a bit hyperbolic, given the actual violence perpetrated against Christians in Nigeria last Christmas. Not to mention how Christmas has become so large, it is now starting to devour Thanksgiving.

The non-religious have agreed to be COOL about the fact that the placement of Christmas in December, and the use of the fir tree, are based on pagan traditions, and to stop being snarky about it. They have also recognized that the holiday IS important to some people on religious grounds and to not prattle on about how commercialized it’s become. If the feeling starts swelling up, the Rx is to go watch A Charlie Brown Christmas, repeatedly if necessary.

The non-Christian religious, and the people who just like exchanging presents, acknowledge that they’re COOL with it all.

In this era of rapprochement, the parties have agreed to be COOL with being greeted with “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”, or beautiful Bogie day, or sterling Serling Day, in the spirit in which it was offered, without getting all bent out of shape about it. They’ve decided that Waging Peace on Christmas is a much more life-affirming strategy.

As John and Yoko sang, War is Over (If You Want It).
***
Jon Stewart shows why ‘The war on Christmas’ is nuts

SamuraiFrog’s Last Word Ever on the “War on Christmas”

John Lennon: The Last Interview, from Rolling Stone

Sean Lennon’s birthday; and it would have been his father’s

We were JUST THERE, yet we missed seeing John & Yoko in person.

One of those signs that you are getting older is when you start saying things such as “I remember [him or her] when [he or she] was X years old [some age the person hasn’t been for a VERY long time].” And that’s how it was with Sean Lennon. I didn’t know him personally, but, to me, he was frozen in time at five years old, his age when his father was killed.

Here’s an audio of John and Sean talking about birthdays.

Of course, Sean continued to grow up, in spite of my myopia. I think that’s why, when he performed in Albany in the spring of 2007, when he was 31, I just had to go see him. That and, I suppose, that second-hand connection to his late father who I could never see live.

There was an antiwar rally I attended in New York City – must have been 1972, give or take a year – and on our way back to New Paltz on the bus, but still within the city limits, we could hear on the live radio (I’m thinking WBAI) that John and Yoko had shown up at the event! It was thrilling, but also frustrating; we were JUST THERE, yet we missed seeing them in person.

Anyway, here’s a link to bios of the Beatles kids. You’ll note that many of them became musicians as well.

Sean Lennon turns 36 today; John would have been 71.

How Do You Sleep QUESTIONS

I might sleep for four hours, then stay in bed, feeling that I had not slept at all the latter part of the time. But I know I have.


Looking at all the Beatles and John Lennon songs, I’m reminded of the fact that Lennon mentioned the topic of sleep a few times. I’m Only Sleeping was on the Beatles’ Revolver album, though I first heard it on the US LP called Yesterday and Today. It starts off:
When I wake up early in the morning,
Lift my head, I’m still yawning
When I’m in the middle of a dream
Stay in bed, float upstream

Then, for the Beatles white album, Lennon writes:
I’m so tired, I haven’t slept a wink
I’m so tired, my mind is on the blink

The tone of the vicious Lennon attack on Paul McCartney, How Do You Sleep is contrasted with #9 Dream in my mind.
So long ago
Was it in a dream, was it just a dream?
I had known, yes I know
Seemed so very real, it seemed so real to me

1. How do YOU sleep at night?
2. Do you remember your dreams?

On those nights I sleep for six or seven hours straight, I tend not to remember my dreams. But on the nights I have a lot on my mind, I might sleep for four hours, then stay in bed, feeling that I had not slept at all the latter part of the time. But I know I have because the dreams are so vivid, it’s as though they were real.

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