So here's where I'll be in a few hours:
The view from the balcony above our living room:
The view from both our bedroom and living room window:
I am so freaking psyched.
I really do not have much more to report, other than, woo hoo, a photograph of Gary and me made it onto a very famous website and we are both really grinning over that (you'll have to scroll down but you can't miss us), Julie and Eric are set to fly down to Nashville on John Lennon's birthday - that's October 9 to you - rehearse for several days then take off for Europe...again...what a life...and I got the following very cool email yesterday to which I totally forgot to respond so I'll do it here, publicly: THANK YOU, PHILLIP!!!! And I will write back as soon as I come up for air again.
"Robin,
Greetings from Helsinki. I manage KTU and was on the Russian dates with them and ABPT. Very enjoyed their music and getting to know the three ABPT members. (I have already ordered the Side 4 from the website). Have been a huge AB fan for years and now thrilled to see and hear that Julie and Eric are also amazing musicians. As well as delightful people.
Also very delighted to read your (or Mark Bastable's?) comments about the Fabs on your blog page. Hear here!! I am always happy to meet like minded souls and discuss this true but rarely recognized fact. Even more important, I enjoy turning others onto mind-blowing Fabs-related / Fabs-inspired / Fabs-connected music, of which there is an in incredible amount, much of it very rare and little known.
So thanks for flying the Fabs flag and if you want to discuss further, please let me know.
Check my sphere of interest and activity:
www.myspace.com/ktuband
www.myspace.com/kimmopohjonen
www.kimmopohjonen.com
www.hoedown.com
Best regards
Phillip Page
I will definitely take him up on that. I am always, always, always up for talking about "The Fabs".
So I think that's it for now but should anything occur between now and the time I take off for the beach, I'll be back...
Later,
xo
I am sure you already know about this site, but it is a great site for "new" info about the Beatles...New books, found interviews, that sort of thing...
ReplyDeletehttp://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/fabnews.htm
Have a great time at the beach...
thought you might appreciate this..Music is a spiritual undertaking for rock legend Carlos Santana
ReplyDelete12:00 AM CDT on Monday, September 15, 2008
By THOR CHRISTENSEN / The Dallas Morning News
tchristensen@dallasnews.com
Go ahead. Make fun of Carlos Santana if you want.
Mock him for claiming he can talk to angels and dead people. Call him an old hippie-dippie for saying music can move mountains.
He simply doesn't care.
"I'm sorry if people's feelings get hurt, man, but the ones that say music can't change the world weren't real musicians to begin with," he says.
"Every day when you hear 'Blowin' in the Wind' or 'What's Going On,' we're changing the world. Music is the only way to bring unity and healing on this planet, beyond politics or religion."
To the 61-year-old guitar legend, music is a religion. He speaks in a reverential whisper about the first time he heard the roar of an electric guitar as a child living in the slums of Tijuana. And he compares rock concerts to liturgies.
"It's like church, but it's not plastic," he says. "A lot of churches are like going to a very slick car dealer. But this church doesn't want your money – it wants you to invest in the light inside of you."
Talk to Mr. Santana for very long and the word light pops up a dozen times. In the '70s, he briefly renamed himself Devadip Santana, a name his Indian guru Sri Chinmoy told him meant the light of God.
Inner light is also the theme of Multi Dimensional Warrior, a two-disc compilation of lesser-known songs from 1970-2002. The album comes out Sept. 30.
"Ain't no doubt about it, it's a spiritual CD," he says by phone from his office near San Francisco.
"Something compelled me to go into the vault and compile the whole thing within an hour. This voice kept telling me, 'This is a letter to your fans reaffirming there's divinity in every molecule in your body.' "
Mr. Santana hears lots of voices. After his 1999 CD Supernatural sold millions and won eight Grammys, he told Rolling Stone he talks to a personal angel named Metatron. Today, he says he speaks to Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, who've been dead for years.
"Stevie Ray is here with me every day," he says. "I walk with him, and he walks with me."
He also consults daily with the late jazz legends Miles Davis and John Coltrane. While Mr. Santana's name is synonymous with Latin rock, he always has been a major jazz-bo, much to the dismay of rock's movers and shakers: His former record label boss, Clive Davis, and the late promoter Bill Graham told him that mixing jazz with rock was "career suicide."
"But I said 'You know what? Career suicides are good for you once in a while because how else are you gonna grow?' " he says.
"If you don't grow, you're just a can in a grocery store, and I'd rather be the whole Safeway than just one aisle."
Get him talking about jazz, and he goes on a tear.
"Jazz is accepted all over Europe, but America has decided to concentrate on the most simplistic, stupid, annoying music for people 17 to 27. If you played Miles Davis or John Coltrane in the schools, people would grow up with more elegance and dignity. But if you're constantly given M&Ms and you've never tasted white chocolate from Switzerland, it's your loss."
If jazz is the heart of his free-form guitar playing, blues is the guts. Before Woodstock made him a star, his group was called the Santana Blues Band. And today, he'll bend your ear about getting to hang out with Buddy Guy and B.B. King at 2004's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas.
"People don't understand," he says. "Even though I'm 61, there's a part of me that's 17 and still in awe of all these incredible musicians."
His No. 1 awe-inspiring moment? A backstage summit with Bob Dylan before a Santana show in 1993.
"He grabbed both my hands, looked at me with those beautiful eyes and said, 'You're one of the few from the '60s who continue to carry the message – and you're doing it great.' "
For once, Mr. Santana was speechless.
"Queen Elizabeth might have knighted Paul McCartney, but I couldn't care less about that stuff, man. I was christened and anointed and baptized by Bob Dylan," he says.
"And let me tell you, I went onstage that night and kicked some serious booty."Plan your life
Santana and opening act Salvador Santana Band perform at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Superpages.com Center, Fair Park. $25 to $85. Ticketmaster.