Across the Universe

I recently watched the movie Across the Universe, as the title says. I have to say it was totally awesome, it was a little weird in some parts, but overall it totally ruled! I'm sure if John and George were still alive and they saw this, they'd be crying tears of happiness to know that their music still lives on, and that the younger generation listens to them.

Here's hopefully the most accurate description of the movie I can give. A young man named Jude(Jim Sturgess) decides to leave Liverpool, England to go to America to find his estranged father. Meanwhile, on the West Coast, a girl named Lucy(Evan Rachel Wood) is planning on going to college. She goes to New York and while hanging at a nightclub with her friends, that's where she meets Jude for the first time. Over time the 2 slowly fall in love, and while they fall in love, the turbulent Vietnam War rages on and protests and riots are through the roof. Somehow the 2 get involved in the protests going on in Greenwich Village, and Jude goes to find Lucy, only to be hampered by police holding him back, he fights the police and ends up in jail. After all that, the 2 end up together. It's like a 1960s Romeo and Juliet story with a rocking soundtrack from the Beatles. Also there's a cameo by U2's Bono in the movie. I give this movie a 10 out of 10 rating, a 5 out of 5 star rating. It's the best movie ever! And it's perfect for any Beatles lover out there! I certainly enjoyed it, but a word of advice-- there is a slight amount of bad language and a moderate amount of female/male nudity, specifically towards the end where there is a scene depicting Jude and Lucy kissing and such completely bare naked. It's romantic, but some might say otherwise.


Cast

• Lucy-Evan Rachel Wood
• Jim Sturgess-Jude
• Joe Anderson-Max
• Dana Fuchs-Sadie
• Martin Luther McCoy-Jojo
• T.V. Carpio- Prudence
• Timothy T. Mitchum-Jojo's younger brother
• Carol Woods- Gospel singer
• Orfeh- Hooker #1
• Tracy Nicole Chapman- Hooker #2
• Jacob Pitts- Desmond
• Logan Marshall-Green-Paco
• Bono-Dr. Robert
• Salma Hayek-Bang Bang Shoot Shoot nurses
• James Urbaniak- Sadie's manager
• Eddie Izzard- Mr. Kite
• Harry Lennix- Army sergeant
• Lawrence Leritz- singing riot cop
• Joe Cocker-pimp/mad hippie/bum
• Lisa Hogg- Jude's mom
• Robert Clohessy- Wesley, Jude's father
• Dylan Baker and Lisa Emond- Mr. and Mrs. Carrigan
• Lynn Cohen- Grandma Carrigan
• Bill Irwin-Uncle Teddy
• Spencer Liff- Daniel, Lucy's boyfriend

Pictures from the movie

Man what a cutie!!!!!!! Kinda looks like a cross between a young Paul McCartney and a young George Harrison

Here Comes the Sun

I've been in a Beatles mood lately. It might have something to do with the fact I have just seen the movie Across the Universe. It was a very good movie. I thought I would do today's post on how the Beatles got their start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles#Discography
History

• The Beatles started in Liverpool in April 1960
• They are the ones who inspired virtually every musician known to man
• The band consisted of 4 guys: Paul McCartney(bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison(lead guitar, vocals), John Lennon(rhythm guitar, vocals), Ringo Starr(drums, vocals)
• The music they started out doing was something called ska, which is a mix of country, blues, R&B, folk music.

1957-1962

• Prior to joining up with the Beatles, John Lennon was in a band called the Quarrymen
• In July 1957, Paul and John met for the first time, when Paul was a guitarist
• A good friend of John's, a fellow student by the name of Stuart Sutcliffe, joined the band in January
• Before the end of August, they hired someone else, a guy named Pete Best.
• In August 1960, Harrison, who was only 17 at the time, lied to German authorities about his age so he could play in music.
• Eventually Pete Best was replaced by Ringo Starr

1963-1966

• This became their official logo
• The logo was designed by Ivor Arbiter, and made it's debut in 1963
• On February 7, 1964, the Beatles left Heathrow Airport and made the flight to the US, much to the delight of a million screaming teen girls. With their arrival, it's believed that opened the floodgate to the time we all know as the British Invasion. After their arrival, many more British acts started coming to the US, such as Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Kinks, The Who, The Rolling Stones, etc. In the US, there was even a following called Beatlemania. This gave them a huge fan base of screaming teen girls
• In June 1965, the Beatles were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire by Elizabeth II.
• On August 15, 1965, the Beatles played a concert at New York's Shea Stadium. Later they got to meet their musical influence, Elvis Presley, at his house and they got to play music with him

1966-1970

• In June 1966, their album, Yesterday and Today, which depicted the Beatles in butcher's coveralls, surrounded by raw meat and mutilated baby dolls, faced serious backlash from religious groups in the US and US social conservative groups, along with the KKK. And this was all over a comment that Lennon had made: "Christianity will go, it will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus right now, I don't know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity". He's lucky he didn't get the band lynched for that!
• Their Let It Be album was the final studio album that the Beatles would release together as a band before the big break up
• On Jan. 30, 1969, their final concert was a performance on the roof of 3 Savile Row, London, on the roof of the Apple Corps building.
• On Dec. 8, 1980, this day will live in infamy for every Beatles fan. This is the day that John Lennon was fatally murdered outside his Dakota apartment building by crazed gunman Mark David Chapman, with Yoko standing nearby, witness to it all. Her album, Season of Glass, would ultimately feature John's bloodstained, shattered glasses next to a half filled glass of water overlooking Central Park, almost to suggest John was happiest in New York.
• On Nov. 29, 2001, the Beatles suffered another major blow. George Harrison died from lung cancer