Beatlemania 40 Years Later

Went to a Beatle-Fest in beautiful Clinton, NJ this past Sunday. It a wonder that after all these years (43 or so) since the English Invasion we are still honoring the Fab Four. Now the Fab Four minus Two, unfortunately.

A couple of musical faux Beatle acts appeared, and actually both were quite good. The first gentleman performed by himself, looked nothing like any Beatle ever looked, but could sing up a storm. He used a synthesizer and some recorded background music to pay homage to the Boys and he did it quite well.

Clinton, for those unaware, is a quaint town is western part of the state very near the Pennyslvania border. It is the home of a very active business guild association that looks to bring traffic to its town by event sponsporship. Two years ago, the town fathers and mothers hosted a Shakespeare Festival. Hmm. Never completely broken away from the Crown, eh wot?

So where was the dissonance? It was actually disturbing to see the very aging Beatle fan population. And as if they wasn't enough to see the decrepit condition of the normal fans, it was more disturbing was to see the aging Beatlemania groupies.

Thinking back to the years when I attended many more concerts, I remember groupies as single seaters who were always on the verge of standing ovation, obviously knew the words to all the songs, and seemed to cognizant of the performers' next moves. They were slightly freaky then. They are a lot more freaky now.

One of my female friends made the mistake of remarking on a very colorful "Beatle's Fest" tour tee-shirt  a passerby was sporting. The guy overheard the remark, reversed his direction and began talking about that which he loved above all other -- The Beatles. Actually, I am assuming he loved the Beatles. He could have just loved the "faux" Beatles events because that is what he talked about.

Apparently, and much to our amazement, there are three major "real official Beatle events in the colonies" a year -- one in North New Jersey, one is Las Vegas and one in the Midwest (can't remember where.) They are apparently not to be missed under any circumstances because the really good fake Beatles bands play at these and there are losts of memorabilia vendors available. This guy told us that the possible of rain this day "held back some of the vendors" from attending. Special note: I didn't see even one vendor with Beatles stuff except for the sponsoring guild member's store.  (Please don't tell me that someone makes a living at selling fake Beatlemania stuff?)

A Balanced Life

Yesterday I lost my balance and fell. I always thought I had great balance but apparently I was kidding myself. It happened while visiting a friend's bric-a-brac shoppe in Clinton, New Jersey. She has a ton of bric-a-brac and it's all tightly packed on shelves lining each side of the narrow shoppe.


I am embarassed to say I was demonstrating my newest trick with our dog, Roxy. The trick goes like this. I faux kick the dog and she rolls over as if having been struck. Actually when performed well, it looks like I am kicking the dog. Occurs to me that this actually is a horrifying trick and says something bad about me to begin with.


So, there I was -- dog, friends, me, narrow bric-a-brack shoppe. I swipe at the dog (she is not really cooperating as this is unfamiliar location) and my foot passes over her. And there I go, a-wobblying, teetering backwards and then down with a loud crash, sprawling into the bric-a-brac shelving and its many wonderous items.


So, there I lay for a moment trying not to move. I want to preserve any undamaged shop items (by laying on them longer?). At long last, my wife and friends retrieve me from my accidental lounging position.


The shop owner, a dear friend, peeked out from behind the counter to make sure I hadn't hurt myself then after my assurances I was OK, went back to her business. She was kind enough not to check on possible damages to her wares.


Amazingly, I destroyed no bric-a-brac How is this possible? I really crashed into the items. Fortunately, most of the wares were bottled in plastic containers. The one or two items that I could have smashed, I apparently didn't. The only thing damaged was my pride.