Beatle Memorabilia

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only
publishers who think that people own it.”
John Lennon

John Lennon with his 1962 Gibson guitar.

Back in 1964 when The Beatles first were introduced to American’s by their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, I can remember my father’s comment:

“These guys won’t last a week. No one will remember them or their music.”

My father couldn’t have misspoken more about any one event. In fact, The Beatles appearance that night was so historic and unforgettable, most people still remember exactly where they were that night.

So when I heard that this weekend a guitar once owned by John Lennon sold for $2.41 million, it didn’t surprise me.

Lennon’s 1962 Gibson guitar was used on many of the Beatles’ early hits like Love Me Do, I Want to Hold Your Hand and She Loves You. It went missing in the UK in the early 60s and somehow found its way to San Diego.

In true Lennon style, half of the proceeds from the sale of the guitar will go toward the Spirit Foundation, a charitable organization that he and his widow, Yoko Ono, created.

It’s comforting to know that even after Lennon’s tragic death the passion and love continues for Beatle memorabilia.

Shine On

A First Novel

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“I had every detail clear in my mind about Gone With The Wind
before I sat down to the typewriter.”
Margaret Mitchell

A First Novel

She only had one book published while she was alive, but that work alone won her the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

She was born Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell on November 8, 1900 in Atlanta, Georgia and she wrote the bestselling novel, Gone with the Wind.

As most of us know, the novel was adapted into the iconic 1939 film starring Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara and Clark Gable as Rhett Butler.

Margaret Mitchell was an Atlanta housewife, a former newspaper woman, when she showed a suitcase full of manuscript to a talent scout for the Macmillan Company in 1935. The 1,037 page manuscript of the South made her an international writer.

The fame which came with her book brought her an estimated $1,000,000 in book royalties, movie payments and other allied returns in less than four years, but disrupted her way of living. She said one day, in a fit of exasperation as she left for a mountain hideaway from the throngs which besieged her by telephone, telegraph and in person, that she had determined never to write another word as long as she lived.

When asked about her ambitions at the height of the fame of Gone With the Wind she said that she hoped to put on weight, become “fat and amiable,” grow old gracefully.

Unfortunately, Mitchell would not grow old. At just 49 years of age, she was struck by a speeding automobile in Atlanta with her husband, John Marsh, while on her way to see the movie A Canterbury Tale on the evening of August 11, 1949. She died at Grady Hospital five days later without fully regaining consciousness.

In 1996, eighty years after it was written her romance novella, Lost Laysen, was published and became a New York Times Best Seller. The book was discovered after her boyfriend Henry Love Angel died in 1945 and years later his family came across some letters she had written to Henry. She wrote the book when she was just fifteen years old but it would become her second only book to be published.

Like most prolific writers, critics greeted Gone With The Wind not all in praise, although much of it was lavish. But, Miss Mitchell wrote a book which cannot be denied was the most phenomenal best seller ever written by an unknown author of a first novel.

Shine On

Greatest American President

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count.
It’s the life in your years.”
Abraham Lincoln

On this day in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States. He won the election over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency.

Although Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote, he defeated the three other candidates: Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, and Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, a U.S. senator for Illinois.

President Lincoln is best known for ending slavery. However, Lincoln’s service as president is also notable for the day of thanksgiving he proclaimed on the last Thursday of November 1864. America’s modern Thanksgiving holiday dates from that first national observation.

I believe President Lincoln will forever be remembered as one of the greatest American presidents.

Shine On

Gray Whales Return to Redondo

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope.
Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning:
we are all in the same boat.”
Jacques Yves Cousteau

Photo from our local paper.

For the past few days, my husband and I have watched as several Gray whales play in the waters off Redondo Beach.

First you see them leap out of the water extending their massive bodies into the air and then slamming back down on to the water which is known as breaching. A few seconds later, their distinctive V-shaped blow can be seen as they travel southward for their fall migration.

Gray whales make one of the longest migrations of any mammal on earth. Every year they swim more than 10,000 miles roundtrip, between nursery lagoons in Mexico to feeding grounds in the Arctic. This Southward migration is led by pregnant females in a hurry to reach the warm birthing and nursery lagoons in Mexico. The whales usually travel within 2 miles off shore and makes this one of the few whale migrations that can be seen from shore.

For me, this is such an astonishing sight to behold when the Gray whales return to Redondo.

Shine On

Rain Must Fall

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“Thy fate is the common fate of all;
Into each life some rain must fall.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Rain Must Fall

People associate the rain with tears, depression, and sadness. But, I like to associate the rain with a more positive feeling. Sort of like a good cleansing. After the rain, I feel great with the sunshine and rainbows that follow.

All good things usually have to end as well as do the bad things. We can’t avoid a little rain in our life without experiencing the sunshine.

It really comes down to your attitude and that you should always look for the silver lining. Just as there are areas of land with excess rain and droughts, there are also people who experience more or less down times.

That’s why I like Longfellow’s line from his poem, The Rainy Day:

Thy fate is the common fate of all;
Into each life some rain must fall.

Shine On