Give Him a Great Big Kiss by the Shangri-Las....TURN IT UP!!! :D

I Discovered.....

The Shangri-Las!!! THEY ARE AWESOME! :)

Hair by the Cowsills

HAIR!!!!

For my birthday I got tickets to the musical Hair in Denver for October. THE SEATS ARE RIGHT BEHIND THE ORCHESTRA! I am so excited. :) (Let the Sunshine In is my song. It popped into my beloved teacher, Mr. Staton's, head when I was wearing bell bottoms on a free dress day and he sang it in front of the whole class as I was giving them notes.)

Buddy Holly: That Makes it Tough RECORDED FROM HIS APARTMENT! SOUNDS AWESOME! :)

Rebel Without a Cause: "YOU'RE TEARING ME APART!..."

Crickets

This Christmas I received a Buddy Holly memorial collection that included 2 CDs (60 songs all together and some undubbed) along with a bunch of interesting liner notes to go with them. Today, I swear I heard the cricket in the background that was in Buddy's garage when he recorded songs with his band. His band was later called the Crickets. :)

The Best Music There Is

I find happiness in hearing oldies in unexpected places. :)

"Sunshine"

  The 60's are a very big influence on me. It's the Civil Rights Movement that got me into civil rights and made MLK and Mahatma Gandhi my heroes. It's the protest of Vietnam that opened my eyes to the horrors of war. It's the Beatles that made me crazed (Yep. I used to cry when I watched them on my Ed Sullivan DVDs) and made me want to delve deeper into the culture of their decade. It all started with a tie-die stroller......

  I was never always like this. In 6th grade our teacher played Revolution for us by the Beatles because we were learning about the French Revolution. I was hooked. I borrowed the cd that this song is on: "The Beatles: Past Masters Volume 1". I have been asked a few times what got me into the Beatles and I think that was it. I am known as the Beatles Fan at school. In junior high, kids would all robotically turn their heads to look at me at the same time whenever the shot of the Beatles would pop up in the intro of our videos.

  My clothes scream the voices of the decade. My whole closet is full of short dresses and two long, some new to look vintage and 1 actually vintage. I call the vintage one "60's Mainstream" because it is long with long sleeves. I have a pair of new-to-look-vintage patch work bell bottoms. They have a secret velcro pocket down where the leg flares out. I have real pink pearls that I got for my 16 birthday (I wear them with everything) and red, red lipstick (for special occasions). I know these last two parts are 50's, but I wanted to mention them anyways. :)

  It is unclear to me why I am this way. I guess we were all put on this earth to be a certain way and have a certain goal, so here I am. :) Maybe this was my past life. I don't know if that even exists. What I do know is that I was born in the wrong decade as my wonderful teacher Mr. Staton likes to point out. (I LOVE THAT GUY!)

  Here's a funny thing, I recently turned 16 and on my birthday I requested You're Sixteen by Johnny Burnette on my favorite radio station and SOMEBODY (wink, wink) did not believe I was 16! Truthfully, I still hardly believe it myself. They probably thought I was some crazy old lady thinking I was 16. :) (It is ok. I am not offended by this and I don't want you to be offended by this. Some how I saw this coming.) I like to think that I am their youngest listener.

Peace, Love, and Beatles!

Catelyn (Sunshine)

For Norma Jeane :)

Norma Jeane

   Sweet Norma Jeane Baker (Marilyn Monroe) is more than a sex symbol and IS NOT "a dumb blond". Behind her alluring appeal was a lonely girl yearning to be loved. She was the love child of a man who, even when she became famous, refused to have anything to do with her. He left when he found out she was going to be born.
   Her mother loved her and she tried her best as Norma later said. Her mother had nervous breakdowns and became institutionalized on the account of her daughter's father leaving.
Norma Jeane was put under the care of her mother's best friend until her mother's best friend got married and put her into an orphanage. Her guardian felt bad for putting her into an orphanage and sent her to live with this guardian's aunt. This aunt became an aunt to Norma and also a loving and inspiring person to her.
    As legal guardian, the best friend of Norma's mother, married her off at 16 to get rid of her. Norma Jeane was scared. She was very young and never thought about marriage. This marriage only lasted a few years (She also had two more marriages in the coming years that were short. One of which was to Joe DiMaggio, who was often jealous of how much her beauty was admired). Her husband didn't want her to be a model or an actress. She divorced him to pursue her dreams.
     Soon after this divorce came her career in modeling. Her picture on the cover a magazine was noticed and the word of her picture got to a talent agent which launched her acting career. Through 60 second appearances (even one of just her back) and lots of waiting and grooming to become an actress, she got her big break as the lead role in the Marx Brothers film, Love Happy.
     Over the course of her short life, she loved acting. She was eager to please and didn't want to let anybody down. She believed her fans really knew her and that she wouldn't have been popular without them.
  Despite all this love from her fans, she wanted to have a husband and a child and she hated living alone. She wanted also to be taken seriously. She was tired of playing the same dumb/ sexy character. In her last interview she begged the reporter to close it with her saying, "What I really want to say. That what the world needs is a real feeling of kinship. Everybody: stars, laborers, Negroes, Jews, Arabs. We are all brothers....Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe."...
The media was what created her as a sex symbol. They changed her hair and changed her name. The famous scene of her in her sleeveless white dress being billowed up was innocent and fun at first, but ended up being used as shallow entertainment for the men watching it and recording it. She disapproved of the shallow extra shots and hoped they wouldn't end up at a "private party" or in the movie for a whole family to see.
   Our lovely Norma Jean Baker died on August, 4th 1962 from an over dose of pills. The popular theory is that it was suicide. One particular man that I know of, one of her many photographers, George Barris, thinks she was murdered. He couldn't believe that she killed herself because she was happy with where she was in life and she was excited to finish the book she was making with him about her. Every time you happen to think of Marilyn, give her some lovin' and think of her seriously as a person and not a thing. That's what she wanted.

The sources I used was the book Marilyn by George Barris and the essay "marilyn monroe" by Gloria Steinem from the book called Legends by Anjelica Huston. The picture above was taken by George Barris.

My Prom Dress

My Transistor Radio: It Works INCREDIBLY! :D

Remember Him?

To Whoever Will Read This in Their Lives (Who I Preferablly Don't Know in Person)

cruisinoldies950.com or 950 AM (Denver)

I love this radio station very much. It plays 50's and 60's music. Oldies is my favorite music to listen to 24/7 and 365 days a year on my '65 Westinghouse transistor radio. They used to have reruns of Wolfman Jack's shows that I miss greatly and hope they will bring back. There is 95 min of commercial free music two times a day every week day, Beatles radio shows every Sunday from 9-ll PM, And All Elvis Hour on Sundays from 3-4 PM. Also, there is an All Request Hour from 12-1 PM every week day where you can request songs by calling 303-893-2950 or emailing the dj at bpress@cruisinoldies950.com.

The One and Only Video of Anne Frank

Joan Baez Singing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind"

Joan Baez

Last summer, I discovered Joan Baez. She was friends with Dr. King and she marched with him and she helped him protect the African American school children on their way to school in Grenada, Mississippi. When she was 17, she refused to leave her seat when there was an atomic bomb drill at her school. Joan knew that it was just government propoganda and the drills would never keep them safe. She inspires me because she believes in nonviolence and civil disobedience and she is the first singer that I can truly look up to because she refused drugs. :)

John Lennon: A Man Beyond Weirdness

Many people notice and even Beatles fans notice that John Lennon became seemingly "weird" in his later years. The fact is, he didn't care what people thought of him and didn't always think twice about things (a fellow fan once helped me understand), which turned out strange in the end. Beyond his "weirdness", he was a funny and witty man and he was also very thoughtful. These characteristics shine through in his books and quotes. In a poem from his book , In His Own Write, he says, "I was bored on the 9th of Octover 1940 when, I believe, the Nasties were still booming us led by Madalf Heatlump (who only had one). Anyway they didn't get me. I attended varicous schools in Liddypol. And still didn't pass--much to my Aunties supplies. As a member of the most publified Beatles (P, G, and R's) records might seem funnier to some of you than this book, but as far as I'm conceived this correction of short writty is the most wonderful of larf I've every ready."




"God help and breed you all."




He believed in God too which is a surprise to alot of people after the "rock is bigger than Jesus statement". In one of his quotes he explains how he doesn't just think of God as an old man in the sky, but lots of things. Lastly, I have created this post to give a better understanding of him to many people who don't understand.




I hope this helps,




C.B

The Jewish Song

My blog is mostly devoted to the 60's, but Anne Frank and the other Jews in hiding are very significant people to me. I wrote this poem for them after reading Anne's diary. It is called "The Jewish Song".

Every day we lived in fear.
Fear the Gestapo would find us here.
We dreamed some day the war would be over.
Our lives turned,
Our hearts burned.
Even if we made one sound,
we were camp bound.
Oh, how thankful we should be
That history does not always repeat itself

MLK's "I Have A Dream"

The "I Have A Dream" Speech Remembered

Take yourself back to August 28, of 1963. Over 200,000 people have marched with Dr. King in Washington. Everyone is hanging on to his every word. Even, at that very second, President Kennedy is watching too, with great wonder at this man. You can hear whisps of women's voices as they say "amen" and other things besides. Dr. King's voice is sonorous and booming and people clap and cheer. They believe in his words as they become more and more hopeful for the day of freedom...

Although this was a peaceful gathering, Washington was ready for the worst. At any time, if things became too radical, they could automatically shut off Dr. King's microphones. This speech is moving to me and it is one of the reasons why he has inspired me to become a civil rights activist. I, too, hang on to every word each time I listen. When he was writing this speech, people thought he was writing a poem because of the way he wrote it. One can only imagine what he went through to write this great work. When he was murdered and they looked at his heart, it looked like the heart of a 60 year old man because of all the tribulations and strife he went through to work for what he believed in. I hope this blog post will reach somebody out there and inspire them to become as moved by him as others are, with me included.

C.B.

On This Day in 1964...

The Civil Rights Act was passed after an 83 day filibuster in the Senate.
http://search.teach-nology.com/today/today2.pl