Are You Ready For Some Beatles?

It's Beatles Season for us.... it's similar to the warm fuzzy feelings you get before Superbowl Sunday...choosing your favorite team t-shirt, watching pre-game and pre-commercial hype, anticipating the half-time production, THE FOOD, the drinks, the fellowship.  Springtime is when we pull out all of our Beatles CD's, t-shirts, hats, jewelry, books, pictures.... and prepare for Beatle fun at Abbey Road on the River in downtown Louisville, Kentucky.  This festival is pure, clean fun and 40,000 people attended last year, so you know it's gotta be a blast.

AROTR Beatles Fest is held every Memorial Weekend at the Belvedere Festival Park/Galt House Hotel, on the Ohio riverfront.
Check out the website for info:  http://www.abbeyroadontheriver.com/
The fest begins Thursday, May 24 and runs through Monday, May 28.
Tickets range from $30/day to $200 for the entire event which includes some VIP perks. 
21 & under - tickets are $10/day

Annie & Abby's Top 10 Reasons to go to Abbey Road on the River:

10.  Sliding down the golden staircase handrails at the Galt House Hotel (and other trouble we find, sometimes involving elevators)


9.  All of the dancing hippies

 

 

8. Regalo Gift Shop inside the Galt House House Hotel - which carries an awesome book called Recipe Records 

7.  The awesome food -- grilled corn on the cob dripping with butter. ..... mmmmm

 

6. Getting autographs from the awesome bands

5.  The awesome rooms in the Galt House

4.  The cool merchandise vendors - one booth has every Beatles item you can imagine...magnets, buttons, blankets, lunch boxes, potholders, shoestrings...you get the idea.....

3.  The bands. All of them.

2. Mr. Kite(Andy Forgie) and All You Need is Love


1.  The memories. Too many to list....but something like: room service...giant unknown shirt in Abby's bed....trashing our room like rock stars....the bubble girls....the uka-ladies.....the costume contest....karaoke with Mags & Laney....painting Laney's car.....creative cursing....we don't run over babies.....ordering food to go at the drive thru....Jimmy Poo....the Sun Kings....getting in the fountain....The Trouble With Boys...Band on the Run ...BritBeat...Gavin....Wingsbanned...Jukebox.....meeting Pete Best....Blue Meanies..."Mom this isn't a one-way" .... we hate the taxman.   ........Annie, Margaret, Abby and Lanea....

Lanea's Top 10 Reasons to go to AROTR:

10. The consistently beautiful, sunshiny days and clear, breezy nights on the Ohio River; watching tugboats & barges with your sweetheart, listening to bands play "Yellow Submarine" - However...you may encounter the occasional rainy British-like shower or the rare gutter gushing rains that make you really angry at first, but then you realize that you are just gonna be plain old wet like all the other schmoes there & then you kinda laugh about it....

9. The speakers & programs. Meet musicians, authors and other important music people such as Gretsch Guitars President Fred Gretsch III and Beatle author/expert Bruce Spizer - the programs are terrific and informative. 

8. Hearing Beatles songs that you rarely get to enjoy (LIVE...) .... ie:     I Will..... Savoy Truffle.. Two of Us.... It's All Too Much......For You Blue ..... Why Don't We Do It In The Road? ..... Her Majesty ..... Across the Universe .....

7. 45th Anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's release - concert performed by Abbey Road Live! Friday nite 9:15 pm-10:15 pm on the Lawn.


6.  BritBeat plays the 50th Anniversary Concert - Friday nite 10:30 p.m.-midnite - Lawn - this tribute band will celebrate 50 years ago when the Beatles made their first recordings.

 

5. Did I mention 50+ bands on 5 different stages for 5 amazing days??? Are you a John fan ? Then there are acts that play only John music. Are you a fan of the Sgt. Pepper look? There are bands that play in full Sgt. Pepper regalia. There are look alikes, kinda-sorta-look-alikes and absolutely no-look-alikes, male, female, Brazilian, Japanese, Puerto Rican, American, British, Scottish, German, single acts, full bands, sing alongs and sometimes comedians and dancers.....  Not to mention all of the colorful, friendly fans who are taking a break from the hassle of real life to transfer back to the time when The Beatles changed music.  The bands that recreate the music are fantastic and we have so many favorites; be sure you look at the website's schedule beforehand and study up on all of the shows & times.  (We are partial to Evansville/Southern Indiana band Blue Jay Way)

4. Thursday, May 24th - FREE SCREENING of The Beatles "Yellow Submarine" movie - on the lawn at the Galt House Hotel - begins at 8:30 --- Hello.....it's FREE....!!!!!!!

3. THE LOVE SHOW- Saturday (7 pm-9pm on the Lawn) - There is a fantastic production in Las Vegas - Cirque du Soleil's LOVE Show - it was George Harrison's original idea & Sir George Martin and his talented son Giles Martin expanded on the idea & created this masterpiece. Talented musicians at AROTR perform the soundtrack from the production and it is absolutely phenomenal. One of my most favorite shows ever.

2. The memories. This will be the 7th year Abby & I have attended together & each year has given us a memory we will always cherish. The first year Margaret, Annie, Abby & I went together, Mags brought along a blank journal with John Lennon on the cover - and we let the girls gather autographs from the always gracious performers. Every year we take the same book & fill it with more autographs, stickers & other memorabilia, also notes about funny laughs we had during the trip. It's a beautiful memory book.

And My #1 reason to go to AROTR:

1. " .......Sounds of laughter ...   shades of life are ringing
             Through my open ears inciting and inviting me.
             Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns,
            And calls me on and on across the universe......" (Lennon-McCartney)

Peace, Love & The Beatles....

Lanea Stagg

reciperecordsml@aol.com

P.S. Don't forget to you can ALWAYS purchase your copy of Recipe Records for only $19.95! Check it out at www.reciperecords.webs.com

But He Could Play the Guitar Just Like Ringing a Bell....

Many times since Margaret passed away I've thought about how all the pieces of our book fell together and the gratitude we had toward so many people throughout the process. For instance, my children had to endure listening to 100's of hours of conversation with Margaret, along with hours of my complaining about how no one in this world seems to do their job adequately...... There are so many friends and strangers who became new friends, that purchased our book and helped promote it; each and every book sale delighted us.  It's interesting that my husband, who is only an average music fan, offered terrific input on the book, specifically, creating the title. Margaret & I were struggling with a title for the book & had bland ideas along the lines of "Girls Rock in the Kitchen", etc..... but one evening I was sitting amidst a stack of papers & record albums & I asked Mike if he had any ideas and he casually blurted out "what about "Recipe Records" ... Margaret & I instantly loved it and considered him a super genius rock star for his random title born from thin air. It was also his idea to contact Charlie Daniels, who I had previously interviewed for a magazine article, to see if he would endorse our book. At the time I couldn't figure out how to give Charlie a "sample" of our book without sending less than 30 pages of material. And bless that man for reading it and giving us a great endorsement.

While trying to find another endorsement, Margaret called me one day & said we should contact St. Louis businessman Joe Edwards. Joe owns The Pageant, an outstanding concert venue in "The Loop" area of St. Louis, along with Blueberry Hill, a restaurant and club, the Pin-Up Bowl and the Moonrise Hotel.

Joe is not only an astute businessman, but he is gracious, respectful and generous. There aren't a lot of businessmen these days that can be named alongside all of those adjectives. We found his method of conducting business - by telephone and U.S. mail, to be refreshing and more meaningful than by using a computer. After imposing on Joe with our 30 page book "sample", we received a phone call, along with a letter  - a handwritten endorsement and a recipe to use in our follow-up book... Recipe Records, the 60's edition.   Months later, we sent him one of the first copies of the book, and Mags & I promptly received phone calls from him with his sincere compliments.  I'm going to write more later about Joe Edwards' outstanding businesses in the Loop area of St. Louis; I encourage you to visit this remarkable area.

About a year ago rock & roll legend Chuck Berry was playing at The Pageant to celebrate Joe Edwards'  10th anniversary of opening the venue. Mags and beau, Keith, bought tickets for the sold-out show. Prior to the show date, Mags called Joe and asked if we could give a copy of our book to Chuck and also see if Chuck would autograph our book as a keepsake. Joe called Mags back and explained to her that he could try.... (I remember this so vividly) Joe told Mags that Chuck was "cagy", or moody, unpredictable, and Joe basically gave Mags no hope to expect this minor miracle. Mags delivered books to Joe and attended the fantastic show and the very next day...received a phone call.  Joe had given the book to Chuck and Chuck not only totally dug Recipe Records - he autographed a book for each of us. A true keepsake indeed. You can only imagine the squeals we emitted over the telephone line.....

I wanted to share the story and thank Joe for all he did for Margaret and I and Recipe Records. Joe called me awhile back and he expressed his condolences to me and to Margaret's family. He said she was a fantastic girl. Yep... she was....

Lanea Stagg

Recipe Records

http://www.reciperecords.webs.com/

reciperecordsml@aol.com

Friendship, Fray & Foxy Shazamin'

I haven't written for awhile and a few things happened this past weekend  to drive me to take some action.

My 16 year-old son is totally smitten with his 1995 Jeep Wrangler...otherwise named by me as ... the Jeep Monster. Ethan has enjoyed the tropical spring weather this month so much that he took the doors off his ride and lets the wind beat him like a whip. He has tried to describe to me the love and respect that fellow Jeep owners have for each other and it always leaves me shaking my head. I am now totally convinced there are some pretty special Jeep owners out there after he told me what happened to him last week. At the high school my boys attend there is not a parking lot so the kids park on random residential side streets. Last Friday was a British-like rainy, yucky day & when Ethan made it out to his Jeep afterschool he saw a black trash bag lying on his driver's seat. He immediately rolled his eyes knowing that someone had pulled a prank on him and then he noticed a note on the trash bag which was neatly tucked around the seat to repel the drops of rain.  The handwritten note said .....

"Sorry if this made you mad, I just used to have a CJ-7 in high school.  A little old man used to cover my seats when it rained ...Don"

Ethan was pretty impressed by this good deed and I think this random act will cause him to do something thoughtful for someone else someday.  Until then he definitely thinks he has a Jeep blood-brother who's watching his back.  I think there are some pretty cool people out there.......

In my last blog post I mentioned taking my daughter Abby and Margaret's niece, Annie, to Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. I gave them a "lesson" on the shenanigans that took place in 1970, where four students were killed at a political demonstration against the Vietnam war. I was firm with them about the dangers of rallies & other nonsense that college students tend to get themselves mixed up in once they are out of the warm safety of homelife.This past weekend Abby was at Kent State University trying out for a hockey camp and on Sunday morning she sent me this text:

"There was a riot at kent state yesterday. I gotta see the SWAT team blocking the streets. PRETTY COOL"

What?? Imagine the range of emotions going through my mind as I tried to get in touch with her.  Turns out there was a big campus party on Saturday and things got "out of hand"...lots of beer bottles thrown around and police intervention.  Luckily it wasn't much more than that and now I'm certain that my kids really aren't listening to my advice.

 

 

After mentioning the Jeep friendship factor and the element of fray in Ohio, I decided to introduce to you my favorite band of the week, along with a delicious recipe to accompany it.

I've taken a fancy to a band out of Cincinnati, Ohio - Foxy Shazam. The band is made up of three fellows & one chick who play good ole rock & roll which I would describe as a mix of Queen and Led Zeppelin, with shreds of the Clash thrown in for good measure. Just plain, good rock & roll with some punk influence. Check them out - you won't regret it; I think they are a band who is heading for major stardom.  When I asked my friend Gail what kind of recipe I could come up with to label as "Foxy Shazams" - she suggested her recipe for "Hanky Pankies". And it couldn't be more perfect. Enjoy Gail's recipe while you jam out to my new fave band ... which by the way has a song that contains a mondegreen for me. I thought they were singing....  "that's the biggest black dress I've ever seen" - but they aren't saying dress....... My daughter even thinks I'm the blondest chick in Indiana.

 

 

Foxy Shazams (Hanky Pankies)

1 lb. Ground Beef

1 lb. Sausage (mild, Italian or hot)

1 tsp. Red Pepper Flakes

1/2 tsp. Garlic Salt

1/2 tsp. Oregano

1 lb. Velveeta cheese, cut into squares

2 Loaves Party Rye Bread

Brown both meats together, strain well.  Melt Velveeta in a large bowl in microwave, stir in red pepper, garlic salt and oregano; mix well.  Add meat to cheese mixture.  Place a teaspoon of mixture onto open face rye bread & put on cookie sheet. Heat under broiler in oven until toasted and serve.  May place on a cookie sheet & freeze; after frozen, place in a plastic bag. You may microwave a few at a time as a snack. Makes about 60  slices.

Please watch WNIN's public television "Action Auction" this week & support Public TV !

Remember Mom, your daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, etc., this Mother's Day - May 13! RECIPE RECORDS is now on sale at 25% off - or $15. Get your copy NOW at www.reciperecords.webs.com - or I have 'em in my car.

Peace & Rock & Roll!

Lanea Stagg

Recipe Records

www.reciperecords.webs.com

reciperecordsml@aol.com