Shake it up, Baby

FABULOUS FILM: Last night we had the pleasure of seeing the "8 Days a Week" on its world premiere day. It was only showing at one theater in Seattle - fortunately, it happens to be about 6 minutes from our house. 

When we arrived at SIFF Cinema Uptown about 40 minutes before movie time, I thought we'd be the only ones there. Wrong! A long line of enthusiastic Beatles fans already filled the lobby, waiting for the theater's doors to open. 

The movie was marvelous. We laughed, we cried, we sang and clapped along with the music. The four lads from Liverpool were a phenomenon the likes of which the modern music world has not seen before or since, 
https://youtu.be/Mj0KLrrl2rs


I'll let CJ and Annabelle tell you a bit more about the movie. Annabelle's is up first:

8 Days a Week is a film about The Beatles, detailing their years as a touring band. It mostly talked about how The Beatles were feeling behind the scenes, such as, near the end of their touring, getting tired of the screaming and pushing going on in the stands, to the point where they couldn’t hear themselves play. Touring was actually very hard for The Beatles, with massive crowds and sometimes even mobs whenever they arrived. They were playing concerts all over the world, and it was extremely tiring. The purpose of the documentary was to show that even though they were popular, The Beatles were still real live people. I thought it was really interesting, and they even included a full restored version of their concert at Shea Stadium. It was super fun to go and I really recommend the movie!

And here is CJ's take:

Unless you've been living under a rock for more than half a century, you've probably heard of The Beatles. In the event that you haven't heard of them, The Beatles were a rock band from Liverpool, England, that, in the 1960s, became the best selling-band in the world, starting with the release of the hit "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in late 1963. For seven years, The Beatles would almost always have a significant position on the charts, almost a̲l̲w̲a̲y̲s̲ being in the top 10.


Recently, we just saw a lengthy documentary about the Beatles' touring years, from 1960-1966, known as "8 Days a Week". 8 Days a Week is named after the song by The Beatles which stayed at the top of the U.S. charts for 2 weeks in March of 1965. According to Variety.com, While hundreds of thousands of people saw The Beatles perform during Beatlemania’s peak, there are only four people who knew what it was like inside the bubble — The Beatles themselves. producer director Ron Howard sought to portray that experience in his documentary, “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years,” a massive research project that took its own long and winding road to get to movie screens on Sept. 16, one day before a streaming launch on Hulu.

The documentary itself features footage and images from countless sources, only some of which are listed in the film's credits. Considering most of the footage is ~50 years old, the quality of some of it is surprising. However, the transition from modern-day interview footage with subdued colors to classic footage with Technicolor (and vice-versa) can be a bit jarring. Although there was footage from several Beatles concerts from the '60s, there were only 2 that we saw a significant portion of. The first would be the Beatles' final public performance, which happened on top of an office building in London in 1969. 

This footage was played in the background of the credits. After the main film finished, we were shown a restoration of the Beatles' iconic 30-minute performance at Shea Stadium, New York City in 1965. Apparently, the audio was restored all the way back at Apple Corps, a corporation that the Beatles founded.
SOURCES:
http://variety.com/2016/film/news/eight-days-a-week-the-beatles-ron-howard-fan-footage-1201860892/

https://youtu.be/c8I9SAHxRpI

Lucky for us, a remastered 30-minute concert movie of The Beatles' 1965 appearance at Shea Stadium was part of the evening's entertainment. The crowd clapped at each song's conclusion, as if the Fab Four could somehow hear us.

If you get a chance to see the movie, do! : thebeatlesseightdaysaweek.com

CANNED: Today we finally got around to making some green salsa with the tomatillo bounty from our garden. This year's crop hasn't been the best, but I manged to make six tiny jars of the stuff. 

And can I just say there are few sounds more satisfying to my ears than hearing the 'pings' of the lids as the jars cool on the kitchen counter top.

BACK TO THE BALLPARK:  Today's Facebook flashback reminded me that six years ago today we were at Safeco Field. 

The caption for the photo above read, "Somehow, CJ and Annabelle manage to smile through this miserable season."

Creatures of habit that we are, we'll be back at the ballpark tonight. Happily, this go 'round, the Mariners are still in the hunt for a playoff appearance. #TruetotheBlue