That's It, Just One Line: If 6 was 9

 "Cause I got my own world to live through and uh, and I ain't going to copy you."

LHOTR 2.0: Making a Build into a Home

Now that construction is underway and we can imagine it, time to start picking some things out. 

Blue chip is the siding, the copper is the roof, and the gray block is the deck. 

We chose a door... 

...and kitchen light fixtures! I got this for my birthday! 

Will joined us at Menard's to pick out kitchen cabinets and countertops. His verdict? He wanted it to feel warm. 

I think that all works together! 

We have a roof! 

Trying to pull all of it together. I'm thinking of getting a big presentation board with pins and arrows and things. 

The Fifth Beatle: Stu Sutcliffe

I'm giving love to the most tragic Beatle for my birthday. 

Who's the coolest Beatle? The one we never met. 

Beatle ghost.

Had Stuart Sutcliffe lived and stayed with the band, he would have been the oldest (beating Ringo out by a couple of weeks) and the only Scotsman. Arguably, the hottest as well.

But it was never really meant to be, as Stu was a visual artist at heart and went along with the others to Germany for the chance to escape Liverpool for a while, check out German art schools, and fall in love. 

Why wasn't this a Beatles album cover?!

Stu met John at the Liverpool College of Art, where they were both students; Stu helped John improve his portfolio and prepare for exams while doing work-study as a custodian. They soon became roommates. While hanging out at Mona Best's Casbah Club, he informed the band he had sold one of his works, Summer Painting, a big deal for a student at the time. John and Paul encouraged him to use the money to purchase a bass guitar and join the group in early 1960. 

Germany, in the clubs

Stu's time in the group was brief, but notable. His moment for their set during the Hamburg years was Elvis' Love Me Tender, and with the release of Anthology 1 in 1995, he is credited as a recording artist on songs Hallelujah I Love Her So, Cayenne, and You'll Be Mine. His most lasting contribution was renaming the Quarrymen: in homage to Buddy Holly and the Crickets, the band became The Silver Beetles, and finally The Beatles.  He quit in July 1961 after the band was deported, opting to stay in Germany with his fiancée, Astrid. 

Self-Portrait, 1959

His career as an artist spans the years 1957 to 1962. Labeled a "Beatnik Horror" in a Sunday newspaper article for The People, he studied at LCoA and earned a post-graduate scholarship to study at the Hamburg College of Art under Eduardo Paolozzi; he was considered an abstract expressionist. Some of his works include Hamburg, Hamburg No. 2, Self-Portrait, The Crucifixion, and Summer Painting. 

Stu died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 21 in 1962.

The Beatles included him on the cover of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band 

as member #35

LHOTR 2.0: I Get Knocked Down but I Get Up Again

We went up on August 2 to see the house before it was bulldozed. 

Time to let it and the novelty chain pull go.

Salvaging what we could. 

Dave the Builder helped by rescuing the windows to see if he could reuse them. 

That didn't take long.

Wow, it's gone.

We can rebuild the Little House on the River! 

Don't stop, keep it movin'; put your drinks up - we've got a floor! 

This already has me feeling so much better about everything. Within the framing, you can see where the big picture window will be, the center swing double doors, and the window over the kitchen sink. 

Now it's time to shop for the roof, deck, and siding. 

Lipstick on the Mic: Cindy and Kate, B-52s

Kate and Cindy around 2010

The B-52's classic lineup is Fred, Kate, Cindy, Keith, and Ricky, RIP. When it comes to the vocals, Fred is the comic relief, while Kate is the heart, and Cindy is the soul. 

Formed in 1976 while drinking Flaming Volcanoes at a house party, the band drew inspiration from 50s and 60s dance, party, and surf music; their look came straight from camp culture. 

I discovered the band in the early 80s, when they made a cameo appearance as the party band in a couple of episodes of the soap opera The Guiding Light, and because my cooler-than-cool cousin Denise had Whammy! in her cassette deck when she dropped us, her younger cousins, off at the pool. Of course, they were among the first artists featured on MTV, with videos for "Songs for a Future Generation" and "Legal Tender." 

Cosmic Thing broke them from the indie college party circuit to being, well, everywhere. Love Shack is a party standard played at any GenX event. 

Kate became the duet queen of alt-rock in the '80s and '90s, pairing up with Iggy Pop for the song Candy and four songs with REM, including the hit Shiny Happy People. 

Cindy semi-retired to have babies at this time. 

She came back for their late '90s pop culture surge: soundtrack for The Flintstones movie, tributes to Debbie Harry, an anniversary greatest hits release, and a parody turn with the song Glove Slap on The Simpsons. The final party continues with a long goodbye, light touring with Devo - including here in Grand Rapids next week - and a residency in Las Vegas.

B-52 essentials: 52 Girls, Dance this Mess Around, Rock Lobster, Planet Claire, Give Me Back My Man, Strobe Light, Quiche Lorraine, Queen of Las Vegas, Legal Tender, Song for a Future Generation, Love Shack, Good Stuff, Hot Pants, Debbie. 

YA Book Club: Forever

Doesn't that hit right on the nose?

This is probably the GOAT of all YA novels... the one where the protagonist, Katherine, loses her virginity to her first serious boyfriend, Michael, only to drift apart at the end. 

No one dies (edit: I forgot about grandpa!), although we do have the complexity of Arnie's depression. 

Katherine does not suffer the devastating consequences that were threatened to all of us terrified Catholic school girls if we were to fall from grace by having premarital sex. 

As a matter of fact, Katherine and Michael grow together and establish a healthy and intimate sex life. What's more, the pacing of Blume's book is such that the two develop a real relationship from their first encounter at a friend's house on New Year's Day until their breakup in August, just before they leave for their freshman year at college. 

I resembled THAT in 1989. I've said this about one or two of my former relationships: just because it didn't last doesn't mean it wasn't real. 

This book is on all sorts of banned book lists for everything from the sex to the casual drug use (they smoke some weed), the language, the suicidal ideation, and probably the fact that Katherine doesn't end up destitute and paying dearly for her actions.

We loved it. 

So scandalous was the content that the girls in my grade got their copies smuggled to them from their older sisters. If someone didn't have an older sister, someone passed the book in secret, right under Sister Gloria's nose. 

Raised on Country Sunshine: Friends in Low Places

Friends in low places

The fun in country music is the whole idea of letting loose and raisin' some hell, even if that means you are preparing your V-8 juice and elbow macaroni hangover cure the next morning and paying a $100 fine for having a nuisance party. 

True story. 

Lots of these are also just fun to sing along to with friends, preferably at a loud volume. I currently miss hearing these at the river: 

Dolly Parton, 9 to 5

Johnny Bush, Whiskey River

Oak Ridge Boys, Elvira

Linda Ronstadt, When Will I Be Loved 

The Eagles, Already Gone

Chris Stapleton, Tennessee Whiskey

Pistol Annies, Got My Name Changed Back

Bellamy Brothers, Let Your Love Flow

Charlie Daniels Band, The Devil Went Down to Georgia

Garth Brooks, Friends in Low Places

That's It, Just One Line: Atlantic City

 

"We're going out where the sands are turning to gold."

Such a sad song with some vivid imagery. 

The Fifth Beatle: Billy Preston

Frofabulous

Billy Preston is one of the very few musicians to be given credit on a Beatles recording, which was done at the band's request on the 1969 single Get Back.

He was a child prodigy, playing by ear without having ever taken a lesson. The people he has performed with are a who's who of music: playing piano for Mahalia Jackson at 10; performing with Fats Domino at the age of 11; and starring in a movie as a young W.C. Handy at 12. 

And that's just the 50s. 

In the 60s, he performed with Andre Crouch, went on tour with Little Richard, and is on Sam Cooke's Night Beat album. Later in the decade, he played with Jimi Hendrix and Ray Charles. 

Whew. 

After the Get Back sessions in 1969, Billy joined the Beatles once more, playing organ on Abbey Road's I Want You (She's So Heavy). 

Billy spent the 70s recording with his A-list friends and for himself, including the massive hit Nothing from Nothing, and finding time to write You Are So Beautiful with Joe Cocker. 

Dude was everywhere: he was even the first musical guest on Saturday Night Live in 1975. 

I entered the Preston fandom circle in 1979, the duet he did with Syreeta, With You I'm Born Again.

The 80s weren't kind; he got into some trouble with drugs and booze, but recovered to become one of Ringo's early All Starr Band members in the 90s. He was an in-demand session musician in the 00s for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Norah Jones, Johnny Cash, and the Funk Brothers. He even made an appearance on American Idol!

Billy battled personal demons throughout his life, and... can't we just let people be who they are? He remained firmly in the closet his whole life and died of kidney disease in 2006. 

Lipstick on the Mic: Madonna

Chilling with Madge 

With someone larger than life, how do you gain a new perspective? Take one slice and look at that.  

I often joked in the past that Madonna was the patron saint of repressed Catholic school girls everywhere. And like her, I'm a Michigan-born Catholic who had to deal with a stern father. I reacted to her self-confessional songs on True Blue and Like a Prayer exactly because of that. While she rebelled against the patriarchal rigidity of Catholicism and questioned its teachings, she still longed to embrace what the Church had to offer. 

And yet, by following the teachings of the Catholic church and marrying Sean Penn, she did not get that love and protection in return, as she confessed in Til Death Do Us Part. Family conflict in the song Oh Father. At the time Like a Prayer was released, I was with someone who wanted to wait until marriage to consummate our relationship. I was surprised to realize I didn't, ready to express myself with someone whom I trusted with my body, heart, and soul, feeling it was not a sin. 

Sexual freedom came late, but it still came for me in 1989. 

Madonna went on to explore other avenues in the 90s, playing a 40s-era baseball player, a dominatrix, Evita, and embracing new age electronica. She's recently released Confessions II, her most celebrated album in nearly 30 years. But it's still her self-confessional period of the late 80s and early 90s that I loved her best. 

Happy birthday.

YA Book Club: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

 

Another girl-bonding novel turned major motion picture. 

The bonds in the story are so strong that the actresses portraying Lena, Bridget, Tibby, and Carmen have their own group chat that has been going strong for nearly 20 years. (I'm still trying to figure out what Blake Lively did that cancel culture zeroed in on her. Maybe I'm not reading enough Entertainment Weekly. I do know that she wasn't invited to Taylor's wedding.)

In the story, the four girls have been friends for life, having been born within days of each other, their mothers meeting at a birthing class. Before going their separate ways for the summer, they went shopping and found The Pants, a pair of jeans that somehow fit all four of them perfectly, even though they are all different sizes and shapes. The novel tells the tale of their summer and how the pants tie it all together. 

Lena spends the summer in Greece with her grandparents and falls in love with Kostos, a neighbor boy who brings her out of her shell. 

Bridget goes to California for soccer camp, falls in love with, and aggressively pursues a coach. He rebuffs her, and Lena comes to her rescue. 

Carmen goes to North Carolina to stay with her divorced father and is shocked to see he is engaged, and she will have new step-siblings. Feeling like she's been replaced, she returns home, only to be encouraged to mend the rift and celebrate her family's expansion. 

Tibby, left behind in their hometown, befriends young Bailey, who frequents the drugstore where she works. Bailey has leukemia, and Tibby, an aspiring filmmaker, chronicles Bailey's spirit for life as her days are ebbing away. 

The jeans are the item drawing the stories together; each time they are worn, the girl discovers something new about themselves - be it love, courage, compassion, or healing. 

Raised on Country Sunshine: Kickin' It Old School

Ol' timey bluegrass

Another aspect of country music I appreciate is that it incorporates old traditionals that go further back into the 40s, 30s, 20s, and even back to the 1800s: 

Sons of the Pioneers, Cool Water

Jimmie Davis, You Are My Sunshine

Tony Joe White, Polk Salad Annie

Soggy Bottom Boys, Man of Constant Sorrow

Bill Monroe, Blue Moon of Kentucky

Hank Williams, Your Cheating Heart

Flatt and Scruggs, Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Patsy Montana, I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart

Jimmie Rogers, Blue Yodel No.1

The Carter Family, Can The Circle Be Unbroken

That's It, Just One Line: Rosalita

 "Rosalita, jump a little lighter, senorita, come sit by my fire." 

LHOTR 2.0: And the Walls Come Tumbling Down

 

D-day at the cottage

The cottage, as we know it, will cease to exist as of August 3. The insurance company has made an initial payout to us to cover personal property, which, instead of going toward buying new furniture, went to pay off the remediation company that tore the house up and made the decision that we had to tear it down. It's essentially $25K down the drain, or river. 

Fun memories part 1

When it's ok to watch TV at LHOTR

So what's a girl to do? Browse Facebook Marketplace for replacements at pennies on the dollar. All told, I've spent $50 on four bedside tables, four lamps, and the coffee table. 

Cool. Comes with a USB port to plug in your phone. 

The best things in life are free, and kind people even help you load them in your car. 

This, only in reverse. 

So what's it going to look like up there once the walls come down, other than a big hole?

We are going up in the air by about 4 feet. It may not feel significant, but there's peace of mind knowing we are protecting our asset. That means the crawl space will legit be a basement, although smaller than the typical basement. Dave the Builder is going to clean the space up, square it off with concrete, build up the foundation, and then apply a thick liner that will protect the space from future flooding. Our plan for the space is to have everything neatly stored in totes so that when it happens again, it's a matter of hauling the totes out and simply putting them on higher ground. That means snowmobile suits, the Christmas tree, even extra blankets, have their place. 

And, DtB is going to salvage what he can from the house, like the pine boards, so we can have an accent wall to remember the old place by. He's even going to try to salvage the windows, esp. the large picture window in the kitchen area. 

We are moving the entrance to the house to the east side, so we can build a wrap-around deck. The doors facing the river will be French or center swing. The great room will stay more or less the same in dimensions, but the kitchen is going on the east wall in an L shape, and the living room is going on the west wall. The bathroom will be in the center between the two bedrooms, where we will get closets that are easily accessible. And a laundry room! So little improvements all around, including a bathtub that isn't in the dark. 

Currently, 90% of the contents of the cottage are in the basement. Not knowing what the interior is going to look like, I'm going to say that honestly, only 60 - 75% of it will go back up north; some of it just won't have a home up there anymore. Due to mold and mildew, we already discarded some items like the plastic storage containers. Dave the Husband is already voicing his desire to restrict the amount of stuff that goes back into the cottage based on how much we had to haul out of there. I'm feeling defensive about some of it since he wanted me to discard my books, but I get his point. I was so adamant about tablecloths and napkins, but we didn't use them past the first year. I could cut back on my serving bowls and platters too. Maybe decide to go all new - or newish - on the pots and pans, get a nice set instead of the garage sale mishmash I currently have. 

I remember typing six years ago, "such a lovely problem to have." I'm not feeling those exact feelings this time. My old roommate Missy acknowledged the melancholy of the situation in saying, "You put a lot of love into that cottage," but acknowledged a new place wouldn't be so bad, maybe I won't have to work as hard this time. 

The Fifth Beatle: Klaus Voorman

Oh Klaus, you're so pretty

Imagine getting into a fight with your unrequited love and pissed off, you go out for a drink and discover the Beatles instead.  

Klaus with his Beatle art

Klaus Voorman was an art student who hung out with Astrid and their friend Jürgen Vollmer around the clubs in Hamburg and was into jazz and French existentialism, while sporting a distinct bohemian look. 

He was immediately entranced with the energy of the Beatles and, forgetting his fight with Astrid, insisted she come see the band herself. 

What Klaus lost in a girlfriend, he gained in artistic fellowship. Soon after the Beatles moved back to England, he followed and lived with George for a short time. 

He designed the album cover for Revolver - he won a Grammy for this - and the first run of the Anthology series. He even updated his Revolver style for George's hit single When We Was Fab in 1988. But why not Volume 4 in 2025, Apple Records!?

But he's about more than just art. Did you know he could play bass? 

He joined the band Manfred Mann and did session work individually for John, George, and Ringo. Not only that, he's played for Carly Simon, Lou Reed, and many others. 

He has semi-retired, putting away his bass, but continues to design and draw album covers, most recently for the band The Dirty Knobs. 

Lipstick on the Mic: Debora Iyall, Romeo Void

 

Native American punk poet. 

New wave lead singer and art teacher. 

Museum docent and animation voice actress.

Lifetime achievement award winner.

A girl in trouble may be a temporary thing, but an artist is forever. 

YA Book Club: The Pigman

 

The Misadventures of John and Lorraine

Two lonely kids - John and Lorraine - find a lonely man visiting the zoo while they are ditching school. They develop an unlikely friendship with Angelo Pignati, who is the title character, The Pigman. 

Lorraine is the product of a single-parent household, the daughter of a nurse who is perpetually angry and mean. She takes every opportunity to belittle her daughter, who, in John's point of view, is far more attractive than Lorraine realizes or her mom lets on. Her mother is also physically abusive, not above slapping her daughter to keep her in line. 

John's a mess too; he is also the product of abuse, a combination of verbal and neglect. His father is an alcoholic, and his mother has OCD,  more worried about a clean house than demonstrating kindness to her son. They prefer his older brother to him. 

The two find refuge with the Pigman, who indulges their whims, enjoys their company, and treats them with kindness and respect. They become increasingly protective of him after they discover that while he states his wife is away visiting her sister, she has, in fact, passed away. 

Of course, it goes haywire. 

There is an accident when the three spontaneously purchase roller skates, and the Pigman is hospitalized. Promising to take care of the house, John decides to throw a party instead, since he is never allowed to do this at home. Their friends take advantage, breaking, stealing, and destroying most of the contents of the house, including a raid on the deceased Mrs. Pignati's wardrobe. 

The Pigman comes home from the hospital early, and the kids are arrested. They go to apologize and make it up to him by taking him to the zoo. It is there that they discover his favorite animal, the gorilla, has passed away, and the Pigman dies of a broken heart. 

The story is told in alternating chapters from Lorraine's and John's points of view. The book, in their words, is their way of memorializing Mr. Pignati, and a way for them to sort their feelings about the incidents as they transpired, as well as a way for them to come to terms with the feelings they have for each other. While they do kiss and are inseparable, it is not determined if they are a couple by the end of the novel. 

Raised on Country Sunshine: Genre Bending

Play me some mountain music, Be-at-tle

Some songs on my list would make a redneck holler, "That's not country!" But when country music absorbs the spirit of gospel, soul, bluegrass, zydeco, folk, and rock, there's some bending of the rules. Did you know Elvis only played the Opry once, in 1954, and was told he was too rockabilly to return? 

Times have changed; even Ringo played the Opry in 2025. Onto our alternative list:

Indigo Girls, Closer to Fine

Little Feat, Dixie Chicken

The Beatles, I've Just Seen a Face

Everly Brothers, Close to You

Ray Charles, Georgia

Elvis Presley, That's All Right

Harry Choates, Jole Blon

Skeeter Davis, The End of the World

Bob Seger, Shame on the Moon

Lady Gaga, Joanne

Bruce Springsteen, Atlantic City

The Monkees, What Am I Doing Hanging 'Round?

That's It, Just One Line: Girls in Their Summer Clothes

 "Had a beautiful thing, maybe you just saved my life."

We are going to have a summer of Bruce!

The Fifth Beatle: Astrid Kirchherr

Beautiful and cool Astrid

Astrid was a photography student at Meisterschule für Mode, Textil, Grafik und Werbung in Hamburg when Klaus introduced her to the Beatles, who were playing at the Kaiserkeller. Kirchherr later said: "It was like a merry-go-round in my head, they looked absolutely astonishing... My whole life changed in a couple of minutes. All I wanted was to be with them and to know them."

It didn't take long for Astrid and Stuart Sutcliffe to become a couple and for Astrid's art school influence to impact the band. She asked to take publicity photos of them, and being dirt poor performers, they were happy to have professional shots to help them stand out in the crowd of bands on the scene. 

She gave them a look, style, and the Beatle haircuts. Her influence resulted in the look created on the album Meet the Beatles, handsome beatniks half-lit in black and white. 

Her style influenced great photographers of the next generation, including Annie Leibovitz and Richard Avedon. 

Astrid herself struggled after Stu's death in 1962, as people weren't as interested in her art as they were in her early photos of the Beatles. In an interesting twist of fate, she married drummer Gibson Kemp, who replaced Ringo Starr in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. 

She went on to have shows and exhibitions throughout the world, including Liverpool, London, and here in the States at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She died in 2020 at the age of 82. Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn praised her involvement with the band as "immeasurable" and credited her as an "intelligent, inspirational, innovative, daring, artistic, awake, aware, beautiful, smart, loving, and uplifting friend to many."