You Say It 39;s Your Birthday Beatles Gif

[Endike Baur]

The girl who is quite possibly the world's biggest Beatles fan just celebrated her eleventh birthday in a very Fab Four sort of way. This party has been a long time in the making. About six months ago, the idea of a Beatles birthday party popped into my head, and Hannah's reaction to my idea was a big smile, big eyes, and a big YES! Since then, she and I have been churning out ideas and writing them down on our master "BEATLES PARTY IDEAS" list. The goal was to make it fun and Beatles-ish without breaking the bank, and I think it was a success!

First, I incorporated as many Beatles songs as I could into the invitation, and printed them out myself. Brightly colored decorations were inspired by the Sgt. Pepper album, and I cut black cardstock records to hang from the ceiling, complete with the Apple Records label. We put up Hannah's Beatles posters, pulled out her postcards and vinyl albums, and printed and framed lesser known Beatles photos we found online. Hannah has the framed photos on her dresser now, so she can swoon over them whenever she pleases.

I made the big menu poster so the girls would see the connection between the Beatles songs and the food. Everything was relatively simple...just pizza and soda, chocolate dipped strawberries, a bowl of green apples to represent the Apple record label, Fudge Stripe cookies turned on their backs to resemble vinyl records, and Twinkie* yellow submarines decorated with Skittles and straws, and Swedish fish swimming about on the platter. The trickiest part was decorating these cupcakes with the Beatles' faces, but they turned out okay...? And of course we were blasting Beatles music all through dinner!

On to the activities! Hannah and I came up with a Beatles playlist and corresponding prizes for a game of "Name That Tune." We gave the girls a split second to hear each song and whoever named it first won the prize (although after two prizes they had to let the others have a go at winning). I was amazed at how quickly some of the girls named the songs...Hannah has trained her friends well! Here is our playlist and what we did for little prizes:

We had a few extra prizes left, so the girls played Hot Potato with Beatles music until all the prizes were gone. Other activities we considered doing was making cardboard guitars like these, or painting yellow submarines, however, we just didn't have time. Instead, the girls drummed, strummed and sang their little hearts out to Beatles Rock Band, and finished off the night by watching one of the funniest movies ever made, HELP. If you have never seen it, I HIGHLY recommend it.

For the party favors, I printed paper sacks with an image from HELP, and filled them with Beatles buttons, stickers, Penny Lane penny rolls (see below for free printable!), and "RINGo" Pops. Some other possible prizes and/or party favors would be these adorable music boxes. They really do make a great little gift for any Beatles fan.My girls are working on collecting all of the Beatles songs available. You could also do Beatles posters, magnets, or tote bags (all very inexpensive on Amazon.com). The list is endless, and it really just depends on your party budget. Another fun shopping site is fabfourstore.com.

For you! pennylanelabel (simply cut and tape around penny rolls) and beatlesjournalcover*Beatles pictogram can be found here.*Although Hostess Twinkies are no longer available, most grocery stores offer similar store brand versions.

This is how good the Beatles were: They took the words "You say it's your birthday. It's my birthday, too." and turned it into one of the most famous classic rock songs in history!! If any other band ever tried that, they'd be looking for a new record company...

My friends played this to me when I turned 18 a couple of months ago. I will never forget it.I'm having trouble discribing how much I like this song. I've sitten here at the keyboard for about ten minutes and the song is on it's fourth repeat. But I can't put my affection in words. It's a strange song, I mean. It's something about it that just makes me smile. I always get very happy when I listen to it.

Looking for screaming girls and editors for a dub of Keed Kat's Comic They Say it's Your Birthday. This comic, taking place in 1960s London, centers around John Lennon forgetting his best mate's, Paul McCartney, birthday and the repercussions that follow it. He is fearful for his life upon realizing that Paul found out and is looming it over his head.

You can find the original comic here -kat/gallery/47906435/the-beatles-comic?page=4

Audition Requirements
No peaking, please. Very low gain for the screams.

Your typical screaming banshee fans. They probably traveled far and wide to see the four lovable mop-tops and probably have an idea of who they want to marry and how they will do it.

Voice type: Mid-high teenage girl. London accent preferred.

References:

Your responsibility will be to add sfx from either an external library or your own to the comic. You are the last stop in production before it goes to having music added and is submitted for a final review. Please submit a sample of your work.

Hello all! Tomorrow, February 7, is the 50th anniversary of the Beatles arriving in the US for the first time (and it also happens to be Penny Lane Bloom's birthday). I wanted to do something special to commemorate this huge date in Beatles history, so I decided to do a giveaway. A massive giveaway! How does this look?

Winner must provide a US address. Yes, it's US only. Sorry about that, but it would take too much time and money to try to ship such a large package abroad. I need to finish The Lonely Hearts Club sequel instead of spending hours at the post office! (And I did just do an international giveaway on Facebook, so...)

Last night I watched Martin Scorsese's documentary "George Harrison: Living in a Material World." It was a three-and-a-half hour long intimate look at George's public and private life. It was personal, it was touching, and to put it simply, it was amazing. I highly recommend it to anybody who loves The Beatles (it's currently playing in repeats on HBO in the US).I mentioned briefly in my blog about seeing Sir Paul McCartney this summer that I have a very special place in my heart for George. I always hate when I'm asked who my favorite Beatles is because it really is a hard question to answer. I absolutely love Sir Paul, he can do no wrong in my eyes. His post-Beatles career has been filled with so many wonderful songs. I have nothing but the utmost respect for John Lennon, it is such a tragedy that he was taken away from us so early. And of course, Ringo has this charm and humor about him that he just makes you smile. And then there's George. Sweet, sweet, underrated George.

What it must've been like to be surrounded by the songwriting genius of Lennon/McCartney. How could you even compete? But then quiet George comes in and gives us such brilliant songs as "Taxman," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Here Comes the Sun," and, of course, "Something." As Sir Paul has recalled on more than one occasion, Frank Sinatra once said to him, "'Something' is my favorite Lennon/McCartney song." To which Sir Paul cheekily responded, "Mine too."

I burst into tears last night when "Something" came on. Every time I hear the song, I have (and I mean HAVE) to sing aloud loudly to my favorite part: "You're asking me will my love grow, I don't know... I don't know." This just gets me every time. Such passion, such honesty, such beauty... It is not only one of my favorite Beatles songs, it is one of my favorite songs, period.

When I was in grade school, George Harrison came out with a new album. I didn't know a lot about The Beatles back then, but I did like it when their music came on the oldies station my mom listened to. "I've Got My Mind Set On You" was the big hit from that album, but I remember loving the second single, "When We Was Fab," more. I guess it was the soon-to-be-realized Beatles fangirl inside of me getting ready to come out. Click here to see the video, which I love because it has Ringo, an homage to Sgt. Pepper's, a walrus, an apple, lots of Beatles references that I didn't "get" when I was little.

George was also extremely spiritual. He's responsible for bringing in the sitar and other eastern influences on the Beatles later albums. This also influenced his solo work. Probably George's best known solo song is the one that I'll leave you with, "My Sweet Lord." I'm happy that George is getting the recognition he deserves through this documentary. And hopefully, it'll make it harder in the future for a lot of people to answer the question, "Who's your favorite Beatle?"

Three years ago, I saw the greatest concert of my life: Sir Paul McCartney (read about that here). About two seconds after the concert ended, I thought, I must see him again. Then a couple months ago, I found out that not only was Sir Paul returning to NYC, he was going to be playing Yankee Stadium, on my birthday. I mean, can it get better than that? I think not.Tickets were secured, as was my partner-in-crime for the evening: fellow Beatles fan, YA author superstar, and fab friend Susane Colasanti. [Read Susane's blog about the concert here.]

JACKI LYDEN, HOST: And if you're just joining us, this is WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Jacki Lyden. And it's time now for music.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OH YOKO!")JOHN LENNON: (Singing) Oh, Yoko...LYDEN: Yoko Ono celebrates her birthday tomorrow. She'll be 80 years old. Yoko Ono and John Lennon had perhaps one of the most torrid love affairs in rock and roll history. Inseparable after Lennon dropped in on her conceptual art show in New York in 1968, the two would marry, have a son together and become cocreators in music, art and activism.Writer Jonathan Cott met them in the early days of the romance when he was working on a piece for Rolling Stone magazine. Lennon, 27, was in the middle of recording his new album with The Beatles, the "White Album." To Cott's astonishment, Lennon invited him to the Abbey Road sessions.JONATHAN COTT: Like as if he said to me, why don't you come along to the "Magical Mystery Tour" or something or go into the "Yellow Submarine" with him and The Beatles, you know? So I went up, and I walked in there and, you know, crossed that zebra pattern and...LYDEN: Crossed the zebra crossing in London.COTT: ...which was holy ground. And as soon as the other Beatles saw me, they just really cringed. They didn't care for this at all. They hadn't been informed that he's bringing someone. And I just hid behind one of the speakers, and I stayed there for a number of hours listening to them work on these two songs. One was "Helter Skelter"...(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HELTER SKELTER")THE BEATLES: (Singing) When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide. Where I stop and I turn and then I go for a ride till I get to the bottom and I see you again, yeah, yeah, yeah.COTT: ...which was Paul McCartney's song, which, really, is a proto-heavy metal song and very uncharacteristic of Paul McCartney - just totally insane-sounding, crazy, end-of-the-world thing. And then John Lennon was doing "Glass Onion"...(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GLASS ONION")BEATLES: (Singing) I told you about strawberry fields, you know the place where nothing is real. Well, here's another place you can go where everything flows.COTT: ...which was gentle and kind of stream-of-consciousness, Beatles mythology images of "Fool on the Hill" and "Lady Madonna" and "Strawberry Fields."(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HELTER SKELTER")BEATLES: (Singing) Do, do, don't you want me to love you?COTT: The heavy metal stuff was really, like, drove me out of my mind. They were repeating it over and over and editing and remixing and all that and rehearsing. And then the "Glass Onion" song came, and it was just so dreamy. So it was really like having the marriage of heaven and hell.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GLASS ONION")BEATLES: (Singing) Looking through the bent backed tulips to see how the other half lives, looking through a glass onion.LYDEN: Yoko Ono would change John Lennon's life. And in your book, he's talking to a friend, and he said, you know, the minute I met this woman, it was as if I had known her before in another lifetime. My life was complete. I want to spend every day of my life with her. You found that a very natural process between the two of them. What did John Lennon tell you?COTT: Well, you know, their first date, she went over to his home, and he had a music studio on the top floor. He said: Why don't we go up and make a recording, you know? So they went up at midnight, and they made this recording. It was kind of a John Cage-like sound montage. And he was playing piano, organ and percussion, and she was singing, and he was fooling around with sound effects like reverb and backward tapes and white noise and all that.And they played all night, and then they made love at dawn. And, you know, from that moment on, this was not going to be a one-night stand. This one-night stand lasted until 1973 when they separated for 18 months. And they were never out of each other's sights for all those years. You know, he had a line in one of his songs which go: When we're together or when we're apart, there's never a space in between the beat of our hearts. I mean, how romantic can you get?(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ONE DAY")YOKO ONO: (Singing) When we're together or when we're apart, there's never a space in between the beat of our hearts, 'cause I'm the apple and you're the tree.COTT: She was his soul guide and teacher, life teacher and best friend. Their relationship was really 50-50.LYDEN: In the book, Jonathan, you emphasized that she had a really positive influence on his personality despite this rupture in 1973. How would you say that was manifested?COTT: You know, when they were together - let me answer it this way, if it's all right - they were so attuned to each other as if they were finishing each other's sentences. Let me give you an example. She would write one of her songs: I said yes, I said yes, I prayed yes a thousand times yes.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A THOUSAND TIMES YES")ONO: (Singing) I said yes, I said yes, I said yes, I prayed a thousand times yes.COTT: And he would write: Yes is the answer and you know that for sure. Yes is surrender, you've got to let it go.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MIND GAMES")LENNON: (Singing) Yes is the answer and you know that for sure.COTT: Then she would say: Touch, touch, touch, just one touch, that's all I need - something like that - and he'd write a song which had the words: Touch is love, love is touch.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOVE")LENNON: (Singing) Love is touch, touch is love.COTT: And she'd have an instruction in her book "Grapefruit," which is a book of instruction poems and pieces, and she would say: Imagine the crowd stripping, and then he would write: Imagine there's no heaven.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IMAGINE")LENNON: (Singing) Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try.COTT: And they had this kind of a strange, symbiotic connection, if you see what I mean. They were just attuned to each other. I mean, John Lennon called their relationships two minds, one destiny.LYDEN: My guest is writer Jonathan Cott. His new book is called "Days That I'll Remember: Spending Time With John Lennon and Yoko Ono." You saw John Lennon just a few days before he was murdered. It had to be staggering to learn what had happened.COTT: For everybody. But I was there December 5, and I was there for nine hours at his home, and then into the recording studio where they were making Yoko Ono's record - very famous record, as it turned out - called "Walking On Thin Ice."(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WALKING ON THIN ICE")ONO: (Singing) Walking on thin ice, I'm paying the price.COTT: Two nights later, on the 8th, the night of December 8, he was actually carrying a cassette tape that contained the final mix for that song when he went home just before he was killed. So in fact, what's so fascinating to me is that their first date was their musical collaboration, and their last date, so to speak, was also a musical collaboration.And if I could just quote the last lines from "Walking On Thin Ice," they go: I may cry someday, but the tears will dry whichever way. And when our hearts return to ashes, it'll be just a story, it'll be just a story. Can you imagine writing that song, those lyrics and then what happened half hour later?LYDEN: It's just the most incredible foreshadowing.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WALKING ON THIN ICE")ONO: (Singing) I may cry someday, but the tears will dry whichever way.LYDEN: If you think about this extraordinary person who was only 40 years old when he died, of all the memories that you've amassed, you know, what stands out?COTT: Well, that's a really good question. The fact that he asked me to go to a Beatles recording session and had no qualms about doing it and just saying, come on, it's going to be okay. And that's what he also said to me when I sat down to do my first interview with him, because I was really nervous. And he said, there's nothing to be nervous about. Come on, you know, it's going be okay. And we're doing it together, and that's what really matters.LYDEN: And in your last interview, didn't he also say, you've got loads of time?COTT: Yeah. He said - I was saying: Oh, I just read the album, but I didn't have enough time to really listen to it deeply. And I don't know - then he just interrupted me. He said: Slow down. We got plenty of time, plenty of time.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BORROWED TIME")LENNON: (Singing) When I was younger living confusion and deep despair.LYDEN: That's writer Jonathan Cott. He's a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, and his new book is called "Days That I'll Remember: Spending Time With John Lennon and Yoko Ono," and it's out now. Jonathan Cott, thank you very much for being here and talking with us.COTT: And thank you. It really was nice to be here.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BORROWED TIME")LENNON: (Singing) Living on borrowed time without a thought for tomorrow. Living on borrowed time without a thought for tomorrow.

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