a musing.

Okay, it’s a full-bore Beatles revival for Phil these days. Sure, it doesn’t take much for me to put on my favorite tracks — Come Together, Rain, Every Little Thing — on my iPod but this is ridiculous. 

For a one year anniversary gift for myself, I bought and downloaded Sgt. Pepper Live performed by Cheap Trick and the New York Philharmonic. It’s a lot more fun than it has a right to be. Robin Zander’s vocals are pitch perfect and eerily close to those of John Lennon’s and Bun E Carlos is one amazing drummer who sounds like he is having a ball with the rest of the band. 

Fast forward to this Tuesday when we’ll see the release of the Beatles version of Rock Band, the play-along video game. The animation of the Fab Four looks even better than Yellow Submarine and I love the details to Ringo’s pearl (or oyster?) finish drum kit and Paul’s Hohner bass. To be honest, Rock Band doesn’t do much for me — I want to learn how to PLAY the songs that I have been miming along to all these years.

On the same day, EMI is reissuing all of the old CDs in a new remastered form. I am so tempted to buy them even though I own and love them already. Kill me. Apparently the CDs, when they were released, were criticized for their poor mixing and transfers. Um, okay. I really can’t tell. But I might have to buy Sgt Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour and maybe Past Masters Volume I and II for those missing singles. Oh, and maybe I can get the White Album too just to hear the classic all spiffed up.

But wait, now it seems like I have to get the FRIGGIN’ mono versions, too. Thanks, New York Times Arts & Leisure section:

The Beatles and their producer, George Martin, considered the mono mixes definitive, and you don’t have to be a Beatles completist to see why. “She’s Leaving Home,” which drags sappily on the stereo “Sgt. Pepper,” is faster on the mono album, which also has a decidedly more psychedelic sounding “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” a punchier “Good Morning, Good Morning” and a sizzling reprise of the title song. “Magical Mystery Tour” is far more solid and detailed in mono, and the White Album is packed with details you don’t hear in the stereo mix. But by making them available only in a collectors’ box, EMI has made it impossible for many listeners to sample one or two.

Like I said: Kill me.

So, all of this happens on 09.09.09. Do you know what else happens on that day? Steve Jobs announces a new line of iPods in what will be his first return as a CEO of Apple and public spokesperson since he left for a few months due to illness. He loves The Beatles and when he demos a new iPod, there’s always a Beatles song playing. Coincidence?

I bet he also announces the new Beatles CDs will be available on iTunes. Just a hunch.  

What to read next? The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman? I really don’t know enough about WWI. Maybe Seize The Fire, a book about Lord Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar. Don’t know anything about that period except from the Aubrey-Maturin novels by Patrick O’Brien although I have seen Nelson’s Column in London. Nixon and Mao? Well, I have been on a Nixon kick, so maybe but not quite. Yesterday I took out Coolidge: An American Enigma from the library. Might be too … too … sexy. Not sure.

Okay, The Guns of August it is.

One meme you hear a lot these days but hasn’t been reported much is the notion that in the past people helped each other more. If there was a problem, we didn’t look to government, the thinking goes. Instead, neighbors looked out for one another, community members chipped in and friends solved problems for one another.

It’s a nice thought but like most bromides, it’s probably more myth than fact.

In a few of the town halls, one of the more troubling aspects that Obama and the Dems did not expect to appear is this very notion. Forget the guns that people are bringing to rallies, the Obama posters with the Hitler mustache or the red-faced shouters. There are plenty of people against Obama’s health reform plan who honestly believe that people should be able to look out for themselves and their neighbors. Government isn’t going to help. Instead of health insurance for one and all — yes, expensive and cumbersome and full of red tape — there are plenty of people who believe that all they have to do is look out for each other.

Sweet, but it won’t pay the mountain of medical bills. Let me give you an example: My father is fighting brain cancer and my mother recently received a bill for one month’s worth of chemo therapy and a couple of doctors visits. The damage was $40,000. That’s about two-fifths of my annual salary. Thank goodness my parents have Medicare and supplemental insurance.

Do they good people at the town halls really think they can pay that with bake sales, car washes and donation jars at cash registers inside local stores?

In 1992, I remember one speech by Ross Perot about not looking to government to help your neighbor. “If they were in a wheelchair, you got together to build a ramp tothe front door and not file for a building permit, he said to a hearty round of cheers. This was America at its big-hearted dense of self. Now a ramp made by neighbors with some donated lumber and nails is one thing, but what about the bills for the physical therapist? What about a new van for the disabled driver or follow-up surgeries to deal with infections and complications down the road? Perot did not have an applause line for that.

This big-hearted notion is nice and is very true — I have neighbors who would do almost anything for me but I know there’s a difference between baby-sitting at the last minute and paying for expensive life-saving procedures. Neighbors can only do so much.

After perusing my old web site, I found this 2007 tribute to my wife’s second cousin, a terrific lady from a different time.

In Passing: Marie O’Neill
We lost a neat woman the other day, just a special person. My wife’s second cousin Marie O’Neill passed away at the age of 85. Her health had been failing lately and she passed on earlier this month. We couldn’t attend the funeral service in Connecticut because of the bad weather. We will make time for a memorial service later on, however.

She was a great lady and I loved her laugh and her smile. She never married and I knew that she taught English in New Canaan, a leafy, well to do suburb in Connecticut. One of her students was Rick Moody, the short story writer and novelist who wrote The Ice Storm. At the premiere of the movie, he was asked about his influences. Instead of saying the usual suspects like John Cheever or Updike, he mentioned his eighth grade English teacher and how she made an impact on him.

Here is Marie’s obituary. I knew she was a WAV in WWII but not that she was a Lieutenant Commander or that she had taught in Europe. I did know that she loved to ride around the country to visit family and friends. She hated Republicans with a passion and once wanted to know what the hell a refrigerator magnet of Richard Nixon was doing on my fridge. (It was a gift from a friend — a close-up of Dick at his sweatiest).

I loved how she once brought her Corolla into a Toyota dealership for an oil change and walked into the showroom. After talking to the salesman, she decided it was time to buy a new car. She had more miles to travel.

Here is her obituary. We miss you, Marie.

Marie Helen O’Neill, age 85, passed away Friday, March 9, 2007, at the Villas of St. Therese, in Columbus, Oh. She was born in New Haven, Conn. on July 14, 1921. Marie received her B.A. Degree in English from Albertus Magnus College in 1942, and earned her M.A. Degree in Education from Columbia University in 1955.

She served in the U.S. Navy as a Lt. Commander in the Communications Office of the Eastern Sea Frontier during WWII, which included the mapping of ship movements in the Atlantic during the war. After retiring from active service, she began and enjoyed a long fulfilling career as an elementary school teacher in Europe, and New Canaan, Conn., where she helped to shape the lives of countless children.

Marie’s many travels throughout the world helped to enrich her love of nature, and the protection of the environment, which led to long associations with the National Audubon Society, and other Preservation groups. Her other favorite hobbies included attending museums, musical concerts, and other cultural and social events of all kinds. As an avid reader, she was versed in a variety of subjects, and loved to discuss and debate the current issues across the Political landscape. She was also an active volunteer to causes that helped the less fortunate. Marie will always be remembered for her unique sense of humor, and her adventuresome spirit will be greatly missed by her immediate family, and all who knew her and loved her.

Marie was preceded in death by her parents John and Mary O’Neill of New Haven, Conn., her brother John J. O’Neill, Jr. and her brother-in-law John S. Bird. Marie is survived by her sister, Eileen Bird of Ohio (John); sister-in-law, Jessie O’Neill of Washington, D.C. (John). Marie is also survived by nieces and nephews, Mary Diamond (Bruce), John O’Neill Jr. (Martha), John Bird Jr., David Bird (Jeanette), Barbara Douglas (Brad), Kathy Cox (Michael) and Stephen O’Neill (Karen). She is also survived by great-nieces and nephews, Martha, Jessie and John Diamond, Carleigh, Madeline and John Douglas, Jack and Sam O’Neill, Benjamin O’Neill, Morgan Vickers, David Bird, Michael, Katie, Rachel, Matthew and Sean Cox and Anna Bird. Funeral from SISK BROTHERS FUNERAL HOME, 3105 Whitney Ave., Hamden, Conn., Saturday at 9 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial at 9:30 a.m. in St. Aedan Church, Fountain St., New Haven. Burial will follow in St. Lawrence Cemetery. Visitation will be Saturday from 8:15-9 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, contributions to the National Audubon Society or the Villas at St. Therese, 25 Noe-Bixby Dr., Columbus, Oh. 43213.

I just finished Christpher Buckley’s Losing Mum and Pup, his memoir of his parent’s final days. It’s a wonderful book - not a Mommie Dearest piece of work, just pages filled with a lot of affection. Buckley seems aware that he had an extraordinary life and his complaints about his parents are mild and tempered. Although he tells his mother that he forgives her on her death bed and his father inspired a ton of exasperation, he knows that he was loved and he returned the favor in this book.

It’s odd to read about a son preparing for his father’s death and burial. My father is fighting a serious and scarily efficient brain tumor and although the doctors have not told us to give up hope, they do emphasize the word “aggressive” when we visit. His memory is shot - he can’t remember what he had for breakfast or follow the plot of a 30-minute sitcom. For a man who once had all the answers at his fingertips, watching him try to answer a simple question is a painful reminder of what is being lost.

What, no blogging? What have you been doing - Tweeting your life away?

Well, yes. I am loving tweeting at @philalbinus quite a bit and writing something longer than 140 characters seems like a lot of work. Who knew? Also, I wrote four editor’s letters for the June issues of Waters and Waters: Power and I guess I am tapped out.

With that in mind, let’s recap, shall we?

The wife and I saw Gran Torino and Doubt on DVD. GT was nicely done and Clint Eastwood could teach Tony Scott a thing or two about not moving a camera or making a jump cut. I also liked Clint’s thoughts on manhood - you don’t see that much these days. Doubt was an actor’s ream. Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman were terrific but the shy and innocent Amy Adams grows the most in this film. She learns more than she ever wanted in the course of the two weeks in which this film takes place. And Meryl Streep is awesome - most actors do regional accents while hers goes down to the street level.

Nora and I saw Up, the latest Pixar flick. Not as jaw dropping as The Incredibles or Finding Nemo or as magnificent as Wall*E but it has one of the best sequences without any dialogue I have ever seen. 

Just finished Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard. Now on deck, I have 1960, a book about the presidential race between JFK, LBJ and Nixon. I wonder who wins - don’t spoil it for me. I also have the latest collection of short stories from John Updike. I refuse to say last because I bet there will be collections and unpublished stories for years to come. 

Life is good.