Travel Turtle

(The link above is the Across the Universe of “All You Need is Love”.)

I recently watched Across the Universe and I love it. Jim Sturgess, you have a fan for life.

The movie came out a while ago, but I only watched it recently. I’m a Beatles fan and I worried that this movie was going to not live up to my expectations. My mother-in-law is a HUGE Beatles fan and somehow decided to watch it. When she gave me her recommendation, I decided to give it a go. My husband, who is not a big Beatles fan (kids rarely like the same kind of music as their parents, right?), watched it and though he didn’t admit to “lovin’ it” he did decide to play it again the following night.

I prefer the original Beatles versions for a lot of the songs, but I really didn’t mind the Across the Universe versions. I liked the way the songs in the movie really flowed with the story. Besides the characters all sharing the names in popular songs, it didn’t seem forced at all. The way the story was told it opened up the diversity of the band to me. It’s amazing how they really changed with the times. The 1960s was just such an amazing time in our history. I think one of the easiest ways to realize how much social change there was is by listening to how much the tone of the Beatles’ music changed as time went on.

After I watched the movie, I found the site Songfacts.com which has the history of the a lot of songs. I read some of the facts behind my favorite Beatles songs. It’s funny that they were able to sustain the band as long as they did because with almost every song there is a mention of how someone on the band didn’t like it, or didn’t agree with the way it was going, or walked out on the recording.

As I move forward with my love of all things Beatles, I’ve decided to create some Beatles-inspired art! (Pictures coming soon, first I have to make them.) I’ve also decided that I must make a trip to Liverpool (although, my husband wants to keep me away because of my love of British men). I was reading Tony Wheeler’s (co-founder of Lonely Planet) blog today and British National Trust offers tours of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s childhood homes! I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that my childhood home in Germany is very similar to John Lennon’s home.