Post 2 ... How Do You Do It

I have been thinking about this a lot since the idea came to me,
and I thought I should lay down some ground rules for myself:

1. Thou shalt listen to The Beatles at all times thou has
   control over music selection. (Which should be all the time, if I had things my way.)
   
2. Thou shalt listen to The Beatles while doing other tasks that
   don’t require sound. Examples: working, driving, eating, exercising, watching
   sports, video games, blogging, reading.
3. Thou shalt be afforded reprieve for concert attendance. (Whew ... I am seeing Sufjan Stevens twice this month.)
   
4. Thou shalt be afforded reprieve if in others' vehicles, homes, and at clubs,
   but must ask them to indulge thou. (I guess I will be giving a lot of money to the jukeboxes of Columbus.)
5. Thou shalt be afforded TV and movies in moderation.
   
6. Thou shalt attempt to watch all of The Beatles movies. (I think I have procured them all.)
   
7. Thou shalt attempt to read The Beatles Anthology. (That's a huge book, I mean it probably weighs ten pounds.)
   
8. Thou shalt update thou's blog at least once a day.
   
9. Thou shalt purchase The Beatles: Rock Band. (Man, sometimes i just love the law.)
10. Thou shalt be honest and forthcoming with any revelations.
    

Post 1 ... What you’re doing.

I decided last week on a whim to listen to nothing but The Beatles for the entire month of September. Why did this idea pop into my head? I have no idea. But after the idea first burst through my synapses, I have been able to develop the following list of potential justifications for doing this:

1. I am a bit of a music snob, to a level of severe pretentiousness; I am always saying I like "good music” as a way to prove my musical arguments. I use the concept of "good music"--a quite non-descript and open-ended idea--to put forward my level of music snobbery. An uneducated (as I am not a classically trained in any aspect of music theory or history), unapologetic, unwavering, and unabashed opinion that comes purely from what I feel consists of "good music." Not to say that I am out there on a limb by myself; I find myself generally on the same side as most music mags and blogs on what is and isn’t “good." So in an effort to better myself as a person, this seems like a great place to start becoming more knowledgeable and to replace my ignorance with facts.
2. My knowledge of all things The Beatles is very low. For a band I consider to be the greatest that ever stepped foot onto any stage, I don't know much about the intricate details on who wrote what songs, what back stories existed behind the albums, and what was going on for the four lads from Liverpool when they were making the music I have come to love.
3. While I am a huge fan of their later albums, I know that I have not heard all of the music that they made. So I guess I am “Fixing a Hole.” (Sorry, you might have to get used to this kind of punniness if you are going to read this blog.)
4. I think there is more to music than it being simply a form of entertainment. It is for me very spiritual, even if the words are not in your language; it speaks to all who listen in some way or other. I am sort of considering this experiment the musical equivalent of a fast. Instead of eating bread and water purely for sustenance, I am limiting my diet to something very pure and cleansing: The Beatles.
5. I think of myself as a song writer--maybe not a very good one, but I do write them--and if one plans to try to learn to be a better at a craft, they might as well get the best teacher they can find. And according to most music publications (Rolling Stone: four of the top ten albums of all time, best artist of all time; Spin: best band of all time; Time: five of the best one hundred albums of all time; etc.) there isn’t a greater teacher to have.