It’s been a while since my last Cheap Fun Wines post, mainly because I hadn’t, until now, been able to beat any of the wines I wrote about previously (Menage A Trois, Earth Zin and Fire, Garnacha de Fuego). But recently I came across several that are worthy of consideration.

Having been to Napa, I know the difference between a bottle of wine that you store for years and save for a very special occasion, and a bottle you break out and have with pizza or burgers. This series highlights the everyday wines that may not impress your wine snob friend, but will probably please everyone else.

I saw Apothic Red at Global and picked up a bottle, since my wife and I have been enjoying red blends lately. In my opinion, you can’t go wrong with a California red blend, and this was no exception.

I knew it was a winner when I opened the bottle to wonderful smells of dark cherries, blackberries, and a hint of spice. Made by the Gallo family, this is a blend of 45% Syrah, 44% Zinfandel, 9% Merlot, and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon that comes from primarily Lodi, as well as Sonoma, and California’s Central Coast.

Often a wine of this price (around $10) will taste good at first but leave you with a strange aftertaste. Apothic finishes with a silky/velvety texture that lingers at the back of your throat in a very pleasant way. If you’re looking for a smooth, easy drinking, fruit-forward wine with hints of vanilla, this is one to try. Even Robert Parker of The Wine Advocate gave it an 87, calling it a “beauty (that) will provide enormous relief for weary, recession-challenged wine consumers.”

Break this bottle out at a party and I guarantee your friends will ask what it is, and how they can get a bottle for themselves.

–Brian

Every year we say the same thing around here: 12 months of activities, and only 3 months of summer to cram them all in!  That was never more true for me, personally, than last week.

Starry Night in the Garden was another fantastic success. Despite some concerns about the weather, the skies cleared and gave us a cool but dry night, and the artists didn’t disappoint. If you missed any of the performances, definitely check out our video recap and a whole bunch of pictures here.

It was a very diverse lineup this year, with Melanie Fiona kicking things off, just before her big European tour. Serena Ryder got warmed up for the Lilith Tour by playing a very intense acoustic set, and then we were able to celebrate Alex Band’s  CD release by presenting him with a cake on-stage, thanks to his fan club.

But Collective Soul was our headliner, and I mean no offense to any of our warm-up acts when I say they truly deserved to top the bill. Hit after hit after hit, with songs that I think sounded better acoustic than they do on record. If you ever get the chance to see Ed and Joel acoustic, do it without hesitation. A very appreciative crowd of 2500+ loved every minute, especially “Buffalo Barry,” who got up on stage and played guitar with the band.

So a fantastic night of food, wine, and music on Wednesday, followed by Thursday At The Square and Martin Sexton downtown.

Friday night, Heather and I were lucky enough to visit the Saturn Club for a wonderful dinner and dancing (Thanks Mike and Christa!) while we listened to music in the courtyard from the Mark Mazur and his Little Big Band.

Saturday night, the Hard Rock Summer Concert Series kicked off in Niagara Falls, and I was able to experience the Gord Downie phenomenon firsthand.

Gord’s normal job is lead singer of the fantastically popular Tragically Hip, but he hits the road now and then with The Country Miracles. When it was announced that he was headlining the first concert of the summer at the Hard Rock, I was wondering if his side project would draw – but as you can see, Old Falls Street was packed. We stuck around and saw fireworks after the show, since it was July 4th weekend.

South of town, the rest of the Star Crew spent the holiday weekend in Ellicottville for the Summer Festival of the Arts, enjoying Survivor and the BPO with fireworks on the slopes of Holiday Valley.

Sunday, we took the kids to see Toy Story 3, which was a fantastic movie, and we finished the weekend with our own city’s fireworks display at Outwater Park in Lockport.

Whew!

So yeah, Buffalo gets a bad rap for its Winters, but we more than make up for it with an incredible selection of summertime activities.

For example, this weekend: Taste Of Buffalo, Thursday At The Square, The English Beat at the Falls, Huey Lewis at the Casino, Vans Warped Tour…..

–Brian

Now that I have had a few hours to let the Lost series finale sink in, I’m torn. I feel uplifted, because ultimately it was a happy ending. But I also feel sad; that the series is over, certainly, but sadder still that so many questions about Island mythology will remain unanswered. More about that later.

(Spoiler alert…do not read further if you haven’t watched the finale yet…)

Emotionally, I thought the finale tied everything up in a neat bow. It was wonderful to see most everyone paired up with the ones they loved the most at the end. The Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle was finally resolved in a satisfying way, and Sawyer and Juliet finding each other again is what we all wanted to see. My wife and I shed a lot of happy tears throughout the 2.5 hour extravaganza.

It was also brilliant how the producers were able to explain Sideways World. For six seasons they have been denying that the Island has anything to do with Purgatory. Technically, that is true: the Island didn’t have anything to do with Purgatory. That Sideways World was, indeed, a Limbo/Purgatory was a brilliant way for them to hide a key plot point, in plain sight! A loophole, if you will.

I went into the finale thinking the writers were going to merge Sideways World and the Island with some sort of nifty physics explanation by Daniel Farraday which included a lot of math scribbled in his little notebook, and possibly featuring Desmond as the catalyst – but this worked a lot easier than that. It also allowed them to include some beautifully shot flashback moments between the characters that put a satisfying emotional finish to this very special series.

While I enjoyed seeing Sayid reunited with Shannon, it was also a bit puzzling, since he spent his entire life pining for Nadia. I had almost forgotten their island romance, to be honest. That Shannon is Sayid’s one true love, after having spent so little time together, seemed a bit contrived. But, it was a nice way to reunite her with the cast and bring her brother Boone back for the finale, so I guess that’s why it happened.

The classic good vs. evil, Jack vs. MIB/Locke battle wasn’t as momentous as I expected; no black smoke coming out of Locke’s body at the end, but it got us to where we wanted to go. And seeing the True Locke forgiving Ben on his way into the church at the end was a nice touch.

I read so many Facebook status updates last night quoting Miles: “I don’t believe in a lot of things, but I believe in duct tape.” And speaking of Miles, “Welcome to the club,” he said plucking a gray hair from the head of a startled Richard Alpert. Looks like Richard’s immortality died with Jacob.

As usual, lots of religious allusions. Kate’s comment to Desmond outside the church: “Christian Shephard? Really?” And Locke on Jacob’s choice of Jack: “I expected to be more surprised. You’re kind of the obvious choice, don’t you think?” Not to mention Jack dying from a stab wound in his side, and checking that wound, ala Doubting Thomas.

I truly loved that the series ended as it began six years ago, with Jack lying down at the edge of the beach, near the bamboo forest. It was also sweet that Vincent, the dog, lay down with him at the end so he wouldn’t be alone, and seeing the Ajira Airways plane leaving the island reflected in Jack’s eyes was a fitting, and poetic end. I commend Lost for going out in style.

Questions…Questions….Questions….But what about the Island? What the heck is really at the bottom of that Spring? Who put it there? Will we ever really know?

What is with the ancient Tunisia/Island connection?

The statue, the hieroglyphics; what about all that, Lost producers?

Why does poor Aaron have to spend eternity as a baby? Just sayin’…

The chalice of wine that Jacob drank from with his “mother” when he took over guardianship of the island involved some sort of ritual chant. Jacob also chanted something, although it was less involved, when he gave Jack the cup to drink. Poor Hurley drank muddy puddle water out of an old water bottle, no chanting, barely any ritual significance. But the implication in the finale’s church scene was that he had a long and successful Island stewardship with Ben as his #2. So….what was with all the chanting? Geez.

Where is Locke’s love connection? The poor guy “moves on” alone, with all the people who didn’t exactly make his time on the Island a totally pleasant experience. His revelation, the key life moment which brought back his Island knowledge, was seeing his toes wiggle. That seems a little unfinished to me, for such a key character in the series.

Perhaps, we will get some explanations this August. Entertainment Weekly says a complete series DVD set with close to 2 hours of additional material will address many Losties questions. That will drop Tuesday, August 24, so look for it then in a video store near you.

I’d love your comments, so feel free to post your thoughts. Did you love it? Hate it? Let me know!

–Brian

After watching last night’s Lost, my lingering fear that this series will end in a very unsatisfactory way came rushing back. When all the dust settles, and all the big explanations come down, are we going to be stuck with some kind of New Age spiritualism at the heart of this story? I hope not, since that hardly justifies six seasons of obsession!

Tuesday’s episode, “Across the Sea,” came a little too close to that for me. I half expected Aslan, or Yoda, to suddenly appear in the clearing, explaining a key plot point.

Building an episode this late in the year, this close to the finale, around the origins of Jacob and the Man In Black (MIB), was a very risky move, and one that I don’t think paid off, at least not for me. Couldn’t this storyline have been explained in a flashback during a previous episode? Why bench your entire cast after such an action-packed episode last week?

This was an uneven, overly emotional, rather violent, Oedipal mess of a story, in which the West Wing’s Allison Janney, CJ Cregg, plays a harried, robe-wearing mysterious long-ago island guardian who kills a shipwrecked woman to take possession of her babies, one named Jacob and the other, frustratingly left nameless. Doh!

Along the way, we got some of answers we’ve been clamoring for (below), but the resolutions dropped awkwardly, explaining bits of one mystery, only to unveil a new set of questions.

“Every question I answer will simply lead to another question,” Janney’s nameless mother figure says to Jacob and MIB’s birth mother Claudia. That’s a quote that might as well be the show’s unofficial motto.

Janney, hereafter to be referred to as CJ, sees average people as evil. So even though she (I think) drew Claudia to the island so Jacob and MIB could be candidates to replace her, she tries to keep the boys away from their human brethren, afraid they will be corrupted.

Eventually, we learn that CJ is protecting a hidden light in the island, the source of all that magnetic energy the Dharma people were chasing for so long. CJ says if that light, “the light which shines within all of us a little bit,” is allowed to go out, then it goes out everywhere.

That doesn’t sound good, does it? It also didn’t do much for the storyline! What struck me was how stilted and wooden the acting was during this episode. We have seen so much better through the course of this series!

I’m still frustrated by what we still don’t know:

On the bright side, we did get a few answers:

MIB apparently built the big “donkey wheel” which somehow taps into the “secret light/power,” and can move the island. That being said, how did MIB accomplish this, with only rudimentary bronze-age tools? The well in which he and his camp uncovered a shortcut to the “power” was even dug by hand! Somehow devising a machine he could stick into the light to move people and places around seems like quite a stretch to me.

MIB was turned into Smokey when Jacob pushed him into the light/pool. His corporeal body died, but his soul lives on as the Smoke Monster. Admittedly, the birth of Smokey was one of the cooler things I have seen in this series.

It also raised the question of Ben, Sayid, and Claire’s dunking in the temple pool: is the water in that pool connected in a lesser way to the “pool of light and goodness,” which could explain their slowly turning bad from the inside out?

CJ destroys MIB’s dream of leaving the island, burning down the village of the humans he’s spent 30 years living with, in order to push him into killing her, which releases her from guarding the light. But, how did CJ manage to overpower an entire camp of strapping young men?

MIB uses a dagger to kill his “mom,” after which CJ thanks him. This dagger appears later in the series timeline, presumably the one Ben uses to kill Jacob, and which Sayid unsuccessfully uses in an attempt to kill Locke/MIB. Is there a greater significance to this dagger?

“Every question I answer will simply lead to another question.”

Hmmmm. The most important question I am asking now is this: how in the heck can the producers end this show so that it won’t feel like a jarring mix of explosions and Chronicles of Narnia-like magical spirituality?

One more new episode before the two and a half hour finale. My doubt is growing by the minute.

–Brian

And then there was one.

American Idol’s fickle voters struck again Wednesday, sending home  Siobhan Magnus, despite a powerful performance Tuesday which impressed the judges mightily.

Her ejection also leaves just one woman standing — longtime favorite Crystal Bowersox, who again looked like she’d just been sucker punched as host Ryan Seacrest delivered the disappointing news to Magnus.  People have been telling me lately that Idol’s tween female audience is sinking the competition for all but the guys, and I’m beginning to agree. Crystal is the only female left!

Magnus’ ouster, after landing in the bottom three with Michael Lynche and Casey James, proved an almost anti-climactic end to yet-another overly padded results show.

With the field down to just six contestants, Idol producers did everything but light Ryan Seacrest on fire to eat up time, showing behind the scenes video from their latest Ford commercial, then showing the commercial itself, then airing behind the scenes video from the new Shrek movie, then showing footage of the contestants watching the Shrek movie and then proceeding to an uncomfortable live interview with Shrek co-stars Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas.

All that in the first 15 minutes or so.

The performances were equally odd, with Idol alum Carrie Underwood introducing the Sons of Sylvia, who looked a little like The Cure with a Nashville twang.

That oddity was surpassed only by Shakira’s duet with country pop rockers Rascal Flatts, a bizarro genre-blending moment which saw a barefoot Shakira jamming on the harmonica while Flatts frontman Gary LeVox tried desperately not to look like the odd man out he so clearly was.

Asked to give the Idols some advice by a desperately vamping Seacrest, Shakira quoted Theodore Roosevelt (?!): “Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground” — a historic line that sounded more like the legendary Casey Kasem’s classic sign off than our 26th president, but I digress.

And the clearest sign that Idol was straining to fill an hour; the show actually finished on schedule for the first time in weeks, as Seacrest led Magnus to hug all the judges and take some useless advice from Randy Jackson before finally wrapping up the sagging show.

Next week, Harry Connick Jr. mentors the Top 5 through a batch of Frank Sinatra covers. How Crystal does with that should be interesting!

–Brian

One of the Oscar nominated movies I actually watched this year was Up In The Air, one of the better George Clooney movies of recent years. The role of road-warrior Ryan Bingham was perfect for him, showing off a confident vulnerability that is his hallmark. I really enjoyed the storyline, as well as the two female leads, played by Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, both of whom were nominated for Oscars as well.

Up In The Air is one of those movies that sticks with you for weeks afterward. You wonder about the characters, and what happens to them after the credits fade. So I picked up Walter Kirn’s novel upon which the movie is based, and jumped into that world once again. But here’s the thing: the novel bears little resemblance to the movie. As a matter of fact, the book is a real drag.

I loved the movie because while Ryan’s existence is shallow and isolated, flying from place to place but not really connecting with anyone, he finds a sort of redemption in the end. He realizes that there’s more to life than isolation, that there is a place for people, and you do need more than what you can fit into your backpack.

In the movie, the two strong female characters, Alex Goran and Natalie Keener, bring a different perspective to Ryan’s life. He learns from them, but they in turn learn from him. Ryan is good at his job, and shows not only knowledge about the backgrounds and skills of those he counsels during job transition training, but also compassion for their situation.

Kirn’s book basically shows Ryan as not ever buying into what he does, and meeting and forgetting those he meets on the job almost immediately. There is a shocking revelation about why that is, which also doesn’t appear in the movie. I won’t spoil it for you, if you decide to read the book.

The movie also invents the character of Natalie Keener, and makes Alex Goran into someone completely different from the book.

So what do we have? A movie called Up In The Air, based on a book called Up In The Air, which aside from certain character names and similar minor plot points is a totally different story entirely.

I guess I never realized “adapted” could mean “invented!”

I know there are other books-turned-into-movies where this has happened. Perhaps money is at the heart of it; Walter Kirn could sue Jason Reitman for writing a screenplay loosely based on his book, even if the plot lines are completely different. This way, everyone is happy, Kirn sells more books, and gets to put George Clooney on the cover.

But I would wager those who saw the movie first and read the book later, like me, are much less satisfied than those who read the book first.

• Up In The Air – the movie: A
• Up In The Air – the book: C-

–Brian

Super Bowl XLIV split the country. A lot of people wanted to see the Saints win, for the city’s sake more than anything else, but just as many wanted Peyton Manning to be crowned one of the (if not THE) greatest quarterback ever with his second Super Bowl win.

A pick six and 31-17 loss put that on hold, for a while anyway.

And the other thing that split the country was the perception of the halftime show: was it good? Bad? Great? Everyone has a different opinion. I thought it was fitting that The Who performed on CBS, the network that features them so heavily during the intros to all those CSI shows.  As for their performance, here’s my two cents:

1) Very cool stage. It was very modern, visually arresting, yet retro with the circular shape hearkening back to the old 45 rpm singles that were popular when Pete and Roger were in their prime. I thought it was spot on.

2) I worried for Roger as he prepared for “the scream” during Won’t Get Fooled Again. He’s in his 60s, he looks very professorial now with his little round glasses and scarf, but it sounded cool. Not as cool as on the record, or on CSI, but cool.

3) Pete Townshend looked a little drunk, but he was having a good time on stage, and delivered with his guitar. His voice? Well…he wasn’t lead singer, so who cares?

4) That was Ringo Starr’s son Zak on drums. Considering original Who drummer Keith Moon gave him his first drum set many years ago, it was fitting that he plays with the band now.  Keith’s godson is as close to kin as we’ll get, and he gave a very flashy performance.

5) The crowd loved it. This was true arena rock, in an era that has basically forgotten what it was. It’s not supposed to sound exactly like the CD! That’s what happens when you don’t lip sync to a recorded track.

Sadly, this is probably the only exposure to “live” Who music many people watching this year’s Super Bowl have ever experienced. My perspective: they’re a lot older now, but the kids are still alright.

–Brian

The whole Conan/Leno Tonight Show fiasco makes the David Letterman escape to CBS back in ‘92 seem tame – and they made an HBO movie out of that whole story! One would think the once mighty NBC would have learned something from that experience, since most of the same players are still calling the shots at 30 Rock.

Nope.

Check out a truly bizarre animated cartoon explaining the so-called “Late Night Wars,” direct from Taiwan’s Apple Action News here.

Making them into Super Heroes was a nice touch, Apple Action News animators!

So Conan gets 7 months before being called an “astounding failure” by NBC exec Dick Ebersol. Seven months, which believe it or not isn’t the shortest tenure as host of the Tonight Show. (There were two hosts in 6 months between Steve Allen and Jack Paar back in the late 50s.)

Given Conan’s gargantuan #1 ratings in his final week, can you still honestly make that assessment Mr. Ebersol?

I was thinking about all this until the news from Haiti started to roll in last week. With 150,000 people dead, suddenly who hosts The Tonight Show ceases to even be interesting anymore.

And watching tonight’s Extreme Home Makeover, while I was choked up to see all the good that happened on Buffalo’s west side (Thanks ABC!), what was more amazing to me was how much that shipment of shoes meant to the children of Jamaica, in Delores Powell’s former home town.

$45 million dollars was what Conan O’Brien got just to walk away from NBC. That would buy a lot of shoes. It would pay for a lot of construction in Haiti, and New Orleans, and Mississippi.

Priorities.

–Brian

OK, one more. Here are my Top 5 Stupidest Statements of 2009. This is a purely subjective list, but I am sure you will agree, very little thought was given beforehand to what was being said.

5) “I’m gonna let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.”

Kanye West, after snatching Taylor Swift’s microphone at the MTV Video Music Awards and interrupting her acceptance speech for Best Female Video.

4) “You have a drink on you? You have a car?” Then his daughter said, “Daddy, it’s me — Tatum!”

Ryan O’Neal, American actor, trying to pick up an attractive woman at the funeral of his longtime partner, Farrah Fawcett.

3) “We need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, on the GOP’s need for a “hip-hop makeover,” whatever that means.

) “Yes, it’s Gordon…Gordon Ramsay, isn’t it?”

Paris Hilton, when asked at a UK press conference if she knew who the British prime minister was.

1) “I don’t know anything about cars.”

Edward Whitacre, Jr., the new CEO of bankrupt General Motors, summing up his knowledge about Detroit’s auto industry.

And, the Stupidest Statement Of The Decade Award, goes to Laren Caitlin Upton, Miss South Carolina Teen USA, who was asked in 2007 why a fifth of Americans cannot locate the US on a world map:

“I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, uh, people out there in our nation don’t have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South America and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the US should help the US, uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for us.”

Happy 2010 everybody!

–Brian

Halloween 2009 was a tremendous success. My kids loved their costumes this year – click for a slideshow. And man, what a haul of candy! So different than when I was a kid. My brothers and I used go out trick-or-treating for hours, and we’d come back with maybe half a bag full of candy. My kids, on the other hand, go out for half an hour, don’t even leave our street, and come back with more candy than they can carry. Good candy, too: Dove bars, Heath bars, Snickers, it’s unbelievable! Our neighbors are awesome.

Today, I can’t stop thinking about last night’s Mad Men. They say Matt Weiner tends to pack more into the the season’s penultimate episodes than the actual finales, and this year was no exception. From the Kennedy assassination and how it affected the country, to the secrets finally revealed in last week’s episode, there was a lot to take in. Each week, I rely on two resources that always help me to make sense of all the subtle detail. As much as I think I get all the nuance, reading Silkstone’s synopsis every week always proves me wrong:

http://www.open.salon.com/blog/silkstone

And it’s always a good idea to hear what the show’s creator has to say each week – here is the Inside Look Video from AMC.com:

–Brian

It’s that time of year again, and we had a heck of a time finding costumes to fit my son and daughter over the weekend. Connor is in one of those in-between sizes, where everything is either too long or too short; and Darcy is skinny, but very tall, so the pants were all too loose. BUT, I think we found two solutions. Halloween pictures forthcoming.

No offense to Trent Edwards, who my wife says is “dreamy,” but I would like to take another look at Ryan Fitzpatrick next week. I saw sparks of hope in last night’s ugly win.

And if you missed last night’s Mad Men, check out a nice “inside” look at the episode here.

–Brian

Because of all the murky weather, I spent most of the weekend playing Guitar Hero, and watching TV. Since talking about the Bills, or the Lions is too depressing, let’s instead discuss my favorite TV show, Mad Men.

I have been hearing from a lot of people today who didn’t like last night’s episode, because “nothing happened.” Last week, lots of action, a guy loses a foot in a drunken lawnmower accident, among other things; but if you’ve been watching the show from the beginning, you realize that “action” episodes are not the norm with Mad Men. It’s always a slow burn. I usually leave an episode wondering what is going on behind the scenes, what someone is really thinking, what we might not know about these characters, or even what an expression on someone’s face really signifies. In particular, Betty Draper’s face.

This is a masterfully written show, because nothing is a throw away. Things that happen may seem inconsequential at first, but they always seem to come back later. Something you may not even be paying attention to at the time – a news story on a TV in the background, for example – somehow relates to the theme of the show. I really wish it could be 2 hours every week. One always leaves me wanting more.

I had a few questions about deeper meanings in last night’s Episode 8, Souvenir, which is explained in the video recap below by the show’s brilliant creator, Matt Weiner.

As I watched Glee this week, it occurred to me yet again how powerful music can be. It moves us today just as it did thousands of years ago, as our ancestors gathered around a campfire singing songs of the hunt. Music has always evoked powerful feelings in us, and despite years of scientific study, researchers have yet to find a “music center” in the brain. They literally don’t know why music can give us goosebumps, or make us cry, it just does.

And hearing the kids in Glee sing Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ or Rihanna’s Take A Bow does give me goosebumps. Ultimately it’s not the story or the acting that makes the show so interesting, it’s the music.

Music is what brings people together in a bar to hear each other sing karaoke. There is a limit, of course, to how much bad karaoke one can tolerate, but more often than not my mind pays less attention to the semi-drunk person singing, and remembers instead the first time I heard that great song being sung. American Idol is like karaoke, with choreography. We clap when a performer is able to mimic the original version of a song we like; when they are able to bring something new, something of themselves to a song, we go out and buy their CD. But it’s the music that moves us.

It’s the reason I got into radio. When someone calls and asks me the name of a great song I just played, I know that in some small way, I become associated with that song. That’s a powerful thing.

And so, as William Shakespeare said, ‘If music be the food of love, play on.‘

–Brian

Although I wasn’t alive during the actual Beatles era, I grew up listening to them, since both my parents were fans. My first Beatles record was my dad’s old Parlophone 45 with 4 early tracks, including “Twist and Shout,” that I literally wore out. Too bad, because it would be worth at least $300 today, according to eBay!

Sorry about that, Dad.

So from an early age I have been listening to and enjoying the four lads from Liverpool, and never really outgrew their music. In 1987 when the Beatles catalog was released on CD, I liked it, but as with many early CDs back in those days the sound was a little iffy. Compared to cassette and scratchy vinyl it was quite good, everything on CD seemed like an improvement back then, but audiophile friends of mine have often commented about how something great was lost during the digital mastering process.

It was with great excitement that I heard the completely remastered Beatles catalog this week. It’s not for sale yet (not until 9/9/09 – true fans get the significance of that) but being in radio has its privileges. Let me just say that the music brought me to my knees.

I had never heard such clarity. As I listened, each album got successively better, and fuller, with a more clearly defined stereo space. By the time I listened to Abbey Road, I couldn’t distinguish the sound quality as less than anything done today. It was state of the art in 1969, and now, with today’s technology, it sounded as if I was listening to a live performance right there in the Abbey Road studios.

After listening to the CDs from beginning to end one night this week, I have compiled my Top 10 favorite Beatles tracks, in no particular order. This is a purely subjective list, based almost on which songs I haven’t over-listened to through the years, but which made the biggest impression on me after listening to the remasters.

1) A Day In The Life, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. So many things going on in this tune! I love Ringo’s drum fills, Paul’s middle eight, and the jarring orchestral crescendo leading up to that final note, held out for so long that a studio musician creaked his chair, causing the other musicians to “shoosh” him. Yes, now you can hear it on this track.

2) Here Comes The Sun, Abbey Road. I always loved this song on the radio, but I never noticed how full the synthesized backing track sounds, or the crisp hand claps, or the high frequency synth that kicks in near the end. This is much more than just a simple acoustic guitar and vocal.

3) Words Of Love, Beatles For Sale. Just a nice, tight, pop song with typical early 60s guitar work by George, and trademark polished Beatles harmonies. 2 minutes and 4 seconds!

4) I Am The Walrus, Magical Mystery Tour. Man, what a strange, trippy song. Now you can clearly hear John’s lyrics, which were hard to decipher before, and all the bizarre sound clips interwoven into the mix. Check it out in headphones for the full effect.

5) Come Together, Abbey Road. One of the best, well-crafted rock songs ever. John’s vocals are biting, Ringo’s drums are heavy and thumping, some gritty guitar work from John and George, there’s even a Billy Preston keyboard solo, but Paul’s prominent bass is what makes this song so cool, especially in the remix. He anticipates each note from John, and hits it just a half beat before, making the song slink from measure to measure. Aerosmith covered this tune, but couldn’t match its pure rock musicianship.

6) Mother Nature’s Son, The White Album. All of a sudden you can hear Paul tapping on a notepad, the brass section fading in from nothing, and subdued background vocals that were missing before.

7) Two Of Us, Let It Be. This song is on my list for purely sentimental reasons. When my son Connor was a toddler he and I would drive back from daycare every night, and often he’d want to hear this song, because Paul and John were singing “we’re going home” over and over. “We’re going home too, Daddy,” Connor would say. (Again, this is a purely Brian-centric list.)

Rain, Past Masters Disc 2. Ringo’s drumming on this track is so interesting. It’s more of a lead-drum, rather than the fills he normally played; front and center in this song with Paul’s bass, with John’s vocal in right channel, and harmony vocals on the left. A treat for the ears.

9) For You Blue, Let It Be. I love John Lennon’s slide guitar, in which he used a shotgun shell, interestingly enough. Again the stereo space is enhanced dramatically in the remaster.

10) You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Help! You can hear Bob Dylan’s influence on John’s writing at this point in his career, but it’s more his vocal that stands out to me. At times wistful, then growling and confident; it’s something Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder couldn’t duplicate in their recent cover of this song.

So there is my Top 10, a list which is subject to change at any moment. Whatever your list may be, I urge you to buy your favorite Beatles album on the 9th, and listen to it as it was meant to be heard. Just phenomenal.

–Brian