the musical fruit: movement #25.

the musical fruit: movement #25.
song: "all you need is love," the beatles
fruit: blackberries

due to the combo of the digital switchover & the death of my digital converter, my TV has been in non-functioning mode for a few weeks now, so i've been catching a bunch of my shows (heroes, glee, the daily show) via the interweb & with that comes the thrill of REPETITIVE PREROLL ADS! YAY! one ad i've been coming across at a disgustingly alarming rate is for blackberry. in it, we see a hip, twenty-something band (daytona lights) as they try to make it as rock stars, all while a cover of the beatles' "all you need is love" plays over the ad. guess what happens at the end. that's right. they totally make it. the tagline: "do what you love." the underlying message: "all you need is love...& a blackberry." there's nothing you can do that can't be done (without a blackberry). there's nothing you can sing that can't be sung (without a blackberry). it makes me want to punch a puppy. a nike revolution it is not. at least nike used the original song in their ad instead of some hipped-up cover, which is apparently not even by the band in the ad. i guess it's just another chapter (chapter 1, chapter 2) in a year of crass beatles' commercialism.

as for the original "all you need is love," it does not make me want to punch a puppy. in fact, my reaction is quite the opposite. the song was originally released as a single & then as part of their 1967 album the magical mystery tour, the album that came out in conjunction with the artsy beatles tv film of the same name. the song wasn't actually in the film, but when record execs wanted to release an album of songs in the film in the US, they didn't have enough material for a full record, so they added the song along with a bunch of other singles & B-sides. the band had first performed the song earlier in the year as part of our world (the first ever live, international satellite broadcast). they played it in a studio accompanied by an orchestra & a bunch of famous musicians (jagger, keith moon, etc) who sat on the floor watching & clapping & singing along. 400 million people all around the world were watching. it was 1967, the vietnam war was still raging & the simple message behind the song was absolutely undeniable. love is all you need. it sure as hell wasn't about selling handheld devices.

while i don't really need or want a handheld device, i did need & want a bunch of blackberries a few days back, so i headed on over to my local produce mart. will you take a look at that bowl? DAMN! SO good. they were about as fresh as you can get here in the city without picking them right off a bush. as a kid growing up in NH, we definitely did our fair share of berry picking, blackberries included, which made it easy to know that you were getting fresh, tasty ones. here in the city, you're often playing with fire. basically, if you're looking to munch on fresh blackberries, you have a short window of time before they become all mushy & disgusting. luckily, my purchased blackberries fell into the window of freshness, so i was able to fully enjoy them without worrying about them being nasty.

some folks can't stand blackberries because they have little seeds in them, but they don't bother me in the least. seriously, blackberries are awesome enough that you just need to suck it up & eat some seeds. i got a few seeds stuck in my teeth whilst eating them but when it boils down to it, they're full of antioxidants & vitamins & fiber & junk, so by eating 10-20 of them, i essentially counteracted all the shitty things i've put into my system over the past few days. did i mention that there's nothing you can do that can't be done (without blackberries)? it's true. i polished off that bowl pictured above & in the end, when i was done, i was able to perform multiple, non-witnessed, beatles-influenced cartwheels in my living room & ultimately realized that, in addition to needing the fruitiness of blackberries, all i need is love. now maybe if the two remaining beatles could use love to end all of the stupid wars that america's involved in, i could sleep easily at night & i wouldn't need fruity deliciousness (or a handheld device) to convince myself that everything's going to be ok. fuck iraq & afghanistan. there's nothing you can do that can't be done, including withdrawing from multiple unjust wars. love is all you need.