Leslie Gray Streeter

Pop Stuff: Beatles, Billy and CDPalooza!

First off: The winner of the Billy Preston lyric contest is Barbara Pritchard, who pondered Billy's own That's The Way God Planned It. Good for you Barbara! You get a free CD. Email me your contact info and it's on its way.

(Judge's note: My favorite submissions were actually the Prince song from Best Friend Nikki and the hilarious musings on George Michael's Freedom 90 by Twin Sister Lynne. However, as they are my best friend and my twin sister, they are denied, denied, denied. Deal with it.)

So much to write about, so little attention span! I've just returned from another wedding that is not my own, at a goat cheese dairy/bed and breakfast in North Carolina. The chickens walked brazenly through the outdoor ceremony and the wine and cheese flowed freely. Honestly, half the fun was imagining my aunts and grandmother in their good shoes and salon 'dos sitting still as a chicken clucked past their leather purse. These sistahs do not socialize with poultry, unless it's breaded, fried and served with cole slaw.

Anyway, the relaxing weekend put me in the right frame of mind to tackle something insurmountable - the towering behemoth of CDs that is currently cluttering my sad, sad desk. I get about 5-10 CDs a day, review maybe one or two in the paper a week, listen to three or four more for research for interviews, and write snippets on the blog about the rest. But this weekend, I was talking to some wedding guests about CDs I haven't yet heard that mock me in the shiny plastic-wrapped petulance from behind my tape dispenser.

This will not stand, man.

So here's the deal - every day, until they're down to a respectable pile, I will listen to as much of every CD currently on the desk, and write about the non-current ones I'm not reviewing, in this here blog space. I'm a little frightened, and if it gets too much I'm going to pretend I never said that. But starting later today, I'm gonna try to write about at least 2 CDs a day until they're all done.

Oh, my.

With a little help from my friends...: I interviewed Ringo Starr today, mostly using questions that you guys suggested. He was delightful, funny and receptive. There was a brief moment where it got a little chilly, because of a difficult question that one of you wrote. (Hint - it was the one about Pete Best.) But he got over it, and we parted friends, the kind of friends that speak over the phone for five minutes and never speak again.

I feel so close to him.