11 June 2011

LIFE // how the beatles manipulated my current personality

DRUGS. They mess with your head.
Consider this a sister story to How I Got Nommed By A Snake.

First, a bit of family history. My mother was an art student and painter, and did things like going to nuclear test sites and eating tofu in protest, and chaining herself to cattle grates (don't even ask about that one, I'm still confused), and herding sheep for Pauline Whitesinger.
My father has (at various points in his life) been in more rock bands than I can count, travelled around after the Grateful Dead in a hippie bus making tie-dyed t-shirts and friendship bracelets, kept various reptiles in his bedroom, and (at the time of meeting my mother) had hair down to his waist.

Yes. That is my family. Yay, mom and dad.

Well, when I was a small child, I was introduced to Yellow Submarine. If you are not familiar with this movie, is is by and about the Beatles and is the trippiest thing known to man. Seriously. There should be a disclaimer at the beginning saying "WARNING: This movie was made on LSD. Proceed with caution. Not advisable for small children, epileptics, or people with heart conditions, because it WILL give you seizures."

Naturally, I loved it.

It was my favorite movie. I watched it several times a week. This movie was possibly the most influential thing in my young life.

Want a clip? Want to see JUST HOW WEIRD this movie is? Here's a few for your enjoyment:







Or this one. This is a nice collection of clips from the movie.







I can only imagine what my parents were thinking when they introduced me to such an LSD-laden experience... Probably that it would make me an interesting person and keep me away from Barbie and Hannah Montana (they succeeded with Hannah Montana, but I did still have Barbies. They died interesting deaths... I was a strange child.)
in case you can't read my handwriting: on one side, it reads "what my parents probably expected would happen" and has the legend "yay happy hippy nature time". The other side says "what really happened" with the legend "vaguely hippy internet monster".


I showed a clip to my friend Anne and she looked at me like I was nuts. "Yeah, I grew up watching Disney Channel," she said. "This is, like, scarier than movies I watch now."


To date I have only ever met one other peson my age who watched Yellow Submarine as a child, and that is the wonderful Emily.

Now let me explain my thesis that Yellow Submarine shapes your personality.

I always thought the movie had made me weird. I knew it. But then I met Em. We have the same dress sense, we both like photography and fashion and vintage keys, we like the same music. We're so alike it's a bit scary (except that she doesn't like tomatoes, which I think is insane).

And then, a few weeks ago, I found out that she watched Yellow Submarine when she was young.

I uphold the claim that this movie will make you crazy, and strange, yet completely awesome if watched weekly at a young age.

Sidenote: Em just commented saying "you may be my twin. just a thought. :)" and rdfgkukjfs! I hadn't even thought of that. We could SO be twins. Separated at age, like, seven-ish and brainwashed so we wouldn't remember each other. HOLY CHEESECAKE, you guys! I mean, come on. We look alike. Sorta. Not really. But Shhhh! Stop crushing my dreams. 

not the most flattering pic of EITHER of us, but usually one of us is holding the camera so group shots are tricky.


I'm curious if any of you watched this lovechild of music and drugs as children. Pray tell if you did, and if so if it made you a raving lunatic a stunning person like me.

PS: Ke$ha references Yellow Submarine several times in the vid for Your Love is My Drug. I love her. And this video, between the trippy Beatles animation and the animals and all the feathers she's wearing, pretty much kills me with awesomeness.


PPS: BLOGGER WANTS TO STEAL OUR "EDIT HTML" BUTTON! Please sign this petition to prevent it.

24 comments:

  1. Wow, that is quite the movie. Love their clothes.:)
    I chewed one of my Barbies...It wasn't quite enough to kill her, but left her with many scares.:0

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  2. That is the weirdest thing I have ever seen. Like, whoa. That creeps me out. I was raised, sadly or not so sadly, on Barnie and Sesame Street. Yah. My parents weren't hippies, so I guess that's what I got. Anyways...I love your drawings. :) They make me want to go sketch. Oh, and Blogger cannot steal our Edit HTML button!!!

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  3. I haven't watched it, but I know I have to now! I'm weird already, so it may cook up a dangerous mixture XD

    And WHAHHHHHSDHFDLASHFHDSALFJEIwrelwjluajfdljsafoijLjlkjLJLFNDLJALSLJDLSAOIEWAJF?/1//DS
    SJDKID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    NO WAY!!!! THEY CAN'T DO THAT!

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  4. love the post! i heart the beatles too :)

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  5. crazy awesome :D

    and BLOGGERS GOING TO TAKE AWAY HTML?? nonononono, not on my watch!! >:O

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  6. hahahaha, this is too funny! yay for hippy parents, no? ;)

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  7. I watched that movie as a kid....

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  8. you may be my twin. just a thought. :)

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  9. The Beatles= best musicians ever. I've had a love for the Beatles for years, since I visited Abbey Road and the Beatles museum while living in England. My love for them intensified drastically at Christmas when my favorite cousin informed me that we're related to George.

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  10. I loveeeeeee The Beatles! I've got the t-shirt, I've got the Abbey Road Huge Poster on my wall, I've got the obsession. <3 The Beatles! <3 Hehe Without them, I just wouldn't be myself... I'm a country girl but I'm a hippie chick.

    And Ke$ha is awesome too! Haha I love her. Somedays I feel "Ke$ha like". Lol

    Thanks for posting! :)) You like made my day even better.

    -Rachel Lynn

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  11. Although my parents aren't fans of The Beatles... I don't have hippie parents. :( Oh well, they still love me. Haha

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  12. loved the post ❤
    i would literally die if they took away the option to edit html, thanks for letting us know!

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  13. i was raised on... nothing really. I just constantly played outside with my sisters. and this post was quite funny. :)

    and blogger BETTER not take away the html button... if they do I'll have a melt-down and start to cry

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  14. I WATCHED THIS WHEN I WAS LITTLE.
    Gah. greatest thing ever. i love Yellow Submarine.
    um yeah just so you don't think i'm a crazy stalker freak, my friend follows you on blogspot and she showed me your blog cuz it's awesome.
    well. yeah. okay bye.

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  15. No way blogger is taking away HTML. I signed the form.

    I guess you're kinda like me. Never went for Hannah Montana, and I bombed my barbies in the dollhouse. =P

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  16. Hey Ara...
    4 months ago, a girl named Emma deleted her blog... and she's back:)
    http://summergirl-ew.blogspot.com
    I would love it if you stopped by!
    -emma

    PS I love this post! I saw that movie in... 6th grade I think, it was veryyy creepy. ;)

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  17. Darn it, I didn't mean Ara, I meant Olivia... my bad!

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  18. I was raised on Trigonometry, High School Calculus, and Physics. I had Barbies, though. they where always superheroes. And my parents kept me of Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and fast food. To date the only Disney show I've seen is Mickey Mouse and I've only been to McDonald's twice.

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  19. Funny, funny! In place of this little film, I spent my time watching Plaza Sesamo- Sesame Street, in Spanish. I must admit that I'm very much in love with The Beatles, though :) Stay classy, and way to be one-of-a-kind (along with your cute little twin-friend).

    ♥florecity.blogspot.com

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  20. Still laughing about the Barbies thing :) Lol I used to try and blow mine up and one or three were stabbed :) And I DID watch that as a child! I'm a little wacky myself as well :) It convinced me that you can't break oddly shaped goldfish bowls ;) Loved it!

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  21. Hahaha, "interesting deaths"? I treated my Barbies as if they were my own children. xD Which, I guess, is just as weird in a different way. :P

    My parents... Well, my mom was always the weirdo. She said she never fit in at school, and she didn't like anything everyone else liked. My dad... let's just say my dad was a southern kid. Very. southern. kid. As in, trucker hats, playing in the dirt with his five siblings, and having a thick accent southern.
    ^-^

    I never watched Yellow Submarine(I was about to fall out of my chair watching those videos you posted... not sure if it was from laughter or I was having one of those seizures you were talking about lol), but I'm pretty sure my mom did. I grew up on Looney Toons, Spongebob and Star Wars... So... yeah still haven't figured out all that it's done to me yet. :D I'm a vintage loving, space cadet of a geek writer who's clumsy at all times... accept for when I'm performing (acting, dancing ect.). Like I said, I still don't get it. xD

    ~Autumn

    P.S Hannah Montana can go jump off a cliff for all I care... I'd be at the bottom with popcorn, lemonade and a lawn chair. xD

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  22. Hey Olivia, forgot to say you have an award over at my blog http://anautumnday.blogspot.com :)

    ~Autumn

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  23. Nope, never seen that movie when I was a kid. It sure sounds fun to have hippie parents. :)

    You and Emily really don't look alike. Buutttt, you do have similar personalities. You guys could be personality-twins instead. :P

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