We finally had our first day with a high of 90 degrees. As someone who lives in a semi-tropical climate, I prefer Fahrenheit to Celsius: 30 degrees Celsius does not sound as hot as it gets in New Orleans. It’s where ice people go to melt.

Surrealism and the Beatles go together like peas and carrots hence the featured image by Rene Magritte. He’s my other go-to Surrealist. I hope Max Ernst doesn’t mind.

She Said She Said has an opening stanza worthy of Surrealist poet Paul Eluard:

 She said “I know what it’s like to be dead I know what it is to be sad.”
And she’s making me feel like I’ve never been born.

This week’s theme song is credited to Lennon and McCartney but it’s all John. Once again, it’s from 1966’s Revolver album, which has a suitably surreal cover by the German artist/bassist Klaus Voormann.

The session at which She Said She Said was recorded was a sign of trouble in Beatle World. Macca didn’t like the arrangement and didn’t play on the track. George Harrison played bass. Yeah, yeah, yeah or is that no, no, no?

We have three versions of She Said She Said for your listening pleasure: the Beatles original, Gov’t Mule, and The Black Keys:

Now that we all feel like we’ve never been born, let’s jump to the break.

Since Magritte’s The Therapist features a bird in a cage, another song from Revolver comes to mind.

Yo, Rene, a straw hat? Where’s the bowler? Did you lose it while walking the dog?

I recently describe myself as a snob. Dr. A had a clever retort: “How can you be a snob when you watch The Real Housewives of New Jersey?”

Good point, babe.

We begin our second act in earnest with a discussion of trash teevee, Bravo-style.

Brian Moylan On The Real Housewives: Brian Moylan is a witty writer who recaps several Real Housewives series for Vulture. He’s also the author of a brand new book on the franchise as well as the founder of the Real Housewives Institute whatever the hell that is.

Who better than Brian to construct a listicle of the top 100 moments in the franchise’s history? My fellow trash teevee devotees won’t be surprised to learn that this is the top of the pops:

Drama, thy name is Teresa Giudice.  As she flipped the table, she called her skeezy nemesis a “prostitution whore.” It’s redundant but somehow lyrical in a trashy Jersey sorta way.

I still have Jersey on my mind. That’s why The Smithereens get the last word of the segment:

Let’s cross the pond and check out a scandal enveloping the BBC.

The Shame Of The BBC: Martin Bashir’s 1996 interview with Princess Diana was a classic. It turns out that Bashir engaged in journalistic malpractice to get the scoop. There were intimations of this at the time but the shit recently hit the fan. The BBC’s John Ware has the grisly details.

The last word of our second act goes to The Kinks with a song inspired by Diana’s sister-in-law Princess Anne:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth: Speaking of trash teevee, I recently re-watched season 16 of Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites. It’s one of the better seasons of that reality show franchise. I watched it because one of the “favorites” Eliza Orlins is running for Manhattan District Attorney. She didn’t win Survivor and is unlikely to win her race but she’s a plucky and impressive person.

As I watched I realized that one of the “fans” bore a resemblance to Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees. Here are Robin and Survivor’s Chet side-by-side.

Chet Welch is from a small town in Pennsylvania, which was one of the 13 original states as was the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:

The movie list has requested the week off. It doesn’t believe we can top the Whit Bissell list. I concur.

Saturday GIF Horse: If you were expecting a Real Housewives GIF, you’ll be disappointed. I enjoy messing with my readers, so we have something completely different.

When I wrote about The Brothers Cuomo earlier this week, I searched in vain for a good GIF of Richard Conte in The Godfather. Instead, we have some mafia catblogging lagniappe and the Godfather of Soul doing the splits.

The last word of the segment goes to James Brown at Woodstock 99:

How was that for a superstar intro and entrance? JB was da man.

Let’s check in on Michael Imperioli and Steve Schrippa.

Talking Sopranos Moment: This clip features veteran actor Peter Riegert who played a corrupt politician on The Sopranos. Corruption in Jersey? Who knew?

Here’s Riegert discussing some highlights of his career as a character actor.

TCM Clip Of The Week: I picked The Killers as the number one movie on my Don Siegel list three weeks ago.  Here’s one of its stars, Clu Gulager, chatting with Eddie Mueller on Noir Alley.

You might remember Clu Gulager from season 3 of Project Greenlight. His son, John, won the directing contest and cast dear old dad in his movie, Feast.  It was a truly memorable season of reality teevee: John Gulager is a real piece of work.

Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.

Saturday Classic:  You’re probably expecting more Beatles in this space. I’m messing with you again and presenting the great Aimee Mann live in 1994 instead. You should’ve known that I’d mess with you…

That’s all for this week. Let’s bid a fond adieu to Beatles month and give the Fab Four the last word. Yeah, yeah, yeah.