Name: EasternBird (sorry, that's as specific as I get!)

E-mail: easternbird@beatlemail.com

AOL Instant Messenger: EasternBird78

Age: 23

Location: Florida

Occupation: Graduate student (in other words, I'm stalling before I go out into the working world!)

Status: Single. ;-)

Favorite Beatle: George. George has been my favorite ever since I was little. It was originally going to be Paul (because I thought he was the cutest), but Paul was my sister's favorite and I wanted to be different. Luckily, I think I made the right choice after all!

Favorite Beatles song: It changes constantly (doesn't everybody's?), but the one that I probably love the most is "Let It Be." There's just so many things I love about it - the piano intro, the guitar solo, that soothing melody and great lyrics. It will always be one of my favorites.

Favorite Beatles album: "Revolver." There isn't one particular song that makes it my favorite - I just love the sheer variety and creativity of this album. Each track is so different and innovative. And that album cover is so freaking cool!

How I became a Beatlemaniac: It's all my older sister's fault! We shared the same room, and at some point in the mid-1980s she became a huge Beatlemaniac. She owned all the Beatles LPs and played them constantly. And, I would wake up every morning to the "Breakfast With The Beatles" show on the radio. So I gradually got to know the Beatles and their music whether I liked it or not!

But the one moment that truly made me a Beatles fan for life occurred in 1986. I was eight years old, and my family had just bought our very first VCR. My sister had already purchased the "A Hard Day's Night" video, and we popped it in to test the VCR. I wasn't really interested in watching it - I just wanted to see how the VCR worked! But, I liked it so much that I ended up watching the entire film. From that moment on, I was a Beatlemaniac.

The whole "HELP!" obsession: A few months after I saw "A Hard Day's Night" for the first time, my sister brought home a copy of "HELP!" I remember thinking I would automatically enjoy it more than "A Hard Day's Night" because it was in color! I think the fact that I was so young when I first saw it caused me to enjoy it a lot more than my sister did. I loved the utter silliness of it, the ridiculous storyline and wacky sight gags. Not to mention the fact that the Beatles all looked positively GORGEOUS in it!

How this site came to pass: Although I've always been a fan, my interest in the Beatles waned during high school, because none of my friends were into them. My sister had moved out and taken her whole Beatles collection with her (included all her LPs and movies), and I didn't have any Beatles stuff of my own. But the "Anthology" series renewed my interest in the Beatles, and I began to accumulate my own collection of Beatles music and memorabilia.

I "got online" in 1996, and started looking for Beatles information sites. One thing I noticed right way was that there was very little "HELP!" information available on the Net. There were some sites that had a page or two devoted to "HELP!", but there were no sites devoted solely to the film. I hadn't seen "HELP!" in years, and I was going through withdrawl. Didn't anybody out there love "HELP!" as much as I did?

In 2000, I got a DVD player and started to build a DVD collection. By this point, the MPI "HELP!" DVD (released in 1997) had gone out of print, so I wasn't even aware that it had been available. But once I learned that "HELP!" had been released on DVD, I hunted it down on Ebay and finally purchased it in March 2002. By this time, I hadn't seen "HELP!" in about NINE YEARS! I think I watched it four times the day it arrived, and I fell in love with it all over again.

By this time, I had become pretty handy with a computer, and had just learned how to record .wav files. I was trying to come up with an idea for a Beatles site, and I thought it would be cool to make some "HELP!" sounds to put on it. And then it hit me - why not make an ENTIRE site devoted to "HELP!"? Fortunately, I happened to have a lot of spare time on my hands, and, well, here are the results! :-)

Favorite moment from "HELP!": Ah, it's impossible to choose just one. I can't even choose my favorite musical sequence - I keep flip-flopping between "Ticket To Ride" and "Another Girl." But the one scene I loved most the first time I saw "HELP!" was the scene where the Beatles are in the restroom, and their sleeves and shirts get sucked off! To an eight-year-old, that scene was hysterical. (Oh, okay...it still is.)

Other hobbies: music (I can play clarinet & saxophone, and I'm attempting to learn guitar), web design, cooking, and football (GO GIANTS!)

Other favorite musicians: Bruce Springsteen, U2, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Simon & Garfunkel, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, The Who, Billy Joel, Dave Matthews Band, Sting, Elton John, Foo Fighters, Tori Amos, Dire Straits... I like tons of different artists, mostly classic rock.

Favorite TV shows: The Simpsons, The Sopranos, Monday Night Football, Food Network, Cheers & Taxi reruns on Nick-at-Nite

Favorite non-Beatles web sites: Google, Ebay, Television Without Pity, The Simpsons Archive, ESPN, TopFive.com