Instant Karma's Gonna Get You

So I've been sick (still) which doesn't excuse me from posting, but I fear my head has been so foggy an already silly bordering on boring blog might have been even more pointless if I would have. So, I went and got some meds today and am feeling better, in combo with the merlot, so I'm going to write today what I wanted to write yesterday.

So yesterday marked the 28th anniversary of John Lennon's death. John Lennon, former Beatle, musician, poet, social activist and hero of mine and many others. His untimely death occurred 9 days before I was born, as you probably know at the hands of Mark David Chapman, outside of the Dakota Building, his residence in New York at the time.

As long as I can remember I've had a fascination and reverence for Mr. Lennon, partly because I loved the Beatles music, his voice, and his seeming rebellion against the popularity of the Beatles and his public image. There is a large part of my personality that has a problem with authority has always identified with his rebellious sensibilities. If you read interviews and watch the Dick Cavitt shows that John and Yoko frequented, you can really see that sharp cutting wit and smart-ass side of him that really appeals to me for some reason. Bob Dylan had it too, clearly displayed in the Don't Look Back Days, however his sarcasm and wit had too much of a self-involved tone, whereas John's was sprinkled with Brit charm and just enough self-deprecation to make it easier to identify with.

I used to think when I was a little girl, that when he died there on December 8th, 1980, 9 days before I was born that a little bit of Mr. Lennon's soul was floating around in some sort of nether world and ended up re-incarnating into little Laura Yonker. Of course I don't think that now, but it always makes me giggle because I truly did believe that for a while. I guess maybe I watched too much MTV or listened ot too much Plastic Ono Band as a 9 year old, so in that context, it makes more sense.

When it concerns John's social activism, I think the man was a genius. Make peace an advertising campaign. Speak to the people the way that they're used to being spoken to. By billboard, commercial, campaign. He likened he and Yoko's strategy to that of a politician's. Sell peace as if it's in a race against war. What is the opposing product? Those who do not want peace, those who are working to promote war. It's simple, and it may be silly to some, but I think in that day in age, it was a very forward-thinking strategy. A worthy strategy. One of the points that John touched on in an interview that I think is so poignant, maybe even more so now is the fact that people separate government from themselves, giving it patriarchal and differential qualities. We depend on government (the all-knowing father) to fix things, and then when things go wrong, spend time wondering why it's failed us. When the whole time we need to realize that we ARE the government, that we cannot depend on the government when things are going right and then wonder why things went wrong. I think I'm getting off on a tangent here, but just another reason why I have a deep respect and admiration for a one mister J. Lennon.

Here is a nice piece from the Dick Cavitt show, the first appearance of many that followed by John and Yoko after the Beatles decided to separate.



And another thing! I think that Yoko really got a bad wrap. I think that Yoko was a fairly interesting avant-garde artist in her own right before becoming Mrs. John Lennon. I feel that people were fast to scapegoat her when it came to the Beatles demise. However it happened, I don't feel that it is right to blame her as the sole factor in that outcome. I always sort of had that hunch about Yoko, and had the opportunity to see an art exhibit of hers at the San Francisco Modern with my parents back in 2002, where much of her art was participatory and accessible to everyone. I don't know what the art community's opinion was on the exhibit but I found it highly enjoyable, accessible, and positive. I commend Yoko for her efforts and respect her as an artist.

As a silly side note, my friend Sophie and I (I miss you terribly Sophie, by the way) made t-shirts in homage to Mrs. Ono last year. They proudly read "I heart Yoko," and were a product of a conversation Sophie and had in regards to our mutual respect for the Yoko as an artist. Sophie and I could see why John was attracted to her.

Here is another fun little vid from Mrs. Ono:


Yoko Ono: Onochord from Yoko Ono on Vimeo.