hi, john.

Really a shame that you died so young and all.

Yesterday was the much-hyped Lennon 70th birthday (or would-be 70th birthday if he hadn't been shot in 1980, ugh). I say much-hyped because it was surrounded by the release of some special edition stuff (remastered somethingorother hooplah) and the young!lennon movie (which I saw online months ago, and unless they recut it I am mostly unimpressed) and this and that. I think that's kind of a bummer. I mean, the fellow's dead. Is it a tribute or GASP a moneymaker??? I don't blame Yoko solely for that kind of stuff but of course her hand is in everything Lennon and her ownership is stifling. I'm sorry, their relationship was incredibly unstable at the time of his death, months before she was having an affair and the year before that she had CHOSEN a secretary to "give" to John and the two of them ran off and wasted away for a year before Yoko reigned him in (and made sure he'd never see the secretary again). I don't doubt that they loved each other, and of course that's not for anyone to say or speculate about, but I think it's certainly obvious that the woman was conniving and very good at keeping the willing John under her little tiny thumb. Anyway, my point was that it's weird to hear her talk about "john would have wanted you to give money to me, my life is devoted to my love for john, bla bla bla" when their relationship was shaky at best, and while John was all yay peace yay love yay activism he was also very moody, very sharp, very selfish and there's no telling what he'd go on to do. Anyway. I don't like seeing people capitalize on that kind of thing, I hope a portion of the money goes to charity at least.

Anyway, since yesterday was kind of a mini holiday for people who care about this kind of thing I celebrated by listening to my lennon best-ofs, accoustics, and plastic ono band stuff. One song on the accoustic is mainly a poorly recorded version of "it's real" which consists of John whistling and strumming. The minute it came on, the two little dogs in the house came running and barking to my door. It made me smile and think that the silly dogs and I were sort of similiar like that, still quite profoundly affected by something as crazy as pop music and John Lennon. Just goes to show you, the man still has it.

Listen to Oh Yoko and tell me it doesn't make you damn happy. Or instant karma's gonna get you.