rock & roll hall of fame opens "women who rock" exhibit 411mania (May 13th 2011): "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has opened a new exhibit today, titled "Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power." The exhibit includes memorabilia from Madonna, Britney Spears, Bille Holiday, Yoko Ono and Lady Gaga. (--) "When people look back at the early days of rock 'n' roll, they tend to think of it as a boy's club," said Henke. "The reality is that there were a lot of females playing a hugely important role…"
Other interesting artists in the exhibition along Yoko Ono include Patti Smith, Marianne Faithfull, Siouxsie Sioux, Kim Gordon, B-52s, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Carole King, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell and Cyndi Lauper.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame about Yoko Ono: "Born in 1933 in Tokyo, to a wealthy banking family, Yoko Ono received classical piano and vocal training as a child and aspired to be a composer, much to her banker father's chagrin. The family moved to New York when Ono was 18 and Ono dropped out of Sarah Lawrence College in 1956 to elope with her first husband and moved to Greenwich Village. By the mid-Sixties, Ono was an established figure in the underground art scene. Ono met John Lennon at an exhibit of her work at the Indica Gallery in London. They collaborated in art, music, film and the anti-war movement. Misunderstood and widely reviled at the time, Ono’s music proved to be highly influential, particularly to post-punk and New Wave bands, such as Talking Heads and the B-52s. Along with her continued work in the peace movement, Ono has gone on to become a leading dance-music artist with five consecutive Number One songs on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart."
"yoko ono feels the love in S.F., may 17, 1986"
San Francisco Chronicle (May 12th 2011): "May 17: Many years will pass before anything like the Yoko Ono concert will be seen again. Long little more than the subject of rude jokes among the rock crowd, the diminutive lady with the large voice met with the lovingest audience any performer could hope for Thursday at the Warfield Theater. San Francisco was one of the only cities to express its love by buying tickets for her tour, which was abbreviated and rescheduled after other, barbarian American cities failed to respond in kind. Of course, much of this affection is love by proxy for her late husband, whose brutal murder still, more than five years later, rings grief in the hearts of his generation. Her 100-minute performance provided a cathartic relief for those still affected by the death of John Lennon. She closed the show with a screeching but touching interpretation of Lennon's "Imagine" and a rousing "Give Peace a Chance." Ono is not capitalizing on her status as beloved widow so much as she is sharing herself with the people who loved John, and she did so with wit, intelligence and exceptional dignity. This is one remarkable woman. No wonder John loved her so much."
"beatle john lennon's time at tittenhurst park in ascot"
BBC (May 11th 2011): "In late August 1971 he left England for America and never returned. Lennon handed over the estate to Ringo Starr in 1973 to settle a debt with his former band mate. (--) ...said Starr's builders discovered many of John's belongings that he had left behind. "There were a lot of his clothes, notes and lots of personal belongings," he said. "Apparently Ringo told the builders to put them in the ground and burn them."
"take your pants off before you fight,' and other things yoko ono ordered me to do"
The Globe and Mail (May 9th 2011): "Nearly 1.4 million people have signed up to follow the 78-year-old widow of John Lennon, but I am, to my knowledge, the only one actually following her – listening to every song recommendation (they are all hers) and obeying every command, no matter how impractical and inconvenient. "
"Take the order that brought us to this park in the first place: “Write down everything you fear in life. Burn it. Pour herbal oil with a sweet scent on the ashes.” So I did. I wrote down the list (death, failure, paper cuts on eyeballs, lake monsters, centipedes, millipedes), set it on fire, and coated the ashes in ylang-ylang No. 3, an essential oil known as the “flower of flowers.” Sweet-smelling stuff that will cling to my jacket for at least another week. We wait for something to happen: The sudden appearance of the spirit of Yoko Ono, a rare glimpse of the majestic ylang-ylang dragon, anything. Nothing, sadly, materializes. But I do leave with a surprising sense of accomplishment: For an anxious person, zeroing in on my specific fears was more difficult than I had expected. It also made me wonder: Is Ms. Ono in New York’s Central Park at this moment, burning her own list of fears? More to the point, does she follow her own advice? So I asked her on Twitter, and got an answer. Sort of. “I used to do that. I don’t do that any more, since I don’t have any specific fear now to write down. When I am frightened now, I am frightened about how the world is going. But I don’t think I can put it in words. yoko”
kim gordon & yoko ono (with chris corsano), the stone, NYC, april 23 2011
an interview by rocker zine
"In terms of performances, I find myself more unstuck and unblocked now than forty years ago. I think that’s the natural way of human beings. When they are young, they are more insecure, and blocked. When they get advanced in age, they start to feel anything goes! I think people are naturally less conservative and unblocked as they advance in age. But they are given less opportunity to express themselves, since the world firmly believe that “old people” are blocked. It’s ageism at it’s worst. I myself confront that attitude all the time."
yoko ono interviewed by the spinner
(April 11th 2011): "Historically, in the face of sadness and bleakness, you've tried to relay a positive message to the public via song and art."'
Yoko: "It was really bad, and when it gets really bad, you have to stand up. When I was with John there was sadness in the world, and thoughts were coming out from that sadness. But when he died, I was at the bottom and I knew others were at the bottom, too. So I thought, "We got to get up," so that's why I wrote 'It's Alright.' When I wrote 'It's Alright' there were some people who wanted to kill me; bomb where I was, so I had to stay in a hotel, and so I wrote that in a hotel."
Have you ever thought about dating or remarrying?
Yoko: "I'm one of those independent and cocky people. I don't care if anybody's around and I don't want anybody around."
yoko ono on lennon, love, feminism, and japan
Interview magazine (March 2011): "It's been a long way with Interview magazine, hasn't it? I remember when I was standing and I saw that Andy Warhol was coming from the next block. He was walking and then he goes into some shop and then he comes out and then goes into another shop. I said, "What are you doing?" He said, "Well, I am trying to make them take Interview and put it there." I thought, "Wow, you do it all yourself." In the old days we did everything ourselves, but I thought it was very sweet he was doing that. That's how Interview came about, you know."
Dear Friends
A big THANKYOU to all who came to and participated in TO JAPAN WITH LOVE last night. We raised $71,103.35 for Japan relief! Le Poisson Rouge will be issuing a check for this amount tomorrow to be paid to Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund. This donation will be noted that it is from the benefit concert event YOKO ONO & FRIENDS TO JAPAN WITH LOVE. If you would like to make an additional donation you can do so here: www.japansociety.org/earthquake
love, yoko
another benefit concert for japan with yoko ono, patti smith & tony shanahan, cibo matto & friends in new york city on march 29th 2011
See poster and ticket information on the right ->
benefit concerts for japan in new york city John Zorn's myspace: "John Zorn has organized 3 major music benefits across three NYC venues so far. If you cannot make it, donate to Red Cross, Japan Society's fund, etc... And please let others know about this! Your word of mouth will help."
March 27 @ Miller Theater at Columbia University
Featuring: Sonic Youth, Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, Mike Patton, Cibo Matto, Mephista, Uri Caine, Marc Ribot, John Zorn's Aleph. www.millertheatre.com
April 8 @ Abrons Arts Center
Amazing lineup - More info to come... www.henrystreet.org
April 9 @ Japan Society
Featuring: Philip Glass & Hal Willner; Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and Zorn; Ryuichi Sakamoto; and Bill Laswell and Gigi band. www.japansociety.org
move on fast is #1 in the billboard hot dance club play chart
Press release (March 3rd 2011): "Yoko Ono continues her dance floor domination with her 6th consecutive #1 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart-topper MOVE ON FAST. Featuring explosive mixes by Dave Aude, Digital Dog, Ralphi Rosario, Richard Morel, Chris The Greek, Emjae, Twisted Sound+Vision, DJ Yiannis, Nacho & Ivan and Timmy Loop. Sitting atop the cream of the pop crop (Rihanna, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Taio Cruz, Kylie Minogue, And Jennifer Lopez) Yoko Ono once again seizes the coveted #1 spot on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart with her latest dance floor reinvention MOVE ON FAST (The Remixes)(Issue Date: 12 March 2011).
The single marks the influential pop culture iconoclast's SIXTH consecutive #1 dance hit (and EIGHTH overall) following WOULDN'IT (I'M A STAR), GIVE ME SOMETHING, I'M NOT GETTING ENOUGH, GIVE PEACE A CHANCE and NO NO NO. It's an accomplishment which few, if any artists can boast."
in the woods with yoko Huffington Post: "In the Woods is a mysterious, existential film journey: a walk into the unknown. The experience is a seduction into our own existence. What's the plot? Who knows? The film crawls into and explores the crevices (of the minds of its subjects and myself. Hmmm...? Should I go there? I don't know. I kind of want to. Maybe I will. How far can I go? How far can I push it? The brave cast includes Terrence Howard, Moby, Will Shortz, Famke Janssen, Will Oldham, Temple Grandin, Debra Winger, Jorgen Leth, Rufus Wainwright, Rosie Perez, Alan Cumming, Marlo Thomas, Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Karen Black and Dave Matthews.
For the first time, Yoko Ono has contributed original vocalizations for a film: an unconscious force beckoning us to go further inside." (Not exactly true, there has been other occasions: Yoko Ono sound pieces and scores)
south by southwest announces yoko ono as featured speaker
From the press release: "Ms. Ono will sit down with Jody Denberg for a SXSW Interview on Friday, March 18th. From her pioneering work in the Fluxus movement of the 1960s to the recent Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland, Ono's art has challenged and informed, melding the personal to the universal in simple and unique ways. Her marriage and creative collaboration with John Lennon was a love story played out on the global stage. Ono's music laid the groundwork for the sounds of punk rock and new wave. Recently, Ono has had five consecutive dance singles charting at #1 on the top of the Billboard Dance Chart. In 2009, she received Mojo Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award, and she assembled a new Plastic Ono Band for her latest album, Between My Head And The Sky, co-produced with son Sean Lennon, on his Chimera Music label. From gallery to stage to social media platforms, Yoko Ono brings a message of peace to the world."
"Ms. Ono will also be a special guest performer at a Chimera Music night, Saturday, March 19 at The Elysium."
CHIMERA MUSIC NIGHT March 19th Saturday, March 19 at The Elysium, 705 Red River St., Austin, Texas
Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger (Sean Lennon & Charlotte Kemp Muhl)
Kemp & Eden (Charlotte Kemp Muhl & Eden Rice)
If By Yes (Petra Haden & Yuka Honda of Cibo Matto)
Consortium Musicum (Sean Lennon & Greg Saunier of Deerhoof)
Fig (Yuka Honda & Nels Cline)
Mi-gu (Yuko Araki & Hirotaka Shimmy Shimizu of Cornelius group)
special guest: YOKO ONO
