trailer for john lennon biopic nowhere boy revealed
Icon vs. Icon (October 28th 2009): "The film focuses on the years in which John Lennon was raised by his aunt, Mimi Smith, and later reacquainted with his biological mother, Julia. Lennon’s mother was tragically killed in an auto accident when John was just starting to get to know her in his late teens. Goldfrapp have written the score for the film. Lead singer Alison Goldfrapp said that the group has written a traditional score for the movie, which is based around “very orchestral” music in a recent interview."
According to several sources, the song Mother will be featured on the film with Yoko Ono's permission.
"yoko ono's life of love, war and lennon"
The Times (October 24th 2009): ""Musically, too, she’s super-busy: shortly after our trip she was coming to the UK to film a contribution to this week’s episode of Later ... with Jools Holland, she’s a guest vocalist on Basement Jaxx’s new album, and has just made an album produced by Sean Lennon and released on his label. She’s also had a hand in a key soundtrack component of Nowhere Boy, Sam Taylor-Wood’s forthcoming biopic of the teenage John Lennon. In the field of music, too, Ono has earned another lifetime achievement award this year, from Mojo magazine. All this while approving the myriad details involved in the release in September of The Beatles: Rock Band."
"finally we're saying oh yes to ono"
Sydney Morning Herald (October 28th 2009): "There is a story about John Lennon hearing the B-52s' 1978 song Rock Lobster at a disco in the Bahamas. Struck by the vocal similarities to his wife Yoko Ono's music, he was inspired to go back into the studio for the first time since 1974, and the duo recorded Double Fantasy just before Lennon's death in 1980. "The story goes that he calls up Yoko and says 'Get the axe out - they're ready for us again,'' B-52s guitarist Keith Strickland told Q magazine in 1992."
40 ukuleles, 16 yoko onos + every beatles song recorded on dec 5 & 6
NBC New York (October 22nd 2009): "Roger Greenawalt and David Barratt, organizers of the 2nd Annual Beatles Complete on Ukulele Festival, are not messing around in staging this event: They’ve already enlisted 60 singers. 40 ukuleles. And – wait for it – 16 Yoko Ono impersonators. Fitting, since a portion of the fest proceeds will go to the real Yoko Ono, to be distributed to charities of her choice."
The 2nd Annual Beatles Complete on Ukulele Festival, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
who's that girl?
NyArtsMagazine: "Ono’s first solo exhibition in China today means a great deal, not least of all in introducing the role of the spiritual in the field of art production. In times when the art market and institutionalization seem to drain all creativity from such processes, to introduce such a prominent figure who has operated outside of the market system and institutional complex for decades is a very utopian approach to art-making and a comment on the true mission of artists."
yoko ono fly was exhibited in guangzhou, china in march 2009
new john lennon book takes interactive approach to tribute
The Examiner (October 15th 2009): Steve Marinucci, Beatles Examiner: "It's likely 'john lennon: in their own write/a loving tribute from his friends and fans" might have a fan in the former Beatle himself. Rather than statically recount Lennon's life, the just published book by author Judith Furedi lets people, including some of those close to him, tell the story through anecdotes and quotes. The book includes contributions from Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Julian Lennon and Shea Stadium promoter Sid Bernstein, who wrote the introduction."
A: "Well, I used to wear sunglasses when John was still around, but after his passing I wore them because I wanted to hide a little bit. And then it became a very practical thing, say, if I’m in a press conference where there are so many people flashing lights to take photos."
corn flakes with john lennon
New York Post (October 11th 2009): "Journalist Robert Hilburn was invited for a special audience with Yoko Ono the day of John Lennon’s funeral, and to Courtney Love’s home just before Kurt Cobain’s. He has guilted Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen into changing set lists, and caused Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley to feel personally betrayed by his negative reviews. Hilburn, the longtime music critic for the Los Angeles Times, tells all these stories and more in this new memoir, which presents some fascinating, intimate rock ’n’ roll moments, and pries into the minds of legends to show us how the music got made."
"Talking to Lennon at the Dakota in 1980 for the Beatle’s first newspaper interview in five years, Lennon revealed how much he missed Paul McCartney, a shock considering the pair’s public bitterness."
at 76, yoko has a new album & is exhibiting john's art
Philadelphia Daily News (October 2nd 2009):
Q: "You're still doing that controversial, primal, high-pitched chanting thing on the new album, especially on the first track, "Waiting for the D Train." What's that all about? Your trademark?"
A: [Laughing] "Some people said to me, "Don't put this in the beginning. People will think it's all that way." But what can I say? I have this rebellious streak in me, which didn't help me for the past decades. If it turns out to be my trademark, I accept that in a way. I'm trying to show the reality of a woman's voice. This is a man's society. They think women should have two or three voices. They forget we created the human race and, to have done that, we have to have a strong voice."
yoko ono received an award from president of chile
On September 23rd 2009, President Michelle Bachelet of Chile awarded the Bernardine Higgins Great Official Gold Order to the Japanese artist Yoko Ono.
the new album in the press
Yoko Ono's new album Between My Head and the Sky and other new music is getting many great reviews. Here are some of them.
"Yoko Ono, rebel woman", The National:
"... nothing would have prepared her audience – from cynical Beatles watchers to fans of the avant-garde – for the brilliance of her new album, Between My Head and the Sky."
Review by Sunday Mercury:
"The result is an album that’s contemporary, fresh, fun and funky."
Review by Austin360.com:
"At this point, the only music fans who have heard Yoko Ono’s extraordinary 40-year body of work and don’t recognize her as an innovator are pretty easily slotted into two groups: folks who are still fuzzy on women’s suffrage and Beatles loons who still blame her for their inevitable disintegration."
"My Expression is in Between the Sky and My Head", LA Weekly:
"The album's an panoply of flavors, moods, intents and approaches, many of which owe to the very modern and relevant musicians Ono's son Sean Lennon, acting as music director, assembled for the recording sessions, including luminaries from the worlds of avant-jazz, electronic pop and progressive-leaning indie rock, including Yuka Honda of Cibo Matto, Tokyo sound-collage wiz Cornelius and nu-jazz cellist Erik Friedlander."
"Basement Jaxx - Scars", The Quietus:
"Best of all is septuagenarian Yoko Ono who drives along 'Day Of The Sunflowers (We All March On)' with the kind of ecstatic moans that ought give the younger among us a sense of optimism about reaching old age."
watch yoko ono duet with antony
Pitchfork (September 24th 2009): "Pitchfork.tv has two brand new live clips from veteran boundary-smasher Yoko Ono, recorded at this year's Meltdown Festival in London. Both feature songs from her new album Between My Head and the Sky, and both feature vocals from another totally unmistakable singer: Antony Hegarty. Ono's son Sean Lennon accompanies."
yoko oh yes! ms ono speaks about peace, pop and computer games
The Quietus (September 24th 2009): ""It's very important that people know about this," she responds. "Japanese culture is a culture of meditation, and meditation is not something you have to do cross-legged in a big circle. You can eat meditating, you can walk meditating. Meditation is the culture of peace. And so when you're creating a life of meditation, then you're actually directly connecting yourself with world peace. Keep on living a life of meditation, and let's all achieve world peace through that. And we'll send a peace vibration to the universe."
threeasfour ♥ yoko ono
The Village Voice (September 18th 2009): "The Threeasfour trio of Angela Donhauser, Adi Gil, and Gabriel Asfour named the legendary 76-year-old Ono their muse for spring, and it really was all about her. Besides the re-creation of her seminal work, the show also featured music from Ono's forthcoming Plastic Ono Band album, which her son produced (think Ono's signature "eeee-eeee-eeee" wailings over a tribal beat), and Ono's dot drawings on flowing robes and dresses -- our favorite pieces of the show. The collection predominantly consisted of all-black looks, including a few fantastic sculptural dresses over sliced leggings, but ended with a gorgeous white suit -- perhaps a nod to John Lennon's signature '69 look. Overall, it was a show we won't forget soon."
yoko ono: still walking on thin ice
Telegraph (September 18th 2009): "Ono had known Andy Warhol from her early years in New York, and throughout her relationship with Lennon Warhol had always encouraged her to ignore the critics and just keep on working. When Warhol came to Sean’s ninth birthday party at the Dakota, he noticed that all the photographs of him stopped after his fifth birthday. Ono explained that John wanted to photograph Sean every year, a project that ended when he died. 'And Andy said, “OK, I’ll continue from here.” And he did photos of Sean, a lot of work using Sean’s face.’ The two formed an unlikely friendship, and when I say I can’t imagine Warhol playing with a child, she says that’s not really how it was. Sean grew up as an only child, and his parents had always talked to him like an adult. 'He was a very quick, witty child, and Andy felt very comfortable with him,’ Ono says."
past present art exhibition
Propertytalklive (September 23rd 2009): "Visitors to the National Trust’s Nunnington Hall in Yorkshire will, from Tuesday 22 September, be able to see this historic house in a way they have never seen it before. Works by eighteen leading figures in the contemporary art world, including Tracey Emin and Yoko Ono, will be displayed within the setting of this 17th-century mansion. The exhibition Past Present was inspired by the idea of using the whole of Nunnington Hall and its historic rooms as a gallery space for the best of contemporary art."
"Conceived as a pacifist statement, particularly taken in context of the Vietnam War, Yoko Ono’s chess piece opponents sit on each side of an all-white board, making the warring factions indistinguishable from one another. The homely Drawing Room at Nunnington was where Margaret Fife and her family would relax and play games."
video company asks for $6.3M in lennon film case
Associated Press (September 29th 2009): "A Massachusetts company that claims rare film footage of the late John Lennon was stolen and sold to Yoko Ono without its permission asked a federal judge Tuesday to award it $6.3 million in damages. Earlier this year, a judge found that Lennon's widow was the rightful copyright owner of the 1970 footage, which shows Lennon smoking marijuana and joking about putting LSD in President Richard Nixon's tea."
"Ono disputed the $6.3 million value, saying in court documents filed Monday that neither she or anyone else in the film has given permission for the footage to be used commercially. She did not say what she thinks the film is worth."
a welcome gift from yoko ono
Liverpool Echo (September 16th 2009): "(..) now Yoko has again shown her commitment to Liverpool by handing over £260,000 to enable students brought up in care to thrive at a city university. The money will fund a new John Lennon Imagine Awards scheme for Liverpool John Moores students who have been in care or become estranged from their families – and this is notable not least because John was, of course, brought up from the age of five until his late teens by his Aunt Mimi."
an interview with yoko ono
ClashMusic (September 11th 2009): "I was so surprised and interested in that film called The Pianist, where the pianist is that Jewish guy who’s always being banged around, but he’s always [mimes playing the piano] - in his head he’s always playing the piano. That’s how I survived. Many composers, like my first husband [composer Toshi Ichiyanagi]; we would be in a restaurant and he would be sitting there like, ‘da da dun da’ [mimes playing piano on table], and I’d be doing that too. We are not communicating, we are living in our heads; that was the reason I survived, I think - it was the music that made me survive."
belgium strip incident in the 60s
The Quietus (September 10th 2009): "Talking to Quietus editor John Doran for this month's issue of Stool Pigeon, she described how Belgium authorities tried to extradite her on charges of obscenity in the 1960's. She said: "That was not my work, that was a fellow Fluxus artist. He was looking for some people to stand on the stage and protest. (--) "When I was back in England Scotland Yard called me and said ‘Would you mind coming in, we have something to show you'", she said. "I went in and all of these detectives were laughing and handed me a photo and said: “Is this you?”
