Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono's karaoke secret
June 15, 2005

Yoko Ono has confessed that she sang Beatles tracks in a karaoke bar while on holiday.

The widow of Beatles legend John Lennon - who duetted with her late husband on hit single 'Give Peace a Chance' - admitted she performed a collection of hits in a Japanese venue while on the break with the couple's son, Sean.

She said in an interview with Britain's Time Out magazine: "I've sung karaoke in Japan.

"I went to this place with Sean and we sang songs that came up. There were some Beatles songs, let's put it that way.

"I can sing Beatles songs, why not?"

Last month, the 62-year-old star slammed a British TV channel's plans to broadcast a prison cell documentary about John Lennon's murderer.

Yoko, who now works as a conceptual artist, hit back at proposals to screen an hour-long documentary featuring interviews with her late husband's killer, Mark Chapman, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Lennon's death She said: "I think it's horrible to do this It shows a lack of understanding of the painful memories of what happened to John's beautiful life "Myself, John's family and so many fans will be hurt by the showing such a programme"

http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/celebrity/45512004.htm

"62-year-old", да еще и "star"... автор настоящий джентльмен! 8-)

2Jaroslavko:

>"62-year-old", да еще и "star"... автор настоящий
>джентльмен! 8-)

А чем она не "звезда"? (Только без рифм!) :)))

Ono backs JLA link to New York Jun 14 2005
By Deborah James, Daily Post Staff

YOKO ONO last night joined public figures from both sides of the Atlantic and welcomed plans for a direct air link between Liverpool and New York.

The artist said she hoped talks to establish the city's first transatlantic flight would be successful, and joked that John Lennon must have had a hand in progress made so far.

Her comments come after the Daily Post revealed officials from Liverpool John Lennon Airport are to meet soon with a number of potential airline operators to establish the route sometime between now and 2008.

JLA chief executive Neil Pakey believes there is an existing market of 100,000 passengers a year to exploit and is gathering support from all quarters.

The airport bears John Lennon's self portrait and carries the slogan: "Above us only sky", taken from his song Imagine.

In a statement to the Daily Post last night his widow, Yoko Ono said: "I love it! It's great! More power to you, Liverpool!

"John kept saying that New York was in some ways like Liverpool, now if John was here and went home to Liverpool, he might say that Liverpool is in some ways getting like New York.

"John must be jumping up and down - if he had anything to do with it.

"Now you're not going to deny that he had a hand in this, are you?"

Ms Ono said she hoped a New York flight would secure further international flights to and from Liverpool.

She said: "When are you going to have a plane direct to Tokyo by the way?

"You know so many Japanese people are making a pilgrimage to Liverpool since John's childhood house was opened."

The plan has already been welcomed by Liverpool City Council and The Mersey Partnership, which have both been in talks with the airport. Yesterday Sid Bernstein, the New Yorker who imported Beatlemania to America also gave his backing.

The music promoter, who was once named as a cultural ambassador for Liverpool, said: "I come over quite often and I hope I'd be a regular user if an air link is set up."

Lisa Mortman, director of communications for New York City Tourist Board said: "The UK is the number one overseas market for New York city, we attract close to one million visitors from the UK every year.

"There has been tremendous success with other cities that have established through flights to New York and I'm sure that will also be true for Liverpool." Liverpool's Lord Mayor, Cllr Alan Dean, said: "If it comes off, it will be wonderful for the city and the region as a whole."

Bill Heckle, director of Cavern City tours said: "We bring a lot of Americans over every year, and a lot from New York.

"They always ask if they can fly in direct to Liverpool JLA."

New Yorker Jim Breen, manager of Southport Business Enterprise said: "There's a natural unity between the cities, so a link would be perfect, but clearly the key is up to JLA to make sure they do their research to make sure that it's viable."

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=15628582&metho...

Yoko sang Beatles ballads in Japanese bar!

London : The widow of Beatles Star John Lennon, Yoko Ono, has confessed that she had sung Beatles' popular tracks in a Karaoke Bar in Japan while on a holiday with son Sean.

"I've sung karaoke in Japan. I went to this place with Sean and we sang songs that came up. There were some songs that came up.

"There were some Beatles songs, let's put it that way. I can sing Beatles songs, why not?" Femalefirst quoted Yoko during an interview with Britain's Time Out magazine, as saying.ANI

http://sify.com/peopleandplaces/fullstory.php?id=13874675

Yoko Ono
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Ian Gittins
Monday June 20, 2005
The Guardian

Photo: A contrary and reliably perplexing evening: Yoko Ono performs at Meltdown 2005.


Thirty-five years ago, she was the most hated woman in music. Today, after five decades of doggedly pursuing her singular vision through critical brickbats and derision, Yoko Ono has become a respected survivor. The former Mrs Lennon is now officially a national treasure.

This compulsive, envelope-pushing performance artist is a fitting addition to Patti Smith's Meltdown bill. Any thoughts that she might have mellowed with her 72 years are banished by her entrance: slipping through the backdrop as birdsong trills, Ono trots onto the stage with a black plastic bag over her head.

So what is the point of Yoko Ono? Detractors have often dismissed her as an avant-garde charlatan, but tonight she cuts an intense and mercurial figure. Backed by a five-piece band, with son Sean the ghostly spit of his late father on bass, she fires straight into I Want You to Remember Me, a misogynistic monologue recited over appropriately dysfunctional freeform jazz.

The music is a post-modern melange of stylistic appropriations, with Ono's caterwauling vocal often lost amid atonal white noise or skittish blues. The crypto-feminist Rising sees her seemingly stricken by St Vitus's Dance, yet her brittle gyrations emphasise the power of her trademark cathartic banshee howls and yelps.

The set is drawn mainly from 2001's Blueprint for a Sunrise, an album from which Mr Tune was largely absent, and a few of the No Wave white noise wig-outs are more fun to make than to listen to. Yet the yearning Will I is kookily engaging, Ono scratching an existential itch from the midst of a gnomic, distracted reverie.

The defiantly uncompromising mood is lifted only for the encore, when the smirking Pet Shop Boys join her to ladle their clattering electro-rhythms over the fragile Walking on Thin Ice: a suitably incongruous climax to a contrary and reliably perplexing evening.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/story/0,11712,1510210,00.html

Yoko Ono discusses art exhibit on war and peace

Editor's note: This Foster's Sunday Citizen exclusive interview with Yoko Ono came about due to a unique collaboration with Mark Bodi, a marketing executive who lives in Portsmouth and Sunday Arts Editor Lars Trodson. Bodi, a board member of both the Art of Peace Program Committee and the NH Art Association, had provided information about Ono becoming honorary co-chairwoman of a unique art exhibit to be held in July, and Trodson secured an interview with Ono, who agreed to answer questions by e-mail. The questions were crafted by Bodi and Trodson. Ono sent along her responses just last week.

She has one of the most famous names from 20th century pop culture, a name that for the past 35 years has conjured the broadest breadth of public emotions.

Yoko Ono always has traveled this vast emotional terrain — ranging from public criticism to respect to outright embrace — with great dignity and style. And it is here to New Hampshire that her long journey has taken her, at least in spirit.

Ono, peace activist, performance artist, and singer-songwriter, has accepted to be honorary co-chair, along with Dr. Susan Lynch, of the Art Of Peace art competition and exhibition.

The juried art show, produced in conjunction with the 100th Anniversary of the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, is accepting art from the world over until July 15 — art that not only honors the 1905 signing of the treaty, but that "is both for and about peace," according to Ono.

The art show is scheduled for July 20 to Sept. 5 in Portsmouth. That September day marks the official date when the peace treaty was signed at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. President Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing these two countries to the treaty table.

Ono, a Japanese native, was taught the story of the Russo-Japanese war in school. It is a benchmark of Japan's history, and marked the time when both that country and Russia emerged on the world stage.

Throughout her life — she is now in her 70s — Ono has made a commitment to peace and peaceful activism. It was her art that first attracted John Lennon to her. At an art show of hers held in the mid-1960s, Lennon looked through a magnifying glass and saw a simple word: Yes.

Her subsequent marriage to Lennon began with an unusual honeymoon — the two publicly decried the war in Vietnam and bought billboards emblazoned with the message: "Happy Christmas, War is Over."

In the 25 years since Lennon's murder, Yoko Ono has lived a relatively quiet life. The son she had with Lennon, Sean, also is an artist, and her work as a songwriter and singer has gotten new and enthusiastic attention from a younger crop of musicians.

She does not lend her name to many causes, making her involvement as co-chair of the Art of Peace project a significant cultural event for the state of New Hampshire.

Q: Thank you, Yoko, for speaking with us. You know there is a great deal of excitement about your serving as honorary co-chairwoman of the Art of Peace art show in Portsmouth. You must receive many requests to be involved in special events like this. How did you become involved in an event in New Hampshire? Do you know anything about the state of New Hampshire? (laughter)

Ono: Of course I know New Hampshire, (laughing) but I must admit I have never been there. I do have several friends who have been there and say your state is quite beautiful. How did I become involved in The Art of Peace? Well, I was invited. It was really that simple.

Q: Who invited you?

Ono:. Dr. Lynch, Bob Thoresen and the Art of Peace Committee.

Q: What attracted you to this particular event? You must get invited to participate in so many things all the time from all over the world. Did you agree to participate because of the treaty's connection to peace as well your Japanese heritage?

Ono: Well, certainly the Portsmouth Peace Treaty is well known in Japan and is regarded as very historically significant, and it is taught in the schools. So I perhaps know more than some people in New Hampshire. (laughter) You know the Treaty of Portsmouth is still considered one of the most powerful symbols of peace in Asia for Japan, Russia and the United States. It is a very important treaty and I think the people in Portsmouth and New Hampshire are doing a very good job of honoring its 100th anniversary.

Q: For you, what is special about the Portsmouth Peace Treaty commemoration?

Ono: As First Lady Susan Lynch and I said when we announced The Art of Peace show — in a world that all too often must mark the anniversaries of wars, the treaty signing marks a very significant opportunity for us to commemorate, celebrate and learn from a peaceful event of historic proportion.

I think peace is not only something to advocate and strive for but also something to enjoy, cherish hold as a symbol of what is and what can be.

Q: Have you spoken with Dr. Lynch about the event?

Ono: No, but we have corresponded, and she seems like a particularly thoughtful person. I look forward to meeting her at some point.

Q. So does that mean you are coming to New Hampshire?

Ono: I would like to. But it might not be in time for the art show. (laughter)

Q: Will any of your art be included as part of the exhibition?

Ono: No. The Art of Peace is both an art competition and exhibition. We did not want to distract from the other artist's work nor the central theme of the show by placing my own work on exhibition. This is a show for and about peace — not about my own art. There will be many wonderful works of art in this show to enjoy.

Q. Do you think artists should be involved in and can have an impact on efforts to promote peace?

Ono: Most certainly. Artists have and can continue to play an important role in the peace movement.

Q: The peace movement has really changed dramatically over the last 30 years. Do you think the quest for peace is much more mainstream?

Ono: I don't know if mainstream is the word I would use. But certainly the world and its people are more sensitive and committed to the cause of peace than ever before and that pleases me.

Q: Many people would say you and John were a very significant force in creating a more peaceful world and raising the collective human sprit in search for peace. That must make you very happy and proud.

Ono: Yes, quite happy. But there are many people who have and continue to strive for peace. We are together as one.

Q. You are, of course, famous for your music as a songwriter and recording artist. But you are also very highly acclaimed as an artist. You and John met at an art exhibit of your work. He was enamored with a piece of art you created where the participant had to stand on a ladder and peer though glass to see the word "yes." It was from that experience he wanted to meet you?

Ono: Yes, that is true, at an exhibit of my work at the Indica gallery in London.

Q. Is the visual arts still an important part of your life?

Ono: Absolutely.

Q: You have been receiving so much positive press in recent years, and it seems like your popularity continues to rise. Does that surprise you?

Ono: Still there are still some critics, but in general I think there's has been a big turnaround, and I'm very pleased about that. I'm very thankful about that.

Q. You remain very busy musically and artistically, for someone who is — hmm, well you know?

Ono: You can say it: "In their 70s." (laughter) Yes, I am very active.

Q: My impression is that you have remained youthful not only in your physical appearance but in your philosophy and attitude toward life. What is your secret about that?

Ono: I always am so involved in what I love to do. I think that is a very strong force in my life. Somehow I always did what I loved to do and did my best with it. I think it has to do with being myself. I am not necessarily a strong person or a brave person. I have a lot of weakness myself, too. But I was not particularly ashamed of that.

Q. In 2002 you established the biennial LennonOno Grant for Peace. The first winners were Palestinian artist Khalil Rabah and Israeli artist Zvi Goldstein. Last year peace grants were awarded to journalist Seymour Hersh and Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu, men you said epitomize John's song, "Gimme Some Truth." Why were these individuals selected, and what do you hope the awards will accomplish?

(Vanunu, a former technician at an Israeli nuclear reactor, served 18 years in prison for divulging information about Israel's nuclear secrets.)

Hersh, a writer for the New Yorker magazine, has published a series of investigative articles about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, compiled in a new book, "Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib.")

Ono: They are people who have spoken out for the benefit of the human race by overcoming extreme personal difficulties and, in doing so, have allowed the truth to prevail.

My hope is that the awards will not only honor the two recipients for their incredible courage but ask others to follow their example to take a stand for truth.

Q: In closing, you spoke at Oxford a few years ago talking about the human connection to peace. You said —

Ono: "Find peace in your heart, and it will spread over the world."

Q: Yes that was it. Thank you Yoko for sharing and spreading peace with New Hampshire and the world.

Ono: You're welcome. My very best to the people of New Hampshire and my best wishes on the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty. I am honored to be part of their efforts.

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050703/NEWS06/107030053

why is she famous?

Yoko Ono will fairly or unfairly be cast as the woman that came between the greatest band of all-time, the Beatles. But beneath the surface, Yoko is so much more.

quick bio

Born into a wealthy aristocratic family on February 18, 1933, in Tokyo, Japan, Yoko Ono is the eldest of three children. With a degree in philosophy from Tokyo's Gakushuin University, Ono -- whose first name means "ocean child" -- crossed the ocean and pursued philosophy and music at Sarah Lawrence College after her father was appointed president of a bank in New York. Soon afterwards, she married Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi in 1956.

This was followed by a second marriage with art promoter Tony Cox in 1963. Concurrently, Ono was making a name for herself in performance art, which is what ultimately led to her meeting third husband John Lennon, at a progressive art show in London in 1966. The psychological bond between the artistically gifted Ono and the popular Lennon blossomed into marriage after news of the affair became public in 1968. The "Ballad of John & Yoko" marked a most utopian of relationships. One would channel their creativity through the other, that is, until Lennon's untimely assassination in 1980.

Ono not only influenced Lennon, but also an entire generation of bands, from Talking Heads and Blondie to The B-52's. Lennon and Ono's agenda crossed over from music to social commentary, as evidenced by their numerous "bed-ins" -- most notably during their honeymoon in Amsterdam in 1969. In the years that followed, Ono has been busy with everything from films and concerts, to albums of her own.

To an entire generation, Yoko Ono's legacy will forever be that union with one of the Fab Four. We were most grateful to sit down with the Ocean Child herself to see what she has been up to recently.

Q: It is an honor to speak with you Yoko. Tell us about "Kiss Kiss Kiss."

It was on Double Fantasy, the last album for John, and the song was on the album and it was a B-side as well.

Q: When you put out music, do you make an effort to have a "Beatles-link" or do you try to avoid that?

I was not trying to make it related, but in many ways, I guess I was (laughs).

Q: Besides the music, what have you been busy with?

I have been working on a new album -- now I am ready to go in the studio again.

¿ Quick fact ?
With a career as a writer, producer, director, and composer, her latest foray into music was marked by the release of 2001's album, Blueprint For A Sunrise, the first album of new material since 1995's Rising.

Q: Which artists do you like these days?

I just love anybody that does anything in the art world and the artistic world. We just have to keep working and I want everyone in the field to know that we support them.

Q: Where do your influences stem from?

I would say from everywhere, but some people say that it is like the Old Spanish classic theme... but I do not know where they come from, I would say from everywhere...

Q: What do you think of today's boy bands, like 'N Sync, the Backstreet Boys, Bazooka 'N Tulips -- will they have any longevity?

It is okay... but I think that the kind of music that we are doing is okay too... it is like flowers -- we do not all like the same flowers, but they are all nice.

Q: What are your thoughts on the 1960s?

I think that the 1960s were about releasing ourselves from conventional society and freeing ourselves. Those are nice thoughts, but today we have to know what we want to do and have a sense of what we want; so it is similar I guess, but in a different way. Some things were not right.

Q: Do you still listen to older stuff, like the Beatles?

Yes, once in a while... I still make some judgments on it; what the Beatles did was something incredible, it was more than what a band could do and we have to give them respect...

Q: Does it bother you that some people ask you what role you played regarding the fate of the band?

Are you tiptoeing around the word "break up" and I was responsible? (laughs)

Q: Hey, you said it, not me (laughs)...

It was what you were thinking, no? But I do think that it was very unfair to blame any one person... no one person could have broken up a band, especially one the size of the Beatles. And it was not just John, some of the other guys were having some thoughts about the band, so it happened.

Q: What did you think about the Barenaked Ladies writing "Be My Yoko Ono" and would you ever sing it live?

I thought that it was cute, but I would never sing it at one of my shows... (laughs).

Q: Is there any style you would not try?

I just go with the flow, so any style can be in my music -- that makes it exciting.

Q: How did you end up on Mad About You?

They asked me, I liked the show so I went for it.

¿ Quick fact ?
Although the Beatles' song "Julia" from The White Album was written for John Lennon's mother, the lyrics "ocean child, calls me" was in reference to Yoko Ono. Their affair was not yet public when the song was penned.

Q: You and John seemed to have a great relationship; what advice would you give to couples?

Be understanding of one another and be willing to compromise. I mean, I think that life with another person is always difficult. The alternative however -- being alone -- is also very difficult.

Q: Your children are always going to be in the shadow... how was it, as a parent, to shelter them?

I tell them that they have to think for themselves. Whether they want to be artists, accountants or lawyers, they have to want it themselves.

Q: What do you want people to think when they hear "Yoko Ono"?

Your friend.

Q: What advice do you give people who want to enter show business?

You are in it as soon as you wanna be in it. What you do with it and where you go is the key.

Q: Tell us your thoughts on every decade.

1960s: Discovery. 1970s: Action. 1980s: Solidity. 1990s: Reality. And 2000s: To solidify the wisdom that we have received up to now.

Q: What are your thoughts when the anniversary of John's death passes?

Well, unlike others, I think of John every day, 365 days... we were close, so there is not a day that I do not think of him. I do try to block it, but December 8th is not the only day I think of him.

Q: If John was here with us, what would he be doing?

He would be doing the same: He would be innovating, he would have jumped on computers and the Internet... and he would probably come to the conclusion that they are overrated! (laughs).

Q: Thank you very much for your time Yoko, and we wish you luck in everything you do.

http://www.askmen.com/toys/interview/57_yoko_ono_interview.html

Ono and the musical 'Lennon'
By Lisa Tolin
ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 4, 2005


NEW YORK - It was not long after she met John Lennon that Yoko Ono realized she had become one of the most hated women on the planet.
Sitting in her apartment in the Dakota, just a stone's throw from where Mr. Lennon was gunned down nearly 25 years ago, Miss Ono takes herself back four decades to an art party in London where one of her sculptures was on display.
"We opened the door, came in, and they all looked at us, and they all turned their backs," she says. When Mr. Lennon went to get coffee, the woman at the counter said, "Get it yourself; it's there."
He did, and he guided Miss Ono to a narrow staircase away from the crowd, where they sat and watched revelers nearly step on her sculpture.
"I never forget that day, because that's when I realized, 'What is going on?'?" she says. "It didn't dawn on me, really, that 'Oh, people are against us.'?"
Today, Miss Ono's name can still cause Beatles fans to scowl, but here she is, a widow in black, carefully tending Mr. Lennon's legacy. Now 72, her age barely softening the sharp angles of her face, she takes solace from her husband's words that day in London.
"John said, 'When the going gets bad, we just keep our chins up,'?" she says. "I never forget that John said that, and I always keep my chin up."
Mr. Lennon would have been 64 now, and Miss Ono is still sending him a valentine, this time as the Broadway musical "Lennon," the story of his life told through his words and his music.
Seeing Mr. Lennon's life onstage brings back raw emotions.
"It's a very strange thing," Miss Ono says. "I go to see this play -- I have seen it before, several times already, but each time I still cry."
Promoting Mr. Lennon's work helps her feel connected to him, as does staying in the landmark apartment building near Central Park, just an elevator ride away from where he was gunned down on Dec. 8, 1980. The piano he used to play "Imagine" sits in the corner of the famous white room, topped with family photographs.
"In a way, John's spirit flew away from this building ... and so it's a very important place," Miss Ono says.

Back in the 1970s, Mr. Lennon was working here on his own musical, which he hoped would land on Broadway. It included much of the ground covered in "Lennon" -- his meeting with Miss Ono, bed-ins and family life -- but it "would have been a very avant-garde affair," Miss Ono says.
When director and writer Don Scardino approached Miss Ono with the idea for "Lennon," she was skeptical.
"I said, 'Musical? Isn't that a little bit cheesy?'?" she says with a laugh.
However, she was intrigued by a twist: Each of the nine cast members dons round spectacles to portray Mr. Lennon -- young and old, male and female, black and white. It was an idea she thinks Mr. Lennon would have loved.
"John is not a white hero," she says. "John was international. And there's no reason why a black person can't sing his songs as John."
She gave the show her blessing and two previously unpublished songs: "India, India" and "I Don't Want to Lose You."
"Lennon" opens Aug. 14 at the Broadhurst Theatre.
Even as she continues releasing her husband's work, Miss Ono has experienced a renaissance of her own, with recent performances in London, Paris and New York and several museum shows in Europe. Her solo music -- ridiculed by Beatles fans when it was released -- has been remixed into dance music and hit No. 1 on the Billboard dance charts.
However, she says she has come to terms with the fact that she will never emerge from Mr. Lennon's shadow.
"I'm the second act. ... And it's OK -- the B side is there," she says.
Miss Ono was a founding member of the Fluxus movement, a collection of avant-garde artists whose works often consisted of creating public events. In her famous "Cut Piece," audience members cut away her clothes, bit by bit, with shears.
She met Mr. Lennon in 1966 at the Indica gallery in London, an event re-enacted in "Lennon." He climbed the ladder under her "Ceiling Painting" and peered through a magnifying glass to see one tiny word: "Yes." Miss Ono was soon ripped from relative obscurity into the klieg lights of Beatlemania. The spotlight's glare was not kind.
"Imagine always being called ugly, being called a Japanese witch," says Julie Danao-Salkin, who plays Miss Ono in "Lennon." "That still carries with her today. That kind of effect on a human being is tremendous."
Miss Ono can rattle off the reasons for the hostility: She was Asian, produced art that was difficult to appreciate, and didn't look like the kind of "cute girl" people expected a rock icon to date. Then the Beatles broke up.
"It always seems to be like I'm a convenient scapegoat," she says.
Although she was scorned as a hanger-on, some critics have said Miss Ono might have gotten further in her own career if she had never met Mr. Lennon -- if her celebrity had not obscured her accomplishments.
"Definitely it was a curse, but also it was a blessing. It's both ways, like half-full, half-empty, you know?" she says.
"Lennon" got tepid reviews in San Francisco and provoked some grumbling about what was left out. It includes only one original Beatles song, "The Ballad of John and Yoko," and two covers performed by the Beatles, portrayed in the musical by an all-girl band with shrieking male fans.
"We didn't really want to do a show about the Beatles. The show really is about John Lennon," says producer Allan McKeown, who adds that Mr. Lennon's solo work was more autobiographical.
"We thought we would literally tell the story through John's music. All the words in the show are from John's own lips."
The show skipped a Boston engagement to retool for Broadway. Mr. McKeown says that at least 40 percent is different and that a single actor -- Will Chase -- serves as a "narrator John," connecting the story. Much of "Lennon" is a love story, but it also depicts his infidelity, his breakup with Miss Ono and his drug-fueled "lost weekend" when they were apart and he lived in Los Angeles.
When Miss Ono hears criticism of the show, she feels echoes of the same antagonism she faced when Mr. Lennon was alive.
"If I had any power, I would erase myself from the musical just so people wouldn't mind it, or something like that, because some people get upset because I'm in there," she says. "But history speaks that I was there, so what are you going to do?"

http://washingtontimes.com/entertainment/20050803-091634-9307r.htm

O, No!
Arthurfest headliner Yoko Ono on the Beatles, baseball, sex and peace

Yoko Ono will make a special appearance at ArthurFest on Monday, September 5. The concert will comprise performances of Ono’s songs with her son Sean and their band, as well as some surprises that will require your willing participation in events that could change your life, the life of the person next to you and the person next to him/her. That change could spill over the fences at Barnsdall Park, into Los Angeles and the rest of the planet, representing an opportunity for open-minded well-wishers to be a central, revolutionary part of history.

L.A. WEEKLY: Last year you allowed Basement Jaxx and other DJ types to remix several of your songs, including “Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him,” which, amid the debate about gay marriage, became “Every Man Has a Man Who Loves Him.” But sampling and remixing are nothing new for you, are they?

YOKO ONO: Sampling I did very early, like on Plastic Ono Band. In the process of making it in the studio, I’d say, “Well, don’t you have this or that sound?” [Laughs.] On these new mixes, I just turned it over. This is like big-time delegating to the people who wanted to do this. I really respected and appreciated that they wanted to do it, and so the least I could do was to say, “Well, please do it the way you want it.”

L.A. WEEKLY: Visual art and music are kind of the same thing for you?

YO: Totally. Especially my lyrics, like “Greenfield Morning” on Plastic Ono Band. “I pushed the baby carriage” —whenever I hear that, I get these brilliant green colors, you know. There’s a part of my brain that is connected with visual and auditory at the same time.

L.A. WEEKLY: Possibly dating from when you met John and started hanging out with the rockers, you didn’t turn your back on more abstract musical statements, but you obviously got interested in more direct means of expression.

YO: Definitely. I really think that it saved me from becoming totally intellectual and sort of stuck in the complex mind or something like that... When I went into rock, I said, “Oh, this is what you can do.” It’s fine to use very simple harmonies, because you’re actually communicating with your heart, not with your head. I thought it was a much healthier direction than being in an ivory tower and just communicating with each other, you know? [Laughs.] So I loved that, and I think I was reborn.

L.A. WEEKLY: The more theory-bound you get in your art —

YO: You can’t move! You’re stuck!

L.A. WEEKLY: The idea, then, that you were going to communicate with large numbers of people must’ve seemed positively avant-garde.

YO: The avant-garde world was getting so stale to me, it was no more avant-garde, because it was an establishment of itself, and there’s a hierarchy, etc. etc.

L.A. WEEKLY: In short, you discovered the power of making music that appeals to the body?

YO: Exactly. We forget the body — I mean, we are the body. In the avant-garde world, I was crucified for using too much body. I was too sexual or too, I don’t know, too emotional, too dramatic or something.

L.A. WEEKLY: Going into rock was a worthy tradeoff, though, because suddenly you had a huge audience.

YO: No, I didn’t. I had a huge group of people who hated me instead of a small group of people who hated me. [Laughs.]

L.A. WEEKLY: But it’s better for you now, because you’ve got a younger audience that doesn’t care about their older sister’s hang-up about whether you broke up the Beatles or some nonsense like that.

YO: See, that’s another thing. You know, in short, I didn’t break up the Beatles, so that’s that.

L.A. WEEKLY: As my late friend Jac Zinder once said, Yoko Ono didn’t break up the Beatles, but so what if she did?

YO: [Laughs.] Thank you.

L.A. WEEKLY: You continue to inspire. I wonder where your fervor comes from. What drives you?

YO: You know, when Clear Channel said they wouldn’t play “Imagine” on the radio, I immediately put that in a full-page ad in The New York Times. “Imagine all the people living life in peace.” My rebellious and emotional side of me just comes out like that. I have to be very careful in a way, too. I keep saying that to myself. I have to make sure that I can be doing it without totally destroying myself, by making me become less free. In the end, I’m a person in this society, and this society can ostracize me. Like what happened to John when he was just being himself and they tried to kick him out of America, or something like that. You know what I mean.

L.A. WEEKLY: Doesn’t a terrible kind of isolation accompany celebrity?

YO: I think that the circumference of loneliness is equal to the circumference of awareness. You get used to it.
When I became 70, something happened in my brain, like — wow, great! I found out that I still learn things every day. Like in tens, not in one or two. And each time I learn something I think, what would I have done if I died when I was 60? I would have not known all this.
Terrible things happen each year, in some ways — I mean, not very notable terrible things, just one of those things. Somebody sues me or something — which is kind of routine in my life — so I thought, “If I hadn’t lived this long, I would not have encountered this experience.” It’s almost like it’s a new play, right? I haven’t seen this before, and now I’m seeing it. So it was like, not a pleasure, of course it wasn’t a pleasure, it was, hmmm, okay, I’ll see this through, you know. That’s how I felt. Now I understand how, when people say they went through a near-death experience, from then on they had a totally different take on life.

L.A. WEEKLY: In the end, what would you like to have achieved?

YO: I’m — this is like a competition, it’s a race between the people who’re trying to destroy the globe and the people trying to better and heal the globe. In the Bible they say, “In the beginning there was the Word” — the word is very powerful — “and the word was God.” Well, I think the word was Love. Because Love is simulating what God said, by having sexual intercourse and creating babies. That’s what happens on the universal level. So we’re simulating, all the time, the memory of having been gods and goddesses. Same with baseball and all the ball-playing, because the ball was the planet, and we were gods who played with the planet.
I’m thinking we have to cover the Earth with love, and to do that it’s a race between us covering the world with love and the people who are covering the world with the results of hate. It’s a race, you know. And I really think that we’re gonna win. And one of the things that we’re gonna do is just show each other how much we love each other.

L.A. WEEKLY: Perhaps it’s like you’ve said, that we have to do something, otherwise we’re just paralyzed, frozen.

YO: I want to tell you something: I really trust in the survival instinct of the human race. And I really think it’s such a pity if we have to destroy this beautiful culture civilization that we’ve created in 2,000 or 3,000 years. And you know, I love it. I love life, I love what we’ve created as a human race, and I love this planet, I love the universe, and every day I’m very thankful that I’m still alive.

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/41/music-payne.php

DAILY MAIL APOLOGISES TO YOKO ONO

British newspaper The Daily Mail has issued an official apology to JOHN LENNON's widow YOKO ONO after alleging she photographed the singer's bloodstained glasses on the pavement outside their Dakota apartment on the night of his death.

The IMAGINE hitmaker was shot dead by crazed fan MARK CHAPMAN in December 1980, and the article, published last month (05), stated the former BEATLE's second wife deliberately took the picture the night he was murdered.

The newspaper has now apologised, clarifying the picture was actually taken four months after his death.


http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/daily%20mail%20apologises%20to%...

Слишком много английского текста для меня. Но одно могу сказать: пока мы спорим, что хитовее - Биггер бэнг или Хаос, Йока всех обскачет с помощью древней японской магии, коей в свое время околдовала Джона.

Но нас-то Ёке не околдовать!.. Мы-то знаем, чего она стОит!..

Абсолютно субьективное мнение. Купил себе диск mp3 со всеми альбомами Леннона. Восторга особого у меня не возникло. Выбрал себе каких-нибудь 30 песен которые мог слушать. Дошел до Double Fantasy. Услышал песни Йоко, и только тогда понял, что Джону-то памятник надо поставитьза то что при такой-то женушке смог писать хотя бы такие песни. Вернулся назад и отобрал еще десяток песен Джона.

ONO: 'LENNON'S PRESENCE IS STRONGER THAN EVER'

JOHN LENNON's widow YOKO ONO insists the late BEATLE's presence is stronger than ever - and she can even see how he would have looked had he lived.

The 72-year-old artist planned to commune with Lennon's spirit by meditating on what would have been his 65th birthday this Sunday (08OCT05), but she already feels he is very much around.

She says, "I think he would have looked very, very fit. He had the kind of face that wouldn't have fallen apart.

"And he was a fine looking man - very handsome. I can see every contour and outline of his face in my mind very clearly.

"Usually on his birthday, I stay in the house and meditate. But this year, more than any other, I feel John is around.

"I feel he is still alive, in his music. It's something I'm experiencing this year that's much stronger than feelings about his death."

Lennon was murdered on 8 December 1980 outside his home in the Dakota building in New York City.

04/10/2005

http://contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/ono%20lennons%20presence%20is%20str...

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