YOKO ONO

After reading Guardian article...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jun/14/yoko-ono-post-questions

Yoko Ono Q&A: post your questions

The artist, musician, film-maker and activist will be answering your questions next week. What would you like to ask?

Why do some people hate Yoko Ono?

Most people see her as the person that broke up the best loved Band in the world.  I dont think she was the only reason they broke up.

Many people somehow fantasize that the Beatles would have stayed together and continued to make ever more incredible music forever and ever instead of breaking up. Yoko in some people's minds prevented that. I don't think it's true. I think they were moving in different directions artistically - John, Paul, & George - and the group could no longer contain them. Yoko is unfairly blamed in my opinion, but she's been a public figure and so has become a kind of lightning rod for the disappointment. Not that she has done anything to endear herself to the fans either.

She came between John and Paul in the 70s. She told the people who worked for John not to tell him that Paul had called.
When John had his whole lost weekend thing he was close to getting The Beatles back together (not sure that would have been a good thing) but instead he went back to Yoko. It's obvious what Yoko's influence was on John, just listen to his music. She was brought into the studio with the other Beatles and I am sure that didnt sit well with the others. She has remixed John's solo work and pulled the original mixes.  I think the remixes are pretty good for the most part, but some fans want the originals too.
She put her music on John's albums, to the point where half the album was hers and the other half John's.
She is the dominate type and some people dont like her influence on John.
Why do people hate Yoko? Because John died and she lived. He's not around to defend her anymore so she's fair game.
She made John happy.

Yoko Ono the Artist has been recognised and awarded for her contributions within the Art community.
She is in her 70's and still caring about people in this cruel world, give her a break! What has anyone ever done for Yoko?
Not much, in comparison to what's been done to her. Give Peace a Chance. 
Yoko Ono looks better than Paul and Ringo in old age in my opinion.
Yoko isn't a perfect, nor is she a saint, she is what she is - Yoko.
The one reason some people didn't like her was maybe because she was where she didn't belong, in the studio with the Beatles, but with that said, Linda didn't belong there either.
Calling her an ugly and stupid is just plain ignorance and arrogance, Beatle's fan or not.
I have found her art enjoyable, but to each their own.

Yoko could write pretty good lyrics and  she is very intelligent, but only probably her husband John and her biggest fans could enjoy her singing.
It caused tension when she came to the studio and set up her bed at Abbey road studio.
She was faithful to John and helped him deal with his fame.Also her son Sean is a very intelligent man and has some talent.
Strawberry Fields in New York was set up by Yoko and the Bus that travels around to help children learn about music.  I saw it on TV a couple of days ago.
She protects John's legacy.
She did make sure Strawberry Fields memorial was dedicated to John and she gave John a son and she supports the same causes John would support if he were still here like the traveling Bus that takes musical instruments to unfortunate children and teaches them music.She and Paul and Ringo have all made Peace and she proudly was there with them.  Yoko Ono who just happened to be married to John and was his choice for wife and soulmate.
Yoko Ono once was asked -  if it offended her to be called a 'Dragon Lady'?
Her reply was - 'Not at all, because a Dragon is pictured to be very strong and yes controling with great strenght'
She was no Saint and has done some things that were strange and unusual but she still fights for Peace and brotherhood of man. She is still an artist in her own way and still loves John in her heart I believe.

picture source unknown

Yoko Ono: “I have so much love because the whole world hated me”: 

Das Gift (“The Poison”) [Haunch of Venison, Berlin, Germany]

"People are idiots. They made a lot of stupid things: costumes for dogs, marketing managers and stuff like the iPhone, getting nothing but a sour aftertaste. If we’d worked to develop science, explore the Moon, Mars and Venus… who knows what the world would have been like? Humanity would be able to travel through space, but it chose consuming instead - drinking beer and watching soap operas"(Ray Bradbury)

Bill Bryson

I discovered something amazing today, it is Bill Bryson’s book Notes From Small Island.

I laughed so much while reading this.

Bryson is an American who has lived in England for about many years. His affection for the people and the places is unmistakable, and his "outsider's" perspective combined with a wry wit make for entertaining - and hilarious - reading.

Bryson has written numerous other books, and now I want to read them, too!

I like Bill Bryson style of writing; he's very informative and funny, even if sometimes you have to check to see if he's pulling your leg.

He travels by train and by foot, and only occasionally by car and stays in hotels and guesthouses, stops for drinks in pubs great and awful. It’s all quite fun to read.

He clearly loves Britain and in the manner of those you love, finds it quite irritating.

Bryson has his serious moments too, and he uses them to showcase the Britain he knows and loves in all its understated glory.

He's got an admirable eye for detail and an obvious love for the history of the British Isles.

In his travels across the United Kingdom, Bryson seems to prefer the small places, (same as I prefer) the places nobody goes much or talks about, places like Weston-super-Mare and Durham and Bournemouth, and he gives we the readers a delightful look into some of the nooks and crannies in each of these places.

He visits some of the big cities as well, like Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London but his affections clearly lie in the charming-small places, the ones that maintain a sense of their history and their character.

 "Notes from a Small Island" is an ideal book for both those who have lived in Great Britain and those who have never even been there.

Bryson provides a unique perspective and a clear love for the country, his salient and funny points will help steer you in surprising directions.

 I am an anglophile. An anglophile is someone who is fond of British culture.

I believe it probably began from my childhood reading with my introduction to the Alice in Wonderland and just snowballed from there. Alice in Wonderland turned me on to British language and slang, British geography, and more about the culture. From there, I began seeking out books and films that took place in Britain just to experience that same feel.

What I felt most while reading this book was an overwhelming sense of envy and love.

From beginning to end this book was an utter joy to read. One of the best parts was that Bryson began the book by telling of his first encounter with Great Britain being stranded under an outdoor shelter of sorts in a torrential rainstorm because all the hotels had closed for the evening. 

“The tearoom lady called me love. All the shop ladies called me love and most of the men called me mate. I hadn't been here twelve hours and already they loved me.”
― Bill Bryson, Notes from a Small Island  

"... all the men and women merely players..."

"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players." (William Shakespeare)


 My Dinner with Andre movie written by and starring Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, and directed by Louis Malle. The film, described as “an extended conversation between two old friends over dinner,” a conversation over dinner between two old friends… no action sequences, no special effects....mobile phones and computers...
This movie are now thirty one years old! 
 The movie is simply an unpretentious yet intelligent and fascinating conversation about the nature of life and living. 
Art of living? Is life is art?
The conversation, covering a wide range of topics from the New York theatre scene to the nature of reality, serves to contrast Andre’s more adventurous life filled with world travels and life-changing experiences  with Wallace’s more down-to-earth, pragmatic but not cynical, perspective.
There hasn't been another movie anything like this one!
 
some of my favorite scenes:

Andre: Okay! Yes! We're bored! We're all bored now! But has it ever occurred to you, Wally, that the process that creates this boredom that we see in the world now may very well be a self-perpetuating, unconscious form of brain-washing, created by a world totalitarian government based on money? And that all of this is much more dangerous than one thinks? And it's not just a question of individual survival, Wally, but that somebody who's bored is asleep, and somebody who's asleep will not say "no"?



Wally: I mean, really, I mean.... I mean, all right. Let's say: if I get a fortune cookie in a Chinese restaurant, I mean, of course, even I have a tendency, I mean, you know, I mean, of course, I would hardly throw it out! I mean, I read it, I read it, and I just instinctively sort of, you know, if it says something like: "Conversation with a dark-haired man will be very important for you," well, I just instinctively think, you know, who do I know who has dark hair? Did we have a conversation? What did we talk about?

Andre: What does it do to us, Wally, living in an environment where something as massive as the seasons or winter or cold, don’t in any way affect us? I mean, were animals after all. I mean… what does that mean? I think that means that instead of living under the sun and the moon and the sky and the stars, we’re living in a fantasy world of our own making.

Wally: Yeah, but I mean, I would never give up my electric blanket, Andre. I mean, because New York is cold in the winter. I mean, our apartment is cold! It’s a difficult environment. I mean, our life is tough enough as it is. I’m not looking for ways to get rid of a few things that provide relief and comfort. I mean, on the contrary, I’m looking for more comfort because the world is very abrasive. I mean, I’m trying to protect myself because, really, there’s these abrasive beatings to be avoided everywhere you look!

Andre: But, Wally, don’t you see that comfort can be dangerous? I mean, you like to be comfortable and I like to be comfortable too, but comfort can lull you into a dangerous tranquility. 

“The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of - words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you’ve said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That’s the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller, but for want of an understanding ear.”
(Stephen King, Different Seasons)

Eaton estate and garden

"I stressed the love situation and I still think I was right. Because its very disturbing to speak about love. People think that either you are a little bit ethereal or that you are not aware that there are struggles and hate and violence in the world and so on. Or that you are a little bit religious or something like that. Love has become the modern obscenity, it’s more obscene than sex, you can talk about sex and violence and that’s OK; everybody knows that exists, but love is too strange" ( Julia Kristeva)

Going to the beautiful places as Eaton Hall and garden or Chatsworth  for me is…some kind of searching for a “beliefs”, perfect society, aesthetic pleasure, beauty…serenity…love...

What is common between art, beliefs and desire to create and enjoying the beauty?

I don’t know exactly how describe my feelings and desire for wanderlust and to see beauty.

I am an artist.

I heard so many times the phrase: “Art is my religion”

Can I say it about myself?

Probably I can…

What is “religion”?

It is confusing.

 It has its common denominator - religion and its implication in people life. Word “religion” comes from the Latin word "religare", meaning - to bind. To be bound by faith?

 That is religion?

I am not remotely religious at all and class myself as a Humanist.

“Humanism is a process of permanent refoundation, that develops through the ruptures that are innovations. Memory does not regard the past: the Bible, the Gospels, the Koran, the Rig Veda, the Tao, live in the present. In order for humanism might develop and re-found itself, the moment has come to take up again the moral codes built throughout history: without weakening them, in order to problematize them, to renew them in the face of new singularities”

(http://www.kristeva.fr/assisi2011_en.html)

Do I need to be “bound” with other people with the same beliefs? Sometimes – yes.

Usually it is not the same religious beliefs people but arty people. People who create.

What is in common between art and religion?

Religion is made up entirely and used to "explain" things people don't understand, give people hope from a miserable life when they die and… to scare the masses.

"Religion is the opiate of the masses" wrote Karl Marx

If people didn't have something to believe in, they would have no reason to behave themselves. They would go around killing, stealing, etc… because they would have no "higher power" to answer to.

The more I think about it the more confused I become...

 Did people twist religion into a reason to hate each other?

 I don't want to categorize myself under any religion but I have faith and believe.

 How difficult to pick a religion?

They all seem to have the same goals and messages, isn’t it?

 I have found myself thinking about religion and church that it is much like a cult. If you go to a religious ceremony and sit-stand-sing-chant...

 I have not met a single person that does not categorize themselves under some form of religion, even atheists and agnostics are still groups of people who all believe in the same thing, which would be a religion of a sort.

 I went to church because I've been on a search to see if any religions appeal to me…

 So far no... but I do have beliefs.

 My religion would be a mix of like Catholicism, Christianity, Humanism, Art… Mother Nature…all sorts, because I do not necessarily believe that any one religion is wrong, they all have appeals to me.

I am wondering why it is that people feel the need to label their beliefs?

There is nothing wrong with respecting Mother, Mother Earth and Mother Nature and believing in the energy of the universe…

I suppose religion for too many people just seems like it isn't even about God, it isn't even about being a better person and believing, it is about rules and regulations and going to church and praying and hating everyone who isn't exactly like you....

My confusion is that shouldn't it not matter what you believe, as long as your beliefs make you a better person?

Having a set religion makes people feel less alone?

But why claim to be religious and then hate others for not being exactly like you?

Maybe religion is important for people because it deals with the most important questions like 'What is the purpose of life?', 'Why am I here?'

Maybe the answer is “to create”?

Religion has done much to divide and hurt humanity.

A true religion and beliefs would have to be true.

“True”…

What is “true”…where is “true”…?

Religions are irrational belief systems.

No one has evidence why their god-beliefs are true while other god-beliefs are false?

Atheists don't have any god beliefs at all, which eliminates irrationality from their belief system.

 Words have meaning.

 Can or cannot people change the meaning of words to suit their beliefs?

Is religion the main source of morals and values today?

I feel like mother and family is the main source of morals and value.

It is a woman – mother - who teach her child about humanity from the beginning, woman-mother who “feed, guard and teach the human race”.

Woman is the creator!

What's the importance of art and creativity in relation to reality and life?

 It can be simply saying to appreciate art as it is an expression from the soul. Most people that believe in God say that it's to enjoy, understand and respect the beauty of God's creations.

 But how to answer this question if I want to stay away from religious meaning of art? 

Art is an emotional expression to communicate a complex idea that's too complicated for people to understand it logically.

Art can show ideas that language can't show.

Art is to help us understand the beauty in everything and view the different viewpoints of reality. In understanding things in many perspectives we gain more insight.

Art is to enhance people ability to mentally create ideas creatively. Creative intelligence is useful in creating new inventions, methods and problem solving. Creativity has a higher limit than plain knowledge.

Art can be useful in understanding reality and life.

“The humanism of the twenty-first century is not a theomorphism. Neither "value" or ulterior "end", Man with a capital M does not exist. After the Shoah and the Gulags, humanism has a duty to remind men and women that if, on the one hand, we retain ourselves to be the only legislators, it is uniquely through the continuing questioning of our personal, historical and social situation that we can decide for society and history. Today, far from deglobalization, it is necessary to invent new international rules to regulate and control the finance and the global economy and finally to create a world authority based on universal ethics and solidarity.”

http://www.kristeva.fr/assisi2011_en.html

 "Man does not make history, we are history. For the first time, homo sapiens is capable of destroying the earth and himself in the name of his beliefs, religions or ideologies. Similarly, for the first time men and women are able to reassess in total transparency the constituent religiosity of the human being. The diversity of our meeting here in Assisi, shows that this hypothesis of destruction is not the only possible one. No one knows what human beings will follow us, we who are engaged in this unprecedented anthropological and cosmic transvaluation. The re-founding of humanism is not a providential dogma or a spirited game, it is a gamble.


The age of suspicion is no longer enough. Faced with increasingly grave crisis and threats, the time has come to gamble. We must dare to bet on the continuous renewal of the capacity of men and women to listen and learn together. So that, in the "multiverse" surrounded by a void, mankind can continue to pursue his creative destiny for a long time to come"

Julia Kristeva, Assisi, 27 october 2011

http://www.kristeva.fr/assisi2011_en.html

"So when the great word 'Mother!' rang once more,
I saw at last its meaning and its place;
Not the blind passion of the brooding past,
But Mother -- the World's Mother -- come at last,
To love as she had never loved before --
To feed and guard and teach the human race." (Charlotte Perkins Gilman )

god save the queen

Prime Minister David Cameron with scouts at the Downing Street party in London. He said the UK needed the Monarchy because it provided stability

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153969/Queens-Diamond-Jubilee-Tens-thousands-jubilant-revellers-throng-banks-Thames-Queen-arrives-Jubilee-river-pageant.html#ixzz1wkKxRDCl

I couldn't agree more
I love HM Queen!