29 years ago today this news shocked the world: “On the night of 8 December 1980, at around 10:50 pm, Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times in the entrance of the Dakota apartment building. Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman who had been stalking Lennon since October.“
It’s true that we kill our prophets and Lennon was no exception. As Lennon traveled the road of fame and fortune he began to see the world for what it was. An entire generation awakened with him realizing that the world must be changed. Although the tide rose toward genuine social and spiritual change in the 60’s, that wave rolled back never quite reaching the shore.
Lennon’s memory lives on and his dreams of peace can still be realized by our generation. It’s not too late. We just have to want it and act.
A friend emailed this to me this morning and I was really impressed. It’s an amazing little piece of animation about a person I love. I can’t really rewrite the description any better than it is already written so here it is (enjoy): “In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message.”
03/15 MEXICAN DRUG WAR The FBI has vowed to help Mexican officials in an escalating violent war with rival drug cartels that claimed the lives of 2 American employees of the consulate in the Cuidad Juarez. Both were murdered after leaving a consulate social event. On Sunday, The State Department authorized the temporary departure of dependents of U.S. government personnel from the consulates in Ciudad Juarez along with five other northern border Mexican cities.
03/12 FIVERR The website Fiverr asks, in a very broad way, what would you do for 5 dollars? Or better yet, what could you get done for 5 dollars?
03/10 COREY HAIM DIES 80’s movie star Corey Haim passed at the age of 38 at a hospital in Burbank, California. Some reports have suggested the cause of death may have been an overdose as Haim struggled with drug addiction for years following his success.
02/27 ICEBERG ADRIFT A massive iceberg has struck Antarctica dislodging a gigantic block of ice measuring 48 miles (78 kilometers) long and about 24 miles (39 kilometers) wide and holds roughly the equivalent of a fifth of the world’s annual total water usage. Holy crap.
02/27 CHILEAN EARTHQUAKE A powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake has struck Chile with a death toll so far standing at 82.