Lennon's Lost Weekend

The lack of love and desperation had always been the recurrent elements of songs coming out of John Lennon's pen, during the year and a half he was separated from Yoko Ono, which he baptised as the Lost Weekend, between 1973 to 1974.

A collector had paid €21,000 for an exclusive sound document of Lennon singing whilst dead drunk and heedless, the classic of Lloyd Price's 'Just because', mixing in with the lyrics of his own spontaneous and outrageous expressions like: 'I like to grab hold of the new singers, Carol and the other, by their nipples'. Or: 'I want to catch and tie up all those with whom James Taylor had slept with.' or 'I like to suck your nipples, girl ...'. Was he as obsessed with nipples when not drunk I wonder.

Actually Lennon's long and lost weekend has it's own name: Yoko Ono. The mythical ex-Beatle was so deep into drugs and alcohol during that period of time, that his lady love Yoko decided to terminate their relationship, which was resumed in 1975 and lasted till his death in 1980. "when she chucked me out, I lived in the bottle as if I was 18 or 19, but when you are 30 and some, or whatever age I was then, you can't take that much alcohol any more. Or do crazy stuff, you know, staying out all night.", he so confessed during that period.

The recording of 'Just because', an authentic hymn of yearning of love, has a duration of 6 minutes and 16 seconds, and was given by Lennon himself to the proprietor of the tape. According to Margaret Barret, spokeswoman of the auction house Bonhams and Butterfields.

The band had tried to follow his rhythm, detaining or accelerating the music to be in harmony with the artist's own spontaneous, colourful and expressive renditions. The catalogue described this masterpiece thus: "Although Lennon was drunk, as he was the one singing, it sounds decent."

I bet €20,000 of the price of €21,000 was for the improvised lyric alone; not a doubt.

Tags:Lennon,Yoko,LostWeekend

• Current Mood: Amused

Assorted Indignities

Some decades ago, the Hollywood correspondents and publicity writers invented the Gossip, a subdivision of journalism consisting in propagating words and reports of gossip, according to the dictionary defined as idle talk or writing, rumour or scandalous report, half truths or half lies, about others or things that may or may not be true. That's a lot of tasks this little word represents, and seems to me to fit lots of people, things or situations.

Born and bred in Hollywood, gossips were important part of work where writers were employed to write flatteries, and paint beautiful verbal pictures of talent and virtues of their own stars, and character damaging half truths or even total lies of the rest employed by competitive studios. Now gossips have reached all sectors of the society for a multitude of motives, industrial, commercial, social and political. In general, all people with certain degree of relevance are subjected to the law of jungle.

On the surface, gossips are looked upon with disdain and depreciation but, in practice, almost all of us are at one time or another guilty of it to a certain degree, however tiny. The ex president of Spain, Felipe Gonzalez shut up a group of reporters when he was asked about his extra marital relationship with a certain lady in his government, saying bluntly: "Please, have some dignity." Well this was already sufficient to serve the purpose of the reporters' aim, publishing that the ex president should perhaps also answer another question: "What lesson he can give to someone who alternate wife of convenience with convenient lover?"

Gossip is usually indignant, therefore it moves well amongst indignities, like not too long ago, the Baroness Thyssen who obliged her daughter-in-law to prove that her son Borja was indeed the father of the baby. Borja and the poor child had been subjected to the investigation twice, with positive results both times, but now the Baroness is asking for a 3rd test to obtain the DNA just one more time! The petition is to me as indignant as the acceptance by the young couple, but they had been guaranteed the vast inheritance in exchange for that offensive request. It's obviously not the time to argue about dignity or indignity.

I admit I am totally confused with this business of dignity or indignity of the high society.

Tags:indignity,dignity,gossip

• Current Mood: Bitchy

Cars In The News

** Woman lets her dog drive her car **

A Chinese woman has been involved in a car crash - because she let her dog drive. The accident happened in the city of Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia region, Xinhua news agency has reported. The woman, named only as Li, decided to let her dog drive when she noticed how he was of crouching on the wheel. She let the dog steer while she operated the accelerator and the brake. The experiment resulted almost immediately in a collision with another car.

** Car Thief **

A car thief who ran out of petrol in rush hour traffic was arrested after police helped him push the stolen vehicle to the side of the road reports The Moscow Times. Helpful officers in Moscow, Russia, were about to leave the scene and let Alexei Ashurin wait for breakdown services when they noticed the red 15 year old Volkswagen's lock was broken and a screwdriver was sticking out of the ignition.

After checking the number plate, they discovered the vehicle had been stolen and that Ashurin was wanted for a string of other motoring thefts. He admitted to stealing the car and is now facing up to two years in prison if convicted.

** Beware Dangers of Foggy Weather **

Two motorists had an all too literal head on collision in heavy fog near the small town of Guetersloh, Germany. Each was guiding his car at a snail's pace near the middle of the road because of the thick fog. At the moment of impact their heads were both out of the windows when they smacked together. Both men were hospitalised with severe head injuries. Their cars weren't damaged at all and didn't have a mark on them.

Tags:News,cars

• Current Mood: Accomplished

China Dolls, Japanese Geishas ...

The toy factories in Spain is producing a lot of new dolls, with a difference. They bear facial features and characteristics of many different races, reflecting the present day Spain with more than 14% of the population made up by immigrants as from 2010. In fact the Spanish Association of Toy manufacturers manifested that they have since made it their priority aim of production, concentrating in representing as many nationalities as possible.

Many of the immigrants have been here for very long time, some even for generations; and many have taken up Spanish nationality. Naturally, most of them keep up their own individuality and their own culture and traditions, at least in their home life. That's how things should be. Unavoidably though, some continue to feel themselves immigrants in a foreign country, because there are few things tangible or familiar to remind them of their native land. The encouraging fact is most are willing and prepared to fit in where possible. The government also have set up education centers in most towns, big or small, Spanish language classes free of charge for adults, while children go to school like all locals.

This seems to me a very good trend how things are going. If the children are already playing in their school yard with their little friends from China, Africa and Russia, why can't they reproduce such life experience with their toys? With the new range of multinational toys the children learn the most important lesson of accepting different appearances, different cultures, different ethnics, exchanging knowledge of each other's traditions and culture and, most important of all, the value of harmonious coexistence. Uniting all these together and extending the message to the world, we are all one happy family!

Tags:toys,dolls,immigrants

• Current Mood: Cheerful

The Empty Tray

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