Something 4 The Weekend # 216

Yoko Ono: A Story: "Yes I'm A Witch" [mp3]

I love Yoko Ono.

Over the years, she's become a litmus test of sorts. When I hear a person making fun of Yoko, or bitch about her, or claim she's only famous for marrying John Lennon, I immediately question everything that person thinks or believes about pop culture, art, and even life.

Yoko Ono was an engaging, challenging, self-contained artist and person before she met Lennon. I'm pretty certain those qualities, among many others, is what made Lennon fall in love with her from the start. And it's not important whether or not one likes her art and music. I'll be the first to admit that it's not for everybody, and even someone like me, who adores Yoko Ono, doesn't like everything she's done. But it's important, to me anyways, that we recognize and respect the fact that she puts herself and her art/music/ideas out there for scrutiny. Especially when that art/music isn't the beige, lifeless kind of pablum that so many of us embrace so readily. Many of us don't want to be challenged or provoked, we just want to be entertained. Those kinds of people are generally as beige and lifeless as their music collections.

I work with a woman who was/is a bonafide '60's hippie. She has a bumpersticker on her Prius that reads I STILL BLAME YOKO. I asked her one day why she hates Yoko, knowing full well what her answer would be - "She's the reason The Beatles broke up."

So I asked her, "Don't you think it was John and Paul's massive egos that broke that band up, and Yoko is just a convenient scapegoat?", to which she replied, "That's just a bunch of nonsense."

I'm at a loss for words, so I'll just say it again - I love Yoko Ono. You don't have to, but you probably should.

"Every time you do what you want to do, you're living."

Hotcha! Hank