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25 Things Even My Best Friends Didn’t Know Until Now by Yoko Ono
Compliments of www.imaginepeace.com
http://imaginepeace.com/news/archives/5865
1 October 2009
25 Things Even My Best Friends Didn’t Know Until Now
by Yoko Ono
From the Bottom Up:
1. I like to wiggle my toes when I’m waiting for something – like in the
waiting room of my dentist. It makes me less nervous.
2. I like to be barefoot as much as possible. Places I’m definitely
barefoot are: a) at home b) in bed c) in the shower. What’s wrong?
You guessed that much? Well, you never know, do you!
3. In fact I love to put my feet up at the end of the day, and
watch them looking kinda good. I say in my mind to them: “Thank you
for taking me around for so many years to so many places and still
doing so – with happy steps. You’re the best!”
4. I have rather short legs to match my short height. I love that.
The fact that they’re short makes them easier to go around with. Can
you imagine if I had long legs? They might go in different directions
from each other, or something. Then what would I do? Short legs work
very well for me.
5. Okay, I must confess. I love wearing high heel shoes. I love wearing
silk stockings. I love wearing hot pants. When I arm myself with those
three, I feel like a tough girl from the 1930’s. If I didn’t look at
myself in the mirror, I might just mistake myself for Rita Heyworth, or
Marlene Dietrich. How great is that?!
6. Oh, I forgot to tell you about my ankles, calves and thighs. Well, later.
7. I must go back and tell you about my flats. When I wore flats at
my college campus in the 50’s, I had these great flats which made one
of my toes stick out. I thought that it was so creative. Wherever I
went, the girls at campus looked at the toe, looked at me, and
expressed disapproval with their eyes. I loved it. But they were nowhere
as special as high heeled shoes. They did not make my heart beat fast.
8. So now we go to gloves. I love gloves. I have leather ones,
lace ones, satin ones. Long, medium, short. All great looking. But I
hate wearing them. It’s too bad. Because I could wear them and look
really sharp. But I don’t like them on – my hands cannot breathe
properly. My hands love to feel the air, the breeze, the wind, the sun.
So I put on really great ones that match my outfit, go out, and take
them off right away. It’s really too bad. My hands are knobbly and tiny.
Not a good combo. So I would love it if I could show off the gloves
instead of my hands. But…that’s life.
9. I love rings. But for some reason, just like the gloves, I like
to take them off right away, as soon as I am alone. I go to an
opening wearing a nice ring. I come out of it, get in the car, and the
first thing I do is to take off the ring and put it in my purse. I
don’t like that feeling of something restricting my finger.
10. Speaking of stuff that bothers me: I hate putting things on my face.
They say it’s better to put some cream on your face if you don’t want to
shrivel up like an old potato one day. So I got all the latest cream I
read in the ads. But once I had put one of them on, it made me feel so
sticky that I had to immediately wipe it off with a very hot towel. I
couldn’t help it. My whole face rebelled against the stickiness.
Speaking of sticky: Once I put on some green mud on my face and got
pimples for a week. That was not good.
11. Now hats! I think everybody has a vague idea that maybe I love hats,
since I am always wearing one. In case you might think that maybe I’m
trying to hide a bald spot or something, I occasionally take it off to
expose my bushy hair. But soon enough, I put it on again. The reason is
so complex that I’d have to go to a shrink for a year, and probably
still wouldn’t find out what’s making me do this. I don’t go to any
shrink, so I will probably never know. Maybe I just like hats. Or maybe
I think I will look taller if I wore one. Or maybe I think people’s
focus will go to my hat and not my face. Of course, I’m not saying
there’s anything wrong with my face, honey. A girl does not have to hide
under a hat, ever. If there were a few wrinkles and shades, they just
make you look more interesting…. So they say.
12. All my life my mother told me that I had strong jaws like a guy. It
was not womanly. Well, I got them from my father, I think. So yes, I
won’t say I am particularly feminine. So what? I used to hide my jaws
with my long hair. John used to say “Show me your face!” and took my
hair out of my face. “Look, you’re beautiful. I don’t know why you are
hiding with your hair.” I kept myself hidden.
13. I also kept my hands in my pockets as much as possible. My
mother didn’t have to point out to me that my hands were stringy.
But they were.
14. My head was unusually large for my small bod. So John called me
a “Martian”.
15. I look at the sky and feel like my home is somewhere far away – so I
thought I might really be a Martian – a result of
cross-breeding thousands of years ago.
16. I used to love wandering aimlessly. I used to walk about 7 miles in
the city aimlessly, but with the speed of the wind! I can’t do that now.
If I did it now it would be unfair to the security guard.
17. But I’ve got tons of great things to do at home. Most people
think ”what?” Because they want a name for what I do. What is the name
for it? I just like pottering around my flat, fixing the crooked
frames, looking over the park and day dreaming.
18. It’s so nice to see the sky through a small opening of an
old fashioned window from my apartment!
19. I think of the days we were gods and goddesses, playing ball
with planets. We were larger than dinosaurs. But now we sit like good
girls and boys and watch the small tennis ball going left and
right, forgetting the days when we use to play with bigger balls.
What happens when we shrink even further, and become the size
of cockroaches? Will we be still playing with something that echoes
the time when we were larger?
20. When the war started, I thought it would be more economical to drop
10 thousand dollar bags from the sky to the people of the country. It’s
cheaper, and what they need. But now we don’t even have enough money to
do that.
21. When I daydream, I go all the way to the end of the Earth, and come
back. It’s a nice exercise.
22. Well actually, not always. Sometimes I just go to the city I
love. Once I was flying low in Geneva, and I saw a friend of mine
walking. The interesting thing was that friend was somebody who died
over ten years ago. He did not have any strong reason to be in Geneva. I
just wanted to share this with you because it seems that we just
wander where we like, and when we want. Not for any reason.
I loved that.
23. Now that you know so much about me, I should not go all the way
to 25, or should I? For number 23, Let’s say, I am a person who needs
a lot of time to myself. If I don’t have the time, I will be making
it, anyway. My mother use to wave her hand in front of me and say
“Yoko are you there?” Well, if I were always there, I would not be me,
would I?
24. John and I felt that we were like people in an H.G. Wells story.
Two people who are walking so fast that nobody else can see them.
Well, that creates a problem, too. Sometimes you want to have a good
chat with friends.
25. In a day, sometimes I feel so much love for the world, I think
my heart is bursting. Sometimes, I feel so scared, I want to
shrink myself even further. I think that’s what happened to us gods
and goddesses. Like the dinosaurs, we realized that it’s too dangerous
to be so large. So we kept shrinking ourselves to what we are now.
We might get even smaller. I see the sign in the engineers making
smaller gadgets, smaller and smaller. Pretty soon, our fingers will be
too large to operate them. So what are we doing? I trust in the
human wisdom. We are incredibly intelligent beings. So we might
know something without thinking that we know…. Well, even my best
friend didn’t know until now that I was thinking of crazy things like this.
Have a good day!
yoko ono
New York City
Feb. 2009
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“Excellent, essential”
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“Fantastically cool, fearlessly weird”
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DAILY TELEGRAPH |
“Brilliant, absorbing, thoughtful”
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THE INDEPENDENT |
“Challenging, tender”
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OBSERVER MUSIC MONTHLY |
“The best work of her musical career”
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NME |
“Brawny, brainy avante-rock”
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THE ONION (AV CLUB) |
“Beautifully desolate, bittersweet”
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PITCHFORK |
“Truly vital: unsettling, touching, funny, undeniable”
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ROLLING STONE |
“Hell, yeah! Will coax your heart wide open”
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SPIN |
“Artworks-as-song with vigour”
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Q MAGAZINE |
“Crackling with excitement”
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MOJO |
“Audacious, deeply focussed, wonderfully colorful and deeply expressive”
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ALL MUSIC GUIDE |
“Expressively melodic voice”
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Chynna Phillips and Vaughan Penn
    
   
Chatting with Chynna Phillips and Vaughan Penn
Yoko Ono to receive Lifetime Achievement Golden Lion at Venice Biennale 2009
24 February 2009
Message from Yoko Ono:
Dear Friends,
When I heard that I was selected for the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award of 2009,
I felt like i was in a fog, listening to a foghorn far away!
The fog slowly cleared.
The foghorn changed into the speech the director of the Biennale was giving on this occasion.
So what should I say…thank you?
John would have been so proud of me.
“I told you, didn’t I?” he would say.
I am glad, too.
I feel like I was suddenly given a huge birthday card.
I see myself struggling to hold it in my heart.
Thank you for being there for me all these years.
I am a lucky girl.
yoko
Yoko Ono
1 March 2009
NYC
Yoko Ono to receive Lifetime Achievement Golden Lion
at Venice Biennale 2009
As part of the 53rd International Venice Biennale 2009,
Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement will be awarded to Yoko Ono
and John Baldessari - two of the most important artists of our time.
As decided by the Board of the Venice Biennale, chaired by Paolo
Baratta, on the proposal of the Director, Daniel Birnbaum, the award
will be officially presented to the two artists on 6th June 2009 during
the opening of the 53rd International Art Exhibition titled Making
Worlds.
“The Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement are honouring two artists
whose ground-breaking activities have opened new poetic, conceptual and
social possibilities for artists around the globe working in all media,”
commented Director Daniel Birnbaum also stressing that “Yoko Ono and
John Baldessari have shaped our understanding of art and its
relationship to the world in which we live. Their work has
revolutionized the language of art and will remain a source of
inspiration for generations to come.”
Yoko Ono, born in Tokyo 1933, is a key figure in post-war art. A pioneer
in performance and conceptual art, she is one of the most influential
artists of our time. Long before becoming an icon in popular culture and
in peace activism, she developed artistic strategies that have left a
lasting mark both in her native Japan and in the West.
John Baldessari, born in California 1931, is one today’s most important
visual artists. Often named the most important art teacher of our times,
he has above all developed a visual language entirely his own. Since the
1960s, he has worked in many disciplines and has produced an outstanding
body of work that has inspired several generations of artists.
The 53rd Exhibition, titled Making Worlds // Fare Mondi // Bantin
Duniyan // ???? // Weltenmachen // Construire des Mondes // Fazer
Mundos… will take place from 7th June to 22nd November 2009 in the
Giardini and the Arsenale and elsewhere in Venice. The press preview
will take place on 4th, 5th and 6th June 2009.
President Paolo Baratta and Director Daniel Birnbaum will present the
53rd Exhibition to the national and international press on a series of
press conferences that will take place in:
Rome (March, 23rd 2009, noon, Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities)
Berlin (March, 24th 2009, 10:30 a.m., Italian Embassy)
Paris (March, 26th 2009, 11:00 a.m., Italian Cultural Institute)
London (March, 27th 2009, 10:30 a.m., Italian Cultural Institute) and
New York (March, 30th 2009, 11:30 a.m., Italian Cultural Institute).
IMAGINE PEACE
By Catherine Jones, Liverpool Daily Post HE FAMOUSLY described it as “anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional and anti-capitalistic’. But now John Lennon’s magnum opus Imagine – dubbed one of the greatest songs of all time – is to be performed on Liverpool Cathedral’s bells. The... [More here ?]
http://imaginepeace.com/news/archives/6150
John Lennon’s Imagine rang out on Liverpool Cathedral bells
12 May 2009
Video – Liverpool Cathedral Bells play Lennon’s Imagine
By Ian Jackson, Art in Liverpool.com, 16 May 2009
Actually being there in front of the great cathedral with a crowd of people listening intently was quite an experience. It sounded quite melancholic and moving but it maybe doesn’t translate well onto this bit of video. The campanologists did a great job, I struggled to keep the wind and occasional spots of rain off the camera. But at least it gives some idea of the event. This is the second performance which took place at 12.30 today Saturday 16 May 2009, my first attempt at noon wasn’t so good as I struggled with the weather conditions. An excellent piece of sound art.
Following on from Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year, John Lennon’s Imagine is to ring out across Liverpool on the world’s highest and heaviest peal of bells at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral.
Futuresonic has commissioned artist Cleo Evans in collaboration with Sam Austin, Liverpool Ringing Master and other local change ringers to create this special event. This is the first time a popular, and secular, song has been played on Liverpool Cathedral’s bells, the highest and heaviest peal of bells in the world. With thirteen bells arranged around ‘Great George’, a central ringing bell which weighs over 14 tons, they can be heard for miles around. The rendition of one of Lennon’s most celebrated songs is set to become a simultaneous and collective city-wide experience.
Yoko Ono
My Sweet Friends! by Yoko Ono
14 October 2009
My Sweet Friends!
I am so glad that Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Prizes are given to those in need. (I must have needed a lot this past July!) Obama needs all the encouragement he can get at this point. Let’s all send him the love and trust he could use as his energy to do his share of bettering the world.
Thank you to everyone who wished Sean a happy birthday. All his life, his birthday was always mentioned as his dad’s. Now he is more mature about it, but still it must be nice to get an acknowledgement that it is his as well. I thank you as his mom, partner and friend.
On this year’s October 9th, we had very severe stormy weather in Iceland. We all witnessed the lighting of IMAGINE PEACE TOWER together in high spirits, though. In fact, everybody was so “up” in such a “northern shade of light,” it really surprised me. It was a very, very special October 9th. I know you were there with us in spirit, too.
Over 13,500 people worldwide joined us live on www.IMAGINEPEACE.com to watch the relighting of IMAGINE PEACE TOWER in Iceland – and imagine living life in peace.
A big HELLO to all of you from The United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Canada, Iceland, Brazil, Germany, France, Mexico, Australia, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Philippines, Argentina, Russia, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, India, Venezuela, Norway, Portugal, New Zealand, Turkey, Ireland, Singapore, Belgium, Poland, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Denmark, South Korea, Peru, Thailand, South Africa, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Croatia, Uruguay, Israel, Finland, Ukraine, Hungary, Puerto Rico, Greece, Estonia, Latvia, Serbia, United Arab Emirates, Costa Rica, Qatar, Egypt, Romania, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Macedonia [FYROM], British Virgin Islands, Panama, El Salvador, Pakistan, Slovenia, Slovakia, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Vietnam, Algeria, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Guatemala, Bulgaria, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Bolivia, Morocco, Honduras, Isle of Man, French Polynesia, Fiji, Georgia, Kuwait, Sudan, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Jordan, Jersey, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Iran, Bahrain, Nigeria, Bahamas, Myanmar [Burma], Malta, Nepal, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Palestinian Territories, Tanzania, Cameroon, Togo, Liechtenstein, Guernsey, Brunei, Syria, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Montenegro, Kenya, Trinidad & Tobago, The Cayman Islands and Belize.
The opening of IMAGINE PEACE TOWER in Second Life took place (at 10:30pm Reykjavik time) on the 9th. In Second Life, the Tower illuminates 6 times a day, and you can do things in Second Life that you can’t do in this one, like fly! More info here.
A very magical John Lennon Tribute Concert took place in Reykjavik. After Second Life, Sean and I joined in at the end of the concert with Give Peace A Chance. Sean played the whole set of drums, and I sung and flashed ONOCHORD and generally jumped around.
A crater on the moon was named John Lennon Peace Crater by The Lunar Geographic Society.
Have fun. i ii iii mI love you! yoko
Clinton vows help to solve N. Ireland deadlock
AFP Lachlan Carmichael
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged US investment and political support for Northern Ireland Monday, as its leaders battle to resolve a political standoff threatening the peace process.
In a major speech in Belfast, Clinton said Catholics and Protestants have come a long way since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which her husband helped to broker but warned that they still have some way to travel.
"I pledge that the United States will be behind you all the way as you work for peace and stability that lasts," she said.
Clinton was meeting political and business leaders and made the speech to the Northern Ireland Assembly in a bid to defuse a row which has brought the fragile cross-community administration to a standstill.
The power-sharing executive took office in May 2007 after elections and a landmark accord between conservative pro-British Protestants and Catholic socialist republicans.
But two-and-a-half years later, Northern Ireland's main parties are at loggerheads over the transfer of police and justice powers from London to Belfast as part of the devolution process.
As well as the political tussle, the killings of two soldiers and a policeman earlier this year highlighted the threats posed by paramilitary groups which have not yet renounced violence, Clinton said.
"Now they are watching this assembly for signs of uncertainty or internal disagreement," the US secretary of state told lawmakers in the Stormont Castle seat of the British province's self-rule assembly.
"They want to derail your confidence. And though they are small in number, their thuggish tactics and destructive ambitions threaten the security of every family in Northern Ireland."
But she said: "Moving ahead together with the process will leave them stranded on the wrong side of history."
First Minister Peter Robinson's Protestant Democratic Unionist Party and his deputy Martin McGuinness's Catholic Sinn Fein agree in principle on the transfer of responsibility for policing, but disagree over the timing and details.
Responding to Clinton's speech, Robinson quipped to reporters: "Make any speech in the Northern Ireland Assembly and nobody walks out, it's a bit of a triumph. I think she's accomplished that."
McGuinness, a former Irish Republican Army (IRA) commander, added that the speech was "inspirational" and described Clinton as an "invaluable resource".
The Good Friday Agreement largely ended three decades of violence between Protestants who defend British rule and Republicans who want Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and join the Republic of Ireland to the south. Key steps in the peace process.
At least 3,500 people were killed during the sectarian conflict fought by the IRA and Protestant paramilitary groups, known as the Troubles.
In a sign of progress Sunday, a republican group responsible for dozens of murders during the Troubles, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), announced it was laying down its arms.
Clinton was the highest-ranking foreign government official to address the devolved Northern Ireland parliament, according to officials organising the secretary's trip.
Her husband Bill was heavily involved in the Northern Ireland peace process during his 1993-2001 tenure as US president.
After chairing a meeting with Northern Irish and US executives of financial and high-technology firms, Clinton said that despite the global economic downturn, Northern Ireland has attracted one billion dollars of investment because of the political progress made so far.
Economic vitality in turn "sends a signal that there is a path toward peace," she added.
Clinton's whistle-stop tour continued as she moved on from Belfast to Moscow, where she will seek Russia's cooperation in the standoff over Iran's disputed nuclear programme.
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