OT. John Lennon, Strawberryfield report

[andy mac]

at the moment i am living on 72nd st in new york, the street where john was mindlessly murdered on. as today was the 25th anniversary of his death i wandered down to pay my respects.

have to say it was pretty cool and festive. a big bunch of people standing around singing songs lead by about 8 guitarists, two drummers and the obligatory weird tambourine player.

the attention was on the musicians but for some reason i turned around away from the main activity only to see yoko ono lay a flower down. i couldn't believe it. snapped off one shot before she snuck off into the crowd.

i don't like living in new york much but things like that make it pretty unique.

RIP john.

[sc53]

Thanks for the photos; and for the reminder. I was on my usual 5 mile run down Riverside Dr., on the other side of town from Central Park West, where John was shot, that night. It was foggy and cool but not cold. I turned around at 72nd St. and Riverside Dr. to run back uptown to my building and heard all kinds of sirens. Not at all unusual for nighttime, or daytime, in NYC. When I got home from my run, I heard from my roommate that something bad had happened outside John's apartment building. This was long before the days of instantaneous news, internet, CNN, etc. By morning we had all learned the sad truth. Sometimes I think of that assassination in the same way as those of the late 60's--senseless, horrible indicators of a world gone wrong. I was 27 at the time.

[Ray]

...you realize that John Lennon's murder, a key ADULT memory, happened 25 years ago. I'll never forget hearing that from Howard Cosell in the middle of Monday Night Football. Vigils were popping up everywhere within hours.

Cool pictures though Andy.

-Ray

[Bill Bove]

Yeah, JFK, Bobby, MLK, John Lennon and 9-11 days we'ed all like to forget but never will.

[ti_boi]

They say that the spirit of the 60's died when John Lennon was shot and killed. I grew up with the Beatles' music and was endlessly inspired by all of their work. But, I think that John's murder signalled something deeper than an end to an era's zeitgeist.

I think that this event was the escalation of our unhealthy, cannibalistic and maniacal fascination with the famous and talented.

It is as if we as a nation are so fixated on the performers and show business personel that we would rather hear about their latest breakup than a genocide or famine that is now 'routine'.

This obsession is so ingrained in the culture that I believe it will eventually destroy our ability to focus on 'real' issues and for many in the population it will lead to their downward spiral into mental illness.