Journalism

On what would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday, a list of my top five Lennon solo records–and they included audio and video links to Lennon’s performances of each: Audio and video HERE.
5. “God”:  “I was the Walrus, but now I’m John” . . .
4. “Imagine”: We’ve heard it a thousand times, but still. . .
3. “I’m Losing You”: the strongest song on “Double Fantasy” . . .
2. “Instant Karma”: “Who do you think you are, a superstar?”
1.  “Oh Yoko”: playful, passionate, and perfect.

How do you explain the value of a rock musician to the Immigration Service?  Bob Dylan tried, in his letter opposing the Nixon Administration’s move to deport John Lennon.  “John and Yoko,” Dylan wrote, “inspire and transcend and stimulate,” and thereby “help put an end to this mild dull taste of petty commercialism which is being passed off as artist art by the overpowering mass media.”
TheNation.com story HERE;  Dylan’s letter HERE.

The day before what would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday, TERRY GROSS replayed the interview she did with me in 2000 on NPR’s “Fresh Air.”  We talked about the Nixon administration’s attempt to deport Lennon in 1972 — and what the  FBI files show about that effort.
Listen to streaming audio HERE.

John Updike, John Cage, Boby Dylan and Tony Curtis were among those who wrote letters to the Immigration Service in 1972 arguing that John Lennon should not be deported:
L.A. Times op-ed HERE;
copies of letters to the INS HERE ;
Bob Dylan’s handwritten letter HERE.

July 17 marked the twentieth anniversary of the opening of the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, and the Nixon Foundation celebrated the occasion with a reunion promising “three days of incredible experiences,” including “an outdoor BBQ around the farmhouse where RN was born” and “a delightful breakfast cruise on John Wayne’s The Wild Goose.” Also: a panel discussing “How Will Richard Nixon Be Remembered.”  One thing was missing from the reunion: a visit to the library’s new Watergate exhibit, which was supposed to have opened July 1 — but didn’t.

. . . . from The Nation, Aug. 16 issue, continued HERE or HERE

What’s the difference between drinking alcohol and smoking pot? Art Linkletter explains to Richard Nixon.   Really: White House transcripts at TheNation.com HERE.

It was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it: defend the new Arizona law that bans ethnic studies in public schools. Fox News anchor Greta van Susteren took on the task, with predictable results.
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

Homeboy Industries, the legendary L.A. anti-gang institution headed by Father Greg Boyle, laid off 300 people yesterday because of a financial crisis. The organization was founded in East L.A. in 1988 at a time when hundreds of gang members were killing each other annually;  Father Greg’s slogan was “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.”
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

The Arizona legislature has passed a bill that will end ethnic studies classes in the state, according to the state’s top education official.

The bill bans classes that “promote resentment toward a race or class of people,” “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group,” or “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of treating pupils as individuals.”

Also prohibited: all those classes that “promote the overthrow of the U.S. government.”

. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

Los Angeles’s Liberty Hill Foundation will honor Walter Mosley with its Upton Sinclair Award on May 20. Mosley, author of more than thirty books, is celebrated worldwide for his Easy Rawlins mysteries. Set in inner-city Los Angeles after World War II, they feature an out-of-work black war veteran who reluctantly becomes a private detective and confronts the city’s racism and corrupt police force. The best-known volume is probably Devil in a Blue Dress, which was made into a film in 1995 starring Denzel Washington as Mosley’s protagonist: “In a world divided by black and white, Easy Rawlins is about to cross the line.”
. . . Continued HERE.