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Excellent! The BF and I finally broke the awful streak we'd been on for a good year, and went to a freaking concert (I actually saw Trail of Dead on the day before Thanksgiving, which fucking ruled, but we hadn't been to a show together since Do Make Say Think in spring 2007). AND possibly even more exciting is the fact that I have wanted to see Ben Folds live since, like, tenth grade. His music played a huge role in the latter half of my high school career.
Maybe the fact that I have not seen live music since November influenced my opinion, but Folds was totally worth the wait. He played with a drummer and bassist who were comparable to the Five in talent, he's experimenting with some new electronic-y noises, and his new material is quite tasty. Plus, at forty-two he's looking pretty hot. All things considered, it was over an hour and a half of rocking entertainment.
So the BF and I decided to make Sunday night documentary night (again, I acknowledge that I am super late in blogging about this). This week's title: The US vs. John Lennon, a film about the treatment the coolest Beatle received at the hands of Nixon and him henchmen after he moved to NYC. I'll give you a hint: apparently Tricky Dick was a McCartney fan.
Although I've been interested in Lennon's life for a number of years (in another life, I am also an amateur music historian. Don't believe me? Let's go to the Rock Hall together), this film gave me a new appreciation for his protest art (the bed-ins for peace, press conference in a bag, etc. I still don't get the "Primal Screams" album).
The way I see it, Lennon was a PR genius. He knew the status of his celebrity around the globe- and he turned it into a medium for his protest art. For instance, let's take the bed in for peace. After Lennon and Ono got married, they knew that their chances for a normal honeymoon were slim; paparazzi all over the globe wanted a picture of the newlyweds in bed together. So they decided to give the media what they wanted; only they turned it into an anti-war protest. The whole thing was a beautifully executed, avant garde political masterpiece.
Anyways, his artsy stunts didn't sit so well with everyone; Nixon and his pals at the FBI actually considered Lennon the dissenter a threat to the nation. They tried to deport him on bogus charges (crooked cop busted him with weed in Englandseveral years previous), but really waned him out because he vocally disagreed with US foreign policy.
The treatment Lennon received at the hands of the US government was shameful. Definitely worth watching, even for those who aren't Beatles fans. More than anything, it's an interesting look at freedom of speech (or lack thereof) in America.
