Through a digital technology, John Lennon, who was murdered in 1980, is able to encourage good Americans to donate to a good cause.
Almost three decades after his death, John Lennon still proves to be a popular household name as the former Beatle has suddenly appeared in a charity commercial. How amazing is that? Especially since he’s been dead for twenty-eight years..
Lennon encourages people to donate to the campaign that distributes solar-powered XO laptops to the world’s poorest children. The commercial was approved by Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, and premiered on Christmas Day.
Lennon’s voiceover: “Imagine every child no matter where in the world they were could access a universe of knowledge. They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want. I tried to do it through my music, but now you can do it in a very different way. You can give a child a laptop and more than imagine, you can change the world.”
This American Life can be a little corny at times, but Ira Glass has a real talent for getting moving stories out of everyday people.
I discovered this absolutely compelling piece about Phil Collins (Against All Odds) and one of his biggest fans. Even if you are NOT a Phil Collins fan, check out this piece with him on the show.
It’s extraordinary radio. The episode starts with a simple premise — girl with a broken heart wants to talk to Phil about heartbreak, and then it evolves into something quite different. By the end, barriers come down, and its turns into one of the most personal and affecting interviews about loss I think I’ve ever heard.
Like everyone who watched the 1972 Munich Olympics, I was quite taken with Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut — the 4-foot-11, 85-pound sprite who performed a back flip off the uneven bars, danced on the four-inch-wide balance beam, and seduced a worldwide audience with her floor exercise routine “like a little kid playing in the sun,” in the words of ABC commentator Jim McKay. During the intervening years she has taken a tumble from the world’s stage, but her fans still love her.
NOTE: The above documentary film first aired on the BBC in August of 2001.
It turns out that Thomas Edison was not the first person to record sound. In 1860, about twenty years before Edison’s phonograph, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville made a recording of the French folk song “Au Claire de la Lune.” The device he used to do this was known as a phonautograph, which utilized paper blackened with smoke in order to make a pictorial representation of sound. Martinville believed that one day humans would be able to figure out how to derive sound from his smoky scratchings.The best article on this topic can be found at the New York Times:
The April 1860 phonautogram is more than a squawk. On a digital copy of the recording provided to The New York Times, the anonymous vocalist, probably female, can be heard against a hissing, crackling background din. The voice, muffled but audible, sings, “Au clair de la lune, Pierrot répondit” in a lilting 11-note melody — a ghostly tune, drifting out of the sonic murk.
The Phonautograph Recording from 1860 of “Au Clair de la Lune”
An Audio Excerpt from a 1931 Recording of the Same Song
We’re about to begin reading a short story called”The Devil and Tom Walker,” which has got me thinking about how much people believe that the Devil or Satan is alive and well today and influencing humankind. I’m too old to know about these things, but there’s an entire subspecies of heavy metal called black metal. Some folks think that Satan is working through these bands. I have my doubts. But take a look at this video by a band from Slovenia called Dekadent. Makes you want to tap your toes.
One of the messages of the Five For Fighting video “World” is that we are all connected, our actions touch everyone else, and that each person has the ability to make a profound difference.
John Ondrasik of Five For Fighting has gotten involved in a wonderful web site, www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com, named after his eponymous song. Go to this site and watch any video clip there and money will go to the charity listed with that video.
Going there will make a difference. These are wonderful, selfless people, and some of the videos they’ve produced will bring you to tears.
Almost three decades after his death, John Lennon still proves to be a popular household name as the former Beatle has suddenly appeared in a charity commercial. How amazing is that? Especially since he’s been dead for twenty-eight years..