Writes Alexandra Jacobs, in "Yoko Ono, Demonized No Longer/David Sheff’s new biography convincingly argues for John Lennon’s widow as a feminist, activist, avant-garde artist and world-class sass" (NYT).
March 24, 2025
"Long before Maurizio Cattelan duct-taped a banana to a wall, she made 'Apple,' a piece of fresh fruit on a stand..."
"... at the Indica gallery in London. (Lennon, naughtily and biblically, took a chomp.) I am not an Ono-phile who wants to wallow overmuch in this kind of art, but applaud Sheff’s book as an important corrective to years of bad P.R. He’s done the opposite of a hatchet job, putting his subject back together branch by branch, like a forester. (Climbing trees is a big theme in her work.) He argues convincingly for her as survivor, feminist, avant-gardist, political activist and world-class sass...."
Writes Alexandra Jacobs, in "Yoko Ono, Demonized No Longer/David Sheff’s new biography convincingly argues for John Lennon’s widow as a feminist, activist, avant-garde artist and world-class sass" (NYT).
"Yoko, meaning 'ocean child,' was born in 1933 in Tokyo to wealthy but cold parents. She didn’t meet her father until she was 2½, and her mother was vain and germophobic. 'Even now I find it unpleasant to sit on a cushion or chair that still retains the temperature of somebody who had just been sitting there,' Ono once wrote."
Writes Alexandra Jacobs, in "Yoko Ono, Demonized No Longer/David Sheff’s new biography convincingly argues for John Lennon’s widow as a feminist, activist, avant-garde artist and world-class sass" (NYT).
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34 comments:
World class sass. what the hell does that mean?
She definitely sounds like a feminist.
I'm sticking with the Barenaked Ladies take on Yoko.
Yoko Ono is a POS without a gram of artistic taste or talent. Your average paint-smearing circus chimpanzee has more in common with Leonardo Da Vinci than does Yoko Ono, even at the genetic level. She owes everything to her vampiric relationship to a drug-addled rock star who was murdered before he could get over the acid trip that installed that particularly monkey on her back.
Is that sufficient demonization to counter NYT's latest cultural nonsense? I could go on.
"Don't blame it on Yokey!"
Yoko? O no!
This one.
Yoko may possess the world’s most valuable watch. Apparently she also lives on a spread in the Catskills…
Nothing is intrinsically bad or good about being a "survivor, feminist, avant-gardist, political activist and world-class sass...."
Interesting that she was seven years older than John Lennon. His relationship with her seemed tinged with the uncritical emotional dependency of a little boy's worship of his mother.
I liked "Lennon, naughtily and biblically, took a chomp."
'Even now I find it unpleasant to sit on a cushion or chair that still retains the temperature of somebody who had just been sitting there,' Ono once wrote."
--------
Ugh! Nobody likes this!
It's also why you are supposed to wipe the sweat off the bench if you lift/use machines in a gym. That's ... pretty normal as far as weirdness/phobias go, I think.
She's kind of ... a whore, one of those women who married (they don't always "marry" officially anymore) into money (nttawwt) and latched on to his life. (sometimes it's a he, latching on to a her, (or a he latching onto a he) but let's not go there... ;-)
I'll give Yoko kudos on raising her son, Sean.
feminist, activist, avant-garde artist and world-class sass"
those are a lot of words to just restate "demon"
"... and [Yoko's] mother was vain..."
Did she think the song was about her?
Let's talk about actual useful talents to society at large:
1) Feminist: meh. Possibly. Also possibly detrimental to society at large. Depends on how it's used.
2) Activist: No. Every young person in America is taught to be an 'activist'. They grow up looking for meaningful protests weekly and are often disappointed.
3) Avant-Garde artist. No. My God. Do we not have an overabundance of crap labeled 'avant-garde'?
4) World Class Ass. Does she really have a world class ass? Wait...what?
I know nothing about art or Yoko Ono but I loved Grapefruit and caused a car accident walking and reading my copy. Absorbed, I stepped into the street. Car making a right turn, braked hard. Car in back slammed into that car. I kept walking and reading only finding out about the accident by an onlooker.
“World-class sass” rhymes with “Pain in the ass” — John Lennon would have appreciated that.
“…I find it unpleasant to sit on a cushion or chair that still retains the temperature of somebody who had just been sitting there”
I always found it absolutely maddening to listen to Yoko’s screeching while I was sitting or standing.
She has a good son. That speaks well of her.
Watch aficionados are insufferable wankers.
She was a HypeMachine™ dud.
Yoko Ono's song "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for a Hand in the Snow)" is widely regarded as one of the worst songs of all time. I will not inflict it on you, but you can find it on YouTube. Her music is not my cup of tea.
So, do we think sending war plans to a reporter (of a failing rag…) on a commercial app, was some kind of performance art? A circus chimpanzee smearing paint might be equally capable of this feat?
Is America great again?
…a Patek 2499 is an amazing piece of kit. The speculation on how Yoko came to guy it is interesting- lots of speculation on how she chose and who helped her choose but she could have just as easily walked into the store and being the grandest watch in stock she grunted and pointed…or made that waili g sound…
Yoko Ono, anile no longer.
“A circus chimpanzee smearing paint might be equally capable of this feat?”
Don’t pass that along to your leadership, Haggis. They are desperate enough to groom a chimp for a run in 2028.
In an Axel Foley voice "get the F out of here".
There are two kinds of people in this world. Those that hate Yoko and those that don’t give a f@£|<. People have been using her as a prop to sell crap since before John died. Time to let her fade away.
This sort of idiocy is why western populations have turned their backs on the fine arts. With offerings such as brutalist architecture, vandalism inspired street murals, images of the Madonna made with smeared on elephant dung, and busts & statuary honoring fentanyl addicted criminals is what is offered. In their hearts people know this is a scam for money and deliberate mockery. The arts community, the richy rich who bankroll them, and the academia that praises it all need a Pol Pot style reset. And it can't come soon enough.
Her singing is, to me, like so much "modern" art. Pretentious crap showing no skill and jarring to the senses.
But she married well(?).
At the time, her screamy vocals suggested Loko Ono.
Think that snow is falling. Think that snow is falling
everywhere all the time. When you talk with a person, think
that snow is falling between you and on the person.
Stop conversing when you think the person is covered by snow.
Not so hard in Wisconsin in the winter, I'd imagine.
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