I Met The Walrus (interview with John Lennon)
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message.
The animation alone is worth the viewing. Wow. Yellow Submarine revisited.
[via Longboard]
Whew! That was very moving. I have lately been wondering if the sixties era might have been a crock after all. Thank you for the proof that it wasn’t.
Sheryl: nice to hear from you again. Yes, the sixties wasn’t a crock although Lennon certainly sounded like a kook! I give the young interviewer a lot of credit.
I had the opposite reaction to Lennon’s interview. I thought it was a clear and important stream of thought about war, peace, music, life. It was very moving for me to hear him, coupled with the powerful graphics, which were inspired of course by the powerful words.
Good to hear from you as well. Hi to Anne. xox too.
Sheryl: Of course, the animation was great and while Lennon (and Ono) had the right ideas, the language they used to convey them sounds not only dated but stereotypical of the self-important lefties of the time. Hey, I was very left back then too but many of the leaders of the “movement” seemed to take themselves just a tad too seriously. The allusion I like is when Forrest Gump meets up with Jenny at the Vietnam war protest in DC and stumbles into a “Black Panther Party.” If you remember all the dialog in those scenes, it was both realistic and a mockery. Much of the dialog from those times sounds like that to my now older ear which has, I guess, gained a grain of cynicism or maybe realism over the years.
Peace.
GoBama!
Well put, richard. The slang of those times is dead. For me, it had been a secret code of hipness, but now when I throw a word like “mindblown” into a conversation, I feel like an old-timer saying “swell.”
Keep the great stuff coming. You are my favorite website. sk
Sheryl: Hey, each time has its own slang (and dress and codes and more). I had bell bottom pants too but part of me felt about as stupid as Gunnery students look wearing “ghetto low riders” or whatever that new style is called. I wasn’t a Brooks Brothers type either… I had no type but wasn’t quite secure enough not to be pulled into “the movement.”
Sigh, are we getting old of what?
Ok, you guys - it was MINDBLOWING!!! OK???
Lennon’s words live on - give Peace a chance, all we need is love, and in the end, the love we take is equal to the love we make.
That video was amazing.
I’m still in the movement - the movement for PEACE.
I just traded my Ipod for a Turntable and a stack of vinyl. The sounds of the past renew again and sound fresher than ever! Great vid!!
Pam: Me too, just not with the same trappings.
PAX
Dirk: Wow, that’s radical analog. Well, whatever turns you on (or around).