Today is the day that John Lennon, acerbic, witty ex-moptop, arguably the biggest klieg light of The Beatles, who unabashedly and boldly tread musical waters and bubbled up emotions and feelings which delighted and in essence influenced an entire globe, was tragically assassinated by a crazed fan back in 1980 in front of his home in New York City.

Since Lennon’s passing, the musician, thanks to the millions upon millions of adoring fans who keep his memory as alive and bright as ten thousand suns, is still one of the most remembered figures not only in music history, but history in general. Lennon led the way by himself for a lot of people who followed him. Like a musical pied piper, John Lennon had and continues to have minions surrounding his legacy, lapping up every shred of his wisdom and creativity, which seemed to pour out of his soul with a relaxed and consistent ease. Of course, stripping down through the layers, he seemed to be a complex man underneath, full of demons and locked doors within himself which only fueled the flames of his creative urges even more. He and his music remain right at the forefront to this day, amidst a sea of ever changing musical styles and sounds, attitudes, flavors, and feelings. Lennon still remains a constant force, regardless of personal opinion about him or his music or his life choices. His inspiration usurped every fabric of his well being and ours in a way, and what remains, even though the man is gone, is the message, to some a corny one, a message of hope, peace, love, understanding, words often misused in today’s climate.

Magical Mystery Tour
Blu-ray
Directed by The Beatles
Written by The Beatles
Starring: Paul McCartney, John Lennon,
George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Victor Spinetti, Jessie Robins, Mal Evans
Apple Corps
Not Rated | 52 Minutes
Release Date: October 9th

Magical Mystery Tour, the colorfully wild mess of a film by The Beatles, has been released on Blu-ray and it’s one of the few times in the bands illustrious and innovative career that the term “mixed bag” can be applied when summing up one of their projects.

But suffice to say, Magical Mystery Tour, while an absolutely charming and irresistible piece of delectable eye candy to gaze upon, and even more so now with the spit and polish of the Blu-ray remastering, still ultimately remains nothing more than a curio of The Moptops at their psychedelic peaks, still in the cosmic high of their Sgt. Pepper period, the idyllic peace, love carefree metaphoric lounging on eiderdowns in their native England. It’s a hollow and disjointed piece that has it’s only reliable saving grace in the wonderful soundtrack, which is remastered as well, with the memorable musical strains of The Beatles in all their sonic glory at peak levels.

Today marks what would have been the 72nd birthday of the late John Lennon, musician, songwriter, iconoclast, humanitarian, tireless champion of trying and raising awareness to find harmony and peace on the planet and immortal icon for millions upon millions of loyal, almost rabid fans.

There are so many different facets and parts of the life of John Lennon that he spanned and transcended in a way labels, even though there have many that have been and continue to be affixed on the man, like Beatle, Activist, Artist, Champion For Peace, Radical, the list is endless. There’s an ironclad, almost suffocating reverence for John Lennon, in many ways beyond the passions given to other late artistic icons of his generation, like Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison to name a few. Many of his fans refuse to let any flaws that were in Lennon’s life usurp any feelings they have for the man and his ideals and work. Lennon was one of those rare once-in-a-lifetime individuals who not only was able to manifest his music, art, thoughts, and visions in a manner that constantly was on peak level for the most part, but was also in many ways a true renaissance man of the word, who parlayed his dazzlingly and brightly blinding success with The Beatles into a true personal empire of sights and sounds, becoming as the cliché goes, but rightly exclaimed here, “A Voice of a Generation.”

Today was the closing ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics, which saw performances by legendary British bands like Queen and The Who, as well as musical tributes to artists David Bowie, Pink Floyd, and the late John Lennon.

A remastered version of the iconic video for the song “Imagine” was shown during the tribute to the former Beatle, while performers sang (and signed) along, while others erected a sculpture of John Lennon’s face, including his trademark glasses.

Orbit: John Lennon
Written by Marc Shapiro
Art by Luciano Kars
Letters by Jaymes Reed
Graphics and Editing by Darren G. Davis
Bluewater Productions
Release date: March 28, 2012
Kindle Edition

John Lennon, musician, legend, influence that stretches far and wide, messiah, pariah, master of wit, innovator, trailblazer… comic book character?

That’s exactly what Bluewater Productions tries to do with these adjectives and descriptions to bring to comic book life of one of the most enigmatic and forcefully creative individuals of the 20th Century (or arguably any century for that matter) with Orbit: John Lennon.

Bluewater, known for their prior work immortalizing many famous figures in its colored etchings within squares, now tackles the larger than life figure in Lennon. But, they unfortunately make the same clumsy errors here that deterred the other biographical comic book treatments that also attempted to mythologize public and famous figures from all stripes.