John, John, John & John

Great Russell Street, London

John Lennon, for some reason, has been punctuating my life the last few days. It started when we saw a bloke taking a selfie with a statue on a bench at the top of Carnaby Street. He didn’t realise the person portrayed in bronze was John Lennon.

My last two posts have been about John & Yoko. Last night’s was written after watching Kevin MacDonald’s doc ‘One to One – John & Yoko’. Shortly after publishing it a producer I’m working with (who hadn’t seen my post) emailed me saying that she had been inspired by me talking about my small collection of music-related photos to buy herself a photo. She attached it. It was John Lennon!

backstage at Ronnie Scott’s

Tonight at Ronnie’s Sarah Jane Morris sang ‘Fragile’, a Sting song I used to play a lot but never realised it was to do with the murder of John Lennon, which SJM explained. Her version was brilliant – she really has a knack of making songs her own. We are currently working on a film project together.

And earlier this evening, on my way to Bar Italia & Ronnie’s, I took a photo of the Lennon quote above on the window of a 24-hour restaurant near the old YMCA. I actually spotted it a few days ago when I was sitting inside with a rainy view like Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks’ reversed.

A few days ago I was talking to a colleague about the lack of boredom these days and how important boredom is to youthful creativity. The Buzzcocks first single had (I think) their track ‘Boredom’ on the B side (it was certainly on their debut LP). Relishing wasting time and being bored are useful precursors to original thinking and innovation.