Imagine: Married To a Beatle

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Serenaded to tunes of John Lennon, a crowd ascended escalators in Union Square to hear that Beatle’s first wife, Cynthia Lennon, describe her 10-year relationship with the musician, whom she met when she was 18 years old. With shoulder-length blond hair, she read from her memoir “John” (Crown Books).


A standing room-only crowd – some wearing Beatles T-shirts or peace emblems – listened reverently at Barnes & Noble. Had he lived, Lennon would have turned 65 this Sunday.


As Ms. Lennon commenced reading from the book, she asked for her reading glasses, laughing, “they are necessary at this point in life.” Her book recalls in vivid detail the couple “sharing the highs and lows” of vertiginous times during their marriage between 1962 and 1969: “I was at John’s side during the most eventful and creative time of his life.” She said the book chronicled “John’s privacy and dignity” outside the limelight. Yet, she noted wryly, “There was no escaping the Lennon legend.”


One audience member confessed that he used to wear long hair and tinted biker’s glasses. She asked, to audience laughter, “Didn’t we all dress that way?” The man said he used to resemble John Lennon and asked the author, “Would you go out with me?” She politely declined, saying she might if she weren’t married. Later, an audience member prefaced his question with: “I promise not to ask you on a date.” She shot back, “Ah, why not? This is a great night for that.”


***


THE WORLD’S A STAGE Walter and Suzanne Bogad helped pour pinot grigio at a reception at Bluestockings bookstore Wednesday. They had traveled from South Egremont, Mass., to hear their son, Lawrence Bogad, read from his first book, “Electoral Guerrilla Theatre: Radical Ridicule and Social Movements” (Routledge).


A store employee passed a jar asking if people could donate $5 for Bluestockings. An audience member asked, to audience laughter, “Can you give more than that if you want?”


Seated in the front row was Hunter College School of Social Work graduate student Ben Shepard, who is part of another guerrilla group called Bike Lane Liberation Front. He described himself as a “public space activist” and said he is currently writing a dissertation on creative play and social movements. Mr. Shepard rose to introduce Mr. Bogad, who spoke about various people and groups that have run satirical election campaigns.


Mr. Bogad, who teaches at University of California-Davis, said one of the aims he explored was, “What part of guerrilla theater really works?” His book examines various creative performers who ran in an electoral campaign as a prank. He said satirical candidates may participate sarcastically “following all the aspects of the ritual such as cutting ribbons, kissing ribbons, and giving speeches in order to expose the system’s shortcomings that no one acknowledges.” He referred to playwright Bertolt Brecht’s “alienation effect,” whereby a “slightly off-kilter” performance can point out what nobody will say openly.


Mr. Bogad touched upon a handful of campaigns, such as eco-anarchists in Amsterdam in 1970 who ran for city council as “gnomes” and won five seats. Mr. Bogad discussed how a conflict of performance-art styles can ensue once performance art enters the halls of power.


He next offered an example of electoral guerrilla theater used for a specific target, namely to unseat an Australian elected official, Paula Hanson. Her One Nation Party drew the ire of many liberals and minorities, causing a man named Simon Hunt to enter the fray. He changed his name to Pauline Pantsdown, composed salacious songs about her, and filmed a music video spoofing her.


Mr. Bogad also discussed Michael Moore’s attempt to register a potted ficus plant in New Jersey dubbed “the photosynthesis candidate.” The candidate’s motto stated: “Because a potted plant can do no harm.”


gshapiro@nysun.com


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