by Don Williams
Of all the public deaths that haunt our world, the one that hit me hardest was the murder of John Lennon. Youth was over. Idealism lay slain. His memory always comes to mind this time of year, even without the help of media visuals, such as “Across the Universe,” maybe the best movie ever made about “hippies,” and one that features more than two dozen songs by Lennon / McCartney. I watched much of the film with a lump in my throat. Go see it if you ever rode a magic bus, fought in Vietnam, fell in love, protested a war, aspired to create art, or quarreled across the Generation Gap–that earlier front in our so-called Culture Wars.
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In 1965 John Lennon allowed Oxfam to use a drawing of his, called the Fat Budgie, for a Christmas card. Despite the fact that it looks like it was drawn by a toddler, it raised a fortune because this was the height of Beatlemania. To mark the 50th anniversary of Oxfam printing Christmas cards, it was re-printed by this year, with the permission of Yoko Ono.
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For fans of late 1960s rock, Saturday is not just another day; it is Dec. 8.

On that day in 1943, Jim Morrison of The Doors was born in Melbourne, near Orlando. The Doors’ enigmatic style produced “Light My Fire,” “Hello, I Love You,” “Break on Through (To the Other Side).”
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