Give Peace a Chance - Joan says hi!

Joan sent us this picture from her book "Give Peace a chance" - get it over at Amazon. During the week she would call us up and read an essay out of it. This was one of the highpoints of each day.

Two of the stories she has in the book she never got around to but she told us we could hear them some other time - feels reassuring!

One thing that happens during a Bed-in is that your perception of time gets altered in a very radical way. We have to admit we did plan on keeping ourselves busy during the week and busy we were, so busy we didn't have time to post stuff here on the blog as frequently as we would have wanted to - but come to think of it, it was probably due to that same phenomena, the perception of time. Perhaps we moved very, very slowly inside. It is a good feeling anyways, slowing down is a good thing.

Here is one of the original photos Joan sent us. She sent us more, and some real gems... but we can't publish them here. They are NOT out there yet.

Photograph: Gerry Deiter

For Joan Athey - We Love You.

You taught us how, now we can do the peace-fingers fluently. True.

Peace, Love & Joan!

Bed-in Stockholm on YouTube

We are now starting to upload videos to YouTube so you can re-live our Bed-in.

Here is the first clip.

This is "Oh, Yoko" by John Lennon.
Performed as part of Bed-in for Peace Concert at "World March for Peace Day", we renamed it "Failure Day" because of utter technical failures throughout the day. But in the end, it was a great day.

Joan Athey read us this poem

One of the highpoints of every day has become the time when Joan Athey calls to say "hi" and share with us some of her many stories. Today she also read us a poem. Here it is:

____________________________

From Joan Athey:

As Andrea and Daniel are highly skilled in movement, I thought they would especially enjoy this poem.

Moving Through The Mystery
by Peter Trower Victoria, BC.Canada 1963

We are moving through the mystery
in a rush of rented mornings
where conundrums of existence
dance across the window awnings,
Why is which? and what is whither?
cry the voices in the crawl space
underneath the floors of meaning
and beyond this no-at-all-place.

There is no vocuabulary
for the thoughts below the surface...
distant particles of answer
from some unimagined orifice
The reflections of the psyche
fall upon unknown waters...
shatter outward in to ripples
at the stones of the distorters.

Three time death is five time nothing...
there are footprints on the rainbow
and the ape and the professor
down the same long-trodden lane go.
There is no defense in dogma..
there is no escape in history ...
we are moving through the movement ..
we are moving through the mystery.

The Lost Interview - John Lennon and Yoko Ono for Life Magazine 1969

Our Friend Joan Athey, author from Canada got up early this morning to share a very special moment with us.
She called us before heading off to work and we spent just under one hour on Skype.

Since we have Slow Motion Day today everything we do takes extra time... so there, the talk took a very long time

What she wanted to share with us today was an interview from back in 1969, an article written by the journalist Charles Childs, still alive and well in New York, written for Life Magazine. He met up with John and Yoko and talked to them about their Bed-in and their views on society, war, money and art. It is an un-published article and got pushed aside because of articles surrounding the Vietnam War - or so the story goes. I am Sure Joan can tell us more about the history of this lost article.

So there she was, Joan on our screen and our livefeed taking on the pat as Charles Childs as we worked our way through the article. Andrea read John's answers, I did Yoko's.

We want to thank Joan for sharing this very rare moment with us, we are tremendously thankful for your generosity.

Peace!

Dance Piece for Peace IV

Dance Piece for Peace IV

Music: "God", John Lennon

Choreographed and performed by Daniel Andersson & Andrea C Rygh

Fourth day. It was a very hard day. First off the ambience in the room was less than friendly. We were both pretty much at each others throat the whole day. Times of questioning oneself are trying times.

So, Andrea performed "God" by John Lennon w/ myself on keyboard fill-ins. Then I did a homage to the Bobs (yes, both to the original one and the one in red pants in Russia). Joan Athey called it a "naked and honest rendition in Lennonesque spirit". We do not know what to say but, "thx!".

Peace Fingers at 19.00!

We've been told we haven't demonstrated any skills in the "Peace Fingers" area. Tune in for our Skype-conversation with Joan Athey at around 19.00 and I am sure it will be remedied.!

Joan Athey - Storyteller supreme!

So, it is safe to say our Bed-in truly is getting to our heads. Not because we are overrun by overzealous activists out there ready to pass the torch (we wish!) but more because of the lack of oxygen and the heat emanating from the machines in the room. I know Yoko and John didn't bother about bringing computers and what not into the room. I am also sure they didn't make the hotel patch a dedicated 100Mbit line into their room. But who knows, if Internet would've been around back in 1969, maybe that is exactly what they would have done. But I figure they probably would have organized their own satellite broadcast - besides, from what I gather, they couldn't have fit a computer of that time into the rooms they stayed in. We fit 4 in the room, heh.

Someone who knows a heck of a lot more about this is Joan Athey. How she found us, is a mystery to me, I am going to have to ask her tonight when she calls. If you read this Joan, remind me that I had something to ask you.

So Joan has called us twice and well, it has become one of them moments during the day we talk about and that we look forward to. She will keep on calling us for more Bed-in-time stories.

But, instead of complicating this the way I am just going to try and keep it short and simple. Here's to you Joan Athey!

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Andrea and I were shocked right out of our bed when the Skype connection lit up on the first day with a call from Canada. It was Joan Athey. She wanted to know if we wanted to hear a bed-time story every day that we are at our Bed-in. Of course we said "YES".

She has written a beautiful book. At least it sounds beautiful. The first two essays are incredible and we loved them.

The name of her book is Give Peace A Chance: John and Yoko's Bed-in for Peace, 1969, by Joan Athey published by Wiley in May 2009. It is available in English, French and German and Swedes can buy it on-line at Amazon. It is the only book devoted to the Bed-in with over 80 amazing photos of John, Yoko, the celebrities, fans and gate-crashers who dropped by during the 8 days. The photographer Gerry Deiter (on assignment for Life Magazine) was the only photographer there the entire 8 days.

I wonder what story she will read to us today?