As you probably know, John Lennon would have been 64 years old today. This poster–a gift from my brother–hung in my room for much of my adolescence.
Lennon has always been a hero of mine. Not only was he an exceptional songwriter (if Paul was their heart, he was the Beatles’ soul), but he was a political activist. Like his drawings, he had great, simple ideas. “Imagine” gets tremendously overplayed and co-opted for the cause du jour, but if humanity’s still around in 1000 years, future musicology students will study it for as an important 20th century song.
I was reminded of this date by this profile in The Tyee.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
For my favourite anti-Lennon rant:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/457nnwrz.asp
psst — you’re a day late, his birthday was yesterday. 🙂
I can’t help but think of his song… “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four…” Of course the answer is “No, motherfucker, you’re dead!”
And here’s where he was shot:
http://snapshots.arwen.org/album24/vacation_102
😦
Ah yes. I remember wearing a black armband in school when he was shot – for a week! The misery. I still have an attic full of newspapers I kept from the time – which I should dust off and take a look at.
Also a hero of mine (fanatic about the Beatles when I was growing up, somewhat obsessive on Lennon in school), I voted for him as Best Briton in that thing the BBC did.
I didn’t remember his birthday, but I did buy a compilation cd of his two days ago out of the blue (for the bargain basement price of EUro 9.99 fact fans), and now I feel a “completist” moment coming on – when I’ll order all remaining albums that I don’t have on CD and get them ripped and on my playlists, pronto!