No Rock And Roll Fun

ART FOR ARTS SAKE: Last week, we had to send an email to someone we know who works for Liverpool City Council; it made mention of a recent conviction in a rape trial. The City Council server had a fit of vapours at the mention of the "r" word, quarantining the mail and insisting that someone vet the email as it had a bad word in it.

It's curious that this attempt to protect its staff from the horrors of the modern world isn't apparently extended to protecting the general public. Now, we like naked people. We like looking at naked people, and touching them. But we're aware there are lots of people who don't, and amongst them are parents who might be at least trying to keep their children away from the nether regions until they're, you know, six or seven. Which is why we were surprised that the City Council agreed to allow Yoko Ono to cover public buildings with fannies and tits in the first place.

Now, John Lennon's sister has objected to the artworks, too:

"The work is called My Mummy Was Beautiful. John's mother was beautiful and she was my mother too. She would have been offended, as would John, by the public display of gratuitous female nudity, particularly on the frontage of St Luke's church."

In other news, fans who loved John Lennon and embraced his views about peace are busily pledging to slaughter Mark Chapman if he gets parole next week:

"A Finnish fan writes on one site: "Chapman should be executed. I would gladly get rid of him myself."
Another has started a petition to have Chapman's parole turned down. A message posted on the petition site reads: "If Mark David Chapman is let out of jail, he wouldn't last a day. There are too many people who want him dead."

Ah, so that's what's so funny about peace, love and understanding, then.