Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Larry. Good morning, good morning to you.
Speaker 2: How are you doing today, Larry?
Speaker 1: You know, every day is a new day.
Speaker 3: Every day we try to deal with our challenges, our vision,
execution in life.
Speaker 1: That's my attitude.
Speaker 4: Jusury every reason to jump into onoisms because I'll tell
you what, there's a lot of knowledge and spiritual connection
with those things when we've got days like today in
this real world. I know, I know, how did you
come across this? And the reason why is because Yoko
Ono has always been a major inspiration to me as
a creative person, but because I've had the opportunity to
be with her as well as my last book was
written about John Lennon. So this is very wild, and
so to see this book is very very It's almost
like the university said, by the way, there's something else
you need to know about Yoko and this book. I mean,
I just keep studying these Ono wisms over and over again,
and I can't thank you enough for that.
Speaker 1: Oh thanks for saying that.
Speaker 3: Actually that makes me feel good because you know, you
do work and whatever we do, and you like to
hear types of gratification and acknowledgement is sort of nice.
Speaker 4: You know I like that, Well, she's not getting the
credit for being the wisdom keeper that she is. And
then when you start looking at these onoisms, you're going,
oh my god, she's not just that girl who stood
next to John exactly.
Speaker 1: Well that's the whole thing.
Speaker 3: She's not that girl that's that hung out with John
and lived with John exactly.
Speaker 1: She's a power and there's a woman women female artist
like wow.
Speaker 4: Well yeah, yeah, Because when I was spending time with her,
it was during her birthday, but the most important thing
on her mind on that day was her music. I
mean it was always about that music. And and and
I kept I kept thinking, this is a beautiful day
in your life right now. No, the music. We got
to get back to the music. We're getting into clubs
right now, and I'm going, oh my god, she's still
locked in. And I love that about the creative spirit.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a voice.
Speaker 3: It's not only her her singing voice and her music talents,
it's a conceptual voice that really made made the whole
thing work. She was a SuperBrain and super creative and
insightful and sensitive and worldly. You know that's really part
of that whole package.
Speaker 4: Let's give listeners and owner wism. I've always believed my
art should remain unfinished in the sense that I encourage
people to add their creativity to it. My god, I
wish every musical artist would allow me to share that
with them, because that is so true. It's unfinished. Let's
don't put a dot at the end. Let's don't even
cross the tee. It's unfinished.
Speaker 1: That's right, That's right, that's right. Yeah, well, she is
a true creative spirit. Question for you. I have a
bunch of isms I like. I made some notes so
fine I have.
Speaker 3: I could talk about the introduction that I wrote kind
of is interesting in terms of background. Let me give
you a little bit of an intro and to Yoko
through my voice, my eyes, how's that?
Speaker 1: Ye? Is that?
Speaker 2: Okay? Absolutely?
Speaker 3: And I'm going to be reading some of my intros
so just so it sounds organized. Yokodo has been acclaimed
has been acclaimed as an avant garde artist, an innovative
musician and composer, a dedicated advocate for world peace. Her
impact on global culture is remarkably diverse and far reaching.
She has been celebrated at solo exhibitions at Museum Modern Art, Guggenheim,
Tate Modern, and I believe she has a couple of
big shows coming up this year.
Speaker 1: Good right. She actually went to Sarah Lawrence College in
nineteen fifty three. I'm not sure everyone knows that.
Speaker 3: You know, it's like Sarah Lawrence nineteen fifty three. She
was one of the first students to study philosophy, and
I believe the philosophy aspect of her life led to
some of the creativity that she invoked on.
Speaker 1: Her interest in.
Speaker 3: Avant garde art and experimental music brought her into the
raative circle that included artists like Neguchi, John Cage, Alan Capro.
Speaker 1: So. She was right there, you know, she was right there.
Speaker 3: She had her first gallery show in nineteen sixty one,
followed by a concert of groundbreaking works at Carnegie Recital Hall.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 3: Ono returned to New York and continuing her work in events,
film and performance, including another show at Carnegie New Works
of Yoko Ono. Ono and John Lennon met in nineteen
sixty six.
Speaker 1: When he stopped by.
Speaker 3: That London gallery show that was about to open. He
viewed her installation piece Ceiling Painting. Lenin climbed the ladder
to the gallery ceiling where he used a magnifying glass
to see a message there in tiny print, and after
two years of friendship, Owner Lennon became a couple.
Speaker 1: They decided Lennin decided.
Speaker 3: To use the public spotlight to help promote peace and
social change. Of course, the nineteen sixty nine bed ins
for A Piece, Give, Piece of Chance, and Imagine were
strong moments for them. After the birth of their son
Sean in nineteen seventy five, Owner Lennin made the decision
to step back from public life, but in nineteen eighty
they returned to the spotlight with the collaborative album Double
Fantasy Right. The nineteen eighty nine exhibition of Yoko Ono
objects at the Whitning Museum of Art marked the renewed
interest in her art, which has continued to grow.
Speaker 1: Through her own words. This book.
Speaker 3: The Book ISM's offers a thoughtful and sustained engagement with
Ono in quotes collected from interviews, write, written works, and
other primary sources, reflecting her thoughts on art, creativity, social justice,
and much more. These excerpts reveal Yoko Ono was a complex, compelling,
and continually important visual artist. So that's just a little
quick background in terms of Yoko as a person, Yoko
meeting John, but Yoko is being Yoko.
Speaker 4: But you know what's really interesting about what you just
shared with this hilarry is the fact that you just
told my heart and everybody else who's listening that Yoko
was a person before John. She was established before John.
And that is so important because so many people do
not understand that that it wasn't that John that came
and brought the light to her. She was already creating
her own ray of light.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and that only we only saw that later
in life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but she has that early introduction and foundation of
intellectual creativity that made this all possible.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure that's why John Lennon fell in love
with her. Yeah, he was like the real deal.
Speaker 2: Please do not move.
Speaker 4: If there's more with Larry Worsh coming up next, you
need to add this to your books at home. Onerisms
from Larry Worsh.
Speaker 2: We're back.
Speaker 4: Let's talk about some of your ownerisms, the ones that
you blow away because and the reason why I even
I fall in love with this because I'm one of
those people that believes in thoughts. And then I have
to ask you before we even get started. Did these
thoughts come to her in pieces parts? Were they in
moments of now?
Speaker 2: What? How did they even come into being?
Speaker 4: Because so many artists will tell me, well, yeah, I
started writing this song about fifteen years ago and then
it came together for me now. And I'm thinking, you know,
I'd like to know what you know Yoko did. I
would like to know how did these thoughts come together?
How did her art come together? It was it in
the moment of now?
Speaker 3: Well, I think the quotes and her her her voice
was in the now at the time. So if you
imagine a thorough conversation slash interview slash discussion from those moments,
you find the jewels of her wisdom that come out,
because you know, it's quite obvious when you hear a
quote or a thought really like wow, that's heavy duty,
you know, that's like really interesting. So I think for us,
our team Princeton and our editorial director in terms of
getting the right voice, getting the right mix of quotes
and voice. So when the reader looks at this book,
that go I get it.
Speaker 1: And the point of all.
Speaker 3: These books is in books that I do, and happily
it's like one of the best things I do.
Speaker 1: I like them a lot.
Speaker 3: Is there's so many books that have visual art, books
that are big catalogs, thousands of pictures, hundreds of pictures,
twenty thirty books. This is the smallest book with the
most punch. It's the only book that it really talks
about the artist's voice, Like, what is this person saying?
We just finished an Alexander Kolder book? What does this
guy say? We know his work, but what did he say?
Virgil Ablow, which just has a new book out, what.
Speaker 1: Did he say? And that's the purpose of this series
that I'm fortunate to work on.
Speaker 4: WHOA whoa? Which one's touched you? Because I mean, and
the thing about it is that in going through these
onoisms is the fact that this is stuff that will
hang with me for years, because I'll always go back
to the book to say, did I get that right?
Did I get that right? And because I mean, this
is the kind of stuff you plant in your own
personal life and you grow with it.
Speaker 1: Yes, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: I could give you a couple of one more than
a couple that I think are really interesting. I mean,
I'll start with to be an artist, you need courage, yep.
And we know that it's not only the quality of
the work of an artist, but it's their courage, it's
their energy. You have great artists no energy, they don't
get anywhere, right, you got their artists with energy, they
get sometimes more than the artist who has more more.
Speaker 1: Quality aspects of their work. So to be an artist,
you need courage. Right.
Speaker 3: Another one I like is art is a very way
of survival. Yes, so that was her outlet. That was
her how she survived by making art.
Speaker 1: M All right for me?
Speaker 4: Sorry, I was gonna say now now, of course, right away,
my mind is going, Okay, I can hear her voice
saying that, because I've talked with her, I can hear
that that that little voice. Now, what for for listeners
on audible or did you get someone to voice it for?
Did she voice it? Is it your voice? What's happening
on audible? Or is it going in that direction?
Speaker 1: Well, actually, it's funny you bring that up. That's an
area that we're looking at right now.
Speaker 3: I feel there's a whole world of the written, of
the not the written, the voice on top of the quotes,
whether it's Henry skip Gates, Henry Lewis Gates reading Basquiat
or Pharrell Williams reading Virgil. You know, it's that kind
of thing. So that's really on my mind. You really, uh,
you picked a good topic to talk about. And who
would who would read Yoko? Who would that be? Would
that be I don't know, Lady Gaga, you know, maybe Madonna,
maybe maybe Marilyn Minter maybe you know, a strong voice,
a strong women's voice. I would say, that's just a yeah.
Speaker 2: It's got to be somebody who has lived these lines.
Speaker 4: Somebody I mean, because even when she says change is
the nature of life, so enjoy what is now, We've
already talked about what is now. You know that I
live that lifestyle, So therefore I can take change is
the nature of life. I accept that, and now how
are we going to embrace it? So that's I'm so
on your team. When it comes to finding the right voice,
it's got to come with compassion, empathy as well as
a reason to grow forward.
Speaker 3: Yes, you know, you know what comes to mind is
Laurie Anderson. Because Laurie is amazing, She's great, She loves Yoko,
and she is of that elk, and she is of
that mind. She's a sister in that way to Yoko. Oh,
I have to I will have to tell Louri this.
So again, going back to Yoko. Art for me is
like breathing. When I stop breathing, what happens?
Speaker 2: Yep? You die? Right? You die.
Speaker 1: Life is a suitcase. You can squeeze a lot in it.
Speaker 4: When when I came across that, when I actually busted
a gut, because I mean it is a suitcase. Because
I've been a daily writer since July of nineteen ninety four.
You should see my suitcase.
Speaker 3: Larry, Oh my god, it sounds like I have to
do a book on urysms.
Speaker 4: Well, that was what my first two books were about,
One man'sy twenty one Thoughts and Ony twenty one. Oh no,
anotherenty twenty one thoughts. And I think that's why I
can tap into this book because it's like, oh my god,
this is exactly what I want people to do with
their own personal lives, because they're giving it to the
next generations.
Speaker 3: Yes, and actually, it's so important that we all realize
that we are in the moment now and the moment goes.
So it's about how we actualize ourselves in our daily life,
in our daily living. That's so important to me in
addition to all the creative as I'm around now.
Speaker 4: She does something here that really caught me off guard
in the way that because I am a DJ as well,
and I've been a club DJ, private DJ, that whole works.
And she says something here that I really did, shout
out loud dance music one day will be known as
high art. Yeah, why isn't it already there? And why
is it not inside the rock and roll Hall of Fame?
What is going on here? Because it is an investment
for a lot of these people and a lot of artists.
You know, when they release a song, they want somebody
to turn it into a dance song so they can,
you know, get extra mileage out of it.
Speaker 1: Oh, interesting perspective. I think it's just a medium.
Speaker 3: It's not the medium, it's the category that now I think,
maybe because of youth and age, becomes a real thing
beating out sadly rock and roll sometimes, you know, it's
just which is another subject, you know, in terms of
categories and genres of music. But that's a good point
that you make about what she said. Here's another one.
Change is the nature of life. So enjoy what it
is now. Yes, that's like being the present. You know,
she was all about that the door doesn't open with
the first knock. Be patient, we have to really strive.
We have to really be patient. When you confront what
you fear, it disappears. That's really important because confrontation is
really important and you need to confront your fears to
get through it. That's in any any walk life.
Speaker 4: So let me ask you this question. I've been to
John Lennon's art galleries as it traveled across the country.
Will she combine the onoisms or will you do that
with his artwork? Because I believe that we can see
the picture, but if we get closer to that picture,
just like John Lennon, we're going to see the tiny words,
and the tiny words could be Yoko's ooisms.
Speaker 3: I would love that, but you know, higher powers that
be are on some of those decisions. But it would
be great to continue to further her voice illustratively orally. However,
I think that's really important as she gets on in
her years and she becomes this masterful artist of our century,
and I feel that's so important. Another one we have
to learn how to turn around negative energy into positive energy.
I think That's important because she was around all this stuff, right,
and she had no choice but to interpret and around,
internalize and.
Speaker 1: Create positive vibes, positive energy.
Speaker 3: That's what made her and I believe that's a really
important trait that we all need. How to turn around
negative energy into positive energy. Right, goes back to how
to confront what you fear. It disappears that mindset.
Speaker 4: Where can people go to find out more about the
book and you, Larry, Because twenty minutes with you is
just not enough, and I want people to explore their
process with you and your commitment to everything that is
going into this book and every other book that you
spoke about today.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I could be googled.
Speaker 3: Princeton University Press is the publisher. I'm pretty much all around,
open to new ideas, open to people's thoughts about quotes, artists, creatives.
Speaker 1: I like doing these books.
Speaker 3: I like doing these endeavors into positive thinking, positive change, and.
Speaker 1: Being present the best that we can.
Speaker 4: God, I love you. You got to come back to
this show anytime in the future. I love where your
heart is and you are speaking my street.
Speaker 2: Larry.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, so nice just to say hello
this morning to.
Speaker 2: You will you'll be brilliant today.
Speaker 1: Okay, yes, thank you,