Mr. Pedro and I get stuck in a continuous time loop and wind up going around the block at light speed upside down on the bike. Sounds strange but here's the proof!
Ron Foster - Christmas 2008 -
The Amazing Rock Woman!
The Amazing Kite Flying Woman!
Next time you're in New York City, be sure and stop by the Helo Deli. You'll see Rupert behind the counter just like he is on the Letterman Show.
Take a peek at Rupert's Official Hello Deli Website. His prices are excellent and the food is gonna be something so good you won't forget it.
The "Hello Deli" is just around the corner from what used to be the Ed Sullivan Theater where both Elvis and the Beatles rocked the world. It is now the home of "The Late Show with David Letterman."
This shot was taken from somewhere near the middle of Central Park. The building in the background is the Dakota. This was the building John and Yoko called home until the night he was shot and killed over 25 years ago.
If we stay on the same path, we will pass a special part of Central Park devoted to the memory of John Lennon. It's called "Strawberry Fields." As usual, there was a crowd gathered around the image of "Imagine" - the tribute to John Lennon.
There were candles on the Imagine image but they weren't lit. I waited for the crowd to disperse, found a lighter, and lit them. It's something I do everytime I'm there.
On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman was in the small crowd waiting for John and Yoko to leave the Dakota. John was on the way to a recording session as he headed for the limo. Mark David Chapman extended a copy of his "Double Fantasy" album and John Lennon was kind enough to sign it. He was, as always polite. Then John and Yoko were on their way to the recording session. In the meantime, Chapman found his way to this corner of the Dakota, just inside the gates, sat down and began to read "Catcher in the Rye." Here is the exact spot the killer of John Lennon sat awaiting his arrival back from the recording session. I talked to the guard on duty who was kind enough to show me the exact spot. And allow me to photograph it.
The following is a clip I took while walking from Strawberry Fields past the Dakota. Actually, I was unaware that the camera took video on a memory stick; I was merely setting up for a still shot and discovered this footage about a year later. It's had over 140,000 hits and a long list of people debate and debate the exact spot and when John actually died. I was standing in the spot in which he was loaded into the ambulance at which time he was still alive. The spot shown in the corner of the pic (arrow in still) is where Chapman waited for John to return from the recording session with Yoko. It was also at this spot or very near it that John fell to the ground. It's an amazing piece of history.
Chapman was raised a religious person. Along with his religion, he "worshipped" the Beatles. Especially John Lennon. As the years went by, Chapman began to hear his "hero" express a true disdain for religion of any sort. "Imagine no religion..." His mind snapped and he began "seeing" the images on the iron gates and windows at the Dakota as demons who were urging him to kill John Lennon. These are the actual "evil" images that "talked" to Chapman.
To add another sick to this twist, the images of "evil" were placed all over the building to "ward off evil." In other words, when the demonic spirits would see these images, they would be frightened away.
Here is where Lennon got out of the limo for the short walk into the Dakota.
He didn't know Mark David Chapman was waiting for him behind the gates. John would walk to the gate where he would be met by a volley of 5 shots from a .38. Here's the exact spot where Hinkley awaited Lennon for all those hours. In the corner of the front door of the Dakota.
It is my understanding that Yoko Ono still lives in the same apartment. This is the front of the Dakota looking up.
John Lennon will always live on not only in his music but in the park dedicated to him just across the street from where he was shot.
Isn't that how the song goes? "Strawberry Fields Forever."
Click on the image for the John Lennon Tribute Page.
Tommy James and the Shondells were scheduled for a recording the session the next day and they still didn't have any idea what the girl's name should be. They wanted something different like "Bony Moronie." Something catchy. They just could not come up with a name. Tommy walked on the balcony of his Manhattan suite and looked out at the city. Something caught his eye. He saw the name of the girl he would use in the recording session. Her name would be "Mony." The name came from a building in New York. Mutual of New York. Here's the view Tommy saw when the girl's name "came to him."
