john lennon
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'Lennon Educational Tour Bus' organization uses Macs to teach kids music production
John Lennon's Lennon Educational Tour Bus is a non-profit, state-of-the-art mobile audio and HD video recording studio. For the last 16 years, the bus has provided youth with tours of the studio as well as free songwriting and multimedia-production classes. The bus has three on-board engineers who teach students writing, performing, recording and producing their own original songs, as well as producing and shooting broadcast quality music videos, in a single day. Thanks to sponsorships from Apple and other leading companies in the tech and production world, participants are able to work with professional-quality gear and computers in their educational pursuits. The tour has its own official iPhone app featuring news, tour dates and videos and pictures from the bus. You can find some of the videos produced on the bus on its YouTube page. Below you can watch a composition/video called "The Sound of Peace" by the students of the Academy of Contemporary Music in Oklahoma City, featuring Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips.
The Soapbox: Give indie a chance
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. It's a pretty cool thing to introduce readers to new games. It's especially cool when the new game I am showing them would otherwise have completely passed under their radar, mainly because they receive most of their gaming news from other sites or from the blueshirts at Best Buy. I find no greater satisfaction than when someone tells me, "I didn't think I would like a game like that." When a player who normally feels comfortable engaging only with standard mechanics like linear questing, class-based gameplay, or raiding finds himself obsessed with some odd browser-based strategy game, everyone wins. Once that player gets hooked on one of my favorite indie titles, most of the hard work is over. The real challenge comes a few steps before that: getting the player to actually try the game in the first place. I've tried a lot of different tactics over the years, from using guilt or shame to acting as though only cool people play the game in question. Unfortunately, it feels as though the audiences have become increasingly resistant. I have to think that the recent crop of easily digestible AAA titles has not helped the situation at all.
Rock Band Weekly: John Lennon's 'Happy Xmas,' Euro singles
Next week's Rock Band DLC celebrates the spirit of the holidays with John Lennon & Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" and the Caesars' "Jerk it Out." Check out all of next week's individual tracks after the break.
Rock Band Weekly: John Lennon's 'Imagine' album
John Lennon's "Imagine" album will be next week's Rock Band DLC. The acclaimed set of songs joins the title track, which is one of the Rock Band 3 on-disc songs. The album's DLC launch comes about a month after the worldwide celebration of the 70th anniversary of Lennon's birthday. No need to imagine the album's track list, it can be found after the break.
Rock Band 3 getting John Lennon's 'Imagine' album as DLC
Harmonix and MTV Games have announced that John Lennon's acclaimed 1971 album, "Imagine," will be among the first albums available for download in Rock Band 3. We imagine all the people who purchase the new keyboard peripheral will be very eager to play some of Lennon's ballads. An exact release date and price has yet to be announced (should that have been a "Gimme Some Truth" joke?), though you can expect Lennon's nine tunes (the title track is already on the disc) to join The Doors and Billy Joel online sometime after the game's October 26 launch. And even if you buy it a bit late, there's no better way to commemorate a legend's 70th birthday. Remember how disgusted Grandpa was when you gave him a quarter of a beetle inside a velvet box?
Rock Band 3 songs leaked by video
A video coming out of Germany's Gamescom convention yesterday may have accidentally revealed a whole mess of unannounced tracks for upcoming rhythm/music title Rock Band 3. During an interview shot by YouTube user GottGamesShow (since taken down), an RB3 rep could be seen scrolling through the entire setlist for the game, apparently revealing tracks from John Lennon's "Imagine" to Devo's "Whip It." RockBandAide grabbed the whole list before the video went down, which we've dropped for you after the break. And though we've reached out to Harmonix and MTV Games for confirmation, we'd like to point out that, for now, the songs could potentially be future Rock Band Network tracks or simply placeholder. That said, we're hoping they're not -- we're pretty psyched about the two songs we already mentioned, and frankly, it's all about James Brown. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Imagine Peace today
Friðarsúlan in Icelandic, otherwise known as the Imagine Peace Tower has been recreated at least three times in Second Life that we're aware of. The tower of light, dedicated to the late John Lennon, consists of a geothermally powered base, and shines its light as much as four kilometres into the sky. Around the base are the words imagine peace in 24 languages. This third Second Life recreation of the light tower was commissioned by Yoko Ono, artist, peace-activist, musician and Lennon's widow. After the lighting ceremony for the physical tower in Iceland, Ono will be unveiling this Second Life version on Imagine Peace Island (SLURL) at 3:30PM US Pacific time today. The tower will illuminate 15 minutes after sunset each Second Life day, and remain lit until the next Second Life dawn. Sunset on the island takes place at 3:30, 6:30 and 10:30 (both AM and PM) US Pacific time each day. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
John Lennon eerily returns to push OLPC cause
John Lennon may have departed this planet 28 years ago, but that's not to say he can't still have an impact. With the assistance of technology and the consent of Yoko Ono, the heralded Beatle has returned in a new OLPC spot. In the ad, the late musician proclaims: "Imagine every child no matter where in the world they were could access a universe of knowledge. They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want." If this sounds like just the inspiration you needed to get your donation on, hop on past the break to see the vid in its entirety.[Via Laptop Mag]
John Lennon + Halo 3 ad = instant karma
Following hot on the heels of the Gears of War remix phenomenon comes a stellar entry in new Halo 3 "Starry Night" remix/mashup arena. It's surprising how well John Lennon's "Instant Karma" works with this ad, and it just plain trumps the Halo music, sorry Marty. Please don't go all Yoko on our ass.[Thanks, Eric]
Found Footage: John Lennon invented the iPod?
That's what this short movie from James Serafinowicz (and starting some folks from Shaun of the Dead) posits.Thanks, j kim.
Apple Computer prevails over Beatles' Apple Corps
The long and winding road of the Apple v. Apple battle appears to have finally come to an end, as a British judge has decided the case in favor of the American computer company. In the most recent episode, Apple Corps, the record label owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and the estate of George Harrison, had sued Apple Computer, saying that the iTunes Music Store violated an earlier settlement in which Apple Computer had agreed not to sell music. However, Apple Computer argued that the iTunes service only sold data, and the judge agreed, and told them so. "I find no breach of the trademark agreement has been demonstrated," he said. "The action therefore fails." Steve Jobs commented that he was glad that the battle was over, and added, "we have always loved the Beatles, and hopefully we can now work together to get them on the iTunes Music Store." You mean, you'll be selling Beatles data, right Steve?Update: If you'd like to pore over it, the full legal decision has been posted by The Times. In the decision, the Judge says a key factor in ruling for Apple Computer was the fact that "for Computer to cross into Corps' territory with its mark it would have to have indicated, by its use of the mark, that Computer was the source or origin of the music. ... The ownership of the rights is always attributed to the correct person within the ITMS and in the track information on any downloaded track."[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
