And your bird can sing-a-ding-ding

John & Paul sit in with Jacky and the Strangers 
in Obertauern, Austria, March 18, 1965

Speaking as we just were of interpretations of the songs of John Lennon, I was  thinking of the fan theory about the Beatles' greatest non-hit "And Your Bird Can Sing." 

The theory has been around for a while but it was new to me: the song is about Frank Sinatra.

This YouTube video made by the channel James Hargreaves Guitar explains the theory in detail. 

I already loved the song, but thinking it is not just great music but a dig at Frank Sinatra makes it even better. 

Another aspect of this song that I only learned of recently is the guitar-doubling by Paul and George.

Other notable versions of the song, available on Youtube, are take 5, and this fan version that isolates the instruments.

And of course the version, also available on the Anthology, featuring Lennon and McCartney laughing and goofing around. This is the greatest version. The only thing like it in the Beatles oeuvre is the outro of "Hey Bulldog" and of course the immortal "You Know My Name, Look Up the Number."

#9 Dream - happy birthday John Lennon

       Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse

John Lennon would have been 85 today.

I was recently listening to #9 Dream from his album "Walls and Bridges" which was my first introduction to Lennon's solo work, when it was released in 1974. He recorded "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" with Elton John, and it was a big hit, Elton John being the it boy of the time.

From what I've read online, Lennon said he was depressed during that time. And as we know, this was during his separation from Yoko. He claims he got the song entirely from a dream he had.

It has always struck me, from the first time I heard it, as an expression of his longing to go back to Yoko.

So long ago. Was it just a dream?

From the perspective of his "lost weekend" in Los Angeles, his early days with Yoko, while he was still part of the Beatles phenomenon must have seemed so long ago. Back when they were doing performance art and creating Revolution #9 - the infamously weird "musique concrète" cut from the White Album.

Yoko's voice is heard on that recording.

As for the chant:

Music touching my soul

Something warm, sudden cold

The spirit dance was unfolding

Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse

Ah! Bowakawa, pousse pousse

I think Lennon's subconscious turned a longing to return to the Dakota, where he and Yoko had lived together, into a quasi-Native American chant and "spirit dance." The Dakota has a Native American relief sculpture showing the date the apartment was completed. The Dakota got its name because when it was built it was considered so far away from the center of Manhattan life that it was said to be like "out in Indian territory." I'm sure that Lennon, like everybody else who has ever lived in the building, had heard that story.

Posted on Facebook today:

Black Woman Genius ~ a call for monologues

I don't think I've ever had a post that was suitable for all three of my websites: this one; the one that critiques race pseudoscience; and the theater one. But today is the day for this first ever cross-over post.

I was especially happy to have another chance to promote Murderbot. 

Any playwrights out there, consider submitting your monologue, the winner gets $100 and anybody from anywhere in the world can submit their work.

NYCPlaywrights seeks monologues on the theme "Black Woman Genius"

NYCPlaywrights seeks monologues.

THE DEADLINE IS SUNDAY NOVEMBER 30, 2025 at 11:59 PM.

The theme is "Black Woman Genius."

In November 2024, NYCPlaywrights began the "Resisting Fascism" project. The winning piece was a monologue, THE 92% by Bryan-Keyth Wilson that highlighted the fact that 92% of Black American women voters did not vote for Trump - and their intelligence and wisdom are increasingly clear.

The murder of Charlie Kirk was horrific, but that does not erase the fact that  he said hateful things like this:

“If we would have said three weeks ago [...] that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative-action picks, we would have been called racist. But now they're comin' out and they're saying it for us! They're comin' out and they're saying, "I'm only here because of affirmative action.

Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person's slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.”

Kirk dropped out of community college to become a full-time political pundit, while the Black women he attacked graduated from Harvard and  Princeton and Yale.

And so this call for submissions seeks monologues on the theme of Black Woman Genius. 

SEMI-FINALIST SCRIPTS

NYCPlaywrights will select as semi-finalists as many of the scripts that we like and which meet the submission guidelines.

The semi-finalists will be listed on this blog and an excerpt from each monologue (if permission is granted by the playwright) will be displayed in a blog post, one per day, along with any website links or other contact information the author wishes to share. 

The semi-finalist script selections will be announced Sunday, January 4, 2026. 

THE WINNING MONOLOGUE

The winning monologue will be selected from the semi-finalist monologues. The winning monologue will be recorded with an actor and an excerpt of the recording will be posted on NYCPlaywrights.org and on the NYCPlaywrights YouTube channel (if permission is granted by the playwright) along with author and actor contact information, biographies, etc.

The author of the winning monologue will receive an award of $100. 

The award-winner will be announced Sunday, January 18, 2026. Excerpts from the semi-finalist scripts will begin posting that day one monologue per day, and the winning monologue will be posted after all the semi-finalist monologues have been posted.

💡 THE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 💡

Failure to follow guidelines will result in your script being rejected.

As always, there is no fee for submissions. 

• The deadline is November 30, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST.

• All rights will remain with the playwright.

• Monologues must be no more than two pages long, using standard 12-point text size and line-spacing.

• Send only one monologue script per author to genius@nycplaywrights.org.

• The monologue script must be submitted by the author of the script, no agents or others may submit. 

• The monologue script submission should be sent by email, with the script itself as a file attached to the email.

• The file format of the monologue script should be .pdf because it will retain your original script formatting.

• Make sure you have your name and your email address on the script.

• Plays can be submitted by anybody, from anywhere in the world but must be primarily in English (a few non-English phrases are acceptable, but the phrases must include English translations in production notes or stage directions.)

• A play that has had a production is acceptable.

• A play that has been published is not acceptable.

• There will be no money awarded for selected scripts except for the winning monologue.

• NYCPlaywrights' decisions are final.

• Any questions email info@nycplaywrights.org

PLEASE NOTE: when you submit your play, you should get an automatic response that says:

***

Thank you for sending your monologue to the NYCPlaywrights “BLACK WOMAN GENIUS” project.

The semi-finalist script selections will be announced Sunday, January 4, 2026.

The award-winner will be announced Sunday, January 18, 2026.

Nancy at NYCPlaywrights

***

If you don't receive the automatic response, email us at info@nycplaywrights.org to check if we received your script.

Please note:

• The monologues must be dramatic - we love facts, but the monologue must not simply be a lecture on some aspect of history or current events. A dramatic monologue should have an emotional impact and often will tell a story. We'd like to see creativity and invention.

• The call for submissions is open to any person, anywhere in the world. 

• Although the theme is Black Woman Genius, the character speaking in the monologue does not necessarily have to be a Black woman.

• Although this is a serious subject, you do not have to be grim. We welcome humor and playfulness, and we are just as interested in hopeful monologues, and anticipating a brighter future as much as we are in the injustices of the past and present.

DATE RECAP

• November 30, 2025 - submission deadline
• January 4, 2026 - semi-finalists announced
• January 18, 2026 - the winning monologue will be announced and then each day an excerpt from one of the semi-finalist monologues will be posted. 

Some genius prompts:

• Ida B. Wells, investigative journalist, sociologist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement.
• Aretha Franklin, voted Rolling Stone's greatest singer of all time - "a work of genius" (#2 is Whitney Houston)
• Valerie Brown, the first Black woman animated character on American television, resident genius of  the 1970s cartoon "Josie and the Pussycats"
• Alena Analeigh Wicker, in 2021, became the youngest person to intern for NASA
• Simone Biles, athletic genius
• Wanda Sykes, stand-up comedian, actor and writer
• Angela Davis, philosopher and political activist
• Dr. Ayda Mensah, character performed by Noma Dumezweni, the brilliant team leader and "favorite human" of Murderbot, from the sci-fi books and AppleTV+ series.
• Lorraine Hansberry, the young, gifted and Black playwright
• Kamala Harris, America’s first woman, Black and South Asian vice president, became the Democratic presidential candidate half-way through the 2024 campaign when Biden bowed out. She drew record-breaking crowds during her campaign and accurately predicted that Trump would use the US military against US citizens.