On the label, it says, “When Ben & Jerry’s wanted to talk about peace, we couldn’t think of a better person to exemplify the message than John Lennon. Through his art and lyrics he imagined a world without war and asked us all to ‘Give Peace a Chance.’ We hope this whirly mixture of toffee cookies and fudge peace signs enlightens your bellies and souls and makes you ask what you can do to promote peace in your lives.”

Imagine Whirled Peace, inspired by the former Beatle’s Top 10 solo hit Imagine, not only delivers a message of peace and love, it’s packed with tasty fudge bits and cookie crumbles. It’s got a good beat, you can dance to it, and it’s delicious. It’s the coolest ice cream in the freezer.

Here’s the blueprint: caramel and sweet cream ice cream blended with fudge peace signs and toffee cookie pieces.

Total calories: 270 (per scoop). Fat grams: 16. Dietary fiber: 0. Carbs: 28 grams. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price: $4 for a pint. Four bucks is convenience-store pricing, however. It’s usually a little cheaper in supermarkets. And a whole lot cheaper if you wait for Ben & Jerry’s to go on sale.

Imagine Whirled Peace is one of those ideas that makes you wonder, “what took ‘em so long?” Lennon’s anti-war efforts fit hand in hand with Ben & Jerry’s corporate philosophy of peace, love and butter pecan.

This ice cream is not for everybody. Once again, Ben & Jerry’s is jamming its politics — and toffee cookies — down the public’s throat. Some conservative hard-liners may have trouble swallowing the symbolism of chocolate peace signs.

Me? I’m the biggest Beatles, and Lennon in particular, fan in the world, so bring on Imagine Whirled Peace. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Each pint has the official seal of approval from Yoko Ono and the John Lennon Estate, and bears a cartoon self-portrait of Lennon and a facsimile of his autograph. Beatle fans will eat this stuff up. They’ll like the ice cream, too.

Caramel and sweet cream ice cream harmonize perfectly, while the chocolate and toffee crunch mix-ins make this flavor a pick hit to click.

This is not the first time Ben & Jerry’s has honored a rock star or song with a frozen dessert. Cherry Garcia, named for Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia, is one of Ben & Jerry’s all-time biggest smashes. Then there’s Phish Food, Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownie, Wavy Gravy, Willie Nelson’s Peach Cobbler and Bohemian Raspberry (honoring Queen).

And it’s not the first time Yoko Ono has OK’d products bearing Lennon’s name and likeness. There’s Converse John Lennon sneakers, and ties and T-shirts and even bed linen for baby.

It’s a shame Ben & Jerry’s hasn’t immortalized Lennon’s writing partner Paul McCartney with an ice cream flavor, too. That should have been done, like, Yesterday.

Mixing politics and business is usually risky business. No matter what position a company takes, it’s going to alienate roughly half of its potential customers. But Ben & Jerry’s is known for sticking its neck out.

Besides, if you don’t like spooning with the peace sign, Ben & Jerry’s has three more new flavors: One Cheesecake Brownie, Cake Batter and Mint Chocolate Chunk.

None of them has an (R) or a (D) next to it.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) April 9, 2008 — Wolfgang’s Vault, the world famous music archive website where live music lives, has just uncovered and released for free streaming a beautiful and timely recording of John Lennon at Madison Square Garden from August 1972.

About this previously unreleased concert recording:
After the dissolution of the Beatles, John Lennon continued to have an enormous impact on music, culture, and politics on a global scale. The year after he released the seminal “Imagine”, his most commercially successful solo work, Lennon was entrenched in politics and battling for his green card with US Immigration. This recording from his performance at Madison Square Garden in 1972 captures the icon performing some of his best and more enduring material.

Lennon’s real, honest and raw renditions of his classic music lyrics from “Come Together,” “Give Peace A Chance,” and “Imagine” are as stirring and relevant today as they were 36 years ago.

Eight other concerts were also released today exclusively on Wolfgang’s Vaulta. New concerts are released every day. Updated listings of newly available free music releases are emailed weekly to Wolfgang’s Vault fans.

About Wolfgang’s Vault:
Wolfgang’s Vault began in 2003 as the home of the Bill Graham Archives and has become the world’s largest archive of concert recordings for streaming and download, and all related live music art including fine art rock posters, rock photos and vintage and retro apparel and rock memorabilia.

Not that overbearing notion of “things were so much better then,” unless you think a chain-smoking guy with bad hair and a leisure suit was the apex of cool.

No, the latest release of old “Tomorrow” shows provides a glimpse of how beautiful the art of conversation can be. Not how beautiful it was, not how much better it was. It’s still beautiful, it’s just underappreciated in our flash-and-dash world.

“The Tomorrow Show: John, Paul, Tom & Ringo” pulls together interviews with three of the Fab Four. Presumably, George never appeared on Snyder’s show.

Snyder’s show wasn’t always beautiful conversation. From 1973 to 1982, the Milwaukee native hosted a late-night NBC show that could be grating because of either the host or the guest. We see all of this at work in two previous “Tomorrow” releases, one that featured early punk musicians and one that featured musicians and writers from the psychedelic era.

The new release opens with a 1975 interview with John Lennon. Technically it’s a 1980 showing of the 1975 interview because this is a Lennon tribute episode that aired the day after his death on Dec. 8, 1980.

Strangely, Snyder undersells that Lennon interview as nothing more than a curio because it was likely the last TV interview he did before fading from the spotlight for a few years.

“It contains no historic information, nothing terribly new,” Snyder says in his introduction from the 1980 show. “It is a bit of stuff and substance of a man who was part of a change, a revolution if you will, in popular music.”

But it is much more. There’s certainly the irony of Lennon talking of how he loves the freedom of peacefully walking down the streets of New York. And there’s great insight of what the Beatles years were like, told with no bitterness and in such a way that even the greatest of fans would be sympathetic to why they broke up. No, it wasn’t Yoko’s fault; they were bored with the music after so many years together.

John

: We’d go into the studio and play those same licks.

Tom

: With those silly haircuts.

John

: Those silly haircuts that you have now.

That’s the great give-and-take in this entertaining chat. No fawning, no inquisition, just a lot of cigarettes and laughter. Snyder asks good questions that any mature curious fan might. Lennon was clearly comfortable in his own skin, and it shows.

That’s what makes this the must-see portion of the DVD. The other two interviews, with Paul McCartney (and Linda) and Ringo Starr (and Barbara Bach), don’t quite live up to the standard.

Paul and Linda’s interview comes via satellite from London, where Wings was about to perform in concert. If you think satellite hookups can be a pain to watch sometime, try one from 1979.

The Cute Beatle talks about his new band and has to suffer through Snyder asking about a Beatles reunion. If you want the scoop on Linda McCartney’s piano playing, she blandly relates it here. It’s a nice piece of nostalgia, but little more. Then again, let’s face it, Wings was a band that churned out great pop tunes, but wasn’t really that interesting as a whole.

Ringo’s interview came after John’s death, but provides some insight into the Beatles’ relationship after the breakup. All were lending a hand to Ringo’s new album, and John would have had he lived, Ringo says. Ringo takes some pride in boasting that he’s the greatest rock drummer and talks about his new movie, “Caveman.”

“Caveman” and Wings aside, this is a keeper mostly because of Lennon. The talk show format clearly agreed with him. Shout Factory, which released this collection, also has released a two-DVD collection of John and Yoko’s appearances on the Dick Cavett show, and the duo also hosted Mike Douglas’ show in 1972. Those shows made it to VHS but have yet to hit DVD.

Lots of people like to speculate what might have happened had he lived. Who knows? Perhaps he would have bounced Larry King off CNN a long time ago.

 madison.com

The film, which also stars Lindsay Lohan, was released in the US last month and received mixed reviews. But now people have been flocking to see the movie, giving it the highest per-screen average of any current Hollywood release, says report.

Distributor Peace Arch Entertainment Group Inc. said it is planning to expand the release to a few more theatres.

The movie explores the mind of Mark David Chapman in the days before he shot and killed Lennon in New York in 1980.

NdtvMovies.com