Dorinish: Dot Jarlett archive.

From the pages of the Irish Independent, dated (errr... I'll get back to you on that one), found amongst Dot Jarlett's clippings archive (presumably that's her writing next to the headline), here is the original skinny on John's purchase of Dorinish in 1967. As ye will know, of all of them, John was keenest on a rural idyll for the Fabs, whom he envisaged living together in a communal arrangement somewhere isolated; hence Dorinish, Greek islands, even Tittenhurst, apparently.
Anyway, Alistair Taylor bought it on John's behalf (and that is actually bought it - he was the legal owner and eventually had to write to John in order to remind him that the title needed to be transferred), and John duly transported the Kenwood caravan over as a first step, before visiting on a couple of occasions... though of course the plan came to naught in the end.
Hats off to Alistair for some impressive bullshitting here, nevertheless:

I didn't know the bit about George A. Birmingham and his Inviolable Sanctuary before. I bet you didn't either. Here is the relevant passage from that very tome re. "Inishbawn" a.k.a. Dorinish, in case ye are interested:

Walls & Bridges etc.: Bob Mercer interview.

I've read it through once but remain engrossed in Lennonology, not least because it is full of little leads to follow. Here, for example, is an interview John did in L.A. in September 1974, conducted by the then managing director of E.M.I., Bob Mercer, which was designed to prod the sales team in Blighty into action re. Whatever Gets You Through The Night as a single and Walls & Bridges as an album.
Though pressed as a demo 45 which was never commercially available (copies can be had on eBay occasionally for arse-clenching sums), the recording is now free to all thanks to Mr LostWeekend on the YouTube.
(My favourite bit is when John, pointedly, prefers "Britain" to "England", nomenclature-wise.)

April 4th 1974: 434 East 52nd Street - UFO quickie.

On the above date, in the apartment recently vacated by John and May, French journo Jean-Francois Vallee interviewed 'imself. I've got most of it on various dodgy DVDs, but hadn't seen this bit before: John recounting his UFO sighting on the very spot where it happened, in delightful hi-res.

Kenwood: November 26th, 1968.

Sara over at MTBFR has posted a great (mainly "new") set of Kenwood pics. No point in me posting them all again here, but a couple of them can be used to further our flagrantly trivial ends. The above has been on before, but not in this resolution. Thus, note - Westinghouse Continental oven and Zal disinfectant:

What's that tome on the table?

Why, none other than Small Man of Nanataki by Liam Nolan:

Interesting this. The book was first published in 1966, and tells the story of a Japanese POW camp interpreter who helps the prisoners out of a sense of shared humanity. In 1960s Britain, there remained a lot of throwback WW2 anti-Japanese prejudice, and Small Man of Nanataki was, apparently, an attempt to counteract this. Can't "imagine" (oh fer Jah's sake stop it) what it would have been doing at Kenwood.
To see all the pics, go HERE.
(I can't remember where I got the oven pic - if you took it please get in touch for a credit.)