John Lennon…Music Maker, Bread Baker

The night before I baked the basic bread recipe from Nick Malgieri’s new baking book, I watched the American Masters’ documentary, “LENNONYC.” The movie is fantastic: vintage color film of the streets, an ageless Central Park, and old subway cars hurtling through dark tunnels. There's John in 1970s high-fashion and of course lots of his post-Beatles music. Interviews with Yoko, producers, publicists, radio DJs, photographers, and fellow musicians are intercut with audio and live footage of John being John--honest, playful, passionate, totally into taking care of baby Sean, including baking bread. Musicians who played with him said in this film that his genius was he could write what he felt--in the simplest, most natural way. In the midst of a life that hurtled him from obscurity to world prominence, he lived the lyric, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."