Let us count the ways to honor John Lennon

Let us count the ways to honor John Lennon - John Lennon would have celebrated 70 this Saturday, prompting his biggest birthday bash to date. USA TODAY's Edna Gundersen offers an overview of what's planned to mark the occasion.

In Los Angeles: The John Lennon, Songwriter exhibit at the Grammy Museum includes original photos and Beatles posters.

Music

• As part of EMI's global reissue campaign, eight remastered solo albums were released this week, along with the expanded two-CD Double Fantasy Stripped Down, the compilation Power to the People: The Hits and the four-CD set Gimme Some Truth. The 11-CD John Lennon Signature Box holds the remastered albums, non-album singles and 13 previously unreleased home recordings, plus essays by Lennon's two sons and widow Yoko Ono.

• Complementing the reissues release is a numbered, limited edition of the John Lennon Box of Vision, a lavish collectible case with a 166-page hardbound book of LP artwork, a detailed discography and a storage system built to carry all of Lennon's CD releases. Created by Jonathan Polk and licensed by Ono to mark the 70th birthday, the $125 set is wrapped in a silver-inked Lennon portrait with a reproduction of his "Baby Grand" line drawing. Details: www.boxofvision.com.

• Ozzy Osbourne's cover of How?, from Lennon's Imagine album, is available at iTunes, with proceeds pegged for Amnesty International. In the video, streaming exclusively on AOL's PopEater.com, the metal god visits Beatles landmarks in New York and lays flowers at the Lennon memorial in Central Park.

Events

• After performing in New York and Los Angeles, Ono takes the Plastic Ono Band, directed by son Sean, to Reykjavik, Iceland, for a concert Saturday. She'll also bestow the annual LennonOno Grant for Peace to four recipients before lighting the Imagine Peace Tower on Vioey island. View a live feed: imaginepeace.com.

• Lennon's son Julian and first wife Cynthia will unveil an 18-foot global Imagine Peace & Harmony monument on Saturday in Liverpool, the musician's birthplace. The Global Peace Initiative commissioned Lauren Voiers of Phoenix to sculpt the piece, to be situated in the five-acre Chavasse Park overlooking the River Mersey. Julian asked her to incorporate a white feather, a symbol of peace and his father's spirit, into the monument.

• Fans are invited to gather at noon PT Saturday for a free two-hour celebration at Lennon's Walk of Fame star in front of the Capitol Records tower in Hollywood. Chris Carter, host of radio series Breakfast with The Beatles, will lead a cake-cutting ceremony, and attendees can inscribe messages on a 100-foot scroll. Local artists plan sidewalk chalk-art murals.

Film

• Nowhere Boy, a U.K. biopic tracing the evolution of The Quarrymen (Lennon's original Liverpool group) into The Beatles, opens in select theaters Friday. Based on a memoir by Lennon's half-sister Julia, the story chronicles his teen years, his first meeting with Paul McCartney, George Harrison's induction into the band and the personal forces that shaped Lennon's drive and vision. Critics have raved about Nowhere, which earned endorsements from McCartney, Ono and The Quarrymen.

• The documentary LENNONYC, which focuses on the last decade of Lennon's life, won't air on PBS until Nov. 22, but New Yorkers will get a free public screening at 7 p.m. ET Saturday in Central Park. The American Masters film, directed by Michael Epstein, follows Lennon as he explores the city's art scene, struggles against deportation and reconciles with Ono after his infamous "lost weekend." Concert outtakes and new Double Fantasy studio recordings are included.

Museums

• Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum plans a weekend of Lennon tributes, starting with Friday's time-capsule dedication. Post-Beatles recordings, art prints of LPs, fan contributions and a new career-spanning essay will be stored in the hall archives and two other locations until 2040. Also on tap: gallery talks, Hall of Fame induction ceremony screenings and Sunday's Imagine Peace World Festival of song and dance.

• John Lennon, Songwriter, on exhibit at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, explores his legacy as a composer and lyricist through objects loaned by Ono, including several guitars, a pair of round wire-rimmed glasses, the typewriter he used early in his career, original drawings and handwritten lyrics to such songs as Imagine and Beautiful Boy. Also on display are mementos from The Quarrymen and Lennon's Sgt. Pepper uniform.

• Phoenix's Musical Instrument Museum, which houses the Steinway Lennon used to compose Imagine (the humble brown piano, not the white grand piano seen in the video), plans a birthday celebration Saturday with Beatles music and free cupcakes.

• This Boy: John Lennon in Liverpool, a comprehensive collection of rare photos from Lennon's childhood, is hanging through December at New York's Paley Center for Media in New York, which is also screening four Lennon documentaries. Details: paleycenter.org.

On stage

• Remember Lennon: Imagine 70, a multimedia tribute envisioning the concert Lennon might perform had he lived, will be staged Friday at the Calvin Theatre & Performing Arts Center in Northampton, Mass.; Saturday in the Shubert Theater in New Haven, Conn.; and Sunday at the Garde Arts Center in New London, Conn. Details: imagine70.com.

• Performers will soon be announced for Imagine There's No Hunger: Celebrating the Songs of John Lennon, a benefit concert Nov. 2 at the Hard Rock Café Hollywood. Proceeds go to the Grammy Museum and WHY Hunger.

• The Quarrymen will honor their former bandmate with a "Happy Birthday John!" concert Saturday at the Society for Ethical Culture in New York. Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Marshall Crenshaw, Never Shout Never, Tom Chapin and others will join the band's tour finale, a benefit for Amnesty International. Details: thequarrymen.info.

• Jackson Browne, Patti Smith, Cyndi Lauper, Taj Mahal, Alejandro Escovedo, Aimee Mann and Shelby Lynne are among artists lined up for Theatre Within's 30th John Lennon Tribute Concert Nov. 12 at New York's Beacon Theatre. They'll play covers spanning Lennon's career. Proceeds go to the Playing for Change Foundation. Details: lennontribute.org.

Instruments

• At Ono's request, Gibson is saluting Lennon's birthday by releasing a limited number of J-160Es, the acoustic guitar the ex-Beatle favored. Included are 70 of the all-white Imagine models and 70 replicas of the guitar as altered by Lennon, with a drawing of him and Ono. They're priced from $4,700 to $15,000.

• Steinway & Sons is introducing the white Imagine Series Limited Edition grand piano modeled after the one Lennon gave Ono on her birthday in 1971. Available in five sizes, it incorporates Lennon's signature, a medallion with his Japanese signature, engraved Imagine lyrics and sheet music, and one of four Lennon drawings. (.usatoday.com )