Bowie in berlin - subgrav in New York

Bowie
Emo
Fripp
is that Iggy
looking tall and drawn?
Low and Heroes
brings me back to the beginning
when music was simple
and different
and odd

Has New York ever been like Berlin?
Not likely.
But then again, Berlin is not like Berlin either.
With the wall gone, what physical scar inspires the psychological
or the aesthetic?

Save me from McDonalds in the Hauptbahnhof!

Rulers in rehab

Stalin a hero?

What's next?

Mussolini a patriot?

Hitler a good guy?

Forbid it!

History filled with despots who claim absolute power

and corrupt themselves absolutely.

Yes, each one leaves a legacy of something,

somewhat,

remotely,

plausibly

positive (?)

...dare we say?

But the blood of the victims washes the deeds away.

And the deeds of selfish power-hunger

eats them to the bone.

Every one of us is capable of

....falling

...into the trap!

of abandoning self for a greater cause

or a greater ruler.

We love our heroes

and overlook their flaws.

On both sides of the spectrum, too.

Just look at the US elections of 2008.

or 2004,

or 2000,

1996,

1992,

1988 (well, maybe not this one)

But infidelity and stupidity are not cold blooded murder and hatred.

And Stalin's image in rehab is worse

...much worse

and a dangerous sign of things to come.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/14/stalin-grandson-court-fight

Enough...

Rhetoric rules the day

as both sides hurl accusations of

fear mongering…

over-emotionalism…

lies…

ignorance…

across the aisle.

Yet little time is put on true debate.

And less, even, on intellectual honesty.

How can you support liberty and freedom and necessitate participation?

Or claim to be compassionate and let the unfortunate suffer?

Tabula rasa

Wipe it clean and start again.

Twelve people - four months - one room.

Like "Twelve Angry Men" = let them work out their

frustrations

prejudices

emotionalism

narrow-mindedness

and get on with a plan that could actually work.

:::::::::::

Noisy commuters

Clickety clack, click clack, click click

The keyboards pound away at furious tempos.

Whilst

Thump thump, zwiiiiuuuuuung, thump

goes the classic rock on the middle-aged, balding man's iPod.

A little air-drumming to show the young commuter in the short dress that he still "has it."

She's engrossed in her Oprah Book Club selection, blissfully oblivious until

[insert the dulcet tones of an incessantly bad "island beat" ring tone]

bla bla bla bla bla and then I told him bla bla bla

spoken in a conspiratorially loud whisper so that everyone can hear.

Is there no end to this cacophonous nightmare?

At least someone in Australia may have the right idea:

http://tinyurl.com/ll8mr4