Dennis Dutton's Arts & Letters Daily has a heap o' links, and Ross Douthat has a good column.
Let's party like it's 1989 with songs about the Berlin Wall:
David Bowie: Heroes, 1977: Video / Lyrics (and here's a terrific live version video, supposedly from a show in Berlin in 2002; it doesn't have as much of the great Robert Fripp wall-of-sound of the studio version, but Bowie looks like a million bucks at age 55, kind of like how Cary Grant reached his peak at the same age in North by Northwest).
Sex Pistols: Holidays in the Sun, 1977: Video / Lyrics ("It's guys like me they'd shoot first")
Jesus Jones: Right Here, Right Now, 1990: Video / Lyrics
Let's party like it's 1989 with songs about the Berlin Wall:
David Bowie: Heroes, 1977: Video / Lyrics (and here's a terrific live version video, supposedly from a show in Berlin in 2002; it doesn't have as much of the great Robert Fripp wall-of-sound of the studio version, but Bowie looks like a million bucks at age 55, kind of like how Cary Grant reached his peak at the same age in North by Northwest).
Sex Pistols: Holidays in the Sun, 1977: Video / Lyrics ("It's guys like me they'd shoot first")
Jesus Jones: Right Here, Right Now, 1990: Video / Lyrics
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
I love that live version of Heroes! Recorded in Berlin, I do believe.
ReplyDeleteI was so disappointed a few years back when I learned that the different colours of Bowie's eyes are due to a punch to his eye. I had thought he was a chimera -- and I thought that might explain a lot. ;-) (And how cool would that be to be a chimera!)
You can continue to pat yourselves on the back for a job well done but in 27 European states, from December 1, 2009, theoretical independence from Empire will be lost (practical independence has been gradually eroded over two dozen decades of EU treaties - this final one is the EU Constitution, called the Lisbon Treaty).
ReplyDeleteThe European Union is not the same thing as the Soviet Union, because we are not dominated by a people but by a transnational class. Pointing this out doesn't return any powers or make EU policy making any less multicultural or bureaucratic.
I presume heretofore that US paleocons have had no position on the EU, because you couldn't give a f*k. So I'd just like to point out that dewy-eyed nostalgia over our independence has no relevance, or indeed appreciative audience, over here in Europe.
In the 1970s Bowie and Iggy Pop shared an apartment in Berlin, both of them trying to wean themselves off drugs: the Wonder Years. I didn't make it to Berlin until the 90s, but I would have loved to have seen it in the 70s.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Edward, who I presume is replying to Douthat's opinion piece. Freedoms can be lost quickly and violently or slowly and surruptitiously. The fact that we've managed -- thus far -- to fend off the former is no guarentee that we'll succeed against the latter.
Nice attitude, Edward.
ReplyDeletehttp://aktualne.centrum.cz/czechnews/clanek.phtml?id=652220
Who can forget that image of John Cougar Mellencamp singing "When the Walls Come Tumbling Down" on top of the Berlin Wall!
ReplyDeleteOkay, I made that up, but it would have been fun to see!
Uh, The Scorpions "Winds of Change"?
ReplyDeleteDeep in the Forest, Bambi Remains The Cold War's Last Prisoner
ReplyDeleteDeer Still Shun Iron Curtain Border, 20 Years After the Guards and Barbed Wire Vanished
The barriers severed the herds of deer on the two sides as well.
This although the deer alive today have no memory of the ominous fence.
Now the fence is gone but they still stop at the border."
One reason, he says, is that deer have traditional trails, passed on through the generations, with a collective memory that their grounds end at the erstwhile barrier. Females, who stay with their mothers longer than males and spend more time absorbing their mothers' movements, stick even more closely to the traditional turf.
WSJ NOVEMBER 4, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/yj5pdky
Dig the Bowie video, the man is timeless. The Scary Monster's era (w/Fripp) was my introduction to his music back in 7th grade, and is still my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI was expecting so much more power and aggression after years of hype about the Sex Pistols (harcore had already arrived in the suburbs), but they disappointed, sounding mild compared to what I was expecting. I mostly heard Chuck Berry riffs. But you're in good company liking the Pistols, lots of great musicians like them and were influenced by them, including guitarist extraordinaire, Greg Ginn.
I agree with Edward, who I presume is replying to Douthat's opinion piece.
ReplyDeleteDoes the man know anything about European politics? "Twenty years ago today, this threat disappeared." Talking out of his hat. Nice sentiments, utterly irrelevant analysis.
Freedoms can be lost quickly and violently or slowly and surruptitiously. The fact that we've managed -- thus far -- to fend off the former is no guarentee that we'll succeed against the latter.
That's why we've lost it to a slow motion coup d'etat.
May I recommend this blog as many readers of this blog are isteve readers.
The blog also has discussed in many detailed posts on AFPAK conflict in Pashtun terms - something not done in MSN, something I've only seen on steve's blog (whence the transmission of ideas came via third party)
Steveosphere is expanding to Europe, or at least to UK, proving again how valuable and influential his work is. Take us seriously please...
You don't see much in any of the MSM about the role Ronald Reagan played in bringing the wall down.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot Elton John's Nikita!
ReplyDeleteI used to like David Bowies music, til I found out he donated money to help the Jena 6.
ReplyDelete"Edward said...
ReplyDeleteI presume heretofore that US paleocons have had no position on the EU, because you couldn't give a f*k. So I'd just like to point out that dewy-eyed nostalgia over our independence has no relevance, or indeed appreciative audience, over here in Europe."
You are very much mistaken. It is the paleocons who still retain an affection and concern for the old world. It was the neocons who heaped scorn and derision on Europe - people like Jonah Goldberg and Mark Stein - who never had anything nicer to say to Europe than a big "f*ck-you".
You are very much mistaken. It is the paleocons who still retain an affection and concern for the old world.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I've got the wrong impression then due to ignorance. Probably assumed because the US paleocons have isolationist tendencies they'd think it's good if Europe "club together for their own security" and that the EU does this for them and they're all really happy. Wrong, this club is actually making us less secure on much the same IWIWIHW logic that applies to US.
One Paleocon position on Europe would be to pull US troops out of Germany. Don't oppose that but I've yet to read a Paleocon with a real understanding of European politics to say what, in diplomatic terms, they'd do instead... do they talk about it ever? Links please... :)
It was the neocons who heaped scorn and derision on Europe - people like Jonah Goldberg and Mark Stein - who never had anything nicer to say to Europe than a big "f*ck-you".
So perhaps I assumed you had the same view as the neocons - Americans from Mars, Euros from Venus etc. Okay, but I stil don't know what to make of Paleocon view of Europe.
A Paleocon view of Europe must begin with: what is the Paleocon view of the EU? This government cannot be ignored. Doing so merely shows ignorance.
From Dec 1, when the European Council becomes part of the governing structure of the EU, the 27 states will have officially ceded sovereignty to the Brussels Empire. What do Paleocons think of that? Be grateful your European Commissioners are 100% white?!
Nostalgia about 1989 though interesting is in this context more than a little grating - Soviet similar authoritarianism has NOT been defeated. Quit the congratulations and backslapping.
It only serves to confirm the stereotype that Americans are mostly ignorant of Europe, and are at their more loquacious only when they are allowed to brag about how great America is, or, as of now, was (an observation of De Tocqueville's).