all the way from Alabama a-walking

 

William Faulkner; Woody Allen

While F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in The Great Gatsby that "You can't repeat the past" -- another  novelist, William Faulkner (1897 - 1962), wrote "The past is never dead.  It's not even past."

So which way is it?

You can't repeat the past? -- or -- You're doomed to repeat the past and keep on repeating it?

Dueling authors.

(If this was an episode of Friends Joey would be saying, "OK, who do you think would win in a fight between William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald?")

The Faulkner quote was used in a 2008 speech by Barack Obama.

In 2012 the quote was utilized in the Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris.  According to Wikipedia ------------------- [excerpt] ------------------ Faulkner Literary Rights LLC filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Sony Pictures Classics over a scene in the Allen film, where a time-traveling character says, 

"The past is not dead!  Actually, it's not even past.  You know who said that?  Faulkner.  And he was right.  And I met him, too.  I ran into him at a dinner party."  

In 2013 the judge dismissed Faulkner Literary Rights LLC's claim, ruling that the use of the quote in the film was de minimis and constituted "fair use". ------------------------- [end / Wikipedia excerpt]

---------------------------------

De minimis -- Latin for "too trivial or minor to merit consideration, especially in law."

---------------------------------

"I recently ran into Faulkner at a dinner party."

LOL

Midnight in Paris happens to be on Netflix, right now (I think) -- we can watch it!

a sample of Faulkner's writing:

1

Sitting beside the road, watching the wagon mount the hill toward her, Lena thinks, 'I have come from Alabama:  a fur piece.  All the way from Alabama a-walking.  A fur piece.'  Thinking    although I have not been quite a month on the road I am already in Mississippi, further from home than I have ever been before.  I am now further from Doane's Mill than I have been since I was twelve years old

        She had never been to Doane's Mill until after her father and mother died, though six or eight times a year she went to town on Saturday, in the wagon, in a mailorder dress and her bare feet flat in the wagon bed and her shoes wrapped in a piece of paper beside her on the seat.  She would put on the shoes just before the wagon reached town.  After she got to be a big girl she would ask her father to stop the wagon at the edge of town and she would get down and walk.  She would not tell her father why she wanted to walk in instead of riding.  He thought that it was because of the smooth streets, the sidewalks.  But it was because she believed that the people who saw her and whom she passed on foot would believe that she lived in the town too.

        When she was twelve years old her father and mother died in the same summer, in a log house of three rooms and a hall, without screens, in a room lighted by a bugswirled kerosene lamp, the naked floor worn smooth as old silver by naked feet.  She was the youngest living child.  Her mother died first.  She said, "Take care of paw."  Lena did so.  Then one day her father said, "You go to Doane's Mill with McKinley.  You get ready to go, be ready when he comes."  Then he died.  McKinley, the brother, arrived in a wagon.  They buried the father in a grove behind a country church one afternoon, with a pine headstone.  The next morning she departed forever, though it is possible that she did not know this at the time, in the wagon with McKinley, for Doane's Mill.  The wagon was borrowed and the brother had promised to return it by nightfall.

____________________________

{Light in August, by William Faulkner.  1932.  Publisher:  Smith & Haas.}

-30-

the elusive, lurking past

 

The Great Gatsby Painting, by Reem Khader

------------------ [excerpt] ------------- "And she doesn't understand," he said despairingly.  "She used to be able to understand.  We'd sit for hours ---"

He broke off and began to walk up and down a desolate path of fruit rinds and discarded favors and crushed flowers.

"I wouldn't ask too much of her," I ventured.  "You can't repeat the past."

"Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously.  "Why of course you can!"

He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand. ---------------------- [end / excerpt]

I was thinking of this passage from The Great Gatsby, while listening to Ukraine news - someone said Putin's goal is to put the old Russian Empire back together.

"You can't repeat the past."

Another news-video on You Tube that helps enlighten us on the war situation:

'Picking them off':  Petraeus explains how Ukrainians are taking out Russian generals

uploader:  CNN

_________________________________

_________________________________

[from The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Scribner's.  1925.]

        "Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously.  "Why of course you can!"

        He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand.

        "I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before," he said, nodding determinedly.  "She'll see."

        He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.  His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was... .

        ... One autumn night, five years before, they had been walking down the street when the leaves were falling, and they came to a place where there were no trees and the sidewalk was white with moonlight.  They stopped here and turned toward each other.  

Now it was a cool night with that mysterious excitement in it which comes at the two changes of the year.  The quiet lights in the houses were humming out into the darkness and there was a stir and bustle among the stars.

-30-

Putin gaslights the Russian people; Terminator calls him out

 

Ukraine, landscape painting by Yaroslav Chyzhevskyi

Over the past weekend I was listening to some news-report / analysis videos on You Tube, giving info on the situation in Ukraine.

(I feel kind of unknowledgeable [if that's a word] in this area -- up until a couple years ago, I thought it was "the Ukraine" and only relatively recently learned it's just "Ukraine."  Like -- "He is from Ukraine," not "he is from the Ukraine.")

I was thinking some of my favorite film people and writers have ancestors from Ukraine -- I Googled some of them -- Bob Dylan's paternal grandparents emigrated from Ukraine in 1905 (although back then it wasn't Ukraine, it was part of the Russian Empire--which is part of the problem now....)

Some helpful videos:

Putin has features of a psychopath: Expert | The Donlon Report

uploader:  NewsNation

Ukraine:  Demoralised & Incompetent, Putin's Army Is Doomed

uploader:  The Telegraph

Russians Face Choice Of Destitution in Exile, Or Prison At Home

uploader:  Katie Couric

'Russia is in trouble': Gen. Wesley Clark...

uploader:  CNN

Joy Reid:  Putin Will Only Stop When He Realizes...

uploader:  MSNBC

___________________________

        Arnold Schwarzenegger made a You Tube video, communicating to the Russian people.  Russian propagandists are mad about it, so I guess that means Arnold's message was good.

The BBC reports that the former California governor's "video address" was "trending on Russian Twitter" Friday.  (Can you imagine?)

        In the video, Schwarzenegger warns Russians they are being fed misinformation about their country's assault on Ukraine.

Addressing Putin, he said, "You started this war, and you can stop it."

Arnold is brave.  He is kind of turning into a real elder statesman.

One commentator I listened to was talking along, ranging far and wide in his discussion, and suddenly the phrase, "half-naked on a horse" caught my ear.  LOL.  I have unexpectedly come across photos online, a couple of times, where Putin is shirtless -- once while astride a horse -- so I knew right away what the video guy was talking about.

        It seems like Mr. Vlad overestimates his personal attractiveness and the public's interest in it.

-30-

here is a long and silent street

 

Octavio Paz, Mexican poet

The Street

-------------------------------

Here is a long and silent street.

I walk in blackness and I stumble and fall

and rise, and I walk blind, my feet

trampling the silent stones and the dry leaves.

Someone behind me also tramples, stones, leaves:

if I slow down, he slows;

if I run, he runs I turn : nobody.

Everything dark and doorless,

only my steps aware of me,

I turning and turning among these corners

which lead forever to the street

where nobody waits for, nobody follows me,

where I pursue a man who stumbles

and rises and says when he sees me : nobody.

_________________________________

-30-

turn your lamp down low

 

Muddy Waters

I thought of another thing that 

Blues music

and

Film Noir

have in common:  cigarette-smoking.  Very prevalent.

Under one of the noir-style movies on You Tube, there are often Comments -- "they sure smoked a lot back then"...

        It's quite true -- as if there was no surgeon general at all...

Yesterday we mentioned the "turn your lamp down low" song -- on You Tube, find the video titled,

Muddy Waters & The Rolling Stones - Baby Please Don't Go - Live At Checkerboard Lounge

-- uploader, The Rolling Stones,

and Play - !

It's about 10 minutes, so you see the Stones come in -- it's just a nightclub, it isn't the giant stage in a giant stadium situation, it's quite unique!  The Rolling Stones enter through a door to the street, just like I would, as a customer - and they get a table, just like anyone.  

        In a little bit they go up and join Muddy Waters and they perform together.  Mr. Waters has the leadership position in that club -- he "owns the room" - in a gentle, humble way.

-30-

how fast was I going, Officer?

 

Jane Greer; Robert Mitchum

Reading comments on the Internet last weekend, I got to thinking about film noir, how it serves a function similar to blues music in that -- while some dark, or sad, or fatalistic elements are contained in it, you somehow feel better, or happier, after experiencing this art.  It lifts us.

Turn your lamp down low

Turn your lamp down low

I beg you all night long, baby, please don't go

-------------------------- "You can stand here with me if you want, but you'll have to agree not to talk about the heat."

----------------------

------------------ PHYLLIS:

Mr. Neff, why don't you drop by tomorrow evening about eight-thirty.  He'll be in then.

NEFF:

Who?

PHYLLIS:

My husband.  You were anxious to talk to him weren't you?

NEFF:

Sure, only I'm getting over it a little.  If you know what I mean.

PHYLLIS:

There's a speed limit in this state, Mr. Neff.  Forty-five miles an hour.

NEFF:

How fast was I going, officer?

PHYLLIS:

I'd say about ninety.

NEFF:

Suppose you get down off your motorcycle and give me a ticket.

PHYLLIS:

Suppose I let you off with a warning this time.

NEFF:

Suppose it doesn't take.

PHYLLIS:

Suppose I have to whack you over the knuckles.

NEFF:

Suppose I bust out crying and put my head on your shoulder.

PHYLLIS:

Suppose you try putting it on my husband's shoulder.

NEFF:

That tears it.

__________________________________

"Film noir has a mood that everyone can feel.  It's people in trouble, at night, with a little bit of wind and the right kind of music.  It's a beautiful thing."

~  David Lynch

Back in 2013 when I was blogging the movie Body Heat, I made a list of 10 great films noir.  It's only a little different from a list I made about a week ago.

The 2013 list:

The Big Sleep

Body Heat

Double Indemnity

The Killers

Lady in the Lake

Laura

The Maltese Falcon

Out of the Past

Sweet Smell of Success

The Third Man

____________________________________

List made in March of 2022:

Out of the Past

The Third Man

Double Indemnity

Body Heat

The Postman Always Rings Twice

        (1940s version; 1980s version)

Sweet Smell of Success

The Big Sleep

The Maltese Falcon

Scarlet Street

March 2022 list of great movies that include some noir style (visual and dialogue and atmosphere / tone)

Casablanca

Gaslight

Sunset Boulevard

Strangers on a Train

Notorious

Key Largo

Laura

Shadow of a Doubt

____________________________________

"The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them."

~  Alfred Hitchcock

-30-

a baffling, startling scene

 

The American actor William Hurt passed away three days ago.

News stories highlight the movies he was most well-known for; online Commenters mention movies they personally have watched him in....

I remember William Hurt best from Body Heat, but he was also in The Big Chill, which I really loved -- I forget him in that film, though, because he was such a good actor, he would "disappear" into a role....

I looked back on this blog -- in a December 2013 post titled "I'm not tough; I'm weak" there is, reproduced in prose, a pivotal and shocking scene from Body Heat -- back in 2013, I didn't tell the end of the scene -- its ultimate "punch" -- but now, "spoiler alert," in memory of William Hurt as Ned Racine, I'm re-printing the earlier description and adding on what happens, so if you haven't seen Body Heat and you wish to be surprised, then don't read today's post, just come back tomorrow.

OK --

Matty Walker gets out of her car and goes toward the house; Ned Racine, concentrating, exits his own car, & follows her.

INT.  ENTRY HALL - NIGHT

Inside it's dark until Matty calmly, casually, in-control, presses an "on" button of a lamp on a table behind the door.  A small area is lighted; Ned glances around and says with low-key irony, "Just like my place."

She leads the way up a flight of stairs, across a hallway, up some more stairs, to a set of French doors opening to a porch, or deck, where the chimes are.  He follows her.  On the way, she turns on several lights -- no overheads, just lamps on tables (carefully chosen by interior decorators).

As she opens the French doors, commandingly, Racine asks, "No help?"

MATTY:  She goes home nights.

(Matty's voice is husky, sultry -- the voice itself is low, but the attitude it invariably conveys is "above it all"...)

RACINE
You're not nervous here alone?

She looks at him as though she barely understands the question.

MATTY
No.

EXT.  SECOND FLOOR PORCH - NIGHT

The TINKLING is distinct out here.  Matty and Racine come out onto the porch.  There are about thirty wind chimes of various, lovely designs -- crystal, metal, wood hanging at intervals from the rim of the wide porch awning, completely encircling Matty and Racine.

Halfway down the long lawn is a white gazebo.  Beyond it, the waterway is shimmering in the moonlight.  At the edge of the water is a small boat house.

Racine walks along under the chimes, looking up at them, touching them, pushing them so that they swing and make the tingling sounds.  A smile plays across his face.  He looks back at Matty.

RACINE
You do have chimes.

He looks out at the boat house.

RACINE
What's that?

-- A gazebo.

-- No, out there.

-- Boat house.

-- What's in it?

-- Boat.

Racine looks at her.  She looks out on the distant water.

MATTY
It's a mess, really.
(a little breathless)
There's a row boat, a lot of lounge chairs...things like that.

He's been making his way around the circle of wind chimes, around the edge of the porch, from the end of the porch where she isn't, towards the end of the porch where she is.  All the way 'round, his right hand is idly, gently tapping and pushing wind chimes.  

He approaches the area where Matty is standing.  His hand runs out of chimes...he slowly, hesitantly reaches his right hand toward the side of her face. 

She does not look at him.  His hand gets closer.  His hand is almost close enough to where he may be about to caress her face just ever-so-lightly, when she leans her face a little to the left, and her face sort of caresses his hand, for about two seconds, then she quickly turns away from him and walks toward the doors leading back inside.

MATTY
I think you should go now.

RACINE
(still standing where he was -- now there's a big space between them)
I just got here.

MATTY
(from the doorway)
You've seen them.  Please go.

He looks disappointed and starts walking in her direction.

The next shot is EXTERIOR at the front door where they originally came in.  She's standing outside with her back to the open door.  He comes out the door and stands looking down at her. 

MATTY
Thank you.  I'm sorry.  I shouldn't have let you come.

He looks at her a minute.

RACINE
You're not so tough after all, are you?

MATTY
No, I'm weak

----------------------- and she kisses him lightly yet deliberately on the lips and swoops herself back into the house, in one extended movement -- closes the door and -- click -- locks it, and looks at him through the window.  You just see her eyes.

[The first time I saw this movie, I was like, "Wwwwhhhhaat is this??"]

Ned walks to his car, his footsteps making scrunch-crunch sounds in the gravel.
At his car, he leans on it, and looks up at the chimes on that second-floor porch.
The tinkling-dinging of the chimes.
Breeze increases, and the chimes-sound goes up in volume.


Ned Racine changes his mind and goes back up to the front door, and looks through the window.  Matty is standing back from the door, over at the bottom of the stairs in the hall.  She is looking directly at the front door.  Frozen to the spot.

Racine tries the door.  It's locked. 

[She doesn't make a move to open the door for him.  She doesn't make a move to turn off the lights and go upstairs.  She doesn't make a move to call the police.  She just stands staring out at him, looking sort of -- I don't know -- proud, and very ready to place an order for something....]

Ned moves over to a window.  He tries that, it's locked, he looks in, she's in the same place, watching him, with the same look only more so.

Next window is also locked...

--------------------------- He looks around, as the John Barry music score billows and builds -- mysterious, ominous, exciting, unknowable.  The expression on his face tells us he is trying to think up a solution to a problem.

Suddenly, his upper body swings forward and down in a smooth, graceful motion -- he picks up a patio chair, pirouettes with it, gaining momentum on the way around, & smashes it through a window.

The background music swells.

As Matty gasps, standing there -- waiting -- Ned strides in past shimmering crashed glass, right up to Matty, takes her in his arms and starts kissing her.

She kisses him back -- they embrace....

_____________________________________

----------------------------------------------------

There are several videos of this scene on You Tube.

Underneath one of them, a guy had typed a Comment --

Do women want this?

_________________________________

-30-

good music without the gatekeeping

 

Dolly Parton made a New York Times headline this week, when Rock and Roll Hall of Fame wanted to nominate her for induction and she declined, saying she really doesn't do rock and roll, she's country.

(Although she recorded the Jerry Lee Lewis song, "Great Balls of Fire" in the 1970s.  The disc jockeys at WBCN in Boston were playing it.  That's rock & roll.  But she probably feels like if you have one rock song and 80 billion country songs, you're country.  Fair enough.)

The article inspired many Reader Comments -- people feel like a lot of non-rock-and-roll singers are in the rock and roll hall of fame -- Jay Z, etc.

A commenter in New Zealand wrote,

------------------ The name "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" says it all.  It is about fame.  While many very worthwhile artists have been inducted, no one gets in without a massive career, and then often not without a lot of lobbying from fans (i.e., Rush and Deep Purple).  

That is why you will never see Tower of Power in there.  

Or King Crimson.  

Or a whole slew of bands that may not have sold a lot, but were brilliant, innovative, and in some cases hugely influential on the genre as a whole.  

        How many folks know of Urban Dance Squad, who predate Rage Against the Machine?  

Imagine a Rock and Roll "Hall of Excellence" instead, in which we also honor Mother's Finest, Gentle Giant, Living Colour, The Guess Who, King's X, Kansas -- or just simply celebrate good music without the gatekeeping.  Why we need to  make a contest out of music is beyond me.  The whole idea is idiotic in the extreme.

-30-

someone's torched it to clear the lot -- probably one of my clients

 

The world woke up this morning to headlines saying William Hurt had died.

He was 71.

He starred in one of my all-time favorite movies, a film noir called Body Heat.

Under the NYT obituary one reader commented, "If he never made another movie after Body Heat that would be enough to cement his reputation."

B. Heat director Lawrence Kasdan talked about making the 1981 movie -- how he got a call from studio brass that they should remove Hurt's mustache because, "it makes him look sleazy."

        Kasdan was like, "Uh-huh."

        The mustache stayed.

-30-

heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world

 

Quoting Churchill and Shakespeare, Ukraine Leader Vows No Surrender

In a dramatic video address to Britain's House of Commons, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said he would never capitulate to the invading Russians.

[headline and sub-head on March 8 article in The New York Times]

[article excerpt] -------------------- LONDON -- With Ukraine's outgunned army holding firm despite Russian bombardments that have displaced millions of civilians, the war in Ukraine has become a grim spectacle of resistance, no one more defiant than the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who vowed on Tuesday never to give in to Russia's tanks, troops or artillery shells.

In a dramatic video address to Britain's Parliament, clad in his now-famous military fatigue T-shirt, Mr. Zelensky echoed Winston Churchill's famous words of no surrender to the same chamber at the dawn of World War II as Britain faced a looming onslaught from Nazi Germany.

"We will fight till the end, at sea, in the air," Mr. Zelensky said with the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag draped behind him.  "We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets."

The speech, the first ever by a foreign leader to the House of Commons, was the climax of Mr. Zelensky's darkest-hour messaging to fellow Ukrainians and the world in what has become a typical 20-hour day for him in Kyiv, the besieged capital.

In his daily speech to the nation, he claimed that Ukraine had inflicted 30 years of losses on Russia's air force in 13 days.  And in an internet video posted Monday night from his presidential office, he all but taunted President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

"I'm not hiding," Mr. Zelensky said.  "I'm not afraid of anyone."

        Nearly two weeks into Russia's war, it was becoming ever clearer that the Kremlin's military planners, not to mention Mr. Putin himself, had dramatically miscalculated not only the grit of Ukrainian resistance but also the calamitous economic consequences for Russia, which on Tuesday faced a major new embargo of its oil exports and a growing exodus of large American companies....

"Everybody can hear that people don't have water," Mr. Zelensky said of those under siege in Mariupol.  Russia's shelling of hospitals and evacuation routes, he said, had killed scores of innocent civilians, including children.

"These are the children who could have lived," he said to the packed and rapt chamber, "but they took them away from us."

However long the odds Ukrainians faced or the horrors they were enduring, Mr. Zelensky said, they had made the decision to endure.  To Shakespeare's elemental question, "to be or not to be," he said, Ukrainians had decided "to be." ------------------------------- [end / excerpt of NYT article, written by Mark Landler and Marc Santora]

____________________________________

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?

I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains

I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways

I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests

I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans

I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard

And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard

And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall...

__________________________________

{"A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" - written by Bob Dylan}

-30-

fuming Russian mums

 

Queen of England; Justin Trudeau

Ukraine flag

Yesterday I noticed kind of a weird headline:

Fuming Russian mums turn on Putin saying 'our sons were sent to Ukraine as cannon fodder'

It's a news story in a British publication called The Mirror.  It's one of those "tabloids" where one of the hallmarks is, they appeal strongly to basic emotions.  Some of their stories might be true, some might be a bit "iffy."  So I checked it against some other sources, it appears to be true.

...Just the Mirror's headline is more "grabby" -- because that's their style, for the audience to whom they're appealing.

        "fuming Russian mums"...

In England (and maybe in the entire UK, I don't know) the informal word for mother is "mum" -- whereas in America we're used to saying "mom."

------------------ The Mirror story says --

---------- [excerpt] --------- The mothers of Russian soldiers have accused Vladimir Putin of deploying their sons as "cannon fodder" in his invasion of Ukraine.

Footage - see above - has emerged of a confrontation with a regional governor, reportedly filmed on a day on which police in Russia detained 4,500 anti-war protesters.

In the video Sergey Tsivilev, governor of the Kuzbass region in Siberia, stood on a stage in a school gym while being confronted by angry soldiers' mothers who were accusing the Kremlin of lying.

"We were all deceived, all deceived," one woman shouted.

"They were sent there as cannon fodder.  They are young.  They were unprepared."

An uncomfortable-looking Mr Tsivilev shuffled as he attempted to frame Putin's invasion of Ukraine as a "special operation", rather than a war.

However, his attempts to back the Kremlin's propaganda were drowned out by the yells of more women.

One mother butted in, yelling "Used!  So our children were used?"

The video did not make clear who the women were and whether their sons had been killed fighting in Ukraine.

...It was a day of violent protests across Russia on Sunday, with 4,460 people arrested by the police for publicly opposing the war.  [end / excerpt]

________________________________

        I could not get the image out of my head, of that guy shuffling his feet uneasily, trying to give an answer to his fellow citizens, when he knows there isn't a good answer, and his country is not free.

______________________________________

TOWN & COUNTRY

March 7 headline:

Queen Elizabeth Subtly Signals Her Support for Ukraine During a Meeting at Windsor Castle

The bouquet of blue and yellow flowers in the background of the Queen's meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau highlighted the royal family's support for Ukraine.

_____________________________________

        When we watch The Crown we learn (or re-learn) the policy where members of the Royal Family are not supposed to speak out on political issues.  (Is invasion of Ukraine a "political" issue or a current event?...)

        At any rate, the royals have their ways.  (subtle signals...)    

I remember a news story when the Queen met with President Trump -- the two went for a walk outdoors and the story mentioned that the pin she was wearing was a gift from President Obama.

-30-

trampling out the vintage

 

Thomas Friedman had op-ed piece in NYT yesterday about Ukraine.  Some Reader Comments:

Giovanni

Kent, England

-------------------- I cannot fathom what Putin was thinking by launching an all-out open invasion of Ukraine.  I always assumed his tactics were slow, covert destabilisation, cyber warfare, using proxies in a deniable way.  

But this?  

He has clarified everything for the world in one crazy act of aggression.  

        Nobody can be seen to be doing business with Russia now.  Every major corporation is scrambling to dump their Russian assets.  They are the new South Africa in the days of apartheid.  His army will be bogged down in Ukraine for the next 20 years fighting a resistance army in the ruined cities.  

The war will come home to Russia through bombs planted on the Moscow metro or in shopping malls.  This will go down in history as one of the biggest miscalculations of all time.  Putin's regime is finished.

Rational Person

USA

----------------------------- Replace as much of our supply chain out of China to USA and allied / friendly countries as quickly as possible.  China is not a good partner for trade, security, peace or freedom.  It will mean short term pain for us, and our allies.  

No more blind eye to China.  

Chinese and Russian people must also be told that we respect them, want to live in peace with them, share cultural relations with them, but not under circumstances where our trade empowers their abuse of freedom, security and democratic governance.

John

Cleveland

--------------------- The Europeans are learning that an over-dependence on Russian oil has made them vulnerable; the US would be smart to recognize that our over-reliance on Chinese manufacturing could become a similar national security risk.

Rob

British Columbia

-------------------------------- The most effective way to deal with China is to simply stop buying the products they produce.

LT

Chicago

--------------------------- "What will it be, Xi?"  

My guess is that Xi will sit back and do as little as possible and let the West and Russia work it out as the most likely "best" case scenario serves Xi's and China's interests too.  

Russia ends up constrained, isolated, and diminished, Europe remains non-radioactive, but the West is exhausted from months, maybe a year or two of dealing with an angry and aging megalomaniac with nukes.  

Too exhausted to go another round with another authoritarian leader with nukes and grand ambitions.  

Mr. Friedman's hope that China joins the West in opposing Putin seems quite unlikely.  Xi has never shown an inclination towards joining the West to maintain a peaceful world order even when it might serve China's interests.  

        He seems to prefer to watch the West punch itself out and "win" just by letting the West become evermore weary.

-30-

tramps like us

 

When I went to listen to the song "Born to Run" on You Tube, I wanted the album version.  There's a live version on there, and it's probably good in its own way, but I wanted the one that is imprinted in my brain, which is the album version.  The cover looks like above picture, & the one with good sound has 10M views.

(There's one with 4M views where the sound is over-modulated or something -- it sounds grating.  The 10M one is best sound for original album cut.)

That song is good.  I listened to it several times in a row, and one word kept coming into my mind:  operatic.

"Born to Run" has an operatic quality. 

Parts of the song get louder; parts get softer and the vocal attitude changes from serious to gentle, to musing and dreamy, to bold, determined, to desperate, to out-of-this-world exuberant.  Angry - thoughtful - yearning.

The song is a personal revolution in the form of musical notes.

Oh someday girl, I don't know when

We're gonna get to that place

Where we really wanna go and we'll walk in the sun

But 'til then, tramps like us

Baby, we were born to run

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born to run

 

In the day we sweat it out on the streets

Of a runaway American dream

At night we ride through the mansions of glory

In suicide machines

Sprung from cages on Highway 9

Chrome wheeled, fuel injected, and steppin' out over the line

Oh, baby this town rips the bones from your back

It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap

We gotta get out while we're young

'Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to run

Yes, girl, we were

Wendy, let me in, I wanna be your friend

I wanna guard your dreams and visions

Just wrap your legs 'round these velvet rims

And strap your hands 'cross my engines

Together we could break this trap

We'll run 'til we drop, baby, we'll never go back

Oh, will you walk with me out on the wire?

'Cause, baby, I'm just a scared and lonely rider

But I gotta know how it feels

I want to know if love is wild

Babe, I want to know if love is real

Oh, can you show me

Beyond the Palace, hemi-powered drones

Scream down the boulevard

Girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors

And the boys try to look so hard

The amusement park rises bold and stark

Kids are huddled on the beach in the mist

I wanna die with you Wendy, on the street tonight

In an everlasting kiss

The highway's jammed with broken heroes

On a last chance power drive

Everybody's out on the run tonight

But there's no place left to hide

Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness

I'll love you with all the madness in my soul

Oh someday girl, I don't know when

We're gonna get to that place

Where we really wanna go and we'll walk in the sun

But 'til then, tramps like us

Baby, we were born to run

Oh honey, tramps like us

Baby we were born to run

Come on with me, tramps like us

Baby, we were born to run

___________________________

"Born to Run"

written by Bruce Springsteen

recorded (at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, New York) --

     January 8, 1974  (first take)

     May 21, 1974  (first demo)

     August 6, 1974

released:  August 25, 1975

album:  Born to Run

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