Poppies, toads and movies
In Flanders fields where poppies grow.
So goes the poem –
Between the crosses row by row.
Today is Veteran’s day – it used to be called Armistice day – the day world war I ended – on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, on the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour the guns stopped.
It was the end of the war to end all wars and the sudden silence was breathtaking.
Of course the guns started up again in about 20 years but at the moment it was a big deal.
It’s a bigger event in England and Canada than here – folks go about with poppies pinned on their clothes (or whatever and all the games this week have had a moment of silence before they started)
Side note on moments of silence – I remember that soon after Jerry Garcia died Blues Traveler had a show and Tom Poppel asked the crowd for a moment of silence – and sure enough someone after ten seconds yelled out “Yeah JERRY!!!!!” proving once again most Grateful Dead Fans are stoned idiots.
Anyway the thing that I feel is important about world war I is that it forces us to confront the beast without illusions – war done well can seem exciting or like a video game to go by most of the Armed Force’s ads these days. World War 1 was a bloody futile nightmare whose only real accomplishment was that it swept away the ruling class of the 19th century and set the boundaries of the playing field for the next war and the cold war that followed. And introduced the idea of bombing cities from the air.
Not the best track record.
Meantime I see that Lieberman is trying to worm his way back to the winning side. And proving that the senate needs an enema some big time dems are talking about taking him back. I mean come one. You can’t trust him further than you can spit him and to leave him as the head of a committee with subpoena powers is to hand him a knife that is going straight between Obama’s shoulder blades the instant holy joe sees his chance. You can’t trust a turn coat – especially one who tries to put his old coat back on – Benedict Arnold at least stayed on the British side once he’d sold the US up the river – I’ll give that for him – even he didn’t have the nerve to come back to the states after the war and say “hell what’s a little betrayal? Why are you so mad?”
The political thing has kind of overwhelmed my pop culture crawl but now I hope that I can get back and see what’s going on in edge city music and movies and what not. Managed to see a pretty awful film over the weekend The Concubines but to be honest I have to watch it again because there are about 7 flashbacks folded into each other to the point where I didn’t know what the hell was going on. Which is pretty hard to do to me – only Glen and Glenda and Butterfly and Sword (which I must write about soon) have got me puzzled to the point of saying what the hell? Does anybody know what is gong on at all? Did anybody? Hell I can follow Mexican wrestling films for Pete’s sake.
Anyway – it’s nice to be able to get back to things like that and not be overly worried that the mush wit in the white house is going to do something really stupid or not do something with horrific consequences. Obama will make mistakes (like Lieberman) but they won’t be because he’s stupid.
Peace, love. Poppies
So goes the poem –
Between the crosses row by row.
Today is Veteran’s day – it used to be called Armistice day – the day world war I ended – on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, on the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour the guns stopped.
It was the end of the war to end all wars and the sudden silence was breathtaking.
Of course the guns started up again in about 20 years but at the moment it was a big deal.
It’s a bigger event in England and Canada than here – folks go about with poppies pinned on their clothes (or whatever and all the games this week have had a moment of silence before they started)
Side note on moments of silence – I remember that soon after Jerry Garcia died Blues Traveler had a show and Tom Poppel asked the crowd for a moment of silence – and sure enough someone after ten seconds yelled out “Yeah JERRY!!!!!” proving once again most Grateful Dead Fans are stoned idiots.
Anyway the thing that I feel is important about world war I is that it forces us to confront the beast without illusions – war done well can seem exciting or like a video game to go by most of the Armed Force’s ads these days. World War 1 was a bloody futile nightmare whose only real accomplishment was that it swept away the ruling class of the 19th century and set the boundaries of the playing field for the next war and the cold war that followed. And introduced the idea of bombing cities from the air.
Not the best track record.
Meantime I see that Lieberman is trying to worm his way back to the winning side. And proving that the senate needs an enema some big time dems are talking about taking him back. I mean come one. You can’t trust him further than you can spit him and to leave him as the head of a committee with subpoena powers is to hand him a knife that is going straight between Obama’s shoulder blades the instant holy joe sees his chance. You can’t trust a turn coat – especially one who tries to put his old coat back on – Benedict Arnold at least stayed on the British side once he’d sold the US up the river – I’ll give that for him – even he didn’t have the nerve to come back to the states after the war and say “hell what’s a little betrayal? Why are you so mad?”
The political thing has kind of overwhelmed my pop culture crawl but now I hope that I can get back and see what’s going on in edge city music and movies and what not. Managed to see a pretty awful film over the weekend The Concubines but to be honest I have to watch it again because there are about 7 flashbacks folded into each other to the point where I didn’t know what the hell was going on. Which is pretty hard to do to me – only Glen and Glenda and Butterfly and Sword (which I must write about soon) have got me puzzled to the point of saying what the hell? Does anybody know what is gong on at all? Did anybody? Hell I can follow Mexican wrestling films for Pete’s sake.
Anyway – it’s nice to be able to get back to things like that and not be overly worried that the mush wit in the white house is going to do something really stupid or not do something with horrific consequences. Obama will make mistakes (like Lieberman) but they won’t be because he’s stupid.
Peace, love. Poppies
posted by Unknown at 4:34 PM
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