OBAMA BIDEN RATHER THAN PALIN MCCAIN
Current mood: angsty
Category: News and Politics

MY POSITION IS CLEAR. I AM ON OBAMA-BIDEN SIDE BUT NOT WITH CLOSED EYES, NOT EVEN WIDE SHUT EYES.

LET ME BE MORE EXPLICIT NOW (after the two conventions)

The West, if such a concept is still valid after the fall of the Berlin wall, has to change its way of looking at the world. Let me give a few angles of consideration.

1- The West is not one homogeneous entity. It is necessary, as fast as possible, to understand that the West is multi-polar, and even that Europe is not one homogeneous entity and will probably never be in any foreseeable future. That has an important consequence: the USA have to take this reality into account and stop speaking for the whole world reduced in their minds to the sole West, and at times to the sole inner circle in that West that agrees with the US.

2- The world has been globalized and that is not going to go away. This implies the balance of power and the balance of decision-making procedures and processes in the world have to be seen as multi-polar and not based on the sole power of the US imposed to the rest of the world. The USA is one among many others, and even in old surviving to-be-urgently-changed UN terms like the Security Council, the USA is only one among five permanent members and one among all the members. That implies the US have to stop playing their sole game and that they look for a consensus among the two tiers of members.

3- The economic balance is shifting from the West, and from the USA, to the rest of the world. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is already by far the first economic power in the world, and it does not include Brazil or Latin America. What some call the BRIC conglomerate is the real heart of the developing economy in the world today. This reality has to be taken into account as fast as possible. Either we articulate ourselves onto this reality and we will not suffer too much, we might even benefit from it, or we stand against it and we will be made to pay for their development by sheer market mechanisms.

4- It is unthinkable to deal with today's world's problems in military terms. Georgia is the best example in that line. Bush and Cheney, in their systematic military approach of all problems, have followed the megalomania of Saakashvili though they knew nothing of the reality of this zone of Europe (and Saakashvili has a fully Americanized approach of Georgia). Georgian is a non-Indo-European language, a distant cousin of Turkish, whereas Ossetic is an Indo-European language, not an Iranian language as Merriam-Webster says, though all Indo-European languages are grandchildren of all Indo-Iranian languages (all Iran, a good chare of Iraq and a fair section of Afghanistan) and cousins of all Indo-Aryan languages. Abkhazian on the other hand is a language very close to Georgian, though Abkhazia has always been (for centuries) a province closely connected to Russia, under a lot of influence from Russia, and Saakashvili should know and have known better. Add to that the religious context and you'll have a fair picture of the situation. When McCain is speaking of the Russians trying to take control of the pipelines he is both vain and off the ground. Vain because oil was the main motivation of the second war in Iraq, as some call it considering the Gulf war as the first. Off the ground because the Russians don't want to re-conquer Georgia that represented the total free circulation in the ex-USSR of what is known as the Georgian mafia. They don't want to have that again. If the USA chose to favor the military solution in this region, that would be a tragic mistake. Europe then would be on the other side. Sarkozy has balanced the more active countries and those who consider that the Georgian crisis is a Russian problem with a suspension of negotiations that are in no way urgent from the Russian point of view (they have the Chinese market to satisfy first) though they are crucial for the Europeans if they want to have the gas they'll need this winter that is more or less announced as cold.

5- Barack Obama is the chance that the USA will be listened to again in Africa that has been rejected by the USA since at least Reagan, and have answered this rejection with pain and resigned indifference. All Africans remember the rejection of Nelson Mandela by Kissinger because "he was a communist". They also speak of the assassination of Lumumba by the CIA and the support of guerrilla warfare in Angola and Mozambique by the Americans. And many other facts. Africa is one of the most important stakes of the ten-twenty years to come. Ask the Chinese. They know. But that has to go along with a totally new strategy in the US and abroad. That has to do with agricultural direct or indirect subsidies in the US, particularly cotton, for one. Agreements have to be negotiated and that will be difficult and painful, otherwise African cotton is going to go to China, or India, or Sri Lanka, or Vietnam.

6- The war on terrorism has to be completely re-examined from scratch. Iraq was not even part of it. We are living a time when all big terrorist organizations in the world are obliged to either turn political like in Nepal or be defeated like in Colombia and Sri Lanka. These two cases are not finished but they are both on the way to a conclusion. The US would be inspired if they were on the right side and advocating the necessary political solutions to solve the problems within a developing economy and democracy. In Sri Lanka it is devolution. In Colombia, I don't know. But the Americans are following their own interests there and not the interests of the country. The drug lords will be easily side-tracked once the political problem is solved. Same thing in Bolivia: the US must support a political solution and not support the rich industrialists of the rich provinces against the poor Indians. Venezuela is the archetypical case. It is the result of numerous aggressions in Latin America (both central and south), starting with Cuba. The point is Venezuela has the means to resist and the alliance that is coming up in South America is going to be quite costly to the US if they don't move to a better understanding of the situation. Argentina is another example of the misguided US policy in the region, direct or indirect (via international financial agencies), not to speak of the role the CIA played in Chile with Pinochet.

7- The US have to accept not to be the first economic power in the world any longer within a few years, and that for two reasons. The first reason is that China alone is going to get over them in just a few years in PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) terms of course and not in exchange rate terms. It might take slightly longer because of the earthquake (though the rebuilding of the region is going to benefit the economy from the domestic market) and because of the too high dollar reserves they have that are depreciating regularly because the Yuan is going up inexorably. The second reason is that we are living in a globalized economy and that means no country, not even the USA, or China, or Russia, or Europe (a union of countries) can live and develop alone. But the main stake today is to know if the USA still occupy a big enough share of the economy to propagate a financial crisis all over the world in the same dramatic way as in 1929. No one can answer, though the world seems to be resisting fairly well to the financial and economic slow down, crisis, stagflation or whatever you may call it (the famous sub-primes). And what a glorious achievement it would be for US leaders to drag the whole world into recession by their own mismanagement.

That's what we urgently need in the world, not the misguided spend-too-much-on-military-useless-adventures policy of Bush, Cheney and McCain, this last one as a fair supporter of the other two. One cannot be and have been. That means that one cannot be something else than what he has been. Continuity is obvious. And at the same time that means one cannot be something without clearly cutting themselves from what they have been. Change is also obvious. It is probably more promising to take the change proposed by people who have not been two much enslaved to the past policies than the change proposed by those who have been 90-95% involved in and supportive to the past policies.

Joe Biden has the experience needed in that field and has not been a Bush watchdog. Barack Obama has the youth necessary to bring real change and has been in the opposition to the past policies which is a guarantee that real change based on a fair and objective review and revision of past policies is possible.

Jacques

THAT'A A LOT OF WORK, BUT WE BETTER DO IT IF WE DO NOT HAVE A HANGOVER FOR FOUR MORE YEARS.

Jacques

Currently listening : Beethoven: 5th Symphony Release date: 2007-07-10

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WALKING TALL AND TALKING LOUD
Current mood: drained
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

HERE ARE THE THREE EPISODES OF THIS WALKING TALL TRILOGY, REUNITED IN ONE BLOG. ONLY THE THIRD ONE IS ORIGINAL TODAY, BUT YOU WON'T HAVE TO GO BACK TO KNOW ABOUT THE PREVIOUS EPISODES.

Buford Pusser represented his time in 1973-75, early 70s and mid 70s, that shift from the Vietnam war to the defeat, from Nixon to Ford and Carter, from a society of violence to a society that started considering violence as a secondary means. Assassinations were no longer on the agenda but impeachment was.

When you can remember these years you may understand how the romantic desire of Americans to live in a hope-full dream can surge up on the social and political agenda from time to time. That resurgence of the American dream may bring some progress when it corresponds to a more dynamic, inventive and creative political generation, but too often it is re-conquered and tamed by some timid reformers and the people go back to their silent majority syndrom.

The third chapter shows that perfectly well.

JOE DON BAKER – WALKING TALL 1

I saw it when it came out, in Dunn North Carolina, mind you, in the new cinema complex that had just open in the new shopping mall that had started opening in 1970 (I bought a tie there, the tie of Campbell community college next door, in 1970). I thought it was interesting, fascinating, but maybe slightly extreme. I have not changed my mind. But what is it about? A man coming back to his birth place and his family, along with his wife, their two kids and their dog, a birth place they decide to call home, in Tennessee. I have seen that pattern so often like in "Sometimes they come back" by Stephen King. He is at once, on the very second day, face to face with the perversion prohibition can produce. The county, or at least the city, is anti-alcohol, anti-prostitution, anti-gambling, and what had to happen happens. Just beyond the county limits a bar cum bordello cum gambling hall opens and attracts the males of the county who want to be ripped of their money by cheating game masters, of their soberness by moonshine whisky unduly called Daniels and of their kinky dreams  by trailer female visitors, go and have a good time. But this business is of course in the hands of hard traffickers, of some organized crime at least at the level of the whole state and anyone who opposes it is dead meat, but after it has been severely tenderized. Our hero decides to run as sheriff against the rotten one who is in place and the rotten racist local judge who is covering the whole business. And then it is the story of how he will learn how to do things, how to integrate a black man in his team, how to inspire courage and fight corruption, how to bust the façade of these traffickers, bust the heads of a couple as soon as they draw a weapon, and finally inspire the people to build a posse and go out for the Lucky Spot of their dreams and burn it down. True of course, but too extreme. Things never happen that way. It takes time, a lot of time, to move public opinion, particularly in a small town. It takes time and finesse to trick and trap mafia criminals. It takes time and patience to trick and trip a judge who has so much power in his hands. But in 1973 it was a sign on the road away from the good old silent majority. The very first step on a very long way that is just coming ripe right now, maybe, and the silent majority might finally get some voice and shout "Yes We can" to their desire for "the change they need". Will that be a landslide or a tottering stumble? The film seems to believe that such radical change is possible once the fruit is ripe. Yet it does not show the ripening of the fruit, just the plucking.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

WALKIND TALK SECOND PART

This second film is just as interesting as the previous one except that there is no suspense. We know what he is going to do and what is going to happen before it is even hinted at on the screen. Then the pleasure comes only from the way the various tricks happen and the succession of them. We know there will be dynamite in the car, that he will lose a wheel, that the car will have a crash, just to speak of the car. And that is what happens. Now the details and the particulars are for you to discover them in the film. That he may be baited by some dumb woman is obvious and has to come but we know that he has already seen through her and that he knows he is being dragged into a trap. Now, how is he going to get out of it? That's what you must discover by yourself. And don't worry he will get the main trafficker but how is another story. A speed boat is no match to our busy beaver on the river. We also know when he is going to be wounded. They did not know what bullet-proof jackets were in those days. It's true recently it was discovered that some GIs did not have that kind of equipment in Iraq. But what is the meaning of such a film? This insistence on hunting the traffickers and this blindness that does not see that it is the prohibition that creates the problem. But the film is a constant and perfect illustration that there is no value what so ever that can stand in the way of this moralistic crusade against the forces of evil. Why not simply legalize these goods so that they can be properly observed and under surveillance? When something is not illegal or pushed out of the way it is all the less fun to use them, to do them. It is the forbidden or the restricted that is attractive.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

WALKING TALL THE FINAL CHAPTER

This last chapter is better built than the second and hence has a better rhythm. He is defeated in the election because he shows a high level of distance from the people. He seems to consider it below him to come and discuss things with the public, the electors of the county in a public meeting. Then of course he is a double or triple victim One, of the low life people he had chased and hunted down in his crusade against crime and they think they can finally get their revenge and they can trash his car or even attack him in the street or attack his family or the people he has relations with. Two, of the new sheriff who has the tendency to consider him as a dangerous person and a trouble maker. Three, of the real bad ones who know he does not have the protection his uniform could provide him with (cars, deputies, etc) and they come to the idea they can finally organize his end and go through untouched. That will be his doom. But the best part is his economic situation once he is no longer the sheriff. He lives with his parents who are old and retired and live on a small pension. He refuses to accept the job his brother in the north is proposing because he does not want to move. He also refuses to accept the job the local lawyer is proposing: investigator for his special cases, because he feels it is charity. He finally accepts the proposal of some Hollywood producer to make the film of his life and that brings him the end of his financial problems but also the multiplied desire to get even from the local traffickers, even against the advice of their own higher-ups. This reveals how difficult it may be after you have been in the limelight of law enforcing in a small city. The people reject you and even refuse to testify for you when you are attacked and your property is attacked by some local bullies or rough individuals. The film also shows very well there is a change in the US at that time. People after the worst criminal activity is gone, want to have a more peaceful and less visible law-enforcing police force. But at the same time it represents the end of a generation of traffickers who also want to run things in a smoother way. In other words US society in these early mid 70s, at the end of the Vietnam war, moved from the cult of sheer force to solve any problem to the understanding that a solution can only come if it is founded on some kind of peaceful consensus, even if that means accepting some kind of traffic provided it becomes non-violent, peaceful, and it respects some basic rules like paying taxes. That's exactly what Buford Pusser did not understand. Maybe he was right but at that time crime moved from the back woods of Tennessee to the dilapidated ethnic and poor suburban areas or ghettos of the big cities because the main traffic did not concern moon-shine whisky any more, an inheritance of Prohibition, but the new hard drugs like heroin and cocaine coming from Latin America.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Have a good day. I am going back to TOEIC. Back to work and slavery soon.

Jacques

Currently listening : The Assassination of Jesse James Release date: 2008-02-05

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Babylon ANNO DOMINE
Current mood: blissful
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Matthieu Kassovitz has to be followed closely and carefully. He is one of that band of Frenchies who are trying to produce some globalized cinema with a French touch. The band is growing and they are working actively on building the first French cinema studios for decades in an old abandoned power plant north of Paris. They finally know that
1- the cinema of today is not the cinema of the 50s with Jean Gabin, François Truffaut, Costa Gravas, Yves Montand and Simone Signoret or Michèle Darrieux and a few others. They seemed to have heard of action, special effects, end of the world, plagues, war, and many other evils that are now the very crib of love, sex and reproduction.
2- the USA are no longer the major audience in the world and are by far the audience that does not like foreign films by principle.
3- the real future is in Asia, India and China, Hong Kong and Shanghai, Bollywood and Beijing.

This here film is the perfect demonstration of that new perspective and the French touch is absolutely exhilarating and bracingly funny. Besson and Reno had already done a lot. Kassovitz is doing eve more. The future of the cinema lies necessarily where the biggest audience is and Europe today is bigger than the USA, and China does not even compare.

MATHIEU KASSOVITZ – BABYLON A. D.

Brilliant French film that is able to look at the world in the eyes and be proud of it. It creates a fable about a final apocalypse, a total mental manipulation, something like a mental genetically manipulated human organism, religion and particularly blind faith in front of a miracle, the belief that science and technology are absolutely invincible, the fear of a plague, the world divided in two, the good USA because they are protecting themselves against terrorism, though they are in fact the very heart of terrorism, the commanding heart please, maybe the real brain of it, and on the other side the rest of the world lost in corruption, pointless violence, war, death, alienation, suffering, misery, dying as a lesser evil than living, essentially centered on Paris, France, and the vast Russia and Kazakhstan. I just wonder why they spared China? It is all there and yet Kassovitz, a French man who should be like all French people at least agnostic if not atheistic, produces the most marvelous Christian fable you can imagine. The world is doomed but it can be regenerated and will be by a new Virgin Mary, called Aurora, a perfect name for a second beginning. She has been genetically manipulated in her brain enough to be a genius and to produce, by artificial insemination, the child that will save the world, bring peace and a new phase of development. But can this French Kassovitz do the same thing as the Australian Mel Gibson in his Apocalypto who restarted the world with a married couple and two sons, Adam, Eve, Abel and Cain? Of course not so the mother will die just after delivering. The child will be a pair for sure, but two twins born in the same batch, and the final dedication of the film makes them girls. So the female is the future of the male. That's the French touch. And that poor Toorop will be the genetically estranged father, though I should say caretaker of these two twins. That's a twist in the tale. I am sure the poor Jesus is twisting in his tomb, if he has one. But it is brilliant. I guess the absence of some Chinese mafia is the sign that their market is targeted. It should work, especially the good nun who is a Kung Fu fighter. 

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

FRENCH RE-CONNE-X-ION. Voilà qu'un Français a relevé le gant d'un Australien, qu'un Français que je soup1çonne d'être laïcard en diable car tous les Français croient au diable laïque, réécrit les quatre premiers chapitres de la Genèse mieux que le très catholique Mel Gibson dont la foi est capable de convertir des kangourous. Qu'on en juge un peu. Il ne lésine pas sur le pas assez sinon trop notre évangéliste de Mathieu. Le sauvetage ou simplement le salut de ce monde est entre les jambes d'une nouvelle Vierge Marie, Aurore pour faire dans le renouveau, inséminée artificiellement par un archange médecin pour faire un miracle pour une église sectaire par la naissance d'une paire de deux enfants dont on ne nous dit pas le sexe mais dont la dédicace finale du film nous pousse à croire que ce sont deux filles ; Quand on vous le dit que Jésus avait deux faces et que Jacques n'était que l'autre face du messie. Mais deux filles, c'est mieux que Marie Madeleine ou je ne sais qu'elle autre pêcheuse voyante et visionnaire. Comme quoi la femme quand elle s'y met à deux est l'avenir de l'homme, comme aurait pu dire Aragon s'il avait eu plus d'un seul amour dans sa vie. Et en plus notre Mathieu, taureau évangélique des bonnes affaires menées rondement, ne lésine pas sur les détails pour charmer un public nombreux qu'il ne nomme jamais ni ne représente une seule fois, sauf par le faciès légèrement asiatique de la bonne sœur. Le monde est coupé en deux. D'un côté les USA qui dominent tout car ils se protègent contre le terrorisme, en fait parce qu'ils en sont la tête sinon le cerveau et l'exportent loin d'eux, et de l'autre côté un monde de guerre, de sang, de violence, de souffrance et surtout de mort vue comme un moindre mal par rapport à la vie. Corruption, concupiscence, envie, jalousie, lutte pour la survie par la mort des autres, indifférence à la souffrance des autres, égoïsme absolu, voilà le sort de cette second humanité qui va de Paris à Vladivostok en passant par le Kazakhstan et donc la Russie triomphante dans le mal qui ronge et condamne ce monde. Pas une fois la Chine. Gros public du cinéma et en plus la bonne sœur qui a un petit faciès asiatique est une percutante guerrière combattante du Kung Fu. Un film époustouflant, essoufflant même, et heureusement qu'il y a quelques lenteurs qui nous permettent de respirer. Et Depardieu meurt en beauté d'un missile atomique. Ouf ! Enfin finie sa longue agonie alcoolisée jusqu'à sa prochaine apparition de goinfre finissant dans l'obésité.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne & Université Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Good night

Jacques

Currently listening : Bob Marley: Chant Down Babylon By Bob Marley Release date: 1999-11-16

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WALKING TALL BUT NO SUSPENSE
Current mood: bouncy

WHY HESITATE? THE ABSENCE OF SUSPENSE MAKES THAT FILM DULL AND IN A WAY MORALISTIC EVEN MAYBE BIGOT-IC OR BIGOT-ISTIC.

WALKIND TALK SECOND PART

This second film is just as interesting as the previous one except that there is no suspense. We know what he is going to do and what is going to happen before it is even hinted at on the screen. Then the pleasure comes only from the way the various tricks happen and the succession of them. We know there will be dynamite in the car, that he will lose a wheel, that the car will have a crash, just to speak of the car. And that is what happens. Now the details and the particulars are for you to discover them in the film. That he may be baited by some dumb woman is obvious and has to come but we know that he has already seen through her and that he knows he is being dragged into a trap. Now, how is he going to get out of it? That's what you must discover by yourself. And don't worry he will get the main trafficker but how is another story. A speed boat is no match to our busy beaver on the river. We also know when he is going to be wounded. They did not know what bullet-proof jackets were in those days. It's true recently it was discovered that some GIs did not have that kind of equipment in Iraq. But what is the meaning of such a film? This insistence on hunting the traffickers and this blindness that does not see that it is the prohibition that creates the problem. But the film is a constant and perfect illustration that there is no value what so ever that can stand in the way of this moralistic crusade against the forces of evil. Why not simply legalize these goods so that they can be properly observed and under surveillance? When something is not illegal or pushed out of the way it is all the less fun to use them, to do them. It is the forbidden or the restricted that is attractive. 

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

SEE YOU LATER. IN FACT IN A MOMENT

GOOD NIGHT

Jacques

Currently listening : I Was Walking Through the Woods By Buddy Guy Release date: 2004-09-06

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Tennessee of my dreams
Current mood: blissful
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

SEEN FROM NORTH CAROLINA IN 1973 THAT FILM WAS RELIEF FODDER FOR FRUSTRATED SILENT MAJORITY SHEEP. THE WAR WAS STILL GOING ON AND HAD TWO MORE YEARS TO RUN BEFORE FINALLY BEING DECLARED AS LOST. THE WATERGATE WAS JUST STARTING TO POINT ITS DIRTY NOSE OUT OF THE KAKA BUT ONE MORE YEAR TO RUN BEFORE THE ROTTEN PRESIDENT WOULD ACCEPT TO RESIGN. WE WERE IN BETWEEN AND JUST BEFORE? BEFORE THE VERY FIRST TURNING POINTS OF TODAY, OF THE MODERN PHASE HUMANITY IS FINALLY ENTERING AFTER SO MANY DECADES OF WAITING AND EXPECTING. THIS FILM WAS ONE SIGN ON THE ROAD ALONG WITH "ZABRISKIE POINT", "ALICE'S RESTAURANT", ANDY WARHOL'S TRILOGY? AND MANY OTHER FRITZ "FRITZ THE CAT".  ENJOY WALKING TALL FIRST PART, THE REAL STUFF NOT THE REMAKE.

JOE DON BAKER – WALKING TALL I

I saw it when it came out, in Dunn North Carolina, mind you, in the new cinema complex that had just open in the new shopping mall that had started opening in 1970 (I bought a tie there, the tie of Campbell community college next door, in 1970). I thought it was interesting, fascinating, but maybe slightly extreme. I have not changed my mind. But what is it about? A man coming back to his birth place and his family, along with his wife, their two kids and their dog, a birth place they decide to call home, in Tennessee. I have seen that pattern so often like in "Sometimes they come back" by Stephen King. He is at once, on the very second day, face to face with the perversion prohibition can produce. The county, or at least the city, is anti-alcohol, anti-prostitution, anti-gambling, and what had to happen happens. Just beyond the county limits a bar cum bordello cum gambling hall opens and attracts the males of the county who want to be ripped of their money by cheating game masters, of their soberness by moonshine whisky unduly called Daniels and of their kinky dreams  by trailer female visitors, go and have a good time. But this business is of course in the hands of hard traffickers, of some organized crime at least at the level of the whole state and anyone who opposes it is dead meat, but after it has been severely tenderized. Our hero decides to run as sheriff against the rotten one who is in place and the rotten racist local judge who is covering the whole business. And then it is the story of how he will learn how to do things, how to integrate a black man in his team, how to inspire courage and fight corruption, how to bust the façade of these traffickers, bust the heads of a couple as soon as they draw a weapon, and finally inspire the people to build a posse and go out for the Lucky Spot of their dreams and burn it down. True of course, but too extreme. Things never happen that way. It takes time, a lot of time, to move public opinion, particularly in a small town. It takes time and finesse to trick and trap mafia criminals. It takes time and patience to trick and trip a judge who has so much power in his hands. But in 1973 it was a sign on the road away from the good old silent majority. The very first step on a very long way that is just coming ripe right now, maybe, and the silent majority might finally get some voice and shout "Yes We can" to their desire for "the change they need". Will that be a landslide or a tottering stumble? The film seems to believe that such radical change is possible once the fruit is ripe. Yet it does not show the ripening of the fruit, just the plucking.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Good Morning Vietnam!

But what in hell were we doing there?

What in hell was McCain doing there and what is he doing here?

Jacques

Currently listening : The Rundown By Harry Gregson-Williams Release date: 2003-09-30

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KING LEAR THE SOVIET NIGHTMARE
Current mood: inspired
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

THIS NEW STAGE IN THAT TRIP INTO THE PAST, 1970 THIS TIME, NOT 1930, LEADS ME TO A MASTERPIECE THAT TURNS SOVIET REALISM INTO THE TOOL TO REVEAL THE DEEPEST LAYERS OF A SHAKESPEAREAN EPIC. IF THAT CINEMA DID NOT EXIST WE WOULD HAVE TO RE-INVENT IT AND OUR REFUSAL TO UNDERSTAND RUSSIA WAS NOT HIJACKED INTO SOVIETISM NOR SOVIETISM KIDNAPPED BY RUSSIANISM LEADS US TO THE IMPOSSIBILITY TO UNDERSTAND TODAY'S WORLD. WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE IRISH, WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE BASQUE, AND THEY DO NOT HAVE IT YET, WHAT COULD BE GOOD FOR THE TIBETANS, AND THAT IS NOT OBVIOUS THEY MAY EVER GET IT IF THEY REMAIN MANIPULATED BY A RELIGION ITSELF MANIPULATED BY SO MANY OTHER FORCES, HAS TO BE GOOD FOR THE OSSETES AND THE ABKHAZIANS, AND WE SHOULD NOT FORGET THE FIRST TROOP MOVEMENTS WERE STARTED BY THE MOST AMERICAN PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA AND SUPPORTED BY THE MOST FRENCH CHIEF OF HIS OPPOSITION. WHO GAVE THE ORDER TO THE TROOPS TO MOVE TO AND ON THE CAPITAL CITY OF SOUTH OSSETIA? NOT PUTIN, NOT MEDVEDEV. NOW WE MUST BRING EVERYONE AROUND A TABLE AND FIND A SOLUTION THAT WILL HAVE TO SATISFY THE DESIRE OF SOME TO BE INDEPENDENT. KING LEAR IS THE MOST EPIC EVER TALE THE SOVIET CINEMA TOLD US ABOUT ITS DEEPEST NIGHTMARE: THEY HAD BEEN ABANDONED BY THE WHOLE WORLD AND WERE GOING TO DIE AND END UP IN THE HANDS OF SOME RUFFIAN WHO HAD JUST LANDED ON THE MOONLIKE SURFACE OF THAT SOVIET MOON OF THEIRS A BOTTLE OF VODKA IN ONE HAND AND A JERKING TWIST DANCING IN HIS HIPS.

KOZINTSEV – LE ROI LEAR I & II

King Lear is a tragedy that had to appeal to Soviet film-makers. It is dense and extreme. A whole world is destroyed in a couple of years because of an unwise decision of the king doubled with an unwise blindness about the real feelings of his daughters. That's dramatic and that appeals to the good old Russian soul. But there is in this play by Shakespeare what we find in all the tragedies of that author: a full cycle of elimination of all the participants in the drama and the future falls then in the hands of some nearly outsider that comes back by chance and manages to survive through the swords and the poison that runs freely in the wine. The new leader appointed by fate is there to clean up the mess, bury the dead and then try to rebuild some kind of a human world. That too can but attract the Soviet mind of old for whom change can only come through a tabula rasa, a full elimination of the past and change can only the result of an effort to reconstruct after the violent destruction of what was. What's more there is in this play a general structure that can only please a dialectic mind: the destruction comes from inside and the third party that comes from outside is defeated by the two parties that are fighting one against the other inside and unite just long enough to defeat the third sister and her husband. But this film is a lot more interesting than just that story we know by heart. It is the phenomenal acting of the actors in a setting that wants to recreate the dreary drab misery of the ninth century and the horror of a constant civil war that ensues the departure of the king. The war does not even aims at looting but just at destroying everything and everybody. The vision is so extreme that we wonder if it is realistic or just a nightmare in the director's mind. In fact it is beautiful and the king is really crazy and his clown is the most fascinating suffering toy I have ever seen in that part. His job is to annoy with truth in order to become the outlet of the anger of others who will make him suffer to regain some peace of mind. And in this case he does not even pretend to be joyful, he is suffering all along and showing it because that is exactly why he is there and that is why other people are appealed to him, to make him suffer if they can but let him live for more.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Ce film n'est qu'une adaptation du Roi Lear de plus, diraient certains exégètes de la pureté de la création vivante. Oui, certes et non, certainement pas. C'est d'abord le révélateur de l'âme soviétique. Elle ne peut qu'être attirée par ce drame si tragique qu'il en devient surréaliste. Ce drame commence quand un roi prend la décision tout à fait absurde de se retirer et quand il double cette erreur d'un erreur de jugement sur les sentiments de ses trois filles. Le drame se déroulera jusqu'à la destruction totale de tous les participants et à la récupération du royaume par un personnage marginal, quasiment absent et qui revient presque par accident et surtout en survivant aux épées tirées et au poison qui coule à flot dans le vin. Le changement ne peut venir que par la tabula rasa de la fin d'un présent et le mieux ne peut venir que de l''effort de reconstruction après la destruction finale de la lutte qui ne l'est jamais. Mais plus encore cette tragédie ne peut qu'attirer cette âme dialectique soviétique dans le fait que la destruction vient de l'intérieur, de deux forces qui se battent l'une contre l'autre jusqu'à la mort et ne retrouveront un peu d'unité que pour se liguer contre le troisième parti venu de l'extérieur. Rien ne peut sauver l'un quelconque des participants au drame. Mais cela pourrait devenir glauque si ce n'était l'autre particularité de ce cinéma soviétique, son réalisme. Ainsi on remonte au neuvième siècle anglais et dans un soucis minimaliste on recrée l'atmosphère misérable de ce temps là et sa cruauté sans égale. La guerre n'est pas une guerre de pillage. Elle est civile mais systématiquement on détruit tout ce qui peut faire la richesse de la terre conquise, ses hommes et ses biens. On détruit pour le plaisir de détruire. Et ce sadisme nihiliste est le plus visible dans le fou du roi. Il n'est pas là pour faire rire, même avec des vérités déplaisantes. Il est là pour choquer avec ses vérités et pour devenir l'exutoire des frustrations de ces gens là qui vont le faire souffrir pour retrouver un peu de sagesse et de calme, et lui sait sa place il se doit de souffrir et de continuer à provoquer sa propre souffrance pour le plaisir des autres. L'esclave jouissant de son esclavage devait aussi plaire aux Soviétiques. Mais le plus admirable c'est le jeu des acteurs qui est si vrai que l'on fait plus que de s'y croire : on est vraiment dans la souffrance de ces hommes et de ces femmes qui se reverbère dans notre propre chair.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne & Université Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

GOOD DAY GOOD NIGHT

I'll leave you there.

Jacques

Currently listening : The Standard Deviants - Shakespeare Tragedies - Othello, Macbeth, King Lear Release date: 2000-08-08

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AS DEEP AS THE SOIL AS BEAUTIFUL AS THE SKY
Current mood: bummed
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

SOVIET CINEMA WAS PROPAGANDA. SO WE MUST FORGET ABOUT THE PLOTS AND THE STORIES. BUT SOVIET CINEMA WAS GREAT ART. AT THE TIME WHEN THE GERMANS WERE DEEP IN DARK DRAMA AND HORROR, FEAR AND DEPRESSION, AT THE TIME WHEN THE AMERICANS WERE IN CLOWNISH COMEDY ENRICHED BY BRITISH SENSUALITY, THE SOVIETS WERE IN EMOTION ONLY CARRIED BY REALISTIC FACIAL LANGUAGE AND BODY PROSE. THIS "EARTH", SO BADLY TRANSLATED, ZEMLYA, THE SOIL OR THE MUD AND DUST AND CLAY THAT CONTAINS THE GROWING OF HUMANITY. A MASTERPIECE OF BEAUTY, UNLUCKILY WILL I SAY WITH OTHERS, WRAPPED UP IN IDEOLOGICAL PROPAGANDA, A PROPAGANDA WE CAN FINALLY FORGET TODAY: IT IS SO FAR AWAY.

DOVZHENKO – ZEMLYA – DOVJENKO – LA TERRE – EARTH/SOIL

That sure is beautiful filmography. It is still a silent film and it has to express the worst and deepest feelings with only the body and the face, at most some gestures. But, and that is the difference with German or English or American films of that time, the Soviets do not use the traditional symbolic gestures or face expressions. They do use those gestures that go along with the communist vision of things, with the revolutionary attitude the film defends and advocates. But the feelings themselves, like love or sadness, or suffering are exclusively expressed by natural facial language. A smile is a smile and it is not forced as it is too often in the American comic films or the German dramatic films of the time. It wants to be realistic to the last little detail. And that gives to the film a tremendous force. The story itself is of course ideological if not political but it is simple and probably true too in some respect. That the son of one of the collective farm workers is killed by the young landowner in the village is no surprise. This film is there in 1930 to justify the first purge Stalin imposes, a purge that went through without that much uproar from the world: the landowners were either willing to give their land or their land was taken away and they had to disappear in a way or another. But the joy of these collective farm workers when the first tractor arrives is so true with the dream of finally producing more with less exhausting work. That dream too is political in a way, but it is the dream of all men in the world, to produce more not by working less but by making work easier. The dream of progress, be it American or Russian or Chinese or Indian is always the same: to live better and to enjoy life, work and rest alike. This dream is painted in numerous close-up shots on faces and their expressions and that is marvelous, something to watch and appreciate. Can we still do that, or are our cinema actors more trite or concentrating more on language, even when it is dubbed afterwards? Silent films were making the actor the very center of the screen in the Soviet Union that was generally very tragic, which was less true with Fritz Lang or Laurel and Hardy, or at least in no way as realistic as with the Soviets.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Le jeune cinéma soviétique, muet qui plus est, a le défaut de l'arrivée de Staline au pouvoir et du rêve romantique de la révolution libératrice. Mais quand on dépasse ce message qui ne se traduit que dans les mots des légendes, de temps en temps, ou dans certains gestes marqués révolutionnaires, on découvre un travail sur l'image et le jeu d'acteur que les cinémas allemand, anglais ou américain de la même époque n'ont pas. Les Allemands font dans le dramatique, voire l'horreur. Les Américains font dans le comique parfois troupier, et les Anglais, comme Charlie Chaplin apporte leur touche sensuelle à ce comique de situation et de mimique. Les Soviétiques, dans leur soucis de réalisme, refusent d'employer des moyens irréels. Ainsi les sentiments et les émotions sont exprimées par le langage corporel ou facial qui doit rester toujours réaliste même si parfois extrême. Un sourire est un sourire et c'est cette touche naturelle que les Soviétiques ajoutent dans ces gros plans de visages qui fait la force de ce cinéma. Et ce film en particulier est admirable. La situation globale est en fait la justification de l'élimination des koulaks dans les campagnes au profit des kolkhozes et quoi de plus simple que de faire du koulak local celui qui assassine le fils d'un des membres du kolkhoze. Ce n'est pas l'important du film. Mais les façons dont cette tragédie est mise en image est fascinante. Mais le plus intéressant c'est la mise en image du rêve universel de l'humanité agricole qui est de produire plus et mieux avec un travail moins pénible. L'arrivée du premier tracteur est vécue comme une fête et le tracteur est un être vivant que l'on doit aimer pour qu'il travaille bien, autant sinon plus que le cheval ou le bœuf d'antan. Les images deviennent poignantes quand le tracteur s'arrête, tombe en panne et la joie est expansive quand le rêve d'un tracteur qui produit une récolte sans précédent se réalise dans la tête de celui qui va mourir, un rêve que reprennent alors ses compagnons. Il y a là le cœur même de toute l'humanité et les paysans soviétiques n'étaient pas bien différents des paysans de tous les pays du monde. Une beauté rayonnante dans un contexte tragique alors que Fritz Lang produit lui une beauté écrasante dans un contexte dramatique et les Américains une beauté de contorsions dans un contexte comique.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne & Université Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Have a good day

The voice of beyond is back

Jacques

Currently listening : Earth Wind & Fire: Greatest Hits By Wind & Fire Earth Release date: 1998-11-17

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Romanticism does not bring heappiness
Current mood: nostalgic
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

POTEMKINE, BATTLESHIP OR NOT, ODESSA OR ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD, THIS FILM IS A ROMANTIC SYMPATHETIC FILM ABOUT A FAILED REVOLUTION THAT WAS CRUSHED IN A BLOOD BATH.

THAT ROMANTICISM BORES ME TODAY. THE CULT OF THAT TYPE OF VIOLENCE BY THE SOVIET UNION WAS A HISTORICAL MISTAKE AND WE ARE STILL PAYING THE PRICE OF IT.

VIOLENCE IS VITAL FOR HUMANITY. IF YOU WANT TO STOP IT OR PREVENT IT YOU'LL HAVE TO LOOK AT THE WORLD WITHOUT SOME PRE-CONFIGURED GLASSES THAT REPEAT CEASELESSLY DEMOCRACY AND THAT DO NOT SEE THAT EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE.

WE'LL HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO BE LOGICAL AND CALL A CAT A CAT AND A SPADE A SPADE. WHY SHOULD THE TIBETANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE INDEPENDENT IF THE BASQUES DO NOT HAVE THAT RIGHT AND IF THE OSSETES DO NOT EITHER? THE BASQUE TERRORISTS WERE GOOD AS LONG AS FRANCO WAS THERE SINCE THEN THEY HAVE BECOME MONSTERS. AND WHAT ABOUT FRENCH "CANADIANS"? COULD THEY CLAIM THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE INDEPENDENT WITHOUT BEING EXPOSED AS EXTREMIST MONSTERS OR DINOSAURS?


EISENSTEIN – POTEMKINE 

It is a technical masterpiece. Eisenstein managed to do with the camera he had at the time things that no one else managed to even come close to. That's why this film must be watched and studied. The subject is romantic and it was done as pure propaganda, and the later Soviet period could not resist adding some good old narrow-minded commentary. But the film has some scenes that are so well done that we are wondering how it was possible. The baby perambulator going down the hundreds of steps in that staircase leading to the harbor is phenomenal. The way the actors are able to express thousands of emotions with no words, just body and face language is admirable. If you want to understand how humanity can see its future in a lighter color than the dark grey of today, Eisenstein is the man to demonstrate that creativity has no limits, no borders and that for these imaginative minds the sky and only the sky is the limit. But I have completely lost any sympathy for the romanticism of life and the world. No matter what we do there will always be some violence in human society and there are so many forms of violence that we can't even enumerate them all. Just ask the Ossetes who speak an Indo-Ruropean language and were called descendants of Iranians by some French paper lately: actually all Indo-European people and languages are descendants of the Indo-Iranian languages. So what? But to use that affiliation for the Ossetes right now and after the Russians have accepted their pledge for independence is an attempt to make them look like fanatics. That is violence. That is absurd. And compare the Ossetes and the Tibetans and then you see the difference in treatment. That is violence too. But that kind of violence is considered normal by the west. 

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Ce film est un chef d'œuvre technique alors que le sujet est romantique, qu'il fut fait comme un film de propagande et les périodes suivantes du soviétisme n'ont pas pu résister à ajouter un commentaire plus que rébarbatif, simplement inutile et insipide. Mais techniquement ce film a des scènes où Eisenstein fait avec la caméra de son temps des choses que personne d'autre n'a jamais tentées, comme la descente du grand escalier menant au port par ce landau de bébé qui n'en finit pas de cahoter alors qu'il ne tombe jamais. Tout aussi admirables sont les effets du langage corporel et facial qui exprime des milliers de sentiments et émotions sans le moindre mot. C'est d'une force qui tient de la prouesse et ce film se doit d'être étudié par tous ceux qui croient que le cinéma est une source de créativité. En fait ceux qui savent que l'humanité sera meilleure demain qu'aujourd'hui trouveront dans cette créativité artistique d'Eisenstein le soleil dont ils ont besoin pour continuer à croire à l'impossible. Car c'est bien le mot qui convient. L'humanité sera toujours violente et l'occident considère que certaines formes de violence ne sont que de la simple démocratie. On soutient les demandes d'autonomie de quelques Tibétains, mais on considère que les Ossètes sont partie intégrante de l'entité nationale de la Géorgie, alors même qu'ils parlent une langue indo-européenne, que certains traitent d'iranien (vrai certes mais le français l'est aussi puisque toutes les langues indo-européennes descendent des langues indo-iraniennes) et sont donc d'une autre culture que les Géorgiens qui ne parlent pas une langue indo-européenne. Selon que l'on parle de la Géorgie ou de la Chine le mot indépendance n'a pas le même sens. C'est mà de la violence, mais pour les occidentaux c'est de la démocratie, même si le très américain président de la Géorgie, et la très française chef de son opposition envoient l'armée géorgienne occuper l'Ossétie. Mais non c'est de la démocratie. Certains romantisme ne m'intéressent plus beaucoup.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne & Université Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Have a good day

Jacques

Currently listening : Triton Release date: 2006-01-03

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HELL IN YOUR HEAD
Current mood: pissed off
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

TRAINSPOTTING IS A MASTERPIECE THAT PLAYS ON THE PIECES OF OUR LITTLE SELVES THAT ARE FLOATING IN AND ON THE PISS OF OUR CONSCIOUSNESS WHEN THE BLADDER OF OUR SOUL HAS LOST ALL CONTROL ON THE EXHAUST PIPE. DRUGS AND ALCOHOL ARE ENOUGH TO DO THAT AND SCHIZOPHRENIA AND PSYCHOSIS ARE GUARANTEED WAITING FOR YOU ON THE STATION PLARTFORM SPOTTING THE TRAIN OF YOUR SHIT BY THE SMELL YOUR BOWEL INCONTINENCE LEAVES BEHIND YOU? AND THAT IS A REPUTATION THAT TRAVELS AHEAD OF YOU TOO.

ENJOY THE TRIP

AND TRY TO ESCAPE FROM IT.

JESUS WOULD BE ONE OF THEM TODAY AND HE WOULD DO JUST WHAT THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS SOME SANITY LEFT: HE WOULD HELP THE LOOTERS TO LOOT SOME DRUG DEAL AND THEN HE WOULD LOOT THE SKULL OF THE OPERATION AND RUN AS FAST AND FAR AS POSSIBLE TO ENJOY THE BRISK AND BRUSQUE TURN IN HIS FORLORN LIFE.

TRAINSPOTTING

In a society that produces the freedom to be psychotic and schizophrenic, what happens if you are tied up to one of these gangs that look at the moon at noon and see a bunch of spoons? You are absolutely ruined and lost for any cause even that of dying in peace, in pieces maybe and in your own p**ss but not in silence and a restful atmosphere. One of them tries to get out but the leash is not severed in a minute and with a pen-knife. And he does not have a saw. Anyway the craziest of them all will catch up on him and bring him back into the pit, into the furnace and he will start being fried alive again. Till…, yes till a chance, an opening, a chink in the padding appears, so minute and thin that two pairs of ,eyes would not suffice normally to spot it but when you are really longing for that chink you see it even in pitch dark night. And he does. And he takes what he has to take, the whole loot of the last juicy operation, or nearly all, his passport that he had put away and off he goes leaving the craziest one put himself in prison and the other two go back on the road that leads to the blind alley of a sky-less life. If you can spot the train of liberation in that fable of alienation, tell me and don't forget to take it without asking anyone if you can. A masterpiece of the same type and power as Clockwork Orange I guess.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Have e good night, I am back on the train tracks.

Jacques

Currently listening : Trainspotting: Music From The Motion Picture By Various Artists Release date: 1996-07-09

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Sarah Connor
Current mood: geeky
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

WE WERE ALL EXPECTING THIS FIRST SERIES AND WE WILL BE EXPECTING THE SECOND LATER AND WE ARE EXPECTING TERMINATOR 4 OF COURSE BECAUSE THE TRILOGY IS A CLEAR CUT REWRITING OF THE REBIRTH OF THE WORLD ON A GENESIS PATTERN AFTER THE APOCALYPSE ON A BOOK OF REVELATION PATTERN. SO WHAT IS IT IN DETAIL IN THE YEARS GOING UP TO THE APOCALYPSE? WHAT IS IT GOING TO BE WHEN THE FUTURE COMES, WHAT WILL THE MESSIANIC JERUSALEM BE AFTER THE APOCALYPSE?

WHAT'S MORE WE ARE HERE AT THE HEART OF THE AMERICAN PSYCHE, OF THE AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY, EVEN IF SOME WILL SAY RELIGION, FAITH, TRUTH OR WHATEVER. IT IS A MYTHOLOGY ALL RIGHT.

I WANT TO SEE WHAT THEY WILL DO AFTER THAT APOCALYPSE. WILL THEY GO ALONG WITH MEL GIBSON'S VISION OF STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN WITH ADAM EVE ABEL AND CAIN? OR WILL THEY FIND SOMETHING MORE SUBTLE? SOME SAY THAT KIND OF FILM IS HOT AIR AND BEAN SHIT. THEY ARE JUST WRONG AND THEY DON'T ANALYZE THESE THINGS THE WAY ANY CULTURAL PRODUCT IS SUPPOSED TO BE SEEN AND UNDERSTOOD: AS THE PRODUCTION OF THE PSYCHE OF A PEOPLE A LOT MORE THAN THE PAID PRODUCTION OF ONE OR TWO AUTHORS AND DIRECTORS. SUCH TALES AND STORIES REFLECT THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY THAT PRODUCES THEM, THEIR VISIONS, THEIR FEARS, THEIR HOPES, etc. THEY ARE DEEPLY IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL, CULTURAL IN ONE WORD

TERMINATOR –THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES – SERIES 1

More than six hours of film in nine episodes. The attempt is admirable. To link up the three Terminator films by telling us more or less the story of John Connor and his mother from the moment she gets out of her hospital and the final apocalypse. It can give some depth to John himself It can build around him some family or connections. He gets an uncle from the future. It can play on time and that uncle can look at himself in 2007 when he was still a kid playing baseball. It also gives some density to the mother who was pretty shallow in the films. It can show more about these cyborgs, a good one who protects John and the bad ones. The list would be long of all the good points of this series. It has a shortcoming though. In a story that relies a lot on believing in the vast ellipses it uses, if you want to get down to gritty details you may run into some contradictions. And we do. We need the FBI agent, for some still unknown reason. So he is saved twice. Once by Sarah Connor herself and the other time by a hostile cyborg. Why? We do not know. It does not though bring anything new to the story. It just brings some pleasure by discovering the deeper personalities of characters we liked and we could not explore enough, like John Connor for one. In this first series they avoided the absence of Schwarzenegger by sending a cyborg who was supposed to be the sister of the very young John Connor, hence his age and the other sex for it to be less suspicious, especially when they are not all the time together. I am expecting the second series some day to see the next stage in that slow travel towards Terminator 3, especially since we left them with a car exploding with John's cyborg sister in it. Is that cliffhanging or something?

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Enjoy the week, the week end, the end of August. Get ready for labor day and go conventioning in blue or red, on an elephant or on a donkey, or be a monkey and stay home behind the bars of your TV screens. Rejoice anyway, the future is coming and is going to start pretty soon.

Jacques 

Currently listening : The Terminator: Original Soundtrack By Brad Fiedel Release date: 1991-07-01

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