Wednesday, March 9, 2022
I watched a display of our government officials BSing. Pulling it out of their rear ends, saying whatever they knew from old scripts. It was an amazing display of not knowing, and making it up as they went along.
There were shots of the CIA Director, The head of DNIA, and some army general saying old scripts.
The general was asked if Kyiv was cut off how long before they ran out of food and water. The general looked up in the air and said basically, “I don’t know. Maybe, ten days or two weeks.”
When you roll your eyes up in the air you are searching for an answer. You don’t really know. None of them seemed to know much.
Then a reporter was asked what the thinking was about giving Ukraine the MiG jets that Poland has. The latest idea was that Poland would fly them to Germany, turn them over to U.S. forces who would get them to Ukraine somehow. The reporter said the U.S. had turned that idea down and there was a long explanation as to why that would be difficult. Who would fly the jets? What if one got shot down and a U.S. Pilot was in the jet? etc. etc. etc.
Then they went to Colonel Vindman. Here’s a guy who knows what he is talking about. According to the expert panel that knew nothing they had said the Russian military had 95% of their capacity still. Vindman said no way. He then went on to go through numbers and reports and death counts. It’s much worse than that for the Russians. He repeated what Ukraine needs from the U.S. and the west. The reluctance of the west seems to be based on they don’t want to give Putin an excuse to do whatever. Hey, got news for you experts. Putin is like Covid. He doesn’t care what you think.
After Vindman, they went to another woman who seemed to know what she was talking about. She pushed back hard on the report about the MiG jet deployment. One of the arguments about sending the jets to Ukraine was that the air space is contested and they couldn’t be assured of their getting there. Not true, she said. The air space where they would go is controlled by Ukraine. It’s a twenty minute flight and is easy to do. The reason it is not being done is simple. “The U.S. doesn’t want to do it.”
Earlier in the day I was reminded of how this mess was created. The biggest factor seemed to be that Putin thought he could get away with it and that it would be quick and easy. Why did he think that? He got away with it in Crimea, in Georgia, and in other small Balkan territories. He had met with Donald Trump multiple times and Trump was parroting Russian disinformation talking points. So was Tucker Carlson and the rest of the Fox crew. So why wouldn’t he think that? Remember, Trump tried to extort the president of Ukraine by holding up military supplies. Imagine if we had a real President at the time? You know, like Hillary Clinton, who from the beginning of her campaign said she would stand up to Putin?
I daresay we would not be in this mess.
Now for a change of pace. And some good news.
I have been buying CDs from British singers. It started with a Facebook ad by a couple touting British rock and roll called When Rivers Meet. Their CD is named “We Fly Free.” It’s good and definitely British rock and roll. Not sure what makes it British, but I can tell it is. I think it’s the chord groupings.
Then I saw a couple of Facebook videos of a woman named Allie Sherlock singing on the streets of England. I thought she was very good and I bought her two CDs. It turns out she’s only 16. The first CD “Allie Sherlock” is very screechy and not like what I heard in the Facebook videos. I think she must have done it when she was younger because the next CD, “A Part of Me” has a much better tone.
Then I saw a video of two women called The MonaLisa Twins. They were playing at The Cavern Club in Liverpool. The video is great. They were singing, “You Can’t Do That.”
It’s an early Beatles song and one I grew up on. To be singing it in the Cavern Club where the Beatles played was really cool. The video features three or four different camera shots including one camera mounted on the head of one of the ladies’ guitar. You get a shot of the band looking down the neck of the guitar. Very cool.
I got their double CD the other day, “Live at the Cavern Club.” It’s great. They are playing the songs I grew up on. Besides playing early Beatles: “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “She Loves You,” they are doing early Stones “Paint It Black” and classics from that time period: “For What It’s Worth,” “Sunshine Superman,” “I’m A Believer,” and “My Generation.”
How refreshing to hear music where you can actually hear and understand the words, where the music has a discernible beat, and chord progressions. I am so sick and tired of this fast talking mumbling incoherent stuff that is out today. But then again the Super Bowl Half Time Show was hip hop stuff from 25 and 30 years ago, which wasn’t that good when it was out then. I guess music has gone in the direction of painting from realism of the Renaissance to the extended gestures and garish colors of the Mannerists to the dreamy landscapes of the 1700 and 1800s then to the Impressionists and then to the modern and post modern abstractionists to the “What the hell is that?” of today.
Mona and Lisa Wagner front the band where their dad plays bass and keyboards. What a pleasure to hear something up beat and fresh that you can listen to and not get a headache.
I buy CDs to support the artists and I like to read the liner notes.
Our model for this culture is 32 years old. She brings her own sets of music that she plays while we sculpt. A Roy Orbison song came on and I said out loud “Roy has always been one of my favorites.” She told me that she had just discovered him along with some other older music. Really hit me hard to think so many young people didn’t know who Roy was. The next day she brought in 3 hours worth of Frank Zappa. I had forgotten the Kazoo!
We now have something like 5,000 cds so Al can support the Artists. Me, I listen to Pandora.
I highly suggest that you watch a show on Apple TV called 1971: the Year That Music Changed Everything. You would love it on so many levels.