♩ a hammer for you and a sickle for me ♩
Just trying to make Pussy Riot feel at home, you know, if they want to visit for the holidays.
Satisfaction?
After 40+ years, this still might be the strangest cover version I’ve ever heard of anything. The re-worked lyrics, where I can understand them, are hilarious. I know only two things about the Residents: they were from San Francisco, and they had a guitarist called Snakefinger. Perhaps former Bay area Bastards can add something. According to the comments, the animation is by Ivan Maximov, a Russian. I don’t know anything about him either. As far as I know, the song and animation are unrelated, but they make a perfect match. Beyond that, words fail me on this one.
Good Commies
Minnesota has more than its fair share of good bands.
Faster, Pussycat! Flee! Flee!
Maria Alyokhina (above left), a member of Pussy Riot, has managed to escape Russia. She posed as a food carrier to get into Belarus, and then an Icelandic performance artist convinced a European country to issue her a travel document, which got her safely into Lithuania.
Great recap of the entire cloak-and-dagger operation here. After multiple instances of being jailed for proclaiming Russia’s suckitude over the past decade, she got out. The picture of relative incompetence of the authorities that she paints matches the extensive coverage on Renfield’s website.
“I don’t think Russia has a right to exist anymore,” she said. “Even before, there were questions about how it is united, by what values it is united, and where it is going. But now I don’t think that is a question anymore.”
The Icelandic performance artist was not Bjork, but being Icelandic, he is of course related to Bjork.
Get Jack To Where You Once Belonged
That’s better.
Speaking Of The War…
If the Russian army has seemed inept to you, that’s because it is.
If you’re interested, here is the best site for war information. It’s geared towards military, and its contributors are mostly data-driven soldiers or wonks. As a result, there wasn’t the usual media and government surprise about the Russians’ difficulties. As far back as November, they were pointing out the Russians’ logistical shortcomings, and this week they reported a Marine Corps University war game that, prior to the invasion, predicted very closely how it would go.
As an old Cold War brat of the 7th Army in Germany, I remember that there was no respect for the Red Army back then. They had scary bombs and large troop numbers, but our army considered them 3rd rate in all other regards. In 2022, the only thing that’s changed is that they’re much smaller. Putin’s “build-up” has been in weapons, not in building a viable army, which hasn’t attempted anything like this since their 70’s-80’s Afghanistan disaster. I don’t think this cold war will be long, because Russia won’t have the money or manpower to sustain one, or even occupy Ukraine (assuming they win). That’s not to say this won’t get very dangerous.
Amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics.
-Omar Bradley
Never interfere with your enemy while he’s making a mistake.
-Napoleon
Guy In Siberia Restores Soviet Motorcycle
This is as cool as it gets.
Whoa
Here’s a note-for-note live recreation of The White Album by a group called The Analogues giving me the feels.
The Politburo Did Not Want To Be Sedated, Or Rock and Roll All Night
Here’s a list of bands to avoid and why to avoid them from Soviet era Russia. If some of you bastards would have had access to this list, you would have likely turned out to be more upstanding comrades, er, citizens.
I’m sure they left out a lot of bands, but I’m wondering how Led Zeppelin didn’t make this list, and The Beatles surely would have stoked the ire of the Communist Part Brass for Back in the USSR.