(Uhm - wow. That sounds like Jan singing at the slumber party in Grease)
Anyway - it's been all about Russia for quite a while at chez Sheila - I am 5 pages away from finishing my Stalin biography (excerpts to come) - I recently just watched Russian Ark again - I HAD to - (my old review of it here) - and I am about to start Master and Margarita. Also - my most recent book excerpts have all been from the Russia trilogy by Colin Thubron - which has dovetailed quite nicely with my current reading list.
So I just ate up every word of John's great post here. Click on all the links - you won't want to miss some of those photos. He talks about a magazine he remembers from his time in the former USSR - a music magazine. It's nice to know that the atrocious fashions of the 70s were not an epidemic just in the Western world, and that the Iron Curtain could not keep out bright blue eyeshadow. Great stuff, John - thanks.
Posted by sheilaThanks for the link. I forgot to mention something about the link to the Floyd article. "The Wall" had a cult following over there, I guess because a lot of Russians recognized their less intelligent and more indoctrinated teachers in its critique of the British educational system. The summer I took Russian II, one of the kids was playing "We Don't Need No Education" in the dorm during a party, and one of my instructors said "What the hell do you know about sadists in education? Americans think that a principal who won't let them wear shorts to class is a sadist. You have no idea."
Posted by: John at April 7, 2006 12:24 PMAh yes - I remember when there was a decree in my town to not allow skateboarding in certain areas. Signs went up: NO SKATEBOARDING.
Within a day, kids had scrawled over the signs: "FASCISTS!"
Yup. Not allowing you to skateboard on public sidewalks is a textbook definition of fascism!!
Posted by: red at April 7, 2006 12:36 PM