Crying

This is my favorite version of Roy Orbison's "Crying":



And this is even better:

Caution, spoilers:

I never cease to be amazed at how many deep insights into the human condition can be found in the Battlestar Galactica series. I know that every time I rant about it I only get the result of looking like a total geek, because how can there be deep philosophical and social truths in a series so filled with space fights and evil (yet sexy) humanoid robots? A while ago I talked about what good art needs to be, i.e. allegorical, personal and immortal. In its highest form, for me, art deals with what it is to be human. Certainly a story about the battle between the "real" and "artificial" humans, and about the preservation of the human race in face of complete destruction, in the hands of some talented people, has the potential to be amazing. And that is exactly what the Battlestar Galactica series is. An amazing work of art. It looks at how humans relate to their political structure, their religion, their culture, in such a clear way, in such a deep and critical way, that you can see it mirrored in everyday life, and in historical events, and understand them more clearly because of it. It allows itself to be political, yes, but not in a petty, fashionable way which will lose its relevance in five to twenty years (Avatar), but in a way that will always be relevant.

Listen to this: In the end of the series' second season, the humans find themselves electing one Gaius Baltar as their president. This person is incompetent, vain, weak, untrustworthy and prone to playing into the hands of the enemy. He has been flattered into running for president by some malicious forces who aim to use his power as their own.

In 2006 the people of Israel found themselves electing as their prime minister one Ehud Olmert. He was not put in place by malicious forces as head of a puppet government. The conditions which brought him to power were stranger and more complicated, but he did share many of the qualities of the fictional Baltar.

After doing his bit of damage, Baltar is kicked out of power and replaced by the previous president, Laura Roslyn, who then spends a lot of time and energy to punish Baltar for all the mistakes he has made and all the lives he has cost. She never gives a moment's thought to the people who worked behind the scenes, or to her own mistakes, one of them huge, which brought Baltar to the presidency.

After doing his bit of damage, Olmert was also replaced, not by a beloved and able "benevolent dictator" like Roslyn (if only there was one available), but by some people who haven't exactly earned my respect either. Still, to this day, the nation's rage at this man for being a bad prime minister is tireless, and we can see him every day in the news being dragged to court for some old corruption scandal.

What has this bit of science fiction taught us about how people behave in real life? How about this: some people are weak, vain and corrupt. When we give them power, they will use it for vain and corrupt purposes. If there is danger about, their weakness will cost lives. This also: in a democracy, voters are easily fooled by demagogues, and easily made to act on impulse. And if they make a mistake, they don't like to blame themselves, and don't want to look at the people who deceived them. Suggest that the system is flawed? Never. They'd rather take it all out on the person who failed where no one in their right mind could've expected him to succeed.
And so it goes.

Test

This is a test

As you can probably tell, the test post gets to stay on because the kitty is so damn adorable. And distinguished.

ונדטה עקובה מדם

בקיץ הזה יש לי כוחות לונדטה עקובה מדם אחת, אבל שני נושאים בוערים על הפרק. אחד: תסרוקות ה"הלוואה וחיסכון" שמזהמות את נופי הארץ. שתיים: השימוש הדבילי בקיצור "ת'-". שניהם מציקים לי כבר שנים, ובזמן האחרון הגיעו למאסה קריטית. התסרוקת הנ"ל מהווה מפגע סביבתי כל הזמן, אבל החשיפה המוגזמת של אבי בניהו בימים האחרונים הופכת את הבעיה לצורמת ורלוונטית מתמיד. מצד שני הקיצור של המילה "את" ל"ת'-" נפוץ בקרב שתי אוכלוסיות שאני שונאת במיוחד: אנשים בלתי מגניבים (פרסומאים) שמנסים לדבר לקהל הצעיר והמגניב, ומשוררים עצלנים שלא מסוגלים לחשוב על דרך מקורית יותר להרוויח הברה. אביב גפן, למשל, שייך לשתי הקבוצות האלה, ולכן משתמש בקיצור הזה אולי יותר מכל אדם דובר עברית אחר.י

אז אם, כמו שזה נראה, מלחמה חסרת מעצורים היא בלתי נמנעת, אני צריכה להחליט מי יהיה האויב.י

A realization:

All things considered, I'm probably not a ... what's that term again? A people person.

me vs the world 5

Proud Mary

Every time that job hunting season rolls around, which can easily happen more than once a year, I find myself looking for "Proud Mary" on Youtube. Something in me wants to believe that I have the option of tossing everything out the window and hitching a ride on a riverboat. The biggest problem with this plan - I live in the desert. Still, it's always nice to hear that song again.


Of course, whenever I search for it, there's a decision to be made: Creedence Clearwater Revival, or Tina Turner. The Creedence version has the obvious advantage of being the original, but it doesn't make you dance around uncontrollably in your chair. The Tina Turner version is much more in line with the rebellious mood of a nearly unemployed animator, but it has several disadvantages: first of all, in every concert version, you have to suffer through a stupid little "nice and easy" speech that she's been doing since the seventies. Secondly, and speaking of the seventies, if you choose a clip from the Ike Turner era, it's hard to enjoy it without thinking about domestic violence. Then again, whichever Tina Turner video you pick, there'll be lots of legs in it.


Here are three options: the Creedence original, the most 80s of the Tina versions, and one thats Ike-included, beautiful but always disturbung:







P.S. The Ike one is the best, there's no getting around that.