Journals of Lord Malinov

the poetry of madness

return

someone left the cake out in the rain
and I don't think that I can take it
because it took so long to make it
and I'll never have that recipe again

Here is a case where someone took a powerful musical refrain and made up some silly-ass words.  I have always lobbied for lyrical-licensing, but literary red tape is the worst kind.

The photos and film of Douglas MacArthur returning to the Phillipines (I shall return) were staged.  So was the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima.  Although WWII was the first war to really utilize the presence of the press, some of the players understood public relations very well.

One of the biggest problems (can I make that claim for a war fraught with problems?) of Vietnam was the television press created an immediate accountability the military was not used to dealing with.  Similar to the prisoner harrassment in Iraq - atrocities have always been a part of war, but now the soldiers are held accountable for their crimes.  It is paradoxical - a sense of right and wrong in the midst of slaughter - but this fair-play has become a structure of modern warfare.

Cell phone cameras are going to change the world significantly, and already have.  There are cameras everywhere and they can instantaneously distribute their images world-wide.  Smile.

Malinov

posted by: Malinov at 07:29 | link | comments |

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