The Strawberry Statement

A cult film from 1970, loosely based on the book of the same name which was written by a 19-year-old who'd experienced campus protest activities at Columbia in '68.



Our friend Tony lent us the DVD (dubbed into German, no English option) and we watched it last night.

B said the film made a big impact in the States when it came out, but hardly any impact in Europe at the time (except among the young people who were inspired by it.)

I kept thinking my friend Mod should have been sitting in the living room watching the film with us. He and B are a few years older than me, which doesn't make much of a difference now but made a big difference in 1970. Back then, as a 12-year-old, I would have found the film interesting----What are these people doing? I wish I could have long hair... NAKED BREASTS!---etc. I thought the same thing when I saw EASY RIDER for the first time. I liked it because it exposed a different world to me, but I didn't really get it the way I might if I'd been, say, 18.

The late 60s - early 70s seem like a kind of anomaly to me. Circumstances and socio-political happenings of the time seemed to coalesce in such a way that young people felt compelled to protest a lot, and not without good reason. I think we still have a lot of reasons to protest these days, but almost nobody does it. The way we interact with other human beings these days isn't to physically gather together, it's to virtually gather together. Once in a while you get protests like what happened in Wisconsin, but for the most part things are pretty tame---even while circumstances of today would justify even greater, louder protests, in my opinion.

I watched the film as a cultural curiosity, a glimpse into a version of America 41 years past. San Francisco looked different back then, as did the clothes, as was the language, the hairstyles, and the thinking of the time.

In the movie, things got tough for the protesters during the final scene, but until then the cops were kind of benign by today's standards....I kept thinking, "If this shit was happening today, you'd have cops out in riot gear, with the SWAT team snipers on the roofs, helicopters and drones overhead. A proactive show of force out of proportion to the actual threat." It's no secret that cops are preparing for future social and civil unrest in ways they didn't bother with in the more innocent 60s. Except this time, the protesters won't be protesting a university's involvement in a war, they'll be rioting because their pensions have been cut off, or they've been summarily fired from their jobs, or they can't get enough food to eat.

It was kind of fun sitting next to B as she animatedly bounced around when the songs of the era were played.

She's sad that young people today don't see fit to hit the streets. I can see that, but they never really hit the streets before the 60s and haven't much since then.

Like I said, it was a sociological anomaly, not an historical norm.

Oslo Attacks

I made the same mistake about the Oslo attacks as I did about the OKC bombing: Muslim terrorists.

Your mind takes you to strange places if you jump to conclusions and I'm trying to train my mind to think "possibly" instead of "probably"---and most definitely instead of "certainly." Because, smart as human beings may be, we don't "know" everything. Most of us "know" almost nothing about anything. Humans have the gift of imagination, which is probably a good thing in the final analysis, but imagination works for good or for bad----just because we think something up, doesn't mean it's "true."

Anyhow. The Norwegians impress me with their response to this attack. Instead of a collective tightening of the asshole (and thus, tightening of "security") they've decided to maintain an open society. In America the response to any "threat" is to clamp down----a guy tries to detonate his shoe on an airplane, from then on we have to take our shoes off when we go through "security" at the airport. Funnily enough, you don't have to remove your shoes when you go through security in European airports. Total number of subsequent attempted shoe bombings in Europe as a result of this "lax security:" exactly ZERO.

Here's a link to an enlightening interview with Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung, a peace and conflict advisor, as broadcast on DEMOCRACY NOW! last night. You can watch the video or scroll down below the video screen and read a transcript of the interview, which might be easier due to occasionally difficult to understand audio.

The killer was upset because he believed whatever societal status quo he preferred was crumbling. It always astounds me when someone picks a particular set of circumstances and / or period of time as "ideal," then gets all nervous if it appears that a bit of change is coming. By that logic we all ought to be happier as Neanderthals, or mid-14th Century peasants, or whatever other period of time someone wants to randomly select as "ideal."

It's not 1350 any more, and we don't live in villages, constantly worried about what "God" wants. People mix and intermingle in modern societies. Whatever "purity" the angst-filled hopelessly try to maintain isn't going to be maintained, because people aren't staying in their villages any more---they're intermingling. You can kill every kid on an island camp and that ain't gonna change.

I guess that's hard for some people to deal with, and so they twist off.

And when they do, those of us left standing have to decide how to react. Or over-react, as the case often is.

Friday: Bike Ride Along The Danube

The skies cleared and the sun popped out. So we took off on the bikes, riding along the New Danube.

If I may, a few words about riding a bike. I don't do it at all in Oklahoma, though I should...it's great exercise. But bicycle seats, I've come to learn, aren't really seats as we think of them (that is, comfortable places to sit) as much as large, rock-hard barriers whose sole function is to keep the seat-post from going up your exit-port.

And after a few hours on a bike seat, the latter alternative doesn't sound any worse. Translation: numb ass.

A scene along the New Danube. Click pic to enlargenate, and notice sailboats in the distance.

Bucolic happenings on a late July day in Vienna.

This cooperative swan posed for me.

A barge along the Danube.

There are several rowing clubs along the Danube.
Here's a group going downstream.

After several kilometers we came to one of our favorite spots along the river.

Here you can get a drink, or something to eat, and watch river life or get into conversations

with those at nearby tables. This ferry goes back and forth across the river every ten minutes or so.

Note hills in the distance---B's house is on the other side of those hills.

If you enlargify the pic, you'll notice a hydrofoil just at the top of the ferry, getting ready to blast off.

Schmaltzbrot. A thin layer of salted lard, some paprika, and some raw onions on bread.

We were out about three hours altogether, including our time at the little riverside rest stop. My legs were kind of tight when we finished and for a few minutes it was hard to walk. Which was nothing compared to the state of my inner area, which felt like it had been paddled every five seconds with an iron rod by an over-exuberant midget.

They say you get used to it.

Photos While Waiting

The other night I went into town to meet B and her friends for dinner.

They were still in the movie when I arrived at the meeting place, so I wandered around near the Judenplatz (where the Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial is---a striking work) and took some pics. Then later, eating outside at the Bieradies (website is in German, but look at the pics) I got a few long-exposure night shots...

Scenario: you're wandering down a dark alley when you encounter---THE BONERSQUAD!

Is it cause for panic, or joy? Only you can decide. (Sticker I saw on a car.)

Here's the inner courtyard of the old Rathaus (city hall), recently restored.

Detail of one of the figurines on the ironwork at the old Rathaus.

In this 1-second exposure you see a rogue group of Segway enthusiasts.

About ten of these guys descended on the Judenplatz, zipped around, then left.

Another group of people who showed up at dusk were photographers.
Serious amateurs or pros, judging by the equipment I saw.
They took a lot of upwardly-aimed shots of architectural details of the buildings...

People enjoying drinks and dinner on the Judenplatz.