Ed Punk Band Pussy Riot

[Childlike Empress]

The international outrage circus moved on, anybody remember this?

Well, they appealed and one of the three was freed after her defense team changed strategy from claiming political protest to proving that she did not participate in the act itself because security personnel seized her in advance. The other two were sent to "the gulag" today. Interview with the released member Samutsevich (on evil "state-controlled" RIA Novosti):

“You have to look at our history, especially the Soviet era,” she explains. “People were taught to stay quiet, to avoid any unpleasantness. I remember in my childhood, my father would always warn me not to say anything bad about the authorities. Parents taught their children not to even criticize our previous leaders, like Lenin and Stalin.

“This passivity is installed in people at a young age,’ she adds.

“People are just taught from generation to generation that we need a strong leader - that we should just go to work and not think about anything. Very few people have a chance to educate themselves.”

Well, the grass is always greener on the other side.

“I’ve never been to the West,” she goes on.

 

[Childlike Empress]

The international outrage circus moved on, anybody remember this?

Less than 30 views in 8 hours. Amazing how attention can be directed to and off a topic these days. Well, I admit I nearly forgot about it myself until I stumbled upon the news today on the RIA Novosti feed. Hope the two will fare relatively well in the coming 16 months or so they will spend in custody - maybe Madonna will invite them after that. *cough*

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

My parents and I watched Pussy Riot's interview with Stephen Colbert last night. When my father (who was raised devoutly Roman Catholic but doesn't practice anymore) heard that they jumped on a church altar and danced on it, he said "What?! They did that?! That's it! No mercy for them! Send them back to jail for life! What do they have against Putin? Why do they constantly have to harass him?"

Odd. Dad isn't even religious anymore.

Even odder. Papa Moe has two Russian Jewish immigrant co-workers who are his friends outside of work (neither practice Judaism) and they are outraged over the dancing in the church. Both heard about them prancing on the altar and said "Send them to Siberia, no question. Of course they were arrested and imprisoned!"

What do they care? They are Jewish. And neither are religious.

No offense to any Russian people on here- but that tells you something about Russian culture. Even secular people have no love of freedom of speech in the way Westerners do and think a strongman government is a good thing. They think insulting the powers-that-be is a crime and don't take the freedom to insult people for granted.

 

[calebprime]

It might be about wanting there to be respect for places of reverence, for the capacity for reverence, regardless of the actual purpose or object of that reverence.

I'm reminded of something Camille Paglia said...

My first moments of enchantment by beauty occurred in a church and a movie theater. The interior of St. Anthony of Padua church in Endicott, New York, the upstate factory town where I was born, was lined with richly colored stained-glass windows and niches holding life-size plaster statues of saints in sumptuous robes or silver armor. Paying no attention to the action on the altar, I would stare transfixed at those glorious figures, which seemed alive.

ttp://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:AMJXzb6hiG4J:www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture...+paglia+on+reverence&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

I don't experience this reverence around churches, because I wasn't raised that way, but I do fear for a culture that has no respect for beauty -- at least enough so that I understand what Paglia is saying.

As a 40-year veteran teacher in art schools, I am alarmed about the future of American art. Young people today, immersed in a digital universe, love the volatile excitement of virtual reality, but they lack the patience to steadily contemplate a single image—a complex static object such as a great painting or sculpture. The paintings of their world are now video games, with images in febrile motion; their sculptures are the latest-model cellphone, deftly shaped to the hand.

She's sort of the queen of hyperbole.

Although I am an atheist, a religious perspective shapes my view of art—from the first work in my book, a somber wall painting of Isis in Queen Nefertari’s tomb, to Picasso’s epochal Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, a brothel scenario that I interpret as a pagan epiphany of ferocious sex goddesses.

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

You know what, I think you are right.

Even people who aren't religious themselves hold it in a kind of awe and sanctity and demand automatic respect for it. Which is why they are appalled over the desecration of it.

 

[angrysoba]

Pussy whipped?

http://www.theguardian.com/music/20...ed-whips-cossack-milita-sochi-winter-olympics

 

[rcfieldz]

Or how to beat your kitty

They can take a beating...I'm sure it made for some good lyrics on their next song.

 

[Caustic Logic]

They can take a beating...I'm sure it made for some good lyrics on their next song.

Betty White has a good line about that, but "pounding" and is used. Worth looking up.

I still think Pussy Riot is more a Milli Vanilli for the George Soros crowd than real home-grown Anarchy in the USSR punk rock.

 

[Puppycow]

Pussy whipped?

http://www.theguardian.com/music/20...ed-whips-cossack-milita-sochi-winter-olympics

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFrZfluKDrc

 

[trustbutverify]

Pro fair treatment for women, press freedom, freedom of expression, migrant rights and an end to cruelty to animals and the powerful relationship church and state? Coupled with the courage to face public flogging, beat downs and political over-prosecution? Outrageous. These bitches are obviously western-shill frauds.

 

[Caustic Logic]

Corrected, Betty White apparently did not say that one quote, just an urban legend.

And I'm really no expert on PR themselves, I just like my Milli Vanilli line and I stand behind that being the impression that's made by them, filtered by our media, on the world stage.

The original singing would be down with tyrant Putin and his whatever. Being mean to animals, whatever. In Ukraine, we're backing Nazi mobs saying down with Putin and the Moscow-Jewish mafia. And unlike PR (ploy?), those guys are physically overpowering security forces and taking over the center of the nation's capitol. Not that I think the US-EU support eco-feminists or neo-fascits coming to power in and of themselves, any more than Islamists in Syria.

But some folks have their useful phase in shaking up a government that's predicted to settle on the wrong side of the upcoming world war. Or something like that, I suspect.

 

[Caustic Logic]

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFrZfluKDrc

I finally watched this. At first I didn't get the performance. It seemed uninspired and missing something, and pointless. They didn't even bother getting in formation or anything, and were already hopping around with masks half-on (agent wants their human faces seen more in future stunts?)

Then, a very few seconds in (?) the very nearby cossacks stepped in with this comically brutish behavior he knows is being filmed. Some others seem to be working with him. Did the cops refuse to arrest him because they had orders not to arrest the political performers? Why do their uniforms look different than the cossacks shown later (2:55)? To avoid arrest for impersonation? But then when pressed to, they say "the one who drew blood" on their male helper was arrested. And he was gone, but no one saw when or how vanished exactly. I wonder if arrested what he'll be charged with, and if it's under the codes for cossacks or for actorvists.

That said, could be real too. Different uniforms for different divisions or whatever. Not unbelievably egregious, but troubling and strange.

ETA: Someone in this Reddit thread has noted the possibility that these cossacks are "******* half-wits in fake uniforms with fake medals..." Someone should really check that to be sure it's not true. Too late if so, news of Putin brutality broadcast, retractions never matter.

ETA: Nope, that one said the real cossacks, to blame here, are inherently fakes. But later someone says "They are actually not Cossacks per se, just a bunch of clowns in Cossack clothes." and links to this in support.

Anyone figure out which uniform Sochi ones should wear, and is this a match? Close enough to be real (or to trigger an outright impersonation charge)? Or just close enough to convince outsiders?

Also the Devo comment and response are worthwhile.

The picture with the Cossack in mid swing looks like some sort of scene from a cheesy Devo video

If the Pussy comes to Riot
YOU MUST WHIP IT!
If the protests uninspired
YOU MUST WHIP IT!

One thing I saw little to none of in that thread was pro-Putin commentators criticizing PR. I did see lots of comments alleging and refuting such paid shill comments.

 

[Morrigan]

I still think Pussy Riot is more a Milli Vanilli for the George Soros crowd than real home-grown Anarchy in the USSR punk rock.

I... what

 

[trustbutverify]

I... what

Try not to think about it.

 

[Caustic Logic]

Try not to think about it.

If you're lucky you don't even have to try.

Morrigan: What was hard to follow in that? Too young to know Milli Vanilli? Soros in context of OSI, meddling, etc. If you still need help, let me know.

 

[Childlike Empress]

Morrigan: What was hard to follow in that? Too young to know Milli Vanilli? Soros in context of OSI, meddling, etc. If you still need help, let me know.

She's into Metal. Morrigan, CL thinks Pussy Riot are "untrue".

 

[Caustic Logic]

Hella untrue.

if that works

 

[Morrigan]

If you're lucky you don't even have to try.

Morrigan: What was hard to follow in that? Too young to know Milli Vanilli? Soros in context of OSI, meddling, etc. If you still need help, let me know.

I know who Milli Vanilli is. Please explain your nonsensical "opinion".

She's into Metal. Morrigan, CL thinks Pussy Riot are "untrue".

That's what I got from that post, hence the source of my confusion.

 

[Childlike Empress]

That's what I got from that post, hence the source of my confusion.

If you know Milli Vanilli, that part of the statement can't be the source of your confusion. You aren't familiar with the history and practice of color revolutions, that's obviously the problem. Remains the question why you want CL to explain his "opinion" you already pretend to know is "nonsensical" and what the hell those scare quotes do around the first word, if not to hint at that you know there's more than "opinion" behind what he is referring to.

 

[Caustic Logic]

Thanks, CE, and quite right. I forgot to get back to this 'til now. Morrigan - I might explain my opinion, since you asked. But first, I need to know what you're getting at with the scare quotes. Before I explain my "opinion," I'd like to know what you think it really is. Thanks.