You've found the evil glurge video I see. It is death to watch it more than once.

That is amazing. I think every single thing about the video, song, production design--literally everything about it--is a ridiculous cliche. My favorite part is where he's stand on the rock, and eagles fly up out of the mist at the end of his line.

It would be a real trick if they flew out of his nose. Flying monkeys would do wonders for it, too.

Interesting... I've always suspected that when a hippie dies, he gets punished in the afterlife for the rock&roll/sex/drugs/pacifism thing, but this seems a bit too sadistic.

I've always suspected that when a hippie dies, he gets punished in the afterlife for the rock&roll/sex/drugs/pacifism thing, but this seems a bit too sadistic.

Maybe the message of this video is that when a hippy dies, WE'RE punished.

Think happy thoughts: yes, the six unique artforms made by America for the world: the modern detective story, the broadway show, banjo music, jazz, comic books and rap...must avoid mental meltdown...

Once upon a time I was married to a lovely woman who had spent much of her life in band...performing, marching in parades, that sort of thing. It's grueling, it's time consuming, it measures an individuals commitment to an idea.

Of course she was Canadian, like me, and one week she got the opportunity to take part in an international parade in L.A. Where she got her first taste of the American band experience. This would have been about 1978.

Totally different from Canada, she said. In Canada, it is about the music you play (which isn't necessarily Sousa). In America, it is image. Image, image, image.

She said that the first time she saw doves being released with red, white and blue ribbons tied to their tails, she was ready to be sick.

Robert Klein did a great schtick about halftime bands in the U.S., where the theme was "a tribute to mayonaise." The band on the field then went on to march in the form of celery, sandwiches and lox, that sort of thing.

Guess this is just a grab bag of thoughts. I'm not feeling too healthy after seeing that, so you're getting my Joycian reaction.

Any twenty minutes I've spent in the states has always affected me the way this video affects you. See, being "inside," you're used to the daily stuff, and it takes something really grotesque like this for you to take notice. But for someone on the outside, coming from a country where its rare to see the flag at all (the only day anyone carries a flag here is on the holiday commemorating the country), the flagrant beating to death of a commercial American image is stifling.

I have remarried, this time to a woman who happens to be American. I kidnapped her from Michigan and brought her up to Canada, where she says she can breath now. It's not the air that smells bad down there.

It's this.

Say what you like about the fool who produced this thing, and his cats and his 13 foot pole-vault. The atmosphere in America lets this sort of thing thrive. It lets people cry when they see it. It makes elections like the one you had last year possible.

I'm going to cut off this anti-american diatribe before the CIA has too much more to add to my file, which is ponderously large as it is.

Jon...I just don't know what else to say.

I can't believe nobody stood up for jazz.

Well-- I'm standing.