Winning the war on terror

In an response to all the hysterical fear-fuelling nonsense that the our dear media masks as sombre 'memorializing,' I would like to present what just might be the key to victory in the War on Terror. And failing that, this has to be the very very best youtube find I've made so far. It's a clip of The Band and the Staple Singers performing "The weight." The rest of the video features some entertaining boozy jibber with a violin followed by a pretty good rendition of "The night they drove old dixie down," but for me, it's all about when Mavis Staples starts singing. I almost cried - the holy-shit-she-can-sing kind of tears - the first time I heard it. Now, I don't really know how this actually relates to the GWOT. However, I do know that if I'm watching The Band, then I'm not watching some mendacious made-for-TV docu-fiction about what a sissy Clinton was, or some shiny-haired gleem-for-brains anchor-twat, prittle-prattling away as the fear ribbon ceaselessly crawls along the bottom of the screen.

Well that was a long sentence with a lot of hypens. That felt rather cathartic too.

Anyway, this is a clip from Martin Scorsese's fabulous movie, The Last Waltz. I bought the DVD the other day at the supermarket for $10, which I thought a steal and some clever marketing person probably also thought was rather nifty. What sort of sucker picks up a $10 item waiting in the checkout line? Well, if that item happens to be the greatest rockumentary of all time, then it would be me. The whole movie is beautifully shot and sounds fantastic, it's hard to play favourites, but I think that this clip is the high point for me. So, let's watch the clip, and think about good, simple, happy things for a change.



Mmm Hmmm.

- Mr. Ed