I thought the boy was cute. Maybe I could rescue him from his brainwashing!
In the school library, I found books on most of the countries "behind the Iron Curtain," with lots of pictures of boys and men. They weren't sitting in dark rooms with chains around their heads. They were dancing in traditional costumes, swimming in public pools, going to school, or just posing in groups.
But that made the brainwashing more insidious, I reasoned. It was even more important to go to those countries and rescue them:
Albania
Bulgaria
Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia)
Hungary
Poland
Romania
Yugoslavia (now divided into several countries, which I'm not going to list here, because if I make a mistake, I'll get in trouble).
I recently found the commercial on youtube. It was directed by Jack Goodford, who also directed Mr. Magoo Cartoons for the UPA Studio.
Radio Free Europe was an anti-communist group broadcasting news and information from its base in Munich. It still broadcasts to 21 countries in 28 languages.
R.E.M. has a song called "Radio Free Europe." I don't understand the lyrics:
Keep me out of country in the word
Deal the porch is leading us absurd
Push that push that push that to the hull
That this isn't nothing at all
unless i am mistaken, RFE would now fall under the auspices of voice of america, which by a republican sleight of hand legislation now is no longer headed by a non sectarian committee, but is now under the control of the republican party, radio and television both, and by a similar trick can now broadcast WITHIN the US. trump now has his own publicly funded to the tune of $800 million network... trump tv and trump radio...
ReplyDeleteYep, pro-American bias, but at least honest about it.
DeleteThe beauty of Eastern European men is on display on those Bel Ami videos
ReplyDeleteI had the 45 of 'Radio Free Europe' by R.E.M.. Could never understand what the hell he was saying in the song, but I sure got good money for it on E-Bay years ago!
ReplyDeleteKosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina are one country.
ReplyDeleteThe sentence says: "now divided into several countries, including Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and probably some that I have forgotten)." It wasn't supposed to be a complete list, or a commentary on the political, cultural, and linguistic divisions of the region. But if you're upset that I didn't pay attention to your country, I'll just remove the list.
DeleteI think that I need to book a leisure flight to Bulgaria. Does Qatar Airways fly there?
ReplyDeleteOf course, the water polo lands also fascinate.