Sunday, June 18, 2006

La Tourbillon de la Vie

Jonathan and I have become obsessed with the song La Tourbillon de la Vie. It consists of two alternating melodies, each, impossibly, sweeter than the last. I suppose its melodic structure reflects its narrative, about two lovers who meet and part and meet and part a nd finally meet.

Vanessa Paradis has a rendition, but Jeanne Moreau's, in the Truffaut film Jules et Jim-- available here-- wholly captivates.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Acts of War

About those prisoners who committed suicide at Gitmo:

"They are smart, they are creative, they are committed," Admiral Harris said. "They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."

I'm speechless.

Let's see here. We lock up hundreds of men in a lawless zone and tell them that they have no legal rights and they might never leave, but don't tell them what they did to deserve it. We rob them of everything that makes life worth living-- love, family, sunshine, the sense that there is a moral order and, most of all, hope. And then, when they quite reasonably give up, we rob them even of a dignified death.

I think I am going to be sick.