Leave it to the Russkies to make you feel old. Yesterday a thousand baton wielding cops and God-knows-how-many undercover cops beat back a peaceful demonstration in Pushkin Square. For those who haven't been paying attention, it seems a lot of Russians are pissed off with Putin, accusing him and his government of rolling back their freedoms. Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion was detained for a short while. It all got me to thinking about that great Buffalo Springfield song (which I hope you're listening to while reading this). It's called "For What It's Worth." Wikipedia reminded me it came out in January 1967. Over 40 years ago. Stephen Stills is singing. Buffalo Springfield was the band he formed before Crosby, Stills, Nash, (and sometimes Young). Neil Young and Jim Messina (later of Loggins & Messina) were members of Buffalo Springfield. That was a magical time for rock music and this song captured the general paranoia young people had during that period. It added a foreboding counterpoint to that year's Summer of Love, the last great blowout before America's downward slide through two assassinations and the dark years of the Viet Nam war. Demographics on bloggers show most of you weren't born yet but that doesn't mean you can't appreciate the Russkies for resurrecting that great old street anthem which I'm sure, by the way things are going, you'll be hearing a lot more of. The picture is from November 2003. It shows our cops protecting us from folks against the FTAA, something MVB is for. It's our feeble attempt at making our posts relevant to Miami and the Beaches. I bet those Miami and Russkie protesters were listening to that great lyric, "there's a man with a gun over there, telling me I got to beware..." through ear buds connected to their iPods. Except for technology, some things never change.
UpDate (12/3): Putin pummels Kasparov and democracy at the polls as Russia overwhelmingly hands him the power to become anything he wants. We bet he chooses dictator.
