james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2008-11-05 09:42 am
  • Add Memory
  • Share This Entry

By the end of the day

I expect to have seen all of the lyrics from Leonard Cohen's Democracy posted to LJ, one line at a time.

I guess it beats Miami 2017.
Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Don't get me wrong

[identity profile] james-nicoll.livejournal.com 2008-11-05 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I have fond thoughts about that song because it is inextricably intertwined with my memories of Ron Goulart's better novels, back in the day.

I mean "Before the Mafia took over Mexico" wouldn't be out of place in After Things Fell Apart except that I think by that point the entirely non-Italian New Mafia had replaced the original one.


Re: Don't get me wrong

[identity profile] scifantasy.livejournal.com 2008-11-05 03:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Oddly, I'd never heard the song before some Billy Joel post-2001 concerts. Nowadays it seems he can't take a stage anymore without playing that.

Re: Don't get me wrong

[identity profile] james-nicoll.livejournal.com 2008-11-05 03:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, there's an obvious 9/11 thing happening with the song now but if I recall correctly, it was written as a reaction to New York's problems in the 1970s, in particular the FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD episode.

Are the younger readers familiar with that moment in American history?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/28/nyregion/28veto.html

Re: Don't get me wrong

[identity profile] scifantasy.livejournal.com 2008-11-05 03:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Right.

My family's pretty much New Yorkers and suburbians with a few outliers (once my sister and I left the house for college, our parents finally moved back to the city proper, thankfully), so I've gotten some stories about those days from my father.
Flat | Top-Level Comments Only