Tuesday, April 29, 2008

The US Elections: And Pigs Will Fly

On March 26th, Bob Cesca at the Huffington Post posted a video he'd assembled to the tune of Roger Waters's "The Tide Is Turning".

This was right after Obama's extraordinary race speech in Pennsylvania, and there was, amongst Obama-ists and general optimists alike, a sense that the cynical, subversive policies of Politics had been averted.

Cesca wrote:

I have no idea who Roger Waters is supporting in this thing (and I hasten to note that this video was created without his permission), but when I heard Senator Obama's historic Philadelphia address last week, this song, "The Tide Is Turning," from Waters' underrated 1987 album Radio KAOS kept running on a loop in my head.

Cynicism averted? No so. Indeed, less than a month later, after the state of Pennsylvania had held its primary, it was the triumphant old guard - Clinton - who went on stage to claim the self same slogan. Unlike Cesca, Clinton presumably had never heard of Roger Waters. And even if she had, she certainly wasn't aware of the bitter-sweet song Cesca refers to.

No matter, though. Neither were the Pennsylvanians. And neither is, it seems, America.

But a few days later, April 27th - last sunday - Roger Waters gave the closing concert at the Coachella music festival in California. And he brought a huge inflatable pig with him. And guess what? The pig had "Obama" written on its belly. So Cesca had it right, even if he didn't dare say so out right at the time.

But here's the thing:

As Waters drew the song to a close, flame bursts exploded on the sides of the stage and the swine floated into the night sky. Waters said sadly and comically, "That's my pig."

Ah, yes, Obama. Floating away into the night sky. There's our pig, going, going - gone.

Although, of course, there is a reward. It seems that if you manage to salvage the whole thing - and get the pig back - $ 10,000 will be yours.

Well, that has to be a worthy cause, right?

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