Armistice Day

[Brian37]

I don't like poetry.

My mother, when she visited yesterday with my grandmother, said if only political financial contributions were limited in the states, as they are in Europe, he wouldn't have been elected.

The thread isn't here for strictly poetry. If you have something to say honoring those who fought to keep the west open, especially for your right to free speech, have at it. 

In other words, we don't care if you do or don't like poetry. The thread is to honor those who fought and died for our right to post what we do here.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I don't like poetry.

My mother, when she visited yesterday with my grandmother, said if only political financial contributions were limited in the states, as they are in Europe, he wouldn't have been elected.

'A fool and his money are soon elected.' - Will Rogers

Boru

[Amarok]

John McCrae's in Flanders Fields 




Lest we forget

[Rev. Rye]

Welp, with the 100th Anniversary of the end of the first World War, here's probably the greatest bit of music to ever commemorate the cataclysm:





That said, the work is dedicated to friends of his who died in World War 2 (and one who was permanently changed on the beaches of Normandy) first performed to reconsecrate a cathedral that got bombed in the blitz, and its initial recording was released to a remarkably high level of mainstream popularity (200,000 copies sold in the first five months, virtually unheard of for a modern classical work) on the eve of the Vietnam War (which may be intruding a Yank-centric perspective on a British work), but the Wilfred Owen poetry gives it a big WW1 perspective.

I feel like I should be doing an review of the Derek Jarman music video/film for the original recording to commemorate the centenary of the armistice, but I can't actually find a streaming copy.

[Minimalist]

Some things never change.

[Brian37]

I was just watching a documentary on D-Day, holy mother fucker, the German machine guns in the pill boxes on the top of the bluffs.  An AR-15 looks at them and says, "I need to speed up a bit." How the fuck anyone survived that.

And the amphibious armored tanks they sent ashore, if you were the guy inside, you were pretty much fucked because the majority of tanks didn't make it. Pre-testing in calm waters they worked, but the waves that day were high and breached the canvas meant to keep them afloat. They were meant to act as cover for the soldiers but many sank before they could get ashore.

And yes I know Armistice Day was WW1 and D-Day was WW2. But still, how anybody survived either with out some severe PTSD.

[Amarok]

I was just watching a documentary on D-Day, holy mother fucker, the German machine guns in the pill boxes on the top of the bluffs.  An AR-15 looks at them and says, "I need to speed up a bit." How the fuck anyone survived that.

And the amphibious armored tanks they sent ashore, if you were the guy inside, you were pretty much fucked because the majority of tanks didn't make it. Pre-testing in calm waters they worked, but the waves that day were high and breached the canvas meant to keep them afloat. They were meant to act as cover for the soldiers but many sank before they could get ashore.

And yes I know Armistice Day was WW1 and D-Day was WW2. But still, how anybody survived either with out some severe PTSD.

Here's really good Youtube series on WW1. It just did it last episode today after 4 years . It does the war week by week as it would have been 100 years ago. It does a lot of other stuff two like evolution of tactics and technology and biographies of people  and nations as well as visiting museums and historic sites . 




The first episode explaining how the war happened 





Rommel became famous in WW2 but his story starts in WW1





The evolution of airplane

[Brian37]

300 Yards, By Brian37 (Originally posted on Rational Responders, April 11th 2012)

Not a statistic 
Of the big game 
Not of passing 
Not of running 

The flaps came down 
And the brave became 
Targets moving 
Like a carnival game 

No stuffed animal won 
No cotton candy sold 
Just crimson white caps 
Shredded flesh, blown up and shot 

They played with Jax 
No bouncing ball 
And after that 
Faced land mines and barbed wire 

Some in shock 
Stood up in horror 
Exploding watermelons 
Became their skull 

The buzzing bees 
Were supposed to help 
But missed far to many 
Of those atop the cliffs 

The white cotton 
Was too dense 
Making the pilots 
Afraid to deploy 

And the marionettes 
In Warhol numbers 
Missed their mark 
Falling from above 

The hard shell tortoise 
Came to help 
But he and his brethren 
Fell prey to the shallows 

The carnival patron 
Had the edge 
Or so he thought 
The game was rigged 

The darts were dense 
Hitting many a balloon 
Surely the fortification 
Would be enough 

But the bleak weather 
At the French Fair 
The beaches littered 
With limbs and valor 

The pill boxes lost 
It was no game 
It was 300 yards 
To victory 

I think about 
This legacy 
And what if 
It had been me 

No way no way 
Not one ounce 
Not one yard 
Not one inch 

I could not do 
What they did 
I could not step 
Onto that beach 

I have to thank 
Those who did 
Made the run 
So I could live 

300 yards 
Beyond the Jax 
Beyond the wire 
To climb the cliffs 

I am here 
Because of them 
And what they did 
So I could live.

[Astreja]

Saturday night the Winnipeg Symphony played a concert on a Remembrance Day theme. This morning I was playing in a Remembrance Day service at a local Canadian Legion branch. I've heard the Last Post twice in the past day. (Last night it was played by a bugler standing on the highest balcony in the Concert Hall, with the rest of the hall in darkness.)

Every time I hear it I start to cry.

[Amarok]

Saturday night the Winnipeg Symphony played a concert on a Remembrance Day theme.  This morning I was playing in a Remembrance Day service at a local Canadian Legion branch.  I've heard the Last Post twice in the past day.  (Last night it was played by a bugler standing on the highest balcony in the Concert Hall, with the rest of the hall in darkness.)

Every time I hear it I start to cry.

I went the the service at the national monument . As ever year it hits me in the feels .  Then went to the war museum for theirs .