Background

__________

 

Samantha, a new reader in the south of France, sent this along mid-week:

 

My finding you was pure chance - while searching Nathaniel West biography information on Google.

 

I'm sitting here on the southern coast of France (11 years now - Paris, Los Angeles and Boston before that). 

 

One thing led to another and after reading nineteen or so articles (I particularly liked the food and the French perversions) I finally got around to reading your home page.  Thank God.  I thought there were no sane Americans left - yes, I know that the "official" count was 48% ...  I was one of a meager twenty or so Democrats sitting up all night at Stars N' Bars in Monaco listening the blabberings of the election results...

 

Am I a sane American?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

 

My French-born neighbor here, Claudine, just left for three weeks in Toulouse (family stuff) and sent this as part of a longer note - "I don't know how I would get my great French information if I did not have JUST ABOVE SUNSET."  Well, she's not a net news addict.  Maybe I do spend too many column-inches on France and Paris. 

 

I sent Cluadine this:

 

Ah, people think I'm nuts for following things in France.  I'm glad you're amused.  But as my Republican friends point out now, REAL Americans hate the French, REAL Americans voted for Bush - and maybe it is time for the traitors to leave.  I'm ready.  So this is the year I actually ceasing being a REAL American?  How odd.  But perhaps all folks like me, born in Pittsburgh, always felt we didn't belong - think Gertrude Stein, Gene Kelly, Andy Warhol....

 

Well, I can find another country if I'm not welcome here, and since I don't plan to proclaim Jesus as my personal savior, or bomb an abortion clinic, or even write my congressman urging the death penalty for all felonies - well, maybe they're right.  They won after all.  It's not my country now, and rather than being ashamed of myself for being who I am, well, sooner or later I'll leave.

 

But I sipped some scotch and felt better.

 

As for Samantha, I see via Google she was second script supervisor on "The Good Thief'" - that Nick Nolte remake of "Bob Le Flambeur" – a Riviera crime-caper film, which probably explains she was at Stars N' Bars in Monaco.  Cool.  Last time around I watched Gore concede from my room at Le Madison in Paris - four years ago - CNN International at four in the morning.  Then I walked across the street at dawn, past Les Deux Magot to my favorite dive - Café Bonaparte - for strong coffee.  Things didn't get better.  They still haven't.

 

It's been four years since I've been down her way - staying at a farmhouse on an island in the Rhône just north of Avignon, driving down to through St-Rémy and Les Baux to Arles, hanging around in Aix, getting pie-eyed on pastis munching pistachios at some hole-in-the-wall in Gordes with a great view and Patricia Kaas on the tinny radio.  The usual burn-out stuff.  I miss it all.  But Hollywood will do.  The view from my window here in my second bedroom office is across the hills to the observatory.  I imagine the slightly fey Sal Mineo getting shot, again.  James Dean can't save him.  Oh, America!

 

As for what you see in the right hand column, there are those of us of a certain age who do remember a group called The Buffalo Springfield.  In March of 1967 they recorded a Steven Stills song called "For What It's Worth" (lyrics here) and had quite a big hit on their hands.

 

And for obvious reasons, the song won’t go away.  It comes back in times like these.  Samantha does here riff on it here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  __

 

Note: Just Above Sunset does have international readers.  Since April?

 

.ca     Canada    348  

.uk     United Kingdom    206  

.fr     France    148  

.au     Australia    128  

.de     Germany    40  

.ph     Philippines    39  

.nl     Netherlands    30  

.jp     Japan    28  

.es     Spain    27  

.be     Belgium    24  

.it     Italy    20  

.hk     Hong Kong    18  

.kr     Korea, Republic of    17  

.cn     China    17  

.se     Sweden    16  

.ch     Switzerland    14  

.nz     New Zealand    14  

.ie     Ireland    13  

.fi     Finland    13  

.dk     Denmark    12  

.mx     Mexico    11  

.tr     Turkey    11  

.br     Brazil    10  

.sg     Singapore    10  

.za     South Africa    10  

.in     India    10  

.il     Israel    10  

.ro     Romania    9  

.uy     Uruguay    9  

.no     Norway    8  

.yu     Yugoslavia    8  

.eg     Egypt    8  

.ru     Russian Federation    8  

.cz     Czech Republic    7  

.my     Malaysia    7  

.hu     Hungary    6  

.pl     Poland    6  

.ir     Iran, Islamic Republic of    6  

.sa     Saudi Arabia    5  

.th     Thailand    5  

.at     Austria    5  

.ge     Georgia    5  

.ar     Argentina    5  

.gr     Greece    5  

.vn     Vietnam    4  

.ae     United Arab Emirates    4  

.tw     Taiwan, Province of China    4  

.cr     Costa Rica    4  

.jm     Jamaica    3  

.ee     Estonia    3  

.cl     Chile    3  

.ua     Ukraine    3  

.id     Indonesia    3  

.sk     Slovakia    3  

.pt     Portugal    3  

.ma     Morocco    3  

.si     Slovenia    3  

.ng     Nigeria    2  

.mt     Malta    2  

.cy     Cyprus    2  

 

… and twenty-three other countries with just one visit.

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH - Lyrics post election 2004

Samantha Z Timmerman

________

 

There's battle lines being drawn

Nobody's right if everybody's wrong

 

Nobody's speaking their minds

Have they lost them or do they

just like living blind....

 

It's time we stop...

 

There's something happening here

What is is now crystal clear

There's a man with a gun at your door

Telling you, you better beware

 

It's time we stop, people

Look around

Don't be blind to

What's going down

 

What a field day for the freaks

Thumpin' bibles in the street

Singin' songs and carrying signs

To justify their living an eye for an eye

 

It's time we stop, Children

Look around

Don't be blind to

What's going down

 

Paranoia strikes deep

into your life it did creep

They've made you always afraid

You disagree, the men come

And take you away

 

It's time we stop, People

Look around

Don't be blind to

What's going down

 

Too many lies being told

Too few of us are so bold

As to rise and call for an end

To actions we thought we'd never see again

 

It's time we stop, Children

What's it for

Don't believe there's honor in war.

 

We better stop, People

There's no time

Living in peace is not a crime