William F. Buckley, Jr., Mr. Private Property, planned to give a little talk, a political speech, in a small town in Illinois. His advance men discovered that the center of town had disappeared, and that all the commercial action was out at the mall. When Buckley arrived at the mall, he set up his microphone near a little fountain and began to hand out leaflets and autograph copies of his latest book. Just as a small crowd of shoppers gathered, the owners of the mall ran out and said: Excuse us. This is private property, we’re afraid you’ll have to leave ...
You know, when I got back from a trip this summer, I noticed that all of the old factories here on the outskirts of town had suddenly been transformed into luxurious condos and that thousands of people had moved into them almost overnight. Most of the new residents appeared to be professional barbecuers. Every night, they were out on their fire escapes barbecueing something. And the smoke rising from their little fires made the whole neighborhood look like a giant battlefield. And I would look out my window and say: Hm. You know, last night I came up out of the subway and I said to myself: Hm. Do you want to go home? And I thought: You _are_ home.
Do you want to go home?
Do you want to go home now?
You know, when I got back from a trip this summer, I noticed that all of the old factories here on the outskirts of town had suddenly been transformed into luxurious condos and that thousands of people had moved into them almost overnight. Most of the new residents appeared to be professional barbecuers. Every night, they were out on their fire escapes barbecueing something. And the smoke rising from their little fires made the whole neighborhood look like a giant battlefield. And I would look out my window and say: Hm. You know, last night I came up out of the subway and I said to myself: Hm. Do you want to go home? And I thought: You _are_ home.
Do you want to go home?
Do you want to go home now?
Contributed by Bernart Bartleby - 2014/9/15 - 22:31
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Parole e musica di Laurie Anderson
Nel quadruplo “United States, Live”
William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008) è stato un importante intellettuale conservatore americano, fautore del totale laissez-faire in economia e ferocemente anticomunista. Fu un grande sostenitore di Barry Goldwater e di Ronald Reagan durante le loro campagne presidenziali.
Qui Laurie Anderson racconta di come nei primi anni 80 lo stesso William F. Buckley, Jr. avesse provato un giorno sulla propria pelle le sue teorie sulla deregulation selvaggia: recatosi per fare un comizio nel centro di una cittadina dell’Illinois e scoperto che il centro-città non c’era più, sostituito da un mega centro commerciale, provò a abbozzare un comizio proprio lì ma fu immediatamente invitato ad andarsene dalla security... “Mi dispiace, questa è proprietà privata”...
La Anderson continua raccontando che, tornata nella sua Glen Ellyn, sempre in Illinois, aveva trovato che le vecchie fabbriche dei dintorni erano state trasformate in condomini brulicanti di gente, dove tutti quanti erano intenti a grigliare carne al barbecue. Ogni sera le scale antincendio erano piene di gente che cucinava carne, e il puzzo e il fumo e i bagliori dei fuochi restituivano l’atmosfera di un gigantesco campo di battaglia...
Casa, dolce casa!