It was probably not good luck to have a wedding day on April 26, 1986, and then fly to Europe for a honeymoon -- all on the first day of the Chernobyl/Tschernobyl nuclear disaster. Talk about timing. By the time we touched down in London, it was too late to turn back. We divorced, however, in 1992.
On the other hand, during this same period Kraftwerk reshaped their song "Radioactovity" into a powerful artistic statement, with pulsing SOS signals and repeated naming:
.-. .- -.. .. --- .- -.-. - .. ...- .. - -..--
Tschernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, Hiroshima.
Tschernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, Hiroshima.
I saw them play this track with a starkly effective neon backdrop at the Brixton Academy, London, in July 1991, and again in an almost identical, near-perfect performance at the State Theatre in Detroit on June 11, 1998. As long as this song exists, people will be reminded of the perils of radioactive fallout. Of course, it also always reminds me of my aborted anniversary. All in all a reflective kind of day.
Today's Rune: Partnership.
Birthdays: Marcus Aurelius, Muhammad (Shi’ite tradition), Eugène Delacroix, Frederick Law Olmsted, Ma Rainey, Anita Loos, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bernard Malamud, Morris West, Carol Burnett, Giorgio Moroder, Joan Chen (b. Chén Chōng).
Prosh-chavay!
6 comments:
holy crap that is a lot of radioactive fallout!
Sheila's right, the divorce procedures must've been hell.
That fallout pic is horrifying.
I'm with Charles. I'd read the figures, but somehow that map is really scary.
To think it is still alive and needs to be retombed. MW
Thanks, y'all for the commentos. We dabbed iodine and avoided milk and those areas known to be under heavy fallout. The poor people who live there, though. . . . .
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