The last I heard, Nadi and Maria were being kicked out of the band. I don't know what the beef was. Maybe the more hardcore members of the collective were jealous of all the attention the two recently released members were getting on the world stage. Nadi was the pretty one.You know how that goes in bands. They were here in Brooklyn, doing Amnesty benes, and interviews, talking of doing a tour of American prisons, when all of a sudden there they are in a Sochi hotel, planning an action at the Olympics. Maybe orders came through. You want to stay in the band? Get to Sochi. True to form, the group has been in jail more than the hotel.
I make no secret of my admiration for this collective. Last Xmas I tried to get gifts to the two in prison, only to eventually fail in my quest for an address in Moscow. I had the two prison addresses, but resisted sending the cashmere gloves and expensive moisturizer to the guards. I still have their gift wrapped American Capitalist consumer goodies. Someday we'll meet and I'll get these to them, like a star-struck fan. In the meantime PR made good on their promise to perform an action at the Winter Olympics. Today, dressed in colorful leggings, combat boots, shifts and balaclavas, the girls pulled out a guitar, a mic, some props and before you could say Fuck Putin, they were rocking out in front of a big ugly Olympic super graphic.
Then, as if on cue, in came the whip wielding cossacks. Didn't the Velvet Underground have a whip wielding couple as part of their act? It was classic Pussy Riot street theater. Whether or not PR hired the cossacks to beat them may or may not be true. I think it would be great if they did, but I'm sure that the militia's allegiance to the Orthodox church assures that they show up without a paycheck. The whipping made the piece. Teargas, pepper spray and billy clubs would have been derivative of the Americans. The cossack is so beautifully Russian. Due to Olympic regulations, thankfully, they left the swords and horses at home. Too bad the stray dogs were all rounded up and euthanized early in the program. Dogs in balaclavas would have been a nice touch.
When all's said and done Pussy Riot has the wonderful purity of an art student's piece, at lunch time in the quad. It should be greeted with smiles, a slug off a bottle of Stoli, and a passed dooby. The fact that the cossacks are called into action, makes it glaringly obvious how much these young artists are needed here. The world paid no attention when they called for a boycott of these games. No gay athlete dares raise a voice in protest, for fear of losing endorsements, or out right ejection from the games. Putin's Russia is a sham. But so is the Olympics.....no mater where it's held. The giant smile on Nadi's face, as she gathered her guitar and left, said it all. Any artist would take a little whipping to make a point on the world stage. Lets hope they can stay out of jail for a night to enjoy it. Nice piece girls.
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