Tuesday 24 January 2012

Lessons of History

Just watched The Professionals again, I prefer it with the sound off, gives you a better chance to read the context of the mid seventies. What I see is often a historical wonderment. Today we had middle class terrorists in farm buildings, always with a dominant female, plotting and shooting pumpkins.We had the counter terrorism forces running about a lot both up and down a thousand escape stairs in the city and up and down in helicopters in the country, or all chasing each other around in Ford Cortina's (gold with black vinyl roof) Capri's (similar) or Granada's and even the occasional Triumph Toledo (!) in abandoned railway termini (Manchester?). What does this mean?
Well we no longer tread, police wise, 'Softly Softly', we have terrorists like the Baader Meinhoff Group, and they are 'lead' by a WOMAN! Next we have loads of old warehouses with escape stairs due to INDUSTRIAL DECLINE (we students would move in next- see Metropolitan Wharf- I woz there, alongside early pioneers of U2 videos god help me- and then have to move out again pretty quick for the loft livers), we have helicopters for the police because we have some notion of ACTION MAN. We have pumpkins from FREDERICK FORSYTH from The Day of the Jackal. We have cream leatherette suitcases full of money because YOU STILL HAD TO CARRY IT ABOUT and PLASTIC (but not credit cards). And you still had to wind on your Pentax and the women were suddenly NOT TO BE TRUSTED (feminism). Amazing what you can learn.

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