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O.K., I am late weighing in on this controversy as the judge has ruled in Ed Sheeran’s favor and the very underpublicized case, obscured by the events in Ukraine and Will Smith assaulting a comedian much in the way that the light of the Sun obscures our view of the rest of the universe, is over and already forgotten by most.
Nonetheless, whenever there is a case of plagiarism, whether in print or in music, I like to look them both up on the internet, because that is what the internet is for, and compare for myself. Would I have made the same decision as the judge? In this case, I’m not sure, but I can see the judge (and Ed Sheeran’s) point, and respect the decision as having been made honestly, and explained sufficiently. The ‘Oh I, Oh I, Oh I, Oh I, Ohi I, O’ bit in Sheeran’s “I’m in Love With Your Body,” is remarkably similar to the Oh why, Oh why, Oh why, Oh why, oh in Sami Switch’s song “Oh, Why” but outside of that they are completely different songs.
I don’t think the lawsuit was frivolous, or unwarranted, and in a way it accomplished it’s goal. I’d never heard of Sami Switch before and was pleasantly impressed. I thought his song was far superior to Sheeran’s (I’m not a Sheeran hater, he’s written a lot of stuff I like, but I find that one to be a particularly obnoxious earworm).
Maybe that was his goal. Just to get people to listen.

Sorry for the spoilers, but this is not a program to be taken seriously, so I’m not going to worry about it too much. If you really don’t want spoilers, read no further.

I’m currently binge-watching Gotham, probably somewhere in the middle of season three, and it is getting a bit ridiculous. Virtually every villain has died at least once and been re-animated, or left for dead and somehow miraculously survived, or sent to Arkham where you just know they are going to escape because that has to be the lowest security mental asylum ever, and every good guy has either had an evil clone (evil Bruce Wayne, who felt no pain, and evil Jim Gordon, who was exposed when Barbara Kean slapped him and his face stayed that way – I though that was a pretty cool touch) or somehow been taken over by an evil entity at least once, some twice. Fish Mooney seems to have more lives than a cat, even though Jada Pinkett Smith is so sensitive she can’t take a joke.
The epitome was when brainwashed Bruce Wayne (not to be confused with evil clone Bruce Wayne), ran Alfred through with a sword, like all the way through, but immediately snapped out of his spell and rescued him with the magic water from the fountain of Ra’s al Ghul, or however you spell that.
A bit ridiculous, but a fun ride nonetheless. It’s fast paced, full of action, witty one liners, and extremely beautiful women. Barbara Kean, Lee Tompkins, Valerie Vale, Tabitha Galavan, Selina Kyle (my personal fave) and post-mutation Ivy Pepper, who has to have the lamest super power origin story in comic book history. A straggly haired, skinny, pre-pubescent 14 year old falls (well, is dropped) into a sewer and comes out as a smoking hot 20 something who is irresistible to men. Seriously, this happens to lots of girls, just not overnight.
Anyway, I’ll probably watch it through to the end. Ridiculousness is expected. It’s a comic book, after all.

Sometimes something happens that doesn’t matter, between people who don’t matter, and yet it grabs the public attention for a day and that’s all people can talk about but you know perfectly well it will be old news by tomorrow, and pretty much entirely forgotten in a month or two, and that’s the only reason I am blogging about it now.
I am referring to Will Smith ‘slapping’ Chris Rock at the Oscar’s last night after Chris told a joke about his wife. I put slap in parentheses because it looked like a closed fist punch to me, and on the other hand because some people are saying it was completely faked, which I wouldn’t put past them, actually, because every person involved is an actor.
I am a big fan of Chris Rock. I think he’s one of the funniest people around. I am also a pretty big fan of Will Smith. He was in Hitch, and Hancock, and that film where he was an organ donor, and lots of other stuff. Some crap, for sure, but generally entertaining, enough so that if I see he’s in a film, I’ll at least give it a shot. Jada Pinkett Smith is a lower tier actor, but I am currently enjoying her as Fish Mooney in Gotham, who (after dying once and then reanimated by Dr. Strange) can get anybody to do anything she wants just by touching them. That may have been what happened last night, because Will Smith laughed at the moment the joke was told, before walking up to the stage and smacking Chris Rock, who reacted as well as can be expected. Brushed it off and went on with the act.
The joke? O.K., Jada Pinkett Smith has alopecia, which is a fancy way of saying she’s going bald, and she has been public about this, and shaved her head, which seems a reasonable choice, and Chris Rock said “I look forward to seeing you in G.I. Jane II.” It was kind of funny. Some people online have called it bullying and said Rock was punching down, but I don’t see it that way. She is well known, famous and rich, and was attending a gala night at the Oscars. Playing the victim card is bullshit.
That’s how I feel about it. If you feel differently, that’s O.K. It doesn’t really matter, and we’ll have forgotten about it in a week.

Sure, some people are looking at the global political ramifications, and seeing this as a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia, and they’re not completely wrong. Certainly, in retrospect, the American involvement from Maidan onward has been unacceptable interference. But what Putin did, and is doing, is monstrous and totally unacceptable.
But, American interests and Russian interests have nothing to do with it. This is about Ukraine. They are the victims in this, and to say their reaction to the crisis has been admirable is an understatement. The words the spring to my mind are ‘heroic,’ ‘awe inspiring,’ and ‘incredible.’
But also understandable. There are two types of people in Ukraine, as in all of the Warsaw Pact countries and former Soviet Republics. Those who are under 40 or thereabouts, and those who are older. Those who are under 40 were at most 7 or 8 years old when the Soviet Union collapsed, so they have lived their lives in a European nation, from which they could travel freely and in which they were exposed to Western ideas. The idea that they should suddenly become a vassal state of Russia must seem completely surreal to them. Then there are those who are older, who have memories of living under Russian subjugation, and they are all saying “Oh, fuck no, no way are we going back to that shit.” I am thinking of the photos I’ve seen of 80 year old women holding assault rifles and ready to fight the Russians to the death. It is not a bluff. Their determination is evident.
The irony (well, one of the ironies) of the whole situation is that this isn’t even the same Russia as in 1989, although Putin would obviously like to go back to that. Russia, as well, has had 23 years of relative freedom and access to the rest of the world.
And now they are blowing it. The only positive ending to this is if Russian troops are removed from Ukraine, and Putin is removed from power.

They say that war is how Americans learn geography, and I must admit I know much more about Ukrainian geography than I did a week ago. We were there, once, just for a few days, a few years back, in the southwestern corner, a little village in the Carpathian mountains, not far from the Romanian border. Beautiful country. Lovely people. Had a great time.
But, still, up until last week probably the only Ukrainian cities I could point to on the map were Kiev (which I’ve always pronounce as Key-yev, the American way, but now I am informed that that’s the Russian pronunciation and locals say Keev, and we should now, too, out of solidarity, so I do) and Odesa. Now, I can identify, and know something about, half a dozen. I’d never heard of Kharkiv, for example, and it’s the second largest city.
But, it’s the flag I’d like to talk about. I am not big on flags. At best they are a symbol, at worst just a piece of cloth, and the Ukrainian flag had always struck me as particularly boring – just a big yellow stripe below and a big, blue stripe above, as lacking in imagination and creativity as a Rothko painting.
Then, I saw a photograph. Just a nice picture of the Ukrainian countryside, a field of sunflowers under a clear, blue sky, and I realized: that is the flag. No other country has a flag which actually looks like the country, the way Ukraine does. Sunflowers below, reaching up to catch the rays, reflecting the sun’s color. The sky, the beautiful, pure blue sky above it all.
So, when I see pictures of burned out apartment buildings, rubble all over the streets, or frightened families living in the Metro stations, my mind goes back to that flag.
It is hopeful. It is optimistic. It is Ukraine.