AKA: That Goddamn Wall because it inspires outsized negative reactions in you.
Depending on the moment, for me it can be that pathetic excuse for a wall Trump is building along the Mexican border. The one that, after enormous build-up, can be flattened by a strong wind or scaled by an amateur gymnast. The waste and stupidity are blinding.
Then there is the Vietnam Memorial wall, full of names, especially one. Dear God, I hate that wall.
Finally, and this one surprised me, bubbled to the surface when I was going through my latest David Bowie’s Singles period:
I, I can remember (I remember)
Standing by the wall (by the wall)
And the guards shot above our heads (over our heads)
And we kissed, as though nothing could fall (nothing could fall)
And the shame was on the other side
Oh we can beat them, for ever and ever
Then we could be Heroes, just for one day.
I don’t know why I reacted so strongly. I have no emotional investment in that silly wall and have never been in Berlin, but I instantly visualized two lovers getting too close and a bored East German guard deliberately missing to see how high they could jump.
So, what does The Wall mean to you, a mediocre Pink Floyd album (say what you will, it ain’t no Meddle) or something from your past?
First thing, as a German who was raised during the cold war, the Berlin Wall. Then the Pink Floyd album (I was 11 when it came out and it was the first Pink Floyd album I was really aware of. I became a big Floyd fan until today.) Then the Chinese Wall, but that’s about it.
It’s an invisible barrier I put around myself.
I think my lizard-brain me thinks I’m protecting myself. But, like the facemask debate maybe I’m protecting others from me.
Wall meets tunnel. Game over.
12-foot wall meets 15-foot ladder. Game over.
Wall in flood channel washes away. Game over.
Low-paid guards at wall gate take bribes. Game over.
Boats and planes travel around or over wall. Game over.
Walls built by one generation are demolished by descendants. Bye.
Machine gun nests on wall: game over
My wall story: I was in the projection booth on day when the theatre was showing Pink Floyd: The Wall. They had a 70mm print. Now, one of the background things of 70mm is that the sound system needs to be calibrated for each print. You do this with a test loop of pink noise. So I look over to the shelf to see test loops of 70mm film labeled Pink Noise: The Wall. My first thought was the elder projectionist had a opinion on the film…
I liken it to the toll booth in the middle of nowhere in ‘Blazing Saddles’. ( Beyond the obvious symbolism making for red meat to fling to his raving base )
The 8 ft. wall in obstacle races and at obstacle gyms. I have been able to get over it,* on occasion*, for the last year and a half. But for the most part, I still can’t get over it and it’s my on-going archnemesis.
That’s not just at the Boston Marathon; almost all runners “hit the wall” around 20 miles into a race. It’s the moment when you’ve depleted your glycogen stores, and run out of energy. It’s why marathoners say that 20 miles is the halfway point of the race.
The last marathon I ran, I slammed into the wall at Mile 22. The remaining four miles were the hardest miles I’ve ever run.
“The Wall” means The Berlin Wall to me. That’s the first thing that pops into my head. But it’s intertwined with Pink Floyd because the same weekend I chiseled off a piece of The Berlin Wall I saw Roger Waters and guests perform The Wall in Potsdamer Platz.
Berlin wall, then Pink Floyd, then probably the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s wall and other earthworks. Trump’s wall is pretty low on my list. It’s a useless waste of money, IMO.
I was in there drinking and high schoolers came in (the drinking age was 16 at the time). Most of them were drinking coffee because they don’t have that fucked up forbidden fruit mentality about alcohol that we have in the U.S…
The memorial walls in the Branson Veterans Memorial Museum. Like the Vietnam Memorial, but they contain the names of every soldier killed in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, and every conflict so far.
It’s almost impossible to wrap your mind around it, once you see ALL the names together. Very difficult to visit, for me anyway.