A Scene of Kids Break Dancing---Streets of Leningrad
      A Longhaired Musician---Night Club of Moscow

      "Give Peace a Chance"--Placard in Lafayette Park, across
                             from the White House
 
      "It's great just to hang out with the rest of the world."
      ---on the street interview, 88 Winter Olympics, Calagry

     There is some sort of connection to be made here, though like tracing the silk thread which binds nuggets of gold together. Both glisten with certain angles of light, but vanish upon closer inspection, yet there is unmistakably something there.
     For many years in Russia, the youth have quietly rebelled against authority, just as they do everywhere. If you can, imagine being in a basement cafe', imagine hearing the local band playing HOTEL CALIFORNIA. Later, when you ask them to play another EAGLES song, they tell you they don't play that kind of music. You could press the point of having heard them play one already; but they only say you are mistaken. Other things have been lightening up in Russia---the kids do their thing more openly, even before "glasnost" and "perestrokia".
     The scene in Lafayette park, long hair demonstrators, with sleeping bags, placards, and guitars is not from the sixties. There many have been a dozen or so people, but the timedate is late October 88. There's a touch of deja vue, the slogan's the same, the style's the same, the characters are the same, almost. Is there such a thing as second generation hippies? Middle age oldsters with others who weren't even born when the big protests happened. The afterglow impression from this happening is that for twenty odd year there's been some kind of action in that park.
     There's more than athletic competition at the Winter and Summer Olympics, there's more than camaraderie among the participants, it is the extension of that camaraderie to all who wander the streets, the taverns, the galas which surround the main event. An international mall where 'the world' hangs out, or is it a festival where village people gather from the country side to celebrate life? Perhaps the 88 quote of the year comes from some unknown author, a casually spoken response to an interview question, "It's great just to hang out with the rest of the world."
     There's some sort of connection to be made here, but it's like tracing the silk thread which binds golden nuggets together.