|

Christmas in Fallujah

ByMark Vallen

“They say Osama’s in the mountains

deep in a cave near Pakistan

But there’s a sea of blood in Baghdad

A sea of oil in the sand

Between the Tigris and Euphrates

another day comes to an end

It’s Christmas In Fallujah

Peace on earth goodwill to men

It’s Christmas In Fallujah

hallelujah hallelujah hoorah.”

Words and Music By Billy Joel. Performed By Cass Dillon, 2007.

I’d like to offer readers best wishes for the holiday season. I’ll resume my regular writing schedule come the new year.

Similar Posts

| |

Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful

ByMark Vallen

Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution, opens March 4th, 2007 at the Geffen Contemporary of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and runs until July 16th, 2007. Organized by MOCA curator Connie Butler, the show features artworks created from 1965 to 1980, by 100 women focused on the status and liberation of women. In one attempt to capture the…

An Iraq War Memorial

ByMark Vallen

I know that public memorials to a nation’s war dead are usually erected after a conflict, but lately I’ve been thinking that it’s time for American artists to begin seriously contemplating what an Iraq War Memorial might look like. As of this writing, 3,154 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq. Years ago I visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial…

|

Modern Painters: Art & War

ByMark Vallen

The April 2008 edition of Modern Painters: The International Contemporary Art Magazine, is devoted to “the politically driven art made in response to war and its critical reception.” An introductory statement from the magazine’s Assistant Editor, Quinn Latimer, sums up the profusely illustrated April edition thusly: “Each month, with some discomfiture, we publish art criticism that rarely touches on the…

A Nightmare Hall of Mirrors

ByMark Vallen

In 1970 artist Sam Wiener created an artwork that addressed the slaughter then occurring in Vietnam, but his work unfortunately still has resonance in our world today. Those Who Fail to Remember the Past Are Condemned to Repeat It was originally titled 45,391… and counting, with the title changing as the numbers of U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam kept climbing….