I don't quite know how to describe this. It's wonderfully-surreal on so many different levels: you'll have to watch it.
Watch the video on NBC's website: http://www.nbcolympics.com/wcau/video/russian-police-choir-performs-get-lucky-opening-ceremony
First and foremost, it's a great cover of a happy song. Daft Punk has gone global. If they weren't already.
But then... these are policemen. Not jolly, corner-of-the-street-pointy-hat-on-head English bobbies, but hard-case Russian Interior Ministry of Internal Affairs or somesuch. They are wearing uniforms, and particularly the hats, that go back to the years of Stalin (who apparently "disappeared" from the history of Russia, as presented during the opening ceremony... maybe he "disappeared himself. I think he was good at disappearing people.)
On a trip through Eastern Europe, prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, I saw men in uniforms like that. I thought they looked like comedians until I saw the fear on the faces of the people around me. Uniforms like that still carry the weight of some heavy years and some heavy karma.
No, the uniform doesn't make the man. But the uniform represents a collective spirit, intent, and the execution of that intent.
And yet these guys, in these uniforms, were out there at the Sochi opening ceremony, pulling faces like rock stars, and rocking the song.
They were singing about staying up all night and waiting to get lucky. Is that what cops do?????
Oh my... part of me is wondering if these guys even understood what they were singing about. The other part says, what a wonderful, wonderful sense-of-humour!
There are some wonderful faces in the choir, obviously from families whose histories reach across the gigantic land that is Russia, from east to west. They did an amazing job and if I see no other event from the Winter Olympics, this will forever be memorable.
Rock on, cops!!!
And here's a version recorded earlier... I prefer the Sochi version with the hats, and the older guys looking puzzled, serious, bemused and happy by turns. Or all at once.
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