Red Dawn

7.31.2011

I grew up in the 1980’s when The Soviet Union was still Americas greatest enemy. As a child nuclear war was a real threat and I feared it as did most Americans. Our parents reinforced that fear having lived through the Cuban missile crisis when we only narrowly escaped the fate of mutual destruction.

Hollywood didn’t help anything either. A very popular film called “Red Dawn” was a favorite amongst myself and some of my friends.  It was quite popular and had all of the up and coming stars in it. The movie depicted a group of high school kids forced to flee into the mountains and fight as rebel guerilla fighters and become part of the resistance after a Soviet invasion of the U.S.  The movie opens up on a clear Fall day as school has just begun.  As a teacher teaches his class we see out the window paratroopers descending on the grounds of the school.  They turn out to be Russian soldiers and as they advance forward begin indiscriminately shooting everyone, including the students. I’ll never forget the shot of one of the students slumped over and hanging out a window of the school. It is an image that came back to me during the Columbine shootings. I digress.I am old enough to remember Kruschevs “…we will bury you” remark. I, too recall Ronald Reagans’, “…tear down this wall” statement.

How can I forget the day that The Berlin Wall actually did come down?  I stared into the TV  set watching people literally tearing down the wall, helping eachother across to the other side, standing atop the structure that for so many years represented such tyranny and oppression. The behavior of these people just weeks earlier would have cost them their lives. Their it was…the chimes of freedom of flashing.

Soon after all of this there was a huge rock festival held in Moscow. All of the most popular western bands were on the bill. Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Cinderella, The Scorpions…it was the 80’s after all.  My youthful eyes took it all in and it fanned the flames of all my rock n’ roll dreams that I so aggressively pursued.

I sat on the shore of the Black Sea the other day in Kubana, Russia just a few hours from Moscow the day after playing in front of some 3000 people the night before at a festival in which I headlined.  I stared out into the sea on a ledge overlooking the coast and thought about how far I have come in life, how far the world has come since my childhood.  Never could I have imagined back then stepping into this country. But there I was. …There I was going over all that was in my mind from the past and squaring it all up with the present and doing my best to be hopeful for the future taking into account the deteriorating relations between our two nations.

It is times like these that stop me dead in my tracks and brings me closer to that sense of Nirvana that we all strive for …or should be striving for. There I was in Mother Russia living out my childhood dreams making a name for myself and carrying on the legacy of 2 of the most influential bands in modern rock n roll history. It is times like these that really illuminate the gifts that have been given to me and how important it is that I appreciate them. In these quiet moments of my life I am aware of the true nature of my life and what perhaps my true work and reason for being is.

My short time with God is ended when I hear the unmistakable laughter of my good friends and band mates approaching me calling out to me.  Their joy is overflowing and apparent from the smiles on their face. The champagne they are drinking certainly helped.  They are joined by half a dozen locals that we met at the festival the night before.  We all meet up and continue on down the side of the cliff towards that beach. For the next several hours we all enjoy each others company as we run and swim and laugh.  far away now are the thoughts and fears of my childhood and the Russian monsters that once I found such dread in.  I can’t help thinking to myself…..what a wonderful world.

 

~Michale Graves