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| Singer Louise Robey. |
Let's face it. So far, to no one's surprise, Hair Gropenführer has been a Harold Lloyd film. Is there any hope on the horizon?
"One Night in Bangkok" was a hit as part of the 1985 album and musical "Chess". It featured the adventures of an American grandmaster, Frederick "Freddie" Trumper (no relation to anyone we know).
Some prefer Louise Robey's version.
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| Songwriter Murray Head. |
While the song doesn't rank among my favorites, it segues nicely into a discussion of chess strategy and tactics featured lately in the political arena. The first of these is zugzwang (or "move compulsion"), where the side would be fine if it had the luxury of doing nothing but, unlike bridge, one cannot pass in chess. It seems the RepTealians, with no help from Democrats, have painted themselves into a Sophie's choice on health care. Thanks to their obsession for the last seven years, they can't leave well enough alone but they're simply too lazy and/or incompetent to improve it.
A month ago it was the Democrats demonstrating a classic technique--and, this time, far more deftly. Seconds after Tom Perez was elected as the DNC Chair, the Left braced itself for a repeat of 2016. In the next instant, prior to the denouement, we saw a brilliant zwischenzug (or "unexpected in-between move"): Perez and Keith Ellison locked arms in a power-sharing move that united the party as we've not seen recently. (See also Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer.)
Lyrics:
Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don't know that the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner
Time flies doesn't seem a minute
Since the Tirolean spa had the chess boys in it
All change don't you know that when you
Play at this level there's no ordinary venue
It's Iceland or the Philippines or Hastings or
or this place!
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me
One town's very like another
When your head's down over your pieces, brother
It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city
Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town
Tea, girls, warm, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite
Get Thai'd! You're talking to a tourist
Whose every move's among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me
Siam's gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha
And thank God I'm only watching the game controlling it
I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you
So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage
parlours
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me
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