Tanks

I've just now been out to get a video (Cassavetes 'Faces') and I saw a huge car going down Aemtler Strasse and past the Cemetery. It was the kind of car that looks like it has been built from the frames of lots of smaller cars. Perhaps four or five. And there was a man driving it with a stern look on his face as if to say that it was an important job, this driving a mega-car business. Later on I had an argument with a friend over whether or not he had a moustache. My friend swore he didn't. I was sure he did. I relented, I may have just added that fact because he should have had a moustache.

Seeing this huge car though reminded me of a news story from maybe ten years ago. It was about a man who stole an army tank and drove it through the streets of Perth. No one could do anything to stop him as he turned this corner and that corner, and so mostly people just stayed out of his way and let him drive. Eventually of course he ran out of fuel and all the authorities had to do was wait until he gave himself up, which he eventually did.

I can’t remember what happened to him, or why he did it, but I remember thinking: that machine was built for trouble.