Vladimir Putin is clearly having a good time at the recent "Bye Bye Boris" rock festival and bomb party. Gallery Bouglaf is honoured to have supplied the organizers with the unidentified bomb (believed to be a USA model happening somewhere in Nevada) used for the show. Captain Cardiac and the Coronaries were rocking the joint when she blew, causing high-tension discharges from the PA.

The international popularity of nuclear aesthetics indicated by the success of the Gallery and its archives prompts the following suggestion. Cash-flow difficulties alleged to characterise Russian economic affairs could surely be greatly alleviated if the Kremlin decided to finish the job begun with "Tsar" by going for the 100 megaton spectacular. The sale of global television rights to the detonation would probably generate sufficient revenue to make all the difference. If the efficiency of the explosion matched or improved upon that of "Tsar", fall-out would hardly be a good argument against the project. We appreciate that, given the critical variables attendant on producing a bomb of real class, some significant effect on the atmosphere may be produced by an explosion of such magnitude. It is worth noting, however, that, as a well-informed correspondent has pointed out, a touch of nuclear winter might be precisely the corrective required for the "greenhouse effect" currently disconcerting us all. The main problem would be finding an uninhabited tract big enough to let the dam' thing off, but Russia is, of course, of great geographical extent. The Central Scrutinizer has expressed his willingness to act as design and liaison consultant in return for privileged use of the Gallery Bouglaf digi-cam throughout the firing schedule.

Bob Dylan averts his unprotected gaze from "Bluegill Triple Prime", seen here some 30 miles above Johnston Island on 26 October 1962 . The bomb was the fourth, and only successul, shot in this series of tests. For some details of the probably spectacular events involved click HERE. Dylan's evident absence of enthusiasm for the proceedings is consistent with the import of some of his songs. For the text of his admirable "Masters of War" click HERE. The Central Scrutinizer's desert island Dylan discs are, not necessarily in the order given and exceeding the permitted maximum number: "Tombstone Blues", "Senor", "Chimes of Freedom", "Hard Rain", "New Pony", "Love in Vain", "Sundown on the Union", "Desolation Row", "Isis", "Romance in Durango", "Mr Tambourine Man", "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Property of Jesus", "Lenny Bruce", "Love Minus Zero No Limit", etc.
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