P.S. “A Star is Born” is one of the worst movies in cinematic history, as was Kristofferson’s performance in it. “Laughably execrable” is a term that springs to mind in describing both. He was reportedly drunk and stoned his whole time on the set and a son-of-a-bitch to boot. His drunken/stoned dust-ups with Streisand and Jon Peters are legendary — and pathetic. But, hey, he advocated and spoke out (did he ever!) in support of leftist causes, and he wrote sensitive songs about being a loser-drunk, so I guess all can be forgiven.

Here is one of his songs. Kris Kristofferson Sandinista

The Sandinistas were fanboys of Soviet imperialism, well before Ronald Reagan became President. Unfortunately, very little of this got translated into English.

1. Carlos Fonseca one of the 3 founders of the FSLN, wrote a pamphlet in 1957, Un Nicaragüense en Moscú (A Nicaraguan in Moscow), about his time there at an international youth festival. Among other things he told us that there was freedom of religion in the USSR, and that in 1956 the Russians saved Hungary from Fascism. ( I knew a number of Iron Curtain refugees from Hungary who made it to Argentina, including two work mates.)

2. In March 1980, the Sandinistas signed a joint proclamation with the USSR supporting the “progressive transformations” in Afghanistan thanks to the recent Soviet invasion.
(These two examples are mentioned in varying detail in the Central American Crisis Reader- Leiken ed.)

3. In early 1982, the Nicaraguan government jailed a Polish national upon his land entry into Nicaragua with a valid visa, on suspicion of belonging to Solidarity. After 5 months in prison, he was released. Robert Czarkowski wrote a book about his experience: De Polonia a Nicaragua.

As far as I am concerned the Sandalistas, including Kris Kristofferson, were a bunch of ignorant fools.

Can’t say I have entirely approved of Willie’s forays into politics, but he is a great musician. I heard a funny story about Willie from the daughter of one of his former landlords. Kris Kristofferson- don’t know his music that well.

Interesting that he spent some time as a helicopter pilot for offshore rigs in the Gu’f of Mexico. One time on a sunny and windless day in the Gu’f, a helicopter pilot taking me out to a rig let me take the throttle for a minute or so. I was the only passenger, and weather was perfect.

huxley

Kristofferson, perhaps self-effacingly, is on record that he always liked the covers of his songs better than his own.

Or perhaps, realistically.

–Kris Kristofferson, “Sunday morning coming down (1970)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbqGWTxwZEA

I thought it was about the next morning after tripping hard on LSD the Saturday night before… We’ve all been there!