(Translation: "Glasnost [openness], strength of convictions, culture of discussions are main components of a party meeting.")

I chose this image as my first foray into Soviet graphic design for a number of reasons. The design is bold -- a 1980s revival of the 1920s Constructivist style. It was produced in 1988, just a few years before the USSR's collapse, making it one of the regime's final propaganda pieces.

And I can hang it on my wall without any qualms about its message: it actually promotes openness and freedom of speech, instead of blind obedience to the state. Of course, the price was right too -- just $30 for a piece of history.

But only today did I recognize the likely inspiration for the anonymous Soviet artist's design:

Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech", painted in 1943, was part of the Four Freedoms series, inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt's speech of the same title.

In both images, a young man stands to speak his mind, watched carefully but tolerantly by the surrounding crowd. Each man, and the people around him, face slightly to the left of the viewer; just a few of the onlookers' faces are clearly visible.

The parallels are too striking to be pure coincidence, I think. A good propaganda motif never gets old!

Previously: Revolution by Design, What I Learned About Germany

Buy Mt. Sims' A Grave at the Hungry Eye Records site. Hear more new tracks on MySpace.

Elsewhere: Don't miss Discotech's smoking-hot remix of the Bill O'Reilly meltdown.

It features rarely seen live and performance footage of Kraftwerk and of other Electronic and 'Krautrock' bands - much from private collections, rare photographs of Kraftwerk and others, exclusive and extensive Interviews with ex-Kraftwerk members and other German ambient and electronic musicians, contributions and enlightenment from German academics, writers and journalists, live and studio recordings of many of Kraftwerk's pivotal tracks, plus live and studio recordings of many other bands form the 'Krautrock' movement.

Over the last three years, ringleader Matt Sims has moved from L.A. to Berlin, and picked up some new collaborators. A new EP, A Grave, came out last week (in digital and 12" vinyl formats); a new album is due this fall. Both releases are via NYC indie label Hungry Eye.

More on Mt. Sims soon. Meanwhile, here's a clip from a show in Budapest earlier this year, including a gritty, anthemic rendering of the amazing "No Yellow Lines" (starting at 2:27):

I've attended and been involved in many great shows at The Tank. Here's hoping they find a new home soon.

Previously: Shut Down in North America, Safety Dance

Stills from the video -- which looks like a chapter from Tibetan mythology as reimagined by Sid and Marty Krofft -- can be seen at Pitchfork. But you have to see it in three dimensions to get the full effect.

Wired has a version of "Wanderlust" presented in anaglyph, the old-fashioned 3-D process that uses red and blue images, viewed thru red and blue glasses. But this distorts the colors. The polarization process, which is what was used at the screening I attended, looks much better.

The Leonard Street building was recently sold, and while the club’s lease runs through next July, Mr. Hoffman said it has no future in increasingly upscale TriBeCa.

The new location is a few blocks west of the BQE on Metropolitan Avenue, right across the street from Black Betty.