One summer day in the late 90's, when we still lived in Lancaster, TX I was driving our Mercury minivan to the post office ( or maybe it was the old library? ) when I saw something unusual: a small Ferris wheel over the rooftops in the town square, where half of the buildings were destroyed in the great Lancaster tornado of 1995. I decided to check it out and parked right next to what looked like a carnival setup. I took the kids out of their car seats and we started walking towards the somewhat deserted rides and stalls, which really puzzled me - there were no parents or children, just a few jugglers and clowns. Were they not opened yet? Next, I saw cameras, realized we weren't supposed to be there and grabbed the kids telling them that what we saw was a filming set, not a real carnival. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I drove past Chuck Norris in his "Walker, Texas Ranger" garb, sipping from a water bottle. He probably was not aware of what happened, he seemed content and I hope we showed up as they were wrapping up the filming for the day.
Monday, August 1, 2016
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Civil War in Ukraine.
It is clear that there are no russian troops in Ukraine. Yes, I am aware that the Kiev government and the West are talking about thousands of soldiers and hundreds of tanks, but there is no proof of that, just propagandistic fervor on their part. Putin did not walk into the trap, avoiding the situation where the hatred level towards Russia would be off the charts. The Russian president has been provoked to intervene militarily but he knows better : Russia is not like the US or NATO and cannot simply intervene without a just cause and without a western condemnation.
Russians have to feel that justice in order to stand up for their own dignity and for the dignity of their wayward brothers in Ukraine. Right now Russia is on a higher moral ground because of the humanitarian help and settlement of the refugees everywhere in the country, regardless of the hardship caused by the economic sanctions and the oil prices. One's inner peace and morality is more important.
Unfortunately, Russian government have been forced , in a sense, to sacrifice thousands of people, including many children, to horrible violence and death in Ukraine. That is why it is posible for Russia to fight for the liberation of Ukraine and it is harder to identify Russia as the aggressor.
Similar development happened in Ossetia in 2008 and at the outbrake of the Great Patriotic War: there was a real threat of Russia being labeled as an agressor and in both cases the true evil stroke first, allowing the Russian response to be justified and to be victorious.
There are well-known conspiracy theories about FDR allowing the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor in 1941. It's a similar story with little conspiracy, just some logic. The President needed a moral superiority to rally the nation. He did not willingly hold back the intelligence reports or the armed response. There are such things as a fog of war and an afterthought. Pearl Harbor allowed Americans to "be on the right side of history".
As of right now, Russia is still taking in the refugees by the hundreds of thousands, including the ukrainian mobilization evaders. The world barely notices the Donbass bleeding and I cannot stand the carnage anymore.
No society wants to be a victim, yet allowing it to happen can build a just cause and response.
Russians have to feel that justice in order to stand up for their own dignity and for the dignity of their wayward brothers in Ukraine. Right now Russia is on a higher moral ground because of the humanitarian help and settlement of the refugees everywhere in the country, regardless of the hardship caused by the economic sanctions and the oil prices. One's inner peace and morality is more important.
Unfortunately, Russian government have been forced , in a sense, to sacrifice thousands of people, including many children, to horrible violence and death in Ukraine. That is why it is posible for Russia to fight for the liberation of Ukraine and it is harder to identify Russia as the aggressor.
Similar development happened in Ossetia in 2008 and at the outbrake of the Great Patriotic War: there was a real threat of Russia being labeled as an agressor and in both cases the true evil stroke first, allowing the Russian response to be justified and to be victorious.
There are well-known conspiracy theories about FDR allowing the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor in 1941. It's a similar story with little conspiracy, just some logic. The President needed a moral superiority to rally the nation. He did not willingly hold back the intelligence reports or the armed response. There are such things as a fog of war and an afterthought. Pearl Harbor allowed Americans to "be on the right side of history".
As of right now, Russia is still taking in the refugees by the hundreds of thousands, including the ukrainian mobilization evaders. The world barely notices the Donbass bleeding and I cannot stand the carnage anymore.
No society wants to be a victim, yet allowing it to happen can build a just cause and response.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Going along
the flow seems so common among Americans. Foreign policy is like mumbo-jumbo that is so hard to understand for most people. How can anybody buy this story about Libya - I'm puzzled. Media and politicians are working in unison demonizing Gaddafi. Can anybody think critically and independently? Libya is not perfect but a lot better than most countries. A unique society is being destroyed, all of the achievements will be condemned and vilified. I see a lot of similarities with the Soviet Union 20 years ago. Soon Libyans will be servants of the west and nostalgically recalling their better life, or at least independent life. They became too lazy and complacent, as a result - soon they won't have their dream lives. Only very few elite will have all and the rest are to have dramatic changes for the worse. Arab spring, my foot.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
12th of April
No, it's not what you thought. I'm not talking about the anniversary of the Civil War (however important that was), or antibullying day in school (as I was informed by some kids). Not even Space Shuttle program anniversary. Instead, a simple commemoration of humans stepping into space by sending Yuri Gagarin in 1961. I was sad last week because it was an important event to me and apperently to nobody else, save my son. I'm changing my desktop pictures from cosmonauts to Victory Day and here's something that will help you remember it:
Pick your battles
When I was little I was very into movies emotionally when watching them. I mean I could not understand why somebody in the movie sometimes would not act just and dignified, righting the wrong and instead letting the bad character get away with things that were not proper. I guess it's called junior maximalism. Now, much older and somewhat more balanced I realize that walking by and missing wrongs is a natural defence: it is emotionally and physically draining to correct everything. Human nature provides us with satisfaction even if we get it right just in general and the bad guy is punished in the end. Pick your battles wisely, the ones that are worth the fight. Keep the big picture in sight. It's gonna be all right.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Soviet Union's role in ending WWII
Good article on http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100815/ap_on_re_us/wwii_forgotten_battle . It is amazing to see it appear in an American newspaper, serving one of the most brainwashed populaces in the world. I must admit, it's true and unbelievably, miraculously printed in my local paper today. Wow! A praise of Soviet Union's Red Army. I'm shocked.
However, the point should have been not as much about fear of the Japanese but of the substance of the soviet contribution to the victory in Asia. I know from some recent memoirs of the soviet soldiers in China that there was strong desire of the Japanese to surrender to the soviets and therefore avoid the pitchforks of the Chinese peasants. It's a fact: Japanese occupation in China, Korea and elsewhere in the pacific Asia is still a very raw memory.
Soviet Army advanced (in some instances) 2000 km in two weeks through dry desert with no water, climbed steep Hinging Mountains, fought through rice fields, drove through towns and cities and went up the rivers in Manchuria. The largest field army of the Japanese Empire was destroyed, almost a million men and their tanks, artillery, planes.
That advance convinced Japan to surrender. Americans had plans to fight all through 1946. Soviet Union weighed in and the war was over. Atomic bomb had much lesser influence. American tried to bomb Germany and Japan into submission for years and could not do so. Why nuclear attack was to be perceived different by the government of Japan? Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan - they were bombed the hell out but until ground troops rolled in - there was no victory. Soviet Union rolled in its ground forces (fulfilling its ally obligation) - and Japan caved.
Memory eternal to all whose graves are all over China and Korea. They made it happen.
However, the point should have been not as much about fear of the Japanese but of the substance of the soviet contribution to the victory in Asia. I know from some recent memoirs of the soviet soldiers in China that there was strong desire of the Japanese to surrender to the soviets and therefore avoid the pitchforks of the Chinese peasants. It's a fact: Japanese occupation in China, Korea and elsewhere in the pacific Asia is still a very raw memory.
Soviet Army advanced (in some instances) 2000 km in two weeks through dry desert with no water, climbed steep Hinging Mountains, fought through rice fields, drove through towns and cities and went up the rivers in Manchuria. The largest field army of the Japanese Empire was destroyed, almost a million men and their tanks, artillery, planes.
That advance convinced Japan to surrender. Americans had plans to fight all through 1946. Soviet Union weighed in and the war was over. Atomic bomb had much lesser influence. American tried to bomb Germany and Japan into submission for years and could not do so. Why nuclear attack was to be perceived different by the government of Japan? Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan - they were bombed the hell out but until ground troops rolled in - there was no victory. Soviet Union rolled in its ground forces (fulfilling its ally obligation) - and Japan caved.
Memory eternal to all whose graves are all over China and Korea. They made it happen.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Russian Garmon' ( button accordeon), simplified cousin of Bayan.
Russian webspace went crazy last week over a 6-month-old YouTube clip with a song that's even older, performed by an actor from Saint Petersbourg Igor Rasteryayev:
Song itself is great, hence the sudden popularity due to a posting on dirty.ru, but I wanted to say a few words about the instrument that Igor is using there. Lirycs and melody are subject of much more explanation themselves. Too much.
Here's some Wiki about "garmon (Russian: гармонь) is a kind of Russian button accordion, a free-reed wind instrument. A garmon has two rows of buttons on the right side, which play the notes of a diatonic scale, and at least two rows of buttons on the left side, which play the primary chords in the key of the instrument as well as its relative harmonic minor key. Many instruments have additional right-hand buttons with useful accidental notes, additional left-hand chords for playing in related keys, and a row of free-bass buttons, to facilitate playing of bass melodies.
The garmons can be of two major classes: unisonoric, meaning that each button plays the same note or chord when the bellows is being expanded as it does when compressed, and bisonoric, in which the note depends on the direction of the bellowswork. Examples of unisoniric type are livenka (ливенка, after Livny, Oryol Oblast) and Khromka (Russian: Хромка, for "chromatic"). Bisonoric garmons are, e.g., Tula accordion (Russian: Тульская гармонь, after Tula) and talyanka (тальянка, "Italian")
The garmon is also known by the names garmoshka (Russian: гармошка) and garmonika (Russian: гармоника)".
I like the sound of garmon a lot; in fact, I consider it more of a test on someone's "russiness" (yey, I can make up words just like Sara Palin and Stephen Colbert's writers) than love for vodka or banya.
I'm lazy so here is some more info from Wiki that sound right about another russian instrument:
The bayan (Ukrainian and Russian: баян) is a type of chromatic button accordion developed in Russia in the early 20th century and named after 11th-century bard Boyan. The differences in internal construction give the bayan a different tone color from Western instruments, and the bass has a much fuller sound. Because of their range and purity of tone, bayans are often the instrument of choice for accordion virtuosi who perform classical and contemporary classical music.
Sounds good.
Long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I played Bayan for five years in school and I still like how it sounds. It's less folk and more classical. An example:
Of course, I wasn't nearly as good ;-) I just wanted to show both instruments.
Well, that's it for today.
Song itself is great, hence the sudden popularity due to a posting on dirty.ru, but I wanted to say a few words about the instrument that Igor is using there. Lirycs and melody are subject of much more explanation themselves. Too much.
Here's some Wiki about "garmon (Russian: гармонь) is a kind of Russian button accordion, a free-reed wind instrument. A garmon has two rows of buttons on the right side, which play the notes of a diatonic scale, and at least two rows of buttons on the left side, which play the primary chords in the key of the instrument as well as its relative harmonic minor key. Many instruments have additional right-hand buttons with useful accidental notes, additional left-hand chords for playing in related keys, and a row of free-bass buttons, to facilitate playing of bass melodies.
The garmons can be of two major classes: unisonoric, meaning that each button plays the same note or chord when the bellows is being expanded as it does when compressed, and bisonoric, in which the note depends on the direction of the bellowswork. Examples of unisoniric type are livenka (ливенка, after Livny, Oryol Oblast) and Khromka (Russian: Хромка, for "chromatic"). Bisonoric garmons are, e.g., Tula accordion (Russian: Тульская гармонь, after Tula) and talyanka (тальянка, "Italian")
The garmon is also known by the names garmoshka (Russian: гармошка) and garmonika (Russian: гармоника)".
I like the sound of garmon a lot; in fact, I consider it more of a test on someone's "russiness" (yey, I can make up words just like Sara Palin and Stephen Colbert's writers) than love for vodka or banya.
I'm lazy so here is some more info from Wiki that sound right about another russian instrument:
The bayan (Ukrainian and Russian: баян) is a type of chromatic button accordion developed in Russia in the early 20th century and named after 11th-century bard Boyan. The differences in internal construction give the bayan a different tone color from Western instruments, and the bass has a much fuller sound. Because of their range and purity of tone, bayans are often the instrument of choice for accordion virtuosi who perform classical and contemporary classical music.
Sounds good.
Long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I played Bayan for five years in school and I still like how it sounds. It's less folk and more classical. An example:
Of course, I wasn't nearly as good ;-) I just wanted to show both instruments.
Well, that's it for today.
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