Temperatures of -40C (-40F) and -50C (-58F) in parts of eastern Russia haven't stopped people getting out and having some fun in the snow and ice.
According to the state news agency TASS, current temperatures in Russia are much colder than average for the time of year.
Unsurprisingly, the trick of throwing boiling water in the air and watching it turn into ice - which was popular in North America during the polar vortex - has become a trend. People across the country have been taking part in the "Dubak" challenge, which is Russian slang for bitingly cold weather.
Yes, that's me. We spent couple of days in Paris, Texas, just for a change of scene.
I saw more political commentary on TV during the last few days than I'd seen during the past 6 months, partly due to the hotel's numerous TVs forever broadcasting Fox or CNN throughout the hotel: in the breakfast room, on the walls outside the elevators on each floor. I must've been feeling masochistic because I actually watched a bit of MSNBC one evening, on the TV in our room, when waiting for something else to begin. Missing Netflix is an unfortunate side effect of taking a trip away from home!
Those darn talking heads are so irritating! Back home on Saturday, after Netflixing we caught the later part of SNL. I was happy to see some of their skit writers must have been feeling the same - suffering from talking-headitis. Watch the skit HERE.
A level-headed article by Luigi Zingalesnov in the New York Times on 18 November: The Right Way to Resist Trump is one of the few reasonably sane pieces on our political situation I've seen so far. A snip from the early paragraphs:
Five years ago, I warned about the risk of a Donald J. Trump presidency. Most people laughed. They thought it inconceivable.
I was not particularly prescient; I come from Italy, and I had already seen this movie, starring Silvio Berlusconi, who led the Italian government as prime minister for a total of nine years between 1994 and 2011. I knew how it could unfold.
Now that Mr. Trump has been elected president, the Berlusconi parallel could offer an important lesson in how to avoid transforming a razor-thin victory into a two-decade affair. If you think presidential term limits and Mr. Trump’s age could save the country from that fate, think again. His tenure could easily turn into a Trump dynasty.
Mr. Berlusconi was able to govern Italy for as long as he did mostly thanks to the incompetence of his opposition. It was so rabidly obsessed with his personality that any substantive political debate disappeared; it focused only on personal attacks, the effect of which was to increase Mr. Berlusconi’s popularity. His secret was an ability to set off a Pavlovian reaction among his leftist opponents, which engendered instantaneous sympathy in most moderate voters. Mr. Trump is no different.
We saw this dynamic during the presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton was so focused on explaining how bad Mr. Trump was that she too often didn’t promote her own ideas, to make the positive case for voting for her. The news media was so intent on ridiculing Mr. Trump’s behavior that it ended up providing him with free advertising.
Unfortunately, the dynamic has not ended with the election. Shortly after Mr. Trump gave his acceptance speech, protests sprang up all over America. What are these people protesting against? Whether we like it or not, Mr. Trump won legitimately. Denying that only feeds the perception that there are “legitimate” candidates and “illegitimate” ones, and a small elite decides which is which. If that’s true, elections are just a beauty contest among candidates blessed by the Guardian Council of clerics, just like in Iran..............
It's Music Monday - almost forgot! Something else we watched on TV in the hotel, on PBS - Friday, was Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs. I like Alan Cumming - I would wouldn't I, his birthday is the same day as mine, but his was many years later, of course. He's not a great vocalist by any means, but does know well, using his impressive acting abilities, how to present a song - that is very, very important. Here are YouTube clips of a couple of the numbers Alan sang in the show:
The Ladies Who Lunch
And in calmer mode - before he took his jacket off: Somewhere Only We Know
As was right and proper, in view of the horrendous murders and injuries perpetrated by ISIS/ISIL/Daesh terrorists in Paris just 24 hours previously, Saturday evening's Democratic presidential candidates' debate put strong emphasis on foreign policy. All three candidates had a good night, we thought, there was no obvious winner or loser; even Martin O'Malley who is far behind the other two candidates in those ubiquitous polls, put forward lot of good points, especially highlighting that new and fresh ways of approach are needed now, in the 21st century. Senator Sanders pointed out that the huge array of insanely powerful weaponry the United States has at its bidding is of no use at all against these kinds of terrorist attacks.
The history of the Middle East is such a complex and tangled net, even relatively recent history is enough to make accomplished historians fumble. Reaching back even further into the mists of centuries past, there are, no doubt, factors which have fed into 20th and 21st century issues, but humble intellects such as my own simply cannot take it all in.
Putting a magnifying glass on just what's gone on in the 21st century until now, there has been much increased internal fighting between various religious factions within the Middle East. It does appear that the US invasion of Iraq has been instrumental in growing extra factions of militants who will try, in any way they can, to avenge destruction they have seen perpetrated by Western powers during their lifetimes, not only by USA governments and forces, but by the militaries and governments of France, UK, and other European countries. Governments of these Western nations have meddled in the Middle East for decades for their own gain. This has been in tandem with constant in-fighting among religious or political Middle Eastern factions.
All that this combined madness accomplishes is a never-ending cycle of death and destruction. Yesterday French fighter planes dropped 20 bombs on an ISIS stronghold and training camp in Syria. May that be an end to it!
I do hope cool heads will prevail in coming weeks.
Sometimes I feel I'm led to topics for the blog in mysterious ways. I'm not sure whether these stem from intuition, chance, or simple serendipity. Who knows?
As I mentioned on 28 January, my post about a pop song "Human" has generated more hits than any other on this blog. Another song has been tapping on my subconscious for a couple of weeks now. It's being played every day on morning BBC record shows to which I regularly listen on-line. The Song? Morrissey's "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris". Initially, I decided the song is about a guy whose lover rejected him, so he hopped over Paris as a treat, to get over the pain of loss. Simple enough. But there's more.....or is there?
Morrissey isn't a singer to whose work I've ever felt drawn, though his name is familiar from my days in the UK. He was part of the British group The Smiths, back in the day. When I look at photographs of Morrissey I don't see a singer or a pop artist, I see someone who might sell me a new fridge, or who might man the reception desk when we take our car in for service. That seems like a daft thing to say, but it hits me every time I see his image.
Stephen Patrick Morrissey was born May 22, 1959, in Manchester, England. I do wish I had a time of birth, but I don't, so the chart below is set for 12 noon.
We can't know his rising sign or exact position of natal Moon. If Morrissey was born 1pm onward his Moon would be in Sagittarius, an earlier birth time puts it in the later degrees of Scorpio. I'd go for the latter. I'll not spend too much time on the chart. A few salient points: Sun is in the first degree of Gemini - the sign of writers. That doesn't lie. He started writing at an early age, a fanzine, letters and many articles. Later he turned to songwriting. Natal Mercury in Taurus (ruled by Venus planet of the arts and music) possibly propelled him in that direction.
He has the reputation among his peers and fans of being something of an enigma (as far as his sexual orientation is concerned ), a tad difficult, scratchy, hard-edged. There have been accusations that there's racism in some of his lyrics, even though his politics would seem hard-left. I suspect his natal Moon was pretty close to being right opposite his Sun, which would account for a seeming polarity in his nature, but in any case Jupiter opposes his Sun and Pluto squares it, both these aspects smack of inner conflicts.
Back to those lyrics "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris". There's something of a debate going on among his fans as to their source and meaning. Some consider there's a connection to a rare syndrome where people (mostly women) turn their love and sexual feelings on to inanimate objects. Message board conversation on this subject HERE.
Apparently there is a woman who has fallen in love with the Eiffel Tower, another whose amorous attention is given to the Berlin Wall. An article in the UK's Independent refers to the syndrome.
Other fans see a link to Oscar Wilde in the lyrics. Wilde returned to Paris after a spell in prison as a result of his homosexuality. He died in Paris, his tomb, designed by Jacob Epstein, is shown in the photograph. Morrissey is known to be a fan of Wilde.
There are other, less likely theories as to the lyrics' meaning, too. How about a (somewhat contrived) astrological link ? Pluto (planet of, among other things, sex and the erotic)recently moved into Capricorn (sign of structure, institutions, rigidity). Yes, I know - it's stretching it a bit, but there is a link between sex and stone and steel there!
Once again, as in "Human", a clever songwriter/performer has hit upon lyrics which have a number of interpretations, depending on the experience and knowledge of the listener - rather like an abstract or surrealist painting. This is a very welcome trend: pop music for the thinking listener?
What first attracted me to the song is the rather dramatic melody direction at "Only stone and steel accept my love". I find that the addictive point.
In the absence of your love And in the absence of human touch I have decided I'm throwing my arms around Around Paris because only stone and steel accept my love
In the absence of your smiling face I traveled all over the place and I have decided I'm throwing my arms around Around Paris because only stone and steel accept my love I'm throwing my arms around Around Paris because only stone and steel accept my love
I'm throwing my arms around Paris because Nobody wants my love Nobody wants my love Nobody needs my love Nobody wants my love
Yes you made yourself plain Yes you made yourself very plain
