... you can linger all night.
The painting is "The Tsarevnas of the Underground Kingdom" by Victor Vasnetsov, whose "Unsmiling Tsarevna" we saw in the "Three Types of Boredom" post earlier today. The "Underground Kingdom" is a Russian folk tale you can read here.
No need to discuss the painting or the tale. This is meant as an open conversation on any topic. I just named the café after the Tsarevnas.
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To prep for GOT, I've been watching some of Shakespeare's tragedies and history plays. While Shakespeare was no George R. Martin, some of these plays are quite good. I liked Roman Polanski's version of MacBeth. The decapitation featured an arterial blood spurt which was not even in any of the GOT beheadings. Also, Lady MacBeth delivered her perfumes of Araby soliloquy started naked. That certainly added visual interest to the reading of the lines, but it was the only nude scene. Lady MacBeth is no Cersei when it comes to murderous impulses and nude scenes, but it was a worthy effort........ The climactic sword fight wasn't that good. The participants looked clumsy and foolish. I suppose that was meant as some kind of comment on the futility and fatuity of violence, but I don't look to sword fights for such lessons......It's definitely worth seeing but it's no GOT.
I saw that painting when searching on the Vaznetsov name. My first thought was "three women, three bra sizes" and wondering who the models (if any) were. I'm pretty much a peasant at heart.
I knew it. The Russians are meddling with this blog!
Russian folk tales are probably best told with vodka, when those with pale, slate blue eyes can role play as Cossacks or Uzbeks, all in fun. This night, for me, was foretold with whiskey. That's what Scotsmen call the spirits, that everyone else thinks is called, Scotch. Da.
Were the Three Witches 15 y.o. girls?
William - I used to hang out with Maurice Druon back when I lived in Paris, those were good times!!
Just kidding, the most cool city I ever lived in was Albany in upstate New York... Nicer river than Paris (the Hudson versus the Seine) with better fishing, and fewer STDs, not that I had to worry about that, but not Paris.
Waiting for moose and squirrel.
I followed the link and read the story. Very much a Russian folk tale, and one with which I was not familiar. Ivan is an example of the “fortunate fool” that figures so prominently in Russian folk tales. This is the first one I have read where Baba Yaga aids the fortunate fool. Usually she sets out to cook and eat the hero, or at least enslave him.
I retired today, after 34 years in surgery. No regrets, but very glad to be out. Plan to stay as healthy as I can for as long as I can. Don’t want to go back in.
This is one of a genre of Russian history painting of the late 19th century.
One of a multitude of genres really.
My favorite piece at the San Francisco Legion of Honor is this one -
https://www.tripimprover.com/blog/the-russian-brides-attire-by-konstantin-makovsky
Its a huge thing, and wonderful. Its one of those precisely executed, precisely designed story pictures you can get lost in. Every time I see it, something else pops out.
There was a Russian Renaissance in the 19th-early twentieth century that is astonishing in retrospect. So much, so great, so fast. Where has that brilliant, creative Russia gone? Killed by the Bolsheviks in fact, or driven away, and showing little sign of recovery. Some wounds are permanently crippling.
Ref, and very highly recommended,
"Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia", Orlando Figes
HA! After a few (several?) days of working on the TravelScope I discovered today why I have to make such extreme adjustments to bring the telescope into collimation. The primary mirror is off center of the Optical Tube Assembly (OTA).
I've just watched Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others). It shows the purity of socialism, implemented to perfection. The film involves an East German writer - apparently loyal to the State - and the Stasi functionaries who are assigned, at the orders of a government minister, to surveil him. The story tells the horror of a socialist police state in which one never knows which among his neighbors, his friends, his lovers may be the agent of the state that betrays him. The perfection of the ubiquitous snitching and eavesdropping are the highest achievement of the socialist state. The sheer numbers of people dedicated to ratting on their fellow citizens is astonishing, but also allows one to understand the lack of economic productivity in a society in which human resourcefulness is so wasted. This is socialism, in its highest form. In the end, two people finally turn against what they have been taught is their highest duty. The main character never gains understanding of the totality of the socialist state until he is free, after the fall of the Berlin wall, when he comes to realize his own naivete. He thought that his loyalty - or the appearance of it - had spared him from scrutiny, but he finally understands. He speaks to the former minister and says "To think people like you once ruled a country." Those people are socialists, the purest embodiment of socialism: thugs, brutes, informers, characterless and soulless bureaucrats. It is socialism, beautifully and horrifyingly portrayed. It is a horror show. It is one of the greatest films I have ever watched.
This is technically in the young adult category but its game of thrones like.
http://grishaverse.com/
Francis Ford Coppola is said to get ready to film megalopolis a modern take on the caroline conspiracy that hes been tooling around for nearly 30 years.
I was in Virginia Beach for a day. Nice little beach town - big Navy influence. Kinda reminds me of a Republican version of Santa Cruz.
It seems that chillblaine has gotten a bit ahead of me tonight, but so be it. I'm on to water now, being an older man and with things to do tomorrow.
Buwaya asks: "Where has that brilliant, creative Russia gone? Killed by the Bolsheviks in fact, or driven away,..."
Yes. And what the Bolsheviks didn't accomplish, Stalin finished.
There seems to be little (some, but little, considering its size) left of Russia but thugs, whores, and alcoholics, with considerable overlap in the categories. (See the photography of Oleg Videnin for details.)
I would guess two more generations without a major war may begin to set things on to a a better path, but such a hope is always dicey.
@DrSquid
Enjoy your retirement. I sure am. Just doing more of the stuff that I did outside of work before. My days are full. I'm sure yours will be too.
@Phidippus, I thought the pedipalps of jumping spiders were supposed to be green.
@DrSquid, welcome to my world. But be careful not to let yourself get bored. Find something to keep yourself occupied.
Some days retirement IS boring - especially in long WI winters - but only some days! Overall I love retirement. What’s better than a quiet morning with coffee, a fire, and an iPad?
What’s better than a quiet morning with coffee, a fire, and an iPad?
Coffee, a fire, and the Althouse blog!
Enjoy a Friday LinkSwarm, which runs the gamut from the AAF to Gramsci.
Big Mike: That is one of the many interesting things about genus Phidippus. The chelicerae (not the pedipalps, I believe) are iridescent and variable in color between individuals and depending also on their age. Jumping spiders (family Salticidae) have 3-dimensional color vision comprising, apparently, the human visual range plus part of the ultraviolet. It is thought that the colorful chelicerae help the females to recognize the males as potential mates, rather than food items (not that this is necessarily exclusive, in the spider world).
If you are interested in learning more about spiders (doubtful at best, but..) I can recommend "Biology of Spiders" by Rainer Foelix, available through the Althouse portal.
We have a Russian "son." My wife has supervised multiple Russian exchange students. Russians are the most fascinating white people on the planet. It comes through strong in their art, their music, their poetry. I'm still at a loss to completely understand them. Understanding Czechs, Poles, and even Magyars is child's play compared to Russians.
There is a quote -- I thought it was famous but google is not helping me now -- to the effect "Russia was put on Earth as a terrible warning for other nations".
Just found this -
"La ci darem la mano", Ana Netrebko with multiple Don Juans, conducted by a "veteran" Don Juan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRB5dtZiYwo
Don Placido, that old goat, can do this bit in his sleep, and sometimes it may be he actually is.
Still, and still, he "gets" it, and sometimes he has a Zerlina who "gets" it too, the sweet hypocrisy, the cynicism, the disingenuous sin of it all, with more than a wink to the audience.
The prettiest bit of sin in opera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXJj5_avNpI
And no bones about getting "handsy".
3 to 5 inches of snow Wednesday?
Better get some yard work done this weekend.
@Phidippus, not really interested. Around Thanksgiving I had my sons out here and we were cleaning and rearranging the garage. I picked up one box and found a female black widow on it -- good thing it was a very chilly day and she couldn't move fast or I might have been bitten. I knocked her off the box with a garden hoe, saw the red mark on the abdomen, and killed her very quickly. I checked for egg sacs, found one, and smashed it too.
Wiki says their maximum size is a half inch. I have some serious news for them. That little bug-eater was over a couple millimeters over that half inch just in the abdomen, let alone the cephalothorax.
I had assumed you were naming yourself after some Roman poet or famous general, so I seached DuckDuckGo for "Phidippus," and then I realized what your thumbnail was all about! I should have remembered jumping spiders from the movie "Eight Legged Freaks."
@CWJ, I studied Russian in college some fifty plus years ago -- it wrecked my GPA -- and can still read Cyrillic though my conversational Russian these days is negligible. I agree with your observation, and used to cringe when some gullible young female liberal would proclaim that "we're all just alike." Not hardly! There are cultures that are so different from the usual American culture that they might as well be from another planet, and based on their literature Russians are high on that list.
I've just watched Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others)... It is a horror show. It is one of the greatest films I have ever watched.
Thanks, hawkeyedjib. I just ordered it from Netflix. Last year I read a couple of nonfiction accounts of people who endured the Chinese Cultural Revolution and its horrors. I'm sure young people today who think they know what socialism is have no clue. Of course not. Where would they have learned it?
Buwaya: Thanks for the opera tidbits. Very nice! We saw Don Giovanni ages ago at the Seattle Opera but I can't remember who sang it. We were subscribers for a couple of years but my husband decided he didn't really like opera. He much preferred the Symphony, where we were able to watch a fledgling orchestra gradually find its wings at long last.
I do hope you will continue to post here after you return to Manila. I so enjoy your comments and insight.
young people today who think they know what socialism is have no clue. Of course not. Where would they have learned it?"
They're living it. Half the country is living under cultural socialism. They see conservative students being abused in class; they see acquaintances disappear under a Twitter pile on for a single questionable statement. People lose their jobs because it comes out they supported the wrong political candidate Trump. They say nothing because they think this will all bring on the perfect new world where everyone is equal. And also they think that this is a passing phase. But it's the way they will always live if they bring in socialism. Everyone else on earth except this one-half of young Americans, the Millennial Democrats, knows that this is so. There are movies and books and lived experience in Venezuela. Nothing goes in. Isn't it amazing? Just remember to vote and get your friends to vote and if you know a Millennial tell him the fix is in and voting is useless.
Blogger Unknown said...
"There is a quote -- I thought it was famous but google is not helping me now -- to the effect "Russia was put on Earth as a terrible warning for other nations"
It's like owning an Alfa Romeo - it makes you truly appreciate all the other cars you will ever own.
And goodnight,
Sung to sleep perhaps, by Teresa Berganza, who was made to sing de Falla - "Nana", his lullabye.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV4I12TNBR8
Duérmete niño,
duerme, mi alma;
duérmete lucerito
de la mañana.
Nanita, nana,
nanita, nana,
duérmete lucerito
de la mañana.
Sleep, child
sleep my soul
sleep,
morning star
Nanita, nana,
nanita, nana,
sleep,
morning star
This is or was a folksong, in fact, but de Falla rendered these "siete canciones" into something else.
My grandmother, de Falla notwithstanding, sang us to sleep with "git along little dogies"
She barely spoke English but loved cowboys.
Watch the Real Russia channel on YouTube. You'll be amazed how much it is like the US after the fall of Communism. Really. I could live in St. Petersburg now. The only difference is the amount of time they spend in big shopping malls. I'll give them that because they are relatively new to them.
Big huge ALOHA DrSquid, that is very cool!! Enjoy your new adventures.
Over the years, spouse and I have had several first time Russian visitors stay in our home. I would always ask them what them what surprised them the most about the US. How friendly Americans were was the typical response.
(I tried to collude - no dice.)
I'm surprised that Althouse is colluding with the Russians by presenting a Russian folktale. Russians are bad, Putin is bad, Russian folk takes are bad! Get with the program.
What a strange tale.
Reminds me of this unbelievable tale, that have Russian in it, called Spygate.
Another super strange story.
A man wearing a maga hat, with a yarmulke under it, is called as Nazi in Palo Alto in a Starbucks.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/04/woman-loses-job-after-chewing-out-elderly-man-in-maga-hat/
It gets even stranger...
Lady has a Mohawk:
https://madworldnews.com/mohawk-leftist-elderly-trump/
And one story mentioned a group she belongs to, how the lady was using her white privilege.
Why is life so strange?
Excellent post with the Russian Folktale.
“Real Russia” is one of my favorite YouTube channels. Sergey Baklykov is so much fun, always smiling, always having a great time. One of my favorite episodes was his visit with an American muscle car club at Moscow State U. His multi-episode visit to the US with his wife and daughter was very entertaining, he drove all the way across the US, choosing a different American car for each segment of the trip. Most videos offer a good view of daily life in Russia today. Fascinating channel.
Re the hullabaloo about the foolish parents paying million dollar bribes to get their kids into "prestige" colleges: Why is there hardly any mention of the Feds going after the colleges and their corrupt staffers?
Why is this a Federal case to start with?
Even though there of course is Federal money involved - as with anything else in education - it seems to me that these are local cases and the shame is on the states and local communities.
@DrSquid
Congratulations!
Retirement is fantastic... that's my perspective.
Don Placido, that old goat, can do this bit in his sleep, and sometimes it may be he actually is.
Wiki says he only started singing baritone roles a few years ago, and Don Juan isn't one of them. But he probably sings it in the shower.
Blogger Hagar said...
Re the hullabaloo about the foolish parents paying million dollar bribes to get their kids into "prestige" colleges:
The interesting issue to me, aside from the fact that my alma mater is featured in the scandal, is that the kids with the low SAT scores and GPAs seem to do fine once they are in. What ever happened to tests and grades ? Does anybody who bribed their way in ever flunk out?
I've been distracted by work, Prof, so maybe you've mentioned this, but I hope your eyesight is rocking your world now, and you're not experiencing bad things. If the latter is true, I hope it temporary.
It sure will be nice to see the Spring day today once the fog lifts.
DrSquid, I've been retired for a long time, and my best advice to you would be to stay active. Physically and mentally.
The story tells the horror of a socialist police state in which one never knows which among his neighbors, his friends, his lovers may be the agent of the state that betrays him.
Sounds like college today.
Despite a constant effort by Democrats and the media to prevent it, Trump is becoming normalized.
I saw three stories in the last week or so about how Trump cheats at golf.
He has gone from treasonous, Putin-controlled, Manchurian Candidate to golf cheat.
That's progress.
Don Placido, that old goat, can do this bit in his sleep, and sometimes it may be he actually is.
In the interest of completeness, here's a reading of La Ci Darem by another old goat, Frank Sinatra
Dr. K,
the answer to that question is in my second sentence.
Rasmussen has Trump at 51%
And his “ un Presidential” Tweet of Welcome Back Joe, that per some in the msm was doctored, did not hurt him.
And his rise in popularity with Latinos.
That increases Trumps political capital in DC, and that is noticed...
I bet the change in the Senate Rules on confirmations was related...
The NM Attorney General, Hector Balderas, has sent out a letter to all local law enforcement agencies telling them they are not at liberty to ignore the recently passed statute regarding background checks for all gun purchases; they must obey the State law.
Well, goose meet gander. If the Democrats are free to ignore that stupid old U.S. Constitution and bylaws, so are the independently elected county sheriffs free to ignore diktats from Santa Fe.
I think it interesting that TAs at UW are complaining about costs and sitting in at the Chancellor's Office. Good. It's ridiculous that Segregated Fees (which should be banned at all Universities IMO) are so high. I think they're $1000+! If the University thinks something is important for College Students for them (Universities) to remain competitive, then absorb the costs and don't foist them onto students. Current UW students are paying for student decisions of the past to pay for Union South and the new SERF. That is a terrible working model.
If Universities can't afford something, then they should be raiding their endowments or learn to live within their means.
Yesterday was my husband's last day at work. He is a happy retired man today, no more pager or being on call. He plans to catch up on his sleep for now. Weather is getting nicer; tennis, yard work, and photography are in his future.
The last week has been busy so I have only popped in here sporadically. A couple of questions:
1) Has Ann called an end to her moderation plan?
2) Has Ann ever considered a Patreon? I don't really shop through Amazon that much but wouldn't mind a Patreon contribution.
hawkeyedjb, quoting from The Lives of Others:
"To think people like you once ruled a country."
Unfortunately the past tense is misleading. "People like you" didn't disappear. After the wall fell some of them wormed their way into positions in the existing political, educational, and cultural institutions of the West, and just picked up where they left off. They're still out there, totalitarian impulses intact.
Not that the institutions in countries west of the Iron Curtain weren't already well-stocked with like-minded individuals.
“The NM Attorney General, Hector Balderas, has sent out a letter to all local law enforcement agencies telling them they are not at liberty to ignore the recently passed statute regarding background checks for all gun purchases; they must obey the State law.
Well, goose meet gander. If the Democrats are free to ignore that stupid old U.S. Constitution and bylaws, so are the independently elected county sheriffs free to ignore diktats from Santa Fe.”
Just so. Similar problem just to the north in CO, with maybe half the sheriffs in the state already announcing deciding that they won’t enforce the new Red Flag law (which allows the seizure of firearms based on flimsy evidence of the owner being dangerous to himself or others) The Dem state AG is besides himself. How dare they thwart him? Part of the problem is that it costs officer resources to implement, and that allocation is up to the sheriff of each county, who is elected (except for Denver), and prioritizes based on the preferences of his constituents. And this isn’t one of their priorities. Compounding this, the seized guns have to be stored somewhere secure for when they are returned, and the state didn’t provide any money for temporary storage of seized guns.. That isn’t an issue in liberal havens like Denver and Boulder, because they never intend to return the guns they seize. But safe and secure storage of seized guns is important to the constituents of most of the sheriffs in the state. Besides, as one sheriff pointed out, a deputy trying to disarm a citizen for the sort of flimsy reasons allowed by the new law is taking his life in his hands. The AG isn’t the one who has to explain to the grieving family why their loved one died, thanks to an ineffective, feel good, virtue signaling, gun grabbing law passed by the Dem legislature and signed into law by their gay Dem governor, in gun hating Denver.
“I think it interesting that TAs at UW are complaining about costs and sitting in at the Chancellor's Office. Good. It's ridiculous that Segregated Fees (which should be banned at all Universities IMO) are so high. I think they're $1000+! If the University thinks something is important for College Students for them (Universities) to remain competitive, then absorb the costs and don't foist them onto students. Current UW students are paying for student decisions of the past to pay for Union South and the new SERF. That is a terrible working model. ”
This was a big thing with my kid when they were a grad student at CU Boulder up until a year ago. Their tuition was waived, but not these additional fees, which seemed to be going up faster than their stipend was increasing. The fees had gotten out of hand because increases there are much easier to hide from the legislature than tuition increases, and they can be used for much more politically left wing groups and activities.
Big Mike: Can't blame you at all. At best, while harmless, they aren't very cuddly or relatable. You encountered one of the few really nasty ones in North America.
I saw a black and white jumping spider on my garage door a couple of years back. Taking a closer look, the little bugger turned around and looked back at me. Looking it up it seems that it was a specimen of P. audax, the "bold" or "audacious" jumping spider (like in the avatar). Since I'm retired I thought I'd read a textbook to learn more about the whole order Araneae.
I find them fascinating from an engineering standpoint. They have amazing flexibility of behavior for an animal that weighs maybe 20 milligrams, not to mention extremely low power consumption (especially in "standby", where they seem to be most of the time). Even with our fast memory and microprocessors, dissipating many tens of watts or more, we've never built a robot or control system so adaptable in dealing with a random environment. There is something wanting in our basic approach to that problem, I think.
My wife, of course, gives them no quarter if they are found in the house. She remains unconvinced by my arguments that they eat the mosquitoes and silverfish. If I get to them first, I usually let them go outside.
OK, I bought the Apple Watch and the iPhone for the ECG feature, having been diagnosed with a-fib. I hadn’t had any a-fib in any of my recent EKGs since losing a bit of weight and ramping up the exercise routine. So I wanted to stop the blood thinners. I have had it on for a week with zero signs of a-fib, three or four ECGs a day to check. However; since I have been sick for two weeks and recently on antibiotics, I hadn’t really had a drink in two weeks either. Last night I went out with some friends and ordered a single martini. Well, it was a stiff pour, I really felt it, and the next morning I do the ECG as I am feeling a bit lousy waking up, and there they were, two or three multi-peaked heartbeats in 30 seconds. Three a-fiby type heartbeats. So I guess it’s cut down or out the alcohol or go back on the thinners. I guess I will experiment with less potent drinks first, but probably, it’s just time to not drink, even in social situations.
It’s funny too that if I have strong coffee, it shows up in little jitters in my normal rhythm. I am sure I will get bored of it soon enough, but it’s good to leave it on always scanning for a-fib. It does it not by doing an ECG which requires you to touch a button with your other hand, but by monitoring your heart rate, which it can do just from the wrist. So if I revert to a-fib, I hopefully will know it, and I can always take the thinners.
The main problem is that the streaming sucks unless you use Apple headphones, or my Bose headphones, which load their own app to get around the limitations of the iPhone for bluetooth. In my car, it sounds worse than the transistor radio I had as a child. It’s unlistenable. I think it has to do with the phone and the car not negotiating the best codec, AAC, but rather using SBC as a fallback. My old Android used aptX, and sounded as good as the Bose headphones through the same car stereo. Maybe it’s just Infiniti.
I think that Apple people are a cult and they seem to take offense if you dispassionately point out areas where the iPhone lags Android. As if such a thing were not possible. And the response “I just don’t do that.” seems to come up a lot.
Phidippus observes: I find them fascinating from an engineering standpoint. They have amazing flexibility of behavior for an animal that weighs maybe 20 milligrams, not to mention extremely low power consumption (especially in "standby", where they seem to be most of the time). Even with our fast memory and microprocessors, dissipating many tens of watts or more, we've never built a robot or control system so adaptable in dealing with a random environment. There is something wanting in our basic approach to that problem, I think.
The structural integrity and efficiency of design of spiders' webs is amazing. Architects have learned from them.
I read the folk tale, and noticed that the princesses that were described don't really match the Vasnetsov painting. Then I did a search and found out that he edited the princesses for his painting, to represent the wealth of the Donbass, since he was painting the picture for a patron who wanted to decorate the Donetsk train station. The princesses shown are a golden princess, a gemstone princess and a coal princess. In the end, the picture was not deemed appropriate and was sold to a private collector instead of adorning the railway station.
1) Has Ann called an end to her moderation plan?
--
Apparently my jocular direction to her Paypal donation button was deemed unacceptable.
So..not exactly.
***A sense of life is a pre-conceptual equivalent of metaphysics, an emotional, subconsciously integrated appraisal of man and of existence. It sets the nature of a man’s emotional responses and the essence of his character.
Long before he is old enough to grasp such a concept as metaphysics, man makes choices, forms value-judgments, experiences emotions and acquires a certain implicit view of life. Every choice and value-judgment implies some estimate of himself and of the world around him—most particularly, of his capacity to deal with the world. He may draw conscious conclusions, which may be true or false; or he may remain mentally passive and merely react to events (i.e., merely feel). Whatever the case may be, his subconscious mechanism sums up his psychological activities, integrating his conclusions, reactions or evasions into an emotional sum that establishes a habitual pattern and becomes his automatic response to the world around him. What began as a series of single, discrete conclusions (or evasions) about his own particular problems, becomes a generalized feeling about existence, an implicit metaphysics with the compelling motivational power of a constant, basic emotion—an emotion which is part of all his other emotions and underlies all his experiences. This is a sense of life.***
Is this where strangeness of the Slavic people psyche to be found?
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