May 14, 2022

"'They can’t win,' Ira said. 'They can slaughter us but they can’t win.' Max nodded, calm despite the chaos."

"I’d met him a few weeks before the war when he was working as a translator for another journalist. He had black hair swept off his face, a tattoo under his Adam’s apple that referenced the American poet Walt Whitman and he looked as though he hadn’t slept in days. We were the same age, 31, and I liked him straight away.... Since Berlin had been colonised by tech bros, the centre of gravity for European hedonism had shifted eastwards to the Ukrainian capital.... There were warehouse raves in abandoned buildings, queer-friendly spaces with art installations and a club known only by the mathematical symbol ∄ (meaning “does not exist”), which had a dark room and wipe-down banquettes.... ...Kyiv had come alive through adversity, a fight for freedom against authoritarianism.... Kyiv’s freedom had been hard won, thought Max and his friends, and it shouldn’t be wasted.... Before [the war] the Kyiv party scene had been targeted by far-right, antigay thugs who had broken into nightclubs and beaten up ravers. Now, Max told me, one of his friends had put out a eulogy when the head of one of these groups had been killed in battle. As the Russians rolled closer, the ravers had stepped up. The dark room at Kyrylivska became a bomb shelter.... Max was lyrical with happiness that he had stayed, risking his life for his city again, as he and his friends had done during the Maidan protests...."

From "From hedonism to war: meet the young ravers of Kyiv/Before the Russian invasion Kyiv was the rave capital of Europe. That changed in a single night. Louise Callaghan joins a group of young artists caught in the chaos" (London Times).

15 comments:

rhhardin said...

How's the trans community doing in Ukraine though. Gay is out today.

David Begley said...

Headline: Queers Save Ukraine.

Joe Smith said...

They'd better get used to it.

According to our president and defense department, the best we can do is a stalemate.

Which is what 'the players' want as it allows then to funnel a never-ending gusher of our tax dollars into the war.

So many people will be getting so very rich for the foreseeable future...

n.n said...

The Kiev, military, paramilitary aligned axis has been aborting Ukrainians since the Biden/Maidan/Slavic Spring disenfranchised, denied essential services, and attacked native peoples... persons. Why does the community care NOW?

n.n said...

trans community doing in Ukraine though. Gay is out today

Trans/homosexuals are purists, are out, trans/bisexuals were always socially excluded, trans/neos are trending through the medical, surgical, and psychiatric corruption of preteen boys and girls looking forward with "benefits".

BUMBLE BEE said...

Then there's this from a Canadian sniper volunteer... Canadian sniper Wali is back in his homeland after spending 2 months in Ukraine and Donbass.

Like other members of so called Foreign legion he’s noted:
• total lack of communications
• lack of weapons
• f🤙🏼cked up UAF command
• huge 🇺🇦 losses
• most mercenaries defected

Josephbleau said...

I can see it now, Brad Pitt starring as the brave Ukrainian Queer Anitool Inabuhol as his diverse cohort give the Russian invaders what for in all dimensions. The evil Russians will be screwed, blued, and tattooed in all available places as they are chased by the power of the collective, FROM KIEV TO MOSCOW AND BACK!! In technicolor.

Lurker21 said...

Before the Russian invasion Kyiv was the rave capital of Europe.

Sounds like poetic license. Any number of cities in Germany, Sweden, Holland or Eastern Europe would probably contest that designation. And there's always Spain, if you aren't turned off by the vomiting tourists from Britain and Northern Europe.

loudogblog said...

There is a lot to be worried about regarding their war with Russia. They've put up a good defense but Russia is still so much bigger and more powerful than Ukraine. Russia could still crush them even if it takes decades. Plus, this war might spiral out of control into a world war if things go badly. I just read an article saying how a lot of the military aid that we're sending them is useless because they just don't have enough trained soldiers who know how to properly deploy it. In the movies, Russel Case can be given a modern fighter jet and save the world. That's not the way that reality works.

Jupiter said...

This ain't no party.
This ain't no disco.
This ain't no fooling around.

effinayright said...

BUMBLE BEE said...
Then there's this from a Canadian sniper volunteer... Canadian sniper Wali is back in his homeland after spending 2 months in Ukraine and Donbass.

Like other members of so called Foreign legion he’s noted:
• total lack of communications
• lack of weapons
• f����cked up UAF command
• huge ���� losses
• most mercenaries defected
************************

And yet, the Russkis are pulling back from Kharkiv...Putin's purging generals and FSB higher-ups by the hundreds. Does that sound like victory, Bumbling Bee?

So, Mr. RussoBotski, you want to tell us the Ukrainians are....losing? That mercenaries are defecting to the retreating troops? SNORT

Have another bottle of cheap fermented potato juice, tovarisch!! Before the night is over I'm sure you'll be burying your kishka in some poor teen conscript!!

ALL GLORY to the SOVIET MOTHERLAND!!

Michael McNeil said...

Folks might like to read this thread by Trent Telenko where he discusses Russian vs. Ukrainian incompetence. As he notes, “Ukraine is taking about one casualty for between 5 & 7 Russian casualties right now.”

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Too bad it took a war to provide meaning. What do they do when it's over?

veni vidi vici said...

Germany was winning for several years before things started to look like a loser in '42.

And here in the US we have a bunch of vocal ninc's deeply marinated in exclusively western propaganda (sounds like the German citizens of 1941) to the exclusion ("deplatforming") of any Russian propaganda/news/info (because these upright Americans are so American they don't trust themselves or their fellow countrymen to discern shite from Shinola in a news report, which is of course why they so dutifully parrot the CNN/MSNBC/Hannity war mantras, w/o self-awareness), who insist on telling us that UKR's got this one in the bag and it's all over for RUS... in less than three months.

And wasn't one or two of those "flagship" RUS war-boats that were "destroyed" and "sunk" by the noble UKR fighting folx recently seen, floating around on the water? Thought I read that the other day on Instapundit with a link to some western newspaper report. Fuken Putinistas...

The lack of self-awareness is the American creed and religion anymore. We just love to suck virtual reality in, as someone above put it. If that ain't "late empire", nothing is.

Jupiter said...

"Russia could still crush them even if it takes decades."

The American war machine regards that as a big plus. That $40,000,000,000 "for Ukraine" actually means about $1,000,000,000 for Zelensky and his gang, and $39,000,000,000 for Lockheed, General Dynamics, Raytheon ...

Did you know James Comey made $6,000,000 a year as "general counsel" at Raytheon? It is good to live in The Swamp!