Semiramide could well be dubbed Tancredi Revisited
What does this even mean? Tonight's Midnight Opera and War Thoughts..
Introduction: I commonly go to sleep with Opera playing in my earbuds. I’ve been doing this for years, ever since a cross-country bus trip. Give it a try even if you have never listened to, or even like Opera. It might work for you or not. This bad habit woke me up tonight with a nice discovery and other thoughts. I will do these as totally unrelated bullet points:
What started out as Verdi’s Nabucco morphed into an intensely Bel Canto -sung Semiramide by Rossini. If you have never listed to or watched these operas before and aren’t familiar with the stories of either, you may be better off not knowing these stories on the first listens. Simply enjoy the music.
I’ve been listening to the latter opera performed by the Teatro La Fenice, an Italian outfit that apparently specializes in Bel Canto -sung opera. If you have never heard of the term Bel Canto, simply imagine everything sung with the “Vibrato” pedal set to Maximum Vibratory Excess. And then some, especially at exclamation points in the singing when the Soprano’s voice requires the new James Webb Space Telescope to detect the sound. You know….way UP there in the glass-shattering range.
The stories behind these two operas are ancient and convoluted. I’ll let you look them up. I did and found the phrase I used above for the title of this post. Here is what I have been sleeping to until my bladder woke me up:Its currently 11AM in Moscow, Russia as I type this, 10 hours ahead of the Pacific Coast on Daylight Time. I may go searching to find out what happened on TikTok before I go back to sleep. They were supposed to reopen the Russian Stock Exchange which has been closed since the start of Putin’s illegal war. With the bite of sanctions by even Switzerland and the collapse of the Ruble, this could be fun to observe. I do not pity the poor Oligarchs and their lost wealth. I hope they are pissed at Putin enough to rein him in and throttle him. I read somewhere that the Generals and other high ups, many of which are somewhat Oligarch-ish themselves are going to confront him. We know how this usually ends and it can’t happen too soon.
Russia may find itself in a situation similar to Zimbabwe, back when they had to print 100 Trillion Zimbabwe Dollar Bills just so that one could purchase a few sheets of toilet paper, usually made from smaller denominations of the same currency . It must be hard to fight a war when the currency backing it has collapsed. Putin is certainly turning Russia into the USSR, in terms of empty shelves at the market.My favorite journalist on this war, John Aravosis interviewed a Ukrainian refugee Vlad Naprikovsky. Vlad described his family’s experience. Over the weekend John took a short pause to recover from minor surgery and is resuming his daily livestream - today at 10AM PDT. Saturday night he put out a plea for his Ukrainian friend as Vlad and family were in need of modest financial assistance. John posted about this: See https://www.tiktok.com/@aravosis/video/7076975608848256298
Of course, everyone contributed way beyond the modest amount requested! Vlad is sharing this unexpected wealth with several refugee families. Via PayPal and Venmo, one can send a donation and all of this (use the “sending to a friend” option) goes to these families without any organization taking a cut of it (sometimes a very significant cut). This is yet another way in which the resistance against Putin’s aggression and helping the victims is being crowd-funded worldwide and it feels good to know that one is helping someone real, instead of cushioning the CEO of some large organization. Here is more information including how and where to donate and a thank you from Vlad: https://www.tiktok.com/@aravosis/video/7077220348856487210I posted a note on Facebook about the war pondering Putin’s game - and when NATO should decide to get involved. A friend responded with a rather pointless and insensitive comment: “So maybe we launch an ICBM preemptively?”
I responded (edited) “No - I am just saying that we are in a situation where we are allowing Putin to reset the boundary in stepwise fashion:Don't dare help Ukraine or Putin will start WW3!
Putin destroys Ukraine, regroups and moves on to Latvia
Don't dare help Latvia or Putin will start WW3!
Putin destroys Latvia, regroups and moves on to Lithuania
Don't dare help Lithuania or Putin will start WW3!
Putin destroys Lithuania, regroups, and moves on to Estonia
Don't dare help Estonia or Putin will start WW3! etc. etc.
Either we call Putin’s bluff or he will never stop. Its a risk we'll have to take eventually or we'll end up giving it all away.”
Zelensky’s pleas for a No-Fly Zone are spot on. Putin is winning the war in terms of Brinksmanship. Its time to stop tiptoeing around Putin. He will always have Nukes pointed at us as a threat. He may decide to use them but the Generals and others who process his orders may decide that enough is enough. At some point we’ll have to do this and engage. There is a chance to stop him before more ate pointlessly murdered in Ukraine, and other countries on his list.I have run out of bullet points. I am going to check the Russian Stock Market, drink some water which will wake me up at 6, and go back to sleep. Hydration is good. Then I will go to bed.
Note - I usually send these out in a first draft, unedited. Then I edit them later if necessary, usually for typos. Sometimes for content.