Dispatches from Vilnius

Summer is usually brief in Lithuania, but when it comes it does so in a massive heatwave.  The only reprieve is the occasional thunderstorm.  I've been working on a boyhood story set in Florida in the summer of 1974 and this heatwave helps inspire memories.  The thunderheads would roll in off the Gulf of Mexico around 4 in the afternoon, usually leaving water spouts in their wake, as the heavy black clouds hit land with sheets of rain and violent rolls of thunder.  It was pretty impressive to see these storms.  You had to get quickly back inside as there was lightning all around.  Afterward, it was even hotter than it was before. Here, there is somewhat of a cooling effect. We were by ourselves Midsummer Eve and so our neighbor invited us over to join in the fire he had lit in his grill.  He offered beer but I was having a glass of Irish whisky that was going down smoothly.  Daina had a gin and tonic, her favorite summer drink.  All was pleasant.  Our little Corgi chasing after the

We all knew it was coming but it was still a shock to hear the Supreme Court revoke Roe v. Wade.  I held out hope that Chief Justice Roberts would get the younger judges to listen to reason rather than siding with the antediluvian mind of Judge Alito, who trotted out 13th century precedents in his majority decision paper that stretched for over 200 pages.  The case was supposed to be about Mississippi's attempt to close the door on all abortions after 15 weeks, whereas Roe v. Wade set the limit at 20 to 24 weeks.  Instead, the Alito court decided to do away with this 1973 decision all together, reversing nearly 50 years of precedent. Judge Alito would like Americans to believe Roe v. Wade was a bad USSC decision to begin with and had no business being the "law of the land."  In his very narrow interpretation, he claimed that abortion had never been acceptable in our society before Roe, and that this was a decision that flew against the "original intent" of the

It's hard to really gauge the pulse of sentiments regarding the January 6 insurrection hearings.  My conservative American friends on facebook are unsurprisingly mute on the subject.  It is hard to know how to react when you see conservative witnesses laying out the astonishing array of charges against Trump, many of them close allies.   Most of the charges we knew about, such as trying to get states not to certify the results, replacing electors with Trump supporters, and pressuring Pence into overturning the electoral college.  But, now we are hearing it from Republican lawmakers like Rusty Bowers and Brad Raffensperger , whose states were literally under fire during the vote counting.  Trump wanted these state officials to overturn the results in Arizona and Georgia, which Biden won by the thinnest of margins.  We also heard from conservative representatives of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where Trump similarly wanted to toss out the results of the general election and

To be honest, I don't even know why they have a Rock an Roll Hall of Fame if they overlook guitar giants like Dick Dale.  This has to be its most outrageous snub , given the tremendous impact he made on the guitar world back in the late 50s and early 60s.  His surf guitar defined a generation, including guitar gods like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, both of whom paid tribute to Dale on numerous occasions.  Sadly, his music was virtually forgotten with the British invasion of the mid-60s, but you would think with the revival of Misirlou in Pulp Fiction, Cleveland would have taken notice. Dick Dale inspired a dance craze, selling out ballrooms throughout California.  Let's go Trippin' was probably the earliest of the surf rock songs, and is instantly recognizable.  Dale, whose real name is Richard Anthony Monsour, derived his unique sound from the traditional songs of Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries, which he developed a strong interest in.  His father was

It seems like the Romanian president took a separate train to Kjiv, as you only see these three guys in all the pictures.  However, Klaus Iohannis got off at the same train station at the same time.  All four went on a tour of Irpin, one of the towns outside the capital that suffered the most damage during the Siege of Kjiv.  Olaf Scholz appeared visibly shaken by what he saw.  The others not so much.  Although they all expressed their steadfast support for Ukraine.  As a parting gift, Russia cut off roughly 50 percent of its gas supply to Germany and Italy due to repairs.  You would think there would come a breaking point, but Scholz and Macron continue to harbor illusions of a negotiated settlement with Russia along the lines of the Minsk agreements that would restore full oil and gas supplies throughout the EU.  But, we in the East know that "repairs" is just a code word for Russia.  It could take months or even years before the Kremlin renews this supply, and only then

The production Sun & Sea bowled over the judges of Venice Biennale in 2019, awarding the beach opera a Golden Lion. Since then the trio of Lithuanian composers have been all over Europe and the United States.  Everyone has raved about it and for good reason.  Sun & Sea brings opera down to a level anyone can identify with.  Of course, the danger with that is that critics start reading in all sorts of didactic messages, which Vaiva Grainytė said was the last thing on their minds.  She said, "nobody likes being preached to."  True, but at the same time people like reading messages into almost anything. You view the production from above.  In all its showings, it has been presented as a diorama with the audience allowed to view it from a mezzanine.  This kind of perspective puts the participants in an entirely different light, as you are allowed to move around, not sit fixed to a seat.  They mix singers with everyday people.  The vocals seem random but are well choreogr

Lithuania raises its flag over parliament on March 11, 1990 The Russian parliament has taken action to repeal Lithuania's independence .  Yes, you heard that right.  The "Russian" parliament has deemed that Lithuania "illegally" broke away from the Soviet Union and should have its independence revoked.  This despite the Soviet Union being formally dissolved in December, 1991.  In Yevgeny Fyodorov' perverse logic, he considers Russia the "legal successor" to the Soviet Union and therefor entitled to all its former territories, citing some dubious article in the Russian constitution.  Interestingly, the Duma and Vladimir Putin are not on the same page as Count Vladimir recently likened himself to Peter the Great  in his push for territorial expansion.  Clearly, he has much bigger aims as Imperial Russia was far larger in territory than was the Soviet Union, and included Alaska and much of the American Pacific coastline.  For now, he seems content wit

It took me a while to figure out what Šaltinis was.  I didn't remember Ayn Rand writing a book about wells or springs.  It was only when my colleague said it was the rage among architects in Lithuania that I  realized it was The Fountainhead  she was talking about.   I read it back in architectural school.  We even had a Beaux Arts ball based on the theme, which was kind of funny given that Ayn Rand's defiant architect pits himself against the Beaux Arts style of the time.  It was a good page-turner, but in the end you are left to wonder what it was all about. Architects are drawn to Ayn Rand mostly because of this novel.  They like the fact that Roark refused to bend to convention.  She wisely set her story in the 1920s and 30s, as by the time she wrote the novel in 1943 Modernism had already crept into the American landscape.  Roark was hounded by a nasty critic Elsworth Toohey, who was determined to destroy his career, but Howard ultimately found a rich patron and iconoclas

Lithuanian defense bunkers aren't the most inviting places. There are no end of talk shows on Lithuanian television, usually with the same faces, just different hosts.  One of the most popular is Bučiuoju, Rūta , in which she invites her "friends" to chat with her about current events.  To add a little substance, she also invites two "experts" on whatever theme she chooses for the evening.  Last night it was emergency preparedness.  Unfortunately, there are as many ads in the video link as there were last night on television.  Anyway, you can have a little taste of Lithuanian television if you like. My wife likes the silver-haired guy, Šarūnas Jasiukevičius.  He goes around the country examining military bunkers and underground shelters, determining their readiness.  Out of some 400+ bunkers he has personally inspected, many of them dating back to WWII, he determined that only 7 were ready for use in times of war.  As you can see from the images, some of the bu

Jimmy Kimmel roasted the conservative hacks over Uvalde, as they tried to blame every other thing except guns for yet another school mass shooting.  Many of them subscribed to the open door theory where a witless teacher had left the back door open while smoking a cigarette, thereby giving the shooter free entry.  Turns out the teacher had gone back to shut the door before the shooter entered the building.  Unfortunately, the door didn't lock properly, so Ramos was able to enter and lay siege to the elementary school. This only after the heralded Uvalde police force had failed to subdue the shooter outside the school building, despite having recently completed active shooter training . I understand no one wants to confront an active shooter, especially when decked in tactical gear from head to toe, but that's what these guys are paid to do.  Not teachers or mothers.  Yet, teachers and mothers showed far more composure and bravery than did the police force.  One mother literal