Dispatches from Vilnius

I started the summer with the best intentions of writing a novella of my boyhood experiences from the summer of 1973.  It started off well enough.  I collected 45 pages of memories over a short span of years.  It was quite fun as the images were often so strong and pungent that I could feel and taste them. However, I couldn't always recall the year, so I checked the dates on songs, movies, television shows, stamps and other artifacts from the era to help me set the memories in the right place in time.  Kind of a history of objects, which is quite popular to do these days, but I wanted it to be a story in the first person, not an old man looking back at his childhood. Unfortunately, the summer conspired against me.  I got involved in all sorts of projects, mostly gardening, and the days slipped away with little to show for it in the way of writing.  This past month we've been spending with our oldest daughter, who returned from Australia with her husband to have some long deferr

Many years ago, Aaron Burr tried to create a new country by forging a cabal of Southern US plantation owners, politicians and army officers in his bid to carve out a nation state in what is now Texas.  The so-called Burr Conspiracy  rocked the fragile nation.  President Jefferson, whom Burr had served under as Vice-President, had to issue a warrant for his arrest.  Burr was charged with treason but claimed he was just setting up a plantation for himself in what was then Mexico.  Since no formal agreement was ever made, Burr was acquitted but politically scarred for life.  He was considered as much a traitor as Benedict Arnold. Flash forward to 2022.  We have Donald Trump acting as a president in exile, not quite sure what his next move will be.  He's established his Mar-a-Lago residence as a proxy White House where leading Republican figures visit him on a regular basis.  It is here and at his second home in Bedminster that Trump and his advisors plot their course of action.   We a

After hearing Jordan Peele rave about Mindhunter , I figured I had to give it a look.  I wasn't disappointed.  While not the biggest David Fincher fan, this was a fiendishly clever serial that still has plenty of room to grow.  It would be great if Peele took a turn directing one or more of the episodes next season. Fincher had been a bit too schlock for my tastes.  My daughter convinced me to watch Gone Girl the other night, and while it started off well enough, the twists and turns were too contrived to lead to any meaningful or caustically funny resolution.  I couldn't tell whether I was supposed to read this as melodrama or dark comedy.  In Mindhunter , Fincher deals with real cases, as he did in Zodiac , with much more satisfying results. He's not the only director in this Netflix production, but you can see his hand throughout the series as he sets the tone in the opening and closing episodes of season one .  We meet a range of serial killers starting with Ed Kemper,

The other night a local journalist was interviewing a taxi driver on what is more cost effective, an electric or internal combustion engine car?  I thought it was a joke at first, as there is a program where a guy goes around towns and cities asking persons what they know about a certain subject and getting all kinds of crazy answers.  However, in his program he at least has an expert explaining what the right answer is.  In this case, the journalist was relying entirely on the taxi driver as an expert. Electric cars have grown in popularity in Vilnius.  I remember when our Russian neighbor owned the sole Tesla in town - a white Model S.  He loved it.  He had tried out a variety of electric cars and said this one had the greatest range, about 400 kilometers.  Others were in the 150 to 200 kilometer range.  He charged it at home on a special outlet he installed in the garage.   Teslas are very popular now.  My son tells me that many of them are shipped over as insurance losses from the

We chose to walk the dog to Vingio Park Tuesday night, hoping to hear part of the Nick Cave concert.  My daughters and I were surprised to see how close we were able to get to the amphitheater, although not quite this close .  Through one of the portals we could actually catch glimpses of him on stage, but were too far away to get a good picture in the dark.  It just came out a blur.  The walls garbled the sound a bit too, but it was still great to hear "The Weeping Song," one of my favorites.  He really seemed to enjoy himself as he did two encores , which was essentially what we heard. I was a little worried there wouldn't be much of a turnout for Nick, as there was a big push the last week on TV and radio to entice persons to the concert.  The park has had its share of concerts this summer.  Maneskin had come in early June to a rapturous crowd of over 20,000.  The Italian band is at its peak right now, stirring crowds at Coachella and gaining the approval of legendary

I don't have very much sympathy for comics who feel they are being "cancelled" because of puerile jokes.  They never have been funny except to a small audience that revels in this ribald banter.  I hadn't heard of Jerry Sadowitz until he was called out at the Fringe festival.  I doubt I will find him funny if I bother to listen to see what follows his homophobic, misogynistic and racist rants, but I'm sure others will.  Maybe they should put warning labels on these comics like they do rap albums so you know in advance what to expect? Personally, I find none of this funny.  I tried to watch Dave Chappelle's act, The Closer. He had faced similar "persecution."  It wasn't the trans jokes that bothered me so much as it was the way he characterized women.  Netflix tried to use the same argument that not everyone will like or agree with what they provide on their streaming service, but let's face it very few people want to listen to this crap anym

You have to enjoy the cruel irony here if indeed Jared is selling out his father-in-law.  Self-preservation mostly, as Jared doesn't want to spend the rest of his life behind bars.  However, you have to ask who stood most to gain from running off with all these classified documents?  Certainly not Donald, as it is doubtful he would have had little interest in them other than to maybe sell them to the highest bidder.  However, Jared is the one prostituting himself these days.  The whole thing is like an update of The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight .   It would be comical if there weren't so many deluded followers willing to literally put their lives on the line for this deeply dysfunctional family.  Trump doesn't have to shoot anyone on 5th Avenue.  There are many persons willing to do that for him.  I never could understand this devotion but I see support oozing from my conservative friends on facebook. I have to admit I never saw nuclear secrets coming.  I would h

We went down by the river to check out the sturgeon supermoon last night.  It hung low on the horizon.  We couldn't see it from our house.  My daughter had pinpointed it on her Night Sky app.  Very cool app to have on your phone as we learned that it was Saturn hovering near the moon.  According to the Farmers Almanac, the supermoon draws sturgeons closer to the surface making them easier to catch.  Not sure what it would be called in Lithuania.  Maybe the pikeperch supermoon, as these are a more common fish here. It was a perfect evening. We have our daughter visiting us from Australia.  So nice to have the whole family back together.  Our son was over too, but he had little interest in supermoons.  He was more concerned with the chicken curry he had on the stove.  It's pretty rare these days to have the whole family together and when we do no one seems to remember to take a picture.  Remedy that this weekend. We tried to avoid politics.  Thinking more about what movie we coul

When you see images like this, you think shit the Chinese have Taiwan surrounded!  Those are pretty big chunks of sea, however, and it will take much more than 68 aircraft and 13 water vessels to mount a successful invasion of Taiwan, lest it end up like the Bay of Pigs.  This was basically a fireworks show, similar to the one Trump put on for Mr. Xi when the Chinese premier was in Mar-a-Lago back in 2017, only this time the intended recipient was Nancy Pelosi. It is hard to understand why Xi would get so rattled by an 82-year-old woman's visit to an island nation.  It's not like anything new was discussed.  The US has always assured Taiwan it will come to its defense, should it need it.  A mutual defense pact dates back to 1954 when Chiang Kai-Shek was forced to retreat to the island in the wake of the Mao revolution.  Yet, China acts like this is a renewal of hostilities after warning Ms. Pelosi repeatedly not to visit Taiwan.  Little old ladies don't like being told

The early morning hours are really nice in Vilnius.  Daina and I took a walk along the bend of the river in Žverynas this morning with our little Corgi.   Our cat had followed us part way along the street before reaching the end of her territory, meowing as we ventured out of eyesight. Quite a few water puddles on the pockmarked street.  Must have rained last night but didn't hear it.  Perfect weather.  About 15 degrees Celsius.  A little chilly at first but then felt very good after a short while.  A relative handful of others out walking, running or biking.  Daina noted that it felt like a village with so few people around. The city converted the embankment under the Liubarto bridge into an outdoor cinema with a screen stretched between the massive concrete pylons.  The wood bench seats painted a magenta color.  We were on the upper path so couldn't read the placard of what was showing this month. Loki checked out all the smells and greeted other dogs.  It is more personal in

I hadn't realized that Jon Stewart spurred the demise of Crossfire when he appeared on the CNN show in 2004.  It was at the height of the general election that year between Bush and Kerry.  During the roughly 15-minute segment, Stewart skewered Tucker Carlson left and right.  Paul Begala was smart enough to steer clear of Stewart's many barbs. Jon had obviously rehearsed his appearance, as he was well prepared for everything Tucker had to dish out.  It was so ugly CNN cancelled the show the following year with the producer agreeing with Jon's toxic assessment.  The feud between Jon and Tucker lives on, at least in Tucker's mind, as the Fox news pundit was vicious in reporting on Stewart's push to get a veterans bill through the Senate this past week.  Tucker never liked Jon's activism, especially on the behalf of veterans and firemen, which he thinks is the domain of Republicans, not radical leftist comics.   Tucker Carlson was never more than a fill-in for Pa

  It was bad enough that the so-called LIV tour ever got off the ground but now it has officially been "Trumped."  It makes you wonder if part of the deal all along was to use Trump's many golf courses, as the PGA had terminated its association with Trump over the January 6 insurrection, cancelling its championship at Bedminster that was scheduled for this year.  Right on cue, the Saudis were there to bail him out again.  The most recent LIV tournament was a dud all the way around and you have to figure the Saudis won't keep pouring their money into a losing cause for very long.   The LIV tour was apparently the brainchild of Greg Norman, aka the Shark, who was assigned with drawing top names to the rival golf tour.  The irony of playing at Bedminster is that it is a par 71 course, so a 53, or LIII, would be a birdy on every hole.  Like everything else about this tour, it is built on gimmicks with the the title derived from scoring a 54 on a par-72 course, or LIV. 

It was funny to see this image from the 1980s.  It was after the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan and it seemed many were peeved that Canadians had bought Ladas.  The Soviet car was seen as an inexpensive alternative to Hondas and other small cars now in demand when gas prices soared in the late 70s.  Sales took off in Canada but not the US.  I don't know if this was because of a natural antipathy toward all things Soviet or if Americans just couldn't handle a stick shift.  The Yugo did much better, although it didn't have a very good reputation either.    I toyed with buying a Niva when I first came to Vilnius in 1997 as a new one sold for under $5000.   I liked the look of it, as it reminded me a bit of old GMC Jimmy, but my friends cautioned me against it.  Lithuania was turning away from Soviet cars not just for ideological reasons but because they were so clunky.  They all said it was better to buy a good used European car or truck than it was one of these outdat