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Good morning, oatcake*** I don't even know how to say this, because I still don't fully believe it, but tonight I'm suddenly going to a Coldplay concert at Wembley Stadium. OH. MY. GOD.
I don't like big concerts and there's no point in inviting me to them, but Coldplay is the only band whose show I've dreamed of seeing live.
I used to ru-u-u-ule the world…
I had resigned myself to the thought that this probably wouldn't happen in this lifetime, since their sellouts happen in seconds, so tickets are never available or they cost a fortune.
Seas would rise when I gave the word…
And here we are, dreams do come true. Today is their tenth and final concert of this tour, the tenth sellout for 90,000 people, and I have a ticket.
One minute, I heeeeld the key
Next, the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my caaastles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand.
| | Friday Essay #34. Pretty little thing I didn't listen to Pugacheva's interview.
I watered the flowers and three hours later the rain watered them again. The transplanted oak, geranium and marigold are doing great.
I fed the turtle. Twice. I let her out to walk four times, but she couldn't calm down, as if she didn't know what she wanted. I saw her eat a breadcrumb she found on the floor. Need to vacuum.
I got out woolen socks and a warm home sweater. The color of the socks is pesto sauce, the color of the sweater is matcha with milk. The windows in the apartment are always open.
I didn't unload the dishwasher and never took the winter jacket to the dry cleaner. The dry cleaner is still on the first floor of my building. This is no longer funny at all.
Fish is defrosting in the fridge for dinner. There's no bread or eggs at home, but there's lots of spinach and dark chocolate with sea salt that we won when we went on a city quest.
I need to print out my daughter's Russian homework and grab the book "House Guests, House Pests" before school to return it to the library. This is our first truly adult non-fiction book. The fascination with insects is at its peak. Mom, who do you like more, butterflies or moths? Mom, do you know how "computer bug" got its name? Mom, now I have even more respect for ants!
I don't want to wear sneakers, so I stubbornly walk either in sandals or rubber boots. It rains every day. Need to get to the store and buy something. No time.
I have a small mess on my desk, but I know where everything is. I have a tall stack of books on my bedside table, but I need them all. I feel a pleasant balance of domestic chaos.
I decided to reread the short and somewhat depressing novel "Crudo" by Olivia Laing. A long time ago I received it in a package from a reader. The events in the novel take place during Trump's first term. It turns out we've been living in anxious fear-expectation of a new world war for a long time. Excerpt:
"The Guardian outlined six possible scenarios, none of which sounded optimistic, especially considering that the two people ready to press the button were not distinguished by cooperativeness, not distinguished by diplomacy, not distinguished by common sense. Katie was tormented by despair, she worried not only for herself, but for all the dear creatures, including people, and for what life could truly be wonderful."
I recognized myself in Katie. I feel sorry for us, but I don't stay angry for long, because there's no point in it. Indeed, I really want everything to be good for everyone, and that sometimes irritates me. I want to not want that. I want to not care about everything and everyone except myself and my circle. "Let people tear each other's faces off". But it is what it is.
In general, I have a selfish request today: please, please, please, take care of yourself, remember yourself, and don't let yourself be hurt. Pretty little thing. | | | | Poland Shot Down Shaheds. What's Next | | On the night of Wednesday, September 10, Poland was attacked by drones. More precisely, there were "19 violations of airspace recorded". The attack, or whatever you call it, continued until morning. To repel it, Saab and AWACS aircraft, Polish F-35, F-16, Mi-24, Mi-17 fighters and Black Hawk helicopters were launched into the air. They repelled it, everything's fine. Spent a bunch of money on missiles.
Nineteen Shaheds are nothing by modern standards. For comparison, on the same night, Russia launched 415 drones at Ukraine. The most interesting thing is what happens next. This is the first such episode in three years of war, plus the drones flew from Belarus, where joint military exercises with Russia are currently taking place. In general, if Shaheds used to fly into Poland accidentally (or "accidentally"), the same can be said now: well yes, 19 of them, well yes, all night, but there are exercises, anything can happen. Although the Russian Foreign Ministry doesn't even say that much. Why bother, really.
So far the reaction to the Russian attack has been: "This is reckless and dangerous" and "Warsaw is considering invoking Article 4 of the NATO charter". According to Poland, what happened symbolically occurred in every NATO country: Spain, Great Britain, Germany, Italy. Kind of yes and kind of no: the Kremlin is testing exactly this moment right now. NATO Article 4, which Poland is considering invoking, concerns diplomatic response before the well-known Article 5 on collective defense can be applied. I wouldn't be surprised if there are also Articles 4.1, 4.2, 4.3.1 — and so on.
The EU says they stand in solidarity with Poland, but so far everything feels more like this: | | 
NATO Article 5: whoever was attacked is no longer in NATO.
| | Yesterday Poland requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting. Let me remind you that Russia is a member of this unfortunate Security Council and has veto power. Yesterday it was also reported that, according to preliminary investigation, Russian UAVs flew straight toward a NATO base, through which military aid to Ukraine was being delivered.
I, like Putin apparently, am curious about where the red lines are in the EU, and whether they exist at all. And if they do exist, are there people in Europe with sufficient political will ready to defend these lines.
(At this moment I raise my head and look at the sky, as if I forgot something in space. Actually, I remembered a story.)
I read a story about South Korean resident Choi Mal Ja, who was 18 years old when a 21-year-old man knocked her to the ground and tried to put his tongue in her mouth. Fortunately, he didn't succeed: the girl bit off 1.5 cm of his tongue and ran away. This happened in 1964. The court then charged the man with trespassing on private property and intimidation and sentenced him to 6 months in prison. He was not charged with attempted rape.
As for Choi Mal Ja, the girl was sentenced to 10 months in prison because her self-defense "went beyond reasonable limits". Can you imagine. She got more than he did.
61 years passed. This summer, after reviewing the case, the court dropped the charges against Choi Mal Ja and recognized her as a victim of sexualized violence. Now she will demand compensation from the state.
I don't want to think about how that 1964 attack could have ended if she hadn't bitten off his tongue. Waiting for the aggressor to stop himself means giving him time and space that the victim (the injured party!) always has less of. Of course, no one wants to be the aggressor, the one who "started the conflict," but the thing is that the conflict has been started long ago, and responding to aggressive actions (especially repeated and escalating ones) is not provocation.
(At this phrase I turn into an unknown wild animal and run away.)
| | 1/ Yesterday, 52 political prisoners were released in Belarus. Among them is Igor Losik. Oh my God. He was imprisoned for 1904 days. Here's the full list of those released. 2/ For two days in Nepal there were protests and riots: arson, violence, politicians' homes looted, parliament building burned down, 30 dead, more than a thousand wounded. In the end, the prime minister resigned, the social media ban was lifted, and a curfew was imposed in the capital Kathmandu.
Gen Z distanced themselves from the vandalism and said that opportunists organized it all. Now student group leaders are negotiating with the military, who are trying to control the still unstable situation. 3/ + Meduza: Charlie Kirk was shot dead in the US — a conservative activist, podcast host and Trump supporter. He was called one of the most influential voices of MAGA. The 31-year-old Kirk was the founder of the student conservative movement The Turning Point USA. It's believed that he helped Trump attract young people in the past elections.
Can you imagine, he was shot with a sniper rifle right during his speech at a university campus. In broad daylight in front of hundreds of students.
Kirk's classmates told that in school he was rude, arrogant and had a superiority complex. (These classmates, right? They're just jealous.) Kirk spoke out against abortions, immigration, leftists, vaccination, criticized Islam, believed that transgender people were to blame for the rise in shootings in the US, and after Taylor Swift's engagement was announced, wrote: "I hope this will make Taylor Swift more conservative. She needs to interact more with reality... Give up feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You're not in charge".
Overall, he was a Christian, millionaire, husband and father of two children. 4/ We have a (temporarily) new richest person and man — 81-year-old Oracle founder Larry Ellison. Oh my God, I didn't even know he was that old.
On Wednesday, Oracle stock rose when it announced that by the end of this decade it expects to receive $144 billion annually from AI companies using its cloud computing capabilities. And not just rose: | | 
What the hell is this?
| | This old man can't sit still. The other day I read that Ellison is investing huge money in Oxford and Oxford University, because he's building a scientific institute there called The Ellison Institute of Technology. In 2023, the American billionaire even bought a 300-year-old pub in Oxford called The Eagle and Child, where Tolkien and Lewis used to meet for a pint of ale. The pub owners didn't want to sell it for a long time, but in the end they couldn't resist the generous offer of $10 million. For Ellison, that's the cost of one second of his working time, haha. 5/ Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Ozempic and Wegovy, will cut 9,000 jobs amid growing competition. Sales growth has slowed and they need to reduce costs and coddle investors, so 9k people have to go. Moreover, 5k of these jobs will be cut in Denmark, and this will be the largest layoff in the country's history. Ozempic gave — Ozempic took. 6/ In the last issue I didn't tell you about Apple's September event, because I didn't want to. And I still don't want to. What, haven't you seen an iPhone? Instead, I'd rather show you a screenshot from the fresh South Park episode where Butters tries to buy a labubu for his girlfriend. I recommend it. | | 
This hilarious wordplay delighted me. The series character was talking about wok noodles, but the authors, of course, meant woke culture. It turned out very funny.
| | — Mom, Ananya asked what I was singing, and I said it was a Russian song that got stuck in my head. And then she asked me to hum this song to her, and I hummed it, and now Ananya also has Meladze stuck in her head: "But I cut the wires a thousand times, shouted to myself, I'm leaving forever..."
Sorry if "Salut, Vera" now gets stuck in your head too. When my mom was visiting us, she and my daughter watched a Meladze concert at Royal Albert Hall. I remember how as a child I also watched concerts with my grandmother (Kadysheva, Babkina, Leontiev). Now my daughter has that experience too. My granddaughter will watch a Coldplay concert with me.
By the way, yesterday I made a surprise for my mom: I sent her a link to Alla Pugacheva's interview with Katerina Gordeeva. Mom was beside herself with joy: "What a surprise! Thank you, daughter! I had a dream to see her live... At least this way! Cool! It's a pleasure just to look at her. How young we were..."
Now you know how to please your parents.
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Can you imagine, I didn't know, but there's an opinion that after divorce women often get bob haircuts, and this is considered a symbol of a new stage in life, meaning rejection of the past and openness to new opportunities. And short haircuts are also associated with a sense of freedom and independence. Wow, and if I've had a bob all my life, what does that mean? Such nonsense.
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