Ukrainian sand artist Kseniya Simonova’s moving pièce has garnered over 2 million YouTube views, and the attention of the UK Telegraph.
Astonishing, really.
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In Case You Missed ItBy lex, on September 20th, 2009
16 comments to In Case You Missed It |
Targets of Opportunityblog advertising is good for you Credo"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones "Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra" "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche "A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke “You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier "Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas "Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex Amazon AssociateFor the Effort!Winnar! Subscribe CategoriesPagesTagsacademy
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Saw this last week, stupidly good.
One of those things you watch and know you’ll never have that vision.
2:01 blew. my. mind.
It’s impressive, but “moving” I don’t get.
In Eastern Europe, a lot of this is still very fresh in people’s minds. When you can walk up to a building with pock marks all over it from German bullets – it makes it all feel less distant.
And it wasn’t like things got a lot better after that was all over, like it did here and so many other places.
Incredible. I’ll almost certainly never be that good at anything.
That bit of Nothing Else Matters at the end was pretty sweet – since it was the one song I recognized and all. But it did fit well with the whole flow of it. I’ve seen a few of these – but this was impressive not just for the technique but for the emotional impact of the topic. Pretty awesome.
Kind of long, but art and european history always strike a chord with me. Mostly because I don’t understand art and marvel at history.
Ukraine has known a lot of suffering. I’ve harped on how soft I think we have it at present, that we’ve never really known the depths of poverty and despair that others have. We’ve missed out on that, largely due to our industrious spirit and self-reliant way of life, I like to think, and we’ve missed a lot of the warfare due to our geographic isolation.
Even during the Great Depression people didn’t generally starve. Family took them in, churches provided soup kitchens, work was scarce but you looked for it in a button-down shirt, jacket, hat, and a tie if you had it. Lots of fun has been made of the Protestant work ethic but it’s done well by us as a nation.
The people of Kiev knew despair. I had a co-worker from Kiev, originally. Spent three years in the USA saving his money and working his tail off with a full-time job and two small business ventures on the side to bring his wife over. Then his brother. They are both small businessmen now, with wonderful families and full-time jobs still. On some occassions we’d have lunch together and I’d ask him about Ukraine. He would tell me of it, its peoples and history, and I’d forget to eat.
More than 600,000 Soviet soldiers died or were taken prisoner defending that town in World War 2. Total losses in that war for Ukraine alone were one in four, somewhere between 8 and 11 million if one includes civilians, partisans and soldiers. Kiev was besieged by two encircling German panzer groups in 1941, and not freed until 1943. But they also had some history prior. Kiev was sacked by the Mongols in 1240, had been previously sacked by the Suzdalians in 1169, the Pechenegs laid seize to the city in 968… They’ve been part of at least six different empires, none of them willingly.
Yet they continued on, surviving and contributing.
It is said that an artist needs to suffer to release the pathos that allows them to empathize, to deeply feel emotions, and thus capture these moments for all time in their works. Ukranians remember the suffering their forebears endured, they’ve a history of it dating back to the Byzantine empire. they also remember their countrymen in Leningrad, where 6000 to 8000 people died of starvation *per day*, and where sawdust and plaster were used to make bread when the food ran out. For 900 days Leningrad stood alone, half-starved women pulling buckets of water from beneath the ice and carrying them to the bakers after the water supply had been cut off and tainted with the taste of the dead packed in the streets like cordwood.
Ukranians have not forgotten this, it’s only two generations ago. It’s part of what has forged them into the people they are today. And I’d be proud to share my table, my friendship, and my country with any one of them.
– Max
Max, Very well said…I’d consider it a privilege to join you at that table. Best
Good Post Max. No, the Ukranians have not forgotten, nor the Poles, nor Israel or many other countries that were at risk (or did for a time) in losing their National Identity by force.
Our elitist leaders, both parties and all three branches have not forgotten the lessons of history, but it doesn’t serve there venal interests.
I had watched this video a while back, and though impressed by the artistry, it became an emotional event when I realized the story she was telling.
Don’t forget that Gafftastic Biden said their women are hot. I’m sure the Ukranians were greatly impressed with the compliment of their women.
I’d seen this about a month ago – breathtaking and so moving. Not to mention ridiculously talented.
That was very moving. Max has it right, that most Americans simply don’t understand how good we have it. Our poor are the equals of the middle class of many nations, and we have never had the depth of destruction, suffering and loss that much of Europe has known these past few centuries.
At the risk of tarnishing her stunning achievement, I not only agree with Max, but worry that we live in a country today that’s balanced, if not on a knife edge then a narrow margin, far to close to a scary precipice. Perhaps I’m just more aware of it as I’ve grown older, but I don’t think we’ve seen this level of hate and discontent—on top of economic problems and war—since at least Vietnam, and maybe the war between the states. Everyone’s angry for one reason or another; and government, big business and science are mistrusted . . . even religion. All that suggests a frightening scenario where something goes seriously wrong and anarchy results. Assassination, dirty bomb, or even a natural disaster could trigger it. Then people are knocking, or banging down, your door.
Oh wait, did I forget to take my meds today? Shees!
Clearly you need the same prescription VX gets. At least a fifth of Babancourt (or any other drink with similar alcohol content) daily. That will calm you down a great deal, and you will be able to read the news with the same equanimity as VX does. The best time to take a large dose is just before the daily news.
Tailspin, I wouldn’t worry. History tells us that people, in order to be led, need a bogeyman and a leader to pose as saving them from that bogeyman. The bogeyman may be real or fictional (Communist aggression, global warming, impending ice age, monetary collapse, oil shortage, meteor strike, cell phone radiation, flouridation of water, and lead in paint immediately come to mind). Ever wonder how the heck we managed to survive for hundreds if not thousands of years with all of these bogeymen among us?
With our faster news cycle and immediate communications, the news of a bogeyman now spreads in hours rather than days. It has been only recently that most of the country has enjoyed daily newspapers. Today I can read a story before it goes to print and a day before it’s placed in newsstands. I can read multiple news outlets with a press of my finger.
What you see is not, I think, an impending revolution or violent overthrow of the present model in progress merely awaiting a trigger. I think it’s a reflection of the vast quantity of news and information we now get hourly and vast numbers of people mad about particular topics, but probably not willing to scrap the whole American experiment over the one or two items they advocate for.
Forever remember, we are Americans. The stereotypical (ethnic) guy in a suit running your bank, the stereotypical (ethnic) guy with the F150 with the ladders strapped to it doing the lawn work or placing drywall, the stereotypical (ethnic) guy running the leaf blower in the city park and the stereotypical (ethnic) woman singing in the choir at her church and, because she’s a women we figure she can do two jobs, also volunteering at the homeless shelter at night?
Attack one of us with a bomb, a nuke, an airplane, we come together as Americans and form an incredible resolve to take the fight to the enemy. Attack us for lesser reasons, we’re likely to merely vote on those issues.
This divide and conquer strategy we see today is merely useful for elections. And as Blue Dog Democrats and Neo-Con Republicans and Conservatives, Liberals, Independents and the odd loon have shown, there is nothing about Americans that is always in lockstep with a particular label.
– Max
it was very beautiful and made me cry right after the War started through the end… Extremely moving for someone who understands the lyrics…