So the Ukronazis, having defeated quite a few old statues, have now turned to defeating a DNR flag in Washington DC.

No, I am not kidding, see for yourself:

Ask yourself a basic question: is that the behavior of a side clearly winning a war?  And I don’t only mean the Ukrainians, I also very much mean the USA and NATO too.

But then, one could be forgiven for thinking that the folks in DC have been transmogrified into a gang of infantiles on crack cocaine.  For a country built on the worship of capitalism and free markets, the idea to try introduce a worldwide cap on the price of the single most important commodity out there should be absolute crimethink.  Yet the Hegemony is now trying to impose a 60 dollars caps on Russia oil, thereby only creating pressure for an increase in the price.  Remember those basic supply and demand graphs from economics classes?

You could say that the Empire has now declared war on that supply and demand graph :-)

It is especially amazing to see that the US wants to impose a price war on Russia, when all the other major actors (KSA, Venezuela, Iran, etc.) are all hostile to the Empire and its constant bullying.

Again, ask yourself a basic question: is that the behavior of a side clearly winning a war?

Today I will keep it short and conclude by recommending three solid (reality-based!) analyses of the current situation:

***

And now I want to share with you another type of music I do not like: the so-called “shredders”, i.e. those guitarists who run their fingers up and down the fretboard as fast as possible (folks like Vai or Satriani).  As Richie Blackmore once commented, all these guys prove is that they practiced a lot, that’s it.  Musically speaking, most “shredding” is stale, boring, garbage.

That is not to say that there are not guitarists out there who can play really fast AND really melodically – there are plenty (Al Di Meola comes to mind).  In fact, there is nothing wrong with being able to play very fast, but only as long as this speed serves a real lyrical, melodic function.

Here I want to introduce one very famous “shredder” who, while being very fast, does not use speed for speed’s sake, but who builds his solos around some truly remarkable compositions: Yngwie Malmsteen.

First, a disclaimer: there is a lot of Malmsteen music I really don’t like, and I don’t like this “hard rock persona” he still feels he needs to project to remain credible.  He does not.  He could cut his hair and wear a Tshirt, shorts and flip-flops and still remain a real musical genius and a phenomenal guitarist.  If he could also stop running around the stage and sit down, that would be even better!  But that’s probably not going to happen.

Anyway, some of Malmsteen’s compositions are truly superb, and my favorite is “Far Beyond the Sun” whom he played with his rock band and with the New Japan Philharmonic.  I prefer this latter version and that is the one I will share with you today.  I hope that it will impress you as much as it impressed me when I first heard it (and it still does impress me today).  I think Bach would have absolutely loved this :-)

Enjoy!

Andrei