? for EGG

On some of the reports of the Russian invasion they use the same spelling as your home town. Is there a Crimean connection where you live? I think you're by the Russian River.

They want us to play with conviction. If we're going to make a mistake, let's make it a good one. With plenty of conviction. If it were ever to happen again, follow that second note with a triplet and a fortissimo crescendoing half note. Oh, yeah! rotfl. (I've been there.)

Egg, you describe that song well. It reminds me of when our band went touring (visiting the three elementary schools in our district). On one of our performances, I was the only one in the band that forgot we were to play one less verse when touring. I solo'd the first big blast and half of the second before I remembered. The look I got from Mr. Hoffman (an ex army band leader) told me, you've just been demoted to second trumpet Mr. Miller.

I remember that junior high band experience quite well myself. Those three big chords climbing, simple enough and powerful enough to give kids a taste of what it feels like to really play. That piece is almost always incorporated into the pre-recorded soundtracks that accompany big, public fireworks displays on the fourth of July. It has a universal appeal. Hoping not to sound wierd or arcane, it occurs to me that that's the kind of sound that gets created by a horde of steppe warriors several generations after they have settled down in the country they conquer.

That whole area has been swept by a thousand (more) years of successive waves of militaristic ferocious nomadic horsemen who ride in and cut people's heads off. They know from first hand experience how important that big gate is. And now we have satellites and drones....

Thanks for the response, EGG. Both your local history lesson and Crimean assessment were very informative. With today's technology, I am amazed at the amount of information that can be gleaned with just a little effort.

When important events happen around the world, I frequently go to Google Earth and get the street view tour of the place. Sadly, Sevastapol must not have allowed the Google cars in so that's not available. But Kiev did and I checked it out.

My previous impression of Kiev was limited to a song we played in jr hi band called Great Gate of Kiev. But after touring on street view, I found it to be far more European than I had thought, There is a very grand square that rivals any in Europe, less graffiti than most European cities, but they really need a sign ordinance as they clutter up the place far too much. Parking is atrocious.

You can also get some insight into the central planning of the old USSR. Big infrastructure projects (bridges, tunnels) abandoned while partially(even mostly) done. The core is surrounded by the drabbest apartment blocks you will ever see.

I wonder why the population of Crimea could vote to go with Russia at about a 95% clip and for some reason the U. S. government says that is not a legal election. Paper ballots too, so there was no chance of computer fraud which happens about 100% of the time with U. S. elections.

WE have troops in about 135 countries all over the world and WE invade sovereign countries and it is good, but they are asked to come in and stabilize the situation and it is bad. What a mess, and what hypocrisy.

Best explanation I've heard for the Ukraine / Crimea situation B)

And to think I thought Georgia was all about cornbread muffins, fried chicken and dog fights. ;)

Nice write up, Eric.

It's true. The farthest south the Russians got before they bumped up against the Spanish (in days long gone by) was Fort Ross up the coast a bit and there are some names related to that (ie. Russian River, Russian Gulch, etc.) but they gave up because they couldn't feed themselves. Believe it or not it was because of the horrific gopher population. As late as the sixties you could still drive right through the old abandoned fort. Now it's a park with an entrance fee. The whole thing was extensively rehabbed in a very fine manner. Shingleweaver posted a pic awhile back of a strange structure at Plantation called the Osprey House that was designed and built by Bruce Johnson, a locally very famous sculptor living in Timber Cove area. He came out to the area as part of a crew doing the Fort Ross restoration back in the late sixties, early seventies.

But to answer your specific question, apparently some guy fled a small mob that was after him and holed up in a building downtown (a long time ago) and was under siege there. Supposedly someone shouted out, "This is your Sebastopol!" presumably because the original town had also been famously under siege at the time. So the name stuck. So I'm told. I will have to look it up now.

Oddly enough, we're not Sevastopol's "sister city." We're a little strange in that department. We are a "nuclear free zone" which means, I presume, that if the US Gov. wanted to haul some waste through town they would be required to find another route. (lol)

But what I notice by looking at current events and cross-checking with a world map is truly interesting. The Black Sea area is historically and logistically way more important than I ever fully grasped. It is the other end of the Bosphorus (Constantinople/Istanbul) and it is Russia's only southern sea access. That base they lease in Sebastopol/Crimean peninsula is a big deal to them. Even so, all traffic to and from it has to go through the Bosphorus and then the Dardanelles. Whatever anyone might think about Russia, whatever saber-rattling and tough-talk McCain wants to indulge himself in, whatever whatever whatever, good, bad, or indifferent, there is absolutely no way, NO WAY, Russia can afford to have that base jeopardized. It's a deal-killer. Not going to happen any way shape or form. They have to control it. All contingent issues aside involving Ukraine or whatever, they just will not allow it to be jeopardized. Never going to happen. Stalin booted out all the Islamic types in the fifties. Their population dropped to zero. Now they have seriously drifted back in. Two thirds of the current population in the Crimean Peninsula is Russian, not Ukrainian. Guess who they want to be aligned with. It's not really a negotiable point for them and won't be. They will do whatever they have to, Ukraine or world public opinion be damned. We would and they will.

By the way, Georgia at the souteastern end of the Black Sea (which was also in the news awhile back vis a vis Russian renegging on its independence, was the site of Jason and the Argonauts golden fleece.