R's rue

The TASS building in Moscow (1979) An internet rabbit hole found me investigating the website of The Russian News Agency - TASS. Repeatedly, in recent reports concerning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, TASS has bolted on this particular paragraph:- "When clarifying the developments unfolding, the Russian Defence Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population." The following quotation was not created by TASS: “In war, truth is the first casualty.” It is attributed to Aeschylus,  a Greek dramatist (525 BC – 456 BC) and as events unfold in Ukraine we can see how valid that observation is. "No threats whatsoever"?  Yesterday, Ukraine's health minister said that 198 Ukrainians had been killed, including three children but the picture remains far from clear. Thousands of Ukrainians...

  The Duke bored me I didn’t like any of the characters  I didn’t get them  The bumbling Broadbent, I found irritating , rather than his usual endearing self and Mathew Goode looked rather odd when he faced the screen in bifocals which gave him the look of the terrible Japanese horror that was Micky Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s  I feel odd today  from Going Gently https://ift.tt/W8SlmZ4

Rise and shine It’s the Lord’s day Praying for Ukraine Smile, your alive from R's rue https://ift.tt/Uxnr2tO

I’m sat in the Storyhouse cafe feeling  something thoughtful  The film I’ve just seen was called Flee and it’s a powerful, heartwarming animated piece which tells the story of Amid , who is a successful academic living in Denmark who is about to get married to his boyfriend Kasper. As the wedding approaches Amid retells the story of his journey to the West. An illegal immigrant trafficked from Afghanistan , his story  is a complicated and at times a dramatically harrowing one and his suspenseful tale of liberation is not only from political oppression, and depredation but is one of sexual liberation and freedom. It’s beautifully told and at times incredibly moving , so much so that when I got up to leave I caught the gaze of a man sitting behind me who mouthed the word “ Wow” as he stood up “ That was incredible “ I said as we fell into line on the way out and started to chat as people do. The man was perhaps in his late forties and wore an old fashioned duffl...