I got my power from her

My Sunday movie was Alex Strangelove. Alex Truelove is in high school. He is senior class president, getting top grades, and dating Claire. But he can’t seem to lose his virginity with her. At a party he meets Elliot, who graduated the year before and is gay. It takes a while for Alex to figure out what is going on. I appreciated that there was no condemnation for being gay, that it was just another way of being. The issue was more about trying not to be who you are and the relationship damage that can cause. And that probably gave the whole thing away. Actually, the whole thing was given away by the movie poster showing Alex with Claire on one side and Elliot on the other with a big heart and question mark drawn over them. And I wouldn’t have bothered to watch a high school rom-com without the gay element and anticipated ending. For something completely different... Charles Jay of the Daily Kos community reported on the winner of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest and what happened after the win. Eurovision is a really big deal in Europe and elsewhere around the world. Each country – Iceland to Azerbaijan – submits an entry (Russia was excluded this year). There is a big concert in which each person or group sings their song. Judges and audience vote on the winner. The winning country one year serves as host the following year. This year’s winner was Kalush Orchestra of Ukraine! They are named after a town in western Ukraine. They sang and rapped the song Stefania, which frontman Oleh Psiuk said is about his mother. Her hair may be turning gray and she may treat me like a child but you can’t take my power from me because I got it from her. The official Eurovision performance is the second video in Jay’s post. The group didn’t know they were the official Ukraine entry until days before the war broke out. The first video is new, posted just after their win. Kalush Orchestra recorded the song amidst the ruins of Bucha, Irpin, Borodyanka, and Hostomel—all cities near Kyiv that were devastated by Russia before it pulled out. The words now resonate as describing Mother Ukraine. There are many images of a female soldier carrying children out of the ruins and delivering them to a shelter. Goodness, this combination of devastation, compassion, and determination was hard to watch! The war scattered the group’s members. President Zelenskyy granted these men of military age permission to leave the country. The entry, better yet the win, is a big morale boost for Ukraine. Shortly after the contest they headed back to their country to take up arms. The song has become an anthem of resistance and victory. Soldiers in the Azovstal factory released a version accompanied by sounds of explosions. They have since surrendered to Russia and likely face a harsh fate. Yes, Kyiv, Ukraine is to host Eurovision next year. We hope Russia is soundly defeated and enough rebuilding has happened by then so they can.