Starship Asterisk*

Wishing everyone a great 2012!

Thank you! A happy 2012 to you and yours too, Orin, and to everyone!

It's 2012 now, and I spent the last twenty minutes of 2011 before the Opera House in Malmö, along with perhaps a thousand other people. The long balcony of the opera was packed with people, like it is in this picture, and some people were standing on the roof of it, and the piazza in front of it was absolutely crowded. People stood on the sidewalks and out on the street, too, blocking all traffic.

A temporary stage had been built on the piazza, and several of the singers from Malmö Opera sang to us. The Malmö Opera Choir sang the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco by Verdi.
Then an actor read a poem, Vintergatan (The MIlky Way) by Swedish 19th century poet Zacharias Topelius. One verse goes something like this:

Far on a star he lived in the evening sky's glory
She lived in another sun and in another realm.
And Salami, that was her name, and Zulamit was he
and both of them loved very much and loved each other so.

And then, as you can guess, Salami and Zulamit start building the Milky Way so that they can meet again.

After the poem was read we all counted down to zero, and then there was a great fireworks display. It's a good thing I wore ear plugs!

Finally... I can't resist this picture from Moscow.
Happy New Year, everybody!

Ann

Finally 2012 here in Kansas City and everywhere else in CST and eastward...although it technically already is 2012, but what the heck?

Wishing everyone a
Happy
New
Year!
And may there be many more new years to come.