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Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 0 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 2497055 |
| Visitors Out: 19303 |
| Total Visitors Out: 28552 |
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| Soviet Pop Music: Jaak Joala - I'm Drawing You |
| 2012-04-18 13:00:27 |
The song below was performed in 1981, and I listened to it on a vinyl disk throughout 1980s and early 1990s, for as long as my disk player was OK. On my way back from Tallinn in 2002 I shared a compartment with a lady who told me that in the years since the USSR demise Jaak Joala denounced his work on the Soviet pop scene. I don't know exactly what he meant, and he surely has the right for his own opinion, but I hope he didn't mean to dismiss the songs by Raimonds Pauls, including the one you are about to listen.
Indeed, this is what the Soviet analogue to the Top of the Pops looked and felt like (it is called The Song of the Year and runs to this day). And the dashing Jaak Joala, tall, handsome, with a great voice has obviously left an impact on the type of men I like. Another Estonian who also impressed me as a child was an actor Lembit Ulfsak.
The song I'm Drawing You is about a guy who loves a girl and so draws her portraits, thus bring her in his life even before she crosses th...
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| Explore the U.S. with Great Savings from BA |
| 2012-04-17 04:07:34 |
Having a well-deserved holiday
I love the British Airways. In all my flights I chose the BA more often than any other operator simply because they never disappointed me. I must admit, of course, that if they negotiate direct flight connection between Moscow and Manchester I shall love the company ever more.
I want to let you know about some offers the BA currently run for their regular and prospective customers. The best thing about them is that you need to respond to the promo until the end of April BUT the flights can be booked for any time from April 17, 2012 through to March 31, 2013. I'll be very happy if I could help you sort out your holiday plans. (Note: those are affiliate links).
Secluded beaches on the Gulf Coast
For those looking to get off the beaten track, book a fly-drive holiday and discover some of the lesser known beaches found along the Gulf Coast including Pass-a-Grille beach. Alternatively glide through the Everglades National Park and check out th...
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| Quotes about Laughter: Samuel Butler |
| 2012-04-16 03:54:01 |
Samuel Butler (1835-1902)
Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature. - Samuel Butler, the English author (biography at Encyclopaedia Britannica)Thanks for reading and visiting! You can connect with me on Google+ @ https://plus.google.com/108262661313082363581/posts/. Julia x
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| Upside Down: Weather and Dance |
| 2012-04-16 03:31:20 |
When I travelled to England in late February I was surprised and relieved at once that it did not rain a bit. It did not occur to me that something drastic may be coming, but now I hear in the news that drought has spread over a good part of the UK. It's not just the traditionally dry and sunny East Coast, but the South West and Midlands, too. In fact, such counties as Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and West Midlands are affected, so it will come as no surprise if Manchester and Liverpool will suffer the same fate. The Environmental Agency only warns against the water shortages, and I hope that forests and gardens remain intact. Had it been in Russia, we'd already be bracing up for turf and forest fires.
Break Dance Routine at Photo-Expo 2012
As for Moscow, the snow is gradually - finally! - disappearing, it is warm enough for me to wear a lighter coat, and as I am writing this, the weather is dry. Today I am wearing grey, green, and brown colours, which is a quite ...
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| Moscow Camera: Yauza River Bridge at Dusk |
| 2012-04-11 14:36:30 |
This scene was captured on the bridge across the Yauza River near the Foreign Literature Library. You will see changing billboards, some traffic, water reflections, people walking, and ducks bathing. Thanks for reading and visiting! You can connect with me on Google+ @ https://plus.google.com/108262661313082363581/posts/. Julia x
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| Belated Palm Sunday Greetings |
| 2012-04-09 04:42:53 |
This weekend I've not been online longer than 10 mins - just to check my emails and to accept a request to translate an article for an academic journal, from English into Russian. There's also at least one day in a week when I have my mobile phone turned off most of the time. I have a class, and I find it impolite to keep my phone on, even if nobody may ring. In any case, I came to study, not to answer the phone.
I'm not doing any of this purposefully. I really cannot be available all the time now. But as a result I miss some dates - like, The Palm Sunday. So I hope this vintage photo from my family album can rectify things a bit.
In Russia, we celebrate Easter on April 15 this year; unlike in the UK, Easter is not marked by days-off, - unlike Christmas holidays. I have just had a conversation with my colleague about Russian rite of having the Easter cakes and eggs blessed by the priest in the church. There is never a church big enough to fit all who want to perform the rite, so t...
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| In Memoriam: Thomas Kinkade |
| 2012-04-09 03:38:56 |
Thomas Kinkade, Venice.
Back in December 2011, we gave my colleague (a Sag, like me) a calendar as a birthday present. It was a selection of paintings by the American artist Thomas Kinkade who unexpectedly passed away this weekend. The colleague has just found out, told us, and she is very sorry; in her words, every month when she changes a calendar on the wall she discovers a new piece of art that she enjoys looking at.
In his own words, Kinkade saw his mission in art as a capturing "those special moments in life adorned with beauty and light". Kinkade was doubtless a modern-day John Constable, their paintings being a bit too idyllic but so masterful you could not possibly count their idealism as a weakness.
The work left behind impresses with its range of settings, the colours, the composition, and - last but not least - the popularity. There are various means of measuring the artistic merit, but one of them is people's needing your work and telling you about it by buying mugs...
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| Quotes About Laughter: Fyodor Dostoevsky |
| 2012-04-05 06:54:42 |
It is a bad sign when people stop understanding humour, irony, or joke. - Fyodor Dostoevsky.
This is a rare photographic portrait of Fyodor Dostoevsky, made by his close friend Konstatin Shapiro. The photograph was presented to Jacov Faddeevich Sakhar on 16 December, 1880 with the inscription in Dostoevsky's own hand.
More about the photo: Lame Duck Books. Thanks for reading and visiting! You can connect with me on Google+ @ https://plus.google.com/108262661313082363581/posts/. Julia x
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| Andrei Tarkovsky Turns 80 |
| 2012-04-04 07:23:14 |
Had he lived to this day, Andrei Tarkovsky, a genuine Russian film director, would celebrate his 80th birthday. Instead, we celebrate the lifetime of work marked by a never-ending philosophical quest, poetry, and constant probing.
Born into a family of a Russian poet Arseniy Tarkovsky, Andrei went on to graduate from the State Institute of Cinematography with a short film, The Streamroller and the Violin. The script was co-written by Tarkovsky and Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky, another outstanding Russian director and the brother of Nikita Mikhalkov. I found a subtitled version, which I am sure will be a treat to all those who have already discovered and long loved such masterpieces, as Andrei Rublev (about the Russian icon painter and creator of the famous Trinity), Solaris (an adaptation of the novel by S. Lem), Ivan's Childhood (a war-time drama about a boy), The Mirror, The Stalker (an adaptation of the novel by the Strugatsky Brothers), Nostalghia (with the script by Tonino Guer...
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| Art Salon 2012 at the Central House of the Artists |
| 2012-04-04 06:53:39 |
Art Salon came to the Central House of the Artists in Moscow between 16 and 25 of March. I visited it with a friend of mine who kindly helped me to delve into contemporary Russian painting and sculpture. One of the exhibits featured the work of Alexander Voronkov, a renowned Russian painter who in 2010 finished his graphic cycle, The Odyssey. It consists of several graphic paintings that join one another into a magnificent 13,5m-long stripe. A Stroganov Institute of Arts graduate, Voronkov possesses a virtuoso etching skill, which Odyssey amply manifests.
On his official website you can watch the entire cycle at the top of the page. I also took a photo of one of the "chapters".
Alexander has been fortunate to amass dedicated painters around him, too. His wife, son and daughter-in-law all paint, although in different techniques and on different subjects. At the presentation of his work during this year's Art Salon I took a photo of his wife's still life with flowers and the easel...
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