Wednesday, November 29, 2006

More hares...

The United States and Russia agreed on the objective of shutting down websites that permit illegal distribution of music and other copyright works. The agreement names the Russia-based website allofmp3.com as an example of such a website.

Зайцев.net anyone?

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Tetris on the Neva?

Coen was writing today about the new design of the Gazprom Headquarters in St. Petersburg. Some weeks ago The Office for Metropolitan Architecture was selected to be one of the six architects on the short-list for the design. The Office was founded in 1975 by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.

I usually like Koolhaas design. But why would he want to build a giant (more than 300 m. high) game of Tetris on the Neva?

Mystery in London, Monday

Yesterday I was in London. There was just one story all over town: the death of former Federal Security Service (FSB) lieutenant colonel Alexander Litvinenko. You can read more articles about him on Nicolas' Kiev Ukraine News Blog of November.

Of course much is still uncertain, but it seems to seriously harm Russian-British relationships. It may turn out to be a cold winter in Britain...

Friday, November 24, 2006

Second body found for Gongadze?

Several media have reported the last few days that Slovakian authorities unearthed a body that allegedly belongs to Heorhiy Gongadze, the critical internet journalist who disappeared in 2000 when Kuchma was president of Ukraine.

Usually this should be good news. But not now, since they already found a (headless) body in 2000. After a cover-up of the case under Kuchma, it became a theme during the Orange revolution. It is a test case for president Yushchenko, in which he could prove that he really can cope with corruption and do away with the old regime. Many people believe, however, that the Gongadze case was as such included in the round table talks between Yushchenko, Yanukovich and Kuchma that ended the Orange revolution almost two years ago. In that scenario Kuchma would go free. Time will tell.

Some interesting questions remain. If this second body belongs to Gongadze, whose body was found in Ukraine then?

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Boratisms

Borat does funny things with language in his movie. All titles used on screen are genuine Russian. But the US and A map seems to use a language that only looks like Russian. On the map the names are spelled even more phonetically than Russian already does and still it's not Kazakh.

The words he uses most often are Polish (Jagshemash = "Jak się masz") and (Chenquieh = "Dziękuję"), but apart from that he appears to speak colloquial Hebrew (actually slang if I should believe the comments from those who understand it). And Azamat Bagatov speaks Armenian - the actor (Ken Davitian) actually is Armenian. (Please note that богатый means wealthy in Russian).

The answer to the quiz was: Gagarin. He is the only one I did not spot in the movie. In case you saw it, here's where to find the other three: There is a green box of Belochka behind the windscreen of the van throughout the movie (it's on the left if the windscreen is seen from the front.) The other two images, the girl from the Pinguin commercial and the image of Aliyev appear when the movie is over (by far the most hilarious part).

Aliyev actually appears there as the president of Kazakhstan (pause) ...NOT!

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Today's quiz




Today a simple quiz: which one is the odd one out?




And...why?

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Zaitsev is gek... of een zielig geval?

Vriend Coen in Moskou heeft een raadsel vandaag.

Dus tijd voor een lesje googelen voor gevorderen :)

Stap 1: We weten hoe hij heet: иван зайцев of зайцев иван.

Stap 2: Daar zijn er teveel van (~700) dan even Poetin erbij en dan zie je in artikeltjes uit 2002 dat hij in Погост woont.

Stap 3: Lees de eerste resultaten van de zoektocht op de trefwoorden "Иван Зайцев" Путин Погост vluchtig door. bingo!

Je ziet daar zijn eigen reactie:

Иван Зайцев Jun 7 2004 1:56PM

Я,Зайцев Иван Сергеевич, тот самый оком написана эта немного лжывая стать.Я конечно несобираюсь её коментировать.Скажу лишь одно,я был тогда не сумашедшым ,а был я политическим заключённым.После того как меня освободили я написал книгу ПУТИН КЛОН ГИТЛЕРА , читайте её в интернете на сайте zis.h12.ru


Stap 4: nu wordt het ingewikkeld, want het gaat immers om een site die uit de lucht is gehaald. Niet getreurd, daar heb je wat tools voor: http://www.archive.org/.

Stap 5: Als je daar bovenstaande invult en een beetje klikt, zie je dat zijn site is overgegaan naar www.zisa.ru,

Stap 6: omdat die site ook is verwijderd, gebruik je nog een keer archive.org: presto!

Maar die man heeft serieus hulp nodig zo te zien... Боже мой...

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Autumn rain

While the rain is drumming on my rooftop for one of the last times in my old home, the fragile voice of Olga Krasko fills the room: жаркий огонь полыхает в камине / тень, моя тень, на холодной стене. (the hot fire whirls in the chimney / shadow, my shadow on the cold wall)

This brings together some intersting features. First of all Olga Krasko's voice. She was born 25 years ago in Kharkiv, which now lies in Ukraine. She plays the character Varvara in the movie Turkish Gambit after a novel by Akunin.

The poem that was used for this song is Песенка Изабеллы (Дождик осенний) by Bulat Okudzhava, one of the USSR's most celebrated bards:

жаркий огонь полыхает в камине,
тень, моя тень, на холодной стене.
жизнь моя связана с вами отныне -
дождик осенний, поплачь обо мне.

сколько бы я не бродила по свету,
тень, моя тень, на холодной стене.
нету без вас мне спокойствия, нету -
дождик осенний, поплачь обо мне.

все мы в руках ненадежной фортуны,
тень, моя тень, на холодной стене.
лютни уж нет, но звучат ее струны -
дождик осенний, поплачь обо мне.

жизнь драгоценна, да выжить непросто,
тень, моя тень, на холодной стене.
короток путь от весны до погоста -
дождик осенний, поплачь обо мне.

It seems to have been used as such in the 1980s Soviet movie "Капитан Фракасс" (Le Capitaine Fracasse, after the 1863 novel by Théophile Gautier) by Vladimir Savelyev featuring the young Oleg Menshikov as Fracasse and Anna Isaikina as Isabella. The movie was shot at the Dovzhenko film studios in Kyiv. I wonder what the song sounds like in that movie.

I found the modern version of this song on the Turkish Gambit Soundtrack, which was done by Goran Bregović, one of my favourite composers or "one of the most recognizable modern composers of the Balkans" as Wiki calls it. (you'll hear more of him when you visit the movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan".)

It is strange that it took me almost a year to find the album. I have been looking for it in Kyiv at least twice (March, July) but no result. I finally found it here.

If you want to listen to a short clip, please copy and paste the following URL in the media player of your choice: http://www.freewebs.com/muumifoto/Dozhdik%20Osennij.mp3

Vreugde, hartelust, troost of weldaad?

In de eerste week van november organiseerde Het Anker in Vlaardingen voor de zevende keer op rij samen met Spoetnik een rugzakjesactie voor kinderen in Oekraïne.

Tijdens de slotbijeenkomst op 8 november had Отрада een van haar eerste optredens. Volgens de site betekent het vreugde, hartelust, troost, weldaad. De groep is nog te nieuw om nu al te bepalen welke van de vier betekenissen het meest toepasselijk is...

En natuurlijk was er na afloop tijd voor een hapje en drankje, want без бокала нет вокала* :)

* vrij naar Верка Сердючка

BB beste Nederlandse blog bij BoB

Op de dag dat bekend werd dat Seselj in hongerstaking is en dat het besluit over de status van Kosovo over de jaargrens en de komende Servische verkiezingen wordt heengetild, is het weblog van Marloes en Werner in Belgrado uitgeroepen tot winnaar in de categorie Best Weblog Dutch bij The Best of Blog Awards (the BOBs).

Hierbij past maar een woord, een welgemeend честитам! Ga vooral zo door!

Het is een initiatief van Deutsche Welle dus ik sluit een complot vanuit huize Bossmann niet uit... :)

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Не дозволено цензурою

I have an old Langenscheidt dictionary that could be used as a guide to Russia. It was printed in Berlin almost 100 years ago. The issue I have was originally bought in a German bookstore that was located at Nevski Prospekt "№20". When I bought the book many years ago, a short text caught my attention: дозволено цензурою С.-Петербургъ, 20 Октября 1909 года. It had been allowed by the Imperial censor on 20 October 1909.

When I saw that text, it seemed lightyears away when Russia would print such verdicts on works of art, artist impressions or literary work. Of course the Soviet Glavlit was notorious, but things seemed to move into the right direction. That was, until I read the verdict on "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan".

Vulpes pilum mutat, non mores.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Imago mortis

Last weekend in Zagreb I was a bit surprised to see a familiar image all over town. It was the announcement for a Halloween party that was organised around a performance by the Macedonian band Mizar.

I just wondered about the image. It is the "Imago mortis" taken from the 1493 Liber chronicarum or Nuremberg chronicle by Hartmann Schedel (p. CCLXI). The image is an allegory of death, also called Danse Macabre.

BORДT!

After Borat visited Amsterdam he is now conquering the world, it also opened in Zagreb yesterday. I cannot wait to see the movie...

(what is sort of funny is that the name seems to have the same 'mistake' as the ambulance that was sent to Ukraine recently)