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July 29, 2005
Bozhe
Absurdist Learn Russian flash cartoon. Why do all the Russian-themed flash installations I find on the internet suffer from patchy-as-hell grammar? Also, from a sort of deliberate pointlessness, an intentional futility. (Do you remember the tomato-picking applet?)
Posted by michele at 11:05 AM | Comments (5)
July 19, 2005
Russians: always racially sensitive
Connie, who some say is named after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is not only the star of a book [about her master, Putin] but also has a leading role in a weekly comic strip, "Connie and Her Master," which has appeared in Ogonyok magazine since the start of the year.
Connie is a black Labrador Retriever.
(From an article on Irina Borisova's new children's book, tangentially about Putin, as seen through his dog's eyes. Is she deifying him? Satirising him? For a sensationalist overview on Russian reading habits generally, see today's St Petersburg Times, wasting my time and yours with such thunderclap revelations as, "leaders and businessmen buy more economic and political literature; housewives choose cookbooks and children's books" - apparently the actual findings of an actual study.
Although pensioners like to read, they have a tendency to buy fewer books, "because they are often poor," Golovko said.
Sigh. In any case, having ridden six months' worth of St Petersburg Metro convinces me that reading, especially of detective stories, is alive and well. I'd be interested to know what the corresponding statistics for active reading are in the United States, for example.)
Posted by michele at 9:34 AM | Comments (2)
July 17, 2005
A Phrasebook to Get Killed By
The Zompist's Phrasebook in Russian, Italian, Danish and Dutch for world-weary cynics, featuring translations of "It's better in the States", "There's a corpse on my bed. Please change the sheets", and "We kicked your ass in World War II", though I'm not sure in what context an Italian would ever have cause to use the latter. Look out for Russian omissions for cultural reasons, and certain crosscultural transformations:
I admire you above all for your purity of spirit and your appreciation of the arts.
V rot, kiska.
Compare with list, from the same site, of ludicrous phrases from actual phrasebooks:
I'd like to go to a Komsomol party.
Ja khotel by pojti na komsomoljskij vecher.(Berlitz Russian for Travellers)
Posted by michele at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2005
Oblomovshchina of the Blog
So it turns out that full-time jobs suck the blood from one's brain. Now and again of an evening I'll get an idea for this bloglet, but then I'll remember how pleasurable, and indeed necessary, it is, to sit in a soft chair and reflect.
Text is beyond me. But I'll pass on these droll little photos by Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya.
Posted by michele at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)
July 9, 2005
Poems from the dead city of Pripyat
"Seeking a breath of fresh air in the middle of that night, she went out on to her balcony in the city of Pripyat and watched the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explode in front of her."
It was then that Lyubov Sirota started to write poetry.
Posted by michele at 12:39 PM | Comments (1)
July 8, 2005
"Eto ya, Cheburashka!"
Oj! I'd bought a Cheburashka DVD at Brighton Beach a couple of weeks ago but only just got around to watching it last night. My posture slumped, my face took on a soft expression of utter idiocy, I squeaked several times...cuteness explosion!
For the uninitiated: Cheburashka is found in a crate of oranges, rejected from the zoo for being of an unidentifiable species, and put to work standing in a bargain-store window display. He's given a telephone booth to live in, where he stares sadly at a spinning top for "entertainment". (Check out his grim living situation here.) When, at the end of the first episode, his friends offer him a new home, he suggests the Little House for Friends be used as a kindergarten instead, where he volunteers to work as a toy! Collective "Aww", everyone!
(Wikipedia entry on our furry friend. Vasya has a Russian-language fansite with absurdist jokes, children's competitions and adorable audio clips.)
The Cheburashka ensemble also features a lion named Chandr, who, for reasons I can't fully explain, seems quite clearly Jewish to me.
A special treat! (And cliplets from some other classics here.)
Posted by michele at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
July 5, 2005
So true.
Everyone Drunk But Me on a foreigner's diminutive-envy.
Posted by michele at 5:17 PM | Comments (0)
Sigh.
Russian man impersonates female friend to take exam on her behalf; grotesquely large prosthetic breasts (with second function of concealing crib sheets) give him away. (Unbelievably, this is a BBC regional report and not one from Mosnews or Pravda.)
At least it happened in Russia and not in India.
Posted by michele at 4:49 PM | Comments (1)
Moscow vs Petersburg
Language differences between capitals old and new collected in electronic dictionary.
The list of objects and notions that are expressed differently includes metro pass, house entrance, eraser, doughnut, turtleneck, newsstand, grand (as in the slang word for "a thousand"), cigarette stub and chicken, to name a few. Even borrowed words react differently. The Middle Eastern snack known in the West as a gyro or doner kebab is called shaurma in Moscow but shaverma -- with a different stress! -- in St. Petersburg.
Posted by michele at 11:28 AM | Comments (1)