Category: Things That Are Russian

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If You’re Interested…

I’m unfamiliar with this YouTuber–this popped up in my feed yesterday.  He’s kind of annoying, but it’s a decent summary of Shostakovich and his appeal.  As a former Shosta-kid and Shost-adult, and a current Shosta-senior, I feel obliged to pass it along.  If you’re interested, start with his 5th and 10th symphonies.  Something shorter and lighter is his 9th, an ironic, smart-ass middle finger to the authorities, who were expecting a grand triumphal celebration of the end of WWII (his 7th had done much to bolster the spirits of the residents of Leningrad while it was under siege by the Nazis).  Hearing the 5th-8th and 10th symphonies live by a world-class orchestra is a sonic KO similar to a Who concert.  More cerebral are his 24 Preludes & Fugues, inspired by Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.  Give those a shot if you think modernized Bach might be your thing.  His later symphonies and string quartets are very grim affairs, pretty much music to slit your wrists by.  He’d spent his career alternating between appeasing and fucking with the Kremlin (sometines both simultaneously), and it left him embittered.

I was confused by the narrator’s comment that he and his friends couldn’t come by a recording of the 5th.  Wherever he grew up in Texas must have been remote.  Most record stores had at least small classical sections, and all of them would have had at least one copy of the 5th, probably Bernstein’s.

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Here’s Your Chance

I know Monkeystador has been trying to attract Pussy Riot’s attention for awhile. Well, they’re playing in Tulsa!

You know it’s true because you read it in Pitchfork!

Pussy Riot will receive the Woody Guthrie Prize in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 6, and perform at the city’s Cain’s Ballroom that evening. The prize is given annually to an artist who “best exemplifies Guthrie’s spirit and work by speaking for the less fortunate through music, film, literature, dance or other art forms and serving as a positive force for social change.” The ceremony is part of the Woody Guthrie Center’s 10th anniversary celebration, which takes place from May 5 to 7.

Tulsa is a fun town. Surprisingly hip. We can go to the Dylan Archives while we’re there.

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Faster, Pussycat! Flee! Flee!

Maria Alyokhina (above left), a member of Pussy Riot, has managed to escape Russia. She posed as a food carrier to get into Belarus, and then an Icelandic performance artist convinced a European country to issue her a travel document, which got her safely into Lithuania.

Great recap of the entire cloak-and-dagger operation here. After multiple instances of being jailed for proclaiming Russia’s suckitude over the past decade, she got out. The picture of relative incompetence of the authorities that she paints matches the extensive coverage on Renfield’s website.

“I don’t think Russia has a right to exist anymore,” she said. “Even before, there were questions about how it is united, by what values it is united, and where it is going. But now I don’t think that is a question anymore.”

The Icelandic performance artist was not Bjork, but being Icelandic, he is of course related to Bjork.

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Speaking Of The War…

If the Russian army has seemed inept to you, that’s because it is.

If you’re interested, here is the best site for war information. It’s geared towards military, and its contributors are mostly data-driven soldiers or wonks. As a result, there wasn’t the usual media and government surprise about the Russians’ difficulties. As far back as November, they were pointing out the Russians’ logistical shortcomings, and this week they reported a Marine Corps University war game that, prior to the invasion, predicted very closely how it would go.

As an old Cold War brat of the 7th Army in Germany, I remember that there was no respect for the Red Army back then. They had scary bombs and large troop numbers, but our army considered them 3rd rate in all other regards. In 2022, the only thing that’s changed is that they’re much smaller. Putin’s “build-up” has been in weapons, not in building a viable army, which hasn’t attempted anything like this since their 70’s-80’s Afghanistan disaster. I don’t think this cold war will be long, because Russia won’t have the money or manpower to sustain one, or even occupy Ukraine (assuming they win). That’s not to say this won’t get very dangerous.

Amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics.
-Omar Bradley

Never interfere with your enemy while he’s making a mistake.
-Napoleon

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The Politburo Did Not Want To Be Sedated, Or Rock and Roll All Night

Here’s a list of bands to avoid and why to avoid them from Soviet era Russia. If some of you bastards would have had access to this list, you would have likely turned out to be more upstanding comrades, er, citizens.

I’m sure they left out a lot of bands, but I’m wondering how Led Zeppelin didn’t make this list, and The Beatles surely would have stoked the ire of the Communist Part Brass for Back in the USSR.

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Eurovision 2021

I know I don’t need to tell anyone here that Måneskin’s Zitti E Buoni won Eurovision 2021. But as the blargh’s junior Eurovision correspondent, I feel obliged to include excerpts from all the performances.