Trololo

As with everything else the internet finds entertaining, this is a strange one. Trololo is a "RickRoll"-esque video which gained popularity in late 2009. The old Russian song, similar in style to American jazz scat music, is titled "Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой" or "Indeed I am very glad that I am finally returning home". The performer is Edward Hill, who was given a few honors for being a popular and talented singer during the Soviet era. The result is a silly video of him failing to lipsynch a song that he supposedly sung. It's a cultural thing on a few different levels due to the age of the song, the popularity of the singer, and the video's resurgence as a joke in America. Give it a try, it'll stick with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=251Lp4fOmcM (Video)

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trololo-russian-rickroll (Article)

Ivan Pavlov

This is a tricky blog post because everyone has some knowledge of Ivan Pavlov. In the spirit of Bear in a Hat, though, I wanted to restate that he was Russian and successful. He was the psychologist/physiologist who worked with animals to discover "conditioning". Animals would be presented with a stimulus that they naturally responded to and a stimulus that did nothing for them. Eventually the stimulus that originally did nothing produced the same response as the stimulus with the automatic natural response. Pavlov also did some early work with the digestive system. He won a Nobel Prize in Physiology and is a figurehead for modern psychology. Also, he has a killer moustache.

Winnie the Pooh

Came across this odd Winnie the Pooh cartoon from Russia. And not our lovable Disney interpretation. But a full on different version. All the characters are drawn differently and the whole video is pretty much one long song. Eeyore even seems happy. It's odd. But worth a watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptEZwjO1DYI

Владимир Высоцкий

If any of you remember, Dr.Denner showed us this video during our first semester:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BRn5pRkBrs

It is Владимир Высоцкий singing about a wolf hunt, and I seriously urge you to listen to it again (or for new students to listen for the first time). I can't understand everything he's saying, but I still find the emotion moving. It was good enough that I looked for more things that he's done. I came across a song called "Я не люблю". I've found a few translations, some of which give it as "I don't like" but I like it better translated as "I hate". It gives it more depth in my opinion. Here's a neat video site with the song in question and a few subtitle options for those who want an instant translation.

http://coerll.utexas.edu/rr/retro/?v=7 (Video)

Ruble Conversion

As Josh and I practiced reading dialogues, we came across a sentence that implied 50 rubles was worth 5 cents. This seemed outrageous to us. One dollar could not equal 1000 rubles. We thought that the conversion rate was closer to 10-16 rubles to 1 dollar. We were still wrong. This website (which updates itself every minute) gives the estimate of around 31.5 rubles to the dollar. I thought it would be neat to have a link on Bear in a Hat to a website that would always have relatively accurate exchange rate information. So here it is!

http://www.xe.com/currency/rub-russian-ruble

EDIT: We read it wrong and the original phrase that sparked this blog post was really about one ruble and fifty kopeks.

Музыка

As someone who appreciates good things, it's always fun to stumble across some quality music. Here are some pages with relatively good recordings of very good Russian choral groups.

Yale Russian Chorus - http://www.yale.edu/yrc/recordings.html (Kind of short recordings and only 3 or 4)

Russian Chamber Chorus of New York - http://www.rccny.org/WatchandListen.html (Really high quality and they're videos.)

Golosa - http://www.golosa.org/music (This one probably has the most music on it. Also it's the name of our book so it's gotta be good!)

Hope you enjoy this!

Russian Racism

For this Unit I'm just posting a BBC article on racism within the world of Russian football. I think it's interesting that such a large diverse country such as Russia still has racism that is so prominent and obvious as fans acting out against players on popular football teams. Just goes to show that every country has flaws and even efforts to correct those flaws don't always work.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12848838

Bored?

Let's say you're in Russia. Let's also say that you're bored because all there is to do is watch large circuses or ballets or go to museums. Yawn. So what do you do? PARKOUR. Well. If the videos I've watched is any indicator, I'd say that 90% of Russian architecture is dilapidated urban areas. The perfect place to either climb outrageously high or to jump off of things! Here are a few videos I've found of Russians doing parkour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkn1eeG8QYo&feature=fvwrel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib4YPtTatF4 (This one has cool Russian rap behind it.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvRnf8_-Duo (Almost a documentary on the sport in Russia)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoxKEXfFkw0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRDhxaG80qg&feature=related

Russian Apathy

My blog post for Unit 6 is about Russian apathy. According to the Moscow Times the only reason Russians aren't revolting along with the Middle East is because they just don't care. They reported that 85 percent of Russians think they aren't in a position to influence anything in the government. This political apathy is sad and perhaps reflected throughout the more Western parts of the world, which would explain why we don't immediately sympathize with active causes, such as that of the Egyptians.

Article
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/columns//article/why-arent-russians-revolting/430346.html

Original Dialogue with Josh
http://www.box.net/shared/i656n6simq

Dialogue 4 on pg 184 with Josh
http://www.box.net/shared/9680szayvj

Russian Army (Being Manly)

The Russian Army is notorious for being crazy manly and killing tons of dudes all the time every day. But sometimes they dance. Here's a video of that second thing.



Personally this reminds me of the scene from Pinocchio with the dancers.

Original Dialogue with Josh : http://www.box.net/shared/16q1738i86
Book Dialogue : http://www.box.net/shared/omf2ni048i

Collin's Unit 4 Post (Putin is Awesome)

To go along with Putin on a motorcycle I thought I'd post about other ridiculous things Putin does in his spare time. Like drive Formula 1 cars (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvINFJXko7g). A bit of text that I found with this video noted that it was one of the few instances where Putin speaks English (even though I only caught him saying "yeah"). But he does get all of his instructions in English and obviously understands them very well. Putin was also rumored to have flown a plane, breaking the sound barrier (http://siberianlight.net/vladimir-boom-boom-putin/). Other activities Putin likes to partake in are fishing topless (http://siberianlight.net/putin-goes-fishing/) and diving to the bottom of lakes (http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090801/155697205.html). I think Obama should get out once in a while and do some cool stuff like Putin.



Dialogue from the Book: http://www.box.net/shared/k5z2reun4t

Original Dialogue: http://www.box.net/shared/7no2e2jbvb

Mail Order Brides

When I think of Russia I immediately think of mail order brides. The whole reason I joined the class was so I could get myself a bride. And although one of the preceding sentences is false I'm still going to do my blog post on mail order brides. The idea of Russian mail order brides is generally outdated, but that doesn't mean the actual system of ordering brides has been completely wiped out. People still look for Russian brides via the internet and through letter delivering services. There are two common scenarios however that make the whole institution seem sketchy. One is when the girl is nonexistent and you're just being conned out of your money. The other is when the girl comes to the US or Canada and is mistreated by her husband. Even with these stories though there are numerous cases of people forming happy and lasting relationships via one of these bride finding services. I guess it can be viewed as positive or negative depending on how the system treats you if you're in it and on what kind of stories you hear.

Inspiration:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2634201



Book Dialogue (#2 on pg 76)
http://www.box.net/shared/5p9l33m2k3


Original Dialogue
http://www.box.net/shared/9y0vpzs0oc

Russian Barbershop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc7QdUGH4h4

I found this youtube video because I actually really like barbershop music and this guy makes a lot of really cool multitracks. Essentially he sings with himself and harmonizes with his own voice using multiple tracks. He did this one Russian song so I thought I'd post it here.

Lyrics as stated by him in the information section of the video:

Duh Tvoy Blagiy, nastavit miia na zemlia pravu. Alliluiya, alliluiya, alliluiya.

Let Thy good Spirit led me on a level path. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

~Collin Dougher