This is really creepy albeit probably fake. They don't pull the camera back far enough that you can see whether the rest of the dog is there or not. Either way it's messed up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHLNmw0vHm4
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Yummy
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Russian Billboards :)
Ok so I found this guys blog and he has some interesting Russian billboards check this one out.
It reads.. " equality of the sexs" go figure... looks pretty equal to me what do you think?
And how is this for an alcoholic society... "booze" and " Gin" in a soda can! so convenient :)
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Orthodox Church!
One of my favorite things to do in Russia is visit the Orthdox Churches. They are beyond beautiful. I have not been to this Church (and I would have to say this is not one of the prettiest that I've seen but it was the best i could find on google). This is a typical setting with the Icons in the front and alter areas. This picture does not give Orthodox Churches any justice. It is something you have to see in order to really capture the beauty. The services consist of a choir useally singing and the pastor carrying around an object that lets off incense. The sound, sights, and smell make it an amazing spiritual experience.I dont really know what goes on during the service but the people useaully walk around and kiss icons, say prayers, and light candles. They are very strict about the way you carry yourself, for example women must wear coverings over their heads, men cannot wear hats, and nobody is allowed to have their hands in their pockets. If you break one of these rules watch out for the babushki! But overall the Russian Orthodox Church is a definite must see if you ever have the chance to go to Russia.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Ресторан в Москве
If your looking for tasty and inexpensive Russian food, Moscow has a list of quality places to try out.
Mu-Mu Cafe
This is a very popular self serve cafe that offers a wide selection of entrees. A total of six locations allows you to find one near by whenever the mood strikes. A standard meal costs about $5, whereas a more extravagant one runs you closer to $10.
Pushkin Cafe
This is a more high end restaurant but the reviews include "best meal ever" and "my favorite restaurant in town". Meals run $50 per person, but the food, service, atmosphere and environment cause it to be well worth it.
Drova Restaurant
This is very similar to Mu-Mu but a little bit more expensive. With over 55 meals to choose from, there is always somthing new to try. In Moscow there are four locations to pick from.
Mu-Mu Cafe
This is a very popular self serve cafe that offers a wide selection of entrees. A total of six locations allows you to find one near by whenever the mood strikes. A standard meal costs about $5, whereas a more extravagant one runs you closer to $10.
Pushkin Cafe
This is a more high end restaurant but the reviews include "best meal ever" and "my favorite restaurant in town". Meals run $50 per person, but the food, service, atmosphere and environment cause it to be well worth it.
Drova Restaurant
This is very similar to Mu-Mu but a little bit more expensive. With over 55 meals to choose from, there is always somthing new to try. In Moscow there are four locations to pick from.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Russian Composers...
Well, kind of. While not necessarily *Russian*, they were composers prominent and popular during the Soviet era, and as a result were primarily associated with Russia; their works have thus become recognized as 'Russian', or at least eastern/different. They are pretty sweet IMO.
While natively Armenian, Aram Khachaturian was born in Imperial Russia, and lived most of his life a supporter of the idea of communism, a proud Soviet citizen and a distinguished composer. He combined traditional Armenian folk music with the classical senses of past European and Russian composers, creating several pieces notable to Russians and abroad during the soviet era. Khachaturian had an on-off relationship with communism, which he supported all his life, despite some conflicts with the party and with national officials.
A well known piece of Khachaturian's is his 'Sabre Dance'. From the ballet 'Gayane', the sabre dance has become a popular piece in much of the western world. You may recognize it as the music used in every movie trailer and TV show, ever, to indicate zaniness/tension or to introduce a crazy character (tied alongside Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" for most overused classical composition ever) -
Sergei Prokofiev, while born in Ukraine, was raised and lived as a Russian (Soviet) citizen, and became a well-known composer, especially of virtuoso piano pieces. Unrestrained by most musical conventions, Prokofiev's compositions made use of strange tonalities, harmonic unrest and dissonance to create an unusual, sometimes unsettling musical atmosphere. Some of his more interesting works were his operas; Love for Three Oranges is quite famous, and also of interest is his operatic adaptation of Tolstoy's War and Peace.
The March from Love for Three Oranges was a popular period piece, gaining recognition in the west; it was used in a number of radio broadcasts around the time, and I recall seeing it accompanying some of those old-timey documentary type films. It's an interesting piece.
While natively Armenian, Aram Khachaturian was born in Imperial Russia, and lived most of his life a supporter of the idea of communism, a proud Soviet citizen and a distinguished composer. He combined traditional Armenian folk music with the classical senses of past European and Russian composers, creating several pieces notable to Russians and abroad during the soviet era. Khachaturian had an on-off relationship with communism, which he supported all his life, despite some conflicts with the party and with national officials.
A well known piece of Khachaturian's is his 'Sabre Dance'. From the ballet 'Gayane', the sabre dance has become a popular piece in much of the western world. You may recognize it as the music used in every movie trailer and TV show, ever, to indicate zaniness/tension or to introduce a crazy character (tied alongside Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" for most overused classical composition ever) -
Sergei Prokofiev, while born in Ukraine, was raised and lived as a Russian (Soviet) citizen, and became a well-known composer, especially of virtuoso piano pieces. Unrestrained by most musical conventions, Prokofiev's compositions made use of strange tonalities, harmonic unrest and dissonance to create an unusual, sometimes unsettling musical atmosphere. Some of his more interesting works were his operas; Love for Three Oranges is quite famous, and also of interest is his operatic adaptation of Tolstoy's War and Peace.
The March from Love for Three Oranges was a popular period piece, gaining recognition in the west; it was used in a number of radio broadcasts around the time, and I recall seeing it accompanying some of those old-timey documentary type films. It's an interesting piece.
From what I've read tonight, I've decided I'd rather deal with I-4.
So, apparently driving in Russia is, well, interesting..... To get a license, one must memorize the answers to a whopping 800 questions, but once you get on the road, all of that goes out the window.
The internet tells me that rarely does one encounter that yellow line down the middle of the road. Some drivers take that as license to ignore the concept of lanes in some cases.
It's all about budget. Paint costs money, so why use it to draw lines on a road? The people in this video ignore them anyway.
Russian road rules violation
Plus, it costs money to have traffic cops. (Quite frankly, I think we should ship some of the ones in Polk County over there. They're very concerned about meeting their monthly ticket quota.)
Here's a passage from the article I read:
One GAI officer explained it this way: "Russian law requires us to find witnesses in order to issue a citation. With illegal passing, the only witnesses are the motorists themselves, all of whom are long gone moments after the violation has occurred." Others offer the rationale that it's too dangerous to chase every offending motorist through narrow city streets. "Better to let them get away with minor infractions than to needlessly endanger others," one source contended. "The GAI chase the serious offenders, and that's enough."
On February 5th, 1792, Empress Elisaveta Petrovna declared that Russians would drive on the right side of the road. Of course, that doesn't make LHD cars less expensive than imported RHD vehicles. Although Russians drive on the right side of the road, many drive cars suited for the left side of the road. Wikipedia claims that in the far eastern regions, such as Vladivostok or Khabarovsk, RHD vehicles make up to 90% of the total. This includes not only private cars, but also police cars, ambulances, and many other municipal and governmental vehicles. When talks of banning RHD vehicles from the road bubbled up in 2005, car owners blocked the streets of major cities in protest.
Here's a video of crashes in Russia. Some of them are pretty crazy.
Russian Traffic Chaos
In my quest to find the perfect traffic video, I also found this little doodle. I found it amusing....
Russian Street Curling
The internet tells me that rarely does one encounter that yellow line down the middle of the road. Some drivers take that as license to ignore the concept of lanes in some cases.
It's all about budget. Paint costs money, so why use it to draw lines on a road? The people in this video ignore them anyway.
Plus, it costs money to have traffic cops. (Quite frankly, I think we should ship some of the ones in Polk County over there. They're very concerned about meeting their monthly ticket quota.)
Here's a passage from the article I read:
One GAI officer explained it this way: "Russian law requires us to find witnesses in order to issue a citation. With illegal passing, the only witnesses are the motorists themselves, all of whom are long gone moments after the violation has occurred." Others offer the rationale that it's too dangerous to chase every offending motorist through narrow city streets. "Better to let them get away with minor infractions than to needlessly endanger others," one source contended. "The GAI chase the serious offenders, and that's enough."
On February 5th, 1792, Empress Elisaveta Petrovna declared that Russians would drive on the right side of the road. Of course, that doesn't make LHD cars less expensive than imported RHD vehicles. Although Russians drive on the right side of the road, many drive cars suited for the left side of the road. Wikipedia claims that in the far eastern regions, such as Vladivostok or Khabarovsk, RHD vehicles make up to 90% of the total. This includes not only private cars, but also police cars, ambulances, and many other municipal and governmental vehicles. When talks of banning RHD vehicles from the road bubbled up in 2005, car owners blocked the streets of major cities in protest.
Here's a video of crashes in Russia. Some of them are pretty crazy.
In my quest to find the perfect traffic video, I also found this little doodle. I found it amusing....
Sunday, April 6, 2008
The Birth of Рок-Н-Рол
The following details the integral role that the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky played in the birth of rock and also roll
In the beginning...
Back in 1955...
Man didn't know 'bout a rock n' roll show...and all that jive
The white man had the schmaltz...
The black man had the blues...
And no one knew what they was gonna do...
But Tchaikovsky had the news...
(Tchaikovsky pre-news acquisition)
He said:
Let there be sound
...there was sound
Let there be light
...there was light
Let there be drums
...there was DRUMS
Let there be guitar
...there was guitar
Video Testimony To Tchaikovsky's Actions
In the beginning...
Man didn't know 'bout a rock n' roll show...and all that jive
The white man had the schmaltz...
The black man had the blues...
And no one knew what they was gonna do...
But Tchaikovsky had the news...
(Tchaikovsky pre-news acquisition)Let there be sound
...there was soundLet there be light
...there was lightLet there be drums
...there was DRUMSLet there be guitar
...there was guitarOHHHHHHHHH
LETTHEREBEROCK!!!
Video Testimony To Tchaikovsky's Actions
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Smirnoff History
I thought it was appropriate to tell about Smirnoff's history because we found out recently it was made in Russia. Well it all started with Piotr Arsenieyevich Smirnov in 1860s Moscow. When he died in 1910 it was succeeded by Vladimir Smirnov in which the company flourished. However, Vladimir had to flee Moscow during the October Revolution when it distillery was confiscated. Vladimir and his family moved to Istanbul and 4 years later moved again to what is now Lviv, Ukraine. The Company turned again into a success and by 1930 was selling the drink to most European countries. In the 1930s Vladimir met Rudolph Kunet, a Russian who moved to North America. Vladimir gave Rudolph the rights to start producing Smirnoff in North America. Smirnoff did not become famous like Rudolph hoped, and most of you would believe. He sold his rights to a man by the name of John Martin who was president of Heublein. Through John's advertising efforts Smirnoff became famous. YEY!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)