Repatriating Russian Art

My sister-in-law works in the art auction industry. She says that Russians dominate the auctions, and not just for things Russian:

After decades of Soviet communism and repression, wealthy Russian businessmen are taking advantage of their country's growing economy to make fine-art purchases. While Russian collectors are active on almost all art markets, items of their national heritage are the most popular.
[...]

``Prices for Russian art will increase,'' said Ivanov. ``In 1993, an Aivazovsky painting that sold for $40,000 today goes for $2 million to $3 million. We'll see Russian paintings sell for more than $10 million by the end of this year.'' He joins other collectors from Russia and the Ukraine who are also amassing big collections. Banking billionaire Petr Aven has one of the finest private collections of Russian modernist paintings and early Soviet-era porcelain; oil and mining billionaire Viktor Vekselberg bought the Forbes Faberge Collection in February 2004, and also owns Aurora Fine Art Investments, an art investment fund. Construction-industry executive Marina Mamontova has more than 250 artworks; food-processing magnate Alexander Tabalov owns more than 200 19th-century and early 20th-century paintings and mining billionaire Victor Pinchuk owns at least seven Damien Hirst works.

Bloomberg: "Faberge Fan Ivanov Reveals Why He Paid $17.7 Million for an Egg"

Russia Creates a $32 Billion Sovereign Wealth Fund - New York Times

Things have changed since the early 1990s, when Russia desperately sought, but found very little, international investment in its collapsed economy. Russia doesn't have the largest sovereign wealth fund (think countries like Singapore, the UAE and Saudi Arabia), but with a relatively small population (and one that's getting smaller, not larger, as is the case in these other SWF countries) and vast natural resources (not just oil, but gas, timber, and minerals), Russia is uniquely positioned to exert long-term financial influence on other countries. The gist of this article is that the Russian Federation has divided its Sovereign Wealth Fund into two distinct entities: One as a longterm hedge against a fall in oil prices (a fall that most people think will never happen). That fund is roughly equal to 10% of the countries GDP (the total worth of goods and services produced in a county). The other, $32 billion dollars, will be invested in foreign investments, public and private. That's a serious chunk of change, roughly the assets of the largest US hedge funds.

Russia Creates a $32 Billion Sovereign Wealth Fund - New York Times:

By ANDREW E. KRAMER

MOSCOW — Russia has split its oil proceeds into two funds and cleared the way for one to invest in foreign stocks and bonds, officials said Thursday. But actual investments are not expected to begin until fall at the earliest.

The move sets up an investment pool with $32 billion, rivaling big American hedge funds and offering another sign of the dizzying wealth these days of oil-producing countries like Russia."

Тетрис!

I have to say this is one of my favorite games of all time! Now, if you haven't played Tetris you didn't have a real childhood and so you're obligated to read this post.

So let's start from the basics. Tetris was created by Alexei Leonidovich Pazhitnov (Алексей Леонидович Пажитнов) in 1985 on a system he was working on called the Elektronika 60. The name Tetris combines the Greek prefix tetra- (because each game piece has four blocks) with the word tennis. Pazhitnov's friend, Vadim Gerasimov, transferred it to an IBM computer system and Tetris became an instant hit in Moscow. Unfortunately, once it got out of The Soviet Union lawsuits ensued as companies bought and sold rights without Pazhitnov's permission. But we don't really care about that, because the important thing is that it made it to the United States in 1986 and now we all get to play it.
The concept and the gameplay is extremely simple except when you start getting to the higher levels. The pieces you play with are called tetrominoes or tetrads.

They fall down from the top of the screen and the player has to move them to create a horizontal line with no spaces on the bottom of the screen. Once you do that, they disappear and you get points. The higher your score, the higher the level, and the faster the pieces fall.

Now, my blog would be incomplete if I did not have a YouTube video posted, so here you go:


Watch out though, because if you play for too long you could get Tetris Syndrome or repetitive stress symptoms where you begin to see tetris pieces even when you're not playing the game. So don't be like this kid:


And of course, Tetris has become popular all over the world and has inspired people to create shows like this:
The actual name of this show in Japan is Brain Wall, but people call it Human Tetris

Takogo Kak Putin ( You Must Be Like Putin) US Title Version

Hey guys I think this is the song about Putin that Dr. Denner was talking about in class. This is the Russian Pop group Singing Together (Rus. Поющие вместе / Poyushchiye vmeste) and album cover features a picture of President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Rus. Президент Владимир Владимирович Путин) with each arm around a beautiful woman. This is the Music Video for the track Just Like Putin (Rus. Такого, как Путин / Takogo, kak Putin), the English version You Must Be Like Putin. The song is about a girl who has a rubbish boyfriend and decides that her ideal man must be like President Putin. It is not known what the true motivations behind the song were; whether it was a Kremlin scheme to boast Putin's popularity among the young, or simply a bit of fun.
Enjoy!!

Bear in Circus

Look out Elephants and horses here comes the bear :-D


http://youtube.com/watch?v=syC4m4yvKao

I want a bear!!!

So Dr. Denner talked about how bears can be found just walking around the streets of Russian cities, but I didn't believe it until I saw it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYiEcrf9yV8

Bears are so adorable, they're basically just big dogs! So if the Russians can figure out how to tame and train them as pets, why can't we?? I would even venture into the tourist- ridden Time Square to check out cute bears being walked around.

And on the topic of bears, I found мишки гамми!!!(Gummi Bears-a la ruse!) ловкие, смелые, добрые, милые!!!


I think we should seriously watch the Gummi Bears in class. I believe that мишки гамми will impact us way more than Vova and Lena Silin. Аfter all,этих медведей полюбят все дети!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAv6kjVemEU

The Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy Ivan!

Everyone's heard of the crazy Ivan. If you haven't, then you're lying. It's that maneuver in Tom Clancy novels where a submarine essentially spins around to see what's behind them. I always figured that this reckless technique was invented by some wacked-out Soviet dude, chugging vodka and doing stunts with his submarine. WRONG. MAN was I shocked to learn that not only was my scenario incorrect, but it's not even like the sudden spin-around in The Hunt for Red October or in Firefly.

The Crazy Ivan is a way for submarine to shifts their radar detection to see spots where they previously could not. A submarine basically cannot detect anything that is directly behind it, so that area is a blind spot. By performing a series of sudden movements, the submarine moves that blind spot around and can detect things previously hidden.

The "crazy" part of the name comes from the sudden movements that the sub performs, and Ivan was a common nickname for Russians, much like Charlie was for the Vietcong.

American subs would counter this tactic by going for absolute silence by shutting off their engines. The problem was that their sub would continue moving due to its momentum and could very likely crash into the other sub, which is exactly what happened in the case of the U.S.S. Tautog and the Russian sub "Black Lila."

Moscow Fun Facts

Moscow, being the capital of Russia and a popular home to many, has lots of interesting information about it. It has a population of about 11. 2 million people. It's major industries include machine building, metalworking, oil refining, publishing and brewing. Most males in the city describe their jobs as either engineer or business man. Moscow is however, very undiverse when it comes to different types of people and races. The breakdown goes down like this: Russians 79.8%, Tatars 3.84%, Ukrainians 2.04%, Bashkir 1.16%, Chuvash 1.13%, Chechens 0.9%, Armenians 0.79%, other 10.34%. As for money, Moscow has more billionaires living there than any other city in the world. The total comes to 33. The area code is 95 along with 7. Both these numbers must be used even for local calls. As for seasons, it gets them all. It is known for having very hot summers but very cold winters. January 7 is when they celebrate Christmas and January 1 is New Years. June 12th is Russian Day. Moscow is also the home of the Kremlin, The Red Square and the Bolshoi Theater.

Russians are crazy..

I stumbled upon some absolutely insane images of random things in Russia - the nature of the internet, I guess. I'm thinking that some of them may be fake or altered photos(the door that is halfway up a wall perhaps), but maybe I am underestimating Russians' ability to do strange stuff.

The pictures I found are located here, but the following are a few of my favorites.


Stairs leading to a window? What is this?



I thought Russians would have been good architects?



And of course, the liquor store is the whole family's "любимый магазин!"

Русский Рок

As a fan of rock music it's interesting to see how rock scenes have evolved in other countries over time, especially a country where free expression was rather limited for a long time. Rock in Russia evolved from an earlier underground tradition commonly referred to as 'bard music', folk-influenced music written by individuals outside the central establishment and performed only to small, cult audiences. With some limited influences from western rock music, the Russian rock scene grew popular during the perestroika era of the 80s; a unique form of music followed, a combination of popular acoustic folk music and 60s-70s rock from outside - the Beatles being a primary influence.

A couple of bands popular during the 80s heyday, which is often referred to as the Russian classic rock period -

Piknik
(they look like a creep new-wave band!)


DDT
(the Russian Barenaked Ladies! At least, they kinda sound like it, and their lead singer looks like a surly Russian version of Steven Page..)


Alisa
(now here we go. This is a little harder.)


Pretty cool, if a little strange musically. I'll have to look into Russian metal next time.