Since May 22nd, 2005 Akvarium’s lead singer and front man Boris Grebenshchikov (BG) has hosted the weekly radio show Aerostat on Radio Rossii (these shows are also published and archived as podcasts at aerostat.rpod.ru). While quite broad (and primarily about Western popular music) BG at times also talks about Russian popular music. Besides discussing and…Continue reading Aerostat on Russian popular music
Category: blog
my blogposts
NY Times article on menu psychology
The New York Times just published a very interesting article on menu psychology – how menus are designed and layouted to entice costumers to spend money when dining: Restaurants Use Menu Psychology to Entice Diners
Top Ten Rosh Hashanah Pickup Lines
While not quite politically correct, still kind of funny: Top Ten Rosh Hashanah Pickup Lines. !שנה טובה ומתוקה
TOL: Rocka Rolla Women and Rocka Rolla Men
The online journal Transitions Online recently brought a very interesting article on popular music in socialist Bulgaria and what meaning Western bands had for Bulgaria’s inhabitants: Rocka Rolla Women and Rocka Rolla Men.
Keynote and audio files
While Apple’s presentation software Keynote is vastly superior to Powerpoint one of the main limitations of using Keynote (at least for me) has been the fact that the control for sounds embedded in the presentation is quite limited (e.g. if I want to pause or stop a song or interview excerpt during the presentation). The…Continue reading Keynote and audio files
The national anthem lyricist Sergei Mikhalkov (1913-2009)
Among the many links between the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Russia maybe the national anthem is the most symbolic one – here in the 1977 version sung by the Ukrainian group 5’Nizza live on RenTV shortly after midnight on January 1st, 2004: When Stalin in 1943 wished to replace the “The Internationale” which had until…Continue reading The national anthem lyricist Sergei Mikhalkov (1913-2009)
Popular Music and Society on Popular Music in the Post-Soviet Space
A happy summer announcement: The journal “Popular Music and Society” (32:3 2009) titled “Popular Music in the Post-Soviet Space: Trends, Movements, and Social Contexts” of which Yngvar Steinholt and I were guest editors is now out. Concluding about two years of editorial work (and a lot of really interesting submissions) the journal includes the following…Continue reading Popular Music and Society on Popular Music in the Post-Soviet Space
Blizhnee zarubezh’e – The Near Abroad
The “The Near Abroad” (Blizhnee zarubezh’e) is often used when referring to the former Soviet Republics from a Russian perspective and which Russia considers its sphere of influence. Looking for a definition of the term for my dissertation I came across this interesting article written by William Safire in 1994: ON LANGUAGE; The Near Abroad
Article about ethnic Germans at TOL
As I briefly mentioned in a previous post (“Who are ‘die Russen’ currently living in Germany?”) one area where a lot of ethnic Germans migrated to Germany from was Kazakhstan. I should have written the former Central-Asian Soviet republics because a large community also ended up in Kyrgyzstan. I mention this since the highly recommendable…Continue reading Article about ethnic Germans at TOL
Of spectacles and marmots – Televizor’s Ochki
The group Televizor (Television) based around its vocalist Mikhail Borzykin has been around since 1984 and can be considered the 3rd generation of Leningrad Rock Club bands. The group’s first album “Shestvie Ryb” (Fish parade) was released in 1985, followed by “Otechestvo illiuzii” (Fatherland of illusion) in 1987. The latter album included the song “Tvoi…Continue reading Of spectacles and marmots – Televizor’s Ochki
NYTimes portrait: “The Loyalist – Valery Gergiev”
This weekend’s New York Times magazine had an interesting and extensive portrait of the Russian/Ossetian conductor and artistic director of the Mariinskii Teatr Valerii Gergiev. He is – in my opinion – one of the top conductors of Western Art music today and definitively one of the most important musicians promoting Russian art music (that…Continue reading NYTimes portrait: “The Loyalist – Valery Gergiev”
Galkin’s Eurovision Song Contest 2007 parody
Thinking about Alla Pugacheva’s departure from music (at least that is what she announced) it struck me that a large part of Russian estrada consist of Soviet era musicians who all are getting old (e.g. Sofiia Rotaru, Oleg Gazmanov, Valerii Leont’ev, Boris Moiseev). On the other side, a young crop of singers have emerged –…Continue reading Galkin’s Eurovision Song Contest 2007 parody