Posts tagged as:

Culture

Every Russian Eurovision video – ever

May 10, 2009

A video compilation of every single Russian Eurovision entry. The good, the bad, the ugly. And t.A.T.u.

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Rothschild Faberge egg tipped to sell for record price

November 23, 2007

Got a few sparepennies burning a hole in your pocket?
Then you might want to head on down to London auction house Christie’s next Wednesday – as a part of Russian Art Week, they’re holding an auction of valuable Russian artwork.
Arts, books, silverware and icons worth an estimated $74 million are to go under [...]

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Row brewing over Russian art exhibition in London

October 25, 2007

A row seems to be on the verge of starting over a Russian art exhibition in London.
The London Royal Academy of Arts is to host an exhibition of Russian and French masterpieces in January next year, but concerns are growing that the art will be impounded by the courts if anyone brings an case claiming [...]

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Kissing Policemen bring shame to Russia

October 12, 2007

A picture of two Russian policemen kissing in a snow-covered Siberian forest – an homage to Banksy’s kissing policemen graffiti – has been banned from appearing in an exhibition of Russian art in Paris.
And all because Russia’s prudish Culture Minister Alexander Sokolov thought that the picture – which according to artists the Blue Noses Collective [...]

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Mikhail Gorbachev – Louis Vuitton Bag Model

August 1, 2007

That Mikhail Gorbachev’s come a long way hasn’t he?  From leader of the unfree, communist world, to a slave to capitalist fashion. 
Yep, former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev has signed up with fashion label Louis Vuitton to model their latest bag. 
To my eye, it looks just like all their other bags.  But the picture of [...]

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From Russia with Love makes BBC TV debut

July 28, 2007

Here’s a bit of trivia for you:
For the first time in its history, the 1963 James Bond film “From Russia With Love” will be broadcast on BBC Television.
Previously, the film had only been shown by ITV on terrestrial TV.
Set your video for 9pm, on Sunday 29th July – it’s on BBC2.

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Lost Arcade Games of the Soviet Union

June 10, 2007

Well, if the West had arcade games, of course the Soviet Union must develop its own:

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Tattooed Mountain Women and Spoon Boxes of Daghestan

May 14, 2007

I don’t know about you, but I was gutted that Tattooed Mountain Women and Spoon Boxes of Daghestan only finished second in the Oddest Book Title of the 2006 award. 
Apparently, people would rather read Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification instead, and the boring North American book beat out [...]

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Tiger Lillies, Leningrad, Huinya, and Release

April 22, 2007

Last night I took a trip into town to watch the Tiger Lillies play a live set at the Soho Theatre. Truly excellent, if magnificently warped, stuff.
And happily, I can tell you about this on Siberian Light because… they have a Russia connection. Back in 2005, they recorded an album called Huinya (best [...]

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Miss Yakutia finalist was a man

April 18, 2007

Scandal hit the Miss Virtual Yakutia contest this year, when it was revealed that one of the finalists… was a man. Newslab.ru reports:
Anzhela Adamova was a young man called Oleg Goncharov, who decided to take part in the beauty contest by joke. He went to a stylist and after that made a portfolio at [...]

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Ukraine picks drag queen for Eurovision – upsets Russians

March 19, 2007

Ukraine, after winning the coveted (!) Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, seem to have decided to have a little fun with the event this year. They’ve picked Verka Serdyuchka, a drag queen who pokes fun at Russian women “of a certain age”, as their representative for 2007.
Predictably, everyone’s upset, from Ukrainians, who think that [...]

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When Russians visit a London theatre

March 9, 2007

An enthusiastic group of Russians watch a play in London, amongst a restrained London audience. Talk about a culture clash.
They seemed to be unaware of the tacit British cultural law which says that even though you may laugh in the theatre, essentially you are there as part of a rather dreary self-improvement exercise with [...]

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Soviet Sushi

February 18, 2007

Ever wondered how the Soviet man or woman in the kitchen would have cooked sushi? Well, wonder no more:
Don’t ask me why, but we decided to try our hands at making sushi. We were planning to use salmon and some other nice things. After giving a lot of thought to the issues [...]

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The case of the missing Abramovich tv programme

February 14, 2007

News is beginning to surface of the mysterious cancellation of a scheduled tv show about Roman Abramovich.
Kommersant reports that, after running the first part of a series of programmes about Roman Abramovich, the NTV Director General suddenly decided to pull the second episode from the Sunday evening schedule without any notice.
NTV Director General Vladimir Kulistikov [...]

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You know you’ve been in Russia too long, when

January 23, 2007

Turkish Invasion has 45 handy hints on how to spot whether you’ve been in Russia for too long.  My personal favourite:

You ride the marshrutka shouting ‘ostanovite na ostanovke’ EXACTLY where you want to stop, and not worrying about handing your money to the driver via 6 people
You mutter ‘Дурак’ at the idiot who forgot the [...]

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