Our Victory, Day by Day. Russian news agency RIA Novosti counts down to the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, with songs, posters, photos, and stories. Be sure not to miss the first-person accounts in English (under "Frontline Album").
posted by gimonca
on Apr 9, 2005 -
19 comments
"Russian Oligarachs Want Immortality". Vladimir Bryntsalov has had a course of stem cell injections and feels no older than 20, though his biological age is about 60. Treatment will cost you $10,000-20,000 in Moscow. In many Western countries, such clinics would not even get the opportunity to open their doors. During a recent speech, President Bush denounced stem cell therapy as "godless."
posted by stbalbach
on Mar 19, 2005 -
26 comments
Black widow pop. "With tATu, Ivan Shapovalov took the media's
obsession with paedophilia, and spun it into a
chart-topping lesbo-schoolgirl pop act. Now
he's trying to do the same with Islamic
terrorism. On Sept 11 in Moscow, he launched
nATo, a 16-year-old girl who dresses in a
Burqua, much like the Black Widow suicide bombers
who are currently terrorising Russia. With
the Beslan massacre only a week old, Nato's
launch - complete with invitations designed
like plane tickets - was not a huge success...
Mindful of the dire consequences of being a
dissenting voice in Putin's Russia these days,
Shapovalov is planning to launch nATo properly
in London later this year, and get a
recording contract here."
stolen from popbitch
posted by mr.marx
on Sep 24, 2004 -
19 comments
The Bodhisattvas of Babylon is a fan page of the Russian rock group Akvarium (or Aquarium, if you prefer). I usually stay away from fan pages of any sort as if they were the plague, but this one . . . well, I think it's a little special. Read the review of
Acoustics. Download a
song or two (never mind that the written content, of which there is a lot, is in Russian, as are the songs). Now visit the band's
website.
posted by ashbury
on Jan 2, 2004 -
2 comments
A neato collection of Russian eBooks translated into English mostly for propaganda purposes, which while not in the public domain are available for non-commercial use after the fall of the Soviet Union and certain copyright peculiarities, as described
here. The archivist says: The main aim of this collection is to preserve the work of translators and give some information to historians. But whatever the reason, there's some good reading here to be had.
posted by chrisgregory
on Sep 3, 2003 -
6 comments
Mimosa is a retro look at Russia through engaging and often playful snapshots - it has all the feel of rummaging through a box of photos in an attic.
Communist Store Windows offers another, more recent glimpse behind the iron curtain. Both galleries are like shots of peppered vodka.
posted by madamjujujive
on Aug 31, 2003 -
15 comments
Truth, Justice, and the Soviet Way What if baby Kal-El's spaceship had crashed on Earth 12 hours earlier, in the Ukraine instead of middle America? The new 3-issue comic book series
Superman: Red Son envisions the Man of Steel as a good-hearted citizen of the USSR, helping to spread communism across the world. Wonder Woman is his girlfriend; Batman is an anti-Soviet terrorist; Lex Luthor becomes U.S. president. This alternate-universe jaunt is not just for fun:
writer Mark Millar says it's a timely exploration of what happens when one all-powerful country anoints itself leader of the world.
posted by Artifice_Eternity
on Jun 9, 2003 -
25 comments
Have Mortar, Will Travel. An apparently evil figure from old Russian folklore,
Baba Yaga seems to pop up where I least expect her. From appearing in the
sixth Sandman collection to her role in the Sierra classic
Hero's Quest, she (like any good mythic figure) is never quite described the same way twice, and has all kinds of neat gear - like a hut that stands on chicken's legs, and can chase victims at will. Still,
her tale seems fairly under-repeated these days. Is anyone else fascinated by this or other increasingly obscure bits of folklore?
posted by Monster_Zero
on May 14, 2003 -
22 comments
Happy birthday, Kasimir Malevich! The Guggenheim has curated an exhibition (currently in
Berlin and coming to New York in May) to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of this Russian avant-garde painter who, among other things, was a major influence on El Lissitzky and worked alongside
Liubov Popova. The story of how the show itself came to be -- featuring many works never before seen in the West -- makes for rather
dramatic reading, to boot.
(NYTimes link; reg. req.) [more inside]
posted by scody
on Mar 31, 2003 -
8 comments
Give It Up for MC Zhirinovsky Flamboyant Russian ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, renowned for his controversial views on Iraq, has had his words turned into an anti-war rap song. The song, titled "Don't you dare go shooting at Baghdad", is being launched on the internet, according to the Russian television station TVS.
posted by turbanhead
on Feb 26, 2003 -
7 comments
The Russian Avant-Garde Book is an online version of the MoMA exhibit, featuring 112 books originally published in Russia during the intensely creative period between 1910 and 1934, before Stalin outlawed any style but social realism. The site is separated into three chronological themes and includes examples of futurist works, constructivist graphic design, children's books, propaganda, photography and photomontage, revolutionary imagery, architecture and industry, war themes, folk art and judaica...
posted by taz
on Oct 8, 2002 -
16 comments
so which "officials" do we believe? is this a final salvo from the "now disbanded" office of military misinformation?
i don't know which is spookier the thought of the threat, or the folks in charge getting their "credible" info from some clown in las vegas??
posted by specialk420
on Mar 7, 2002 -
4 comments
Stalin Comics asks the question: if Stalin and Hitler were both powerful wizards and battled each other, who'd win? I wish I could read enough Russian to tell whether or not this is a put-on.
posted by MrBaliHai
on Jan 1, 2002 -
8 comments
Capitalism to the extreme in Russia. A Russian Grandma was caught trying to sell her grandson for $90,000. No she wasn't selling him to some adoption agency so he could go to a 'caring family' somewhere in the west. She was selling him for his
organs. She even rips off her other son (the boy's uncle). His excuse, "
I wanted to buy a house and a new car and some clothes. It was my dream." I'm sure it was his nephew's dream as well to be sold for his organs.
posted by jay
on Nov 28, 2000 -
11 comments
