водка яд!
April 15, 2016 7:38 AM Subscribe
Speaking of Russian and Russian-influenced music, my favorite Russian band is Motorama. Kind of retro, Joy Division-esque.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:55 AM on April 15, 2016
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:55 AM on April 15, 2016
Inspired by this video, I have started to have little collections of pickled food for snacks and before meals. There's a Russian words for it -- zakuski.
I love it. I had pickled watermelon rind atop toasted pumpernickel bread with pickled red peppers. Oh my God, it has vastly improved my dining experience.
Vodka may be poison, but zakuski is life.
posted by maxsparber at 8:01 AM on April 15, 2016 [5 favorites]
I love it. I had pickled watermelon rind atop toasted pumpernickel bread with pickled red peppers. Oh my God, it has vastly improved my dining experience.
Vodka may be poison, but zakuski is life.
posted by maxsparber at 8:01 AM on April 15, 2016 [5 favorites]
Heh, yeah, seeing that in the video is one of those rare times when I'm like "is this what people mean when they ~identify~ with a piece of media?"
posted by griphus at 8:07 AM on April 15, 2016
posted by griphus at 8:07 AM on April 15, 2016
I sort of wondered if you were the lead singer when I first saw the video. I also wondered if one of my uncles, who had a luxurious Baltic mustache, might be the lead singer.
I sort of bounce back and forth between my biological ethnicity, which is Irish, and my identity by adoption, which is Jewish. I'm equally comfortable in both, but, for someone who looks like a bright red potato sculpture, I definitely feel most at home surrounded by small, brown, European people who drink fermented milk.
posted by maxsparber at 8:14 AM on April 15, 2016 [3 favorites]
I sort of bounce back and forth between my biological ethnicity, which is Irish, and my identity by adoption, which is Jewish. I'm equally comfortable in both, but, for someone who looks like a bright red potato sculpture, I definitely feel most at home surrounded by small, brown, European people who drink fermented milk.
posted by maxsparber at 8:14 AM on April 15, 2016 [3 favorites]
Golem is marvelous, I'm a real sucker for...I guess you'd call it neo-klezmer? If you like that kind of sound, Gramatik does some great stuff too.
posted by Itaxpica at 8:39 AM on April 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Itaxpica at 8:39 AM on April 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
I respectfully submit to you Lemon Bucket Orkestra, "Canada's only balkan-klezmer-gypsy-party-punk-super-band".
posted by Kabanos at 9:39 AM on April 15, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Kabanos at 9:39 AM on April 15, 2016 [2 favorites]
I remember working in a pub in the East End. There were groups of Russian building site labourers who'd come in every night and drink between and half a litre of spirits each. They drank in rounds, always buying the same thing. One week they'd all drink JD and Coke, then next week vodka and Coke. I was a heavy drinker at the time myself, but I tended to keep myself to a fairly moderate amount on work nights. Curious as to how they handled grueling physical work after these constant nightly excesses, I asked one of them whether they ever felt bad in the mornings.
"It doesn't matter;" he said to me, "we are Russian!"
posted by howfar at 2:40 PM on April 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
"It doesn't matter;" he said to me, "we are Russian!"
posted by howfar at 2:40 PM on April 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
I will note that the band is Jewish, obviously drawing from Slavic influences, but it's impossible for me to forget a conversation my brother once had with my father. The brother had just left the marines, and was explaining his discomfort. All they talk about is fighting Russians, he said. (This was the 80s.) But, he said, I can't stop thinking about my grandfather. I don't want to fight the Russians, because grandpa came from Russia. We're Russian.
Grandpa would never have let you say that, dad said. He would have told you, we're not Russian, we're Jews.
Which was probably a response to the antisemitism that caused him to flee Russia. But Russian Jewish is different than Russian for a variety of reasons. Russians Jews have definite Russian influence, and vice versa. But Golem strikes me as representing the Jewish thing more specifically than the Russian thing.
I do appreciate that one of the bandmembers seems to be Irish-American. Finally a band specifically for me!
posted by maxsparber at 3:00 PM on April 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
Grandpa would never have let you say that, dad said. He would have told you, we're not Russian, we're Jews.
Which was probably a response to the antisemitism that caused him to flee Russia. But Russian Jewish is different than Russian for a variety of reasons. Russians Jews have definite Russian influence, and vice versa. But Golem strikes me as representing the Jewish thing more specifically than the Russian thing.
I do appreciate that one of the bandmembers seems to be Irish-American. Finally a band specifically for me!
posted by maxsparber at 3:00 PM on April 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
Random music review from the internets suggests that "Vodka Is Poison bases its lyrics on a Russian self-help tape designed to help cut down on the rampant alcoholism in the country."
posted by Kabanos at 3:43 PM on April 15, 2016
posted by Kabanos at 3:43 PM on April 15, 2016
One week they'd all drink JD and Coke, then next week vodka and Coke.
That's a bit surprising in one way, because generally sweet/sugary mixes are considered to be causes of hangovers. Just layer rounds of straight vodka with layers of savoury, fatty, and salty zakuski and you can drink all night. Often without much affect the next day (except for tiredness maybe), or at least nothing that can't be settled with another 100gm. Memory recollection not guaranteed though.
posted by Kabanos at 3:52 PM on April 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
That's a bit surprising in one way, because generally sweet/sugary mixes are considered to be causes of hangovers. Just layer rounds of straight vodka with layers of savoury, fatty, and salty zakuski and you can drink all night. Often without much affect the next day (except for tiredness maybe), or at least nothing that can't be settled with another 100gm. Memory recollection not guaranteed though.
posted by Kabanos at 3:52 PM on April 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
A bunch of years ago when I lived next door to two of my closest friends, both also from the former USSR, we decided to be Old School and eat a bunch of (Israeli) pickles and drink straight vodka. So we set out a bunch of pickles and took it into the living room with the vodka and started all neat where you take a shot and bite into a pickle to chase it. And then we ended up migrating into the kitchen and then just standing in front of a counter taking shots and eating the pickles straight out of the can in between. And just as we run out of pickles but are still not completely soused I remember that right next door I had a whole unopened can of them and [REEL MISSING]
posted by griphus at 6:02 PM on April 15, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by griphus at 6:02 PM on April 15, 2016 [5 favorites]
Speaking of vodka.
The Leningrad - Vodka is Wicked
posted by dougzilla at 6:58 PM on April 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Leningrad - Vodka is Wicked
posted by dougzilla at 6:58 PM on April 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
Speaking of Leningrad — I never get sick of Рыба (Fish)
posted by Kabanos at 5:25 AM on April 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Kabanos at 5:25 AM on April 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
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(I do not need vodka to wish I was that guy though.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:43 AM on April 15, 2016 [2 favorites]