Re-Opening of the Bolshoi - Reflections of an American

One of the most admirable things about Russian Culture is their commitment to the arts.  The Bolshoi Theater re-opened this weekend in Moscow after 6 years of renovations with about as much pomp as a Post-Soviet culture will allow.  Below are the highlights.



Go here if you'd like to watch the whole thing, including a pretty incredible Swan Lake.

What really amazes me about Russian culture is that in the audience, you can see all the major pop stars, movie stars, government officials and (presumably) powerful business people.  In my MBA classes, we study Russia as a so-called "emerging market" along with Brazil, India and China (the "BRIC" countries of current major emerging markets).  However, when you consider that Russia has one of the highest literacy rates and one of the highest rates of advanced degrees per capita (not to mention the USSR was a super power that beat the US to space), it's difficult to think about it on the same level as China and India, who (at least in my mind) more aptly fall within the definition of "Emerging". 

Could you see something like this happening in the US?  This is the equivalent of Britney Spears, Mel Gibson, John McCain, and Bill Gates sitting down to watch a two hour ballet/opera/nationalism extravaganza in an opera house as old as the US itself.  I could never imagine a situation that would match this actually happening in America.  Not only because we don't have any opera houses that have been steeped in as much national pride as the Bolshoi, but also because Americans in general just don't care about the arts.  The closest thing we've had to celebrity endorsement of the arts was Gwyneth Paltrow showing up on Glee in a Marie Antoinette outfit singing Cee-Lo.  God, how I hate her.

But besides this, if you watch the highlights, you get a sense of WHY this would never happen in the states.  The government spent $700 million dollars restoring the building with hand crafted wooden wall adornments, a 6-meter chandelier, and a stage large enough to handle the entire Russian proletariat class all at once.  Obama can't spent $0.50 without the tea party shitting their proverbial pants, let alone $700 million on something the majority of tea party members will never see or can even remotely appreciate.  They'd likely rather see a Blue Angels Superbowl flyby.  Probably costs the same, too.

It's strange, though, that from an American perspective the performance seemed so self-congratulatory.  The Bolshoi troupe spent about five minutes of the entire performance filling up a massive stair-set reminiscent of the Battleship Potemkin's Odessa Steps sequence for the sole purpose, it seemed, of showing just how massive the stage was.  All of this was in front of a scaled down version of the entire opera house, as if to say - "Hey, don't forget that we just spent more than half a decade and close to a Billion Dollars renovating this place!!"  Medvedev gave a long, boring speech before retiring to the Tsar's balcony, and an intricate light show played upon the outside of the building while fireworks erupted above. 

Not that I don't agree with the renovation, or think that they should be lauded for supporting the arts.  I just don't think if we were to do something like this, we would be so "hey, look how awesome WE are".  We already know how awesome we are, I guess.  Flaunting it would just be overkill and rude.

Another thing to note: Russians start to applaud in a sea of applause similar to the way Americans applaud, but then, if they really liked something, they typically will all end up clapping in unison. I've been to a couple Russian performances (violin virtuosos and stringed quartets straight from Russia to NE Philly) where the entire audience all started clapping together.  It made me incredibly uncomfortable.  At first, I thought they were mocking the performers, until my wife explained it to me. 

100th Post!!! Time to Celebrate, Russian Style!

Happy 100th post to me!!! and to celebrate, we'll all drink shots of vodka and toast to life, love, and health!

As a present to you all for coming along with me so far, I had an amazingly wonderful video of my in laws singing the Soviet national anthem after three bottles of vodka while we were at the beach last week.  It's something that comes out relatively frequently when reminiscing about the motherland.

HOWEVER, I wasn't given permission to post it because there was some concern that it would be...somewhat...embarrassing.  Harumph, don't they know that's the point?  So anyway, what follows will have to suffice.  I found this searching "drunk russians singing soviet national anthem".  It's almost exactly what you would have seen had I uploaded my own family's video.




Sadly, we Americans don't have this kind of nostalgic, nationalistic pride.  It's a shame, really.

Thank you so much for reading - I love you all!!

Punk is not Music - it's a way of life

I'm pretty punk rock.  I mean, honest to god punk, not these eyeliner and mascara pop punk kids who think punk rock involves shiny spiky belts and an earring.

No, I mean, I grew up punk in the way that purposeful physical bodily harm was considered awesome.  That there was value in poverty - the lifeblood of the country ran through the veins of the poor and disaffected.  For me, punk rock was an expression of how Americans could, and should, rally together in a single expression of unified angst towards the uneven playing field that was corporate and political America.

It was almost as if punk rock was like my very own communist revelation.  A socialist epiphany that I had when I was eleven that grew malignantly within me throughout my teenage years.

I started lining my wardrobe with punk tee shirts.  And while I was fairly proud of how many awesome tee shirts I had, they sometimes ended up in strange places when I grew up.  Like this:

Me and the Fam at Washington Square Park

and then there was this:

My wife and I on our first day of our Honeymoon

The first shirt is a Guttermouth shirt that has on the back of it a list that a police officer gave to the lead guy in the band when he was arrested.  The list is 10 things to do to stop being so punk rock.  One of them is "Don't Injure Yourself".  I always get a kick out of this shirt.

The second shirt is a Bad Religion shirt that has a picture of zombies on the back and the caption, "they'll go anywhere their president tells them to".  That went over really well in a military household.

I must have been fifteen when I bought these shirts, and full of misdirected, communist angst.  And now, the shirts have such a poignant nostalgia that I can't throw them out, but they're so out of place in my daily life that I'm not sure I can wear them anymore.

They're just not relevant these days.  I'm so much more concerned with the happiness that my family gives me that I'm not disaffected enough to really give anarchy and revolution a real honest second thought.  They were beautiful ideals as a sixteen year old kid, but for a family man with a mortgage?  A guy who is now PART of corporate America?  Does that make me a sell out?  Or does that make me a victim of the machine?  Or rather, does it just mean my priorities shifted from global anger and uprising to family-centric happiness?

It's amazing to wear these shirts now when I'm at the mall, and some fifteen year old kid will sport a "Rise Against" tee-shirt, or have a skull tattoo on his or her neck and a spider-web tattoo on their elbow (both of which I once upon a time wanted to get).  I'll be wearing my other Guttermouth shirt that says:

That person will sort of glance knowingly, and I'll look back with nostalgia.  Neither of us will make any real sign of acknowledgement, cause that wouldn't be punk.

But I wonder to myself what that person will end up thinking of their 15 or 16 year old self when they're a family man/woman with a mortgage.

Singing to Sammy

Sammy is beginning to learn that he LOVES listening to music.  He loves it when either my wife or I sing to him.  It's almost like an instantaneous calming effect that somehow brings him out of whatever funky mood he's in and gets him back to being a smiling little Schmoogle.

But there's a problem - I tend to blank out on song choices.  It's like three or four song Karaoke.  Luckily, Sammy doesn't mind.  He's totally into them, and why not?  They're awesome songs.  Just...it's a strange choice.

I know there should be some education somewhere in the songs for little kids, mixed with classical music.  So, these are the only four songs I can readily sing at a moment's notice.

1.  Bunny of Seville

Great song and great music. Plus, I have a little Wayne's World crush on Bugs Bunny when he's singing the "I'm your little senorita" part of the song.

2.  The nations of the World by Yakko Warner

Ok, I know it's a little out of date map-wise (there's still Czechoslovakia), but how can you not love a song that rhymes San Juan with Guam?  Canada with Panama? 

3.  Three is the Magic Number (blind melon version)

This video takes a couple seconds to get going, but who doesn't love schoolhouse rock?  and Blind Melon singing a Schoolhouse Rock song?  priceless. 

4.  Inchworm Song

I only ever knew about this song because Robert from "Everybody Loves Raymond" (or as my wife calls it, "I Love Raymond, screw everyone else!") sang it to the kids in the show in one very obscure episode.  But i'm a huge fan. Something about the minor key in a children's song, which is uncommon enough, mixed with the lackadaisical counting and alliteration of "measuring the marigolds".  Possibly one of my favorite children's songs ever.

And that's it.  That's my whole repertoire for age-appropriate songs.  I think while I may have been emotionally ready to have a child, i was nowhere near prepared in a mental sense, what with my lack of books, and now this lack of good music.

My wife, as she has always been, is great with remembering all those great songs from her childhood. There's goluboi vagon, Antoshka, the russian "happy birthday", Tra-ta-ta and about 300 others she can readily start singing.

Similar to asking about appropriate books, is there a kid's CD that is preferred over other ones?  I'm not exactly looking for "twinkle twinkle" or "the itsy bitsy spider", I think they're too...demeaning.  But I'm also not looking for Vivaldi's Four Seasons either.  Suggestions?