Russian Grandmothers Rule in Eurovison 2012

Buranovskiye Babushki

Buranovskiye Babushki will represent Russia at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, Azerbaijan with the song 'Party For Everybody'. 

"The grannies are singing about laying the table with food, inviting guests and children, everyone comes and then they are singing and dancing for them with all their soul. They ask everyone to dance with them."     -Izhlife.ru

Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/arts_n_ideas/article/in8200the-spotlight/454341.html#ixzz1p2wNr0Uv
The Moscow Times

Surprise! The grandmothers of Udmurtia out-sing other pop artists for Russia's entry to Eurovison.

Amazing Grandmothers from the republic of Udmurtia, will represent Russia in the Eurovision song contest in Azerbaijan in 2012 after winning the selection competition.

They will sing in the Udmurt language, and  some English.

The song is about the babushki waiting for their grandchildren, so a “party for everybody” starts.

Read more in the Moscow times:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/arts_n_ideas/article/in8200the-spotlight/454341.html

The View from Sennaya Ploschad

St. Petersburg, Russia 

http://www.sennaya.com/forum/

Cheburashka's studio Soyuzmultfilm on the rise

Will Cheburashka have new adventures in Russia?

Here is an excerpt from the Moscow News  regarding our favorite character:

http://themoscownews.com/arts/20120227/189491707.html

"The oldest animation studio in Russia, Soyuzmultfilm turned 75 last summer. The once-thriving studio – producer of such internationally acclaimed classics as “Hedgehog in the Fog” and the iconic Cheburashka films – has suffered hard times in the post-Soviet era and its glory days have seemed to be well and truly over. Copyright disputes, the loss of state support, and the cold hard economic reality have taken their toll, with production almost drying up completely. But finally the studio has now been tossed a lifeline, raising hopes that it can be saved.

 Cheburashka is one of the studio’s most famous stars

Soyuzmultfilm’s situation started to turn around last summer, when a group of renowned Soviet era animators including Yury Norstein and Leonid Shvartsman wrote to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appealing for help. A meeting with the prime minister followed, and Putin promised to write off the studio’s debts of 12 million rubles and allocate substantial funding towards its development as well as to the cartoon industry in general.

At the end of December, Putin decided to give the studio two new buildings and return to it the rights on Soviet cartoons which since 2009 belonged to the United Federal Film Collection, or OGK. In 2010 OGK raked in 180 million rubles in royalties from Soyuzmultfilm cartoons, of which only 28 million rubles went to the studio, Vedomosti reported.

The decision to give copyrights back to Soyuzmultfilm will allow the studio to pay associated royalties to directors, composers, screenwriters, art directors and cameramen. Most of the money comes from the use of cartoon images on T-shirts, cups, books, toys and other merchandise, which the studio’s director Nikolai Makovsky said was now the industry’s main source of income.

The Culture Ministry has been in the process of approving a 60 million ruble subsidy to the studio, earmarked for buying new technology and special equipment, as well as maintaining and modernizing its property, RIA Novosti reported in mid-February, citing Makovsky. He said the subsidy had been discussed since late last year, as part of the government’s new policy concerning animation.

Makovsky became the new director of the troubled studio at the end of summer, after the group of renowned animators recommended him for this job, saying “he understands not only the studio’s problems, but those of animation as a whole.”

Read more: 

http://themoscownews.com/arts/20120227/189491707.html

Cheburashka's got the goods in Japan

 A few years ago most Cheburashka items were in the form of Russian collectibles.  Now there seems to be a never-ending variety of new Cheburashka items coming out of Japan.

These small glasses with a white Cheburashka are reminiscent of the white Cheburashka plush toys of the Torino Olympics used by the Russian Olympic team.

 But indeed, they are from Japan.

 http://www.sennaya.com/forum/

Moonlight and Vodka - Лунный свет и водка

Moonlight, Vodka and song

Chris de Burgh is an Irish singer born in Argentina who has written and performed all over the world. He is surprisingly popular in Russia, especially since he does not speak or sing in Russian.
He proves that heartfelt songs of love, war, patriotism can be popular everywhere.

This first song is almost and ex-pat anthem, the lonely feelings of a foreigner in Moscow. Moscow is a long way from L.A. Written during the cold war it speaks to the loneliness when you cannot know who to trust. Even without the cold war, a foreigner is often alone. Drinking vodka in the moonlight.

Moonlight and Vodka - Chris de Burgh - Clip from Dangerous Lady - Опасная леди

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45FO14BORFU
Lyrics at the bottom of page.

And sometimes love strikes, even in a foreign land. Falling in love with the dance and the dancer.

Natasha Dance - Наташа танца - Chris de Burgh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1aQWy1FKKM

In 2007 Chris de Burgh performed in Moscow a song of Leningrad and its struggle in WWII. The German army laid siege to Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, for 3 years and a million people starved. Yet Leningrad did not fall and the Russian army prevailed.

Leningrad Memories - Ленинградская избранное

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoiS3RNjQa0

Many were lost in WWII and this song of soldiers lost under the snow has universal appeal.

Snow is Falling - выпавшего снега - Chris de Burgh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTtZ11LAxUE
 
Snow is falling
Snow is falling, snow is falling on the ground,
In the forest, in the forest there's no sound;
A shallow grave is where we lie,
The boys and men who died,
And snow is falling on the ground,
And we are calling to be found;

And the seasons, and the seasons come and go,
In the springtime, birds will sing and flowers grow,
At summer's end, the autumn breeze,
Will whisper through the trees,
And leaves are falling on the ground,
And we are calling to be found;

And in our homes, so many tears,
They don't know where we have gone,
And snow is falling on the ground,
And we are calling to be found,
We are calling to be found......
---

A beautiful instrumental version of "When Winter Comes."
When Winter Comes


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2H6yz55gWY

Moonlight and Vodka
Fix me a drink, make it a strong one,
Hey comrade, a drink, make it a long one,
My hands are shaking and my feet are numb,
My head is aching and the bar's going round,
And I'm so down, in this foreign town;

Tonight there's a band, it ain't such a bad one,
Play me a song, don't make it a sad one,
I can't even talk to these Russian girls,
The beer is lousy and the food is worse,
And it's so damn cold, yes it's so damn cold,
I know it's hard to believe,
But I haven't been warm for a week;

Moonlight and vodka, takes me away,
Midnight in Moscow is lunchtime in L.A.,
Ooh play boys, play...

Espionage is a serious business,
Well I've had enough of this serious business,
That dancing girl is making eyes at me,
I'm sure she's working for the K.G.B.
In this paradise, ah cold as ice;

Moonlight and vodka, takes me away,
Midnight in Moscow is sunshine in L.A.,
Yes, in the good old U.S.A.
---

Natasha Dance
Natasha brings me kisses in the moonlight,
She kneels above me, silk upon my skin,
I reach for her, and I can feel her heartbeat,
Beneath her breast so heavy in my hand;

The rain is running rivers on my window,
And shimmers on the streetlights down below,
She's happy when I hold her in the shadows,
And whispers of a life I've never known;

And will you dance, Natasha dance for me,
Because I want to feel the passion in your soul,
And when you dance, will you tell me in a story,
The joy and pain of living in your world;

La la la, la la la, la la la la.......

And with the light I wake up in the morning,
And she has gone, it must have been a dream,
And then I see the roses on my pillow,
And now I know that she will come again;

And she will dance, Natasha dance for me,
Again I want to feel the passion in your soul,
And when you move, will you show me in a story,
The joy and pain of living in your world;

Natasha dance for me.........
---

Leningrad
There she stood in an empty room, heard a voice from another time,
And the memories came rolling back of Leningrad in the war;

For the girl in the photograph, much had changed in the years that passed,
But her longing for the boy she loved was still the same since the war;

It was a moonless night upon the road of life, when he'd held her to say goodbye,
Many more would survive, for he stayed behind to help them live again;

When they met at the garden gate, tears would fall from a deep embrace,
For she never knew what happened to the boy she loved in the war;

Back in those happy days, before the soldiers came,
To break down the ones who remained,
And they only survived, who could learn to die, and live to fight again;

There they stood in an empty room, heard a voice from another time,
And their memories came rolling back of Leningrad in the war.


http://www.cdeb.com/cdebnew/biography.html