Sunday, 15 January:
Suzanne and I walked over to Trafalgar Square yesterday. We were there to see the Russian Winter Festival and overall it was a very interesting experience. The day is typically held on Russian Old New Year's Day and dates back to the use of their pre-revolutionary calendar. The hardest part was resisting the urge to buy a huge kielbasa suasage and making our way through the masses. In the time that we spent at the free festival, we saw children doing Russian dances, a fashion show, a local dj singing, and a Russian rock band.
The children were amazing! They were in perfect synchronicity and amazingly gifted. It was a bit like watching children doing a more athletic, Russian version of riverdance. And the kids didn't seem to get tired either, I know that we watched them leaping about for more than 15 minutes and they were on stage when we got there. In the time that we spent at the festival, they got the loudest cheers by far. Here is a synopsis of the group:
The local DJ appeared to be comedic relief, as she was constantly trying to get the crowd involved, but kept failing. She walked out on stage in all black, and despite weighing more than 19 stone, she was decked in a very short mini skirt, black tights and a black jacket with a blonde puffball peaking over her right arm. After a better look, we realized the puffball was a dog that looked exactly like my parents' dog, Sassy, under the crook of her arm. The poor things eyes looked ready to pop out of its skull and it was firmly wedged between 15 stones of body and two stones of arm. The dog's eyes kept reaching critical poppage levels when the DJ brought her hands together in thunderclaps meant to get the crowd into her performance. The whole time she was on stage, Suzanne and I kept waiting for the dog to go blind due to a like of eyeballs or to fall to the stage right under the DJ's feet. Fortunately, the dog realized blindness was better than death and kept clinging to the DJ and trying to climb out of its fleshy prison. After a lackluster performance of "Back in the USSR" the DJ left the stage, so we are still unsure of the Sassy clone's fate. Everything about the DJ was wrong in some way, the clothes, the over the top attempts at cheers, the choice of songs to sing. I am not the smartest kid on the (Soviet) bloc, but even I realize that Russia is not the USSR. The USSR included tiny places like Chechnya and Lithuania, and much larger places like Kajikistan, Turkmeinistan, Georgia, etc. And the song was in poor taste in my mind, but I guess when you are a radio DJ, ignorance is bliss.
OK, maybe I was wrong, it might have been the rock band that was supposed to be comedic relief. This group was singing in Russian, but it was formulaic 80s rock, and it was hilarious. They came out on stage in your typical rock get up, unbuttoned shirts, baseball caps with flames running down the sides, long hair, and tight jeans. (A true 80s rock professional would have had spandex, but maybe there is a shortage in of spandex in Russia.) They started out with a rock ballad that sounded like a focus group of 80s rock groupies got together to decide on the next rock product. The next song was a screaming rock anthem from that same focus group, and overall it made me cringe at the thought that I once owned a Whitesnake tape.
We finished our festival jaunt by picking up a couple of magazines written Russian (that way my dad can translate when he gets here and we'll know what was hip in Russian zines five months after the fact) and pushing our way through the crowds to leave the square. It was actually a lot of fun, and despite missing the Kremlin Guard, very fascinating to watch.
I am amazed at how many Russians are in London, have been for some time. When I walk down the street, I can't cover more than three blocks without either hearing a Russian accent or someone speaking in Russian. The festival appeared to bring all of those people together, as the entire square was packed. In fact, here are some stats on Russians in London from this BBC article:
London's Russian speaking community of up to 200,000 is growing, whilst visits from Russia to London increased by 72 per cent between 2002 and 2004.
Last year Russian visitors spent a total of £180m in London, a figure that is rapidly rising, with Russian visitors now the third most important group of VAT exempt shoppers in the West.
The value of economic ties with Russia is also highlighted by the value of initial Public Offerings of Russian companies on the London Stock Exchange, which last year reached over £2 billion.
The children were amazing! They were in perfect synchronicity and amazingly gifted. It was a bit like watching children doing a more athletic, Russian version of riverdance. And the kids didn't seem to get tired either, I know that we watched them leaping about for more than 15 minutes and they were on stage when we got there. In the time that we spent at the festival, they got the loudest cheers by far. Here is a synopsis of the group:
Ensemble Malenkiy Jigit
The best youth ensemble of folk dance in Ossetia, Malenkiy (Small) Jigit, is a prize-winning troupe that brings together the most talented young dancers from throughout the whole republic. It has performed at many international festivals and is a laureate of the Kanberdiev Prize.
Established in 1959, the ensemble has performed at international festivals in Russia, Georgia, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic (Grand Prize). On several occasions the ensemble also represented Ossetian culture in Moscow.
Malenkiy Jigit has also appeared frequently on Russian and Ossetian television and was awarded the special Sochi Diploma and Prize in 2000 for their preservation of national traditions.
This information came from here.The local DJ appeared to be comedic relief, as she was constantly trying to get the crowd involved, but kept failing. She walked out on stage in all black, and despite weighing more than 19 stone, she was decked in a very short mini skirt, black tights and a black jacket with a blonde puffball peaking over her right arm. After a better look, we realized the puffball was a dog that looked exactly like my parents' dog, Sassy, under the crook of her arm. The poor things eyes looked ready to pop out of its skull and it was firmly wedged between 15 stones of body and two stones of arm. The dog's eyes kept reaching critical poppage levels when the DJ brought her hands together in thunderclaps meant to get the crowd into her performance. The whole time she was on stage, Suzanne and I kept waiting for the dog to go blind due to a like of eyeballs or to fall to the stage right under the DJ's feet. Fortunately, the dog realized blindness was better than death and kept clinging to the DJ and trying to climb out of its fleshy prison. After a lackluster performance of "Back in the USSR" the DJ left the stage, so we are still unsure of the Sassy clone's fate. Everything about the DJ was wrong in some way, the clothes, the over the top attempts at cheers, the choice of songs to sing. I am not the smartest kid on the (Soviet) bloc, but even I realize that Russia is not the USSR. The USSR included tiny places like Chechnya and Lithuania, and much larger places like Kajikistan, Turkmeinistan, Georgia, etc. And the song was in poor taste in my mind, but I guess when you are a radio DJ, ignorance is bliss.
OK, maybe I was wrong, it might have been the rock band that was supposed to be comedic relief. This group was singing in Russian, but it was formulaic 80s rock, and it was hilarious. They came out on stage in your typical rock get up, unbuttoned shirts, baseball caps with flames running down the sides, long hair, and tight jeans. (A true 80s rock professional would have had spandex, but maybe there is a shortage in of spandex in Russia.) They started out with a rock ballad that sounded like a focus group of 80s rock groupies got together to decide on the next rock product. The next song was a screaming rock anthem from that same focus group, and overall it made me cringe at the thought that I once owned a Whitesnake tape.
We finished our festival jaunt by picking up a couple of magazines written Russian (that way my dad can translate when he gets here and we'll know what was hip in Russian zines five months after the fact) and pushing our way through the crowds to leave the square. It was actually a lot of fun, and despite missing the Kremlin Guard, very fascinating to watch.
I am amazed at how many Russians are in London, have been for some time. When I walk down the street, I can't cover more than three blocks without either hearing a Russian accent or someone speaking in Russian. The festival appeared to bring all of those people together, as the entire square was packed. In fact, here are some stats on Russians in London from this BBC article:
London's Russian speaking community of up to 200,000 is growing, whilst visits from Russia to London increased by 72 per cent between 2002 and 2004.
Last year Russian visitors spent a total of £180m in London, a figure that is rapidly rising, with Russian visitors now the third most important group of VAT exempt shoppers in the West.
The value of economic ties with Russia is also highlighted by the value of initial Public Offerings of Russian companies on the London Stock Exchange, which last year reached over £2 billion.
posted by Unknown at 2:37 AM
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