Chapter 4: Bravo

Tonight I'm talking about perhaps the only Russian band that still occupies its rightful place among my most favourite music bands ever - Bravo. It's not my priority to tell it's complete story now. Instead, I'm briefly focusing on what makes it special for me and offering a couple of songs from Bravo's most successful years (strictly IMO).

Bravo - as an adventurous rock-n-roll ensemble - was founded the year I was born, in 1983, in Moscow by guitarist Evgeny Havtan. Originally the lead singer was Zhanna Aguzarova (who still is one of the most talented and well-known underground singers in Russian pop-culture-history). In the next years the lead singers shifted several times but it was Valery Syutkin taking the lead from 1990 to 1994 who is preemptively considered most memorable of them all. And not only for his faultless, exceptional voice. The 3 albums that were recorded in those years- Fops from Moscow, Moscow Beat & Road to the Clouds - gave birth to more hits than all other albums put together. The band became seriously popular around the whole country which needed that kind of a brave and optimistic music wave in those years of economic, political and moral stagnation. It was the golden period for Bravo, never did they sound so energetic, fresh, lyrical and romantic as then. Their lyrics were poetic and witty, their music - skillful and overwhelming, Syutkin's voice - magical. They were very genre-oriented and whatever they played - blues, jazz or rock-n-roll - it was genuine and honest from start to end.

What made Bravo special to me? Bravo during 'Syutkin years' shaped my "ear". They revealed to me the very idea of good music and turned me to the direction of a blessful dichotomy - song and inspiration combined. Heart-breakingly soothing, quick and sprightly, lyrical or dynamic - each and every song had its own heart and many of them offered me an inner refuge I needed then.

So, here are some lovely samples of Bravo's sincerity and simplicity.

Bravo - V Shest Chasov (Russian: "В шесть часов" ) - a very upbeat example of rock-n-roll. The title means "At 6 pm". The song is about a date that a guy and his girlfriend set on 6 pm in the centre of Moscow and now he's all anticipation and excitement.
Bravo - Kak Zhal (Russian: "Как жаль") - oh, this one is nothing but pure blues: lyrical, dreamy, romantic and nostalgic. The title means "Such a pity" or "It's too bad". It's about memories of love and happiness that now are gone from reality but will forever reside in one's soul. If you really want to hear clear, distinguished, beautiful Russian language - I couldn't suggest a better example. Every single person I know adores this song.

Click the photo to get to Bravo's official site (Russian)

I hope it's worth it. See ya next time. And next time it's gonna be... KVN.

Chapter 3: Hello, I'm Your Aunt

In the times of the Soviet Union there were lots of well-done and durable movies, many of which were supported by the ever-watchful propaganda and censorship Machine. But! there were some that didn't actually stand out as glorious fame-bringers - they just were HITS. Some were immediate, some took time to win the hearts of Russian audience for decades to come.
One of the instances of such quick undoubtful success was a 1975 film by Viktor Titov "Hello, I'm Your Aunt!" (Russian: Здравствуйте, я ваша тётя!). It was a dashing low-budget piece based on the Brandon Tomas's play "Charley's Aunt". It is arguably one of the best musical comedies our cinema ever produced. Mostly, thanks to the magnificent A-class actors (Aleksandr Kalyagin, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Valentin Gaft and many more) and their amazing improvization skills. The whole film is a sparkling, impetuous, witty farse that takes the viewer by surprise around 20 minutes into the movie and doesn't let go till the end credits. It feels like you're watching a "cross-dressing" type stage play and a fast-paced independent musical at the same time (the set is basically the same in both acts). Superbly talented cast+ the best dialogue you could ever wish for - no wonder 2/3 of this film's quotes became aphorisms. The lively silent-movies-style music mingles with funny plot twists creating wonderful dynamics. The humour is all in the unfastened and inspired acting and in fact is very modern, that's why the whole thing is still hilarious nowadays. Such films never get old-fashioned.

To my mind, this is a rare Russian movie that could appeal to the whole world audience. It is absolutely brilliant, also it's a great opportunity to meet some of the finest actors of Soviet screen.
If you have nothing against subtitles I suggest quick-glancing at the film on YouTube in this playlist. Or you can have a look at the bits video (not subtitled but still very funny) below. Enjoy.

Chapter 2: Oryol back in 1900s

Today is my much adored household chores day so after all the labour pleasures I'm a bit exhausted and sleepy. As I'm not having a lot of listeners here anyway I'd not be talking much and better put some promised old images of my hometown. They're actually scanned postcards from around 1900. One or two belong to us, my mom showed them to me long time ago, there were letters on the back side of the cards written to his family by one soldier who fought in World War I. A rarity, you know.
Oh, I'm being boring. Take a look:

The "Arrow" place (you see two rivers, Oka and Orlik, join).

View of Oryol. Nowadays there is a hotel my dad works in,

instead of that building on the left closer to centre.

The view of the so-called "row of stalls" building.

It's still there.

The Town Council (on the right). On the left is what today a very good theatre.

And the Town Council again, only this time the picture is the one that my mom showed me. You can see the name [of the man who sent it or maybe the photographer] in upper right corner - Josif Lvovich Mikhovsky.

Row of Stalls on Gostinnaya Street.

Moskovskaya Street.

All right, the sleepy me calls the bloggy one to bed. Next time I'll chat with myself about one of the Russian Cinema masterpieces. Good night.

The Beginning

Russia is a huge country (1/6 of the planet dry-land after all) although less than half of it is so densely populated as the central region where I live. Mostly it's all woods, fields, rivers and really awful passability. I mean, roads. There are certain regions where the roads are nothing but a driver's nightmare. Like the one I live in. Orlovskaya oblast, my home province, is one of the poorest (most stripped) lands in the country. The scroungers-bosses of our administration proclaim its agricultural, educational and whateveral prosperity... when practically even for them there's nothing left to rob, nothing to profit by. Not many know that the only way we can see our current Mayor nowadays is on the "Wanted" posters around the town. That's so fantastically ridiculous. The region is dying out, unemployment issues get worse, the products costs are higher than in Moscow, the budget money is sucked out even before it gets here. And now there's the Crisis, hallelujah! - even more ways of pocketing regional finances. Oryol, the regional centre and my hometown, once sweet and comfy, is now a muddy, greyish and most of the time uninspiring place to live in. But the truth is that nobody cares. Neither the media-hailed government, nor the majority of its inhabitants. Oh, they complain and argue and annoy each other on the streets day by day. But being constantly irritated and unhappy is what they got used to. It's the way of life.

HOWEVER! The above-written was the necessarily dark introduction to a much more light-hearted story. The purpose of this blog is not to describe the everyday hardships and troubles of Russian folk. Quite on the contrary, I would like to present some instances of the brightest and loveliest things that can be related to Russia. Literature, cinema, music, nature, characters - the articles here won't be bound by any specific topic. Be it a realia or an individual worth commenting - then already it could somehow add a piece to the puzzle that's called the mystical "Russian spirit". And as two rebellions against mediocrity, my friend, schoolmate and collaborator Julia (aka Vinney) and I will try to keep the blog updated on the pieces of the puzzle. If it is useful to at least one or two persons interested in our vast and incoherent country then we take it as purpose fulfilled.
So here we go, let's find it out.

***
Chapter 1: Oryol

In Russian "oryol" means "eagle". There are some legends as to why Ivan IV (the Terrible) decided to name the fresh-founded fortress after this noble bird in 1566 but they're so boring I won't enlarge on them. Instead I'd like to express my own personal feelings about the place I've lived in for all my life up to now.
Regional centre or not, Oryol is not that big to be called a city (though its population is more than 300 000). It is a town but I still prefer to call it a 'big village'. The mentality and manner of living are practically the same as in the country since the town is mostly (and keeps being) inhabited by the former villagers and their descendants. So, intellectually and socially people are used to "solve" their problems by quarelling and picking each other to pieces and blaming the government and etc.

Nevertheless, the town hasn't lost its charm completely. Not yet. There are moments, like autumn leavefalls or dark winter evenings, when you can hear the town breathe, when its soul begins to peep out from beneath and you feel very much at home. Oryol claims to be a 'university town' as there are many higher education institutes around. Well, quality of the education they give is often questionable but at the same time there are still great minds of the old - professors whose knowledge and intelligence are nothing but worth their weight in gold. Yes, you are regularly woken up deep in the night by somebody singing drunk serenades under your windows - for the most common and ineradicable sin of our men is drinking, a lot and on any possible occasion. But sometimes you may hear them sing really good stuff, you know. Local radio is much better than the most popular FMs around the country: while the majority of commercial waves play Pussycat Dolls our lovely 'Radio-Express' would be playing Beatles. We've got a couple of really awesome theatres. And the town is very green. Everything's not lost.

As an example, I suggest taking a look at the town's beauty in the pics below or learn some of its history on Wikipedia

The cinema theatre "Pobjeda" (meaning "victory"). About 20 steps from my house. (Last time I went in there was June 2008 for "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian")

The Karl Marx Square in the centre

The Alexandrovskiy Bridge that joins Lenina Street

Lenina Street that I live in by the way

The 'Arrow" Stella in memory of those who died here during WWII,
it stands at the conjunction of two rivers - Oka and Orlik

View of the Stella and the Children's Park

The Mikhail Archangel Cathedral

The old Town Council building

The Orlik river

The park up the river

The Post (on the right)

View of the Mikhail Archangel Cathedral

A very nice satellite shot of the greyishness that is Oryol from the space (credit to GoogleMap). The lines point to the 2 places that I'm divided between during the day:

Next time I'm going to put some century-old black-and-white pictures of the town that I simply love. And something else for sure. Check back!

Take care everyone who dropped by, however few you are.

~ Ksenia :+)