Of songs and stadiums in Kharkiv

Kharkiv could have become one of next year's go-to destinations, and it's all because of the stadium you see in the photo above.

Ukrainian

The Ukrainian release is titled Star Trek: Retribution

We saw the new Star Trek film this weekend. Almost all incoming foreign films are dubbed into Ukrainian, not Russian, which means I usually spend 2 hours floundering along, trying to catch the odd word. This time, though, maybe because of our recent trip to Ukrainian-speaking Poltava?, it was comfortable to listen along. In fact, it felt pretty awesome... until the movie ended and my friends started talking about all these sub-plots I never caught :p At least I figured out who the bad guy was!

Every now and then I start feeling bad for not knowing much Ukrainian. Never mind the fact that any leftover non-teaching/non-blogging time is spent studying Russian or that most of my friends never use Ukrainian, there's something guilt-inducing about not learning a country's language. Locally the case could be made that Russian is just as much an "official" language as Ukrainian, but Russian is still seen as the-language-of-the-invaders in much of the country. And honestly, it's just awkward to be out of the loop when it comes to Ukrainian. The language on the street may be Russian around here, but the metro and street signs, movies, TV, advertising, and official documents are all in Ukrainian.

To those who scratch their heads and say- isn't it pretty much the same language??- you're kind of right.

And wrong.

Кино, or You Ought to be Ashamed if You Haven't Heard of These Guys

You know what's been missing from my life lately? Music!

Music is a universal passion. It's a drug for your brain- it can make you feel invincible, make you laugh, make you cry, make you furious. It's at weddings and funerals, piped into elevators, played around campfires, found in prisons and playgrounds. We all share the common thread of music and I miss listening to it. All I listen to these days are the yowls of the cat demanding more food in his bowl.

So this is me, committing to listen more (to music, not to the greedy cat) and, of course, to share it with you!

This awesome song represents my mood today. As far as drugs go, it's a downer, a barbiturate. If you can't understand the lyrics, it sounds like a song for the end of the world. No hope, nothing left. If you can understand the lyrics, well, probably the same

Кино- кукушка (Cuckoo)

As my friend played this song in his car the other week, we drove through slushy streets of the city.  Past mothers and children still bundled in winter jackets, fidgeting on the curb. Alongside ancient yellow-and-red city trams, the paint flaking off their sides in thick crusts. This song was the perfect backdrop to the scenes around us. My friend pointed out a building in the distance. The building looked new and habitable save for a construction crane still parked off the side. "A guy I know bought an apartment in that building", said my friend over the music. "He's got a family, you know, and decided it was time to move them all out of the grandparents' home. Paid the money, got all ready to move, and then the government said no one could live there after all. Everything just stopped."

On TV?

This is why you should never ever let me behind a video camera.

We recently completed filming a 5-minute casting video for the TV show House Hunters International. It only took...uh...25 days to come up with the final product :p Looking at it now, I would have done a lot of things differently (like get a haircut!) but hey, it is what it is. Here it is!

We were both sooo nervous to be doing this. It's hard to look at yourself on a camera and share your life with an unknown audience. Like it probably happens for most, we didn't seek out the opportunity. Instead, a producer contacted us, patiently answered all our questions, and asked us to make this video. The one thing we were sure of is how cool Kharkov is. Kharkov deserves to be on TV and I love introducing people to the city for the first time! Now that the video has been submitted, we're waiting to hear whether the producers want to send a crew out here or not.

In honor of television, here's one of the first Russian hip hop songs I ever heard: Хочу на ТВ (or, I want to be on TV).

Крепкий орешек

Admit it, I bet you've wondered about this too. How ever did they translate the movie title Die Hard into Russian? Hmmm.... it'd be too silly to just translate it literally, I guess. Oh, I've got it! How about Hard Nut? Yeah, that's it!

No, I am not joking. Die Hard = Hard Nut. Die Hard 2 = Hard Nut 2. And so on. You can imagine how much this little detail amused me and I've been quizzing D about it for ages. He revealed that it's a compliment to call someone a крепкий орешек; it indicates a strength of character similar to "He's a tough nut to crack." Don't take my word for it though- check out Potap and Nastiya's video КРЕПКИЕ ОРЕШКИ (Hard Nuts)
 
Awkward lyrics translation by me, forgive any errors!

Him: Movie, popcorn, I've sitting with Nastiya
Her: What movie is this? Some kind of horror film?
Him: No, this is a blockbuster, it's got all kinds of things. The Hard Nut- that's Jack, he's unstoppable.
Her: Who's that bald guy? I would fall in love with him.
Him: Dream on, that's Bruce Willis. He's the main character and he won't put up with any teasing. According to the movie, he's got the hardest nuts.

Chorus: I don't know what to do with this disaster. I was conquered by a bald-headed nut. Oh, what a handsome nose and tough glance. My man, my hero, my hard nut.

And then the song goes on with Potap recounting the entire Die Hard series for Nastiya.


Bonus info: Btw, Nastiya is a very common nickname, it's short for Anastasiya.

More bonus info: Potap and Nastiya are very popular in Ukraine and Russia. You can find tons of their music videos on YouTube. Here's a link to an interesting write-up of another song on another blog.

And one more: Want to see more of Bruce Willis in Ukraine? Go here!