October 26, 2017

Rocks, Raps, and Cats in Charge


Rocks, Raps, and Cats in Charge
Don't Take Business for Granite

1. Running out of tombstones is a grave problem. Some companies specializing in granite for gravestones reported shortages, apparently due to resources being diverted for Moscow’s urban renewal project. Allaying fears that the tombstone industry was in danger of an early demise, Siberian funeral homes stated that their granite supply was in no grave danger. At least that’s one less thing for mourners to mourn.

2. In more futuristic business news, blockchain is Russia’s new big kid on the block. Blockchain and cryptocurrency have been a hot topic in Moscow circles, and it’s about to get official. For one, cryptocurrency is on the road to legalization in Russia’s financial sector. As for blockchain, the government is launching a pilot project to transfer Moscow’s land and property registry to blockchain, and later expand the technology into other government services.

3. Nothing screams catchy rap hit like a song about mercenary warfare. But just such a video has been topping the charts of Russian YouTube. The trending rap song is dedicated to PCM Wagner, allegedly a military contractor supplying fighters to Syria (though officials have neither confirmed that Wagner fighters are in the Kremlin’s employ nor even that the company exists). The song borrows a catchy refrain from Viktor Tsoi’s song "Kukushka."

In Odder News
  • Ever had a bad experience with a store manager? How about one who hisses and yowls at you? Some Perm stores have hired feline assistants to help people make their purr-chases. That’s how you put the meow in merchandise.

  • Airports are bustling, hi-tech centers of futuristic design. Unless they’re repurposed barns in rural Russian outposts. See the photo shoot.

Quote of the Week 

“We get granite by the train-car load, there are no problems with supplies.”
—A representative of funeral homes in Omsk, refuting the claims that granite shortages were getting in the way of tombstone production in Siberia.

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Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

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Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

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93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
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Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
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22 Russian Crosswords

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Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

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Bears in the Caviar

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Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
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