December 06, 2018

Jedi Masters, Moon Colonies, and More


Jedi Masters, Moon Colonies, and More
Fly Me to the Moon

1. That’s one small step for man, one giant sleep for mankind. Those are the words we expect to hear from the first astronaut to sleep on the moon in Russia’s forthcoming moon colony. This week Russia’s Roscosmos announced plans to establish a moon colony by the year 2040. Construction is slated to begin in 2025. It seems the colony won’t lack inhabitants, as hundreds of would-be cosmonauts have already submitted applications to become the first Russian to touch the moon.

2. Dress for the job you want, not the job you have. The chief executive of Russia’s state-owned bank, VTB, took this to heart and wore an Obi-Wan Kenobi jedi costume to Russia’s largest financial conference (photo, above). Jedi Master Andrei Kostin compared the US to the Death Star and Russia to the Republic, and he was joined by Luke Skywalker (the bank’s corporate and investment business manager). While we quibble with the analogy (the Enemy should be the Empire, not the Death Star!), we do find this year’s costume more universally friendly: last year Kostin showed up to the conference as Stalin.

The Moscow Times

3. More Muscovites may be taking the metro to get around, as some Moscow taxi drivers have launched a strike. The strike is aimed against poor working conditions and low wages, as well as the taxi aggregators that the drivers claim exacerbate them. The strike began with one taxi driver announcing a hunger strike, but has since grown. Drivers note the danger they pose to themselves, their passengers, and others when driving for excessive amounts of time in a day.

In Odder News:
  • A tsarist who fights for civil rights? Only in Russia.

  • No meeting, no problem: Putin shrugs off a meeting cancellation from Trump

  • J.K. Rowling knows Russian?! Or something magical appears to have happened on her Twitter account

Quote of the Week:

“If that’s so, then President [Putin] will have a couple of extra hours on his agenda for useful meetings on the sidelines of the summit.”

— Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, reacting to Trump cancelling his meeting with Putin over events in the Kerch Strait

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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. 
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

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.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

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.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.

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