2008 Best of Kansas City

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In Defense of Trololololololololololo

With all of the YouTube incarnations of this song topping four million views, Eduard Khil finally got world-wide audience he always deserved.

The name of Eduard Khil is so closely intertwined with the Soviet pop-music of the second half of the 20th century that when I started compiling the list of his songs for this post I instantly recognized every one of them. These songs made up a huge part of the soundtrack of my childhood -- the time when many Soviet pop-stars had musical education, real voices, memorable melodies and easy to remember, censor-approved lyrics. Even the above song called “I am so happy I am returning home” was a byproduct of the Soviet censorship:

There is an interesting story associated with this song -- it originally had lyrics something like “I am riding my mustang through the prairie and my beloved Mary is knitting somewhere thousands of miles from here”. At that time publishing these lyrics was problematic so we decided to make this song a vocalise. The only surviving part of the lyrics is the title. Not having lyrics allowed me to sing the song in foreign countries such as Germany and Sweden with great success.*

The list of Khil’s popular songs is long -- he had a long and productive career, there was little churn at the top of the Soviet pop-music pantheon. I don’t expect you to click on all the videos, they are more of a nostalgic mementos for me and are probably just a strange curiosity for you.

“Winter” -- 1971.

“Birch Juice” -- 1973.

“Let’s Go Home” -- the song about WWII.

“Saying good bye to departing ships”

“The Alder Catkin”

“Don’t Cry, Girl” -- this song was sung at every military parade and in countless military installations.

“A Joke” -- duet with another popular singer Lyudmila Senchina.

This is the new rendition of the very popular old song from 1966 “A man walked out of the house”.

These songs may sound simple and cheesy, but such was the time.  Listening to the music of our childhoods lets us go back for a brief moment. Mine had Eduard Khil’s songs in it, songs I will probably never forget.

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Move ‘em On, Head ‘em out, Then Hide!

Another key to an 83% approval rating? Put all your political opponents in jail.

TheDLC

The comment above was posted on my recent post about Vladimir Putin. Today my blog feed brings an illustration.

Here we see a participant of a legal non-violent picket of the Moscow City Hall being carefully handled by the militia (Russian name for police).

©www.sasha-utkin.ru

Here we see his partner being picked up as well.

©www.sasha-utkin.ru

And after a short pampering…

©www.sasha-utkin.ru

…being loaded in the van.

©www.sasha-utkin.ru

Single-person pickets do not require permission. According to the article these people were asked to leave and when they refused, were carried out and taken away. To the best of my knowledge protesters are usually let go the same day or the next morning, apparently Russian militia just enjoys the process and resulting news reports.