3-18-2010 -- Happy Birthday Cameron!!!!
*************************
3-19-2010; 1:14 AM
Whoops -- the day changed on me….
***********
3-18-2010
It was one of my best friends' Birthday today!! Happy birthday, Cameron! -- Lucky for me, I managed to get online before my classes started and leave him a note to say as much.
I had a not so typical day of Classes --
SMI was an adventure, as usual! Today, we didn't even *get* to our normal school work! Instead, we wound up discussing nomenclature of musical styles; differences in personal hygiene habits; and the differences between US and European/Russian laundry detergent and washing machines! -- I told you it was an adventure.
*****
Things got rolling when rap music somehow got brought up, and our professor said that in Russian, it's called, "Чёрная Музыка" - "Chornaya Muzika" - or, in English, "Black Music."
One of the girls in our group was shocked to hear that Russians called it that, and was trying to say how there are white rappers, and how we don't call musical genres like Classical, "White Music." -- That turned out to be more ammunition for our professor, who countered that Classical music was European music (historically), so, yes, yes it was "White Music," if one wanted to say that.
I think the point that may have been missed is that they don't call it "Black Music" to be racist in any way at all. That's just the culture that produced it, so that's how it got called. If you put America's Love-Affair with being Politically Correct aside for a moment, it's an obvious fact that the majority of hip hop and rap artists are black artists. So, if you have a fact -- well, the Russians are logical people -- if it's a certain group of people making the music, that's how they're going to name it.
Still the other girl was a bit incredulous about the whole thing -- even with the professor and I being on the side of, "Culture begets music." I don't really think it was anything to get offended about! But it was certainly interesting to hear.
*****
From there, we somehow or other jumped to people's personal hygiene habits here. I think I'd mentioned something about how there's a little more body odor here than I'm used to being around -- especially in the Metro, sometimes. Andrei Dimitrievich (our professor) told us that it would be worse in the summer time! (And also, that there would even be a fair number of gentlemen who would be taking to the streets, shirtless.) Upon hearing that news, we all groaned, "Oh, no!!" *laughs* It was pretty funny, actually. One of the highlights from that part of the conversation was Anita's, "It's my problem that I'm clean, huh?" -- A.D. is really fond of saying that something is "our problem" if there's some kind of difference. He's such a character!
*****
The questions about personal hygiene led to Anita asking Andrei Dimitrievich about how often people do their laundry here (probably about the same as people in the States - once a week or so) -- and *that* led Andre Dimitrievich into telling us about the difference between laundry detergents and machines in the US and in Europe/Russia.
In sum:
* US Detergents (like Tide) don't work so well here as they do in the States, because here in Russia, it's mostly European washing machines that are smaller, less powerful, and not as efficient as US machines.
-- "So what should we use??" A few of my classmates asked
-- "Oh, Tide." AD answered, offhandedly. "It's still better than anything else."
(That led to a, "So what was the point of telling us it wasn't so great here?" collective sigh. Ha ha!)
*History lesson, from Andrei Dimitrievich!
At some point or other, AD had been in the US, before the Soviet Union fell. While here, and doing laundry, he was sitting and watching the machine -- how it worked, did its job, etc. (This is really not so weird, when you consider that he is the ONLY person in his family who is NOT an engineer!) -- When he came back to the Soviet Union, and when the Soviet Union fell, he was *resolute* in the fact that he and his wife were going to get a Washing Machine.
So! Sometime shortly after the Fall, he grabbed his wife, and they went off to one of the big stores, and AD said, "Show me the best washing machine you have!" It was an Italian model that, at the time (1991), cost *540 USD!* (Remember, in 1991, in Moscow, that was a lot of money.) AD told us, "For anyone to spend that kind of money, they had to be stupid, or crazy." … "I said, we'll take it!!" And of course, his wife was of the opinion, "What are you doing?!?!?!" and the salesman was thinking, "He's crazy!!!" -- But good lo' Andrei Dimitrievich, he said [in relation to his wife's opposition], "I was like Stalin!" (I.e. - They were *going* to get that washing machine!)
We all laughed, and Andrei Dimitrievich added the final touch to the story: "The day we got an automatic washing machine -- communism ended in our house!!" -- More laughter. He went on to share with us, "During communism, women worked like horses." -- Hence, why getting something that would make the work load easier would be a symbol of communism ending in their household, apparently.
*****
We also had Grammar today, but sadly, Lilia Leonidovna was still gone! We miss her!!!! If there was a bright side to this, it was that we had, "Amazing-Will-Start-Reciting-Pushkin-Poems-On-You-Before-You-Realize-It" Substitute-Teacher lady again today! (She's only a substitute for us -- she actually *is* the teacher for a few of the other groups.) She *really* makes me want to get out to a bookstore and buy a few books of Pushkin's work. Which I had intended to do *anyway,* but she's really quite the catalyst!!
I was still sick; feeling better, but not by much...
I got a few more journals written out after school, while waiting for Russian-American Club…
I was so happy to get to *go* to Russian American Club again!! We were talking about the Police today -- Russia's "Militsia" forces versus our American "Police" force. It was actually a really great meeting -- hopefully I'll get the notes typed out and online soon!
It was interesting, it's for sure -- the meeting started with some of the guys from our group playing NWA's "F*&k The Police" off of one of their laptops. I had been asked that morning to let them do it from mine -- but seeing as how I pretty strongly oppose the message of that song, I told them no. (Still, lyrics aside, from a musical point of view, I have to hand it to Dr. Dre, the song has some killer beats. Then again, it's from Dr. Dre, so of course the beats are killer!) It was quite the way to start the meeting, that's for sure! What's more, I was surprised to see that some of the Russians at the meeting actually seemed to know the song quite well -- so, there's some international-spread for you!
**********
I went home for a quick dinner, as I was hoping to get out to the John Donne. In the middle of that, Sasha called, and asked if I could run by his other phone that he had lent to me, as his other phone was finally kicking the bucket.
Looking back on it, I probably should have just stayed home… Walking the extra few blocks to and from Sahsa's, plus spending 2 hours sitting in a smokey bar did NOT help my lungs (or my generally "unwell" state of health in general…)… Ack… I will probably feel that in the morning… I hope that I am better before my first ballroom lesson!!! : \
I tried to call Cam while I was on the way home, but I missed him -- so I will try again here before bed.
Excursion in the morning.
Love,
Moscow Kitty; 1:16 AM
=X_X= / =^__^=
You should have your incredulous classmate listen to Crack Music by Kanye West. It's about how white people love rap even though it's black music.
ReplyDelete