September 2012 - Los Cuadernos de Julia

A Full Text Of Slava Polunin Interview

I know a lot of you are interested in the interview with Slava Polunin that I translated in 2003. It wasn’t published, and then in 2008 I thought I’d publish it here. Since then I’ve received so many thankyous, I’ve met a few people who were involved in absurdist, surrealist theatre or in clownery and who apparently even used this interview in their classes. What happened, as well, I changed templates on the blog, and suddenly “read more” option stopped working, and some of the posts from the interview got truncated.

So when I received yet another request from someone involved in clownery and acting, it occurred to me that I could use Scribd! Gosh, you can really go for ages not realising there is an obvious thing to do. Now the document is on Scribd, I gather the S’s editors were happy with the document and had it featured, and you can read it here, download, embed it on your site, print it out, in short – spread Slava’s talent, thirst for life, and carnival spirit.

Slava Polunin – A Monologue of the Clown http://www.scribd.com/embeds/106971542/content?start_page=1&view_mode=book&access_key=key-2ac2yu7vsas1n77gb558

106971542-Slava-Polunin-A-Monologue-of-the-Clown

Moscow by Bus: from Krasnogorsk to the city centre

Moscow by Bus: Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Moscow by Bus: Industrialisation and Hospitality

Moscow by Bus: Moskva City Business Centre

Moscow by Bus: The Radisson Ukraine Hotel

Moscow by Bus: The Ukraine Hotel and Business Centre

Moscow by Bus: The Russian Government (White House)

Moscow by Bus: The Church of St. Simeon in Povarskaya St

Moscow by Bus: from Krasnogorsk to the city centre, a set on Flickr.

I visited the annual Moscow Autumn Tourism Industry Week for the second year running, and this time I was swept by the organisers to a bus excursion. I admit: for a second I hope I’d be able to bring you the views of the famous Borodino field where the decisive battle between the French Napoleon and the Russian Kutuzov had been fought. Alas! in spite of the 200th anniversary the battle celebrates this year, I was the ONLY (!) person who wanted to go there. “Please understand we cannot take you on your own”, the organisers explained/complained/begged, so I retreated.

Out of 2 excursions I chose the one that offered to visit the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and the bunker of Joseph Stalin. The other one was taking people to the State Historical Museum and the Planetarium, but I visited both in the past and figured out I could easily visit them again. Much easier than arranging a visit to Stalin’s bunker.

At the moment I uploaded the photos of Moscow traffic, parks, and buildings made from the bus window. We were blessed with the weather, as you can see. And the route took us past the endless lines of traffic going to Crocus Shopping Mall and farther to the luxurious suburbian mansions of the New Russians. We caught the glimpses of the never-opened hotel under the red bridge; the Moskva City Business Centre that is still under construction; the impressive Radisson Ukraine Hotel, the British Embassy, and the White House (the Government seat) that are all located on different sides of the same Taras Shevchenko Embankment. We rode past the Kremlin, through Zaryadye District to Lefortovo, the latter known as a place where the German community resided in the 17th c. and where Peter the Great spent his youth.

The piano that still plays

As part of refurbishing and replanning the Gorky Park in Moscow, they “planted” old pianos in various spots. There’s a Russian phrase – “a piano in the bushes” – that means something obvious getting presented as a great surprise. Well, accidentally finding these pianos is not quite obvious, but that’s only half of the story. The lone-standing big piano has four working keys!! No other piano has that, only this one. So I made a small record of those keys extorting sound.

Little-known Moscow sites

A city is similar to a language: there will always be another word (i.e. street) you’ve never known. And even when you know the word, or the city, you may not be aware of a new context, angle, forgotten definition. It happens to me all the time I take a stroll down Moscow streets. I recommend, if and when you visit the city, to delve deeper and to take lanes, turn into unknown yards, for you can never know what treasures await there.

In this photo you see a vase in a house’s inner garden in Maly Tryokhsvyatitelsky Lane (left) and the stairs in Morozov Garden in Bolshoi Tryokhsvyatitelsky Lane (right). Both lanes are accessed from Kitai-gorod metro station and in the second half of 19th c. had been a part of the notorious Khitrovka – a criminal den of Moscow.

Erwin Schulhoff and the Art of Faking

I have just spent the most wonderful three and a half minutes listening to Sonata Erotica by Erwin Schulhoff. Why wonderful, you ask? Composed in 1919, at the time when all the best artistic minds played the field of creative exploration, Sonata Erotica is the music to a man’s ears… because it is a beautiful, rhythmic arrangement of female moans, groans, and screams that all lead to a climax. Yes, you are right: Sonata Erotica is a praise of a female orgasm. In fact, you can say it is an orchestrated orgasm, and you will be absolutely correct.

Forget everything you see and hear on the radio and TV today. Forget those vamp ladies in slinky dresses, breathing heavily in a quick-edited video. Imagine instead a diva performing Sonata Erotica to an audience in a bright, spacious hall, like, say, Tchaikovsky Conservatoire or the Royal Albert Hall.

Cannot get what I’m on about? Then put on your earphones and listen to a brilliant, provocative piece of experimental music of the early 20th c. To think about it, in mere 7 years this piece will celebrate a centenary. In a hundred years the only other person who famously blended female moans with music was Serge Gainsbourg in Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus.

Would any composer dare to create another, male, version of Schulhoff’s work?

And a few words about Schulhoff himself, from Wikipedia:

Erwin Schulhoff studied composition and piano in Prague, Vienna, Leipzig and Cologne, where his teachers included Claude Debussy, Max Reger, Fritz Steinbach, and Willi Thern. He was one of the first generation of classical composers to find inspiration in the rhythms of jazz music. Schulhoff also embraced the avant-garde influence of Dadaism in his performance and composition after World War I.

When organizing concerts of avant-garde music in 1919, he included this manifesto:

Absolute art is revolution, it requires additional facets for development, leads to overthrow (coups) in ordee to open new paths…and is the most powerful in music…. The idea of revolution in art has evolved for decades, under whatever sun the creators live, in that for them art is the commonality of man. This is particularly true in music, because this art form is the liveliest, and as a result reflects the revolution most strongly and deeply–the complete escape from imperialistic tonality and rhythm, the climb to an ecstatic change for the better.

The Different But Equally Magnificent Views of the Moscow State University

Here are some views I get to see from my office window. Which one is your favourite?

Visiting Gorky Park In Mid-August

My University friend and I went to Gorky Park this August.

Many years ago I went there with my Mum, they celebrated the Park’s anniversary, and I got a badge for reading the poetry on stage. Then 1990s started, and the Park turned into a proverbial razzamatazz complete with all sorts of cheap entertainment and innumerable food stalls.

Then the head of the Moscow Department of Culture decided to turn the Park into what it was originally intended to be – the place of culture and leisure. The reconversion took a few years, but the result is a hip, contemporary park populated with hipster folk on skates and boards, young people playing ping-pong and frisbee, romantic couples sitting or reclining on comfy benches, and a plenty of sports facilities, special kiosks to buy seeds and nuts for birds and squirrels, and above all – an absolutely unusual pristine environment, nice music, and a feeling of cultured leisure, if one may say so. There are young people, especially girls, who skate-board to a co-working area in the Park’s premises, with a Mac hanging on their shoulder. Another girl was writing something on her iPhone while on a skate-board.

In addition to all the above, there are a few “official” coffee shops, i.e. Red.Espresso Bar, serving delicious macaroni biscuits, a colour fountain, and a beautiful recreation area. There are recycling bins for any sort of garbage, and large spaces for master classes. Last but not least, there’s an open air cinema in the Park.

The Gorky Park is easily accessed from Park Kultury metro station, Circle Line. You’ll need to walk along the Krymsky Bridge that also offers spectacular views of the Moskva River.

Moscow City Day

Moscow celebrated its 865th anniversary today with many sportive, cultural and family events scattered across city centre. I visited a few before joining a good friend for a cup of coffee, so below are some pictures I took at the VDNKh and in Petrovsky Boulevard in Moscow.