I was actually going to make a post on depressing Russian movies, and why American movies on the same subjects never manage to be quite as hopeless and bleak, but instead decided to post on the more upbeat movies today ( Read more... )

I have several favorite songs from this. One I like for its grandiose, orchestral, near-epic quality. Another I'm growing to like more and more for its simplicity, emotional restraint, and its combination of submissive abjection and bitter spite.

But this one I love because of its sheer ridiculosity. Oh cry me a river, Phoebus ( Read more... )

I speak, write, and read English better by now, mind. And yet I still hold that as a language--especially as a literary language--Russian is superior. A lot of mediocre works instantly read better just by being translated into Russian, for instance. And Russian fairy tales--with their simple, and yet beautifully stylized language--are to me, ( Read more... )