Interview with SPCU

When a few of us students were asked to do an interview about why we had decided to come school in Russia, I gladly accepted the invitation. The interview has been up on their site for some time now and is in Russian, so I just had to trust our interviewer on the accuracy of the translation. Now that an English translation has been made available, the words 'lost in translation' come to mind at how 6th grade English we all sound. Including my name which is easily mistaken for 'Brandon' almost daily because my name is to hard to say in Russian and most people have never heard it before. Enjoy the interview in English and see if you can notice any differences, such as length. haha.

Sufjan Stevens on Original Sin

Lyrics to John Wayne Gacy, Jr. :
His father was a drinker
And his mother cried in bed
Folding John Wayne's T-shirts
When the swingset hit his head
The neighbors they adored him
For his humor and his conversation
Look underneath the house there
Find the few living things
Rotting fast in their sleep of the dead
Twenty-seven people, even more
They were boys with their cars, summer jobs
Oh my God

Are you one of them?

He dressed up like a clown for them
With his face paint white and red
And on his best behavior
In a dark room on the bed he kissed them all
He'd kill ten thousand people
With a sleight of his hand
Running far, running fast to the dead
He took off all their clothes for them
He put a cloth on their lips
Quiet hands, quiet kiss
On the mouth

And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floorboards
For the secrets I have hid

A Masterpiece ex machina

I am not sure if that title makes sense to anyone, but what I am referring to is the massive amount of priceless art that we(exchange students) have been recently observing for art class. To name a few notable artists, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Picasso, Rembrandt, Monet, Raphael, Van Gough, and of course a ton more I can't think of at this late an hour. That being said, DO head over to Kevin's much more thorough post about the different paintings we've been considering. You won't regret it, pictures and everything!

Rembrandt - Abraham & Isaac (1634)

(click Isaac to embiggen photo)

Brood of Ukelele Playin Country Folk

This was one of my favorite songs in the summer time.



Elliot Brood is an amazing three-piece folk indie rock country band from Toronto, and they are so good.

The Simpsons On Evolution/Creationism Debate

Watch for the parody of the Scopes Monkey trial near the end, Homer makes a genius contribution to proving man's ancestry.

simpsons creationism vs evolution
Загружено PigLips. -

Russian Thanksgiving is Real

A certain challenge had come my way to try and describe to the blogosphere what a Russian Thanksgiving is like. Fortunate person I am, I actually have participated in the very traditional celebration here and will now share my experience with my devoted readers. It all started back in the early 17th century, different from the first Canadian and American Thanksgiving feast in celebration of Jesus visiting the Americas. The First Romanov Tsar had recently come to power and the first thing he did was make a law to keep all pilgrims out of Russia. At this the people were very pleased because they didn't have to worry about losing their land. So in honor of that noble act. they had a feast. A totally traditional meal that lasted a week long. It consisted mostly of beer, but on the Sabbath all the Russians would prepare a special dinner which is still enjoyed to this very day. It consisted of spaghetti, store-bought ground beef, thai salad, and a little Soviet Cola for the kids. Not to mention the old-style deserts they prepared for days, their now world famous cream puffs. To this day, they mostly just drink beer, but to the occasional foreigners wishing to observe their special day, they will gladly comply. Nothing beats Thanksgiving in Russia, after the meal they sang and dance to their hearts content, knowing their land was safe from the pilgrims.

We Are in Deep Space!

This is too cool!

click the picture to follow the link to National Geographic where you can zoom in and pan the image to follow the hundreds of missions humans have been apart of in our galaxy. Basically, each line represents a mission, and areas, such as the moon, where there are full circles show how many missions have been done in that area. In case you didn't click the link, we have been in space for 50 years now folks! Also, notice how Voyager 1 is about 10 billion miles away BTW!!!

Russian Ballet

St.Petersburg is no stranger to the theatre. Ballets, operas, and plays are taking place every night in numerous locations. Recently I have attended a few ballets, and though I am new to the art, I very much enjoyed the dedication of the artists of, what I will call the two sides. By this I mean there is the one side, the orchestra and conductor, and the second side, the dancers, choreographers, tech crews, etc. Both have an immense amount of work put into any one show, not to mention a lifetime of practice and experience to make to the "big times". The orchestra is seemingly flawless in transitions between pieces, even when they are of different composers, and the dancers are always on their toes, quite literally, when a moment of improvisation is necessary. All of this hard work, from either side, comes together for one spectacular show of beauty and the arts. That being said, here is a few of my favorite scenes from some of the shows I've seen in the past week:

Swan Lake - Tchaikovsky


Firebird - Stravinsky


Sheherezade - Rimsky Korsakov


not that these videos do the real thing any justice, but hopefully you can get a sense of the unity between both sides.

Finally! An Advertisement That Gets ME...

I agree, that Jesus fellow has been nothing but trouble, teaching all our youngin's about no-good downright wrong ideas about hair-length and wearing jeans, quit poisoning our youth Jesus!

Baroque Art: Beauty or Beast?

Recently I took a trip to Peterhof for art class to examine the different influences of 17th century architects. Peterhof is dominated by to art-forms, those being classical and Baroque, and moreso by the latter. After our excursion we were asked to write a short essay about what was Baroque and how it had influenced the design of the fantastic palace. I won't include the full essay, but here is an excerpt that seeks to define "Baroque" in and of itself (slightly edited of course):

There has been much debate over what ‘Baroque’ as a form of art and architecture, as well as a cultural movement in thought, really means. In fact, it is uncertain what the term might literally mean, but one common interpretation is “the pearl of irregular form”. Usually when someone had called something Baroque, they meant that there was something mysterious or irregular about it. The term first appeared in Italy and was commonly associated with things that looked ugly. One critic went even further saying it was the embodiment of all that was “decadent, ugly, and blemished.” Baroque style, in its very nature, opposes itself to everything classical. Indeed, it is downright offensive to the classical style. It was seen quite negatively in comparison, and again, that it is the effect of decadence in art. It was meant to be contradictory and strange all in an attempt to astonish, even shock, its audience. Baroque’s main objective was to leave a strong impression on all who chanced to gaze upon it.

A major shift in worldview had been in process in Europe and influenced much of was to become Baroque. The discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo in science were being recognized by nearly all artists and intellectuals. Isaac Newton’s work in physics and in finding out the laws of nature had so impressed on this epoch that people were left feeling directionless and without anyone to rely on as they once did the Church. The Christian world was no longer whole since reformation. With this in mind, Baroque had aimed its attack against reformation in the catholic world, much like that of the Jesuits. What Baroque wanted was for people to accept a work as a whole and not to be focused on the different directions or details of the work. This is what had distinguished Baroque as its own new and unique style.

Everything gets presented as so grand and complicated that it is hard to take in all at once. The techniques used are all done specifically to evoke a feeling of absurdity to the viewer, as if one had just entered a new reality.

And I thought Russian was hard...

I had just finished my Russian Language homework for the night when I happened to read THIS. Karyn Traphagen teaches Hebrew Language every year, and every year she has students with the same feelings about how hard it is only a month in. I can completely relate to this! and I am even willing to bet money that Russian is harder then Hebrew, any takers?? Anyhow, enjoy musing at the "oddities of English" as James Mcgrath refers to it. I feel sorry for all the students here trying to learn English now, hah!

Church History in 4 Minutes!!!

Thanks a lot Alan Guenther, I could have just watched this instead taking that long-winded two-part history course. *note to all freshmen - memorize this song and ace the exam!