MARINA SOKOLOVA

Japanese music.

Is this song about eyelashes?

 

Fat Gypsy Weddings.

I watched My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, the other day, on channel 4 website. Before this documentary, I have never seen white and blond gypsies. This was a culture shock. I used to think that gypsies are discriminated because they look distinctively different. I used to think that it is a colour issue. You see, former USSR gypsies, even so most of them are settled and no longer travel, never cross-pollinated much neither with Slavic Russians nor with any other minority. They have distinct face features that gives out a gypsy in them. They preserved their original language and also still often wear traditional clothing even in everyday life.

The documentary also illustrated how little UK's government have done to either integrate them or to preserve their culture. Gypsies in USSR used to receive generous monetary compensation for settling down and getting jobs. Their image was romanticised in movies and media to upgrade their public image a bit, see example below. In UK, it feels like there was no overall government strategy to start with. As if gypsies existence wasn't even acknowledged. I don't know much about UK's history, so I am talking about my personal impression from these documentaries, so please tell me if you think I am missing anything.

 

Russian Paris Hilton, but less trashy.

 

And winter holidays continue :)

 

 

Happy winter holidays, my friends!

 

One of my favourite bands - VIA Gra.

This is an Ukrainian-Russian band. VIA is an abbreviation for a music band in Russian language. So the name of the band has a catch in it. One understands the meaning of the word according to how “dirty” his or her mind is. Or... in the case of my blog, how many languages the reader is fluent in as well :)

 

  

Here is a very Ukrainian pagan theme:

 

Cool animated music.

 

One of my favourite singers - Zemfira.

 

 

 

 

And this is Zemfira with her lifepartner - actress, Renata Litvinova:

 

Kazakhstan's music in my blog.

Same boy as in this post:

And this is another boy:

This video shows some traditional clothes and very traditional house made of one of my most favourite art materials – felt:

Sexy babe of the month in my blog.

In real life: she is a reach famous singer and he is her toy-boy husband. Until he married up/to her he used to be striptease dancer and she met him at his work. Inspired by his seductive talent she wrote and published a book about male striptease. In Russian-speaking world International Women’s Day is big and always celebrated with at least small party with exchange of gifts. So when she was asked in one of the interviews what was the best present she ever got, she said that since he was born at 8^th March, he is the best gift she ever got. Aw, how sweet!

And this is their wedding:

And this is when she was much younger and still climbing the Olimp of music industry and been busy making her fortune: