Retro and Nostalgia in Moscow: Troubadours, Soccer and Circus

What can one do in 3 intensive days in Moscow, if organized by people who know Russia well?

Bread and Circuses, of course...For me the bread of life is music and soccer, and the circus was that tasty filling of the Moscow trip. The one what you do not experience every day...

We visited the famous Nikulin Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, established in Moscow in the year 1880. 

Somebody says it the oldest circus in Russia, somebody says it is one of the oldest. Here some more pictures about the circus.

If you are interested in singer-songwriter music...

...you can visit the statues, graves (Vagankov Graveyard) and museums of 2 famous Russian troubadours, Vladimir Vysotsky...

...and Bulat Okudzhava (in Moscow and Peredelkino, near Moscow).

 

And up to that the soccer, and may be the graveyard too.

Connected to soccer may be the the Luzhniki stadium, one of the home grounds of the Russian soccer team...

...or the graves in the graveyard Novodevichy.

There you can find for example the famous Russian soccer goalkeeper, Lev Yashin - the "Black Spider". Well, in graveyard we all end...

To finish...some Russian champagne. Yes, you can get in the train from Helsinki to Moscow. If you wish so.

Kippis-Skål-God bless you!

And do not forget to walk along the "Old Arbat Street", if you visit Moscow!

Some books about Russian Rockmusic (Photo)

...and I think I take the thickest of them with me to my journey to Moscow...

...plenty of time to read it in while in the train...

I hope we will have a nice journey...

Interesting Films, and an Interesting Article about Rockmusic...

Until now I have not seen kind of almost the newcomer in the Russian film scene, that is Leviathan . Well, it is not so new any more and many of you already have seen it. I will too, before leaving to Moscow in a couple of days. At home we have my favorite Russian films Brother and Brother2 by Alexei Balabanov. They are very good indeed. As well as my husband has some Russian film specialities, for example some Russian Secret Agent -Krimis from 70's and 80's! Totally more or less 50 Russian films...

There is also one Finnis-Russian film I am waiting for very much to come. That is "Tappajan näköinen mies" (In German: Der Grenzgänger). Did you know that the rights to the TV-serie made of the books of Matti Rönkä has been sold to the States and to Canada?

By the way...when surfing in the Web I found an interesting article from Artemi Troitski

called "Miksi Venäjällä ei ole protestirockliikettä?" (article in Finnish) or "Why there is no Protestrockmovement in Russia?...hmmm...Talking about Troitski. I think I will pick up for you my books about Russian rock. More about that in my next story...

Soon to Moscow...and music, music, music...

I have a nice trip ahead, to Moscow in a week and a half...Finnish-Russian Society organizers yearly plenty of interesting theme trips to Russia and to former Soviet countries. They have specialized in it. As I travel quite a lot alone, it is sometimes nice to be part of the group when travelling...

The great Russian artists Vladimir Vysotsky and Bulat Okudzhava are in our programme this time.
We visit...
the Museum of Vysotsky 


and the Museum of Okudzhava.


Here for you couple of tunes from them "Morning Excersises" from Vysotsky
and "The Paper Soldier" from Okudzhava, and some more if you stay in the canal...


Up to those links, I found couple of other interesting links in the Internet, check them too:

Vladimir Vysotsky's 60th anniversary report by Reuters
and
Polish Vladimir Vysotsky's Museum in Koszalin
and
Bulat Okudzhava's Lyrics translated into different languages .

Well, now it is time to listen to Vladimir Vysotsky...

POLISH
VLADIMIR VYSOTSKY'S
MUSEUM IN KOSZALIN

Aquarium is coming to Town, as well as the World met in Joensuu

They say, BG (Boris Grebenshikov) and Aquarium are for the first time in Finland, when the band performs in Helsinki in Circus next Thursday...

That is not true as I saw the band for the first time 25 years ago in Joensuu in the Festival "Maailmat kohtaavat"  (Joensuun laulujuhlat/Joensuu Song Festival) performing in the "World Party" concert together for example with David Byrne and Rei Momo, Billy Bragg and so on. Even a special stamp was made about that festival, as you saw under the link above!

And that was a very nice Festival indeed, as were the festivals following to it in the following years.
One of them was "The small Nations and Cultures of Europe meet in Joensuu" in the year 1992. That was something! If you look at the list of European small nations who had artistic performarces there.

By the way, listen to the record "Radio Africa"by Aquarium if you can find it somewhere. Well, the record "Radio Africa" is very good! Although may be many of those more or less 30 records of the band too. The band was formed in the year 1972 in Leningrad/St.Petersburg.

According to wiki-pages the popular story behind the name "Aquarium" is that it was inspired by the Budapest street Leningrad pub "The Aquarium" and suggested by one of the band members. However, Grebenshikov has given differing stories in interviews, suggesting alternately that it came through band word association sessions or was inspired a glass aquarium-like building.