Observations

I'm off to Scotland with Keira for a few days as of Monday.We're staying in a super posh apartment (well,the one in the pictures is anyway) in Edinburgh complete with big telly and DVD player.Seeing as the weather up there isn't exactly tropical at the minute,I feel this could come in rather useful.So I unearthed my Chelsi and General Europop DVDs to take with me.I haven't seen any of the videos on them for over a year now,so thought I'd have a quick look.Seems I still find them as brilliant as ever,and I noticed that...


- Getting the FZ contestants to sing Kruto Ty Popal Na TV and all the variants at the beginning of every show just seems a bit...weird

- Chelsi should be bigger than Take That

- 2.58 onwards: why?



- Dima's ESC performance of Believe is truly awful.Not because of him but because of...everything.I thought maybe I was overreacting last year,but no,it's seriously bad

- No song written at any point in world history,and no song that is yet to be written will ever be as good as this

FZ bol'she ne budet

As an anonymous person recently commented and as I've just read on my usual dodgy Russian showbiz site- Fabrika Zvezd,the series which gave us Dima Koldun,Chelsi,Tishman and oh yeah,Kuba will be no more :( Admittedly,I only ever watched the 6th series anyway (actually,I'm still in the process of collecting episodes of Po Domam now!),but still,it was one of very few reality TV shows that I enjoy- despite not being able to understand much of what went on.Such was its effect on me that FZ featured more than a little bit in a German essay I wrote for coursework this year about Russian media since the end of the Soviet Union (which I got a bloody good mark for incidentally :) ) and my obsessive watching has left me in no doubt that it is one of the factors responsible for my 5% mark increase in oral Russian this academic year :) Diana even made us all FZ T-shirts before we left Guildford...

Anyway,these are some of my favourite bits...

-This was the first video I ever saw.Why I continued watching after this,I'm not sure.


-Whatever anyone says about Prohor,I still think he's 100% fabulous.Especially when he sings 50 Cent songs :)


-That touching exchange between Arseniy and Dennis during Anna Vissi's visit
Anna Vissi- "Give me some Eminem stuff"
Dennis- "Eminem stuff...that's good. (To Arseniy)- "You're not Eminem,get the fuck off"
Arseniy- "I'm 50 Cent"
*They launch into Fly By. By Blue

- "Mama nu ne vinovataya ya,ne vinovataya ya..." Was so exciting hearing this at the Russian Winter Festival :)


- The one and only Kruto Ti Popal (the RTR version of course)

- Dima Bilan's visit The full version is fabulous- Chelsi really need to release that cover of Ya Tebya Pomnyu :)

- Dima K's mad antics.Shame there's no video of him with his cardboard box monster or tower of crispbread.


Also- Prohor's face going from completely disappointed to really really happy after he'd been eliminated but Drobysh saved him anyway,Dima going all emo and sitting in the bushes and getting a bit annoyed with Prohor and Vika,and that weird episode of Po Domam where they dubbed it into loads of different languages and strange accents.

Oh,and of course series 7,where a bit of BiS , a bit of Tishman and a bit of "Georgiy in da tub" was all I really saw.

Hopefully someone from Perviy Kanal will see this,realise what a mistake they're making,and bring FZ back next year!

Sounds of Europe...

...is the name of mine and Keira's new radio show!Yes,we managed to persuade the manager of our university radio station to let us loose on the air for a few hours a week to play lots of funky Europop tunes and talk a lot about Chelsi and Dimas Bilan and Koldun (probably) :) It wasn't difficult actually,seeing as the stations schedule is full of gaps at the minute...But that's not the point,the point is that we're going to be on the radio.Good news for us,not necessarily good news for the rest of Guildford though...

Anyway,here's a band,well,duo from Fabrika Zvezd 7,consisting of Vlad Sokolovskiy and Dima Bikbaev.They're otherwise known as BiS,and the song is called Твой или ничей (not sure what that means).It's good,it's quite funky.I've been getting into the seventh series lately.Nothing to do with my new obsession with Mark Tishman of course...

Love is like popcorn

This year's series of Fabrika was won by Mark Tishman,someone who I know nothing about,but feel that I should find out about,because he's going to be at the Russian Winter Festival next Sunday (ooh,next Sunday...getting very excited now).Of course I'd much rather see the winner of last year's series,but I think Mark will do.He reminds me so much of Prohor Shalyapin,who I have written about before,in terms of his voice and the type of songs I've heard him sing so far anyway,I don't know if he was as camp and fabulous as Prohor in the house.Anyway,this is a nice little tune called Lyubov kak Popkorn,which I'm sure means Love is like Popcorn.I haven't listened to the lyrics enough to know if they're as philosophical as the title,but I think it's quite a nice song.Apart from the backing vocals in the performance,which are shocking to say the least.Victor Drobysh- if you're looking for backing singers for your Fabrika winners,you could do a lot worse than give me and Keira a call :)


This is another of his songs,which he wrote himself.It's called Ya Stany Tvoim Angelom (I'll Be Your Angel (?) ),it has Prohor Shalyapin written all over it,and it's a very nice bit of what I like to call ethno-pop :) He'll blatantly be singing this next Sunday.


Edit: OK,so he didn't actually win Fabrika Zvezd,one of my sources was a bit unreliable.But he was second :)

круто ты попал на ТВ...

Just a quick post before I have to run off to linguistics.A while ago,Poster Girl mentioned the song 'This Is Life' which was done by all the contestants on last year's Norwegian Idol.Well this is a song done by all the contestants of last year's Fabrika Zvezd,it's the theme tune of the programme,but this version was a special one done for the birthday celebrations of the TV channel it was on.(I think).Either way,it's so damn catchy,it's quickly becoming one of the most played songs at Europop Mansions.Which is great for me and Keira,but something tells us our other housemate doesn't share the same enthusiasm for cheesy Russian pop...

Happiness

Last night I was feeling rather rubbish for various reasons.Then I watched some Fabrika and was immediately cheered up by the sight of Dima Koldun wearing a monster that he'd made out of cardboard boxes.Crispbread towers,box monsters...there's seemingly no end to this boy's talents :)
In other news,I beat my sales target today,woohoo!It doesnt really mean much though,I'd better not start planning my trip round Central Asia just yet.

Europop of the Week

I've been slowly trying to wean myself off of Fabrika. I'm coming to the end of the series, and after that there'll be no more cushion fights, or delightful scenes of half naked Dima or Denis swearing in English to try and up his status as Russia's original gangsta. So these things must be rationed.
In the meantime, I've been obsessing over some funky Europop chooooons.

1- Filip Kirkorov & Dima Koldun- Kak Sumashedshi Ya (How Crazy I Am)
A nice little duet by the sexiest man in Belarus and the overlord of Russian pop. God knows who persuaded Dima to wear that jacket, it's awful (although it's Moschino,apparantly). His belt buckle also looks suspiciously like the cross on the Norwegian flag. And his fringe isn't as immaculate as it usually is. All in all then, not a great look. Just wait til you see Filip though. He's gone for the classic (?) suit jacket and red and white tracksuit bottoms look, and an earring that wouldn't look out of place in the Elizabeth Duke section of the Argos book. And the hair...well,here he is in all his bouffanted brillance. (It's a fabulous song by the way)



2- Chelsi- Ya K Tebe Ne Podoydu (I Won't Approach You) (?!)
Roman Arhipov has come straight from the Filip Kirkorov School of Hairstyling. Only he's a lot younger, and blond, so he can get away with it (almost). Arseniy and Aleksei also look like a pair of Pantene models (rather lovely ones though). I love this song, it's nearly as good as Samaya Liubimaya, but not quite. Although it does get bonus points, because I like the intro, and the way they say 'podoydu' :)



3- Dima & Georgiy Koldun- Bit' Mozhet (Maybe)
What's better than a video with Dima Koldun in it? One with Dima AND his rather attractive older brother of course!Not sure if this is new or not, I think it might be,because Dima hasn't got his emo fringe in this video.It's a really nice song,and the video's set in some weird castle where the clocks go backwards and things go on fire. There's also a lot of interesting card tricks going on for some reason. Anyways, the more I watch this, the more I think Dima might be in danger of losing his Sexiest Belarussian title. His brother is rather lovely...

Ooh!

Just been watching Fabrika Zvezd (what else?) and saw some gratuitous shots of Dima Koldun in his pants.Think I need a lay down now :)

By the way,I'm rather happy at the minute seeing as I'm sort of employed.I'm a (commission based) cosmetics salesperson,or that's the title I've given myself anyway.Hopefully I'll have enough sales to actually make some money tomorrow...although I do doubt it.Either way though,I sold another shitty CD on play.com today.Oh yes,the money's rolling in :)

Just thought I'd leave you with this delightful picture of Dima. Mmm,his eyes are so pretty....

Fabrika Zvezd is taking over my life

As predicted, I'm not doing much these days other than religiously watching repeats of last year's Fabrika Zvezd, Russia's answer to Fame Academy/Pop Idol/Big Brother/whatever. It's pretty addictive viewing, even though I don't know nearly enough Russian to understand what's going on most of the time. I seem to have picked up quite a lot so far though, Arseniy Borodin doesn't do much except sit around and look pretty (and touch up his distinctly plain, miserable girlfriend at every opportunity), Dennis Petrov appears to fancy everyone, everyone seems to be a bit horrible to Prohor, and whatever happens during an episode, it usually all ends in at least 3 people having a massive cushion fight. The highlight however came last night, when Dima Koldun was making a tower out of crispbread. Gripping stuff is Russian telly!

A small bit of Russian heaven

Oh my God.I've just discovered 60 whole episodes of Fabrika Zvёzd to watch...looks like a solution to the crushing boredom has been found,I won't need to move for the next 4 days!

Sexy Russians

Dima Koldun's nice, but he's just so last month. Arseniy Borodin is the way forward :) He was in Fabrika Zvezd as well. Because every Russian under the age of 25 is in Fabrika Zvezd at some point.Anyway,look at Arseniy,he's sexy.