Amadeus, King of Tango

Once in a blue moon, reading Finnish tabloids can make you shout for joy, and today was such a memorable occasion. Ilta-Sanomat reported that Amadeus Lundberg, 20, had been elected tango king of the 2009 Tango Festival in Seinäjoki by a narrow jury vote and an overwhelming call-in vote from the general audience in the semi-finals. Lundberg's repertoire included the titles Romanesca, Rakkaus ei oo pysyvää (Love Isn't Permanent) and Onnemme kyyneleet (Our Tears Of Bliss). (More about the cultural significance of the tango in Finland.) Lundberg has promised to be kind and humble during his reign.



(Photo: yle.fi)

The tango festival in Seinäjoki is a very Finnish institution, albeit a rather recent one (the idea was conceived in a sauna in 1984). This year, a change was introduced: instead of a king and a queen, only one single person could win the crown. This ensures that the best, and only the best, will win, regardless of gender. Perhaps the judges were wary of Lundberg due to his young age. He shows a lot of promise and who knows how far he can go if success does not quench the flame. One of the tango king's privileges is a guaranteed place among the 12 national Eurovision finalists. I almost hope that Lundberg will decline this "honour", although he could beat Alexander Rybak in a cuteness competition ...



(Photo: Helsingin Sanomat)

Amadeus Lundberg comes from a musical family. From a young age, he was taught to play the violin and to sing professionally. His father, Taisto Lundberg, is a founding member of Hortto Kaalo, the first commercially successful Romani band in Finland. We nostalgically remember their hits from the folk wave of the 1970's, such as the international Gypsy classic Tsaiori, the socially conscious Miksi ovet ei aukene meille (Why Won't The Doors Open To Us) and the comical Ei raha tekis pahaa (Some Money Wouldn't Hurt). Amadeus has toured the last 3 years as Hortto Kaalo's lead singer.



Taisto and Amadeus Lundberg (Photo: Turun Sanomat).

More Finnish Romani tango singers

According to blogger "Life after Helsinki 2007", Lundberg won the televote in the semi-finals "to visible dislike of the jurors". Yet, he went on to win their hearts and minds in the finals. To quote Unelma-tango (The Dream Tango, 1932) by Arvo Koskimaa and Erkki Ranta:

… tummien silmien taa
viittoopi kultainen maa.

… beyond dark eyes
a golden land beckons.

Yury Vizbor - "On the Razvumchorr plateau"

In this summer heat it's particularly interesting to mentally visit the harsh winters of the far north.

The Razvumchorr plateau is part of the Khibiny massif in the Kola peninsula. All the mountains have Saami names, which sound fascinating to my ears: Nyorkpakhk, Takhtarvumchorr, Vud'yavrchorr ...
These mountains are famous for their untouched nature and are popular among hikers (and their doggies), but on the southern edge of the massif, around the towns Apatity and Kirovsk, there are apatite mines (apatite is used in fertilizer, since it is rich in phosphorous). The Razvumchorr plateau is one of these mines. (Here is a Russian map, if you'd like to study the massif closer, and here is a photogallery at hibiny.net.)

The mines were built in 1929 by prisoners, according to this photostory at BBC.ru. In the 75 years of its operation, the Razvumchorr mine has been dug 350 meters deep. Temperatures get to below -50 degrees centigrade in the winters, and winds are often hurricane strength.

After Stalin's death the mines were no longer part of the GULAG system, but were converted into regular mines where workers were paid good wages with some benefits to compensate for the harsh conditions. This is the time period where Yury Vizbor's song is set.

Vizbor created the genre "reportage song", and "On the Razvumchorr plateau" (1964) was his first work in the genre.
It tells of the work conditions in the Razvumchorr mine. Due to bad visibility in the snowstorms, workers often have to walk in front of the machines and show them the way, as can also be seen in the video.

Here is my crappy translation of a couple of the verses:

"We sit at the table, smoking strong tobacco,
In one hour we have to climb up on the roof of the Khibiny
And charge through the howling, crawl through the dark,
Leaning our heads and cursing the blizzards.

He sits and sulks for some unknown reason,
My dearest mechanic, the boss of the roads,
In one hour he has to fight his way down from the plateau Razvumchorr,
Walking on the road in front of the tractors.

Because the road is full of dangers
And the bulldozer needs a human shoulder to lean on,
Because spring never comes here,
To the neck of the Khibiny, the plateau Razvumchorr."

There are some additional verses that are not used in this performance, but you can read them here (in Russian).

As you could see in the BBC.ru photostory, the apatite mines in the Khibiny were privatized by Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partners in a rather shady way, and that deal is part of the case for which Khodorkovsky is now serving eight years in prison. You can read more about that in John D. Grace's Russian Oil Supply (page 124), or this article by Peter Baker from the Washington Post. Blogger Wu Wei gives a small personal insight on the repercussions of the deal.

Arkady Ostrovsky's article for the Financial Times is kind of symptomatic for many articles about the Russian privatizations: it jumps from Stalin and the GULAG directly to the privatizations in the 1990's - failing to mention anything about the many decades during which the mines were run in a relatively honest fashion - and thus creates a comparison where the oligarchs come out looking maybe not half as bad.
But that's where this song and video come in.

Paparazzi photos

After Ainur's Ph.D. promotion (mentioned below), I flew back home to Berlin from Copenhagen. There were two Tibetan monks at the airport, and I got really excited and tried to take photos of them in secret. But it was too dark in the airport and I didn't dare come close enough to make any decent pictures. ;_;
I'm really useless as a photographer, because I never want to bother people and ask them if I can take their picture. In this case it shouldn't have had to be so hard, especially since they both turned and smiled right at me when I first walked by ...

But today I had better luck. On Alexanderplatz I spotted this cute guy with rather Central Asian features:





I wonder where he is from. Of course I didn't dare ask him. Though it shouldn't have been too hard: "Hello, my name is Tinet. I write this blog about handsome Central Asian men. Do you happen to be from Central Asia? May I take your picture ...?"

(Photos by Tinet)

Anti-Ahmadinejad protesters

So the Iranian opposition and its mostly young urban intellectual supporters are convinced that the vote that supposedly re-elected Ahmadinejad was rigged. The violence used against demonstrators hasn't really made the current government look good.

In any case, among the men and women who have been protesting about this all over the world, there are some cute guys ...

In Tehran:


Pro-Mousavi protest on a street in Tehran, June 20th. By Farhad Rajabali via Daylife.


A protester with a bruise on his cheek in Tehran on June 20th. By Farhad Rajabali via Daylife.


Flashing a victory sign on Sunday, June 28th, during a gathering near the Ghoba Mosque in Tehran. By AP via Daylife.

In Athens:


Iranians living in Greece protest outside the Greek Parliament on June 23rd. By Getty images via Daylife.


Outside the Greek Parliament in Athens on June 23rd. By Getty images via Daylife.

In Washington:


Demonstrators protest against the Iranian election in front of the White House in Washington June 21st. By Reuters via Daylife.


Demonstrators in Washington June 21st. By Reuters via Daylife.


In Washington June 21. By Reuters via Daylife.

Huang Xiaoming, the panda man

I posted a picture and some links about Huang Xiaoming on one of my comics blogs (because he looks a bit like one of my characters), and Ainur said "the panda man has got to go on Chirayliq." So here we go to the eastern fringes of Chirayliq land!

Huang Xiao Ming was born November 13th 1977 in Qingdao, China, and is an actor, singer and model. (It's very common, if not the norm, in Chinese/Hong Kong showbiz to have this kind of combined careers.) His image is perhaps a bit that of a "pretty boy", but he is certainly very professional - in 2003, for example, Huang was seriously injured in a car accident: his car flipped over while he was driving through a mountainous area to catch a filming. But he immediately reappeared on the set with a neck brace, impressing the media crew as well as his fans.

Huang Xiaoming has recently sponsored the twin panda cubs Ping Ping and An An at the giant panda breeding center in Ya'an in Sichuan Province. Ping Ping and An An were the first giant panda cubs who were born after the deadly earthquake hit the province on May 12th 2008. (I recommend reading Coco Wang's excellent comic to find out about how the panda center coped with the earthquake.)
Huang donated one million yuan (about 150,000 US dollars) to adopt the two cubs and was named an ambassador to China's Panda Protection Research Center.
Here is an article with several pictures at Chinadaily.com: "Panda Daddy" Huang Xiaoming revisits reserve (warning: cute overload!)
He also did a photoshoot for a 2009 calendar with the Sichuan panda babies.






See all the calendar photos here!

I recently watched a film with Huang Xiaoming called Sniper. He plays the former police sniper talent Lincoln, who has recently been released from jail after serving a sentence for involuntary manslaughter. He made a mistake during a hostage situation, and is convinced that his former partner purposely gave a testimony to his detriment. So now that he is out of jail, he is looking for revenge ... and redemption.
It's a pretty cliché storyline, and a lot of the film boils down to muscular guys looking hot with their big rifles. But what makes the film rewatchable many times over (besides the hunky guys) are the action scenes, which really make the most of the unusual theme of sniper rifles ...


Lincoln (Huang Xiaoming) and his former police sniper buddies.

Screencaps galore:





Lincoln is reunited with his wife ...



The rookie sniper OJ, who gets involved with the case of Lincoln and is tempted by the dark side, is played by Edison Chen. He is cute, too.

But among the three main characters I think Huang Xiaoming is the cutest.

Although this (unnamed) guy isn't bad either.

Ermek knows what we want

But Azat is too cute