Chirayliq Eurovision: Regina

Bosnia-Herzegovina's entry to the Eurovision is the band Regina with their song "Bistra Voda" (clear water). ... Someone commented: "I think that Alexander Rybak's party is going to be spoiled by the manly Regina and their beautiful anthemic ballad."



From what I've been able to find out, the song is about mother's love, and touches the subject of the Bosnian war that took more than 200.000 lives.

Here is what the band said at their press conference in Moscow:

At the press conference, they stated that the message of the song was that of a love revolution. They thereby link the song to Russia, but the red is used as the color of love. When asked if their theme was inspired by communism, the band said that there are nostalgic aesthetics in the song, but that these are not related to communism but to love. In the end of the press conference, they performed their song Bistra Voda in Russian.

mundu-sammut from Australia has provided a translation of the second stanza in the comments:

I asked some people
In the neighborhood, where my soul resides
A secret from me, they say, you are hiding, dear

I asked that they return to me
That time, the old hours, the spring
That love is in the air, they say

Give birth to me at dawn in May
Bathe me in the clear water
I guard one flower, when all others leave
I guard you as long as I'm alive

Steal a bit of Sun for us
There's no tomorrow, there's no today
It's easy when the song finds your heart

Regina formed as a garage band in 1990, and after some initial problems finding the right vocalist, they met with great success all over Yugoslavia. The civil war broke up the band when the Serb members had to flee from Sarajevo to Belgrade. For a few years Regina continued in Belgrade with new replacements members, while some original members pursued solo careers. But in 2006 all the original members were happily reunited.

Chirayliq Eurovision: Alexander Rybak

Mum reminded us that it's Eurovision Song Contest season again ... So, let's start with Norway!



Yes, the Norwegian performer this year is a cute guy called Alexander Rybak. He was born 1986 in Minsk, Belarussian SSR, and when he was four years old, his family moved to Norway. Rybak has been playing various instruments since he was five years old, and both his parents are violinists. The song "Fairytale" was composed and written by Rybak himself.

Altyn Orda

Some of my favourite screenshots from Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky. Ahistorically, but politically correctly in Stalin's days, Nevsky refuses an alliance with the Golden Horde in the movie. In reality, Alexander Nevsky ensured peaceful relations with the Mongols by enforcing tribute from the principalities to the Golden Horde and uniting the Russian principalities against Western invasions. He became the Grand Prince of Vladimir thanks to his friendship with Sartaq Khan. This connection inspired the controversial school of Russian historical philosophy known as "Eurasianism".

Charles Bronson vs. Toshiro Mifune!

We have a soft spot for Charles Bronson, descendant of Lipka Tatars, and likewise for Toshiro Mifune, epic movie hero of the Land of the Rising Sun. In Red Sun (directed by Terence Young, France/Spain/Italy 1971) east meets west in the original sense of Rudyard Kipling's lines:

OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!

Edit (29.7.2011): Added link to better-quality video.

Not Cool Enough For Hollywood?

KevJumba's message is sadly relevant (visit his homepage - cute overload warning). It's not just an American issue. We are being denied Chirayliq potential on a global level. (Found here)
The fact remains that Hollywood productions get distributed around the world, while Asian productions - especially Central Asian, but also the more "marketable" Chinese, Korean and Japanese - frequently are limited to art house cinemas and private initiatives. For example, I wonder if we will ever get to see Goemon anywhere in Europe. (It's a fantasy spectacle based on the legend of Ishikawa Goemon, a thief who stole from the rich and gave to the poor and dared to defy the powerful warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi.) Needless to say, Goemon is full of cool, handsome, cute, sexy and all-round awesome Asian guys and girls.
EDIT: The Trailer was too wide to embed, so you'll just have to go to YouTube by yourself.

You have to keep in mind that Japanese movie budgets are usually only a fraction of the cost of a major Hollywood production. Expect Final Fantasy, not Star Wars. The director of Goemon, Kazuaki Kiriya, is famous for Casshern, a science-fiction epic which doesn't let the special effects get in the way of a good plot and compelling characters. Here's the trailer:

Garmunci!

Accordionist and singer at a gala concert in Kazan.
Source: intertat.ru

200 Portraits of Genghis Khan

A comprehensive and searchable collection of images, more or less heroic, chiefly from Mongolia, but also from China and Iran. Collected by a researcher at Juniper, a francophone database on Mongolian and Siberian studies. (Via)
The featured portrait is painted by Mongolian artist Cerendoržyn Ölzbaatar, and obviously inspired by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres' portrait of Napoleon.