ESL, ETC.

from San Francisco with <3

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:19:12 +0300

from San Francisco with <3

Fazenda Bar Vorovskogo 2-B Kyiv, Ukraine

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:45:00 +0300

Fazenda Bar Vorovskogo 2-B Kyiv, Ukraine

"I heard that rock ‘n’ roll and blue jeans destroyed communism."

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 22:34:34 +0300

“I heard that rock ‘n’ roll and blue jeans destroyed communism.”

- anthony zaitz

Anthony is welcomed to Ukraine

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 03:58:00 +0300

Anthony is welcomed to Ukraine

LEARN ENGLISH

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:44:37 +0300

LEARN ENGLISH

LEARN ENGLISH Дио прэзыдэнт Блаттэр, колигз оф зэ эгзэкутив...

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:43:00 +0300

LEARN ENGLISH

Дио прэзыдэнт Блаттэр, колигз оф зэ эгзэкутив комитИ.

Лец ми спик фром май харт ин инглиш. (Аплодисменты).

Май фрэнц, тудэй из э юник момент ин тайм, боуф фо май кантри энд фо фИфа.

Раша репрезенц итс нью харайзынтц фо фИфа.

Раша минз э биг промоушен оф ауа эгейн.

Миллианз оф нью харц энд майндз ит олсоу минз э грэйт лэгаси аф э зэ волдкап.

Грэйт нью стэдиумз энд миллианз оф бойз энд гёлс имбрайсинг эгэйн.

Рашас экономи из лач энд гроуин. Зэ педерал гавенмент хэз стайбл фенансез.

Раша спорц маркетин из дэвелопынь рэпидли. Жаст ван экземпель: тудей рашен компаниз

правайдед овер ван биллион долларз ин спонсор шип фор зэ Сочи алимпик гэймс.

Имэджин, хау мач инвестмент вуд би мэйд инту футбОл. Гивен зыт футбол из спорт намба ван.

Ауэр бит из э нашонали приорити фор зэ Рашен Федерешен.

Иф ю гив ас э чанс, фИфа вил нэве ригрет ит. Ю вил би прауд оф ви чойс. Ай гаранти ит.

Ай олсоу промис, из ин твенти эйтин ай′лл спик инглиш лайк май фрэнд Джефф Томсон. (Смех, аплодисменты)

Диа фрэнц. Ю кэн си он вэ мэп. Вестен еврОп хоустэд зе волд кап мэни таймс. Иистен еврОп нева хэд зы чанс.

Мэни ийз эгоу зэ берлин уол воз дестройд. Эйт э нью эра фо зе волд беген.

Тудэй ви кен брэйк зназа симболик.

Вол.

Энд оупен э нью эра ин футбОл тугеза.

Фэнкью вэри мач май фрэндз.

“я чувствую себя хорошо” = “I feel myself...

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:24:00 +0300

“я чувствую себя хорошо” = “I feel myself good”

Unfortunately, in English we should not say this in formal settings as it has a direct implication of masturbation. For less formal settings, however, it is rather nice to share with another your sexual habits in your first meeting.

без “myself” = “I feel good.”

For example, ”How are you?” “I feel good.”

Beach –noun, pronounced...

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:33:00 +0300

Beach
–noun, pronounced (Bee-ch)

1. an expanse of sand or pebbles along a shore.
2. the part of the shore of an ocean, sea, large river, lake, etc., washed by the tide or waves.
3. the area adjacent to a seashore: We’re vacationing at thebeach.
–verb (used with object)
4. Nautical: to haul or run onto a beach: We beached the ship to save it.
5. to make inoperative or unemployed.

Bitch
–noun, pronounced (Bii-tch)

1. a female dog.
2. a female of canines generally.
3. Slang: a. a malicious, unpleasant, selfish person, especially awoman. b.a lewd woman.

Music from the homeland: Edward Sharp & The Magnetic Zeros...

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 01:07:00 +0300

Music from the homeland: Edward Sharp & The Magnetic Zeros were formed in 2007 by Ima Robot frontman Alex Ebert after a brief period of existential crisis, the cultish 11-piece indie rock outfit Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros draw their inspiration from the communal musical communities that peppered Southern California (specifically Laurel Canyon) with positive vibrations during the ’60s and early ’70s. Employing a unique sound that brought to mind a not-so-subtle mix of Parliament, Polyphonic Spree, Bob Marley, and the Incredible String Band, the group released its debut EP, Here Comes, in May 2009, followed by the full-length Up from Below in July.

If this dosen’t make you smile, you’re inhuman....

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 01:00:00 +0300

If this dosen’t make you smile, you’re inhuman. Original song in previous post.

http://manofthehouse.com/blog/editors-blog/the-guy-on-youtube-singing-with-his-daughter

The Real Natalie Portman

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 17:12:55 +0300

The Real Natalie Portman

Recently Played #7 Séan Schermerhorn for Phillip Markovich

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:07:00 +0300

Recently Played #7 Séan Schermerhorn for Phillip Markovich :

Séan Schermerhorn

Не заметить Шона — персонажа внезапно появившегося в молодой киевской тусовке — было решительно невозможно. Уже больше полугода парень из Сан-Франциско живет в Киеве, преподает английский и потихоньку расширяет свой круг местных знакомств. Вернее, это сами новые знакомые находят его, потому что Шон Скермерхорн (он любит произносить свою странно звучащую даже для американца фамилию по слогам) — очень интересный персонаж. Парень в социально-культурном плане проделал путь от красти-панка с полуметровым ирокезом на голове до тедди-бой шеголя-преподавателя. Соответственно менялись и его музыкальные предпочтения, с которыми он нас сегодня и познакомит. «Лет ми спик фром май харт ин инглиш» — так сказать. Не поленитесь и прочтите!

Listen:

http://www.divshare.com/download/14968020-e1b

I. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down

Miles Davis, Bitches Brew (1970)

— Bitches Brew. The best album ever made. In this, He intended to showcase the beauty of jazz improvisation. The Man is nearer to god than anything else.

— It was a tough choice for this track, the title track Bitches Brew is really the heart of this album. In really listening to Bitches Brew one can begin to actually feel the tension between the great leader and his followers, little traces of reluctance that evolve into spontaneous swelling waves of free form expression; a thick fog of white foam from the Rhodes pianos, massive swells from the horns who lead the waves jesters, jabs, and punches. The bass end acts as the shore, reacting to the waves, and maintaining their lapses. The percussion section is omnipresent as the waves crash down with their gong and all fades into the dissonance of oceanic abyss. The Bitches Brew Recordings are the ultimate noise experiment, the all-encompassing, most beautiful art form; utmost my greatest inspiration.

— Miles Runs The Voodoo Down comes along side B at a time when the tension has nearly evaporated and everyone seems to focus more on the groove, with more of an objective in sight, and a deeper understanding of direction and purpose can be felt. It’s spiritual shit, that Voodoo, dig?

II. Suită Maškaradă

Taraf De Haïdouks, Maškaradă (2007)

- In this group there’s around twelve musicians, aged twenty to seventy eight, they’re from a small three thousand person commune in Romania called Clejani about 40 km south of Bucharest. They’re known to be followers of the ancient musical traditions of the Romani-Gypsies called the “lautari.”

-In this recording they decided to tackle a handful of classical compositions of such composers as Bela Barok, Isaac Albéniz, Aram Khachaturian, and probably a few more. Needless to say, they do it beautifully; they have maintained their own incredibly unique virtuoso character into this magnum opus.

-As for the question of why I nitpicked this track out of all their recordings, truth is it’s been the first thing I tune on for the past few weeks. It is consuming. This track particularly is deeply emotional, it seems to weep at times, to confess love, to forgive, and to seize its listener higher and higher unto the heavens. As the initial piano notes resonate, they hit you, their blossom enraptures you, the violins and accordions join the procession swinging in from low to high in a mourning hymn while the bass and cimbalom align perfectly chanting the steps to be taken onward. There’s some kind of pan-flute that perfectly accents the strings at the very highest notes, it all takes place as if at a funeral of their most beloved brother, a minor suite fête. The mark of an earthly departure and one of eternal rebirth, for in that very mourning hymn one can still sense hope, as if it’s us who has departed and it is us who is eternally bound. As the cimbalom takes lead we’re face to face with all earthly things, until the string section returns in full force; we’re sent soaring unto a blinding abyss as we’re reminded of the richness existence can offer. There is nothing more authentically, genuinely, sincerely beautiful that listening, really listening to these mere few minutes.

III. Только С Тобой

Ленинград, Мат без электричества (1999)

— To me this is the sound of post-soviet Russia and Eastern Europe; young, harsh, hedonistic and strong, yet incredibly attractive. With the alluring punch of the Balkan brass-esque harmonies I envision Saint Basils Cathedral in all its grandeur, of Russia’s architecture, history, art, the general feeling that comes to mind when I think of ‘our dear mother Russia.’ It’s a beautiful, powerful sound. The bass leads you, drags you gently and lifts you up, caressingly across the floor, the brass elevates you, soaring around Basils surreal golden domes, and the man in front reminds you it’s all human, of his emotion, of his violent yet sincere and humane demeanor.

— It’s something else, so much more than any kind of punk or balkan brass that has preceded it. Especially so when noting its context of being birthed merely a decade after the collapse of the soviet union with all the chaos of the 1990s in Russia that proceeded the fall. To achieve full-supreme indulgence, I advise the entire Мат без электричества album rather loud, among the company of Russian bears and with a large bottle of водка, black bread, garlic, and salo.

IV. B Ward

Rudimentary Peni, R.P. EP (1981)

— The name is pronounced phonetically, just as it sounds; the best ‘punk’ band ever. How does one attempt to bring justice to an artist with merely forty-two seconds of their work? One cannot. However, of The E.P’s of R.P. this is a great forty-two second introduction at seeing what you might begin to experience. Of the most popular tracks on this EP and the Farce EP, this one is rather underplayed. Within the first few seconds you’ll hear the characteristically RP British guitar muff, a psycho speedy synth-jazz-like bass line, Blinko’s gremlin sounding aie yai yai yai’s, a speedy snare roll into the first line: “discord in B-ward, a cliché never bored.” Every fucking time I hear a line from this band, every single time, I think of how I’ve yet to get that damn Rudimentary Peni tattoo, and how much I want it. I think of my punk youth, of smashing the state with anarchy and 40z, of blasting this album in my Mothers car while I waited for her in the parking lot of a grocery store and plotted anarchic schemes of against my high school. This band along with Crass and Subhumans top the genre and the era! It was hard not to choose either of those bands for this track, so please, do yourself the education and listen to everything those two and this band have recorded! “[…] Discord in b-ward siggy siggy siggy fraud? Discord in b-ward a goal that’s never scored. Discord in b-ward excreaciating smell hell! Discord in b-ward just trust in your lord. Discord in b-ward eaten not gnawed. Discord in b-ward good deeds fast flawed.”

V. Choking On A Piece of Meat

Poets of Rhythm, What Goes Round (2002)

— Can you really trust anyone who doesn’t listen to funk? No, of course not. That’s why I’ve brought you this raw funky piece of Curtis-nostalgic instrumentalism, it will, if given proper mind, in fact melt your face off and put ‘soul’ back into your vocabulary. The band is rumored to be rooted in Berlin, rumor i.e. wikipedia. I say rumored because it’s hard to believe these dudes aren’t straight from The South, especially so as such masterpieces on this album have the chorus of “funky, funky North Carolina.” Further in my skepticism is the fact that this album was recorded in the twenty-first century. Too fucking good to be true.

— Of course again, it was a tough choice for this track, between Poets of Rhythm another group called The Whitefield Brother, who if you haven’t heard are Uber-mind blowing. Mixing elements of contemporary rap, soul fueled cool-brass parts, along with funky funky African rhythms, with jazzy-slick bass lines, their Eathology album (2009) is obscenely good, it’s baad. I would kill to see it in action.

— Thus, if we take that very leap of faith in our dear Internet resources, the “rumors” come to tell us that the former band includes members of the latter. Not necessarily surprising given all the authentic African/ African-American influences of rhythm and soul in both these groups. But these guys can’t be white. They just can’t. Thanks to youtube it has been brought to my attention that these dudes are in fact very white, and are very much from Germany, who also very much possess an incredible capacity to grove as if it was their natural bread and butter.

— Getting into the track, within the first notes of the horn section you instantly feel it in your blood, and if you don’t, you have to realize you’re inhuman. Your head starts to move automatically in each direction, your foot begins to tap, and you clap your hands, you clap those hands! The organ sucks the sweat from your pours and causes you to look upward and massage your face in a mixed attempt to keep it from melting off and trying to believe your own ears. The guitar wah hits you in the gut. Before you know it, those chocolately-sweet two minutes and twenty-four second are gone. You’re left like a fiend in Harlem circa 1976 with out no juice. The meat is a tender fillet-mignon, so juicy, so rare, you never want it to end, but as the title indicate you too have choked On A Piece Of Meat and thus hacked it back into oblivion. The only way to renew your fix it is to find this album in its entirety on vinyl, invite a woman over, or maybe three, regardless of your sex preference, smoke some grass, drop the needle, see what happens…

Get down.

16, for life. I used to be so cool, I don’t know what...

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:55:00 +0300

16, for life. I used to be so cool, I don’t know what happened…

http://soundcloud.com/yourgoodfriendsean/sets/punk-is-dead

Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody” :*( Is this the real...

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:26:08 +0300

Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody”

:*(

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, No escape from reality
Open your eyes, Look up to the skies and see,
I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I’m easy come, easy go, Little high, little low
Any way the wind blows doesn’t really matter to me, to me

Mama, just killed a man, Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooh, Didn’t mean to make you cry
If I’m not back again this time tomorrow
carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters

Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine, body’s aching all the time
Goodbye, everybody, I’ve got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, ooh, I don’t want to die
I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all

I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very fright’ning me
(Galileo.) Galileo. (Galileo.) Galileo, Galileo figaro
Magnifico. I’m just a poor boy and nobody loves me
He’s just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let me go.) Will not let you go
(Let me go.) Will not let you go. (Let me go.) Ah
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
(Oh mama mia, mama mia.) Mama mia, let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to die
Oh, baby, can’t do this to me, baby
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here

Nothing really matters, Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me

Anyway the wind blows.

Hi Sean. Why you chose Ukraine for living and working?

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:01:23 +0300

for people like you.

"Freedom" Charles Mingus (1963) Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus...

Mon, 30 May 2011 14:07:00 +0300

"Freedom" Charles Mingus (1963) Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus

"This mule ain’t from Moscow.
This mule ain’t from the South.
But this mule's had some learnin' 
Mostly mouth-to-mouth.

This mule could be called stubborn, and lazy,
But in a clever sorta’ way
This mule could be workin’, waitin’ and learnin’ and plannin’ 
For a sacred kind of day- 
A day when burnin’ sticks and crosses 
Is not mere child’s play, 
But a madman in his most incandescent bloom
Whose lover’s soul is imperfection, in its most lustrous groom.

So stand, fast young Romeo
Soothe in contemplation 
Thy burning whole and aching thigh
Your stubbornness is ever-living
And cruel anxiety is about to die.

Freedom for your daddy’s daddy
Freedom for your momma’s momma
Freedom for your brothers and sisters
But no freedom for me."

Charles Mingus (1922-1979) was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist. Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music. Yet Mingus avoided categorization, forging his own brand of music that fused tradition with unique and unexplored realms of jazz.

Mingus focused on collective improvisation, similar to the old New Orleans Jazz parades, paying particular attention to how each band member interacted with the group as a whole. In creating his bands, Mingus looked not only at the skills of the available musicians, but also their personalities. Many musicians passed through his bands and later went on to impressive careers. He recruited talented and sometimes little-known artists whom he assembled into unconventional and revealing configurations. As a performer, he was a pioneer in double bass technique.Nearly as well known as his ambitious music was Mingus' often fearsome temperament, which earned him the nickname "The Angry Man of Jazz." His refusal to compromise his musical integrity led to many on-stage eruptions, exhortations to musicians, and dismissals.

Because of his brilliant writing for mid-size ensembles—and his catering to and emphasizing the strengths of the musicians in his groups—Mingus is often considered the heir apparent to Duke Ellington, for whom he expressed great admiration. Indeed, Dizzy Gillespie had once claimed Mingus reminded him "of a young Duke", citing their shared "organizational genius."

Although Mingus' music was once believed to be too difficult to play without Mingus' leadership, many musicians play Mingus compositions today, from those who play with the repertory bands Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, and Mingus Orchestra, to the high school students who play the charts and compete in the Charles Mingus High School Competition.

In 1988, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts made possible the cataloging of Mingus compositions, which were then donated to the Music Division of the New York Public Library for public use. In 1993, The Library of Congress acquired Mingus's collected papers—including scores, sound recordings, correspondence and photos—in what they described as "the most important acquisition of a manuscript collection relating to jazz in the Library's history."

Sparrows Gate is a folk/ rock band composed of some of my really...

Sun, 15 May 2011 01:06:00 +0300

Sparrows Gate is a folk/ rock band composed of some of my really good friends from my home town of San Luis Obispo, California. The video shows ‘The Real California’ landscapes from the small towns and valleys to the vineyards, the red woods and the forests, to the agriculture and the Pacific Ocean all under a series of beautiful California sunny days. The live performance in the video is at The Historic Bookdale Lodge in Santa Cruz. The video was taken mostly on the road between gigs in Northern CA: San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Big Sur. It’s impossible for me to watch this without feeling a sense of tender nostalgia for my homeland; I love this place and these people.

Biography: Sparrows Gate’s music is cut from the same cord as John Steinbeck’s desolate western landscapes and the humble optimism of his characters hearts. Zebedee Zaitz’s lyrics are the deep reflection of small town California during warm nights.

In 2003, Sparrows Gate formed as a rocknroll band of Zaitz and a rotating lineup of friends. In 2007, Zeb put Sparrows Gate on hold to tour full time with Oakland’s Port O’Brien. During this time, Zeb and Port O’Brien drummer Josh Barnhart started playing Sparrows Gate songs, occasionally opening POB gigs in the US and Europe. More songs were written, and Sparrows Gate’s permanent lineup formed.
Sparrows Gate is a series of relationships; The guitar and bass rhythm is a product of the brothers’ Zeb and Anthony Zaitz relationship and their Florida upbringing. The call and response of the southern guitar licks weave with the range of Joel Tolbert’s organ and slide guitar. Tolbert’s music is a part of his blood, as three generations have tended to the land and the musical spirit of America’s southwest. Drummer Josh Barnhart’s steady rhythm, crescendo and fill alternate with melodic vocal harmonies, reflecting the values of an artistic family. Sparrows Gate is a group of musicians linked by the common experience of families heading west early last century to a land of promises and new beginnings.

Buy their music here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sparrows-gate/id358708228

http://www.facebook.com/sparrowsgate?sk=info

http://www.myspace.com/sparrowsgate

Days Of Heaven (1978) by Terrence...

Sun, 15 May 2011 00:50:49 +0300

Days Of Heaven (1978) by Terrence Malick

SYNOPSIS: One-of-a-kind filmmaker-philosopher Terrence Malick has created some of the most visually arresting films of the twentieth century, and his glorious period tragedy Days of Heaven, featuring Oscar-winning cinematography by Nestor Almendros, stands out among them. In 1910, a Chicago steelworker (Richard Gere) accidentally kills his supervisor, and he, his girlfriend (Brooke Adams), and his little sister (Linda Manz) flee to the Texas panhandle, where they find work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer (Sam Shepard). A love triangle, a swarm of locusts, a hellish fire—Malick captures it all with dreamlike authenticity, creating a timeless American idyll that is also a gritty evocation of turn-of-the-century labor.

http://mubi.com/films/213

“Random Rules” Silver Jews, American Water...

Sun, 15 May 2011 00:35:00 +0300

“Random Rules” Silver Jews, American Water (1998)

In 1984 I was hospitalized for approaching perfection.
Slowly screwing my way across Europe, they had to make a correction.
Broken and smokin’ where the infrared deer plunge in the digital snake.
I tell you, they make it so you can’t shake hands when they make your hands shake.

I know you like to line dance, everything so democratic and cool,
But baby there’s no guidance when random rules.

I know that a lot of what I say has been lifted off of men’s room walls.
Maybe I’ve crossed the wrong rivers and walked down all the wrong halls.
But nothing can change the fact that we used to share a bed
and that’s why it scared me so when you turned to me and said:

“Yeah, you look like someone
Yeah you look like someone who up and left me low.
Boy, you look like somene I used to know.”

I asked the painter why the roads are colored black.
He said, “Steve, it’s because people leave
and no highway will bring them back.”
So if you don’t want me I promise not to linger,
But before I go I gotta ask you dear about the tan line on your ring finger.

No one should have two lives,
now you know my middle names are wrong and right.
Honey we’ve got two lives to give tonight.

One of my favorites in American Cinema

Sun, 15 May 2011 00:28:00 +0300

Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen’s distinctive films, which run the gamut from dramas to screwball sex comedies, have made him a notable American director. He is also distinguished by his rapid rate of production and his very large body of work. Allen writes and directs his movies and has also acted in the majority of them. For inspiration, Allen draws heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish Identity, and the history of cinema, among a wealth of other fields of interest.

“Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue.”

Annie Hall (1977) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrxlfvI17oY&feature=related

Manhattan (1979) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuU6XU0_Gfs

Love and Death (1975) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbk9YFxRDqE