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ammg-old2 · 1 year

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Yevgeny Prigozhin was born in Leningrad, now St Petersburg, in 1961, nine years after Putin. His father died when he was young; his mother worked in a hospital, Prigozhin has said. The young Prigozhin was sent to a sporting academy, where daily activities often involved hours of cross-country skiing.

He didn’t make the cut as a professional athlete, and after finishing school he fell in with a crowd of petty criminals. Court documents from 1981, seen by the Guardian and first reported on by the Russian investigative outlet Meduza, tell the story.

One evening in March 1980, during the dreary tail-end of Leonid Brezhnev’s rule over the Soviet Union, the 18-year-old Prigozhin and three friends left a St Petersburg cafe close to midnight and spotted a woman walking alone along the dark street.

One of Prigozhin’s buddies distracted the woman by asking for a cigarette. As she went to open her purse, Prigozhin materialised behind her and grabbed her neck, squeezing until she lost consciousness. Then, his friend slipped off her shoes while Prigozhin deftly removed her gold earrings and pocketed them. The quartet sprinted off, leaving the woman lying on the street.

It was one of many robberies that Prigozhin and his friends carried out in St Petersburg over a period of several months, the court found. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison, and spent the rest of the decade behind bars, missing the death of Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika. He was released in 1990, as the Soviet Union was in its death throes. He returned to St Petersburg.

The city was on the brink of monumental transformation, with great riches awaiting those shrewd or violent enough to seize them. Prigozhin started out modestly, selling hotdogs. He mixed the mustard in the kitchen of his family apartment.

“We made $1,000 a month, which in rouble notes was a mountain; my mum could hardly count it all,” he told the St Petersburg news portal Gorod 812 in 2011, one of his only ever interviews.

But Prigozhin had his sights set higher than fast food, and he knew how to make the contacts he needed. “He always looked for people higher up to befriend. And he was good at it,” said the businessman who knew him in the 1990s.

Before long, Prigozhin owned a stake in a chain of supermarkets, and in 1995 he decided it was time to open a restaurant with his business partners. He found Tony Gear, a British hotel administrator who had previously worked at the Savoy in London and was now at one of St Petersburg’s few luxury hotels.

Prigozhin hired Gear to manage first a wine shop, then his new restaurant, the Old Customs House, on St Petersburg’s Vasilievsky Island.

Initially, the Old Customs House employed strippers as a way to drum up clientele, but soon word got out that the food was excellent, and the strippers were dismissed. Gear focused on marketing the eatery as the most refined place to eat in a city that was only just discovering fine dining. Pop stars and businessmen liked to eat there, as did St Petersburg’s mayor, Anatoly Sobchak, who sometimes came with his deputy, Vladimir Putin.

Gear, who still lives in St Petersburg, declined an interview request. He has previously expressed admiration for Prigozhin but described him as a “very strict” boss, who would even use a special light projector to look for dust under tables each morning, to check the cleaners had worked properly.

Back in the 1990s, Prigozhin did not mention in conversation that he had spent a decade in prison, those who knew him say. He turned on the charm to make the acquaintance of his new high-flying customers.

“He can adapt to please any person if he needs something from them. That is definitely one of his talents,” said the businessman who knew him at the time.

In one of post-Soviet Russia’s more unusual friendships, Prigozhin struck up a camaraderie with the famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who had emigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

When Rostropovich hosted the queen of Spain at his St Petersburg home in 2001, Prigozhin provided the catering. Rostropovich even invited Prigozhin and his wife to a gala concert at the Barbican, part of the London celebrations of his 75th birthday in 2002, according to London Symphony Orchestra records of the invitation list for the event.

By that time, Putin had become Russia’s president. During the early years of his rule, Putin often liked to meet foreign dignitaries in his home town, and he sometimes took them to the Old Customs House or to New Island, a boat Prigozhin had turned into a floating restaurant.

Going back over photos of Putin’s official engagements from the period is like playing a game of Where’s Yevgeny, with frequent sightings of Prigozhin in the background, unsmiling and unobtrusive. Here he is lurking behind the table as Putin dines with George Bush; there he is hovering behind Prince Charles at a 2003 reception in St Petersburg’s Hermitage museum.

“Putin saw that I wasn’t above bringing the plates myself,” Prigozhin has said. It was the start of a relationship with the Russian president that would grow and metastasise in unexpected ways.

#current events #politics #russian politics #russo-ukrainian war #2022 russian invasion of ukraine #russia #yevgeny prigozhin #vladimir putin #wagner group

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spoilertv · 5 months

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#SpoilerTV

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writer59january13 · 1 year

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Whatever Happened To Glasnost And Perestroika?

Hobbit those characters who lived within the realm

of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

as far removed as Union of Soviet Socialist Republics upon squelched cusp of progressivism, now most likely

experience bitterness at the autocracy of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

Impossible mission to believe amidst audacity, atrocity, egocentricity, ferocity, mendacity, rapacity, et cetera former KGB intelligence officer currently

serving as President of Russia total mortal kombat of Ukraine did conceive author of these words doth grieve needless wanton death and destruction analogous to volcano that lays waste

to innocent lives indiscriminately spews forth horror as fiery lava belches forth instantaneously devastating explosions heave

leveling great swaths landscape Gaia retching liquid rock rendering utter wasteland entombed survivors cannot leave.

The older generation most likely experienced taste of democracy (or the closest approximation thereof) as I (am American baby boomer) felt wowed by revolutionary changes, when Ronald Reagan occupied the White House.

Permafrost of the cold war thawed

when Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (a Russian: born 2 March 1931)

ranked as salutary Soviet statesman. As eighth leader of Soviet Union,

he rang successful posts as follows: General Secretary of Communist Party

Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991.

He headed country of sprawling Soviet state

from 1988 until 1991 Chairman of Presidium of Supreme Soviet

from 1988 to 1989,

Chairman of Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990, and President of Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991.

Gorbachev was born in Stavropol Krai into a peasant Ukrainian–Russian family knoll high

in his teens, operated combine harvesters

on collective farms as strapping guy.

He graduated from Moscow State University

in 1955 with a degree in law.

While at university, he joined Communist Party,

and soon became jaw burr walk key i.e. very active mouthpiece per se.

In 1970, his near flawless dossier a boon asper getting appointed

First Party Secretary drawing salary of Stavropol Regional Committee,

First Secretary as “Chaw”

Bach ca qua Supreme Soviet in 1974,

and appointed as member of Politburo in 1979.

Within three years after death of Soviet leader

Leonid Brezhnev, following brief "interregna"

of Andropov and Chernenko, Gorbachev

elected general secretary chief by Politburo in 1985.

Before reaching said post,

his bona fides occasioned bill leaf

As top dog name-dropped

in Western newspapers

as a likely next leader and reef furred as barrier to manage

younger generation at top level.

Gorbachev's policies of glasnost ("openness")

and perestroika ("restructuring") and his reorientation of Soviet

strategic aims contributed

to end Cold War.

Under a rustling brand new program, the role

of Communist Party in governing

the state was removed demand

did via the constitution,

which inadvertently led to crisis-level

political instability fanned surge of regional nationalist

and anti-communist activism

culminating in dissolution hand of Soviet Union. Gorbachev

later expressed regret

for failure to save USSR, Mother land though he insisted his policies not failures,

but rather vitally necessary reforms, miss man aged, sabotaged and exploited by opportunists.

He was awarded the Otto Hahn

Peace Medal in 1989,

the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990

and Harvey Prize in 1992, plus un-cease

sing honorary doctorates from various universities.

In September 2008, Gorbachev vis

a vis, and business oligarch Alexander Lebedev

announced formation of Independent

Democratic Party of Russia,

and in May 2009 Gorbachev

announced that launch meant to be imminent.

This third attempt Gorbachev

sought to establish a political party, rent asunder from disparate competitors started

Social Democratic Party of Russia in tent toward legitimacy dated 2001,

and Union of Social Democrats

in 2007 voice of the people to vent.

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sequelscreen · 2 years

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Vladimir Putin Denies Mikhail Gorbachev State Funeral, Will Stay Away

Russian President Vladimir Putin is to miss the funeral of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, denying the man who failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet empire the full state honours granted to Boris Yeltsin.

Gorbachev, idolised in the West for allowing eastern Europe to escape Soviet communist control but unloved at home for the chaos that his "perestroika" reforms unleashed, will be buried on Saturday after a public ceremony in Moscow's Hall of Columns.

The grand hall, within sight of the Kremlin, hosted the funerals of Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and Leonid Brezhnev. Gorbachev will be given a military guard of honour - but his funeral will not be a state one.

State television on Thursday showed Putin solemnly placing red roses beside Gorbachev's coffin - left open as is traditional in Russia - in Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital, where he died on Tuesday aged 91.

To know more: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/vladimir-putin-denies-mikhail-gorbachev-state-funeral-will-stay-away-3309113

#VladimirPutin #MikhailGorbachev #Funeral

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eurodeal · 2 years

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The Soviet secret services became interested in the supernatural and, in particular, extrasensory capabilities of a person almost immediately after the end of the civil war. But only at the end of the 1980-s managed to somehow structure the research in this area. Thus, in recent years, the so-called perestroika in the Soviet military department turned into a group of psychics, who very convincingly promised to assist in solving many problems, in particular, preventing emergencies, searching for missing people, airplanes and ships, and treating wounded and seriously ill soldiers. Their proposal has been carefully analyzed. As a result, on the initiative of the Chief of the General Staff, General of the Army Mikhail Moiseyev, a new unit was formed - the military unit 10003. The commander of the unit would be Colonel Savin Aleksey Yurievich. The entire staff of the unit consisted of 10 people who were distinguished by their extraordinary and large-scale thinking and had outstanding abilities for military affairs. At the same time, the comic part name appeared - “a thousand and three nights”, by which it was meant that there they were doing something frivolous and fabulous. However, pseudoscientific and almost mystical parapsychology, with which, strictly speaking, began история parts, occupied by no means the main role in the activity of the 10003 military unit.

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dillydedalus · 3 years

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march reading

kinda forgot about this i guess. anyway feat. uh, magical ships, dubious mental health institutions (plural) & a parisian building with 99 rooms.

the forever sea, joshua phillip johnson (forever sea #1) i firmly believe that more fantasy lit should be set on ships bc ships are inherently a sexy setting & you could have pirates which are extremely sexy. this has ships (and pirates) and also a sea made of grass? a magical plant sea on which ships sail via magical fires, so conceptually i’m very into it all. the plot is fine, but the protagonist kindred has a very bad case of Main Character Syndrome so prepare for mild annoyance throughout. also while i generally enjoy book magic vs wild magic i wish more works would treat them as two ends of a spectrum rather than ~book magic bad and boring, wild magic cool and *~natural*~. but overall i think this series has potential. 3/5

jagannath: stories, karin tidbeck ([partially?] translated from swedish by the author) really cool collection of sff stories by tidbeck, many of which veer into mild horror and some of which are influenced by swedish folklore and especially swedish fey stories. i enjoyed most of these a lot, especially the existential call centre horror story, the ‘god won’t let me die’ one, and a taxonomy of a cryptid that goes a little off the rails. 4/5

annette, ein heldinnenepos, anne weber a novel in verse about anne beaumanoir, a real person who was a résistance member during world war 2 and later supported the algerian national liberation front, for which she was sentenced to 10 years in prison (she escaped to tunisia and later algeria). she’s clearly a very impressive and interesting person & i conceptually enjoyed the idea of writing a modern hero(ine)’s epic, but i feel like the language could have been a bit more stylized to match the form. 3/5

salvage the bones, jesmyn ward (audio) bleak but ultimately hopeful novel about a black family in the days before and during hurricane katrina, although the focus is on the family dynamics, the 14-year-old narrator discovering that she is pregnant, and the kids trying to keep the puppies their dog china just had alive and well. enjoyed this, altho i did it a bit of a disservice but listening to it a lot of short chunks. 3.5/5

regeneration, pat barker (regeneration trilogy #1) set mostly at a military hospital for soldiers with shell shock during world war 1, this novel explores the existential horror of war, psychological treatment (& the horrible absurdity of treating traumatised men just enough so that you can send them straight back to Trauma Town), and the meeting between siegfried sassoon & wilfred owen. i find i don’t really have much to say about it, but it is very, very good. 4/5

how to pronounce knife, souvankham thammavongsa a short story collection mainly about refugees and migrants from laos to canada, many focusing on parent-child relationships and being forced to work in low-paid jobs, often ones that are damaging to their health. the stories are very well-observed and emotionally nuanced and detailed, but with 14 mostly very short stories, the collection as a whole felt a bit samey, which i guess is something i often experience with short story collections. 3/5

faces in the water, janet frame horrifying semi-autobiographical novel about a young woman stuck in new zealand’s mental health system, moving to different hospitals but mostly from ward to (more depressing) ward in the 40s/50s. while there is a shift in attitudes during her stay that sometimes makes the wards more tolerable, mostly the patients are neglected, abused, and the threat of electric shock therapy and lobotomy always hangs over them. 3/5

the upstairs house, julia fine fuck why did i read so many books about mental health conditions this month??? this is another entry in my casual ‘motherhood as horror’ reading project, in which a new mother develops post-partum psychosis & imagines the modernist children’s book writer she’s writing her dissertation on and her poet sometimes-lover haunting her and her child (margaret wise brown & michael strange, who are real people i was utterly unaware of). this does pretty good on the maternal horror front, but i wasn’t entirely sold on the literary haunting. 2/5

1000 serpentinen angst, olivia wenzel a very interesting novel about a woman struggling with grief over her brother’s suicide, an anxiety disorder, the (non)state of a (non)relationship and discrimination/marginalisation based on her identity as a black, east-german, bi woman (while also being, as she notes, financially privileged). much of the novel is written in a dialogue between the narrator and an unnamed (& probably internal) interlocutor, which was p effective for a novel more focused on introspection than much of a plot. 3/5

atlas: the archaeology of an imaginary city, dung kai-cheung (tr. from chinese by the author, anders hansson, bonnie mcdougall) fictitious theory about a slightly-left-of-reality version of hong kong and how maps (re)construct the city, very heavy on the postmodern poststructuralist postcolonial (and some other posts, i’m sure). in many ways my jam. unfortunately my favourite parts of this were the author’s preface and the first part (fictitious theory of mapping alternate hong kong); the rest felt very repetitive and not particularly interesting, altho i’m sure i was also just missing a lot of cultural context. 2.5/5

under the net, iris murdoch .........i liked the other two murdochs i’ve read (the sea, the sea & a severed head) quite a lot so either i was not in the mood for her very peculiar style of constructing novels and characters or, this being her first novel, she just wasn’t in full command of that peculiar style yet but man this was a slooooooooog. don’t stretch out your modern picaresque with an incredibly annoying narrator over more than 300 pages iris!!!! 2/5 bc this probably has some merit & i just wasn’t into it

the impossible revolution: making sense of the syrian tragedy, yassin al-haj saleh (tr. from arabic by i. rida mahmoud) collection of articles and essays saleh (a syrian intellectual & activist who spent 16 years in a syrian prison) wrote from 2011 to 2015, analysing the reasons for, potential and development of the revolution, as well as some background sociological discussion on the assads’ regime. very interesting, very dense, very depressing. wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as a first read on the topic tho. 3/5

angels in america: millenium approaches & perestroika, tony kushner the page to tumblr darling quote ratio in this is insane (”just mangled guts pretending” and so on) and also it just really slaps on every level. also managed to get me from 0 to crying several times. brilliant work of theatre, would love to see it staged (or filmed). 4/5

life: a user’s manual, georges perec (german tr. by eugen helmlé) 99 chapters, each corresponding with a single room in a parisian apartment block; some chapters are basically ‘here’s the room, here’s a long list of objects in the room, that’s it bye :)’, some are short insights into the lives of the people living there, some (the best, mostly) are long, absolutely wild tales that are sometimes only tangentially connected to the room in question. why are the french like this. 61/99 rooms

sisters in hate: american women on the front lines of white nationalism, seyward darby (audio) nonfiction about women’s role in white nationalist hate movements, mainly based on the stories of three women who are or have been involved with various contemporary american alt-right/racist/neonazi hate groups, while also looking at general social trends and the history of white women’s role in white supremacy. interesting and engaging if you’re interested in this kind of thing. if you’re both politically aware and internet poisoned, it’s probably not much that is completely new to you but still worth reading. 3/5

starting in april i will be Gainfully Employed (ugh) & thus probably not read as much or read even more bc i have no energy for anything else

#the books i read #long post

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dgchg · 3 years

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his eyes and horns and spinal plates blood red

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erikahenningsen · 4 years

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Underrated musicals and plays you should check out

Happy quarantine everyone! I’ve been thinking about making a post like this for a long time now and what better time to do it then when we’re all stuck inside.

INDECENT

Play or musical? Play.

What’s it about? Indecent is a play by Paula Vogel. It recounts the controversy surrounding the Yiddish play God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch, which was produced on Broadway in 1923, for which the cast of the original production was arrested on the grounds of obscenity. God of Vengeance was the first kiss between two women on Broadway.

Why should I check this out? The writing is beautiful and the structure is seamless, balancing emotion, comedy, music, and drama effortlessly. It’s one of the best-directed shows I’ve ever seen (the direction rightfully won a Tony Award). Each actor plays several characters (and several play their own instruments) brilliantly and distinctly. Jewish culture is front and center, and there there is a canon WLW couple in both Indecent and God of Vengeance. Indecent is hilarious one moment and devastating the next. You will not be able to stop thinking about this play after watching it.

How can I watch this show? Indecent has a proshot available on the PBS website, or you can ask me for a link to my copy of it.

Can I buy the text? Yes.

Is there a cast recording? Yes.

COME FROM AWAY

Play or musical? Musical.

What’s it about? Come From Away is a musical by Irene Sankoff and David Hein. It is set in the week following the September 11 attacks and tells the true story of what transpired when 38 planes were ordered to land unexpectedly in the small town of Gander in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, as part of Operation Yellow Ribbon. The characters in the musical are based on (and in most cases share the names of) real Gander residents as well as some of the 7,000 stranded travelers they housed and fed.

Why should I check this out? Come From Away is one of the best-written musicals I’ve ever seen. The pacing is perfect and every person in the cast plays at least three different characters seamlessly. The music is incredibly unique, as it is heavily influenced by Newfoundland folk music. You will laugh. You will cry. You will have the music stuck in your head for two weeks. The only problem with watching Come From Away during quarantine is it will make you want to give the special people in your life a hug.

How can I watch this show? Come From Away is currently playing on Broadway, in the West End, on tour across the US, and in Toronto, Melbourne, and Sydney. There are several video bootlegs that aren’t hard to find.

Can I buy the text? I don’t think so. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Is there a cast recording? Yes.

CHOIR BOY

Play or musical? Play.

What’s it about? Choir Boy is a play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who is best known for co-writing the Oscar-winning screenplay of Moonlight, the movie based on his play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. Choir Boy follows Pharus, a gay teenager at an all-black, all-boys boarding school. Pharus has just been elected the lead of his school choir, a very high honor. Though Pharus is lauded for his vocal talent, his classmates do not all respond well to his flamboyance and confidence. Choir Boy is a story centered on relationships that asks what it means to be a young, gay, black man in America.

Why should I check this out? One of the most devastatingly beautiful pieces of theatre I have ever seen, Choir Boy is overflowing with fantastic monologues, hilarious one-liners, and gorgeous a cappella songs with some really dope step choreography. Tarell McCraney is the master of writing heartfelt, realistic romantic and platonic love between men of color.

How can I watch this show? Choir Boy is gaining popularity as a regional show. Unfortunately there is no video bootleg in circulation, and although I am absolutely positive MTC has one, there is no proshot. There are a lot of official clips on YouTube and if you message me privately I can give you an audio recording of the show.

Can I buy the text? You can buy the pre-Broadway version of the play. We have not been successful in finding a Broadway copy of the text, although I do have one I got at flea that was part of a Tony voters package.

Is there a cast recording? No, and I’m mad about it.

THE WRONG MAN

Play or musical? Musical.

What’s it about? The Wrong Man started as a concept album by Ross Golan, and he expanded on it to create a 90-minute musical. Duran, a man down on his luck in Reno, Nevada, meets Mariana at a bar one night. They become romantically involved and make plans to leave Reno together. However, Mariana's violent ex-husband has just been released from prison, and when he finds out about their relationship, he frames Duran for murder.

Why should I check this out? The Wrong Man is completely sung-through and it is bops on bops on bops. There is not a dull song in this show and the orchestrations (by Alex Lacamoire of Hamilton fame) are gorgeous. The choreography (by Travis Wall) is my favorite I have ever seen. Joshua Henry, Ciara Renée, and Ryan Vasquez can sing literally anything. This show also did something really unique where they had Ryan Vasquez play the role of Duran once or twice a week.

How can I watch this show? There is a video bootleg that is NFT until July 15th, but I can give you the master’s information if you’d like to purchase it now. Message me privately for audio.

Can I buy the text? No.

Is there a cast recording? Not yet. We’ve gotten some hints that there may be one coming soon. You can listen to the concept album, but it’s quite different from the show and I’d recommend listening to the audio first.

THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS

Play or musical? Musical.

What’s it about? The Scottsboro Boys is a musical with a book by David Thompson, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, based on the Scottsboro Boys trial.

Why should I check this out? The Scottsboro Boys is one of those shows that sounds like it wouldn’t work at all (and I think that unfortunately is most of the reason why it did so poorly on Broadway) but is actually brilliant. It is one of the sharpest, most poignant pieces of satire I’ve ever seen. The balance of comedy and the heartbreaking subject matter creates an incredibly powerful pieces of art. I saw a small regional production in a black box theater and it’s still one of my favorite things I’ve ever seen.

How can I watch this show? You may be able to catch this show at a regional theater. I think there may possibly be a bootleg, but I’m not sure if this is in circulation in any digital form. I don’t personally have audio of the show, but I’m sure it’s out there. There are some official clips on YouTube.

Can I buy the text? I don’t think so.

Is there a cast recording? There is an Off-Broadway cast recording and a London cast recording

ANGELS IN AMERICA: A GAY FANTASIA ON NATIONAL THEMES

Play or musical? Play.

What’s it about? I know it is a bit crazy to be calling Angels in America underrated as it has been around forever and literally won the Tony, Drama Desk, and Pulitzer and the revival won the Tony, but I feel that it’s underrated on tumblr and among young people. Angels in America is a two-part play (individually titled Millennium Approaches and Perestroika) by Tony Kushner. It a complex, often metaphorical, and at times symbolic examination of AIDS and homosexuality in America in the 1980s. Certain major and minor characters are supernatural beings (angels) or deceased persons (ghosts). The play contains multiple roles for several of the actors. Initially and primarily focusing on a gay couple in Manhattan, the play also has several other storylines, some of which occasionally intersect.

Why should I check this out? The camp! The drama! The comedy! The devastation! The OG comedy featuring Mormons. Iconic monologues and dialogue. The entire play is about eight hours long, and I would have happily sat through it with no breaks. Nobody will ever write a more epic play.

How can I watch this show? The most recent revival was filmed by the National Theatre when it was in London. I’m not sure if there’s a way to stream it online but I have a copy I can link you to. There’s also a Broadway revival bootleg.

Can I buy the text? Yes.

Is there a cast recording? N/A

A STRANGE LOOP

Play or musical? Musical.

What’s it about? A Strange Loop is about an usher at The Lion King on Broadway who is also named Usher, who is writing a self-referential musical called A Strange Loop. Usher is an overweight, overwhelmed “ball of black confusion” trying to navigate without a compass the hierarchical white, black and gay worlds; his family’s religion, which condemns him for his sexuality; and an entertainment industry that isn’t interested in what he has to say. He’s also having an existential crisis as he deals with questions of reality, illusions, perceptions and identity. His biggest fear is that he’s stuck in an endless cycle of hopelessness where change is not possible.

Why should I check this out? It’s hard to talk about A Strange Loop with people who haven’t seen it because it is truly unlike any other show I have ever seen. It starts out seeming like a musical comedy about identity, but it gets more intense as the show goes on until you’re crying next to a stranger and wondering how the hell you even got there. It’s brilliant.

How can I watch this show? Unfortunately there is no video bootleg, but you can ask me for an audio. Some clips are available on YouTube.

Can I buy the text? No.

Is there a cast recording? Yes. I recommend reading this as you go along so the songs make more sense because they’re pretty wild out of context (they’re pretty equally as wild in context).

SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY

Play or musical? Play.

What’s it about? Paulina, the reigning queen bee at Ghana’s most exclusive boarding school, has her sights set on the Miss Global Universe pageant. But the arrival of Ericka, a new student with undeniable talent and beauty, captures the attention of the pageant recruiter—and Paulina’s hive-minded friends.

Why should I check this out? School Girls is one of the funniest plays I have ever seen. The writing is so smart, and the show deals with racism (both on an interpersonal and worldwide level), colorism, body image, sex and gender, class, and inequality.

How can I watch this show? PBS recently released the proshot on their website. I don’t have a ripped copy yet, so if anyone does have one please send it my way. Regional theaters have been doing this show as well.

Can I buy the text? Yes.

Is there a cast recording? N/A

Play or musical? Musical.

What’s it about? Following a move from New York City to small-town Indiana, young Evan Goldman grapples with his parents' divorce, prepares for his impending Bar Mitzvah, and navigates the complicated social circles of a new school.

Why should I check this out? It’s Jason Robert Brown, so the music slaps. It’s the only Broadway musical ever with a cast and band entirely made of teenagers. Plus it has baby Ariana Grande and Liz Gillies in their Broadway debuts. 13 walked so so many other musicals about teens could run.

How can I watch this show? There is a video bootleg that’s not hard to find. I’m sure there’s audio in circulation as well.

Can I buy the text? Yes.

Is there a cast recording? There is an Broadway cast recording and a West End cast recording

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES

Play or musical? Musical.

What’s it about? Secret Life of Bees is a musical by Duncan Sheik and Lynn Nottage based on the novel of the same name. Haunted by memories of her late mother and abused by her father, 14-year-old Lily Owens runs away with her friend and caregiver Rosaleen to the South Carolina town that holds the key to her mother's past. There, Lily meets the Boatwright sisters, who take her in and teach her about beekeeping, honey, and the Black Madonna. Lily also discovers that the truth about her mother is closer than she thinks.

Why should I check this out? The music is so gorgeous. It’s one of my favorite Duncan Sheik scores. LaChanze is amazing at everything she does, and Elizabeth Teeter and Brett Gray are stars you need to be looking out for.

How can I watch this show? There is no video bootleg. You can message me privately for an audio.

Can I buy the text? No.

Is there a cast recording? No, but I really wish there was.

AMERICAN PSYCHO

Play or musical? Musical.

What’s it about? American Psycho is based on the 1991 novel of the same name and written by Duncan Sheik and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. In New York City in 1987, a handsome, young urban professional, Patrick Bateman, lives a second life as a gruesome serial killer by night. The cast is filled by the detective, the fiancée, the mistress, the coworker (Jared Leto), and the secretary. This is a biting, wry comedy examining the elements that make a man a monster.

Why should I check this out? Listen, I won’t lie to you. There is a reason this musical is underrated, and that reason is because it is not good. But I love it. The fun comes from the knowledge that this campy, ridiculous, obscenely bloody show was on Broadway (briefly). Duncan Sheik went off the rails and wrote a techno musical! How can you not love that! Benjamin Walker gives the performance of his career and he did it mostly in his underwear! Heléne Yorke creates a character so grating you find yourself begging Patrick to kill her! They somehow got Alice Ripley AND Jenn Damiano to do this shitshow! I will maintain until the day I die that nobody can top American Psycho’s act one closer.

How can I watch this show? There are a couple of video bootlegs of the Broadway production, as well as some official clips on YouTube. I have an audio of the West End production that I can share.

Can I buy the text? No.

Is there a cast recording? There is tragically no Broadway cast recording, but there is a London cast recording.

#why did this take me two hours to write #i'm gwen and i approve this message

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tibby · 4 years

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this is the same anon w/ the andrew garfield brainrot procrastinating their essay, I have the link to a pretty good recording of perestroika if you need it

oh please do....i lost my angels recording when my external hard drive decided to fuck up and i miss it

#ask #Anonymous

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spoilertv · 5 months

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#SpoilerTV

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atcostmag · 4 years

Text

Mashmellow’s Egor Berdnikov on his multiple musical personalities and writing 90′s Dream Pop nostalgia in Moscow while the world fixates on Post-Soviet ennui

With their youthful energy and euphoric flourishes of sound, Mashmellow breathes new air into a world that is seemingly infatuated with Post-Soviet decay. It is this a pervasive doom and gloom that has become as commonplace as bears, balalaika and vodka as an unfortunate stereotype affixed to modern-day Russia. It’s an ennui so famed, that exiled Soviet author Nabokov even referred to the adjective "toska" as unique to the Russian language; "No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause." However with all that said and done, Egor and Masha of Moscow's Mashamellow are quick to dispel such adverse connotations. With the recent release of their post-punk fantasy "Someday Club", Mashmellow shift away from the dark, dreary romantics of their New Wave congeners. Emboldened with their blissful naivete, Mashmellow write simple love songs that relay hope and optimism. A man of many musical personalities, Egor speaks on the creation of Mashmellow and how he's not one to sit still with simultaneous releases through his projects Hospital and Silklake.

Words: Peter Quincy Ng

Tell us about how you met and how your musical styles came to be as Mashmellow.

Masha Shurygina and I met a few years ago in Moscow at the birthday party of a mutual friend. We connected as we both born in the Russian Far East. Masha is from Vladivostok and I am from Komsomolsk-on-Amur. We started spending time together and found out a lot stuff in common especially with regards to our musical preferences. We both loved the sound of the '90s; Brit-Pop and classic dream-pop bands.

“Voices”

Mashmellow · Voices

During that time I was in the band called Hospital and we had just released our third album. It was a hard time for the band, so we decided to put our activity on pause and have a break from each other. But I wasn’t one to sit there doing nothing! As soon as Masha showed the song she wrote called "Share It", I knew it was really something and we did this record just to see if maybe we could do it. That’s how the story started. As for Hospital, we are still playing from time-to-time and are even going to release the new single this week.

Hospital - “Collapsed Light”

Hospital · Collapsed Light (single 2020)

Tell us about your latest record that you have just released, and what inspired it.

Our latest released record is "Someday Club". All the songs were written by Masha and I. For Masha, it became her first songwriting experience, “Share It” was the first we made for the album. The album does not have a particular narrative. It's just a few catchy and dream-pop songs with a lot of guitars and Masha's beautiful voice. That was the whole idea actually. We listened to a lot of 90′s Brit-Pop and indie during that time. We just really missed that sound a lot. It was a deliberate choice to not sound like Imagine Dragons.

“Someday Club”

Mashmellow · Someday Club

I have to say beyond just having a fantastic record, you've also created some fantastic visuals. Some of which extend from Egor's solo project Silklake. What can you tell us about running two simultaneous music projects and where they both converge and diverge?

This video is really great, both of them actually. The story behind them is much more prosaic and less romantic than it seems. Ksenia and Kostya, the creators of the videos, just came to us with the idea that it was possible to make two clips at the same time to save time and money. That's why we have the same decorations and all that stuff.

”Share It”

youtube

Also, we thought that it could be fun to make one story for two different projects. However, in the end it became more about the final result, rather than about our story producing two videos at the same time.

Silklake - “On Your Side”

youtube

Speaking about interesting visuals were you also in a Reebok commercial?

Yes, we took a part in the Reebok commercial this summer. It was all very spotaneous as we are neither actors nor models, but it was a very interesting experience.

youtube

The sound of your music is decidedly euphoric, reminiscing of the early days of late 80's, early 90's dream-pop nostalgia. A lot of the songs are written about love while being in love. Was it an intuitive choice writing about love?

Yes, it was just natural. As a writer, I am not really into the heavy, conceptual stuff. I guess Masha and I don't think too much about the idea of a song until it's finished. We just speak from our hearts and trying to be honest. As Paul McCartney once sung, "You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs, I look around me and I see it isn't so". God, I love this song (laughs).

“Heaven is You”

Mashmellow · Heaven Is You

Through the “Doomer” musical sub-genre, gamer culture and the crossover success of Belarusian post-punk band Molchat Doma, there’s been a recent fascination and revival of the Perestroika-era musical aesthetic. What are the challenges of working with an international audience when all they expect is the doom and gloom?

Actually, we don't really like that tendency because it refills the idea of Russians as gloomy, rough and sad people in some way. For us, it's the same as a common stereotype about bears, vodka, and balalaika; Dostoevsky's esthetics and all that stuff. We are totally different. We also love The Beatles and Abba, you know? We love good melodies; we love the sense of hope and we believe in better. Sometimes it's hard to convey this idea to people who still think about Gorbachev and Perestroika when you tell them about Russia and Russian culture.

“Melt”

Mashmellow · Melt

Let's end this interview on a positive note shall we? What's next for Mashmellow and Silklake, and tell us something interesting about yourselves that we should probably know?

I am not sure about Silklake so far. I have about 20 songs for this project, so maybe someday they all will become part of an album or EP at least. I hope so. As for Mashmellow we are just finished our new mini-album with 6 songs and just released the first single called “Enough is Enough”. We really love this song! It's like if Madonna was a member of an alternative rock band from the 90′s! Also, there’s are even more guitars to expect on the new record than on the first EP.

“Enough is Enough”

Mashmellow · Enough Is Enough (single 2020)

#mashmellow #hospital #silklake #russia #music

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