These words from "The Outlaw Josie Wales" have been the only non-essential bit of information on my Facebook profile for at least a year now, and now I see that it has been brazenly robbed by Andrew Sullivan for his series: "Best. Movie. Line. Ever."
To the victor and all that...
But the link to the YouTube clip may have been worth it.
So I saw Harry Potter today.
Before I get to the film, some background. All movies in Russia are dubbed. Actually, from what I hear, all foreign movies in most countries are dubbed, and America and a handful of Western European countries seem to be alone in preferring subtitles, the clearly superior way of consuming this medium. If that doesn't spur your nationalistic pride I'm not sure what will.
Anyway, it has only been since films began to be distributed digitally that the dubbing has even been worth a damn. Before, the local studios basically received a product with the audio tracks already integrated, so in order to keep the sound effects, you had to retain the voice tracks as well. Watch any movie on TV more than a few years old and you get this ridiculous mish-mash. For 1.9 seconds you hear the actor's original voice until the dubbing kicks in and almost drowns it out. Now, for someone who has to concentrate to understand the dubbed language and who fully understands the native language, this makes the movie watching experience something akin to watching those war sequences in Saving Private Ryan. (You can talk as much as you like about it conveying to the viewer the confusion, brutality and senselessness of war; I call it shaking the camera around really fast: A technique my dog Max could surpass with a camera tied to his back, thanks to the mollifying quality of his canine corpulence). Anyway, Harry Potter was rather well dubbed, so three cheers for the digital revolution.
Secondly, I noticed that Voldemort's name in Russian is Volandamort. The first two or three times that He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named was... well... named, I thought I misheard. But then, I got it. Voldemort, to our Anglophone ears, is a very sinister sounding name: partly from the deep, round, o sounds; partly from the Latinate influence (from mors, mortis meaning 'death'). But Russians don't have the same associations that we do (whether conscious or not). So, the question is, how does a Russian translator make the name sound sinister to the popular Russian imagination?
Volandamort.
Thirty-two brownie points to the person who guesses why.
If you'll recall, among the topics I enumerated in my list was an in-depth from-the-trenches report on Moscow's Mullets, the hairstyle of the new elite. Well, I see that The Exile has not only scooped me, and has probably done a better job than I would have, but it was published on the same freakin' day that I made that post. Oh well. For those who can't be bothered to click through, here are the money quotes:
To understand the Russian mullet, you have to go back to the early 1980s, to the beginning of Russia's "rock renaissance." Specifically, to Viktor Tsoi, the legendary dead front man of Kino, who sported a classic 80s I-used-to-be-stadium-rock-but-now-I'm-New-Wave mullet of the sort you'd see on a Steve Perry of Journey or a Billy Squier. The mullet somehow vibed with Tsoi's Asiatic features (he was half-Korean) and immediately spawned a trend among his millions of fans.
When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, the mullet collapsed like so much inefficient state industry, giving way to the worst of the West's imports: the eurofag techno hairstyles of the 90s. Like, who can forget the Caesar?
Changes are in the cards for your humble blogger...
Having been somewhat dissatisfied with my job for a while (due to a number of issues, the chief among them being the rather ridiculously high work/pay ratio), I decided to drop that business like a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
I sent a letter of resignation giving one month's notice on the 19th of July and for nearly a week received no reply, despite several follow up emails, until one of my colleagues told me that she was taking over my classes and asked me why I was leaving. Stay classy, Language Link.
The same day, finally, my supervisor called me and said that, instead of staying for the rest of the month, it would be easier to replace me at the beginning of August. Fair enough... it is a rather difficult juggling job to seamlessly replace teachers, especially for those that teach In Company.
Long story short, I'm still waiting on a second letter from the director (who seems impossible to get a hold of by other means) confirming that I can have the full month that I gave as notice to stay in my apartment as well as some questions about visa issues.
In any event, I got a job as a copy editor at the English language paper in Moscow, The Moscow Times. I've been working there for a few Sundays and think it will be something much more to my taste and skills. Also, it won't inflict the stress that traveling all day on the Moscow metro entails.
I also found a new flat, as my current abode is controlled by Language Fink Link. Its a bit nicer than my current place, and in a somewhat nicer area.
Lastly, in changing employers, it is necessary to get a new work visa, which can only be done by leaving and re-entering the country. Italy will probably be my mandatory vacation destination as I can stay with a friend there. I'm still waiting (see:above) to find out if I can stay until the 28th on my current visa or if I have to leave on the 18th.
