Good Humor Me, Classical Music – Little Nightmare Concert.

Life is made of tragicomically controversial moments. One man’s painful fall may cause a bystander to burst into an inappropriate laugh. While in stitches ridiculing the clumsiness of a stranger, the bystander himself may slip on a banana skin and fall hard… Though hurting really badly – through all the moaning – he’d start laughing even harder. Why? Because he sees the irony in what happened to him.

Seeing the funny side of life and things is a gift. The ability to help others not to take themselves too seriously, to make them lighten up and make a light out of sometimes less than perfect situations, is a talent.

Concerts of a duo of a violinist and singer Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Hyung-Ki Joo (http://www.igudesmanandjoo.com/biography/) are full of unexpected twists and turns, as they don’t just deliver a professional performance of musical pieces, but also offer their own theatrical interpretation of each composition. There’s a humor and story in every note and step they take on stage.

Famous ‘I Will Survive’ had never sounded so lighthearted before:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odhDJiRys6U

Most of people like to have fun and be entertained. When I feel like inviting some extra silliness into my life, I go to a Comedy Club or choose to watch a comedy movie. But Comedy and Classical Music didn’t exactly go hand in hand in my mind until I saw a performance of Alexsey and Joo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkNBWeWzha4&feature=related

I think, Mozart would be proud: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psazw6xsMFs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2nRMrDYdyg

After rocking New York’s Carnegie Hall back in April, Aleksey and Joo are now on their way to you, so you might just see their performances in person. Check out their touring schedule.  http://www.igudesmanandjoo.com/#

Former Soviet Union’s Got Talent & Eagle’s Song ‘Hotel California’ Got a New Life

Chances are you’ve never heard of ‘Buranovskiye Babushki’) before. Let me get you up to speed – ‘Бурановские Бабушки’ (in Russian), or in English – ‘Buranovo’s Grandmas’ is a music folklore sextet from the village Buranovo of Udmurt Republic, which was formed 40 years ago. The oldest of six “girls” in the group is 77 now, which means she was born in 1935 – before World War II. The youngest grandma is 44. So, it’s safe to say that all the ladies in the band were born way before Perestroika, and thus clearly represent children of the Soviet Union Era – a former one as for now.

If you don’t know what and where Udmurtia is  – it’s an ethnically unique region in Russia more known for the names Kalashnikov and Chaikovsky than for their distinct culture – very different from what you may think the culture of Russia is (say, borsh, balalaikas and bliny is not exactly the Udmurt thing). Udmurtia is exercising a certain degree of independence from the central government in Moscow. The autonomy goes back to the Soviet times when a few regions across the USSR were delegated a couple of extra rights, most of which were related to the people’s traditions and language. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udmurtia).

‘Buranovsky Grandmas’ perform variety of Russian and Foreign hits in Udmurtian language, which, by the way, is more similar to the Finnish than Russian.

Here’s their soul-piercing rendition of Eagle’s famous song ‘Hotel California’ in Udmurtian:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK_4MMShIzY

This year the team of singing grannies was chosen to represent Russia at the prestigious contest “Eurovision 2012”. This competition is held annually and broadcast live among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest)

Baku Cristal Hall

Azerbaijani duet won at Eurovision 2011, that’s why Eurovision 2012 took place in Baku  – the capital and largest City of Azerbaijan, which also used to be a part of USSR. The contest was watched by 125 million people from all over the world. Completely make-up free and dressed in patchwork uniforms – traditional red smocks, headscarves and woolly boots, ‘Buranovskiye Babushki’ danced around the kiln and even baked bread on-stage while belting out their now-famous hit ‘Party for Everybody’. These six newly discovered sensations won audience’s hearts and took a second place with the above mentioned song, which they sang in their language. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKNRGc71hjc

If you wonder who won Eurovision 2012, it’s a beautiful singer from Sweden Loreen with a song ‘Euphoria’. Here’s her final performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqYtlpZ-9N4&feature=related

Life in the Russian province has never been easy. You might find it hard to believe, but residents of Buranovo are still obtaining water from the well, and stoke their houses with the firewood, keeping domestic animals, and taking care of their gardens in the summer…

But Eurovision 2012’s runner-ups  are only happy to go back to their amenities-free life  in a tiny  village Buranovo with a population of only 650.

In fact, they will be investing their prize winnings into in their beloved home village to rebuild an Orthodox Church, which was destroyed during Second War II and was never restored. And, of course, they’ll be also touring non-stop internationally.

Bethenny Frankel Shoved Dr. OZ

Did Bethenny Frankel go too far this time? Pushing the envelope is one thing, but pushing Dr. Oz’ TV Show the whole hour ahead, and getting his 11AM spot on FOX (http://www.bethenny.com/) takes her super powers to the whole new level! I mean, is there anything this ‘Skinny Girl’ can’t do?! You don’t have to answer – this question is a rhetorical one. I watched her “first” TV Talk Show on ’Ellen’ today, and I personally doubt it very much that it was indeed her very first time hosting a talk show – a hint – that’s why I put “first’ in quotes. My theory is – Beth had been schooled to go after her dreams at a secret college (trust me, all successful people went to that college at some point in their lives) – somewhere in another Galaxy, in the Outer Space. And that’s where Beth made Friends in Higher Places, who now support and empower her here on Earth.

And to whoever is spreading rumors about Beth’s and Jason’s divorce – get life! One of the ‘Bethenny’ show’s guests implied that black men’s penises are bigger than that of white men, and Bethenny immediately asked for proof! Beth felt comfortable making a joke like this, even though her husband was a part of the audience. My point – it takes a very special man to handle a strong and successful woman, and it takes balls to say whatever you feel like saying in front of your husband while hosting a show on the National TV.

I feel these two were custom designed for each other, and so they will… they must live happily ever after. Now that I made this statement, Bethenny, you and Jason’d better make it work!

Bethenny, Congrats on your Big TV Talk Show Debut. I loved it. Keep on rocking!

Lady-Gaga-Attitude Kind of Jewels With Super Powers.Warning: Will Stop You from Biting Your Nails!

Rings for Your Nails? WOW – What a concept! http://www.bijulesnyc.com/bjbyjuleskim

Jules Kim is a young jewelry designer, whose accessories are proudly worn by many celebrities such as Beyonce (http://www.lifeandstylemag.com/2009/07/beyonces-35k-nails.html), Fergie, Lindsay Lohan, Shakira, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Nicole Richie, Mariah Carey and Kim Kardashian. (http://www.bijulesnyc.com/press/celebrity)

But you don’t have to be famous to look like a Super Star. You can own this Avant-Garde, Fashion-Forward Look for only $200 http://www.bijulesnyc.com/default/nail.html?mode=list

These power-radiating jewels will propel you into the future in style. Warning: No Nail Biting Allowed!

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Sound That Kills Sound

Don’t Let This Warning Fall On Deaf Ears

Have you ever being riding on the train, maybe taking a nap, or quietly reading a magazine or a book, and at the same time noticing that you also been involuntarily listening to a music coming out of another person’s headphones? A person may not even be sitting next to you – he or she may have been standing all the way at the other end of a car, minding their own business, but the music they listen to reaches your ears. Sometimes you can’t hear it well enough to distinguish one artist from another (not that you want to), but you can hear the beat pattern loud enough for you to kinda tell what style of music has been listened to – you know – fast or slow, techno dance or heavy metal…

While it may be distracting, and even frustrating for some of the passengers to have no choice but to listen to a noise coming from a stranger’s iPod, that is not what I’d like to talk about here.

The mere fact that I can hear any sound at all, that is coming from the audio device mounted on somebody else’s head, screams the fact that what is happening between that music transmitting piece of equipment and its owner’s ears is not even almost healthy. And I’ll tell you why.

We have these tiny hair cells in our ears that are responsible for our ability to hear well. Without those hair cells our brain won’t be receiving a very important signal – sound. Listening to loud music causes these hairs to flatten up. And though they will usually bounce back if exposed to a loud noise for only a short period of time (like at the concert, for instance), in case of being bombarded with sound over 90dB over a long period of time, your ear hairs become weaker and, eventually, get damaged permanently – they won’t ever re-grow.

Put plainly, listening to a loud music may, and gradually will make you deaf. Any noise above 90dB is harmful for our hearing, and causes noise-inducted hearing loss (NIHL). While we can’t eliminate all noise pollution from our life (sounds of street, industrial noise, construction activities, to name a few), we can do something about our music listening habits. And it’s not the style of music we are listening to – it’s excessive amount of time and volume at which we choose to listen to it. So, to prevent NIHL, don’t listen to music non-stop and at maximum volume.