What a mess! Why would anyone ever surf the net?
On occasion I try to save you, my dear, respected readers, the hassle of doing it yourself by combing the net to see what’s up in Russian culture.
Ugh.
Today I have several possible topics.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin crooning pop songs and plinking the piano with two fingers. No, that?€™s not culture.
Film director Nikita Mikhalkov pushing through a hotel in the center of Moscow where new construction is forbidden and popular actress Tatyana Dogileva, who lives on that street and is opposed to the project, getting into tousles with the police for protesting it.
No, that?€™s not culture.
Filipp Kirkorov — Lord, no, that?€™s not culture.
Oh, I didn?€™t say what he?€™s in the news for.
You see, the so-called pop star Kirkorov is plastered all over Russian television screens every New Year?€™s Eve. There are theories that three-quarters of the country is sick to its stomach the next day not because of all the vodka and champagne consumed, but because they have to listen to Kirkorov all night long.
Anyway, during a recent taping of the Golden Gramophone ceremony, Kirkorov had an altercation with a female director who was overseeing an aspect of the filming. He was so unhappy when she questioned his star quality by suggesting he resembled a used condom that he pulled her hair, knocked her down and kicked her ?€” all of this in front of an astonished crowd of onlookers.
Way to go, Filippchik. What a man.
Even Yury Lyubimov, the venerable founder and artistic director of the world-famous Taganka Theater, has jumped into the stir.
Actually, “the stir” is where Lyubimov has lived much of his life. It got him in trouble with the Soviet authorities with regularity, and once, back in 1984, even got him stripped of his citizenship.
Lyubimov, who is one of Russia?€™s greatest cultural ambassadors of the last half-century, has a habit of using award ceremonies for making various statements of sorts. I once attended a Golden Mask Festival ceremony where he demonstratively stood and left the hall before they got around to calling him up to receive a Life Achievement plaque.
I?€™m not sure what he was protesting then; maybe boredom.
Last week, while picking up an award called Zvezda Teatrala, which literally translates as Theatergoer Star and which I haven?€™t the vaguest notion how to improve, Lyubimov announced that he had resigned as the Taganka?€™s artistic director. That was picked up and spread like wildfire by the press and bloggers. The BBC Russian service weighed in with its own interview.
If you had read a mid-November interview Lyubimov had given the Los Angeles Times, you might have been prepared for the latest Lyubimov retirement. There he admitted that he had resigned in March, but the city authorities who are the de facto producers of the Taganka and some 40 other Moscow theaters did not accept it.
Furthermore, if you read the BBC interview carefully, you can see that Lyubimov himself didn?€™t believe in his own resignation.
?€?Since I?€™m the one who submitted the resignation, apparently it?€™s others who will make the decision,?€? he said enigmatically about Moscow?€™s cultural bureaucrats.
In short, it would now appear that Lyubimov is going nowhere, and that he will continue to run the Taganka, at least until his next resignation.
For the record, Lyubimov tendered his resignation, in part, to bring to light what he and many feel is the sad state of the repertory theater in Russia these days. The economics of maintaining hundreds of large repertory companies throughout the nation is becoming increasingly difficult.
Lyubimov complains that he has to sign 300 pieces of paper a day and beg the Moscow Culture Committee for the money to buy nails if this theater needs repairs, but the problem is obviously greater than that.
In short, it?€™s a serious problem.
But I?€™m not up to serious problems today ?€” we?€™ll leave that discussion for another time. Blame it on Kirkorov. He used up my word count and spoiled my day.