Halloween is very nearly upon us. While it’s most often misrepresented by items such as this, I refuse to let commercial culture rob me of this treasured holiday’s mystery. ???? ? T??a?? (Hedgehog in the Fog), the eerie masterpiece of Russian animation featured in this post, could have easily been part of the “what made me weird” article – it affected me greatly as a kid, feeding my hungry chimera and igniting within my fevered brain the very spirit of adventure. I like to think this was the exact intended effect.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/dRsXU4Q6a0Q" width="400" height="330" wmode="transparent" /]

The story is simple: Hedgehog is on his way to pay his friend, the Bear Cub, a visit. They often meet for tea and count stars together. This time Hedgehog’s prepared a special raspberry jam for the occasion. Oh his walk he sees a strange white horse in the evening fog. The fog is so thick that Hedgehog wonders whether the horse would suffocate if it were to lie down in it. The beautiful animation drips with symbolism as the Hedgehog, driven by his curiosity, steps inside the fog and into another world. He’s lost and faced with fear, loneliness, hostility and eventual redemption.

Ever-present in my subconscious, Hedgehog In The Fog is a living dream, an embodiment of fascination with the great Unknown.

• Buy it on Amazon
• On Wikipedia
• On IMDB

By the way of Mister Kris Ether, a collection of jaw-dropping Yakov Chernikov drawings. Doesn’t this one resemble a rocket, ready for takeoff? Yes, this is my future, tovarish Chernikov. Thank you.

From the funny writeup on Dark Roasted Blend: “Only too appropriate for the “Evil Empire”, the colossal palaces and Pantheons would dominate the city, squash the last vestiges of soul, and yet strangely excite in their surreal dark presence.“

For many of us there is an event, a circumstance or a series of both that altered us in a specific way, making us strange, odd, whatever you want to call it enough to seek lives less ordinary. It’s different for everyone – Nadya, for instance, was inspired in part by Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation video’s military look and overall stompiness. For there were several components and so I present you a partial list of What Made Me Weird.

My Parents

Let’s get this one out of the way. I’ll narrow this down to just a couple of things, though I have much to thank them for. They took time to expose me to theaters and museums since a very early age, despite the social state of ’80s Russia and our modest finances. I grew up surrounded by literature and read things like Spartacus and Dandelion Wine. With my parents’ busy schedules I was often left home alone to rummage through my mother’s numerous art books and my father’s hefty collection of science fiction. Soon I realized I preferred to spend time by myself, not making me the best candidate for schoolyard popularity.

Everyone I know who has read it has told me that it altered them forever, and I’m always surprised that it’s not known more in the West. Zoetica and I had to fight over who would blog about our favorite book, The Master and Margarita, so we’re collaborating on this entry.

“One hot spring, the devil arrives in Moscow, accompanied by a retinue that includes a beautiful naked witch and an immense talking black cat with a fondness for chess and vodka. The visitors quickly wreak havoc in a city that refuses to believe in either God or Satan. But they also bring peace to two unhappy Muscovites: one is the Master, a writer pilloried for daring to write a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate; the other is Margarita, who loves the Master so deeply that she is willing literally to go to hell for him.” – Synopsis for the Katherine O’Connor translation

We didn’t really fight, tovarish Nadya exaggerates.

Bulgakov worked on The Master and Margarita, the crowning thorn of his life’s work, until 4 weeks before his death with his own Margarita at his side.

Of note is the book’s structure of two parallel stories – the story of Master and Margarita and the story of the final days of Jesus Christ, as written by the Master [more or less Bulgakov’s alter ego]. The book was banned for many years, published only in small sections in literary magazines. The original controversy and ban were due to thick political subtext in Bulgakov’s descriptions of Pontius Pilate – a thinly veiled Stalin, and bitter satirical illustration of Stalin-era Moscow and its politics.

???????? ??????, stuff originally uploaded by Coilhouse.

These images are from The Stone Flower, illness as directed in 1964 by legendary Alexander Ptushko, troche whose work deserves its own entry here. This is one of the many somewhat macabre folk-tales that kept me up at night long ago.

You can read it here along with tons of other such writing. An impressive English-language collection, somewhat awkward translation moments but convenient, nonetheless.

????????, originally uploaded by Coilhouse.

Just a season’s reminder of the unspeakable horror lurking outside your wooden hovel’s window, as you huddle atop a clay oven wrapped in ragged shawls and quilts for warmth. Beware, the vurdalak!

????! ????? ? ?? ???????;
????? ????? ???? ??????,
???? ??? ????? ?????????
? ? ???????? ?? ????.
?.?.??????

O sorrow! I am small and weak;
The fiend will eat me whole,
Unless I eat dirt from a grave
Along with prayer I’ll speak.
A.S. Pushkin

Sweet dreams, we hope your gravedirt is most delectable.

Chaliapin as Mephistopheles, originally uploaded by Coilhouse.

Famed Russian singer Fyodor Chaliapin as Mephistopheles. Chalyapin was known for his deep baritone and powerful on-stage presence, but in this image is something incredibly comical, he’s almost apologetic.

russian_7-stg_woman-miner-s, originally uploaded by Coilhouse.

A delightful page dedicated to Unidentified European Instruments found during a search for old gypsy photos. Click on, dear readers, for wonderful vintage pictures of musicians wielding strange guitars.

Also stumbled upon during the quest:

• a recount of someone’s return to Bucharest and a few curious photos they took on this journey
• Gaultier’s Russia-inspired winter 2005-2006 collection [improbable beaded hats – yes!]
  
• typical nu-gypsy dance extravaganza photos. I’ve actually been to a performance like this as a kid in Moscow.

Not a single actual vintage Russian gypsy photo was to be found, however. I’ll resume this later, in the meantime there is a launch celebration to attempt.

Stalin, or “Good Ol’ Uncle Joe” as he was called in America before the tides turned, liked to have fancy titles bestowed upon him in Russia. Below are some of the most epic:

• Coryphaeus of Science
• Father of Nations
• Brilliant Genius of Humanity
• Great Architect of Communism
• Engineer of Human Souls
• Gardener of Human Happiness
• Experienced Helmsman of Our Revolutionary Vessel

Source: Wikipedia. These handy for generating a title for yourself on the Brass Goggles Forum. All aboard Airship Stalin!

“Honor to the Futurists who forbade the painting of female hams, the painting of portraits and guitars in the moonlight. They made a huge step forward: they abandoned meat and glorified the machine.”

– Kasimir Malevich, 1918

Image by Russian industrial musician Alexander Lebedev-Frontov.

In 1921, Russian physicist Lev Theremin, an inventor who insisted on building all his creations by hand, constructed the theremin, one of the 20 th century’s first successful electronic musical instruments and still the only music instrument whose haunting tones are elicited without touching the device. Unlike Theremin, neither famous theremin-users John Cage, Download, Brian Eno, Meat Beat Manifesto or Edgar Varese were ever arrested for its use. After a decade of teaching and performing, Theremin was suddenly seized and imprisoned in 1938 by the KGB on the grounds of “anti-Soviet Propaganda.” Theremin was sent to Siberia and later to a labor camp in Omsk, where, alongside other indentured scientists, he was forced to work on various military projects (Theremin was later given the Stalin Prize for perfecting the eavesdropping device known as “the bug”). Thus begins the history of industrial music in Russia…