The Chronicles.

So, I was just looking through my old stuff stuck far away into an old cupboard... when I suddenly found THIS:



I have no idea if you people have seen such things, actually I've also never seen another such toy. And this one was made by my granny, I don't know if they sell them (or maybe used to sell) in toy stores. Wanna have a look at what this is? Watch the video. Sorry, it's a bit dark and short.



I guess I'll call it a "walker". How do you like it? Can you guess how it was made?

I've just realized that I haven't updated my blog in quite a while. And I've also realized that I haven't written anything about music yet, though I'm really a great fan of music. But what should I write about, I thought? And so I've decided to write about a band from my own town, Arkhangelsk. They are called E-SEX-T. Actually, some 4 or 3 years ago it was my most favourite band, I've listened to them really very much and they've influenced my views on many things.



You can listen to them on last.fm, but what you won't understand are Russian lyrics. So now I'd like to give you the translation of one of their songs. It's called, "Способные умереть", "Capable of dying". I can't say that this is my favourite song. But only because all of their songs are my favourite.

10 - Способные умереть.mp3

Here are the Russian lyrics:

Способные умереть

Всё течет, всё изменяется
Меньше стало достойных образов
Время принцев-героев кончается
Настало время каких-то пидоров.
Больше тех по статистике
Кто поднял руку на женщину
Что случилось, куда мы катимся?
Как же больно об этом думать...

Где герои способные умереть
За любовь за чувства?
Как же больно, больно об этом петь!
Без вас в мире пусто.

Где же вы, супергерои
Настоящие, без резиновых рож ?!
Память двери свои закроет
Второй раз уже не войдешь.
Больше стало злобы, насилия
"Винт" любви должен "слететь"
Я причастен к этому тоже...
Где герои способные умереть?

Где герои способные умереть
За любовь за чувства?
Как же больно, больно об этом петь!
Без вас в мире пусто.

Вы ушедшие тени
Из далеких былин
Между стрелок делений
Мир о вас позабыл...

And the translation:

Capable of dying

Everything flows, everything changes,
There are less and less examples worth following
The times of princes and heroes is coming to an end
The time of some bastards have come
The statistics say there are more and more of those
Who have dared to strike a woman
What has happened, where are we going to?
And how painful it is to think about it...

Where are the heroes, capable of dying
For love and for their feelings?
Oh, how painful it is to sing about it,
The world is empty without you...

Where are you, superheroes?
Real ones, without rubber masks.
The memory will close its doors,
You won't come in again.
(you here refers just to an abstract person, not the heroes from the previous line).
Today there's more violence and hate,
The screw of love will break
And I'm part of it as well
Where are the heroes, capable of dying?

Where are the heroes, capable of dying
For love and for their feelings?
Oh, how painful it is to sing about it,
The world is empty without you...

You are long gone shadows
From the forgotten legends
Caught between the dials and hands [of the clock]
The world has forgotten about you...

That's it. Hope you'll like the song.

Some time ago I've made a post about a thing that happened on my birthday, September, 17th 1988. That was the death of helicopter pilot who was injured during the Ramstein Airshow disaster. Why did I do so? The answer is: I'm passionate about the date. September, the month of the beautiful romantic autumn, it even sounds great... feel it: September. And then number 17. I live in house No.17, my birthday is on the 17th... And there's also this "magic" 7 in the number. Nice, what can I say.

So, I've decided to continue writing about what happened on my birthday during the history of mankind. I guess I will do it from time to time.

What's on the topic today? Daguerreotype.

"What the heck is that?!", may some of you ask. That is my friends, is one of the early forms of photographs named after its inventor, Louis Daguerre. He completed his research in 1839. The first one that was rather easy to make, cause it didn't take too much time. It took from 15 to 30 minutes to make the first ones and the time was greatly reduced later. The whole thing was made using a cover, a special silver plate plus some chemicals and looked like this:



That's Edgar Allan Poe, 1848, you may have recognized this image. But did you know that it was not an ordinary photo, but the daguerreotype?

Of course, the photo industry was developing at a great pace in the 19th century and soon many other ways to take pictures appeared, which ousted daguerreotype. Besides, its greatest disadvantage was that there was no negative copy to make other pictures from. Each picture had only one copy on a single plate. Sad, but true. And probably they also decided that saying "I'll take your picture" was much better that "I will make a daguerreotype of you", () so poor daguerreotype was doomed..

But why the date, you may ask? Where is September, 17? Well, here it is:



Or at least, the thing that was made on the date. Ichiki Shirou, a pioneering Japanese photographer made this daguerreotype of Shimazu Nariakira, a Japanese feudal lord on the 17th of September 1857.

That's it for today, my friends!

After having a little chat with jekav in my previous post I decided to tell you something about my native town, Arkhangelsk. (Of course, you can call it a city, but I like the word "town" better. For me there is some cosiness around this word, something warm. And besides, it rather small compared to other cities in Russia. The population is 350,000 people. Almost nothing compared to Moscow's 10 mln!! )

Surely, you can simply read everything on wiki, but that's boring isn't it? And I could retell it, but that's boring isn't it? I could go on repeating this phrase, but that's boring, isn't it?

So I've decided to give you a nice interesting fact in case you visit Russia. Or in case you get a hold of some Russian money: you can find my town on the 500-rouble banknote!



That's Peter the Great on the left, who'd come to Arkhangelsk to build first Russian fleet some 300 years ago, then there's... er.. I guess it's his ship , and in the background you can see a marina. (Don't ask me, I got this word from a dictionary. That's like a railway station, but for ships. )

That's it, folks!