Special Google “doodle” to mark the 50th anniversary of the birth of Viktor Tsoi
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Tsoi’s song Filmi (Films)
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Kino singing Peremen ((We Want Changes)
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Now, let’s hear from Akvarium…
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Soviet rock star Viktor Tsoi… whose death in a car crash in 1990 quickly earned him cult status… had the 50th anniversary of his birth celebrated with a Google doodle. The search engine turned its homepage emblem into graffiti, overlapped with the words Tsoi and Kino, Tsoi’s band. It’s a nod to the famous “Tsoi Wall” in downtown Moscow, which pays tribute to the late musician. The lead singer and songwriter for Kino, which he helped to found in 1982, Tsoi died in August 1990 in the then-Soviet republic of Latvia. He was 28 years old. Events in tribute to the late musician will be held across Russia, with a concert featuring cover versions of his songs to be held in Moscow.
Kino was, along with Boris Grebenshchikov‘s Akvarium, part of the Leningrad (now St Petersburg) underground rock scene. Whilst drawing heavily on Western rock and especially New Wave, Kino crafted a uniquely Russian sound complete with lyrics often critical of the Soviet Union. Indeed, the group encapsulated much of the 1980s generation’s disillusionment with the Soviet system. In the 1986 song Filmi (Films), Tsoi sang, “I knew everything would turn out badly, but I didn’t know [that it would happen] so soon”. With the spread of Mikhail Gorbachyov‘s perestroika reform policies, Kino achieved even greater acclaim, culminating in a concert at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium in June 1990. It was the last time Tsoi appeared on stage.
Ever since his death, critics argued over how we should judge Tsoi’s musical legacy, and whether he’d still have a cult following if he were alive. However, on Friday, standing by the graffiti-covered Tsoi Wall just off Old Arbat, Moscow’s main tourist stretch, Kino fan Oleg, 47, dismissed such speculation, saying, “That’s futile, Tsoi gave me hope. Kino and a couple of other groups were the only things that kept me going in the late 1980s”. Another man shouted, “Tsoi is alive!” before starting to play Peremen (We Want Changes), one of Kino’s most popular songs, on his guitar.
21 June 2012
RIA-Novosti
28 August 2012. RIA-Novosti Infographics. Moscow’s Analogues to London’s Hyde Park “Speaker’s Corner”
Tags: Bolotnaya Square, Gorky Park, Hyde Park London, Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, political commentary, politics, Protest, protest action, protest actions, protesters, protests, Russia, Russian, Sergei Sobyanin, Sokolniki Park, Speakers' Corner
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The Moscow municipal government chose Sokolniki Park and Gorky Park to be Moscow’s analogue to Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park. However, the designated meeting zone doesn’t cover the whole park, only parts of them. Four areas were under discussion for this role:
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin actively encouraged the idea of creating an analogue of Hyde Park as a platform for political expression. The Moscow authorities designated these “free meeting zones” due to the numerous opposition demonstrations, beginning in late 2011 with those related to the election. However, these legal demonstrations caused dissatisfaction amongst many Muscovites, for their breaches of public order, and for the inconvenience caused the public by the blockage of streets to ordinary traffic.
28 August 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/infographics/20120828/175454340.html