In the Mood for Romance

When I was a kid and Soviet Art passed its initial phase of Renaissance, Russian performer Alla sang famous Tsvetayeva's lines in Romance style. No other music genre as Russian Romance has this ability to resonate emotional feelings, and ability to evoke music from the soul. Whenever I listen to it I experience a wave of sentimentality, disguised by delicate melancholy of lyrics. The video is an excerpt from Eldar Ryazanov's classic Irony of Fate or Enjoy your Bath! The film is supposed to be a social satire of communism and its failure as collective ideology in the face of individual creativity. The irony of individuals trapped in the societal obligations and planned housings is transformed through one magical New Year's night into spontaneity of unknown fate

Till this day I'm a big fan of Russian Romances.

Хочу у зеркала, где муть
И сон туманящий,
Я выпытать -- куда вам путь
И где пристанище.

Я вижу: мачты корабля,
И вы -- на палубе...
Вы -- в дыме поезда... Поля
В вечерней жалобе...

Вечерние поля в росе,
Над ними -- вороны...
-- Благославляю вас на все
Четыре стороны!

American, French, Brittish cultural subtleties

The train was packed, and the U. S. Marine Walked the entire length looking for a seat, but a well-dressed, Middle-aged, French woman's poodle took the Only seat remaining. The war-weary Marine asked, "Ma'am, may I have that seat?"
The French woman just sniffed and said to no one in particular, "Americans are so rude. My little Fifi is using that seat."
The Marine walked the entire train again, but the only seat left was Under that dog.
"Please, ma'am. May I sit down? I'm very tired."
She snorted, "Not only are you Americans rude, you are also arrogant!"
This time the Marine didn't say a word; he just picked up the little Dog, tossed it out the train window, and sat down.
The woman shrieked, "Someone must defend my honor! Put this American In his place !"
An English gentleman sitting nearby spoke up, "Sir, you Americans seem to have a penchant for doing the wrong thing. You hold the fork in the wrong hand, you drive your vehicles on the wrong side of the road.
And now, Sir, you seem to have thrown the wrong bitch out the window."