Michael Jackson as a thing. Death long before one dies

Justin: Hey, do you know if Michael Jackson's funeral is tomorrow? Supposed to be like a big thing

Me: Don't know. I thought it was yesterday with that big ceremony, wasn't it "it"? Why people wouldn't just leave him rest in peace, yet still try to drag on with these pompous ceremony?

As we kept on our small conversation I thought about people's fascination with MJ's remains and all these ceremonies the media keeps publicizing. The man is long gone, he does not exist anymore physically and yet there's such public fascination and buzz around his name. Zizek wrote once about immortality that Mao and Stalin gained even when they were alive and that their alter-selves kept on living while they kept their own private stupid lives. Isn't it a similar case? Does it mean that Michael Jackson actually ceased to exist long before his physical death occured this month? That ultimately his physical death was just an empty ritual; another sort of dramatic stage dance that he might have staged? Isn't it why everyone could not believe that the death has occured again, twice actually? I mean who dies twice, right?

Blast from the Past

So, bought the Watchmen tix. Can't believe that it's coming into silver screen. Did some researching on Smashing Pumpkins soundtrack for the trailer. Apparently the original version was released as Batman soundtrack. Thus the end, that is finale of all comic heroes in Watchment is in the beginning of Batman? I liked the original version than the soft final one featured on Watchment, but I guess it is supposed to be slow and melancholic compared to its young/upbeat/fresh original one.

Goyo Duu buyu There's nothing wrong with liking Zohioliin Duu

I remember one day I was chatting with my old classmate from University of Mongolia and when I asked how is UB he remarked "Oh well, last time I visited it (he studied in Japan that time)it was quite depressing. UB is not UB anymore. It's flooded with country people and dismal mood is fostered by fleeting former city people abroad. You hear everywhere Zohioliin Duu and nothing else."

His statement expressed his melancholy and lost nostalgia for old urban lifestyle that UB represented. It is sort of we hear today, London is not London anymore it's flooded my immigrants. Here, the nostalgia is not my main concern here. I wanted to discuss here what is Zohioliin Duu. To try to render it loosely, Duu means song and Zohioliin would be somewhere close to amateur writing. The connotation of this phrase has altered dramatically in last 10-15 years. As far as I remember when I grew up zohioliin duu always meant songs made up and composed by amateur artists who would just combine together well sounding rhymes and attach tune to it by guitar or basic musical instruments. In general it was not composed by well-established composers and never had any classical note recording. These songs were popular in camps, countrysides where people played a lot of guitar.
Nowadays, the connotation has changed abruptly to acquire almost new meaning of Zohioliin Duu. It meant clearly, songs that are popular in rural areas and among country bumpkins who recently moved to UB. These songs are often played in supermarkets where labor is usually driven from rural areas, black markets, in taxi cabs, and lately a lot on popular FM stations. Now, the last one is a matter of a concern to my friend who studied in Japan. Of course, all his teenage and early student years were filled with Western Pop in anticipation of the fall of Communism, which made its splash in its aftermath in 90's and early decade of 2000. For him zohioliin duu would always sound cowboyish. I must admit that probably he doesn't have distate to it. He has his favorite zohioliin duu and favorite zohioliin singer perhaps, but nevertheless what is this resentment to zohioliin duu entering the mainstream?

This is my favorite one where this couple resembles Romeo and Juliet. The song is very simple consists of basic repetitive rhyming. But, the song altogether is awfully retro. I love it.

Хөгжмийн талаар

It can be regarded that listening to music is a privilege given to those who have ears to hear it and that rhythm is a matter of techne. In other words composition and the final musical element can be understood as just a human-made technique to render harmonious melodies and sounds. Thus one could argue that without excellent ear for music one cannot feel the depth of music. By saying this we can resolve only the mechanical process of producing final sound whereas music might exist all on its own, independently long before it was translated through human ear and performed through musical instruments. When we question famous composers often they say it was from divine inspiration, that is revelation of something that just exists in nature and which was always there waiting to be discovered. The proof of the fact that music lives in our soul rather than in our ears is this curious video of Chinese deaf dancer.

थिर्द वर्ल्ड Third World Democracy

If the history should witness another revolution perhaps it will come from immigrant mass. The classical antagonisms of racial, gender, and sexual difference seems to be replaced by new ones dwelling in urban megapolises dividng people and class by citizenry and status. In other words the classic division between white and black, female and male, heterosexual or perverts have been internalized to the extent that there is urge to shift the weight to new others. my God does it sound pompous. anyways. here's music of the day

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!