Month: June 2024

Songs: Mark Bernes – “Where Does the Motherland Begin?”

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Despite all the triumphalism that has been built around Victory Day in recent decades, there are things I continue to love. One of them is the wartime songs by Mark Bernes. One of my favorites is “Where Does the Homeland Begin,” which plays over the credits of the four-part film “The Shield and the Sword” about the Russian intelligence officer Alexander Belov / Johann Weiss.

Incidentally, the film itself is also one of my favorite war movies. Yes, in some ways it can be considered propaganda, and not all episodes made sense to me even as a child, but I still love it madly and rewatch it every few years. The book on which it is based, on the one hand, reveals the characters better, but on the other hand, it’s quite heavy and tedious. The film turned out much better. And it was the first film in which the very young Oleg Yankovsky starred, by the way.

In modern Russia, one of Mark Bernes’ songs, “Do the Russians Want War,” has been banned. This says much more about the memory of real history than all the showy veterans and parades.

And the song “Where Does the Homeland Begin” remains one of the best to this day and is constantly playing on my playlist.

Here is that song in the closing scenes of the first episode of the film:

LinkedIn: Tips for Managing a Professional Profile

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I frequently hire employees, so I decided to share my experience on what I pay attention to. LinkedIn is the de facto leading global resource where people publish their CVs. Therefore, I will review resume formatting based on this resource.

There are countless guides and courses on how to properly format your LinkedIn page to get noticed and hired. I can’t say that there is only one right way. Instead, I’ll describe how I look at the profiles of people who catch my interest or potential candidates.

Let me emphasize that this is my personal opinion, based on three pillars:

  • Personal experience in hiring
  • Common sense
  • Advice from fellow recruiters, especially Tatsiana Malinouskaya, arguably the best recruiter I’ve ever worked with

So, let’s go step by step. Any profile consists of several sections, so let’s briefly discuss each.

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Songs: Rabfak ‘God Save the Tsar’

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Usually, in my blog, I write about songs that I like for some reason, songs that I recommend. The song “God Save the Tsar” by the band “Rabfak” is not exactly a masterpiece, and I won’t be listening to it repeatedly. But it correlates so much with my feelings about everything happening with the rock scene and the so-called “fighters against the regime” from back in the day.

Рабфак Int — Боже царя храни

Book: Evgeny CheshirKo “Diary of a Domovoi”

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I happened to see the book “Diary of a Domovoi” in someone’s feed, filled with a lot of praise, and it had even been reissued several times under the slogan “a new discovery of Runet.” And just at that time, I was in the mood for something light and non-demanding.

So imagine my surprise when, even before I started reading, a couple of days later, my wife suddenly began quoting from the same book. Apparently, she came across it at the same time from one of our friends. How could I resist picking it up and reading it myself?

The particular edition I chose is one of the most comprehensive, arranged in the order recommended by the author himself on his LiveJournal.

“Diary of a Domovoi” began as notes by the author from the perspective of a Domovoi, who suddenly decided to meticulously record what he did every day in the house he was entrusted with, along with all its inhabitants. And there are more and more of them over time.

At first, the Domovoi lives only with the Mistress and the cat, with whom he seems to have a friendly relationship, although he constantly tries to get the cat into trouble (fortunately, the cat is not particularly bright). Then, a small dog and the Mistress’s lover join the household. The Mistress’s mother also makes an appearance. After the entire family moves into a separate house, some local residents show up, including a priest, a partisan ghost, equally ghostly fascists, and residents of the protected forest.

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Songs: Logovo “Neznaika on the Moon”

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YouTube suggested a music video by the band “Logovo,” a band I knew nothing about. Even searching didn’t reveal much.

However, the video had a strange effect on me. It was made using images created by neural networks. The song itself isn’t exactly captivating from the first notes, and the lyrics seem to be about Neznaika, but not quite. After clicking the link, I listened to the song all the way through, and I liked it more than I didn’t. I admit that the image of Neznaika played a significant role—he’s portrayed in such a heartfelt way that it really warmed me, especially since he looks a lot like my younger son.

I listened to it and then forgot about it. But then the video popped up in my feed again, I listened again, and then set it aside. And again.

Today, I realized that there’s something about this song that keeps drawing me back. So I decided to share it, and I’m also curious to hear what others think about the song.

Логово — Незнайка на Луне

My Kids in Music Videos

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A former colleague of mine quoted a song by the band “Lyapis Trubetskoy” yesterday, which suddenly reminded me that my daughters had a tiny involvement in the band’s next album.

Back in 2006, when my wife’s younger sister, Olya, was studying to become a TV director, she had to shoot a music video for a coursework project. She decided to create a video for the song “New Time” by the band/artist “Mara.” For the lead role, she chose her niece—my eldest daughter Sasha, who was 5 years old at the time.

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