Haven’t posted in a while because I took a trip to Mongolia last week. Of course nothing casts a pall on travel plans like political protest that ends with the burning of the leading political party’s building and sacking of the nearby Culture Palace. Assured by my friend in Ulaan Baatar and by various Mongolian blogs that the protests were a one-time deal and that the streets were safe I went ahead and got on the plane anyway.
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Go see Wanted [Особо Опасен in Russian] which opened on June 27th in the US and on June 26th in Kazakhstan. Why am I talking about this film and why did it open in Kazakhstan before it opened in the US? Because the director, Timur Bekmambetov is a native son of Kazakhstan, born in Atyrau. He moved to Moscow presumably because of the better developed film industry there and is most famous for making Night Watch and Day Watch which came out in the US as well as Russia. How did Bekmambetov get to make his first Hollywood movie with stars like Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman? His own genius. Universal Pictures was looking for a fresh look for the movie adaptation of Wanted, originally a graphic novel, it picked Bekmambetov.

Producer Mark Platt comments: The cinematic experience of Timur’s work and the visual language employed by him are so unique, eye-popping and extraordinary, I knew his was a voice that had to be heard. I had never experienced visual images in that way.”

From the Official site of the film

I don’t want to spoil the film by reviewing it in too much detail but it’s a fun action movie with awesome special effects and a great plot. It is very bloody and graphic in showing violence, but there’s also a lot of humor and character depth. As for Bekmambetov’s work, the movie has a unique and beautiful visual style. He has a great sense of tempo–one long action sequence is filmed as a single moving shot, but the pace speeds up and slows down elegantly to show every movement at its best. He definitely has a unique voice as an action director.

So hopefully the next ad we see on CNN promoting Kazakhstan will feature Bekmambetov and his films instead of the same old shot of Bayterek! Maybe they’ll invite Angelina Jolie to come to Kazakhstan. I’m happy to show her around if she does come!

Thanks to Tom Toomey for pointing out that recently the New York Post published Cindy Adams’ latest column where she does Kazakhstan. Disclaimer for those who don’t know Cindy Adams: she’s a gossip journalist and scandalizing is her job and her style. Don’t be too offended. She has to say bad things about everything she writes about; that’s why people read her. And incidentally the article has many good things to say about the nation.

The article is funny in bits. I thought she got some things very wrong though, even allowing for her style.
She wrote: “FASHION: For a man, black tie is a T- shirt worn outside the pants. But the local ladies are nifty.”

You do occasionally see business men out on the town in appallingly informal clothes. I recently spotted a big man on the town in an old sports suit and no T-shirt underneath. The zipper was pulled way down so all the chest hair showed. But it is much more common to see dark suits and colorful ties. Kazakhstani dress extremely formally by US standards, even when going out to a cafe. Sunday I see people walking in the park with their kids wearing khakis and an Oxford shirt. Especially in Astana.

She says: “Kazakhstan is the world’s ninth largest country, and the 375th ending in the suffix stan.”
OK, it does get old hearing about -stan. There are plenty of countries that end in -land (Iceland, England, Poland) and a fair number that end in -ia (Albania, Romania, Latvia). Why does -stan bother people?

The highlight of the article, I thought, was this bit on her first taste of beshbarmak. Or her first non-taste.

ANIMALS: This is the beginning of the horse family, 55 million years ago. They began on the archeological site Krasnyi Yar in northern Kazakhstan. I don’t know how to break the news . . . but in the mountain region of Borovoe, they served it to me for lunch. With noodles. I had a salad.

Something a dear friend send me that’s going around the Russian Internets 20 phrases in Russian That Will be of Use to English Football Fans during the Champion League Finals in Moscow. It appears to have originated with Prosports a popular Russian sports journal, but I can’t find it linked there. It’s very funny and obviously a joke, but also actually useful for learning some slang. It is however quite useless if you don’t already speak Russian.

I liked this one about swearing:

CHYORT POBERI! [CHORT pa-bee-REE] - expression of disappointment.
Synonims [sic]: Blin gorely! [BLEEN ga-REHlyl, Mat’ moya zhenshchina [MAT ma-YAH ZHENshchee- nal, Vot zhopa, obidno, da? [vot ZHO-pa, a-BEED-na, DAH?].

and

MATRYOSHKA [mat-RYOSH-ka] and USHANKA [ooh- SHAHN-ka] - most popular Moscow souvenirs. As soon as your suitcase is filled up with wooden dolls and big ‘hairy’, hats, you will need a phrase: ’spasibo, mne bolshe nichego ne nuzhno v vashei strane’ [spa-SEEba, mne BOL-sheh neeche- GOH ne NOOZH-na v VAH-shei strah-NEH].

The last phrase translates as: Thank you. I don’t need anything else from your country now.

And of course,
“If your suitcases have been lost, if your hotel room has a view over a rubbish heap and in all of Moscow you can’t find an English speaking person, say bardak and you immediately will feel better.”

It’s true. It does make you feel better.

Happy Nauryz! On the 22nd of March will be the vernal equinox, the Persian-Muslim New Year, the Kazakhstan national holiday Nauryz! One of my favorite holidays here because it’s one of the few where they do more than just make a big concert of alternating pop hits and old Kazakh songs. The same songs every holiday! They actually make kumys and display hunting hawks and national crafts and play national sports occasionally. We’re going to Almaty and hopefully I’ll have a chance to talk to some people or do some interviews on Kazakh culture.

Of course you have to love Astana. I asked my colleagues what they plan to do over the long weekend to celebrate. “Sleep” was the universal reply!

A nice piece appeared in the Edinburgh News about a Kazakh lead singer in a Scottish band.

Gulzhan Ibrayeva who was the lead singer for the apparently popular Kazakh cover-band Kinky Durakee (Query to readers: Is this band famous? I’ve never heard of it). Now that Gulzhan has moved to Scotland with her husband Paul Finnie, the band has changed its name to Universal You and is hitting the top hot spots in Edinburgh.

The band started two years ago when Finnie came to Atsai as a contract administrator for British Gas and Ibrayeva was working as a translator. They got married and started Kinky Durakee. They have picked up a bass player and a guitarist and hope to become Edinburgh’s next local sensation.

Check out the Universal You website to hear their music or even buy the MP3s.

An Iranian website has put up a list of historically significant women in and near Iran and Khanum Boraksin, the wife of Batu, son of Chinghis Khan, makes the list.

1255-57 Regent Dowager Khanum Boraqcin of Hwarizim Sahi (or the Khanate of Kipchak) (Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) She was the widow of Batu, who was khan (1227-55). When he died in 1255 his son and heir, Sartaq, had gone to pay court to Grand Khan Mongka, his father’s friend. But he died before he could return home to the Khanate of Kipchak. Mongka nominated the young prince Ulagci, who was either the brother or son of Sartaq, and made Boraqchin regent of the Mongol tribe (The Golden Horde) in West Turkistan, roughly covering present day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

According to some sources, women in the Mongol empire were quite powerful, especially the wives of the children and grandchildren of Chinghis Khan because while the men were off warring, the women were left in power. They also displayed great skill at political maneuvering to try to ensure power for their children and often ruled as regents when their sons were not yet of age.

The New York Times has a nice article up on how Kazakhstan feels about Mongol’s nomination. There’s a little confusion here–the NYT doesn’t seem to realize that Sergei Bodrov, the director and co-writer, is Russian. Nonetheless there’s great content here about Kazkahstan’s film industry and national pride. And of course we all have our fingers crossed as Oscar Night starts in about 24 hours!

EDIT: Unfortunately, Mongol lost to The Counterfeiters, an Austrian movie about a group of prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp who are used as part of a plot to counterfeit US and UK currency in order to flood the Allied markets and cause financial collapse. It was Austria’s first Oscar win.

According to a sign outside of Congress Hall, the local concert hall, Ace of Base is playing Astana! The big bands usually go to Almaty. Most recently the Scorpions did Almaty. But big Russian bands like Chaif and Time Machine, not to mention pop stars like Zhanna Friske come to Almaty with some regularity. Astana’s scene is usually limited to local bands and well-known Kazakhstani artists, unless there is some sort of festival in which case they can get bigger names up here. Presumably ticket sales just aren’t good enough here in this city of 600,000, where many people are at work nights and weekends anyway. So while some people are posing the question of what did Astana did to draw an international act like Ace of Base, I wonder what Ace of Base did to have to settle for Astana.

Note: the concert poster on the right is for the Almaty show.

In a study by MediaCurves, Americans were asked to judge a women’s personality based on a picture. The trick was that all participants were given a picture of the same woman, but 50% of the time she was wearing a headscarf and 50% of the time she had her hair down and was wearing an open-collar shirt. Guess what?

There’s a nice nice summary on MonkeyCage:

1) The covered woman was perceived as more “traditional” and, in personality terms, less “warm.” She is also described as living a more insular life…The covered woman was perceived as wealthier…Slightly more considered the covered woman “beautiful” (27%) than did the uncovered woman (16%)…The vast majority of respondents thought the uncovered woman was “an American” (82%). The vast majority of subjects thought the covered woman was “a Middle-Eastern person” (78%) and also Muslim (87%)….While 89% said that they would like the uncovered woman as their next-door neighbor or in their neighborhood, only 62% said that about the covered woman. One-fifth (19%) actually said they wanted her to live “outside of the US.”

It amuses me because while a lot of this is predictable, and accurate for me as well–If I see a woman in a hijab I will tend to assume she is Muslim, religious, traditional, and therefore more insular–I also had the opportunity once to be in a mentoring position to some traditionally Muslim children and for several months after that, if I saw a headscarf, I became instantly nurtuing and protective. Even of total strangers on the street. Some sort of Pavlovian response, I suppose.