November 13, 2020

Rocket Man Turns Elton John


Rocket Man Turns Elton John
"Y'know it's gonna be a long, long time, Till touchdown brings me back again tonight..." The RussianLife Files

Roscosmos isn't all about space; it's also a great place to share your latest songs. Or at least, that's what the organization's director thinks.

Russia's NASA analog now sports a part of their website holding "Music about Space," written by director Dmitri Rogozin, his wife Tatiana, and other Roscosmos officials. Mercifully, they don't perform them.

The songs have titles such as "Over Russia", "We Tear the Sky to Shreds", "Baikonur," "Gagarin, I Loved You," "And Apple Trees Will Bloom on Mars," and, our favorite, "They Beat Us, We Fly." In total, 18 songs are featured, five of which were penned by the director himself.

This isn't Roscosmos' first foray into digital media: earlier this year, the administration announced its new TV channel.

Some of the songs can be accessed on YouTube, complete with music-video visuals.

Take a listen for yourself here.

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Some of our Books

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Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.

93 Untranslatable Russian Words
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93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.

The Little Humpbacked Horse
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The Little Humpbacked Horse

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.

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The Samovar Murders

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Faith & Humor

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

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Moscow and Muscovites

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Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka
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Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

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The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas
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The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.

 
Steppe
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Steppe

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.

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