Archive for March, 2010

The last station

By Karyn Dubravetz

Okay, the title of this post has a double meaning, so I hope everyone can follow along:

Meaning #1:
A few weeks ago, I saw, “The Last Station”, a movie about the final years of Lev Tolstoy’s life.

The Last Station
Photo by Design Haus

I don’t think it’s showing in theaters anymore, but you can eventually get it on Netflix. I enjoyed it, but honestly, it’s probably more of a renter, anyway, even though both leads were nominated for Academy Awards. And of course, к сожалению, it’s in English, not Russian.

Meaning #2:
Heading home from the film, my husband and I couldn’t help but notice that we live at “the last station”. Take a look this map of the Washington subway system:

Washington DC Metro Map
Photo by dbking

See the stop on the end of the red line in the upper left-hand corner? That’s where we live. And see that cluster of stops in the center where all the lines intersect? That’s downtown, also known as, where I work. So, if you couldn’t guess by looking, I have quite a hefty commute to my office, not to mention most social outings we attend.

BUT…..thanks to our current landlord for raising our rent, we decided we can afford to move in to “the city”!

So that’s my breaking news: We’re moving!!! (And I just used the movie as an excuse to blog about how excited I am.)

So have a great weekend, everyone, and let me know if you want to help us move! ;)

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This entry was posted on March 26th, 2010 under Uncategorized.

And the Oscar does NOT go to…Russia

By Karyn Dubravetz

I recently had and missed the opportunity to see the film, Ward No. 6 (Палата № 6) at the National Gallery of Art as part of a mini film festival honoring Anton Chekhov and his 150th birthday. I later found out that Ward No. 6 was Russia’s Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film.

If you watched the Oscars (another one I missed) you know that “Ward 6″ did not even receive the “honor of just being nominated”. It got me thinking about what Russian films have been nominated, or even won Oscars in the past.

Oscar
Photo by shaun wong

So here is a list of Russian films that have been nominated for academy awards. If the title is a web link it will take you to Netflix where you can and should rent it! Most of these that I have seen are really great – especially Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears and Burnt by the Sun – I own both of them!

Which ones are your favorites??

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This entry was posted on March 16th, 2010 under Uncategorized.

We tweeted up!

By Karyn Dubravetz

Yesterday I organized my first Russian language tweetup. Overall, I’d say it went pretty well! We had a handful of participants, most of whom were native speakers, which is great for those of us who are still learning! It got off to a little bit of a slow start, but after a while it was almost hard to keep up with all the tweets!

We tweeted up
Photo by netzkobold

Personally, I really enjoyed it. Just like at the real-world Meetups, it’s good to have a time where you tell yourself, okay, for right now, it’s Russian only. I’ve gotten a lot of practice speaking lately, but writing is another story. You can’t fudge those case endings!! And it’s good spelling practice, too!

So I want to thank everyone who participated. I’ve already gotten some feedback, and it seems that everyone would be interested in doing it again, so I’m thinking this could be a monthly thing. So if you missed it this time around, stay tuned – you’ll get your chance!

Thanks, also to the tweeps who filled out the survey. If you participated in the tweetup, and haven’t filled out the survey yet, here’s the link.

And finally another big thank you to my fellow bloggers who helped me spread the word: Vicki Boykis, Russia Without Borders, and Russian Sphinx.

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This entry was posted on March 1st, 2010 under Uncategorized.

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