Comments on: Curtain Call

By: notsneaky

notsneaky — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:24:16 +0000

Yeah it’s probably Snegurochka (Sniezynka) – the mustache threw me off.
Russian and Spanish are the best languages for poetry, no contest.
(This is why even Majakowski reads good in Russian)

By: joel hanes

joel hanes — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:12:50 +0000

“Snegurochka” is my favourite Russian word

I’m partial to zhenschini and yagoditsui myself.
Among the languages in which I’ve dabbled, Russian is the most fun to pronounce.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:26:07 +0000

It need not have been taken on a Polaroid (though it might have been, depending on when it was taken.) My wife’s Zenit camera often takes photos with that sort of color, especially if the developing is done in Russia.

By: novakant

novakant — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:41:23 +0000

“Snegurochka” is my favourite Russian word*, reminds me of New Year’s Day in St. Petersburg in the early 90s.

*to be honest, I only know about 20 Russian words

By: John Holbo

John Holbo — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:11:25 +0000

I think it was a performance of some or other Nabokov short story, adapted for the stage.

By: gordon

gordon — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:43:42 +0000

I’m still convinced it’s a photo of Barak, Michelle and Hilary.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:59:18 +0000

whatever it is they dress up British kids in in their school plays

Mary, Joseph and the Three Wise Men. We don’t have state-mandated atheism over here.

By: mossy

mossy — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:48:56 +0000

Could be Snegurochka (on the right) with her dad (Grandfather Frost) and mom (Beautiful Spring). But definitely pre-Petrine (despite the lad’s dashing Peter-the-Great-like moustache). The Ostrovsky play of Snegurochka is standard school fare—we put it on in college, and I have a photo of myself trying to look like an innocent Russian maiden—so it could be a US school Russian class (with a good budget!) or somewhere in the FSU. Cute kids staying in character.

By: notsneaky

notsneaky — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:33:40 +0000

See, you’re trying to be funny, but I think he looks cool. You’re insulting some culture vaguely related to mine… yeah, ok, they all look swell.

By: John Holbo

John Holbo — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:17:54 +0000

He is at least Peter the Swell.

By: notsneaky

notsneaky — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:09:26 +0000

Hmmm, yes, they could be Peoriaish, which brings up those issues of “authenticity” that Daniel’s so into. I still say that middle kid’s supposed to be Peter the Great though.

By: joel hanes

joel hanes — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:45:30 +0000

If you like this found snapshot, you may like the found snapshots at MangoFalls

I quote from the “about MangoFalls” page :

The History of MangoFalls – Abridged Version

About 10 years ago while living in Oregon, I came across an old Nikon rangefinder in a seaside junk shop. The metal body was battered and the lens looked like a coke bottle that had been dragged down 5 miles of asphalt. The camera had been dead a long time. I was about to set it down when I noticed that there was a roll of film inside. I slowly rewound the film, popped the door, and was rewarded with a pristine roll of Kodachrome. I asked the guy at the counter how much he wanted for it. “Gimme a quarter” he replied. I paid the man and drove home with the mystery roll. And then I forgot about it for 2 years. The roll of film came back into view after we one again sold most of what we owned, tossed the dogs into the Jeep, and moved back to Maine. One day I was unpacking some clothes and found the solitary roll of film waiting at the bottom of the box. I sent it off for processing….about a year later.

Two weeks later the box of slides showed up at the post office. The weight of the package was disappointing. Without even opening the container it was apparent that most if not all of the roll was not even worth of being mounted. The 5 or so images that were in slide mounts were simply amazing. I had no idea where the film had been shot. I had not even the slightest idea who the people in the photos were. I really knew nothing but was just floored by the color saturation that kodachrome had retained after all the years of sitting in that old Nikon. From that point forward I made an effort to look inside old cameras whenever we would stop in antique stores and Sunday flea markets. All it took was this one image from that first roll of film.

By: John Holbo

John Holbo — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:34:31 +0000

By the by, I don’t assume the kids are actually Russian. One thing I like about the picture is the likelihood that they are a trio of kids from Petaluma or Peoria, in 1979, who have, weirdly, succeeded in looking so Russian. I dunno.

By: Delicious Pundit

Delicious Pundit — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:17:18 +0000

Please say that this blog plans to use photographs the way Free Darko does.

By: notsneaky

notsneaky — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 03:30:43 +0000

Eh, seen those done in person, so it’s no different than seeing American kids in a school play dressed up in Minutemen costumes or British kids dressed up in … … … Guy Fawkes mustaches or … … … … New Model Army uniforms or whatever it is they dress up British kids in in their school plays (honestly, I’m at a loss here). Dude, I think this is like, called exoticizing “the Other” or something.

Bubba, you’re right, that’s actuallya really nice composition and quite good photo for a Polaroid. Though the costumes and background curtain actually make it.

“-ish” because it could be Ukrainian or Belorussian or some other FSU republic. Thought my immediate reaction was “something to do with Peter the Great”.