introvert.net

So the anthem of the USSR was pretty awesome, right? I know it makes me want to punch a Nazi in the face, or maybe work really hard in a tractor factory. I especially love the hammer/anvil sounds in the background of the Red Army Chorus version. Man, how awesome would it have been to party with the Red Army Chorus? I bet those guys really threw down, back in the day.

Anyway, the anthem contains a few lyrical gems which seem quaint today, but on the whole I still think it’s really great. I guess Russia’s using a watered-down version of the same song to this day, but instead of awesome lyrics about Lenin and Stalin, and fluttering scarlet banners, they’re singing now about how big their country is, and how it has both costal and arctic regions. They’ve traded in one of the great inspiring national anthems for a cheap knockoff of ‘America, the Beautiful’. Shape up, Russia.

Coming soon: the World Cup of National Anthems!

All current and former national anthems must fight for our amusement! Begin!

First, the anthem of the Former Soviet Union.

• Anthem of the Soviet Union, 1977 version, first verse - sung by children’s choir.
• Anthem of the Soviet Union, 1977 version, all verses - sung by the Red Army Chorus.

English Translation:

Unbreakable Union of freeborn Republics,
Great Russia has welded forever to stand.
Created in struggle by will of the people,
United and mighty, our Soviet land!

CHORUS:

Sing to the Fatherland, home of the free,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
To Communism’s triumph lead us on!

America, get excited. We have a new champion, a man who might be able to put the mustard-yellow belt back around a U.S. waist this July 4th.

Joey Chestnut ate 50 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes today. That’s only 3.5 off the world record, held by (previously believed to be completely unbeatable) Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi.

I’m on my way to Paris.

When you land in France you see French flags flying; they are red, white, and blue, the same colors as our own flag, but their flags have only three stripes and the stripes are up and down, not from side to side, and the colors are backward — blue, white, red, instead of red, white, blue. The street signs and the signs on the buildings are in a different language, the people are talking a different language, and of course the money is different too. It is called “francs.”

You have probably heard some one say, “You look like your father or mother,” but they don’t say that your father or mother looks like you. Well, up the River Seine is the capital and largest city of France, spelled “Paris,” but called “Paree” by the French people. Some call it the most beautiful city i.t.w.W. [in the whole World — tew] People often say some other very beautiful city looks “like Paris,” but they never say Paris looks like any other city.

From A Child’s Geography of the World, by V. M. Hillyer (1929).

Here in Chicago, the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival has become a tradition. Another tradition is me, comparing the current selection to that of previous years. I’ve completed my analysis.