I bought this eight gryvna ($1) plastic muppet balloon/yo-yo with a flashing light inside in the Kiev metro a few days ago, and once discovered by my girlfriend this weekend, it hasn’t had a dull moment. ‘Vyanka’ as she calls him has been squeezed & petted and stretched and bounced and made to look scary, act cool, make new friends. In these recessionary times, B.East shows that you can have a whole load of fun for nothing. It’s all about the attitude.
Eastern Europe’s still has so many negative connotations—golddiggers, corrupt cops, decaying infrastructure—that most hipsters, especially in the East, are wary of using it. Yet, in Europe’s annual schmalz fest, Eurovision, East Europe translates for victory, with countries from the East having won it for five years in a row from 2004-09. Their hegemony was broken by Norway last year, but only because their entry featured an Eastern European émigré. Their Eastern European Trojan Horse inside the Western European voting bloc grabbed them the top prizie.
Lithuania’s jazzy, sexy, boyz band, Inculto, are smart enough to play with the elephant in the Eurovision room, and turn it to their advantage. Their Eastern European Funk track for Eurovision is a clever blend of their trademark latin rhythms, beat-boxing, and Gogol Bordelloesque Balkan fest vibes. It’s an arty Eastern European sound, eerily reminiscent of the direction, Gogol Bordello are going in, by bringing Brazilian live acts into their performance. It’s like Balkan vibes and Latin rhythms were just crying out to be mixed, and Jurgis, the band’s charismatic frontman and a Beastie himself, had the vision to ‘Eurovision’ it. Their video is genius in a way, the hot striped-pant boys heating it up with a variety of Eastern European characters straight out of central casting: the aproned salesgirls, fat cops, jovial bald biznismen, jolly babushkas—and, for sure, a few hot babes in skintight threads blowing kisses at the audience. With Ukraine fielding a hot chansonesque blond (oh, so 1980s!) and Germany, a sexy yet homey R’B babe, Lithuania’s diffferent enough to stand out from the rest. And, yeah, they sure are feeding candy to that Eastern European voting bloc the West loves to fume about. Especially with their lyrics – Get up and dance to a Eastern European kindof funk …We’ve have it tough, but that’s OK, we like it rough . A vote for Inculto is a vote for Beast. So let’s just wear some ridiculous getups, fire up the barbecue, and drink some shots for Inculto on May 29th.
Ukraine’s President Victor Yanukovych, who’s become Public Enemy Numero Uno among Kiev’s liberal community, got bashed by a giant wreath during a solemn ceremony with Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev yesterday. Given the hatred he inspires among the city’s intelligensia, the video quickly made the rounds of YouTube, Facebook, Livejournal & other local blogs. ‘Justice has finally been served,’ twittered someone, while another made a quick remix of the video to a cheesy Russian pop track. Check it out for yourself below.
