This recently spotted on the Turkmenistan government’s website:

Day of Oil and Gas Industry Workers and Geologists is established in accordance with the Decree of the President of Turkmenistan.

The idea is to honor the workers who played a role in opening Turkmenistan’s pipeline to China last month. China is obviously a hugely important market and the pipeline gives Turkmenistan a stronger hand in dealing with Russia, which would like to monopolize the transit of Turkmenistan’s considerable gas reserves.

The official statement declares:

“Through the efforts to diversify the system of transit of gas to world markets the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline, which is called ‘the energy bridge of XXI century’, was launched with the participation of the leaders of four states. This event will go down in history of the Turkmen people as the greatest accomplishment of the epoch.”

So every 14 December, Turkmenistan will pause to commemorate the “diligent and selfless labour of courageous oil and gas industry workers and geologists.”

We’re getting verklempt.

Mega-sized rock ‘n’ roll stadium shows are not known for giving fans a chance for intimate interaction with their idols. So I thought I’d witnessed about as good an example as you could get of bridging that gap at Bruce Springsteen’s terrific 5 July show in Vienna, where a pleading young woman bobbing on her boyfriend’s shoulders in the sea of bodies near the stage got the Boss to play (for the first time in Europe) his achingly beautiful, rarely performed version of Tom Waits’ “Jersey Girl.” (See how here.)

But three Czech guys have managed to top that. As Radio Prague reports, guitarist Stepan Etrych, bassman  Cyril Strejc and drummer Michal Simek - collectively a tribute band called U2 Pop Tarts - attended U2’s 18 July show in Berlin bearing signs advertising their ability to play “Angel of Harlem.” When the band swung into that rollicking tribute to Billie Holiday (from their Rattle and Hum album), Bono spotted the trio and brought them onstage to back him up, casually informing the crowd, “This is an experiment.”

Here’s the kicker: This impromptu gig before 80,000 screaming fans was the Czech trio’s first public performance. They’d only ever played in rehearsal, polishing their chops while they searched for a singer who could channel Bono. Having played with the real thing, they might just have leapfrogged to the top of Prague’s considerable revival-band heap.

Above: Bill Clinton Boulevard in Pristina.
Below: George W. Bush Street in Tbilisi.

Thanks to Greg Dubinsky for the photo of Bill Clinton Boulevard!

It all started with that Louis Vuitton ad…

Now in addition to shilling for luxury travel accessories, Mikhail Gorbachev has released a debut album, which went for a whopping £100,000 at a recent auction to benefit the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation, named after his late wife.  The album is composed of romantic Russian ballads dedicated to Raisa, who died 10 years ago.  The Raisa Gorbachev Foundation is devoted to helping fight childhood cancer.

Children and their dogs, stars and their dogs, politicians and their dogs…media has always perceived dogs as some kind of a revealing accessory.
The Bulgarian Kapital recently posted an article about Bulgarian MP Sergei Stanishev’s English bulldog named Barrie. In politics, however, dogs mean something. Barrie’s real name is Barroso, and he is a gift from the President of the European Commission himself. To be sure, Mr Stanishev named his own dog - a gesture of profound political significance and a but for jokes amongst Bulgarians, who have a very jaded attitude to politics and Mr Stanishev in particular.

Stanishev and Barrie on June 1st, Children's Day

More ingenious leaders, such as Vladimir Putin, have put their dogs to more subversive use (old intelligence habits are hard to shed I guess). Foreign policy describes in detail how Putin uses his black Labrador Koni to intimidate German Chancellor Angela Merkel during meetings. Apparently, a biting incident in her childhood has left a lasting trauma on the Chancellor. The strategy was put to the test during a press conference after energy talks in January 2007. When Koni made her domineering entrance, Merkel nervously, or perhaps wishfully, commented in Russian, “Now the dog is going to eat the journalists.” Putin apparently told the German chancellor, “I don’t think the dog will scare you. She won’t do anything bad, she likes journalists.” This slightly constipated photo is evidence of the meeting.

Koni has a story, which is just as significant for the Russians, as is Barrie’s for the Bulgarians. CritterBlog reported that Vladimir Putin wanted to spy on Koni, who has a tendency to escape from Mr. Putin’s dacha outside of Moscow for adventures in the surrounding woods. It was announced in October 2008, that a collar fitted with a Glonass device was put on the dog. Glonass is the name of the Russian Global Positioning System. Critterblog posts a video (subsequently removed from youtube), where after the collar was put on the dog, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov says “She looks sad, it’s the end of her freedom,” and Prime Minister Putin disagrees, saying “She’s wagging her tail, that means she likes it.” Although this video is now missing, an official Russia Today version is still there.

Lepa Brena, the Yugoslav pop folk legend held a concert in Zagreb last Saturday. After a twenty year lapse she was to return to Arena Zagreb for one of her self-styled blasting gigs which combine an imported pop vision with Balkan folk rhythms and a large sprinkle of kitsch. The 80’s legend had a controversial welcome in Zagreb.
The Association of Independent Croatian Volunteers, a war veteran organization, petitioned the Zagreb authorities to boycott the concert because of Lepa Brena’s reportedly unacceptable activities during the war. She is said to have sympathized with and provided moral support for the aggressor Serb/Chetnik army. A Youtube video of her wearing a Chetnik uniform over scanty underwear was circulated and pointed to as an offense to war veterans.

Notwithstanding these holdbacks Lepa Brena did perform on Saturday for a crowd over-equipped with digital cameras: a deluge of amateur footage can be found on Youtube. The official video is below.

Here’s a creative way to vent your frustration at a hated politician from the comfort of your desk: create a viral videogame in which you can throw eggs at him for points - in this case, the target being the oft maligned Jiří Paroubek of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD).  The game is the latest round in a real life spate of egg attacks on Paroubek and the ČSSD during the recent EU election campaigns.

I’m not quite sure why the ‘console’ is in Russian instead of Czech (is that some kind of political commentary?), but it’s actually an impressive likeness of him. Test your skills here!

When I think of Kylie Minogue, my mind immediately jumps back to the late 1980s and her ubiquitous version of the “Locomotion” [I realize Kylie Minogue has been famous in the period since, although certainly more so in Europe than in North America]. Aside from this tenuous chronological link, it seemed somewhat odd that Polish organizers of the Solidarity anniversary celebrations decided to throw a free concert featuring none other than the Australian pop diva, outside the famous Gdansk shipyards where the trade union movement that brought about the fall of communism in Poland was born.

The concert held two nights ago featured Kylie in an outfit that reflected the organizers’ bewildering choice: what looked like a tinfoil Phantom of the Opera mask and a black shirt and pants that seemed to have been cut into pieces and pasted back onto her body.  100,000 people lined up for the hour-long free concert (see the first five minutes of the show below).

The move was certainly intended to appeal to Polish youth, many of whom have become disenchanted with Poland’s post-communist achievements. Ironically, the historic shipyards have fallen into disrepair and debt over the last two decades, and are up for sale.