20-something

This is for them 20-somethings

Time really moves fast, you were just sixteen

"Schoolin' Life", Beyoncé

As soon as I've just turned 20 (TWENTY! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?), I'm ready to publish some lists I've been making for some time. I must admit it hasn't been easy to recollect 20 mistakes I've made or 20 books that have impressed me enough so I would recommend them. Of course, these lists can easily be edited, but that's what I've got by the age of 20 so far. Hope you'll have fun reading them!

20 mistakes I've made:
1. Didn't go out with that one boy at school
2. Had too many expectations for my graduating party
3. Didn't book a hostel in Tokyo beforehand
4. Didn't read enough this summer
5. Wasted a day in LA on walking with the most boring guy in 2015
6. Scored 83 points for the Russian final test at school
7. My first boyfriend
8. Half of my would-be boyfriends
9. Ate that cheesecake in Khabarovsk in 2014
10. Do everything in the last minute
11. Didn't talk enough with all the kinds from my teams in the camp
12. Didn't put on my sunscreen on the Tobizina cape
13. Didn't put on my sunscreen in Santa Monica in 2013
14. Didn't take any photos with the people I hung out with in LA in 2015
15. Ruined my biological clock
16. Didn't ask about the 3OH!3 album Omens in Amoeba
17. Don't say right answers louder during the classes when needed
18. Drank too much at my unofficial matriculation at university
19. Wasted some money a couple of times when I could've saved them, ok
20. Didn't get along with my elder sister during our childhood

20 lessons I've learned:
1. Always think about where to stay during not only trips themselves but also stepovers in advance
2. Let things go
3. Take your time, don't forget to relax, always arrange some me-time
4. You aren't to like all the people around. It's ok to have someone you don't approve
5. Have some money in the bank as some kind of a back-up
6. Upload the photos you take to Google Photo or iCloud or anything like that. You never know when your device can get broken or lost
7. Being nice is a rule, but being petty and bitchy isn't always a bad idea
8. "If you can't love yourself, how the hell you're gonna love somebody else? Can I get an amen here?" RuPaul
9. Love your parents and make sure you call them often enough. They deserve it, they love you
10. Trust your friends but rely on yourself first
11. Lovers come and go, friends stay. Cherish them
12. Better be alone with someone you don't care of
13. Don't care what they think. Put on as much make-up as you want while you're young and beautiful
14. Don't care what they think. You can be young and beautiful till the end of time
15. Don't know what color you should choose? Choose black
16. Be helpful - and for yourself first
17. Take risks - they tend to pay off!
18. Take in some vitamins, take care of your health
19. Read more
20. Enjoy the moment, don't miss living

20 songs I adore:
1. Jason Mraz "I'm Yours"
2. The Neighbourhood "Ferrari"
3. Beyoncé "Diva"
4. Marina And The Diamonds "How To Be A Heartbreaker"
5. Beyoncé "Partition"
6. Ariana Grande "One Last Time"
7. Lana Del Rey "Backfire"
8. 3OH!3 "Love 2012"
9. Halsey "Colors"
10. The Common Linnets "Calm After The Storm"
11. Lady Gaga feat. Beyoncé "Telephone"
12. Gem Club "Twins"
13. The Beetles "Strawberry Fields Forever"
14. Anna Margaret "Something About Sunshine"
15. Lady Gaga "Born This Way"
16. Postdata "Tobias Grey"
17. Joss Stone "L.O.V.E."
18. Arctic Monkeys "505"
19. Ryan Adams "Firecracker"
20. Natalia Kills "Problem"

20 books I recommend:
1. George Orwell "1984"
2. Leo Tolstoy "Anna Karenina"
3. Yevgeny Zamyatin "We"
4. Jane Austin "Pride and Prejudice"
5. Dante Alighieri "Divine Comedy"
6. David Nicholls "One Day"
7. Joanne Harris "Chocolat"
8. Joanne Harris "The Lollipop Shoes"
9. Dan Brown "Angels and Demons"
10. Goethe "Faust"
11. Francesco Petrarca's sonnets
12. Alexander Blok's poems
13. Daniel Keyes "Flowers for Algernon"
14. J. K. Rowling "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"
15. Mikhail Lermontov's poems
16. Ivan Bunin's short novels
17. Robert Rozhdestvensky's poems
18. Joseph Brodsky's poems
19. Charlotte Brontë "Jane Eyre"
20. Patrick Süskind "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer"


And I certainly couldn't leave you withough the Queen B in my B'Day! Here's something relating to the title and all the jazz ♥

Be brave as usual! 

"And sunday always comes too late"

Literature Day

Today my day's been full of humanitarian, philological atmosphere, and that's why. The first lesson at school was literature. Then my friend and I went to the Olympiad for - you wouldn't believe - literature. And after it we had an optional lesson for - guess what? - literature! Yey! Thankfully, I love this subject, so it didn't bother me visiting all that literature stuff.
As you know, now I read "Peaches for Monsieur le Curé", and also still have an aim to finish "Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov. Moreover, to pass my literature exam well (better excellent) I should recall all our programme literature since the 9th and even earlier grade.
One my friend said he'd pass a final exam for literature, but he's going to enter the institute of oil development. That means he doesn't need literature to pass, so my question is why does he want to strain himself even more than we've all already strained? Anyway, it's his decision, and our option lessons will be funnier with him.
Nowadays at school we study Anton Chekhov, exacter - "The Cherry Orchard". I know Chekhov's plays are pretty popular in Europe theaters, and that fact makes me feel proud about Russian culture. For our island Chekhov is a special person, because he was here and even wrote the book "Sakhalin". Therefore we have everything in his honour: a street, a theater, a museum and etc. But what about me, I'm not so huge fan of Mr. Chekhov.
Well, if we have a literature day today, I can't help sending you a poem. Lately I show passion to our poets of the beginning of the XXth century. In general, my favourite poet is Alexander Blok, as you've already known, but also I love Marina Tsvetaeva, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Nikolay Gumilev, some works by Vladimir Mayakovsky. Of course, I prefer their poems about love, not about revolution. And here's a poem by Marina Tsvetaeva dedicated to my favourite Blok.

Your name is a finch in my hand,

A small bit of ice on tongue’s end

One movement of lips slightly stirred,

Your name is a four-letter word

A marble right-caught in mid-air,

A silvery tinkle of bells at a fair

A stone cast in a placid pond

Will snort in the likeness of family bond

As light as the clip-clop of horses’ hoofs,

As loud as the cling-clang of steel-shod hoofs ...

The dry-click of firing-pin at our head

Will sharply recall as your name is said

Your name is like – that I say not!

It’s like a kiss on the eyes wrought

When shut, they are laden with frosty grace …

Your name is like kissing a snow-swept glaze

A draught of cool blue from a spring-cleft rock,

Your name grants deep sleep around the clock

And a night picture today are with the quote from my favourite book "Chocolat" by Joanne Harris.

The song of the day is linked with the literature only with having lyrics. I've heard this song for the first time only today, but I've immediately recognized the style of "Rizzle Kicks". You know, I like those guys, and the song is "Skip To The Good Bit". Enjoy!

Be brave!

Poems' Day

Sometimes I run into the pictures with beautiful verses, and I feel like sharing them with you. I don't know the authors, they just appear in my Internet space. Yeah, I admit the poems are pretty sad, but it doesn't spoil their tenderness.

I also want to get you my favourite poem "The Tyger" by William Blake. The poet even made an illustration. You see, here's the original Y in 'Tyger' and the punctuation, but later editions, of course, have done it our way. No matter what, enjoy "The Tyger".

Tyger Tyger. burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye.

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand, dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat.

What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp.

Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears

And water'd heaven with their tears:

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright.

In the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eye.

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

There're some audio versions of Shakespeare's sonets and other different poems in my Reader, read by my favourite British actors: Devid Tennant, Tom Hiddleston, Ben Whishaw, Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Scott. It's useful listening to the original English language recorded by native speakers (so sexy native speakers) and trying to understand every tiny thing. Plus, I can't help listening to it when I'm sleepless or nervous - nice rich deep male voices always work wonders with the women. 

And here's Mr. Devid Tennant performing for you Sonet 12 by William Shakespeare. Oh, he sits like a machine, but his words fly away.

Also I can't miss our Russian literature and my favourite Russian poets - Mikhail Lermontov and Alexander Blok. Russian writers and poets have probably never had easy life, so didn't have these two. 

Mikhail Lermontov

Like An Evil Spirit

Like an evil spirit hast thou

Shocked my heart from out its rest,

If thou'lt take it quite away now -

Thou wilt win my healing blest!

My heart thy temple evermore!

Thy face,- the altar's Godhead sign!

Not heaven's grace, - thy smiles, restore,

Grant absolution, joy divine! 

Alexander Blok

A Girl Sang a Song

A girl sang a song in the temple's chorus, 

About men, tired in alien lands, 

About the ships that left native shores, 

And all who forgot their joy to the end. 

Thus sang her clean voice, and flew up to the highness, 

And sunbeams shined on her shoulder's white - 

And everyone saw and heard from the darkness 

The white and airy gown, singing in the light. 

And all of them were sure, that joy would burst out: 

The ships have arrived at their beach, 

The people, in the land of the aliens tired, 

Regaining their bearing, are happy and reach. 

And sweet was her voice and the sun's beams around.... 

And only, by Caesar's Gates - high on the vault, 

The baby, versed into mysteries, mourned, 

Because none of them will be ever returned.

And certainly, exercising my rights as a would-be musician, I can't deny many songs have really nice lyrics. And vice versa - there's a glut of cases when a poem has become a decent song. At least, I can warrant Russian music area.

If you're still looking forward to the song of the day, so it'll be an adorable song "The Man I Love" by Ella Fitzgerald. No, it's not the same song which Lana Del Rey sings. But you should pay your attention even more to Ella's song, Ella Fitzgerald is The Queen of jazz. We must give her due, because singing jazz is a hard deal, however easy and funny it may look. I definitely love it. 

Be brave, be smart!

Victory Day (Stalin Was't Stallin')

Victory Day never seemed a huge holiday for me as it seems for my parents and teachers. Parades, fireworks, tears of old people have never excited. Young people, we know about the suffering, deaths, tortures, battles, statisctics, but we will never understand it (I hope we'll never do it.). All the documentaries, movies, photos, books make us cry and feel scared of human cruelty, make us remember people's mistakes, but there're always people which never get it seriously. And this is what should make other people scared.
I can't comprehend how Hitler didn't learn by Napoleon's experience? However poor Russia may be, there's always a core of something that makes our country Russia. Power, hearfulness, patriotism, famous Russian soul. This core makes me, my relatives and friends be Russian, this core will characterize us from all people around the world. Even though I and people around me blame our miserable Motherland, at least we can hold for our unbreakable history. Here the words of the outstanding Russian poet are very appropriate:

Comrade, believe: it will arise, 

The star of captivating bliss, 

Russia will rise herself from sleep, 

And on the ruins of despotism 

Our names will be inscribed!

Alexander Pushkin, "To Chaadaev"

What about me, so I'm pretty unlucky today: inspite of the bad weather, we've had a concert, but I must admit the veterans we've been performing to have been full of energy, it's pleasent. 

Just now I've been looking for a song which was written during the World War II, and I've found a nice a cappella American patriotic song written in 1943 called "Stalin Wasn't Stallin'". Later in 1980 Robert Wyatt covered the song, also in the a capella technique. The song praises the efforts of Joseph Stalin and all Soviet Army, and it's so cute and easy, not like most war songs.

Stalin wasn't stallin'

When he to1d the beast of Berlin

That they'd never rest contented

Til they had driven him from the land

So he called the Yanks and English

And proceeded to extinguish

The Fuhrer and his vermin

This is how it all began

Now the Devil he was reading

In the good book one day

How the lord created Adam

To walk the righteous way

And it made the Devil jealous

He turned green up to his horns

And he swore by things unholy

That he'd make one of his own

So he packed two suitcases

Full of grief and misery

And he caught the midnight special

Going down to Germany

Then he mixed his lies and hatred

With fire and brimstone

Then the devil sat upon it

That's how Adolf was born

Now Adolf got the notion

That he was the master race

And he swore he'd bring new order

And put mankind in it,s place!

So he set his scheme in motion

And he was winning everywhere

Until he up and got the notion

For to kick that Russian bear

Yes he kicked that noble Russian

But it wasn't very long

Before Adolf got suspicious

The he had done something wrong

Cause that bear grabbed the Fuhrer

And gave him an awful fright

Seventeen months he scrapped the Fuhrer

Tooth and claw, day and night

Then that bear smacked the Fuhrer

With a mighty armored paw

And Adolf broke all records

Running backward towards Krakaw

The Goebbels sent a message

To the people everywhere

That if they couldn't hit the Fuhrer

Go down hit that Russian bear

And Robert's version

I guess, almost everybody around the world knows and likes Russian war song "Katyusha". But to tell the truth, this song had been written even before the War. The lyrics was changed many times and still people create new variations of it. Our choir sings "Katyusha" at the concerts too, and my friend and I sang it when we were in Japan. 

Well, what can I say? The War may be said to have united people of all the world, but it hurt too much. This shouldn't be repeated.

Be brave, don't spark a war.

The World's End

So, guys, I congratulate you with the end of the world! And with the sart of a new one :D
To tell the truth, I'll have a new era for myself anyway - just some days ago I broke up with my boyfriend. I had to do it, because I can't stay with someone without love. Well, he loves me, but I don't. Aah, don't want to talk about it anymore.
Today at school we've been shown a great French musical "Romeo Et Julliet", with Russian subtitles, of course. We've not be able to finish watching it at the lesson, so my friend and I have watched it till the end at my home. The musical is really fantastic! Here's some fragments from the movie we've watched:

Aren't Romeo and his friends adorable? So cute! And Julliet is so nice ^_^ 

We're so excited about it! I'm about to learn the word of some somgs by heart, though I don't know French. Maybe, one day I'll start learning it...

Also I've found out today a new cool series "A Young Doctor's Notebook" based on short stories with the same name of our Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. I've watched the 1st episode, and it's very interesting lol

Today's morning one my pen-friend has sent me a link for the music video of a really amazing song! And exactly it will be the song of the day! Here's "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons.

Moreover, yesterday I finished reading "The Time Traveler's Wife".

Quick Post

Festival's rehearsal was horrible! It becomes more horrible day by day!
Now I'm learning by heart a poem of F. Tutchev named "Silentium". I really like it, and it's easy to learn, so I hope I'll pass it tomorrow.
I must run to the bathroom and then into my bed, so here's the song of the day "Radio" by fabulous Beyonce and one cool pic. Byebye! Be brave!

My only truth

From Russia With Love (Tomorrow I'll Miss You)

Right now I've remembered about one cool song from our Russian DJ Smash called "From Russia With Love". Well, you may consider it as the song of the day, but it's not the end! :) I like DJ Smash provide our country in the international language.

I believe in music, sex and rock-n-roll
At this very moment I'm losing my control
The girls are pretty in Moscow-city
The same on truth in Saint-Petersburg
(from Russia with love)

[2x:]
I always want to come again
I never get enough
I took her hand and then she said
"From Russia with love"

From Russia from Russia with love

I believe in zombies of Moscow underground
I believe in me but they don't understand
The girls are pretty in Moscow-city
The same on truth in Saint-Petersburg
(from Russia with love)

I always want to come again
I never get enough
I took her hand and then she said
"From Russia with love"

Today has been more unpleasent, because I've had a rehearsal for the coming festival in school, and it's been terrible!! We've got 2 teachers and they have different oppinion! We don't know who to listen to! 

Now I read poems and quotes of Kozma Prutkov. Probably my most favourite quote is "If you have a fountain, shut it down. Let even a fountain have a rest."

Now I want to watch a film "Across the Universe" based on songs of "The Beatles" sung by the actors. The film stars by my new sweet British guy - Jim Sturgess. I haven't seen the film, but I've already heard and now I listen to the song from the film singing by Jim. It is "All My Loving" of "The Beatles". And exactly this song will be my song of the day, though you may love and "From Russia With Love". By the way, the 2nd James Bond's film has the same name, you know it, certainly. ^____^

2 days of idleness

Yesterday was the worst storm, you already know it. And half of my day I spent in my bed with the book and my cat Markiza. I took some cute photos with us:D

Looks like without the ear:)

Yeah, actually I read poems by Alexander Blok

My favourite photo

And today I've made a cover for a really good song "Friends" by Aura Dione feat. Rock Mafia. It's one of my best covers, I think. And I dedicate it to my friends. 

And, of course, "Friends" is the song of the day

I'm a singer

How you know, I finished a music school last year. Many teachers ask me to enter a music college, but I don't want to do it. I want to become a reporter.
But sometimes I write poems. Yes, I write a lot of it in English, some are in Russian. I am musician, and I imagine my poems as songs! Maybe I will sing their for YouTube.
If I am singer I want to become it this way.
There're some my poems:


Two hearts are together

Two hearts are together.
Are we forever?
You said you had never,
You had never ever loved.

You look back and you see me,
I don't follow, I'm just near.
Everytime I think about you
I feel you are next to me.
Yesterday I noticed you
Staring at my hair.
You didn't wanna come to me,
I saw sparks in the air.


I want to be


I'm running through the dark, I'm hurrying
I'm looking after you, I'm falling
Into the night. Am I doing right?
Knocking at the door, I'm screaming
You're the only one my feeling.
When I see you next to me, I want to be

I want to be the one who know your secret
I want to be the one and do it for you
I want to be the one who can abet
I want to be the one and do it with you.

Just touch me and kiss me
I know that you miss me
Forever in my dreams
(Forever in my dreams)
Be careful with me
I love the way you kiss me
Don't forget what you promise me
(What you promise me)

You're going slowly to the party
Where we're going to meet partly
You're gonna bow to me, and I want to be

I want to be the one who know your secret
I want to be the one and do it for you
I want to be the one who can abet
I want to be the one and do it with you.


Goodbye


You've got a girl wich you can trust
You've got a girl wich you can love
You've got a girl wich you can make so happy...

So goodbye, turn around and go ahead.
If you wanna meet me, call me, I will come
So goodbye, turn around and go ahead.
If you wanna meet me, just say "it's the time to come"

I'll have a boy wich I can trust
I'll have a boy wich I can love
I'll have a boy wich I can make so happy...
And everyday I tell to myself
"You are perfect for yourself
And noone can bring you down"


Through some time you leave her as friend
I have known it, I've known it'll be the end
But I don't know would I come if you wanna meet me?

I've really written this poems as songs. Well, now it's just drafts, but soon it'll become real songs, I hope

William Shakespeare - To be, or not to be (from Hamlet 3/1)

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.