The library of a young dandy

16 year old Zhenya Danylyuk shares his favorite movies, authors, musicians and books. He also explains how Robert Downey Jr. turned a real english gentleman into a drinker, bully and narcistic bastard. What is a modern Bible in the face of a sixteen year old, and how a hooligan (in the Soviet Union) became an author of a classic literature.  

Movies:
Pulp Fiction - Why Pulp Fiction? Cause it’s Quentin Tarantino. It’s a very unusual chronology of scenes, amazing cast of actors, and many details that people don’t usually even notice (cigarettes “Red Apple”, that he uses in each film, or Big Kahuna burgers, that appear from time to time). But mainly, what makes A Tarantino The Tarantino – he is a bit mad and in love with Uma Thurman’s feet (jokingly), which by the way are eastern european 42^nd (damn serious).  

Snatch & Rock'n'Rolla – Guy Richi has an incredible sence of humor. His movies are very true-life, but full of irregular coincidences.

21 – I'm mathematician. I study at a mathematical school. So for me this movie is more a mix of curiousity and new aproach to the use of mathematical calculations.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson – the Soviet version was officially admited the best one made. Vasily Livanov (as Sherlock Holmes) and Vitaly Solomin (as Dr. Watson) were honored a medal from Queen Elizabeth II for the great screen adaptation of the great English classic. So what was Robert Downey Jr. thinking when he turned an english gentleman into a drinker, bully and narcistic bastard? What he’s done to the character is unforgivable.

The Bucket List – the great remake of the «Knockin' on Heavan's Door». Two fellas living their dream, trying to achive something, and than been buried in the coffee cans on the Everest Mountain. Who can boast of doing the same?

Authors and book:

Chuck Palahniuk – he is honest, truthful and frank spit in the face of our generation. His “Fight Club”, “Invisible Monsters” and “Choke” are like the modern Bible for sixteen years old.

О. Henry – with all the shit that he's been through, with irony and sometimes naked sorcasm, he makes you smile through tears. His «The last leaf» is a short masterpiece.

N. Gogol «The Inspektor-General» - is  a great exemple of greediness and duality of people.

S. Yesenin – i like his bravery, honesty, his anti-hero. I like that in a very conservative Soviet Union the hooligan and the drinker became the most well-known Russian poet of the 20th century. And even after he wrote «It's noisy and dirty and drunken, But nobody there drinks alone – The bartenders buy me a vodka, And the hookers cry at my poem» he still managed to get into all the school books of russian classics.

Music:

The White Stripes, The Black Keys, Nirvana, Arctic Monkeys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Don’t ask me why, you can’t explain music, you can only enjoy it.  

Mattias Brundin for the thinking factory

Mattias Brundin is a creative director who's worked with trend-based communication in Stockholm, London, Milan and New York. Currently he is launching a video-communication project in the EU. Explains why people choose to be stupid. Why without the influences from Situationism there would be no Banksy, no “I Fucked Gisele Bundchen” t-shirts, no Ousler projections, no Sex Pistols, no Futura 2000, no Warhol, no Vivienne Westwood. And why you better choose Guy Debort over “Jersey Shore” tonight.

Just like a bullet through cardiovascular tissue

“True force. No copyright. No rights reserved. No motorcycle emptiness. No modern life is rubbish. No time. No history. The time of life is short, and if we live, we tread on kings”.

Richey James Edwards (Written as an obituary to Guy Debord)

November 30^th, 1994, a bullet tore Guy Debord’s heart apart and death was probably instant. That is the likely outcome of a suicide elevated to the sublime symbolism of firing a revolver straight into one’s heart. Death is never fair, but some deaths are sadder than others. Personally I find Guy Debord’s suicide on pair with the passing of Bambi’s mom as well as Peggy Entwistle’s suicide jump from the “H” in the “HOLLYWOOD” sign. It hurts every time it slips into my mind.

Debord – the visionary behind the Situationist International movement and the author of the groundbreaking “The Society of the Spectacle” – felt his vision had died. His dreams faded to oblivion white and the vacuum created by loss was too much to handle. But with hindsight the basic principles of the Situationist movement is more relevant than arguably any other theory to frame our zeitgeist. Just perform a liposuction of all 68-stylee letter-leftism from the linguistics and “The Society of the Spectacle” is predicting each and every faux pas we are slipping into while dancing stupidly in the tragedy known as modern times.

It has also been a manual for art and creative expressions. Because it offers a modus operandi aiming for tomorrow, always tomorrow. That is probably why so many brilliant musicians, artists, writers and creative contemporary minds have found inspiration in Guy Debord. Punk was virtually a Situationist Manual, but less known is that key elements in hip-hop once draw inspiration from Situationism. Obviously almost all street art and urban couture have been rooted in the movement. No Banksy, no “I Fucked Gisele Bundchen” t-shirts, no Oursler projections, no Sex Pistols, no Futura 2000, no Warhol, no Vivienne Westwood, and maybe – just maybe – no Internet and social media as we know it today. Without the influences from Situationism the patchwork of contemporary culture would have been a lot thinner and substantially less interesting.

The delicate contours of Situationism are as discreetly present in haute couture designs as in the house beats at the club. On a personal note I can confess a big part of my career to Guy Debord. Some of my best work – with internationally acknowledged advertising campaigns as well as creatively exciting art concepts for the communication of opinions – has been blatantly nicked from the Situationism. I have used the slogan “Advertising is dead. Do not consume its corpse.” And I have owned a company called Moral Little Shitkickers. Go figure…

Situationism also tells us why young minds have chosen to commodify shallow stupidity and cloned themselves in Paris Hilton caricatures. This silicone lips Pierrot mask – sadly incarnated in millions of young boys and girls striving to mimic the absolute idiots from reality shows and media’s menagerie of nonsense celebrity – is nothing but a desperate way of adjusting to the hyper-reality of force-fed images in a chaotic spectacle. Acceptance is no longer in love, in sex, in intelligence or in individuality. It can only be found mindless hedonism bereft of intellect and individuality. The images of stupidity are setting a norm – blessed with a Rothko-esque acceptance of mute iconography – and this norm is starring into the abyss with a cow’s lukewarm and detached eyes. People are choosing to be stupid – to look like a plastic surgery train-wreck and hide in the narcissistically mute’s anorectic semantics – because that is the normalized way to be seen in the abattoir known as Today. It is intensely sad and long-term the cult of stupidity will kill more than medicine patents, the gun industry and religious wars combined. Do not choose “Jersey Shore” tonight, just give Guy Debord an hour of your life. He will make you live again.

Mattias Brundin

the intelligent and sexy Barbara answering modern proust

Barbara Kuhno

owner of the model agency, 27, Moscow/Hong Kong 

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Life without love; or when your beloved ones have serious health problems.

What is your idea of earthly happiness? Being balanced in mind yet able to plunge into deep emotions, but know how to swim out of these deep waters again to your quiet shore, that's the true art of happy life.

To what faults do you feel most indulgent? Unhealthy food treats; thinking of people better than they are.

Who are your favorite characters in history?  Chingiz-han, Alexander Macedonian. I admire all the strong people, who could change the history or hold enormous power in their hands. 

Who are your favorite heroines/heroes in real life? My close friends, I admire all of them and learn from them. 

Who are your favorite heroines/heroes of fiction? Haruki Murakami main hero in each of his book.

Your favorite painter? Salvador Dali and a lot of modern painters.

Your favorite musician? Zemfira (russian rock-singer). Love her songs so much that I could marry her.

The quality you most admire in a man? Inner strength and honesty.

The quality you most admire in a woman? Same, inner strength, independence as a result.

Who would you have liked to be? I'm trying hard to be the best myself that i could ever be.

Your most marked characteristic? Open-minded.

How do you like to spend your free time? Friends, lover, books, traveling (better all in one pack).

What do you most value in your friends? That they take me as I am and are loyal to me.

What is your principle defect? Too trusting, and talking too much.

Who are your favorite writers? Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Haruki Murakami.

What is it you most dislike? When people disappoint me. Also i hate scary movies.

What thing you learned the hardest way? To keep some things private.

What event in history do you most admire?  First man in space (Yury Gagarin), people in Soviet Union were so happy and proud, that you could see complete strangers on the street hugging and kissing each other, i'd like to see something like that in our days. Also, end of the war, any war, is an admirable history event.

What natural gift would you most like to possess? I'd like to have total control over my emotions. It seems that the older I get, the more emotional I am, I always thought it's supposed to be other way around. 

What habit or characteristic you picked up during your early years? To really concentrate on something, that I'm doing in this very moment.

What books or movies had a very strong impact on you? Books: Buddhist books, "Unbearable Lightness of being" by Milan Kundera.

How do you think, what is the biggest achievement of our time? Globalization and making world smaller.

What person or character can you call the role model or example for your generation? It should be some spiritual leader, a person who will implement spiritual values, as world had become too material lately. I don't see a person like that on the international scene yet. I know some, and they are role models for people around them, but no global impact.

What is your present state of mind? Peace and confidence.