I love several things. Among them are Cold War-era cultural artifacts and Engrish. Stilted, hilarious Engrish. I wondered if I would ever find anything that combines the two.
God heard my prayers and delivered some serious Soviet camp. Check out this amazing 1970 brochure from Aeroflot Soviet Airlines. It features not only that soaring propaganda rhetoric that only true commies could master but also some awkwardly translated Russian-turned-Engrish. The kind of Engrish we thought only our friends in Asia could deliver in VCR manuals:
This is the building of Moscow in-town air terminal. Let's make an excursion to it. First we'll inform you of the dimensions of it. The building is about 300 meters long and 40m wide. It is full of light, spacious and cozy.
Wait, I also promised some overblown rhetoric:
The entire Soviet people display unprecedented labour enthusiasm when they celebrate Lenin's birth centenary. And the many-thousand-strong collective of Soviet civil airmen is marking this glorious jubilee with new labour achievements.
Need a flight to Africa to visit the nutty 1970s dictator of your choice? Well don't worry, because "The network of Aeroflot routes to Africa is very ramified."
Brandon says:
Dude, I LOOOOVE this stuff, too. This week's NYT Book Review profiled this collection of North Korean propaganda:
http://www.amazon.com/North-Korean-Posters-Heather-Collection/dp/3791339672/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217599144&sr=8-1
The review displayed one poster showing a young, smiling peasant woman in a pasture with a basket of greens feeding a goat. The caption says, "Let's extensively raise goats in all families!" Take that, you capitalist pigs.
Interestingly, when I searched for it on Amazon, the results also turned up similar collections of Chinese and Soviet posters. There are reams of this stuff out there. I actually have a collection of old Soviet posters, I'll have to show it to you some time. BTW, I've been trying (unsuccessfully thus far) to get my hands on some North Korean films, I think it would make a wonderful movie night!
Samantha says:
I saw that last night. What an arrogant, patronizing son of a bitch that guy is. He's like somebody's pain-in-the-ass great uncle that has to be tolerated on Thanksgiving just because he's old and senile. Kudos to Stewart for not punching his lights out.
Samantha says:
Oops. That comment was meant for the thing on Ben Wattenberg.
warmbowski says:
That's some great stuff, Ed and Brandon.
I like engrish as well, with a dash of poppy music to emote the most interesting alternate pronunciations that would never come out of an English speaker.
http://www.amazon.com/Pretty-Little-Baka-Guy/dp/B000XUL77W/ref=dmusic_cd_album?ie=UTF8&qid=1217645577&sr=8-7
Make sure to listen to the first track when she sings 'he's on the way to ex-tinc-ta-shaaaun.' (extinction). And how many of you have had 'Corn Flakes and peanuts in your miiilk cho-co-late!'
Anyone know of any N. Korean poppy girl bands that sing about the virtues of communism in their best broken English?
Patti says:
Awesome. I was getting ready to expand goat rearing and create more grassland in accordance with the Party, but now I am contemplating travel abroad. Shall we marvel at air craft for being able to "cover huge distances in little time. This results in millions of people saving the time they need so much for labour"? And, should your plane corrode in mid-air, killing all aboard, please remember that "Machines age just like man does."
I have learned much, Ed. Thank you.