Translated material
Sergey Kuznetsov. NasNet: issue 39
NasNet: issue 39
Sergey Kuznetsov
Publication date: March 21, 2001
Name
E-mail
Name
E-mail
Sergey Kuznetsov
Publication date: March 21, 2001
Project: nineties
(Game conditions - here )
Keywords: fashion, psychology
One day Enotov decided to give himself a fashionable hairstyle. He went to a salon recommended to him by one of his advanced friends and asked to have a white spiral made on his head. The hairdresser, a gentle blue boy in a transparent shirt, a little embarrassed, explained that this was impossible - because Enotov had already begun to go bald and an impressive bald spot adorned his head.
“The spiral simply won’t fit,” said the hairdresser, “but we can make you a sun.”
The sun turned out to look more like a watermelon - Enotov’s blue-black hair did not discolor to white, turning yellow. Some of my English-speaking acquaintances wittily called him water melon man, but that’s not what the story is about.
One fine day, Enotov, still with a striped head, met his friend psychiatrist F., an old man of about seventy, who usually takes advantage of people like oligarchs or ministers who have burned out at work. F. was even mentioned as a real person in one of the novels by Marinina , who listened to his lectures during her studies at some police academy.
- What is that on your head? - F. asked Enotov in the most gentle voice.
“Well,” Enotov answered, “you probably haven’t seen anything like this with your clients.”
“If you were my patient,” F. said, still tenderly, “then this would be a symptom.” But since you're not my patient...
“And this is where you would be wrong,” said Enotov, “because among my friends this is just normal: such a hairstyle.”
“And here I’ll tell you as a specialist,” F. perked up, “that if the reference group is deviant , then this is also a symptom!”
* * *
An unexpected look at the nineties was demonstrated by a certain Trifon:
The true vision, I would say, even the provocation, of the spirit of the 90s belongs to "Time Machine". Even 10 years before the start, Makarevich wrote:
Next to the front door
We need to dig a bench,
And in front of her is a shady pond.
They sang this for ten years, but then someone managed to make their dream come true and dig a pond next to the bench.
And there is such silence around ...
Send us your memories of the nineties:
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RIF
The story told above was not included in this issue of “Us.Net” by chance. Because words about a deviant reference group can serve as the best epigraph to the following.
For many years, I believed that it was no accident that I became a film critic. My colleagues, belonging to the so-called bohemians, behaved at times so unbridledly that they instilled pride in me - they say, how deviant my reference group is! For the same reason, I loved the Runet of the times of Kalashny (that is, the times of Zhurnal.Ru) - an atmosphere of general lawlessness, when someone drinks, someone smokes, someone is already sleeping, and everyone together makes the history of the Internet in Russia, always had an extremely exciting effect on me. Maybe in previous years I didn’t go to RIF precisely because I thought that I wouldn’t have any fun or interest with those whom one of the Runet veterans contemptuously called “corporate pigs.” Fortunately, I was wrong.
The center of cultural life of the Lesnye Dali boarding house, where RIF is traditionally held, is the Pumba bar. Since it was RIF, and not a film festival, few people knew that Pumbaa was the name of the boar from the cartoon "The Lion King" , but ignorance did not at all prevent everyone present from practicing various forms of disgusting. In order not to bore the reader with numerous stories, I will tell only one that happened on the first evening.
Characters:
- Damian "Dema" Kudryavtsev is one of the founders and owners of the Cityline company, Boris Berezovsky's closest employee, a living legend of the Runet, a close friend of Anton Nosik ;
- Arkady Moreinis is the director of Price.ru, a site that anyone buying anything computer-related in Russia's largest cities inevitably turns to;
- Nikita "Kit" Korzun - head of List.ru (1998-1999), subsequently - vice president for development of Port.ru (1999-2000). He is considered one of the most talented and at the same time unprincipled managers of the Runet.
Contents of the action: Dema scams the Internet market players gathered in Pumbaa out of money, promising that if the amount is large enough, Keith and Moreinis will kiss passionately in public.
The show lasts two hours. All this time, everyone is drinking, minding their own business, talking - and occasionally Dema appears (who is also drinking and minding his own business) and offers to hand over money. At first, he also explains what the money is used for, but gradually reduces everything to promises: “It’s worth it, you won’t regret it.” He does this passionately and enthusiastically, publicly reproaching those who did not hand over money for the fact that the structures they represent are having financial difficulties. A proposal is being discussed to pay a thousand dollars from a card so that Korzun and Moreinis can kiss naked, but this idea somehow does not get developed.
Eventually, after raising about $500, Dema announces that the two biggest players in the Internet market will now publicly kiss. Moreinis and Korzun go out onto an impromptu stage and kiss passionately for a long time to the approving cries of “Faggots!” . After this, Dema divides the wad of money in half, gives half to Korzun, and keeps the second for himself. Korzun gives a third to Moreinis, and everyone continues to drink.
As a necessary but obvious comment, none of the people in this scene are gay, and the amounts of money involved are not very noticeable in their budget.
Looking at what was happening, I realized that those gathered were demonstrating exactly the traits that I love in people - they are both socially successful and monstrously antisocial. At the same time, there was a suspicion that they were socially successful precisely because they were monstrously asocial, and at the same time, they could afford to be asocial because they were successful. You can hardly think of something more unacceptable than kissing for money (I’m lying: you can also fuck for money). Especially if you are kissing a man and you are not gay. Just a kiss - with anyone - is a somewhat ordinary thing, who doesn’t kiss anyone at parties! But this was the first time I saw a public kiss for money. Especially in a situation where none of those present needed money.
Suddenly I realized that it was not by chance that I found myself on the Russian Internet - what I was observing began on Kalashnoye, in Emeli Zakharov’s apartment on Kachalov Street and in the Cityline office - but over the past years the pull has become even greater. Just like money and success. I realized that it was terribly pleasant for me to look at these people and realize that - with all the difference in our “specific gravity” - I am in the same boat with them. This reference group also turned out to be deviant.
The same F., whom I spoke about above, said that in order to be successful in Russia in the nineties, a businessman must be smart, energetic, antisocial and suspicious. Suspicion slightly restrains his asociality - otherwise he is simply killed. The absence of serious “showdowns” on the RuNet has led to the fact that the asociality of the “largest players in the Internet market” turned out to be unchecked. Probably, in the world of offline Russian business, one cannot afford to do what Korzun and Moreinis did without damaging their reputation. Therefore, by the way, attempts by people like Nosik to make money in “real life” in the mid-nineties usually ended in failure.
What happened allowed me to find the answer to another private question that had been occupying me for a long time, concerning Keith Korzun. During the well-known story with Leaflet and Jump.Ru, when Korzun actually stole domains from his former employers, scamming several thousand users, the community quite unanimously condemned Korzun (details here and here ). Meanwhile, no one “turned him away”, although during his work at Porto I heard dozens of negative comments (even to the point that someone told me that when his boss started raising his voice at him, he told him “why are you behaving like Keith Korzun!” and the boss immediately began to apologize). Now the reason for what happened is clear: probably no one is eager to work with Korzun, but he remains “one of our own” - where else will we find such a freak as ourselves?
Because Runet still remains a reserve of active, asocial and successful people. You could say it's still in the nineties.
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It’s been a long time since I wrote something about my new articles on “Weekend”... I’ll give you the most memorable ones right away, and for the future - subscribe to the subscription list, I’ll send them as they come out.
Your email- Review of Crouching Tiger, Invisible Dragon .
- Review of the Thai film "69" .
- Review of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" . Someone I knew called it - for some reason - one of my best reviews. I'm not so sure about that.
- Review of "Dracula 2000" . Maybe more interesting than the film itself... because there is a wonderful link list.
- Well, for dessert - a big article about the great Icelandic director Friedrich Thor Fridriksson - for the Icelandic Film Week in Moscow.
So...
As part of it, there will also be a chat with this outstanding person in every sense - on Sunday, March 25, at 13:00 Moscow time at press.weekend.ru . At the same address you can ask questions to Victoria Abril - for now, however, the form is not ready, and you can just write them to me.
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