winter wonderland

The snow continues. It hasn't snowed anew, or only in tiny flurries, but it must be below freezing (I have not a thermometer) as the snow isn't melting.

The downside: t'h is stranded in Paris with no prospect of any Eurostar trains running till after Christmas. He's now going to try and get the TGV to Calais and thence the ferry. He has 4 days to get here!

So I took t'sons to see Where the wild things are. Or rather, they took me.

And isn't Dilip Kumar a dish? Look at the icon! I've seen him in films before but it was Andaz (1947) that did it for me. Note the absolutely droolsome forelock. And the smouldering eyebrows. God, and the angst that grips him in that film!

For those as haven't got a clue: Dilip Kumar is one of a trio of 1940s/50s/60s male Indian superstars. (The other two are Raj Kapoor - also a dreamboat, and Dev Anand, whom I've not seen in a film, I don't think).

russiafail

I only just discovered that there was some sort of russiafail going on. I read a summary by Bell here and another useful discussion of issues or national slurring by branchandroot here.

I must have been asleep for the last two years but somehow it had escaped me that LiveJournal had been bought up by a Russian company. This company is called SUP Fabrik and is owned by two gentlemen called Alexander Mamut and Andrew Paulson. Wikipedia is not the most reliable source in the world but here's a quick summary of SUP on wikipedia.

Alexander Mamut seems to be a rather dubious figure within the world's capitalist dubiousness; he's a mate of Roman Abramovich, Chelsea owner, which is neither here nor there, but what I find most troubling is that he was a mate of Yeltsin's, a politico and involved in alleged corrupt doings, or so it is suggested by various sources found by googling the man. He is also billed as nr 962 of the world's billionaires in 2008 (for whatever that's worth).

This is not a US vs RUS dilemma, but a matter of two separate companies. I have to say the company profile of Six Apart, LJ's former owners, appeals to me a lot more than that of SUP. I think it's quite sweet how Six Apart was founded by a couple and how they're into blogging. SUP, on the other hand, is a huge concern, an 'international media company' in their own words, and their management team are for the most part drawn from the hardcore business and financial environment.

Andrew Paulson is billed as an 'internet czar' by this edition of Business Week. I realise one has to take this mediaspeak with a grain of salt (and the choice of the word 'czar' bears its own russophobe connotations); however, it is clear that this guy loves to see himself in the role of hardnosed entrepreneur.

Note that Russian LJ users themselves expressed reservations and scepticism about the hand-over of LJ from Six Apart to SUP. (See the Business Week site above.)

I learned Russian for a year in the 80s but I certainly don't remember enough of it to be able to read entries in Cyrillic and find out what fellow-LJers in Russia tend to think of SUP. All I know is that Russian business billionaires are not generally known for their integrity, philanthropy or independence from politics. I don't think it's a knee-jerk anti-Russian reaction to be wary of Russian companies run by international billionaires. And this certainly doesn't strike me as a company that would have a particularly great love for slash and fanfic.

I would be especially interested in any Russian users' responses, those living in Russia and using the Cyrillic interface. It's difficult to gauge the mood, controversies and debates going on in the Russian LJ from the vantage point of the Anglophone section of it (and it does seem a very minor section of LJ overall, judging from the user numbers in Cyrillic).

Anyway, it's been interesting to discover who owns and manages this interface I have loved and lived with for seven years. It's the first thing I've discovered that makes me seriously ponder shifting my business over to Dreamwidth.