KZBlog

Category archive for ‘Culture’

• Yurts Are High Fashion and Slum Fashion Too

  Speaking of housing in Central Asia, I guess Occupy Toronto has been living in $20,000 yurts Before you laugh, yurts are insanely warm and comfortable, even the normal, handmade kind that only cost a few thousand. That’s the hipster/slum fashion side. Apparently, though yurts are also mingling with the upper crust, the occupyees, the 1%, [...]

  12/05/11 • (2)

• Apples, Sure. But THC is from Kazakhstan too?

  Yet another story about Kazakhstan and marijuana in only a few weeks. This little teaser for a documentary to be shown today on Australian TV implies that THC first evolved in Kazakhstan. Off-hand it seems to me that would be a much bigger tourist draw than apples OR wolves…. Plus, the tourists you would attract [...]

  10/05/11 • (3)

• Naked Man Pot

  Heard about this one via Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me and tracked down an RFE/RL article about it: the most concentrated and popular form of marijuana is so-called “plastilin” (plasticine), and the way it is harvested and produced has not changed for centuries. It begins with a freshly showered person riding naked for hours on [...]

  9/23/11 • (2)

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  No Marrying Foreigners?

  This was one I couldn’t pass by without commenting on even though it will probably come to nothing. One citizen of Kazakhstan, Arman Turdaliyev, left a comment on Karim Massimov’s blog recently, saying that the only way to stop China from taking over Kazakhstan slowly was by preventing all foreign marriages. Dear Karim Kazhimkanovich! As [...]

  9/03/11 • (0)

• Drink Too Much and You Will Be Invaded

  Not sure what to make of this video by Niyazbekov Productions, which apparently did those all pervasive Alga Kazakhstan commercials during the Asian Games, among other things. First of all, it’s certainly one of the best pieces of work I’ve seen done in Kazakhstan. The CGI, the quality, the directing and camera angles are extremely [...]

  8/03/11 • (3)

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  Ramadan Mubarak

  Hope this doesn’t offends anyone. I thought it was kind of amusing, and it does illustrate the sacrifice that is celebrating Ramadan.

  8/01/11 • (0)

• How Do you Say “Know Thyself” in Kazakh?

  Sara Nazarbayeva, the wife of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, had her first book presented the other day, a first among First Ladies in the post-Soviet space. The book is not a history of Kazakhstan or a biography or memoir, as her husband’s books have been. Instead Philosophy of Love presents her methods of self-awareness and recognition. [...]

  6/26/11 • (0)

• Babushkas

  Anyone in Texas planning to see this documentary? Anyone know if there are plans to distribute it more widely? Babushkas a documentary by a Rice student about Russian grandmothers living in Kazakhstan. The movie tells the stories of five elderly women, barely able to pay their food, utility and medical bills…. Early in the process, [...]

  4/22/11 • (4)

• Horsemeat and Vinegar

  Registan’s very own Joshua Foust has a fun article up on Need to Know by PBS about the joys of Kazakh food. There’s also what looks like a pretty good recipe for lamb and pumpkin manty, my favorite. Never had horse manty and I don’t agree with using lean meat. Manty should have a bit [...]

  4/15/11 • (0)

• The Final Five

  Following up on this post about what Americans notice about life in Kazakhstan, Hilary has posted the top 5 cultural tidbits with links to her earlier posts. This final five post hits on some really tricky ones, probably the ones that really show the difference in mentality between Americans and Kazakhs. It is interesting to [...]

  4/07/11 • (1)

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