Ukraine Week!!

This week we take a deep dive into Ukraine to better understand and appreciate the people and culture. From movies, music, and language foundations we wonder to discover a beautiful part of the world.

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

ukrainian, ukraine, people, language, movie, called, learning, alphabet, russia, catarina, identity, hear, find, documentaries, good, band, cossacks, history, ukrainians, painting

SPEAKERS

Collin, Aaron, Brandon


Collin  00:04

Welcome to Oh, brother, a podcast of three brothers. Trying to figure it all out with your host, Brandon Cullen. And Aaron. On this week's show, Ukraine week. You did break it again. I did you hear anything? Yes. Did you hear?


Brandon  00:26

It sounded like Lo Fi hip hop beats? Why? I not hear you.


00:35

Good question.


Collin  00:38

I am going to get this figured out. Someday.


Brandon  00:43

I'll get back. I'm just waiting. I just I didn't expect you to be here. I was joining a little barely like, oh, there's a person here.


Collin  00:49

I am indeed. Well, I, I am I am playing with some new software to get my computer audio into zoom. So that if we play a song or short video to listen to or something like that, it would be naturally in the recording. Look. Okay. Yeah, fancy boy. Unfortunately, I could not hear you at all. So that's a bit disconcerting. Yes. So I need to figure out the next step. Alright, anyway. Whew, okay, let me exit out of all my windows here. Google Docs has been very flaky for me the past several days. So no, yeah, it is not good. I was having to take notes while I was interviewing people. And it just kept locking up. And I couldn't do anything with it. And so I just had to refresh the page. Just every, like five minutes. New growth. Yeah, it was not fun. Especially since I was on coffee shop Wi Fi. That may have been the problem. Now. Let me think about it. I mean, yeah, probably was the issue. Finding a lot of things on my desk. And notes for my children. Hold on. I'm cleaning up. Yeah. So I have resorted to floor piles for accommodating paperwork.


Brandon  02:22

Wow, we've moved fast with


Collin  02:26

well, my desk is very small. It fits my laptop and a second monitor. And there's it that's as wide as it is. So I don't have places to put very nice tax documents or things I have to mail. And then they have to go on the floor. Which is fun. Have you heard of drawers? My desk also doesn't have


Brandon  02:50

drawers? Well, yeah, but you can buy drawers separately. Now. Like I was like at school, this next to my desk. That's like a plastic toady thing. That's like three feet tall. It has many drawers in


Collin  03:02

it. And I just use it that way. Yeah. But these are things that I have to remember to mail. Because they're important. And if I put them in a drawer, I won't miss my deadline. Yeah, but like other things can go in the drawer. I'm saying, oh, like I was like, I need to take a picture of my desk and send it to you. So you can just see like a lot here. Sorry. That's right. Oh my goodness. My My allergies really? Really trying to knock me off my feet this year. It's my goodness. I have not had I have not had tonsillitis. In many many imune


Brandon  03:44

first day of spring 35 degrees hail due to you. Yes.


Collin  03:51

So bad. So I will be muting myself quite a bit. Fair enough. But at least well, he's my um, it's I can talk. Yeah, yesterday, and the day before. It was just straight up painful. I mean, it still is it's one of the things where like, the back of my throat is so swollen that it hurts to move my tongue left and right. And if you've ever had that, yeah, yeah, right. Which is fun. So here we are, indeed right?


Brandon  04:24

In Aaron's here just in time to hear you talk about your sore throat Perez.


Collin  04:28

Oh boy hearing good. I couldn't find my headphones.


Aaron  04:35

I didn't know which one to use Wi Fi man. The wireless ones I had I worked hard last time.


Collin  04:42

Quickly scrambling to charge it even though I made my interest inference on time. Dot mode. Like Easy. Easy peasy.


Brandon  04:57

Yes this week, I believe you mean previous previous the Dilbert adventure game, we brought a Whoa, how are you doing?


Collin  05:06

Man? That's nice. Great. Welcome to you. We've had we've had Shark Week, and we are happy to have Ukraine week. Absolutely on the podcast. So if not been doing much translating due to voice issues, but it is what it is. That's all right. So how is it? Learning? So you're learning Ukrainian? How has that been going? Well, I mean,


Brandon  05:42

varying degrees of success. Clearly. Not right. I mean, sort of messed around on Duolingo for the vocabulary


Collin  05:51

practice, right. But what I've learned is that


Brandon  05:57

Ukrainian is a language that is sneakily complex grammatically. So we don't have so if, like, you know, you mess around with like, your normal sentences, like, hello, and how are you an awesome, but like, if you are doing like, actual sentences, or you're trying to like express ideas.


Collin  06:20

The grammar


Brandon  06:22

is kind of intense, right? So we don't have to just deal with verb conjugation problems,


Collin  06:30

which, like,


Brandon  06:31

I remember from my French days, my lovely verb tables that I had to make, right? Last time. Fun. So like, when you really dive hard into it, they Ukrainian language also deals a lot with the vocative cases


Collin  06:48

of like, the nouns.


Brandon  06:52

So the nouns change endings and stuff to based on certain things. And reasons that I'm not entirely sure about because like, I haven't gone super hardcore in it, right? But the grammar is like super complicated. super complicated. Any, like, medium complicated. It's not like


Collin  07:15

Japanese, right? Where it's just like, well, you're just in


Brandon  07:19

trouble. There's infinite characters and weird things. But, but like, that part is weird. So you need other grammar, like based resources


Collin  07:29

to kind of just try to figure out what's happening here.


Brandon  07:32

Why is why do i Why did I? Why does this sentence say my, in this spelling? And this sentence says it in


Collin  07:42

a different spelling? Why? Oh, no.


Brandon  07:47

So these are things I've been messing around with. So luckily, there are a couple things on the internet


Collin  07:55

to help you with this. Right? First and foremost, the super convenient website.


Brandon  08:05

Speak Ukrainian calm, they go, or speak you ate calm to help you with all these grammatical base needs. It's this lady, her name is I'm gonna get this wrong. I'm sorry.


Collin  08:18

Ina, Spohrer Rachna. From Chuck Innes project, maybe that could be your name.


Brandon  08:28

She does like online language learning classes. But also handily has a YouTube channel. We just like tons of random videos about Ukrainian pronunciation guides and stuff like that on there. So that's actually really handy, because you can like, even without like enrolling in her course, or whatever, you can just like listen to her sort


Collin  08:51

of speak and kind of get


Brandon  08:55

your head around the language a little bit, because that's the other hard part. When a language like this that is that I think we'll talk about here in a minute. But the exposure to the Ukrainian language just in general is very, very low.


Collin  09:07

Right? Like, I don't


Brandon  09:14

I it's hard to find places to listen to Ukrainian speaking. Right? Like you don't know where to start. Right. So if you're ever trying to learn a language, one important


Collin  09:27

aspect of it is to listen to the language. Because you need


Brandon  09:35

to know how the word sound, right? Because if you just look at it,


Collin  09:39

you're going yeah, that's, I mean, well, that's why they say if you're learning a language like immersion is really the best way. Because you hear it constantly. You're seeing it around you constantly through reading and you're interacting with it a lot more like a higher hit rate per moment. Yeah.


Brandon  09:59

So her YouTube channel I was really good about that. And she has like broken out things about like, Oh, hey, here's like, personal pronoun video where you learn about how to say like he she them, right? I, you like, Oh, here's some letters or like, here's some how to pronounce the alphabet, which is very handy, because as I'll get to in a moment, I did a bit of a deep dive into the history of Ukrainian language more and then second. And so she's got that stuff. So you can like get these little bite sized pieces of like, oh, I need help with this. Bam, there's YouTube video that you can just watch, right? She also has a couple things on our website that are like free. So I checked those out, too. Obviously. One of them is like a three day like, here's some like, bare bones minimum, Ukranian stuff. Like, if you were going to Ukraine on a business trip in a week. This would be what you need in your life. Right? Like, it's like videos breaking down, like really kind of essential phrases like introductions, like how to say that kind of thing. Like really basic conversation stuff. And it's free. You just sign up for it, and she sends you like a link to like a, it's like, it's just a YouTube video, but it's like a, like a what's a privatized one? Like a not a hidden one or whatever? What's it called? Like?


11:30

Yes, yeah, my


Brandon  11:31

brain just turned off. Yeah. Like, it's not like a public video. So it's just a link to a private video. That's unlisted, unlisted, thank you. Thank you. So you can kind of get those lessons there plus like a PDF files that go along with it. Alright, so you can kind of look at the written language with the alphabet and everything.


Collin  11:52

So that's really cool.


Brandon  11:55

She goes through the stuff and then you just have the video. So like, I could see how some people would be like, Man, you did that video kind of fast. But like,


Collin  12:04

it's a video, just rewind and play. Yeah. Oh, no. I like the slider.


Brandon  12:13

So that's cool. And the other thing that she found, I just found this yesterday. Because on our little website thing, it's like, actually, super dope is it's a, it's a free PDF file. So you just like put it in the cart and order it. And then that's basically it. They just download it. But it's $0. So it's 100%. Free. But it's a PDF file with like, a billion web links in it. Who like Ukrainian stuff? Oh, nice. So like, we're talking about like, immersion, you can it's like lists of like Ukrainian news websites. So you can just like, look at it. One of them's like Ukrainian radio stations that are on the internet. Well, then there's like, this whole big thing of like, places where you can look at books, and authors and Ukrainian and like TV shows, and movie titles and music artists. And it's just a big list of stuff. Wow, isn't Ukrainian that you probably can't find by yourself? Because you're trying to search for things that are written in a different alphabet with the Latin alphabet, right? Uh huh. You're like, I don't know how to type this. Which you maybe you had some of these troubles to you if you guys did any research this week? Because I did. We can talk about that a minute, too. But yeah, that is, it's really cool. It's like a starting guide for like, Oh, hey, here's like some of the ones that like the news websites, you can just like, read some news. After you kind of get a handle on the alphabet, you can sort of like, try to pronounce the words yourself, like in their natural environment. Okay. Like, here they are doing their thing. And again, you can just hear Ukrainian. Yeah. Which is really handy. Again, if you're trying to learn it, or at least be comfortable, like, maybe not, like learn it, like, super grammatically, and like correctly become like a really fluent speaker. But even if you're just trying to learn, like some phrases and stuff,


Aaron  14:15

like hearing people pronounce


Collin  14:17

these letters, Tandy, right?


Brandon  14:23

Because some of them are very mysterious. There's a couple that I've still liked.


Collin  14:29

I don't know. Maybe? Yeah. You will, you will need to, because I was not going to attempt to Google search for her name while you're talking. So he put that in the Google Doc.


Brandon  14:45

Before I have it. Well, her website is just speed ua.com. Okay. And then she has her YouTube channels called like, speak Ukrainian. I'll probably send you that one later.


Collin  14:56

Okay. Yeah, she's pretty awesome.


Brandon  14:58

She doesn't like was cool she does if you're interested in doing it, she will do like online, like Skype lessons, right? And stuff like that. Oh, maybe not. right this second because she's in Ukraine. Currently, she might be a little busy. So that's great to hear. You're amazing. Thank you. So she also has like, written a textbook for like, if you are, it's one that's like a, it's not like an introductory textbook, right? It's like, are like going in hardcore, like you, you get that one. Which is like flashcards and stuff you can get and whatever. And


Collin  15:39

so it's like a whole deal. So it's pretty cool. Yeah, I love I love those kinds of resources, because like he said, I'm trying to surface information, or what things are, is really, I we didn't think it's easy. When we're trying to find stuff, like you said, with our own alphabet. As soon as we try and step outside of that all of a sudden, the window into the rest of the world is really small.


Brandon  16:05

Yeah. Yeah, it's hard to know how to find it. Right? Like, because you are trying to look for these, like there are characters in the Cyrillic alphabet that do not exist


Collin  16:16

in the Latin alphabet. Right? So trying to figure out things is real difficult.


Brandon  16:25

So that one, the PDF resource I when I saw that yesterday is like, Yo, this is actually kind


Collin  16:31

of genius. Because, you know, you can just


Brandon  16:37

like there's no way I would have been able to find like Ukrainian news websites by myself.


Collin  16:43

Right? Like, right. I mean, I could have, but it would have been like, much


Brandon  16:50

gnashing of teeth, right?


Collin  16:52

Well, my question whenever I try and do those kinds of things is, am I actually seeing what I'm supposed to be seeing? Because I don't know. Right? Yeah. No, this is actually, because if you're just learning it, you know, just this is this is no offense to but if you're just learning one of the Slavic languages, it's hard to figure out and understand which 1am I listening to? Oh, no.


Brandon  17:16

Yeah. Which 1am? I looking at? Yeah, exactly. And they use a similar alphabet. I was looking earlier, not today, but last week, but like that, and like the Russian alphabet, they're similar. But their Russian alphabet has extra letters that you wouldn't notice. If you were just like, trying to start learning Ukrainian, right, you might, you would have a hard time knowing which one you're looking at. or any of the other Slavic languages,


Collin  17:41

right. Like, which ones this?


Brandon  17:43

Is this Bella routine? I don't know, like, is this what is that?


Collin  17:47

Right? Yeah, and you need to do you do need to have someone to hold your hand. And then on top of that, there are things like, you know, just from a news perspective of I love seeing what other countries and other people around the world are seeing and hearing about our world?


Brandon  18:10

Oh, yeah. No, I agree with that. I do that a lot.


Collin  18:12

Because I know what Okay, what do what do they say? What are they hearing? When they say, especially right now during this invasion? Like, okay, well, I know, what are this isn't a the media are lying, blah, blah, blah, blah, no, no, say, how are they covering it? Right? Because, you know, we have our own problems that so we can't dedicate the entire news hour to, to the war. So just get little snippets and stuff.


Brandon  18:37

Yeah, it's definitely different. Right, you can definitely see that. Even though you couldn't follow some of it. You could tell some of it, I watched one of the new broadcasts. They're definitely in the basement. Like they're definitely doing that. Like, it's not the normal studio setup. You know, they're really going all out to still bring this coverage to people in any way that they can. And so it's very interesting to look


Collin  19:01

at that. So yeah, small


Brandon  19:05

side note, a bit of levity. Many Ukrainian websites look like Yahoo. Circa 2000 They get off that vibe, we got to get fuel to hell guys, we get web design is the thing. Anyway, so yeah, that's it was really nice to see that and be able to like go oh, okay, cuz this is what I was kind of looking for. And like I said, I'll probably mention later like things I struggled with earlier in the week. I'm finding it yesterday was like, This is great late.


Collin  19:39

I could have timed this better. But there you go. I like that very much. That was good. So if you got a second for my brief history of Ukrainian language, here we go. I to see. Because, yes,


Brandon  19:58

go ahead. Is The brief rundown. I got this information from several, like language channels and reading things. So if I miss something, listeners, please let me know. Like, most of it comes from, it's a branch of the eighth in the Slavic language family, as we know, it kind of comes from this like proto Slavonic. Very old language system. That's that was old that's been around for like, like 1000 years or so.


Collin  20:34

But the Greek the


Brandon  20:37

European Ukrainian language was originally sort of codified in written down by


Collin  20:42

Greek church people.


Brandon  20:46

So the Slavic I did not know this, the Slavic kind of Cyrillic alphabet, comes directly from the Greek alphabet. Right? They were using the Greek characters to write it down. That's why some of them look really familiar. And some of them are like, what, what does that because it's kind of from Greek, right? They, they use the Greek alphabet to write down these original Greek church people. So then, after while, there was a split in the language, and the Russian language is based on the like high Slavonic Church Slavonic language, which was like the official very highly codified language system of the church and government administration. Whereas what is now modern day Ukrainian comes from the like, more common


Collin  21:39

people language of the time, right? Similar to


Brandon  21:43

how in English, right? You had the like, high English and like the French version, and unlike you that normal


Collin  21:49

people speak, they became English, right?


Brandon  21:54

Like that, almost so that you had this one visit, and the Russian said, Well, what would become Russia said, this is going to be our language system. Whereas the Ukrainians were like, Ah, we're gonna use this, like, every day, sort of language. And we're gonna turn that into our official language. And we're gonna write our documents in that language. So that was the big schism,


Collin  22:16

in, in that Slavic dialect there,


Brandon  22:23

and then became two completely separate


Collin  22:25

languages. Right?


Brandon  22:29

For so they like, they're not mutually intelligible. They're not the same thing. They have a lot of shared words. But they also have a lot of words that are like, false cognates. Right, where they sound similar, but they mean absolutely nothing in common, right. Because Ukrainian was influenced a lot by its position, and its close contact with places like Constantinople. And, I mean, literally being the crossroads of Europe in Asia. Yeah. Right. So there's lots of influence from Turkic languages, but also influences from


Collin  23:10

Polish and German.


Brandon  23:12

Right. And then also Greek, because they were there too. So you have a lot of different influences from the language over time, that sort of morphed in, found their way in there. So you can read those eventually. There's so many words that even though they're spelled with a different alphabet, once you figure out the phonetics, you'll read the Word and be like that says photograph. Uh huh. All right.


Collin  23:34

Well, that's moving on.


Brandon  23:38

Wow, I was not expecting that. Got it. So there's some recognition there, once you get past how scary the alphabet looks. But that's the split, right. So they are, they are two different languages. Now, the Russian Government will tell you, they are not. Historically, they have tried many times to say that Ukrainian is not a real language. And it's just like a dialect of Russian. But you can definitely tell that you cranium is its own language, because the Russians have tried to ban it like seven times. You don't ban things that aren't real. Right. So yeah,


Collin  24:18

it's kind of a, you know,


Brandon  24:20

this is a little bit of a giveaway. Peter, the great Miley,


Collin  24:23

and I reminded of the Oh no, what's the childhood book about the dragon? Who eats the pancakes in the mall? Oh, no such thing as a dragon. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right. We talked about this. And I just love the the exact same thing of the, it's, if it's, if it's not there, you know, there's no reason to pat it on the head. So, but it's like what it is there. Yeah, but it's not so.


Brandon  24:52

Yeah. So it's been banned several times. There was actually a letter banned from Ukrainy alphabet for a long time, because that letter that letter, the letter of that represents the sound guy. That sound does not that letter, I mean, rather does not exist


Collin  25:13

in the Russian alphabet.


Brandon  25:17

So to exude their control over the Ukrainians, they banned


Collin  25:22

the letter gear that makes the sound well done.


Brandon  25:32

So that you would they wouldn't like offend their eyes, I guess I don't know why. But like, because it didn't exist. There's a different letter in the in the Russian alphabet that makes that sound. But it's a different character altogether in Ukrainian. So it's AC?


Collin  25:51

Very others Yeah, I guess we can probably just go ahead and dive right into a research that we've done this week or something. Yeah. Interesting. So the task this week was to do something of you can't read Ukrainian culture, whether that was visual reading arts, otherwise history of it. So I'm interested to see how your deep dive into history of language has impacted what you ended up doing, Brendon?


Brandon  26:27

Oh, yes, we'll do. I'll let someone else talk for a little bit. I've been hogging the show so far. But


Collin  26:33

Aaron, do you want to go? Oh, no, especially


Aaron  26:36

daddy. Let me go ahead.


Collin  26:39

This is going well. Well, Brian, it's interesting that you talked about the foundations of language, because I was interested in some of the impactful artists from Ukraine. Yeah.


Brandon  26:56

The any type of artists visual,


Collin  26:57

yeah, well, we will get there. So men, terrorists, Shevchenko is considered to be the father of Ukrainian literature, and the modern Ukrainian language, ah, because of how he used it in his poems. Then, interestingly, and this was a very, to me, this is a very late development as part of when giving,


Brandon  27:25

I heard I think I read about this guy, when is he doing this thing?


Collin  27:29

In the he was alive in the early to late 1800s?


Brandon  27:36

Like, yeah, yeah. So it came across his name somewhere, I think I'm sure


Collin  27:39

it to me, it was very interesting. But he's very influential in part of the Ukrainian identity. And what is interesting about him is that he basically lived all of his life, either as a serf, or in forced marches across Russia, or on forest expeditions to paint and write about what he saw. But he wasn't really part of the Expedition crew, he was there just to document and originally, he was painting to go along with his poems. But his illustrations have now taken on their whole other meaning as far as their importance and their relevance. And I didn't actually want to touch on one of his poems. It's very long, but apparently, it's extremely popular and well known to the Ukrainian to Ukrainian people. And it starts off, basically, this is a poem about developing freedom and seeing, they're more of an identity. He says, When I die, then make my grave high on an ancient mound, in my beloved Ukraine in steppe land without bound, whence one may see white skirted Wheatland, and then it says, deep bro, or nipro steep cliff short Negro is a city along a well known river. There winds one may hear the blustering river wildly roars till from Ukraine to the blue sea bears in a fierce endeavor, the blood of foeman then I'll leave Wheatland and hills forever. Leave all behind soar up until before the throne of God I'll make my prayer. For till that hour I shall not know of God, make my grave there and arise. Sunday Sundering your chains. Bless your freedom with the blood of Foreman's evil veins than in that great family, a family new and free. Do not forget with good intent. Speak quietly of me. He wrote that in 1945, there was an 1845 Walk and it's called testament and it is again, speaking of this, Ukraine, gaining freedom and standing up for themselves and making something new on the other side, as they, again, were building this identity. And another one of his paintings, one of the most famous ones was actually one that he illustrated for one of his poems, Catarina, and I'll have a link to this in the show notes, but I'll send it over to you guys. So you can see this too. It is a poem about the dangers of the Moscheles Moscheles are the Moscow's right. And I'm not going with them. And so it's the story of a young peasant woman who falls in love with a Russian soldier to against the chagrin of everybody who's in her family, then he up and leaves, but then it's kind of her recovery and coming out of that. For the better basically as a as a tail against cautious, cautious, cautious tail. Yeah, on that. But his paintings, what's what I love about this is when they talk about his paintings, they, the art historians have a hard time knowing which ones are his because he paints all sorts of different styles and all sorts of different things across and that's because, I mean, he's poor. And so I'll send you the Catarina has most famous one. That was that was done in 1842. And this other one that I'm sending you is nine years earlier. And it's just like, not in the same style at all.


Brandon  31:44

Those are extra different moments.


Collin  31:48

And he's he's totally doing that he has like extensive pencil work. And and he had some formal training in Russia actually. Um, and they're in their universities, he was taken out of serfdom by a wealthy artist who auctioned off one of his paintings to pay for the freedom of terrorists. So that he could come but okay. And work with him. But, um, terrorists held some beliefs that were not appreciated by others, where he wanted a strong independent Ukraine is a sounding familiar. Yeah, I think he was imprisoned many times. For this, I never really quite got beyond that. And so I it was very interesting to see him painting moments of. And I guess there should also be a What are we calling it a Greek art warning, only a Ukrainian art warning? Yeah. But I'll include links to some of his most common work. Like I said, Catarina is one of them. And I spent my time reading these, and looking at these pictures. And what I love about them is again, just the the vast difference of these I will send you guys a third or third one, you can see of his paintings. This one was later this one was after Catarina. It's called the ASCEND ascension cathedral. He, he gets a pencil sketch, in 1845. And it's very lightly shaded, very subdued hues and colors, but he went on kind of this. And he also documented these journeys that he went on, in the Aral Sea, on a ship, he was forced to, to go on this Russian naval expedition across the RLC. And he was just to document and paint and sketch. And he was out for 18 months, and came back with all these massive all these drawings that he had with them. And then, and then they sent him out on another one of these kinds of excursions and adventures, where he continued to paint and draw on these things. He's also painting various landscapes across this wide diversity of places that aren't just his, you know, are just Ukraine. But but he's giving his perspective. And it's, like, I was very interested in kind of foundational stuff, and were kind of like you bring in, like, where did this identities start coming from? And he's widely credited with the use of language, like very, very powerfully, where, you know, the talk about Ukraine as as a country, kind of awakening to itself about who they are as people and what they identified with. Yeah,


Brandon  34:53

I came across his name in regards to that type of situation because, like I said, at that time Ukrainian was considered, like, the Russians look at the split of the Slavic language as since theirs is from high Church Slavonic. They clearly view it as the better. Uh huh. Right. So they say, ah, Ukrainian is no good. It's just of the peasants. I mean, it's not real totally, by the way. They say that, right? But they did not. They weren't convinced that it was useful, right? They were like, oh, you can't do write novels and poetry and do like great things with this language, because it's not good. Right. And he's one of the people that is kind of like, you know, the Ukraine, people like, Hey, how about you look at this, though? Blam. Like, he's credited as being a person that kind of stood in the face of that sort of discrimination of the language and said, you know, people were like, you can't write beautiful poetry and Ukrainian and here he is. Writing beautiful poetry with your Korean Right?


Collin  35:59

Exactly. Yes. Yeah. No, again, bringing about this this intellectual literary powerhouse, like you said, using the something that was demeaned and maligned, and thought lesser, but was given our and the, by by him. And he's still he's on some of their, I think there's a young portrait of him on some of their, their, their dollars, their their monitor their physical paper, money, and things like that. But it was it seeing his breadth of work and how young he started to do things. I mean, he's, he's one of the one of the stories of his early life was awful. Like, I mean, he's a, he's a surf in Yeah, it's not


Brandon  36:44

great. There's a kind of during,


Collin  36:49

during the Russian Empire, right? Where things were not good at all. No. And he was constantly being sold and bought and resold. Both of his parents died very young, and tragically, you know, and he was kind of whisked off on one of the sales. And because of where he was then was able to start doing these things. But he was constant. He was also punished for his work from a very early age to where one of the people he was working with during the Oh, what was it? My brain is gonna snap back into place in just a moment. Oh, during the heat of War of 1812. Interestingly enough,


Brandon  37:30

yeah, different one. But yeah, there's also someone Tchaikovsky wrote about, yeah, right, that's during


Collin  37:34

that he was caught painting in the basement and was like, beaten for it. And yet, he still continued to do it. And basically what he was doing is he was living in these rich people's places, with all these paintings around and was copying them, to some extent, right. And was was looking around going, alright, do this. And he was given, like I said, opportunities to later study at at other places, in St. Petersburg, as well. But it kind of this early. You could you could tell he was he was trying to find and speak about something from a very early age and was finally able to do it later in life. Interesting. That's pretty cool. So ah, yes, terrorist ship Chanko. With Catarina and just, that's his most famous one for his poem and the the painting that he did, it's an oil painting, and it's just he captured anyway, I'm not an art critic. Let's just be very real.


Brandon  38:40

But to be an art enthusiast,


Collin  38:42

I am an art enthusiast. But in this painting, you see the young woman in classical Ukrainian, traditional Ukrainian garb? Standing looking extremely for Lauren, and a man sitting down beside her. Who we can assume is a traditional Ukrainian mustache guy with a traditional Kamesh and an amazing hat. True looking knowingly at her, right and then there is the Russian soldier blasting off in his with his, his horse. I'm looking over his shoulder at her and if you zoom in on this the the look on this soldier is is basically I don't know, it's compared to her expression, which is in the foreground, obviously, he's left he's in the background. So it's it's not as sharp. But there is it's a it's a flat face, right? He's He's just looking and then he's gonna be gone. Right. There's nothing bit nothing to him. And he's gone. And it's a Yeah, it's especially when it's tied to the, the poem, right of knowing what's going on here. But it's just a it's a very fast thing, the detail work about what the gentleman's doing on the ground and per dress. I love it. I was I was I've stared at this thing. For a bale of time getting prepared for this, so it was very good. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, that's, that was my deep dive into terrorists this week. Nice. And do you have anything to talk about? Oh, um,


Aaron  40:21

I kind of missed the mark, because I guess I kind of just went down a rabbit hole with like history, and like outside influences of Ukraine and kind of how it's never really been its own identity for a really long time. So I was kind of a little all over the place, especially kind of like with outside influences, other cultures being brought in and out of Ukraine, like Russia as embell, like, weird way, but it always kind of had that historical ties connected to somebody else. As well, that's why Ukraine is kind of diversity in unique, so I was a little all over the place. And I don't know if I have that much time. I hadn't noticed. But it's mostly just kind of like history of kind of external conflict that always influenced Ukraine in some way, shape, or form or like, given day with like, the Golden Horde, and, you know, Soviet era, taking out non production into Ukraine, and then then taking those Ukrainians out, and putting it in the factories, which hold it a more, the great famine, and kind of things. So kind of how Ukrainian identity has always been shaped, in some way, shape, or form by other people. And so that's kind of where I went, I was all over the place.


Brandon  41:41

That's right. I started down that road as well. I got this book. I only read the first section of it today. But it's called the gates of Europe, a history of Ukraine. It's pretty great. So I was in a similar vein, I was interested in that kind of thing, too. So I'm in the I'm only in the first part, like, we just finished the Golden Horde bit. Yeah, no, but but I think that's interesting. That's an important part of it, too, because it's had Ukrainians had these moments in time, where it was like the big shining star, and then through, like you said, many different outside influences. It was curtailed perhaps slightly too early, you know, because before the Horde showed up, they were kind of moving in the same line as Constantinople.


Collin  42:31

Right. Kiev, was like,


Brandon  42:35

cause he was emulating Constantinople in its area. You know, it was the shining star of learning and literature and all that stuff. In the east there until it wasn't until the guy died. Yaroslav, I think the Yaroslav the Wise, died. And then kind of like after Charlemagne died, it was kind of all South, you know, I mean, because at that time,


Collin  43:07

it if if, you know, the Russians,


Brandon  43:11

some of the Russian people like to talk about how, you know, they, Russia, Ukraine is part of Russia. Right. If you go back further than that, you might find that the cavion rousse empire of, you know, 1000 at the seat of power in the whole area, from the, from the Black Sea to the Baltic,


Collin  43:39

was in Kiev. Right. Yeah,


Brandon  43:42

it was the controlling power area. Also, I did not realize that that city was over 1000 years old. And that blew my mind. Right? When I read that, I was like, oh, oh my gosh. You know, this guy, the last great ruler of that thing, Yaroslav, he's such an important guy that the Ukrainians and Russians actually fight over if he was Russian or Ukrainian, you know, on, he's on the both, whatever the dollars are in each one. But in Ukraine, he's depicted with traditional Ukrainian mustache and costume. And in Russia, he's depicted with traditional Muscovite goatee and short hair. You know, he's so far over that. Nobody knows where his body is. It was taken out of the church. He was buried in and it's gone. Possibly removed when the Soviets invaded. Wow. But like it could be in New York. Fun facts. But nobody knows. Nobody's saying. So I think that's important here. And that's an important part of the history of the outside influences. So was there any one in particular that you thought was like, super important to the development of


Collin  44:59

this stuff? Besides,


Aaron  45:02

besides white, Russia with like Muscovy, Poland, Lithuania also controlled like a vast swathes of it. But also like, especially when you go like southern Ukraine, you get like Cossacks, which were kind of like, which was, oh, what's the word friendly to kind of like Freeman and others, like semi nomadic people, and they were kind of like, pushed out from Czarist Russia, and kind of like, started their own identity and Southern, like, train like close to Crimea. And another big factor that I learned. So it's kind of more of like, ancient history was that a lot of like, Greek colonies started to kind of dot, you know, further into, like, the Black Sea and things like that. And that's where we get a lot of these stories from like, early nomadic tribes from like, the Scythians. And that's kind of where we get a lot of the stories are like Amazon, or Amazonian women, you know, female warriors with like, three degrees out, because they weren't used to things like that. But that was kind of in that same area. Also the, although it could be like 100 miles off. But I would kind of say, like, how the Cossacks not call back off back with Matt to s3 is is actually a good name staple of like, if no one else was gonna live here, we're forced out of our ancestral home, we're gonna make this our ancestral home. And that's kind of why when Russia took Crimea, one of the biggest ethnic groups that kind of had to overcome all this, or did most of the fighting was traditional Cossacks in the area, and Ukrainian top ours, that were kind of like the main staple of like, early Ukrainian, I tend to be like, Oh, hey, no, although there's people here, like, Kevin area, like they kind of, although they came from outside, they kind of adapted in May Ukraine, like, their identity. And so I can, I think a lot of that, really, creation should be kind of towards the context. Anyways, especially edeline heard about or read about a lot of their, like, early history of how it ties into, like, oh, Ukraine was getting attacked, who was able to defend it affect? You know, some outside influence, was trying to come in and try to put a new government who was always there as a callback. And so that's, like the main group, out of like, the 1000s that have played a huge important part is like their earliest jury. Yeah, I would have to agree.


Brandon  47:37

I read several similar things about how that the Cossack group of people kind of that FOS in their spirit, they embody that of like, yeah, no, we're just gonna fight you, how would that


Collin  47:50

that sort of strong


Brandon  47:53

kind of identity, they kind of brought that into the Ukrainian fold. Right. So you crane, the crane had an identity, and they came in and said, we're adding this piece to that. And a lot of people really latched on to that idea and said, Yes, that's good. We they admired that strength in that kind of spirit, they like that kind of free nomadic spirit. Because, you know, traditionally, lots of nomadism in that part of the world and everything so that I don't have to agree that you definitely cannot underestimate the Cossack influence on Ukrainian history, especially kind of lat, like, you know, a little bit later time, kind of, like, they played a big role in a lot of stuff. Like, you know, like you said, fighting people and taking, you know, if you were on their side that that was that's what you want on your side, and like the, you know, 16th century was the concepts right, like, that's unique. That was good.


Aaron  49:00

Yeah, I think that that kind of how, you know, firstly, when you get to like the Crimean warrior wars, or anything in between, that just kind of place you stable in place, especially as they settle down after like, the kind of 1900s


Collin  49:16

but I have a


Aaron  49:18

history book by Paul favorites that talks about the Russian rebels 1600 to 1800. And a majority of the time we're talking about, like, uprising against Russia, or Russia or must be Russia or imperial Russia, usually somehow tied into contact paying only costs as much as like, there's some times where there's one cool story, I can't remember which one it is, but it talks about how there was a guy who kind of seemed like a Robin Hood kind of thing where he would build like, like mobile for, like online. Would and they were like, oh, we need to run the like, around before and like shipping down river. And they were just like build up another floor. So they're like, constant like mobile fortress kind of thing. And the Russians were like, well, we're not we don't know how to beat them. And so I think it was all the way up until like, one of like, Tsar Nicholas or somebody that's like, murder down. kind of story, always wanting to find which one it was. There's been a lot of reading, but like always, but,


Brandon  50:31

but there's lots of I think there's lots of anecdotes about that with the Cossacks. Right, like, switching sides mid thing be like, Hey, you didn't pay us right. Now we're gonna be you like blam.


Collin  50:42

Especially with that, like Poland, Lithuania.


Brandon  50:47

The Moscow boy kind of like, conflict. They're like the Cossacks were generally a deciding factor on who's ever side they decided to be on. Whoever didn't make them angriest, right? They would just fight the person that made the mess.


Aaron  51:03

They kind of were like, early mercenaries. But yeah, change. It was kind of more towards like, oh, no, this is our home now.


Brandon  51:10

So yes, they did sort of adopt Ukraine as their homeland. And again, that that you're right, that does play a big part in that identity,


Collin  51:18

I think. Yeah. So very nice. I will add that also in my deep dive, I found two Ukrainian restaurants in my town that are places to go eat.


Brandon  51:37

Okay, so we're gonna need future updates on how that goes.


Collin  51:40

Yes. What is a sacred yellow brick and mortar establishment? And then the other one is a food truck. So I'm very excited for this. Oh, yeah. It would be to let us know how that goes. If you make it there. It will go well, I I had known about them. But also is one of the things of it's on a side of town where I don't like ever go for any pretty it's like way, way, way on the South side of town. I live in a small town, but like, yeah, we've kind of stay have kind of north side and just go east and west. We like going south means we're going to Dad's or something. Yeah. So I was like, oh, yeah, I have driven by that place. We need to go because you know what I need? I need a kebab meal. That's what I know. Yeah, I need some borscht. Yes, exactly. There you go. That is on my to do list. Sweet. Pretty awesome.


Brandon  52:45

Well, do you find any Ukrainian movies and or Music To also?


Collin  52:53

I, unfortunately, in my deep dive or not my deep dive, so I did find one. I do have notes here. Hold on, hold on. Hold on. I if I wrote this down? Most of the stuff, unfortunately now, the algorithm right now is very broken for when you're trying to find stuff not related to the Ukrainian to the to the Ukrainian war. It's true. So


Brandon  53:22

back to what I was talking about at the beginning, right? It's difficult to find this stuff.


Collin  53:27

It's not just it's not just you know, basically, if you search for this kind of thing, right now you're going to get documentaries. So there's a free one on Netflix from 2015 that you can see now. But one that I was interested in trying to find how to watch. It's a, a kind of a Disney Pixar style film called The Stolen princess. It's a 3d animated fantasy film. Ah, and I tried to find this but it is not. Not possible. Unfortunately. You can watch it in English.


Brandon  54:12

But I don't think I saw it in English somewhere. Yeah, but I was trying to watch it in Ukrainian and I


Collin  54:18

v2. That's why I want Ukrainian I want and subtitles don't Yeah, none of this dub stuff like I'm not a dub person. Also, apparently, there's another animated film called The tram was going number nine. Chang about how a tram I think has some level of cognition. And it follows along with people's lives as they ride the tram and how it changes in gaming. I really wanted to


Brandon  54:50

watch this one. That sounds pretty sweet. Actually. Yes.


Collin  54:53

And there were only a couple other ones after that, but those two really kind of bubbled to the top But yeah, I,


Brandon  55:00

I had a hard time as well. Like, I could find lists of like their names. But they're not available to watch anywhere. I could discover, right, like,


Collin  55:14

none Well, I mean one I found one I watched but like, not a lot, right. It's


Brandon  55:20

not a it's not a big thing currently you know, so maybe that's just because I didn't know what to search for.


Collin  55:30

It's possible right? I don't know the names of these movies.


Brandon  55:36

I don't have anything specific looking for so that could be part of it. But yeah, it's really difficult to find Ukrainian language.


Collin  55:45

Anything at least it was for me movie wise. Which I was ah yeah, I was saddened by um because I was wanting to i i Like St because there's that there's the how to say this you know, like so my exposure to like anime through me as AKI is there's the his take on fantasy. Yeah, there's also like a lot of cultural whatever he sets them closer to home and not some like weird like, European. And Onyx is existence city, but this is like this is in Japan. Those are very different.


Brandon  56:29

I started throwing shade at Porco Rosso. Okay, I like that. Maybe


Collin  56:32

quit. Oh, no, say all these good. It's just whenever I'm joking, when he writes a story about like, Japanese life. I love that very much like. But then there's the high fantasy. Like Hell's Moving Castle. That's a very different movie than like a Kiki's Delivery Service, which Lillian by the way, absolutely loves. Yeah. And she watched that with subtitles. So don't tell me you people out there. Qantas. She's six. But I was I was I was looking for something like that, from that we could I could access about from Ukrainian producers. And like you said, couldn't quite ever crack that nut. Get into that. Yeah, that was difficult.


Brandon  57:23

Well, I got one for you. Okay. All right. Well, I watched two movies. Because number one, I've seen this one movie before. And I really like it. And it's set in Ukraine. It's not a Ukrainian movie. It's a Hollywood movie about Ukraine. Before I start this, I would like to also say that Ukrainian movies also the ones that I could find lists of, they all seem to deal with what Aaron was talking about, about outside influence, and invasion and war.


Collin  57:54

All of them. It's in there, it permeates these movies, like a lot. And so


Brandon  58:03

at least the ones that I could find lists of now that might not be every single movie ever, but a lot of the bigger releases that people have at least seen.


Collin  58:11

There. It's in there. Right? It's definitely in there.


Brandon  58:15

So the first one I watched was, is that we're gonna give it a slight past. We're gonna call it half Ukrainian. It is of course, everything is illuminated from 2005. Starring Elijah Wood. So post Frodo Elijah Wood, but isn't this movie?


Collin  58:31

He made it? Yeah,


Brandon  58:33

this movie is kind of crazy. Right? It's, he's in it. And also Eugene hoods. Who is the lead singer of a band Google Bert Gogol bordello? Yes. It's he's in this movie. So Oh, my half we're gonna half count them as Ukrainian band because Eugene is Ukrainian. Man. Awesome. You mean? So? Small spoilers. So if you want to have Ukrainian band Gogol, bordello can recommend anyway, so it's about this guy. Elijah woods, his character is a Jewish American, who is going to Ukraine to search for his family roots. Or like his grandfather was Jewish Ukrainian who escaped Ukraine when


Collin  59:24

the Nazis came. Right. That's what they're looking for.


Brandon  59:30

He's so he's going back there to try to find his history. Eugene plays this guy, Alex,


Collin  59:39

who's from Odessa, who's like, you know,


Brandon  59:43

he's just issued like ladies and dancing and doing weird things. But he goes with his granddad, who was also called Alex, by the way. He gets hired by Elijah was character Jonathan to drive him out to this video. leash where his grandpa was from, right and it's it's really weird movie. It's very odd, musics awesome. The undertones are all about looking for identity, and your own history. And kind of like, the history of place. And like, where you belong in the world, that's kind of what the movies about.


Collin  1:00:27

It's a little dark at the end, kind of takes a turn. So, you know, warning for that.


Brandon  1:00:36

But it's really good. I really liked the movie. It's really weird. And I just enjoy Eugene so much, it's gonna be so great. Like everything he says, like the way that he talks. And it's beautiful. I say it all the time. And kind of like their friends, they kind of like they're very different people, but they kind of grow to be friends. Right? They have the classic trope of like, the dog is really crazy. And Elijah would have scared of dogs. But at the end of the movie, the dogs like lay on his lap, right? You know, they have that sort of trope in there. Everybody, everybody loves that trope, right? My favorite was about looking for identity


Collin  1:01:11

in a place and how you connect to other things, and,


Brandon  1:01:17

you know, discovering parts of your identity that you didn't know about, and how that can change you as a person. Right.


Collin  1:01:24

So it's pretty cool. Some of the movies


Brandon  1:01:28

in Ukraine, some of its shot in the Czech Republic. So, you know, you don't get the full Ukrainian landscape. But a sativa Sure. You get the idea, right for pictures that you see of Ukraine, right.


Collin  1:01:41

Very fast, open spaces, rolling hills


Brandon  1:01:46

and woodlands and farm. So like as a Midwest boy, it calls to my heart, right? Like, just like,


Collin  1:01:53

as we discussed the yes, the allure of hills, if you see


Brandon  1:01:56

the hills in the forest and the farmland age, like achingly beautiful as a person from, you know, the Midwest, where that's like what you see in your life. And that's what you really identify with, you see a place like that you're like,


Collin  1:02:09

oh, my gosh, great. Gorgeous, right.


Brandon  1:02:13

So you go and everything is illuminated. It's a really bizarre movie.


Collin  1:02:17

But I like it. It's a good one.


Brandon  1:02:20

The one I found that is actually Ukrainian. Is is even more bizarre.


Collin  1:02:29

Okay, and it's called, had Socha kristinia. I'll send you that. It's about this. So this, this, this family


Brandon  1:02:44

of Ukrainians that live in New York,


Collin  1:02:48

are the the kids dad


Brandon  1:02:50

dies. And he says, I will give my child all my inheritance If he marries a Ukrainian girl. So the uncle and the family bring the guy to Ukraine to look for a wife.


Collin  1:03:03

That's your setup. Right? Okay. But


Brandon  1:03:07

importantly, Aaron is important. This movie takes place in 1939.


Collin  1:03:12

Well, it's basically a Greek tragedy. Right? It's wild. Really. Yeah. So like, the way that it's set up in the way that it plays out.


Brandon  1:03:26

In like, there's a, they go to this hotel, the hotel and uncle are like old buddies from the village long time ago, they set up this thing they tried to do, you know, find them a life and over. But like, in the hotel, there's this band that's playing. And they act as like the Greek chorus. So like, all of their songs are, like, informing you about what's happening in the movie, or some kind of like exposition, you know. And they play like this really important role in the movie, even though they're just like the band over there and the thing.


Collin  1:04:06

It's crazy.


Brandon  1:04:08

And the colors and the filtering on this thing is like really vibrant in nuts. And like, it all takes place in the Carpathian Mountains. So again, it's actually shot in the Carpathian Mountains. So it's gorgeous in like far western Ukraine, you know, like the Polish border, where we are here. It's wild, right? So there is like, the whole thing where there's some silliness, where, like, the one girl that he really likes, right, he actually likes her and like, it's, you know, trying to figure out like, Oh, does she like him or the other women in the village figure out that he's there. It's gonna get a lot of money if he marries one of them. And so everybody comes and there's like, shenanigans were like, you know, Hallmark movie moment where like, he's like, the girl falls on him in the woods like by the river. Where he's waiting for the first girl. And like, as girl number two falls on him is holding him. Girl number one comes around the corner it looks right, like that's in there. But this whole thing is like undercut by the fact that it's 1939. And they don't know it, but the Soviets are coming. Right? And so there's no way but no matter what, there's no way the movies actually ending good. Right, right. Like, because this movie like The Last credit, like the title at the end, like the movie ends, and then it flashed up on the screen. The Soviets arrived like three months later, right? So you're left to wonder, like, did they make the right decision doing this? Are they okay? Were they able to get out? Like, what does that mean? Like? So it's kind of got that Greek tragedy element where they got what they wanted, but like, did they bow right? Like, you don't? I mean, yeah. It's crazy. It's absolutely amazing. I love this movie. Very much. And the music in this movie is brilliant. Right? Because it's, there's two actual bands in this movie. And I didn't realize they were actual bands until later when I was looking for Ukrainian bands. Yeah, I saw these people. I was like, wait,


Collin  1:06:16

wait, I just, I saw them in. Oh, my gosh, what's going on? Oh, that's fun. Yeah,


Brandon  1:06:25

it was really fun. Right? So the quick segue on these bands real fast. Like one of them is called the duck daughters. And they're like this really weird. Like, they're both really strange bands are kind of like folk experimental. strangeness, and it's a female band, like six people in it or whatever. And their music is very eclectic and interesting. Sounds perfect. It's great. And the other one that I have my actually be in love with is they're called doc Abraca. And it's these four people. And they play like it's similar. It's like folk music. But like, not folk music, but like modern interpretations on actual folk songs, and like, weird things. And it's just it. They were Casa cats.


Collin  1:07:13

It's great. Which is perfect.


Brandon  1:07:18

It is perfect. So it's like, on their website it describes them is like, combining every nothing you've ever heard with everything you've ever heard before. Oh, my like, it's kind of like folk music slash world music kind of inspired stuff. Right? It's lots of drum. And like, harmony, singing, but also there's a cello. And the one girl plays piano sometimes. And there's an accordion inside. Like,


Collin  1:07:44

it's crazy. But I love it.


Brandon  1:07:47

Like a lot so perfect. They actually make a cameo in the movie. They have this party. And they're playing at the party. Oh, and I didn't know it. Because I watched movies like Audi this song is awesome. Song is great. And then I saw them in a different video later.


Collin  1:08:03

And I was like, that's the people that I just saw them walk the world.


1:08:09

It's all character. Yeah,


Brandon  1:08:10

perhaps gave them away. Okay, they always perform these black cats, which is gorgeous. But like,


Collin  1:08:17

they thought out exactly very well.


Brandon  1:08:19

No, it's beautiful. I think they did on purpose, right? Because I think they were trying to disguise themselves. I don't think they were just guys. Well, but the song they played in the movie, it's called the Carpathian rap. And it's like, it's based off of these, like, ancient traditional folk songs. The Grandmothers in the village would sing about young girls trying to find a husband in small villages. And like all the boys being kind of worthless. And so they like date one boy, and they're like, no, he sucks. And then like David other one, like, yeah, no, he's not good either. And like it's like a big list of what was wrong with all the men that they tried to date to try to find a husband. So when you know that context, it's even funnier. But it's really cool.


Collin  1:09:02

Yeah, it really fits the vibe


Brandon  1:09:06

of the movie at that point, too. Right. Like, so.


Collin  1:09:10

That's awesome. Yeah, that was


Brandon  1:09:13

it was fun. It was accidental crossover event of movie music that I was not expecting. When I first tried to Google music, I just Googled like, Ukrainian music.


Collin  1:09:27

Yeah. Did you do that? Yes. That was good. You know,


Brandon  1:09:31

did you did you find all the terrible Ukrainian Euro pop?


Collin  1:09:35

That's like all there was first. It's bad. Very bad. It's real bad. Yes.


Brandon  1:09:44

Aaron did you listen to Ukrainian Euro pop at all? By the way?


1:09:47

Did you well every


Aaron  1:09:48

time or not here, but every time I put in, like Ukrainian, like music and it's always pulled up like sounds like the Eastern like Aliaga like guitar stuff. And I was like Yeah.


Brandon  1:10:02

Yeah, some of the folk songs like that they're,


Collin  1:10:04

they're cool. They all are the same, but they're cool. But the pop is bad. We hope it's


Brandon  1:10:12

like slow to medium tempo, dance pop.


Collin  1:10:14

Yeah. All of it. It's not good. It didn't like it at all. None of it. So,


Brandon  1:10:23

so I might have to try a little bit harder to maybe find some music. That's good. But I did like Docker brockagh and the doc daughters. So that was exciting. accidental discovery there. There you go. Sega also, if you are a metal enthusiast, which I know, Cullen is I can recommend you. Obviously probably the most famous band currently out of Ukraine. Ginger, right. Definitely a metal band that are probably they're really awesome. And if you'd like a little bit more symphonic metal, there's another band called


Collin  1:11:01

Eternia. Awesome, good. Ah, a pretty good. Yes.


Brandon  1:11:08

But ginger. Good stuff. Right.


Collin  1:11:11

She's great if you like kind of the few like, galley lyrics.


Brandon  1:11:18

Because their singer is this girl they Tatyana she's like this tiny girl who like seems like a monster. It's very exciting.


Collin  1:11:30

So ginger is good. He liked that one. But yeah, the Euro pop stuff. Now, now Mt. Four.


Brandon  1:11:39

If you like traditional folk instruments, you of course have to listen to Bender music.


Collin  1:11:45

The official


Brandon  1:11:48

folk instrument of Ukraine. The Bender, have you seen this thing? No. Alright, imagine a giant circle. That's like two feet across. And it has like a guitar neck on one side. But it's basically a harp. And it has like 50 strings


1:12:09

is huge. Its enormous. Just you just found a picture of this. Yeah,


Brandon  1:12:14

it didn't get this enormous apparently until like the 1940s. So it was smaller before, but it's


Collin  1:12:19

huge. It sounds not unlike a harpsichord. So like, I couldn't envision that. Yeah, it's, uh, it's kind of cool. For a little bit.


Brandon  1:12:31

Too much vendor is just too much bender. Right. There's some really good compositions on it. There's some good videos of like, dudes on the street singing and playing Ventura. Right? That's a genre on YouTube, I think. Probably unofficially, but


Collin  1:12:51

so that's cool. Some other folk music stuff.


Brandon  1:12:54

But it is. I don't know how you play that many strings at once. It's just like a mobile harp. Kinda like.


Collin  1:13:03

That's awesome. Yeah.


Brandon  1:13:05

That was well, I got some music. I sort of ran out of time with music, got distracted with languages and things but yeah.


Collin  1:13:22

Well, I had intended to also kind of do a better dive into some documentaries about the background here. And I will say that everything that I came across, specifically specifically focused on the continued conflict in the Donbass region. And so there are up at a list to the Google doc here of a list of stuff that kind of breaks down into there's like, 20, or something, documentaries that you can watch about, kind of the history of these different regions. And some of the conflicts that they've


Brandon  1:14:08

they've had, did you watch any of them?


Collin  1:14:10

They're the one that I started watching what it's called Don't boss. Alright. And it wasn't if we need


Brandon  1:14:18

to do a little bit of a part two later, we may we may need to, we can we can get some of that stuff. Yeah.


Collin  1:14:25

But it's, it's specifically that one is specifically about the conflict in the Donbass and in Donbass, and kind of the, they break into a little bit of the propaganda. And that goes on in that region, and kind of in the looking at checkpoints, and just kind of what life has like, in that that particular region and obviously, we know that and this came out in 2018. So it was not good then. And then obviously, we know now that that region has have been pushed through entirely. And we're also one of the first ones right that they struck and moved into to try and claim and take over as their own. Yeah.


Brandon  1:15:10

So that doesn't interesting. I have to watch some of that stuff. So yeah, we might have to do part 1.5 here a little bit,


Collin  1:15:17

but if not next week, the week after maybe. And that's something that I see you talk about. What's interesting about the history of Ukraine, and a lot of the writings and a lot of the development of a society and culture is reflecting on the influence of outside influence and input and direction. A lot of the media put by put out by Ukraine, is about that same thing, a lot of these documentaries are about that same thing about fighting propaganda within the country, and still struggling for that identity. And living on these edges, you know, of these in these war zones, right? In the Donbass in the other regions by that of like, even prior to all of this, there was a lot it was very intense. And one of the things that, you know, there's a couple ones on this list about something I actually wasn't aware of that was Euromaidan. Had you heard of this?


1:16:27

I'm gonna need a little bit more context in that.


Collin  1:16:28

So Euromaidan was back in what 2013 2014? It was massive, massive protests.


Brandon  1:16:36

Oh, yes. Yes, yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. Yeah. You


Collin  1:16:39

know, yes. Sorry. You're made where it was part of the uprising. And civil unrest in Ukraine. Yes. And so there's documentary about that, too, as they are trying to again. Start that start those protests. Yeah. That


Brandon  1:17:01

had to do with some of the, I think, was that the one where the President was like, yeah, we'll totally gonna sign this treaty with NATO, and do this stuff. And then like, the very last second, he was, like, just kidding. Not really. Like, we're gonna sign the treaty with Moscow instead. And the people were like,


Collin  1:17:19

what? Yep, exactly. That's what he did. He was going to have a closer association with the EU. It wasn't NATO. It was just he was just the EU. I couldn't remember. But yeah, well, because the whole signing on to NATO thing is something completely different. That's fair. Right. Like that. Anyway, so. Yeah.


Brandon  1:17:39

So the Crimea thing, but yes,


Collin  1:17:41

exactly. And so So during this as he drew ties closer to, to Russia, and people were less than less than happy. Say that? Gee, I wonder why. But anyway, so yeah, I think we could definitely do. I would like to work through a couple of these documentaries. Alright. A doctor, there's some of them are documentaries. Some of them are, you know, Docu dramas or whatever, or be stylized, but they're playing on themes, theme themes. Yeah. Like one of the ones that I had actually heard of before was one called Atlantis. Where this came out in 2019. It's a film that set in 2025, after the Ukraine's victory after Ukraine's victory with Russia over the war with Russia. Little did they know. Right there. It's right. It's a scout that is now going to look for the bodies of soldiers that were lost and hid the story of him uncovering the details and things that happen there. So that's obviously fictional, but I have a still, yeah. Okay. Yeah.


Brandon  1:18:52

do part two, end part two next week or the week after that you could break over. Time to work through.


Collin  1:18:57

Yeah, I think we'll do in two weeks. Alright. Sounds good. Part two. In two weeks. Yes. Sound good, Aaron. Yeah, sounds good. All righty. Because that will Yeah, that will give me give me time to figure out what I'm doing. All right. And hopefully, hopefully be better. Vocal vocally? I know. I know. This is fun for everybody. Yeah, it's all good. Sorry, I had to mute myself as I coughed let me get some work, drink and then No, I really enjoyed this. I need to it's one of those things of I. I don't know if you get this like while I'm learning about this and looking into these people. It's always one of those of like, I get frustrated myself. Like, I didn't know this stuff earlier. I didn't watch these things earlier. And I know you can't watch and learn and consume everything. It just is like, it's all it's one of those things like, the world is so big. There's so many stories, yes, so much history, that I really, really do think that there's, it's never too late to do a deep dive. And that, especially in times like this, where it's super confusing, right? Like, it's like for somebody over over here across the way. It's like, I have no context for what's going on, or why this happening. Like I don't like it. But I can't exactly put a history to this. And I think that's, that's a disservice. So using taking this time to do some opportunity to not just learn about what's happening on but also develop a better appreciation for for the peoples of Ukraine, and that the history that they do have, I think that that this, that, that is always a good thing. And it should be pursued, whether in times of of war, or hopefully in times of peace. That's true. That's true. I agree.


Brandon  1:21:11

I'm same way I've been fascinated with Ukraine by a lot for a long time. But I've only ever, like, had the time to sort of pick up pieces here and there. And, you know, little bits and little things here and there. So it hasn't been this concerted effort. So it's really been good this week to sort of focus on that and like, like you said, kind of take it in more and sort of UI right, gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the people that live there and what they're dealing with right now. And having the context of why they are being forced to deal with this


Collin  1:21:48

is useful, just for the current climate of everything. So yeah,


Brandon  1:21:51

I think I enjoyed it as well.


Collin  1:21:54

Your thoughts? And sorry,


Aaron  1:21:59

my headphones got disconnected. What's


Brandon  1:22:03

your thoughts on kind of learning about some Ukrainian things this week?


Aaron  1:22:06

Also, my, my biggest thing with with Ukraine is that the search, like what the history is, by itself has like a deep history, kind of what I said before, is always tied to something. And so my biggest thing is wanting to like separate like, just the Ukrainian art. But even that in itself is difficult. Because like it's always like, Oh, but like this, no cultural thing comes from this. But like, I know, there's deeper roots with Ukraine. And I this week's kind of gonna be a little chaotic. But I got some I got some time in between baseball games, I was just trying to find more of like, what is crude Ukrainian? And then try to tie that into the oil.


Brandon  1:22:56

No, I think that's important too. And kind of what Collin was talking about a while ago with there is this element of like, it is such a crossroads. And so so many things intersect there. So you have that to deal with, plus this layer of propaganda that's been laid on top of it by different entities, right? To be like, no, no, no, no, that's not true. They'd say it was this. Right. Yeah. Sort of sifting through that mire. Yeah, is also difficult, right? Because it's not a new thing. Like you said, Eric, that that's been going on for a couple 100 years, at least. You know, so like, trying to dig through that. It's hard. So I think, yeah, we'll keep doing that. We'll keep going. Cuz that was interesting. That too. I just was a little late to that because I was trying to watch a movie. Yeah,


Collin  1:23:59

though, yep. I'm all for that. We will do more next time. All right. I look forward to that.


Brandon  1:24:05

All right. So Ukraine, part two in two weeks. Sounds good. If we do have any Ukrainian listeners know that we love you. We hope we're doing right. And hope to hear from you soon, right.


Collin  1:24:23

Yeah, no, we all best and we absolutely are. In awe of everything going on and are loving learning about you and trying to support you in ways that we can. Yeah. Okay, well, that sounds good. My throat is about to die. So, which that's my cue. Yep. Yep. Yep. All right. Love you guys. Let me do right.