Imagine my surprise when sifting through pages and pages of Google Analytics information to find we finally picked up a reader in Ufa, the captiol of The Republic of Bashkortostan. Although these things come off as tongue and cheek, we here at Citizen Dick sincerely get a kick out of seeing our fandom stretch into outhouses, chicken coops and internet-ready bath houses around the world. The idea of a dude riding the pack mule up to the local internet connection and taking that ten minutes to check out our site makes us happy. Even more so, it makes us want to get a plane ticket and head on out there. We just picked up all of our record store day goodies, and we’d have no problem throwing those 7 inches into a knapsack and hiking on up to rock it out. Drop us a line….
In actuality, Ufa is a bustling metropolis. It’s home to a cool million inhabitants and it serves as a semi-hub because of where the Ufa Airport is located. Weary-eyed travelers, tired of weaving through the Ural mountains to the west can easily hop on a winged vessel to Armenia, Uzbekistan, Germany, and many other destinations. The Ufans are keenly aware of their importance in Russia, as well. The city is largely centered around its industrial base, as petrochemicals, food processing, and synthetic rubber factories bring in plenty of coin to the city. It’s certainly interesting to compare it to the cracking and falling down industrial heart of Cleveland; No doubt, Ufa’s been at it since Ivan IV founded the city as a safety fortress in 1574. If anyone can shake a bad economy, Ufa has to be top five in the Eastern Hemisphere. One of the more tragic events in the history of Ufa is often referred to as the Ufa Train Disaster, which unfortunately happened in 1989, killing 645 and wounding 700 others. The explosion of the wreck, it’s said, could be heard as far away as Asha, nearly 8 miles away, blowing out windows and serving as the most deadly train accident in Soviet history. It’s definitely intriguing to research some of the cities where we get visitors, because we learn so much about how isolated we are from the rest of the world over here. The story is indeed tragic, as I’m sure all one million residents of Ufa unfortunately remember all too well.
On a brighter note, Ufa is an educational mecca. There’s a myriad of educational institutions to choose from over there, ranging from the high octane Ufa State Aviation Technical University all the way to the rowdy Ufa Agricultural University. The most well known institution is Bashkir State University, founded in 1904 (oddly 100 years after my alma mater, Ohio University). BSU is a primarily classical university and it’s a heavy hitter in the Russian academy. Chemistry, Mathematics, and all sorts of highly skilled learning modes are taught there, making it easily one of the top ten universities of its kind in all of Russia.
We’ve grown fond of Ufa. It’s a tedious task to check up on some of the places across the globe that reach out to us. Ufa is a place with a super rich history and culture. 425 years of time brings a megaton of important events (some tragic) and exciting advances. As the guys and gals from Ufa wake up this morning to head off to the factory jobs that put food on their table, they can be comforted that Citizen Dick has them in their thoughts. When they sit down to breakfast at the plant-side diner, they can snag one more donut on us. We’re doing what we can from across the pond. We thank you for appreciating what we do here.
On that note, the American history textbooks are ripe with narratives of the bumpy roads you guys have been through in your run at sovereignty. The good thing about darkness and uncertainty is that the sun always comes up. Here’s a live track from the Harlem Shakes show from Grog Shop in early March. We were able to snag this recording before the album came out proper, but we’ll re-post because we’d like to send a little sunlight to our friends overseas. We’re confident someone will be dancing so hard a gear’s going to get thrown from a factory machine. Enjoy, folks, and relax a little. It’s Sunday.
Harlem Shakes – Sunlight (Live at Grog Shop)
Buy Harlem Shakes new album, Technicolor Health, at Insound!
