Gori Women's Choir

I just discovered a choir from Georgia called the Gori Women's Choir on iTunes. They are part of compilation CDs called "Mystical Georgia" and "The Best of Georgia In Music." This is a really unique group I'd urge you to check out. They take a very modern twist on polyphonic singing which is unique to Georgia and I believe parts of Ukraine as well. It basically means singing more than one note at a time by expanding the layrnx (think Mongolian throat singing)or it seems it can also be just groups of people singing different notes at the same time (harmoniously of course). A very interesting concept. I'd love to see them do their very own CD.

Russian Love Poems

It's a nice little collection of love poems written by the greatest Russian poets:

http://stihi-rus.ru/

Dig around on this site - if there is a poem written in Russian it is likely to be here. A very nice resource. No translations unfortunately, but well worth the effort. I've been studying Akhmatova and Esenin poetry for a while now and have noticed a substantial jump in my vocabulary not to mention it's a lot more meaningful and fun than studying stupid tourist dialogues. Admittedly it takes a lot of time and patience but if you're serious about learning a language I would recommend it if only a part of your studies. It took me a while to find a writer whose works I could really grasp. I think Akhmatova's works are pretty straight forward - at least the early collections I have been working on. If anyone has any other poets they'd like to suggest or if you'd like to start an online study group together I'd be glad to get involved.

Georgian resources Vasha Pshavela

A friend sent me these links for resources related to the Georgian Poet Vasha Pshavela which I think are just terrific:

Online version of Мольба - a movie based on his poetry:
http://baku-haifa.ucoz.ru/load/72-1-0-308

Here you can find Vazha-Pshavela's poems in Russian translations:
http://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%B0_%D0%9F%D1%88%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B0 - translated by Marina Tsvetayeva
http://www.stihi.ru/2009/06/06/3393
http://amina.com/kamina/23423-p3.html

Vazha-Pshavela's poetry in Georgian:
http://testireba.ge/authors/author.aspx?AuthorId=7

შოთა რუსთაველი. ვეფხისტყაოსანი. Full text in PDF:
http://www.matiane.com/vepkhistyaosani.pdf

Really neat stuff check it out!

Learn Finnish

Here's a nice resource for anyone interested in learning Finnish:

http://www.yle.fi/opinportti/supisuomea/

It's designed for English speaking adults who are beginners at Finnish.

Russian Poetry

I found this site:

http://www.stihi-rus.ru/page3.htm

which has a fantastic collection of Russian poetry. All in Russian but lots of great writers there is you're interested in checking them out.