• "hauntingly beautiful" ~ L.A. Times
  • "melodic and passionate music" ~ The Washington Post
  • "the voice of an angel" ~ The Prague Post

"An emerging musician you should know about" ~ The Huffington Post

You are reading this!!!! You must be a super cool person! Read on.... :)

When I was growing up in the Soviet Union, people really didn't have a choice in almost anything - the government was very strict. I decided to never take the freedoms I have now for granted by being aware and by being proactive citizen, keeping myself educated on what's going on in the world around me. I honestly do believe, that one person can make difference to make our world a better place. And together, we can make a big difference. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one :) Right?

On this page I wrote about my passions besides music - promoting cultural understanding, recycling and environmental activism. Thank you for taking the time to read this! Hugs, Marina :)

ON A CULTURAL MISSION

"You're just what the FLEX program [the scholarship through which Marina came to the USA at 15] hoped someone would become!
We wanted people to come to the United States, understand it ...and build a bridge between both of the countries [U.S. & Russia] and you clearly, with fans on both sides, have done that!"
 ~ Senator Bill Bradley, XM Sirius Program "American Voices" (taken from interview with Marina, March 2010)

When I was 15 years old, I was very lucky to win a scholarship (sponsored by the US government) to attend high school in rural America (I was placed to Springfield, IL). The goal of this program was for a foreign student (me) to educate American peers about other cultures (Russian culture in my case) and to promote mutual cultural understanding. That year in America made me realize that one person, just a normal teenager like myself, can actually make a big difference. For many people in Springfield I was the first Russian person they had ever met, and I was representing not only myself, but my whole culture and my entire country (and often all of Europe). Some people were expecting a 6'5" burly creature with mustache when they thought of a Russian female, but I managed to break those stereotypes with my height of 5'6" and the absence of mustache. I showed pictures of Moscow and told them about the beauty of Russia and the kindness of Russian people (among other things not often shown on TV). But most importantly, my mere presence in the school promoted cultural tolerance and provided them with a friendly "face" to put on a big former enemy called Russia.

Even now, with the internet and more accessible travel, many people are not aware of the breath-taking architecture of my home country, or the beautiful music & art, the folk arts & crafts, or the gorgeous landscapes of the Russian countryside. I still feel like I am on a mission - to tell the world about Russia (and now, about America as well, since I recently became a US citizen and I often travel abroad), the way I see it - with my eyes and with my heart. There are many things we can can do to improve the situation in both countries. There is so much beauty in this world, we can really make it a better together, if we try.

You can see my pictures from Russia & other places on my pictures page.

Other links for Russia: world-famous traditional Russian shawls, famous Moscow Metro at metro.ru (sorry, it's only in Russian, so randomly click anywhere:)

P.S. I was recently invited to perform at the Russian Cultural Center in Washington, DC. The Center's mission is to promote Russian-American relations, and I was very honored that they asked me to play at two events at the Center.

I LOVE THE ENVIRONMENT & RECYCLING

I love nature. I love beautiful forests, the ocean, open fields and meadows. I enjoy breathing fresh air (not so much the brown L.A. smog) and drinking clean water. I also love big cities and really love it when they're clean and green. It simply breaks my heart to see how many things are wasted and thrown away every day. I am a minimalist by nature, but in this world we have a lot more than we actually need, and so many things are manufactured only to be thrown away after one time use.

I am absolutely freaked out about all of the trash and the ever-growing landfills. Think of all the fast food cups (Americans alone throw away 25 BILLION disposable cups EACH YEAR - and they take hundreds of years to decompose!!), straws, napkins, grocery bags (500 billion plastic bags are used and thrown out worldwide each year), product packaging and other disposable things that accumulate in millions every day in our trash bins.

I am also very concerned about my own health and the health of the people I love. I live in L.A. and the smog gets to be simply unbearable. The majority of food that is sold to us is just unacceptable - with all of the preservatives, artificial ingredients, chemicals, pesticides and fertilizers that are commonly used in making food (or hormone, steroid and antibiotic use in growing cattle/poultry). And more than ever, the highest numbers of children (and adults) suffer from asthma, obesity & other food and pollution-related illnesses. But, there are things we can do to improve the situation.

• recycle everything & get your friends to recycle
making things out of recycled products requires no natural materials and less energy, hence reducing the pollution. Recycling reduces pollutions and saves national resources, including precious trees that absorb carbon dioxide. If 100,000 people who currently don't recycle begin to do so, they would collectively reduce carbon emissions by 42,000 TONS per year.
• bring your own cup to a coffee shop and re-fill your water bottle
• bring your own cloth bag to the grocery store (read WHY)
Americans alone use more than 12 MILLION barrels of oil each year just to produce plastic grocery bags that end up in landfills after only ONE USE and then take CENTURIES to decompose. 15 MILLION TREES are cut down annually to produce the 10 BILLION paper bags we go through each year in the U.S. alone. So when they ask you, paper or plastic, say NEITHER.
• buy products with minimal packaging
• buy 100% recycled paper towels/toilet paper
(harder to find in a regular store, try Trader Joe's or Whole Foods). No Kleenex or other Kimberly-Clarke products, they cut down beautiful forests to make something for blowing our nose in!
• vote for politicians who will fight for our health and our environment
and who are more interested in what is better for their constituents than for their big money lobbyists
• walk wherever you can, and get a car with the highest MPG, a hybrid or a bio-diesel car
(like Willie Nelson!) more about bio-diesel on Willie's site www.biowillie.com I am currently driving Toyota Prius - a hybrid vehicle with an average of 50 mpg, and I love it!!! Nick & I actually manage to put all of the gear and merch and luggage in it while touring!
• use fluorescent light bulbs
(if every household in the U.S. substituted even ONE conventional light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, it would have the same effect on pollution levels as removing a MILLION CARS from the nation's roads!!!) When these long-life bulbs do finally reach the end of their life, you must recycle them … since they contain mercury, the landfill is not the proper place for them.
• buy bio-degradable detergent
Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have great choices!
• buy organic foods or foods with no preservatives or artificial ingredients, no high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oil, etc :)
(chemicals used in modern agriculture pollute the water and require energy to produce, plus they're horrible for our bodies!!!)
• read news online
It takes more than 500,000 trees to supply Americans with their Sunday newspaper EACH WEEK
• re-use things!
use Tupperware instead of zip-lock bags, get a re-usable water bottle and re-fill it at home instead of buying a bottle every day/week. I just bought a great stainless steel bottle in Whole Foods and it's been great!!
• learn more about the issues & become active - online and in the real world
see below

GREAT LINKS

Copyright Marina V 2010