Against the grain. How to distinguish natural material from fakes

You can't live like that! In feigned rationality,
With longing in my soul and cold in my blood,
Without youth, without life-giving faith,
Without burning torment and happiness of love,
Without quiet tears and loud fun,
In the languor of silent oblivion,
In the despondency of debauchery and idleness:

No, guys, no! You can't live like this any longer!

A. Golenishchev-Kutuzov,
"To Punk Rocker Friends", 1884

When I was little and recorded music onto a tape recorder from the radio, I recorded the fast songs and skipped the slow ones. I was sorry to waste film on them. Then, however, I grew up a little and expanded my tastes.
But I remember the Reason perfectly. Groovy songs are right, but slow ones are boring. Sometimes I still get it.
So let the bores and conformists stroke the wool, but today we will stroke the opposite.

It was the most important group in the world at the moment - four Armenians - former paratroopers from Los Angeles called System Of A Down. Militant anti-everything - against war, injustice, pollution, Bush. In general, the right guys, shaved heads and beards in pigtails. Someone noted that if they didn’t bring millions to their record company, they wouldn’t even be allowed into the door.

But System Of A Down is now, but it all began much earlier. When in the mid-70s in England everyone was tired of the antics of glam rockers and metalheads, the pretentious narcissism of supergroups and the tedium of quickly exhausted handsome men with acoustic guitars.
And then one adventurer named Malcolm McLaren with a decent anarchist experience decided that life had become a little boring, and it was time to turn up the heat, and at the same time make decent money; found some guys playing at the very least in a nearby pub, paired them with a guy who couldn’t sing very well, but was endlessly energetic, named Johnny Rotten (that is, Johnny Rotten) and created punk rock as it is.

So Legend has it that the Sex Pistols were invented by an intellectual crook and his designer girlfriend to quickly offend everyone and make a lot of money. Legend has it that they were a fictitious group and after one album they ceased to exist. But why should we care?
They did their job, Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious became heroes of humanity. Their rebellious cry was taken up by hundreds, if not thousands of vocal and instrumental groups around the world, and the consciousness of progressive humanity changed forever.

An example of this is the Pistols' close colleagues and rivals - the Clash group. If the Pistols were the signal flare for the onslaught, the Clash led the charge, touring the world, recording some great albums and lifting up an entire generation.
Starting with direct imitation, they quickly rose to the top and carried the banner further, setting an example of uncompromising and honesty for many years.
I once had the opportunity to communicate with their leader Joe Strummer, and I must say - he was a wonderful man, God bless his soul! He recently died, but his work lives on and wins!
Clash. Pure joy of life!

Yes, that's a good science question. Where did so many punks suddenly come from in 1977? It's simple - before they became punks, they all played somewhere, they just didn't know that they were punks.
When the Sex Pistols bomb went off, they instantly realized who they were. The acquired playing skills were successfully used, and critics cursed: “What kind of punks are they when they play so well?” - as always, critics did not understand what the point was. He lived, played, and then realized that he could break free from the chain - and his soul had been demanding this for a long time.
And a great example of this is the Stranglers.

In order to want to break free from the chain, you must first feel that you have been put on it. The Americans always did it very convincingly; they always had everything in order with the chains. But while in our country, having felt the chain, it is customary to remain silent and gloomily drink vodka in the kitchens, mother of all things, the militant Californians almost began to scream out loud.
Here are the very politically oriented Dead Kennedys - with a scathing attack on then California Governor Jerry Brown - California Uber Alles.
Of course, applying music to politics is like shooting sparrows from a cannon, and the song, according to by and large, about something completely different - but oh, if in Russia someone sang about anything with such energy - that would be great!

The poet said: “There are few truly violent ones, so there are no leaders.” Golden words that apply to many things in our world.

The punks were luckier in this sense; they had someone to look up to. Please love and favor - maestro Iggy Pop. Iggy was born long before any punk; They even wanted - after the death of Jim Morrison - to take him as a singer in the Doors group (and he even dyed his hair black) - but somehow it didn’t work out.
Then he noticed, outside the record store where he worked, a group of peers with such an out-of-touch look that he decided to take patronage over them; forced me to learn chords and rehearse. Thus the Studges group was born - and Iggy went completely wild. On stage he is -–, and sometimes even ––. One time he -. And that was just the beginning.

At the same time, he is a very smart and witty person and a great gentleman, I must say. And when he realized that the time for one kind of music had passed, he began to invent another.

People sometimes ask me - what is real punk? Real punk means not letting some guy think for you. Think with your own head. Blacks and whites - despite all the political correctness - were separated in England. This taboo had to be broken.
This is what the guys from Birmingham called the Specials did. The group was half black, half white, and hated both the fascists and the government with all their hearts; and solidary fans climbed onto the stage in such numbers that the band was sometimes unable to play.
But most importantly, they took Jamaican ska, which had previously been in a bit of a musical ghetto, and brought it back to the masses, but with smart and edgy lyrics. And they looked stylish - God forbid everyone; it was from them that the whole movement came - Tutoun, which in our opinion would be b/w; and their leader, pianist Jerry Dammers, wearing dark glasses and knocked out front teeth, kept the music at the proper height.

And one more taboo. Usually in popular music, girls played the role of puppets, obliged to smile charmingly and sing something soothing. Well, like - Ksyusha, Ksyusha, plush skirt. Somehow it was not accepted that girls showed independence. But the punk tsunami overturned this attitude too.

The singer and soul of the New York group Blondie managed to taste everything in her life, and when punk (or, as it was sometimes called in America, “new wave”) opened up new vistas, she, with the help of her colleagues, got down to business and quickly explained to the men what and how. At the same time, on stage they looked like a decent American group, decently dressed and with a beauty - a languid blonde in a seductive dress at the microphone.
But as soon as she opened her mouth, the men realized with horror that under the plush dress lay the soul of the Terminator. Beneath the gentle melodies is the cry of a rebel.

And the grains sown by Blondie fell on fertile soil. The girls heard the call for freedom and the new era. And it all started like this.

And here’s another cliché - that Irish folk music is the lot of furry old men and individual anchorites. I already talked recently about the Irish-English group Pogues; drunk and smart - people used to say about them - two lands in him. By the way, we also learned from the Sex Pistols - lo and behold, another wall collapsed.

Their name was Legion. And as soon as the music began to calm down and enter the channel prescribed by the rules, hot heads appeared again. And it’s not like people analyze it in any way. A good creator feels in his bones what nature requires of him.

In one of best books about magic - “A Wizard of Earthsea” by Ursula Le Guin - the Archmage explains to the young hero of the book - at first you discover in yourself magical abilities and you rejoice in the fact that you can do anything. If you want, you will make it rain, if you want, you will bring someone back from the dead; but then you realize that any action you take upsets the balance of the world, and the rain you cause here could turn into a deadly drought somewhere. And, having achieved mastery, you merge with nature and become part of it, and do only what cannot be avoided. The Chinese called it wu-wei, non-action.

It's the same in music. Therefore, geniuses do not write anything on their own, but grasp what is floating in the air - and having done this, it is as if they speak on their own behalf for everyone at once.
Therefore, when the Prodigy group, against the backdrop of general complacent stagnation, released their second album “Fat Of The Land”, it was instantly sold out by many millions - they just felt it, and the Prodigy were able to sing it.

Recently, in a London store, I was buying a new Prodigy album because they keep disappearing from my house, and we got into a conversation with the seller. He proudly showed me the tattoo on his shoulder: a spider - the Prodigy emblem. He said: "They changed my life."

And on the road - once again System Of A Down. Behind every real rebellion lies not just the desire to mindlessly destroy anything, but a heart that aches for people. You don't have to put up with it; come to your senses; you deserve to be better.

It's a shame there's so little time! I managed to mention very few - but this music is always needed and, I hope, we will return to the manner of ironing against the grain.
And next week we will remember the first and original rebels, and at the same time we will remember what real rock and roll is!

Against the grain what to whom. Razg. To dislike, to be unpleasant to someone. Craft became their life goal. For Mikhaila it was against the grain, against the grain(S. Karonin. From bottom to top).

Russian phraseological dictionary literary language. - M.: Astrel, AST. A. I. Fedorov. 2008.

See what “Against the grain” is in other dictionaries:

iron against the grain- (foreign language) to cut the truth, to say unpleasant things Wed. What an angry gentleman, eh?.. he doesn’t like how someone strokes him against the grain. Pisemsky. In a whirlpool. 2, 12. See stroke the fur... Michelson's Large Explanatory and Phraseological Dictionary

Iron against the grain- To stroke against the grain (foreign language) to cut the truth, to say unpleasant things. Wed. What an angry gentleman, eh?... he doesn’t like how someone strokes him against the grain. Pisemsky. In a whirlpool. 2, 12. See Stroking the fur... Michelson's Large Explanatory and Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)

Do not iron against the grain.- see Evaporate, but don’t burn...

Whom. STROKE against someone's fur. Razg. Iron. To act or speak differently than someone would like. What... can't you bring me some vodka? Ali doesn’t like that I’m ironing against the grain (Pisemsky. Carpenter’s Artel) ...

STROKE AGAINST someone's WOOL. STROKE against someone's fur. Razg. Iron. To act or speak differently than someone would like. What... can't you bring me some vodka? Ali doesn’t like that I’m ironing against the grain (Pisemsky. Carpenter’s Artel) ... Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Literary Language

Smooth it both along the grain and against the grain!- See PUNISHMENT MERCY... IN AND. Dahl. Proverbs of the Russian people

May you give birth to a hedgehog against the grain!- See EXPLAIN HELLO... IN AND. Dahl. Proverbs of the Russian people

My moon goddess
Mother nature is religion,
Wolf's life - war
Where is the meaning of life just to survive
And I’m just a warrior, probably already a former one,
And I’m just howling, maybe someone will hear.
Illusory world, today is the same as tomorrow
Crowd of people watching
And the zoo's enclosure.
Which of this is a lie and which of this is true
It will probably rain again
Old scars ache.

Life in captivity dulls my instincts more and more

My new house not at all what I dreamed of
This is the illusion of paradise, a damp cage and carrion
Now I myself don’t know who I am, a husky or a jackal
Just once I strayed from the pack, it would be better if I crashed on the rocks
Where is that bestial grin that was worse than a trap?
The smell of mortal combat, the taste of scarlet blood
Standing on my paws howling loudly - that's all that's left,
After all, everything broke when winter came.
They tried to tame me, but it was all in vain
Called friends and given a beautiful nickname,
And I sunk my fangs into theirs iron cells,
I fell asleep in the rain so as not to stink of dog.

The cries of the dissatisfied public subside
I'm waiting for the corpses again at dusk, even if it's stupid to look for them
Here, under a layer of tons of reinforcement, forget the way home
A painfully familiar voice in your temples like a bullet
Lost my mind, let the greater the chance
That maybe I won’t wake up the next morning,
Without surrendering to someone else's will.
Well, hello Moon, I'm higher in the skies
You shouldn't be discouraged the farther your mind goes,
The closer the soul.
You just know, it’s a pity that the world will never get better
We didn’t tame one, maybe it will work with the other.
Such a fate and in the eyes of the crowd not a drop of pity.
The show will go on, sold out, welcome
Please let us see you one last time
At least an hour, ten minutes, a second, it doesn’t matter.
I'm mentally with the pack now, a stranger among you
We are unlikely to become closer to each other
Once upon a time, one day.

I'm a lone wolf, only the moon is my friend
I see her light only in black and white
I will not serve you, I will eat from your hands,
If there is only a fair wind against the grain
How tired I am of these increasingly sad looks,
It seemed earlier that I could overcome the obstacle
All the sheep are safe, and I'm fed up with your protection
Life in captivity dulls my instincts more and more. My goddess is the moon,
Mother nature is religion,
Wolf life - war
Where is the meaning of life just to survive?
And I"m just a warrior, probably already a former,
And I just howl, someone can hear.
The illusory world, today also tomorrow
A crowd looking at people,
And the zoo's enclosure.
What is this lie, and what is the truth of it?
Probably it will rain again
Old scars are worn.

I live in captivity increasingly dulls the instincts

My new home is not at all what I dreamed of
This illusion of paradise is a crude cage and carrion
Now I myself do not know who I am, like a husky or a jackal
Only once I fought back from the pack I"d rather have crashed against the rocks
Where is that animal grin that was worse than the trap?
The smell of death fight, the taste of blood scarlet
On his feet standing loudly howling - that"s all that"s left,
After all, it broke when the winter came.
They tried to tame me, but all is in vain,
Called friends gave the nickname beautiful,
And I drank my fangs into their iron cages,
He fell asleep in the rain, so that it does not stink of a dog.

I"m a lone wolf, only the moon is my friend
I see her light only in black and white
I will not serve you, eat from your hands,
If only wind is against the wool
As I grew tired of these glances increasingly dull,
It seemed before that the obstacle I surmounted
All the sheep are safe, and I"m sick of your protection
I live in captivity increasingly dulls my instincts.

Wailing cries dissatisfied with the public podstat
I"m waiting for the corpses again, and look stupidly
Here, under the layer of a tone of reinforcement, go home forget
A painfully familiar voice in the temples of a bullet
Has gone mad, let, the more there is a chance,
What tomorrow can I not wake up tomorrow,
Stranger will not give up.
Luna well, hello, I"m higher in the sky
You should not lose heart the further the mind,
The closer the soul.
Only you know, it"s a pity that the world will not get better
Not tamed one, maybe with another it will turn out.
Such a fate and in the eyes of the crowd a single pity.
The show will continue, sold-out, welcome
Please let me see you for the last time
Although an hour, ten minutes, a second, it does not matter.
I"m mentally now with a pack, a stranger among you
We will vryatli be closer to each other
Once upon a time, once.

Hats, blankets, socks from sheep wool there are most of them on the market, and they are inexpensive. Apparently, because of this, buyers are not so careful when choosing a product. Fraudsters take advantage of this and counterfeit “sheep” no less actively than the more expensive camel wool, yak down and cashmere.

“No more than 5% synthetics are allowed in wool yarn,” says Natalia Konyukova, deputy general director of cloth factories,- otherwise the yarn is considered half-woolen. There are few pills on woolen products, but synthetics roll up very much. Wool provides noticeable warmth - just wrap your hand in cloth. But the most effective test is with fire. Set fire to several fibers of the product. Natural sheep’s wool smells like burnt horn and doesn’t melt.”

In turn, sheep wool is often used to counterfeit higher quality and more expensive camel wool, yak down and cashmere.

Chinese “masters” were the first to establish such production, then their recipe was adopted in Mongolia and Russia. It is simple: 60% of coarse sheep wool is taken from about 40% of synthetics (acrylic or viscose), to which 2-3% of the raw materials they are trying to depict are mixed.

The fake is then painted in a “natural color”. Cashmere colors are white, beige-cream, warm gray and “cafe au lait”, yak down colors are gray, light brown (“cappuccino”) and dark brown, camel hair- sand beige, beige cream, light chocolate.

Wild treasure of Mongolia

“Cashmere, camel and yak down are not really wool,” says Odongjimaeg Yeondong, entrepreneur from Mongolia.- This is the undercoat of a camel, yak or goat (cashmere). The materials are unique - there is nothing lighter or warmer. Camel also contains lanolin, which penetrates the human body through the pores of the skin and has a beneficial effect on health. All materials are very delicate - if you walk on the floor in camel socks, they will wear out in a week. But if the clothes are not subject to friction, they can be worn for years.”

The listed types of wool are the most expensive; Let's say a cashmere cardigan is unlikely to be cheaper than 15-20 thousand rubles. “The price of the product, by the way, sometimes helps to identify a fake,” notes Odonchimeg. “For example, socks made of camel wool cannot cost 250-300 rubles - their retail price is no less than 600.”

The main reason for the high cost is the difficulty of obtaining raw materials. Camels, goats and yaks are semi-wild animals. To comb out the fluff, you must first catch them. And if it is not difficult to catch and tie a goat, a camel is more difficult, but possible, then no one can hold a yak. And the production time is also sharply limited.

Sheep under camel

“With a guarantee” it is much more difficult to distinguish cheap wool from expensive undercoat than sheepskin from synthetics, warns a Mongolian expert. But it is possible.

“First of all, in terms of texture: the fake is harder and rougher to the touch, the fibers are thicker,” explains Odonchimeg. - It also squeaks if you rub one part of the product against another. “Sheep” is heavier. For example, fake leggings will slip under their own weight, but camel and yak leggings will not. Another sign is the smell. Any wet fake just reeks of sheep. Natural camel, yak down and cashmere have a faint odor, completely unlike sheep.”

“There are some kind of Russian fakes,” the expert added, “when, for example, a coat whose fabric contains no more than 10% cashmere (and this is indicated on the label) is called cashmere. The price is high, like a cashmere product. It is not right. I believe that if they say “camel”, “yak”, “cashmere”, then the content of these materials should be one hundred percent.”

Against the grain. How to distinguish natural material from fakes

See what “Against the grain” is in other dictionaries:

Wild treasure of Mongolia

Sheep under camel

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