Nina Kraviz; click for more

Russian tech-house star Nina Kraviz chatted to Mixmag this week about the jealousy and envy her success has provoked and revealed that she’s been deluged with ‘really mean comments from all over Europe’.

“People asking who I slept with to get where I am, or saying that a man must be doing all the work for me,” she told Mixmag deputy Editor Duncan Dick.

“There’s an attitude still in the Eastern Bloc that women are good for the bedroom and the kitchen but not much else – so when a women gets successful there’s a bit of a debate,” she said. (Mixmag: http://bit.ly/GNEbJD )

Nina’s comments appeared in a feature Mixmag published about Russia’s Sochi Winter Music Conference where she appeared on a panel alongside equally striking rising star DJ Nastia (who following the conference signed a deal with Dubfire’s international DJ agency Bullitt).

DJ Nastia

Chatting to Skrufff at SWMC the year before, Nastia downplayed the sexism issue (‘I think there’s a lot of talk, but I’m so far away from it all, to be honest’) though admitted she avoided the high-heeled micro-mini skirt look favoured by many Russian club girls (though not Nina, either).

“Speaking about myself, I just think that I look good without that image. I want to look serious and I do not want to draw attention to my appearance, I wish that people would listen to the music I play,” said Nastia.

“And honestly, I myself do not understand why so many of our (Russian) girls always dress like that. Maybe they are afraid to miss something, or they just want to present deceptive perfection,” she suggested.

Nina Kraviz’ new album is out now http://on.fb.me/GIMNoM

http://bit.ly/yGHGdq (Nina Kraviz – Resident Advisor Podcast)

Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff

happiness? click for more.....

There’s an interesting story in Germany’s Der Spiegel this week about the villagers in  the Spanish town of Sodeto, who recently won a €700million lottery and are all now worth either six or seven figure sums. The article draws comparisons with southern Italian village of Peschici, where villagers won €32 million in 1996 though ended up miserable (and broke) ten years on.

“The residents had made nothing but bad investments. In the end, some Peschici residents envied their fellow villagers who had spent their money on cocaine and travel right away,” Der Spiegel noted.

.

“According to a study by Harvard Professor Dan Gilbert, lottery winners are often as unhappy as paraplegic accident victims within a short time. ”

Professor’s Gilbert’s study was covered in the Canadian press several years earlier.

“Sure you’re ecstatic at first,” his colleague professor Ted Wilson said,

“Winning the lottery tends to have a terrible effect on social relationships. People almost always get jealous and people lose their friends and their family members. And they lose what really matters, the people in their lives.”

Click for Dan Gilbert's acclaimed TED talk