procrastinating

I am supposed to be working on my annotated bibliography, and i am actually. But it involves reading large amounts of Lapteva’s 900 page book, which is armful to the health in substantial quantities. So for time to time I need to take rests from Lapteva’s encyclopaedic narrative to enjoy less dense fare.
So over the past few days, while trying to finish up this awful bibliography, I have watched a series of films, provided courtesy of the pirate, and also courtesy of the various airlines I have been sitting on recently. As for the airlines, British Airways films are MUCH better than those on Air France. Due to this difference, I was subjected to the latest Asterix film earlier this week. One was ok, but now they are not even remotely funny. Nor would I say that les Brigades du Tigre really merited an international audience.
The pirates films have been a bit more inspiring. Breakfast on Pluto is brilliant, and I recommend it highly. It was completely different than what I expected, but maybe that is because I didn’t read the description on the back of the film case very carefully. It is a bit like Transamerica, but Northern Irish and a lot better. The Devil Wears Prada made me laugh very hard, even though the copy I got was dubbed in Russian, despite its claim to the contrary. Meryl Streep is excellent…you never know whether to sympathise with her character or not. Of course I will not argue that the film constitutes great art, but it is exactly the sort of entertainment I have been enjoying indulging in over the past few days.
I have also gone through a series of Russian films, having got one of those compilations where you get 8 films on 1 DVD. They seem to only produce those here in Moscow, I have never seen such DVD combos elsewhere. They are only good for Russian films, as they never come with dual language sound tracks, and I really do prefer to hear things in the original, rather than dubbed over by a monotone Russian male voice.
So I watched that great hit of the summer, прорыв. It is yet another one of those easy-to-understand movies about the war in Chechnya. The good guys are blond and clean-shaven (although some have moustaches) and the bad guys are swarthy and have beards. The good guys are always heroic and honest and willing to die for mother Russia, and the bad guys are treacherous. The good guys have standard uniforms and the bad guys have tracksuits and trainers with green scarves tied around their head and covered in Arabic writing. The good guys are purely ethnically Russian, whereas the bad team always includes a couple of foreign agitators, normally some Arabs or Africans. A number of films have been made along these lines, and I suppose this is just the latest. Of course I recognise it is a piece of rubbish, but I also see it as a popular culture reflection of where things are at the moment. Not that I like what I see. On the subject of Chechnya, Vladimir lent me дом дураков, which is some kind of weird Kosturica style film, just set in Chechnya. It features all the caricatures mentioned above, plus a lot of crazy people (hence the title). фартовый isn’t set in Chechnya, but the action does take place in a Gulag, which I imagine is the next best thing. It features all the standard heroes mentioned above, only the Chechens are missing. So naturally by the end of the film, some of the seeming bad guys are converted into good ones. Not all though, one guy remains evil, but then he has slanty eyes, so maybe we are to believe he is not ethnically Russian after all? Then many people I know liked питер FM, but i cant say that i did. It was, of course, more intelligent than a Chechen war film, actually, it is the most intelligent of the Russian films listed here, but I couldn’t get into its mood. Maybe that is my fault. I will have to get мне не больно, i haven’t seen it yet, but everyone says it is really good.
But now I suppose I really should get back to that bibliography, there is a limit to the amount even I can procrastinate.

more on moscow

i have been back in moscow for over a week, but i have had so much to do that everything just seems like a blur. i have been running around trying to get things done for my research and my job, so much actually that i havent had the time to think about what i am doing. i am just going through the motions of doing it, thoughtlessly.
friday i had coffee with igor and ira. ira has just moved here from lvov. i find that really funny, since when i first met her (we were roomates in serbia in 2003) she had never been to russia and was determined that she would never set foot in the place. yet now she is living in russia and it seems highly likely she will spend the rest of her life here, since she and igor are planning on getting married sometime in august, and igor's future is pretty clearly here.
then yesterday i was over at the chos trying to help them...as they have suddenly decided to immigrate to canada! yet there are so many forms to fill out. the boys are to go to some private school that requires all kinds of special enterance exams, includding the SSAT (secondary school admissions examination). they also have to write all sorts of essays...even though they are 9 and 12 years old! and the school applications must be done nearly a year in advance, hence they should be sent off soon for admission in September 2007. it is all very complicated, even more so than applying for university, it would seem.
exhausted from these efforts, caitlin and i decided on a nice bimbo sunday. we had our normal brunch (i had an omlette, as always, this time we went to Jean Jacques). then we went on our regular sunday shopping tour. i ended up with a belt from furla and some shoes from Tsum....not that i needed anything...but i suppose it is the retail therapy necessary to get me through the week that is approaching...

more on minneapolis

the sky line you see is minneapolis during the day, and the kid flying fountain was taken in rochester, which is about an hour away. minneapolis is a typical north american city, modern with lots of sky scrapers. i was surprised to learn that the place isnt small, it has a population of about 2 million, which makes it the same size as budapest (although it is a lot less beautiful!) the weather was hot, around 35 or so, but i had to carry a sweater with me all the time since every place i went had air conditioning, which i am definately not used to. it was a bit uncomfortable to sleep at night in the hotel, since i always felt too cold, no matter how i tried to adjust the temperture dial....

MOA

i also went to the mall of america while in minneapolis. it appears to be the city's biggest attraction, and i had the dismal feeling that people actually choose to spend their free time there. the place is absolutely huge, with over 500 shops inside. it is the largest shopping centre in the country and the second largest in the world. in the middle there is a huge theme park, stupidly called camp snoopy. but little kids seem to love it. there are roller costers and water rides...i got some clothes and a new 60 GB ipod....

guthrie

so i have been back in moscow for a full work week already, but i havent had the time to post my photos from last weeks adventures...so here are some photos of the guthrie theatre, where i saw the Great Gatsby performed. i thought it was a well chosen performance, and it was fairly well staged. the theatre has recently been redesigned by a french architect, and while the outside is a bit odd, the inside is nice, with a comfortable bar and great views window views of the river, as you can see.

москва

i havent had the chance to write anything about what i actually got up to outside the airports...but now i am already back in russia. if you want to know what i have been up to in the past 30 hours, just look at the airport entries, but in reverse. it was a long trip back, flying out of a corn feild yesterday morning and getting in to moscow this afternoon. i havent even been to my house yet. my not-terrbily-understanding boss didnt give me today off, so i am killing 45 minutes in an internet cafe before heading into work....with my suitcases in tow. mondays i work late, starting only at 7pm, so in my boss's mind i didnt need the day off, as my plane came in at 4. grrr. oh well, i suppose on one hand it is better to save the holiday days for when i really want them....but on the other hand, i have been on airplanes in 5 cities for the past 30 hours, and i smell.

freak show culminates: detroit- minneapolis

the flight from detroit to minneapolis was scary. i was next to a fat woman who kept eating crisps (hmmm, no mystery there). but by then i was so jet lagged i could barely think, much less observe. i got to the the hotel late in the evening and crashed on the bed.

freak show gets provincial: new york- detroit

the image you get from the pictures is not what i imagine detroit would look like....but then, except for this part, the rest of this place was depressing as hell. the people were noticibly more provincial than in new york, and kept telling me how cute my accent is. i even got upgraded to first class on the plane there just for being foreign...i suppose....i cant see why else in any case.
i cant imagine why anyone would voluntarily live in such a place.

freak show goes political, new york-detroit

who holds political rallies in aeroports? hassidic jews it would seem.
i arrived in jfk and hopped on the little aeroport rail to get to the next gate from which i would be departing. the whole process went really quickly and i arrived in my departure lounge with over 3 hours to kill. i made a complete tour of the aeroport. the architecture doesnt match: some parts are really pretty and the rest is another ugly aeroport. then i played around on my computer and watched the people in my groggy sleep deprived way. but then i heard people shouting into a microphone...so i followed the sounds and i saw that a political rally was going on, right in the aeroport. the speaker, a young woman, was calling for beirut to be bombed into the stone age. the audience, hasidic jews waiting for their flight to tel aviv, was applauding and aggreeing vigourously.
appauled and unable to believe people could get so happy about ANYONE being bombed, i watched out of horror for a few minutes before moving on to another part of the terminal where el salvadoran gast arbeiters were waiting for there flight home. it is a good thing i had to take tons of spanish in school, it is certainly of use in this aeroport, where it appears to be the language of preference. at least i can understand what everyone is saying around me....although i am not always sure that i want to....

the freak show continues, paris-nyc

in addition to having to change planes in 5 cities, i also have to change terminals everywhere. i didnt have much time in paris, and the 45 minutes i had was spent on the roissy trains and sprinting about....i didnt even have time to benefit from the decent duty free in terminal 2C, so i was really annoyed. hopefully i will have more time on the way back to do some satisfying commercial damage. it looked like a nice sunny day. they told us on the plane it would be 28 degrees. i would have liked to have left the terminal and hopped on the RER....but no, the insanity continues.

the freak show commences, moscow- paris

i got up at 4 am. the zholti taxi arrived at 4:30.
the one good thing about having such an obscenely early flight is that early morning is the only time in moscow when there are not trafic jams. the roads were almost completely deserted and we got to sheremetevo in a record 23 minutes. normally it takes over an hour. it was already dawn, so i got a great view of the lovely enormous soviet flat blocks that line the route to the aeroport. millions of people must live in those areas.....it reminds me a bit of department 93.
I got upgraded to business class at the check in, and i ended up next to a wonderful exam of russian dyevdom: a teenage girl travelling to paris to go shopping. not only was she wearing all designer clothes....but she had a little yorkshire dog with her outfitted in the latest louis vuitton doggie accessories and traveling in a louis vuitton dog carrying case. he made sounds of neglect every time the dyev tried to read her gala magazine (or vogue, or bazarre).
i hate sheremetevo. i cant believe after all these years they havent cleaned it up at least a bit. there were all of two officers working at the passport control, and it took forever to get through the queue. plus the duty free sucks....and it is not as if people going through that place lack in disposible income, at least judging by my neighbour's appearence....

approaching insanity

had an excellent brunch with caitlin on Sunday at hediard, the omlettes are excellent, and the grocery section attached to the restaurant is good as well, with an excellent cheese section (as you would expect from hediard)
we then moved on for our normal sunday shopping rounds, but neither of us did any serious damage (i am still recovering from last weeks furla adventure)
today i am meeting some sort of book dealer in the metro. there are two books i have been trying to track down for some time, and, seeing as i hd not been very successful, i decided to pay someone totrack them down for me. today i am supposed to meet this character, with the books, in the metro. should be interesting.
meanwhile, tommarrow i have a 14 hour day at work...then i begin my insane long weekend tour.
wednesday morning at dawn i will get on a plane for paris to begin a very strange series of flights. the plan is to hit 5 cities in 3 counties in 27 hours.
the problem with all of this is that i have to return more or less by the same route....so i will have close to 60 hours in aeroports and on planes this week.
it might be a while before i post again. but maybe not, who knows? maybe luzhkov has installed wifi at sheremetevo? i doubt it somehow....

death by hospitality

There have been a number of memorable encounters this week.
On Tuesday evening I had the chance to meet, even if only for an hour or so, with Tania and Brad. We lived in the same komunalka type flat 6 years ago in St Petersburg. Then we saw each other quite a bit in Moscow in 2001-2002. Then they moved to Vancouver, which is where they have been for the past four years. Now they are off on a 6-month tour around the world, lucky them.
Then yesterday a group of my students decided to take me out for dinner. As the ringleader of them is ethnically Georgian, it was naturally decided we would go to a Georgian restaurant. Those of you who have had the pleasure and pain of experiencing Georgian hospitality will know what I suffered. The guys ordered enough food to feed the whole flipping Georgian army, and then insisted I try EVERYTHING.
Of course the food was delicious, Georgian food always is. I really have no idea why this cuisine has not caught on outside the borders of the old Soviet Union, it is truly incredible. I love the various vegetable dishes, especially as they often include my favourite aubergines, baklazhani po gruzinski is one of my favourite choices…and Georgian cheese is the best, I could eat it every day. Georgian wine is also very good, although unfortunately it has been made illegal due to stupid politically bickering between the Russian and Georgian governments (we don’t like you, so we will make your wine illegal!…..great foreign policy)
So the problem was no the quality of the food, as always the issue was quantity. Georgians have very specific notions of hospitality, one of the rules of this elaborate code seems to be that all guests must not leave the table until they are only able to do so by rolling. The guys ordered me multiple salads to start with, then multiple main dishes. I had to try them all. Next they ordered multiple desserts, and huge plates of fresh fruit to wash it all down. In the background a pianist was playing all the old songs of my 1980s childhood, including multiple sessions of Chicago’s “if you leave me now” and Toto’s “Africa” and this combined with the interesting Kavkaz interior design and the excess of food and drink created a rather surreal impression. The whole dinner lasted about three hours. When I got home I had to sit in a very still position without moving for about and hour before I could think of getting up and changing into my pyjamas. Then I had to sit still for another period of time before I could think of lying down.
This morning, just when I thought my intestines had more or less recovered from the beating, I went to work…….on Wednesday and Friday mornings I work in a company that seems to employ mainly Muslims. This is great for me, since I don’t have to listen to the endless racist jokes about my origins (or my origins as imagined to be implied by my name) but, unfortunately it provided me no rest from the complicated rules of Kavkaz hospitality.
So I arrived at work, sat down and a Chechen brought me coffee. Then a cheese concoction appeared. Then chocolat…..I think I can imagine now what a boa constrictor goes through.

no news is bad news

Something has been irritating me since I came back here. There is no news in this country…at least not really in an accessible or convenient way, and it was not always this way.
Once upon a time (but for a brief period, in the late 1990s) there used to be something that could be called a free press in this country. It wasn’t the most professional, it often looked pretty amateur, but it had articles of interest and opinionated views. Now it is completely gone. I could see the signs of this coming when I lived here before. The government changed in 2000, after a spade of bombings (as you will remember well, lemurana!), none of which was ever really satisfactorily solved, but all of which were blamed on Chechens. After that things got a lot harder for those of us of “non Slavic origins” and the government started insisting, for example, that we get tested for AIDS every 6 months and carry around a document claiming we were AIDS free. Now, in addition, we have to be tested for leprosy as well, what fun!
It was at that time too that the interesting newspapers started disappearing. There were take-overs….or journalists (like those of the old NTV) would show up to work and discover that all the locks had been changed. When I lived here before this problem was already clear but it was still in process, but now three years later it seems complete. I bought a Russian “news” magazine on the metro the other day, as I had nothing else to read, and I read the top three stories: Putin met with a group of tourists at the Kremlin and kissed a little boy, Nicole Kidman married Keith Urban in Australia, and the son of a Russian business man has redecorated his flat, in an effort to start his new adult life, “I will never be poor” he assures us “in every country in the world I would find a way to succeed.”
That is news?
Discouraged, I tried for the foreign press. The Moscow times used to have ok articles, but even it is looking boring these days, but I suppose it can be called the last remotely interesting newspaper here. Then I decided to track down the Economist. I used to buy it every week to entertain me on my train rides back and forth to the faculty. In London it come out Thursday night, or everywhere else in the country Friday morning. The same was true when I lived in Paris, it was always in the stands by Friday, and it was available in most stands and kiosks around the city centre. In Budapest as well, it was for sale by Friday afternoon, and in most central areas. Here, however, it is available only in a handful of kiosks (I have counted three thus far) in the very centre, near the major 5 star hotels. The most annoying thing is that it arrives, for some odd reason, one week late! It is on the stands by Wednesday or Thursday, or the day before the next issues appears in London. I don’t know why this is, but it is not the Economist: my mother lives on a different continent and gets her subscription economist by Monday at the latest. So if it can fly across the ocean, why can’t it make it in a timely fashion from one part of Europe to the other? What happens to it? Is it held up at Customs? The same goes for the other international news papers, they arrive late, and are available only in a few places.
Now of course, some people get around these issues. I know some companies have the Financial Times or the Economist delivered to their offices, and that those arrive more or less on time. But this represents the minority of the population who has access to these privileges. There is also the internet, where you can read pretty much what ever you want.
But what if you are an average person in this country, who for example, doesn’t read English or German fluently? Or what if you haven’t got regular internet access, as many people don’t? what are you supposed to do then? I used to make fun of expats who insisted in reading only the news from their home countries, but at the moment here there is not much else.
When I go back to England, the first thing I will do on my very first Saturday back is buy a nice, big, fat Guardian and read the whole thing from cover to cover. It will take me the whole day no doubt, but it will be a great pleasure!!!!

sundays and ambar

i met caitlin yesterday for our weekly sunday brunch. these brunchs are often really more like lunches, happening later than the word brunch normally implies, as the result of late saturday nights. but yesterday we were up early and decided to meet for a proper brunch at 11:00am. we went to ambar. i used to go to that place practically every sunday with jeremy about 3 years ago, but i hadnt been there since august 2003, when i went there one last time with jeremy before hopping on a plane with an angry cat and all my worldly possessions, bound for budapest. but now that i am back, i decided to check out the place again adn see how it has held up....it is, i suspect, completely unchanged. even the prices seemed the same. but the food didnt taste so good this time around, i had a generic omlette, which was totally unsatisfying, but left me feeling i had overeaten. caitlin felt the same. i suppose some experiences are better preserved in ones memory.
fortunately the day improved as we headed for our weekly window shopping that generally doesnt stop at the window....i got a furla bag to match a dress i have to wear to a formal dinner in about 10 nights....
it was incredibly hot and sunny (33 degrees....later in the week they are predicting 37) and there were all kinds of strange people out in the streets, like the girl and her family walking their pet babboon, pictured above. all those types like me without a dacha...

my own personal pirate

While talking on the fone to Justin yesterday it occurred to me that perhaps this was not normal to the western mind. In London, I don’t think it is so common for a person to have their own personal pirate, whereas in Moscow it simply seems like common sense.
It all started on Wednesday when I was talking to Vladimir. We both love cinema, so at work we often compare the films we have seen, give each other recommendation, and swap dvds. We were doing so again on Wednesday when Vladimir asked me where I was getting my dvds. I have a few favourite places. For huge blockbusters (da vinci code, поцелуй бабочки) i simply go to the perehod near my metro station (a perehod is an underpass that allows you to cross a major street, they are also something like mini shopping centres, since people set up kiosks inside and sell everything from pepsi and chocolate to dvds and underwear)
When I want something more specific, I go to some perehods in the centre, where there is better choice, and if I feeling really ambitious, or I need some computer software, I go all the way out to gorbushka, a monstrously large complex that takes up the whole block of a street and sells everything electronic you could ever want. The going price for a dvd is about 100 rubles, which is to say just under 2 pounds, although you can get them for 80 if you go a bit out of the centre.
I though 2 pounds was a fair price to pay for a dvd, but Vladimir insisted I was paying far too much. He has his own personal pirate. Every month, he, his wife, and a few friends give the pirate a list of the 100 films they want that month, and a few days later, when everything is ready, the pirate delivers the dvds to Vladimirs office (yes, to the office). The pirate wont take orders of less than 100, and as a result gives Vladimir a good discount: he pays only 45 rubles per dvd, which is under 1 pound. He also saves Vladimir the effort of having to go to perehods all over the city to hunt down the dvds he really wants. Normally the pirate is able to produce about 80% of the films requested, and, being a civilised pirate, he doesn’t charge for the films he couldn’t find and deliver. Obviously this is a logical and effective way to save time, money, and hassle. So from now on, I am giving my orders directly to the pirate. I will let you all know the results.
Oh, and just as a final note, anticipating you queries as to the legality of all this, I thought I might add that Vladimir is ex-FSB. The FSB is what the KGB was renamed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. And even though he no longer works there, Vladimir still has strong connections with the state security apparatus. Furthermore, these connections are not exclusively limited to the Russian Federation; he also seems to have strong ties with people in the security services in other former Soviet Republics. So I guess the pirate has himself a very good customer indeed.

the weekend, finnally

it is finnally saturday. it couldnt have come soon enough, i have had a really long week. my boss messed up my schedule and that left me with even less time than usual to do my research, which was frustrating. i sometimes have the feeling that i have no time to do what i came here to do: read and write. so i called a meeting with my boss to explain that i found the changes in my schedule both unnecessary and unfair. fortunately he agreed and things will go back to normal from next week. thank god, i would go crazy otherwise.
and then yesterday i got paid and decided to go shopping, as the sales are now on and everything is 50% off...but actually all i got clothing wise was a skirt, then i went shopping for what moscow produces best: books and dvds! so i trundled home with 8 new dvds, which cost me all of 10 pounds. i have been trying to catch up on the latest russian films, but last night i wasnt in the mood for such a production, and i ended up watching the lion the witch and the wardrobe...the narnia books were some of my favourites when i was little and i wanted to see how they looked in film. i know that some religious types have been argueing that the books are supposedly religous in their theme, but i have to say, that i was never aware of that when i read them as a kid and having watched the film, i still dont get it. perhaps i am a bit dense? or maybe i just prefer to believe that it really is a tale of a lion, a witch, a wardrobe, 4 children, and talking beavers. literally.

even more library babas

So it seems there is some secret set of shelves in biblioteka imena lenina. Or something like that. Yesterday I went in and asked the baba to get the books off my shelf and bring them to me. When she brought them, I noticed there were only 3 and I had requested the day before that another one be brought for me as well. When I asked about the other book, and the baba looked it up in her complicated hand scrawled file, she made a series of significant grunting sounds and took me to see another baba. This second baba was in charge of protecting a pad locked cupboard, which she opened when she saw my request card. Inside were all kinds of old books, including the one I wanted. When I asked why some books were kept here, I was told they were “exceptional” except that no one chose to tell me exactly why! The book didn’t look different than any others I had requested, so I couldn’t figure it out. But when I took my books back, the whole procedure had to be repeated, so now my reading time has become a double baba experience, ugh.
My research is coming along slowly and I am starting to understand why so many people in Russian history choose to do their primary research in Helsinki, the libraries have the same materials for the 19th century (since Finland at that time was part of the Russian empire) and yet in Helsinki they have things like COMPUTERS. Imagine that.

moscow stations

in the years since i last lived here, they have somehow managed to get the homeless people off the metro. i am not sure how it was done, but i cant say i am sorry. they used to sleep on the seats, especially on the circle line. the smell was absolutely horrendous, and it would stay with you for what seemed like ages even after you got off. sometimes the militsia or the metro babas would come and hit the bomzh on the head with their red paddles, but normally they just slept. often they were children, but sometimes they were adults or even old people.
but they are gone, for the most part.
the beggers who come and give pitiful speaches from one end of the train and then walk to the other end begging along the way are still very much in force. i even recognise some of them from three years ago, so i can only assume it must be a somewhat profitable occupation. the accordian players are still around as well, as are the gypsys at ohotni riad. and the first metro of the day is still filled with the most horrendously drunk people imaginable. one puked dangerously close to my feet just the other day. i, and every other sober person on the train, quickly bolted to the other end of the wagon. that was when one man somehow bumped into another and this started a major skandal. the two guys started fighting. first with words, then pushes, then finnally fists. one fell to the ground and rolled near the puke, while the other did the punching.
so i suppose some things have changed on the metro and some havent....

ill again

i have managed to develop some strange illness. i cough, i sneeze, my throat is inflamed.
after a few days of this i decided to check out my company provided health care plan and go to the doctor. somewhat to my surprise, the clinic where i am registered is really nice. the toilets even had toilet paper (amazing!) and it seemed clean. i saw a few specialists and was given and inhaler to walk around with and breathe from for 5 days. strangely, that seems to have taken care of the swelling and infection in my throat, but my cough is worse. hmmm. the doctor recommended i stay in bed for 3 days, but i can imagine my boss's (negative) reaction to that, and went to work anyway. this weekend however, i will sleep like a corpse.
i finnally finished watching the new russian version of doctor zhivago. it is uncomparably better than the hollywood rendition, and i recomend it to all of you who understand russian. oleg menshikov is great as zhivago (and he looks good to!) the only thing is the film is apporoximately 8 hours long. yes thats right EIGHT. so i saw it is an illness induced long-term project, and watched and about 2 hours a night for 4 nights....