my Moscow chronicles - part 2

I know that when you travel around a city in a chauffeur-driven car, you don't really see real life. But I try as much as I can to take it all in, the good and the bad. I try to look beyond the golden domes into the huge towers that look kinda ravaged and imagine what life can be like. I observe people through the window as they walk passed me and try to guess where they're headed. For some, it's easy to know...

For example, the illegal immigrants (mostly tadjiks or kazakhs I think) will try to find a job for the day or longer. All they have to do is stand by the side of the motorway in the morning and wait for a car to stop. Some will be chosen but some won't and they will still be there at night.

Well, travelling by car really puts everything in perspective. You see the panoramas, you get a feel of the distance and the time it takes to get from one place to another. You see the crappy towers next to the brand new buildings. The funny thing is when in France we tend to build smaller buildings than before, here people seem to enjoy living in flats in huge complexes. I don't really know if they enjoy it but it seems to be the only choice for housing that you get in the city.

You also get stuck in traffic jams but it gave me a chance to see lots of crazy things I wouldn't see in my little town in France. There are absolutely no rules when you drive (well there are but nobody seems to care about them) so you see people drive on the sidewalks, do crazy u-turns in the streets, take one-way streets the wrong way. You also see bus drivers smoke at the wheel. When we have too many rules in France, it feels like total freedom.

I have seen a lot since I arrived and it is really difficult to report how I feel about things and give a clear feeling of what it's like to be here. I feel like an observer. I don't speak russian so I'm cut from spoken and written information. But it seems like I am just left with the essential, simply life.

When I come back, I will have a clearer mind and I'm sure I'll remember things better when I take a few steps back.

:: listening to russian radio

my Moscow chronicles - part 1

I have been in Moscow now for 3 days and I must say this city overwhelms me. It is huge, fast but slow at the same time. You can stay for hours in traffic jams but the city changes from day to day: new buildings, new people, new weather and new things.

The city is rich but a lot of people are poor and you can actually see it. It is not hidden like in most european towns.

I have witnessed so much and have so many anecdotes, most of them funny ones. All I see here is a yearning for individualism and wealth. People try to grab your every last rouble. At the same time, the communist way of life is still in the air.

The city itself is huge. Huge buidings and huge streets. It eats you up completely. It is shiny and new but old and crummy. All the monuments, especially religious buildings, have been rehabilitated or even simply destroyed and built again identically with new materials (it is the russian way). The traditional touches the modern, the new makes the old look out of place and everything clashes.

Moscow is definitely the city of contrast.


:: listening to russian talk radio in the car

Oh my God!!!

Brody is HUGE!!! And even scarier she's dressed in (cute) baby blue. I didn't recognize her at all (Her tatoo is the only thing left unchanged from her former non-pregnant self).


:: listening to Deftones "Be quiet and drive (Far away)"

and another thing

This is why I will always LOVE the magnificent Courtney!


"I'm the one with no soul, one above and one below"
:: listening to Hole "Violet"

nothing special

Well, nothing special today. I thought I'd dig in my old CDs and I found this close-to-perfect LUSH song taken from their album "Split".
Enjoy "Hypocrite"!


"You hypocrite, don'talk to me cuz you're not fit to know me"
:: listening to The Veronicas "Leave Me Alone"

is this the end?

Nooooooo!!!!!!! This can't be happening. What's to become of me? What am I gonna do? I guess buy the last season of Will and Grace in August and cry when I reach the season finale. I will miss you crazy characters and outrageously unreal storylines :-((

:: listening to Kelis "Bossy"

re-watch

I have recently re-watched "Mulholland drive". It is a really good movie. Loved it! I looked on the net to find out what actually are the theories behind the story. It helped me to understand the film. Also, I recently discovered "Casino". Really good as well, funny... Sharon Stone is brilliant in it as the wife of Sam Rothstein (jewish character surprinsingly played by Robert De Niro) also starring Joe Pesci as (super-violent) Nicky Santoro. I recommend it.

:: listening to Clea "The Lie"

Futurama-o-rama

Good news everyone! The (amazingly brilliant) people behind FUTURAMA have been given the thumbs up for a straight-to-DVD movie (even possibly 4).
I hope this is true! I miss Futurama so bad. I know all the episodes by heart from watching my DVDs. I want new material to pollute my brain.
Bye chumps and chumpettes...

:: listening to Kiley Dean "By your side"

in the sun

Finally, summer's here. I spent sunday afternoon laying in the sun doing nothing, just watching my cats roll in the ... sun. A bit like this:


In fact, exactly like this. I was a cat for an afternoon and I liked it. I'll definitely do it again.

Now, here's a little treat for everyone but first, for me!
I haven't told you but Alsou is my absolute favorite russian singer (even after a lavish and outrageous wedding where people were offered money for beating up paparazzi, she retains a special place in my heart)

I give you the top 20 UK single "Before you love me" performed at the World Music Awards 2001. It's cute because you can tell that she can't really dance. Bless her for trying though!



:: listening to Natalya Podolskaya "Pozdno"

about the word "chirping"

This is a word I find awfully cute. I don't know why but I do. I like it!

I am currently discovering a lot of new music. I have been looking into my russian source and there is a lot there. I am quite happy. It seems that I will be bringing lots of CDs from Moscow. If all goes as planned I'll be off next Sunday.

Here is, for your eyes (and ears) only, MakSim (a.k.a Maxi-M of "Zavedi" fame, for those of you who don't know this song, it was rumoured to be a t.A.T.u song but it's not!). The song is "Nezhnost" and I believe the video must be the place where dodgy hair extensions go to die...



:: listening to Pamela Spence "Tuhaf Sey" she's is turkish and a music genius!

Jasmin da!!!

That's why I love russian music. Completely free and without any complex. It's not trying to be clever, just mindless fun. I think Jasmin's husband was right when he bought her a career with his millions of dollars. ENJOY! (I mean look at all these special effects and fine dancers!)



:: listening to Jasmin "Indiiskoe Disko"

noooooooo not again!

I relay this disturbing news: Britney is pregnant again. I don't know why. She doesn't seem to care much for her first baby so why a second one? I guess this remains a mystery for us all.

:: listening to Siobhan Donaghy "Revolution in me"

newfound inspiration for Iva

I have finally decided to take matters in my own hands. Once upon a time I was the webaster of a cute little site, Iva-Online dedicated to an equally cute singer Iva Fruhlingova. I even had the thumbs up from Iva herself and some of her people were helping me big time. Then it all kinda disappeared. Iva found a career in Czech Republic (where she was born) and also a boyfriend. She decided to stay there when she realised nothing really happened for her in France (except for the odd article about "another model-turned singer").
A year passed without anything new on the site when I realised one day that it had been hacked and f***ed up by some nerd and that the best features (forum and message board) had been lost forever. That's when I nearly really gave up.
But I realised I want this site to live on. I want to support and promote Iva cuz, well, I like her. That's why I am currently creating her Myspace music profile and that fills me with hope that maybe she is not lost forever. There is still hope.

:: listening to Jasmin "Nye Poluchilas"

Ashlee Simpson's new nose

Just a few words to say how disappointed I am by this horrifying (yet irrelevant) news: Ashlee Simpson has had a nose job. I thought she was cute before, now she's gonna look like a clone of her sister being back to blond and everything. She always said she was above all that, and I quote one of her songs "I am me and I won't change for anyone". The only thing that physically set her apart from her peers, this little bump, this cute imperfection that made her special is gone for good. Now she's just another one of these blonds that we won't be able to differentiate in the distance.
Shame!!!

Check out: http://www.ashleesimpson.net for pictures.

:: listening to Fefe Dobson "We went for a ride"

my first message

Hi everyone,
This is my first shot at blogging so I'm a bit intimidated. Not that I don't like to talk about myself.
For now, I'll let you enjoy the pictures. Just know that I planned a trip to Moscow at the end of May and I hope to bring back lots of cool pictures to put online.
Bye.

:: listening to Lily Allen "LDN"

catlike

digitalis

concrete tulips

greek sunset

palm trees

brasil

uniglory