In Which Rain Drops Fall Upon My Head

Weekend of 18.10.2008

Basically I didn't get a damned thing done, yesterday, which is distressing because it was my day of work for the weekend. Well, and I'm supposed to do a bunch today, too, but instead I'm writing my journal and recuperating from last night.

When I left for the Sonne Hagal and Of the Wand & the Moon concert, it was pouring down. Weather was absolutely awful. Thankfully I didn't forget my umbrella, and somehow my hair kept its shape despite the extreme wetness. I found the club ("Club Revolution") fairly easily, but got lost once I got IN the club, because it was so damned huge. I went up to a room with a bunch of ... youngsters standing around listening to hip hop, and some strange blonde white Russian guy in ghetto clothes trying to dance in front of a gigantic mirror. I literally exclaimed aloud to myself, "Wrong room!" and flounced back down stairs, where I found the area in which the concert was to be held.

I just sat around until the concert started, after that. Of the Wand & the Moon was first... It was just two people -- a singer with an acoustic guitar, then a guy doing sound effects + tribal drumming and other various things. Now, I have never seen either of these bands because they don't have photos of themselves anywhere. From what I've seen. Of course, I didn't look too hard. But in any case, the singer looked as I would have expected... tall, mildly heavyset and bald with a long scraggly red beard. They were pretty damn good. I was pleased. I've never been that big on them in particular, but this changed my opinion.

Sonne Hagal was next, and .. well, the singer from Of the Wand & the Moon was doing the background synths and special effects, here, while the guy doing the special effects for Of the Wand & the Moon was the SINGER/acoustic guitarist for Sonne Hagal... Plus they had a keyboardist and a bassist. The singer... looked MUCH different than I thought he would... as he was small and unassuming. I don't know. It was strange.

Anyway, they were FANTASTIC. I was THOROUGHLY pleased. The crowd loved them, too, and we got them to come out and play a few more songs. The last song they played is one of my favorites, too! And the Runes Are Still Alive.

A note about the crowd. It was ...kind of strange; I was expecting a very eclectic looking crowd, but I guess that's what I get for expecting anything. Everyone was pretty average looking. As the band was finishing up, this middle aged Russian woman was going around trying to collect their autographs on her disc before they left the stage. I mean, there were SOME of what you would expect -- guys with long hair wearing all black. But they were the definite minority. Oh, and there was some crazy ass guy right up next to the stage who 'danced' to both bands' entire sets. And when I say he 'danced,' I mean, he waved his arms around in shamanistic ecstasy. After Sonne Hagal left the stage, he crawled up on stage and started kissing the frontman's guitar. That was interesting.

After that, I left to meet Maneka + others at Tri El', aaand... that was a nightmare. I didn't know how to get there, so when I got off the metro station I asked someone how to get to that particular street -- Unfortunately, I scared the hell out of her when I asked, when I came up to her... I think she was quite bitter, because the directions she gave me sent me the EXACT OPPOSITE DIRECTION OF WHERE I WANTED TO GO. AND I ENDED UP WALKING IN THE POURING FUCKING RAIN IN UNLIT AREAS OF ST. PETERSBURG FOR THE WORST PART OF 40 MINUTES. Eventually I stopped by in a 24 hour produkty to look at my atlas, and found my way to the club. With very wet feet. And somewhere along the way I lost a bobby pin. The tragedy.

I'm not going to even bother explaining the rest of the nights' events. They're not that exciting.

Ballet was tonight – My first time in the Marinskij Theatre. It was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. The theatre, that is. Well, the ballet was, too. But to be honest I enjoyed the music more than I enjoyed the dancing – Prokofiev's Zolushka. The dance was contemporary, though. Most all the main dancers were great, but I didn't like most of the guys in the performance. To show the passage of time, they had four guys playing the four seasons, and their costumes were ABSOLUTELY HIDEOUS. It really detracted a lot for me. But in any case, my favorite favorite dances were the huge group dances for the ballroom scenes, in which there were pairs of males and pairs of females dancing with eachother in the back and periphery – scandalous!! Oh, and when I went into the bathroom I recalled how many articles and book I've read that mentioned the Marinskij theatre bathrooms as a common meeting place for homosexuals in Russia. So, I was wary of them thar pederasts.

Sunday:

It wasn't too windy or cold, today, so I went to the Udel'naya market as planned. And I am glad that I did – It was a nice break to myself (not that the past couple of days haven't been breaks), and I bought things. Unfortunately, I bought expensive things, so I have very little money right now.

Basically, I went in with the intention of buying:

-Gifts for people
-A jacket and a hat for myself
-A passport holder, and a student card holder

I ended up buying one gift, a hat, and the document holders. I saw a jacket I liked, but it was way too large. I was going to ask the guy if he had a smaller one but he was busy with other people and I just arrived, so I decided to shop around a bit. Unfortunately, when I was walking through the huge back yard flea market area, it started to rain, so everyone was packing up their stuff to leave, except for a few stubborn people left behind. I was seeing a lot of Orthodox stuff, so I was like “OH! I'll buy a gift for Ben!” Every time I asked for a price on something, it was absurdly expensive. I almost bought this one thing that was 20 dollars, but it was a huge gaudy metal Orthodox cross plate thing... and I realised Ben probably wouldn't even want that. So there that went.

I also saw a REALLY awesome ring, that had a latch where you could adjust its size and whatnot. I was going to buy that for Aislyn, but it was fucking 2500 rubles (100 dollars). No. Fucking. Way. On that note, I was having an absurdly difficult time trying to find a ring for her, despite the massive amount of ring vendors at the market. Ah well.

On my way out, I had bought a gift, and the holders, so I figured I'd buy a hat, and stop by the jacket vendor if I had money after that. Well, I saw a nice looking woman selling ushanki, and she was pleasant... (Ushanki, for those who don't know, are those classic fur hats with the ear flaps). Well, it was ... very expensive. I know they're expensive, but I thought since I was at a market it would be less expensive. Maybe she ripped me off. Maybe not. Either way, I'm glad that I bought it, though it is a TAD small. Also, it's not black... I thought it was black when I bought it. I might end up buying a second one and giving this one to my mom.

I'm still determined to buy a jacket, and I still need to buy more gifts, so I'm going to go back next week, depending on the weather. I saw something I wanted to get for Brendan, but the vendor had put plastic over it to protect it from the rain when I came back through a second time, and I didn't want to bother with that, so I'll probably see it next week. Who knows. I also saw a pair of underwear coloured as the Russian flag with РОССИЯ printed across the waistband, and I wanted to be ultra tacky and get those, but they too were covered by plastic on my way back.

All in all, it was a good trip. Basically, I really just wanted to go and shop at least ONCE before it got too cold – and now, even if I never get to go again I won't really regret it. But, again, I'll probably be able to go next week, and I think I'll be more prepared this time.
That was my Sunday. Well, really, my weekend. Now to spend the rest of my day and night doing homework.