if dan were here, i'd be eating lunch by now.....

hater: now, you %#$^*@ up!
me: i know! i missed music monday.
hater: now, you %#$^*@ up!
hater: now, you %#$^*@ up!
hater: now, you %#$^*@ up!
hater: you have %#$^*@ up, now!
hater: now, you %#$^*@ up!
me: will you please by quiet!?
hater: what!?
hater: what!?
hater: what!?
hater: what!?
hater: what!?
hater: what!?
hater: hey!
me: what...?
hater: what!?

ok, so maybe i missed music monday....in what was only the second week of it. but, i have a good excuse. in fact, i even prepared two versions of it. so, you can choose to accept which ever is more to your liking. it's kinda like those "choose your own adventure" books from back in the day. except, instead of an adventure, it's an excuse and instead of a book, it's my blog. anywho:

long excuse:
**deep breath** where should i even begin? well, i suppose the best place would be from the time i had the first chance write a post for music monday, which would've been monday at 12:00am. sunday, i had been studying a fair portion of the day for my systems midterm on monday evening. not to mention, i was feeling terribly swift. so, shortly after finishing up studying, i went straight to bed. on monday, i had to go to work and then i was at the midterm until about 9pm. i honestly can't remember what i did after that, but i'm sure it involved rock band to some degree. tuesday, i went to work, and then more rock band followed. yesterday, i went to work and drove to nyc for a ridiculously awesome aquabats concert which i may discuss in a future blog once. i fully intended on writing the post when i got back, but i was throughly tired at that point and just went to bed. so, as you can see, i was extremely busy with not but a second to be spared for writing blogs even if it was for music monday.....

........come to think of it, that's a load of bull and there were plenty of 15min spans during the last three days when i could've wrote it. i guess you should probably just take the short excuse.

short excuse:
i procrastinate.

now that i've appropriately explained my absence, with no further ado, i present music monday part deux ->

hopefully, you got a chance to appreciate some classic J-Ska last week with TSPO. granted, they are still making music but i still like to consider old bands "classic."

this week, we are going to take a look at a little more new school band known as Ore Ska Band. i originally found out about them from naruto. one of their songs was used as the end credits. i remember the first time i heard it -- i went ballistic. i immediately began googling around to find out what song it was and who sang it. one of my most tried and true ways to find out who played an awesome song that i randomly heard somewhere is to memorize about two lines of lyrics and then google for the lyrics. i found out this is difficult to do when the words are in japanese. eventually, i found a naruto fansite that listed the song. i've been listening to them ever since.

it's a 6-part band (bass, guitar, drums, trumpet, trombone, sax) that is comprised of all girls. how awesome is that? it's rare that you ever see a girl in ska band, much less an entire band of girls. they are all friends and started the band when they were in middle school! they are high school aged now and have already released 3 eps and 1 full length.

currently, they are making a movie with the producers of high school musical called "Lock and Roll Forever." it's about an all-girl japanese ska band (surprise surprise, they cast ore ska band) that travels to the US to make it. personally, i can't wait. i think the movie will be fantastic. as is their music, it's has a super upbeat and happy third-wave sound with some awesome melodies. and, the bass player is awesome. check out a couple of music videos:



i love the kid and old guy dancing at the beginning. note that the next video is a direct continuation of the last previous one.



and, just for good measure, here's one more.



favorite season:
Summer and definitely not winter
i love warm weather despite the fact that me and the sun are mortal enemies. the summer is just so great. you don't have to bundle up to go outside. there's plently of sunlight for playing outside and you can go swimming. meanwhile, the winter blows. literally. it's cold....all the time. it's dark....all the time. and, i hate it....all the time. it doesn't make sense. my skin burns super easy so shouldn't that mean i at least get +2 def against ice? it's just not fair....

Some people call me emo.......

from time to time, something happens in my life, that just makes me stop and say "that sucks." one of these events has recently occurred, so, accordingly, i've been doing a great deal self-deprecating reflection as of late. you know the one - food has not taste, you can't feel the wind, and every time you see someone smiling, you die a little more inside. for me, these periods in my life basically amount to sitting in a dark corner playing STD on my acoustic **one tear rolls down his cheek**. finally, after weeks of contemplation and several gallons of ben&jerry's, i have achieved a great epiphany.

of course, the traumatic event that i am referring to is my blog going stale. and, my epiphany was that i just need to give it some semblance of direction - a purpose, if you will. the problem was that i started the blog to catalog my journey to russia, but, once that ended, the goal had already been achieved - in 6 days... so, at that point, i was left with the remnants of something that use to be a good idea.

for all intensive purposes, this could of just been left as a fledging live-journal and would have eventually floated away into the electrons long forgotten by anyone that might have cared in the first place. now, don't get me wrong. pending the degree of my future infamy, this blog may, in fact, be subpoenaed to bear witness against my evil ways (i'm not sure how you subpoena a digital manifestation of chronologically-ordered rants either, but i'm sure the man would find a way). but, should i never attain a level that would warrant the general populous prefacing my name with 'Notorius', i am as sure that this blog would dissolve into obscurity as i am sure that the giants whipped up on the "golden" boy and his pats last night.

nevertheless, i intend to suck the life out of it anyways by proclaiming today the first ever MUSIC MONDAY! hooray! we all love music, so the fact that it has the same first letter as this day of the week means that we now get to talk about it every week! hooray!

This month on Music Monday we will be taking a closer look at our ska brethren across the big pond in a little series I sometimes like to refer to as "Jammin' with J-Ska!"

The onset of 2008 marks the start of the 23rd year of the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. They are one of the best known ska bands in South East Asia. They have already released 16 full length albums and the 17th is due out in March. They play mostly 2nd Wave stuff, which, somehow, generally sounds more upbeat than traditional second wave (if that's possible). at any rate, they are pretty fantastic. i'm a big fan and have been listening to them for about a year now. they are truly perfect for any occasion where you have no idea what to put on. i especially enjoy playing them when i'm with a group of people and i don't know anyone's musical taste. the music is just so happy, and 98% of the lyrics are in japanese, so no one listening can get offended.

just to get a taste, sit back and take in a live performance of my favorite TSPO hit - "Utsukushiku Moeru Mori." make sure to note the reaction of the crowd. we'll be exploring that phenomenon later in the month.




Worst Person of 2k8
Bill Belichick
Congratulations Bill, we are only a month into 2k8 and you already managed to clutch the worst person of the year. it's not possible that anyone could turn out worst within the next 11 months. you are the poorest loser of all time. you couldn't even wait until the game was officially over to leave the field. wow. i know you wanted to tie Chuck Noll's record for most super bowls won (Noll has got 4, while you just a lowly 3). but, you got to understand, that Chuck Noll was a Steeler. you can't touch him. but, if you want a shoulder to cry on, just call up your "golden" boy........

Just Typing in the Dark

Personally, I think new years is pretty stupid. It's completely arbitrary. Every other moment of each year could just as easily be classified as the starting point of the next year. The only reason it happens to fall on the January 1st is because that's when Aloysius Lilius decided it would be. Just in case are not familiar with the good (Calabrian) doctor, Lilius proposed the calendar we currently use as a reform to the Julian (Casear) calendar. A decree of Pope Gregory XIII made it so, which is why it carries the name Gregorian calendar instead of Lilian calendar. I suppose new years is, more-or-less, an anniversary of this 1582 event. Nevertheless, they might as well just call it - "That night a week after Christmas when everyone gets plastered and makes false promises...."

I must apologize for the pessimistic attitude, but yesterday just pissed me off. I'll digress in another post.

To honor the spirit of a fake drinking holiday that I'm not particularly fond of, I am going to do best/worst of 2k7.

Best/Worst of 2k7

Best Pop Song:
(I would do song of 2007 but bands that I listen to don't actually single songs...)
"Kiss Kiss" - Chris Brown ft. T-Pain
I really don't like T-Pain. Anyone who gets his signature singing style from a single vocoding effect gets no respect from me. Despite the fact he has sung the hook for just about every hip-pop (that's my new term for hip-hop/pop/top40. it's pretty clever if i do say so myself and i thought of it inline while typing. not too shabby.), you won't be hearing about him much longer. His voice is a fad in pop music right now, and nothing more. Chris Brown, on the other hand, is fairly talented, and this song is catchy.

Honorable Mention: "Easy" - Paula Deanda
This might be my favorite hip-pop song of all time (it's between that and "my love"). The only reason that it didn't get the best of 2k7 is because it was re-released this year featuring Lil' (no matter what he calls himself, he'll always be Lil' to me. I mean the guy is like 2ft tall.) Bow Wow. Originally, it was released in 2k6 featuring Lil' Wheezy, which was a million times better than the Lil' Bow Wow version and my favorite version.

Best Album:
Somewhere in the Between - Streetlight Manifesto
Tom is lucky that he is amazing at music. He made us wait for 5 years. 5. years. For those of you that don't listen to Streetlight, you don't know the pain. Albeit, I assure you it was one of the more traumatizing experiences of my entire life. Of course, Tom did pull it off. The entire album is ridiculous from the lyrics to the melodies to the horn lines. Unbelievable from top to bottom. I listened to it exclusively for a solid month after it was released, and it's only 40-some odd minutes long. I don't feel like to the math on it, but given how much I listen to music, that is a bunch of play throughs.

Honorable Mention: Blackout - Britney Spears
I feel bad, and she is trying.......

Best Concert:
RX Bandits at the TLA
This was a pretty competitive category since I saw a lot of amazing shows this year, but the clear victor was RXB. I have never experienced music like that in my entire life. The instrumentation, the presenatation, the selection, and the passion are unrivaled. It was if the music enveloped me........and I wasn't even under the influence of anything. It was just amazing and I would highly recommend catching one of their shows if at all possible. Even if you have never heard them, I would still recommend it, cause they are that good live. It will blow you away. This show ranks now ranks as my second favorite show of all time right after the first time I saw the aquabats, but that is for another post.

Honorable Mention: Streetlight Manifesto, Reel Big Fish, and Less Than Jake at Ram's Head Live
Like I already said, i went to some amazing shows this year (paramore, saves the day acoustic, suburban legends/streetlight, etc.). i feel like i am almost obligated to choosing this as the honorable mention just for the line-up alone. Look at it. Then, look at it again. I can hardly believe that line-up occurred myself, and I was there. Simply amazing. Three of the most influential bands in my entire life (there are only two others that would rival their influence in my life - RXB and five iron frenzy). And, it was a great show to boot. Streetlight opened to be expected. RBF played their usual set which is still pretty good. And, LTJ played a ridiculous set with songs exclusively from Hello Rockview and Losing Streak which are my favorite albums by them and arguably their best in general (though i'm sure many would include anthem and/or pezcore in this list). Not to mention, there was a huge crew there with me. We were rolling about 12 deep that night. Concerts are grow exponentially more fun with the more people you know that are there.

Best Movie:
H-to-the-P-O-double-T and the O-O-T-P, yea you know me
It's probably the worst film adaption of an H-to-the-P-O-double-T book yet. Even so, i don't go to the movies often and i highly enjoy 'arry potter. hence, it wins.

Worst Person:
Bill Belichick
There are so many four-letter words and explicit phrases available to let someone you know you don't like them, yet not a one of them does this guy justice. Besides his apparent hatred of sleeves, he is disrespectful to opposing coaches (doesn't shake hands), he is disrespectful to other teams (runs up scores), and, above all, he is disrespectful to the game (cheats). I could never support someone of such low caliber.

Dishonorable Mention: Jamie Lynn Spears
I know she wants to be, but she will never be more (in)famous than her sister. To adequately explain this phenomenon, I derived the inequality below.

fame{alpha*disneyChannelShows + beta*teenPregancies} < fame{Britney}
where alpha, beta are in the set of all real numbers

So that's that. I was going to do a few more, but I ended up writing more than I expected for these ones and i'm about to head out a new years party no less. Ironic considering the first paragraph. Had I been on top of my game, I would've asked everyone to submit ideas for the best/worst a couple weeks ago, but I just thought to do this yesterday. To make it up to everyone, I'll make sure to ask for ideas next year pending I still care about this blog.

Skacore in the Jersey Underground

mom: "it's 6:58am. you better get up or you're going to miss the bus, and i'm not driving you to school today."
ryan: **several unintelligible grunts and the sound of a 6'3" 17-year-old rolling over in bed**

by my senior year of high school, i had nearly perfected the art of getting up exactly 12 minutes before the bus showed up. get dressed, eat life cereal, brush my teeth, equip for the day, and catch the bus on its exit trajectory out of my cul-de-sac (i didn't know it was spelled that way until just now either). for the 1 out of 10 times that i didn't make it to the end of my driveway in time to join the endless procession of "the wheels on the bus," i would get my mom to take me.

mom: "i told you to get up and you didn't. now, you missed the bus. i told you i'm not taking you to school."
ryan: "that's fine. it was my fault. i'll just not go to school and not take a test in one of my millions of honors/AP classes. tests aren't important anyways, they just determine my grade. i was probably going to fail that class anyways. i mean i didn't really want to get into a good college. really, it's fine. whether i take that test or not, i was probably going to get a associate's degree at ITT Tech, go on picnics with all of my sweet new friends, and buy a hyundai. so don't worry about it mom. you don't have to take me to school. i'll just drive hyundais the rest of my life. oh, it's cool that i live in the basement for the remainder of eternity too, right?"
mom: **sigh** "go get in the car."

this is the earliest i can remember waking up without an alarm since i was about 8 years old. seriously, 7:31am (i know it's past eight now, but it took me a long time to find out how to spell cul-de-sac. on a related note, did you ever notice that spell-checkers are counter-intuitive for words that you have no idea how to spell? you have to be pretty close, like a single omission/addition/transposition away, for spell check to actually help you out. that sucks for me. my ability to spell exists in two completely polar states - no prob at all or not even close. accordingly, spell check rarely helps me out)........what's up with that? i suppose this is the consequence of not being able to breathe. stupid head cold. **shakes fist at nothing in particular** it sucks that being sick makes it harder to sleep, because you actually need sleep to get better. it's kind of a kick in the balls when you are already down. oh well.

anyways, the real reason i started this post was to talk about the show that i went to last night at the First Presbyterian in Pitman. When i first got there, i had no idea where to go and most of the church was dark. normally, when i go to random local shows, i just follow the tunes which usually lead you down 14 stairwells, past the utility basement, over the bridges, and through the woods. the problem was that i couldn't hear any music playing, so i just to started wondering around the outside of the church, in a very shady manner, until i happened upon a single 8.5x11 sheet of paper taped to a side door labeled simply - "Ska Here." Classic. It's been a good 7-8 years now since i was hanging out at VFW halls and church basements on a normal basis, but i'm super psyched to see that not much has changed. Forget the radio and billboard charts and MTV award shows and all the other crap. This is music. Kids hanging out on a cold Friday night in the jersey underground just dancin' it up, chillin' with their friends, and rockin' some tunes. that's how it's suppose to be.

Kenny's band, The Sandinistas, was playing which was my reason for being there (despite popular belief, i was not there to meet 14 year olds). it was great to catch a show since i haven't seen them play since the summer when they still had a horn section. they play as a three-piece ska/reggae/punk ensemble now. they did a pretty good job. it's tough being the first band to play but they still managed to get some kids dancing. go get in touch with your jersey underground and check them out.

i'm a little sad cause i can't do my travel stats to end off this post. it's unfortunate because it was such a great way to conclude everything i had to say. so, now, i am forced to think of some other amusement to satisfy my desire to not leave all of my future posts......unfinished.

hmm, ok. i just had a thought. maybe i'll do favorites (or least favorites) with a little explanation. for instance:

favorite type of bread:
italian
i don't know why they even bother to make other types of bread. they all taste like crap compared to italian bread. it's super good with butter or accompanying some sort of dish involving tomato sauce or gravy.

hmph, i liked that. that was good. yea, i think this will be the new way to end posts. also, this is a great way for anyone that actually reads this blog to get involved. put in your favorite (or least favorite should the situation warrant) in the comment section. it'll be fun. and, of course, you are always welcome to comment on any of the other crap that i talk about.

Hookers in the Hall: A Reflection

Day 7

This is hour 5 of my layover in Frankfurt, Germany. The sun is lowering in the sky. It's time to start looking for shelter. I am beginning to worry because I have not ate in several hours due to my lack of euros. my core temperature is beginning to lower. If I am not careful, hypothermia will soon set in. I set off to find dry wood, but, in this primarily metal and linoleum climate, the task proves difficult. Look for stray chairs near your gate, they are a light but good source of fire and should last most of the night. At this point, if you have still not found food, it is better to stay huddled under your make-shift tent made of coke bottles and pants. This way you can conserve energy and use it to warm your body. In order to survive the night, it is imperative that your clothes remain dry. Sleeping too near the fire will cause you to sweat. Once you begin sweating, your body will cool drastically. To guard against this, it is wise to sleep naked and then there is no chance of your clothes getting wet. otherwise, you will die....unless one of your discovery channel cameramen loan you a hot dog and his key to the local comfort inn.......

i got that far in and then they began boarding my flight back to the mother country, so i was forced to quit prematurely. accordingly, i am writing the remainder of this after the completion of my travels. originally, i had planned to make the last travel blog entry at the same location that i made the first entry. at the very least, i started the last one there, so for all practical purposes, i stuck to the plan. this works out pretty good though because now i can complain about how awful the last flight was.

it was long and it was cramped. the delightful asian fellow sitting in front of me decided he needed to have his seat reclined as far as possible for the entirety of the 9.5hr flight. i was giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was just trying to sleep, but it became clear that this was not his intent. as such, i took the polite route and kindly asked him to raise his seat. he acted for half a second like he heard me and then hastily turned without relinquishing the angle of his seat.

just in case, you are wondering -> that's not ballin'. if someone asks you to put up your economy class seat on an international flight, don't be a jerk about it! but, i got him. tore one of that bastards eyes out......actually, i did opt to become physical at this point but without permanently damaging anyone. he got up to the go the bathroom about 10 minutes later. during his unfortunately(but fortunately for me)-timed water closet excursion, i reached over the seat unceremoniously and pushed the button to make his seat jump back to upright. upon his return, he began making attempts to lower his seat again. although for some reason, it would not recline back at all now despite his numerous attempts to achieve this state. as to why it did not work again is a mystery man may never know the answer to. perhaps mechanical failure, perhaps divine providence, or perhaps bobSaget and leonardNemoy are co-producing a show about the candid humor of paranormal activities at high altitudes. numerous theories abound, nevertheless it should be noted that the malfunction was not due to me wedging my knees against the back of his chair so that it could not possibly move at all........ever again.

anyways, the flight sucked. as it turns out, when you fly with the rotation of the earth, the flight takes much much longer. pity. um. yes. quite. indeed. curious.

the best part of the trip back happen before we even had checkout of the hotel. at 0335 GMT+03 when i left my room to go downstairs and checkout (the flight was at 0630 GMT+03), there were a pair of 'what the russians call' prostitutes standing directly outside of my door. i'm not entirely sure why, well, i mean i can guess why, but why my room? i'm not sure. one possibility is that they have developed an 'sixth' sense, if you will, through natural selection which allows them to locate sources of alcohol and small bills - both of which i was stashing in a moderate amounts within my luggage. regardless of how they did it, it was a delightful surprise nevertheless. my mind instantly drifted to how funny it would've been if one of the 'ladies of the night' had walked out of my room with me while Moshe was waiting in the hall. i'm sure the comment immediately following would've been along the lines of: "ryan, this is not an expense we can charge to eye-triple-E."

and, so ends my adventure to Leningrad. to close, i will leave you with a list of likes and dislikes, the final stats, and a wish that all of you had a thanksgiving as interesting as mine.

likes and dislikes:
i think the best way to do this would be to make what is called a complement sandwich where i will say something positive, something negative, and follow each negative with a positive.

-> 3.5% milk
-> warm 3.5% milk
-> benzs and the crafty hobbits that drive them
-> cold weather
-> the things you do to say warm in cold weather, like chess
-> losing muscle mass from lack of doing anything physical for a week, including but not limited to: carrying bags, opening car doors, opening regular doors, walking up steps, and etc.
-> our tour guides!
-> fancy-pants restaurants
-> the st. petersburg public transportation system
-> cold weather......again.......cause it was freakin' cold
-> attractive women
-> the realization that i will probably not find any american girl attractive for several months after this trip
...there is no positive follow-up to that. darn.

FINAL stats...

28.11.2007
st. petersburg - 0923 GMT+03
frankfurt - 0723 GMT+01
philadelphia - 0123 GMT-05

start time - 1430 GMT-05 21.11.2007
total time elapsed - 154h 53m

Current Song:
"Around the World" - Suburban Legends
cause i'm all around the world and all i wanna be is next to you......

points - the world:
hooray, prostitutes! = 1
guy sitting in front me = 1

points - ryan:
some act of nature mysteriously thwarting the guy sitting in front of me = 1

FINAL score:
the world - 8
ryan - 9

"eat it world. love, ryan"

Near-Death Experiences through the Streets

some days you go to class. some days you go to work. some days you just chill out at home. and, some days you ride around in the back of a mercedes benz through a russian city with a madman. my day happen to be the latter of these. for our final day in Leningrad, me and moshe decided to tour it up - in style. cause, you know, we haven't been really too classy at all up to this point, with all the meetings in suits (hoodies), expensive restaurants, and personal tour guides and such - not classy at all. so, we got a driver for the day. a particularly squatty looking fellow with a sort of general scowl about him. not an angry scowl, it was just the shape of his face. actually, i can directly put his image into your head. ok. close your eyes. did you? you did. oh really? well then how are you reading these questions, you filthly liar.....

.........imagine the hobbit from the very beginning of fellowship of the ring. the one that is sweeping in front of his house when gandalf rides into the shire on a wagon. you know the one i'm talking about. now, put a high-end thrift shop suit (if there is such a thing) on him. of course, it doesn't match, but you know at one point, there was a horrible brown-gold plaid shirt that went with that tie. finally, make him about 1.2m and top it off with a gray derby cap.

and, homeboy was rocking a benz..........ballin'! cars are really weird around here. there are a fair number of volvos and benzs and i even saw a porsche today. but then are there a million crappy asian cars/vans/trucks that look like they could've just as easily been on a street in 1970s south vietnam -- yesterday. anywho, homeboy was killin' it. pulling u-turns. cutting in front of 4 lanes of traffic. making turns and backing up with no regard for pedestrians at all. there had to be at least 6 times today where i was immensely afraid for my life or that of a stranger. i suppose the point is that no one died. but, i wouldn't be particularly surprised if we were to have a conversation along the lines of:

me: "homeboy, what's the word on the street?"
homeboy: "chillin'."
me: "how you rockin' today?"
homeboy: "you know me."
me: "yea, i do. you killed some bitches, didn't you?"
homeboy: "they got in my way."
me: "i heard that. and i know you tryin' to get a hit of this chronic"
homeboy: "hell yeah i'm tryin' to hit."

.......crafty hobbits.

we went to the summer palace of the Romanovs. it's a little outside of St. Petersburg. it was kinda crazy cause the public isn't normally allowed in on mondays, but we had the hook up and got a private tour. it's was pretty nuts. the grand hall had the most intense (re)verb rocking ever. the room is 1000m^2 and about 8-10m high. you could clap and it had the nastiest effect on it. basically, it would be the most ballin' place to setup a recording studio ever.

so we walked around the palace and the surrounding gardens for a while. at one point, i mentioned that this would be a great place for a summer retreat because the gardens were flat and divided up into sections about the size of a football field and lined with trees. does anyone else realize how perfect that is for sports? flat. big. and bordered. perfect. clearly, moshe and our guide didn't appreciate this attribute of the grounds as they both laughed at me profusely for proposing that you could get a nasty game of kickball going on here. it's been so long since i've played kickball. i think the problem is that wiffle ball is so much better. and, anytime you could play one, you could be playing the other as well. they require roughly the same supplies (sans the difference in balls.......hah, balls.....). but that's fine cause i like wiffle ball way better even if i am the lesser measel. speaking of, i was able to find an ovenchkin jersey from when he played on the russian national team for tyler. nice.

after the palace, we just kinda rode around the city for a while looking at different things. the nice part of the afternoon was that Milana met up with us for the last couple hours. now, i'm usually a modest person, but i'm pretty certain Milana is into me. she wasn't suppose to come with us today and we already had a guide, so she just came for the hell of it (aka to hang out with me). i mean, i can't blame her. plus, she kept smiling at me and whenever we were walking anywhere, she would hang back to talk to me and let the other girl walk with Moshe. unfortunately, it's just not meant to be considering we don't live in the same hemisphere.

anyways, we came back, ate another overpriced dinner, got some souvenirs for the family, and now i'm just about to go to sleep so i can wake up at 0315 GMT+03 to catch the plane back. i know you are probably overcome with joy at the prospect of my return. just two more days my friends........

stats and such:

time:
26.11.2007
St. Petersburg - 2103 GMT+03
Frankfurt - 1903 GMT+01
Philadelphia - 1303 GMT-05

start time - 1430 GMT-05 21.11.2007
time elapsed - 118h 33m

Current Song:
"Apologize" - Timbaland feat. One Republic

Dear Milana,

First, I just wanna say that we've had some good, no.....some great times together. You showed me around Leningrad. I made you laugh. You got me away from the russian police. I told you about Ska. But, girl, i just can't go on like this anymore. it's tearin' up my heart when i'm with you, and when we are apart, i feel it too. i'm an engineer, you're a humanities major. it's just not in the cards. but, i want to apologize for the pain i might have put you through.

Yours Always,
Ryan

p.s. this song was playing in the WaWa while I was picking up a 1.0L vanilla coke for 28 rubles!

p.p.s. when most people add secondary and tetriary post scripts, they usually mistakenly abbreviate it p.s.s. and p.s.s.s. clearly, they don't realize that p.s. stands for post script. the correct extension is to keep adding Ps so that it becomes the post post script instead of the post script script. that just doesn't make any sense at all.

p.p.p.s. i think someday we'll get back together maybe.

p.p.p.p.s. i think someday things'll be much better baby.

points - the world:
making me do the touristy thing and shop in a store labeled "Souvenir" = 1

points - ryan:
surviving that crafty hobbit = 1

score:
the world - 6
ryan - 8
"we can beat this thing!" - ryan, in max's basement

Cultralizing at the Hermitage

i'm sure cultralizing is not a word, but it is the only thing i can think of that correctly corresponds to my activities today.....

we woke up (relatively late) at 9pm and had yet again another monster breakfast. i don't think that i have mentioned breakfast up to this point, but they are great! they don't have everything ever, but everything they do have is super tasty. so far, every morning since arriving we have taken breakfast at the hotel and every morning i have started off the day right with two heaping plates of eggs, bacon, cold cuts, rolls, hash browns, and fruit. traditionally speaking, i'm not even a big fan of big breakfasts - cereal everyday, all day, but this has been super awesome. in fact, just talking about it gets me really excited for tomorrow morning.

anyways, oh oh oh, i just remembered. the front desk girl was still there this morning and she was there just 20 minutes ago when i came up. therefore, she is a robot. it's proven.

now, like i was saying - anyways, after a delight breakfast, we met with a tour guide, not Milana this time most unfortunately, who walked us around outside a little bit to some statues and such. then, we went to the hermitage, which is a giant museum. i heard before going in that it takes several days to appropriately see the whole collection. i believe it. we were walking all over the place, from the opening until it closed, and we still did not see everything. but, we did see lots of cool stuff and well known artists, such as Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Monet among several others. this is what i am talking about when i say cultured. As it turns out (not really suprising at all though), Moshe is highly versed in the fine arts. He was basically my walking narrator. He knew everything about every piece and artist in the museum. Needless to say, i learned lots of interesting stuff about art.

so we went to a museum and walked around......a lot. by the time we arrived back to the hotel, i was extremely tired and decided to take a nap in the hour that i had available until Moshe and I were suppose to go get dinner. Well, i ended up sleeping for 3 hours instead. Moshe didn't take it personally (though we did joke about my effort to ditch him) and had gone to get food on his own when i hadn't emerged for an hour past our appointed meeting time. so, i was on my own to get food. options at this point include: order room service, go to the restaurant on the first floor, or go exploring. it's me, so of course i chose option four: find the closest liquor store!

but real quick, i'll justify my decision. the room service is absurdly expensive. let me give you an example. a cheeseburger and fries costs 560 rubles. at a current exchange rate of 24.5 rubles to 1 US$, that works out to be about $22..........for a cheeseburger. i could buy the entire checkers menu for $22 (which i plan to do when i return anyways, because checkers is amazing)! but, that's how everything is at this hotel -- really expensive. it's also part of the reason that i didn't go to the restaurant again, while the other is that i already ate at the restaurant, and it was just ok. plus, i really wanted to go exploring a bit, and option number four is really just a more specific version of option 3.

so, our friendly, neighborhood front-desk robot assisted me with the general location of vodka, and off i went. nothing really notable happened until achieving my destination. it is late sunday night at this point, so very few people were out and even fewer shops were open. but, lucky for me, the liquor store is actually a 24 hour mini mart. it's funny because we have passed this location several times. i didn't realize that it was a mini mart before this trip because there was always 10-15 seeming hooligans hanging out in front and appearing very rowdy. this was no different tonight, it just so happen that this time i was able to see the sign that said 24 hours (in russian of course). that's when i realized that this is Leningrad's Wawa! how fantastic! and the hooligans in front - they are basically me. just chillin' with their friends in close proximity to the nearest all night food outlet. that's awesome. if i lived in Leningrad, they would be my friends. this made me extremely happy.....my kindred spirits half a world away.

the store itself was surprising linear. it wasn't arranged in aisles, it was one aisle that just wound it's way around the store. and the best part about this mini mart was that half of it was a liquor store with all kinds of stuff and a wall full of vodka. i got what appeared to be the expensive stuff, even though it was still just 400-some rubles for a liter, which is actually super cheap. that's low-end vodka prices in the US. and, there were ones that were even cheaper. like 5 bucks for 0.5L. that's insane! no wonder russians like it so much, it's stupid cheap.

during lunch with my russian counterparts yesterday, we were talking about drinking briefly. i was informed you can purchase alcohol at 18, but most start drinking around 14. the one girl told me that she heard that the US was 21, which i confirmed. she then went on to tell me that 21 is when russians stop drinking (heavily). it makes sense. i suppose drinking will decrease in fun once you've been doing it for the better part of a decade.

i got a couple bottles of vodka (look forward to that 331), but, unfortunately due to the fact that i don't have a big suitcase and because you are only allowed to carry 3 bottles out of the country anyways, i had to stop at that point. i did also pick up a couple food products to complete my original intent, and i got a 0.5L (16.9oz) of cold beer for like $0.90. i've been drinking it the entire time i've been typing this by the way. it's pretty good. once again, it's no yuengling, but good nonetheless. and it absolutely destroys other beers that are in the same price range (natty, beast, keystone, etc.).

so i spanned the gambit today: the day at one of the premiere museums in the world and then a 24-hour liquor mart at night. it's pretty much the Leningrad equivalent of going to the philly art museum then to a 7-11 and the beer distributor on 42nd.

class, the whole way........

stats!:

25.11.2007
st. petersburg - 2245 GMT+03
frankfurt - 2045 GMT+01
philadelphia - 1445 GMT-05

start time - 1430 GMT-05 21.11.2007
time elapsed - 96h 15m

Current Song:
"4'33"" - John Cage
A little lesson in music history: John Cage was an American composer in the 20th century, and a controversial one at that. His most famous piece 4'33" does not contain any notes played by the musician - they just sit still for 4 minutes and 33 seconds. the music, if you will (though it kinda depends on what your personal definition of music is), is the noise of the audience during this time, often characterized by coughs, murmurs, and awkward laughing. basically, it's the sounds of musical silence. as such, i feel it's appropriate for a day that i spent at the museum where i heard no music the entire day. in retrospect, that is really depressing. it's rare that i am awake for that long of a period of time and don't listen to music for at least part of it.

points - the world:
i didn't get boned at all today. nice.

points - ryan:
not getting boned by the world = 1
discovering kindred spirits = 1

score:
the world - 5
ryan - 7