I’m from California with the greater part of my life spent in central or Southern California. There is a consistency in weather in this area that is glorified by visitors and taken for granted by locals. Not just the “70 degrees and sunny…every. day.” But also that the sun comes up around 630a and sets about 630p (later in the summer). So, this waaaaaaaaaaaay north-ness of the moment is messing with me far more than I could imagine.

I am up by about 8am everyday.  That’s when I wake up.  If I go to bed at 5a I might be able to sleep til 10 but not necessarily.  8a here is as dark as midnight!  Not, if I wait 15 minutes there will be a little daybreak.  BLACK!  And the sun doesn’t start to come up until closer to 10a so my head starts to think, ok, NOW you can start getting things together…except the day is close to 1/2 over…  I never doubted that SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) because I work in theater, there’s been plenty of times I enter the cave of theater when it’s barely light out and leave when it’s completely dark.  A couple weeks of that and you’re a mess but, I’m usually working and so that takes a different kind of toll.  THIS is just bizarre.  It’s kind of like being permanently on Nyquil.  I want to sleep at odd times, I can’t quite remember the day trying to figure out the general time is pointless and everything is just a little hazy.

I’m not really a fan of this.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood was built (1883) on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and was dedicated in his memory.  There is a large canopy that was built over the site to symbolize the holiness of the memorial.  The  church is incredibly ornate inside.  It is no accident that the church resembles St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow (the Tetris building), the Spilled Blood has almost as many mosaics as St. Basil’s.

Spilled Blood – 7500 square meters   St. Basil’s – 7700 square meters

And I’m talkin’ MOSAIC!!!  Not the…oh, I have some chipped cups I should smash up and spread goo between on a table mosaic but 1/4″x1/4″ tile mosaic!!!!  …times 7500 square meters…that’s a LOT of little bits!  It is exquisite though!

And then as we left the sun was setting…THIS is why people paint!

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I finally made it to the Hermitage last week.  This is my one regret of the trip so far…NOT making it to this museum MORE!!  It’s FREE with an ISID!  But it’s always something…

The weather was SOOO weird that day!  It was cold and rainy-ish when we left for the museum.  We took the metro because it was just TOO cold to walk.  When we came out of the metro it was DEFINITELY raining as we got closer to the Hermitage it started hailing.  We had to wait in line outside to get tickets and it stopped raining, started again, then the sun came out bright and shiny.  We went into the museum and about an hour or two later it was snowing like crazy!!!!  Maybe this is how weather works, but I’m from the California COAST where it doesn’t snow unless there is cosmic weirdness!

History…the Hermitage is a museum made up of 5 buildings and contain the finest art collections in the world.  Catherine the Great founded it in 1764 and the museum has been public since 1852.  The 5 buildings that make up the Hermitage are:  the Winter Palace (home to Russian emperors and tsars), the Menshikov Palace, Museum of Porcelain, Storage Facility at Staraya Derevnya and the eastern wing of the General Staff Building.

Basically, it’s a HUGE place with a lot of cool stuff in it!  And it’s likely that if I’d gone every single day for 3 months I might have been able to see everything…but not likely.  I went for 5 hours and only got through a fraction of the Winter Palace.  There is so, SO much but the architecture is amazing!  I really can not wrap my head around the piles of money it cost to build palaces of this nature or the cost of upkeep!  And some of the rooms are so gorgeous, why would you NEED others to go to?  Why wouldn’t you just spend your entire life in the one room overlooking the river with peacock clock in it?  Ok…maybe a 2nd room…if the peacock clock did indeed ring every 15 minutes that would likely cause me to have some mental instability.  But anyway…

It was hard to pay attention to the works of art because I was tripping on the ridiculously high ceilings with stuff all over them and columns and columns and more columns and fabulous stair cases and chandeliers…oy…

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“In Europe and America there’s a growing feeling of hysteria.  Conditioned to respond to all the threats in the rhetorical speeches of the Soviets…”  ~Sting

I was rather intimidated about going to Moscow.  Excited…but nervous.  I’m not entirely sure what it was that made me so unsure but I was going in any case.  I arrived and all anxiety was for not!  The city is AMAZING!  St. Petersburg is more beautiful than I could ever describe but Moscow…is like…times 10!!  Italy looks like the Universal back-lot at every turn, Moscow is Disneyland!  So many bright colors and gold and steeples.  A lot of the metro stations do not have the name of the station where it can easily be seen on the train and the announcements are sometimes muffled but it is not difficult to get around.  Truthfully, I think the Moscow stations are even more grand the St. Petersburg stations.  I’m trying to locate a book for both cities.

Junmei found an incredible apartment for 5 of us to stay in that turned out to be across the walkway from the Moscow Art Theater, a block from the Operetta Theater and 2 blocks from the Bolshoi.  This means that Red Square was basically at the end of the street.  AWESOME!  AND it was affordable!

The first night the 5 of us (Amanda, Brittany, Junmei, Sojin & I) went and had a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant.  ALMOST went to Starbucks that night but…saved it for the morning and went on a walk around the area instead.  Tons of cool shops in the neighborhood.  A giant bookstore that turned out to be the biggest/best in Moscow for Art books and stuff.  (I didn’t make back there during open hours 😦 …like I need MORE books…).  Best find of the night though, was a grocery store that had PEANUT BUTTER!!!!!!  Yes, I paid $15USD for 2 small jars, 1 creamy, 1 chunky and truthfully I should have bought 4 jars!

The first day we, of course, had breakfast at Starbucks (OH!  Glorious Mocha!!!  BREWED REAL coffee!  I will never take you for granted again!) and met Danila at the Bolshoi Theater.  We were unable to get inside unfortunately.  Instead, we explored Red Square and the Kremlin Armory Museum.  The amount of wealth is overwhelming!  Mother of pearl handles on hunting shotguns, miles and miles of gold & jeweled “Alter Gospel” covers, a new carriage for every year and cups out of EVERYTHING…nautilus’, narwhal tusk, coconuts…  The oddity of it is how many people were likely employed to construct these pieces of ostentation.  The intricate design, the detailed carving, ALL the gilding and jeweling.  While the product was excessive and over the top, MANY people’s livelihoods were supported.  It was just a strange revelation.  There was armor for children and horses…of course, the horse armor was displayed on a taxidermy horse in a glass case.

We went to Zoya’s Apartment at the Moscow Art Theater that evening.  This was an exceptional theater experience.  It is listed as, “A Tragic Farce in Three Acts” by Mikhael Bulgakov.  (Side info…it played on Broadway in 1990 for about 2 months and starred Bronson Pinchot.)  A lot of projection seems to be used in Russian theater…maybe it’s all of European theater.  The whole set moved forward and back onto a rotating platform so while there was box of a set (4th wall open), the whole set revolved and scenes took place outside “the apartment” and was REALLY outside the apartment…often you could glimpse the story still happening inside.  It made for a very unique experience.  It was a musical, so there were some fun songs, great voices and, of course, tremendous costumes all Art Deco inspired.  The party scene/opium trip(?) was really well done.  But the death scenes were what I thought was most unique.  One character jumps out the window but it was a very romantic moment with her walking out to the edge of the stage, removing her shoes and leaving the stage.  However, when the rich man died (neck slashed with a hand fan!), he fell on the floor and the set began to move.  He walks to an outerwall where there is a rug and chair like inside but 90 degrees on the wall.  He stands against the rug and a projected spot expands across his face and across the whole wall like a pool of blood.  Incredible!

Halloween = shenanigans!!  Amanda and I went back to Red Square in the morning.  Me in my Soviet Wonder Woman costume, Amanda to take the pictures.  It was FREAKING COLD!!!  It was dripping too but the temp was on the positive side.  Like 2 degrees, I think.  We started at St. Basil’s and worked our way out of the square.  There was a camera crew at St. Basil’s.  We ignored them…BUT once they were done they began filming us.  There were a lot of triple takes from passersby…then there were phone pics.  We moved to the bandstand and took pics in front of the 1942-2012 banner and took some pics there.  Still…people stopping and snapping pics.  Then a car starts racing across the square.  It’s a police car.  Wow!  He’s moving pretty fast!  I wonder what’s going on?!  Weird…he’s headed THIS way.  Nothing weird over here!  Oh…crap…  And he stopped in front of US.  (In Russian)  WHAT ARE YOU DOING???!!  Uh…umm…erm…<shit…where did I bring my passport?  Where’s my visa?  crapcrapcrap> …Halloween?  Russian-blahblahblah-Russian AREN’T YOU COLD?  Yes (and a little scared)!!  More-Russian-carry on!  And THAT was my big Halloween scare.  TOTALLY worth it!!!  We finished up a few more pics then went home to change.

We spent the afternoon at the studio of designer David Borovsky.  It was preserved exactly as he left it the last time he worked in his studio in 2006.  He was truly an artist!  Then to a theater space that is located in Stanislavski’s fathers tile factory.  It was a beautiful building, adapted for it’s new needs.  Steel factory tiles (from another factory) cover the floor of the lobby.  The lighting is very industrial but stylish.  Ceilings have been raised or lowered to adapt the stage area.  Paint choices are made to make people feel welcome.  There are more toilets in the womens room than the mens room to supposedly alleviate lines!!!  A lot of thought was put into this theater and it is very beautiful.  We did not get to see a show here though.  We saw Opus Number 7 at an unpronounceable theater.  The 1st Act was very interesting it was a commentary on WWII and the images were very relate able.  The 2nd Act was about a child pianist and communism.  I didn’t really get it but apparently it was poignant for the Russians.

Thursday we prepared to come back to St. Petersburg.  It rained!!!!!!  We went to Christ the Savior Cathedral.  This is where Pussy Riot performed and was arrested for hooliganism.  It is beautiful!!!  I am not a religious person, but I do appreciate the artistic value of a beautiful church.  There are paintings EVERYWHERE!!!  There is also a casket covered with glass holding silver and gold boxes of bones but…to each their own.  I have Julian McMahon’s underwear in a box at home…kinda the same thing, I suppose.  I just don’t tend to light candles and weep uncontrollably at the site of said undies.

…and then the train ride home.  200 kilometers/hour.  I *LOVED* Moscow and will GLADLY return there anytime!!

*there may be some FB duplicate pics.    

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Ya know how Mac Vs. PC…they are not EXACTLY opposite and just enough that you really never know what you are doing when you are working on the “new” one? THAT is the Russian flu. I was kinda tired on Sunday, weirdly sore but thought little of it since we had spent the last 12 days in theater for 12+ hours each day and the Sat opening was pretty much the 1st time we’d done ALL the changeovers in real time, in a row.

Then came Monday…I couldn’t get warm for anything! My eyes were ridiculously puffy, I felt like I’d been run over by a train and apparently I didn’t look so hot either…as was commented by Danila.  I slept the rest of the day away with the occasional Walking Dead S2 episode thrown in.  Tuesday…for as cold as I was Monday, I was BURNING UP!!!   Wednesday I got up, felt ok.  Went to the kitchen for breakfast and had minimal balance.  Couldn’t move too fast for fear of falling from the dizzy.

So, of course, once the plague had begun to dissipate…it was time to go back to work at the theater.  Monday was Danila’s birthday so Olga invited us all over for dinner after the show Sunday night.  First and foremost, Olga has the best apartment EVER!  It’s **EXACTLY** what I want for my next apt.  Sure 2bd would be super but…1 bd with a DOOR would be nice!!!  Good eats!  Good vodka!  Good times!

And NOW we are back on a bit of a touring schedule.  Last night we went out at midnight and 0 degrees…to watch the bridges raise.  It was pretty neat but I was SHOCKED at how frigging slow it was!  I was NOT expecting it to go 14mph but maybe like…2!  It was pretty neat tho.

Today we headed out to the Imperial Porcelain Factory…I will only post pics of the pieces I did NOT buy.

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Everyday and Total Eclipse of the Heart has left my brain after a week and a half. Today’s song was…No Sleep Til Brooklyn. Hmmmm… (Magic pencil don’t fail me now!!!)

We are officially in Tech week(s). That means long days of waiting around until something explodes and/or adjusting for cyclone-Armageddon that happens when no one is looking. I can’t seem to “follow along” to the show no matter what brilliant idea I come up. The language keeps getting in the way!! But the show really is spectacular! SUCH a large group of really good actors!

The theater space is raw but there is some real charm and character to it (the back steps from 2nd to 3rd level are 3 pieces of rebar/step. SOOOO scary and yet some of the actresses run up…IN HEELS! *I* hung a couple lights! …on a ladder that has the steps zip tied on! This is Russia!! There were 2 other ladders that fit OSHA standards better but they were being used for more difficult tasks. I wish I could accurately photograph the set up so Casey could see what incredible lighting happen with 400 rubles!! (That’s about $12). It is honestly remarkable. There will be seats for 80 ticketed people for this show, there are 27 actors, 4 acts (1.5hrs ea), 3 intermissions with complete scene changes INCLUDING the seating arrangement, and one location change (to upstairs). It’s epic.

In WONDERFUL news!!!!! The heat came on yesterday!!!!! What a difference! Currently, it’s at a comfortable level. It is now always on and, from what I understand, it will likely get REALLY warm to the point the windows will need to be opened. …we’ll see

The pics are from the sky out my window this morning.

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We went to Pavlovsk to pick mushrooms, film a video (for Summer Folks…when we step in for the “children,” we have to sort of…shadowcast ourselves or something. THAT will be weird…). Pavlovsk (no dogs, no bells) is a state park that looks like a forest. Trees EVERYWHERE!!!! But apparently, a REAL Russian forest would be almost impossible to walk through because there is a swamp every 2meters or so. It rained so there were plenty of puddles everywhere and it kept raining throughout the day but mixed in with the evergreen trees were these fantastic birch and maple trees. Soooooooooooo incredible to see this vast array of gold, brown and RED leaves and thin an occasional green Christmas tree thrown into the mix. And then the wind would pick up slightly and the colored leaves would start gently falling to the ground. Holy crap(!!!!!!) it was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen! I tried to take some pictures of it but I’m not sure they really turned out.

The video is of ” the Americans” doing typical Russian things…so picking the mushrooms and having a picnic. We did have a video bomber. Her name is Sasha and she is 3. She’s the daughter of the woman who is organizing/directing the children/American’s scenes. Sasha is a SUPER mushroom picker and just pure entertainment. We had little idea what she was saying most of the time but she’s absolutely adorable so it really didn’t matter. Sasha has a 7y.o. brother, Sergei who was also out with us but he was more interested in having us watch him climb trees.

Once the video was shot, we went to Pavlov’s summer palace. No pictures inside w/o paying extra…why don’t I remember to take my small camera and tag onto a tour group????? A far as the royal palaces go, this was the least ostentatious of all the homes!!!! Not EVERYTHING was gilded and there seemed to be some real thought put into the aesthetics of the place. There were beautiful stone inlays in some of the fireplaces an sure, i think it was this palace that used up ALL of one of the stones but…karma payback may have been the bombing of the place during the war. It got pretty messed up.

Now we start teaching Dashniki. I’m up early this morning to go help hang lights. Mornings are strange here. It was pitch black out at 7a and then suddenly by 7:25 it’s totally light out…northern latitudes or something. …and it’s 46degrees out…high should be 50. Woooo! Yes, I’m freezing my butt off.

There are lots and lots of pictures from the other day I can’t upload them at the moment.

10-3-12 photos uploaded ~JF

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When I was little and took dance classes, I couldn’t WAIT until I was in the big kid class and get to wear fishnets for my tap recital! Fishnets were even cooler than the tap shoes with the heels! I finally got to wear them in 5th grade (I think), it was the routine to RAGTIME. We did the number on stools with long, metallic gold fringe “flapper-ish” dresses. I LOVED IT!!!! Gimme 10 minutes, I can probably remember the routine… ANYWAY…that was when my love of fishnets started. Fast forward a bit and there was Rocky Horror! A fishnet lovers fantasy!!!! And not 4 but SIX GARTERS!!! OMG! But, in my 800+ year Rocky career there’s been punk, grunge, and goth that has kinda made fishnets tawdry at the very least and most often trashy. Yes, I am aware of Chanel’s “new” thing of insetting fishnet into their outrageously expensive outfits…kind of the extreme opposite.  So…this fabulous Russian fishnet!  EVERYBODY is wearing them!  With every style!  I’ve seen them with a variety of skirt/dress types from dressy to super-cas, pants, peep-toe pumps, flats, boots EVERYWHERE!!!  I love it!!  I’m not entirely sure what is different about THESE fishnets.  They aren’t very expensive…about $6 American for stockings or tights, there is lycra in them so they hold the shape nicely.  The only real difference I can find is the gauge is slightly smaller.  American is usually on the larger side of 1/4″ where as these are…crap…where’s my metric ruler…grrrrr…4mm instead?  It makes a difference…an AWESOME difference!  I will wear Russian fishnets always from now on!!!

This is the recurring theme song of the Vampire Count Graf von Krolock in Tanz der Vampire…also known as, Dance of the Vampire the most expensive flop on Broadway…until Turn Off the Dark.  Some of us went to see it last night and I PHUQING LOVED IT!!!!!  It was ridiculously cheezy-campy-awesome!!!!  The sets were…grandiose!  The costumes were GORGEOUS (designs by Kentaur…not Sue 😦 ).  There were some great dance numbers…the nightmare number with scary things crawling out from under the bed and then the Krolock double entered…shirtless (lighting GENIUS for this man!!!!) and there was this seductive 3-way vampire porn dance!  Jim Steinman did the music so EVERYTHING sounded Andrew Llloyd Webber/Meat Loaf/ Celine Dion-ish…with Total Eclipse of the Heart ALMOST verbatim every 3rd song.  But in Russian, of course.

Saturday was a 1/2 walk through of the Russian Museum with Danila.  Icons and murals and porcelin, OH MY!

Sunday we went to Peterhof.  “Peterhof was born, as it were, from sea foam, as if summoned into existence by a mighty king of the sea…” ~Alexander Benois.  It was Peter I main crib back in the day and has been called the “world’s capital of fountains.”  It is the Disneyland of Russia.  There was even a band playing as we walked up the Grand Cascade.  Sadly, it was raining and the computers were down so our tour reservation was MIA…which then made us late for our scheduled time and they weren’t going to let us in, but Tatiana kicked some butt and got us in…but she wasn’t supposed to give our tour in English.  Such craziness.  OH!  And NO pictures inside.  DAMMIT!!!  I’m certain I’ll go back to the gardens on a nice day!!!

EVERYTHING in the palace is gilded!  It’s totally surreal.  You would think there would be a point that the tacky kicks in and yet…no.  Every room had carvings over the doors and on the walls and every carving was covered with gold leaf.  It was SMOOTH!  NO seams, no cracks.  Absolutely beautiful.  When *I* rule the galaxy…MY palace will be gilded!

AND…I am experiencing my very first REAL Fall.  It’s pretty amazing.

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…go cra-cra!!  All I want is peanut butter!!!  (Well, and good coffee but there is at least options).  There is really no peanut butter in the country.  I have been told that The Amazing Olga has found some in the past, but it took some deep digging.  Why didn’t I bring it?  Because the jar on my shelf at home had been there for a while and I thought…I’m not eating that very fast…I’ll be fine without it for 3 months.  I even bought a new jar to bring but do to suitcase rearrangements it just didn’t fit.  NOW every morning I want toast with PB…PB sandwiches for lunch…PB and apples for dinner.  It’s mutiny…

Our gang is about to be assimilated into The Summer Folk production.  The “children” in the show will be away for 3 shows so they will be replaced by the 9 of us.  We will be reciting a couple of Gorky poems and doing a scene from The Seagull.  I suppose it just takes 1, “what’s HAPPENING here?” to make this my 4th country of performance?  (OMG!  I am AMAZING!!!!  Lou should be proud!)

Briefly about the St. Petersburg subway.  Holy shitballs it’s beautiful!!!  Every station I have been to is clean, large and gorgeously decorated.  It is soooooo far underground it’s scary!  It may be the longest escalator I’ve ever been on and I think the grade is steeper than most American escalators.  Photography is not allowed in the Metro so I have swiped some pics off the internet.

Brittney, Sojin and I walked around the outside of the Hermitage.  We only had about an hour and figured that was NOT enough time for our 1st visit.  Yes, we could probably go everyday for the entire time we are here and STILL not see everything and for THAT reason…1 hour, the 1st time going in is NOT enough time!

Aside from rehearsals and class, we’ve seen a few shows.  Robert, Brittany, Sojin and I went to a puppet theater the other night to see ECCLESIASTIC.  There were no puppets…there were also no words.  It was a dance/movement piece on sand!  It was REALLY spectacular!  The music was lovely the lighting was brilliant and it was completely understandable!  It was STOMPish in the sense that there were several rhythmic sections to the piece…just with sand, 2×4’s and light bulbs instead of trashcan lids.  WHY is there no MATRIX????!  I wanna d/l my head and show this show to EVERYONE!  On our way home we were all a little hungry and we passed the ELVIS CAFE so of COURSE we had to stop!  It was a-hunka, hunka burning AWESOME!

Last night it was back to the Alexandrinsky for a $4 show of…Izotov.  NO idea what this show was about!  The set was impressive.  There was some nice projection stuff and a LOT of book throwing!  There was a nice moment when the woman’s clothing was falling from the sky.  It was really quite beautiful watching various pieces of fabric fall from 30′ above the stage except that from what *I* could tell, the woman had kicked the man out of the house so I don’t know why HER clothes were falling out of the sky.  However, there were magic tricks in the show.  Magic ALWAYS makes things better!

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