Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Khreshchatyk is such a noisy place: tons of cars, quite a few of them street-racing, it seems, and now, at 2 a.m., there are two guys on a bench right beneath our window, and one is a drummer, exercising on what looks like an old Soviet drum, of the kind we used to have at school during all those pioneer/Communist youth affairs. The other guy is filming him on his cell phone camera.

Marta is asleep, I'm trying to put together a translation on the Russian opposition's famous lack of unity, but I do spend some time by the window, filming a tiny video of my own. I'm not going to post it - it's too dark outside, and the chestnut trees are in the way, and the drummer's nothing special, really.

But it reminds me of Greenwich Village a little, and I like it and wish there were more crazy street musicians here. I'd probably spend all my money on them, like I almost did a couple times in the States - something I don't regret at all.

Ah, how I wish someone played the Grateful Dead's "Friend of the Devil" to me right now...

Ha! But there's YouTube, of course - here, Jerry Garcia himself, on The Late Show, 1993, what a treat...



Too bad I still have to work on my translation... :)

2 comments:

  1. I hope you get some sleep - perhaps they're just excited about the four-day weekend coming up?

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  2. That was a cool song Veronica. At least Letterman was good for something.

    I have to share a story with you. When Letterman first came on the air I was working as a night clerk at a motel desk to put myself through college. I worked from midnight to 8 am. I would study and watch the TV that was in our lobby. One of the things I watched was the Tom Snyder show out of NY. It was a serious interview show with interesting guests, kind of like the Charlie Rose show and he also usually had a new cutting edge musical act. Good substance.

    But then he got replaced by the mindless Letterman. It really sucked because I was starving for decent information and programing.

    The Tom Snyder show became an important connection to what was really going on in the world for me.

    I remember the last show. Snyder interviewed Ted Turner. It was sad. Turner predicted that Snyder would find his place again and that never happened. Of course everyone loved Letterman. I couldn't bring myself to watch it.

    Then Letterman bought a ranch in Montana outside of Chouteau where Christine had worked as a Med Tech in the lab at the little hospital. Letterman bought the town a new Fire Engine/ Truck to endear himself to the locals, but I think so they could put out a fire at his place if needed. Then he dammed up the steam, up-stream from the ranch Christine stayed on.

    So I have a dim view of Letterman for two reasons. :) But I did enjoy that musical clip you post. But I still have a problem with Letterman for pushing out Snyder. It really made my nights at the motel longer.

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