The General is guest blogging at the TPM Cafe. Be sure to check it out.
Since this is about the extent of my post, I will just put a very large picture here:
Ah, much better.
After the dissertation is done (WHICH IS DUE ON THURSDAY AHHH!) I will post about the Notting Hill Carnival. Also, haven’t done the last post on Prague. Yes, I’m behind, comrades.
Soooo I’ve been reading all this news about high gas prices in the U.S. Almost $3 a gallon in my home state, eh?
From CNN:
Oh, of course, as usual it’s the fault of oil companies…
Or maybe OPEC…surely they’re just not pumping that oil fast enough!
Wait, maybe this time China and India are to blame!
It’s always someone else’s fault, isn’t it? There should be an option for that poll that says “ME”.
Good article about Saudi Arabia in the New York Times. Long, but worth the read.
“Everybody is looking at the producers to pull the chestnuts out of the fire, as if it’s our job to fix everybody’s problems,” he told me. “It’s not our problem to tell a democratically elected government that you have to do something about your runaway consumers. If your government can’t do the job, you can’t expect other governments to do it for them.”
Tried to work on the dissertation today, but I have the worst cold known to man. Five thousands words to go, and what a great time to get sick!
Downed a liter of Sunny Delight “California Style” (was quite shocked to learn they carry Sunny Delight, and better yet, “California Style” here) but later learned through the powers of Google that the “drink orange juice” remedy is a just an old wives’ tale. Ugh.
Weather sucks, too…60s and raining HARD.
Saw this a few days ago while I was searching for news articles on current Russian-Georgian relations…hilarious…just had to post it.
Ukraine, Georgia fuming over planned Russian sex film
MOSCOW — Alexei Mitrofanov, deputy leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party, says he cannot understand the ruckus over his dirty movie.
What’s so wrong, he asks, about writing a film script that imagines a steamy rendezvous between a buxom woman named Yulia and a darkly handsome gentleman named Mikhail?
What does it matter if the porn star selected for the role of Yulia wears the same braided hairstyle as Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko? Or that she climbs into a Russian attack helicopter, zooms over the mountains along Georgia’s northern border and makes love to someone who resembles Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili?
“How can they react like this when they haven’t even seen the film?” said Mr. Mitrofanov, a senior member of the State Duma, or lower parliament, better-known for his extreme nationalist politics than his prowess as an author of sex films.
Ukraine and Georgia have voiced displeasure with Mr. Mitrofanov’s side project, which is scheduled to start filming next week.
Rumours are circulating about possible retaliation by Ukrainian filmmakers, who are reportedly trying to cast a male porn star who resembles Russian President Vladimir Putin for a gay film.
It’s the latest, and most bizarre, sign of tensions between Russia and the two former Soviet republics, which have drifted away from Moscow’s influence after recent revolutions in both countries. Ukraine squabbled with Russia over energy prices, while Georgia demanded the closing of Russian military bases on its soil.
Despite the recent history, Mr. Mitrofanov seems hopeful that his 26-minute sex film, titled Yulia, will take foreign relations to new heights — literally and figuratively.
“Political erotics are a new genre that I have discovered,” he said. “The film is about politics. It makes a political statement, they don’t just [have sex].”
The politician was vague about the film’s message, but he dismissed any suggestion that he was trying to demean Mr. Saakashvili, 37, who will be played by an unnamed Armenian actor, or Ms. Tymoshenko, 44, whose role has been taken by a well-known porn actress, Elena Berkova.
Russian audiences are already intimately familiar with Ms. Berkova, who gained celebrity on the popular Dom-2 reality television show. She initially described herself as the 20-year-old director of a marriage agency, but was kicked off the show after revelations about her career as an adult-film star.
Ms. Berkova has reinvented herself as a musician, with a recording scheduled for release in the fall. Her producer, Alexander Valov, acknowledges that she signed on to Mr. Mitrofanov’s project to generate publicity for the album.
It’s still unclear whether Ms. Berkova intends to reprise her hard-core performances in the film; the politician has pushed for more graphic scenes, while Ms. Berkova’s producer hopes for fewer. The film isn’t intended for theatres in any case, with distribution directly to DVD, video, the Internet and possibly television.
A Black Shark helicopter will be rented for the filming, Mr. Valov said. The modern Russian attack helicopter is armoured against 12.7-millimetre bullets, which could be useful if Mr. Valov follows through on his intention to film the climactic love scene in the air above the Pankisi Gorge, an area still racked by battles between Chechen fighters and Russian security forces.
“You could be shot down by a rocket any time you cross that border, and this increases the thrill during the moment of sex,” Mr. Valov said.
Temuri Grigalashvili, a spokesman for the Georgian President, wasn’t particularly thrilled by the idea. “This is a cheap public-relations trick,” he said.
“One should not do such things,” said Nikolai Novosad, the first secretary of the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow. “A state politician cannot talk about another one in such a way.”
Mr. Mitrofanov rejected the idea that he’s creating propaganda.
“Is the film The Interpreter propaganda or big cinema?” he said. “Is the film JFK propaganda or big cinema? Why is it that in America these films are considered big cinema but films like this in Russia are considered propaganda? This is big cinema and I am a great master.”
Our network over here has really been sucking, so my internet access has been rather intermittent. And no, there is nothing that I, the network advisor, can do about it.
Of course, I’m convinced that it is LSE’s way of forcing all of its grad students to work on their dissertations. If you don’t have internet access, what else are you going to use your laptops for? That’s right, open Microsoft Word and start typing. One thousand words…two thousand words…three thousand words…really, this lack of internet access does result in a substantial increase in productivity (although seems to have come to a halt now that internet is back – this post being a perfect example).
In terms of the UK being a “babysitter”, the pubs in the UK close at 11, and the tube at midnight. It’s like having a mandatory bedtime. Oh, but please, can’t we have just another pint? No, you kids have class tomorrow! Get outta here!
But…but…pubs can now apply for late licences, effective November 24.
When I won’t be here anymore. Damn.
From The Moscow Times:
Putin Breaks Sound Barrier
President Vladimir Putin, sitting in the pilot’s seat, broke the sound barrier Tuesday as he flew in a long-range bomber to a Northern Fleet outpost to attend a war game similar to one that embarrassed the armed forces last year.
After opening the MAKS 2005 air show at the Zhukovsky airfield, Putin was whisked to the Chkalovsky Air Force Base northeast of Moscow to board a waiting Tu-160 supersonic jet.
During a brief medical check shown on state television, a medical officer told Putin that his blood pressure was as good as a cosmonaut’s. The 52-year-old president joked that he would not fly to space this time.
Putin, a retired security services colonel who has sailed in a submerged submarine and has flown to Chechnya in a two-seater Su-27 fighter, then attended a mission briefing by Igor Khvorov, the head of the strategic air command.
Putin sat in the commander’s seat while Khvorov’s deputy, Anatoly Zhikharev, piloted the 275-ton bomber, which can carry nuclear and conventional cruise missiles. Two navigators were also on board.
The plane, named Pavel Taran, broke the sound barrier over the Nizhny Novgorod region and then slowed down to fire a cruise missile at a target. An accompanying Tu-160 also fired a missile.
Khvorov, who piloted the second plane, said before takeoff that they would perform a daring low-level pass 200 meters above ground at a speed of 900 kilometers per hour, Interfax reported. Putin’s Tu-160 was also to refuel in midair, Interfax reported.
Upon landing in Olenegorsk, in the Murmansk region, to attend the war game late Tuesday, Putin described the flight as a dream come true.
“I must say that it is a very pleasant feeling,” he said on Channel One television. “I think it is similar to how you fly in a dream.”
Putin said the planes had successfully fired new high-precision, long-range cruise missiles.
The war game, which entered its active phase Tuesday, is bringing together the Northern Fleet and the Air Force’s long-range division. It is perhaps the most impressive of four exercises planned for August and September. An unprecedented Russian-Chinese exercise is to start Thursday in the Far East, and the U.S. State Department said Tuesday that it hoped the exercise would focus on strengthening stability in the region, Interfax reported.
Flying around in a Tu-160? Cool. Clearing brush at your ranch in Texas? Boooooring. I think this places Putin way ahead of Bush in this summer’s “Which world leader is more macho?” competition (IMO, much more interesting than Big Brother or whatever the hell reality show people are obsessing over this summer).
Prague…great city, I must say. I don’t think I’ll be traveling anywhere else before I leave London for the U.S. (sad, yes, but the dissertation needs to be completed) so I’m glad we were able to squeeze in this last minute trip to Prague. We only bought our tickets and booked our accommodation a week before we went. We ended up flying CSA (Czech Airlines) which was actually quite nice, as it has been a few months since I’ve flown a “real” airline (you know, with free drinks and some legroom).
We ended up staying at “Guesthouse Dream” which sounds like some posh nightclub, but in reality it was a guesthouse that this Czech guy, Leo, rents out to tourists. That’s one of the things I love about Central/Eastern Europe – all these enterprising people have taken it upon themselves to buy property around their flats, fix it up, and rent it to tourists for great prices. God bless ‘em! Leo, by the way, is awesome and picked us up from the airport (he was holding a sign that said “FINCHER”…hilarious). On the way to his flat, he told us a lot about himself, his family, and Prague…when I mentioned I was from California, he said that his daughter did a high school exchange program in California…in Irvine of all places! He told us about a trip he took across the United States in the early 1980s. Could you imagine traveling across the U.S. by train and car, barely speaking any English, and yet managing to see places as diverse as New York City, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Los Angeles? It must have been quite an experience. I later asked him what he had to go through to be able to take the trip to the U.S., as he was still living under a Communist regime in the early 1980s. He said that he applied for permission to take the trip FIVE YEARS before he actually was allowed to go, and that none of his family members could take the trip with him in order to guarantee that he wouldn’t just stay in the U.S. After he returned to Czechoslovakia, the secret police made him answer a ton of questions regarding what he did in the U.S. Needless to say, I will never complain about long lines at passport control EVER AGAIN!
Anyways, Guesthouse Dream was really, really nice…we had our own guesthouse…it was huge! And with satellite TV! Granted almost every channel was in German, but still, pretty cool. If you ever go to Prague and need a place to stay, I highly recommend booking with Leo. It’s in a really quiet neighborhood, with the tram stop to the city center right in front of the flat. He also has an adorable Dalmation, and if you need to check your e-mail, you are free to use his computer. He gave us a map of Prague, recommended some places to check out, and off we went!
The first thing we saw in Prague was Prague Castle, which is supposedly the biggest castle in the world. Inside this castle is this beautiful building, the Saint Vitus Cathedral:
And the guards look so happy to be there:
Next, we saw Charles Bridge, which is a very, very, very well-known bridge. This, of course, means that unless you wake up very, very early, you will find yourself fighting through a crowd of tourists so you can make you way towards the other end of the bridge.
Yep, that’s Charles Bridge. The sides are dotted with various statues, most of which are religious in nature:
The next sight we saw was Old Town Square:
This square is also where the famous Prague Astronomical Clock is located:
Every hour, this clock puts on a little show for all the tourists called “The Walk of the Apostles.” The travel guidebooks really build it up and say it’s not to be missed, so we hung around for a few minutes so we could see the next “showing.” Well, it was quite disappointing, actually. Like “Eh…that’s it?” A lot of the tourists that had waited a while to see it actually started booing!
We also saw Wenceslas Square, which is not really a square at all, but rather a very long boulevard:
Those of you who took Eastern European history/politics classes should recognize this place – it’s where a student, Jan Palach, set himself on fire to protest the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. These days, it is a huge commercial area, mostly filled with department stores, tacky souvenir shops, and restaurants.
While in Prague, we took a boat trip down the Vltava River. Our boat was the “Jazz Boat”, but oddly enough there wasn’t any jazz music. Weird:
View of Prague Castle:
Of course, we did a bit of souvenir shopping while we were in Prague. I must say, I was quite shocked to see such a large amount of Russian souvenirs. I could have sworn I was back at Moscow’s Izmailovsky souvenir market! Russian Matryoshka dolls, fake fur hats with Soviet insignia, McLenin shirts! EVERYWHERE! I found it a bit ironic, in fact, that most of the t-shirts for sale said CCCP or had a hammer and sickle design on them. I could easily see why they would still sell those in Moscow and St. Pete, but in Prague? Come on, 1968…throw out the Soviet oppressors (souvenirs)! Oh well, at least they had hand-carved Russian Santas for sale, which my mom absolutely loves, so I was able to pick her up a few of those for her collection without having to actually fly to Russia.
We also went into a liquor store there (not like a convenience store, but a nice, actual, fancy liquor store). We were drawn to the huge display of bottles of green liquid, otherwise known as absinthe, which, as you all known, is banned from the United States. We browsed through the various absinthe bottles for a few minutes, wondering what the hell the difference is between the types, when a salesman asked us if we would like to try some.
“Ummm…well, OK.”
He had bottles and bottles of liquor on a huge table, in case you wanted to try anything before buying. He took out a little plastic cup, and poured a bit of absinthe in it so we could each try it, and then explained that you usually don’t drink it straight (it’s a long drawn out process involving water, special spoons, sugar cubes, fire, and more than likely some sort of voodoo dance) but nevertheless this would help us distinguish the various types of absinthe. So I slowly sipped my absinthe from the plastic cup…and…
GAHHHHHHHHHHHH TASTES LIKE MOUTHWASH!
I suppose it tastes a lot better when you drink it with the water and sugar, but I’ll stick to the Czech beer for now.
Czech beer, by the way, is outstanding, and very, very cheap. We would usually get a half-liter for 50p! (Less that $1) I’ve heard from a few people that it used to be a lot cheaper, but still, I’m more than happy to pay 50p for a half-liter of Pilsner or Budwesier (no, not American Budweiser…Czech Budweiser!)
Czech food is also pretty good, although very heavy – goulash, dumplings, random pieces of meat sitting in some cream sauce/cranberry/whip cream concoction. Great prices, though…we would usually end up paying around 6 quid each ($12) for beer, bread, soup, main course, dumplings, dumplings, and more dumplings, and dessert…and actually, you could get it for even less if you eat at some restaurants that are “off the beaten track.” Still, try getting a full meal for 6 quid in London! Not gonna happen.
As for the language, we didn’t have any problems, as everyone we ran into spoke English. I used some Czech (the sentence was very similar to what you would say in Russian) at the post office to ask for stamps, but the lady just replied “I speak English.” Same with the waiters, bartenders, kiosk saleswoman, metro employee, tram driver…all spoke English. Now, on the one hand, the fact that we didn’t have any difficulty communicating with anyone is a good thing. On the other hand, though, I’m a big proponent of having to put some “work” into your traveling. That is, you should at least attempt the local language, even if that means you are only armed with a ridiculously thin phrasebook. It makes for some good stories, like when you had to argue with the angry babushka manning the fruit and veggie stand in Moscow, or when you tried to explain to the Bosnian taxi driver that you wanted to go across the border to Montenegro.
But that’s just me, and I suppose I’m a bit crazy when it comes to some things.
Also, on our last day in Prague we went to the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, but that excursion deserves its own post, so I will have that up in a few days.
Unless I miraculously land a job in the next month, I will be departing the United Kingdom on September 8 and returning to my home state of California. How depressing.
I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of this city, as there is still so much I haven’t seen. I need to make a list of things to do before I leave and hopefully do a majority of them after I turn in this dissertation.
One thing I can scratch off the list, however, is seeing a play at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. I find it slightly amusing that from September until July I lived only a minute’s walk from the Globe and never once diverted from the usual path to Starbucks/Tas Pide/The Anchor Pub to see an authentic Shakespeare production. It just seemed to touristy. And that’s how it usually is, isn’t it? When you live in a city, you usually don’t see many of the sights there (unless a friend comes over to visit, and you can play tourist without feeling like a tourist).
This evening a group of us saw a performance of The Winter’s Tale. I really liked it (and this coming from someone who isn’t a huge fan of Shakespeare). We paid only 5 quid for our tickets because we were groundlings – that is, we didn’t have seats! We stood in the “yard” directly in front of the stage for the entire play (2 hours and 40 minutes) just like the common people did during Shakespeare’s time. I’m pretty sure, though, that there wasn’t a “Ye Olde Starbucks” across from the 16th century Globe Theatre, but still, it’s nice to know that you can watch some excellent Shakespeare while drinking a frappacino.
Seeing a play at the Globe is definitely something you have to do if you take a trip to London. The simplicity is a welcome break from some of the more tech-heavy plays now showing in the West End (The Woman in White, anyone?)
Forgive the horrible pun, but I had to get it out. Actually, I have to admit that I also bought a t-shirt that says “Prague: Czech it out!” I quite like it.
Anyways, I’ve finally uploaded all my photos from Prague and Theresienstadt/Terezin.
I’ll write a description of the trip later…I was a the library all day working on my dissertation and don’t think I can stand to write any more tonight.
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