ThisIsVlad

i didn’t vote today.

-v

halloween this year was tons of fun. we went to the castro as usual, but managed to get way more drunk than ever before. it was a fairly large group that we went with: sharon, chearon, mattie, nikki, kevin, erica, joey, veanne, robert, andrea, jamie, and tom but within minutes of leaving our house pretty much everyone got separated from everyone else. we spent the rest of the night running around, looking for friends, and being lost in all the chaos. we took the n-judah down there which was cool cause it was totally packed and everyone was hella partying, singing, and going nuts. as for what happened at the castro…. umm.. i really hardly even remember. somehow i managed to polish off a .75 liter bottle of smirnoff pretty much all by myself, and so the rest of the night was pretty hazy. i do remember at one point, after finally running into kevin who had missing all night, me and him slapping each other in the face over and over. errr, not sure why that happened… but he said that the next morning when he woke up his face still hurt! doh! then somehow he got separated from all of us again and spent the rest of the night alone and ended up passing out on the n-judah line later in the night. randomly, yan called me at like 5 in the morning, totally drunk, slurring, and hiccuping over and over.

anyways, all in all (i think) everyone had a good time. i guess on the news it said that there were over 300,000 people there that night!!

-v

For a long time i’ve really wanted to try out Critical Mass. it’s this crazy bike ride that happens the last friday of every month in downtown sf. they gather a huge crowd of thousands of people on bicycles and everyone rides their bikes downtown during rush hour traffic. in a way it’s a protest against so many people driving cars. finally, last friday i got to try it.

It was so dope! people totally go all out and attach huge speakers to their bikes so they can blast music, others dress in wacky costumes, and everyone just basically goes totally crazy. it was just so nuts to be biking through the city and taking over all the streets. people had no regard for red lights, traffic, or anything. there were just so many people that the cars had no choice but to give bikers the right of way. we would take over all the lanes in the whole street.. and it was such a trip to see the street of downtown sf filled w/ nothing but bikes. we even biked through several tunnels. anyone who’s honked their horn in a tunnel knows how crazy it sounds due to the acoustics…. well, imagine a tunnel filled w/ screaming people , clanging bells, hectic drum beats! so dope!

the whole time i just kept thinking… dayum, how dope is it to be living here in sf. san francisco is so damn cool cause all the time you get to try out new experiences that are very out of the ordinary. Experiences that make you think “this is so random! does this kind of stuff happen anywhere else?” it has something for everyone and the cool stuff is never-ending.

-v

this weekend i went to club icon, the club that used to be the edge in palo alto. It has been so long since i have been at any mainstream club type of event, and after this weekend i can definitely remember why i dont go anymore. yeah, i did overall actually have a good time, hung out w/ friends, got to listen to veanne spin a good set but the place itself was just so damn cheesy.

first off, the place had a dress code. of course, as usual, i came there wearing shorts and as soon as i saw the dress code sign, i knew there would be problems. while in line i saw the two guys at the door grumbling to each other, but in the end they decided to let me in… of course they had to throw in the snide remark of “hey guy, next time you come back here, try to wear some pants”. uh, yeah, thanks. there wont be a next time. the idea of someone else deciding what they think i should be wearing is just fucking ridiculous. who the hell do they think they are? how shallow can a place to be to decide whether or not people can come in based on what kind of clothes they have on. sheez.

once inside, it becomes fairly obvious that everyone there is probably just as shallow as the people working the door. everyone is dressed to impress and is out on the prowl. people are dancing, but really it looks like they’re going through motions to make themselves look cool. *sigh*. everything just seems like a high school dance.. and they’re even playing the old cheezy hits from those days to make it even more so. so, i didnt talk to anyone there that i didnt know, but i did overhear this great conversation when i was in the restroom… “yo man, wasssssup wit’ your girl???” “yeah, you know, i’m gonna hit that shit, then make her swallow that shit, and then wear her panties on my head! yeahhhhh”. wtf?? what is wrong w/ these people? and as i walk out of the restroom, i see him give his girlfriend a big sweet hug. awwww.

anyways, all of it was pretty weak. really confirmed just how whack a lot of these mainstream places are. makes me glad that i never went in that direction…

-v

this weekend was actually really cool. usually there’s some cool stuff going on here and there w/ breaks in between… but this time it was pretty much nonstop fun.

i got the 800$ check from the guy who hit my car! so i can finally afford to actually spend some money!

friday: steph and i went down to brian and kare’s house to hang out w/ them, jamie, tom, aaron, and joey. we saw the movie “red dragon” and then all hung out for a bit and drank beers. it was cool to hang out w/ some of the south bay folks that i dont get to see very often. joey, of course, comes to sf pretty frequently so i get to see him quite a bit.. but the other are incredibly lazy and rarely are down to make the trek up to SF. it really sucks cause i feel like i was really starting to get close to these people before i moved northwards.. but now the longer i live up here.. i end up seeing them less and less and i totally feel like we’re starting to drift.

saturday: steph and i took the N judah today and went to go see the blue angels. it was way funner than i expected it to be. i hadn’t had too much of a desire to see the blue angels.. but when we got there, they turned out to be totally amazing. the roar of the jets sounded so damn cool! after that we went to Litquake. it was this event where a bunch of authors read excerpts of their stuff. We went cause dave eggers was gonna read there. it was dope to see him read cause he’s totally my favorite author right now. Next we cruised down to san jo and had indian food w/ elena and patrick. afterwards we watched some tv back at elena’s. just like yesterday… it was cool to be able to just hang out w/ friends and not have an agenda. i’m totally down for bars/clubs/etc.. but it’s definitely nice sometimes to be able to just kick it.

sunday: in the morning i got my copy of “you shall know us by our velocity” signed by dave eggers. dude.. he’s so dope!! next erica, robert, and i went down to santa cruz to hang out w/ sharon. we spent the day hiking around, skipping rocks, checking out the mysterious building at 519 fair ave, and then eating at saturn cafe. sharon is another person who lately i dont get to see too often./ she’s always too busy w/ school. sigh. so it was really cool to get to hang out.

ok.. i’m kinda rushing all this cause i need to leave the computer.. but that pretty much sums up my weekend

-v

This weekend we went to Medeia’s pantie party. I usually am kinda resistant about going to parties where you have to dress up. i’ve never been into dressing up and other than halloween, i try to avoid it if at all possible. But i think i’m coming now to realize that parties where everyone gets dressed up usually end up being totally wild and crazy and hellza fun.

After pre-drinking at Yan’s new place, we set off for the party wearing all sorts of random nonsense. kevin and i both were wearing 3 pairs of boxers, each pair hanging a few inches lower than the previous, instead of pants. Steph was wearing a bra and panties on her head. Some of the guys w/ us were wearing panties and bras on the outside of their clothes. basically, we looked like total freaks.

We get to the party and it’s full of people wearing very little clothes. And as the night went on… people ended up wearing less and less. People would get to the party fully clothed, and within minutes end up wandering around pantless. One dude spent most of the night wearing just a sock. Yes, *only* a sock… and soon he wasn’t even wearing that! Oh yeah, and this party had pantie punch: a huge cooler filled with juice, sherbert and tons of liquor. every group of people who came to the party contributed a bottle to the punch.. so as the night went on, the punch got stronger and stronger. and there was a pair of *gasp* panties in the punch. i can only hope that they were brand new and not used YUCK!

In next to no time, everyone was completely obliterated. most of us really don’t remember too much of what happened that night. just bits and pieces… Colleen opening bottles w/ her teeth, steph telling the dj over and over that his music sucked, some girl begging natasha to hook up w/ her, random people rolling around on the kitchen floor, me running into people i knew in high school, everyone making out all over the damn place. basically, it was all nuts. put a bunch of half naked people in a house full of alcohol… and you know the party is gonna go off!

-v

Yesterday a bunch of my friends and i went down to the candid club. It’s a bikini bar in a crappy strip mall in Sunnyvale. We didn’t go there to gawk at half naked girls… instead we came to visit Helen who had just gotten a job there. well, ok, maybe we were hoping to do a bit of gawking, but it was much more of a “whoa! i cant believe someone i know works here!” kind of gawking, and not the drool running down the face lecherous old man kind of gawking.

Let me tell ya, the candid club is no fancy artsy strip club. it’s a hole in the wall. tiny, dark, dingy… it’s just a small room with a few (5 or 6) scattered dudes sitting all alone at tables. honestly the whole place just looked… sad. and then we saw helen. holy shit. so umm… this wasn’t the same helen that we’ve know for years. First off, she looked incredibly tall on her 8 inch high heels. Second off, she was wearing next to nothing. And then to top it off, she had just gotten double D implants which you just couldn’t help but notice.

The next hour was spent with all of us crowding around helen asking her hundreds of questions. personal questions. questions about salaries, bouncers, operations, pole tricks, and everything in between. i mean, i’m sure everyone has questions in their mind about strippers and boobjobs and other crazy shit that they will probably never find out the answers to. well, now was everyone’s chance to find out. so the questions poured out, and helen fielded ’em all. boobs were poked to determine firmness. basically it was all pretty crazy… but then…

helen went onstage. dude, this was when things got even weirder. so now, we’re all sitting around the stage watching… and everyone totally felt so weird. i mean, we wanna watch.. that’s why we’re here. but at the same time.. we so don’t want to watch!! it’s so uncomfortable. we can’t figure out, do we laugh, do we not laugh, do we look, not look, pay attention, not pay attention?? just what is the protocol for this situation? so, the thing is helen wants to be watched. that’s why she got the job. she loves it. she wants the attention, the stares, all of it. and yet… when someone you’ve know as a friend for over 7 years shoves her dental floss covered ass towards your face… you cant help but feeling like you really really just should *not* be seeing this.

after helen’s performance, we all chat briefly and then leave. whatta crazy night! we all wonder how long she’s gonna keep at this. It’s weird… people always think of strippers as sad sad girls who got forced into the trade trying to escape total poverty. but that’s really not the case here. helen has another job that pays her well, is well educated, etc etc. she’s just stripping cause she loves it. she looked so psyched up there. totally ecstatic to be doing what she does. i guess we’ll see what happens next….

-v

my trip to russia has been way fun so far. it’s my third day here and we just got to st petersburg today. the last 2 days we’ve spent in moscow. let me tell ya, russia is a crazy place. we’ve been rushing everywhere trying to see as much as we can in what little time we had. it’s such a trip to be back here and see the place that i’m from. everywhere i go people are speaking russian and it’s a trippy feeling to be able to hear that.

anyways… here are some random thoughts/happenings form the last few days:

In moscow, the main thing to go see is the Kremlin and the red square. we saw it the very first night that we arrived and then kept going there over and over for various reasons over the next 2 days. even though i’ve seen many many photos and pictures of it before, it was pretty unreal to see it live. st basils cathedral totally looks like something you’d only see in a fairy tale. in front of the kremlin is lenin’s tomb. dude, there is something way eerie about a huge mob of people walking around a room and staring at a dead body in a clear casket. i guess there’s some debate as to whether the body is really lenin or whether it’s just a wax replica. as you walk thru the room, all the armed guards glare and reprimand you if you speak or put your hands in your pockets.

actually, the police i russia are pretty damned scary. there’s people in a variety of different uniforms (police, camouflage, armed guard, you name it) all over the damn place. they do everything they possible can to make you feel really unwelcome. our first night there we got stopped by the police, who proceeded to ask us for our passports. now these cops weren’t like the cops back home…. they had submachine guns on strap around their shoulders and huge metal batons i their hands. dude, it was wayy scary. i think they were trying to get us to bribe them, but my dad never caught on so we ended up just being let go eventually.

Ã’h yeah, we sw a communist protest outside the red square. all these old people running around waving USSR flags and shouting. i found it pretty ironic that these people were protesting and asking for a government that would never allow anyone to protest. i was talking to my dad about it and actually it’s a pretty sad situation. all these people who lived their whole lives under communism… working for a cause that they believed in until they became old, should be receiving a pension now. but because communism ended, all of them are left w/ nothing and all these old people just have to beg in the streets for food.

The food here is super cheap. ridiculously cheap actually. the first meal we had came out to 4$ total for 3 people’s worth of food including beer! most of the food we’ve been eating (pirogis etc) comes form these street vendors and each item costs like a dollar or so. coke here costs 50 cents, beer is 60 cents. bottles of vodka are only $3!! oh, and they’ve got beer here that puts american 40 ouncers to shame. they’ve got 2.5 liter beer bottles! and they are only 1.50! unfortunately so far i’ve been way too jetlagged and tired to do much drinking so i havent bee able to make the most of this awesome situation.

So, nobody here wears shorts. i mean nobody. i think i’ve only seen like 9 people wearing shorts this whole time.. and i assume they were tourists. it’s actually pretty interesting to see how people are dressed here. the over 30 crowd dresses really plain and boring using a lot of drab colors. as far a the under 30 people: guys wear either jeans or slacks w/ dress shirts…. girls wear either super tight jeans, or shirt skirts and reveal as much skin as they possibly can. oh, and i havent seen a single girl wearing sneakers… only either open toed shoes or these insanely pointy high heeled shoes.

anyways there is tons more i want to write…. but my time on the net is running out. hopefully i’ll be able to add more tomorrow.

-vlad

i’ve totally noticed that every russian i know lags hella bad. they are always late to everything! i guess this doesn’t apply only to my friends…. cause when i got to the airport to catch my flight on aeroflot, they said the plane would be late. not just a little late. but 6 hours late!! sheeeez! so now it’s already 7pm, my flight should have left 2 hours ago, but instead i’m still back at home trying to kill time. *sigh*

-vlad

In two days i’m taking a 9 day trip back to russia. It’s hard to even begin to describe the excitement that i’m feeling. My parents took me out of russia when i was only 3 years old, and i have never been back since.

It’s weird. I’ve lived pretty much my whole life here, 23 years, and yet still i totally feel a strong connection to the country in which i was born. Even though i don’t really do russian activities, or talk in russian very often, i still definitely feel that i have this core russian-ness about me. I just feel that in so many ways, i really understand russian people. i know where they are coming from…. what their mindset is. And yeah, granted, pretty much all of the russians i know are also pretty americanized…. but there’s still this weird common bond that all of us have.

It’s gonna be so weird to all of a sudden be somewhere where *everybody* has that common bond. every person i see will have that same core and inner culture that around here i see so rarely. i’ll be hearing russian spoken everywhere. i’ll be eating russian food… and seeing russian sights. i’ll be totally immersed in it all.

It’s always nice in life when you can connect w/ people about your past. for instance, pretty much everyone i know now used to go to raves, and on a certain level we can all connect in that way. we all shared a certain lifestyle, certain experiences, and music together.. and because of that there’s this common feeling that we all have. even if i met someone i didn’t know, who used to go to parties, i’m sure we could have some great conversation and bond over past experiences that we shared… even though we didn’t share those experiences together. in that same way, i feel like there are so many russian past experiences that i share w/ millions of people that i don’t get to reflect on quite as often. and now here’s my chance. a dream come true…..

-vlad