Yoga for Wine lovers

Dissuaded to exercise? Apathetic about yoga? Here's some inspiration!

What to do & where to go in Moscow

✈ (...to be continued)




Dobriy vecher!

Since many of my friends and acquaintances often ask me about this subject, I decided to post my suggestions here...

TAXI? - "Joltiy taxi" telf: 495-9408888 ...There are some people who can stop the car and offer you a ride (not for free, of course), if you speak Russian, go ahead, but be sure to set a price first (yes, before you even enter the cab), but if you're not au courant with the cyrillic alphabet, I certainly DON'T recommend this choice.


WHERE TO DINE:

- Cafe Pushkin located close to "everything": http://www.cafe-pushkin.ru/en/

- Before going to the Bolshoi, a fine option "just steps" away is the Vogue Cafe (Kuznetsky most ulitsa 7/9 , tel. 495-623-1701) - an assortment of international cuisine- from Russian, to Asian...

- Somewhere pompous & extravagant? - Restaurant Turandot
(26/5 Tverskoi Bulvar; Telephone: +7 (495) 739-0011)


EXPANDING OUR CULTURAL REPERTOIRE:

There are several attractions at the spacious Red Square (Krasnaia Ploshiad), the Kremlin, the St. Basil's Catedral (the one appearing in numerous postcards representing Moscow), and Lenin's Mausoleum.

The Kremlin (or, pronounced in Russian, "Kreml"), has the Armoury Museum - the richest museum in the contry (it's on the ); it exhibits a superb collection of Tsarist artifacts (thrones, coronation dresses,crowns, carriages, etc), armour, sumptuous jewelry, and the famous Faberge Easter Eggs. Oh! Don't forget about Mikhail Romanov's ornate, jewel-encrusted arms case and quiver, and the sublime dagger presented to him by the Shah of Persia.

If you are feeling curious about Russian art, you should visit the State Tretyakov Gallery, near to the Kremlin. It has the major collection of Russian fine art of the country. Goncharova, Kandinsky, Chagall, Malevich...You name it! (http://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/en/)

If you would like to buy some souvenirs, there's the legendary pedestrian street "Arbat". It used to be the meeting point of the capital's intellectual elite, artists, musicians (you can still feel it in the air), now it is a lively touristic attraction, full of souvenir lojas de souvenirs, cafes, restaurantes, bars with charming tables on the sidewalk (in the Summer, that is...)

Need I say anything about the splendid BOLSHOI Theatre?.. www.bolshoi.ru/en/


PARTY@:

-Rai (Bolotnaya Naberejnaya, 9 / phone: (07) 495 767 1474)
http://www.raiclub.ru/

-Soho Room (Savvinskiy Bol. Pereulok 12., Str 8 / phone: (07) 495 988 7444)
http://www.sohorooms.ru/

Note: In Moscow & in St.Petersburg, there's a "common" thing locally known as "face control", don't get scared, just be sure to watch your mood (don't be anxious or aggressive, pozhaluysta), check your posture (look positive & joyful), and pay attention to the dress-code (designer-brand-names help) ;-)


USEFUL VOCABULARY:

Privet (pree-vet)- hello, or more official, Zdravstvuite (zdra-v-s-t-vui-te)

Dobriy den -Good afternoon!

Dobriy vecher -Good evening!

Pozhaluysta (po-zha-loo-sta) -Please

Spasibo (spa-see-bah) - Thank you!

Izvinite (eez-vee-nee-teh) -excuse me

Poka- bye;
...or more formal -dosvidaniya (do-svee-da-neeya)-goodbye

Hopefully, one you will not need, "Pomoguite" (po-mo-guee-teh)- Help

I was almost forgetting the most used: "da"- yes, "net" -no

And, the most important... (No, it's not vodka)
-Ia ne ponimayu (Ya-ne-po-nee-ma-u) -I don't understand ;-)


✈

Crush the dreams or crush but dream?

To fall or not to fall, that is the question… (In love, that is…)
Same old incessant story – heart-ache & no glory… We open our heart, get disappointed for A or B reason, and then? Should we close the door and hide the key? What if we forget where we put it? What if at the moment we decided to close the door, the person who just arrived, five minutes, a day, or a month late, and was left behind, was just the one we should have let in?
Love – a thing in which some ceased to believe, a thing without which we convince ourselves we can, but we can’t live. “No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main” (John Donne)
Maybe the dilemma is that as we grow older, so grow our preconceptions and our convictions about what we want and search for in life…BUT…do we really know what we want and is that thing, so cherished and longed by us, the best for us? (meaning which will actually make us happy) We create a list of traits that we think the “ideal person” is supposed to have, starting from the most futile and superficial, to the more intricate and profound ones. Each time we start going out with someone, our mind takes over our heart, submitting the poor guy/ girl under this test of ours (consciously or subconsciously)… If the chosen (victim) makes a faux pas, we convince ourselves we are the victims of just another delusion... But is it really so, or are we responsible for demanding and expecting something misleading?
...To be continued (maybe).

Casually, about cats & melancholy

LM:
Hey, how’s it going?
IG:
How’s what going? My ever-changing mood? LOL
IG:
Tutto bene?
LM:
Lol …Tutto, e con te?
IG:
Well, if you insist on being my express-therapist… I’m kind of… in a state of dismal…
LM:
Ok, let’s “start from the start” - With or without reason?
IG:
With and without… lol
LM:
Interesting way to put it…
IG:
LOL …humm...for your info, I’m a melancholic person in general... although I don’t like showing it, so few people know… I miss old times- the ones I never lived...
As Gilda Said, it was much more fun to go crazy in the Jazz-age...
LM:
Have you had anything to drink or smoke today, by any chance? Oops, wrong message… You like cats, and that’s a sign…
IG:
What do cats have to do with anything?! lol
LM:
Cats are less cheerful than dogs
IG:
Well, too much cheerfulness sounds dumb to me anyways, j’suis desoleé… lol
LM:
Well, at least you’re a melancholic with a good sense of humor… LOL
HUH? :-/ ?
p.s. I like dogs, I do (the ones with the actual paws & barking… wait… on second thought… I find barking irritating...on the other hand, they say “those that bark don’t bite”…hum, nevermind, my alter ego is babbling…)

About Autumn Sonata...

This Bergman’s film is a master-piece, without a doubt, but I don’t recommend watching it if you’re in a depressive state, particularly, if you had a quarrel with your mother. They didn’t advise me, and I chose to watch it while in a “recovery period” – one of the worst decisions I have ever made after accepting to operate my Septum bone (for those who don’t know, it’s a cartilage in the nose-if your Septum is deviated, you are not breathing well, and may have a nasal voice). Obviously, neither couldn’t I cry in peace, nor breathe… If you don’t cry while watching this movie, you should consider some soul searching; you might just find one… Otherwise, don’t say I didn’t advice you… You will either end up feeling miserable, over-analyzing your mother-and-daughter relationship, or feeling a much greater, inflated regret about something you have said or done to your beloved procreator (don’t underestimate the infatuation that will be instigated by Ingrid’s “laid-back” script, and Liv Ullman’s compelling performance). At first, “plain and kind” Eva will seem harmless, and bluntly paranoid, but then… you will have to watch for yourself, it’s too impressive and attention-grabbing (besides being rather complex to explain just in words, particularly for someone who is not a film critic).
Like a chimera transformed into a nightmare, an idyllic, long anticipated family reunion, transformed into a duel. Love and hatred walking hand in hand through memory lane, bathed by a rain of profuse desperation.
p.s. you might consider taking notes while watching Autumn Sonata - it has plenty of remarkable thoughts, and beautiful, yet sharp lexis.

Cougars: mature ladies & their toy-boys...

I read an article about “Cougars” today; besides making me giggle through the entire reading, it reminded me of some people I have met, which is why I decided to talk about it in this blog… The term Cougar, comes from “caged famished tigress, with a vast appetite for fresh, young flesh”; it is used to nickname the “older ladies”, who prefer their boyfriends at least five years younger… Personally, (besides preferring it the other way), I don’t quite understand the young “gentlemen”… It immediately rings a bell about Edipo’s syndrome, and little boys who didn’t get enough attention & love from their mothers in their childhood… There is also a droll detail: these ladies are usually mothers, and they couldn’t be really considered generous in means of “bonding time” toward their real sons, so… Maybe it’s some kind of queer mutual compensation? J’sais pas…
Identifying the species: “You could easily spot a Cougar; it’s the Rachel Welch of the reunion, who’s always late, the one wearing a hot pink sweater (size XS, of course!), with fake nails, fake bronze, fake breasts, messy “sauvage” hair… She is friends with everybody– starting from the hairstylist, including the personal trainer, her daughter’s Birthday-party DJ, to the bartender, whom she met in a Bahamas cruise… She is usually divorced, and if she is married, her husband is so boring, useless, or gay, that he actually doesn’t count.” J’suis desoleé, but… LOL
Her motherhood “entertains” her, and her kids are her “back-to-earth-cable”, but the truth is, she has little time for the responsibilities involving a family. In this sense, she prefers “quality” rather than “quantity”, convinced that half an hour revising the child’s homework, plus five minutes before bed (occasional treat), is enough time for a “rich” relationship...
“Their hunting is not intricate, as many could imagine, partly because it’s pretty easy to catch a Cougar’s attention, and second, because she is very vain, and consequently “sexy” (meaning: you’ll never catch her off the cuff- whether physically or mentally, she wears makeup to sleep, and always has something previously studied for casual chit-chat). (Translated & paraphrased (with a couple of intruding personal notes) from the magazine “Cosas”, August 2009)
Examples of famous Cougars with their corresponding boy-toys: Madonna & Jesus Luz, Demi Moore (45) & Ashton Kutcher (31), Cameron Diaz (35) & Justin Timberlake (26) (when they were dating), Halle Berry (42) & Gabriel Autrey (32).
I am sure I don’t have to give you examples of non-famous Cougars, since you’ve most probably have already met one or two… Plus, it wouldn’t be very diplomatic or suave from my part. ;-)

Chicken Soup for your soul?

Waddling in a book-store, I was amused with the amount of auto-help books, “how-to” manuals… OK, if it’s about cooking or related to the exact sciences, it makes sense (to me), as for the rest…”No comments” …
Actually… I will speak out a couple of thoughts… I’m contradictive, a paradox - I am shy and bold, generous and egocentric, an individual, multifarious and unique, just like the rest of the world. This is the kind of generalizations I believe in, not any other. How can anybody categorize and tag human beings as if we were mechanic, programmed robots? As Charles Chaplin said: “You’re not machines! Men is what you are!” Thus, I don’t get how people can believe in instruction booklets, such as: “men vs. women ways tricks”, “how to get more friends”, “how to get a boyfriend/ girlfriend”, etc so-called-books, that classify people into several types, and so on… Maybe it’s because of true desperation, j’sais pas (?) … And still, think again, how are you going to master at communication and socializing skills if you don’t mingle and get real and personal interacting with actual people?.. A person has to overcome the fear of suffering through personal experiences, otherwise it would be like … For me, whoever gets to a final, square, dogmatic verdict, simply got tired of thinking analytically. It’s as if the person “switches on” the auto-pilot program, which leads me to think he/ she got tired of living, or wants to merely exist. (How depressing!)
How do you know that you don’t like something if you have never tried it before, just because it’s extravagant, like say, truffles, caviar or escargots? (Maybe a silly example… or maybe not) Just because somebody else said it’s “too strong”, (exquisite?) “fish eggs”, “too fishy”, or “blah” (blahblah), you may be missing a potential favorite food of yours. “Life is wonderful if you’re not afraid of it” – Yes, I am referring to the “ups” as well as the “downs”…How can you know that you’re happy, if you have never been sad? …You may be priving yourself from the blissful relief that releasing those strained tears may bring (once in a while, I don’t encourage anybody to become a Maria Magdalena)… By the same token, what a liberating sensation - to laugh out loud with all the strength you have within! How dull (and distressing) to be devoid of a cry, and/ or laugh, like Monalisa… (unless you’re trying to impress someone with a “mysterious air” pose, of course)…