I prefer the Party All Around

Those of you in love with the style, have no fear: The mullet is alive and thriving here out east. Admittedly, there are very few full-on, "pure" mullets - shave the sides, spike up top, flow in the back. But many of its descendants, both male and female, are still rolling here following the general principle: Business in front, Party in the back.

Anyway, things continue in almost all wonderful ways. Even the weather hasn't gotten terrible yet (though you wouldn't know based on the haranguing I get about not washing my hair before I go outside from every woman I know). I've figured out the ideal route to practice every day, I still go out in the city with friendly people at least half the week, and things are cool. Throw in that I'm going to Petersburg next weekend and it's all working out.

While I don't have a cohesive post ready, here are a few more things I thought about:

I have not yet grasped the music scene satisfactorily over here, but I do know that they call it "Russkie Rock" (it translates, no?), that I have a DVD full of bands to listen to and cannot claim to be thrilled by any of them, and that one of the bands on that list is from Ukraine, plays reggae, and is named "Friday", except in a punful way (involving the number 5). To repeat, a punny Ukranian reggae band. And they're supposed to be good.

The metro here is pretty fabulous at its core in that the stations are pretty, the trains run pretty frequently and on time, and it covers most of the city very efficiently. On the other hand, they're really stuffy (no AC), they're almost always packed, and if you're looking for a seat you might out of luck, which leads me to...

How to Pick out a Good Spot on the Moscow Metro:

This advice most applies to healthy males ranging from 10-50 in age with at least a small sense of conscience. If you have some of those attributes, you may do well to heed the following as well.
Also, this is best used before 9 pm. After then you can get away with sitting.

You see, the Moscow trains are filled most of the time, and they're filled with a lot of old people. So while there are plenty of seats, they fill up quickly (even when I get on the second stop going into the city), and if you as a healthy person with no visible ailments or warts are sitting down, you are liable to either get stared at or requested to get up. That's if the guilt from seeing other people standing or hearing the voice recording asking us to be polite and give up our seats doesn't eat at you.

The novice move is to take a seat and hope you can withstand all the other pressures. Unless you lack a conscience or are really determined (or can make it look like you're asleep, maybe), this is hard. So you'll take a seat at first, and then give it up and get stuck in the throngs of people in the middle of the car or, even worse, near the entry but without anything to hold onto. Uncomfortable and annoying when your poor balance causes you to fall on pretty women and such (then again...)

So what you should do is enter the car without illusions of getting a seat. Not gonna happen. Instead, work your way to the following points, in ascending order of quality:

- A relatively open space in the middle of the wagon where at least you can hold onto the rail.

- Similar place where you can hold onto the rail without reaching up over your head (especially recommended for you silly little short people).

- Next to a pretty person (there are a lot, so this isn't as high up as you might think).

- Against the wall at the end of the wagon on either side (a bonus if there's a little shelf to put any bags you might have on).

- Against a door on the side that does not open.

- Leaning against the row of seats and the door, in a corner, on either the opening side or the closed side of the wagon.

Now which side is better is a hotly contested battle. On the one hand, if you lean in the corner right where you enter there is never any trouble with getting out when your stop comes (you need to prepare at least one stop in advance otherwise, to be safe). On the other, in a crowded train you may have to deal with more jostling and possibly complaints about hogging space by the door.
The benefit to going far side is that you have more space and less people to deal with. Of course, your access to the exit is worse.

Anyway, just keep that in mind next time you get on at the end of the line and need to go a little while on the same train and see an empty seat. You conscience-less people, you.

I probably have more to say but I can't remember it. So I leave you with the best phrase I tried translating word for word into Russian: Popping a cherry. I got started at berry before I got to cherry, but I came pretty close to getting it all out. I'll probably post the remainders and thoughts on Vienna and Budapest this weekend.

Dan