Can someone explain the connection here?

Below, some pictures from across the street. I was going to write something funny for each one, but I haven't had my coffee yet, so I won't, but if anyone thinks of something, email me or post it on the tagboard to the left, and I'll put it up.

Oh, but don't make fun of the kids in the bottom center pic, because I know them... and probably make fun of them enough as is.

Nostalgic, isn't it.

Oh, and this is just random. I was passing by, and saw some tourists take pictures of this insignificant statue, so I thought I'd join in.

      I keep forgetting to take pictures...

Sunday, lost my match. Couldn't hit a ball in; my aim was just not there. I was really upset, especially since the night before I played well.

Monday, shot pool for four and a half hours! And I shot fairly well; I was very pleased that I just occasionally suck.

 

    I also went to a Chinese food restaurant for lunch on Canal St.

      "Do you have lunch specials?" I politely ask the waiter, not seeing them on the menu, but knowing from my vast experience of dining that the Chinese usually do. And boy do I love my inclusive Hot & Sour soup!

      The waiter rudely responds, "Here are the soups," he turns the page, "Here are the rice dishes."

      I inquire, "Yes, but do these dishes come with soup?"

      "Do you speak English?!" rudely and inarticulately exclaims the waiter.

      I fall into a silent bewilderment. What am I supposed to answer to that? Was I speaking some other language subconsciously?

      He asks again.

      I am still in shock. I'm not quite sure what speaking English has to do with anything. It was just a simple question. Does he speak English? Might he have meant, do I speak Chinese? And why couldn't he just say at the start that there aren't any lunch specials?

      He's still staring at me. Wasn't that a rhetorical question? Or does he really want to know? I am utterly confused.

      I start stuttering, mumbling something about how I just wanted to know b-b-b-ecause... and then give up and order the soup and rice dish separately, and naturally, my food comes late, after my friend's, even though one of the items is soup, which should be served first, and on top of that he brought me both the soup and the main course at the same time, giving me the delightful task of deciding which one- and only one- of the items I may eat hot.

      That 25 cents was too generous a tip now that I reflect upon it.

 

And there was something else I wanted to add, something else that happened that was funny. I can't remember. Anyway, it's too much reading as is for most of my website fans.

Today, I rocked in pool! I'm very pleased.    

 

Bunnies at Genever's party!

And later that evening...awkward...

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I found (and by found I mean "Mike the metaphilosopher emailed me") my old band pics!

Check them out:

  If you haven't yet noticed, I've only been putting up pictures on weekends. But this week was pretty cool. On Tuesday I semi-saw the Edge Tuesday team finals- Edge team versus Edge team. The Edge team won (haha, bad joke, I know, Stick It In won). And I played Little Miss Muffit at Satelite.

On Wednesday I went to see The NYC, with improv show at Siberia, a cozy- and by cozy I mean it's dark and cold - dive bar on W40th and 9th Ave. The improv show was hilarious, and it's every Wednesday at 8 PM, in the basement

Friday night I had my camera with me...

  Passage, yet another Russian restaurant, this one on "The Bay".

Celebrating Zlata's, Pasha's, Lana's, and Eugene's birthdays.

    

Alisa, a friend from elementary school, the girl I played Barbies with, the girl, thanks to whom I learned what sex was! Oh my god, on that note, I just realized my little brother might know about "it" by now, he's the age I was when I found out, ahhhh!

 

And, as is the case with Russian restaurant birthdays, everyone sits down to eat....

  and gets up five minutes later to drink and make toasts and dance, and ends up going home critically drunk and surprisingly hungry.

And this kid was always holding weird something, forks, heads....

 

Computer Programmers and Co. (I'm not sure who the guy in the middle is, but I remember him demanding that I do not label this picture "geeks", which gives me reason to assume he's not a programmer himself.)

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Afterwards, I went to Anyway. Anyway really is like the Edge of Brooklyn for me, no matter what I'm doing I always end up going there afterwards.

 I'm angry at Anyway, though, because they didn't let me play guitar in there.

   Don't forget to register on my FORUM! And I have a calendar option, so for anyone with stuff coming up (e.g. shows, parties), post it on the calendar!

  Tonight, I went to see Andrew's band, CODE 6, play at Don Hill's, in the lower West Side, whatever that neighbourhood is.

  

And look who I find there! Mark! Mark the car crasher! Careful looking at my website, Mark, you might crash it into a tree!

And George, singer of Devil's Island, fellow Eastern European

And Andrew, Drew, we go way back to when we met on aol from those thousands of emails I sent out to anyone who had the word "drummer" in his or her profile. And I believe these are Drew's fellow bandmates. Or maybe not, I can't tell.

The Don Hill's entrance, and the lovely lady who stamped "rock n' roll" on my hand. I hope this washes off before I have my next job interview.

Ladies and Gentleman, Code 6! The most awkward-looking heavy metal band I've seen in a while. On drums, we have Andrew, perhaps blending in the most. Long, black hair, black clothes...can't even see him behind the drum set.

  On guitars and bass we have three different looking old dudes- a big Italian looking guy on the left guitar, a Spanish looking 80s metal guy on the right guitar, and a blond bassist, also carrying an 80s look.

And on vocals, Mr. Jets. That's the first time I've seen someone at a metal show in a Jets jersey, yet alone one of the performers. I wanted to wear my jersey, what with the win and all, but I didn't want to stand out too much. And there was another guy in the audience with a Jets jersey! Woah.

 

And yet, and I see this time and time again, the bands that don't try hard to have some kind of "image" on stage are some of the best bands that are out there. I've always had the opinion that bands shouldn't try to make images of themselves- such as most heavy metal bands whose members all wear black and shirts with band names and piercings, tattoos, all that stuff.

It should be about the music, not about the look.

But the fact is, it's not just about the music, it's a culture. All these different genres of music have their people who identify themselves with each other.

For instance, why would someone wear a baseball cap? To show others that he or she is a fan of baseball, of this particular sport. And to find others who might just come up to the person and say, hey dude, I love the St. Louis Cardinals, too! The easiest way to identify yourself and your interests is by the clothes you wear, and by your tattoos, piercings, jewelry, and other similar items.

But anyway, Code 6 may have not fit the profile of a metal band, but they were a metal band! They were very talented musicians. Both guitarists had awesome solos. Andrew's drumming was phenomenal. I was very impressed. The bassist was also pretty good. I find that most metal bassists are pretty good, much better than the softer rock ones. And the Code 6 guy was no exception. My one complaint was with the singer. He had a great voice, it was in tune, and it projected well and sounded full. And the singer himself was very energetic, and very good at getting the audience involved. I liked that he explained what each song was about ahead of time, considering I can't make out the words during the song itself. But that's just the style, that's alright. I don't care what the hell he's singing about, he could be reading out the ingredients in a tablet of Tylenol for all I care. But there was something about his voice that I didn't like. I felt that it had a very limited range. He sounded a little monotonous, and it seems like some of the songs could have been improved upon if he had changed the note he was singing more often. Of course, it could be that this is the sound they had intended on, but it's just my opinion that their music might benefit if the vocals had more variation to them.

So, that's my night. Feel free to post any comments on the discussion board. Especially any one of you who's also seen or heard Code 6. I am curious what you think regarding what I wrote about them. Agree, disagree? Write your opinions on my FORUM!

   In the afternoon, I had a gig at this new Russian Social Club that opened up in Brooklyn.

It went alright, but let's just say it wasn't my crowd, and my repertoire was not properly prepared to play the necessary genres that would satisfy my audience. But I made some cash, and got some daisies, which was lovely.

In the evening...

Went to Anyway with this guy, who's been told that he resembles some guy from Chaif.

Is it this guy, dude? Shahrin?

I also bumped into Inna at Anyway, whom I wanted to photograph and in this way add as a potential Serafina "site seer" (yay, I just coined a term!). But she ran off prematurely, so I'll have to get her next time.

Then Oleg and I went to some party at some location with some people I didn't know and some that I did.

There was dancing...

    

There was the popular party sport of broom fighting...

But unfortunately not enough singing.

So I went back to Anyway.

With the people you see below.

 

I'm sorry, says Ms. M., but I'm just not ready for a relationship right now. Hmmmm...well if you put it that way....wait, how much are you offering exactly?, Ms. M later adds.

The gentlemen and ladies discuss the intricacies of their mobile telephone contracts and the differences in the specs of their Nissan Maximas.

On that note, I wonder, are car names similar to the nomenclature of life? Like, is "Maxima" supposed to be lower case (i.e. analogous to "Homo sapien")?

Ow.

Dude, where's my hair?

 

.

You're smokin'! Hahaha, I love corny jokes.

Welcome to my website, man who owns a cat. You have the right to remain silent while I put up horrible pictures of you and then make fun of them.

Mwahahaha, there is no escape from being on my site!

bro, let's go to da bay in our Maximas and drink Corona. Oh man, that reminds me, I was caught drinking Corona last night. How embarrassing. Good thing no one has seen my Corona shirt yet. I'm afraid of wearing it out for a Russian might steal it off my back. Then again, it's not made by AX.

Happy Birthday, Anthony!

Finally, you have invited me to your party...as opposed to last year

And look, now you get to be on my site! It's been a while.

Eyes closed, nothing new there.

   Lana says, to all the non-photogenic people out there, the key is to take a picture next to someone uglier than you.

-Mr. Bartender, Sir, I'd like another- 

-let me guess, vodka cranberry, ma'am.

-yes, sir. 

  

Brooklyn Law School, where you study so hard that you need a name tag on your desk to remind you what you're called.

Oh yeah, happy birthday, man, this is what should be on your desk!

After Anthony's dorm, which tops any other reason to go to Law School- it's amazing, bigger than Matt's Manhattan studio (then again, what isn't?), but it is fabulous....anyway, afterwards, we went to the Lemon, some club on Park Ave and East 18th.

Not a bad place

Once again, advertising my site. This guy, forgot his name, and pretty much everything else about him, but I remember telling him he's going to be on the site. So here you are, dude, and remember, everyone has an equal opportunity to become promoted to my people page, regardless of sex, age, race, or sexual orientation.  

And this guy's like from Bosnia or something. He looks like the next future terrorist on the show 24.

Serafina on the Scene:

I think living with my parents, being in this tiny messy room with no TV or internet (I have to go into the living room and hook up my laptop to the cable cord and restart everything each time I update my site) and this annoying dog with this high pitched bark in the neighbour's yard and the windows in my room that DON'T close and a water bug the size of my big toe living under my bed is REALLY GETTING TO ME.

KZM "Slyot"

Went to the KZM festival this weekend with Matt, Eugene, and Mark. KZM is this group of Russian musicians, and every year they have a festival at a campsite, during which concerts are held.

My mom goes every year, but this year I decided to get my own group together.

So Eugene, Mark, and I took my car, and Matt and his dog met up with us the day after.

A beautiful tent. Unfortunately, not ours.

We had the shack next door.

Foooood

And water. Serafina gets her hair wet....

Serafina wets Eugene with her hair and says "hehe"

Eugene spills water all over Serafina from the gallon.

Serafina grabs another gallon. Water fight!

   waterfight

Hanging out...

 

Matt and Eugene's political debates

 

Met some people, saw some people I knew (including one awkward encounter)

It turned out that the campground where we stayed was four miles away from this summer resort where I used to go every summer.  A few years back, the resort switched owners, and became the "Washington Lake Retreat", a place for Hare Krishna worshippers. Some friends and I went there a few years ago and had a rather interesting experience.

Anyway, we drove by to check out the place. There was absolutely no one around, except for some deer eating grass in front of the house. Looks like the Hare Krishna people lost their popularity.

   Played cards, played guitar...

      

At night...

Drank, ate marshmallows by the fire, and checked out the concerts.

   The first night, Friday, was an open concert, in which anyone can play. I decided to go for it. I tripped over some wires, but eventually made it to the stage. I played "Star by the name of the Sun", my translation of the Russian song by Victor Tsoy. Then I played a Russian song, and then "Little Miss Muffit", naturally.

   The second day was a concert by audition only. My friends told me to audition, but I had a headache, and then some other stuff happened...

It all started on Saturday morning.

The night before, we were all doing a lot of drinking, and the next morning Mark couldn't find his video camera. We looked for it everywhere, but with no luck. Mark was pretty pissed off about it. He couldn't remember whether he had put it away before going to sleep, or if someone stole it.

That day, Matt came, and parked his car behind mine. I had a headache, and wanted to drive to the store to get some medicine. Since Matt would have to move his car for me to get out, I asked him if I can just take his car.

When I came back from the store, I noticed right away that the car was standing some 10 feet further than where it was when I left.

So I asked, what the fuck happened?

   It turned out that Mark decided to go for a little drive, after having convinced himself that it was ok, since he hadn't driven for a year. And why bother asking me, I left the keys behind so obviously I wouldn't mind if someone whom I had never even seen sitting in the driver's seat before would go for a ride.

Well, and I wish someone would have caught this on video or take a picture, but they were too busy screaming and being hit by the car, Mark drove straight ahead into the grill, hitting Matt along the way from behind, who jumped onto the hood of the car. Eugene screamed "STOP!", but I guess Mark forgot which one was the break, because he sped up, and drove past the tent to the edge, below which is a steep hill going straight down towards more tents and the Delaware. Luckily, a tree was in the way, into which Mark crashed. And then, because one can't just leave the car there!, Mark decided to back up, at full speed, to the car's original parking spot. Luckily, he located the brake in time, and didn't crash into a dog or a tent or a portable toilet.

And what did he have to say? The car is messed up, the brakes are weird, etc., etc. Well, I couldn't told him that my car is fucked up. It's got no power steering, the battery can die at any moment, the wheel shakes if it goes over 60 mph, the gas gauge jumps to full when there isn't any gas left, and there's much more.

I haven't let anyone drive my car since Don crashed into that diner (except for the time I let Kevin drive because I was too hungover). But anyway, Mark decided, for god knows what reason, to drive it, without my permission for that matter, and I was really pissed off.

   But that's not where the irony comes into play. The next morning, I get into the driver's seat to pull out of the campsite. We were all ready to go home. I noticed that the mat under my seat wasn't straight, so I bent down to adjust it, and find Mark's video camera under the driver's seat! The same seat that he sat in to take my car for a drive! 

   The 24 marathon on A&E kept me at home for most of the day.

Then my mom and brother came back from Russia, and my mom yelled at me for my messy room. I gotta move back into the city soon. But at least she made dinner =)

Went out to Anyway, the Edge of Brooklyn, with Eugene and Igor. Luckily the 24 marathon was interrupted by an hour of CSI Miami anyway, allowing me to safely vacate the premises of my room for a bloody mary at the bar. 

Afterwards, had a tickling session with Eugene during the car ride home while we screamed along to Nautilus.

Gotta wake up at 8 AM tomorrow to continue watching the 24 marathon...oh yeah, and to work and stuff.

Anyone want to go camping next weekend to the KZM thingie? Let me know, I've got room in my car. Does anyone still look at this site??? (I feel like I've lost my fans over the summer...time to go grafitti in public restrooms again...)

Went to Genever's Saturday night BBQ, on the roof of her apartment.

Lots of people.

Lots of pool players.

Michelle made funny faces with everyone. I caught a few on my camera.

*    *    *

*    *    *

Brought a mini-keg of malt liquor with me.

*    *    *

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The Serafina III, beer out of lemon peels! Mmmm..

Buggsy's adorable kitty took a ride in my car!

In the evening...

Went to see a comedy show at Dangerfield's with Buggsy and some of his friends and friends of friends and friends of friends of friends.

I had a pretty good time. I'm very open-minded and optimistic when it comes to comedy shows, and you really have to be in order to have a good time. If you're going to be skeptical, you're just wasting your own time and money. I sound like I was trying to make the best of something that wasn't, but that's not what I mean. It really was very funny, and I liked all the comedians (unlike other times when some of the comedians were pretty bad). And I only heard one joke repetition.

I'm in the mood to write a guide to how to act at comedy shows, because the jokes were rudely interrupted at times by some drunk and loud screaming from the other end of the room. But I'm late for a party, so my one word of advice is: please don't interrupt the comedian; you wouldn't like it if someone interrupted you while you're packing a Happy Meal, would you?

Oh, and after the show, we met one of the comedians, who was very nice, and gave out very meaningful words of advice, both during his act and afterwards to us- about how we should all do what we want and be ourselves and other stuff I don't remember but I'm sure it was wonderful, and it might be on his site www.dontbehave.com.

These are some people I don't really know but I told them they'll be on my site.

 

Then I got a call from George, telling me that he's with a bunch of people

And I love hanging out with noisy, drunk metalheads in the middle of the night more than I love....not hanging out with them.

  

Awkward pic of the night: the guy in the white shirt- I was going to photoshop it black, but it's better this way.

Went to a toga party at the Alpha Phi Delta frat at Stony Brook.

   So most of the people weren't wearing togas. Most of the people were little college freshmen girls (I heard there were even high school girls there).

   As soon as I had finished my first beer and went to get another one, I got word that the cops came, and that they stopped serving beer because so many people were under age.

That was nostalgic.

I felt like Peter and Lois Griffin in that Family Guy episode where they get drunk at some high school party and the cops come and say, "Hey, aren't you guys a little too old to be drinking illegally?"

   Anyway, half the people left, and I went to get my long awaited beer, and was told that there was no more alcohol, and that there wasn't going to be. Ahhh, wonderful!

   Then three-fourths of the people left, and finally beer started to be served again (nice trick).

Jane and Buggsy were at the party. Buggsy's in the frat. And as far as "small worlds" go, I met a girl through Buggsy who was friends with my ex Kevin in high school. By the way, Kevin, Michelle (Shapel's ex girlfriend) says hello.

I started dancing alongside Jane (as opposed to just standing across from her while she's dancing and desperately trying to keep a conversation going so I don't look too stupid standing still in the middle of the dance floor).

I started dancing with this guy, and I was just thinking the entire time, oh Christ, this is so high school (even though he was actually my age). It felt awkward,

I think maybe I'm just too old for this

After another visit by the cops and getting cigarettes bummed from me left and right by college freshmen, we finally left the party, with a plan of going to the beach. Unfortunately, not many other people were up for that (Friday morning classes?), so we just went to a diner, which was ideal, because I was insanely hungry. And of course everyone in togas changed except for me, so I went to the diner in a sheet (waiter, do you serve pillows?).

That might have been the highlight of the night, not that the frat party was bad, because it was entertaining, but it was entertaining on a completely different level, in the sense that you're looking at a life you missed (I've never been to big college parties when I was in college) and at first you're thinking that you're finally going to get the college experience you never got but then realize that there's a reason you have to go to these parties when you're in college... like the cops showing up is not exactly a frightening experience if you have a real ID on you. But it was interesting.

And some guy actually stopped talking to me- walked away from me mid-conversation- when I told him that I'm not a student! Weird.