9 September 2007

9 September 2007
Mark Twain
United States of America

Dear Mark,
St. Petersburg is quite a place! We have spent the weekend really learning quite a lot about both the city and the art/music scene. During the daytime Saturday we visited St. Issacs Cathedral, which functions as both a place of worship and museum. It's really quite amazing to see how these churches, which were for the most part considered obsolete during the Soviet Era, have exploded in both popularity and population. This particular church is quite amazing: the columns, which are probably a good few stories tall, are made of solid marble-one piece-unlike sectionalized columns which is the standard; to see it is quite impressive. Everything inside is covered in gold, and/or made of marble or solid malachite.

An interesting note is that both here and at the PeterPaul Fortress (where we went today), there were many an actor dressed as Peter the Great for toruist photo opprotunities; it wouldn't suprise me if I were to find out that there is a crack division of Peter Impersonators that is deployed to various hotspots every morning to give American and European tourists a bit of Russian history. A second interesting note is that outside the Cathedral, in front of a statue of Peter the Great, many couples were having their wedding photos taken (at least a dozen!). This was accampanied by a trupeter and banjo player, playing favorite selections from the American casual band/club date songbook...amazing...I had to call it an afternoon at "La Cucaracha"...

Later that evening, we attended an open gallery at Pushkinskaya 10, which is an arts center with numerous open studios and instilations. From speaking with some of the patrons who are 'in the know', it seems as if this once supposed cutting edge artist group has been become a destination for tourists and was funded as such from the goverment. The works and presentations I must say were less than inspiring, to say the least. Many were making attemps at Abstract Expressionism or copying ideas from Western artists who were working decades before. Granted, I am not a fan in the least of certain current 'shock artists' like Damien Hurst, but these works were downright boring; just shades of what could have been created with proper inspiration. When the fringes become the mainstream (read: hip and trendy), something is lost, most especially the impact of the art. It becomes...trite...

One little tid-bit of information is that one of the people in attendance was the person who wrote our guidebook to Russia; fascinating character and a very nice person; we indulged in some German beer and traded stories.

This morning, however, we experienced a Russian Orthodox service (we live directly accross from a church) at the urging of one of Margaret's colleagues who said the choir was wonderful. Well, after the opulance of St. Issacs, this more simple church was quite refeshing. The service was very similar to the Greek Orthodox service which I grew up with, yet there were no pews; everyone stood the entire 2 hours. It actually was quite wonderful to see the mix of people, just regular people, in attendence; it wasn't the fashion show that I was used to in the States (not unlike the gallery above: a place to be seen...); it was pure, they wanted to be there. The choir was small, maybe 8 people, but absolutely wonderful. There is the tradition of the 'Russian Bass', which is someone who is trained a certain way (how, I have no idea) so they can hit notes that 'bathroom baritones' (i.e., showersingers) like myself can only dream of...and for a non-professional choir in a small church, the intonation and counterpoint was fantastic. They knew how to sing, and better, they knew how to sing THAT music and they knew what was expected of them; once again, very different then what I had been used to.

As a side note, I do seem to be getting used to Russian cooking. I have decided that my cureent favorite is 'ssssshhii', which is a cabage soup (I had it with duck meat); delicious! I say 'ssssshhii' because of the Russian spelling: the letter which is analogous to the 'sh' sound in English looks somewhat like a 'w'; this word begins with the much less common 'ssssshh', which looks like a 'w' with it's tounge sticking out. Regardless of the pronounciation, I rather enjoy the dish.

Tomorrow brings my first journey into the music scene: the director of the Apositsia Forum (which is the first festival that I am playing on this adventure) has invited me to a jazz jam session Monday evening. This should be an interesting experience, to say the least. I'll make sure to tell you all about it.

Until then.

Your adventurous traveller,
Demetrius