Snow Day

The city has become the Moscow of dreams.

Snow fell Saturday night. Sunday was a day when life-long impressions became real. I spent the weekend touring with Lara and Brandy. They dressed appropriately.


Uhhh, maybe too appropriately...

Anyway, the streets were still dry on Saturday but it was cold. We got to Red Square after Lenin's Tomb had closed for viewing. But it's Red Square. We found the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.


Well, that's the leading theory anyway. There was a tomb. And we didn't know the soldier. So that makes it the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.


Of course for all we knew it might have been the Tomb of the Unknown Helmet. But that seems unlikely.

The requisite Guards of Solemnity stood on either side of an eternal flame. Well, that's the leading theory anyway. There was a flame. And it showed no signs of burning out anytime soon. So that makes it an eternal flame.


The thing about St. Basil's Cathedral is that here again we were perilously ill-informed.


You would think that you're going to go in and see some cavernous hall with dizzying turrets of color and gilding. Instead, it turns out that St. Basil's is a rabbit warren of catacomb-like, interconnected "cathedrals."


Dark, with frescoed walls and clapboards of painted iconography, St. Basil's has a medieval feel. I attribute our lack of reverence to our shameful paucity of background.


Back in the 1500's, when resources were scarce only the elite could afford to actually build their buildings in three dimensions. The peasants could only draw their residences using dye leeched from the kidney of a wild boar.



In the cathedral's vestibules were many jewel-encrusted mementos awaiting those with the courage to make a purchase.

Brandy is a photographically kindred spirit. It's not surprising to look back and see her sprawled on the ground looking for the shot. I respect that. I admire that. I consider her fierce competition.


Brandy is a photo shoot producer for the ABC Television Network. She works in the ABC Building on Riverside in Burbank adjacent and umbilicalled to The Walt Disney Studios lot.


Brandy's a lot prettier than I am but in a shoot-out I think it's even money.


The GUM (say goom) shopping mall sits opposite the Kremlin in Red Square. Back before the collapse of the Soviet Union, when things weren't awesome, people would flock here on specific days when they knew there might be a shipment of shoes. Or butter. Or bread. Or whatever the short commodity may have been. Now GUM is an upscale shoppery.


Bridal parties were everywhere on Saturday. In Red Square and in GUM. They all trailed bridesmaids, bridegrooms, assorted attendants and hangers-on as well as their photographers.


In another display of ignorance, I'm unable to tell you what this is all about. Is it some kind of Russian tradition to go cruise the mall after the wedding?

Like I said, it snowed Saturday night. Sunday morning we reconvened at Red Square determined to pay our respects to Mr. Lenin. I would present some astonishing photos, probably some of the finest I've ever made except that they make you check your cameras and cell phones before you're even allowed into Red Square itself.


They let you in a batch at a time. You trundle up the path, pass through metal detectors and walk along the Kremlin wall next to the Necropolis where significant Soviets are laid to rest.


This brings up the whole Jack Reed thing. I know, I was supposed to get a photo of me next to the internment site of the only American to be buried at the Kremlin, journalist Jack Reed. Made famous by Warren Beatty's movie REDS, Jack wrote the seminal tome, "10 Days That Shook The World". So I apologize to those awaiting this photo. You know who you are. I feel bad. So, you know, here's Jack, Diane and Warren.


Poor Jack. Poor Gene.

So we then ventured into the Moscow Underground. Object: Novodevichy Monastery. I wanted to go because I thought a scene from THE RUSSIA HOUSE was shot there. The girls wanted to go because it ended up on their master list of things to do while in Moscow. Not sure what the criteria was.


The architecture above looks sturdy, don't you think?


It turns out that Brandy isn't always 100% comfortable on escalators. From what I understand. The escalator at this particular station gives the one in Dupont Circle a run for its money. Brandy sat down. I'm not sure how that helps.


Lara was, as ever, unfazed. And a little tired.



So now it's just part of the new paradigm of tourism and photography that you review and edit your photos as you proceed through your day. Used to be you'd have to save all your rolls, turn them in when you got back home, and hope for the best. Both ways have their charm.


The monastery is a functioning outfit with nuns and priests. It was built mostly in the 14th Century.


Many very famous people are buried there. I couldn't identify a one of them. But it was beautiful nonetheless.


Outside the monastery is a park and a steep hill that was a sledding scene.


Everyone had fun. I slipped and slid down the hill head-first and on my back. These kids did much better. At least they were trying to go down the hill.


Without going into too much detail, this day may forever be known as the Day of Three Falls.

All mine.


Next stop: Tolstoy's Moscow home...