Sunday, 4 April 2010 — evening

Kristos Voskres! (Christ is risen!) Apparently that’s what you say on Easter. It’s one of the things the quartet in the previous entry shouted from time to time, so I looked it up.

This evening I found out what the big stage is for — the “Easter in Lviv” festival, as you’ll see. But I’m ahead of myself. What to do in the evening? Stroll! I changed into my boots (to save my ankles from the cobblestones) and headed out to check on the latest buzz.

Strolling is awesome. Folks everywhere ought to stroll like these people do. I get a kick out of catching a few words here and there, but I delight when I can overhear a whole communication, even if it’s tiny. Tired little girl nagging parents: “da-moy! da-moy!” (let’s go home! let’s go home!); teenager on cell phone: “Doma? Yesho!?!?” (You’re at home? Still!?!?) — so maybe it’s time to try some proper dialogue. I try to order a hot chocolate at one of the stands, which has a sign that I’m pretty sure means “hot chocolate”. No dice: no chocolate. Ummm… Stumped. Another customer seems to explain to the girl why I’d think that they’d have chocolate (since it says it on their sign), but then everyone just goes on with other business.

So I wander for a bit and end up back at the neighboring booth. It has a chocolate fountain going (the sign was in the first shop — really!) so I figure they must have what I’m looking right at. I stand up straight, point, and ask in Russian “Chocolate — how much does it cost?” I get the answer and confirm it, buy it, and do a thank you / don’t mention it sort of  exchange to conclude. Yesss!!! Awesome. Gimme five. Slurp down the chocolate (like a giant thimbleful of melted Lindt chocolate) and resume the promenade. I repeat the act through the evening with a glass of hot wine and later a delicious shashlik — with the shashlik I’m asked if I’d like x, where x is explained to me by showing me a packet that might as well be in Korean anime characters. No clue, so I say yes, why not, and she squirts some pink paste onto my plate. Yum! It’s horseradish, and great on the shashlik. And no English!

Somewhere between the above fair foods, I hear the stage power up with folkloric music. Or maybe it’s some kind of popular ethnic rock; or, given the occasion, maybe religious or patriotic. Perhaps all of the above. But I like it and after a bit it dawns on me — I have a little recorder up in my room. So I go get it (what does a sound guy do on vacation?) and record a few tracks.

Turns out that tonight was showtime. I liked it a lot. I’ve never heard of these two groups before, but they did a good show and the crowd went home very happy. I came in the middle of the show, so the first band that I saw was the Lviv folk group Burdon who’ve been around since ’02, and then closing the show were Shockolad, a Ukrainian ethno-jazz group that’s been together since 2008.

• Burdon: track 1
• Burdon: track 2
• Burdon: track 3
• Shockolad: track 1
• Shockolad: track 2 (Werbowaja Doshchechka)
• Ploshcha Rynok crowd stroll after the show

I liked the show a lot — they were fun and musical and everybody dug it.

Did you know? In this blog — as in much of life — you can click the pictures to get more. Niiiiice…

On the way back to the hotel, I stop in a cafe to have a beer and a snack. Crap. What is the deal with these encroaching drunk guys. Am I wearing a there a “hassle me” sign? Anyway, this middle-aged grubby guy (different one from last night) comes up and sits at my table as I’m about to order. I’m firmly telling him to go away in Russian, English, and French… So the waitress comes over and tells him leave the customers alone, and moves him to the table next to me (and near another younger guy who’s gesturing like no way man). He kind of grumbles there a while, until the waitress returns to tell him the register’s closed, he can’t order, and he has to leave. They argue a while and then she leaves him there. When I pay my tab, he goes over to the bar to argue some more and I take the opportunity to split. Bizarre.

Finally, back to the hotel, where I stay up late being a silly soundman slash blogger. But it’s really time for bed now. Tomorrow’s my last free day before getting to work with the Ukrainians, so I don’t want to miss it… Dobriy vecher!