Latvia Fears New ‘Occupation’ by Russians but Needs the Labor

Recently, www.nytimes.com published something that I personally have been waiting for a very long time. You may same most of my life. The story describes that once again snooty inbreeding hiding-in-remote-farms Waffen SS (http://www.aeronautics.ru/archive/wwii/baltic_nazis/latvia/index2.htm) Latvians NEED Russian help. No longer do they need to get us out of their got forsaken cold woody beach country. They actually smuggle Russian workers into Latvia illegally. Let me state in again: Latvian employers smuggle Russian Workers, not like in USA where Mexican workers have to smuggle themselves and pay for it.

For those who would say that Russians got what they deserved, here is a little bit of info - Revolution and following Soviet Union's "occupation" would not have happened if it was not for Latvian Shooters Battalions who were acting on behalf of Lenin as Battalions Of Death.

Why am I personally so connected to it? May be because I was born in 1971 in Riga. My mother was 2 years old when my Russian Grandmother and my Ukrainian Grandfather moved to Latvia. As true occupants, they spent their life's working (sometimes two jobs at the same time) at bread factory, as someone who is cleaning stairwells in the building, drove trucks, and other jobs that ethnic Latvians considered to be "dirty" and beneath them.

I will never forget how their children were instructed from early childhood never to play with us. Not because we were "occupants", but because were were lower class, could spread disease, ignorant subhumans.

My parents were first generation in their families to become college educated, they were associated with anti soviet crowd, I was raised to believe in freedom of expression and tolerance. We constantly had hand-typed underground manuscripts at our house and never did we consider Latvians to be our enemy. But now, after the way they treated non-Latvian children and old people for past 20 years, I rejoice when I hear that for all their propaganda to contrary, they do need Russian heads and hands!

How often do we get to be a real Santa?

Every year, the Post Office receives over 450,000 letters and emails addressed to Santa from children and families in need of toys, warm clothes, and more. As a member of the Young Professionals of New York City , I plan to attend their yearly holiday party at the Time Warner Center this year.

At the party, we will be reading letters from NYC children to Santa. Everyone can select a letter of their choice and answer it by sending a gift, either online at the party (laptops will be stationed around the room) or from home.

Feels good to make one more kid keep their childhood dreams alive for a year longer!

"Persian Descent" ... What exactly does it mean?

Last night I went to Carnegie Hall and had pleasure to listen to works written by Shubert and Shuman performed by young and extremely talented artist - Mr. Nasiri.

The minute I saw him I realized that he is either Israeli, Armenian or Iranian. He could be from any country south of Russia for that matter.

Turns out, the program just say that he was born in "California to parents of Persian descent".

Here is map of Persian Kingdom at its greatest time -

It includes Libya and Egypt, its eastern borders are next to India. On south, it has Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea and on North it includes what later will become Macedonia, Armenia, Caspian Mountains, Partia and Aria.

Persia's conquest by Islamic Arab armies took place and marks the transition into "medieval" Persia between years 643 and 650, long after the birth of Persian civilization (3200–2700 BCE)

To make the very long story short, Persian Descent means a lot more than just to be Iranian, which today is considered to be such politically incorrect term, that talented musician has to hide his parents national identity!

Cafe Sabarsky - 20th century Austrian version of modern $tarbuck$ Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Have you ever been to that little place? Or better yet, have you ever been in LINE to that little place? Today we (myself and a friend of mine from CT) had to wait for 40 minutes during "between lunch and dinner" time. You know, that quiet time when lunch time crowd is gone and dinner crowd is still at work or shopping at Bergdorf. Nonetheless, the experience was definitely worth the wait.

Most guides to NY's restaurants will tell you that Cafe Sabarsky is "... German/Austrian Price Range: Moderate The new Neue Galerie museum cafe is an elegant invocation of old-time Vienna. 1048 Fifth Ave. Upper East Side 212-288-0665". Not much to go on, right?

Not if you are the kind of person who can (a) read, (b) heard about museums, (c) tends to go to one or two sometimes, and (d) prefers quality of food to its quantity.

As we were sipping our coffee, we noticed that majority of patrons were well in their 60 - 70s.

I guess one of my European friends was correct when he said that Cafe Sabarsky is 20th century Austrian version of modern Starbucks Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The difference is that you are not served by semi-literate teenagers and nobody is asking you "uuuuhhhh.... are you gonna finish this one?" ....

Arts after Politics ?

OK, for those of us who are done with all this political nonsense (i.e. we'll get screwed no matter who is in the White , Senate, Representatives House), here are some ideas on how to spend time in artistic pursuits:

On Friday, November 11, 2006 , Christine Taylor Patten will talk about her work at 4pm at the Drawing Center.

Later that day, there will be open reception for her exhibition of 261 drawings (November 11, 2006 – February 10, 2007)

Opening Reception: Friday, November 10, 6-8 pm

261 drawings consists of 260 one-by-one-inch crow quill and ink drawings on three-inch paper (the micro) and one 21-by-103.5-inch study (the macro). A progression of images begun with a single dot in space, the complete series of thousands of drawings evolves through gradual movement, each drawing in the sequence referring to the preceding one. While strictly non-referential, the drawings evoke cosmic imagery – swirling clouds, clusters of planets, wave patterns – and have been numbered as years, celebrating two millennia.

35 Wooster Street,

New York, NY 10013

Tel: 212-219-2166

Fax: 212-966-2976

Email: info@drawingcenter.org

Another option would be to go and see John Currin at Gagosian Gallery.

Saturday, November 11 – Friday, December 22, 2006

Opening reception for the artist: Saturday, November 11th, from 6 to 8pm. This is Currin's first exhibition with the gallery.