Eastern European Adventures Pt. 5: The End of the Adventures

Ah, the end of the trip is here. I am now at JFK in New York City waiting for the flight back to Syracuse. We don’t board for another hour and fifteen minutes. So I’ve got some time to kill, and what better way to do so than to Blog about Vienna!

Vienna was two days, the day I posted my last entry, and I pretty much just hung out that day and slept. Really. That’s okay though, because I really feel that I needed the break. I was plain exhausted after Odessa.

Anyway, the next day we all went into Vienna, and kinda just browsed around. I bought some chocolate and went Cafe hopping. I tried some Sachertorte, which was mediocre, especially for something so legendary, and consumed various delicious beers. Seriously, they were all delicious. Then we all went to see a Mozart-Hadyn-Strauss concert. The concert was pretty cool, the performers did a good job, and the way they gave a sampling of all the music from the composers was well done.

Not much happened after that, we had a sort of unofffical going away party and then left. A long plane ride later and here I am. I know this is a short post, but I’m tired from all the traveling. I’ll try to post more often!
Cheers,

Connor

Eastern European Adventures Pt. 4: Odessa to Vienna

The trip is winding down, and I have much to tell… well not MUCH, but enough to keep things interesting.

We spent one final day in Kyiv, unfortunately I did not go to the investment meeting because I was feeling rather ill and Greg suggested I get some rest. It was a good decision, and I slept until 10:00 AM before packing. I then took a walk with someone who also didn’t go to the meaning to an ATM for some cash withdrawal. I then got a Vanilla Coke and a liter of Orange Juice, for a grand total of $2 USD. Its fairly sad that I can’t spend like that anywhere else, only in Ukraine. After that, we went through the checking out process and that took a little bit. I decided not to wear my sweater because it was nice in the morning, that would prove to be a big mistake later.

We went to the center of town and got some food, we toured around a little bit, went to the mall, nothing really special. Then, we took a bit of a tour around Kyiv, to see parliament and a couple other buildings. Unfortunately, the Art Gallery was closed, and of course while we were there it started to rain, not heavily, but it was cold and I was cursing my lack of sweater. Of course, my nose had been running like a sieve since the previous night, and I kept running out of tissues. Not fun, not fun at all.

While there we saw the Presidents meeting place, it was a majestic building full with gargoyles and other odd things, like mermaids and serpents. I appreciated its beauty despite the fact I was cold, tired and congested as all hell.

After this we went back to the center of Kyiv and discussed dinner, which was decided to be pizza, and the pizza here is delicious, so I didn’t protest. However, on the way there (fortunately) while we were in the underground crossing the street, a cloud burst thunderstorm began. I was very hungry so I got a huge Snickers for 5 Hryvnia, which is a good price, but I was still concerned. Ultimately, we decided that it would be fine if we just weathered the storm. I sprinted there, because I had to use a WC and because it was freakin’ storming! It was rather interesting because it was raining so hard that the local drainage was massively failing, there was water coming off streets in torrents, and I jumped and dodged to get to the pizza place, where I enjoyed some chicken and tomato pizza.

We then got on the train. I slept, and we were in Odessa (seriously, that’s mostly what happened.)

Two things about Odessa: 1) Its very beautiful and elegant 2) Its got a lot of different cultures represented because of its history. Odessa was actually founded by French Aristocracy during the French Revolution, and apparently grew from there. It seems that there are Orthodox churches with Classical Greek outsides and very Eastern Orthodox insides. Which is an odd combination, but really shows the pluralism that Odessa represents. All in all, I liked Odessa, of what I saw of it. Hotel service in Ukraine is terrible though, I got a shish-kabob and I had to wait almost 2 hours to get it and eat it. Ridiculous. I slept for a little bit, and then packed to get to the airport to get to Vienna.

I lost 2 things in Odessa, my sweater and a piece of my favorite earphones. Oh well, its nearing the end of the trip, its not that big of a deal. I do wish I didn’t lose my sweater though, my girlfriend, who is the best ever picked it out for me… I guess I’ll just have to do that again.

We arrived in Vienna, and had to wait for some lost luggage (not mine) and arrived at the hotel. I had breakfast, took a shower, and slept.

That is where I am now, I’m not sure of my next move yet, but it may very well be just chillin’ out until tomorrow.

Cheers,

Connor

Eastern European Adventures Pt 3: Kyiv!!!!

The last two days have been a blast. I’ve been rather blessed on this great trip.

You know, its funny how things work out. Its been not just a trip of external discovery for me so far, but also of internal findings and etc. I think I may have come up with a way for me to be less annoying. Though I really like being awkward, so maybe I’ll keep that part. ANNNYWAY! Now to the details.

Yesterday, May 23^rd was my birthday. It started off well, with great Cathedrals, and awesome sights and getting stuck in the rain. Seriously though, I saw some Orthodox art that made me wonder how things of such beauty ever get laid to waste by evil people like Stalin. The church, St. Michaels, was renovated because it was almost completely destroyed by the Soviets. Those fools couldn’t appreciate good art, or how unifying religion can be. Although, I did learn that the Orthodox church is split between the Ukrainian and the Russian churches, they constantly fight over land, money and churches. Kind of odd. Also there are Unitarian Orthodox people that do Orthodox rituals, but recognize the Pope as their figurehead. That made me raise an eyebrow, that’s for sure!

After that, we went souvenir shopping. I ended up buying myself a pewter dragon, its got pretty good craftsmanship and I liked it. Too bad it was super fragile and I have to try and sauter or cement a wing back on it. That’s alright though, the only bummer thing that really happened was when we got separated after that and Greg (Dr. Gardner) had to go and find everyone while we waited at a coffee shop. It was alright. Afterward we went to dinner and I had Borshe and a awesome dish that was basically meat dumplings. Those were washed down by a nice pint of Wheat Beer, very tasty.

After we got back, I decided that my best bet on my 19^th birthday was to play Bullshit Pyramid (a drinking card game) and get really, really drunk. The reason I decided to do this was because… well… I could. When I get back to the USA it will be very hard for me to do any sort of drinking… which is fine and all, but hey sometimes it’s cool to celebrate with a bit of beer… and cognac. Yeah, I got pretty messed up because it turns out, I’m pretty terrible at Bullshit Pyramid and ended up drinking almost 2 liters of beer, and probably 4 shots of cognac. So, drinking adventures are cool I suppose. I’m not drinking tonight though, I have a meeting tomorrow and I just don’t feel that getting drunk, or drinking any alcohol would be good at this point. If my Mother is reading this, she should take solace in the fact that despite the fact that I imbibed a great amount of alcohol, I am not an alcoholic and I can totally control myself when it comes to the beer and liquor.

I woke up, with not much of a hangover (because before I went to bed I decided to have about a liter of water, yay for modern techniques) and stumbled up to breakfast at 8:00 AM. The breakfast was… not breakfast. Ukrainian breakfast is not what you’d expect, and the closest thing they had to what I wanted was like… Coco puffs. I had some coffee as well. After that we went back to the souvenir place to pick up what we needed, and I did. I bought several things for my siblings, Megan, and Mom and Dad. I have officially collected all the coins that are in circulation right now for Dad too, so that should make him happy. However, the real highlight of the morning was when I picked up an ocarina and a panflute. Both of which were made in Ukraine, the panflute was made of a wood that is native to Kyiv and the ocarina was ceramic. I’ve always wanted these two instruments, and the man selling them was very kind. I bought them both for about 50 dollars US. Which really isn’t too bad, considering I’ve looked for Ocarinas online and they were quite a bit more costly. A traveling buddy also decided to buy a double flute because… they are awesome.

After that, we walked way back up to see the Great Gate of Kyiv, which sounds impressive and stuff, but it really wasn’t that huge. I suppose it’s cool considering it was built in 1018 around when Kyiv was founded, and it did look sort of huge when we saw it from the outside, but I’m not sure it deserved having such legend attached to it. Though that’s just me.

We made our way back to the hotel and then we split into two groups. One group would go see a holy site and a war museum and another group would go shopping. As I was running low on Hyrvnia, I decided to go on the cheaper, non-shopping expedition. And it was an expedition, I think that my calves are going to be super chiseled after the amount of walking uphill today. Geez, it was ridiculous! The war museum was on top of a huge hill that had like 12 flights of stairs, and the catacombs were at the bottom of a huge hill, without any stairs! The museum was interesting, it had a lot of thing about WWII and the Red Army and other such things. I tried to enjoy it as much as possible without being able to read anything, as always there were beautiful art exhibits, and I love the Ukrainian countryside. It’s très awesome. The catacombs were… stifling and hot. I suppose if I was a practitioner of the Eastern Orthodox religion I would have been very impressed, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I suffer from mild claustrophobia, not crippling, but the heat and the cramped-ness really drove me nuts.

Now, I am at the hotel, and missing out on a performance of the ballet, Swan Lake, which is an interesting ballet, I’m sure, but I’m just ready to chill for tonight and get ready to go to the Meeting tomorrow and check out of this hotel. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post again, but I’ll do my best to keep up as often as possible… or as often as I feel makes sense.

Cheers,

Connor

Eastern European Adventures Pt 2: Kherson to Kiev

I am writing this on the morning of May 19, at 7:17 AM. I am due to give a presentation today.

The gravity of that statement will become clear shortly. Anyway, yesterday, we arrived in Odessa and took a bus ride to our dorms in Kherson that was about 5 hours long. We arrived in Odessa at about 1:15 and we finally got to Kherson at around 6. Woo, that was crazy tiring let me tell you. The roads in Ukraine are pretty terrible for sleeping on buses, but somehow I did anyway, probably because until that point I had only slept for 4 hours aggregately.

Then, we slept until about 3 PM to go and get a tour of Kherson State University, and Kherson itself. Kherson is a beautiful city, and the history of KSU is quite impressive in its own right. It was established in 1914 and suffered through two world wars and various other threats to its existence. It also produced a couple gold medalists and other athletic guys. Our hosts spoke very good English generally, and I cannot express my gratitude enough at that… I can’t read ANY of the signs here unless they are price tags! While touring the city, we stopped at a Pub to eat, and talked with a student named Andre, who is an Economics Major, about various sports things in Ukraine. Apparently its one of his pastimes to go to the pub we were at, drink beer, hang with friends and watch Football (thats soccer, sillys.) I tried some Shrimp Salad, which was good, some Borshe (traditional Ukrainian Soup that’s amazingly delicious… I really don’t know how to spell it though) and some chicken steak.

 

Two days later:

We went to the Black Sea, in Lazula. It was beautiful. I have had some trouble with my sinuses the last couple days…. GAH. I seem to be getting better now, I think it had something to do with the rooms we were in. I’m not sure though.

 

In Kiev, 21 May 2009

Okay, so I’ve totally been without Internet the past couple days, but its fine, It just means that I have a large post to make now. Hahaha. Its rather difficult to post blogs when there are few Internet connections, but can you believe that $80 has gotten me this far? We bought A LOT of stuff too, some of that stuff shall remain nameless.

Anyway, I slept very well on the train, mostly due to Benedryl, but also because I could actually freakin’ breathe. I am not effected nearly as much here, and I think its because this place actually has ventilation and is cleaner.

So, we got here, met with the American Foreign Service Workers (Diplomats): Karen Wobly and William Klein. They were very insightful as to how bad Ukraine really has it in these hard economic times. And the truth is, that they are having it pretty bad now, but in the long term it appears that they will become a great asset to the world. Ukraine’s government is actually very, very democratic, but it has a lot of populist/socialist things like pensions and subsidized energy that take up half its budget. So it borrowed from domestic sources/banks and those banks borrowed from banks outside of Ukraine. So, when the economic downturn hit, there was a freeze in the system of sorts. Because of the ripple effect that could occur is Ukraine’s economy collapsed, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) approved a $16 billion bailout for Ukraine, paid in chunks. $6.8 billion has been paid out so far. The loan to Ukraine was conditional on them making changes, such as not subsidizing energy and improving upon their pension plans. So far, however, Ukraine has not done such things. There is an election coming up, we’ll see what happens then.

Right now, it is 5:30 PM in Kiev, and I am fresh out of the shower and in my hotel room. Ready to take the Ukrainian capital by storm… or just sleep, depends on how I feel. Leaning toward sleep. I’ll post this when I get my butt up and pay for the usage.

Also, the speech went well, my brevity in my worked worked for my benefit!

Cheers,

Connor

Eastern European Adventures Pt. 1: NYC and Vienna

Ah, so this is what it feels like to be traveling with no hotel…

Good lord make the pain stop. Well its really not that bad, but I do feel grody becuase I haven’t been able to wash myself since Friday Morning at 7 AM EST. Kinda gross. Fortunately, I had time to brush my teeth.

So far in my adventures, I have sampled many different drinks and foods as well as had some of the best airline food I’ve ever had!

On the other hand, I am rather sad about the trip. I think I have been awake now for awhile, sleeping on the plane ride to Vienna proved to be impossible.

NYC was an eye-opener, everything was so expensive, so annoyingly stringent… but hey, that’s the price of travel, as well as my newest itches caused by lack of external clensing.

New experiences in Vienna today include, riding on multiple trains and a subway, having to pay .50 Euro’s to do a doo-doo, and having a light draught beer outside in a cafe. Quite fun, quite fun.  I also decided that a nicer restaurant (think a Austrian TGI Friday’s) should not be destroyed by my grubby self, so I decided that it would be prudent for me to eat at the Viennian McDonalds.

SO MANY DIFFERENCES!

First of all, they don’t have a value menu like in the states, and they have a burger called the “Big Tasty” not to be confused with the “Big ‘N’ Tasty” which is common over here in the states. The Big Tasty is about twice the size of a quarter pounder, with no ketchup, but some variation on the Mac Sauce. It was rather good, but the meat over here is as dry as a bone…. oh well, there are worse things.

TTFN, I have to eat before I go to get on my flight, even though its only 7:30 PM right here (This is GMT + 1  BTW) you figure it out!

Anyway, that’s all I have for now, I’ll update when I can about what Ukraine is like, and what its like ot be in a land where if you are a man, you HAVE to a lot of Vodka, or none at all.

Cheers,

Cyril

I blog, therefore I am.

Yeah, killer title, I know. It makes sense though if you think about it. When someone blogs they are putting their opinions out to the general public, so then it appears that they “are” to the public. Nothing really special about that I suppose, but regardless I am now going to add a review of an album I did a while ago for the Album by Dragonforce called “Inhuman Rampage!” Enjoy!

Band: Dragonforce
Genre: (Extreme) Power Metal
Label: Roadrunner Records (American), Sanctuary Records Group Ltd. (Europe)
Year: 2006

Overview: Dragonforce’s third album, with just as much speed, power and length as their previous two albums. The 5 permanent members of the band while recording this are: Herman Li and Sam Totman on Guitar, Vadim Pruzhanov on Keyboard and Piano, Dave Mackintosh on Drums and ZP Theart on Lead Vocals. This album combines their usual speed and length with even greater ferocity and guitar arranging.

Playing and Vocals: Simply superb, as any Dragonforce fan could tell you. The guitarists are certainly some of the best of today’s young guitarists. They can play fast, but still retain their melodicism. The keyboardist has very background parts, but when he does take a solo it is as extreme as the dueling guitarists. The drumming is not very special, but the man gets kudos from me for being able to play that fast and in time for so long. The bass is barely audible for most of the album, but when you do hear it (and feel it) the playing is very good, Adrian Lambert lays down some mean tracks for the boys. The vocals are also quite amazing in their own right, ZP Theart has a fantastic range, which he uses often to provide those catchy choruses. His vocal harmony ideas are also top notch, often employing triple part harmony at any given time through one of Dragonforce’s trademark epic songs. Also Lindsay Dawson comes in on this album to lay down some screaming tracks (evil backing vocals) which are used sparingly, just as they should be. All in all I say that these boys deserve the highest grade in this. I give them a 10/10.

Musicality: Their playing may be amazing, but overall their lengthy songs are quite simple. Their arranging (as in what instruments go where and certain background effects) is some of the best I have heard in modern metal, and yet their songs are basically just Ronnie James Dio on speed. Basic progressions are often used, and while they may lend a certain nostalgia to the whole album, on songs like “Revolution Deathsquad” it gets dull through the 4-minute long instrumental break. The form is also simple, they have a basic formula to all of their songs. “Intro-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Solos-Bridge-Chorus-Outro”
That’s basically what they employ throughout the whole album, it varies a little bit (adding a bridge or lengthening a chorus) throughout, but it stays mostly to that form. I give them some points for creative use of the electric guitar to create some of the sound effects that sound like they would be in a video game. Those sounds are also used creatively and musically to add to the songs and not just thrown in there randomly for some extra noise. Also, the choruses are impossibly catchy, try looping “Storming the Burning Fields” and try to get that chorus out of your head. Though they have a lot of good, the form is far to simple. Sorry boys, I can’t give you a super high-grade on this: 6.5/10

Production: The mixing is quite awesome, the reverb on the vocals and such is perfect for what they are used for in the song. The effects that go on in the background are just where they should be and the bass (though I would have loved it to be louder during more of the song) is perfectly mixed for the low-end dominating guitars. It sounds good, which I believe is part of the reason why I enjoy them and many other people I have talked to do as well. I give the production a 9/10 for not having the bass high enough in parts I think it should have been.

Lyrics: I don’t know if this should be graded, but I will anyway. The lyrics are about far-off lands, slaying evil and such. Obviously not some people’s cup of tea. Though I think that most once they looked beyond the “superficial” part of the words would find deeper meaning. The best part of the lyrics though, is the lack of cursing. I think that it’s unnecessary to curse in a song too much, it can be used correctly but there are few examples of this. However, since they don’t change it up any (I heard “through the fire and flames” on three different song in the whole album) they aren’t perfect. So they get: 8.5/10

The Flow/Pacing: The album starts off well, the introduction of “Through the Fire and Flames” makes for a beautiful statement of what the band is all about: Speed and instrumental virtuosity. The next few songs carry that energy until “Body Breakdown.” This song incorporates more differences in feeling than most of the other ones as the verses are floaty and the choruses are intense and it has a bass solo (a Dragonforce first.) It goes through the next song “Cry for Eternity” the longest song of the album, and therefore the most epic. The end of the album is a breath of relief as it “The Trail of Broken Hearts” begins with Vadim playing a sweet melody on a flute-like sound. The song is low-key, though Sam and Herman both go crazy on their solos. All in all the pacing is quite beautiful, for it ends with a breath of fresh air (unless you have a copy with the bonus track.) I will not rate the pacing on a scale, but a badly paced album would have garnered a subtraction from the overall score.

Overall: I listened to this album for two days before even starting to get tired of it. It was nice background for thinking up stories or writing lyrics, even an academic essay was graced with the Dragonforce experience. If you don’t like fast metal this is not for you, but if you like something ridiculous once and awhile, just download some of their songs. However, if you enjoy something epic, and you think that the variety that they have on their free songs is non-existent, (it doesn’t increase much though) then pick up the album. This is a testament of metal in our time. Overall Score: 8.5/10

And so it begins…

Naturally, I have been reticent about starting a blog because I would go in with every intention of writing a blog-entry and I would promptly forget about what I was supposed to be writing and go off and do something else. After a day or so (or if I am lucky hours) I would remember what I was going to blog about, but it would be irrelevant by that point.

I have joined a number of “journal” sites before, and I never really kept up with them because I felt a “journal” was nothing more than me showing personal problems to the internet. Since I never reveal my personal problems to people anyway, (alliteration) I quickly became disinterested and didn’t update very much. However, the difference between a journal site and a blog is the thought process behind it. A “weblog” which is where the word comes from can be used for commentary on society AND for news about oneself. The perfect package, now all they need to do is give it a theme song. >_> Though I doubt that would occur.

I have seen many of my friends get blogs, particularly from this site, and I have thought about getting one myself for quite awhile. As said before though, I really didn’t feel I would be able to put up to it. Upon recent reflection, I have discovered that I have a lot to talk about, and sometimes I need an outlet for those things (and yes sometimes I cannot fully express or vent through music, and besides if I have a cold and cannot sing [or scream] then its rather hard to relieve myself) that get me down or lift me up.

As for the introduction portion of this, I am Connor Pelkey, under my internet music alias “Cyril Ookami” because I like to be all incognito about things. LOL! Yes, I just used LOL in a blog that up until this point had no taint of AIM speak. Oh well, life goes on.

I will post things, and hopefully get my friends on my blog roll. News about my musical exploits will be posted here. I am not sure about my newest song yet, and after it has been screened by several people I will post it here for the entire world to see. Yes, before any comments arise, I do have a very excellent idea about how little this will actually be viewed by random people. Though, networking is about getting that possibility for success higher anyway, so it’s not entirely about just that one thing.

I play bass, guitar, saxophone and voice. I have been infatuated with metal music (specifically metalcore like Killswitch Engage) and Psytrance. I have been having a renaissance of acoustic music recently though, and I could blame Julia Sinclair for that unfortunate mishap. I am not a super good singer, however I can do the whole screamo metal thing pretty well, and (recently discovered) I can rap. So there we go, that’s all I’m sharing for the intro, if there is anything else you want to know you either already know or you are one of my friends and have the right to know. XD

So that is it for the first blog post, I doubt all of them will be as long as this one, but I had a lot to cover in this one. Oh yeah, and before I forget, Julia Sinclair’s band ROCKS HARD!