The Invasion of the Metrosexuals

I paid my first visit to the long-renovated Yalta Club on Saturday. My boss (who, btw, is a huge fan of house music) had free passes from a friend, so a bunch of us from work went. This time around the DJ spinning was not a big name (as has become the norm at Yalta where during the span of 2-3 months the likes of Pete Tong, Steve Lawler, Hernan Cattaneo, etc. graced us with their presence every weekend). The music was OK... but what I couldn't help but notice was the crowd...and, more specifically, the guys.

I am sure you have all heard the term metrosexual, used basically to describe guys who are really into their looks and take the time and spend the money to look good. Well, Yalta was PACKED with them and I am not exaggerating at all. In fact, I don't think I saw one "regular-looking" guy, apart from the guys from work. It was pretty ridiculous. The clothes, the hair, the sunglasses... even the moves on the dance floor. It was a bit too much. Suffice it to say, that I am not really into guys who spend more time and money on their appearance than I do :) (And the funny thing was that the women weren't the dressy/preppy type at all.)

What I found amazing though in thinking about this is that this type of phenomenon did not exist a few years back. Bulgarian guys prided themselves on looking macho and being "manly" so to speak. In fact, they would have reacted with disgust to seeing such men amongst themselves. Times change I guess.

Though I would add the caveat that these guys are probably predominantly part of the house/clubbing scene; they haven't overrun Sofia quite yet :). Thankfully, I don't see many of them at the other places I like to hang out, like Toba&Co, Alcohol, Cabaret and Mojito.

Kontroll in BG

I was sitting on the bus yesterday when a group of 5-6 people got on at one of the stops. Actually, a "gang" would probably be a more accurate description, because they were of different ages, dressed differently, but yet seemed to belong together as a group. It took me about 2 seconds to realize that they were ticket inspectors. I have gotten pretty good about spotting them. They act all nonchallant and stuff. Get on, sit down. Wait for the bus to leave the stop, get up and take out these sleeveless jackets that identify them as inspectors and proceed to check everyone's tickets. What struck me about this group was not only how numerous they were (I had seen at most 2-3 inspectors working together, but here there were SIX for a small bus) but also how diverse the group itself was. There were two young men (probably in their mid- to late 20s) who seemed to be the lazy ones in the group. They didn't even bother to check anyone's ticket. One was dressed in a very "stylish" blue Levski tracksuit (Levski is the name of one of the football clubs in Sofia). Then there was a woman in her 40s or 50s... glasses, manly looking, rough voice. She is the one who first doned on her "controller's jacket" and announced loudly "Have your tickets out and ready please." Then there were 3 older guys who after coming upon a young man with no ticket had a long discussion amongst themselves whether to fine him in the bus or make him get off the bus and then fine him. I had to laugh to myself... because this group of joe schmos (or as we would say от кол и от въже) really reminded me of the ticket inspectors in Kontroll, the Hungarian film by Nimrod Antal and one of my all-time favorite movies.

The next stop came. They all got off and ran together to get onto the bus that was in front of ours. A very Kontroll-esque moment :) If any of you have funny ticket-inspector stories to share, please do.

Ostava and People-Watching

One of the great things about being back in Bulgaria is the opportunity to see for the first time some of my favorite Bulgarian bands perform live and stand literally only a couple of feet away from them. After Beloslava and Te, last night I got the chance to see Ostava live. The music and their performance in and of itself was great, but in addition the concert proved to be a terrific people-watching opportunity (which, as some of you know, is one of my favorite pastimes). The first rows in front of the stage were occupied mostly by teenage girls jumping around and dancing. This in and of itself was fun to observe... and I almost felt a tinge of envy at how free-spirited and energetic they seemed to be. There were "the best friends"--two girls who kept hugging each other, holding hands, and jumping in unison to the music but not in unison to its rhythm, and I couldn't quite tell whether this was due to intoxication or just general shared lack of rhythm. Then there was the "woman vamp"--a woman in her early 20s who looked like she had desperately been trying to copy Cruella De Vil's look (from 101 Dalmatians): straight black hair, black elbow-length gloves, red scarf around her neck, dragging slowly and sexily from a cigarette in a long cigarette holder. She was probably my favorite from the crowd, and I had spotted her right away even before the concert had started while she had still been sitting at the bar. Then there was that one crazy male fan who felt the need to stand right up front and gesticulate wildly to the music surrounded by female fans only.

Of course, I also ended up seeing some people I hadn't seen in years, but that almost seems like something mundane and ordinary in Sofia now.

Anyhow, back to Ostava. You can hear their latest single, Sex in the Morning, on myspace here. It's pretty good! I can't wait for their new album.

The Man with the Toys

This post is directed mostly at people who live in Sofia. Have any of you noticed the man walking around with a tray of toys (mostly stuffed toys) in the city center? He most frequently walks around the Grafa, Slaveikov, Rakovski area. Does he sell them? It's not like he is shouting out prices or anything that would signal he is selling them. I guess I have to make a note of what toys are on his tray next and compare them to the following time I spot him--to determine whether some of them are different and might have been sold.

Anyways, I have spotted him quite a few times, including once in McDonald's when he simply came in to rearrange his toys on the tray and warm up a little bit. Just something peculiar from my everyday commute to and from work. Maybe I should approach him next time I see him?

My favorite place

It has been decided. My Mojito, or just Mojito as it is known colloquially to all Sofia dwellers, is my favorite place to go out for a dance/party night. Reasons I like it so much:

1. You dance to classics (from the high school years) such as INXS, Depeche, Faithless, Prodigy mixed in with more recent hits from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gnarls Barkley, The Gorillaz, etc.
2. You are almost certain to meet someone you know. Right before New Year's I met half of my high school there (or what felt like it), plus a few US-residing friends returned for the holidays.
   
3. Everybody around you is always having a good time--how can you not be? It almost feels like you are holding the party in your own living room and everyone is your friend.

But it has one big drawback: too much smoke, which tires me out pretty quickly in the best-case scenario and makes my eyes itch in the worst. Not to mention how my clothes and hair stink of cigarettes afterwards.

Two amusing things I noticed in/about Mojito lately:

1. A guy headbanging like crazy to Anouk's Nobody's Wife --hmmm, isn't the song made by a woman for women?
2. 6-7 bouncers standing outside in the cold next to a small electrical heater... one of the them gets very upset when you don't carry a handbag (that he can check); he actually threatens that he won't let you in next time. I guess with 6-7 of them they really are in dire need of things to do :)
   

Redemption

I (perhaps like some of you) feel generally intimidated by passport/immigration officials (even Bulgarian ones). Well, since a few days ago that has changed. The reason: Two mornings in a row on my way to work I see two different passport officials sitting in the marshrutka (coming from the airport), falling asleep, affected by traffic jams and general annoyances, just like everyone else... just like me. Somehow that doesn't quite fit the previous image I had in my mind of an all-powerful, generally disagreeable official who only looks for ways to make your entry into the country miserable. I mean, how can you get intimidated by someone who is docilely sitting in a passenger van packed with people and whose foot you can step on at any point in time? :)

People-Watching at Some of Its Best

Last night I hit the jackpot in terms of my people-watching hobby. We were at the birthday party of a friend's (Eli's, for those who know her) ex-boss at a tastefully decorated small locale called Bukowski. In addition to enjoying most of the music the DJ was playing, I amused myself by observing some quite interesting scenes throughout the night.

Scene #1: The DJ is playing "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor. Approximately 10 women are showing their dance moves on the dance floor, while across from them five gentlemen (ages 35-40 approximately) are sitting sullenly on a very low couch, one of them lazily smoking a cigar. What I found most comical about this picture is that the five men were quite big... and the couch seemed, ahem... well, somewhat small for their size. The looks on their faces were priceless. Wish I had had a camera on me to capture the picture.

Scene #2: While talking to a couple of friends, my attention gets directed to a skinny, short woman next to the bar, who I notice is lighting the BIGGEST (I am not exaggerating here) cigar I have seen in my life. The masculinity of the gesture just didn't go with her exterior, if I may put it this way :)

Scene #3: (Quite a typical scene as I have come to realize) A couple at the bar is arguing loudly and gesticulating wildly. This went on for at least 40 mins (and it may have continued, but I left to go home at that point). Kind of sad to see this at a birthday party where people are supposed to be enjoying themselves, but I have come to know that (sadly) Bulgarian women especially like to make a scene. Blame it on our wild Mediterranean temperament ;)