The Ball of Fools Review  (from Festival on April 1, 2006)

More than 1,000 people showed up at Le Possion d'Avril - the Ball of Fools on April 1st, 2006 at Pier 63 and Frying Pan boat. While the news joyfully forecasted much needed precipitation we faithfully prayed for no rain and luckily it only whispered trouble but passed by while hundreds of people came to the Pier to celebrate April’s Fool Day. The program organized by Russian Mix and Oleg Voronoy (Lilith Studio) included the art show with paintings ingeniously displayed on the rusty iron walls of Frying Pan boat, rock band performance including well-known bands like Interzona, and two mega-discos that rocked the boat and the pier later in the night. What made this party different and undoubtedly successful was a combination of art, live music, body painting, and pure disco fun which created an atmosphere of true celebration and interaction between guests, artists, and musicians. The party had no point and no reason except one – get together, enjoy art and music, and be unreasonable and foolish for the entire night. Not taking life seriously feels amazing and being a fool is refreshing once in a while.

Of course this is French for April Fools' Day, dating back to the 16th century when Charles IX, followed the Gregorian Calendar, decreed January 1st as New Year's Day, rather than April 1st (Solstice). Those who didn't follow the new calendar were called "fools" and sent invitations to fake parties and the like.

In France, people watch their backs on this day in case someone pinned a little fish to their backs as a Poisson D'Avril prank. In Russia, we played all kinds of tricks on our relatives and friends. What was your favorite prank ever?  Share your “fishy” stories in our Metro Diary.

On February 22, Sophie Milman made her NYC debut at Joe's Pub. RussianMix organized a promotinal contest: "first 10 Registered Users who correctly answer the question would receive a complimentary artist CD". Here are the results of the contest:

Contest Question: One of the songs Sophie Milman sings so beautifully is well-known  “Agua De Beber”. In what country was this song originally composed and performed?

Our last poll asked if the word Brobidngnagian exists and 47% of you were determined to look it up in the dictionary. But it’s not that easy, as many standard dictionaries simply would not have it. And yet, the word does exist and has a peculiar etymology.

Brobdingnagian
 \brob-ding-NAG-ee-un\ adjective
: marked by tremendous size

Example sentence:
Our little dog was frightened by the Brobdingnagian proportions of the statues in the park.

Did you know?
In Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels, Brobdingnag is the name of a land that is populated by a race of human giants "as tall as an ordinary spire steeple." In Gulliver's first close-up encounter with the giants, he is attempting to get past a stile of which every step is six feet high, when a group of field-workers approach with strides ten yards long and reaping hooks as large as six scythes. Their voices he at first mistakes for thunder. Swift's book fired the imagination of the public and within two years of the 1726 publication of the story, people had begun using "Brobdingnagian" to refer to anything of unusually large size. (Swift himself had used "Brobdingnagian" as a noun to refer to the inhabitants of Brobdingnag.)

In a recent survey we asked you to share your New Year resolutions, those of you who are still in the habit of making promises to yourself to do better things with your life. Main resolutions you shared boiled down to few general categories and guess what, they were not much different between girls and guys. Take a look:

HER RESOLUTIONS: find a better job, get my finances in order and stop overspending, don't buy any more black cloth, move to Manhattan, plan a great trip abroad, have a baby, start meeting men that are not married, brush up on a foreign language (several were named like French and Spanish), update my wardrobe, be a happier person, take dance classes.   

HIS RESOLUTIONS: find a better job, move to Manhattan, lose weight, stay in shape,  be happy, explore the world around me, go back to school for a Graduate degree or an MBA, extend my social circle, meet someone special.
           
So, it looks like we all want the same things. Where it becomes different though is how each of us manages to stay on top of our goals and dreams to make them a reality. If you want to share how you do it or, on a more interesting subject, what prevents you from doing it from year to year, share your thoughts in our MetroDiary.

And good luck with keeping your New Year resolutions alive!

The MTA transit strike that paralyzed the city for four days is finally over. New Yorkers are catching up on unfinished holiday shopping and making New Year plans once again. But political and economic issues aside, didn’t the strike give you a jolt by breaking the monotonous daily routine and testing your survival and comradeship skills yet again?

Unfortunately, walking city’s bridges, car-pooling with strangers and telecommuting from home isn’t new for many of us and definitely not fun. And yet, every time a cataclysm like a black-out or a strike (or worse) happens, we pull ourselves together, find ways to get to work and, more importantly, back home, reconnect with our co-workers and relatives in a whole new way in a joint effort to survive and make the best of the situation.

Back in the hot August days, we’ve sent out an extensive survey and were humbled to receive so many responses. As promised, we are sharing the highlights of the survey with you.

Your biggest passion? Traveling. Collectively, you've been to more than 60 different countries! The most visited (in this order) are: Canada, France, Italy, UK, Spain, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Israel, Mexico, and Poland. And the most exotic: Japan, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Egypt, India, Jordan, Morocco, and South Africa. When asked about the ideal vacation, the majority chose “exploring Europe on my own”,  followed by “traveling to exotic locals off the tourist path”. A lot of people prefer spending their vacation going down the slopes or hiking up the mountains and only very few voted for Caribbean all-inclusive paradise (we could use that right now, actually). Obviously, you have a lot to share. Travel section on our site is coming up soon. Stay tuned!