Adventures in sickness continue

Halloween was Friday, an unremarkable holiday for Russia that is not really celebrated in places other than Americanized clubs. My friend Olga organized a party at a cafe (I was feeling to under the weather to try to go out that night) and said that the common misconception of halloween here is that it's suppoed to be a very dark and goth holiday. The DJ wanted to play Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson all night and Olga's Russian friend was confused when Olga put on the halloween classic Thriller.
I spent most of the weekend sleeping, watching movies, drinking tea and cooking up soups and stir frys in an attempt to fight this cold off. Today was surprisingly sunny so i bundled up and went for a walk through the parks behind the Russian musuem and ate sweet cinnamon roasted almonds while watching kids run around bundled up like little cabbages.
Sasha called me last night and invited me to go with her and Elya to the Michael Nyman concert today at the philharmonia. We got there and found out that ticket prices were pretty steep. Usually tickets are around 300 roubles, but for tonights affair they were running from 800-2,000 rubles ($32-80), with no chance of cheap student tickets. We waited until all three of the bells had sounded and the crowd had shuffled off to their seats to try to plead with the Babushka checking tickets to let us in to stand in the back and listen. Our first attempt was thwarted, not by the Babushka who was kindly going to let us in if we bought two tickets for 300 rubles (12 bucks) each, but by a man with a clipboard and a guestlist, who grabbed my arm and told us sternly that we would have to pick which TWO of us were going to go. Sasha kindly avoided a "sophie's choice" situation by stating that either we were all going to go, or none at all. We waited out near the coat check hoping that the man with the clipboard would disapear. After about ten minutes we mustered up our courage to try again... and success! The Babushka sold us one ticket for 300 rubles and let us all in!
The philharmonia building was beautiful- large chandeliers and marble posts making up for the gloom of most grey Petersburg days. For the first half we sat on the top level and i was immediatly drawn in by the music: wonderful horn sections! beautiful piano notes tinkering above low saxaphone notes blown until the musicians face couldn't turn any redder- I was so happy that Babushka let us through! and also happy that i had picked up some cough drops on the way so as to not add a hacking percusion section coming from offstage left.
After the intermission we snuck down to the first level because we had spied so many empty chairs there. We sat in the second row and were able to see the composers goofy striped socks as he played the piano. Nyman was joined by an Australian opera singer who accompanied her vocals with dramatic face and arm gestures that were too overwhelming to watch at times.
At the end everyone bowed several times, walked off stage and back on, and after it all Michael Nyman came back out and played a piano solo. He was very nice, bowed and stood and posed a moment while a girl in the front row took his picture. He stayed around and signed autographs, so i had him sign a page in my planbook. (That's him in the photo to the left, you can read an interview with him and the SPB times here)

A great night for 100 rubles a piece.
Now i'm back to tea, a movie and some sleeping, and hoping this cough goes away soon.