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Confessions of a Restaurant Whore: My One True Love (Delfina -- San Francisco, CA and Da Delfina -- Artimino, Italy) BlogThis! CONFESSIONS OF A RESTAURANT WHORE A San Francisco Girl's Down and Dirty Adventures in the Culinary Playground Confessions of a Restaurant Whore A San Francisco Girl's Down and Dirty Adventures in the Culinary Playground -- Show a whore some lovin'. Email Me Where can I eat, bitch? Restaurant Whore's Dining Guide What I Said Before Zu(ni) Story (Zuni Cafe -- San Francisco, CA) Good Night Moon (Luna Park and The Last Supper Club -- San Francisco, CA) Highway to Heaven (A16 -- San Francisco, CA) The Way We Were I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream (Mitchell's Ice Cream -- San Francisco, CA) Amber-ific (Amber India -- Mountain View, CA) Restaurant Behavior 101 Dim YUM (Ton Kiang -- San Francisco, CA) Just for ME (Mabel's Just For You Cafe -- San Francisco, CA) Slow and Steady (Slow Club -- San Francisco, CA) Food Bloggers I Like Becks and Posh Burrito Eater Chocolate and Zucchini Epicurean Debauchery Food Blog S'cool Food Musings Gastronomie KQED Food Blog San Francisco Gourmet Spicetart Sweetnicks The Food Whore You Gonna Eat That? This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License . -- Tuesday, December 07, 2004 My One True Love (Delfina -- San Francisco, CA and Da Delfina -- Artimino, Italy) Ribollita. The food of the Gods. OK, not really. It's actually peasant food. But it is DAMN good. Ribollita is Tuscan bread soup filled with cannelini beans, cavelo nero (a kale-like green), bread and yummy yum yums (that's a technical term). Then, it's stuck in a fridge to get all congeal-y and then it's FRIED. Fried soup. It's like a little blanket for your insides. It rocks. The first place Jon and I ever had ribollita was at Delfina . Delfina opened about 3 months after we, ourselves, moved to San Francisco. We made the pilgrimage from our shithole apartment about a week after they opened. As it was only 3 and a half blocks away, it wasn't a huge commitment. Or so we thought. From the moment we stepped in, we were in love. At the time, it was about a third the size it is now (if that). They described ribollita for us, and we figured eh, what the hell, how bad can it be? Well, I sure as hell may be a restaurant whore, but at that moment, I was ready to kiss my whorin' days goodbye and settle down. I love Delfina so much that it gets me all choked up just thinking about it. This is going to be a gushy post, so if that's going to wig you out, either suck it up or stop reading. Because I loooooooove them. It's taken me a long time to get to this post because I knew it would be a biggie. So settle in and get ready...here goes: The food. Ribollita yes. Simple-as-pie-but-delicious-as-hell spaghetti with plum tomatoes. For that matter, any pasta at all. The soups. Oh, dear God, the incredible soups (chickpea, Jerusalem artichoke, pappa al pomodoro, etc.). They just blow your mind. Grilled calamari and white bean salad where the beans are as good as those we had at French Laundry. The insalata del campo with everything good in the world in it. The panna cotta, the profiteroles, the crostatas....Oh, fuck it. It's all amazing. It's everything you hope, wish and dream for in your deepest fantasies. And special occasions bring special food, like the Bucatini with lobster and rice pudding with truffles that we eat each New Year's Eve. Craig and Annie Stoll. The owners. These people are the best people you could know. I have never, ever seen people so devoted to their business, their staff, their customers. They are so loyal. They will bend over backwards for their regulars. They take such good care of us, it makes me feel guilty. Here's the thing about Craig and Annie. They hire staff as devoted to their customers as they, themselves are. The staff are so amazing at their jobs, and so kind and wonderful (gush, gush, gush). I love them. I mean that. I LOVE THEM. And they treat us like friends instead of paychecks when we come in. LOVE THEM. We have been to Delfina during our highest ups and our lowest downs. Some examples: Losing a job, getting a new one, grieving a death, entertaining guests, celebrating birthdays, buying a home, moving, losing a friend, reconnecting with each other after hectic weeks apart, the aforementioned New Year's celebrations. And then there are the big ones. Such as September 11, 2001 when our families were on the east coast and we were lost. We wandered into Delfina and they told us they didn't know what to do but stay open and we told them that we didn't know what to do but turn off the TV and start walking in their direction. And the time when we packed up that same shithole apartment, to move to our beautiful new home. It was a happy thing that we were moving, but six years of our lives had been spent in that apartment during which time we had gone from dating to married, purchased a cat (hooray for Charlie!), gained and lost friends. It was a huge chunk of our lives. So when we shut the door for the last time, we felt strangely sad. And we walked straight to Delfina. After all, we'd now be 7 blocks away instead of 3 and a half. And they took care of us, as always. It's nights like those that made us come up with the code word "home" when referring to Delfina. As in "Where would you like to go for your birthday?" "Home." It is where we go when we want and/or need to share something important in our lives. Delfina is the restaurant we'd choose if we had to eat at only one place for the rest of our lives. So it is only fitting that when we were in Italy last September, we made a pilgrimage to Da Delfina in Tuscany, where Craig had studied. We arrived in Florence with Jon's super wonderful but disorganized family (5 of us total) and wandered the streets with a shitload of luggage trying to find our hotel. Yes, Florence has cabs. But why take one when you can avoid making a decision and blindly stumble around like jackasses? Anyway, we found our hotel, threw our stuff in the door and made our way back out to the train station (We did this alone, we would be meeting Jon's family in Siena in the evening. Delfina is so personal to us that we felt we needed to go alone). We took a train to the town of Signa (one stop away, but there are only a few trains a day that go there). Once in Signa, we thought we'd take a cab to Artimino. Nice try. No cabs at the station. So we go into a ghetto hotel and ask them to call us one. We feel bad, so Jon goes to the bar and orders a shot of tequila for their troubles. Nice. So our "cab" arrives. It's a minivan with an older dude inside. As we wind through the hills, he describes everything we're seeing. In Italian. But it's so beautiful, and he's so good natured, that we don't care. And then we get there. There she is in all her glory. Da Delfina. And when I say that, I mean the restaurant and Delfina herself, sitting in the foyer. Delfina is in her 90's and she is beautiful. Carlo, the owner, looks at the young Americans like "What the hell are you here for?" But he seats us anyway. At a table overlooking the Tuscan countryside. We spent the whole meal with tears streaming down our faces. We felt like we had returned to the mothership. We order everything. I order the Tuscan bread soup (ribollita, before it becomes ribollita, if you follow...Carlo was very concerned that I knew this). And in everything we ate, we saw our own Delfina's roots. Jon's guinea hen was a clear ancestor of Craig's chicken, the chicken liver crostini was almost identical, etc. We each had an appetizer, a primi, a secondi. Plus wine. A lot of wine. By the time we got to secondi, I thought I was going to hurl. It was so amazing but it was also a shitload of food. When I let the last third of my salt cod go, Carlo asked me about four thousand times if it was OK. Damn, people, I just can't eat that much food! Nevertheless, they talked us into ordering dessert. Very Tuscan, very good, but again, on the verge of hurling. In between, we received vin santo and some Sangiovese grapes grown by the older Americans at the table behind us. Well it turns out the guy growing the grapes was a trustee at the college Jon and I went to. And he and his wife ended up inviting us to their Tuscan villa. But alas, we needed to meet Jon's family and only had 2 short days left in Italy. Damn. But how fucking cool is that? By the time we left, Carlo was hugging us and we were giving him some of the fake tattoos from the SF Delfina. And when our nice man in the minivan came to take us back to the train station, we were grateful for the meal of a lifetime (at only $110 euro, no less). When there are places in the world like Delfina and Da Delfina, why settle for anything less, ever? xoxo Joy "To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art." --La Rochefoucauld posted by Joy @ 7:44 AM 2 Comments: Gayle And Don said... This is the most passionate review I have ever read in my life. It almost brought me to tears. Thank god I stumbled across your blog. My girlfriend and I are heading for San Fran for a quickie getaway and I was looking for a place to take her. We are staying at the Westin by chance and I found your review of Michael Mina's very amusing. I love people who are not afraid to speak the truth. And, as some of your readers have shown, some people just can't handle the truth. Thanks again for your candid reviews, and I hope we have a chance to get to Delfina this weekend. Who knows, maybe we will see you there. Don 7/29/2005 7:11 PM art said... Loved your story about Da Delfina. Delfina SF was also the favorite restaurant of my wife and I when we lived there. So much that we pretty much organized our whole Florence trip around Da Delfina (I'm sure we had the same van driver). I am a chef in Chicago and I think back to the two years that I spent in San Francisco having the opportunity to work at Delfina. I had an interview with Craig Stoll and ended up working somewhere else. I kick myself all the time! I loved the part of your story where you said Carlo looked at you like "what the hell are you doing here?" We made the mistake of showing up a little bit early and I thought he was going to whale on my ass! So we killed time by having a drink in the little cantina where three chain smoking locals coughed and watched soap operas full blast on the t.v. Ah well, your story brought back great memories and I think your website is great too. 7/30/2005 8:24 PM Post a Comment
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www.myspace.com/hannahmint MySpace.com | Home The Web MySpace Help | SignUp Home | Browse | Search | Invite | Rank | Mail | Blog | Favorites | Forum | Groups | Events | Games | Music | Classifieds Hannah "h a n n a h Last Login: 01/05/2006 View more pics Contacting Hannah MySpace URL: http://www.myspace.com/hannahmint Hannah's Interests General Oh dear. LOTS of things interest me. I'll try to put some of them here. Ahem. I love anything retro - music, movies, tv shows, toys, etc. I collect vintage toys. I love old movies, 70's-80's and also black and white. I think Audrey Hepburn is the greatest. My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, Popples, Lady Lovelylocks, Peppermint Rose...I love all of them and more :D I love rainy days, quality chocolate (such as Godiva), cute things, colorful clothing, stuffed animals, desserts, cream soda, and lovely dreams. Random things that I love: Sailor Moon, lipgloss, cute purses, the color pink, polkadots, winter/fall time, pony bead bracelets, drawing, chatting on aim, shopping, cute socks, blueberry bagels, Bath and Bodyworks, lollipops, vintage things, leg and arm warmers, strawberries, Teen Vogue, etc. Music I love listening to retro music. Mostly all I listen to is 80's new wave. My favorite artists include (alphabetically, of course): ABBA ABC A-Ha B-52's, The B*Witched Backstreet Boys Bananarama Billy Idol Billy Joel Blondie Culture Club, The Cranberries, The David Bowie Donna Summer Duran Duran Earth, Wind, & Fire Fleetwood Mac Garbage Gwen Stefani Hall and Oates Human League Jamiroquai Janet Jackson Kajagoogoo Limahl Lionel Richie Madonna Michael Jackson N*SYNC Naked Eyes No Doubt Parliament Funkadelic Phil Collins Prince Queen S Club 7 Simple Minds Scritti Politti Spice Girls Stevie Wonder TLC U2 WHAM! As I always say, thank God for pop music . :D Movies I LOVE the movie Labyrinth . It has always been my favorite movie, ever since I was 9 years old. I've seen it probably over 30 times since. I love it very much :D Johnny Depp movies: Edward Scissorhands, Chocolat, Benny and Joon, Pirates of the Caribbean, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sleepy Hollow, and Secret Window. Audrey Hepburn movies: Charade, Wait Until Dark, Sabrina, Love in the Afternoon, Roman Holiday, Funny Face. Some other movies I love: The Neverending Story, The Stepford Wives (OLD version, dammit), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (old one), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (new one), Hook, The Village, Purple Rain, and more. Television I don't really watch TV all that often. I prefer the computer. But when I do watch it, this is what I watch. Almost anything on VH1: I love the 70s/80s/90s, the Surreal Life, Best Week Ever, My Coolest Years, Retrosexual, Motormouth, Totally Obsessed, and more. Other than that...I love the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Roseanne, the Cosby Show, Three's Company, Cheers, Happy Days, MadTV, How Do I Look?. Books I love to read. I go to the library all the time, and here are just a few that I particularly love. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Chocolat by Joanne Harris White Oleander by Janet Fitch To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl Last Chance Saloon by Marian Keyes (all of her books, really) Heroes Umm...I guess my hero is my mom. I know that sounds completely lame, but seriously. She's done so much for me, and I love her very much. She's pretty much my best friend...sometimes. Hah. She's caring, loving, sensitive...I can talk to her if I need to, unlike other people my age. She watches Johnny Depp movies with me. She goes shopping with me. She compliments my cooking even if it came from a box. She even will listen to my music, mostly because she grew up with it. What can I say...I think I have the best mom in the world :D Oh yeah, and my other hero is Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran. Eheheh... Hannah's Details Status: Single Here for: Dating, Friends Orientation: Straight Body Type: 5' 5"/Average Ethnicity: White / Caucasian Religion: Christian - other Sign: Libra Smoke / Drink: No / No Children: Someday Education: In college Hannah's Schools Valencia Community College Osceola Kissimmee,Florida Student Status: Current Student Degree: In Progress Major: Graphics From 2005 to Present Hannah is in your extended network Hannah's Latest Blog Entry [ Subscribe to this Blog ] [ View All Blog Entries ] Hannah's Blurbs About me: ModMySpace Profile Customizer My name is Hannah . I'm 18 years old, I live in the USA, and I'm currently in my first year of college. Interests: I love anything that is retro, I'm mostly fixated on the 1980's . I love 80's music, tv shows, movies, and toys. The type of music I listen to is 80's new wave. I enjoy webdesigning and making websites, talking to my friends on aim, writing letters to pen pals,downloading music, etc etc. I own the domain Only-For-Love.Org ,and before that I owned Peppermint-Rose.Com . Likes: Romance novels, rainy days, pony bead bracelets, pen pals, Sanrio, everything pink, chocolate, pop music,lipgloss, gel pens, retro tv shows and movies, nice and down-to-earth people, Sailor Moon, cute purses, glittery things. Dislikes: Vulgarity, pervertedness, rascism, snobs, rude people, copiers, liars, unoriginality, spicy foods, lame commercials, extremely hot days, poor quality chocolate,the NEW Strawberry Shortcake, hypocrites, people who are ALWAYS happy, pens that never work, rap and country music. I'm a nerd, what can I say? ;) If you'd like to talk to me on aim, my screen name is a rainy avenue . I love meeting new people. Hannah's Friend Space Hannah has 47 friends. Maggie Dulce Odile Melissa Marz Mandolin? brandeee Natalie Marie View All of Hannah's Friends Hannah'sFriends Comments Displaying 26 of 26 comments ( View/Edit All Comments ) Melissa Jan 1, 2006 12:25 PM Happy New Year!!!! Melissa Dec 24, 2005 09:59 PM Imee Dec 11, 2005 03:28 AM hey girl, what's up? (= Melissa Dec 9, 2005 10:14 AM Thanks for adding me!! I can't beleive how much of the same things we both like!! Amanda Nov 23, 2005 04:46 PM Happy (early) Thanksgiving!! Phoenix Nov 9, 2005 05:05 PM I don't even know, but you're still one of my "Top 8" cause of how gorgeous you are! I know your secret. Oct 18, 2005 07:27 PM You rawk socks Hberry Oct 9, 2005 10:35 PM Hey Hannah! It is me, from Forbidden-Color.org *waves* How are you? Maggie Oct 5, 2005 01:43 AM yoooooo omg i totally won in class today. haha bye Ryne Sep 23, 2005 07:05 PM i like ur page! its all colorful! so whats up? how was ur summer? Maggie Sep 22, 2005 12:23 AM Wow, your MySpace is so bling bling. //BONNIE! :D Sep 17, 2005 09:47 PM hello darling, how are you? have a great week! YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL! :) Dulce Jun 6, 2005 01:59 AM Ooh, how did you make your MySpace so pretty? :O ♥ I will not forgive you for what you have done! May 26, 2005 12:32 AM Hey Hannah the Beautiful(had to add in the Beautiful) but anyhoo...thanks for the add you are the love of my life lindsey♥ Apr 27, 2005 12:33 PM hey there cutie. just thought i would drop you a comment since ur on my buddy list and everything. thanks for the add! -stay beautiful- ~grant~ Blair Feb 14, 2005 10:10 AM Hope you have a great one! Blair Jan 25, 2005 11:02 AM Think about this... You may not realize it, but it's 100% true. *PLEASE READ THIS WHOLE POST IT'S SO DAMN TRUE* 1. At least 2 people in this world love you so much they would die for you. 2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way. 3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because they want to be just like you. 4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if they don't like you. 5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they go to sleep. 6. You mean the world to someone. 7. If not for you, someone may not be living. 8. You are special and unique. 9. Someone that you don't even know exists, loves you. 10. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it. 11. When you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look: you most likely turned your back on the world. 12. When you think you have no chance of getting what you want, you probably won't get it, but if you believe in yourself, probably, sooner or later, you will get it. 13. Always remember the compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks. 14. Always tell someone how you feel about them; you will feel much better when they know. 15. If you have a great friend, take the time to let them know that they are great. Blair Jan 19, 2005 11:20 AM Hannah has the prettiest myspace profile in the world. All Jan 19, 2005 11:20 AM Hey girl! Your myspace is hot. I lurv the colors! :) Just wanted to say howdy. Blair Jan 19, 2005 11:20 AM Cho Chang Aug 19, 2004 11:02 AM Hannah pam Aug 19, 2004 10:57 AM hey hannah what up? Bryce Aug 8, 2004 09:48 AM it seemed to me like you needed more comments..so...here ya go....keep doin' what'cha doin' Add Comment About | FAQ | Terms | Privacy | Safety Tips | Contact Myspace | Promote! | Advertise ©2003-2006 MySpace.com All Rights Reserved.
Whore Train
eXile - Issue #179 - Feature Story - The eXile introduces amateur Whore-R Stories! - By Travis Jones Moscow-based alternativenewspaper Search the eXile All Issues This Issue This Author This Column | Advanced Search... Email thousands of beautiful Russian Ladies! Home | Archive | Club Guide | Restaurant Guide | Songs | Field Guide To Moscow | Political Trading Cards | About Us Browse Column (107) Previous (58) Next (47) The eXile introduces... amateur Whore-R Stories! By Travis Jones T hose of us who have sought female companionship over the Internet are familiar with some of the Russian language sites that cater to our interests: loving.ru, dating.ru, and omen.ru are among the most popular. Every few days I get an e-mail from dating.ru, which features the latest round-up of Russian girls looking to find a boyfriend over the Internet. After all, men who have Internet access probably have better job prospects. In fact, we're an elite; according to either The Moscow Times or my girlfriend, only 2% of Russians use the Internet at home. Most of the girls on these sites are here in Moscow or in St. Petersburg -- these cities have lots of bored office workers and students with access to scanners capable of uploading a flattering picture to the Internet. When you look over the pictures of girls from the provinces, you notice that most of them have sent almost identical pictures of themselves, scantily clad, in front of drapes. Somebody posed them for these shots, so they obviously work for porn sites. But which ones? Most of us remember the beginning of "amateur" Internet porn. A college-aged girl would scan a bunch of pictures and find some commercial site designer to make her site with an early version of FrontPage. A start-up credit card processing company on the web would be used to process payments. Doing this requires a degree of initiative and intelligence, which limited the number of these sites as attractive girls with these qualities can usually find basic office jobs. But soon studios that would hire several girls and offer monthly access started getting into the business. For girls in the provinces, these studios were really the only option, because DSL and cable modems were not yet available in most of provincial Russia. All of this changed when the Ifriends network opened its doors on Valentine's Day, 1998. Ifriends is a portal that offers 'exhibitors' easy-to-download software that lets them use a 50 dollar webcam to produce streaming video online. By '98, there were thousands of porn sites with only a few girls each; Ifriends offered a central meeting place for would-be porn stars and balding, 40 year old executives to exchange services for cash. Women would use a text chat to lure men into a 'private show' in which they could then take off their clothes. Registered members got access to archive pictures, which were often superior to the pictures offered at a price on the other sites. For its trouble, iFriends collects 50% of their revenues. It is extremely easy for a girl to list herself on iFriends; as an experiment, I once pointed a Logitech webcam that I had hooked up to my old 233 at my ex-girlfriend's bunnies and let them prance around online in front of perverts from Missouri for nearly an hour. This the rabbits did free of charge. A year or two after iFriends opened its doors, girls from other countries started to appear on the site. These girls, rather than working alone from home, were employed by studios that would set up cameras and beds with computers. This was nothing new, but they used the same free software and cheap cameras that had been available to everyone for years. A cursory glance at Ifriends today reveals that there are 1700 girls logged on. Most of these girls work at studios in Russia, Romania, Latvia and the Czech Republic. For whatever reason, certain cities seem to predominate in the number of girls they feature, particularly Saint Petersburg, Yaroslavl, Riga, and Bucharest. Trying to talk to such girls in the "guest chat" room can often prove nearly impossible. They are given a list of things to say when someone comes into their "room" in order to get them to log on for a private video session. You can't really take offense to this: these girls don't have a clue what you're saying. In addition, studios usually forbid girls from talking extensively to guests if the guests don't start paying. Most of the girls stick pretty closely to their scripts. Fortunately, their pictures are always available. After having the same conversation about twelve times, it is possible to find a girl who actually wants to talk. In this case, she's usually interested in talking to an English-speaker who doesn't just babble about sex. Sometimes not. Sending a picture usually helps. I found out about Camcontacts last year from a girl in Piter who had posted a personal ad on dating.ru. These girls are attractive but not particularly better looking than other Russian girls their age; in other words, just because they are "porn stars" in a sense doesn't mean they have any more luck than other girls in real life. Go to dating.ru and you'll always run into the telltale curtains hanging in the background. These sites only make money when you pay by the minute for live nude chat. That's pretty pointless for anyone who's actually in Russia, as a fifteen minute session can cost you as much as a venture with a whore from Omen.ru I first met Anna two weeks ago on Camcontacts. She was a fair-skinned, 22-year old bleached blonde who moved to the golden ring city of Kostroma to escape the husband she left in Kirov; her three-year-old daughter lives with her. She attended a local "technological university" and works some hours at a factory that makes processed meat, in addition to her chatroom income. Anna won't tell me how much she makes, but the average chatroom girl working on her own makes about $800 a month. Studio girls make half this or less. Since most people in Kostroma Oblast make less than $200 a month, chatroom girls are well-paid by local standards. The hours can be long; Anna usually works for 12 hours a day or more; but most of these hours consist of waiting for someone to come in to watch her take off her clothes and finger herself for a few minutes. I invited myself out to Kostroma to visit Anna. She was very happy with this and selected a "hearts" motif for her yahoo pager background. I'd never seen the city, which is about a seven-hour train trip from Moscow. According to the only information available in English at waytorussia.net, the only train to the city of 280,000 leaves slightly before midnight, although there are regular busses. I found several hotels in the city: a "Guest House" that offers doubles for 50 dollars a night or 5 dollars an hour, an old Intourist place for 500 rubles a day that Anna seemed to like, and a boat-hotel for 300 rubles a night which she claims is frequented by the city's prostitutes. That Saturday evening I took the train to Kostroma. Platzkart is 12 dollars or so each way whereas Kupe is about 18. The train went via Yaroslavl; the two cities are about 80 km apart from each other but not connected by a major highway. I wanted to spend a few hours in Yaroslavl, a city I'd never seen, so I took the second class car as far as Yaroslavl and spent a few hours at a divey local discotheque called "Partizan," where I was rescued from some thugs by an English major at the university and her friends. The Armenian taxi driver informed me that the local whores ran at about 500 rubles apiece. I went platzkart to Kostroma from there. The scene out the window was run-down izbas and the occasional factory. The single-family houses struck me, probably because I hadn't left Moscow since June. Anna and I played e-mail tag while I wandered around town after checking in at the Kostroma Hotel. This hotel, which wasn't listed on the city site, has several types of rooms, including suites, first, and third class. First class rooms are $16 a night for a single with a bath, shower, tv and phone. Third class rooms are $10, but you have to share a bathroom. The hotel was out of first class rooms so I opted for the $10 room. Kostroma looked better than I'd expected, more European than most Russian cities. It's run-down like most of Russia but lacks the spiritually barren pressed-concrete architecture that characterizes many Russian cities. It was once one of the principal Commercial cities along the Volga and is as old as Moscow. It has a central open-air market and kremlin that are both several hundred years old. Perhaps most amazing about the city is that it has so many good, inexpensive restaurants, including an 'Art Cafe' where the only art on the wall consists of pictures of (clothed) young women. Most of the food is standard Russian fare, although there are two decent Pizzerias and an English restaurant called Camelot. The pizza at the pizzeria doesn't have any tomato paste, but unlike most french fries in Moscow it comes with a bottle of ketchup, spelled 'katsoop' on the menu. I guess this serves as a proxy for the tomato paste. I went to a disco in the center of town where the cover was 40 rubles and beers were 25-30. There was almost nobody there except some whores in the lobby that I chatted up for half an hour or so. Some guy they knew showed up and bugged them for $10 blowjobs, picking at Polina's fishnet stockings, which she was wearing over a regular pair of tights. Two of them had phone numbers, another did not. Not all of Kostroma made it into the 20th century and many people still don't have a home phone. When I returned from the disco, I found a message from Anna -- she had gone to work at 10, got my message, and come to the hotel only to leave when I didn't come back. The next day I waited in the morning in the lobby of the hotel for Anna to come. She arrived around 11:30. She was a bit of a disappointment -- she had looked rather young in the whitewashed pictures that she had posted on the web site. In real life she had crow's feet and could have passed for 30. She was fairly tall, standing about 5'8" or 5'9" in her high-heeled 'fuck me' boots. She was wearing a sweater with a generic label in English and skin-tight pants. She had bleached blonde hair and was smoking Next cigarettes. 'We need go to hospital..." she said. I wondered what was wrong. Apparently she had some minor malady that required a trip to the gynecologist. I'd never started a date with a trip to the gynecologist, but the rates posted on the wall were reasonable enough -- appointments were less than three dollars, surgery only $20 or so. After Anna was given a clean bill of health, we made our way to her friend Olya's apartment. Olya was also a chat girl. Anna said it was Olya's birthday, so we bought a cake on the way for Olya's place. Olya wasn't home, but her mom was, and fed us soup, tea, cranberry juice, and a shot each of home-made Ukrainian vodka which tasted a bit like Swedish Aquavit. While we waited around, we proceeded to eat half the cake. Nobody bothered to light any candles or make a wish. Olya's cat and 18-year-old son were home. She had a husband too, but he was away. The apartment was a standard one-room place on the first floor of a Stalin-era building. In the one-room place dwelt: Olya, Olya's mom, Olya's son, Olya's husband, and Olya's cat. "Nice kitty," I told Anna. "Oh -- you can have her -- there isn't any room for her." I would have considered it if not for the big, fat ticks on the cat's back. Olya came home. She was seven months pregnant, and looked it. She had short, dyed blonde hair, pretty lips and a cute nose, but her pregnant-mom overalls and crowded apartment weren't exactly stimulating. Besides, she looked pissed off, even before I offended her by saying "Foo!" when she lit a cigarette, my middle class instincts kicking in. Olya ignored me from then on. She didn't speak any English anyway, and wasn't as willing to listen to my bumbling Russian as her Mom had been. Olya had bigger problems; she was in the middle of a divorce. "Don't worry," Anna said. "Olya smoke last time pregnant." After playing with the cat and toddler for a few minutes, Anna and I took off for her studio. I never actually got a look at the studio; I waited outside the studio and had a cigarette. It was in an anonymous residential building; the entrance was a standard korpus that resembled half of the Stalin-era korpusi in Moscow. Anna got her friend Lena, who went to a bar with us where she explained how the girls' set-up worked. Lena had long, chestnut-brown hair, a round face and what she described as a Kazakh looking nose. She had an energetic personality; it was hard to assess her body under the large winter coat she was wearing. I forget the name of the bar, but it wasn't bad for a city with the size and average disposable income of Kostroma. Lena was of average build; Anna was much more fit but looked older. Lena showed me her passport; she had just had her 23rd birthday. Anna claimed to have lost her passport in a taxi. There was hardly anybody in the bar, but the waitress insisted that if we wanted a table that we had to pay at least 300 rubles between the three of us. I almost laughed at the low minimum, but then again, nothing on the menu was more than fifty rubles. Lena, Anna and I proceeded to drink Baltika 3's. Lena's English was much better than Anna's, and so we were able to talk about their workplace. The studio had three rooms; one with pink drapes, one with blue ones, and one with green ones. Each room had a bed; there were eight computers. Each woman operated a computer; customers came rarely enough so that nobody had to worry about sharing the bed that served as a setting for most of the strip-tease. Women could come and go as they pleased: there were about 30-40 women, total, but many only worked part-time. Others worked 12 hours a day. Lena practically lived there and at her sister's place. They didn't have a steady flow of customers, but when men did log in, they usually spent three or so dollars a minute. Everything was optional; the girls didn't have to finger themselves, use dildos, or anything, but usually did, as not doing so would mean that they didn't attract men into their chat rooms. Men usually had strange requests. One request Lena remembered was that she put on 3 times as much makeup as average and drink vodka -- somebody out there gets off on Russian-slut stereotypes, I guess. She was amused when a foot fetishist came to her -- all he did was pay to jerk off and look at her feet while she sat back and reviewed English words. A subsequent look at the site revealed that most of the archived pictures were soft-core if they were porn at all, although one did feature Olya holding a dildo. Lena and Anna insisted that they weren't bi, although a look at the site revealed a few pictures of them naked together. Lena told me she'd grossed $1,200 last month. Her studio takes 60%, so her net was about $500. She said there was a studio in Moscow that only took 40%. The girls supplemented their incomes by courting the interests of repeat customers, who were sometimes the object of their romantic fixations. Anna liked one guy from Michigan, and one from the west end of Alexandria, Virginia; both had sent her things and talked to her extensively on the phone. After we'd had more drinks, I drew a map showing Anna how far it was between Michigan and Virginia, and scribbled www.greyhound.com for her on a piece of paper. I asked why the girls didn't log on from home alone. "I have a computer at home and can log in whenever I want to -- you could do the same and buy a camera and work from home." They didn't understand; they thought I wanted to set up a studio. "If you set up a studio, we might work for you but only if we stop working at our studio...we don't want our boss to see us online working somewhere else," Lena said. Unfortunately, there are more barriers to getting online than just the prospect of buying a computer with a 50-dollar web-cam. As it had become so apparent at Olya's place, living conditions were often too cramped to work from home. Anna had a son that she didn't want exposed to her work, and Lena didn't have her own place. Rental properties were hard to find for less than $200 because most people inherited their places from the Soviet era and effectively lived in condominiums. High speed Internet access was difficult to set up, and dial-up access required a phone line. The biggest problem, however, was that of getting paid by Ifriends or Camcontacts. Ifriends is in America and Camcontacts in America and the UK, and both mail paper checks to their chat-hostesses rather than wiring them the cash. Getting a check from the US or UK and cashing it in Russia can take months even in a large city; Kostroma's banks don't have many of the features that those in Moscow do. To get paid, the money would have to be deposited to a US account by a friend and then sent to them via Western Union. I invited the girls back to my hotel. "We have to work tonight -- we are going to Moscow for several days so we need the money." This was news to me: I knew that a trip was planned but Anna was undecided as to whether or not she wanted to go to Moscow. I asked her how much she planned to make that night. She said that it could be as little as 200 rubles but as much as $50 dollars, but probably more like $10. The next day, they saw me off at the gray, Soviet-era bus station; they would take the train later on that day and arrive in the morning. So there you have it: the girls didn't want to come back to my hotel with me because they couldn't pass up an opportunity to make a dollar an hour or less. Unfortunately, my Megafon account has run out of money, so they won't be able to get through to me. Anna wasn't nearly as attractive in real life, although her friend was cute. Unfortunately, we all know how hard it is to switch friends. So I may wait a day or so before turning my phone on again. Issue In #179 25 Nov 03 (2 years, 1 month old) Also in this Issue Bardak Calendar The eXile's Thanksgiving Day Dinner... KOCHEEN... CARDIGANS... Timo Maas... Timo Maas... Your Letters SIC! AMERICAN [sic]KER... THE BLAIR [sic] PROJECT... EPISS-OPALIAN... MISS MANNERS... BUNG-LADESH... [sic]VIVOR... Share Thanksgiving With Us The eXile is holding a contest for our readers. All you have to do is tell us what you are most thankful for this Thanksgiving... So So Sushi Restaurant Review byPeterArenseberg Can one ever have too much sushi? A couple of years ago I would have urged the negative... Michael Jackson's Babysitting Tips Need to earn a 20-spot by babysitting your neighbors' kids, but feeling overwhelmed by inexperience? Your worries are over!... In Brief In Brief Baker Won't Fly... Baker Won't Fly... Stalin Or Hitler?... Another Boxing Writer... Breaking News: No Change... Death Porn God Strikes Podmoskovskoe... Psychic & Stupid... A Death Porn Thanksgiving Prayer... Georgia Update: The Not-So-Great Game byMarkAmes When I was in Georgia two weeks ago, it amazed me was how accessible all the opposition players were... Kill Quentin, Kick Coens Kino Korner byMarkAmes Kill Bill is just stupid. What happened to Quentin Tarantino? Did the gods punish him?... Nostalgia for the Whip-Hand Book Review byJohnDolan You have to hand it to the Tories. If you don't, they'll take it from you... This Passport is Not Valid Press Review byJohnDolan You have to admire a magazine that devotes the cover of its first issue to a picture of an expat being run over by a Moscow taxi... Burundi: Heightism Rears Its Ugly Head War Nerd byGaryBrecher They signed a "peace accord" on Burundi. I guess it makes some people feel better, but it doesn't accomplish anything else... Cook's Corner! byShaushaShaleesa The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and the stomach's also a way to get him to take his meds... Chandra Club Review byDenisSalnikov CHANDRA - a French name for a French-style gentlemen's club with a genuinely French owner... Mandela Porn Mandela Porn byNatashaMarchetti Oh Jesus, let me just start with one of my favourite morbid fascinations ... Body parts... Dr.Limonov's Dialogue With a Voice About Thanksgiving byEdwardLimonov To whom you are grateful, Edward, to Jesus Christ? No, I am grateful not to the humain-like God, but to unnamed cosmic force... Set Font This feature requires JavaScript. Other Formats Printer-friendly Plain Text Email Article Email address(es): Note: Affiliate Links By buying from these merchants, you help to support and enhance our online presence. 200 beautiful RussianBrides a week! Photo galleries, personal profiles, introduction services. Travel to Russia Visa support, hotels, train tickets, tours and cruises. See your message here! Write to web_adv at exile ru Interested in advertising? Write to the_exile at mail ru "the eXile". 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MySpace Pre Made Layout
MySpace Layouts and PreMade MySpace Layouts Your #1 Source for MySpace Layouts , Graphics , and Animations for your profile! Home MySpace Layouts MySpace Animations MySpace Graphics MySpace Generators Contact MySpace Layouts Look through our database of cool stylish MySpace Layoutsavailable for download. The Premade Layouts for MySpaceare Top Quality, and custom made here at MySpaceClipArt! Browse by Category: All 3D Abstract Animals Cartoons Cars Flowers Girly Styled Guy Styled Hearts Singers / Artists TV Shows and Movies Misc. Total MySpace Layouts: (57) Indian Layout Preview Layout Get the MySpace Code for this Layout! Category: Misc Xbox 360 MySpace Layout Preview Layout Get the MySpace Code for this Layout! Category: Misc Funk Abstract MySpace Layout Preview Layout Get the MySpace Code for this Layout! Category: Abstract Sweetness MySpace Layout Preview Layout Get the MySpace Code for this Layout! Category: Abstract Injection Layout Preview Layout Get the MySpace Code for this Layout! Category: Abstract 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next Featured Profile Check out the Designers Profile! Check out our Contact Page to Get your Profile Featured! Photoshop Tutorials Urge Music Service Cinema 4D Tutorials URGE Music Service MySpace Games MySpace Graphics Music Video Codes MySpace Game Codes MySpace Images 2006 MySpaceClipArt.com MySpaceClipart.com is not affiliated or endorsed with MySpace.com. All Trademarks are owned by their respectfull owners. MySpace Layouts - MySpace Graphics - MySpace Animations - MySpace Layouts - MySpace Generators
cool background for myspace.
Myspace Background Image Help, How To, FAQ Join Chatcake - It's FREE! Myspace Guidebook - Myspace Background Help On this page you will learn how to set up a my space background image Setting up a background image for your myspace profile is relatively simple. People mistakenly think that to put an image into the background of your myspace profile you need to know HTML code. However, what this really is called is CSS code (Cascading Style Sheets). It is an "add on" to the HTML webpage programming language. The style of your myspace profile page (or any other webpage for that matter) is controlled by the CSS. This CSS code is usually pasted into your Profile body field on the "edit my profile" page. It's not necessary to copy and paste the code into your profile field, you can also put it into your other fields (interests, music etc), it does not matter. How to copy and paste the CSS code into your profile is explained below but first lets take a quick look at WHAT to paste into your profile to add a background image. Insert the following code into your profile to add a background image body{ background-image:url(http://www.chatcake.com/chatcake-logo.gif);}table,tr,td{ background-color:transparent;}</style In the code above, we're concerned with this line of code: background-image:url( http://www.chatcake.com/chatcake-logo.gif ); Note, it is very important to keep all the brackets and the rest of code syntax in place. For example, when you open a bracket {, it must be closed }, as shown in the code above. What this code does is it puts an image specified by the url (what you see after the "background-image:url", in red) into your myspace profile background. The picture has to be available online, you don't have to upload it. Simply find any image on any website, and right-click on it, then go to Properties on the pop-up menu, and you will be able to grab the URL for that image from there. In this example I use the chatcake logo image located on our server. You need to replace it with your own URL with the desired background image. The second part of the code makes all tables on your profile page transparent. That means that the background will show through any areas where there is information about you. If the part of the code where it says table,tr,td { ... } wasn't specified, your background image would only show in the very background, behind the text and other information about you. Usually that way your profile information will be more visible, and that is, in my opinion better to omit that part. But I am showing it to you just in case you need your profile background image to show through the rest of the page. Try not including that part of the code, save your profile, and see the difference that it makes. Remember, practice is the key to a good profile here. With time you will learn how to modify the rest of your profile with ease. Hopefully you will be able to find a cool background for myspace. Good luck. Extras.. mygen - decorate your profile Quick, with mygen 2 tunes4yourpage.com/ - get music codes for your profile here Kris's MySpace Help Page - help with backgrounds, tables and colors Thomas myspace editor v2 (thomass,tom's) - similar to mygen Thomas myspace editor v2.5 - an updated version of Thomas myspace editor Thomas myspace editor forum - get help from people with experience Miscellaneous.. Myspace advanced profile effects - a blog explaining how to add text and image effects to your profile Chatcake Member Login email password Create an account An alternative to myspace About this page. Myspace is undoubtedly one of the most wide spread community sites online so we will take the mechanics of myspace to demonstrate how a profile can be decorated with html code, music videos and more. Simply select the topic of interest from the list of options above. You will learn how to add video and music codes to your existing profile layout and other tricks. This page has been created due to a heavy demand in knowledge for editing profiles on increasingly popular websites such as chatcake ( chatcake ), myspace , friendster, faces, hi5, yourvoid, xanga and others. As long as the site supports direct CSS/HTML code manipulation you will find information on this site useful for decorating your profile for that site. Chatcake Myspace Profile Guidebook page, updated: May 19, 2005 2005 myspace profile guidebook, contributed by fallout software