The Amazing Race: Moscow, Part 2

Episode 10 starts with four teams left. Clearly, Frat Boys Dan and Andrew are the weak link. They know their number is up tonight. Not only do they have to keep up with three superior teams, they must complete a Speed Bump, punishment for finishing last in a non-elimination round.
The Boys have written themselves off; Dan says they need "a miracle." The Boys get their miracle.
The teams stay in Moscow for this leg. They travel by taxi to a retired Russian nuclear submarine. The must search the bowels of the ship for the Sonar Room and find an actor who played in the 1990 movie, The Hunt for Red October. The white-haired actor apparently hasn't worked since, remaining mummified in his naval costume. Teams run pass some crew dismissing them as "not old enough."
Next, teams travel across town to an outdoor museum called Park Iskusstv, dubbed the "Graveyard of Fallen Monuments" by locals. Dan and Andrew get soaked by a passing truck speeding through a puddle. They feel like they deserve it.

Roadblock: Forgettable Faces
The teams face a Roadblock at the park. One team member must scour the park filled with Soviet-era statues and count the statues of Stalin and Lenin. If the racer can't recognize the man's face, he or she can match the Cyrillic spelling in the clue.
Nick doesn't know his Soviet leaders but in typical Nick-and-Starr style, he figures out a work-around. "Stalin has a bigger nose," Nick reasons.
To all you Millenials, Stalin looks like Ronald Reagan with a mustache. Everyone knows what Ronald Reagan looked like, right?
In tonight's foreshadowing moment, Toni tells Dallas, here, you take all our money and our passports. Uh-oh.
I wonder why Dallas did the Roadblock. It seems like Toni's turn, plus it's a non-physical task better suited to her generation. Nervous, Dallas mixes up Lenin for Stalin, plus he miscounts. As Dallas wanders through the park, he says "my mom probably hates me right now. She probably doesn't want me to be her son anymore." Poor Dallas, just wait. You're going to feel a whole lot worse in a few minutes.
The correct number of Lenins (six) and Stalins (two) gets you the answer that the lady in the antique bookstore wants, 62. With a correct answer, the shopkeeper hands the racer a book by Mikhail Bulkahov and the clue on page 62 says to rejoin their teammate outside the author's home.

Insufferability
Tina's improved attitude proves temporary and my viewing companion mutters "insufferable" throughout the episode.
At the bookstore, Tina aids Dallas and running off, she demands that he remember the favor. Tina approaches the waiting teammates and the first thing she says is "I helped Dallas." Big deal. She helped Dallas because they worked together to eliminate incorrect answers. All Tina did to help was to not backstab him. Insufferable.
Enroute to the author's apartment, Dallas drops his fanny pack with the team's money and passports in his cab. He realizes his mistake as the cab drives off. Tina doesn't have to worry that her assistance will come back to haunt her.
Here, the Frat Boys get a break. Despite going to the wrong park and having another throw-in-the-towel moment, Andrew finds a man who assists him to the park and helps him count the statues.
Once the teams are reunited outside Bulkahov's apartment, racers head to Sokol'niky Park to find a lady with a Shetland Pony.
Dallas has to deliver the news of the lost money and passports to Mom. Dan, the only other racer still waiting for his teammate, is gleeful that Andrew has all the money and he does not have to face an ethical decision. He has no money to lend them.
Toni and Dallas, flustered by their loss, resort to begging, something we haven't seen in The Amazing Race for a few seasons, since the producers stopped stripping losing teams of their possessions.
Toni and Dallas take the Metro to the park, normally a prudent economic decision, but the clue says to travel by taxi. The Lady with the Shetland Pony will not give them their clue.
Dan and Andrew are back in the race, but here, they hit their Speed Bump. The Boys must perform a Russian dance that meets the instructor's approval. The instructor lets inept Dan off easy and the Frat Boys remain in the race.

Detour: Ride the Rails
Skipping ahead to far-first place, Nick and Starr hit the Detour, "Ride the Rails" or "Ride the Lines." They wisely ride the rails, traveling underground on the Metro where Nick uses his New York-subway savvy to navigate. They travel with such ease, you'd think they read Russian.
They must find a snack shop and pick up a traditional pastry. They read their clue off the greasy wrapper.
Nick and Starr travel by train again to find a statue of the men who invented the Cyrillic alphabet. Nick calls it the "Acrylic" alphabet. Good Nick, just substitute words you know.
They find a babushka (the only Russian word I know) and give her the pastry.
The rest of the teams choose to Ride the Lines. Knowing Moscow traffic as they do, I wonder why they opt for street-level travel. Tina and Ken get on a bus rather than a trolley. "Look for the wires, Ken" She Who is Always Right says.
Nick and Starr check in first, as expected. Coming in second, running with his pants falling down, is Dan and his buddy, Andrew. I am happy for them, but sorry to see Toni and Dallas go. Phil doesn't wait for Toni and Dallas to make it to the mat to deliver the bad news: Nick and Starr, Dan and Andrew, and Ken and Tina will race for the $1,000,000 bounty next week.

Negotiating a Cab Ride to Brooklyn

Any way you slice it, Brooklyn is not Manhattan.

G. and I loved living in Brooklyn, hanging out on Smith Street, shopping Atlantic Avenue. When we moved to Brooklyn in 1999, the apartment prices in the borough were lower than Manhattan. Significantly. It wasn't a fire sale by any means; the prices still would shock the middle of swath of America.

But Brooklyn became aware of its coolness, got a little heady and priced itself accordingly. But Brooklyn is still not Manhattan and I can't figure out how some neighborhoods are commanding higher prices than Manhattan.

To get home from a party, it still takes a slow taxi ride over the bridge or a long subway ride that makes you feel like Cinderella after her gown has turned to rags.

This New York Post article spells out some details.

96 Schermerhorn Apartment

What interests me about this apartment for sale is that this apartment is the apartment G. and I used to own. We sold this downtown Brooklyn one bedroom in May 2005 for $345K. Today the asking price is $440K.

Does the $85K price increase say anything about the New York City real estate market as a whole? (When I refer to the New York market, I mean my market: Manhattan, parts of Brooklyn and just maybe, Astoria, Long Island City and Jackson Heights in Queens.) Has the asking price moved with the market or has the price outpaced the market?

Last week's news about the declining price of existing homes (down 11.3% percent nationwide from a year ago) encouraged me that we might be able to jump into the market again. A New York Times article says that the market is seeing prices not seen since 2004. If that statement could be applied consistently, our old apartment would not cost $440K; the cost would be lower than our 2005 sale price. If only that were true.

I read prices in New York declined by 7%. Even in New York media, meaningful stats remain cloudy. Is the 7% all five boroughs added together? Averaging all the boroughs together doesn't tell the Manhattan shopper anything. A short piece in the New York Times indicates that current prices are falling in Manhattan but the stats don't reflect a decrease yet.

Back to our former nest: 96 Schermerhorn is a great apartment. When the Brooklyn Law School dormitory rose behind the building, our apartment was spared the loss of a great view. The view looks out over Brooklyn and the Verrazano Bridge. I am puzzled that the old photo of our living room with our furniture is used. Looked better then, perhaps? I like the kitchen remodeling, but I wonder if the openness above the kitchen counter is worth the loss of cabinet space.

Sentimentality or sour grapes? I think the former, but we won't know until we are owners of a new space ourselves.

The Amazing Race: Moscow

This leg is all about shoes.

Dan and Andrew start as the last of four teams, shuffling to the clue box in hotel slippers that a sympathetic maid gave them. Not sure why they couldn't retrieve their shoes after checking in the last Pit Stop.

Lucky for them, all team are bunched on the same flight to Moscow and they find a 24-hour shoe store in the Kazakhstan airport. Dan and Andrew spend a lot of cash on new shoes but they have no choice.

Tonight's foreshadowing comment comes from Dan: "Spending a lot of money on shoes may come back to haunt us." Oh, it will, Frat Boys, it will.

Once in Moscow, teams travel by taxi to a monastery that has such a tongue-twisting name that the graphic just says "monastery." The closed-captioning called it "the place."

The taxi drivers in Moscow all are menacing and clueless in finding places. The episode is full of anxious moments in cabs. Starr cries.

After the monastery, teams taxi to Moscow's outskirts to a decommissioned military base called Kolosok Camp. Here the Detour choices are "Boots" or "Borscht." Note the reference to footwear.

Chronic Fatigues Syndrome

All teams must don military clothing and either learn a parade march with a training squad or serve Borscht to 75 Russian soldiers. Miraculously, the Frat Boys start the Detour in 2nd place.

Andrew is confident in marching, citing his six years in Marching Band. But he can't manage the foot wraps that go under the boots. The Sarge demonstrates over and over; it looks as easy as tying a scarf.

But the Frat Boys are stymied and backpedal to the Borscht task. After undressing and putting on the cook's hat and apron, they realize that they were supposed to stay in the military fatigues. Back to the foot wrapping and last place.

Now they decide to march. Dan marches like he has Muscular Dystrophy. It seems impossible to be that bad, but he is. The soldiers laugh at him. Dan and Andrew truly suck at everything. Dan's explanation makes no sense: the task "was very musically and art-based and I am not musically or art based. I am sports and tv-based."

They give up once again and serve the Borscht. At last, there is something they don't suck at. They even have fun and complete the task with smiles. Dan and Andrew's very presence this late in the race shows the role of serendipity. The fumble every task and misread most of the clues. They come in almost last every leg, but somehow they miss elimination.

Tonight's Roadblock requires one team member to unload fifty 55-lb bags of flour from a truck and deliver them to a bakery. I think Dallas is a cinch to be the best at this, and he and Toni will finally get the first-place finish they dream of.

Dallas is struggling with two bags at a time when Ken pulls up. I forget that Ken was an NFL player. Ken handles the hefty bags with ease, but Dallas's grit and head start allows him to finish first.

The bakery shopkeeper is a character, a stocky, stout woman who passes judgment on each flour lifter. When Nick shows up, she says "he's not fit!" Wait till she sees the Frat Boys. Nick is fit; he's just not brawny. He wisely carries one bag at a time. Dan does a good job carrying the flour too. What a surprise.

Dan, having regained his confidence, says "we've been the Tortoise this entire race."

The Tortoises have a hairy time outside the Pit Stop. They don't have enough cash to pay their disgusted cab driver. They offer the driver Dan's new shoes. Dan pleads, "Italian shoes, worth one hundred American!" The driver rejects the shoes with a shove of his foot. There is a stand off. I think the driver is waiting for a cop to pass by.

But Dan, that snake, is holding back a little cash. He finally holds his remaining cash in the air until the driver snatches it. Dan and Andrew check in last, but they have turned in their most interesting performance to date. And lucky boys, it is a non-elimination round. Toni and Dallas get their first place finish and Nick and Starr experience their first scary leg.

Justice, like a hearty bowl of Borscht, is served in this leg.

A Peek At The Moth Ball

Here's a video from the aforementioned Moth Ball.

The Moth Ball: La Dolce Vita

Salman Rushdie received The Raconteur award last night at The Moth Ball, the annual benefit event sponsored by the storytelling group, The Moth.

Rushdie proved himself worthy of the award by telling a tale about driving across Europe and Asia as a young man in the 60s, accompanying a friend whose stubbornness nearly gets them killed. Rushdie had a bad cold and only his sniffles got in the way of a great story.

Garrison Keillor, last year's winner and the event co-host, presented Rushdie's award. Keillor also entertained the audience with a tale, a story set in New York rather than the typical Minnesota setting of Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion yarns. Among other literary celebrities at the ball were actors Lili Taylor, John Turturo and actor/writer Tony Hendra.

The evening also featured an East Coast versus West Coast storytelling showdown. Winners of recent Los Angeles and New York story slams competed against each other. Both yarn spinners told stories about youthful swagger, but the west coaster won hands down with his account of seven scary days in jail.

Many guests at the gala were frocked out in feather headdresses; colorful, flapperish dresses stood out among the standard black cocktail dresses. All fitting with the theme "La Dolce Vita." (This, like all Moth events, are themed.)

Despite the finery and the fancy locale, the Capitale ballroom, The Moth Ball did not entertain as well as the Moth Mainstage events that I have been to. Somehow, the obligatory award show flow (an introducer who introduces the presenter who does the presenting) doesn't entertain as well as dig-right-in storytelling.

The Amazing Race: Kazakhstan

Why is it that teams become likable just before they are eliminated?

In Kazakhstan, Terence and Sarah stop whining and become supportive of each other. Prior to this episode, I was certain they would break up at or before the end of the race. I thought they were just too different from each other to move to the next stage after Newly Dating.

I notice the change in Terence and Sarah right off, as they rip open their clue that begins the race. They must have gotten a good rest, I think.

Three teams get on the early flight to Almaty that changes planes in Frankfort. One team goes through Moscow and the last team, through Dubai. None of these routes are as the crow flies. From the map, it looks like Frankfort is thousands of miles out of the way.

Fortunately for Teams 4 and 5, Terence and Sarah and the Frat Boys, all teams bunch up at their destination, a local chicken factory. They all must wait for the factory to open at 7:30 am. The Frat Boys catch a big break here, since their flight arrived far behind the other two.

The gates to the chicken factory open, and all players dash together to the clue box. Nick tears a clue out of a Frat Boy's hand.

In this Roadblock, one team member must search among 30,000 chickens for one of seven golden eggs. Or they can choose the Fast Forward. Nick and Starr, and Terence and Sarah taxi to the Fast Forward toward the unknown task. Turns out, they have to eat a traditional Kazakhstani meal made out of sheep butt. Fast Forwards are not supposed to be easy.

Terence and Sarah foreshadow their fate with this exchange:

Sarah: "Baby, I don't think this is a good idea. Terence disagrees: "I do."

As a vegetarian for fifteen years, Terence should have scrambled out of that restaurant the moment the sheep butt is placed in front of him. His fatal mistake is giving it a try, the first time he has been sporting in the whole race. Life is not fair, Terence.

"Chew the minimum amount to swallow, " Nick advises Starr. This is not your mother's advice, nor the time to chew forty times. Starr bests Nick and finishes her meal first, though she gags a few times.

Nick and Starr fast forward to their fifth first-place finish and when Phil says, "you are team number one," Nick says, "you sound like a broken record, Phil." Foreshadowing bad luck next leg perhaps?

Back at the chicken factory, Dan shouts to his teammate: "Doesn't matter if you step on their feet!" Kinda does, Dan. There will be a job waiting for Dan in the poultry industry when he returns to the States.

Toni finds the first egg, Andrew, the second. Past history tells us Tina is slow in finding things. She is last, but no damage done.

Mongol Warriors

The teams jump into waiting giant orange crane trucks to take them to Koktube Arch at the foothills of the Tienshan Mountains. How is it that the Frat Boy's truck driver gets lost? Aren't these drivers are hired by the show? They are not random taxis. Again, not fair.

The most impressive visual moments of the show are when the teams reach the mongol warriors on horseback and receive their next clue from a huge eagle sweeping in with a clue in its talon.

The remaining teams, including a backtracking Terence and Sarah, choose the "Act Like a Fool" Detour option. All teams must don a two-man cow costume, one racer in front and one in back. Deciding who is in front and who takes the rear is a classic power struggle.

Tina's logic in taking the front: "I can see things better." In costume, the teams must walk the streets to a milk stand. Once they down a waiting glass of milk, they find their clue on the bottom of the glass. Tina and Ken drink the milk and can't figure out where to get their clue. They return their costume to the costume shop before they complete the task thinking the costume is no longer necessary. They must return for the costume. These mistakes don't turn out to be costly and they finish third behind Dallas and Toni.

Dallas is the best cow, mooing it up and having fun.

The Amazing Race: Delhi, India

First-place finishers Nick and Starr foreshadow upcoming deception against Toni and Dallas with Nick's opening comment. "The big thing Starr and I do," he says, "is little white lies to all the other teams. We have no shame in giving 'em what they need to hear."

The brother and sister team may win the race, but they will ruin Starr's chances with Dallas, who proves to be a man of integrity and substance. But I am getting ahead of the plot.

Paintball Party

In this colorful and eventful episode, six teams head to a park to "participate" in a traditional Holi Festival.

Revelers dance and throw powdered dyes and spray water over each other, like a Indian paintball game. One team member must run through the crowd, climb a ladder, and find the legitimate clue among hundreds of colorful clue envelopes attached to hanging wheel.

Though Starr performs this task, a random reveler smashes Nick in the face with pink powder. The reveler approaches him like an assassin firing a gunshot then disappearing in the crowd. Mob mentality takes over when Divorcee Kelli begins her run. The pelting turns vicious beyond the spirit of the game.

Worse, Kelli misunderstands the mission and thinks she must blindly pluck down an envelope and race over to her partner to open it. Other teams complete the task in minutes and poor Kelli, splattered with so much color she is brown from head to toe, can't figure out what she's doing wrong. Finally she realizes she can check the outside of the envelopes while on the ladder, rather than running the gauntlet over and over. One of the frat boys calls the session a "wild rape party" and he isn't far off.

The teams are refused service by several taxis because of their wretched conditions. Terence tries to irrigate his nose with a bottle of water and disgustingly spits and honks out the taxi window.

Go, Ken and Tina!

Coming in last works wonders on Ken and Tina. They approach the Holi paintball festival with a playful attitude. Tina, on the sidelines, gets doused with green dye. She looks like she is wearing a green wig for the rest of the leg and it looks good.

At the next stop, a bird hospital, Ken and Tina encounter the Speed Bump that they alone must do. I notice that Speed Bumps tend to be straightforward tasks and this one's no different. At a nearby temple, they must volunteer to serve holy water to temple patrons. Tina relishes this role and Ken gets into it as well, shouting "Get yer water!" Tina uses more decorum and learns the polite Indian word for get-yer-water.

Ken and Tina continue to redeem themselves throughout the episode. They take control, but not arrogantly. When their taxi gets stuck in bicycle traffic, they get out and direct traffic, clear up the jam and jump back into their cab.

Tonight's Detour requires the teams to emulate one of two common Indian professions. The clever names of the options are Bleary Eyed and Teary Eyed.

Bleary Eyed requires teams to follow criss-crossed power lines down a crowded street, keeping track of the numbered tags they pass. Teams must give their list to a man at a sewing machine to approve. The man hams it up for the camera, shoving Tina away when she tried to look over his shoulder. The new Tina took it well.

Ken and Tina pass the Divorcees and the Frat Boys, but are gracious enough to show the Frat Boys what they are doing wrong in the Detour. This, as well as the Divorcees turning down their offer of collaboration, saves the Frat Boys from elimination.

In Teary Eyes, teams must go to a spice market, walk two 40-pound bags of chilies 1/4 mile, then grind the chilies into powder with a mortar and pestle. Terence and Sarah are the only team to choose Teary Eyes, a brutal task after the paint party. More whining ensues.

Nick and Starr come in first once again, but they arrived saddled with bad karma after pretending to collaborate with Toni and Dallas, the nicest team ever, on the power line task.

Austin, Texas

In August, Gene and I did a little off-season traveling to Austin, Texas.

We knew for certain that Austin's premier draw--the annual March South by Southwest (SXSW) festival--would not be our scene anyway. It would be like going to New Orleans during Mardi Gras; there's enough action without the festival taking it to a sensory-overload level.

We went to see live music, visit our friend Suzanne and to feel just how darn hot it gets in Texas in August. Posted just now because of computer breakdowns that began during the trip, here it is--the Austin recap.

The Amazing Race: India

Nick and Starr repeat their win in Leg Six of The Amazing Race. But a lot of hijinx ensues in between the two wins.

Six teams travel 2,000 miles from Cambodia to New Delhi, India. All teams are on the same flight, eliminating the time deficits for the late finishing teams of the last leg.

Dallas and Starr admit their attraction to each other in separate camera interviews. Dallas feels his mother and Starr's brother's presence hamper their chances to get to know each other.

The frat boys start the race nervously, knowing they are at a physical disadvantage to all the other remaining teams, mostly because they are so clumsy.

After arriving in New Delhi, teams must taxi to an auto yard called Moonlight Motors. Here, some distance develops between the teams based on drawing good or bad taxi drivers. Ken and Tina's cab driver has the hardest time finding the auto yard and Tina's bark cranks up.

At Moonlight Motors, the teams face a Roadblock in which one team member must tape off and paint the bottom half of a taxi green. The green shows that the taxi runs on natural gas. Andrew and Dan, in the lead for once, finish first but fall apart later at the next Detour.

Ken does the painting with Tina, barking at him every second. Sarah must also endure her partner's constant criticism. Because Sarah and Terence are newly dating and they are experiencing their first relationship difficulties on national television, they punctuate each sentence with "babe." The word sounds more and more like an insult than an endearment.

After the Roadblock, racers must taxi through downtown Delhi to the Ambassador Hotel and search the garden for an Indian doorman. Ken and Tina are the only ones who made their taxi wait, but remember how bad their driver was? What should have been a big advantage was a big hindrance. They dump their taxi at a gas station.

Launder Money or Launder Clothes

Tonight's Detour is Launder Money or Launder Clothes. The first option involves crashing a wedding, making sure the team has ten rupee notes that add up to exactly 780 and attaching the ten bills to a necklace. The teams must find a groom and hand him the necklace.

In Launder Clothes, teams must iron and fold twenty pieces of clothing with a traditional charcoal-heated iron. Four of six teams choose to Launder Clothes. Kelly and Christy don't seem to have experience handling an iron. But Andrew and Dan, the frat boys, have never ironed in their lives. Wrinkled piece after piece is rejected by the laundress. Then a gust of window blows over their pile of clothes. Andrew stomps around in frustration.

Terence and Sarah jump on the Launder Money task. They search the streets for someone to give them the correct change. When Sarah gets what she needs from a circle of boys, she shouts "I love you." One boy responds, "kiss?"

Nick and Starr arrive first at Baha'i House, the national headquarters for the Baha'i faith for the Pit Stop. Ken and Tina unbelievably have more taxi trouble and good editing makes it seem like there is a race between them and the frat boys for last.

I am happy for the frat boys when they come in fifth, second to last. Ken and Tina pull up to the mat last, but lucky for them, it is a non-elimination round. So we have some more barking to look forward to next week.