Making a list, checking it twice, or thrice, or frice...

[fomina]

So, in the last week, uncharacteristically, I managed to get myself nominated for not one, not two, but FOUR challenges/interweb flash mobs. If you think one is hard, try completing four, and in a way that is ethically meaningful and aesthetically pleasing. So... since I am a big fan of organized approaches to tasks, I decided to get it over with and do them all at once.
Here they are - in the order in which I was assigned them.

P.S. I nominate nobody. Not because I am anti-establishment, but because not everyone shares my love of lists. If you are so inclined and it will make you happy, you are welcome to participate in any or all of these.

1. Create the dream cast of "Cabaret" (play form, Liza is not available) out of your FB friends.

• The Emcee - The Emcee of the Kit Kat Klub, a leering, ghoulish, flamboyant figure - Igor Itkin and Gene Sakirski, on alternating nights
• Sally Bowles - The headlining British singer at the Kit Kat Klub - Olga Frayman (I have actually made her dress up as Ms. Bowles, so I know it will work)
• Clifford "Cliff" Bradshaw - An American writer traveling through Berlin - We'll hold open auditions for this one, as I am at a loss.
• Fräulein Schneider - An older woman who runs the boarding house that Cliff and Sally live in - Inga Mikhlin
• Herr Schultz - An elderly Jewish fruit shop owner who falls in love with Fraulein Schneider - Vadim Mikhlin (Just because it would be awesome to see him with a pineapple)
• Ernst Ludwig - A German man who befriends Cliff when he arrives in Berlin, later revealed to be a Nazi - I got one or two real Germans in my list, but might be poor taste to cast them.
• Fräulein Kost - A prostitute who rents in Fraulein Schneider's boarding house - Lerka (needs to be a brazen redhead!)
• Rosie, LuLu, Frenchie, Texas, Fritzie, and Helga - Girls who perform alongside Sally at the Kit Kat Klub - Most of Katya Solo's Bachelorette Party. Six in the main cast, the others as backups/understudies.
• Bobby, Victor, Hans, and Herman - The Cabaret boys of the Kit Kat Klub (Bobby and Victor are twins) - Pilipenko and Koloteev as Bobby and Victor, Minustin and Lisovets as Hans and Herman

2. In lieu of ice-bucketing, a donation has been made to a charity of my choice.

3. Name 10 books that have stayed with you:

1. My Pushkin, Marina Tsvetaeva
2. Doroga Uhodit v Dal, Alexandra Brushtein
3. Brothers Karamazov, Fedor Dostoevsky
4. Kazus Kukotskogo, Lyudmila Ulitskaya
5. Daddy Long Legs, Jean Webster
6. Ordinary People, Judith Guest
7. Silver Skates, Mary Mapes Dodge
8. Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg
9. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
10. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald

4. Every day for a week list three things for which you are grateful. That makes twenty one things, if my math is right:

People

• My parents, for innumerable unnameable things.
• My brother, for making things complicated, but ultimately, I hope, better. And for giving me an amazing niece.
• My Shiros for showing me that I am not always right...
• ...and my Dusya, for often pretending that I actually am.
• My Tetka, for giving me a chance to complain about all of the above.

  Things

• A steady internet connection, for creating the illusion that I am not frequently lonely.
• The RENT soundtrack, for allowing me guilt-free teen angst - even well into my 30's.
• Raw bar, pork tacos, Nutella and unpasteurized cheese.
• A working lighter at the bottom of my purse.
• Yellow shoes. Past, present and future.

  Events and Places

• Walking up to lake Verevi at 9am and being the first ones there. Numerous mornings in the summers of 1996-97.
• June 21, 2002 concert at SKK Arena in St Petersburg dedicated to Victor Tsoi's 40th birthday. Best concert to this day. (Second best belongs to Splin in September of 1999 at Tramps, NYC)
• A hardly paved country road in Michigan under the stars. (some summer in the past)
• Kotor, Montenegro; Chamonix, France; Elva, Estonia
• Old Mehanata; the stage at Solnyshko Festival; Apartment #3 at 70 Senior, New Brunswick, NJ

Words

• "Скамейка, на которой они - не - сидели, оказалась предопределяющей." (Марина Цветаева)
• "The heart may freeze, or it can burn. The pain will ease, if I can learn. There is no future, there is no past. I live this moment as my last. There's only us, there's only this. Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. No other road, no other way, no day but today." (Jonathan Larson)
• "We are responsible for those we have tamed." (Antoine de St Exupery)
• "If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life." (Oscar Wilde)
• "When somebody asks for your forgiveness, you have to forgive." (My brother)

Random

• discounted theater tickets; Thanksgiving; air conditioning; Facebook; planes landing on time; cuddling with babies; Trader Joe's cookies; Roe v Wade; successful haircuts; Alan Cumming; Thursday nights in the forest; "you can skip to video in 3-2-1..."; and, of course, the person who created the bullets and numbering feature in Word.