They are so good in selling here in America! I just had another FREE lesson!
Another time I'm impressed about how normal for Americans to communicate in selling terms.. This time it was an INVITATION: "tell me something about you, maybe I can host you"!
Paul Hsiao wrote:
>come to new york
>I love host you
>let have all the nice thing together
>
>my facebook is
>http://www.facebook.com/********
>
>tell me something about you, maybe I can host you,
>what is your idea about couch surfer?
>it is give and take,
>we can give you a couch or bed, we can show you new york city as your free guide,
>we can take you to good resturant......
>but CS is not help, is not free hotel
>we also love to know what can you share? what you love to do?
>do you love bar , do you drink
>, in this sleepless new york,
>what is your dream?
>
>any way you can enjoy Many of New York for free
>
>Day to day free museum
>
>MET, Nature history museum , brooklyn museum is suggest donation,
>so basically you can pay what you want
>Argentina tango at Union Square north 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm free
>Sat and Sun Water Taxi is free at IKEA
>
>Mondays
>10-5 pm - Museum at Eldridge Street (12 Eldridge Street)
>5-8 pm - Yeshiva University Museum (15 West 16th Street)
>
>Tuesday
>8-6 pm - Brooklyn Botanic Garden (150 Eastern Parkway)
>9-5 pm - Wave Hill; free all day, November-April, July, August; Free 9am to noon May, June, September, October
>12-2 pm - Staten Island Museum (75 Stuyvesant Place Staten Island)
>12-7:30 pm - American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square)
>6-8 pm - China Institute Gallery (125 east 65 st)
>
>Wednesdays
>10-6 pm - NY Botanical Garden (2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx)
>12-7:30 pm - American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square)
>3-6 pm - Queens Botanical Garden (43-50 Main Street Flushing)
>4-8 pm - Museum of Jewish Heritage (36 Battery Place)
>5-8 pm - Yeshiva University Museum (15 West 16th Street)
>
>Thursdays
>11-6 pm - Bronx Museum (1040 Grand concourse at 165th st bronx)
>11-9 pm - Museum of Chinese in America (215 Centre Street)
>12-7:30 pm - American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square)
>4-7 pm - Third Thursdays only: Brooklyn Children’s Museum (145 Brooklyn Avenue)
>6-8 pm - China Institute Gallery (125 east 65 st)
>6-9 pm - Museum of Arts & Design (2 Columbus Circle)
>7-9 pm - New Museum (235 Bowery)
>
>Fridays
>First Fridays only 10-5 pm - The Noguchi Museum (33rd Road (at Vernon Boulevard), Long Island City)
>First Fridays only 5-8 pm - Children’s Museum of Manhattan (212 w 83rd st)
>First Fridays only 6-8 pm - Neue Galerie (1048 Fifth Avenue)
>11-2:30 pm - Yeshiva University Museum (15 West 16th Street)
>11-8 pm - Bronx Museum (1040 Grand concourse at 165th st bronx)
>12-7:30 pm - American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square)
>2-5 pm - NY Hall of Science - September through June (47-01 111th Street Queens)
>3-6 pm - New York Aquarium (2 Lincoln Square)
>4-8 pm - Museum of Modern Art (11 W 53rd Street )
>5-8 pm - International Center of Photography (1133 America avenue at 43 st)
>6-8 pm - New-York Historical Society (77 st n central park west)
>6-9 pm - Asia Society (725 Park Avenue)
>6-9 pm - Whitney Museum of American Art (945 Madison Avenue)
>6-10 pm - Rubin Museum of Art (150 w 17st)
>7-9 pm - Morgan Library & Museum (225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street)
>
>Saturdays
>Third Saturdays only 11-6 pm - El Museo del Barrio (1230 5th Avenue and 104th Street)
>10-11 am - NY Botanic Garden (2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx)
>10-12 pm - Brooklyn Botanic Garden (150 Eastern Parkway)
>11-5:45 pm - Jewish Museum (1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street)
>11-6 pm - Bronx Museum (1040 Grand concourse at 165th st bronx)
>12-7:30 pm - American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square)
>5:45-7:45 pm - Guggenheim (1071 fifth avenue)
>
>Sundays
>10-11 am - NY Hall of Science - September through June (47-01 111th Street Queens)
>11-1 pm - Frick Collection (1 East 70th Street)
>11-6 pm - Bronx Museum (1040 Grand concourse at 165th st bronx)
>12-6 pm - Studio Museum in Harlem (144 West 125th Street at 7 avenue)
>12-6 pm - American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square)
Hi, Paul!
Thank you for this letter!
You even have a form for copy-paste CS invitation? that's fun.
I've stayed in NYC for a month this summer. it's a pity that I didn't get in touch with you.
I have no idea where you got the filling that my profile is interesting, I know everything is so fast in NYC... The same was in Moscow which I left because of that. "Running through life erases the feeling of God" - my theatre master used to say.
I have all the answers for all your questions in my profile written. I'll copy-paste these answers according to your questions for you to be comfortable to read. Doing that I really hope you will read it, I make efforts to support the communication.
- tell me something about you, maybe I can host you,
First of all at the moment I'm traveling around the US filming a documentary diary (http://www.youtube.com/user/nebonapopolam http://www.facebook.com/OnLineTheROAD)
Originally I'm from Moscow but last and best 3 years of my life I spent in Kyiv, Ukraine studying and making different kinds of visual arts with our creative community Apartment 39 (movies, documentaries, photography, theatre performances, paintings). But as my main art I consider life. "Only acting irrationally, one can feel the fullness of life" - one happy day I made this idea of French philosopher Henri Bergson my life conception. Since that moment I became a warrior of absurd in a manner. And randomness is my friend.
Usually I have crowds of guests in my home wherever I live - CSers and not only. At the end of the previous year I bought a flat where I’ve been making repair by myself with help of friends and CSers for the last 5 months to create my public place PrivateRoomSS (http://www.facebook.com/PrivateRoomSStudio). When I finally made it suddenly and unexpectedly for myself I realized that I'm tired of sitting in one place for so long (3 years)... Keeping spontaneity a tradition of my life I decided to leave my new flat for a friend of mine and passing CSers and to go to a continent I've never been before with a one way ticket. And, lucky me, my best friend (Nikita Bulgakov, "Bulgakov" in CS http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/bulgakov/), joined me.
So we are starting our longterm trip around America arriving in NYC on July 4. We are looking for interesting people to meet and to stay with and we are in an extreme need of adventures which I hope will become material for a documentary. We hope to find people who can introduce us to artistic inside of every city we go. We are absolutely flexible with destinations, our first priority is people. We are open to any suggestions about participation in film-theatre-photo-art-dance projects. We can be useful in building or designing some interiors after working on PrivateRoomSS, for soul touching discussions with a wide use of body language or for other kinds of fun.
As long as we have no exact plan of traveling I'm not sure for how long we'll stay in NYC but I think something like from July 4 till July 20 for the beginning.
We are not capricious absolutely, we are ready to sleep where we’ll be able to lay our heads.
- what is your dream?
Several of my dreams about the journey around this country of dreams:
Once I said that I’d like to sleep a night under a bridge in NYC... Now I know that I should be more careful when dreaming because they are going to come true.. I noticed that most of New Yorkers like to meet but very few agree to host..
Nevertheless my next (it’s personal Russian wish) is to meet an American bear in forests in the North of the country.
I also want to have a conversation with a hooker in Minneapolis because "Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis" is one of my favorite songs of Tom Waits. I’d like to dance striptease in Portland, Oregon.
I dream to travel part of the way by van (Does anyone want to let me drive of to sell one to us?).
I’d like to work in a farm in Texas,
to get married a random man in Las Vegas,
to play a role in a NY film Academy student movie,
to work as a gaffer in Hollywood,
to fall in love, probably many times,
to touch a beautiful big ass of a black woman,
to find people I will respect for life - actually this is the main one,
to fry and egg on the sidewalk in Phoenix,
to fight in mud or spaghetti or jelly in a dirty small pub full of drunk people having fun,
to infect serious brains with my unserious ideas,
to laugh and make others laugh a lot,
to get enough of the emotional and mental turmoil for the continuation of my book "A garbage can of my dreams, diaries, relationships and dirty panties",
to meet the father of my future son,
to see men living in trailers and wearing wifebeaters with ketchup stains on them. We took our theatre costumes to perform improvisations and pantomime for this audience.
Maybe to hug the Burning Man or just the burners.
- we also love to know what can you share?
First of all I share my art, I film a documentary, somewhere I paint on walls where people ask me to do that, besides I wash dishes, clean houses, cook food.
I can teach body stretching techniques, vegetarian borsch cooking, the Russian language, some pantomime tricks.
We are open to any suggestions about participation in film-theatre-photo-art-dance projects. We can be useful in building or designing some interiors after working on PrivateRoomSS, for soul touching discussions with a wide use of body language or for other kinds of fun.
- what is your idea about couch surfer?
I do my best to keep the balance between taking and giving. Besides "what I can share part" while traveling I host people in my place in Kiev.
"The name of my place is PrivateRoomSStudio - special torture cabinet (http://www.facebook.com/PrivateRoomSStudio). So with the apartment I left some TORTURES for YOU.
It's a MAZE. I want coming here you to make something private in every room. Thus, when you come in take off your shoes and your cloths and turn 2 times left, to the bathroom. According to Russian fairytale tradition, and I’m Russian, we have to wash our guests, to feed them, make the bed and then we usually eat them. Of course if I were here I would wash you by myself but as I’m far away we’ll do the opposite. You will have to WASH a NAKED WOMAN which you’ll find in the bath. Think about me at that moment and maybe somewhere on another continent I'll become cleaner. The next location is kitchen, COOCK YOUR FAVORITE DISH to share it with the first person you meet.
In the main room there is a BOX for RAINY LETTERS. If you are in a good mood write a letter for nobody know whom about some things you realized living your life. If you are sad for some reason, take someone else random letter from the box and read it.
When you are in my bedroom (please don’t forget to say hallo to Joseph, my giraffe) and look into the ANCIENT MIRROR on the wall. When looking ask yourself the question you normally avoid to think about. After that you'll decide if you need a next amusement. And please, don’t fall in love with the guy on a portrait in my bedroom. Not because he is mine it’s just dangerous for psychology...
When leaving don't be lazy to say GOODBYE for ALL THE SPIRITS of MY HOME - paint something or write your favorite poem or circle your hand with paint on the wall on your left in front of the door..."
- what you love to do?
I like to think, to create, to discover and fine myself in situations connected with my interests:
adventure, traveling, people, stroking the inside of half of a ripe melon with my eyes closed, self-portraits, nature, theater, cinema, awkward moments of sincerity, dance, literature, photography, embarassed impudent guys, art, music, contradictions, poetry, cactuses, fools, oceans, rain, globe, boats, unexpected meetings, euphoria, my brother, extreme points, the absolute calm, possessed, his thoughts, her remorse, oldness, big cities, bad weather, little mischief, narrow streets, philosophy, turning the pages of old books looking for some notes left by unknown, absurd attitude, visibility, feelings movements, for the first time to see in other's eyes that we're already there, togetherness, useless words, stable expressions, burning roofs, naked bodies, differences, mens' hands, trains, scars, half of a castle for the horse, shame, roads, bridges, lonliness, brain, brian, soul rent, sad clowns, memory, strolling circuses, excesses, bright colors, God inside me, good appetite, weight of lies deeply hidden, surprises from myself, how many years elephants live, who will be the father of my children, if in reality there was situations similar to that described in the play "Die Frau von früherwhat" by Roland Schimmelpfennig, if someone comes back before being forgotten, what I would do if I knew that the end of the world is going to happen tomorrow, who I was in previous life. Many things
If you still want to know more about me this is my story of creation:
My parents conceived me in Mongolia. I was born in Moscow in Halloween in Olympic year. They called me Svetlana, I got the surname Sokolova. Every time I meet new people, natives of the Soviet and post-Soviet space, they all begin to sing to me the same song, about Svetka Sokolova's birthday, who turned 30 years old today. It was a really popular song.
We lived in a dull working-class district in the south of Moscow. In the kindergarten teacher punished me for chit-chat with a neighbor on the bed, she made me to stand during 3 minutes on the bed naked in front of the entire group. Perhaps, here lie the roots of my passion for nudity. I never told about it to my parents. My conversationalist, a boy named Sasha, had never received punishment. He always had time to pretend to be asleep when the teacher approached. It turned out that I was talking to myself. Well, I still continue to do so. And Sasha is dead by now as I know, because of heroin. He was my first love.
I entered first class of school in Damascus, Syria. My parents worked there. I made my first progress in painting and yoga, studied to swim, became a pioneer and got my first sense of deja vu there.
Not having my own strong arguments against parents’ opinion I began to study Economics in the main Russian University instead of Philosophy which I wanted. Having no interest in lectures me with my two best friends Pyh (nickname means weed smoker) and Casus (because of the constant contact with the absurd situation) studied drugs.
I started working at my most serious financial work place on April Fool's day on Friday. Still having no interest in my job specialization I studied men. These are creatures I really love. I prefered creeps, men of strange professions and guys from low society, my boss was an exception. Between this and then I attracted more then USD 2 billions of financing for the enterprises of our holding, then financial crises of 2008 came and all the banks wanted their money back. Quite spontaneous for myself I realized: now or never. I quit it all and my life has turned into beautiful chaos. The company I worked for went bankrupt several years later. Having got my freedom first of all I decided to make all my childhood dreams come true. Then long ago I wanted to be a painter. It was impossible to enter art institut without graduation from an art school. I thought ok, maybe it’s too much to spend 5 years of my new life for only one of the dreams. But I still used another door to know more about this field. I went to work as a nude model in the Russian Art Academy. Every day I laid naked in front of students chatting with them and their masters, then I was allowed to attend the lectures. After I moved to Indonesia, traveled much around South-East Asia, then around Europe to see all the small places that I didn’t go on business trips during my working days. After I found myself in tantric seminars, then in holy places of India, in Cappadocia valley in Turkey. And one beautiful day I got a telephone call from one of my old University friends (Andrey Bubenchikov in CS), he told me that while driving around Crimea he had given a lift to two guys who were actors from Kiev. They told him that an interesting person can enter their theater if he is able to pass the entrance exams. Before that moment I never thought about acting in a theater. I decided to move here staying on a stage first time in my life.
I rented one of three apartments number 39 (one third from a former communal apartment) in a very old picturesque house in the historic part of Kiev - and one of those guys from the road of Crimea moved to my place. He became a good friend of mine. We organized Creative community Apartment 39. This team consists of people from different fields of art. We shoot movies, create theatre performances, do photography, radio shows, some people write novels, poetry, music. In a sense we are all a bit klutz.
In CS you can see Nikita Bulgakov, Anton Bashko, Nikita Sitdikov, Oksana Leuta, Olga Popova, Vladimir Demchenko, Dmitriy Gromov and Andrey Bubenchikov.
Now we have 3 locations: good old Apartment 39, a country house where the biggest part of the group have moved. And I bought a flat on the same street as Apartment 39 is, it will be PrivateRoomSStudio - special torture cabinet (www.facebook.com/PrivateRoomSStudio), creep dive-office-photostudio-bordello-workshop-gallery-home theatre-cinema, I don't know what else.
All the brave are welcome!
Unfortunately our main site is still in progress http://www.apartment39.org
you can check also:
about our documntary movie "The Taste of a Cinnamon Roll" http://docudays.org.ua/2010/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=248:taste&catid=57:ddart&Itemid=122
Music video with CS stars Brian Gordon and ST.ELPHEN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lagHHMuptRs&list=FLz4ApJOFddKtNtKNwx4GkJQ&index=3&feature=plpp_video
Film Tosha (made for 8 hours for FastFilmFest) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SzfruHu8-s
Anti-AIDS social video for EURO championship 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M028_Yg2wY&list=FLz4ApJOFddKtNtKNwx4GkJQ&index=3&feature=plpp_video
Nikita & Nikita - improvisation by Nikita Bulgakov and Nikita Sitdikov captured by our CS friend Roberto Quaglia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2T8EzX5yx8&feature=related
Photography
http://www.photodom.com/member/Ssokolova
my reportages: http://ssokolova.gallery.ru/
my erotic photography and some art: http://www.ssokolova.com/
http://berlinerkraftundlicht.carbonmade.com/about (Svetlana Sokolova)
theatre where we play http://artkvadrat.com/, http://artkvadrat.com/production/casting/sokolova/
my journal
http://ssokolova.livejournal.com/
an article about us
http://independonculture.com/2011/04/01/apartment-39/#more-94
my article about Kiev mental house for Meridian magazine (page 58) http://www.meridian-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Meridian_Magazine_1_Urban_Mysteries.pdf
Thank you for the attention.
Have a nice day.
Svetlana
Paul Hsiao wrote:
>come to new york
>I love host you
>let have all the nice thing together
>
>my facebook is
>http://www.facebook.com/********
>
>tell me something about you, maybe I can host you,
>what is your idea about couch surfer?
>it is give and take,
>we can give you a couch or bed, we can show you new york city as your free guide,
>we can take you to good resturant......
>but CS is not help, is not free hotel
>we also love to know what can you share? what you love to do?
>do you love bar , do you drink
>, in this sleepless new york,
>what is your dream?
>
>any way you can enjoy Many of New York for free
>
>Day to day free museum
>
>MET, Nature history museum , brooklyn museum is suggest donation,
>so basically you can pay what you want
>Argentina tango at Union Square north 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm free
>Sat and Sun Water Taxi is free at IKEA
>
>Mondays
>10-5 pm - Museum at Eldridge Street (12 Eldridge Street)
>5-8 pm - Yeshiva University Museum (15 West 16th Street)
>
>Tuesday
>8-6 pm - Brooklyn Botanic Garden (150 Eastern Parkway)
>9-5 pm - Wave Hill; free all day, November-April, July, August; Free 9am to noon May, June, September, October
>12-2 pm - Staten Island Museum (75 Stuyvesant Place Staten Island)
>12-7:30 pm - American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square)
>6-8 pm - China Institute Gallery (125 east 65 st)
>
>Wednesdays
>10-6 pm - NY Botanical Garden (2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx)
>12-7:30 pm - American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square)
>3-6 pm - Queens Botanical Garden (43-50 Main Street Flushing)
>4-8 pm - Museum of Jewish Heritage (36 Battery Place)
>5-8 pm - Yeshiva University Museum (15 West 16th Street)
>
>Thursdays
>11-6 pm - Bronx Museum (1040 Grand concourse at 165th st bronx)
>11-9 pm - Museum of Chinese in America (215 Centre Street)
>12-7:30 pm - American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square)
>4-7 pm - Third Thursdays only: Brooklyn Children’s Museum (145 Brooklyn Avenue)
>6-8 pm - China Institute Gallery (125 east 65 st)
>6-9 pm - Museum of Arts & Design (2 Columbus Circle)
>7-9 pm - New Museum (235 Bowery)
>
>Fridays
>First Fridays only 10-5 pm - The Noguchi Museum (33rd Road (at Vernon Boulevard), Long Island City)
>First Fridays only 5-8 pm - Children’s Museum of Manhattan (212 w 83rd st)
>First Fridays only 6-8 pm - Neue Galerie (1048 Fifth Avenue)
>11-2:30 pm - Yeshiva University Museum (15 West 16th Street)
>11-8 pm - Bronx Museum (1040 Grand concourse at 165th st bronx)
>12-7:30 pm - American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square)
>2-5 pm - NY Hall of Science - September through June (47-01 111th Street Queens)
>3-6 pm - New York Aquarium (2 Lincoln Square)
>4-8 pm - Museum of Modern Art (11 W 53rd Street )
>5-8 pm - International Center of Photography (1133 America avenue at 43 st)
>6-8 pm - New-York Historical Society (77 st n central park west)
>6-9 pm - Asia Society (725 Park Avenue)
>6-9 pm - Whitney Museum of American Art (945 Madison Avenue)
>6-10 pm - Rubin Museum of Art (150 w 17st)
>7-9 pm - Morgan Library & Museum (225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street)
>
>Saturdays
>Third Saturdays only 11-6 pm - El Museo del Barrio (1230 5th Avenue and 104th Street)
>10-11 am - NY Botanic Garden (2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx)
>10-12 pm - Brooklyn Botanic Garden (150 Eastern Parkway)
>11-5:45 pm - Jewish Museum (1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street)
>11-6 pm - Bronx Museum (1040 Grand concourse at 165th st bronx)
>12-7:30 pm - American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square)
>5:45-7:45 pm - Guggenheim (1071 fifth avenue)
>
>Sundays
>10-11 am - NY Hall of Science - September through June (47-01 111th Street Queens)
>11-1 pm - Frick Collection (1 East 70th Street)
>11-6 pm - Bronx Museum (1040 Grand concourse at 165th st bronx)
>12-6 pm - Studio Museum in Harlem (144 West 125th Street at 7 avenue)
>12-6 pm - American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square)
Hi, Paul!
Thank you for this letter!
You even have a form for copy-paste CS invitation? that's fun.
I've stayed in NYC for a month this summer. it's a pity that I didn't get in touch with you.
I have no idea where you got the filling that my profile is interesting, I know everything is so fast in NYC... The same was in Moscow which I left because of that. "Running through life erases the feeling of God" - my theatre master used to say.
I have all the answers for all your questions in my profile written. I'll copy-paste these answers according to your questions for you to be comfortable to read. Doing that I really hope you will read it, I make efforts to support the communication.
- tell me something about you, maybe I can host you,
First of all at the moment I'm traveling around the US filming a documentary diary (http://www.youtube.com/user/nebonapopolam http://www.facebook.com/OnLineTheROAD)
Originally I'm from Moscow but last and best 3 years of my life I spent in Kyiv, Ukraine studying and making different kinds of visual arts with our creative community Apartment 39 (movies, documentaries, photography, theatre performances, paintings). But as my main art I consider life. "Only acting irrationally, one can feel the fullness of life" - one happy day I made this idea of French philosopher Henri Bergson my life conception. Since that moment I became a warrior of absurd in a manner. And randomness is my friend.
Usually I have crowds of guests in my home wherever I live - CSers and not only. At the end of the previous year I bought a flat where I’ve been making repair by myself with help of friends and CSers for the last 5 months to create my public place PrivateRoomSS (http://www.facebook.com/PrivateRoomSStudio). When I finally made it suddenly and unexpectedly for myself I realized that I'm tired of sitting in one place for so long (3 years)... Keeping spontaneity a tradition of my life I decided to leave my new flat for a friend of mine and passing CSers and to go to a continent I've never been before with a one way ticket. And, lucky me, my best friend (Nikita Bulgakov, "Bulgakov" in CS http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/bulgakov/), joined me.
So we are starting our longterm trip around America arriving in NYC on July 4. We are looking for interesting people to meet and to stay with and we are in an extreme need of adventures which I hope will become material for a documentary. We hope to find people who can introduce us to artistic inside of every city we go. We are absolutely flexible with destinations, our first priority is people. We are open to any suggestions about participation in film-theatre-photo-art-dance projects. We can be useful in building or designing some interiors after working on PrivateRoomSS, for soul touching discussions with a wide use of body language or for other kinds of fun.
As long as we have no exact plan of traveling I'm not sure for how long we'll stay in NYC but I think something like from July 4 till July 20 for the beginning.
We are not capricious absolutely, we are ready to sleep where we’ll be able to lay our heads.
- what is your dream?
Several of my dreams about the journey around this country of dreams:
Once I said that I’d like to sleep a night under a bridge in NYC... Now I know that I should be more careful when dreaming because they are going to come true.. I noticed that most of New Yorkers like to meet but very few agree to host..
Nevertheless my next (it’s personal Russian wish) is to meet an American bear in forests in the North of the country.
I also want to have a conversation with a hooker in Minneapolis because "Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis" is one of my favorite songs of Tom Waits. I’d like to dance striptease in Portland, Oregon.
I dream to travel part of the way by van (Does anyone want to let me drive of to sell one to us?).
I’d like to work in a farm in Texas,
to get married a random man in Las Vegas,
to play a role in a NY film Academy student movie,
to work as a gaffer in Hollywood,
to fall in love, probably many times,
to touch a beautiful big ass of a black woman,
to find people I will respect for life - actually this is the main one,
to fry and egg on the sidewalk in Phoenix,
to fight in mud or spaghetti or jelly in a dirty small pub full of drunk people having fun,
to infect serious brains with my unserious ideas,
to laugh and make others laugh a lot,
to get enough of the emotional and mental turmoil for the continuation of my book "A garbage can of my dreams, diaries, relationships and dirty panties",
to meet the father of my future son,
to see men living in trailers and wearing wifebeaters with ketchup stains on them. We took our theatre costumes to perform improvisations and pantomime for this audience.
Maybe to hug the Burning Man or just the burners.
- we also love to know what can you share?
First of all I share my art, I film a documentary, somewhere I paint on walls where people ask me to do that, besides I wash dishes, clean houses, cook food.
I can teach body stretching techniques, vegetarian borsch cooking, the Russian language, some pantomime tricks.
We are open to any suggestions about participation in film-theatre-photo-art-dance projects. We can be useful in building or designing some interiors after working on PrivateRoomSS, for soul touching discussions with a wide use of body language or for other kinds of fun.
- what is your idea about couch surfer?
I do my best to keep the balance between taking and giving. Besides "what I can share part" while traveling I host people in my place in Kiev.
"The name of my place is PrivateRoomSStudio - special torture cabinet (http://www.facebook.com/PrivateRoomSStudio). So with the apartment I left some TORTURES for YOU.
It's a MAZE. I want coming here you to make something private in every room. Thus, when you come in take off your shoes and your cloths and turn 2 times left, to the bathroom. According to Russian fairytale tradition, and I’m Russian, we have to wash our guests, to feed them, make the bed and then we usually eat them. Of course if I were here I would wash you by myself but as I’m far away we’ll do the opposite. You will have to WASH a NAKED WOMAN which you’ll find in the bath. Think about me at that moment and maybe somewhere on another continent I'll become cleaner. The next location is kitchen, COOCK YOUR FAVORITE DISH to share it with the first person you meet.
In the main room there is a BOX for RAINY LETTERS. If you are in a good mood write a letter for nobody know whom about some things you realized living your life. If you are sad for some reason, take someone else random letter from the box and read it.
When you are in my bedroom (please don’t forget to say hallo to Joseph, my giraffe) and look into the ANCIENT MIRROR on the wall. When looking ask yourself the question you normally avoid to think about. After that you'll decide if you need a next amusement. And please, don’t fall in love with the guy on a portrait in my bedroom. Not because he is mine it’s just dangerous for psychology...
When leaving don't be lazy to say GOODBYE for ALL THE SPIRITS of MY HOME - paint something or write your favorite poem or circle your hand with paint on the wall on your left in front of the door..."
- what you love to do?
I like to think, to create, to discover and fine myself in situations connected with my interests:
adventure, traveling, people, stroking the inside of half of a ripe melon with my eyes closed, self-portraits, nature, theater, cinema, awkward moments of sincerity, dance, literature, photography, embarassed impudent guys, art, music, contradictions, poetry, cactuses, fools, oceans, rain, globe, boats, unexpected meetings, euphoria, my brother, extreme points, the absolute calm, possessed, his thoughts, her remorse, oldness, big cities, bad weather, little mischief, narrow streets, philosophy, turning the pages of old books looking for some notes left by unknown, absurd attitude, visibility, feelings movements, for the first time to see in other's eyes that we're already there, togetherness, useless words, stable expressions, burning roofs, naked bodies, differences, mens' hands, trains, scars, half of a castle for the horse, shame, roads, bridges, lonliness, brain, brian, soul rent, sad clowns, memory, strolling circuses, excesses, bright colors, God inside me, good appetite, weight of lies deeply hidden, surprises from myself, how many years elephants live, who will be the father of my children, if in reality there was situations similar to that described in the play "Die Frau von früherwhat" by Roland Schimmelpfennig, if someone comes back before being forgotten, what I would do if I knew that the end of the world is going to happen tomorrow, who I was in previous life. Many things
If you still want to know more about me this is my story of creation:
My parents conceived me in Mongolia. I was born in Moscow in Halloween in Olympic year. They called me Svetlana, I got the surname Sokolova. Every time I meet new people, natives of the Soviet and post-Soviet space, they all begin to sing to me the same song, about Svetka Sokolova's birthday, who turned 30 years old today. It was a really popular song.
We lived in a dull working-class district in the south of Moscow. In the kindergarten teacher punished me for chit-chat with a neighbor on the bed, she made me to stand during 3 minutes on the bed naked in front of the entire group. Perhaps, here lie the roots of my passion for nudity. I never told about it to my parents. My conversationalist, a boy named Sasha, had never received punishment. He always had time to pretend to be asleep when the teacher approached. It turned out that I was talking to myself. Well, I still continue to do so. And Sasha is dead by now as I know, because of heroin. He was my first love.
I entered first class of school in Damascus, Syria. My parents worked there. I made my first progress in painting and yoga, studied to swim, became a pioneer and got my first sense of deja vu there.
Not having my own strong arguments against parents’ opinion I began to study Economics in the main Russian University instead of Philosophy which I wanted. Having no interest in lectures me with my two best friends Pyh (nickname means weed smoker) and Casus (because of the constant contact with the absurd situation) studied drugs.
I started working at my most serious financial work place on April Fool's day on Friday. Still having no interest in my job specialization I studied men. These are creatures I really love. I prefered creeps, men of strange professions and guys from low society, my boss was an exception. Between this and then I attracted more then USD 2 billions of financing for the enterprises of our holding, then financial crises of 2008 came and all the banks wanted their money back. Quite spontaneous for myself I realized: now or never. I quit it all and my life has turned into beautiful chaos. The company I worked for went bankrupt several years later. Having got my freedom first of all I decided to make all my childhood dreams come true. Then long ago I wanted to be a painter. It was impossible to enter art institut without graduation from an art school. I thought ok, maybe it’s too much to spend 5 years of my new life for only one of the dreams. But I still used another door to know more about this field. I went to work as a nude model in the Russian Art Academy. Every day I laid naked in front of students chatting with them and their masters, then I was allowed to attend the lectures. After I moved to Indonesia, traveled much around South-East Asia, then around Europe to see all the small places that I didn’t go on business trips during my working days. After I found myself in tantric seminars, then in holy places of India, in Cappadocia valley in Turkey. And one beautiful day I got a telephone call from one of my old University friends (Andrey Bubenchikov in CS), he told me that while driving around Crimea he had given a lift to two guys who were actors from Kiev. They told him that an interesting person can enter their theater if he is able to pass the entrance exams. Before that moment I never thought about acting in a theater. I decided to move here staying on a stage first time in my life.
I rented one of three apartments number 39 (one third from a former communal apartment) in a very old picturesque house in the historic part of Kiev - and one of those guys from the road of Crimea moved to my place. He became a good friend of mine. We organized Creative community Apartment 39. This team consists of people from different fields of art. We shoot movies, create theatre performances, do photography, radio shows, some people write novels, poetry, music. In a sense we are all a bit klutz.
In CS you can see Nikita Bulgakov, Anton Bashko, Nikita Sitdikov, Oksana Leuta, Olga Popova, Vladimir Demchenko, Dmitriy Gromov and Andrey Bubenchikov.
Now we have 3 locations: good old Apartment 39, a country house where the biggest part of the group have moved. And I bought a flat on the same street as Apartment 39 is, it will be PrivateRoomSStudio - special torture cabinet (www.facebook.com/PrivateRoomSStudio), creep dive-office-photostudio-bordello-workshop-gallery-home theatre-cinema, I don't know what else.
All the brave are welcome!
Unfortunately our main site is still in progress http://www.apartment39.org
you can check also:
about our documntary movie "The Taste of a Cinnamon Roll" http://docudays.org.ua/2010/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=248:taste&catid=57:ddart&Itemid=122
Music video with CS stars Brian Gordon and ST.ELPHEN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lagHHMuptRs&list=FLz4ApJOFddKtNtKNwx4GkJQ&index=3&feature=plpp_video
Film Tosha (made for 8 hours for FastFilmFest) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SzfruHu8-s
Anti-AIDS social video for EURO championship 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M028_Yg2wY&list=FLz4ApJOFddKtNtKNwx4GkJQ&index=3&feature=plpp_video
Nikita & Nikita - improvisation by Nikita Bulgakov and Nikita Sitdikov captured by our CS friend Roberto Quaglia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2T8EzX5yx8&feature=related
Photography
http://www.photodom.com/member/Ssokolova
my reportages: http://ssokolova.gallery.ru/
my erotic photography and some art: http://www.ssokolova.com/
http://berlinerkraftundlicht.carbonmade.com/about (Svetlana Sokolova)
theatre where we play http://artkvadrat.com/, http://artkvadrat.com/production/casting/sokolova/
my journal
http://ssokolova.livejournal.com/
an article about us
http://independonculture.com/2011/04/01/apartment-39/#more-94
my article about Kiev mental house for Meridian magazine (page 58) http://www.meridian-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Meridian_Magazine_1_Urban_Mysteries.pdf
Thank you for the attention.
Have a nice day.
Svetlana