::Diary:: 12th ~ 16th of November, the Europe Tour! (Afisha.Ru)

Time of publication: 22.12.2002

At first, there was all this news: music band "Tatu" was the first one among Russian pop-artists to receive a platinum record. In Eastern Europe, their album "200 km/h in the Wrong Lane" sold a million copies. Around the same time, it became known that Tatu's songs were to be translated in English, and that the girls were going to record them in Los Angeles. Also their album was to be released in the US as well as Europe. At that time, no one could ever have imagined what was going to happen in September. In September, the people of Moscow, coming back from Rome or Barcelona, were telling, with full of surprise in their eyes, to their friends, "I turn on the channel RAI--and there they are! If I go to some bar, 'Ya Soshla S Uma' is being played! They are everywhere!" Tatu's success turned out to be phenomenal: first places in Italy and Spain, high rotation on MTV, and a review (even though it was not a very welcome one) in the popular musical magazine from the US, "Rolling Stones". At the end of 2002, Tatu ended up in a place, which had never been occupied by any Russian citizens, inside of a large machine named transnational show-business. On the eve of release of the album "200 km/h in the Wrong Lane" in Russia, UK, Germany and USA. Mihail Brashinski managed to get inside of this "machine" for 5 days.

First day. 12.11.02

13:20 Moscow, Sheremetievo-2 Airport

As usual, we are late for the airplane. Well, some of us are. There are three of us. Ivan Shapovalov, producer of Tatu, Beata Andreeva, manager of the band, and I. The rest of our group is already in Barcelona. While waiting for Beata, who got stuck in traffic, Ivan and I are drinking some tea in the cafй at the airport. The first thing that is ordered by Ivan is to turn off "The Phantom of the Opera". On the radio that we've just turned on, we start hearing "Simple Motions". Ivan shudders suddenly, as if someone just called his name. Or as if someone in the crowd just pulled his wallet from his pocket, and he reacted quickly but still a little late. The degree of relationship between Ivan and the surrounding world becomes clearer to me when a dispatcher of the air company Lufthansa exchanges our tickets for a later flight without any previously promised fines of hundreds of dollars. Ivan acts lightly and quickly, with a sense of impunity. He never asks about anything, in fact, he's already taken off. The best way of avoiding the fine is to always be ready to pay for it. We will fly when we are going to be ready, and not when it is pointed out on the piece of paper. In essence, they should live in accordance to our plans, not us in accordance to theirs. 14:47 - flight Moscow - Frankfurt.

"My mother doesn't even know what I am preoccupied with," Beata is saying.

Closed airplane space and the sound of engines evoke sincerity.

Actually, Beata's real name is Anya. But nobody calls her that. Her mother is probably the only person who does so. Beata left MTV, where she was hosting the erotic show, in February, after receiving Ivan's phone call... Beata left MTV and never said anything to her mother. And then someone whispered to her that there is such a girl band, and so on, and so on. Her leaving didn't look very good.

"If only you knew what the parents are thinking," Ivan is saying.

17:10 Frankfurt. Airport. Delay of the flight #1.

Ivan studied to be a psychiatrist. He is 36 years old. He studied in Saratov's medical institution. He then was directed to the town Balakovo, where for 2 years he worked as a family therapist. They say people were waiting in the line in order to get a session with him. After while, he got sick of his practice and ran back to Saratov. He started commercial business. He thought of Tatu 5 years later, because of the crisis--the one in August 1998, and the personal one. Advertisement business wasn't giving Ivan everything he wanted to do. So, at that point he came up with an idea of working with music. The idea was created by him and the composer Alexander Voitinski, who wrote a couple of tracks for the future band. After that they went their separate ways.

"Actually, how did you even come up with it?" I am asking about the idea of two girls being in love with each other.

"First, I had a concept of teenage sex, 'underage sex'. After, I started the casting. First, I took Lena, because of her voice. But the presence of mere Lena wasn't good enough. Then, I took Yulia. Yulia passed casting too, since she was a second candidate for the position in the group. They were 14 years old. That is four years ago, can you imagine? I was searching for an image. Songs were being written for a very prolonged period of time, people were changing. And then an idea visited me: to observe their relationship. So, then Tatu was born. That is it."

He mostly calls the girls by their last names: Katina and Volkova.

"When Katina's parents came to the studio for the first time, I told them, 'In a year we are going to record in Los Angeles.' I believed that there was a 5% chance of that happening. They did not believe at all. Nobody believed. There were some conflicts, since it was my opinion that Lena had to continue studying. They were saying, "No, Vanya, you are not Igor’ Krutoi... If you were one... But you are not him..."

"Did the sex issue disturb them?

"Of course, it did."

"And what did you tell them?"

"I didn't say anything, I was acting. I made the video 'Ya Soshla S Uma', and once it was released, they had no other choice. Afterwards, there were some difficulties. Their mothers, grandmothers were displeased, cursing me. And I was telling them that this is how it has to be. Because this is what I usually do--never show the scenario of the video to anyone. For example, instead of the scenario of "Simple Motions", I sent the same type of paper to Universal, in which there was written that the video is going to contain simple motions, of which our whole life consists. And I did not lie! And if I said that Yulia really had an orgasm in front of the camera in this video, no one would ever let me release this video. And I set up the camera and said: 'Yulia, when you are done, call me.' She called. I watched the tape and told her--no. You faked it. On the first time she faked it, on the second time she faked it, and on the third one she had an orgasm.

17:40 Flight Frankfurt - Barcelona

In my ears there is as much noise as there is in a sea shell. I shouldn't have gotten this cold and drunk that much of cognac. We are discussing my favorite subject: the vocabulary of untranslatable words. We come up with the word "poshlost’" (in English, approximate translation of this word would be "vulgarity"). Such word does not exist in any language--only in Russian.

"In fact, I don't even use this word!" Ivan is saying. This is an unrealistic word.

To define the meaning of this word turns out to be difficult. All of us, in general, don't use this word frequently. Maybe, this word died? ...

"Poshlost’ is a mistake in communication," says Ivan.

19.15 Barcelona, Hotel Arts

While leaving the elevator, we accidentally run into the rest of the group. The hall is full of people running around with the 'MTV' tags. Everyone is looking at everyone else's tag in order not to miss a star. It is evident that this hotel is the best one in all of Barcelona. In this crowd, it is hard to determine the number of people in our group. Probably, 20. But, in reality, it turns out to be only 6 of us. The girls are differentiated from the crowd because of their size--they seem positively tiny. Yulia has black messed up hair, nails of a 'vampiric' color and childish arms. She looks like the petite offspring of a crow, or even more like a little creature from another planet. Red-headed Lena, on the contrary, seems to be the very definition of a human creature.

"Oy, this is my favorite shirt!" Lena is saying to Vanya instead of 'hello'. The shirt, actually, is really good, tight around the waist, of white color, covered with little red dots. Vanya is also not saying 'hello'--instead, he is laughing slackly. He does it quite frequently, in fact, when he laughs back instead of replying it seems that this is his casual form of reply.

"Hello, how are you?" Lena says in English, stretching out her hand to me. Evidently, she mistakenly thought that I was a member of the hotel staff.

Second day. 13.11.02

11.40 Barcelona. Hotel Arts

"Show business is absolutely the same everywhere," says Ivan. "Everywhere! For example, the same is with Kylie Minogue--when she goes somewhere, there are 15 people surrounding her, the whole crowd. Big money is being invested. Nobody is in charge of their own lives."

The crowd of which Ivan speaks of is called in English "entourage". Now I, too, am a part of the entourage. A feeling, quite inspiring, to be honest, unless you are passing through the security. You have to be very careful then.

Today we had meetings with the press all day. The concerts that I wished for are not going to happen. This is a promo tour: press, photos, TV, fans. Excluding the MTV European Music Awards, which are, of course, the most important. Promo touring is a big part every pop-star's life. The stars hate them, they suffer, but there is nothing they can do, this is the only way to become a star. Fortunately, there is no need to sing: Julia's throat is sore, she swallows the medicine, and her voice is a bit low.

We can't all fit into the micro-bus. We had to hire a taxi. At different times, there are about 10 to 13 of us. Apart from the girls, Beata and me, there are representatives from Universal Music Russia from Moscow, Interscope Records from LA, Universal Music Spain from Madrid, Universal Music Spain from Barcelona, Universal Music England from London, president of Spanish fan club «Tatu» in a black T-Shirt "t.A.T.u.", photographer, translator, make-up artist, that's it, I think. Ivan didn't go, he said there was no need.

Amy from LA, manager of Interscope Records for international promo tours, controls the whole tour. On the outside, she reminds us of one of those women-wrestlers from TV; on some level, that's what she does. She also toured the world with Eminem, Dr. Dre, Limp Bizkit, Foo Fighters and Enrique Iglesias. In our strange company, she is American from head to toe. She is louder then everyone by a few decibels, very positive in every situation, asks about your family situation and doesn't recognize you in the lobby the next morning.

Amy asked Beata for the girls' passports: there is a performance on an Italian TV show in a few days, and since the channel is national, there should be an official permission for Julia's job; she is not yet 18 years old.

"Our translator is so pretty!" says Lena, when Irina--who lived in Barcelona for 7 years and worked, according to her, as a translator, designer, and flamenco dancer--comes out of the car.

"A good character is more important," says Julia.

12.25 Club Dixie 724

The club looks like an American salon. It's empty now, the girls are giving interviews, one after another. The questions are all the same: why they behave like this, is this true, is that true, how Spanish teenagers differ from Russian ones. The girls answer all of them. Julia speaks almost all the time--when there is a translator. She is more active. When they had to speak English, Julia kept quiet.

"I hate English, why the f*ck do I need it?!" she says.

Julia loves strong words. That is her main difference from Lena.

The girls are hungry, they were offered some chips. When we left, there are five empty bags on the table and two full.

16.40 Tele studio Flaix

On the way to the studio, we stop by a pharmacy. I can't see what Julia is buying. She comes out, drinking some baby food.

"They survived on baby food in America! That and instant noodles!" says Amy. "I love it!"

I see the first fans starting to arrive near the studio. There are 3 fat girls about 14 years old, with CD covers in their hands. The fact that there are only three doesn't mean anything. While we arrived yesterday, the girls were met by some three hundred fans. And now, there is about the same number in front of the studio--a big crowd for Barcelona. Borha, label-manager of Universal Music Spain from Madrid, said he couldn't believe his eyes. His eyes are still big.

In the studio, there is another interview going on. A very unpleasant young man with make-up, is trying to act casual, looking at the girls, as though they are some freaks. Of course. The girls said that they'd invite him to their wedding. He blushes, and doesn't know what to say. When we left, we were told that the studios loved the interview. Maybe, the young man will be fired? I dunno... Why do I hate men with make-up? I think we are just tired--this is the sixth interview today, and there are more. To stand on the side and do nothing is just boring. Not to mention those who are occupied.

"They are just gaining professionalism," says Amy positively. "Like, Dr. Dre says: 'Until my Coke is finished, I'll keep going.' And he sits like that through eight interviews in a row. And I just bring him Coke. Then, he stands up, and leaves."

23.15 Bar Mirablau

Eminem is all in white. He seems to shine.

We are on a closed, very secret, super exclusive party organized by Interscope Records for all the artists, to show the new film by Eminem, "8 Mile". I liked the film, honestly. Eminem is very photogenic.

Near Eminem, Marilyn Manson is obviously not at his best. He is all in black, with make-up, and high platforms. Держится крайне сдержанно. He looks really cowed. He is very concerned with the presence of Em. But Eminem, seems not to give a f*ck.

As was promised, Manson plays a few tracks from his unfinished album. Someone starts to perform hip-hop. Eminem stands up, and sings along with them. Manson is scared that Eminem might hit him accidentally while dancing. From time to time, he makes faces to pretend that he is a robot or something, but that doesn’t help. Today is not his day.

Even better then Em, Lena stands near Manson. She is only up to his belly button. The girls arrived here after a dinner with Bill Roudy, the president of International MTV. They are old friends, they were on the cover of Newsweek together, last year. They are looked on as though they were princesses. I see how producers look at our "t.A.T.u. girls"; like money bags.

Manson looks at Julia and Lena at the same time. He looks really ugly next to our girls. He is obviously attracted to Lena. He seems to see a bright side in her. He senses that Julia is afraid of him.

At this point my vision is blocked. "Dave," says a young man, and gives me his hand. At the word "Russia", he nods his head respectively, as though it was my size, not my nationality. We have a drink, and talk about the film. When he leaves, I remember that he is the leader of the Foo Fighters. He sits near the bar, nobody recognizes him. On his way to the toilet, 50 Cents gives me high five--we both miss a little bit.

A guy explains to me that the party was a failure. There was a heavy tension between the artists and the company.

"They are all workers for this company, not artists. Some are just more paid then others."

Third Day. 14.11.02

11.10 Barcelona. Hotel Arts

Someone is playing Chopin in the lobby. Today is the most important day--MTV Europe Music Awards. You can feel it, people running around, everything happening at once, like a tape on Fast Forward. In their room, the girls are preparing for the rehearsal. It will last all day. Lena can't find her white sock. Both haven't slept well, angry, better not bother them now. Yesterday, they found out that the award went to "Diskoteka Avariya", and not them. The awards were already distributed.

"Let the boys be happy," said Julia cheerfully. But you could see that she was disappointed. Lena didn't comment at all.

You have to understand one thing here. To receive a national MTV award is a sign of success in the motherland. But to receive a Europe MTV award... it's a different sign of success. You don't have to receive a national award, if you got an international one. Together with Eminem, Minogue, Manson, Moby, Dolce and Gabbana. This is the A-list. But the girls got a chance to present the award, and that is A+ material.

20.40 Palace Palau Sant Jordi

This is a huge stadium, and all I know about it is that it's very beautiful; but, you can't really see anything with all the people running around. With the help of Beata, we squeeze into the VIP section. Everyone is sitting there--the award presenters, and the award receivers. Sometimes it's the same people. But not for sure. There are about 15 thousand people in the stadium, but they seem less on TV. The crowd is screaming. Selected fans, that were allowed entrance to the VIP section, wave frantically at me. A teleprompter in front of the stage gives Puff Daddy the text; he just adds "baby" and "shit". I didn't know that I was sitting only three rows above Kylie Minogue. I realize that when she gets her first award. Kylie is irresistible. She shines with an inner light.

During the commercial break, while the clock counts down 'till air time, some people in black clean the stage from the rubbish left by the previous performers. Manson, didn't get any awards this time, but was presenting the award to the best hip hop artist. After receiving the award, Eminem pulled down his pants, and showed his butt, but MTV didn't air it.

Eminem sings "I'm sorry, Momma!" I catch myself thinking that he got the idea from "Tatu"--"Sorry Mamma, sorry Daddy!" The girls were called 10 minutes before they had to go on the stage. It turns out that they were presenting the award for the best dance, not the best song, but that doesn't matter. They look wonderful. Together with them, the award was to be presented with the boys from The Calling. They are shy, since they are new to this.

"We come out with them," says Lena later on. "And he says, there is my grandpa here, can you do a rock'n'roll kind of thing, like, kiss?"

"I told him something about his grandpa, that rocked," says Julia.

"And I, in English, was like: 'Oh, don't say this kind of words Julia!'"

Kylie Minogue won. She was shorter then Julia. Maybe a meter forty. The girls don't really like Kylie.

The girls were dressed in Dolce & Gabbana. Gabbana came into the dressing room, and said: "Excuse me for a second, can I come in for a while?" They totally loved the girls. Then they cut the labels from the clothes--no labeled clothes on MTV. That would be advertising.

After the ceremony, there is no way to get out of the auditorium, and we are all too tired to go to some after-party. My evening ended with a couple of fried squids, in my hotel room. I went to sleep watching the same ceremony on TV. I feel that it'll follow me around for the next three days.

Fourth Day. 15.11.02

9.15 Barcelona. Hotel Arts

Wearing very high heels, staggering and showing off at the same time, Christina Aguilera is entering the restaurant. Opposite to our table are seated two adults, a man and a woman, with stomachs. One of them goes through the files in his suitcase in a very concentrated manner. They look like normal European business people. Only when catching sight of Puff Daddy, who was entering the elevator with suitcases, they rush to him; I understand then that these are fans, who thanks to their stomachs and slyness penetrated inside the hotel. Puff Daddy, like a lamb, gives out autographs, which gives an end to the successful career of the fans. Materializing out of the air, a petite Spanish female in uniform persistently asks them to leave the room. Her colleagues of the male gender cover her on either side. The fans pretend that they have no idea what is going on, but still, they stand up. "Let's go to the airport", says the one in charge hopefully.

We also go to the airport. Puff Daddy goes to Morocco to celebrate his birthday, arranged in his honour by the ruler Mohammed VI. And we go to Milan.

Fans recognize the girls near the fence and start hitting on the car persistantly.

Inside Ivan reprimands Lena about how she did not touch up the roots of her hair. They should look just like the ones in Alaska. Even though Ivan doesn't know about it.

Conversation in the car is a rarity. During the trips the girls are occupied with only two things: sleeping or calling their mothers. Yulia informs her mother that she feels much better. Her throat ache is not as bad. Lena tells her mother that she sent to Moscow some of the things which they had been awarded. The awards are: the platinum single in Italy ("It is, as it seems to me, 100,000") and another one is a golden record ("This is fifty"). The award was presented by Las Ketchup. The girls liked it a lot. I liked it, too.

11.00 Barcelona. Airport Prat

Near the registration stand, there occurs an attack by the fans. They behave in a free and easy manner. Girls work nonchalantly. When one particular boy sharply pushes the CD cover to Yulia, she looses her patience, "What is it with you? Don't you see, I already signed yours!" But he doesn't care.

Yesterday our entourage was joined by a new unit. It is Olga, a lawyer from the juridical firm "Yakovlev and the partners".

"I represent the artists," she clarifies while getting acquainted. "Not the producers or the company, but precisely the girls. Yulia is going to be 18 years old soon, it is necessary to re-make the contract, and, in fact, to protect them."

The firm was hired by the parents. Ivan didn't know anything about it.

"Olya, what is happening here, I don't understand?" he says politely.

"I don't even understand myself, I was sent here as moral support. They told me, help them there, if anything comes up."

"Nobody told me anything, I don't understand how to take this. It doesn't seem very nice."

Olya doesn't know herself how and from whom she is going to protect the girls. She seems to be too pleasant in order to protect anyone. A day before Olya's departure from Moscow someone stole of her luggage.

11.40 Barcelona. Airport Prat. Delay of the flight №2.

I spoke with practically everyone about Tatu's success mechanism in the West. The plot of this mechanism took approximately this shape. Applying the developed practice, Universal Music Russia showed the video "Ya Soshla s Uma" to the regional affiliated societies of the whole world, but it didn't evoke any special enthusiasm on the other side of the border. Universal decided to release the album in Russian in Eastern Europe. In spite of the language barrier, it suddenly became a hit. At the same time the video fell into the hands of vice-president of Interscope Records in Los Angeles, Martin Kirshenbaum, who (perhaps, thanks to his Polish-Jewish roots) sensed the right kind of novelty and exotics in the material. The rest was a technical matter: to integrate Trevor Horn in the project, the founder of the group "Art of Noise" and previous instrument player of "Yes", to re-write together with him the texts, to find an American composer for the next album, "Simple Motions".

"It was a unique insight made by Martin!" yells out Amy. "To take a Russian band and to re-write it! Though it had never been attempted by anyone!"

The machinery started working in February. In May, Tatu came to Los Angeles. "There was the biggest fight," Beata is saying, "an argument about their image. They started coloring, brushing up, making out of them American stars. The outfits are more expensive. All of it matures greatly." It seems, the battle was won. In August, they came back to America, created a group (vocal without live music doesn't go through in the West), decided to build it on the contrast, and almost accepted the Goths with all their tattoos. At the start of September, they had already released the single, "All The Things She Said", which was was the remake of "Ya Soshla S Uma". Since the project, by that time, was a priority for Interscope Records, they quickly released the album "The Eminem Show" and centered all of their efforts on Tatu. Only after all of this, the single and later the album t.A.T.u. "200 km/h in the Wrong Lane" was released in Europe.

"They were expecting something," says everyone. "But such a thing was not expected by anyone at all."

In Spain and Italy, the single was holding first place in the charts for 4 weeks. It was more difficult with an album; you can't pull out the album with the help of a mere single. In January, the second video "Not Gonna Get Us" will be released--which was re-made by Ivan from the Russian single, "Nas Ne Dogoniat". A powerful promotional company is made, part of which is our tour. Earlier the girls didn't give interviews at all. But the firm insisted that here you can't do it any other way. You can't bend over the system. In spite of it all (and "it" being, not merely severe PR rules, but also, for example, American MTV's refusal to air the second video due to censorship laws--which highly worries Ivan), it's clear, that if not for "Tatu", then for t.A.T.u. everything is only beginning.

12.20 Airplane Barcelona-Milan

"I read it here and I liked it," says Ivan. "A man without a God is like a fish without a bicycle." I don't know, who said it, but, in fact, it is Kant. "There exists only a starry sky above us and a moral law inside of us". And this one is simply more popular.

Ivan carries a certain book with him everywhere--Robert A. Wilson's "My Life After Death".

"God is man's self-deception," says Ivan sagely. "An illustration of his imperfection. Those who find God inside of themselves find harmony. Only fear prevents a human from finding it. There are only two conditions: fear and love. Fear doesn't allow one to love. Fear destroys a human, and love makes him/her immortal."

As if replying to Ivan's blasphemy, God shakes the plane violently.

"This is what I love," laughs Ivan.

14.10 Milan. Airport Malpensa

Leaving Barcelona, I thought that this trip lacked excitement. I was heard: in Milan, I find out, that my suitcase was lost by the company Alitalia.

"But see it not from the conspiracy theory's point of view, but from the that of the theory of love," says Ivan trying to cheer me up, while we are driven to the hotel in a propitiatory Mercedes. "Your life was simply eased."

15.40 Milan. Plaza Duomo

In Milan--rain. In Duomo--crowds. But I don't manage to listen to it for too long. I am distracted by another crowd: on the main plaza of Milan, in front of the world's greatest gothic cathedral, fans of the group "Tatu" are gathered together.

In the sublime gallery of Vittorio Emanuel II on the second floor, is where Milan MTV's office is located. The girls were brought here to be photographed and shown to fans and doves.

There are almost 300 people in the plaza. Girls with acne scream: "We love Tatu!" Some of them hold posters: "Ya Soshla S Uma" (in Russian), "Kiss me, t.A.T.u." ( it is held by a couple of lesbian girls), "t.A.T.u., take us away with you!" and "All the things you said run through our head". Some have pictures of the girls. Not many of them are older than 17 years old.

Hearing the screams of the crowd, people run out from the gallery. The girls come out on the right balcony of the incredibly high arch. They can be seen in detail only with the help of a telescope. They wave to the crowd and leave. The crowd remains where they are.

Two crazed Russian business men working in Italy are reading the slightly rain-speckled posters, disbelieving their own eyes. Only the doves and the child who feeds them have no interest in what is taking place.

16.50 Milan. Studio RAI 1

In the governmental channel's studio, everything is getting prepared for the recording of the program Top of the Pops. Without participation in this program you can't become a star here. After us, they are going to record The Cranberries.

While the girls are changing, we are eating sandwiches in the make-up room with the guys from an Italian band. The recording will be with playback, but Tatu's international image from now on includes live musicians. Here, they had been chosen following the principle of neutrality. They look like students, and they actually are students.

The drummer is listening to his walkman "Nas Ne Dogoniat" so he could understand how to play it. The youngest one among them, the keyboardist Rocco who listened to it already, is very shy, but even more than that he wants to have a talk.

"This song has an interesting structure," he says, speaking up hesitantly. "There are many choruses, but, for some reason, it's not boring."

Rocco studies in the philosophical faculty and next year he is going to study the Russian language. Also, he loves Nikita Mihalkov.

Below there are too many fans, so they lead us to the studio by a different path.

While they are setting up the cameras, Lena silently hums the song from "Evita". She makes it sound very gentle and soft.

"Madonna is my favourite one!" she says.

They work in the following way. First, the rehearsal, then, another one, then the fans are let into the studio, and they film. If it's necessary, they repeat it. But Yulia, on the way to the studio, had noticed a pair of leather boots in a store's window show-case and had told Beata over and over to memorize the street with that store. Yulia heard somewhere that in Italy one must buy shoes. Because of that, she is in a hurry and hurries the filming crew as well. Milan stores are closed at 7:30.

Fans are yelling: "Tatu forever!" When the girls are kissing, the crowd explodes with the shouts of approval. The girls work with precision, not counting a mistaken version of "Nas Ne Dogoniat", in which they didn't get very well--that version had to be changed for something else. The rest goes quite smoothly. But there is still not enough time before the store closes.

After the second filming of the second video, the hundredth photographer and the tenth photoshoot with the workers of theTV studio, the girls are completely worn to a shred.

"I want to eat and sleep," is the only thing said by Lena on the way to the hotel.

Yulia was taken to the only mall that sell shoes open this late.

21.30 Milan. Restaurant Il Milanese… Curioso

We stopped at the famous hotel Sheraton Diana Majestic. It was visited by Verdi and Nabokov, Versace and Prada. For 25 years already, it is frequented by Cherutti and only for 2 years now, by Tom Ford.

There is a famous bar in the hotel where an hour ago were gathered all the aristocrats, fashionable designers, lonely rich women and fops of Milan's high society (I squeezed into their company for a couple of bourbons), and a famous restaurant where some time ago an Italian culinary academy was founded and where we are dining right now. For me, this supper is the last one.

Ivan is upset. He has just been at the presentation of the video "Nas Ne Dogoniat". The video was cut in pieces. Ivan getting hit by the truck, of the girls getting hit by the truck, and of the picture of little naked Yulia were some of the fragments that had been cut. All of this happened without Ivan's knowledge.

"Are you going to undertake anything in regards to this matter?" I ask.

"I think, yes."

But what precisely is not yet clear.

"We," Beata is saying, "are asking, 'And why can Eminem kill and bury his mother?' And they reply, "But the murder is not shown... And the dead body either."

During supper, the girls are filmed by NTV for "Namedni". They don't want to be forced into a play and to start kicking. Even though afterwards, the reporter Lyosha will tell me, that in the hotel room where they filmed the rest, the girls changed and said everything they had to say, leaving gloomy Lyosha in a state of delight. Perhaps, they are shy because of Ivan. Maybe, because of me.

The conversation in our taxis were about men.

"Who is more pleasant, Yulia?" I am asking. "Dolce or Gabbana?"

"Ah, Dolce is the little one? Gabbana is the little one? I like the tall one."

"He goes like this, 'I have a birthday today, I want to give you a present...'" adds Lena, coming into the conversation.

"No, they are cool. They are good," concludes Yulia.

But who she really didn't like was Manson.

"He is a freak, this Manson! I simply hate him! Colored himself all over and smiles at me, well, I just hate it! He is just a devil, you know!"

"And he is also so polite, this 'innocent boy'," counters Lena. "He only pretends to be wild."

"And I like Eminem," says Yulia in a more peaceful manner. "He is a good boy."

Giving me their wine, in time to change for Coca Cola, they girls hurry into the hotel room to finish the filming of the interview. Thank God that Lyosha came up with such a flexible idea--to film them in bed.

Fifth day. 16.11.02

10.50 Milan. Airport Malpensa.

We are running. They are late for the airplane. My flight is delayed, but I am running with everyone. From Milan, the girls are flying to Helsinki, then to Stockholm, after to Paris and, only then, home. Ivan flies with me to Moscow, but he doesn't have his ticket, so he, getting a hold of a luggage cart, jumps in and drives away into the distance.

"He drove through all of America in such way," smiles ironically Lena.

We say goodbye to each other practically while still running. The airplane remains grounded specifically for latecommers.

"Goodbye, Mishka!" says Lena with a sudden sadness.

"Well, have a good one!" says Yulia. And she smiles at me. For the very first time.

Translated by katbeidar, Jan, and Poganka.
TatySite.Net

Return to "Latest Translated Articles"