A Holiday Message From Silk Nogg

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Babies don't know what they are, they just the plastic and then when the eagle comes they try to act all normal. Some babies can't even be trusted with your money or your credit. Give a baby credit and you have invited the repo man to your wedding. He's gonna take it all, that yellow drippy stuff.

Merry Chr-- I mean Happy Hanukkah!

(----) In Russia Vol.11

You know you're in Russia when...fuck, you broke your camera and there's an SUV with jaguars airbrushed all over it right outside your front door. And there's a babushka in the metro swaddled in dirty clothes and pastel handkerchief per usual, but she's augmented this season's style with some huge fake Dior sunglasses with transparent gray-pink lenses. Or you go out drinking with colleagues at "Zolotaya Vobla," which is basically the Russian version of Applebee's, which is to say that it's a total Bizarro-world Applebee's, complete with incredible Bizarro-world Infectious Blues Band.


But at least this hideous behemoth with an eagle was available before the camera was broken.


This is what happens to snow when it doesn't melt initially.


A co-worker exhaling post-work.


Red tunnel.


An ad for fragrances you can use in your car. I wonder if "Extreme" actually smells like a real Russian car: B.O., cologne and cigarette smoke.


This is an ice bar, which is basically a room full of ice in the back of a gourmet grocery store. There's no bartender, not to mention patrons. To get any service you just have to find someone who works in the grocery store and tell them you want to hang out in this freezing room for a while.


Another lost-eye view from the dancefloor. The excited head popping up in the bottom is one of my roommates. This was the last photo taken before the camera was broken.

OK: since the camera has been broken and this will probably be my last post until January, since I'll be home in 5 days, I'll leave you with one of Russia's most fascinating contemporary personalities: Nikolai Valuev, the current WBA heavyweight champion of the world. He's seven feet tall and eats three kilograms of meat every day.


Valuev fighting, or rather, playing with, John Ruiz, who of course lost.


Valuev at home with his wife, Galya, who he apparently wooed with poetry he wrote himself. I don't see how this shit works. Isn't there some sort of law?


Valuev shaving.


LOOK! He's jowling without moving his eyes! A true master.


Another touching shot of him letting some little kid play in the ring.

Now, if you're Evander Holyfield, and you were once the heavyweight champ but now you've got some serious financial troubles, and maybe you saw "Rocky Balboa" a few too many times, what do you do to raise money so that your next $10 million dollar estate won't get foreclosed on?


You challenge Valuev, who is 11 inches taller and 11 years younger than you are, in order to take back your title.


I mean, HOLY SHIT, look how fast this thing moves! Evander, take it back, man, it's not gonna happen for you.


OH SHIT! Last week was this guy's birthday!


OH SHIT AGAIN! Today is THIS guy's birthday!

And they said this'd never fly! LW SUITE

Oh man oh man oh man. It's finally here! Le Weekend presents you, the so-adorably-unsuspecting public, with our debut release: the 6-song EP Suite. Set to media by the golden-earred (it's a condition) Nick Peterson, recorded at Track and Field Studios (RIP) during its last days, and augmented by some of our extremely talented friends (musically by Crowmeat Bob, Dave Cantwell, Kerry Cantwell, Chuck Johnson, Jeff Herrick, and Rob Koegler; visually by Ben Spiker and Lincoln Hancock), it's something the five* of us in Le Weekend are truly proud to present. In other words, you should totally buy a copy and tell us you think we're neat.

OK, so another thing you should totally do is come out to this Thursday's !EVENT! at the Nightlight. We're celebrating in style and with friends.

• Le Weekend- well, that's us and we're bringing you this amazing record, so we're not sweating it. k?


• Actual Persons (Living or Dead) - how can you not love a band with the Cantwells, Joyce V., and Mike Post?


• Crash - So we're not friends on MySpace. We cool in REAL LIFE.


• dj NASTY BOOTS - This guy has the most inefficient iPod I've ever seen, but it makes the people move somehow, like crazy.

*Now the heavy part, remember, where I said the five of us? Le Weekend the organization is losing two stellar talents after this show. Ben and Erin Ridings, having braved the Greensboro-Chapel Hill drive for more than a year now, are stepping down. I miss them already. Thankfully this iteration of Le Weekend can go out the right way, celebrating an amazing musical accomplishment we created together. The remaining three of us plan to forge ahead as a trio in continuation of this grand experiment--Ben and Erin are irreplaceable, so it would be pointless to try to replace them. Godspeed, yo.

So be there.