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<\/a>Amazing morning.\u00a0 Yesterday the office manager pulled me into her office.\u00a0 \u201cWe think you should take a tour of Moscow with our favorite tour guide.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUh, okay.\u00a0 That sounds great.\u00a0 What does she charge.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou of course will be our guest.\u00a0 When would you like to go?\u201d \u201cWell, I\u2019m only in Moscow a couple of more\u00a0 days . . . how about Thursday or Friday after work?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u00a0 Too busy then\u00a0 Too much traffic.\u00a0 We think tomorrow morning.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026but I\u2019m working tomorrow mor\u2014\u201c<\/p>\n \u201cOur tourguide Valerie and our driver Alexander will meet you at 10 a.m. at your hotel.\u00a0 After tour she will deliver you to office.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell okay then. Thanks!\u201d\u00a0 You are<\/em> the boss.\u00a0 It would be rude to say no.<\/p>\n So this morning Valerie, Alexander[1]<\/a> and I tore around all over Moscow, and I got to see things I wouldn\u2019t have gotten to on my own.\u00a0 The University, Sparrow Hill with its amazing city views, Tolstoy\u2019s house, and many impressive buildings.<\/p>\n Most notable was a cemetery where I got to see the final resting places of Shostakovich, Chekhov and Stanislavsky!\u00a0 Valerie helped me get good pictures of them.<\/p>\n Stanislavsky was the dude who basically invented modern acting.\u00a0 The famous (or infamous, depending on your point of vie) \u201cMethod\u201d acting technique taught by the major mid-Twentieth Century teachers in the United States were based on Stanislavsky.\u00a0<\/p>\n Among My Favorite Graveyards<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \/\/\/<\/p>\n Favorite overheard bit of dialog while in Russia:\u00a0<\/p>\n In Moscow, right across the river from Red Square, I came upon a fender bender right at the big intersection leading onto the bridge.\u00a0 Several cops were there debriefing the participants in the accident.\u00a0 All were clearly Russian and I of course didn\u2019t understand a word until, finally, when everyone was pretty much done and about to leave, the driver of one of the cars muttered very clearly:<\/p>\n \u201cShyett hhhhappens.\u201d<\/p>\n Love it.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Balzac, Sarah Bernhardt, Marcel Marceau, <\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Way too many to mention, but including Marilyn, Truman Capote, Dean Martin, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, both dead Poltergeist daughters, Mel Torme, Natalie Wood, Minnie Ripperton, Donna Reed, John Cassavetes<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Everyone who\u2019s not at Westwood Memorial or Forest Lawn, including Fay Wray, Edward G. Robinson, Valentino, Mel Blanc, etc.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Gogol, Shostakovich, Chekhov, Prokofiev, Eisenstein, Boris Yeltsin<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> My grandfather Alvis Durward Ivey, and, not far from him, Lee Harvey Oswald<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Darwin, Chaucer, Newton, Handel, Dickens, Browning, Tennyson, Kipling, Olivier, Anne of Cleves (my favorite wife of Henry VIII), Henry V, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots<\/p>\n \n![\"red_church\"](\"http:\/\/rayivey.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/red_church-218x300.jpg\" "\\"red_church\\"")
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[1]<\/a> Whose last name is Gorbachev and I was DYING to ask him the obvious question, but I refrained.<\/h4>\n![\"Yeltsin's](\"http:\/\/rayivey.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Yeltsins_crazy_grave-300x154.jpg\" "\\"Yeltsin's_crazy_grave\\"")
<\/a>Average Rating: 4.7<\/span> out of 5<\/span> based on 212<\/span> user reviews.<\/span><\/div><\/p>