A Man in Women's Locker Room, or a Visit to Brooklyn Banya

Image Credit: photopin.com

Going to a bathhouse, one expects to have a wonderful relaxing day for his or her mind and body. With all its nice looks, Brooklyn Banya, however, brings extra stress into people's lives instead of reducing it. It all starts with the man continuously cleaning the women's locker room.

Just imagine: a woman comes into the locker room and sees a man cleaning. She thinks, ok, he will go away now that I'm here, right? You wish! The man doesn't even move, and he only leaves - reluctantly - when she kindly asks him to do so. Great start!

To give the man credit, the locker rooms are perfectly clean; he obviously maintains them well. They are also spacious, and have everything there should be: benches, three large shower cabins and a few hair dryers. The locker rooms and the interior of the bathhouse look like they have been recently renovated and well-maintained. 

The recreation area consists of a steam room, a wet sauna, a dry sauna, a jacuzzi and a pool. The saunas are quite small, which is ok, considering that the place is usually not busy on weekdays. The pool is just big enough to throw oneself from one side to another, although it's refreshing after a sauna or jacuzzi. Some bathhouses have pools with such cold water only the experienced ones can stay in for a long time. Brooklyn Banya does not; it is chilly after the heat, but not uncomfortable. 

The water both in the pool and in the jacuzzi is suspiciously cloudy, and one can even see a dried leave floating by in the pool. However, the saunas are kept clean and neat. The guests are politely offered massage, platska (oak leaves detoxing treatment), or body scrub, and once the jacuzzi stops bubbling, someone notices and turns it back on. Together with the smiley and upbeat receptionist, it must be said that the customer service is overall pretty good. 

At the same time, the guests are only allowed to use two towels per person, or rent a "better" towel, bigger and thicker one, for the whole day, as well as a robe. There are no towel baskets in the locker rooms, so it is not clear where one should leave them in the end of the day unless of course, the man in the women's locker room takes them away. And yes, as she is ready to take a shower and go home, he is still there, cleaning. The routine does not change: she insists that he leaves, he hesitates, saying that he won't bother her (hope not!). Quick shower - before he came back - and out the door. 

Not quite a relaxing experience one expects from a spa, and not anything special worth coming back for.

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ro_buk/6736138019/">ro_buk [I'm not there]</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">cc</a>

Winter in New York

Image credit: wall.alphacoders.com

So the real winter finally came to New York, like a late-arriving guest whom no one expected. You know, the real winter, when the wind acts like Kazanova trying by all means to get underneath your clothes. The time of the year when the longer the jacket, the longer distances you can walk. The only thing that's missing from this real winter is snow, but something's telling me it's yet to come.

Winter days like this remind me of January back in Kazan. The winters over there are not the coldest, but there are days when no matter how many clothes one layers, nothing seems to work. And the snow often doesn't melt for weeks. That was when I learned how to endure cold very well. In the light of current events, it seems natural that I should share a few pieces of advice on how to survive the rough weather:

1. Consume a lot of hot foods and liquids. I drink a lot of tea, day and night, and it keeps me warm. Coffee, hot chocolate and soup are other great ways to resist cold, to name a few.

2. Insulate windows and doors. If they don't close tightly, there's a great chance that some cold wind will get inside and cool down your apartment or house. Some stores sell plastic wrap for windows, which does not provide absolute protection, yet it keeps the chill out, and on a 20 degree day you'll feel the difference.

Of course, if you're the lucky one who opens the windows all winter long, you got nothing to worry about.

If, however, your dwelling happens to be a cold one, a good heater will warm it up pretty quickly, which brings your electricity bill way up beyond your budget. Since gas is cheaper than electricity, it might be a good idea to organize a cookaway. Or merely boil water for tea all you want, and stay warm.

3. Don't go outside without a good reason. Hard to abide, isn't it? There are so many things to do in New York! I personally love going ice-skating. Moving around the half-empty rink, I don't feel the cold at all. But seriously, if your house is warm, there's no better place to survive winter than inside it.

4. If you do go outside, put on a lot of layers. A T-shirt, a turtleneck, and a sweater or two will do. Layering prevents the wind from getting to your skin, and even if all layers are thin, together they are like a powerful army.

5. Wear longer jackets, those that cover up the split between your sweater and your pants/skirt. In general, the less naked body parts are sticking out, the warmer you will feel. Wait! I was referring to ears and hands, and what did you think?

6. Keep your limbs warm. Even if the rest of your body is warm, cold limbs will cause a lot of discomfort, so make sure you have warm winter shoes and cozy gloves. If your floors are cold, wear slippers and socks, as many as needed.

7. And finally, moisturize your skin. It's not so much the cold, but its effects that you have to worry about. Under the influence of cold, for instance, your skin dries out and breaks. I would not recommend you to put cream right before you go outside (you don't want the moisturizer to freeze inside your pores, do you?) I'd suggest to apply cream once you get home, or, for your hands, right before putting gloves on.

And if your hands do fell victim to cold weather, read How to Treat Dry Cracked Hands.

A Murder Mist with a Twist

Image credit: imdb.com

If you have been longing to see a fascinating murder mystery unwrap in front of you, this is the film you cannot miss.

Coincidentally being a movie about mass shooting in Pittsburgh that took lives of five innocent people and scheduled to come to big screens on December, 15, right after the day of the Sandy Hook shooting, the release of Jack Reacher, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who has written the screenplay for The Tourist (2010) and The Usual Suspects (1995), was postponed till December, 21. Due to its unusual twist, the fact that from the very first scene the audience knows who the real killer is, this murder investigation keeps us in suspense all throughout the movie.

All the evidence points to James Barr (Joseph Sikora: Safe, The Best Man for the Job), an ex-sniper, who continued exercising in his shooting even after his release from the army. Still, for the audience, it is clear up front that Barr is not the one who pulled the trigger, even though his estranged look screams "psychopath." However, Detective Emerson (David Oyelowo: The Help, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes) and the District Attorney, Alex Rodin (The Rum Diary, Hall Pass), are convinced by the mist of evidence that he is guilty, and they offer him an alternative: to sign a confession, or to face death penalty. Instead, Barr asks to get Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise: Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol), who served along with Barr and knows his most terrible secrets.

Easier said than done: Jack Reacher is not the man one can find. After leaving the army, Tom Cruises's character literally vanished from everyone's sight. As he himself explains it, "I'm the man who wants to be left alone." He is a myth, a superhero and an embodiment of justice, who puts truth above the law, and being good at combat and attentive to details, and with a little bit of luck, he succeeds at yet another mission impossible.

There is also an additional plot twist: the defense attorney is Mr. Rodin's daughter, Helen (Rosamund Pike: Devil You Know, Surrogates), a pacifist, who is trying to save Barr from death penalty, even though she herself is not convinced of his innocence. No one except Jack Reacher, an ex-army, who agrees to assist Helen Rodin as a lead investigator, gives Barr the benefit of doubt. As Reacher and Ms. Rodin work together on Barr's case, we expect a love story to develop, but we never get one.

In fact, it seems that there is no story at all: there was a murder, and a clear suspect is in custody. Where will all this go? At the same time, we keep wondering how everything came together so perfectly against Barr and how it will get resolved in the end. One piece of the puzzle at a time, we learn the terrible story behind: the murders were not random, and Barr was made a scapegoat. At the same time, what Reacher tells Ms. Rodin about Barr is not in the inmate's favor; on the contrary, it makes him even less likable. And still, we want the true justice for the man, just like Reacher and Helen Rodin do.

The problem is, the more pieces of the puzzle come together to form the correct picture, the more people disappear.

In addition to the plot, which unwraps gradually and keeps the audience members holding on to their armchairs, the movie is done with a touch of humor, which despite the tragic events, makes the viewers smile here and there. Some of the assailants in the movie are clowns rather than real gangsters; they think they are professional murderers, but they are, in fact, unskilled cowards, who cannot take down their target. In a way, they are gangster parodies.

Similarly, Barr is just a cold-blooded assassin parody. Jack Reacher, who knows Barr well enough, doubts both his shooting skills he thinks little of, and the carelessness with which he supposedly committed the massacre. We feel pity for him in the end because he doesn't remember where he was during the crime and even believes he was the one who committed it. At the same time, this makes us ponder how safe it is to have trained killers walking around with guns and no recollection of their actions.

And finally, despite the fact that the whole movie is built around violence, for the most part, it is not explicit or bloody. As the mist around the murder clears out and we are afraid for more lives to be lost, we get a feeling of satisfaction that there is someone, a myth like Jack Reacher, who wants to do real justice where law is helpless.