I went to the Mongolian Video Music Awards last night. In true Mongolian fashion, the tickets said 7pm, but nothing really happened until 8pm (people in "the know" call this "mongol tsag"). At 8pm all the people who were in the auditorium got to watch the "red carpet" on huge video screens. We got to see what most of our favorite stars were wearing. However, most of them were wearing coats because it was so cold in the UB Palace. My friends joked that the fashion scene here is a little bit different that in the States. If you asked a Mongolian star what they were wearing the correct response might be "fake Versace and Chinese Jimmy Choo shoes". Nonetheless, the stars dressed to impress, and impress they did. The award portion of the show was pretty slow and arduous. They had people from the companies that sponsored the show give the awards (boring!), but the performances were great. They also had 2 young DJs mixing on stage. I got to see my new favorite band, The Lemons, the cool rocker chic Otgoo, and the sexy girl group my neighbor is in, Kiwi. There were other good performers too, including the guy who opened. He had dancers from Chingis Khan's horde. We had no idea that the horde could dance so well! On the intellectual side, I went to a lecture a few weeks ago that concerned the issue of the misrepresentation of Chingis Khan in modern depictions and modern art. I think the lecturer would have agreed that the performance was completely historically inaccurate. These are all the clips I could upload. The internet is too slow. They are short, but they give you a taste of what it was like. Enjoy!
Chingis (Mis)represented

Ogtoo-Alternatively rockin'!

I (Heart) The Lemons!

One more thing. When I woke up this morning, it was snowing. I took a picture to prove it. It's a month later than last year. The snow is nice because it covers the dirt, but that also means that the marble slabs that designers have chosen to pave parts of UB which are going to be very slippery!