today's photo essay should have probably been published yesterday since timeliness is a central tenet of this whole news business, but i didn't have my photos ready for posting (thanks for putting them up, juancho!), so you'll have to accept my apologies for the delay.

tuesday saw the arrival of the man with the master plan, vladik putin, big cheese of mother russia, who came to britain for tea and crumpets with the queenie meanie. he's actually staying at buckingham palace and is here to only do touristy stuff, like visit edinburgh castle and shit. when he arrived at heathrow airport, he was met by prince chucky and stuffed into a horse-drawn carriage alongside the queen for a royal procession down the "mall," a main street cutting through st. james' park and leading into buckingham palace. my fellow VOA intern and USC classmate, melissa m., was covering the story for VOA, so i tagged along with my trusty digital camera and snapped some shots of the festivities. here's what i got.


the mall


the royal procession begins with beefeaters on horseback doing some salute.


bunch of beefeaters standing around and comparing hats.


closer shot of the beefies.


the procession was too quick for my camera so i didn't get a clear shot of putin or the queenie, just some second-tier royal i can't identify.

the public turnout to see this event was quite weak, i must say. but it was especially cool for me to see because it served to bridge the two very different worlds i am a product of: the anglo-rooted american and the soviet-era refugee. pop culture progressivism mixed with old-world sensibility. i'm a communistic capitalist -- free markets for all that result in a single class with a very high standard of living. it must be possible! i'll begin work on my manifesto immediately.


we were happy to be there. can ya tell?