Sasha Malchik

Sasha Malchik (Ð¡Ð°ÑˆÐ° ÐœÐ°Ð»ÑŒÑ‡Ð¸Ðº, Ð?Ð»ÐµÐºÑ?Ð°Ð½Ð´Ñ€ ÐœÐ°Ð»ÑŒÑ‡Ð¸Ðº) is a well known figure in San Francisco Russian speaking community. He is especially famous for the LiveJournal blog, active participation and promotion of Burning Man festival, as well as urban exploration trips (especially in the area of urban decay). Many of Sasha's trips (urban exploration, world travel, Burning Man, outdoor adventures) have resulted in stunning photographs that reflect the world around us in a very unusual way. For a lot of his "couch potato" readers, these photos are not only a window into the world they will never see, but also an inspiration.

Sasha was born 9 December1975 in the city of Chernovtsy, Soviet Union (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine). He moved to California, USA when he was 14, and lived in Palo Alto, Boston, Sunnyvale, before permanently settling in the city of San Francisco. Sasha is a very strong promoter of urban lifestyle which for him is almost synonymous to green values. Sasha is known as a strong critic of the suburban sprawl arguing its unsustainabily and high cost on the economy and environment.

Early years
Very little is known about Sasha's childhood, because even his fame could not penetrate the infamous Iron curtain. We do know that his family owned a mighty Zaporozhets. It is believed that this was the first car he drove. Some psychologists have suggested that this may explain his purchase of a BMW as his first new vehicle. They theorize that the BMW was an attempt to deal with childhood feelings of vehicular envy caused by driving a Zaporozhets. His home city of Chernovtsy also left an important psychological mark on his personality. He often shows concern that people underestimate the cultural impact of this relatively small city on the European civilization, devoting much of his LiveJournal time to participation in Chernovtsy related communities and crossposting Chernovtsy photographs to other forums.

MIT
Some time in the mid-to-late 90s Sasha attended MIT, where he majored in either interpretive dance or computer science. There he was a bona fide frat boy and a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He participated in all classic fraternal activities -- chugging of the pepsi, gorging on bagels with lox, and helping MIT Hillel build a sukkha. Known to his brothers as 'Little Sasha' he was famous for being able to shriek "Dude, Netscape crashed!!!" with the kind of dramatic pomp that's normally reserved for declaring one's victory in a battle against the Visigoths. He was also known for his handyman skills and was often asked to perform tasks that other fraternity members found beyond their abilities - such as tiling a bathroom or changing a fluorescent light bulb.

Sasha also made his mark on the MIT Russian community. He frequented Russian House -- a MIT dorm whose original purpose was to teach Americans to speak Russian during the cold war, but slowly mutated into being a place where Russian students could pretend they were still living in Russia, and Vladimir Vysotsky was the greatest musician that ever lived. There he spread what was then a purely West Coast tradition of adding "usha" to people's names. This resulted in such memorable names as Sergusha, Markusha, Grishusha, and naturally, Sashusha -- which, in a tragic twist of fate, never actually actually applied to Sasha Malchik himself.

Sasha left MIT with an aforementioned BMW, far less hair, and a Master's degree in Computer Science. Since his departure, neither MIT, nor Russian House, nor Alpha Epsilon Pi has been the same.

LiveJournal

Timeline of most notable events of Sasha Malchik's LiveJournal blog :

* creation of LJ account and a blog titled "Brainspam Ð¾Ð´Ð½Ð¾Ð³Ð¾ ÐœÐ°Ð»ÑŒÑ‡Ð¸ÐºÐ°"
* community of readers donates money to upgrade Sasha's account from 'Basic Account' to 'Paid Account' as a token of appreciation and support.
* official creation of malchiks_fanclub community.
* first closure of LJ account by Sasha
* reopening of LJ account by popular demand of the community
* second closure of LJ account by Sasha
* Dec 17, 2007 - final reopening of Sasha's LJ account, citing personal reasons.

Music

Sasha received musical training as a child, learning to play piano and guitar. He is believed to possess absolute pitch. In high school Sasha played with several jazz formations. He has remained a musical aficionado, especially devoted to genres that involve extensive instrumental improvisation (including jazz and progressive rock), as well as jazz-inspired electronic music (acid jazz, lounge and chillout). Sasha's favorite artists include Medeski, Martin, & Wood, King Crimson, Sounds from the Ground, System 7, Thievery Corporation, and many others. When asked to explain his musical preferences, Sasha has stated that in order to capture his interest music must create the mood of urban romanticism. He declined to elaborate, citing personal reasons.

Burning Man

Sasha is often thought of as a "father" of Russian Burning Man. Some people consider his friend, Kovrov, more worthy of this title, but even they agree that Malchik is the one who brought BM to masses. He is certainly one of the most vocal promoters of Burning Man in Russian speaking community of San Francisco Bay Area, and was one of the very first Russian burners. There is whole generation of Russian burners who can not imagine Burning Man without Sasha in his yellow smiley face hat. Full of energy, excitement, and encyclopedic knowledge about every art piece on the playa, he seems to be flying over the Black Rock City on his bicycle, always eager to share everything he knows in the best tradition of Burning Man giving.

Even though Sasha did not organize the first large Russian camp on the playa, he was actively involved in future reincarnations of the camps through several years. Sasha was also strongly advocating for the creation of the Russian village as an official Burning Man theme camp, however this dream of his is yet to be materialized. Sasha is set apart from other Russian-American "burners" by a very mature and well balanced view of this multi-facet event, emphasizing the art and culture aspects of it.

Sasha was involved in several Burning Man Art Installations. Here is a partial list of few of them:
* Ambient Armchair Encounter (2004)
* Trainspotting (2005)
* Art Car (2005, 2006)

In June 2007, to the great disappointment by the community, Sasha Malchik announced that he will not be attending Burning Man this year, citing personal reasons.

San Francisco

It now seems surreal, but Sasha did not always live in San Francisco. He moved to San Francisco fairly late, in the spring of 2003.

Nowadays, Sasha is known as a fan and promoter of the city of San Francisco as a place to live. He has very deep knowledge of San Francisco hidden treasures, even in the most remote neighborhoods. Sasha compiled several off-beaten path themed tours of San Francisco, such as Mission District Murals and Telegraph Hill Staircases. These tours have fascinated city visitors and long time residents alike for several years.

Despite being in love with San Francisco as a geography, Sasha has very strong political disagreement with San Francisco as a municipality. He is a very strong critic of San Francisco Board of Supervisors, especially on the issues of urban planning and neighborhood development. Sasha believes that city of San Francisco is very conservative in its building practices, and attributes a lot of current problems (such as exodus of middle class and young families with children into nearby suburban areas) to that. Sasha Malchik is a very vocal critic of SF architectural review board, blaming them for "uninspiring" and "boring" design of most of San Francisco buildings, including the new flagship developments such as One Rincon Hill and San Francisco Transbay Terminal.

Despite vocal critique and strong opinions on multiple issues affecting the city by the bay, Sasha rarely expresses his opinion in the public meeting of San Francisco Board of Supervisors, citing personal reasons.

Urban Exploration

Sasha was actively involved in a number of Chinese New Year Treasure Hunts organized by Jason Wechter that explore North Beach and China Town areas of the San Francisco. Sasha Malchik's knowledge of city's history and culture had made a great contribution to the teams that included other notorious urban explorers of San Francisco's Russian community.

Below are a few selected Urban Exploration trips that Sasha led or participated in:
* A visit to Drawbridge, California, a ghost town in the middle of San Francisco Bay Area.
* Multiple visits to Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, "a post-apocalyptic industrial waste land" just few miles away from San Francisco downtown.
* Abandoned reservoir in Russian Hill. This dangerous exploration of an underground structure produced monumental photographic images of the streaming light available here and here. Sasha was lucky to avoid the severe poison oak epidemic that affected some members of the party for weeks after the trip. The leader of the group was one of the founders of SF Cacaphony Society that organizes urban "subversion" events such as Santa Anarchy, Salmon Spawn and stood at the roots of the original Burning Man

Sasha's role in the history of New York urban decay legend - The Highline Rail Yards, NY, NY deserves a special mention. It was not until Sasha's notorious visit to this West side old timer in summer 2006 that New York City government finally paid attention to this abandoned elevated railroad. It took only 6 months after his walk through the Highline to start its redevelopment into a new public park.

It should be mentioned that initially, Sasha's contribution was totally misinterpreted and underappreciated by the NYC authorities. The misunderstanding was eventually cleared, and went into history as a precedent for future generations of urban explorers. Hundreds of indignant New Yorkers, including Felix Ladnik (a well-known human rights activist) went out to the streets of New York to show their solidarity and support to Malchik's ideals .

Urban exploration certainly occupies top spot in the list of Sasha Malchik's personal interests, however, since the NYC incident he did not participate in similar scale expeditions, citing personal reasons.

Photography

http://www.urbanachiever.com/gallery/sasham

New York City

Sasha’s relationship with New York City is a complex one, filled with controversies. In simpler terms, it can be summarized as a Love-hate relationship. Sasha’s admiration for the US' greatest city and all the things beautiful it offers seems to be in constant conflict with the shadow of inferiority that Sasha feels New York casts over his own beloved San Francisco.
He does have a few more substantial issues with NYC and New Yorkers as well.

Over the years, Sasha has managed a great number of trips to New York. Particularly, for various reasons, Sasha visited NYC at least 4 times during the summer of 2006, which provoked numerous speculations among Russian-speaking communities in both cities that Sasha had been contemplating a relocation. Whatever merits those speculations had, the rumors did not materialize, as Sasha continues his residency in San Francisco up until this time.
At the moment, Sasha is on a mission to lure as many New Yorkers to live in San Francisco as possible, celebrating each and every win wholeheartedly.

* Sasha and Culture of New York City. Sasha is a big fan of New York's cultural life. In fact, he has mentioned several times to his New York associates that compared to NYC’s, SF’s cultural life is “way too provincial.” So extensive are Sasha’s interests in the New York film, museum, and general culture scene, that he monitors very closely all the related events and activities and provides information updates to New York’s Russian-speaking community via electronic channels on a very systematic basis. It is a common belief among Russians in NYC that Sasha is adamant they are incapable of researching and finding this information on their own. On a number of occasions, he happened to be correct.
* Sasha and Architecture in New York City. Sasha, who is a great resource on all things architectural (including, naturally, historical information), a big lover of contemporary and non-traditional designs, and a true sucker for skyscrapers, is, however, not fond of New York City’s architecture at all. His famous opinion goes that “New York's got some great buildings. Yet, it's got no architecture.” Go figure.
* Sasha and New Yorkers. It is beyond Sasha’s understanding how it is possible that most New Yorkers do not care about “green.” (They don’t. That’s why they live in the City.) It has also bothered him to find out that so many New Yorkers do not drive: he finds it ridiculous and, well, most people agree. Finally, Sasha carries a firm belief that New Yorkers never leave the five boroughs in order to hike, bike, or camp. “They never go to visit Mother Nature,” - he suggests. (Representatives of New York's Russian-speaking community have given up long ago trying to convince him of the contrary.)
* Sasha and New York City Transit. Sasha, who is great admirer of trolleys and a big fan of all the maps possible (including metro maps), has no understanding of New York City’s Subway System. It is a well known fact that during his return from India in 2004, Sasha visited NYC and was on a mission to meet with and introduce himself to one Russian-speaking community of Brooklyn. Sasha needed to take a subway trip from Manhattan to Brooklyn where a meeting was to take place. He managed just 6 incorrect transfers before he finally made it to the rendezvous point 5 and a half hours late.
* Sasha and New York City Russian-speaking community. Sasha is very popular among Russians in New York and is truly loved by Russians in New York. This is partly explained by the fact they do not know him that well. It has also to do with the amazing tours he continues to conduct for those strangers visiting San Francisco, his irreplaceable role as a babysitter of NYC’s Burning Man camps, him being a kind and resourceful host and, naturally, his charming personality.

Since 2006, Sasha has not visited NYC, citing personal reasons.

Miscellaneous

* Sasha hosted several home concerts in his apartment in San Francisco, including Umka.
* The topic of Sasha and trolley buses deserves a separate section on this page.

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