Khram

On most of the beautiful days when you wander around the city during lunch you don’t see much: a few dodgy pigeons, dudes handing out flyers about Zipcar, that guy who wears headphones and yells, etc. But not today. Sometimes when you cross the street and you find yourself staring at Borat.



Jagshemash!

Sacha Baron Cohen was in character and in town doing what appeared to be a bit of publicity for his film. I assume it’s related to the arrival of the Kazakhstan President tomorrow at the White House (since it was in front of the embassy on 16th) but us gawkers in the back couldn’t really hear what he was saying.



He took off after speaking for a few minutes but not before uniformed Secret Service took down the US and Kazakhstan flags staged behind him. They probably had the authority to bust up the whole thing (the people in the embassy were certainly none to pleased to see him) but I assume that’s just what Cohen’s producers wanted. Either way, he was done before the police could make up their mind about what to do.

Cohen wrapped up and wandered off down the street. He left his little sidekick behind to hand out Kazakhstan lapel pins and pose for awkward pictures.



What a delightfully strange little man.