Season Opening: Summer

It is the third day of a three day weekend. The grocery shopping, laundry and preparation for dinner are all done. It is hot outside; a heat wave pushed the temperatures up into the low 90s. There are choices to make: to stay inside and enjoy a lazy day under AC reading and internet browsing or venture aimlessly outside and observe early summer in the city.
I decided to get out. Because of my office job I try to use every opportunity to spend time outside. I’m not a big nature lover, but I love city living and urban hiking. I do have several qualms about nature which I built over time to excuse my relative indifference towards it. My main objection to wild nature is that there are no people or any trace of human existence. I understand that real nature lovers find that attractive but in my view it is people and their activities and creations are the most interesting and fascinating things in the world. Unless you believe in God, natural landscapes have no ideas or design behind them and are randomly appointed based on location and weather condition. The beauty of these landscapes is attributed by people who see patterns and color arrangements which please them and give meaning to randomness.
On the other hand, the urban landscapes in their better representations are full of ideas and connect nature with human habitat in creative and fun ways. The human spirit is present in these landscapes even when streets are empty, but of course it is people who really bring city to life. It is all for them.

So let’s take a look what is out there?
Here is the hot afternoon sun illuminate the street as I walk out of the building
and lighting up the top of the tree What a fabulous idea to plant the tree with bright burgundy leaves in front of the grey building!
Because of the heat the streets are empty
but full of human playfulness expressed in lively building colors
details of the doors and porches
sudden lion wall relief and cute flower arrangement next to the basement window
The way people use architecture and set up little urban landscape is thoughtful, delightful and brings a joy if you choose to pause and see

As I reached the 14 St I suddenly realized that I’m not the only crazy one who got out on the heat –there are other people and it looks they are having fun Here what is going on:
The crowd is lively: young, dressed to have fun and embrace the heat:
The local mini fashion show is in full parade with cute sandals
and hats:


and summer dresses:

Completed with a live band
and positive behavioral support staff it is a perfect opening for the Summer in the City show.

Three Days in London

The last time I visited London was 12 years ago. Patrick and I were there for a week in early autumn. We were not impressed. Yes, the museums were fascinating, but not surprising so; something you would expect from the country which at one point owned half of the world. The Rosetta Stone and Elgin Marbles in British museum are real world wonders. But the tourist attractions were not enough to bring me back to London. The city was not appealing; people didn’t look attractive, the eating experience met the existing stereotype of British food, the best theater performance was actually an American import. There were no reasons to come back to this overpriced and charmless city.
This year it happened that my school friend, who lives in Moscow was going on a business trip to London. I really wanted to see her and travelling to Moscow is not an option (one day I might write about that). She invited me to come to meet her in London. I took a few days off and arrived in London on a mid-April morning. The taxi took me from the Paddington Station to hotel near St. Paul Cathedral. The driver took a scenic route and I immediately realized that something was different. This was not at all the city I remembered. I’m not sure why this happened. But the only reasonable explanation is that I had changed not the city of London. I knew I was going to love it this time.
As soon as I shook off the travel fatigue, I left the hotel for a walk and lunch. I was a bit concerned about where to eat, since my preliminary internet investigation on eating in London was not fruitful. Right next to the hotel were plenty of little eating places. To my surprise all of them looked pretty good. I selected a little café called Apostrophes (http://www.apostropheuk.com/) mostly because I saw through the window that they serve Illy coffee. I walked inside and the place looked, smelled and felt right. My instinct didn’t fool me and the first meal was a huge success.
A superb lunch provided a strong support for the initial positive impression. The next destination was a book store for a detail city map and maybe a travel book. I decided to skip the book after brief review of the available selection, as the interesting books were pretty thick and, in addition to my Nikon, would severely limit how much I could march around the city. I discussed it with the store clerk and he offered a nice compromise: basically just a detail map with the short description of major attractions. It turned out to be a great choice – almost no weight and I didn't get lost once!
I hit the streets and they were lovely! The people, the buildings, store windows, old telephone booths; everything was full of charm. One of the major attractions was that it is so varied and eclectic: people of different races, restaurants with food from around the world, buildings from different eras. On the top of that, there were the gardens all around the city in full glory of blooming April.

I could not stop taking pictures.

The Fleet Street doesn't look at all like in Sweeny Todd, but still exciting and full of life:

And the combination of old, not so old and new:





The next day my destination was the museum of Albert and Victoria. I don't even know where to start with that. How about the logo. The modern designers still have a thing or two to learn from the old masters!

A few years ago at the NY Metropolitan museum I saw a textile exhibit from there and it was very memorable. Back then I thought that if I was ever in London again I will check it out. With museums I have a personnel limit of two hours; this is how long I can enjoy a museum without diminishing the experience by being overwhelmed with information and images. Walking around I kept thinking that I needed at least three or four visits here to get a good idea about the collection. It reminded me of my trip to St. Petersburg about thirty years ago (OMG!). I spent one week going to Hermitage every day.
Just to illustrate the variety of decorative arts in the collection here are a few samples:
The metal work:


The lace:

The art nouveau garden sculpture:

The midlevel grotesque in sculpture (never seen that before!)

And the marvelous fashion exhibit by Yamomoto with amazing commentary:


After that I went to a lovely Japanese place for lunch with this view from the window.

How could I possibly have not seen the charm on the first time? I’m pretty sure that the one thing which definitely changed in London is food and for me that is a make or break factor.









The first shopping expedition started at the Liberty. This is my favorite store in London. It is housed in the magnificent Tudor building constructed from the timber of two ships. I never bought anything there and most likely never will, but the clothes and the setting of the store brings one as close as possible to a museum experience. The joy of gorgeous rooms with fireplaces, stained glass windows and the exquisite garments was extended by a fashion event where champagne and hors d'oeuvres where served to the customers and visitors like me ;)
The Liberty experience warmed my appetite for shopping and the next day I decided to go to more democratic place - Oxford Street.
I rapidly got disappointed and turned on to Bond Street for more visual pleasures. As usual I prefer the luxury window shopping to the affordable real one. It is more enjoyable, the merchandize is so much better, the people watching is more fun and the savings are amazing due to the fact that I can’t buy anything :)
Just take a look at these lovely windows:
















Or the London dandies at the street café:






















Or the windows of the very expensive jewelry store decorated perfectly right






















for the customers modest enough to cover the hair





















but flaunt enough to parade their wealth with Louis Vuitton head scarf :)

















The Refined Madam drink at Waldorf Hilton http://www.worldclassuk.com/ViewCocktail.aspx?c=2871&b=0

was the finest finishing touch!
Is it fun? Viva London! The next time with Patrick!

A Really Short Blog Entry with no Pictures

I have three outstanding blog entries. I’m sorry but I have no time to develop any of them for now because by the end of March I have to deliver a paper of the size of a small dissertation. The only people who will read it are the one who will need to write comments. Blog writing even with very limited readership is far more grateful activity.

Something Good

In the holiday spirit.
Well I’m watching an old classic – Sound of Music. I remember watching this film when I was probably twelve with my parents in the open air movie theater in Tashkent. I loved it then: I laughed, I cried, I fell in love with Maria. Lovely children, the beauty of Alps, the love story, the music, the suspense of escape. I’m watching it now more than 30 years later for the 5th or 6th time. And guess what: this is such an amazing experience. The innocence, the romance, the lack of irony. It still works magic.
I was thinking about writing the end of the year blog. The first thing which comes to mind is how long and difficult this year was. Counting my sorrows, sharing miseries of getting old... But it felt so stupid and so ingénue and so Russian. And I’m not. So I thought about counting my blessing and being cheerful and optimistic and looking forward. But it felt so stupid and so ingénue and so American. And I’m not. The anxiety of identity search was about to strangle me.
And here comes the old classic and puts you in a great mood does not matter if you are young or old, if you watching as a child in Tashkent in the warm summer evening or as an adult in DC in the cold winter night. Viva to the magic of movies and Happy New Year!

Question and Expression of discontent

I don’t know how to relate to a group of people with whom I have a common past. In that past I loved and like them. These are my childhood friends, college buddies and just in general people which were a big part of my youth. Many of them left and end up here in the new and wonderful land of USA. The crowd which is here falls into two camps along major political parties: republicans and democrats. I do not see myself belong to any… even I vote democrat.

The problem is that many of them erected a wall around themselves. Within this wall they want to build a fantasy world, similar to one Ayn Rand created in Atlas Shrugged. Many of them never even heard about Ayn, but they worldview is the same. So it looks like there is a natural path which leads people to that believe. The path is not complex; in fact it is very simple. We lived in USSR which was a communist country. Everything was managed by government and everything was bad. It must be like that everywhere and government is just wasting our money and doesn’t do anything. (never mind that our parents on Medicaid/medicare and SSI). In the fantasy world free market will take care about all of this. It is pretty much described and discredited in one lovely episode of Monty Python in the Life of Brian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExWfh6sGyso

I know that simplicity is a very attractive quality. It gives a clear way to judge what is good and what is bad without spending too much time pondering why? The religion gives the same benefit. No wonder that majority of people go for that. The question is why a few people who I respect and consider thoughtful and kind human beings fall for this very simplistic and childish outlook.
Any thoughts?