June 3, 2012
There is no longer an Occupy Abai camp at Chistye prudy, but nonetheless, Abai abides. And presides. Yesterday, dozens of people gathered at his statue for a lecture on art and politics by Boris Groys (the post-lecture crowd is pictured top left and top right). A bit later on, hundreds gathered in the same spot (and in the rain) for an “alternative” assembly led by Udaltsov and others about the state of the protest movement, the plans for the June 12th meeting, etc. (See bottom right for a glimpse of Uldaltsov in the swarm.) I went to both the lecture and the assembly, and though I could hear almost nothing the speakers said (there was no amplification), I did manage to have some wonderful conversations with a couple of colleagues from Chto delat. So Abai did well by me.
May 31, 2012
It is pukh season here in Moscow, which means that little clumps of a cotton-like substance are constantly swirling through the air, finding their way in through your window, and collecting on the ground in puddles and public parks (see above). A Russian friend told me yesterday that pukh falls twice each summer: first from one kind of tree, then from another. (I think they are in the linseed family.) We are in the second tree’s pukh-shedding period, she said, and it will only lasts for a few days, a week maximum. I seem to remember, though, that pukh drops in fits and starts all the way through August….or at least that’s how it seemed when I was here other summers. Anyway, one way or another, I am glad to have caught a bit of pukh, even if it can be irritating to the eyes and diligent housecleaner. Nothing says Moscow in the summer like a little cotton rain.
May 28, 2012
The Soviet friendship of nations, as depicted (c. 1986) in a tree of national hats. Every time I see this in the Borovitskaya metro, I think of my dissertation, not least because the Kazakh and the Turkmen are closest to the trunk.
May 27, 2012
My return is off to a magnificent start. Today, a picnic in the country.
May 22, 2012
May 20, 2012
Spent Saturday wadlopen, exploring the Waddenzee. At times I felt the shimmers of a Tarkovsky film.
May 19, 2012
May 14, 2012
May 13, 2012
Tiny cheese sellers at Madurodam, Holland’s delightfully strange “interactive miniature park.” There is much to say about the Dutch narratives presented at Madurodam, but for now I will let the cheesemen speak.
May 12, 2012
A strandbeest in its natural habitat. You can catch a glimpse of it in motion here.
For more on these miraculous creatures & their keeper, Theo Jansen, see Jansen’s website, the New Yorker profile of him by Ian Frazier (accompanied by this video), or Alexander Schlichter’s beautiful documentary “Strandbeesten” (the website of Schlichter’s film is here).
May 10, 2012
The view from our balcony—in a 1970s/European socialist-style apartment bloc—today at lunchtime. Pretty much Wassenaar in a nutshell.
(Not pictured: the cars parked just inches away, the Dutch citizens waiting patiently to pass by on bikes.)
May 7, 2012
The Bosphorus! Above: Borusan Contemporary, a part-time museum, part-time office building that is housed in a full-time architectural gem, the Yusuf Ziya Pasha mansion. Below: the Fatih bridge & the boat that took me under it.
