white nights and black humor

June 23, Zidane is the guest of honor

2007-09-14T20:57:00.001+02:00

IMG_6353, originally uploaded by simoblog.

This was his birthday party and art exhibition for Dmitry Sokolenko. I wrote the essay

11pm

2007-09-14T20:38:00.001+02:00

11pm.jpg
Originally uploaded by cinnamona

Pushkin

2007-06-26T21:56:00.003+02:00

Pushkin
Originally uploaded by cinnamona

2007-06-26T21:56:00.001+02:00

Pushkin melon
Originally uploaded by cinnamona

Pushkin melon

2007-06-26T21:55:00.001+02:00

A slice of Pushkin
Originally uploaded by cinnamona

A slice of Pushkin

Pushkin and I

2007-06-26T21:52:00.001+02:00

Pushkin and I
Originally uploaded by cinnamona

Nice fur

2007-06-26T21:51:00.003+02:00

Nice fur
Originally uploaded by cinnamona

White sun, black clouds : welcome back

2007-06-26T21:51:00.001+02:00

White sun, black clouds : welcome back
Originally uploaded by cinnamona

2006-09-14T20:22:00.000+02:00

An easily accessibly mail storeroom from the street.

2006-09-14T20:12:00.000+02:00

Erasing the line

2006-09-14T19:59:00.000+02:00

Cute couple portrait with ominous rusty nail.

Stray Dogs

2006-09-14T17:38:00.000+02:00

Here such a noble and loyal breed. They travel in packs, keeping to themselves, the wilderness of the city preserved in them, well-fed wolves.

Where I used to Run

2006-08-28T16:33:00.000+02:00

Strange Cargo

2006-08-28T06:52:00.000+02:00

Sometimes the barges carry Siberian lumber.
And sometimes the barges carry St. Petersburg buildings!

Traveling Exhibition: My St. Petersburg Ancestry

2006-08-28T06:43:00.000+02:00

Petersburg's Zenith plays Moscow

2006-08-28T06:31:00.000+02:00

2006-08-28T06:28:00.000+02:00

2006-08-28T06:06:00.000+02:00

2006-08-28T06:05:00.000+02:00

Bely's "Petersburg"

2006-08-28T05:47:00.000+02:00

What an excellent production

2006-08-28T05:45:00.000+02:00

The girls sitting on top of the carriages sang nonsensical songs and chirped like birds at moments of high tension.

Petersburg Theater, Museums and Installations

2006-08-28T05:42:00.000+02:00

At the end of the show they served vodka. See the carriages in the background? Those were used to move the audience all over the courtyard.

The Secret Lives of the Babushki

2006-08-28T05:14:00.000+02:00

The lucky have a roof over their heads and Pushkin to keep them company.
Some feed the pigeons.
Some have to dig in dumpsters.

And yet others have their offices in the port-a-potties. No joke. This is the only black humor I really can't stomach.

What's that living in the courtyard?

2006-08-28T05:07:00.000+02:00

2006-08-28T05:04:00.000+02:00

A Russian friend, Lor, said, "Somebody told me that was something a little bit indecent in English."
Answer: Um, yes, those are probably two of the most indecent words in the English language put together and hung all over town.

Reunited with Ahopkin

2006-08-28T04:51:00.000+02:00

It had been awhile, but Ahopkin has found a good home. Sara and I took him out to the playground and played. Then Ahopkin met his first cat in the wilderness. This was also the first cat Ahop had met since Ludmila, his sister. When he was reunited with Ludmila for the afternoon, they hissed and spat at each other. What went wrong? Had they forgotten about each other, or were the bad memories of being seperated, and the promise for renewed seperation too much to bear? (See pictures of Ludmila and Ahop in sailor's hats.)

Military Presence? No....

2006-08-28T04:48:00.000+02:00

The summer the city was teeming with cops. Partly because of the G8, partly because of football games. I finally got stopped and asked for my documents as I was coming up an escalator. Luckily, I had everything in order--though I wouldn't have had my registration just a week before. Somebody asked me if I was stopped frequently. No, I answered, Why? Oh, because you look like a gypsy, he replied. Thanks!

2006-08-28T04:44:00.000+02:00

In line for the movie. Sheesh! We're not waiting in that line!

2006-08-28T04:33:00.000+02:00

Riot police

A Kharms Cafe Farewell

2006-08-28T04:32:00.000+02:00

On my second to last night I took everyone to my favorite cafe in Petersburg: The Lighthouse Cafe, right across the street from Daniil Kharms' apartment. It is the real Soviet-style cafeteria, and probably was around when Kharms lived on Mayakovsky Street. Here I am looking up in horror because I had just been hit on the head by a brick, luckily! Because I promptly forgot who I was and when I remembered I was already back in New York City. Phew.

2006-08-28T04:29:00.000+02:00

Polina, Marco Polo (yes, really), me and oxana (left to right)

2006-08-28T04:18:00.000+02:00

Sonia (art historian and guide at the Hermitage) and I assess a painting at the "Kharms Cafe" (aka Cafe Lighthouse)

2006-08-28T04:16:00.000+02:00

Me and Lenin. Look at that smile. That is one 100% genuine smile.

2006-08-28T04:12:00.000+02:00

2006-08-28T04:07:00.000+02:00

Protective Sons (This Ain't Italy)

2006-08-28T04:03:00.000+02:00

Notice the TWO guns and the watchful gaze.

St. Petersburg Fashion

2006-08-28T03:52:00.000+02:00

2006-08-28T03:50:00.000+02:00

2006-08-28T03:48:00.000+02:00

Elvis is alive and well

2006-08-28T03:43:00.000+02:00

Bartender at Novus--excellent club

2006-08-28T03:38:00.000+02:00

"The Party is Over" this shirt makes it official.

2006-08-28T03:36:00.000+02:00

Nevsky Fashion

2006-08-28T03:31:00.000+02:00

Some young Russian hipsters at a wedding. They too came to the Bronze Horseman, as is the tradition, to take pictures. However, you can bet they did it ironically. See? We're all the same.
Yes the second picture shows the bride in her short, 60s era wedding dress.

Floating on the Canals

2006-08-28T03:27:00.000+02:00

Sonia the great, who got this motley bunch together

2006-08-28T03:24:00.000+02:00

The first and only drag queen I saw in St. Petersburg. Russians do NOT take kindly to sexual deviance.

2006-08-28T03:22:00.000+02:00

Brezhnevskies--an expression meaning a tiny, basically unliveably small apartment built during Brezhnev's time. This is an expression used to call any tiny living space, whether or not it was actually built during his time.

2006-08-28T03:16:00.000+02:00

Our captain, who didn't refuse some shots of vodka as a tip.

2006-08-28T03:13:00.000+02:00

Marguerite, Jenna and Ellie. This was Ellie's farewell cruise.

2006-08-28T03:10:00.000+02:00

Zhenya and Ramiro--the only Ecuadorian for miles around. He's been here 5 years. He is our resident video-anthropologist.

2006-08-28T03:08:00.000+02:00

Zhenya on the boat. Zhenya wanted to be a priest when he was younger, but no one told him that you couldn't fornicate out of wedlock. Sick joke, if it was one, but the dream thereby flew out the window.

2006-08-28T02:56:00.000+02:00

Chizhik Pizhik, where have you been? On the Fontanka swilling vodka. I drank one glass, I drank two, then my head started spinning boo hoo.

Hitting this little bronze bird with coins is good luck.

Icons

2006-08-03T12:17:00.000+02:00

My favorite icons at the Russian Museum

Iconoclastic graffiti (for Eugene O.) "Icons (are) Idols"
"Icons (are) Idols Thank God"

2006-08-03T12:11:00.000+02:00

This, the emblem of Russia, was on a gate to some official place--a policeman in a hut guards the gate. And yet, this particular example of the symbol of Russia was carried out in permanent marker! Handmade nationalism--only describable as kitsch.

2006-08-03T12:07:00.000+02:00

2006-08-03T12:03:00.000+02:00

Found at Flea Market. I think whoever made this sweater can only be described as seriously deranged, twisted like a candy cane, or color blind.

2006-08-03T11:59:00.000+02:00

2006-08-03T11:54:00.000+02:00

Imagine having only this to stare at on insomniac nights. For Peter.

Something light: like a butterfly

2006-08-03T11:44:00.000+02:00

An exhibit of microscopic enlargements of Nabokov's butterflies at the Nabokov House.See the New York Times Article about this exhibit

2006-08-03T11:42:00.000+02:00

Dmitry Sokolenko, micro-biologist-artist, hosting a cheese-tasting at the Nabokov Museum. "This is the only way to make people talk about mold!" he said over a German-made Roquefort and an Armenian Chechel.

2006-08-03T11:30:00.000+02:00

An imaginary butterfly Nabokov invented for his son Dmitri

Snowing in July

2006-08-02T11:31:00.000+02:00

The onomotopeia of the word "pookh" just made me want to say it everytime I saw it. For about a week I was reduced to an infant who, once he learns a new word, constantly repeats it and points at the object.

2006-08-02T11:28:00.000+02:00

2006-08-02T11:26:00.000+02:00

2006-08-02T11:18:00.000+02:00

Pookh, or Fluff from Russian poplar trees was especially heavy this year. One improperly put out cigarette starts a conflagration.

2006-08-02T11:14:00.000+02:00

Sara Lafleur puts the fire out

2006-08-02T11:11:00.000+02:00

2006-08-02T11:09:00.000+02:00

Postings and Commentary

2006-07-27T12:50:00.000+02:00

"[...] is dividing thousands of people--V.V. Putin"
"Enough Dirty Living!"

"(RAVE)Honesty, our tradition"

2006-07-27T12:47:00.000+02:00

"Privatization"

2006-07-27T12:44:00.000+02:00

"You will be bribed--Take it."

2006-07-27T12:37:00.000+02:00

"We will buy your hair for more than anyone else

Braids, ponytails, natural from 35 cm, grey or dyed from 45 cm."

2006-07-27T12:34:00.000+02:00

Any and all

ice cube trays

2006-07-27T12:29:00.000+02:00

Art Brothers
Anything else?

Window display at a store called "Soldier of Fortune"

Common characters

2006-07-27T12:23:00.000+02:00

Hooked-up courtisans

2006-07-27T12:18:00.000+02:00

The beautiful people

2006-07-27T12:16:00.000+02:00

The three graces

2006-07-27T12:09:00.000+02:00

Toss that cross back there, wouldn't want it to burn

2006-07-27T12:01:00.000+02:00

Cheap shot?

2006-07-27T11:38:00.000+02:00

Lunchbreak at the Lighthouse Cafe, where the red curtains always drawn

2006-07-27T11:36:00.000+02:00

UP TO ELBOWS IN IT

2006-07-21T12:29:00.000+02:00

Poet Peter Gizzi in St. Petersburg traffic.

2006-07-21T12:23:00.000+02:00

What is going on is: A rain cloud lets loose while a fountain on the gray Neva continues to insist on its majesty. I would say this was surreal, but it's gloominess makes it Russian Absurdity.

2006-07-21T12:08:00.000+02:00

No swimming in this river. But bobbing for bottles, why not?

2006-07-21T12:03:00.000+02:00

The tea-colored water was surprisingly suitable for swimming and I went numerous times.
At one point a narrow grey cloud rolled in and started thundering above our heads. After about 15 minutes of everyone holding their breath--as people do before a storm--the rain started. We jumped in the lake and there the rain had nothing on us. Pretty sneaky maneuver. It had been a while since I'd swam in the rain and it was wonderful though it appeared at eye level that I was in a cross between a boiling cauldron and a bed of nails. Rain likes to posture. If I closed my eyes I could imagine I was swimming at Walden Pond, in good old Massachuetts, and it felt good to be at home for a bit. After the rain had passed a thousand little treefrogs came out and scattered underfoot, the size of insects, only amphibian and maybe because of that not at all creepy? A pretty beautiful day all in all.

2006-07-21T12:02:00.000+02:00

We go to a lake in Zelenogorsk called Chertevo Ozera or "The Devil's Lake," but a group of artists renamed it Bozhe Ozero or "God's Lake" and engraved this rock to prove it.

Sediment of the City

2006-07-20T14:30:00.000+02:00

2006-07-20T14:24:00.000+02:00

THE NIGHT

2006-07-20T14:22:00.000+02:00

THE ARTIST

2006-07-20T14:20:00.000+02:00

THE ANIMAL

2006-07-20T14:17:00.000+02:00

NATURE

2006-07-20T14:15:00.000+02:00

THE PEOPLE

2006-07-20T14:12:00.000+02:00

UBERMENSCH

2006-07-20T14:08:00.000+02:00

ATLAS

2006-07-20T14:04:00.000+02:00

LENIN

THE APOCALYPSE

NEVSKY PROSPEKT

2006-07-20T13:58:00.000+02:00

We're way behind on this one. This is how alcohol and tobacco companies in Russia get around new restrictions on advertising in print and media. Images are too suggestive, I agree; why not just bring the real thing right to the people.

2006-07-20T13:53:00.000+02:00

Apartment #2: June 25-July 2

2006-07-20T13:50:00.000+02:00

Intersection of Gorokhovaya and the Fontanka Canal. In the distance you can see the Admiralteysky.

2006-07-20T13:44:00.000+02:00

Ghost of a book in the doughnut shaped apartment.

2006-07-20T13:37:00.000+02:00

I lived in a doughnut shaped apartment building and the hall was a funhouse mirror every time.

2006-07-20T13:34:00.000+02:00

Then I moved apartments, had to leave the cats behind, but got this awesome set of James Bond like keys--apparently common here. One is a corkscrew, one a nailfile and the last a magnet. Now I can break into my own apartment.