Tag: art

Celebrating Liza’s Commencement and New Beginnings at Virginia Tech | May 16 2025, 02:00

Liza has finally graduated from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and now we have a certified architect in the family! Over here, a graduation ceremony is called a “Commencement,” which translates from English as “beginning.” Today, there was a formal diploma presentation ceremony. However, they don’t actually hand out diplomas but something like a voucher for a diploma, which can be converted into a diploma as long as you don’t have any “tails” left. Because the ceremony is a thing unto itself, and of course, no one is going to move or adjust it. The actual diploma will be sent by mail.

Today and tomorrow, our entire family, including our menagerie, is in Blacksburg—the place where the huge university campus is located, seemingly taking over the entire little town in southern Virginia. Nearly 40,000 students study here alongside about 13,000 staff members. It’s a whole universe, its branches shining even in our parts: campuses and research centers are not only here in Blacksburg. But this place is the “core.”

Well, now Liza, learn to drive! You won’t manage to get to work on public transportation around here; it’s very fragmented, slow, and unreliable. All in all, we are very happy. Tomorrow is the main event at the big stadium, and then, onto new tracks!

It seems like it was only yesterday. 2020, masks, COVID. But they let you study “in-person.” With a lot of restrictions, but at least not from home. You chose architecture, and people constantly asked us if we had architects in the family? Of course, we do, that’s me, except, well, I’m not really about houses and bridges. But now we have the full spectrum!

If the standard bachelor’s diploma in the States is obtained in four years, at Virginia Tech it takes five years to study architecture—and that’s still not a master’s degree. Initially, we were all worried about how we were going to afford this. When you apply to the institute, you show them all your income and expenses, and some smart system made up of a mix of people and computers tells you, for example, you’re poor but smart, so the university will charge you little, not a lot. Or it says, “you can afford it, I see,” so they give you the full load, tighten your belts. We didn’t quite meet the necessary level of poverty, and the numbers were initially scary, but somewhere along the way educational loans helped, and we also grew over time and started to get scared less.

And just like that, five years have flown by, and now Liza will start earning her own money. A big deal. From mid-June, Liza starts her first job—the one that had already offered her several internships in summer and winter. So there probably wasn’t even a question of whether to hire her full-time or not.

Lizochka, congratulations again! And wishing you success!

P.S. Also, today is Yuki’s birthday—he’s 4 years old. He sadly watched from the window as we loaded our suitcases into the car. Nadia quietly said, “Yuki, we’re going to Liza and Levchik,” and he, skidding his claws on the floor, charging at full speed, with skids on the turns, dashed to the door and sat next to it! And that’s considering how we usually have to shove him out the door to walk him—he’s a real homebody. Literally: you push him down the steps toward the door and he moves as long as you push him, reluctantly gets dressed in his harness, then he starts his half-hour pond avoidance program. But this time, he totally lost his mind! He understands us somehow.

Reflective Interlude: Jean Nouvel’s Mirrored Cube in Paris | May 06 2025, 03:59

This building pleasantly surprised me in Paris. It’s a large mirrored cube that covers some construction at this site (I will attach what used to stand here before the cube was erected in the comments). The idea of architect Jean Nouvel. Notice how both buildings are reflected and seem to be “completed” by the reflections. In autumn 2025, this spot will open as the Cartier Foundation Museum of Contemporary Art, so this is a temporary structure.

Metropolitan Opera’s Le Nozze di Figaro: A Mixed Experience | May 03 2025, 04:14

I’m not even sure whether to praise the Metropolitan Opera or criticize them. They have a new production of Le Nozze di Figaro, and this year they are showing it exactly once in a live broadcast on April 26 and exactly once in a recording on April 30, and only in select theaters worldwide. They offer recordings for a fee, but never from the current season—well, for obvious reasons. So, Figaro will only be added to their library next year.

Our local cinema failed the live broadcast—they apologized, sent us home, and promised a refund. Four days later, a recorded session was shown in the same theater. That went almost smoothly, if you ignore the severe sound issues during the first 30 minutes. Since I can’t tell if both were issues with the specific theater or poor organization by the Met, I dropped them a support line just in case.

And support apologized on behalf of the theater and, as a nice bonus, sent me a link to a video 1280 × 720, 3h37m, asking me to watch it by Monday because after that the carriage turns back into a pumpkin. Well, okay, not quite an mp3 file, but it streams via m3u8, and yt-dlp manages to convert it into a 6-gigabyte mp4 file in 3 minutes.

Interestingly, this recording starts with the opera artists singing the Ukrainian anthem on stage before the curtain is even raised. This introduction was not shown at the cinema.

I am honest, and of course, I won’t give the file to anyone. I will watch it myself when convenient, and then I may delete it, or might keep it on my personal laptop for personal use. And I might even buy a subscription to the Met this weekend. In short, they’ve done well, though, there is a small nuance 🙂

A Night of Nostalgia: Rediscovering Forgotten Melodies with Vizbor’s Comrades | April 28 2025, 06:00

Unexpectedly, Nadya and I found ourselves at a concert commemorating Vizbor, featuring artists who instantly took us back to our student years, to hiking trips and evening gatherings with a guitar. Onstage was also our wonderful friend — actor and founder of an acting school, Artem Lyskov, with whom it’s always a pleasure to meet and chat. Their next tour stops are Philadelphia, then Boston and Brooklyn.

That evening, the stage welcomed Veniamin Smekhov, Yuliy Kim, Alexey Ivaschenko (Ivasi) with his daughter, actress Maria Ivaschenko, Timur Shaov, Dmitry Bogdanov, Galina Khomchik with her son Alexey, and Artem Lyskov.

It’s amazing how many songs, forgotten since our student days, seemed firmly lodged in memory. As soon as the guitar played, the words emerged effortlessly, one after another, as if untouched by the decades.

Botched American Symbols in Safronov’s Artwork | April 22 2025, 21:29

The “artwork” by Safronov that the American delegation didn’t dare to show publicly, simply because the unskilled artist in the process of sketching the photo of the flag under the photo of the president decided not to bother with the 50 little stars, just drawing however many he did, where the stars look quite drunken. It’s impossible to fit 50 there, but if you roughly follow the pattern, you end up with 46, or if you strain to imagine perhaps another hidden one, then 47. There’s simply nowhere to put the other three. That means, three or four are missing. Well, okay, we get the hint about Alaska, but what about the other two? Any ideas?

P.S. Regarding the fact that on the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty from the facial side there’s no New York to be seen, and that the pedestal is depicted in reverse perspective — probably just minor details 🙂

Curating a Diverse Bookshelf: Art, Science, and Beyond | April 18 2025, 17:28

The books requested a new home. Brought the home, settled the home, group photos from the housewarming.

Fed the pics to ChatGPT, got a booklist. Edited a bit, it makes mistakes.

Top shelf – art. I only keep the best in the list:

1. Alla Prima II by Richard Schmid

2. Virgil Elliott – Traditional Oil Painting

3. Anatomy for Sculptors – Uldis Zarins

4. Anatomy of Facial Expression – Uldis Zarins

5. Form of the Head and Neck – Uldis Zarins

6. Impressionism by Bomford, Kirby

7. Lessons in Classical Painting by Juliette Aristides

8. The Practice of Oil Painting & Drawing by Solomon J. Solomon

Second shelf – science and other science pop

Sergey Yastrebov “From Atoms to the Tree” (biology, chemistry)

Kukushkin – Clapping with One Hand (biology)

Burlak — The Origin of Language (linguistics)

Eric Kandel – In Search of Memory (biology)

Andrew Solomon- Far from the Tree (biology)

Richard Dawkins – The Selfish Gene (biology)

Yuval Noah Harari – Sapiens (history)

Yuval Noah Harari – Nexus (history)

The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene (physics)

Carl Zimmer – Life’s Edge (biology)

Carl Zimmer – She has a mother’s laugh (biology)

Semikhatov — Everything That Moves (physics)

Poluektov – Mysteries of Sleep (psychology)

Noga Gál – The Living and the Dead Word (linguistics)

Kitaigorodsky – Entertaining Theory of Probability (mathematics)

Steven Pinker- How the Mind Works (biology, psychology)

Robert Sapolsky – Determined (biology, psychology)

Neil deGrasse Tyson – Accessory to War (astrophysics)

Flavor by Bob Holmes (biology)

Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs, and Steel (biology)

Marilyn Sheldrake – Entangled Life (biology)

Wolfram – A New Kind of Science (mathematics)

Frans de Waal – Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (psychology)

Eidelman – How Propaganda Works (psychology)

Peter Godfrey – Metazoa (biology)

Asya Kazantseva – Who Would Have Thought! (hard to say)

Asya Kazantseva – Someone Is Wrong on the Internet (–“–)

Asya Kazantseva – The Brain is Material (–“–)

Gordon – Structures, why things don’t fall down (architecture)

Thomas Heatherwick – Humanize (? design, architecture?)

Ed Yong – I Contain Multitudes (biology)

Po Bronson, Arvind Gupta – Decoding the World (biology)

Jonathan Haidt – The Anxious Generation (psychology)

Plus, some books there are biographies and fiction. Unfortunately, many good books I’ve read and would like to put on the shelf are not in paper but in digital or left behind in a past life.

Recommend what else I might like.

Exploring the Intriguing History and Ecology of Kangaroos and Camels | April 17 2025, 22:47

Interesting. It turns out that before Russia imposed a temporary ban on kangaroo meat imports, it consumed 70% of all kangaroo meat produced in Australia.

It turns out that not only do camels roam in Australia, but there are more of them than in Central Asia and the Middle East, and Australia actively sells them to Saudi Arabia, for instance. Moreover, camels were introduced to Australia from the Middle East by Afghans, who left quite a significant (and positive) mark on the history of Australia.

For example, here’s a photo of the Ghan train — it features a camel on its logo. This is no coincidence; it is actually named after those Afghans who brought the camels.

Also interesting is that camels are originally from our regions. Yes, the USA is, in fact, the homeland of camels. According to some estimates, camels first appeared in North America between 40 and 50 million years ago, and 3 million years ago, they crossed into Asia via a land bridge in the Bering Strait area, and then made their way to Africa. In recent years, convincing evidence has been found that these animals inhabited almost all of North America. And of course, the climate was different back then.

Moreover, I read that there is such a thing as “kangatarianism” — a practice of following a diet that excludes the meat of all animals except kangaroo, for environmental and ethical reasons.

Also, it turns out that there are tree kangaroos (Tree-kangaroo). Also, in English, a group of kangaroos is called “a mob” – a gang 🙂 However, in Australian English, mob is not used in the same connotation as “mafia” or “gang”. Indeed, a group of crows with their “murder of crows” isn’t too far off either.

Oh, how could I not mention etymology! There is a legend that the word “kangaroo” means “I don’t understand”. I thought so too until I looked into it.

Actually, “kangaroo” originates from the Guugu Yimithirr language, an Indigenous language of northern Australia, where gangurru specifically refers to a type of kangaroo. But it’s not that simple 🙂

It all starts when James Cook asked the Guugu Yimithirr what the animal was called — they answered gangurru, which did indeed denote it. The English borrowed this word as kangaroo.

Latter, half a century later, the etymology starts to get tangled. In 1820, a certain Philip King sailed along a river near Cook’s landing place and recorded a list of words from the local Guugu Yimithirr dialect. Everything matched Cook’s records — except for one word. When asked “what is that animal called?”, they didn’t answer gangurru, but minha. It means that Cook clearly made a mistake. If minha is “kangaroo”, then what is gangurru?

This is where the myth begins. Some begin to think: maybe Cook misunderstood? Maybe he asked about the animal, and they didn’t understand him — and gangurru meant “I don’t know”? This version is a fabrication, and it didn’t go further than speculation, but it’s a funny story, historically plausible, and it began to be repeated. Thus, it turned into a persistent legend.

Then the confusion reversed. “Kangaroo” — then and now — became the stereotypical word from the “aboriginal language”. Every European settler coming to Australia knew exactly one word from Guugu Yimithirr — and only that one. The problem is that there were hundreds of languages in Australia, many of which were weakly or not at all related to Guugu Yimithirr. They simply did not have the word gangurru or its equivalent.

That’s where the problems arose. For example, settlers arrived in the area of modern Sydney and tried to “communicate” with the local people, i.e., they just yelled “kangaroo” at them. This would hardly have helped, but it is important to remember the geography: the Guugu Yimithirr lived on the Cape York Peninsula, in the far north of Australia, and the Sydney aborigines — the Iora people, speaking Dharuk language — lived almost at the other end of the continent. They didn’t know what the word “kangaroo” meant, so they assumed the Europeans were particularly interested in their domestic livestock. When cows began to be unloaded from the ship, the locals asked: “Is this your ‘kangaroo’?”

Such is the story.

Also, it turns out, kangaroos are good swimmers. In the second photo, a kangaroo tail sold in our town. For the dogs to gnaw on.

Artists’ Circle Epiphanies: From Mastery to Obsession | April 13 2025, 18:51

I am generally interested in artists who have developed for many years in the techniques of traditional painting and drawing, and then had an epiphany about circles and spent the rest of their lives trying to explain it to us.

Including early Klimt, Mondrian, Picasso, Kandinsky

Interested, but not yet convinced