if to wake up early

it has not rained for a month in Hyderabad

cyber city builds away despite the crisis

Poison rocks

dance floor at Poison

6 am photo hunts around a dried up lake ended with a late night in the city. Poison with its with giant bouncers and glass floors is something else. Where some of the drinks were really sucky, trance and food rocked. I am definitely a believer.

A piece by Charu Parashar from the Indian Fashion Week 2008 (pic from Rediff News)

Juicy colors of the Land of the Pretty encouraged me to look up Indian fashion designers. I remember reading in the Economist long time ago that Indian fashion industry mostly sticks to the local market and does not yet make a furror internationally. Truly, I have found close to nothing on Indian fashion in the Western Media, but found lots of badly compiled reports in the Indian online editions. Dude, if there is one Indian industry that could be taken to a new level with ease, it’s fashion, especially its online representation. I see mountains of work for webdesigners and SEO specialists, but is there demand?

There is though one Western lady who is really into “Indian” fashion. She freaked me out in the mall the other day. Gee, and I thought I left her in New York. 

Barbie in Hyderabad Central

Rei Kawakubo of Commes des Garçons. Autumn/Winter 2009/10. Paris

secondly, in case you are not in the mood for some more Barbie stuff, here it comes. 

Spotted: Barbie keeps celebrating her 50th bday in West Village.

the fluffy stuff in the lower right corner is Barbie’s new amazing outfit. it’s almost Kawakubo.

i can't quite tell whether Barbie's taste gets better and better every year, or stays the awesome same

Another piece from Fall/Winter 2009 by Kawakubo

 more of this Japanese designer’s stuff on NY Mag.

P.S. if i ever have a female child, and if she is allowed to play with stickdolls, I will give them to her naked. no corrupting child’s taste with ugliness.

Chinatown fish shops are awesome!

UniQlo is addictive for those who are obsessive (i.e. me)

I don't buy Indian fastfood, but this shelf was prettier than the one with the spices

I promise more pictures next time my berry wanders around SoHo. Here are two pics of wintry NYC since the eternal wisdom of Alice calls for them: “What is the use of a book, without pictures or conversations?”

I grew towards loving the Piano Building

A rare moment of snowed in benches near the City Hall

Clearly if you have come to check out my blog, you are bored out of your mind and have no life. A game from this week’s Economist might be a better alternative for wasting your time. I also recommend The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem, which is something like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but 10 times shorter.

Awaiting the beheading

A complete summary of Ukrainian life as of today can be found in the first chapter of Bulgakov’s “Master and Margarita.” Even trying to order sashimi at the fancy Buddha Bar in the down town Kiev where a champagne bottle goes for $1000 ended with the waiter coming back to inform that there was no yellow tail. Choices one, two and three were also unavailable. Shortly,out of the 9 kinds of fish on the menu, you could get only 5, one of them being raw shrimp (bleh).

- Дайте нарзану, – попросил Берлиоз.
- Нарзану нету, – ответила женщина в будочке и почему-то обиделась.
- Пиво есть? – Сиплым голосом осведомился Бездомный.
- Пиво привезут к вечеру, – ответила женщина.
- А что есть? – Спросил Берлиоз.
- Абрикосовая, только теплая, – сказала женщина.
- Ну, давайте, давайте, давайте!..

Here is the same in my free translation, written especially for our no-Russian-understanding friends

- Some seltzer, please, – asked Berlioz.
- There is none, – answered the woman in the kiosk, and, for some reason, got offended.
- Do you have beer? – Bezdomny enquired in a hoarse voice.
- Beer’s being delivered later this evening,- the woman replied.
- Well what do you have? – Berlioz asked the woman.
- Apricot water, only it’s warm.
- All right, all right, we will have that!..

Inspired by [See post to listen to audio]

The song is about Anne Sexton; it heavily draws on her poetry, mostly on 45 Mercy Street.

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This photo is substantially digitally manipulated: there are three layers to the image, and this is actually the same side of the face on both sides. The idea was to make this image confusing, to where the viewer does not clearly understand whether the droplets are running down the face or another surface, and how many surfaces there are all together.

Friday Evening

Friday Evening 2

Astor Place, NYC

Manhattan from New Jersey

Far Rockaway beach in Queens, NY