picking cichorium » linkedin

Goa: Monsoons

mechanizedWitch — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:58:33 +0000

The ocean is rough, it rains every day, but the people are few. The annoying hippies-wanna-be, Israeli just-got-out-of-the-army dudes and screaming Eastern Europeans prefer to come only during high season, which makes Goa during monsoons an amazing vacation get away.
The gray sky and empty beaches bring about calmness. Busy worry gives way to introspection and soul searching. You sit in one of the few beach shacks with a warm belly of a Goa dog on your feet, and wonder, “Why, why, why?” All of the whys buzz around, and you spend the day watching the waves, thinking.

Richard Avedon’s women: movement

mechanizedWitch — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:28:06 +0000

Twiggy by Richard Avedon

Surely I have two midterm exams tomorrow, and my arse will be viciously kicked by Indian MBAs, who, mind you, are no regular MBA students. Many of them are restlessly studying human calculators on steroids. From what I hear, some of them mumble stuff about fixed costs and increasing returns to scale in their sleep. You are right, that is an entirely different story; my point is, this post could not wait.

When Twiggy’s boniness meets Richard Avedon’s hunger for movement, one must postpone her life and take a look. Then one must go further, gobbling up such photographer’s work. Sure, you can also google “Avedon” and come across all of these photos, but I really really wanted them on my page.

I was alerted to this spasmatic googling by Through the Eyes of Richard Avedon by NYT Style. Thank you!

Goya: staged

mechanizedWitch — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:56:30 +0000

I saw Il Trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera yesterday. According to the program, David McVicar’s “look” of the production was taken from Goya’s visuals: “The Third of May, 1808″ and The Disasters of War series.

Goya, Francisco. "The Third of May, 1808." 1814. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.

Goya, Francisco. "Great Deeds! Against the Dead!" The Disasters of War, plate 39. 1810-1820

Goya, Francisco. "Not Either." The Disasters of War, plate 36. 1810-1820

You can look up all of these 80 aquatint prints HERE.

The curtain was a zoom-in on a detail of “Pilgrimage to San Isidro’s Fountain.”

Goya, Francisco. "Pilgrimage to St. Isidro's Fountain." 1821. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.

this is what my berry saw

I did recognize the soldiers’ clothing and some of the decorations on stage, but Goya gives me a much gloomier and darker feeling than this particular production of Il Trovatore. Verdi is stunning though, and I got my doze of chills down the spine from the music.

In case somebody likes reading boring reviews in a newspaper, here is NYT on this production. I actually recommend going to that page and listening to Dolora Zajick. I am an uncultured peasant and normally don’t really care for any kind of female opera voices. Yet, I was mesmerized by this “true dramatic Verdi mezzo-soprano“, and her performance more than matched.

Lastly, as I sat down, I had a flashback to this piece by Mary Cassatt. I love Cassatt’s idea of having an impecable front for display, yet remaining “an other.”

Cassatt, Mary. "Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge." 1879. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA.

Just like the woman depicted in the paining, I did lots of double-edged people watching: endlessly beautiful hedgefund wives, old men with bright scarves in a breastpocket, old women with “perfect hair” and inch-thick gold chains, sophisticated talk in German, French, Russian, etc… I saw many people coursing amongst expensive orchestra seats, “Oh hello, so wonderful to see you!” Looks like opera remains what it has always been – a social event, participation in the fancy ways of the higher society.

red is hip, the world agrees

mechanizedWitch — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:18:01 +0000

Couture.com reports that red is the color of the season on the New York runways.

6119 Ilana Sutherland, Fall 2009

Wall Street Journal reports the same globally.

Goodbye, business school financing.

an always-neurotic country

mechanizedWitch — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:57:18 +0000

Ukraine greeted me with cold weather, absence of my suitcase for days, and forever-angry sales ladies. So far I have been yelled at with my every purchase. Yesterday, for example, I tried to pay for some face cream with a credit card and was asked for a PIN. I politely explain that I have not requested a PIN for this credit card – it does not exist. As a response the sales lady started screaming that every “plastic card” has a PIN and offered to bring hers to demonstrate. Five minutes into my stubbornness, i.e. the actual lack of the PIN, she was forced to change the way she was executing the transaction, and, voila, a receipt for signature sans entering a PIN emerged.

As of today, technology and its usage was the most frustrating part. I needed to email out 15 proofread essays to our students and brought a USB drive to the internet café, to which I was told that they “do not work with the USB devices” and was asked to bring a floppy disk (??!!!) Another saddening factor is my non-working blackberry. I have dutifully researched the GPRS coverage in Ukraine, found a press release about MTS covering Ukraine with GRPS since this summer, called up T-Mobile and enabled the international berry plan. After landing I have discovered that MTS does have a very good coverage, just not the GPRS one. The phone sees the GPRS network, but it does not function once you go 10 km outside of Kiev and Boryspil.

Even dogs on the streets are angrily-neurotic and do not apply reason to their actions. Yesterday I saw a pack of 5 large animals calmly strolling in the street. Suddenly, when passing one of many cars, one of the dogs turned around, barked at the vehicle and continued on its course. I have been perplexed for a while, getting on and riding in a falling-apart bus.