#evgeniy afonin

[apexart-journal]

...

It's time to leave. What an unbelievable month.

I, for sure, got one of the strongest impressions in my life, and it is an extraordinary experience that will remain with me as a source of inspiration and energy.

I am still stunned and overwhelmed, so it is difficult to make any global conclusions, but one thing is for sure - I'll miss this great city and this restless way of life. Never the same river twice, as they say, but I'll try to carry something with me.

NYC, that place that’s seen the highest highs and the most devastating lows, that monument to human will, imagination and courage, monstrously strong place - barely needs my compliments.

Apexart Fellowship experience, as I understood it, is largely aimed to disrupt stereotyped patterns of thought and behavior, to boost the sheer amount of diversity in mental life. If problem-solving is anything like evolutionary adaptation, the more possibilities the mind has at its disposal, the more creative its solutions will be. In this sense, entropy in the brain is a bit like a variation in evolution: it supplies the diversity of raw materials on which selection can then operate to solve problems and bring novelty into the world.

To give my own mind a strong shaking, see if I could renovate my everyday mental life by introducing a greater measure of entropy, and uncertainty, into it, was an absolutely brilliant idea. Thanks to all the exceptional team of Apexart for this opportunity, I greatly admire your professionalism and mission.

I say goodbye now, but sure our paths will cross one day!

[sustainhealthmagazine]

World Athletics Approves the Application of Six Russians to Compete at The European Cross Country Championships As Neutral Athletes

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By SPORT EDITOR FOR SUSTAIN HEALTH 

PUBLISHED: 18:12, 18 November 2019 | UPDATED: 18:42, 18 November 2019

The World Athletics Doping Review Board has agreed that the applications of six Russian athletes have met the exceptional eligibility criteria to compete in the 2019 European Cross Country Championships on 8 December as neutral athletes under competition Rule 22.1A(b) while the Russian national federation (RusAF) remains suspended.

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The Doping Review Board, which is composed of Robert Hersh (chair), Sylvia Barlag and Antti Pihlakoski, has accepted the applications of the following athletes for the following competitions:

Ekaterina Domnina (U20 event only) Ksenia Kuznetsova (U20 event only) Lilya Mendaeva Ildar Nadyrov Artem Popov (U20 event only) Irina Shipitsyna (U20 event only)

The participation of all these athletes as neutral athletes in international competition is still subject to formalities for eligibility under World Athletics Rules being completed and subject to acceptance of their entries by European Athletics as the meeting organiser.

The application process for athletes seeking neutral status in international competitions in 2019 opened in December 2018. A total of 135 Russian athletes have so far been declared eligible to compete as authorised neutral athletes in 2019. 58 applications have so far been rejected and one neutral athlete status has been revoked.

As this is an ongoing process, World Athletics will only make announcements as and when decisions are made by the Doping Review Board concerning successful applications and those athletes have been informed.

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2019 Authorised neutral athletes

Date of announcement and athlete/event:

13 September 2019: Yekaterina Ivonina (distance)

10 September 2019: Kseniya Aksenova (400m); Mikhail Akimenko (High Jump); Irina Ivanova (Pole Vault); Vladislav Panasenkov (Javelin); Dmitriy Sorokin (Triple Jump); Sardana Trofimova (Marathon); Anna Tropina (3000m steeplechase); Iulia Turova (20km race walk); Natalia Aksenova (High Jump); Anatoly Rybakov (5000/10000m); Konstantin Shabanov (110mH)

5 July 2019: Ilya Dolbin (pole vault), Dmitriy Kachanov (pole vault); (European U20 Championships and European Youth Olympic Festival): Vladislav Aleksandrin (triple jump), Natalya Spiridonova (long jump); (European U20 Championships only): Nadezdha Andryukhina (high jump), Irina Boldyreva (100m hurdles), Valeria Chehovich (400m hurdles), Artem Chermoshanskii (long jump), Sergey Demidov (discus), Anastasiia Eremiants (800m), Evgeniy Ermakov (high jump), Violetta Ignateva (discus), Evgeniy Karavaev (long jump), Stepan Kekin (combined events), Ruslan Kislykh (sprints), Vladena Komarova (combined events), Anna Korobova (hammer), Daria Kushnir (long jump), Nikita Mateev (400m), Dmitrii Nikitin (long jump), Viktor Pintusov (pole vault), Artem Popov (1500m), Maria Privalova (triple jump), Andrey Rodikov (combined events), Savelli Savlukov (800m), Irinia Shipitsyna (3000m steeplechase), Yulia Sokhatskaya (combined events), Ksenia Trubinova (combined events), Dmitriy Zyuzin (long distance), Sergey Zverev (hammer); (European Youth Olympic Festival only): Semen Borodaev (discus), Viktoria Cherviakova (javelin), Fedor Ivanov (400m hurdles), Stepan Rukhov (discus), Daria Shinkevich (shot put), Maria Tarabanskaya (400m hurdles), Olga Topolskova (400m hurdles)

17 June 2019 (European U23 Championships and/or World University Games only): Victor Bakharev (1500m), Aleksei Fadeev (high jump), Aleksei Kislitsa (discus), Kristina Klescheva (100m hurdles), Illia Krasnov (400m), Valeria Kuchina (javelin), Andrei Kukharenko (200/400m), Ivan Loginov (400m hurdles), Vladimir Lysenko (400m hurdles), Marina Maksimova (100/200m), Nikolay Orlov (javelin), Tamara Slastnikova (100/200m), Ekaterina Tiurina (400m hurdles), Nikolay Verbitckii (800m)

14 June 2019: Ekaterina Starygina (javelin)

28 March 2019: Elizaveta Kamenets (combined events), Alexander Komarov (combined events), Rail Kutuev (long jump), Liliia Mendaeva (1500/3000m) – European U20 Championships only, Aleksey Shevchuk (race walk)

21 February 2019: Nikita Andriyanov (high jump), Alena Beliakova (discus), Anastasiya Borodulina (hammer), Kirill Chernkhin (sprints), Yana Glotova (400m), Irina Gumeniuk (triple jump), Adelina Khalikova (high jump), Valeriya Khramova/Andreeva (400m), Aleksey Khudyakov (discus), Yevgeniy Korotovskii (hammer), Evgeniy Kunts (1500m), Dmitriy Lopin (sprints), Artem Makarenko (combined events), Mariia Pavlova (combined events), Sergey Polianski (long jump), Natalya Pospelova (hammer), Aleksey Sokirskii (hammer), Elena Sokolova (long jump), Polina Sokolova (discus), Irina Takuntcheva (400m)

21 January 2019: Diana Adasko (triple jump), Maxim Afonin (shot put), Dzhennifer Akiniimika (sprints), Mariia Aglitckaia (100m hurdles), Rinas Akhmadeev (long distance), Elizaveta Bondarenko (pole vault), Oleg Braiko (jumps), Viktor Butenko (discus), Timofey Chalyy (400m hurdles), Danila Danilov (hammer), Alexey Fedorov (triple jump), Aksana Gatauillina (pole vault), Georgiy Gorokhov (pole vault), Illia Ivaniuk (high jump), Maria Kochanova (high jump), Viacheslav Kolesnichenko (sprints), Alexander Komarov (combined events) – European U20 Championships only, Vilena Komarova (combined events), Elena Kulichenko (high jump), Anna Krylova (triple jump), Maria Lasitskene (high jump), Aleksandr Lesnoi (shot put), Denis Lukyanov (hammer), Alena Lutkovskaia (pole vault), Alena Mamina (sprints), Polina Miller (sprints), Vasiliy Mizinov (race walks), Timur Morgunov (pole vault), Ilia Mudrov (pole vault), Olga Mullina (pole vault), Egor Nikolaev (1500m), Sofia Palkina (hammer), Viktoriia Prokopenko (triple jump), Vera Rudakova (400m hurdles), Fedor Shutov (long distance), Illia Skkurenev (combined events), Anastasiia Shkurutova (hammer), Sergey Shubenkov (110m hurdles), Anzhelika Sidorova (pole vault), Olesia Soldatova (400m), Yana Smerdova (race walks), Elizaveta Tsareva (hammer)

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READ NEXT

[iami0]

The Showpiece/Awakening from Evgeniy 'netzz' Afonin on Vimeo.

New Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Director/Choreographer - Anna Abalikhina Dancers - Yuriy Chulkov / Polina Pshindina Art direction, Set and costume design - Galina Solodovnikova Video/light - Eugene Afonin, Sergey Vasilyev Composer/Sound designer - Vangelino Currentzis

EXHIBIT ITEM/AWAKENING was awarded two prizes from the prestigious "Golden Mask Award".

The first prize was awarded to the entire team for "Contemporary Dance/Best Production", and Evgeniy Afonin / Sergey Vasilyev received a second award for "Best Light Designer in Musical Theatre".

[heronetworkgg]

Nuevo post en nuestro sitio web

Dota 2 Shuffle: Resumen de Rosters - CIS

El cambio de jugadores en Dota 2, también llamado Roster Shuffle, acaba de cerrarse hace unas horas, por lo que tenemos ya una idea de los cambios más importantes de la escena de CIS hasta el día de hoy:

EQUIPOS FINALIZADOS

TEAM EMPIRE

Tras un buen desempeño en el TI7, los rusos han perdido a RodjER, y como su reemplazo han logrado fichar a VANSKOR, que será su nuevo capitán y posición 5, tras dejar su periodo de inactividad en su último equipo, Team Spirit.

Entra Sale Vladimir “Chappie” Kuzmenko Rostislav “fn” Lozovoi Andrey “Ghostik” Kadyk Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov Vladimir “RodjER” Nikogosyan  Ivan “VANSKOR” Skorokhod (C)

Imagen cortesía de Wykrhm Reddy.

  NATUS VINCERE

En un nuevo intento de Natus Vincere por volver a los puestos de avanzada, han sacado a Pajkatt y Biver, los dos miembros no-CIS que tenía el equipo, y han fichado a RodjER, ex Team Empire, y a un Hard Carry más bien desconocido para la escena, Crystallize, quien tuvo un breve paso por el equipo Double Dimension.

Entra Sale Vladislav “Crystallize” Krystanek Per Olsson “Pajkatt” Lille Danil “Dendi” Ishutin  Victor “GeneRaL” Nigrini Vladimir “RodjER” Nikogosyan Malthe “Biver” Winther  Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev (C)

Imagen cortesía de Wykrhm Reddy.

  SPARTAK ESPORTS

Uniendose a la gran cantidad de organizaciones deportivas que entran en el mundo de los esports está Sparkat Esports, división del Sparkat de Moscú, uno de los más importantes clubes de Rusia. Ellos han armado un equipo bien interesante, con talentos como BZZ y yoky-, junto a varios jugadores prometedores de la nueva camada de CIS.

Entra Sale  Egor “.Ark” Zhabotinskii  Stanislav “633” Glushan  Maxim “yoky-“ Kim  Evgeniy “Chuvash” Makarov  Mikhail “Misha” Agatov (C)

  M19

La división de Dota 2 de M19 data sólo desde mayo de este año, y pese al poco tiempo, han mostrado un buen nivel en varias clasificatorias donde han estado presentes. El equipo ha sufrido un par de cambios importantes desde su formación, perdiendo al Midlaner y al Capitán del equipo, iLTW y Misha respectivamente. En su reemplazo, han fichado a Pikachu, quien es hermano gemelo de Iceberg, el también Midlaner de Team Spirit, y a un desconocido jugador cuyo nickname es Aoharide.

Entra Sale Alexander “Nix” Levin Yaroslav “Pikachu” Vasilenko Igor “iLTW” Filatov Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov Albert “Aoharide” Garayev  Mikhail “Misha” Agatov (C) Nikolay “Muriel” Baykov (C)

  TEAM SPIRIT

Tras varios intentos fallidos por clasificar a torneos importantes, entre ellos el TI7 po supuesto, Team Spirit decidió enviar a banca a su Hard Carry y su Hard Support, BZZ y VANSKOR, quienes finalmente terminaron dejando la organización. En su reemplazo, han traído de M19 a iLTW y al ex Natus Vincere, Biver.

Entra Sale Igor “iLTW” Filatov   Stanislav “633” Glushan Bogdan “Iceberg” Vasilenko Alexander “DkPhobos” Kucheria Artyom “fng” Barshack (C) Malthe “Biver” Winther   Ivan “VANSKOR” Skorokhod

  EFFECT

Creemos que Effect es uno de los equipos Tier 2 que más se ha potenciado, gracias a la llegada de dos veteranos de CIS. Nos referimos a Sedoy, que llega a la posición 1 en reemplazo de Maden, y a Mag~, quien viene de regreso tras su aventura poco exitosa en la región de SEA, y reemplazará al joven jugador nongrata en la posición 3. Ambos jugadores cuentan con la experiencia suficiente para mejorar al equipo y llevarlo a mejores lugares dentro de las clasificatorias regionales.

Entra Sale Vadim “Sedoy” Musorin Igor “Maden” Andreevich Andrey “Afoninje” Afonin Andrey “Mag~” Chipenko Aleksey “nongrata” Vasiliev Arsenij “ArsZeeqq” Usov (C) Rinat “KingR” Abdullin

  DOUBLE DIMENSION

DD al igual que Effect, es otro de los equipos Tier 2 que se ha potenciado con veteranos y conocidos jugadores de la escena CIS, en desmedro de otros jugadores más nuevos y de menor renombre. El ex Capitán de Elements, LebronDota, junto al ex Empire y VP, NoFear, serán la nueva pareja de Supports. Quien sí es desconocido, al menos para la gran mayoría de fanáticos, es su nuevo Hard Carry, apodado Rajjix.

Entra Sale Roy “Rajjix” Rajji Ramazan “B7” Kudaybergen Dmitry “UnderShock” Bolshakov Alexander “Flow” Sazonov Nikola “LeBronDota” Popovic (C) Yakiv “dark” Hrabar Alexander “NoFear” Churochkin Evgeniy “Женя” Kuznetsov

  VEGA SQUADRON

Vega no ha realizado una publicación oficial en sus redes sociales, pero ya lleva jugando al menos tres clasificatorias distintas con Zayac, un muy buen Roaming Support con alto MMR, que ha tomado el lugar de Silent, de quien no sabemos su situación actual. Además, Zayac ha sido inscrito como miembro oficial en el la página de registro para la temporada, lo que indicaría que este cambio es permanente, y Silent podría haber sido dejado en banca, o bien haber salido de la organización.

Entra Sale  Ilya “thereayou” Korobkin Sergey “G” Bragin Vasily “AfterLife” Shishkin Bakyt “W_Zayac” Emilzhanov Airat “Silent” Gaziev  Semion “Slayer” Krivulya (C)

  COMANCHE

Comanche ha sido uno de los pocos de la región que ha decidido llevar la renovación de su equipo al extremo, dropeando a cada uno de los anteriores miembros del roster. Para su nueva escuadra, han reclutado a algunos experimentados jugadores, entre los que destacan Maden y Shachlo.

Entra Sale Igor “Maden” Andreevich Vyachslav “Oxaien” Brykov Denis “Ryūjin” Trofimov Vlad “GGwpLanaya” Malikov Maxim “Shachlo” Abramovskikh Evgeny “XaKoH” Kochetov Sergey “EcNart” Slobodyanyk Khaled “sQreen” El-Khabbash Ilyas “1ls.” Ganeev Gleb “hNN)” Shilov

Como podemos ver, hay muchos cambios para una interesante clasificatoria regional, cuyo mejor exponente de los últimos tiempos, Virtus.Pro espera poder seguir dominando con su mismo roster de la temporada anterior. Al menos algo es seguro, la competencia estará mejor que en temporadas anteriores.

¿Cuál ha sido tu alineación favorita de esta nueva temporada? Déjanos tu comentario.

[apexart-journal]

Day 29 - last night

It was the penultimate day, a long journey.

The culmination is a party and the opening of the exhibition at the cemetery, “Morbid Anatomy Summer Garden“, organized by Morbid Anatomy Museum.

[apexart-journal]

Day 28

[apexart-journal]

Day 27

Another morning in the museum, the Museum of Arts and Design in particular.

The long-awaited genetic testing kit arrived in the mail!

Breaking bad - Whitney Museum

And a very unusual evening spent at the event discussing computer games and LGBT - sic!. The month of Pride everywhere. It was also great to talk about the gaming industry and arty-computer-games with Lisa Vagnoni.

[apexart-journal]

Day 26

I spent my free morning at the Guggenheim.

Saw Cai Guo-Qiang alive - wow.

Flushing Chinatown. Looks very authentic, like more real than  Chinatown at Manhatten.

I never thought Tofu looked like this:

It's very easy to forget that you're in NYC, not a Chinese provincial Mall.

Very vivid taste experience.

In the evening, the film "The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson", shown directly from Netflix.

The most piquant thing is that it happens in the "Union Theological Seminary", which is a very strange Seminary.

I decided to look at the comments on Google maps:

Well, that explains it.

[apexart-journal]

Day 24-25

Day 24 was my free day, and I spent it with friends from Russia who emigrated to the US more than twenty-five years ago. Fabulous, sunny day and I very much enjoyed their company.

Next day early in the morning barely kicked himself out to that volunteer assignment with NYCares - Meal Service at St. Peters' Senior Center. I expected that it should be tough, especially considering things I've been told on Volunteer Orientation in NYCares about working with the elderly and recent experience with working on "Campaign Against Hunger."

I was wearing a mesh hat, gloves, and an apron. Too bad I didn't take a selfie. My fellow volunteers - some experienced guys from the Bronx, French girl, and some "work couch" (??). They were quite silent, and newcomers notably were nervous.

The chef was finishing his meal, and we laid out knives and forks on trays. Then everything was fast - we carried the trays on the tables. There was an elaborate system, which regulates from which side of the hall volunteers should start serving - so no one should feel discriminated. Our "customers" thanked us for the job, and all interaction was particularly nice.

Then, we were fed too. Next, we helped unload trays and dishes from the dishwasher and then wipe it. To my surprise, that was it. Much easier and much more pleasant then I thought.

Paradoxically, in the next room were graduation celebration.

With a sense of accomplishment, I went out to take the tram to Roosevelt Island.

So I walked and thought, listened to the next cool audiobook, looked around for a few more hours.

By the evening I remembered that the kind Apexart gave me some member cards for free admission to some museums, so I picked Cooper Hewitt - Smithsonian Design Museum and got there just in time, an hour before closing. There was a fabulous exhibition. The exhibition themes explore seven strategies that designers are using to collaborate with nature—understanding, remediate, simulate, salvage, nurture, augment, and facilitate.

[apexart-journal]

Day 23

That was one of the most unusual activities I experienced so far. 21-22 June - longest day in the year and, accordingly, the shortest night. On my schedule, I had to wake up at about 3 am and take a subway to the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine,  the world's largest Anglican cathedral and church, to attend at "Annual Summer Solstice Celebration".  It was a concert by Paul Winter Consort, an American musical group, conducted in a very special environment.

Firstly, a journey through the night, sleeping New York.

Secondly, absolute darkness in the enormous cathedral. Half the audience is sitting on yoga mats. The other half is on the benches.

Music: organ, saxophone, piano, drums, electronics. Somewhere in between of classical music, jazz, world fusion, and ambient, evoking meditation music. Very mysterious.

Then the dawn came so I could see better where I was. Stage lighting switched on, and the music becomes more active.

And finally, when the sun fully rose, the concert ended and I went back to sleep a little bit before next round.

I slept for three hours, and it was time to go the hell out somewhere, to Coney Island, to see the next parade - "Mermaid Parade." An hour in the subway and there it is - an outstanding pandemonium.

There were so many people everywhere that it was almost impossible to see what's going on. The sun blazed my head, around was madness and jam.

Around there were ridiculous mermaids of all kinds.

At the same time, it is impossible not to admire the creativity and some courage of the parade participants.

At some point, I tired of this craziness and went to check out the sacred place for all American Russians - Brighton Beach.

After looking at all the beauty of Coney Island, roasted in the sun, I went to the Brooklyn Heights, to deepen the matter of mermaids by attending the event called "Sunset Seine: For World Fish Migration Day."

Furthermore, I met Nathan Catlin - a former apexart fellow, artist, and printmaker. We pretty quickly left that fish migration club and spent time discussing this and that, especially there was an exciting story about Nathan's fellowship in Jerusalem two years ago. It was great to know more about that "outbound from New York" experience.

[apexart-journal]

Day 22 - panic and joy

It was raining this morning, and I woke up very sleepy and lazy. But soon I was animated by the panic attack - I couldn't find my passport. I searched my apartment several times and found nothing. Thinking over the plan of how to live with it, I just went to the first appointment in my schedule - juggling exercises at Bryant Park.

And suddenly, when I almost accepted my fate, while I was walking to the park, like a lightning bolt, a memory came to me - yesterday, at home, I put the passport in the thickest book, so it dried and was flat (after the rain). Wow. It was pure ecstasy.

With a huge smile on my face, I reached Bryant Park, but presumably, because of the weather, no one in the Park looked like jugglers.

However, instead of juggles, the park hosted an outdoor music festival, organized by Carnegie Hall and some unknown group just started to perform. It was very high-quality, piercing music and vocals in the spirit of the American folk music; I listened with amazement for an hour. The band, by the way, was called "Jayme Stone's Folklife."

After wandering around a bit, I came to the New York Public Library. This pompous, century-old building, with spacious reading rooms, where anyone can go and sit with his laptop, for example; Or even read a book.

I spent an hour in the reading room, trying to plan my future trip to Montreal in August, and then went on an exhibition tour that takes place right in the library: "Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50", dedicated, as of yesterday's performance, the anniversary of Stonewall Riot.

In the evening, I was waiting for a pressing adventure - an Improv Comedy class. And it happened. It was very harsh without perfect English, but some warm-up exercises were very fun. This class is probably the first event, where I clearly did not have enough speaking skills to participate fully. But I enjoyed the way it worked for others. Maybe at home, someday, I will go deeper into this matter. The rain is finally over and the sun is out

[apexart-journal]

Day 21

Today is the third round of volunteer work, but this time, happily, not in the garden, but on the "Campaign Against Hunger" project, that's different. It is a social service where low-income families can get free food and volunteers help pack and distribute to people. I did a little work on customer assistance and warehouse work.

It was tough to work at the customer assistance because I did not understand the system of that "points," who are allowed to take what and I had to communicate with people in English who did not know that I'm a foreigner and it would be sweet to speak more slowly.

I spent most of my time in the warehouse, slicing and packing watermelons, bread, and frozen dumplings. It's convenient; I could listen to an audiobook about crooks in Silicon Valley in parallel. It wasn't allowed to take pictures, so I'll post the cover of the book instead:

In the evening I finally saw with my own eyes the legendary High Line park, and I was not disappointed.

I got there on the way to the play called "No Agenda Agenda" by Antonio Ramos, which took place at the very end of High Lane park and had been devoted to the legacy and memory of some queer icons and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. It was a pretty funny madhouse. A weird dance performance in the original location.

[apexart-journal]

Day 20 - socialization day

I took a Braille course early in the morning. It is impossible to learn this in two hours, but even this time made a deep impression on me. The class was in a very cramped room in the library where half the students were with vision or hearing limitations, and everyone kept bumping into each other. My mentor was Antonio - the exceptional guy I had a great conversation with. First, I learned the alphabet, and then I learned to type a little on a Braille typewriter, which looks like this:

And, accordingly, this machine squeezes out the dots on the cardboard. At first, I was typing the Russian tongue-twister (with English letters) - "Klara u karla ukrala koral." And then, English one - "She sells seashells by the seashore." It was fun.

Then I jokingly suggested that it would be interesting to connect the piano to this typewriter, and Antonio told me that now he is studying at the Arts & Technology program (https://tisch.nyu.edu/itp), learning how to program microelectronics to be used for unusual purposes and so on, which is very close to what I'm actually doing and I was amazed. Just magic.

Then I ran to the Apexart meeting, got the program for next week and had a brief lunch with thoughtful and wise Steven, and again hurried to my psychotherapy session with Nancy. It was very energetic and inspiring.

Then I finally had a little break, and in the evening, I had another meeting - Ken Yurkovitch, photographer and professor at Queensborough Community College. Instead of the capoeira classes, which was canceled because of the weather, we went to the bar. I'm ashamed to say, this is the first time in New York I've been a little drunk. Ken is a brilliant and very open person, I enjoyed his company very much.  And Guinness.

This was a great day.

[apexart-journal]

Day 18, 19

It's fun to be back in New York, it feels like home, but it's not. All Monday, I drove back, come to himself, and dealt with household duties.

On Tuesday the morning (8:30 am), I should attend a Breakfast Forum featuring Ray Donovan DEA Special Agent in Charge, the guy who caught legendary El Chapo, as I read on the web. But - I late for 20 minutes and when I found the building, they don't let me in,  but I was not allowed, because after the start of the entrance is already closed — security measures to defend against drug traffickers probably. I was very sad because the meeting was supposed to be very interesting.

It started raining, and I just had to go to Staten Island, to the Chinese Garden. When I got off the ferry, the rain transformed into a shower. So the first part of the Staten Island journey was rather mastering of the skill of using buses.

When I got there, my shoes were all wet, but the garden turns out to be a very atmospheric place. And most importantly, there was a roof! And thanks to the rain there were almost no people. I enjoyed the silence and that poetic space very much — an excellent place to think and reflect.

Staten Island looks a little bit like a different city - small city. But the vibe seemed very pleasant to me.

And the last event for today - a documentary film about Lorraine Hansberry at Staten Islan New York Public Library. It started to rain again, so I had to navigate through the buses again. Never heard of Lorraine Hansberry before, but she is a significant figure in American culture, as I understood. Still very impressed by the approach even to such small club events. Even though there were 10-15 people, after the show, in turn, everyone read the letters of Lorraine, plus one of the writers of the film moderated the discussion and so on.

After sunset I took the ferry, it was very foggy and beautiful.

[apexart-journal]

Day 17 - DC Weekend 2

At the evening yesterday, I found that in my email I have contacts of several people, who bravely agreed to meet with me today. Thanks for that to my neighbor on this blog - Casey Smith and Elizabeth & Abbie. Additionally, there was notice, that today is so-called Bloomsday, the annual James Joyce celebration at Petworth neighborhood.

So, in the morning, while I tried to find the place to have breakfast, I interacted with Laura Peterson, and she proposed to meet at Joyce's readings, to kill two birds with one stone.

After visiting several attractions on the national alley, I took the subway to go to Bloomsday. BTW, DC subway is beautiful; especially I like lighting.

It's exemplary.

I got out of the tourist center for the first time, and it was a quite charming neighborhood. It is impossible to get an objective impression of the city in two days, but now at least I know where people live in DC.

When I come to that Loyalty Bookstore, it appears to be a small place, there was one man, who read Ulysses into the microphone and another three, who listened.

Ulysses is challenging to understand even in my native language, and here it was like a ritual than the actual reading. Then Laura came, and we went outside for lunch. Laura Peterson - works as an investigator for the Project on Government Oversight, which is something like our Anti-Corruption Fund (https://fbk.info/english/about/), but without the component of political activism, as I understood. It's also was a surprising coincidence that I just started reading that "Dark Money" book just yesterday.

In short, I spent an exciting hour and a half or so, talking about politics and everything, and then I went back to the National Mall to see Air & Space Museum. Couldn't miss that.

I went to the dome cinema to see a film about dark matter by Neil deGrasse Tyson - it was pure magic.

I didn't have time to see more museums because I had to go to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

From the subway there are buses.

According to the schedule, I had to go to two concerts. One was right in the foyer and quickly ended. And the second was not free, as it was written in the schedule and tickets were no longer on sale.

But it's OK because in the Center and around there was a lot of interesting things. For example, a photo exhibition.

Sunny, beautiful and lazy weekend evening in DC.

[apexart-journal]

Day 16 - DC Weekend 1

At 5 am - early in the morning went to the bus station to go to Washington DC. That is an odd thing to see New York at dawn. The streets are unusually empty; all homeless people sleep on benches or wherever they have to, only street vendors are preparing for the coming day.

When I finally got to DC, I felt a very different vibe than in New York, for sure. Most of my ideas about what the city looks like are taken from the "House of cards" series or just from the news, and I expected a lot of civil servants rushing around in their suits among the granite office buildings.

The buildings were indeed in place, but that day was a Saturday, so the city looked like a movie set left to be looted by tourists.

I was scheduled to visit the Library of Congress, but unfortunately, it was closed.

Among other things that day, I walked along the "Embassy Row" - yet it is much nicer than a tourist-filled center.

Indonesia rocks.

Embassy of Venezuela is going through hard times.

I walk from Dupont Circle to Montrose Park - it was super nice.

Visited the legendary night bookstore. Apparently, the places working at night in DC are already attractions.

I bought an audio version of this book, to make the walk around Washington D.C. more immersive (and have not regretted):

Despite the fact that Washington looks very prosperous and shiny, schizophrenia is thriving: