i have not updated this blog for a while.
well, too many things are happening, and in a way a lot of reasons to write here, yet when life is like a shinkansen blogging feels like a chewing gum in a fancy restaurant.
anyway, i bought my snickers in april and they've been to boston, san francisco, new york, amsterdam, moscow, minsk, hong kong, macao, chicago and some small places in-between. where my head was it's another story.

here's some very random pictures (clickable for the full res)


this is a burner's bus, not a rare thing to see is california


height street in san francisco is one of the hippiest places on earth, yet they have pink store like that too. freedom of thought is very important here.


little cafe in the same area, posters here reflect the mood in the city.


moscow, vdnh, my favorite place to go when i was skipping classes in middle school, it is in a bad shape these days, yet still fun to visit


many things are under construction in moscow - they are redoing hotel moskva, on the outside it will look the same as before, including the asymmetry that is there because stalin singed both alternative plans, so they were confused and in order not to disobey the tyron they used both plans.


this is my friend, at his place in boston, he travels even more than i


these are my friends in moscow. i know them for so many years. more than 25.


moscow, cdh - it is one my most favorite places in moscow, it is a huge art exhibitions' place, we used to watch non-mainstream movies when we were students in the 80s. it is still really cool, but i heard that it's not for long. sad.


macao is like a huge casino city. former portuguese city-state colony next to hong kong. it is very different from hong kong. people, language, culture, architecture, yet they are very near each other.


also in macao they have lots of european style architecture, it is a small town, on two islands. and a lot of casinos are being built, i guess in 5-10 years it will be very different.


april 12, 1961 yuri gagarin went to space and got back. this in a day that people all over the world celebrate as a space day. and there are parties called yuri's night in thousand of places. but in california there is a nasa center and it is an amazing place and an amazing event. tons of people and live music (this time was my favorite tipper there too) exhibitions etc etc. really cool, every year it's getting better and better.


dollar is falling, gas prices are rising, so inexpensive supermarkets in boston is crowded. before july 4th holiday weekend lots of people are afraid that they gonna lose weight.


in moscow, sokolniki park, two metal pipes are trying to talk


downtown hong kong. people


and many many buildings in hong kong are tall and narrow. it has a nice skyline.


ocean there is full of life. lots of big ships


in new york, east village, in manhattan, there is a small cafe, that i really like. about 14 year ago i went there for the first time, and they had a brunch deal - an omelet + toast + fruit + juice + beer, all for 6 bucks. and they open 24 hours. i just love that place.


moscow, varshavskaya subway station. i grew up in that area. lots of dogs sleep calmly there now.


minsk is nice. often feels very nostalgic for me. very clean, quite, very little street advertising.


my favorite futuristic apartments in moscow - alye parusa. when they first build them a studio there was for 50 000 bucks, i thought it was madly expensive, i guess now it is more than half a million. lots of fancy construction in moscow, yet it all look 90% finished at best. i guess people just don't know that it could be better.


this is a celling light that i was starring at all my childhood. i had it in my room. it is at my parent's country house near moscow now. it is hard to imaging how many hours i looked at it, and it was long time ago. simple geometric forms that were popular in 70s. but one "square" is irregular, and goes in a bit. every night i was thinking is it intensional or just an error. what do you think?

can you imaging, they lost my luggage again. this time aa forgot it in chicago. but next day they brought it home.

i am in moscow. i really wanted to right a long big entry about my all this sf-to-msk move, but there is no time for it now (((
on arrival they lost my suitcase, but finally i got. for a while i thought that it was just stolen.
you know, minimizing possessions makes the remaining ones a lot more valuable, and precious.

moscow is nice, i am happy here. weather sucks, people are grim and everything is expensive. food is great.
amazing combination of ultra-modern and old soviet-barbarian, often at the same time. in subway they ask to get in and out of train-cars faster.
and as always i don't have enough time for all the things i want to do and all the people i want to see.

btw, at&t suck big time, i finally got my US phone to work, but i still have issues with connectivity.
and that is on top of the totally outrageous prices.

next week i will be in minsk

tickets are on sale and there will be no tickets at the door.

*- Burning Man Festival (BM) is a counter culture and arts festival, happens once a year in black rock desert in nevada.
more:
www.burningman.com - official website
the-dimka.livejournal.com/tag/bm - my livejournal entries about it
dimka.com/burningman - some of my photos from the black rock city

[as usual you can click on pictures to see a larger image]


manufactured landscapes is a new documentary made by jeniffer baichwal and it's shows how edward burtynsky was making his photos. 2006

it is an outstanding movie, beautiful and not judgmental. it is a very serious subject, but they do not push their agenda and just show things and give you something to think about. our world is developing and population and consumption are growing fast and globalization is here with us to stay and it is getting to even more obscure corners of the earth. and we can't escape it - it is everywhere. we are not ready to give up the benefits of the modern advancing society, but we at least have to see what other effects it creates. and i am not talking about global warming, it is about the scale.

photos are from the movies, they made in different countries, but mostly in china


america, remains of industrial mining


china is building the world biggest dumb/hydraulilic power plant. when it is completed it will flood a huge area with many towns and cities, and residents of those areas have to dismantle and move their houses to new location brick by brick.


few more years and the construction will be all done


bangladesh, ships are brought here to die and to be taken apart by hand. it is a dangerous manual labor, and few of the workers live beyond 30.


there are many nuclear power plants in china, but most of the electricity is generated by burning coal.


processing chickens


old computers, scrap metal, used tires and other junk is being send to china for recycling, but it is also a manual process and it involves a lot of chemicals.

photos by edward burtynsky - edwardburtynsky.com

I recommend the move, it has some much very beautify imagery.

polaroids are in fashion these days, it is easy to notice.
and not insidently - it is cool, and i won't delibirate why and what you can do with them, i just will tell you what i snatched

polaroid sx-70 land camera model 2
it is an older model than the ones you usually see on the streets
and it is way more fun to play with.
it is an slr, with real glass instead of plastic,
it has manual focus and there is no flash and it uses a different film that not as grainy







the really cool thing is that it folds


and those of you who like drag around a standard polaroid camera will really appreciate the portability

shots don't look like regular polaroid pictures neither, not to mention cheap point and shoot digital cameras. instant vintage with all the goodies and artifacts

for quite a while the fate of those cameras was in limbo, because polaroid corp. stopped making film for them, but now there is a company in holland that makes film specifically for sx-70



and you can click on images above to see them closer

flickr is relatively new (a bit more than 3 years),
and was bought by yahoo and it is mostly a good thing,
and it is growing and tons of very interesting talented creative people are there.
of course there are crowds of folks who just uploads hundreds of ever boring party and vacation photos, but if you sniff around you can find a gold mine with artists, illustrators and creative photographers!

for those who mostly enjoy looking at images in their friends livejournal entries it will be pure fun.

i could not bypath such phenomena and little by little got my stuff uploaded and now it's virtually all there.

www.flickr.com/photos/thedimka or simply flickr.com/thedimka

i still consider that lj is way better as a site (comparatively, especially in usability and features, and i tried many, blogspot, and facebook and virb and devianart and myspace and high5 and mail.ru and li.ru and wordpress and moveabletype and twitter to name a few) and more useful and it is very important, but never the less, the people and community is essential and flickr got them (those who i like finding), plenty of them.



(closer, if you want to see this collage closer)

last weekend we went to electronic music festival symbiosis gathering, that happend in hilly woods of angels camp of northern california

probably that was the best music festival i ever went to and the best imaginable compliment to burning man counter-culture festival that was just a few weeks ago

performers, place, people, atmosphere and over all experience were unbelievable good




if you enjoy electronic music, i highly recommend this event

symbiosisgathering.com - their official site

i’m back
tons of great moments to never forget,
but i am drained now, so the pictures and stories later
the-dimka.livejournal.com/tag/bm