Saturday, May 31, 2008

It's not often that you see a Moskvich car in Kyiv nowadays. But in Brovary, I've seen two:





And then there was also this:



Friday, May 30, 2008

Been to Brovary today, was pleasantly surprised by how little garbage I saw there. Also, tons of kids and tons of playgrounds, old and new, everywhere. I wouldn't mind borrowing their mayor.

I'll post more pics later; for now, here's my favorite, of the stuff hanging out to dry on someone's balcony:

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Saw this on the way from the dentist yesterday:


"I eat here."







The name of the street is Klinichna. Yes, Clinical Street. Very close to the Institute of Sugar Beats bus stop.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

At the polling station on Sunday:



Inside the polling booth - two ballots, both ridiculously long:

Monday, May 26, 2008

On Saturday, I was feeling claustrophobic in Kyiv's center, so I got into a random marshrutka and went where it took me: to Poznyaky and Osokorky, on the Dnieper's left bank.

Some of my favorite pictures from the trip:









All photos are here.

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Marshrutka driver seemed like a very religious guy:





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Lots of street trade, just like everywhere else in Kyiv:







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So many flyers everywhere, I don't think they have any informational value anymore and instead serve as decorations only in this otherwise gloomy area:



Election-related flyers from Poznyaky and Osokorky are in the Mayor 2008 Flickr folder.

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A very strange logo on the store that seems to be selling doors - looks pretty phallic to me:



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Mishuga Street - named, as it turns out, after an opera singer Oleksandr Mishuga (link in Ukrainian), who was born in a village near Lviv in 1853, in a shoemaker's family:





While meshuga is a more familiar transliteration of the Yiddish word, here in Kyiv the name's spelling varies from Mishuga (first photo) to Myshuga (second photo).

And then there's also this sign for a wedding salon on Mishuga St. - composed by some meshugener in an inexplicable mix of Ukrainian (line 1) and Russian (line 2):



A Lenny Kravitz billboard on Mishuga St.:



Kravitz is, of course, a mis-transliteration of the Ukrainian word kravets, a tailor.

Café "Karadenis" - another cute mis-transliteration from the Mishuga St. neighborhood, this time of the Turkish word Karadeniz, the Black Sea:



We've had enough of Chernovetsky (this, more or less, is the meaning of the sticker above), but it looks like he's just been re-elected.

I voted for Klichko. Even though I'd heard enough about the evil people on his team to convince me that he's no good, either, I figured that at least he's got a name to lose if he, once elected, chose to be counterproductive and destructive as mayor.

But he hasn't made it, which is not surprising.



And - I'm really disgusted with Yulia because of her Turchynov project.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Also on Instytutska, the building that was supposed to be an extension for the National Fine Arts Museum:



I may be wrong, but I think it's been there in its present, unfinished, form since way back in the early 1990s. If they ever finish it, they'll probably turn it into a business center, instead of giving it away as a much-needed gift to the state-run museum.

Across the street from this decade-long frozen construction project, there are two new buildings - built from scratch in just a few years:



The one on the left is basically sitting on top of a high school, while the one on the right towers over one of the entrances to Khreshchatyk subway station.
This photo says tons about what Kyiv is like these days:



A Ukrainian-language sign on Instytutska:

Please don't park your cars on the lawn.


Added in handwriting:

Why not?
Soon, we'll have many new neighbors moving into the two apartment buildings that are blocking whatever view we used to have on this side:

We're in Kyiv.

One of the first things that greeted us was this mess at the playground in front of our building - same as ever:





Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A few more shots from our Sunday walk at Vorobyovy Gory.

Migrant workers (most likely) playing football on one of MGU's football fields (if you can call it that):







(An earlier post and a picture from a similar gastarbeiter game is here.)

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At Luzhniki, something very Soviet was taking place - judging by this poster, at least:



Something called "The All-Russian Military-Athletic Forum 'READY FOR LABOR AND DEFENSE'."

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On the roof of the Luzhniki stadium - where the Champions League final is to take place Wednesday - one could see this lonely figure, most likely a security guy charged with getting the arena ready for the big game:



And across the river from Luzhniki, no one seemed to care about either labor, or defense, or football - or the swastikas (see my previous post):

Here's what the MGU war memorial looked like on Sunday, just nine days after Victory Day:







And here are some swastikas down by the river:



Welcome to Potemkin Village.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

The Night of Museums/International Museum Day is today - but downtown Moscow already looked pretty artistic on Friday: