I have always been interested in one question. How do people see me from the outside? And I’m not talking only about passers-by on the street, but also about people who see me every day and know me pretty closely.
Today I asked my acquaintances and friends to show their best improvisation of me! I agree, it is a little narcissistically, but here are some of my favorite «parodies».
And personally, my favorite and the most accurate:
So how can though details and everyday things make us exactly — US? We pass by hundreds of people on the street, in public transportation, as well as in the work and academic space every single day. While viewing people, have you ever wondered about what message this or that detail of a person carries? If our belongings could talk, what do you think would tell about us?
The star of my article today and the object of my close attention this week was my dear friend — Diana. At my request, Diana told me a story about a detail which is important to her.
Samsung GT star 5230 was her first phone. In some sense, Diana’s influenced her future choice of profession. Diana received it as a gift at the age of twelve from her grandmother. Since this gift is very intimate to her, she still has kept it in memory of «simpler times» in life.
«Grandma bought phones for her older grandchildren on her first pension, which was a great joy for us!»
As a child, she already showed creative inclinations. With this phone, she became interested in music and video-making.
«As a child, I would be shooting videos similar to the series and films that I watched and tried to put my creative vision into them»
Also, the phone has become a source of inspiration and a tool helping express thoughts in the form of stories, notes, and even «fanfictions». As a music lover, Diana enjoyed listening to the first songs of her favorite artists.
Without realizing it, Diana from an early age expressed all the abilities and character required for future journalists. A journalist has to be much on everything: starting with photo and video shooting, editing and directing abilities, ending with a trained look at various areas of life like art or science.
I wish Diana to continue to develop and improve her skills surpassing herself!
Last week was filled with both positive and negative news. I won’t let you get bogged down in negative energy today and want to tell my opinion about some optimistic events in our country. Since environmental awareness is becoming a very popular topic, I am very pleased with the amount of mindfulness people have about this matter.
The newspaper «Evening Almaty» broadcasts to us that last week such a green campaign as the «Jasyl Almaty» took the start in Apple City. The action is aimed at landscaping and called upon the prosperity of the “lungs” of our hometown. Hundreds of residents took the initiative in planting seedlings.
This news article was published by Vasily Shupeyken and Irina Vasilievna (authors in the newspaper) on the 17th of October, made me very happy. In a stream of hard news, I am always looking for a ray of bright light, just like this one!
Concern for ecology and the struggle for its purification goes, not only from the outside but also from the “inside”. Elena Sokolova, a journalist for the «Evening Almaty» newspaper, spoke on the 15th of October, with the director of the upcoming Kazakhstan Fashion Week – Alexei Zhen.
Alexey Zhen spoke about the problems of the national fashion industry and its goals for the future development of eco-friendly materials for clothing lines. The goal for the designers for the spring/summer season was to use environmentally friendly materials in the development of their ideas.
Comparing the writing style and presentation of these two articles, I express my position to seek positive in the world and people around us. I don’t want to live in a bubble of pink dreams, but I am not going to put up with cruelty either.
I am very amazed and proud of the turnover of environmental movements in our country. More and more, Kazakhstan is entering an open dialogue on how to make our living environment cleaner. Ordinary residents of Almaty support such a column in the newspaper “Evening Almaty” as “City duty officer” pointing out and fixing problems together.
I admit I don’t like a few things in this life. One of them is small talk with unfamiliar people. Exceptions are the moments of excellent mood! Starting from last year, I keep pushing my borders. It’s time to get finally used to what profession I chose, to let my inner journalist start flourishing.
The second thing is to take a ride by taxi. We live in a country where there tons of cases associated with taxi drivers. The frequency of thefts of women is simply frightening.
It was a little bit scary for me to combine conversations with strangers (mostly with men), with a taxi ride. With the seventh attempt to find out an interesting story related to a person’s detail, I still succeeded!
Taking yet another car, I noticed, compared to the previous ones, brilliant cleanliness in the salon. I think, I even smelled the leather of fresh seats. No extra accessories, everything is strictly functional. But one thing immediately caught my attention. A small plastic token hanging on the mirror, which depicted a crossed-out cigarette.
Trying not to put pressure on a person with my questions, somehow I got the story little by little. The driver (let’s call him Alex) got it after the tragic events in his life. His older brother recently passed away after losing his fight against lung cancer.
The examination revealed that cancer metastases enveloped Alex’s brother organs like a web. The lungs, like a flying butterfly, got stuck in this web, condemning themselves to inevitable death.
Lung cancer was a genetically transmitted disease from relatives of Alex’s parents. From the age of fourteen, he had smoked 7-9 cigarettes. The loss of his brother made him rethink his state of health. Thinking about his children, Alex decided to play it safe and begin treatment to get rid of a bad habit.
It is incredibly difficult to get rid of such a bad habit as smoking, but looking at this seemingly «plain accessory» in the car before smoking reminds Alex of his brother and possibly dangerous consequences of smoking.
The concept and use of blogs appeared and spread at the end of the last century. People who’ve been born before the millennials still remember the time when everyone had a blog which was a prestigious and pretty popular occupation (and eventually became 2000’s aesthetic).
This was another way to tell stories, express thoughts and opinions online (when Instagram didn’t take over the world yet and there were no pseudo philosophers with their «deep» long reads).
The theme of blogs was also very common in the entertainment industry. Images of bloggers have been everywhere in various films and TV series.
To date, such heroes as Carrie Bradshaw, Gossip Girl (Dan Humphrey), and Barney Stinson have become the most memorable for me! Their characters and blogging style left a colorful imprint in my memory, which inspires me now.
I also want to combine Carrie’s daydreaming nature and lightness, Barney’s dedication and love for blogging, Dan Humphrey’s unbiasedness, and open-mindedness.
I still have a very abstract but interesting flashback moment of how, when I was five, I first saw a laptop on TV. It made such a strange impression on me since I did not understand what I just saw.
The reason behind my inventiveness of new ways to entertain myself at childhood was that I’m the only child my parents had. I still clearly remember how I took the magazine, set it in front of me, made a mouse from improvised materials. Thus, without suspecting it, I imagined myself as a blogger! My childish game now smoothly passes into my direct duty – my future profession, if you will?
Coincidence? Nah, I don’t believe in coincidences.
Almaty is the “southern capital” of our immense Republic. Citizens of Kazakhstan love Almaty not only for the beauty of this metropolis, but also for its cultural life. Many seek to see the sights of our city. One of these cultural and educational attractions is State Museum of Art. A. Kasteev of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
For me personally, as a native resident of Almaty, the museum plays a huge role in my life. I grew up next to this museum and as a result I began to join the art precisely there as I studied at an art school at this museum. The museum eventually became a part of me like any other Almaty citizen.
Speaking a little about the history of the museum is worth mentioning the date of its organization – 1976. In 1935, the exhibition under the title “15th anniversary of the formation of the Kazakh Autonomy” was organized by the Kazakh State Art Gallery. The gallery conducted work on the collection of works by Kazakh, Russian and foreign artists.
Compared with Western collections, the stocks of our museum are small, but they are charming and valuable in their own way as they reflect the history of our people. The museum has a large collection of fine and applied arts in Kazakhstan. A large collection of felt, pile carpets, leather and wood products. The museum is the largest collection of paintings, sculptures and graphics of Kazakh masters.
In the museum fund them. A. Kasteev has about 23,000 exhibits. Many people mistakenly think that there is nothing here except permanent expositions. In fact, the museum is a whole research center with workshops in it, series of lectures and numerous interactive classes.
Excursions in the museum are held in Kazakh, Russian and English. The museum has two types of excursions: sightseeing – only for adults, and the hall – for schoolchildren and for all comers. Sightseeing – 5000 tenge for 1.5 hours. A detailed tour of one hall – 2500 tenge for schoolchildren and students, for adults – 3000. Admission to the museum for adults costs 500 tenge, for schoolchildren and students enrolled in art schools – 200 tenge.
I always ask my friends and acquaintances the reason behind not visiting the museum? Reply was that they had never visited the museum due to the fact that it was simply not interesting enough for visiting and that it lacks interactivity. But if you search carefully (or not so carefully), then you can find many interesting events taking place in our museum.
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So I boldly declare my love for this museum. It is necessary to teach yourself and your children to be culturally educated, especially to the culture of our homeland. A lot of interesting things can be found here, just visit the Museum of Kasteev. Have a great time in our city!
The time today is transient as well as the process of technology development around the world. Sure people, literally, let’s say, forty years ago could not imagine such huge advances in technology. Now we have almost everything: technology with its own intelligence, drones capable of shooting the Earth from the craziest angles, robots helping in all spheres of life, etc. These human achievements so far may not be available to all the inhabitants of our planet, but they already exist. They are waiting for their use by us.
It is hard for us to imagine life without smartphones and various software programs that help and make life easier for us every single day. But it was not created in one day. It is necessary to thank the minds that provided us with such opportunities. Such minds grow and develop to this day with rapid speed. As some people may say, now is the time of the “first” and brave who are ready to work with all their efforts and strengths. The living proofs of these words are the young minds that were collected by Infomatrix – Asia 2019!
Infomatrix – Asia 2019 is a widescale and ambitious event created to bring together the best minds of the IT industry. This competition is designed to collect projects that could interest the world community. The very same competition, as far as I know, was justified in the Romanian city – Bucharest. The competition between representatives of the IT industry this year was held at our favorite University of Suleyman Demirel.
It is worth knowing that the organizers of Infomatrix wanted us to see in this event not only a simple competition in pursuit of success and acceptance, but also in a way of open dialogue between different nations and cultures. Competitions of this kind are created and call upon their participants to unite into a single whole despite the difference in a nation, race or gender. In such a precarious time, it is very valuable and pleasant to know that young people are interested not only in victory, but also in international and global dialogue.
Infomatrix is a platform for the exchange of information and new ideas for the benefit of future applications.
Our university has hosted guests not only from all of Kazakhstan but also from the nearest Asian states and countries neighboring with our republic. As I have already said, this event was organized not only for the purpose of evaluating projects, but also for the purpose of bringing different people together. It is pleasant to see how just yesterday strangers from different points of the world today dined together and discussed the goals and essence of their projects, sharing innovative ideas and helping each other by giving advice in a particular area of their work. For almost a week, all the contestants lived and worked side by side.
I was pleasantly surprised that the authors of many projects were not only young guys, but also girls. As a person who does not have a penchant for exact sciences, I always say that I am a little jealous of people who understand science. A couple of centuries ago, girls were not allowed to study in higher educational institutions and today they are building robots and developing computer programs that can change the world. This is what I call progress, and I was proud of the female participants.
I hope each of the participants enjoyed their stay at our university, saw the sights of the city and realized their plans, gained invaluable experience. Experience is a victory, and ahead of them will be an endless amount!
Jean-Michel Basquiat is a graffiti artist and neo-expressionist, a representative of the Manhattan bohemia. Today Basquiat is considered one of the most famous graffiti artists in the world. His works are sold at prestigious auctions for millions of dollars. For example, his painting Blurred Heads was sold in May 2013 at an auction in New York for $48,800,000.
Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York. His father Gerard was from Haiti (Haitian motifs often appear in the works of the artist), his mother Matilda is from Puerto Rico. She strongly supported all the early creative endeavors of her son, contributed to his comprehensive training. Jean-Michel, in addition to English, also spoke Spanish and French, which can be traced to his works.
When the boy was hit by a car at the age of 7, his mother presented him with the reference book “Gray’s Anatomy”, so that he could understand why he was hurt. Later in the various works of Basquiat we can find references to this textbook, numerous images of human skulls. After leaving home at the age of 17, Basquiat and a friend began to paint their first graffiti, signing them with SAMO or SAMO shit (from English “same old shit” – “the same old shit”).
Basquiat often painted the walls not far from the Manhattan galleries or the bohemian clubs of the Soho district in order to attract the attention of “official white art”. His works were multivalued, had several semantic levels. At that time, no one did this. One day, in 1979, when he saw in the window of a New York cafe Andy Warhol, Basquiat entered and offered him to buy a postcard. Warhol liked the postcard, but the acquaintance of young people did not continue.
The relationship of artists is very influenced by the work of each other. Basquiat showed Warhol examples of his work, and Warhol shook the drawings of the young artist. It was Andy who introduced him to the very heart of America’s bohemian artistic environment. The relationship of artists continued until the death of Warhol.
Modern art critics call the work of Basquiat not graffiti, but a full-fledged wall painting. The museums are not yet resolved to represent the artistic processes of New York in the 1980s with the works of Basquiat, delicately explaining their fear of the discrepancy between the paintings of this artist and the status of museum works. A similar dual attitude to the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat was present during his lifetime.
Jean-Michel Basquiat can be attributed to the infamous Club 27. Like the other members of this conditional club, the guy was generously endowed with talents and died of a drug overdose at the age of 27. Fans of Basquiat see in his later works a premonition of death. The last work of Basquiat was “The Rider of Death”.
We love the weekends so much because this is the time when we can stop and walk along the street in a measured step. In the morning, lazily stretch, smile at the morning sunbeam and quietly drink a cup of coffee. And Sunday morning is just like “love at first sight” (imagine here is playing a song by Etta James “A Sunday kind of love”)! And do not blame yourself that every Monday you quickly want to return to a warm and cozy weekend.
This weekend we celebrated the International Women’s Day and therefore rested much longer. I calmly walked around the bazaar, looked at the old town and drank coffee with a croissant at Starbucks. Looking through the distorted windows of a coffee shop, I had the opportunity to observe people and even come up with miniature stories for each character. This turned out to be a very entertaining exercise. Here some results.
This woman sat on the bench for about half an hour talking on her phone for a long time. By her appearance and stern expression, I concluded that she is a businesswoman with a lot of work on her shoulders. She seemed interesting to me because she clearly and in a very focused manner wrote in her diary what her smartphone whispered in her ear. After sitting for a while, silently looking away into the distance, she got up again and ran to conquer this world!
This couple sat for a long time and chatted about “sweet nothings”. They looked at each other with such affection. Probably married for almost a lifetime! The time around them stopped and was not going to go again. Sitting and chatting, they did not need anything or anyone around in this world.
It turned out that these two love birds were the parents sitting in anticipation of their teenage daughter. She went shopping choosing her next pair of jeans and bright sweatshirts. I looked at her with kind jealousy because she was wearing a very beautiful sweatshirt of my favorite color. Looking down at her parents through her trendy glasses, she called them to walk further through the mall.
The day off is a time when you can finally meet with friends who you have promised to for a long time to find time for them. Weekends and miniature “Meeting of girlfriends.” But our gadgets won’t allow us to communicate in a reality – this is the curse of the present time.
I witnessed the first date. They were so tense and shy to look at each other and move closer than one kilometer from each other. But he bravely decided to look into her eyes and tell some joke. She liked the joke and laughed. One point counted in his favor, good job!
On weekends, you can also take yourself on a date, as they say, “treat yourself”! She looked at her new purchases for a long time and then delightfully put it in the bag. Finishing her frappuccino, the girl followed my example and also carefully and with interest looked at the people around her. Maybe she was looking for inspiration?
For twenty minutes, these young people looked at the Instagram of a young lady who they liked so much. A friend helped him out to make the first step. Because now it’s so hard to just ask “How are you?”.
Minutes went by like days, months, years… She never returned, and there was no news from her either. But she promised to return. She promised that she would look at a couple of blouses in the store and quickly return to her husband. And he is faithful to her and believes in a miracle that his wife will not try on the dress.
And this is exactly the same situation just a moment right before she made a promise to return in just 15 minutes. But we all know that she will return only after she has found the right thing, which means it will not be soon.
Here no words needed. “Dear Lord, when will the baby’s parents return? I need to go to the restroom.”
It seems to me that I have a new hobby now.
The successor of Nero and Caligula, the 23rd Roman Emperor Elagabalus was spoiled since childhood. His name has become synonymous with the perversion of character, cruelty and blind adherence to lust. Strictly speaking, he was spoiled, not yet born – because he was conceived, brought up and grew up in a social paradigm that distorts his contemporaries.
Elagabalus was a worthy son of his era, from childhood he was taught that he can do anything. He wore women’s robes, was publicly exposed, was defiantly bisexual, slept with male slaves. Proudly declared that even the corrupt women did not have as many lovers as he. At the same time, by the time he was 19 years old (G.J. 203-222 AD), he had already been married five times. He openly considered honest people to be lost, and deceit and promiscuity in connections was a virtue.
The highest chic of that time was considered to sleep with a slave and then kill him. He also had a peculiar behavioral code – indicative of the fact that he was rather orderly. For example, Elagabalus daily gave something to his friends, all the time supposedly for some evil deed – he left good gifts without a gift. He made strange lotteries where he could win ten camels and ten pounds of gold — or ten flies and ten pounds of lead. At dinner, the “golden boy” ate camels’ heels, peacocks and nightingale tongues and crests cut from live roosters.
Elagabalus was so absorbed in pleasures that his mother, Julia Soaemias, and her grandmother, Julia Meza, were responsible for state affairs. Young emperor was not embarrassed in any way – he allowed them to be present in the Senate and to vote, which was previously not accepted. Quite bizarrely, a kind of “democracy” was woven into the postulates and behavioral norms of Elagabalus – he gave Senate posts, regardless of age or social origin of the candidates.
“The Roses of Heliogabalus” – painting by English artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema, written in 1888. According to some, this canvas is filled with the spirit of human suffering, while according to others it is a fake historical-literary. Despite the opinions of historians that this is just a fake legend, this piece of art won’t leave you indifferent.
The product in pastel tones with the predominant pink is written about death, and, to put it more clearly, about multi-death, group murder. For the basis, Alma-Tadema took the plot, from a historical point of view, dubious – “The History of August.” It described how during the feast the Roman emperor Elagabalus ordered the killing of his enemy guests, sprinkling them with roses from the ceiling. From the smell of roses, guests had to suffocate.
The main character can be seen in the background in a golden diadem, reclining in a golden mantle (or robe) on pillows next to his mother Julia. Farther visible is the statue of Dionysus – her Tadema was painted from the original kept in the Vatican Museum. Some critics perceive the sculpture as a symbol of ridicule, evil irony over the plot depicted – the Greek god looks at all this “chaos” and laughs happily (however, this is only the personal opinion of critics).
The emperor with undisguised curiosity observes the creation of his hands – the slow and painful death of guests from roses falling from an awning suspended from the ceiling and then released by the executioner into a free and deadly fall. The boy is the only male in the company of ladies. According to legend, his goal was to poison the guests with the smell of roses – and it was the pink mass that was the first to strike the eye and occupy the prevailing area of the canvas.
At first, the guests were surprised at the sudden pink waterfall, then they were delighted, but the roses continued and continued to pour in, and this cruel joke gradually began to bother and then scared. And then they all died. At the same time, the organizers of the massacre are located on a kind of “captain’s bridge”, observant bed, full of gloating. They seem to be watching a fascinating performance, which they themselves orchestrated, they are full of pride.
According to historians, the artist painted a picture in the winter, and for four months each week, he ordered fresh roses in the French Riviera, controlling the liveliness of each petal. With that, one of the tasks of the master was to bring into the canvas the spirit of rotting and decomposition – like roses, like the people who died from them.
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