9511 Days
Life is sweet in the meteor shower…
Sport Square
Moscow’s most famous Red Square this weekend was a heaven for all kinds of sport. Quit an unusual site I might say.
January Venice
It was great. I’d love to go back someday. And I hope that this someday will be soon.
Venice framed #3
“Looks like nasty weather…” I heard this phrase over and over again as a beggar went on repeating it in a semi-interested yet casual fashion. He was bathing in the warm sunshine of a careless morning in Atlantis. He was sitting in the furthest corner of the dock where only a gamer could find him. Earning coin could be his trade by day but at night he was a member of the resistance or it could have been some other secret organisation within the city. The weather was marvelous – calm gentle sea was hugging the city. Atlantis was awakening tranquilly and peacefully to the last day of its life.
That was the beginning of the The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time. One of the rare games that I played.
And pictured above is a very different morning for another city on the sea – Venice. And the weather not only looks nasty but is rightfully so.
Feels like flying
Started a search to no avail
A light that shines behind the veil trying to find it
And all around us everywhere
Is all that we could ever share if only we could see it
Feel there’s truth that’s beyond me
Life ever changing weaving destiny
And it feels like i’m flying above you
Dream that i’m dying to find the truth
Seems like your trying to bring me down
Back down to earth back down to earth
Layers of dust and yesterdays
Shadows fading in the haze of what i couldn’t say
And though i said my hands were tied
Times have changed and now i find i’m free for the first time
Feel so close to everything now
Strange how life makes sense in time now
And it feels like i’m flying above you
Dream that i’m dying to find the truth
Seems like your trying to bring me down
Back down to earth back down to earth
Anathema, “Flying“
The View
This is the view from the 4th floor of Ca’ Rezzonico. The church is San Barnaba. Wikipedia lists two interesting facts about the church and the canal. The former was used as the library in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), the one with the huge “X” on the floor. Only the exterior was used. In reality the church is a Leonardo da Vinci museum. The canal beside it, Rio S. Barnaba, is the one into which Katherine Hepburn fell in the movie Summertime (1955).
The Honorable Lord of Ca’ Rezzonico
My story with the cats of Venice began a couple of years ago when I met Brussa in one of the shops selling Murano glass. She was an aging black beauty with a touch of white. She was not well. Didn’t like Venetian weather and suffered from arthritis. Nonetheless she set like a queen on a chair and acted like all true cats and queens act – she stared into space like I was not there. People usually can’t pull that off but cats are true masters if ignoring. I envy this skill but I cannot say I like it.
Next time I met a cat during this trip. It was even worse. My boyfriend was the one to spot him first. The cat was also black but young. He had yellow eyes and flaming heart. There are places in Venice (like in any other city) that are just not interesting. And this cat is living in such a place – simple house, simple alley, and the only view is a grey wall opposite his window and a piece of sky. Not sure if he cared for the sky. But he definitely cared that we were there – right in front of his window. I could read it from his eyes that we were ruining the morning and the view. People… Worse than that tourists… Even worse than that – with a camera. You must be kidding me. Who the hell would want to spend a morning looking at tourists with cameras who stare at you while you are thinking about important stuff – what you had for breakfast, how to make your owner give you another one, what will be for lunch, for dinner, for supper, where to sleep today… I can still remember those furious yellow eyes.
So imagine our frustration when we decided to check the garden of the Ca’ Rezzonico palace and saw a cat in the furthest corner. He was red. And I have to say give me a big red cat and I will forget about everything. Red cats are the best. Nothing in the Universe is better than a red cat. Not even chocolate. You get the idea even if you don’t share it. 🙂
So there we were staring at yet another innocent creature and hesitating. And then I thought I didn’t care. I wanted to come say hi to that one even if he ran away cursing. We slowly started to approach. He saw us, of course he did. He is a cat after all. It takes them a couple of days to notice that the refrigerator is gone during the renovation (though they are used to come to it everyday like 50 times a day to beg for food) but they always know when a human being with an unmistakable desire to pet them is nearing. I think there is an inbuilt alarm system that goes off with a warning. Imagine how astonished we were when he rose, stretched himself and came to us… smiling. I am sure he was smiling. Oh those moments were the best in Venice. He was so nice and communicative. He might look tough but is very sweet and gentle on the inside.
Long Wave
I met with a friend yesterday and he gave me Jeff Lynne’s record “Long Wave”. The album contains cover versions of songs that influenced Lynne’s songwriting whilst growing up and residing in Birmingham. “She”, “So Sad”, “Running Scared”, “Smile”, “Love is a Many Splendored Thing”, “Beyond the Sea”…
Jeff Lynne: “These songs take me back to that feeling of freedom in those days and summon up the feeling of first hearing those powerful waves of music coming in on my old crystal set.”
These songs create a sweet feeling of nostalgia of memories I cannot possess, of a childhood that could have been my parents’ but not mine. These are simple melodies sang from the heart of a man who bathes in the waves of his early memories. This is an interesting journey. Even if you go down someone else’s memory lane. A journey to a time of purity and innocence. A time of naivete and unchained dreaming. Isn’t it wonderful to awaken those feelings once in a while? To feel reborn? To feel inspired… In this sense songs from “Long Wave” bring back the feeling of freedom like Lynne said.
Venice framed #2
Second installment of the Framed series. Venice is perfect for making framed and semi-framed shots.
Do you happen to live in an ancient city that not only has rich history but also wears the glory and scars of the ages? I live in a city with almost a thousand year long history which has always been wiped away to start anew. Of course a couple of previous epochs are still visible. But what Moscow mainly transfers is the feeling of imperial grandeur.
Venice on the other hand fell asleep somewhere in the 18th century and was to some extent forgotten. Walking its streets makes time change its linear flow. Past and present meet… Though the feeling is fleeting (people in modern clothes with modern devices give it away) it is also strong and inescapable Centuries can be traced through changed cityscape – through churches that became parts of buildings by loosing their facades but not their purpose, through ria terra – streets that once were canals, through modern illumination on old buildings, through sounds of motorboats that share canals with gondolas… Sounds strange, barbaric at times? Perhaps. But there is a visible continuity of history in Venice that was ripped from my hometown. And I envy Venetians for that 🙂
Venetian doors
I guess everything was supposed to be perfect in the Serene Republic, even doors. What a beautiful mindset that was. I am not sure if it was created by a mere desire to surround oneself with beautiful things or rather an inherent urge to create beauty in every form and style. But whatever the reasoning behind it it helped to create a city that is a piece of jewelry. Venice is a little wonderland. The more you stay the more you discover…
P.S. I promise never ever again will I be so lazy as to not change the lens while making shots of doors… Quality difference is so obvious. By that time I was already tired of walking and not thinking rationally… But this is a bad excuse, for fatigue fades and photos stay.
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