WOW!!

Looks like a whole lot of people from different parts of the world try to read this blog! People, I'll keep writing! I didn't realizr, someone was interested in it....

Henry Peach Robinson "Down and Dusk"

History has always been something worthy of attention for me. I liked to look at the pictures in my history books in school, trying to guess what it was there, on the reprints of those decayed rolls of a papyrus, yellowed from time. The curiosity, which is so peculiar for some little boys, always kept me away from reading an explanation below the picture. I tried to guess first, and, only then, read and check  if I was right or wrong, and I’d get either a satisfaction of the feeling of how smart I was or a big disappointment from realizing that I am still not as perfect at8 as I would like to be.
We always look at the picture, and only after a brief look go deeper into the topic. We do this when, for example, we get a new issue of the “New York Times” paper every morning. We do exactly the same thing when we buy a new “Rolling Stones” magazine-  “Who‘s on the cover today? Oh, Ryan Adams? The editors do pretty good job!”. That is called “the power” of a picture, of an image, and of art.
What is art for us? At its core, art is the product of process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences the senses, emotions, and intellect. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and models of expression, including music, literature, sculpture, paintings, and photography. Why did I put “photography” at the very end of that list? There are a few reasons. It is quite new compared to the other embodiments of art, and about art of photography I would like to talk a little bit tonight.
We know our past because of the variety of masterpieces of art, which all are a heritage of the human civilization. This fact goes without saying, even though we do not think about it daily. We know the past through its pieces of art. We literally see the past through the art of  photography.
The photo above belongs to Henry Peach Robinson, and was taken in 1885. It is called “Down and Dusk”. I think the photo gives everyone an opportunity to change the title. I would do it, since I cannot see anything in the photo that I could apply to either “down” or “dusk”. Maybe,  the photographer saw something else. He obviously thought and saw something, if he named his photo in this way. That is the point - we look for a description, and we think off a denotation. A photo is a perfect object  for practicing these 2 ways of the perception. “Down and Dusk” is my choice FOR WHAT?.
I chose this picture because I like to look and follow a silent action on the photo. The silent flow of the life of the past days is what I always look for and enjoy looking at.  The pictures that have a lot of things going on, where many people are doing something, surrounded by a variety of different things give us information, that we cannot get from a portrait or a scenery.
I will try to describe this photo in those two aspects of the observation and the denotation. When we look at some painting or a photo, one question usually arises - “What do we see?”.  An old man and a woman attracts first attention. The man’s face is hidden, so we can only guess about his feelings and emotions. This is one more advantage of this photo -  the author did not focus on the faces and left us an opportunity to pay attention to the details, not only to the faces.  His daughter (or maybe his wife) is sitting in front of him and holding her baby. Take a brief look at the room, . there is a big chimney, and it seems that there is a fire there. This gives us a reason to assume, that these people may live in some northern European country, like England, Scotland, or Norway. However, fresh flowers on the windowsill do not look natural then. Maybe those flowers are just ikebana, and their leaves and petals have been  simply frozen since the warm summer? We will never know.
Let’s go back to the people. There is a chair with a bowl of warm water and a piece of soap on it right in between the man and the woman with her baby. What does it mean? A young lady just gave her baby a bath, and now she’s trying to make it sleep. What about the old man? He might feel dumpish, to realize  that his daughter is adult, that she has her own child, because it means, that his own life, his best years, are left behind. He might think of, what to say to his daughter, so that she would have what to share with her family when time comes. If I were to give this photo a name, I would call it “Crossroads of thе generations”.
This picture is not the best one in the Harry Ransom Center, yet it is the most vivid for me. It can teach me a lot, and I like to learn. Thank you Н.Р.Robinson for such a great piece of photographic art.    

Notes:
Be sure to double space

Your overall tone is sometimes too informal/conversational.  Pretend that you’re writing a formal letter instead of giving an informal speech to a group of friends.  

Overall, this is a wonderful read.  

Upon finishing, I still don’t feel like you give a solid rationale for why you chose the photo??  You explain in the second to last sentence, but I crave more.  After all of that wonderful introduction about the impact of photography, I need you to connect the dots between that little boy guessing the history book photos and the person you are now, looking at this image.  What do you feel?  

Great work Dima.

СANADA?

Hey, someone from Canada read my blog! Who are you and how did you find it? :)

What is Friendship in US? #4

   William, the family friend of the people I live with - of my friends (well...that's a long story), once invited me to some party on Saturday night. "You'll feel the spirit of American youth life", - he said. We went to his friend's house, where I met a few more people. All of them were quite friendly, and acted like we've been friends for years. I doubt that I will meet some of them again in my life, but it was nice experience. I learned that you can drink a few cans of beer and still drive. It was interesting to know, because you would definitely lose your driver's license for 2 years for driving after drinking an alcohol. It doesn't really matter how much you drink in Ukraine. Even if officers (who have never been the nicest people in Ukraine) feel the weak smell of something harder than an orange juice, you'll pay crazy HUGE fine and probably lose a privilege to drive for a loooong time. Despite this nice discovery, I'm not going to drive with a bottle of beer in my car near the ashtray. (Just for your note: later that night I found out that you still can drive after a few galons of beer. It would be hard for William to live in Ukraine).
     What was I talking about? A few hours later, guys decided that it was not enough for them, took one more car and we went ... somewhere - I can't tell exactly, but quite far from the first house. They bought a few boxes of beer at the store, where the seller was so much interested im my Ukrainian driver's license so I thought I'd spent a night there with him staring at my ID. I had no idea, where we were going, but William told me that we'd have fun and he was laughing in that crazy loud way he always does. The house that we came into was much bigger than the first one. A girl, who probably was a host of the party, invited us to come. There were many people inside. Some of them were eating as if they hadn't ever seen food before in their lives, the other people were playing cards or something. Almost none of them was surprised with my Ukrainian origin:
- Oh, Ukraine? And what's going on there?
- Not much...
- COOL!!! Take a beer!
   You won't believe me, but that house was only another stop in our round trip that night. After an hour or so there, we went to another place, which was the most interesting for me. William and one of his friends obviously were looking for someone else in that third house. It was a huge party there, with music and bright lights. We entered the house, spent there a few minutes and left it. As it turned out later, William didn't know anybody in that house, but it didn't stop us to enter it, to talk to people and leave it. It was something new for me. We visited place with the crowd of unknown people, and they let us in, and kinda were even friendly, even though they saw us for the fist time.

   As you can see, friendship can last even a few minutes in US: guitar seller can be your friend, if you like music, a guy who gives free "Swedish Fish" in the Guadelupe Street can be your friend, if you take his free "Swedish Fish" (he can be a friend even if you don't take that "fish") and anyone here can be you friend either for 5 minutes or for the whole life.

Eye Contact ... doesn't mean that she knows a score #3

 Union Building is the place on the UT campus which I visit quite often. I usually go there during my lunch break to eat someting, because it's close to the Wooldridge Hall and I always have some time to work at my home tasks.
   It was the 14th of September - big day in Europe. On Tuesday 14th the first round of the UEFA Champions League started. I woke up late at that day, so I couldn't check the results online, so I went to school and waited for a chance to learn if my favourite Manchester United were successful in their first game that Tuesday night.

   After my first class I hurried to the Union Building to eat something. Those who read my previous post should know what I think about food, so I'd leave it without details. I was just sitting, listening to the amazing "Fix It"

and chewing my crapy hamburger when she appeared. Some girl with huge Math book and some stuff from "Taco Bell" in her hand.  She looked concentrated on definitely something not from this world so she even hit my table with her backpack, and I didn't hear regular "Excuse me". I wasn't mad though - Math is hard to study, so I felt sorry for her complicated life. The table next to mine was vacant and she noticed it. I started look at her. That was a simple girl, her backpack looked bigger than her and it took her a few minutes to take it off. I was looking at her without any specific reason. She was not too pretty to stare at her (sorry, sweet-heart, if you read this), I didn't plan to talk to her. Her table was just in front of mine and only because ot that I was looking at her (too lazy to move my eyes:). A pencil, a few more smaller books one by one were taken out of her bag. One monent later one more thing appered on the table. "Sports Illustrated" magazine!!! I thought the result of MU game could be there, so I set my eyes on the magazine. The girl started to glance at me. Obviously I looked like a frozen statue with widely opened eyes and the "Wendy's" humburger in my hand. Yes, I didn't try to hide my intereset. Finally she asked:
 - Hi. Are you OK?
 - ??? Huh?
 - Are you feeling well?
 - Not really...
 - What's wrong? - she looked worried. Can I help you?
 - YES! Do you know who won last night by any chance? Tell me that it wasn't "Rangers".
 - Excuse me... - she looked suspiciously at me now.
 - Can I look at your magazine, please.
    She carefuly handed me that magazine with firm consideration in her eyes that I was mentaly retarded. Unfortunately I didn't find results and was dissapointed to death.
 - How can I help you? What's wrong? - she didn't give up.
- I'm fine. I look so weird because I want to know the score and I don't have my computer today.

 - Oh, you can use mine. She gave me her computer. "MU" - "Rangers" 0:0. Well, not too bad, but Antonio Valencia, the quaterback, broke his leg and won't be able to play for 6-7 moths. That's horrible! Hopefuly, Rooney will get optimal conditions soon, - I told this with such an interest and passion that she probably regreted that she stroke up the conversation.
 - I have no idea what are you talking about, but I'm glad you're not looking so weird now.
 - Thank you. I'm sorry, I'm crazy abut this team, - I smiled and added in a second, - Can I look at the "Real Madrid" results really quick? I'm quite fed up with "Barcelona's" domination and support "Real" in this season.  
 - Ha-ha, OK. You're funny. This morning is not so boring now.
   That nice girl helped me to learn all the results of the 1st day. Why did I tell you this story? Everything started with just an eye contact. Eye contact - rather simple thing, but it might be so different. I could expect something like: "Hey! Why are you staring at me? Are you insane?", but I had quite a pleasant and informative conversation, which helped me to learn the score and gain more cultural experience.

Concepts of Food (#2)

     Hey, all Americans! I wish you could try "borshch" and "varenyky"...(Stephen Legge, you know what I'm talking about:)...Don't worry, I'll come to SC and make you some "dyrunchikov")
     As I had already mentioned, I had "plastic" food in the plains on my way here. It was not too bad, I was not starving, I must admit. Although it was definitely not my type of food.
     Ukrainian cooking traditions have been supporting by families for centuries. It takes at least 30 minutes in restaurants there to make some food for the client. You know why? The answer is genius - FOOD IS BEING PREPARED in Ukraine. But...then next question arises - "is there any different way to get food"? The answer is "Yes" and America proves it to me every single day...
    I'm really sorry, guys, to tell you this, but you have no idea, what "food" is. Mexicans have Mexican food, Italians have their Italian food, in France they cook and eat frogs and other weird creatures, but it is called French food. How many times in your life you have heard a phrase: "Hey, let's go to some Mexican restaurant. They make great nachos", or "I'd like to order pizza tonight for once", or "Chinesse stuff is great and I'm going to have some now"? I can bet you hear or say it at least several times per week. Even Erik from the ESL services asked me if I tried Mexican food when he heard my impressions. Even you, dear Sarah, advice me to try real Mexican food! Is not it strange? I think it is. I have not ever heard something reasonable about American food. Does it really exist?
    I saw many pictures from the historical event in the lives of USSR people. The first McDonald's restaurant appeared in Moskow in 1989, if I'm not mistaken. The huge crowds of people just got totally crazy! Line to the fast-food restaurant was way longer the the other line ... to Lenin's Mausoleum, which had been like a Mecca for soviet people during last 60 years.

I'll finish soon....   
                

Contextual Conversational Patterns (#1)

- Hey!! How is it going? - asked me a lady in the airport in Atlanta

- 15 hours flight, mean stinky lady next to me, movie in French and cold food with the taste like plastic. How do you think?

- Ha-ha, looks like you're pretty tired, ha? Your passport, please?
- Sure, - I put my passport on her desk.
- You say your name is Dmytro Masnyi? - she asked me with quite an interesting smile, which meant nothing to me then and I didn't even want to ask her what was so funny about my passport.
- Not just me, but also the Government of Ukraine says it. Why?
- You're not Dmytro! You're Benjamin Button - she said with so excited face, that I felt a desire, all of a sudden, to look in the mirrow...just to make sure that I'm still Dima and that Bulgarian lady was just a lady and not some traveling witch. 

- Would you be so kind to explaine me your joke, mem? I know that girls are crazy about Brad Pitt, but I'm not his fan and I don't want to look like him. And I don't want to look like a scary creature from the movie either.
- Ha-ha, aha-ha, - she kept laughing like a hyena, - just look at you visa picture and the picture in your passport.
- Aha...So?
- Just LOOK at them. Isn't weird?
- Yes, mem, people usually have pictures in their documents, like passport and visa. Yeah, very weird...
- No, I'm trying to say that you look much younger on your visa picture, than in the passport, even though it was issued much earlier than your visa. It's very curious. Ha-ha
- I see, mem, that you're curious and obviously you feel great today, which is fine, but I wouldn't like to miss my flight to Austin just because you think that I'm not natural phenomenon from the movie. I'm getting older, trust me. Can I go?
- Oh yes, here is your I-94. It was great to talk to you!!! Welcome to United States!
- Thank you. I didn't think my first conversation here would be so unusual, but it was fun...in a way.

  So, now you know how America met me. With airport lights, lost suit-case and this crazy speedy black lady in the airport, who apparently was ''pitt-addicted''.
   Difference in the way people deal with each other in US and Ukraine became my first experience and practical observation. I couldn't not to notice it, as well as I couldn't ignore it. Even though I was very tired by the end of my trip, I made one conclusion for myself - I liked black American lady in Atlanta much more, than old Bulgarian lady from the plane, who was a pure representative of the post-soviet style of communication.