Avrelia's Amazing Adventures in Moscow (part III) and Toronto

[avrelia]

I felt very weird yesterday - without any good reason. Does anybody need to know tis? No? I thought so. But Tuesday was wonderful. I met jonesiexxx for a coffee! Turned out we both exist, none of us just a text on a computer screen, none of us a thirteen boy with machete, and we had a great time (at least, speaking for myself ;-))

After that I went to watch Harry Potter.

I liked the movie a great deal more that the previous two. I read the book a while ago, and it didn't prevent me from enjoying the movie. But I wonder, to what extent my opinion was influenced by the opinions I read on my flist? I loved the books, I wait patiently for the new one, I am curious what will happen next, I enjoy picking up allusions and references in the books, but it doesn't kindle my fannish fire. I am just enjoying the ride.

I said already that I loved the movie - it has a better flow of the story, less illustrative, more alive by itself. It has a darker feel, as was mentioned by many, but I would add also more human, more alive feel to it. My favourite piece, I think, was the Harry's ride on hippogriff - a beautiful moment, especially seen in IMAX.

And that's pretty much all I have to say about it. No deep thought, but I'd love to watch this movie some time again.

Now, about Moscow, or, more accurately, about


As many others around there I entertained myself with reading sumerianwotd. I looked through the entries, marveled at the opportunity to Actually Learn Sumerian, and signed at the thought that it will never be of use anyway. And then I went to Moscow. And there I visited my favourite Museum, and there was a room.

Ta-da!

A room, devoted to Mesopotamian art and history. A room, full of clay tablets with records in Assyrian, Babilonian, and Sumerian. I came to have a look, and sure enough, couldn't find anything familiar. But, may be, if I really learned....

Next time.

Moving on from the Museum. It's hard, but I have to finish these notes, because I have another stuff planned to write.

Next days I was meeting my friends in small and large groups. I don't think you would be particularly interested in a verbose descriptions of my friends and their lives, so I just mention how much I love them, and how grateful I am for their friendship, and for their patience with me and my rather rare letters. Our lives went different ways since our school years, since our university years, and I don't find it particularly surprising. But to see them - once in a year or two, and hear that my visits are one of the rarest occasions that bring everybody together - that's an awfully nice and powerful feeling.

ok, I'll tell you some. My friend Iulia is working at the Moscow Zoo, and, together with her husband, is teaching animals to paint or draw. Not all animals: several different apes, an elefant, a pig, African snails. And she is now preparing their second exhibition of the animals' artwork. Cool, isn't it? At the time I was in Moscow, they were in the middle of some kind of media boom - several TV interviews in a week.

Returning my mind to the pictures I posted, I remember I posted lots of pictures from my walk with another friend, Kate, at the VDNH. VDNH is loosely can be translated as "The Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy" - and in the old times it had exactly that on the displays. My favoutrite pavilions were the ones with the animals - The Stock-breeding pavilions. There were pigs, horses, cows, sheep, bees. Probably, something else. I've seen horses and bees as late as in 2000. But I was told that they don't reside there any longer. For the last twelve years the pavilions serve as grounds for trade exhibitions and fairs, and as a huge shopping territory, but it is a beautiful place, and there are lots of fun ways to spend a day there. As we did.

At home - it was a weekend again, and my parents were in the summerhouse, and my sister with her boyfriend with their friends, so I was alone and enjoying it. I looked through old pictures, and old movies, and the books I read long ago. There was a great book about pirates by a French autor that I loved as a child. Pity it isn't translated in English, or I would recommend it to everybody. It had flavour, it had facts, it didn't romanticised the pirates, but it left vivid, down-to-earth images of the time and place with me. So, this book? I didn't find it that time. In fact it is very difficult to find anything in our old apartment, where I don't live any more. anything I am looking for. Because I found other stuff, other books that were just as great to find.
And then was another day, and then another, but they will make the next post.

Comments

[gobi-rex.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about Harry Potter. I enjoy the ride, but I don't obsess about it. Well, that's not entirely true, because recently I started devouring HP fanfic, but I expect it'll pass.

I like your description of the PoA film, it's more alive. I must admit that I concentrated most of my fannish energies on the screenplay, marveling at how they rearranged and cut and spliced certain plot devices and managed to tell a very good story.

You know, my last memory of VDNH is of accompanying my mother on a kitchen furniture buying trip in 1996.
But my favorite section is the one with space exploration stuff.

I know what you mean about your friends. I'm incredibly grateful for their patience and acceptance.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

I loved the space exploration part of VDNH, too, but I haven't' seen it for a long time. But other places I visited quite often, especially in the last year that I lived in Moscow when my visits there work-related. There are a lot of fun stuff there now - old and new.

About HP - I agree that rearrangement of the plot served the movie better. Excessive courtesy to the book made the previous movie a moving illustration.