Category: NY

Monday Morning Movie

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If video is not shown in the browser or applications then visit it at Evening in NYC from Dmitrii on Vimeo.

GRANDMASTER

Chess is popular with many Russian intellectuals. In the last 20+ years a good number of them immigrated to US, many settled in the Brighton Beach area in Brooklyn, NYC. The guy in the right corner is probably one of them. What you cannot see on the photo is the little folding table with a chess board on top of it with a little sign “Free Chess Lessons”. He was there entire evening patiently waiting for someone to stop by and play a game with him. I spent thirty or so minutes shooting my little time lapse and no one expressed interest. Most people who visit Times Square probably don’t have time to seat down and spend time on something that is not what they associate with this place – shopping and restaurants. I bet that 80-90% of them do not even know the rules for playing chess, but that is why he was there, trying to educate them on one of the most sophisticated and oldest games the humans ever invented. Meanwhile, he was patiently waiting, drinking some soda from the plastic bottle and eating sandwiches that he or his wife packed for him back at their apartment.

He is probably there on most nights and I hope that there are some folks who is intrigued to learn something new on their visit to NYC or some who already know how to play it and want to show their skills to this old man and destroy his king in as a few steps as possible, or be destroyed, that is to hear or say the ultimate word in the game of chess – “Checkmate”.

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In Transit

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There are probably blogs or websites dedicated to show photos from all the subways and metro systems from around the world. There should be at least a few dozens of them and each has its own unique look. Over the years I had a chance to use metro systems in the following cities – Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Beijing, Atlanta, Washington DC, New York City and Almaty. All of them are very different. Each has its unique features and style of operation and definitely different architectural details. Some are more industrial looking (like NYC Subway), some are almost can be considered like art galleries (most of the Moscow and Saint Petersburg station built during 40th and 50th are full of art, at least I hope they still are, I haven’t been back there in 20 years).

The newest out of all of them is one in Almaty Kazakhstan. It opened doors about 12 month ago and only has a few stations on one line at the moment. They started building it about 30 years ago while I was still in middle and high school, then with Soviet collapse they stopped that project for many years. I was glad to see it opening doors this year and I was able to get a ride in it this summer while visiting Almaty.

Out of all metro systems, to me, the NYC Subway was the most confusing. It took me a few rides to understand how it works. Different color lanes operate on the same trucks and not all stop at every station, so getting a grasp on what train to take was a bit confusing. Fortunately there were some nice folks who provided a quick advice and then it was all making sense, well, at least at that time. Next time I visit NYC, I’ll probably have to figure it out all over again.

What’s your favorite metro system?

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Hello Kitty

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From time to time I find photos that I like to call “Window Shopping”, views into someone’s shop with some interesting, extravagant, sometimes unique, sometime totally normal displays of merchandise.

This one was taken somewhere in NYC Chinatown. Can’t remember the street, not the shop, that is for sure. It looks very colorful, with so many little things, all different in their own way. One can probably study this photo and find something that they either like, maybe green kitty or see no evil, say no evil, hear no evil little monkeys, or something they are not very fond off. Regardless, if you ever been to a Chinatown shops, you know that you can spend there some time looking at different things, they are full of them.

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Monday Morning Movie

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If video is not shown in the browser or applications then visit it at Evening in NYC from Dmitrii on Vimeo.

Well, Thanksgiving break is over, I’m not sure if I’m ready go back to work, thankfully there are only three and half weeks till Christmas break, only three and half weeks. Hopefully it will go fast and then another one and half week little break. We are trying to decide right now if we go anywhere over Christmas break or stay in town… maybe do some work on the house or something else. It would be nice to go somewhere at least for a few days.

I’d like to visit NYC again, maybe next Spring, hopefully after they finish the new world trade center tower. Come to the same spot and take another time-lapse and a few photos. I think it should be much taller than it was back in June.

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Rain, Rain Go Away

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I wonder how would it feel to stand on the top of the observation deck at the Empire State Building during Sandy’s gusty winds. Probably not very pleasant. I took this photo back in February of this year as rain storm was passing through NYC, it rained for the most of that day and cleared right when I was walking by ESB, so I decided to go up and see the city. The wind at the top was blowing so hard, it was not pleasant to be there at all. I had to put a lot of pressure on my camera against the wall to reduce the shake for long exposures in the dark.

Hopefully no big damage was done to NYC, all affected states and all the folks living there and traveling through. Currently in DC, the rain and wind is unreal. I had to go get some food from the grocery and got soaked wet after five minutes being outdoors, with rain going almost horizontal, making umbrella not very useful tool.

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