From Russia With Love: indian summer in moscow and a little bit about space exploration

they have indian summer here, but if you've been reading previous blog posts, you know it's called "baba leta" in russian: women summer. this past weekend was it. incredible sunshine, everyone was out and in good spirits. such a fun weekend! i took all of saturday off, and part of sunday. i just had to get out there and enjoy the sunshine before it leaves us forever. here is how i spent my time:

this is the famous bolshoi theatre. during the week last week, there was a big lights festival and several landmark buildings in moscow became projection surfaces, and incredibly detailed and stunning graphic short films were projected onto them. the artists video "mapped" the whole building beforehand, so that they could project exactly onto each surface of the building, transforming it into a kaleidoscope of color and story. it was amazing. you can see details at www.lightfest.ru.

i just love the skies here!

i went to the cosmonaut memorial and museum. the russians are extremely proud of their space exploration history. yuri gagarin, first man to orbit the earth, i think (EDIT: AND ALSO FIRST MAN IN SPACE!), is a legend. like, beyond hero status. they would probably make him saint if they could. except that the soviets outlawed religion. but he's as close as you could get to sainthood in the USSR. the museum is fantastic - so many bits and pieces of space exploration history and culture. i saw the capsules they flew in, food they ate, uniforms, old films of how astronauts used to train, how to clean and vacuum in space. most of the museum explanations are in russian, so i'm sure there was some actual scientific and historical facts in there, too, but my russian doesn't go much beyond understanding basic household duties. plus, who knew they could give haircuts in space without the hair floating all over the place! way more interesting than the G-force during liftoff.

the posing. it really is unbelievable how much russians love to pose! this woman is sitting on venus i believe.

this is earth.

this is the memorial. it is a gorgeous and elegant sculpture.

this is strelka, i think. one of the first dogs in space. she and her doggy cosmonaut, belka, were two of the first dogs in space to return to earth alive and were celebrities for it. and yes, they are now stuffed and in this museum. the first dog in space, Laika, wasn't so lucky. it's tragic tale, you can google her if you want.

that's belka.

these are two sisters posing by belka and strelka. then we all got strictly warned that there is to be no photography in the museum. unless you buy and extra photography ticket, of course.

this and the picture below are examples of the kinds of shops you find everywhere in the tunnels under the streets, or leading to metro stations. they are very soviet and sell everything from pastries to socks to ladies underwear to toys to pipes to jewelry. and people actually buy things from them!

this is the inside of the bolshoi. my colleague anne and i went to see the bolshoi company perform the ballet Onegin. it was stunning. and we had 10th row seats! (a friend's dad is the general director, ahem. but he is very tight-lipped about the recent scandals there...it's a theatre company...there will always be drama!! they just take it to the extreme in russia...not sure any Broadway or Lincoln Center performer would throw acid on a director's face out of revenge...it's a rough town here!)