mafia picnic

Not only did we have a marvellous picnic, but I finally learnt how to play mafia games. In it, people in the group are either ordinary citizens or mafia (red or black cards) and then there are other roles to complicate things. The final aim is that either all the good citizens die, or that they manage to kill the mafia (although the game is inherently loaded against this outcome). So you play out a series of days and nights (during which citizens have eyes shut, mafia can see and choose who to murder.) During each 'day' everyone discusses who is the mafia, and makes accusations.

Of course this circles the difficulties at the centre of a corrupt society; if someone talks to much, that can make them seem likely to be mafia, as they are trying to point the blame elsewhere - but of course if you say nothing then you are also likely to be mafia, because you are trying to stay invisible. So the game is actually about hilarious, philosophical, joyfully argumentative talking.

Just a reminder (from my previous post on this subject) that you can read the original Mafia Games rules here and a more detailed explanation and brief history on Wikipedia.

gorky again

I have extolled the virtues of Gorky Park before, but I have to mention how good it has become in the summer. A short(ish) walk from Strelka/Red October, the park has also become a 'to be seen' place. So much going on now, besides ice cream and drinks stalls, cafes and restaurants. There were always two ponds and a fountain, but now the fountain performs to music and the lake is full of pedalos - just as the paths are full of bicycles, skaters, dancers, wheelie cars, table tennis tables, and the green bits are loaded with chairs and platforms and pavilions. 

10-of-the-best: no.4 Gorky Park

Gorky Park is in a constant process of re-invention right now, which is partly about an (almost first) attempt to make Moscow a more liveable city and partly about some weird deals between the Kremlin, the mayor and an oligarch or two (so what is new?)

The initial stage, commissioned through the Strelka Institute (set up by oligarch Alexander Mamut), was to add in some new urban designish elements - benches, more up-market cafes, an outdoor cinema and a summer 'beach', whilst clearing the last of the mini Coney Island type fairground rides from the river frontage. Then this next stage, which is AMAZING! There is now the biggest and best skating area I have ever seen, a mixture of different rinks linked by ice ways, all framed by some quite neat wooden and colourful pavilions and bridges.*  I note that their website has a fab, that is to say quite hammy, animated CAD walkthrough (skatethrough?) crooned over by Louis Armstrong.

The stage to follow in the Spring is the shift of Garage from, well the garage (Melnikov-designed constructivist) it was in, to here. This is publicised as beginning with a pavilion by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, then a  temporary home designed by Rem Koolhaas’s Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) together with Olga Trevias/Form Bureau, which will convert the Park's concrete 1960s Vremena Goda (Four Seasons) restaurant, long abandoned. After that,  Garage will come to "occupy a nearby 8,500 square meter hexagonal pavilion. The historic 1920s pavilion of six sections with a courtyard (was) first constructed to house the first All-Union Agricultural Exhibition.."

So, of course, this leads to interesting questions. Well of course the usual one as to whether it will happen. And then there is the cash.  It was already known that Roman Abramovich has had a hand (and money) in the re-development of Gorky Park and now his girlfriend Dasha Zhukova, the owner of Garage, is moving in there too. As Andrew Osbourn put it in the Telegraph earlier this year: "using part of his estimated £8.4 billion fortune to turn (Gorky Park) into a showcase for the Russian capital is an undertaking likely to further endear Mr Abramovich to the Kremlin which regularly urges oligarchs to plough some of their fabulous wealth back into society". But then - maybe - they are also getting some real estate in return.

* I took the photo just after the ice had been cleaned, hence the emptiness. In fact, each winter since Soviet times, the paths of Gorky Park have been watered and left to ice all winter. I have only not skated there in the last couple of years because it always seemed as full as rush-hour in the Metro. Having a refrigerated bed has meant that this mild winter has not caused a problem; and the rink is just as full as it was in past times. 


Go here for more about the Gorky Park facilities and a list of the best other ice rinks in Moscow. 

the look of fresh pine

The park is currently in the beginnings of a make-over with the derelict rides and attractions being stripped out and - from the look of it - 'hipsters' being invited in. Work is being funded by the City government and Roman Abramovich, with one of his lieutenants Sergey Kapkov put in charge of the renovations. So there is a new outdoor cinema (where I watched some of the park's security guards - in full uniform - calmly try and jemmy open the storage shed, which could be seen to contain much useful stuff); a beach restaurant (with an actual beach); wi-fi everywhere; new stylish seating areas and many, many new espresso bars. The overall look is planks/boxes of stripped pine, so it is no surprise that Strelka Institute have been involved - they brought this look to Moscow.

If you want to be reminded of the summer, then see Gorky Park's new 'beach' as well as other kind-of-beaches around Moscow via this RT YouTube clip.  

wash out

Spent much of sunday getting very wet in Gorky Park, at Design Act - billed as a design festival and exhibition, but washed out almost completely. Making the market stalls and furniture out of cardboard was probably a bad idea (and presenting a lecture where power cables + damp meant my laptop gave off electric shocks whenever you touched it was interesting to say the least) .

Kolomenskoye

Got taken for a lovely afternoon walk in beautiful summer sunshine by V, as part of his on-going campaign to improve my education in Russian history and architecture. We went to Kolomenskoye park (conveniently accessible by metro on the green line) and visited the exquisite little group of buildings around the 16th century Church of the Ascension, a UNESO World Heritage site. And got into a discussion about how it looks like a rocket ship, so the space race must have started earlier than we thought... 

park again

In one corner of Sokolniki park there was dancing to rather miscellaneous 'big band' type favourites (played by a few elderly men and sometimes by a machine). The average age was probably 70, and much eying up of possible partners was in evidence.

The dancing, through, was a bit haphazard and it was difficult to ignore the more eccentric individuals involved, even whilst recognising that mostly everyone was having a good time. I found myself assuming that this kind of communal dancing (as with the tango sessions I managed to miss the other week) is left over from Soviet times and will fade away with this generation..

at the park

30 degrees and thunderous rainstorms, so I went to Sokolniki park to enjoy the holidays (this one is Russia Day). It has an amusement park, including a small train, and both real and mechanical horses for children to ride on. It is also one of the few places I have seen people jogging. What else is there to say - it was heaving with people, just like any London park would be in weather like this.

boys toys

Next door to the park is some kind of military museum; through the fence is what seems to be a car park, into which is jammed an assortment of minor looking tanks, armoured vehicles, rockets and (small) fighter jets. This boy stared through the fence for a long time, then calmly got out of his car, and squeezed through (not an easy task), whilst his father watched without speaking. And then the boy stood on the other side of the fence for a long time, staring (happily).

want one

Also in the park, were these ballon floats for children to paddle around in. Aren't they great? I want one now!

Next

Which gives me a chance to show one of the great ice sculptures they have every year next to the Space Museum and VdnKH (....in December, sorry didn't get around to it at the time..)

Last

They do have some snow sculptures there (well, they did, I haven't mentioned the major thaw we are having.....)

Lost

Whilst I'm doing tourist spots, I should mention we went to the Park of Lost Monuments, next to the Tretyakov Gallery at Krymskiy Val (which houses modern - i.e. socialist realist - and contemporary art. ) This is the second time I have been there because my guide book says it's a brilliant collection of ex-Soviet monuments. Well it isn't really. Unlike Berlin and East Germany, most of the statues of Lenin and Stalin and the others have been left where they stood; still just an everyday part of the landscape. So, this is a small and miscellaneous collection, just about worth the visit if you are also going to the gallery (which is pretty good.)

A day at the park

Another day out, this time to the All Russian Exhibition Centre, now known as VVC/ ВВЦ but still mainly called by its previous name - Exhibition of the Achievements of the National Economy - or VDNKh/ВДНХ  which is also the name of the local metro stop. It is a weird place, a sprawling site across which about 80 pavilions are scattered; some in 'regional' styles, and some to represent a particular industry or field (radio-electronics, soviet culture, atomic energy etc.,) all in varying states of decrepitude. In the Soviet period exhibitions and conferences were held here, and some of the grand intentions can still be felt. But now the pavilions are mainly occupied by stalls selling miscellaneous junk, surrounded by a fun fair and hot-dog stands, as well as heroic statues and fountains. I went at the weekend, so the place was packed with families having a day out. 

I then joined a Mosmania tour to the nearby Ostankino TV tower (by travelling from VDNKh on the new monorail to Телецентр). This is another place to get  a great view over the city; although security was tough (you have to book in advance and show your passport) and the official tour was in Russian. And although I have intended not to make fun of translation errors on this blog - 1.) because I speak almost no Russian yet, and my accent is atrocious, and 2.) because almost all the Russians I work with speak impeccably good English with almost no accent at all - I am going to do right now. Just to pass on the joy of hearing the guide say (whilst we were at the monorail stop, looking away from the Ostankino tower at the nearby Sheremetev estate and it's lake) that we were witnessing " a serial of ponds, where many women committed suicide in that very puddle."

Tales of the unexpected 1

Travelling always means you find stuff that just doesn't quite make sense; and Russia has a reputation, of course, for being full of peculiarities and everyday weirdness compared to the rest of 'ordinary' Western Europe.

Without wanting to perpetuate that belief, here is the first of another occasional series. The photograph shows one of inner Moscow's popular hanging out areas, Chistye Prudy/чистые пруды - part of the Boulevard Ring promenade - which has a pond. And a gondola. With a gondolier.

Chistye Prudy means Clean Pond, a renaming of Dirty Pond in (I think) the 18th century when, the story goes, it was used by the local butchers as a dumping ground for spare offal. It is about the size of 5 London bendy-buses, placed side by side. So not much of a boat trip.

I have yet to see someone take the ride, but am looking forward to it very much. May even have to do it myself, if only to get a better picture.

Tenacity

Had a very romantic idea of going mushroom picking in the woods this autumn, which is meant to be typically Russian. In the meantime, here are some very determined items forcing their way through the tarmac in a central Moscow park....