August 2008 - Los Cuadernos de Julia

The London Routemaster: Competition and Inspiration

The old London bus, originally uploaded by loscuadernosdejulia.

The photo you see in the post was made in London this July, as I was walking from the Strand to Trafalgar Square (I took the picture from the staircase that led to the Royal Society of Arts). In the morning I took a bus from Lancaster Gate to Euston, left my luggage to store, and then took my favourite walk from Euston Rd to Russell Sq and down Southampton Row. From there I got to the Strand, and from the Strand I walked to Trafalgar Sq. I was planning to visit Victoria and Albert Museum, but I didn’t want to take the tube, nor did I want to hop on and off the different buses. Eventually, I took the Heritage Route no.9 bus from Trafalgar Sq that circulates between Royal Albert Hall and Aldwych. But in the picture above you see the second of the two heritage routes, no. 15; it operates between Trafalgar Sq and Tower Hill.

Routemaster in Wikipedia
London Routemaster Heritage Route

And so, more on the subject of passion. The comments you can read on this photo’s page on Flickr sound as if they’d been left by a native Londoner. In fact, Jason Albright (aka austinmini1275) is the native of Hagerstown, MD (the U.S.), and has always been interested in transportation, and the London buses, in particular. He also pointed out to the fact that in the photo I managed to catch not one, but two London icons: the Routemaster and the FX4-type black cab. As the person who easily mistakes Ford Beetle for Lamborgini, I am completely in awe with Jason’s competence.

As some of you might know, Boris Johnson vowed during his campaign for the Mayor of London to bring the Routemasters back. In spite of mixed comments, Mr Johnson is keeping his word on this, and here is the New Bus for London competition. The competition closes on September 19th, 2008. To make things clearer, the new London bus design will be based on the AEC Routemaster, but the organisers, and Mr Johnson in particular, are aiming to go further. They want to hear from both professional designers who can submit the whole plan and regular commuters who can contribute their experience and ideas for improvement. The first prize is the hefty £25,000, with several smaller awards for “great ideas”.

Whether London buses will all be Routemaster-esque by 2012 or not, is the matter of time and money. This will certainly be a great feature to enhance the Olympics experience for the capital, but exactly how efficient it is, one will have to wait and see. The current biggest drawback of the Routemasters is that they don’t accommodate the needs of disabled passengers and don’t have sufficient space for prams and luggage.

I got to use the Routemaster in spring 2004 when I visited London for the first time ever. I was staying in a hostel in Fitzroy St and taking a bus from Tottenham Court Rd to Euston Rd, to visit the British Library. One day I took the Routemaster, and the experience of riding it later transcended into verse: in the 2004 poem called The Ship, which is in fact dedicated to the London Routemasters, I compared the experience of being of this bus with the experience of sailing in the open sea. The verbatim translation is below; the Russian original is in the form of a fourteen liner:

I am a random passenger on the ship.
I come aboard and say farewell to calm.
I leave the shore behind and sail
Forth, wherever the ship takes me.

A captain-conductor accepted me as an equal
And doesn’t mind sharing his stand with me,
And so I lose the sight of the shore,
While watching the waves, in excitement.

And at the very moment when the ship
Sails into the ocean, and from the distant lands
The seagulls come and bring to her their sorrow,

I feel: I behold the entire world.
And there, beneath, the road rolls like a wave,
And in the wind I sing the song of freedom.

English translation © Julia Shuvalova

Fishing on the Canal

Fishing on the Canal, originally uploaded by loscuadernosdejulia.

I am tempted to say that I can barely understand these die-hard fishermen who sometimes stand on the banks of Bridgewater Canal in Manchester (and possibly elsewhere). Then, perhaps, they are no more different from the die-hard cameramen who scout the cities and towns and take pictures of monuments that have been photographed dozens of times before. So, I understand the fishermen.

What I don’t understand is precisely why they come to fish on the Canal? Or, better yet, precisely what do they hope to catch? And, lastly, if they do fish something out, what do they do with it? My concern stems from the fact that the Canal is at times so terribly polluted that fishing there would be unthinkable to me, let alone doing something with the catch.

I guess, little can stop people from following their passions. As Robert Capa would put it, “if your photographs aren’t good enough, you are not close enough“, and this quote encapsulates not only Capa’s own life and work, but the general approach to one’s vocation. Passion and dedication truly make people.

And fishing is the passion. It drives one to come to the river bank not only at dawn or in the daylight, but at dusk, too, as in the case of the man on the photo I took in Castlefield. Even now, I’m sure, if you get to visit Moscow between late spring and early autumn, you will get to see fishermen on the banks of the Moskva River, with fishing-tackle and the jars of bait. And, yes, the Moskva can be just as dirty, as any river. In Moscow, too, I would often ask myself what on Earth these people were hoping to catch. But I never approached them with this question. Not that I didn’t truly care. Simply, as we know, fishing is done in silence.

The Second Blogiversary

Indeed, it’s been two years that I’ve been writing the blog. It may be strange that I wanted to mark the occasion with a blog post, or at least I never really looked at how often other bloggers celebrate the anniversaries of their blogs. Perhaps, I’ll skip the next two and then write the 5th jubilee post.

A month ago I thought I would list some blogging tips, but then I changed my mind. In part, this was because I realised that those tips would amalgamate my experience as a blogger with the industry knowledge. On the other hand, ideally I would need to call the post something SE-friendly, to make sure that my knowledge-sharing efforts don’t sink in without a trace in the SERPs. And your blog is like your child or beloved, providing you put a lot of effort and love into it. Naturally, you want the celebrations to be fairly intimate and to mark the nature of your entreprise.

Therefore, the celebration of Los Cuadernos de Julia 2nd blogiversary will happen as me updating you on the recent changes to the blog. First, the title: it now displays the painting “Vanitas” by anonymous Russian artist of the first half of the 18th c. I tried to use a more personal image of my own notebooks, but it didn’t work, and possibly for the better.

Another change is that a lovely picture of a bookshelf in the side bar (another 18th c. Russian painting, “The Books” by the artist BogomOlov) takes you to what I called Los Cuadernos Bookshelves, and yes, they are on Amazon. Some posts have previously had links to Amazon pages, but I am planning to create a kind of catalogue of books I read and films I saw, with short reviews. For which purpose (and for which reason) I started the Bookshelves blog on TypePad. I should be quick to point out, though, that as I am writing this post, that blog is still a tabula rasa, but it won’t stay that way for too long.

And finally, I spent today’s afternoon adding more labels to the blog (while listening to the Manchester Pride music). The idea is quite simple: Los Cuadernos de Julia have always been like an open book, and given the variety of subjects and themes, some sort of index was necessary. The indexing is still in process (because I’m doing this by memory of what I’ve written about in two years) and will involve creating the clustered categories by topic, for the ease of navigation. The outcome should be that, instead of being transfixed by the sheer number of index entries, the readers will be able to skip directly to the category they are interested in. Update: at present, I am transfixed by the number of categories, still thinking of how to organise them so that the almighty Google doesn’t break down trying to understand how to index the blog. For now, please browse the full list of labels, and hopefully I figure out the solution soon.

Blog Action Day 2008 – Bloggers Against Poverty

Last year saw the first ever Blog Action Day rolling out on October 15th; the subject matter was Environment, and the bloggers, podcasters and videocasters were invited to join the gBlogger: Notebooks – Los Cuadernos de Julia – Edit Post “Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty”lobal discussion on the topic. In my post “Nature and Memory” I looked at my school lessons in Naturology, my first (and the only) herbarium, and at how children could be taught to empathise with Nature.

This year Blog Action Day is back, and the subject matter is even more serious – Poverty. As the organisers state, there are many systemic reasons for poverty, whereby it has become one of the biggest problems in today’s world. The aim of the B.A.D. 2008 is therefore to generate the global discussion on what and how can be done by individuals, as well as by organisations, to tackle the issue.

As before, online publishers can support the B.A.D. in many ways, including donating one day’s earnings from the blog (that is, if you sell advertisement or products). If this is a publisher’s choice, then Blog Action Day 2008 officially supports The Global Fund who are particularly involved in combatting the AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as some of the biggest hindrances in the fight against poverty. Another charity involved in the event is Kiva, which is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending site, allowing individuals to offer financial help directly to an entrepreneur in one of the developing countries. Of course, the publisher can donate the day’s earnings to another charity, in which case they are welcome to send the receipt to the B.A.D. organisers who will tally it to the total sum of the Blog Action Day donations.

Blog Action Day was started by Collis Ta’eed whose passion for the Internet combined with the Bahai ideal of “Unity in Diversity” led him to join forces with a few colleagues and co-thinkers to start the initiative of holding a global discussion on a certain subjest throughout one day. The previous B.A.D. saw the support of the United Nations Environment Programme, the EU Minister Stavros Dimas, Google, and more than 20 millions of blogs. This year is set to see another EU Minister and many organisations joining forces to discuss and debate what can be done to alleviate the conditions of the poor and to rise the well-being of affected people and communities.

There are many ways in which to support the Blog Action Day, and I have used two of these: I added the banner, and I contributed the Russian translation of the website (overall, it seems the site will be available in nearly 30 languages). I have not decided yet exactly what I will write in my blog post on October 15th, but the organisers stipulate that the post on poverty should relate to the general topic of the blog. There are some Resources available to help you start thinking about the problem or how it is being solved elsewhere, or you can read the FAQs, for some tips on what your post or podcast can be about. And if you decide to take part, head over to the B.A.D. site to register and mark October 15th in your calendar as Blog Action Day!

And the Bloggers Meet-Up Is Happening….

…at The MEN bulding in Scott Place on Wednesday, September 17, at 6pm.

I must admit that when I wrote the original Manchester Bloggers Meet-Up post I could barely think that just a fortnight later it would garner such a result. I am immensely thankful to all those who started Manchester bloggers’ meetings (otherwise there’d be nothing to call for), to the two people who were very enthusiastic about the present call, to The MEN for becoming the host (following the BBC’s initiative, this is the sign of a continuous recognition of the Manchester blogging community), to all who broadcast my call, and to everyone who sent the emails and left comments.

Thanks to this collective effort, the meeting is now happening at The MEN and will include “a look at our multi-media newsroom and the chance to put any burning questions to one of the senior editors here“, Sarah Hartley explains on The Mancunian Way.

Due to space and security issues the numbers are restricted, and all those who did not reply to my call will now need to hurry up and email Sarah with their name and the name of their blog, if they want to join us (please put “Meet-Up” in the subject line). The spaces are allocated on the first-come-first-served basis. Everyone who emailed me or left a comment asking to be put on the list don’t need to re-send the details.

Last but not least, previously we’d usually gather in a place where the drinks would be in the walking distance from our seats. Naturally, this will not be the case with The MEN, so after the meet-up the Manchester bloggers will need to retreat somewhere else. And here’s the twist: the choice of a pub is yours. Sarah has put together a pub poll, so head over to The Mancunian Way to cast your vote.

Any more news or updates to the meet-up will be posted as the updates to this post. Otherwise, see you all on the 17th of September at 6pm at The MEN!

Update on the date and venue: please note that as of 28th of August, the sign-up is complete. Stay tuned to the pub poll, where the voting is currently is pretty much in favour of Dukes 92, one of Castlefield’s meeting hotspots. For all who signed up, check out the Google Map in the side bar for The MEN address, and I will add the pub landmark once it is known.

The Future of Mobile Technologies

A photo by ke21 from AU KDDI’s Mobile in Forest exhibition in Japan struck me as something infinitely stylish and glamorous. I don’t own a super-slim Mac, but, I thought, I wouldn’t mind owning this super-sleak, super-slim, super-super-everything mobile phone. And, sigh, it is made of paper. Just as I decided to follow the fashion for minimalistic gadgets…

But then I cast my mind back to April when we heard the news that smells could now be transposted via mobile phones. Perhaps, it is not too long before we see paper-made technology working in the digital world.

At any rate, this is definitely the gadget I would have in my bag. Or perhaps, this yellow one, with a butterfly. Definitely not the all-black with some suspiciously looking insects (even if for the demonstration purposes only). All photos are by ke21.

In the post you can also see the images from the exhibition found at NewLaunches.com. Read more (in Japanese only) and view more images.

Visiting London – 9

And so it finally happened. Since my first visit in 2004 I’ve been to London in all seasons, except summer. Thanks to Beck’s Canvas, this gap in experiencing London is no more.

This visit, somewhat strangely, also filled the gap in experiencing the Virgin train service. Or, perhaps, I should be more precise and say that the service itself was impeccable, as has always been the case of the Virgin trains, as far as my travelling with them is concerned. The timing, however, was not, although on my way there and back it was to my advantage, in the end. There is obviously nothing good about standing at the platform at either Piccadilly or Euston, in the crowd of people desperate to get on the train. As I had a small suitcase, I was observing the scores of passengers like myself, “relishing” the approaching onslaught on the luggage spaces. To my amazement, I was able to use the entire lower part of such space in my compartment just for my luggage. On the way back, because I wanted to get from South Kensington to Euston on the bus, I was slightly short for time. Yet again, the service was delayed.

My hotel which I was able to find through LastMinute.com was in Sussex Place, a walking distance from Lancaster Gate and the Hyde Park and from Paddington. It was on this trip that my long-lasting dream of living in a room with a balcony finally came true. This was handy, as the two nights in London were quite hot. At first I tried to avoid opening window on to the balcony, which was shared with the room next door, but common sense took over.

I don’t remember if I ever mentioned it last year. In my last two visits to London I was amazingly lucky to get the neighbours who were totally oblivious of the possibility of other people moving into a room nearby while they were out in the town. The neighbours I had in April 2007 would normally return to base at around 11pm, smash the door, and chat, laugh, and have a shower in the next hour. This time the neighbours came in after 4am, and the routine was more or less similar. What made the difference was, of course, the time of their return, and the fact that I couldn’t sleep well that night and had just managed to drift off.

I met yet another taxi driver who visited Moscow and St Petersburg in the Soviet times and had fond memories of going to different museums. I once again had the pleasure of talking to people I never knew – a couple at the Aberdeen Steak House in Paddington (left), a limousine driver in Kensington Gore. I also realised that I know London well enough to persuade someone who was walking towards Euston Station in search for St Pancras International that they walked in the wrong direction. Eventually I took a long walk from Euston Road through Southampton Row and Strand to Trafalgar Square, where I hopped on an old London bus (like the one on the right) that took me to Exhibition Road, from where I walked to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

London 2008 on Flickr

Visiting London label (to catch up on older reminiscences of visiting and exploring London).

La Prose: A Microphone

A microphone is I.

I am a microphone.

Since childhood, this question has been stuck in my head: people stand in front of the microphone, and speak, and speak, but what does the microphone think in the meantime?

The question followed me everywhere. I dreamt that the day would come when I would let the world know the answer to this mysterious question: what a mic thinks when people speak into it. Deep inside me I was preparing myself to this future. I read a lot. I studied the construction of the microphone. I asked people what they felt, when standing in front of the mic. Nearly everyone said they were nervous.

My metamorphosis occurred practically unnoticed, almost by accident. Simply, I got so used to the thought of becoming a microphone that I finally became one. And on a day when I was first taken onto the stage I was nervous, too.

When they first plugged me in, it was terrible. I screamed, terrified, picturing how I was going to die due to a short circuit. But the electrician was well experienced in such matters:

– Why is this thing jarring so loud? – he asked. – Turn the volume off.

I was rupturing in silence.

The brightest memory of the five years of my service has become a New Year’s concert. I still recall some moments of it, with either sadness or disgust, but always in hope that nothing LIKE THIS will ever happen again. It was then that I for the first time realised what it was like – to be a mic.

They were adorning me for a long time, wound me in tinsel and put a silver cap on my head. I could barely see through it, besides it was not my size and squeezed my head too tight. I resisted them putting it on, I jarred all I could, soon I felt very hot, but who would care? Who would listen to a microphone? I resolved to waiting.

They took me onto the big stage and put me in the middle, but close to the edge. Being a cultured person, I, as you may understand, found it strange standing with my back to the audience. This is why for some time I tried to turn around, especially when an artist would let me. There are some artists, as you know, who cannot deal with the transferrable technical objects. These objects constantly rotate in their hands. But even when I did turn I could still barely see. These people who cannot deal with those objects try to disguise such inability behind all sorts of abrupt gestures and jerks, so, as soon as I managed to turn my left side to the audience, I was immediately forced to make a U-turn. As a result, my vertigo started, and in those circumstances I could no longer observe the audience.

Later a girl came on stage. She was small, but she wanted to sing in me, although there was another mic nearby, and who would stop her singing in it? And then they bended me, almost in half, and now I was facing the audience not with my back but with the part below it. Just imagine what a cultured person should feel when they turned him back to people and bended in half? I tried to protest, I rattled, but the audience laughed, and someone tapped me on the head, and once again I humbly stood, and the English words resonated from my head.

When the event reached its height, a man appeared on stage, grabbed me, straightened me, lifted me up in the air, and ran with me on stage for some time. I don’t remember what he sang, because I had too bad a vertigo and a headache, besides he was violently shaking me, carried me in one hand, pressed his mouth tightly to my head, and finally fell to my feet, exhausted. I looked down on his shaved nape and naked sweaty back, after which I fainted and fell on the man, and he screamed, and I was promptly taken away from the stage.

This was not the only concert. I am constantly being given to those who bend me in half, or shove me to the audience, with my head down, so the raging crowd could scream their hails and praise to their idol. My God! Every time I am frightened that this person drops me, and the crowd will be stomping me, stomping, stomping, – how horrific, even to think about it! For if they can stomp a person without looking, why make a difference for a microphone… People! They do not even know that once I also used to be a person, but I have got no blood left now, and, if they begin to stomp me, I will only rattle and grate my teeth in pain. How can they not understand that things have soul, too, and this rattling comes from its screams, and not from a plug put into a wrong socket? If I get broken, I will be thrown out…

This is what I think about these days, when I am a mic, and people use me to sing and speak. I pay no attention to words and verses. I only think, almost beg: please, be careful!

April 2002

Flickr888 Knitting Mill

Flickr888 Knitting Mill
Originally uploaded by loscuadernosdejulia

As you know, today is Flickr888, the most auspicious day, in which you are welcome to take part. For my part, because there is not much I can do at the moment, I posted this picture of things I am currently knitting/crocheting or have recently finished. So, in the picture you see a knitted charcoal wool scraf (completed); a green knitted cotton dress with some crocheted ornament (ornament is in process); a crocheted beige cotton cardigan (I need to make another sleeve for it); and what will become a throw on my couch. The throw is knitted of wool, multicolour, and will consist of stripes which I am going to stitch.

I’ve been knitting since 1992, and by far it is probably my only hobby. In the 16 years of experience the only thing I havwe never tried to make are gloves – but I’m working on it.