Washington: Be ashamed

In the fourth quarter of the Mystics and the Sun game. Does it look like 7,779 to you?/Patricia Leslie

 

WAPO says the official attendance last night was 7,779 (out of 10,100), but folks, come on:  Look at these pictures from the Mystics' game. Does it look like about 80 percent of the stadium is filled?  I don't think so.  How about less than half 7,779?  Just my rough estimate.

Across the court/Patricia Leslie

The Mystics are having their best season in years, and they're going to the playoffs for the first time since 2010.  If they beat New York Sunday in their last regular season game, they'll be at .500 with a 17-17 record, compared to last year's tally of five wins. 

 

You read it right, sister:  They won five games last year. And six games the year before that. 

In the end zone/Patricia Leslie

Washington cannot turn out to cheer them on?  Where are you people?  Where are you, women's groups?  The sisterhood is calling. Friday night they blew out the Connecticut Sun, 82-56.

Oh, that's right.  Down the street at the same time were the Nats.  Yay, Nats!  They are coming on strong.  Well who in the world scheduled both games for the same night and at the same time?  Well, duh. 

It's in for another Mystics' three/Patricia Leslie

 

Sunday you can see the Nats at 1:35 p.m. and the Redskins at 1 p.m. and come on over to Verizon and show your support for the Mystics at 4 p.m.

Going, going...three!/Patricia Leslie

Some of the Wizards, including John Wall, came last night, but where has President Obama been all season?  His last appearance at the Mystics, as far as I know, was three years ago.  Come on, Mr. President!  I know you've got a few things on your agenda (please don't strike Syria), but after all, you are just down the street from Verizon and can't those Secret Service boys whip you on over for a few minutes?  It would mean so much to the team and to us women.  (Especially if you appoint Larry Summers to head the Federal Reserve.  Baa, humbug.)  BTW, where's Michelle?

The Mystics' new head coach, Mike Thibault, has really made a difference this year.  Here it looks like he's leading the team in the Hallelujah chorus/Patricia Leslie

Attention, Mystics season ticket holders:  If you're going to miss the game, why in tarnation can't you give your tickets away to folks who might not have a chance to see them play?  There are a ton of places in this town to distribute tickets.  Think of all the children who would love to see a professional game.

She sang a stunning version of the "Star Spangled Banner," a prelude to the Mystics' victory, and her name is ...?/Patricia Leslie

 

The ball went thataway/Patricia Leslie

 

Washington, you've still got a chance to cheer on the team.  Half of life is showing up, so, please, for the women, show up Sunday, and don't forget about the playoffs, too. Thank you. 

It was here a while ago/Patricia Leslie

 

You see what you're missing between quarters at the Mystics' games. They don't do this at the Nats' games.  By George, it's the Hop Squad/Patricia Leslie

 

BTW:  If the Washington Post can have a tab for all the men's professional  teams in this city (5), where's the Mystics' tab? 

 

Thank you for always supporting our military who protect us/Patricia Leslie

Who:  The Mystics

 

What:  Their last regular season game (v. New York)

 

When:  4 p.m., September 15, 2013

Where:  Verizon , 601 F Street, Washington, D.C. 20004

How much:  Tickets start at $12 at the box office

Metro stations:  Gallery Place-Chinatown, Metro Center

For more information at Verizon:  202-628-3200 and for tickets: 800-745-3000


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Brides galore in Russia

V.V.Pukirev (1832-1890), The Unequal Marriage (1862), acquired by P.M. Tretyakov, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow/Patricia Leslie

Brides are everywhere in Russia.  The one above, tying the knot with what appears to be her great-great-grandfather while her lover waits in the background, is the only unhappy bride we saw.  (And she's got reason, no?)

A wedding party heads to Peter the Great at Senate Square, St. Petersburg/Patricia Leslie

A bride at the Catherine Palace, Tsarskoe Selo, near St. Petersburg/Patricia Leslie

 

On a Wednesday we saw five bridal parties on the streets, but our Russian tour guide said it was nothing special since Russians typically get married every day of the week, and we saw them every day of the week. Some brides, very pregnant in their wedding attire. ("That's all right, Mama.")

 

"I'll drink to that!" A wedding party near St. Basil's Cathedral, Red Square, Moscow/Patricia Leslie

 

The wedding car/Patricia Leslie

The wedding parties added gaiety to the festive streets and sidewalks in Moscow and St. Petersburg, filled with smiling, laughing residents, day and night. Quite a contrast to American stereotypes of Russians and to the dour and not-so-happy residents who walk in downtown D.C.

Repressed?  In one shop I found a refrigerator magnet which features a moving head of President Vladimir Putin when you turn it to the right and then, when you turn it to the left, a moving head of  Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev.  A “double-edged sword,” said a Russian who fully expects "Putin for life." (I bought two.)

Of course, there was the recent story about the artist who was forced to flee St. Petersburg because he drew Putin in lingerie so maybe not all is forgiven, but we did have CNN and the BBC in our hotel rooms, and a show about the coming American revolution was fascinating. (The U.S. government is secretly inserting HIV vaccine in all vaccines. Would anyone be surprised? Now?)

Two gay members of my mostly Brits' tour group were ignored in Russia, and the guidebooks list gay bars in Moscow and St Petersburg. It seems that the anti-gay talk in Russia stems from its leadership, not the “grass roots.”

The day we stopped at St. Nicholas' Cathedral in St. Petersburg we saw two funerals on the first level (bodies in open caskets) and a wedding on the upper level, following the Russian tradition of two churches within the cathedral.  (For the first time it struck me how similar funerals and weddings are:  the flowers, the liturgy, the colors (black and white), the location, the unions, the words, the music.  Wait!  They had no music.  The lack of music.)

St. Nicholas' Cathedral, St. Petersburg/Patricia Leslie

Known as the “sailor’s church” due to the sailors living in the neighborhood and named after the patron saint of sailors, St. Nicholas was built between 1753 and 1762.  According to our guide, it was the only church the Soviets allowed to be used as a church after the Russian Revolution (1917). The other churches and cathedrals were turned into store houses for vegetables, and it's only in the last two decades they've been permitted to re-open as places of worship.

St. Catherine’s, the oldest Catholic church in Russia, located on the most famous street in St. Petersburg and probably in Russia, Nevsky Prospekt, is evidence. 

St. Catherine's, Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg/Patricia Leslie

At its entrance a framed timeline on the wall reveals the church was founded (on another site) in 1710. The first entry in the parish books records Peter the Great as godfather to a child born to the church's first architect, Domenico Tresini.

Taking pictures inside St. Catherine's is forbidden, but, Wikimedia Commons has this photograph of a church altar at St. Catherine's which has been preserved in the neglected and damaged state it was found.

By 1917, 32,000 were on St. Catherine's  rolls, and it was one of 10 Catholic churches in St. Petersburg.  On Easter Sunday in 1923 in Lubyanka Prison in Moscow, Constantine Budkiewicz, the parish priest who began serving the church in 1905, was executed by the Soviets.  Presently, he is "under investigation for possible Sainthood."

 

The view of an art show from the steps of St. Catherine's looking towards Nevsky Prospekt/Patricia Leslie

The art show and sale at St. Catherine's/Patricia Leslie

St. Catherine's remained open until 1938 when the Soviets turned it into a storage house for vegetables, books, and motor bikes.  It re-opened as a church in 1992.  Donations for the church's restoration are sought.

The tour guide said 80 percent of Russians who attend church do not believe in God, but they still get married a lot. As a matter of fact, President Putin has offered couples cash incentives to have more children. Russia’s birth rate last year exceeded the mortality rate for the first time in a long time, according to the Russian president, and it exceeded the U.S. birth rate for the first time in years. At one time the U.S. rate was 75 percent higher than Russia’s, Forbes says. What does this mean? A lot for the economy.

But back to what makes the world go round: Many newlyweds in Moscow “seal” their eternal love in a padlock on a metal tree and throw the key in the Vodootvodny Canal. "Love locks" they are called. Unfortunately, it only works about half the time (or less) for Russia has a high divorce rate which varies from 51% to 63%, depending upon which Web source you check and how you define the term.

"Love locks" in Moscow at the Vodootvodny Canal/Patricia Leslie

"Love locks" in Moscow/Patricia Leslie

More "love locks" in Moscow/Patricia Leslie

 

However, without "love locks," the U.S divorce rate  is practically no better (between 49% and 53%). Better to be safe than sorry, I suppose. I suppose.

More true love on the streets of St. Petersburg.  Wait!  Is it possible a Tom Brady fan (on the right) accompanies the happy couple while listening to a game?  Shame/Patricia Leslie

 

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Young pianists thrill Kennedy Center audience

International piano stars at the Kennedy Center, from left: Mihyun Lee, Matthew Eng, Vivien Zhu, Ethan Hsiao, Gloria Cai, and Tyler Fengya/Patricia Leslie

 

Their keystrokes and music coming from the Steinway on the Millennium Stage Tuesday evening left audience members star struck by talents displayed by those so young. Unless you were there, it is almost impossible to believe, but the large screen up above the stage on the heavy curtain displayed close-ups of nimble fingers and focused eyes, and we realized we were witnesses to distinction. 

 

The performers are the world’s best pianists for their age groups, as selected in the 28^th International Young Artist Piano Competition, and three of the five are area residents.

 

First up on the stage was seven-year-old Tyler Fengya who began his piano lessons at age three and won his first competition a year later. A school student in Clifton, N. J., Tyler played Claude Debussy’s “Clare de Lune” and “Chinatown Rag” composed by Li-Ly Chang who founded the competition in 1986.

 

Promoting Chinese composers and strengthening ties between the East and West are two goals of the contest which requires participants to play selections by Chinese and western composers.

 

Tyler was not the only pianist to play a piece written by the competition’s founder. Mihyun Lee, the prize winner for the Young Professional group ages 19 through 28, chose Ms. Chang’s “Taking Shapes” and, also, Maurice Ravel’s “La Valse.”

 

A Korean native who is a Ph.D. student in musical arts at Ohio State University, Ms. Lee has a solo recital coming up later this year at Carnegie Hall.

 

Gloria Cai, age 10, a school student in Ellicott City, Maryland, came to the stage after Tyler. She began her training at age 4 at the knee of her grandmother, Yuhua Gu. When Gloria was seven, she won her age category in the international contest. For Tuesday’s show Gloria played “Flower Drum Song” by He Hsao Yin and Frederic Chopin’s Etude, Op. 10, No. 5.

 

Next on the bench was Ethan Hsiao, 11, who began his piano lessons at age six. A school student in McLean, Virginia, Ethan played Aaron Copland’s “The Cat and the Mouse.”

 

Vivien Zhu, 14, attends high school in Rockville, Maryland, and she started musical training at six. Her selection was Enrique Granados’s Allegro de Concierto, Op. 46.

 

Matthew Eng, 15, a student in Moorestown, New Jersey, began studying piano at age seven, and his selections were Quan Jihao’s “Combination of Long and Short” and Alexander Scriabin’s Sonata No. 9, Op. 68 “Black Mass.”

 

The winners of numerous awards, prizes, and scholarships, the young medalists have performed on television and at top venues across the U.S., including, in Ms. Lee’s case, Korea.

 

Without question those of us who hold classical music dear have many hours of listening pleasure to anticipate from these remarkable musicians. 

To see past performances click here.

 Save up to 50% on Hawaii hotels. Valid 11/18 - 12/8.

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'Peter the Great' welcomes the G20 to St. Petersburg

 

 

 

Peter the Great welcomes visitors to St. Petersburg/Patricia Leslie

I hope President Obama does not cancel his trip to St. Petersburg, Russia for the G20 over the Syria mess for after all, how can you communicate if you don't communicate?

St. Petersburg welcomes the G20/Patricia Leslie

Peter the Great (1672-1725) on his horse on a very big rock stands ready on the banks of the Neva to welcome the G20 members to St. Petersburg, truly one of the world's loveliest cities, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, the "Venice of the North" for its cultural opportunities and beautiful canals, reminiscent of the real Venice.

Peter the Great in St. Petersburg/Patricia Leslie

The inscription in Latin on one side and in Russian on the other side of the stone reads:  Peter the First, Catherine the Second, 1782/Patricia Leslie

The revered (almost as much as Lenin, it seems) Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837) wrote the poem, The Bronze Horseman, about the statue of Peter who founded St. Petersburg in 1703. (I would include the English text of the poem, however and alas, "This text has been suppressed due to author restrictions," but it is found in Russian at http://www.rvb.ru/pushkin/01text/02poems/01poems/0795.htm?start=0&length=all.)

Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (1782-1836), Aleksandr Pushkin (1827),Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow/Patricia Leslie

From a distance Peter the Great seemed smaller than expected.  Beyond the statue is the Neva River and in the distance is the Menshikov Palace/Patricia Leslie

It is almost criminal to visit St. Petersburg without having read Peter the Great by Robert K. Massie published in 1981. Indeed, the Fairfax County Public Library has only three copies which are never on the shelves, always checked out and reserved, no doubt partially due to Massie's 2012 Catherine the Great, also required reading to truly enjoy the magnificence and scope of the history of Russia, its tsars, their legacies, and the possessions they left behind. And it was because of these two books, honestly, that I went to Russia. (Reading Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra was a factor, too.  Forced by books. They made me do it. This has happened to me before.)

The Neva River separates Peter the Great and the Menshikov Palace (reddish roof)/Patricia Leslie

Peter the Great on the banks of the Neva River, St. Petersburg, Russia.  The Russian flag flies on top of the government building across the street/Patricia Leslie

Catherine the Great commissioned the statute to honor the 100th anniversary of Peter's coronation. She, always happy to glorify Western Europe as was Peter, hired a French sculptor, Etienne Maurice Falconet (1716-1791) to create the piece. (Russia didn’t have sculptors? Rather like the U.S. which went to China to hire one for the Martin Luther King, Jr. statue.)

Peter the Great on the banks of the Neva River, St. Petersburg, Russia/Patricia Leslie

Peter the Great on the banks of the Neva River, St. Petersburg, Russia with a slain snake with its multiple interpretations/Patricia Leslie

Peter the Great on the banks of the Neva River, St. Petersburg, Russia/Patricia Leslie

The stone on which Peter stands has its own history and is sometimes called the Thunder Stone. It was found 3.7 miles inland from the Gulf of Finland and hauled painstakingly by 400 men who laid and relaid track and worked nine months to carry it to St. Petersburg in what is still known as the largest stone moved by man without animals or machinery. The whole transfer to the statue site took two years.

Hauling of the Thunder Stone for the monument to Peter the Great. Engraving by I.F. Schley of the drawing by Y.M. Felton (Yury Felten), 1770/Wikipedia

Falconet worked on the project for 12 years before his inability to please the madam,  exhaustion and exasperation led him to leave four years before the statue was completed. His absence at the dedication on August 7, 1782 received attention and is noted on the sign at the entrance to the park where the statue stands. Massie provides lots more detail.

About 150 years after the dedication, citizens covered Peter with sandbags and a wooden shelter to hide the statue from 900 days of Nazi attack and bombs.  The monument escaped the siege undamaged.

The camouflage of Peter the Great during World War II/Wikipedia

Having a little knowledge of the statue’s background, I was mysteriously drawn to it every day while I was in St. Petersburg. It lies in close proximity to St. Isaac’s Cathedral, itself a landmark whose gilded dome can be seen for miles around town.

St. Isaac's Cathedral, St. Petersburg, Russia/Patricia Leslie

St. Petersburg, Russia welcomes the G20/Patricia Leslie

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Update: Why I (used to) hate Dulles

Wikimedia Commons, Joe Ravi/CC-BY-SA 3.0

(Since this was originally posted in 2013, things have gotten far better for arriving international passengers at Dulles. Updated October 4, 2017)

Dulles' traffic is down. 

You don't say.

I can give you a few reasons:

1.  Inefficiency

2.  Sullen, mediocre staff

3.  Delays

4.  Time

On Saturday night I was one of about 300 deplaning from international flights at Dulles where "our time" was the middle of the night. Woe be to us.

I suppose it was a new experience for Dulles which must not have access to flight schedules so it didn't know 300 were arriving simultaneously to go through "passport control," and that is why only three of 24 lanes were open for U.S. citizens for "processing."   I was in the second line of between 10 and 15 lines, likely 30 deep each, at least.  I took photos, but, alas, I was thwarted by the Dulles' staff. Surprise.  Read on.

After 25 minutes a man in the first lane called out to an attendant:  "Can't you get more people here to process us?  My goodness, you only have three lanes open for all these people!"  She looked deaf, blind, and mute.  It was 7:55 p.m. EST and 3:55 a.m. Moscow time.

Five minutes later another lane opened to accommodate the hundreds of people.  Babies cried.  Spouses exchanged irritations.  Children asked "Why?"

It took 40 minutes for me to be "processed."  How long would you estimate the people in the last line waited?  That, in addition to another passport check and declarations of goods brought into the U.S. at another station beyond the first.   

This did not happen last year at National Airport where processing was uneventful and fast.  Maybe the Dulles' staff can attend classes at National Airport.

When I got to Moscow last week and some Brits found out I was from Washington, they rushed to tell me their horrid experience at Dulles when they visited the U.S.  "It took us two hours to get through passport control," they said.  Oh, really.  At the Moscow airport, we sailed through with three persons in lines at most, and were "processed" quickly.

The only time I ran into any security problems on my trip was at Dulles.  No questions (or police) at the Kremlin, in Red Square or anywhere else in Russia.  Not even from the Russian military I often shot.

When I photographed the throng of people and crying babies in the middle of the night at Dulles, I was rushed by "Mahder" who demanded I delete my pictures of Dulles and said she would watch me to make sure I did it.  Why can't I keep my pictures to show your inefficiency?  I asked.  She said she could not say why. 

One of my pictures was a stand-up advertisement in the last line we could read about 1,000 times which said:  "What are you waiting for?"  And on a brochure Mahder handed me:  "You're in a hurry.  Global Entry Makes International Arrivals Fast & Easy."  Ha!  Ha!  The joke was on us.

Dulles thinks it's the only airport with security in place and that's why no photos are allowed?  If you think D.C. is a police state, it will be confirmed for you on a trip to Russia where security is lax, and people laugh on the streets and are happy.  As Derrick from Britain said before the British Parliament voted to stay out of the Syria mess: "America attacks everyone, and that's why America is a target."

The only piece of good news from the night came from the bus driver who said the traffic to Dulles was so light on the bus line from Tysons to the airport, the fare had been cut from $5 to $1.80. 

I can tell you why.

You have heard the expression "I hate Duke." 

Well guess what.

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