follow me

i loved the idea of those 'follow me' pictures which have been appearing all over the internet these days. there is this guy, murad osmann, who is taking pictures of himself holding hands and following his girlfriend to different places all over the world. pictures are taken by iphone and uploaded then to his instagram account.

i seriously wonder how we all lived without instagram? i think that this is the only social app or website (call it as you wish) i cannot imagine my life without. and this idea of showing different places with one main hero in them is one of my favourite photo ideas. it reminds me of amelie, who was sending pictures of yard dwarf from different countries to her dad who didn't believe in miracles.

and reminds me of my friend olya who takes her toodee toy with her everywhere and we all receive photos of him in different locations with warm greetings and funny comments. toodee even has his own facebook page. you can find him under the name - Toodee Velimirovich-Yakovlef. 

i am a big fan of creative photography and ideas. i'm thinking of coming up with my own way of capturing the places i am travelling to starting with my nearest trip. i will be posting those pictures here for you to enjoy. bon voyage, my dear readers!

..before..

sharing with you a wisdom i came across today:

Before you quit, try. Before you talk, listen. Before you react, think. Before you criticize, wait. Before you move-on, forgive!

дурацкие шапки

i bet you all have heard about evgenia gapchinska. maybe not heard but you all should have seen her paintings somewhere - on the internet, as a birthday card, as a postcard, fridge magnet or live in her gallery in kiyv. i'm the one who saw them everywhere above mentioned. but the last one i preffered most.

her gallery is situated in a narrow beautiful street in kiyv and looks like this:

i loved the gallery. it featured her amazing beautiful paintings all over the walls of one small but sunny room, and it felt like i was at the painter's home looking at the paintings she hung there herself.

you know my passion for the children-themed paintings. so i couldn't resist buying some stuff from the gallery. unfortunately, i couldn't buy the paintings, but several albums with her pictures were just right. one of the albums was entitled 'Дурацкие шапки' ('Stupid hats') and featured the paintings of little children with funny hats and a story for each hat. the stories are pretty sweet and funny and what i like most about them is the fact that they are written and painted by an adult, who notices everything about children and hasn't lost her childhood. i love adults who can stay children in their hearts even if they are really old. because only when each of us keeps a child inside alive, we can enjoy things around us with greater enthusiasm, we can get excited and happy because of the simplest of things, we can say what we think and never lie about our emotions. because children are open and honest. and those two things are exactly what all of us lack these days.

Alice in Wonderland

from time to time i have this weird feeling that everything around me is different. the objects seem way smaller than they really are and so far from me. i may be going to sleep and suddenly realize that the ceiling is higher than ever, the wardrobe is so much smaller and that no to say anything about the lamp, which seems like a tiny little light in a different dimension. i never paid much attention to it and was always amused when those things happened, until i was told that there was such a thing called Alice in Wonderland syndrome. have you heard about it? apparently, there is a special syndrome for all those things i have been telling you about. 

hello, my name is nini chikovani and i'm an alice in wonderland. :)

my music library

it is funny to remember how my music library has been forming over these years. i have a big amount of megabytes, if not gigabytes of different tunes. as my music library was forming, so did my music taste, which after all those years of collecting finally looks the way it is now.

each song and album is a memory of a place or person from where i have got it. and it is funny how my music library is now a compilation of memories and emotions, which is much more than just a compilation of songs by different artists. some of those memories about my music came to me this morning, when i was listening to my ipod in the car. first came quarteto jobim-morelenbaum. being always a bossa nova fan, i got familiar with them in beginning 2000's, when during my student years i was working as an interpreter on a forum held by moscow chamber of commerce an UN. there i got acquainted with a UNECA representative, for whom i was interpreting the conference. i got the cd of quarteto jobim-morelenbaum from him and they became one of my favorites because of their way of resinging old great songs and bringing the right bossa nova feel. my friend ksusha played one of the greatest roles in my love for soul and r'n'b. being an r'n'b singer herself when we were younger, she had amazing taste and collection of great soul and r'n'b singers, some pretty rare and unknown. roma, my coursemate, was my biggest supplier of jazz. the right jazz. classic jazz with proper tagging. i got the biggest collection of jazz by greatest artists all beautifully split into albums with artworks, genres and all that synced in last.fm. i have never changed the naming or numeration. those albums and songs are kept the way i got them in the first place.

ketuna, my rap and hip hop muse, broadened the collection with some good warren g, snoop and big. when some of those songs start in my ipod i can perfectly remember us dancing to them in r'n'b cafe in moscow back in 2005. oh those were great times. and ketuna's sister, nino, is now continuing to add life to my music library with lots of live performances, remixes and limited versions.

some music came from places where it felt great. before shazam, i used to go to the waiters/hotel managers/dj's and ask for songs that i loved and that would remind me of those wonderful mornings/days/evenings. was it a restaurant in bali, a hotel bar in paris, a taxi backseat, an airplane flight - i wanted to come back in my memories to those places and people around me. later, shazam has made it all so much easier for me, being one of the biggest music suppliers of all time to me.

there have been many people and places sharing songs with me. some of them gave me whole albums, some - one single song, but this is exactly why i have such an amazing music library. the collection of great songs shared with me by my friends, found in my favourite places; then shortlisted according to my taste and turned into a perfectly great compilation of music which makes me happy. when i listen to it. everyday.

peace

sharing with you the thought that has been in my mind ever since a very good friend of mine shared this photo. 

to open in a few years

here is a small game for you. write down a sentence next to each phrase. save all your answers and open them in a few years. and you will see how your personality will change with time. you'll see whether you accomplished something you dreamed of or overcame your fears or found something that makes you happy. i have written down my answers. sorry for not sharing them with you, but some were too private to publish. i will come back to them in several years too. and then decide whether my life has changed for the better.

i love

i dream of

i think about

i hate

i regret

i am satisfied with 

i miss

i wish

i get irritated by

i feel

i am afraid

i know

i don't know 

i can 

i can't

i'm friends with 

i cry

i laugh

i look for

i'm worth

i lose

i envy

i hide from

i am enemies with 

i am interested in 

i am not interested in

i remember

i am ashamed of

i deny

i am addicted 

i hide 

i keep

i believe

i am wondering

i am happy

i talk

i am concerned 

i am proud 

i do

i hug

i feel good when

i dream about

i help

i am offended 

i spend

i cheat

i debate

i am rude

i listen

i hesitate

i read

i prepare

i watch

i kill

i ruin/spoil

i live

i fight

i shout

i sing

i perform

i go 

i avoid

i play

i lie

i admire

i adore

i collect

i pay

i am jealous

i attract

spring on its way

yesterday was good. it was warm and springy.

the whole day in spite of million things to do i felt happy. when in the evening i was driving home, i wondered what was i so happy about. and realized that it was the weather that brought butterflies to me. because when you can take big coats off, hide away the uggs, put on sunglasses and don't get cold when walking in the street, you realize that spring is on its way.

and it won't be long before the cafes start putting up chairs and tables outside, flowers begin to blossom, skin begin to get tanned and people will have more smiles on their faces.