Disappointment

So the one event I was looking forward to this summer happened on Saturday and I was not there. It’s probably wrong of me to be as disappointed as I am, but I really wanted to see Paul McCartney in concert. However, the concert coincided with the biggest thunderstorm of the summer (so far), turning the streets into rivers, and creating the feeling that it was actually raining from above and below at the same time. So we made the decision that it would not really be enjoyable to go and stand with tens of thousands of Ukrainians in those conditions. But two days later, I’m still disappointed.

As a side note on Ukrainian culture: I find it amusing that in the article they mention that “Live and Let Die” received the biggest reaction along with it’s pyrotechnics display. I cannot even start to explain how much they love pyrotechnics here. Honest to god, there are fireworks in the city at least once a week - often just a few blocks from our apartment, where there happens to be a large open space. Before we moved here, our cat was absolutely terrified of fireworks. Now they start up on, say, a random Tuesday evening, and she doesn’t even flinch.

We did make it down to Maidan yesterday to see the leftover carnage from the concert. (There’s a lot of grass that needs to be replanted…I’m sure they’ll get right on that.) Apparently it was freak-show day on Kreshatik. Anybody with a saxophone, microphone, random carnival game, or gospel to spout had set up camp along the street. I managed to snap a couple photos to share:

There’s nothing quite like a pudgy juggler. He should have shelled out the money for a clown costume - it seems appropriate. When we walked up he had started trying the trick where he would stop juggling and freeze in place until someone dropped money in his bucket. A common technique of street performers in the US, however, here the crowd just started wandering off, confused. We also wondered what the caricatures around his platform were all about. Perhaps if the juggling wasn’t going well, he would do your picture?

Captain Jack here had quite a crowd gathered. I was disappointed for a second time this weekend when I got close enough to see that it wasn’t actually Johnny Depp. The next thing I noticed was the funny little zebra car he was standing next to. (Can you see the tail? I didn’t even notice that part until I uploaded the photos!) I’m not really sure how he and his gear could fit into such a small car. Or how far he could get in it. We listened to him until a couple of police officers showed up and made him stop. From what we could understand, they told him that he couldn’t be in the street. But as I mentioned, there were tons of other performers in the street. My guess is that, as is unfortunately often the case here, the Captain was a little too dark and ethnic-looking for the comfort of the officers. Wouldn’t want the freak show to get too freaky - there are comfort zones to think about.

Other random things seen on our walk: a saxophone player, playing “My Heart Will Go On” accompanied by what seemed to be a karaoke CD; a guy shouting some sort of religious dogma - it appeared a group of teenagers were preparing to beat him up as we walked by; the world’s worse caricaturist; a test of strength game; and two different knock-over-a-stack-of-bottles games (prize: $2 bottle of champagne!). It definitely had the feel of an impromptu carnival. It was, in a word, weird.