A very (un)important question

by Ewa Maria Blog29/11/201826/11/2018

Ewa Maria Slaska

HOW!?

One month ago I was in Washington. I visited Capitol and Capitol Library, Sculpture Garden with a Silver Tree, Vietnam Memorial, Holocaust Museum and Smithsonian Institut. Only in Capitol somebody checked my identity. It means: if somebody shall really want to know I was there he will be able to check it using Capitols archives. I suppose than that imaginary “someone” will be ably to find my mail-adresse, birthday, number of my slips and information how many grandchildren I have. OK, I do not mind. If I want to see the place where the world is governed I have to accept I am being controlled. But only then.

Now… I am already some weeks back in Europa. Since then I get mails from Smithsonian. Like that one, from 25th of November. A Subject line: a power of knowledge.

Indeed.

Dear Friend,

This year, Smithsonian scientists built a tool that will touch the sun without melting. Smithsonian curators assisted FBI agents in identifying a stolen pair of Ruby Slippers from the The Wizard of Oz. And Smithsonian educators developed a new, freely available science curriculum that can be used by teachers all around the world.

That’s the power of knowledge. And the power of the Smithsonian. Thanks to you.

The year’s not over yet. To keep this momentum going, we’re looking for 150 new Friends of the Smithsonian members by the end of November. And because you’re such a devoted Smithsonian supporter, we’re offering you a Fall Member Drive discounted rate of just $60 – a savings of $15!

When you become a Friends of the Smithsonian member, you’ll receive your very own Smithsonian membership card. This card is your gateway to exciting discounts, but it means much more than that. It’s a symbol of your belief in the power of knowledge. It shows that you’re committed to helping Smithsonian scientists, researchers, curators and educators make the world a better place.

And here at the Smithsonian, we want to reward you for that commitment. Become a member today and receive:

A subscription to Smithsonian magazine;
20% discount in Smithsonian Museum Stores
10% discount at selected Smithsonian dining facilities
A beautiful Smithsonian annual engagement calendar with full-color images of exceptional art and artifacts.
…and more!

JOIN NOW »

P.S. – Ready to take the next step in your quest for knowledge with a Friends of the Smithsonian membership? Join today and receive your special Fall Member Drive discounted rate – $15 off our standard membership rate!

Well, no, thank you, dear Smithsonian. I am totally excited of an extraordinary history of you and of your founder, but no, thank you, I do not want membership, even offered the cheaper one… I do not want anything but a very (un)important answer to my question:

GUYS! How did you get my mailadress? How did you know I was there? HOW!? I did not ask google, I did not search in Internet, I just was there. And you know it. HOW and WHY?

Is it geotracking?

Does my smartphone spy on me? Does ist listen to what I am saying? (I was excited of history of James Smithson and of your institution, so I told it anybody who wanted or did not want listen to me)

Or is Smithsonian itself making spionage job on its visitors?

PS. Cleaning the spam file I discovered also a mail from Peets Coffee, a small and informell coffee shop. They also have my adress. Somebody else?

Katarzyna Kozyra. Again in Berlin

by Ewa Maria Blog23/11/201824/03/2019

today heute dziś

Lindenstr. 35, 10969 Berlin
open Tue to Sat, from 11am to 6pm

Katarzyna Kozyra, A Dream of Linnaeus’ Daughter, 2018

We are happy to invite you for the opening of our new exhibition:

Katarzyna Kozyra | A Dream of Linnaeus’ Daughter

Friday, 23 November 2018, from 6 to 9 pm (the artist will be present)
The exhibition will run between 24 November, 2018 and 16 February, 2019.

“Biology and evolutionary theory over the past two centuries have simultaneously produced modern organisms as objects of knowledge and reduced the line between humans and animals…”
The quote from the now classic A Cyborg Manifesto (1985) by biologist and feminist Donna Haraway can easily become the motto of Katarzyna Kozyra’s upcoming exhibition at ŻAK | BRANICKA Gallery.

The show features two photographic series presented alongside the artist’s latest video work, from which the exhibition title originates. A Dream of Linnaeus’ Daughter was shot in Uppsala, in the gardens of Carl Linnaeus, famous Swedish botanist living in the 18th century who invented the classification system of organisms and the theory of sexual reproduction of plants, whose nomenclature derived from human sexual anatomy sparked universal outrage at the time. In her work, Kozyra acts as Elisabeth Christina von Linné, one of Linnaeus’ five daughters, an exceptionally talented figure forgotten by history, who could never take up studies, but still followed the steps of her father and became a botanist. In Kozyra’s interpretation, Elisabeth conducts a choir singing Ludwig van Beethoven’s famous Ode to Joy but… with the voices of such animals as a dog, donkey, cow, horse, goat and monkey. The creatures moo and squeal the anthem of the European Union while standing on typical pallets that symbolise Noah’s Ark. What an irony of fate: in Kozyra’s piece the daughter of the founder of an organism classification system based on difference builds a new world order that levels all differences, deeming all creatures equal.

The problematic of Kozyra’s work sits in the philosophical tradition of Donna Haraway, mentioned at the beginning, who describes a new society of the future that sees the blurring of borders between the sexes, species (humans and animals), biology and technology (organism and machine), between the physical and the non-physical. In a similar vein, from the beginning of her career Kozyra’s works have explored the boundaries between being a man and a woman, life and death, youth and old age, between the possible and the impossible. The latest projects that liken humans to animals – and vice versa: animals to humans – result therefore from the artist’s prior investigations. In a video and a photographic series created at the Schwarzenberg Palace in Vienna, Kozyra plays the role of Lou Salomé – an intellectual and a femme fatal, friend of Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Reiner Maria Rilke. In Kozyra’s interpretation, Nietzsche and Rilke are subjected to training as two dogs led on a leash by Salomé, again played by Kozyra, who walks them through the palace halls and takes them out to the gardens. The series Lou Salomé was created in 2005, but has never been displayed publicly in its entirety.

Kozyra follows Haraway’s path in proposing a new symbiosis between humans and animals. She approaches this topic from the perspective of radical feminism, as did Haraway, whose last manifesto The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness, devoted to human-canine relations, openly states that writing about dogs is for her a form of feminist theory. Also for Kozyra the notions of Culture and Nature are not necessarily a binary opposition. In photographs from the series Homo Quadrupeds (2018) naked men are led on a leash by burqa-clad women who tame their instincts. This is a reference to the legend of unicorn, in which only a virgin could tame the wild animal. While the women meet during the walk, the dogs sniff each other and seek to dominate. It is no longer only a matter of freeing women from male domination, as in the performance Aus der Mappe der Hündigkeit (From the Portfolio of Doggishness, 1968) by VALIE EXPORT and Peter Weibel, in which Weibel obediently waddled at the artist’s side. Kozyra expands the feminist approach with a political aspect: the dogs in her work, played by Arabs and Americans, are aggressive and ready to jump down each other’s throats any minute. Kozyra might therefore have more in common with Oleg Kulik, who attacks the establishment in his performances as a dog (literally!), but also dreams of a non-anthropocentric, ecological society and fights for democracy.

Kozyra expanded the borders of humanity to include other species already in her earliest works, such as the Polaroid series Karaski in Beef (1992) comprising images of a beautiful young nude male lying amid a halved carcass of beef. For a fuller picture, let us also evoke her diploma piece Pyramid of Animals (1993), inspired by the fairytale Town Musicians of Bremen by the Brothers Grimm, which consisted of stuffed animals: horse, dog, cat and rooster, accompanied by a horse slaughter film footage. At the time of its making, the piece stirred up an unprecedented scandal in the media, which turned it into the most famous artwork of the last quarter of the century and a symbol of critical art. Notably, Kozyra was creating that piece by herself, balancing on the border between life and death while struggling with cancer.

Insofar as her early works called for human morality with regard to animals, Kozyra now shows that the human being is an animal species, or in other words, a sociological chimera – doomed to co-exist with other creatures – which Haraway may have had on her mind while writing her Cyborg Manifesto. In order to survive, like every other species, they must therefore adapt to external condition: create a new society.

PS po polsku i po części żartobliwie:
O Linneuszu było już TU, a przez chwilę również TU (cierpliwości) i TU.

Wedding dress in a Country Club

by Ewa Maria Blog15/11/201815/11/2018

After so many days ouf mourning, let us come back to the life…

Ewa Maria Slaska

Over the years I read many American books which mentioned privileged life in various country clubs. Club members enjoying playing golf, tennis, swimming pools, club house, social activities. Some of those country clubs charge initiation fee ranging from few thousand dollars to couple of hundred thousand. Monthly fees are usually high, plus members have to spend certain amount on dining at the club’s restaurants. But even having money doesn’t open you the door to the club if you are not a proper person. And what it means: proper? In every book the answer was different.

So, as I said it already, I read a lot about country clubs, playing golf or tennis, dancing, dining and enjoying life. This expensive life style is often object of envy; public and affordable golf courses do not provide the same luxurious activities.

For three weeks I felt privileged to live in a Ramsey Golf and Country Club, observing and participating in daily activities, fascinated by golfer’s playing next to our garden, amazing wild life like chipmunks, squirrels, deers, colorful birds.

One Sunday we were strolling through an empty club and all of sudden we saw the wedding gown photographed in different areas of the club.

It was Jewish wedding. We saw the basket full of snowy white yarmulka’s and a chuppah erected by one of the lakes. The grooms family name is Korczak; it is embroidered into bride’s dress hanger: Mrs Korczak.

The color of the wedding is light and dark purple; very elegant.

The dress was modern, not at all traditional, as it should be. But also no modern fancies in a style of Meghan, what is now the number 1 of wedding trends:

Over-the-top embellishments appear to be a thing of the past, thanks to designers opting for a heightened sense of restraint and minimalism (read: thanks to Meghan Markle). Finally, clean styles the minimalist, uptown sophisticate, and even the effortless bohemian would gravitate towards can be found without an ounce of lace, beading, or appliqué. The simplest of designs can be the most challenging to create–there’s little place to hide when neither appliqué nor embroidery can conceal a design flaw–and your wedding is the time to invest in a design that’s all about the fine details.

Oh oh, as the Minions would say. Remember the elaborate wedding dress worn by so many generations from The Marrying of Chani Kaufman, a novel of Eve Harris? Dress covering not only arms but also the hands, with no cleavage, decorated all over with rich silver embroidery. The Marrying… is a book about a life of Hasidim in modern London. But it must be all over the world like that, everywhere where the traditional Jews are living. Also in New York. For example Menashe a movie of Joshua Weinsteins. Did you see it?

Set within the New York Hasidic community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Menashe follows a kind but hapless grocery store clerk trying to maintain custody of his son Rieven after his wife, Lea, passes away. Since they live in a tradition-bound culture that requires a mother present in every home, Rieven is supposed to be adopted by the boy’s strict, married uncle, but Menashe’s Rabbi decides to grant him one week to spend with Rieven prior to Lea’s memorial. Their time together creates an emotional moment of father/son bonding as well as offers Menashe a final chance to prove to his skeptical community that he can be a capable parent.

Shot in secret entirely within the Hasidic community depicted in the film, and one of the only movies to be performed in Yiddish in nearly 70 years, Menashe is a warm, life-affirming look at the universal bonds between father and son that also sheds unusual light on a notoriously private community. Based largely on the real life of its Hasidic star Menashe Lustig, the film is a strikingly authentic and deeply moving portrait of family, love, connection, and community.

Menashe should marry. He does not want. He is still bond to Lea. But he will. The marriage is inescapably waiting just behind the horizon of the movie’s end.

Also in Fading Gigolo of John Turturro (with Woody Allen!) a Hasidic wedding is inevitably. With a dress like that pictured below, like in Marrying…?

Compare it with the dress in “our” country club!

The couple who was getting married at the club was very modern…

The next married copule I meet in the… Grand Central Station in NY. They were Chinese.

They stood quite a long time not moving at all. And than they went out and on the other side of the street.

Good luck to all of you!

***

In Berlin we have an exposition

Hochzeitsträume (wedding dreams)

28.09.2018 – 28.07.2019
Museum Europäischer Kulturen

Reblog 18 Things That Every Polish American Will Understand

by Ewa Maria Blog28/10/201822/10/2018

Monika Marzec

If you’re 100% Polish you know these are all true

Growing up as a Polish American there are some things that are just so true because we have all experienced them. By not being totally American and not being totally Polish, we get the best of both worlds. From Polish school to Jan Pawel II, these are just some of the identifiers that we grew up with.

https://www.powr.com/video/top-10-scary-polish-urban-legends-3741941

1. Saturdays are for Polish school

Whether you want to go or not isn’t up to you. This made Friday night sleepovers nonexistent for basically your whole childhood and preteenhood. Forget doing anything fun on Fridays because you ALWAYS had to wake up early and finish doing last week’s homework.

2. Your friends never understood your parents’ accent

All your non Polish friends are guilty of the smile and nod when being asked anything by your parents.

3. Every summer you went to Poland to visit your family

Nothing like flying LOT airlines the day after school ends to see your family. Every year you meet a new aunt or uncle or family friend you never met before (where do they seem to spawn from?!). Everyone is always excited to see you because you’re coming from America.

4. You know your mushrooms

If you’ve spent a summer in Poland, chances are you went mushroom picking. You always had that uncle that would tell you that muchomory are poisonous, so just take a picture but do not touch.

5. Babcia taught you how to make pierogi

Babcia is always cooking but teaching you to make pierogi is a sacred rite of passage because even though you live in America, you cannot forget you are Polish. After a few hours, you have enough pierogi to feed a small army and dinner to last the next few days.

6. Communism

Somehow this is a topic that always comes up during family dinners… or when you want something and get a lecture how your parents didn’t have anything during communism.

7. You know your Disco Polo

You do not know how people still listen to this but whenever it comes on you sing all the words to it.

8. Babcia will keep feeding you because you are never full in her eyes

9. You have your American friends and then you have your Polish friends

Not everyone in your school is Polish so naturally you have your American friends that just do not get your Polish parents or why you have to go to Polish school. Regardless, having two groups of friends is awesome because some there are some things that your American friends will just never get if they’re not Polish.

10. Krowki are life and you always have a secret stash of them somewhere

11. Everyone has a picture of pope John Paul II in their house

Are you even Polish if you do not have a picture of the Polish pope in your house?

12. Whenever someone mentions Poland in school or public you immediately begin to pay attention

“Yes I’m Polish”

13. Translating things from Polish to English is sometimes challenging

Sometimes Polish words do not translate to English the same way. For example, why is stuffed cabbage called pigeon? Why is a chocolate dipped marshmallow called bird’s milk? We have so many questions…

14. Just because your Polish everyone assumes you’re a raging alcoholic

I mean, they are not entirely wrong because vodka almost sounds the same as the Polish word for water. Coincidence? I think not.

15. Just like Saturdays are for Polish school, Sundays are for church

As a Polish American youth, you do not have the luxury of sleeping in on weekends because you either have Polish school or church. And God forbid you are late to either, wstyd.

16. Everyone has the same leather kapcie

Image: KAPCIE GÓRALSKIE SKÓRZANE DAMSKIE LACZKI SKÓRA 38 7304975839 ..

goo.gl

You do not know where they come from or how they make a size for everyone, but you always have to wear them because if you walk barefoot on the floor, you will get pneumonia.

17. You speak Polish whenever you’re in public but want to talk about someone

Whether you’re at Home Goods with mama and you see someone you used to know and start gossiping about them, or you’re with your Polish friends and you’re talking about your crush who just happened to walk in, Polish comes in handy.

18. Your mom is always cleaning

You are not allowed to be in the room she just cleaned because she literally vacuumed everything including the cat and the picture frames. The living room is for show, not for living!!!!

Regardless of everything, you would not change being Polish for anything.

What I like in America?

by Ewa Maria Blog25/10/201825/10/2018

Ewa Maria Slaska

Iwonka (Foto somebody)

Rich (Foto Iwonka)

Manhattan seen from Brooklyn (Foto Iwonka)

and from the Atlantic Ocean (Foto Iwonka)

Perkins Memory Drive (with Manhattan skyline)

“Our” Golf and Country Club (Fotos Iwonka)

Cardinals (Foto Iwonka in a winter!)

Golf course (View from the living room. Foto Iwonka)

Fireplace inside the living room.

Israeli Couscous

“Our” train to NY and back (Foto Iwonka)

New World Trade Center Train Station (designed by Santiago Calatrava)

“Clean Cranberry Snax” with Chia- or Pumpkin seeds

Cute Halloween cakes

UAE

by Ewa Maria Blog24/10/201822/10/2018

Iwona Schweizer

I recently visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a vibrant tourist center in the Middle East.

With the discovery of oil in the 1960’s, the area was transformed from small fishing and pearling villages to a regional business center for the Gulf region. In 1971 after independence from Britain, the seven emirates united and created the UAE. The population at that time was around 235,000. The current population is close to 9.5 million people and the median age is 34.

UAE rulers understood early that diversification was critical to the country’s future. Accordingly, they offered attractive tax advantages and brought major Fortune 500 companies to invest there. Even though oil still plays important role in country’s total revenue other industries like real estate, finance, retail, and tourism are now part of the backbone of the UAE’s dynamic economy.

UAE ranks among the top 15 defense spenders worldwide, with a majority of the defense budget being spent on air defense systems and the air force. The United States provides the UAE with military training and has treated the UAE as a leading partner in combating terrorism. Recently, UAE special operation forces were involved in Mali, Afghanistan, Egypt, Yemen, Somalia. UAE does not have diplomatic relations with Israel (Israelis or Israeli products are not allowed in the country). However, both countries conduct joint military exercise in fighting terrorism.

About 10-15% of the population are native citizens. 80% of the population is foreign born. Emiratis have many privileges provided by the government such as free education, healthcare, grants to cover wedding costs, subsidized utility payments, and well-paid jobs in public sector. UAE is often called expatriate’s paradise. Expats with good jobs are compensated very well. The often receive a housing allowance and car allowances. Domestic help is cheap, almost every household employs a maid. There is no income tax or sales tax.

Due to the influx of foreigners, Emiratis often complain about losing their cultural identity. A common complaint is that too often Islamic guidelines for modest clothing, displays of affection, and consumption of alcohol are not enforced. It is common to see people dressed in western style outfits next to a native wearing an abaya, burka or kandura. Alcohol is served in licensed bars and hotels, and the UAE is famous as a sex tourist destination in the Middle East.

Temporary workers (construction, service) are often unhappy but would usually say “it is still better than back home.” They send money home, educate their children, and save for old age. Many families in Asia were lifted out of poverty because someone in their family works in UAE. I spoke to few hotel and restaurant workers who were very satisfied. Many employers pay for tickets to visit home.

There are also sad stories of people leaving in deplorable conditions, who for some reason had their passports confiscated, and/or whose wages were not paid by their employers. I came across a few circumstances where people claimed they were unable to go back home because they did not have the money to travel.

One can often see nannies with children in local coffee shops. My friends have a nanny from the Philippines. She has worked in Dubai for 12 years and seems very happy there. She is paid $600 month to clean, cook, and take care of two small children. Her wages allow her to send money to her parents every month. By doing so, she was able to build her parents a small house.

Dubai is the cleanest, elegant, the most modern city I ever saw. It often feels unreal, with wide boulevards, big shopping malls, an indoor ski slope, and even a three story aquarium in one of the shopping centers. Dubai also boasts the tallest building in the world. It has the finest restaurants, luxurious hotels. Dubai Healthcare Center is a hub for wealthy people in the Gulf area. Wealthy individuals can even purchase a manmade island in the shape of the world.

UAE is the second safest country in the world, after Finland. You can leave your iPhone on a table and nobody will touch it. Surveillance and undercover police are common. Cameras are everywhere. UAE has experienced no political unrest so far. That being said, criticizing the government or Islam can result in imprisonment or deportation.

A friend who lives there for years told me about his colleague who went out with his buddies one night. The following day he received the call and was told to leave the country within 24 hours. When he asked why, caller said “no explanation, no questions asked, you have 24 hours to get out”.

Cars and car insurance are inexpensive. You can see high end cars like Jaguar, Bugatti, Lamborghini on the roads and mall parking lots. Dubai is famous for its Maserati and Porsche police cars.

In 2016, almost 15 million people visited Dubai. It is the fourth most visited city in the world. There are a lot of efforts to expand culture in UAE. Last year, a magnificent opera house opened in Dubai. There are plans to open Guggenheim and Louvre museums in Abu Dhabi. Such initiatives should have a positive effect on the country’s leisure sector.

UAE is supposedly one of the happiest countries on the planet. They even have “Minister of State for Happiness” driving government policy to provide social satisfaction.

Reblog: An Open Letter…

by Ewa Maria Blog23/10/201822/10/2018

I know I haven’t seen you guys since I was born, but I want you to know that every day, I think about you. I was lucky that the family that adopted me has stayed together so I got to grow up with two parents. However, I like to think that I grew up with four. Even if you weren’t with me physically, a part of you was still around. I know both of you didn’t end up together and got married to other people, but I want to know – does that technically bring up the parent count to six now?

Every year when it’s my birthday, do you think of me? Is July 9th a day that you celebrate silently?

I want you to know that I’m okay. I grew up in a good neighborhood on Long Island where I went to elementary school, middle school, and high school. Every summer I went to Poland to see my family and even got to go to camp. The first summer I went to camp, I cried because I couldn’t read in Polish so I had no idea what the plan for the day was or what was for dinner. And that fall, my parents enrolled me in Polish school. I hated it. I grew up playing soccer and volleyball and made captain in high school. My favorite subjects in school were always math and science because I loved learning and problem-solving.

I always grew up thinking that I was going to meet you on my 18th birthday, but it came and went and I still don’t know you.

Something stupid that depresses me sometimes is when I go to a doctor’s office and they ask me about my family’s medical history. I always say I was adopted so I don’t know what was genetically passed down or what I’m at risk for.

Being adopted is unique because you have two pasts: your biological parents’ and your adoptive parents.’ Some adoptees are okay with not knowing about their biological parents and treat them like a simple sperm and egg donor, but I want to know. I want to know everything. Your likes, your dislikes… I grew up an only child so do I have half siblings? That would be really cool because playing Candyland was lonely growing up.

Not knowing anything about you besides being genetically related makes me feel like no matter what I learn about myself, or how many times I ‘find’ myself, I still have a little piece of the puzzle missing.

~~I love you.~~ I don’t know you.

Hopefully one day we will meet and I can tell you about everything and everyone that is important to me. I want to thank you for giving me up for adoption and not aborting me because you gave me a life that is worth living – even if you haven’t been a part of it.

This article was first published on an Odyseeyonline

Reblog about clothes we don’t wear

by Ewa Maria Blog21/10/201824/03/2019

My dear friends, Ania and Anne, Monika, Teresa, Dorota and Dorota, Lidia, Ela, Marta, Joasia, Tanja, Agnieszka and Johanna, Kasia, Krysia and Christine, Maria and Maryla, o, Esther of course – is it something we can copy for Berlin? Can we start with our own items and see how it works? I have plenty of things, probably we all have…

Alexandra Schwartz

Rent the Runway Wants to Lend You Your Look

With its subscription service, the company has created an unusual hybrid of fast fashion and luxury. Will it stop you from buying new clothes?

At the back of my narrow New York City closet, squished between a thick sweater that has gone ignored since last winter and a long-retired pair of floral-print jeans, is a dress that I have never worn. I bought it at Zara last April, in a flush of springtime optimism. The dress is a hundred per cent cotton, midi length, and belted at the waist. It is also bright yellow, somewhere between ripe banana and free-range egg yolk. In the dressing room, I thought that it made me look cheerful, like a modest yet sexy daffodil. At home, my unsparing mirror told the truth: I was Big Bird with pockets. The return window closed long ago; that’s seventy-nine dollars added to my open tab of sartorial bets made and lost, joining the expensive brocade palazzo pants I wore to a fancy function and then forgot about, and the mom jeans that I got on a trip to Stockholm, where they seemed safely on the hip side of hideous. I have plenty of clothes that I love. Even so, the weeds are starting to choke the garden.

According to Jennifer Hyman, the C.E.O. of Rent the Runway, I am not alone. “Every woman has the feeling of opening up her closet and seeing the dozens of dead dresses that she’s worn only once,” she told me recently. Each year, as Hyman is fond of pointing out, the average American buys sixty-eight items of clothing, eighty per cent of which are seldom worn; twenty per cent of what the $2.4-trillion global fashion industry generates is thrown away.

Chief among the culprits here are fast-fashion businesses like Zara and H&M, which flood their stores with a constantly renewed selection of cheaply manufactured styles cribbed from high-end designers. Inditex, the Spanish company that owns Zara, is the biggest clothing retailer in the world, and produces 1.5 billion items a year. Its business relies on both the fact of surplus and the impression of scarcity. If you take a few days to mull over a possible purchase, it may well be gone by the time you return. Prices are low enough to nudge customers to buy that bedazzled leopard-print cape to wear out on Saturday night, even if it ends up at Goodwill on Sunday morning.

Hyman founded Rent the Runway in 2008 with Jenny Fleiss, while both were in their second year at Harvard Business School. The idea was simple. Men have long been able to rent tuxedos for black-tie events. Why should a woman spend a fortune on a gown that she’ll probably never wear again? Rent the Runway gave women access to designer dresses for a fraction of the sticker price. A dress was delivered in two sizes, returned by prepaid shipping label to the company’s warehouse, dry-cleaned, and sent out to the next wearer.

A few years ago, Hyman thought hard about how to expand the business. The company tried offering a subscription service for handbags and accessories, but it fell flat. At a focus group held in Washington, D.C., Hyman spoke with a customer who compared Rent the Runway to an ice-cream sundae. “It’s delicious. It makes me feel awesome,” the woman said. “But after I eat the sundae I feel really fat, and I don’t want to have another one.” Hyman said, “For me, that was a eureka moment. She was saying that Rent the Runway was a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have. If I’m going to be an analogy to food, I want to be your meat and potatoes.”

In 2016, Hyman and Fleiss launched Rent the Runway Unlimited, a subscription service that initially aimed to help professional women dress for work, and has since expanded to cover most of their daily fashion concerns. For a hundred and fifty-nine dollars a month, a customer can keep up to four items at a time, rotating out any piece as often as she likes. She might, in October, rent a heather-gray coat in a woollen-cashmere blend by Theory (retail price: $925), then, in December, trade it in for a pillowy Proenza Schouler puffer ($695), with three rental slots remaining to cycle through a dizzying selection of skirts, slacks, joggers, jeans, and jewelry that she might wear to the office, or to a party, or on vacation, once, or ten times, or never.

By the end of this year, Rent the Runway will offer fifteen thousand styles by more than five hundred designers, with a total inventory of eight hundred thousand units, stored in what Hyman calls “the closet in the cloud.” Browsing that inventory on its Web site, or scrolling through its app, can feel like bobbing for apples in the sea. Styles go by—too cheesy, too skimpy, too random, too reasonably priced to waste a rental on—and then: a billowy floral Marni skirt ($1,140; “TO DIE FOR,” according to one reviewer), or a sporty Vince day-to-night number ($375; “glamorous & comfortable”) to pair with a bold Oscar de la Renta tulip necklace ($990; “Walked around like Princess Diana with it”).

“Lots of forces are disrupting the fashion world right now,” Cindi Leive, the former editor of Glamour, told me. “There’s the over-all demolition of every old rule you can think of about how people should dress. The concept of work dressing versus casual dressing is gone in a lot of fields. So is the idea of dressing for day versus night, or of what makes a January outfit versus a July outfit, or of what’s appropriate for a twenty-year-old versus for a fifty-year-old.” With its subscription service, Rent the Runway has created an unusual hybrid of fast fashion and luxury, offering speed, variety, and that dopamine hit that comes from buying something new plus the seductive tingle of leaving the house in something expensive. Customers are encouraged to play with their style without guilt. If a piece doesn’t work out, it goes not to a landfill but to another user, and another, and another.

Alexandra Schwartz is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing for 2014.

From NYT

Mighty mighty mighty

by Ewa Maria Blog19/10/201819/10/2018

Ewa Maria Slaska

We went to New York to concert of Singing Men of Texas (120 of them!) in Carnegie Hall! Strange!

Me in Carnegie Hall. Strange! (Foto Iwona)

120 singing men. Strange!

Everything I saw last days in America reminded me an all American movies I’ve ever seen and all American book I’ve ever read.
The farmer in a red pic up, weather-beaten dude, but handsome, in red plaid shirt.
High school kids singing Sunday morning between booths on farmers market.
Suburb train taking every morning all the kings men to work in Manhattan.
Midget waiter in an Italian Trattoria where we have our pre theater dinner serving cold water and wine. At the table near to us two families, behind us a very young and pretty woman with a wrath of red flowers looking like Frida Kahlo.
Very nice but in the same time a somewhat spooky pastor who forget to comb his hair and his curly red haired women born in Poland, singing soprano in a church.
Very handsome, very black, very tall intellectual with squared glasses better looking than almost any other men in the whole Hall.
And so on.

They singed gospel in Carnegie Hall. 120 white men and one black pastor.

They also sang that sweet song of Mosie Lister, I am feeling fine. O yeah, I am feeling mighty fine.

A great star of Gospel music, Steve Green, was singing with them. I was not very fond of him, though I had to admit, he had really mighty voice. But then he sang a capella Martin Luthers Mighty Fortress, and I thought I have never heard that song singed so mighty…

It is one of the best known hymns by the German reformer Martin Luther. He wrote the words, a paraphrase of Psalm 46, and composed the melody sometime between 1527 and 1529. It has been translated into English at least seventy times and also into many other languages.

A Mighty Fortress
XXX
A mighty fortress is our God
A bulwark never failing
Our helper He amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe
His craft and power are great
And armed with cruel hate
On Earth is not his equal
Did we in our own strength confide
Our striving would be losing
Were not the right man on our side
The man of God’s own choosing
You ask who that may be
Christ Jesus, it is He
Lord Saboth His name
From age to age the same
And he must win the battle
XXX
And through this world with devils filled
Should threaten to undo us
We will not fear
For God hath willed His truth to
Triumph through us
The prince of darkness grim
We tremble not for him, his rage we can endure
For lo, his doom is sure
One little word shall fell him
XXX
That word above all earthly powers
No thanks to them, Abideth
The spirit and the gifts are ours
Through Him who with us sideth
Let goods and kindred go
This mortal life also
The body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still
His kingdom is forever
His kingdom is forever
His kingdom is forever
His kingdom is forever and ever
XXX
Translated by Steve Green

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott
XXX
Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,
ein gute Wehr und Waffen.
Er hilft uns frei aus aller Not,
die uns jetzt hat betroffen.
Der alt böse Feind
mit Ernst er’s jetzt meint,
groß Macht und viel List
sein grausam Rüstung ist,
auf Erd ist nicht seins gleichen.
XXX
Mit unsrer Macht ist nichts getan,
wir sind gar bald verloren;
es streit’ für uns der rechte Mann,
den Gott hat selbst erkoren.
Fragst du, wer der ist?
Er heißt Jesus Christ,
der Herr Zebaoth,
und ist kein andrer Gott,
das Feld muss er behalten.
XXX
Und wenn die Welt voll Teufel wär
und wollt uns gar verschlingen,
so fürchten wir uns nicht so sehr,
es soll uns doch gelingen.
Der Fürst dieser Welt,
wie sau’r er sich stellt,
tut er uns doch nicht;
das macht, er ist gericht’:
ein Wörtlein kann ihn fällen.
XXX
Das Wort sie sollen lassen stahn
und kein’ Dank dazu haben;
er ist bei uns wohl auf dem Plan
mit seinem Geist und Gaben.
Nehmen sie den Leib,
Gut, Ehr, Kind und Weib:
lass fahren dahin,
sie haben’s kein’ Gewinn,
das Reich muss uns doch bleiben.

PS. For those who do not know (I did not):

Mosie Lister (1921 – 2015) was an American singer and Baptist minister. He was best known for writing the Gospel songs “Where No One Stands Alone”, “Till the Storm Passes By”, “Then I Met the Master” and “How Long Has It Been?” As a singer, he was an original member in The Statesmen Quartet, the Sunny South Quartet, and the Melody Masters. In 1976 Lister was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Southern Gospel Music Association in 1997. His songs have been recorded by nearly every Southern Gospel artist. And not only. Elvis Presley recorded three of his songs in the 60s: “Where No One Stands Alone” “He Knows Just What I Need” and “His Hand in Mine”.

Kosciasko… Kosciusco…

by Ewa Maria Blog18/10/201817/10/2018

Ewa Maria Slaska

I was invited to America by my friend. Thank you Iwona! It is great to be with you here!

It is already my third day in America.
Yesterday I was told that today we will visit West Point.
Do you know what West Point is? Oh, I said, something military.
I visited USA 27 years ago so I was aware that Kosciuszko was involved in the revolutionary war here.
I asked my friends “do Americans know that he was Polish?; they pronounce his name as Kosciusko?” I was assured that Americans know that he was a Pole but I still had doubts.
Shortly after we were in the United States Military Academy, also called West Point. Originally established as a fort, it is a national landmark full of historic monuments and buildings. Kosciuszko, military architect designed and managed construction of the West Point’s fortification. He even build tranquil Kosciusko Garden, overlooking stunning Hudson River, where he would retreat to relax and contemplate. Soon we approached his monument. I was proud to see how prominent Kosciuszko’s role was in Polish and American history.

Do you recognize him? Tadeusz Kościuszko!

From Wikipedia:
He was born 1746, died October 15, 1817. He was Polish-Lithuanian military engineer, statesman, and military leader who became a national hero in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and the United States. He fought in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s struggles against Russia and Prussia, and on the U.S. side in the American Revolutionary War. He studied in Warsaw and Paris, then 1776 moved to America, where he took part in the American Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Continental Army. An accomplished military architect, he designed and oversaw the construction of state-of-the-art fortifications, including those at West Point, New York. In 1783, in recognition of his services, the Continental Congress promoted him to brigadier general. Upon returning to Poland in 1784, Kościuszko was commissioned as a major general in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Army in 1789. After the Polish–Russian War of 1792 resulted in the Second Partition of Poland, he organized an uprising against Russia in March 1794 (Powstanie Kościuszkowskie), serving as its Naczelnik (commander-in-chief). Russian forces captured him at the Battle of Maciejowice in October 1794. The defeat of the Kościuszko Uprising led to Poland’s Third Partition in 1795, which ended the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth’s independent existence for 123 years. In 1796, following the death of Tsaritsa Catherine the Great, Kościuszko was pardoned by her successor, Tsar Paul I, and he emigrated to the United States. A close friend of Thomas Jefferson’s, with whom he shared ideals of human rights, Kościuszko wrote a will in 1798 dedicating his U.S. assets to the education and freedom of U.S. slaves. He eventually returned to Europe and lived in Switzerland until his death in 1817. The execution of his will later proved difficult, and the funds were never used for the purpose he had intended.

***

My friends live in Ramsey, New Jersey, one of many bedroom communities close to New York City; 45 minutes by car or train. Ramsey is located five minutes from the Appalachian Mountains. On our way to West Point we drove through Seven Lakes – as name implies group of seven large and few small, picturesque lakes. Via curvy and steep Perkins Memorial Drive we reached the top of the Bear Mountain. It is breathtaking view of the Hudson Valley, Catskill Mountains.
It is sunny autumn day. We are surrounded by huge green forests. Some trees are already covered in a fall foliage, the whole landscape is shiny and golden.
We plan to visit this area in 2 weeks, hoping that Appalachian Trial and Bear Mountain will be covered with vivid fall colors. We are stopping every now and then so I can take pictures. Once, far away behind river, lakes, forests and hills we see again skyline of New York City. I was thrilled that day.