Rival green. Rival Blue in Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen: A Comprehensive Guide to Battles and Strategy

What are the key encounters with Rival Blue in Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen. How does Rival Blue’s team evolve throughout the game. What strategies can players use to defeat Rival Blue in each battle.

The Evolution of Rival Blue’s Team

In Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, Rival Blue serves as a recurring challenge throughout the player’s journey. His team undergoes significant changes as the game progresses, reflecting the growth and development of both characters. Understanding these changes is crucial for players looking to stay one step ahead of their rival.

Initial Encounter: The Starter Showdown

The first battle with Rival Blue takes place in Pallet Town, immediately after choosing your starter Pokémon. Blue’s choice is always strategically advantageous, selecting the Pokémon with a type advantage over yours:

• If you choose Bulbasaur, Blue selects Charmander
• If you choose Charmander, Blue opts for Squirtle
• If you choose Squirtle, Blue picks Bulbasaur

Despite this apparent advantage, the battle remains relatively balanced due to the limited movesets of level 5 starters. Both Pokémon only know Normal-type moves at this stage, negating any type advantages.

Early Game Challenges: Route 22 and Cerulean City

As players progress through the early stages of the game, Rival Blue’s team begins to expand and diversify. These encounters serve as benchmarks for players to gauge their own progress and team-building strategies.

Route 22: The Two-Pokémon Test

The second encounter with Rival Blue occurs on Route 22, just west of Viridian City. By this point, Blue has added a Pidgey to his team, complementing his starter Pokémon. Both of his Pokémon are at level 9, providing a slight challenge for players who may not have trained extensively.

How can players prepare for this battle? Catching a Pikachu in Viridian Forest can provide a strong advantage, particularly against Blue’s Pidgey. Additionally, ensuring your starter is at least level 10 can give you the edge in this encounter.

Cerulean City: Expanding the Roster

The third battle takes place in Cerulean City, on Nugget Bridge. By this point, Rival Blue’s team has grown considerably:

• Pidgeotto (evolved from Pidgey) – Level 17
• Abra – Level 16
• Rattata – Level 15
• Starter Pokémon – Level 18

This battle introduces a new dynamic with the addition of Abra. While Abra only knows Teleport and cannot attack, it can be used strategically by Blue to waste player turns. Smart players can use this opportunity to heal or switch Pokémon without fear of retaliation.

Mid-Game Challenges: SS Anne and Pokémon Tower

As players reach the middle stages of their journey, Rival Blue’s team continues to evolve, presenting increasingly difficult challenges.

SS Anne: The Evolution Revolution

The fourth encounter aboard the SS Anne showcases significant evolution in Blue’s team:

• Pidgeotto – Level 19
• Raticate (evolved from Rattata) – Level 16
• Kadabra (evolved from Abra) – Level 18
• Evolved starter (Ivysaur, Charmeleon, or Wartortle) – Level 20

This battle marks a turning point, with Blue’s Pokémon now capable of using more powerful moves. The evolution of Abra into Kadabra is particularly noteworthy, as its high Special Attack and Speed stats can pose a significant threat.

Pokémon Tower: Team Restructuring

The fifth battle in Pokémon Tower introduces major changes to Blue’s team composition:

• Pidgeotto – Level 25
• Gyarados or Exeggcute – Level 23
• Growlithe or Gyarados – Level 22
• Kadabra – Level 20
• Evolved starter – Level 25

This battle showcases Blue’s strategic thinking, as he replaces Raticate with Pokémon that complement his starter’s weaknesses. Players should be particularly wary of Gyarados, which can be formidable at this stage of the game.

Late-Game Showdowns: Silph Co. and Beyond

As players approach the final stages of their Kanto journey, Rival Blue’s team reaches its peak, presenting the most challenging battles yet.

Silph Co.: The Powerhouse Team

The battle at Silph Co. represents Blue’s most formidable team yet:

• Pidgeot (fully evolved) – Level 37
• Gyarados or Exeggcute – Level 38
• Growlithe or Gyarados – Level 35
• Alakazam (fully evolved) – Level 35
• Fully evolved starter – Level 40

This team combines power, speed, and versatility, making it a significant challenge for unprepared players. Alakazam, in particular, can wreak havoc with its high Speed and powerful Psychic-type moves.

Strategies for Defeating Rival Blue

Successfully overcoming Rival Blue requires a combination of smart team-building, strategic thinking, and adaptability. Here are some key strategies to consider:

Type Advantage Is Key

Always strive to maintain a type advantage over Blue’s Pokémon. For example, if you chose Bulbasaur as your starter, consider adding an Electric-type Pokémon to your team to counter Blue’s Gyarados and Pidgeot.

Prioritize Threats

In later battles, identify and neutralize Blue’s most dangerous Pokémon first. Alakazam, with its high Special Attack and Speed, should often be your primary target.

Exploit Weaknesses

Pay attention to the weaknesses of Blue’s team. For instance, in the Silph Co. battle, a fast Electric-type Pokémon with Thunderbolt can potentially sweep through most of his team.

Stay Ahead in Levels

Consistently train your Pokémon to ensure they are at or above the levels of Blue’s team. Even a small level advantage can make a significant difference in these battles.

The Psychological Impact of Rival Battles

Beyond the mechanical aspects of battling, the encounters with Rival Blue serve a crucial narrative and psychological function in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.

Motivation Through Competition

The recurring battles with Blue provide players with a tangible measure of their progress. Each victory over the rival serves as a milestone, reinforcing the player’s growth and skill development.

Character Development

Through these encounters, players witness not only their own evolution as trainers but also that of their rival. Blue’s changing team composition and strategies reflect his own journey and ambitions, adding depth to the game’s storytelling.

The Legacy of Rival Blue

Rival Blue’s impact on the Pokémon series extends far beyond FireRed and LeafGreen. His character has become iconic in the franchise, setting the standard for rival characters in subsequent games.

Influence on Future Rivals

Blue’s character arc – from overconfident beginner to formidable Champion – has influenced the design of rival characters in later Pokémon games. His development showcases the potential for depth and growth in what could otherwise be a one-dimensional antagonist.

Cultural Impact

The rivalry between the player character and Blue has become a beloved aspect of Pokémon lore, often referenced and celebrated by fans. This enduring popularity speaks to the effective design of both the character and the rivalry mechanic.

In conclusion, mastering the battles against Rival Blue is a crucial aspect of succeeding in Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen. By understanding the evolution of his team, preparing appropriate counters, and employing smart strategies, players can overcome this challenging opponent and prove themselves as the superior trainer in the Kanto region.

Pokmon FireRed & LeafGreen – Rival

Your Rival

A few times during the game your rival will challenge you to a battle. Usually appearing in key story locations, his team will always be a few levels higher than most other trainers in the area, on par with what you’d expect on the next route over. His team is quite balanced so approach with caution.

Green Bay Packers Rival Could Lose Star Player By Procrastinating (Insider)

An NFL insider thinks a Green Bay Packers rival is playing a risky game by not being aggressive this offseason in extending their star player. Packers fans should really hope the Minnesota Vikings find a way to botch their negotiations with wide receiver Justin Jefferson.

The Vikings have already made important roster decisions in anticipation of extending Jefferson. The Vikings tried to shop running back Dalvin Cook. However, they could not find a trade partner and decided to cut the Pro Bowl athlete this month.

Jefferson missed voluntary OTAs this spring. However, he was seen at mandatory minicamp in June. Per Cody Benjamin with CBS Sports, Jefferson said he planned to participate in training camp and was not in a hurry to sign a new contract with the Vikings:

“Will I be here? Oh yeah,” he said. “(The contract) is not really something I’m really worrying about. It’s really about doing what I need to do to get this team to where we want to go.”

The Vikings still have Jefferson under contract through the 2024 season.Dec 17, 2022; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) celebrates the win against the Indianapolis Colts after the game at U. S. Bank Stadium. With the win, the Minnesota Vikings clinched the NFC North. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

Procrastination could help the Green Bay Packers

Mike Florio with NBC Sports thinks the Vikings shouldn’t procrastinate extending Jefferson for the long term. Florio wrote that the Vikings would regret waiting to ink to Jefferson sooner rather than later, as time would only increase Jefferson’s asking price and could open the door for him to look elsewhere for employment:

“For starters, the price is only going to keep going up and up. Every team that has ever waited to sign a great player has ended up spending more to later sign him. Unless, of course, the player suffers a serious injury or  loses his fastball. Does anyone think Justin Jefferson is suddenly going to morph into Troy Williamson?

Then there’s the possibility that the foot-dragging will upset the good-natured Jefferson, making him decide that he wants out. That he wants to play elsewhere — like Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, and A. J. Brown in 2022. Once that bridge is crossed, it’s hard to go back.

To the Vikings, tread lightly. While the squeaky wheel gets the grease, taking a smoothly-spinning wheel for granted could cause it to suddenly fly off the axle.”

Will the Minnesota Vikings lose Justin Jefferson?

Jan 1, 2023; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) prior to the game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

The Vikings shouldn’t be in too big of a hurry to sign Jefferson this summer. He’s a special athlete, but he’s not immune to injury or a decline in numbers in the course of a season. It’s hard to see a world where Jefferson doesn’t re-sign with the Vikings.

Jefferson will soon be the league’s best wide receiver, and the Vikings appear to understand they’ll have to invest in him financially. But there’s always a chance that if talks between the Vikings and Jefferson drag on too long, the Packers’ secondary will breathe a sigh of relief.

For More Wisconsin Sports:

Follow me on Twitter at @JordanSig, and follow us @WiSportsHeroics. You can also reach out to Jordan Sigler via email at [email protected]. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest in ALL of Wisconsin sports, click here! Green Bay Packers, Wisconsin Badgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Milwaukee Bucks.

Killer green. How wallpapers drove people to death in the Victorian era

Terrifying details of the causes of mass deaths in Europe in the 19th century. No one would have thought that the love of a certain shade of color can cost a life.

Related video

How much do you like the color green? Really beautiful, the color of alligators and polka dots. But if your answer wasn’t “I would literally die for him,” then you’re not as big a fan of him as the Victorians were, writes IFL Science.

At one time, the Victorians spent decades wrapped in a certain shade of green only to be killed by it. A hotly beloved color literally choked with its presence, leading to nausea. And no, this is not an artistic language, but a literal scheme for killing unsuspecting people.

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So, in the mid-1800s, four children from a working-class area of ​​London fell ill with tonsillitis and other respiratory diseases. They were diagnosed with diphtheria, but their doctor was still puzzled by how they got it. After all, none of the signs that, in his opinion, were associated with the disease, were found in their house. Nor were other local children infected. The children died of illness before the real culprit, their parents’ addiction to wallpaper, could be found. For green wallpaper.

In 1857, the physician William Hinds of Birmingham, UK, began to feel unbearable nausea and abdominal cramps every evening upon returning home. Oddly enough, he wasn’t the type to look at his pretty green wallpaper and wonder if it was silently killing it, causing stomach cramps, urges to vomit, and headaches. All these symptoms mysteriously ceased every night when he went to bed.

Finally, Hinds realized that he felt bad when he was in his office with beautiful green wallpaper. Taking the time to test his hypothesis, he discovered that the beautiful green paint contained arsenic, which slowly poisoned him whenever he entered his office. When he removed the wallpaper containing the toxin, he found that his health improved greatly.

The culprit was invented back in Sweden in 1775 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele. Called Scheele Green, this color was made from copper arsenite and was as popular as it was toxic. Wallpaper manufacturers estimated that there were more than one hundred and fifty square kilometers in the UK alone. The ink peeled off and was inhaled by the occupants of the house, releasing arsenic vapors over a long period of time. There was only one short-term exception: a tragic incident in 1862, when children literally licked the wallpaper and soon died.

The rival green, known as Parisian green or emerald green, did not prevent deaths because it was also made from arsenic. Slowly but surely, medical professionals began a campaign against the color, although they faced opposition from industry and people who thought they would be safe if they avoided directly licking the wallpaper.

The public stopped decorating their walls with poison after the death of Mathilde Scheurer in 1861. Scheurer was hired to dust the artificial leaves with Scheele’s green powder. Vivid reports of her death, of the whites of her eyes turning green and an “expression of intense anxiety” set on her face, turned the public against the killer paint, and it gradually fell into disuse as manufacturers switched to other ingredients under public pressure.

But for a long time, many people continued to die because of their love for a very specific shade of green.

Earlier Focus wrote about “toxic stones” in Australia. The most toxic stone fish in the world hide in sand and rocks, and their sharp spikes contain poison that can kill in minutes.

Green New York. How to collect mushrooms in the “stone jungle”

Today, as part of my podcast “Alexander Genis: a view from New York”, we will go for a walk through the green New York, which exists contrary to popular belief about the “stone jungle” of Manhattan.

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Green New York: Mushrooming in Manhattan

by Radio Liberty

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Asphalt – glass.
I go and call.
Forests and blades of grass
– shaved off.
North
from south
are avenues,
west from east –
streets.

The author of the remarkable New York cycle, including the poem “Broadway” just quoted, was a great master of hyperbole. Chukovsky spoke about the still young Mayakovsky, that he looks at the world through a telescope (in contrast, the critic added shrewdly, from Akhmatova, who uses a microscope).

The greenery of European cities is a by-product of civilization

Arriving in New York, Mayakovsky described not what he saw, but what he knew about the city of skyscrapers. Because of this, he ignored everything that did not fit into the familiar formula – for example, Central Park. The neglect of details also caused another almost comical mistake in the best of Mayakovsky’s American poems “Brooklyn Bridge”:

0053 others –
hungry
long howl.

From here
unemployed
to the Hudson
threw themselves
upside down.

Vladimir Mayakovsky in New York. Photo by David Burliuk

As everyone knows, even those who have only heard of the most famous bridge in New York, it spans the East River, the East River. In order for the “poor unemployed” to get from the bridge to the Hudson, they, like a demon, seagulls or angels, need to fly across the whole of Manhattan.
And yet, the banal and incorrect idea of ​​New York as the notorious stone jungle, which Mayakovsky approved, lives in the collective consciousness of compatriots – and frightens them. To refute this cliché, today we’re going for a walk in green New York.

But first, it must be said about what distinguishes the New World from the Old in this landscape area as well.

The greenery of European cities is a secondary product of civilization. Every square there is a churchyard. The roots of trees growing on the rich humus of culture are entangled in the ruins of cramped medieval life. But in America, as it often seems, and sometimes it happens, nature was simply fenced off – with a fence, a street, a city. New York did the same with the magnificent Bronx Botanical Gardens.

I must confess that during the days, weeks, months of the war, this wonderful establishment serves as an oasis of escapism for me, where it is best to admire the change of seasons. The seasons endow the confused soul with harmony. Everything here happens by itself, and we can only enjoy the elegant metamorphosis of nature, indifferent and beautiful. She lives separately from us, allowing herself to be admired.

Exhibits of the exhibition of orchids. Photo by Irina Genis

As New Yorkers do every year at the orchid exhibition in the Botanical Garden. To put it bluntly, this is the most snobbish event on the city’s secular calendar. The circle of orchid lovers includes the rich and famous. This hobby is expensive and “pedigreed” like horse racing. Therefore, at the exhibition you can meet ladies in inventive hats, gentlemen in bow ties, old ladies in veils and other fauna from good society and the past.

The general atmosphere of “Belle Epoque” is exacerbated by the scene: a greenhouse, which was built a hundred years ago according to all the rules of Victorian engineering skill. Openwork like the Eiffel Tower, the greenhouse is its own world under the roof, a refined world that is much better and certainly more beautiful than ours.

The Bronx Botanic Garden’s greenhouse. Photo by Irina Genis

The forest that has never been cut down serves as a monument to America as it was before the arrival of the whites

But as soon as we go outside and delve into the garden, we will find a purely American rarity. About a quarter of the garden is the last virgin forest in New York City. Understanding the value of this fossil miracle, botanists carefully surrounded the thicket along the banks of the Bronx River with paths, leaving everything as it was before the arrival of the whites. This primeval, never-cut forest serves as a monument to America as it was before the arrival of the whites.

Another equally unusual prehistoric museum can be found in the south of the island, in the heart of Greenwich Village. This fenced patch of fossil greenery carefully preserves the island’s original landscape.

After spending the first third of American life on the northern edge of the island, I thoroughly studied its forests in the Inwood region. Deer, hares, foxes of amazing beauty and their victims pheasants live here. My wife and I quickly discovered the benefits of such a neighborhood, and in the early years of American life, missing the Baltic forests, we gathered mushrooms here in the fall, including my favorite chanterelles, and in May, my favorite flowers, lilies of the valley.

But, of course, the main wonder of New York is its great Central Park.

Central Park is unique in design. A neat rectangular park of three and a half square kilometers stretches over fifty blocks. Starting at the statue of Columbus on 59th Street, it stretches to the Harlem entrance on 110th Street. But penetrating the city, Central Park does not belong to it, because it lives in harmony only with its own aesthetic laws and philosophical theories.

When the park was invented, the New World was not only new, but also untamed. In the Wild West, which began, as arrogant residents of Manhattan still believe, on the other side of the Hudson, mustangs galloped, bison roamed, scalps were taken and cowboys drove around.

Mustangs were only admired by New Yorkers at the zoo, bison were valued for their smoked tongues, scalps were looked at in museums, and cowboys were only read about in westerns, which were novels until they hit Hollywood.

See also

Treasure Island.

Cycling through Manhattan

Like a theater within a theater, Central Park exaggerated nature

Therefore – in the greenhouse conditions of cramped Manhattan – Central Park was to become the Wild West for the internal use of the townspeople. It was artificial, but a real reserve of virgin America. Like a theater within a theater, Central Park exaggerated nature. Enclosed in a stone box, she blossomed into a paradise, neglecting price and benefit. Not like Disneyland with its caricatured geography, not like the National Parks with their untouched beauty, not like romantic gardens with their poetic arbitrariness, but like a life-size model of the New World. Strictly inscribed in the correct figure, the park demonstrates its intentional origin. But the nature that got inside lives in freedom. In lined-up Manhattan, Central Park provides a refreshing respite from geometry.

This contradiction reflects the unique character of New York. He easily manages without the weapons of state building – the main square, such as Krasnaya in Moscow or Tiananmen in Beijing. In New York, this square is replaced by the Great Clearing of Central Park.

Great Clearing of Central Park

The further we go into the park, the deeper we plunge into the past. The monuments of the spirit are replaced by boulders left by glaciers. And right there, almost rivaling them in age, is the oldest attraction in New York. This is the Egyptian obelisk “Cleopatra’s Needle”. He had aged less in three and a half thousand years than in the last fifty. But now it’s been cleaned of the city’s soot, and it’s as good as new.

Approaching it, I always increase my pace out of impatience, although I understand that, having lived for 35 centuries, the obelisk will be waiting for me. The last time, staring at my favorite monument, I did not notice the frail bespectacled man and almost knocked him off his feet.

“Idiot,” his wife hissed, holding me by the floor, “you want to deprive us of Woody Allen.

There were always other celebrities in Central Park. Most often – Jacqueline Kennedy, who loved to walk and run around the reservoir. Now this circular path bears her name. Another first lady, the ex-wife of former President Sarkozy, liked our park so much that she exchanged both Paris and her husband for it.

One of my favorite American novelists, Scott Fitzgerald, was among Central Park’s ardent fans.

We settled down a few hours from New York, and I found that every time I arrived in the city, I immediately drowned in the chain of events. But one thing remained undeniable: that moment of absolute peace when you drive south through Central Park in the dark, to a place where the light from the facades of 59th Street begins to break through the trees. Before me was my lost city again, serenely wrapped in its mysteries and hopes.

Scott Fitzgerald, who dedicated a real pean to 1920s New York, rightly noted the feeling of peace experienced by every pedestrian, cyclist or rider (but not driver) who enters or drives into the park, leaving behind him a thundering “midtown “, the noisiest part of the city.

New York is very difficult to surprise, but Christo managed

Central Park experienced its finest hour, stretching for 16 February days, in 2005, when Christo took over it. The same New York artist of Bulgarian origin who wrapped up the Reichstag, curtained the mountain gorge and installed umbrellas on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. At that time, Central Park became the object of his monumental fantasy, along the paths of which 600 assistants of the artist placed seven and a half thousand gates decorated with bright orange plastic.
New York is very difficult to surprise, but Christo succeeded. It took 21 million dollars, five thousand tons of steel (one-third of the Eiffel Tower by weight) and one hundred thousand square meters of orange nylon.

Action Christo “Gate” in Central Park

The orange gates, reminiscent of Japanese torii, have turned the winter landscape, which means black and white, into a color movie. Gently following the relief, climbing the hillocks and descending into the clefts, man-made sights did not compete with nature, but removed it. The wind, inflating the curtains, molded them into mobile sculptures, reminiscent of orange waves, sand dunes, or colorful dreams. After all, they, too, can neither be recounted in words, nor considered in reproductions. Even the best panoramic photographs do not convey the impression of Christo’s “Gate”. It’s like dancing by correspondence: the magic of presence is lost.

crowd of onlookers turned into columns of pilgrims

I have never seen a park so beautiful. Feeling the fleeting significance of what was happening, the New Yorkers passed under the “Gate”, muffled voices, as if they were participating in a temple procession. In fact, it was so: the crowd of onlookers turned into columns of pilgrims.

“Vorota”, of course, had nothing to do with the first Ukrainian Maidan, which ended with the victory of the people just a month before the opening of the Hristo happening in Central Park. But looking in New York at the apotheosis of the orange color, which has become a symbol of Ukrainian freedom, I could not help but recall the Orange Revolution in Kyiv.

For me, Central Park is inseparable from my closest friend, a wonderful artist, master of words and virtuoso of scissors Vagrich Bakhchanyan. He lived a stone’s throw from the park, and we often walked along the endless alleys. Vagrich knew every path by heart, every tree and every creature by sight.

In art, Bakhchanyan preferred a minimal shift separating pathos from parody. The most famous example is the Lenin cap on the poster of his work. Pulling it over the leader’s eyes, the artist turned Ilyich into an urka.

Vagrich Bakhchanyan in Central Park. Photo by Irina Bakhchanyan

Vagrich professed the same minimalism in fishing. Not recognizing a fishing rod, he always carried a fishing line with a hook in his pocket and threw the tackle wherever he had to, but always with success. Most often, in the same artificial lake that wraps around the already mentioned Jacqueline Kennedy path. Previously, the approach to the lake was guarded by a multi-meter wire fence. Once the city used this water, now it is used by gulls, frogs, fish and, until Bakhchanyan died. Deftly tossing the hook over the fence, he dragged white perch, fattened without fishermen. Vagrich also picked mushrooms in the park, and in the summer – berries for jam. Climbing into the thickets of Shakespeare’s hill, where all the plants mentioned by the bard are planted, Bakhchanyan composed his absurd and very funny texts.

Bakhchanyan has not been with us for many years, but we can talk to his faithful companion, friend and widow (terrible word) Irina Bakhchanyan,

What was Vagrich’s relationship with New York?

Vagrich had an inexhaustible interest, he wanted to know everything about all the artists

Irina Bakhchanyan: Vagrich treated everyone very attentively and with great benevolence – if only they didn’t get killed. When we arrived in New York, we found that many things were not very beautiful. We had such a mayor who spread terrible filth and crime in the city. But the city itself was big and the people were quite nice.

Vagrich immediately opened his large Armenian eyes with pleasure and began to look around, seeing a lot of interesting things. So he saw that he lived right next to the Metropolitan Museum, which you could go to as much as you wanted. (At that time you could even pay one cent, they were impudent. No, no, not Vagrich.) There were all the galleries around, if he wanted to see something, he could go from 92 to the very bottom, to the Village and see everything – which, by the way, he did: weekly he went around his favorite galleries, which he was interested in seeing.

Irina Bakhchanyan

Alexander Genis: I remember that Vagrich took me to all the New York galleries, and I was amazed that he knew literally all the New York artists, he was perfectly familiar with all American contemporary art. When did it start, back in Russia?

Irina Bakhchanyan: This is a good question. Vagrich had an inexhaustible interest, he wanted to know everything about all the artists. But when he arrived in New York, he could already meet them personally, of course, with those who were still alive at that time, here it was possible to find new friends. In those years, life was very active – without strict rules. Many galleries exhibited a huge number of new artists, and there was always an abundance of work. There was always something new to see. Therefore, he had a dual interest: not only to see the work, but also to see the people, the creators, so to speak (such a pompous word), to meet the authors.

I remember one day he came home on one of his regular walks in Madison and brought a large postcard, beautifully printed. In my opinion, it was an exhibition of one of the founders of pop art, Jim Dine. Vagrich says: “Look who I saw!”

On 57th Street he met, but did not talk to Yoko Ono and Lennon

It began with the fact that on 57th Street he met, but did not talk to Yoko Ono and Lennon, they obviously always walked there. Then he turned, went further along Madison, walking toward him, surrounded by a gang of some “thugs” Truman Capote. Of course, Vagrich could not miss this, he began to speak with him in the language he could, which made Capote incredibly delighted. He began to explain to his guys accompanying him: “Look, even a Russian knows me.” That is, he was very pleased with this circumstance.

Further Vagrich goes up Madison, and the sculptor Louise Nevelson was at that time, I don’t know what she was doing there, but just in case, he began to find out something from her, some creative secrets, and asked her sign too. It all happens on one piece of this Jim Dine printed postcard. There is a postcard, by the way, sometimes I look at it and remember this day very well right away.

See also

Land of skyscrapers. High-rise architecture through the eyes of Manhattan residents

Alexander Genis: I remember how we walked with him and saw a man in a huge white fur coat, which, I must say, is very unusual in New York.

Irina Bakhchanyan: It must have been a bear.

Alexander Genis: No, it was Keith Haring who painted graffiti. Vagrich hugged him and said: “Brother!” They really liked each other.
Ira, Vagrich said: my Winter Palace is the Metropolitan Museum, my Summer Palace is Central Park. What did these two New York attractions have in common, next to which – a few blocks away – you have lived in America all your life?

Irina Bakhchanyan: These attractions were united by one name: Vagrich Bakhchanyan. Both of them welcomed him with open arms. You could go to museums as much as you wanted, look at anything. And you could also see a lot of interesting things in the park.

Alexander Genis: How did you spend your time in Central Park?

he was very careful and very polite with nature, and with the animal world, and with people too

Irina Bakhchanyan: The ritual walk usually took place on weekends, because on weekdays I had to go to the office. Our park usually started on Saturday morning, the earlier the better. I bought the New York Times on the way, we sat down near the lake, right behind the monument to Hans Christian Andersen, looked at the newspaper, read, Vagrich looked for something from the pictures. They admired the boats, watched the eagles nest in the house opposite this lake, then went somewhere else. The usual path led around this lake from all sides, then it was already possible to return home.

Alexander Genis: What is the most amusing episode connected with Vagrich and Central Park?

Irina Bakhchanyan: The thing is that he was very careful and very polite with nature, and with the animal world, and with people too. So I remember the only time he ran into a problem. It happened when, near this very lake, we saw a bird entangled in a fishing line on a tree. Of course, none of us could get past this one, Vagrich began to get it out and untangle it, she pecked at him, left marks on his fingers. Of the other living creatures, there were only raccoons, but they were very voracious, you always had to be very careful with them, no matter what they grabbed.

Alexander Genis: But did you save the bird?

Irina Bakhchanyan: Yes, of course.

Alexander Genis: Tell me, is it true that once Vagrich was mistaken for Pablo Picasso?

the coachman began to shout directly from the goat: “Hey, Picasso! Picasso!”

Irina Bakhchanyan: Yes, there was such a case. Vagrich participated in the filming as the protagonist of a short film, which then grew and turned almost into a biopic, the film “Vagrich and the Black Square”, which was shot by Andriy Zagdansky, a Ukrainian director. Vagrich read some of his texts to him, and read, and read, and read. Nearby, a Japanese woman who spoke exclusively in Japanese had already managed to adapt to him and somehow stick to him from some side, but she really liked Vagrich. They talked about something for a long time. And at that time they were passing by, because this is such the most famous road in the park, carriages pulled by horses were passing by. The driver, also dressed, by the way, rather unorthodoxly, in a top hat, in some kind of waistcoat. He saw Vagrich in a striped T-shirt, which in this outfit was very reminiscent of Picasso in the famous photograph. This driver began to shout directly from the goat: “Hey, Picasso! Picasso!” Such people were bound to somehow attach themselves to Vagrich, not to say stuck.

Alexander Genis: A wonderful New York story, very similar to New York, where every driver knows Picasso by sight.

Alexander Genis: Well, now it’s time for a surprise that ends each program from the “My New York” cycle. Today I will talk about the newest and most original park in the city, which has become the second – after the Statue of Liberty – a landmark in New York. This is the High Line Park, which allows you to admire New York from an unusual point of view.

High Line. Park on rails

At first glance, the High Line is just a narrow green strip that stretches over three dozen Manhattan blocks. But at a second glance, it is a masterpiece of conceptual architecture. Its authors call their idea “borrowed landscape”. Not so much by changing as by rethinking what has already been done, the park takes on a different dimension of the urban landscape. I would call it elevated.

To appreciate the audacity of the undertaking, one must hate overpasses just like all New Yorkers. Their shallow (no match for the Moscow) metro and strives like a devil to jump out of the ground and rumble over the heads of defenseless citizens. Shaking the body and shaking the soul, the train rushes along the bridges that disfigure New York, like a mezzanine – a manor apartment.

“There were mezzanines, there will be a mezzanine,” announced the designers of the High Line, deciding to create a park from the unsightly waste of the industrial past.

Unemployed rails imperiously but imperceptibly guide the traveler, turning the walk into a procession

An abandoned overpass with rusty rails annoyed the city fathers for thirty years, until one of them, Mayor Giuliani, decided to demolish it. Oddly enough, the eccentrics, who found these ruins picturesque, stood up for her. Another mayor, Bloomberg, agreed with them, and soon the High Line itself went into operation, and built us. The unemployed rails imperiously but imperceptibly guide the traveler, turning the walk into a procession. Walking along the sleepers, because there is nowhere else, we obey the measured rhythm of the spectacle, which changes with every step.

There is something of a ritual about it, as if Stonehenge had been spun and pulled out. There is something in this from the parks of Versailles, which subjugated the nature of geometry. There is something of a romantic garden in this, which poeticizes even artificial ruins. But mostly New York.

A pathological exhibitionist, this city craves to be seen and is meant to be seen at all times and from everywhere. For a New Yorker, there is nothing more precious than the view from the window. Actually, the High Line turned out to be so successful because it offered Manhattan a new movable frame, which updated the hardened scene. Walking through the park, we look at the city not from the gallery, not from the stalls, but from the mezzanine: far enough not to mix with the crowd, close enough not to miss a single detail.
All of them seem unusual, because we ourselves found ourselves in an altered – uplifted – state. Skyscrapers are visible from the knees. Cars flaunt their roofs, passers-by their hats, the hills open up beyond the Hudson.

But, to be honest, the most interesting thing is to look into other people’s windows. The path leading through residential areas does not allow, but forces to spy. Others might be embarrassed, but New York City is an extrovert on steroids, so property prices immediately shot up in the real estate market with park-facing windows. Some of them were decorated with luxurious curtains, others, on the contrary, abandoned them altogether, the third put up his portrait so as not to lose the attention of tourists even when the owner is not at home.

Quickly learning the benefits of the view from above, the artists battle for the right to get on the huge billboard that the park director rents out to the most original ones.

But what impresses the High Line most of all is that in the process of converting the nasty ruins into a fashionable attraction, almost nothing has changed. The same unprepossessing flora sprouted through the applied soil, persistent and stubborn, like all living things in New York, decrepit iron, bent levers, a scattering of pebbles. The designers have preserved every rusty detail, urging us to admire the industrial era that replaces the melancholic antiquities of the Old World in America.

You have listened to the new episode of my podcast “Genis: A New York Perspective”. In it, we took a walk through the green New York to get acquainted with its parks.