Architecture · Faith · Ethnography

The Easter ritual Scoppio del Carro in Florence, with a rocket dove and fireworks

A Dove, Rockets, Santa Maria del Fiore, a Tower of Fireworks and Easter. You will never forget this Easter tradition once you have seen it: a priest takes a spark of the holy fire and lights a special fuse, which feeds a rocket in the shape of a dove, flying

Black and white photograph of an elderly bearded man in a hat and dark clothes shaking hands with a near-naked athlete standing before him.

Archive · People · Humour

Eadweard Muybridge shaking hands with an anonymous athlete, photograph of about 1887

Are You Quite Sure You're a Photographer? In the hat: one of the pioneers of English photography, Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904). The athlete in shorts has preferred to remain anonymous. Photograph of c. 1887

Books · Education · Society

Putin orders books by Soviet writers added to the school curriculum

Putin has ordered books by Soviet writers to be added to the school curriculum. The Ministry of Education is to report on the fulfilment of the order by 31 August 2023. The changes will be made to the working programme for the subjects "Literary Reading" and "Literature&

Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture

When I am asked what I think of a black Anne Boleyn, a Little Mermaid or a Duncan MacLeod, I remember that Asta Nielsen played Hamlet, and even in 1921 that was not a problem, so I see no reason to fret that people of different ethnic and racial identitie

When I am asked what I think of a black Anne Boleyn, a Little Mermaid or a Duncan MacLeod, I remember that Asta Nielsen played Hamlet, and even in 1921 that was not a problem, so I see no reason to fret that people of different ethnic and racial identities

The East · Cinema · Books · Mores · Pop Culture

The 1914 Tokyo staging of “Resurrection” and the Katyusha craze in Japan

Speaking of the fashion for foreign cultural phenomena in Japan, one cannot fail to recall the quite peculiar feeling the Japanese have for Leo Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection" The Japanese writer Shimamura Hogetsu staged "Resurrection" at the Art Theatre in Tokyo in 1914. In the

Faith · Art · Observations

Christ's Entry into Jerusalem in Giotto's Fresco in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua

Happy Palm Sunday! The faithful break off branches of olive trees and palms to cast beneath the feet of Christ as he enters Jerusalem. This fresco belongs to the most famous series of works by Giotto di Bondone and is part of the 900-metre painted decoration of the Scrovegni

Books · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

The English queen carries on with her book club, and this time recommends Gabriel García Márquez's novel "Love in the Time of Cholera"

The English queen carries on with her book club, and this time recommends Gabriel García Márquez's novel "Love in the Time of Cholera". Well, I hardly need explain what it was in the story of a feeling rekindled between two elderly former lovers that touched Camilla.

A white-haired woman in a dark jacket and navy skirt holds two russet hens. Many chickens surround her on the gravel, with a panelled stone building and trees behind.

NB!

Elderly woman holding two hens among a flock outside a stone building

NB! · Aristocracy · Mores · People

Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (1920-2014)

A pale brick dovecote tower with tiled roofs stands on round stone pillars with flat caps and arches. A meadow and a wooded hillside surround it.

NB!

Brick dovecote on mushroom-shaped stone supports in a meadow

Architecture · Mores · Ethnography

Stone dovecotes on stilts in France and their economic purpose

Old Dovecotes in France. Curious stone structures on tall legs can be found in many regions of France. The dovecotes stood apart from the other buildings, somewhere on the grounds of the estate, and always above ground level, to protect the birds from damp, rats and small predators. Pigeons were

NB! · Humour

Alexandr Radayev