Painting of a giant crowned female figure in a green robe inscribed ERDE; in front, a man in a dark suit and a woman in folk costume shake hands.

NB!

Allegory of Earth, labelled ERDE, above a man and woman shaking hands

NB! · Art · People

Allegorical paintings by the German artist Hans Thoma (1839–1924) depicting celestial bodies and cosmic objects in images drawn from ancient myths, European legends and Norse sagas: Mercury, Venus, the Sun, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter…

NB! · Archaeology · Art · Observations · Humour

A Gallo-Roman statue depicting me with a piglet from IKEA belongs to a small group of sculptures in which children are shown holding a puppy

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Arthur Rimbaud in his bed after Paul Verlaine shot him with a revolver

Arthur Rimbaud in his bed after Paul Verlaine shot him with a revolver. A painting by Jef Rosman. And the very revolver with which Verlaine tried to shoot his lover was sold in 2016 for €430,000.

A long corridor with black and white doors on the left, dark columns, brass ceiling lights, and windows with radiators on the right.

NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Mores

Two Entrance Doors in Every Apartment of the Narkomfin Building and Children's Games

Every flat in the Narkomfin Building has two front doors: one black, one white. One door gives onto the lower level, the other leads upstairs. The children, it must be said, make cheerful use of this original architectural solution, playing tag without, strictly speaking, ever leaving their own home, yet

NB! · Archive · Observations · People · Humour

This is not quite what I had in mind when I bought a magazine with the cover line MUSCULAR STRONGMAN ALEXANDER KUPRIN

NB! · Observations · Humour

I Hereby Present You with This Stake for Planting Out Cabbage Seedlings; Do with It What You Will

Wooden carved frieze with large fruit and leaves on a darkened board, mounted on a museum gallery wall.

NB! · Architecture · Art · Observations

Carved Frieze of the Early 17th Century with Life-Size Fruit

An early seventeenth-century carved frieze with life-size fruit. Russian architecture, what's not to love? ❤️

NB! · Archive · Art

An Evening in Simach, Ferdinand van Kessel, 17th century

NB! · Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Doesn't it seem to you that the great Bourvil, the outstanding comic actor and celebrated variety singer who died 50 years ago, bears a striking resemblance to Joseph Brodsky?

NB! · Observations · Society

Why America Lives in a Potemkin Autocracy, or a Few Words on the Life of Russian Idioms in the English-Speaking World

Display board with a photo of a dilapidated building at 7-9 Khokhlovsky Lane and a render of its facades after restoration.

NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Society · Humour

Muscovites doubt the restoration render for a Khokhlovsky Lane building over discrepancies in business centre volumes

Developers: but we shall make it all beautiful, here is the render. Muscovites: but we cannot take your word for it, for in the planning documentation the volumes of your business centre differ from those you have announced by more than a factor of two.