Cinema · Moscow · Observations · People

Yuliya Borisova and her roles at the Vakhtangov Theatre from 1947 until her death in 2023

I remember first meeting People's Artist of the Soviet Union Yulia Borisova, as I waited by the stage door for Lyudmila Maksakova, to have a word with her after the performance. The door opened and up the steps came a slight, slender Yulia Borisova with a small bouquet

NB! · Art · Museums · Observations · Paris

Drifting into the weekend with Gustave Caillebotte, acquired not long ago by the Musée d'Orsay for 3 million euros with the help of Bernard Arnault, who added a further 40 million from his company's coffers

A smiling woman in a light coat and hat holds the rail of a train window, with a man in dark clothing visible behind her.

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Observations

Elizabeth II smiling from a train window in a black-and-white photograph

Elizabeth II at a train window. Sad, though it is some time now since she was seen off.

NB! · Observations

A Wretched Copy and the Inimitable Original

NB! · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

You Are Getting On a Bit If You Use These Emojis

Observations · People

Actress Vera Vasilyeva has died, and her role in Viktyuk's production is worth revisiting

Vera Vasilyeva, the radiant, kind and exalted Russian actress, has died. Let us revisit her mischievous performance in Viktyuk's touching production and remember this wonderful, remarkable woman with a kind word https://theparnassian.com/v-pamiat-o-romane-viktiuke-predlagaiu-posmotret-odnu-iz-ego-pozdnikh-teatralnykh-rabot-postanovku-

NB! · Architecture · London · Moscow · Observations

Would someone please make the Moscow Metro a diagram like the one at London's Piccadilly Circus station!

NB! · Art · Books · Observations · Humour

Every morning I tell myself: one more day, one more chance to labour according to my strength and talents, like the little angel at the bookbinder's press in the engraving from Jean Leclerc's History of the Netherlands of 1728

Archive · Observations · Science

A robot pilot over Berlin and an American calculating machine in the 1930s children’s magazine “Yozh”

There is no need to marvel at modern technology, for it was all thought up long before us. As early as 1935 a robot was demonstrating its mastery of aircraft control in the skies above Berlin, while an American mathematical machine coped with the most formidable equations. And already in

Archive · Observations · Humour

I Don't Like Lenin

I don't like Lenin. I just don't. Not a stylish sort of fellow. I can only express my respects to the boy Tolka. The children's magazine “Yozh” [Hedgehog], January 1930

Art · Books · Observations

The Rescue by the Eagles, Michael Hague's illustration for the 1987 edition of The Hobbit

Perhaps one of my very favourite book illustrations of all time

NB! · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

A trip to the Russian Post Office taught me that in 2016 and 2017 25-rouble coins were issued to mark the World Cup, bearing the trophy, the tournament emblem and Zabivaka the wolf, and that they are worth anything from 50 to 7,500 roubles depending on ra

A trip to the Russian Post Office taught me that in 2016 and 2017 25-rouble coins were issued to mark the World Cup, bearing the trophy, the tournament emblem and Zabivaka the wolf, and that they are worth anything from 50 to 7,500 roubles depending on rarity. In