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NB! · Faith · Observations
The Uniform of the Vatican's Swiss Guard in the Seventeenth and Twenty-First Centuries
Faith · Art · Books · Observations · Humour
When They Ask What I Do with All These Books
Engravings by Albrecht Dürer, 1498, and Vasily Koren, 1690s. Saint John eating the book. Revelation 10:9 “And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the
NB! · Observations · Nature · Humour
BBC News reports an elephant on the loose near a supermarket in southern Italy
Are elephants roaming Italy again? All we needed was another Punic War
Architecture · Observations · Paris
Of course, the ugly 210-metre Montparnasse skyscraper is not in fact all that close to the 330-metre Eiffel Tower, and one has to work rather hard to get the two buildings into the same frame, but all the same, looking at these photographs, it is easy to
Cinema · Books · Observations · Mores
Reading Werner Herzog's memoirs "Every Man for Himself and God Against All", I have reached the chapter "Wives, Children", already nearing the end of the book, after the chapters on his youth, childhood dreams, film shoots and how he solved a puzzle in a
I am reading Werner Herzog's memoirs, "Every Man for Himself and God Against All", and have reached the chapter "Wives, Children". We are already close to the end of the book, after the chapters on his youth, childhood dreams, film shoots and how he
Moscow · Museums · Observations · Pop Culture
Pianist Riad Mammadov releases an album recorded at the Pushkin Museum in April 2023
My friend, the pianist and composer Riad Mammadov, has released a new album of academic repertoire and his own compositions, recorded during a solo concert in the Italian Courtyard of the Pushkin Museum in April 2023. The programme of the recital, and of the album, is made up of works
NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
Queen Victoria in life and Queen Victoria in a drawing by Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Queen Victoria in life and Queen Victoria in a drawing by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Oh, these British artists
NB! · Cinema · Observations
Carl Theodor Dreyer's "Vampyr" of 1932 is an indisputable classic of the horror film
Carl Theodor Dreyer's "Vampyr" of 1932 is an indisputable classic of the horror film, and a treasure-house of the earliest special effects besides. If you are in the mood for a certain refined dread and a Victorian chill, I recommend it for your viewing.
Books · Observations
Pavel Pepperstein's new novel “Barkhatnaya kibitka” on childhood in the USSR and family
I have received Pavel Pepperstein's new novel "Velvet Wagon" (Barkhatnaya kibitka), published by Alpina Non-Fiction. It is mostly about Pepperstein's own childhood, but in places also about childhood in general, about childhood in the USSR, about the childhood of a privileged cub. Besides
NB! · Observations · Humour
The only videoconference I would actually like to attend
NB! · Archive · Moscow · Observations · Mores
Album of beauties of the whole world, published by the newspaper “Russky Listok” in 1903
Album of the Beauties of the Whole World from the editors of the newspaper Russkiy Listok, 1903. These are precisely the world's beauties as I had always pictured them