NB! · Observations · Humour

Perhaps Odysseus is not the best name for a boat after all?

Perhaps Odysseus is not the best name for a boat after all? At least if you are not setting out on a dreadful wandering that will last twenty years and bring you and your loved ones a sea of suffering

Archive · Books · Observations · Humour

Sketch of an animal's head on the draft of the poem “Andrey Chenier” of 1825

How about this self-portrait of Pushkin as a horse? Drawing on the draft of the poem “Andrei Chénier”, 1825

Moscow · Observations · Society

Anatoly Shulyev, 33, appointed chief director of the Vakhtangov Theatre

It has become known that Anatoly Shuliev, a graduate of the Shchukin School, has been appointed chief director of the Vakhtangov Theatre. Why is this news of interest? First, the Vakhtangov is the richest and, to all intents and purposes, the foremost theatre in Russia. Second, for a long time

NB! · Art · Moscow · Observations · Society Pages

Dropped in at Art Moscow, eyed a tiny Repin, a very handsome agitprop relief, a charming Safronova and Pepperstein, for how could one do without him

Collage of screenshots: a Change.org petition page against Netflix's Cleopatra show and a news headline about the petition's removal.

NB! · Cinema · Observations · Society · Pop Culture · Humour

Change.org removes petition against Netflix show “Queen Cleopatra” with 51,625 signatures

Well, well: the petition to axe the history-falsifying show about a black Cleopatra has simply been taken down. How democratic

Faith · Art · Observations

The author recalls the Easter phone wallpapers from the year before last

Remembered the Easter wallpapers for phones from the year before last. Enjoy

Coming Up · Art · Observations

On Monday we went to the Alina Pinsky Gallery to see the True Colours exhibition, and I am still under the spell of its play with colour; I deliberately tried to catch several rooms in a single frame, to show the dialogue across the white walls between…

On Monday we went to the Alina Pinsky Gallery to see the True Colours exhibition, and I am still under the spell of its play with colour; I deliberately tried to catch several rooms in a single frame, to show the dialogue across the white walls between dissimilar but equally

NB! · Art · Observations · Paris · Humour

The Hôtel Le Grand Mazarin in Paris has lovely rooms, but I would rather not have a carpet hanging over my head, even if it were the most thoroughly cleaned in the world and went by the name of tapestry

Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Netflix film by producer Jada Pinkett Smith on a Black Cleopatra and the Ptolemaic dynasty

⚡️Comrades, Cleopatra Was Black⚡️. At least, that is what is claimed in Netflix's new "documentary", produced by Jada Pinkett Smith, the very wife of Will Smith who cheated on him with their son's friend, who began crying "racism! racism!" in 2016 when

Art · Books · Observations · People · Rome

I got for my labour only a goitre, a sickness (So muddy water bloats the cats, A common plague in parts of Lombardy!) And my chin wedged into my belly; My chest like that of the harpies; my skull, to spite me, Crept up to my hump; and my beard bristles on

I got for my labour only a goitre, a sickness (So muddy water bloats the cats, A common plague in parts of Lombardy!) And my chin wedged into my belly; My chest like that of the harpies; my skull, to spite me, Crept up to my hump; and my beard

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

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