Architecture · Observations
Good architectural morning. All those troubled by modern buildings that mangle the image of old cities, allow me to introduce this project by the German architect Helga Bloxdorf. Birchblackpavilion is a new pavilion, open to the public, in the historic quarter of the city of Weimar, with a splendid viewing
NB! · Observations · Education · Humour
A task from a fourth-form Russian language olympiad. Lyudmila Stefanovna gave her assessment
Coming Up · Architecture · Art · Moscow · Observations
The artist Vladimir Seleznev, in the company of the curator Vladislav Efimov, talks about his project "Oseyev", devoted to an invented utopian metropolis, the result of uncontrolled standardised building on urban land, which proved to be unwanted and fell into decline. Seleznev problematises the frenzied mass construction in
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour
The Nobility Assembly reports that it is troubled by invitations sent out in the names of the couple, in which Prince Rostislav Romanov is styled Son Altesse Impériale (His Imperial Highness). The nobles are sounding the alarm: the prince possesses no such title! The letter of 6 September runs roughly
Observations · Society · Nature · Ethnography
This morning in Liverpool, police killed a white stag that had the folly to run into the city. Yes, the animal might have been temporarily sedated and carried off elsewhere, but someone took the decision to deprive it of its life. In my view, this is a very bad omen
NB! · Observations · Mores · Humour
What is care? It is when a mother warns her son not to touch the figs: she had, after all, been obliged to smear every fig in the garden with poison in order to dispatch a suspicious husband who would take no food that any other hand had touched
Art · Observations · Mores · Humour
A satirical engraving of the late 18th century: a bon vivant with all the marks of dissipation (dice and cards, horse races, fashions and diverting novelettes) and, in opposition to him, a pensive corpse leaning on a stele bearing an edifying text. In theory, the picture is meant to remind
Observations · Society · Reportage · Ethnography
The Russian village has fallen still. Among their pressing problems, the villagers name the cemetery: the authorities will not allot land for a new graveyard, though for dozens of kilometres around the village lie abandoned fields, meadows and forests. "There is no land!" Once the village had its
NB! · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Society
Observations · Society · People · Humour
A frame destined for the history books. This is not photoshopped. Angela Merkel at the Marlow bird park during a visit to her former constituency of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, three days before the federal elections in Germany. Why former? Merkel has announced that she will no longer stand for the Bundestag,
Art · Books · Observations · Pop Culture
An early star has fallen, there is coolness in the fields, A ferry glides, the water sings of something close by. And where the river gleams by a quiet grove, A grey-haired ferryman joins the banks together. There are so many partings on earth, and so many different fates,
Observations · Society
The time has come to "reap the harvest" for those who did, after all, apply for presidential grants in the field of culture. The experts of the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, which this year is distributing 3.5 billion roubles among cultural projects, have familiarised themselves with