Art · Moscow · Observations · Society Pages

Art Week positively teems with bright events, and here at the Triumph Gallery is the presentation of a sumptuous album from Shaltai Editions

Art Week positively teems with bright events, and here at the Triumph Gallery is the presentation of a sumptuous album from Shaltai Editions. The vivid fuchsia portfolio Le Jardin, with silkscreen prints by Alexandra Vertinskaya, sets the spring mood in a barely thawed Moscow, quite literally. The album reproduces 8

Cinema · Books · Observations · Pop Culture · Saint Petersburg

1985 Soviet TV play of Tolkien’s The Hobbit with Gerdt, Krasko and Danilov

Since everyone is so delighted with the Soviet "Lord of the Rings" that Channel Five has put online, I suggest watching the Soviet "Hobbit" as well, with a more starry cast and a truly epic Gollum. Zinovy Gerdt is the narrator, Ivan Krasko is Gandalf, Mikhail

Archive · Observations · Science

Do you think the prediction of the Soviet scientist Vsevolod Zubakov about the emergence of a cybernetic organism, made back in the 1990s, has begun to come true?

Do you think the prediction of the Soviet scientist Vsevolod Zubakov about the emergence of a cybernetic organism, made back in the 1990s, has begun to come true? After all, advanced artificial intelligence is not so very far from the state described. Be that as it may, I love infographics

Geography · Moscow · Observations · Reportage

Moscow Metro retro train styled after the first Series A cars

I rode the retro Metro train of 1935. The interior reproduces the finish of the first carriages of the Moscow Metro: metal wall lamps with white shades, original handrails, the colour scheme, aluminium edging painted to look like wood, beech crossbars at the windows, and embossed plastic panels on the

Observations · Society · Humour

The number of people who congratulated me on Culture Worker's Day equals the number of people whom I congratulated on the occasion

The number of people who congratulated me on Culture Worker's Day equals the number of people whom I congratulated on the occasion. But this identity is easily altered. I congratulate all my colleagues, the workers of this most vital sphere, whose efforts and talents, alas, too often remain

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

The exhibition “Choosing Distance” on the Coronacene era opens at Garage

A new exhibition has opened at Garage that you want to go on looking at, and looking at. It is called “Choosing the Distance: Speculations, Fakes, Forecasts in the Era of the Coronacene”. It is hard to single out one exhibit or one artist, for literally everything impresses. We shall

Archive · Cinema · Monarchies · Observations · People

Mary of Teck, widow of King George V, died just 10 weeks before the coronation of her granddaughter Elizabeth

Mary of Teck, widow of King George V, died just 10 weeks before the coronation of her granddaughter Elizabeth. On her deathbed she insisted that the coronation not be postponed on account of mourning for her. But Elizabeth's accession itself had taken place in Queen Mary's

Moscow · Museums · Observations · Humour

Garage Museum made a video on how endowments, or museum target funds, work

Garage has made an excellent video on how endowments, that is, a museum's designated funds, work, with the help of Garage the cat, pumpkins, and examples from ancient Greece, modern America and Sweden. It at once made me want to eat a Garage doughnut, otherwise known as a

NB! · Observations

First of all, it is stylish

NB! · Observations · Mores · Humour

"You're looking well." "Thank you, you too."

NB! · Geography · Maps · Moscow · Observations · Humour

Am I mistaken, or does Ryazan on this map of 1556 really enjoy a more attractive situation than Moscow?

Photograph of a book page in pre-revolutionary spelling with two words covered by white patches.

NB! · Observations · Humour

Readers are asked to identify a Russian ruler from an excerpt of an old book

Guess who is being described. Several names come to mind at once, do they not?