Books · Observations · Mores
Othello gave his young wife a rather modest gift, an embroidered handkerchief that had come to him from his mother, which in the end played a fatal part, being planted on the jealous Moor's comrade as a token of infidelity. With this handkerchief everything is very far from
NB! · Observations
Archive · Books · Observations · Mores · Rome
Michel de Montaigne's journal for February 1581 mentions a Muscovite ambassador in Rome, dressed in a crimson cloak, a cassock of gold brocade, a nightcap-shaped hat of gold brocade trimmed with fur, and a skufia of silvery linen, who had come to ask Pope Gregory to help
Books · Observations · Humour
In his "Historical and Critical Fragments", Mikhail Pogodin has an amusing phrase dating from 1846, setting the Renaissance West against Muscovite Rus': "... with them propaganda, with us preservation, with them movement, with us tranquillity...". It makes one smile that today these words would most likely
NB! · Observations · Humour
Observations · Pop Culture · Humour
Leonardo da Vinci has appeared on the stage of the annual Italian Sanremo Music Festival. The extravagant Max Gazzè turned up in a rather convincing Leonardo get-up, accompanied by a cardboard orchestra of eminent figures from world pop culture, from Elizabeth II at the drums to Paul McCartney on
Books · Observations · Society
On the history shelf at the Fnac in Nantes, next to "The Real Novel of Gorbachev", stands a book about Brezhnev, the new work of Andrei Kozovoi, a French historian of Soviet origin who specialises in the Cold War and its manifestations in culture. This history of Brezhnev
Moscow · Museums · Observations · Society
An exhibition of human corpses is about to open at VDNKh. In effect, the Body Worlds project is a travelling morgue which, under the name of Dr Hagens, wanders the globe displaying human bodies saturated, soon after death, with a special compound to prevent decay and lend the tissues elasticity.
NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture
NB! · Art · Observations · Humour
What a sweet little dog! She looks just like her mistress! Jamie Wyeth, 1980
Coming Up · Art · Observations
The blazar young contemporary art fair, where we shopped so merrily last autumn, announces an open call for artists and gallerists for September. It is a genuinely good opportunity for emerging creators to make themselves known, meet the public, and find a gallery and an audience of their own. Details
Architecture · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Education
At the Shchusev Museum of Architecture, a long-awaited major exhibition devoted to the Architecture Faculty of VKhUTEMAS. Who, if not MUAR, should show the genuine masterpieces of the Vkhutemas students, and at last it has come to pass. Moreover, this project looks far more advantageous than the exhibition on