Observations · Society · Paris · Humour

Urban improvements in Paris's La Chapelle district and local authority policy

Paris, oh, Paris! Faugh, what a backwater! My eyes are simply popping out of my head at the "improvements" in the La Chapelle quarter. What is that supposed to be called? Inclusivity with solar panels and flowers? In principle, it is hard to say who has done Europe

Architecture · Observations · Heritage · Society · Saint Petersburg

Quite recently I wanted to write about the creation in the Leningrad Region of a "Park Agency", which will oversee the preservation of cultural monuments, their use, and the promotion of heritage sites

Quite recently I wanted to write about the creation in the Leningrad Region of a "Park Agency", which will oversee the preservation of cultural monuments, their use, and the promotion of heritage sites. Among the monuments coming under the agency's care are the Priory Park and

Architecture · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Heritage

Konstantin Melnikov's house of two cylinders in Krivoarbatsky Lane and the museum inside it

Melnikov's best-known work is his own house on Krivoarbatsky Lane, two cylinders of unequal size, built in 1927-29 for himself and his family. Unrepeatable and striking in its simplicity, its form and its handling of light, it stands today in good condition and houses an excellent

Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Heritage

Another brainchild of Melnikov: the Gosplan Garage on Aviamotornaya Street, 1936

Another brainchild of Melnikov: the Gosplan Garage on Aviamotornaya Street, 1936. Originally the main floor space of the garage was given over to the departmental cars of Gosplan; from the 1950s it housed the 8th taxi depot, and since the 1990s it has been home to assorted organisations, car workshops,

Archaeology · Observations · Heritage · Humour

In this connection I cannot help recalling my address to an archaeological conference a couple of years ago, when I proposed borrowing the American practice of preserving rock art in situ by planting devilishly thorny…

In this connection I cannot help recalling my address to an archaeological conference a couple of years ago, when I proposed borrowing the American practice of preserving rock art in situ by planting devilishly thorny plants that would bar vandals from direct access to the surface of the stone. For

Museums · Observations · Heritage

The author doubts the value of taking children to museums before they have learned how to behave

I am not at all sure about the concept of introducing to the beautiful creatures who are as yet incapable of observing elementary rules of conduct WITHOUT simultaneous titanic educational efforts to bring their behavioural pattern into order. I understand all those lovely theories that the child in its mother&

NB! · Observations

Well, then 🧐

Coming Up · Architecture · Observations · Heritage · Society

Tom Sawyer Fest begins restoring the Pribytkovo dacha in Gatchina on 27 July

How heartening that Russia has people like the team and volunteers of Tom Sawyer Fest. If you have not yet heard of this organisation, you will like it: people united by a love of the historical and cultural heritage of their native parts simply rescue decrepit, abandoned and ruined monuments.

NB! · Observations · Science

I adore Dmitry Dmitrievich Belyaev

I adore Dmitry Dmitrievich Belyaev. And, by way of a footnote to the news from Russian science

Art · Observations · Mores · Humour

Child in a cradle resembling a tomb in Lavinia Fontana's painting of 1583

An exceedingly rich child in a cradle, a painting by the early Baroque Bolognese artist Lavinia Fontana. 1583. That the cradle resembles a tomb has its reverse side: Jesus in the sepulchre, at this time and earlier, is sometimes depicted as if lying in a bed. As for the sumptuous

Aristocracy · Cinema · Observations · Mores

Now that is what I call a cult film: in the mysterious and faintly sinister, very 1930s mansion of Grey Gardens live, in secluded and extravagant style, Jackie Kennedy's cousin Edith Bouvier Beale (Little Edie) and her extraordinary mother Edith Ewing Bou

Now that is what I call a cult film: in the mysterious and faintly sinister, very 1930s mansion of Grey Gardens live, in secluded and extravagant style, Jackie Kennedy's cousin Edith Bouvier Beale (Little Edie) and her extraordinary mother Edith Ewing Bouvier (Big Edie). Two society lionesses, by

NB! · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour