Interviews · Observations · Society · People
But all the same, it is an interesting interview, do read it. Alexievich makes some quite reasonable points: a weak state intends to save only itself, and she draws parallels with the Chernobyl catastrophe. She recalls, for example, how Western aid then settled with the officials and, instead of real
Faith · Art · People · Humour
When you accidentally get caught in the reflection of someone else's selfie. It is commonly held that the celebrated painting of 1449 by the Netherlandish artist Petrus Christus depicts Saint Eligius, patron saint of goldsmiths, who served as goldsmith to the Frankish king Chlothar II and became Bishop
Art · Observations · People
Good Old Traditions of Self-Isolation. Today is the birthday of the celebrated Belgian artist James Ensor (1860-1949), remembered chiefly for canvases of grotesque figures, skeletons playing the part of living people, and masks. But what came to my mind was his lonely bathing machine of 1876. This early
Monarchies · Society · People · Humour
While Europe is in quarantine, His Royal Highness Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, aged forty, is on manoeuvres. Sweden has not introduced a quarantine, although against the background of the other Scandinavian countries the situation does not look entirely cloudless. Let me clarify at once: Carl Philip is married to
NB! · Interviews · Cinema · Observations · Education · People
Jean-Luc Godard, aged 89, live on the Instagram of the University of Lausanne, where he once taught a course on cinema. One gets the feeling that Godard does not quite grasp what the young people are up to here, and simply chills, puffing on a cigar as he answers
Archive · Observations · People · Pop Culture
Dreadful news about Nadezhda Babkina: she is said to be in a medically induced coma. I hope it all turns out well. I recall how I came across Nadya Babkina in a Californian newspaper of 1989: https://t.me/cucumberdeath/44
London · Monarchies · Society · People
Elizabeth II addressed the nation in the same outfit she wore for her first broadcast of this kind in 1991, after the outbreak of the Gulf War. Green is Elizabeth's favourite colour, and was the favourite colour of her father, George VI. The Queen spoke to the people
NB! · Aristocracy · Observations · People
But Yelizaveta Shakhovskaya's only daughter, Varvara, turned out to be a long-liver. I do like that sort of thing 😬
NB! · Aristocracy · Art · Museums · People · Saint Petersburg
The beauty Elizaveta Borisovna Shakhovskaya. One of her portraits is held in the Louvre, and two more in the Hermitage: this one, by Jean-Laurent Mosnier, and a second, a miniature by Augustin Ritt.
Science · Education · People · Saint Petersburg
In 1736 the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences sent twelve talented young men to Europe, where they were to study languages, the technical and natural sciences, get to know European life and all that sort of thing. Among these gifted students was the 25-year-old Mikhail Lomonosov, who studied
Archive · Cinema · Paris · People
In the 1920s the husband of the Danish-born actress Asta Nielsen, then enormously famous, in Russia at any rate, wrote to Alexandr Kamenka, producer at Paris's largest Russian film studio, Albatros, incidentally as… "My name is Grigory Mikhailovich Khmara... My wife is Asta Nielsen... I shall
London · Mores · People
A Dapper Dan of his day, this extravagant fellow was the retired sailor Joseph Johnson, known as Black Joe. After he was wounded in the 1810s, he was struck off the books of the merchant navy, but without the right to a pension. In short, the invalid was left without