In a post I wrote in Russian I reflected on the fact that in one superstore in Moscow city centre the till operator didn’t even attempt to give me change. It was only 10 kopeks, one tenth of a r...
The song It Don’t Come Easy was co-written by Ringo Starr and George Harrison. It became Ringo’s first UK solo release following the Beatles’ breakup. In this video, however, it is G...
In continuation with various translations of Russian poetry, here is an amazing example of work by Innokenty Smoktunovsky. In 1982 he recorded a TV programme dedicated to Alexander Pushkin, and this p...
I‘ve just come back from the screening of “Social Network” in one of the central cinemas in Moscow. By the look of it, Moscow bloggers, the users of Vkontakte.ru and Loveradio listen...
Wait For Me is not just a war-time poem; even in normal, peaceful life there are plenty of chances to fight, to struggle and to survive....
I know that when I’ve written Parma Ham, I’m going to dedicate it to the world’s largest direct marketing company. But while I’m writing that one, Reed.co.uk, a UK job advertis...
The film after Stephen King’s novel is counted by many as a favourite for a good reason. Shawshank Redemption is the metaphor for the will to live, the power of focus, the ability to create the ...
This may or may not be surprising, but the song I absolutely love is I Say a Little Prayer for You. It’s a kind of a good omen song: whenever I hear it, good things happen. A dull party begins t...
Moscow tube map with “proper names Considering that Bloggers Portraits are being shot in the studio located on the lower ground floor, that is underground, the theme of “alternative”...
The great American playwright, a winner of the Nobel Prize and the Pulitzer Prize, Eugene O’Neill, not only exerted much influence on American drama, but also inspired parodies. As I’m goi...