One. Brazilian soccer legend Pele (C) makes an Olympic pitch as a Canadian space tourist prepares to blast off in Russia. Two. On Wednesday when the Dalai Lama arrives here, Mayor Dave Bronconnier will plant a white cowboy hat on his noggin, but the world’s famous monk won’t have to recite the white-hat oath. Three….
Responding to the recent request by some people who want a little more information about not only travel, books and crafts, but what is happening around us in both our community where ever it may be and the world. The words “Babulka and Dedulka” (what means Grandma and Grandpa) are abbreviated to “BADEK”s plus the…
I have just finished reading the book “Empire of the Czar” (A Journey Through Eternal Russia in 1839) by the Marquis de Custine, Copyright @1971 Princeton University Press, Published by Doubleday, New York, 1989. Listen to the song Old Russia The book was banned in Russia, where even discussion of it was forbidden. Why? Because…
A central issue in “Russian Ark” is the spread of enlightenment through and the rise of the nation-state, and with it various forms of nationalism. Accompanying the age of the nation-state-first its emergence from under the tutelage of Empire, and second its ferocious return after the fall of Soviet-styled socialism – there has been an…
Vitas- reads a poem Such a comment I got last night from Kseniya and today I am putting it into my post. Here it is a portrait of Bella Akhmadulina. Dear Valentina! First I would like to thank you for your warm reception, for your hospitality and openness. For that energy and fullness of the…
First I would like you to listen to the song with the lyrics on poem by a great Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva “And on leaving I will say” to attune your ear to poetry . А напоследок я скажу Then I wrote a letter to Canadian poet John Woodsworth and he answered me, both letters…
My interlocutor today is Ivan Semyonovich, a big politics fan and literature admirer and we are talking about Mark Twain (1835-1910) and Dostoevsky ( 1821-1881), about America and Russia. I.S. A cosmic Plutarch writing “The Parallel Lives of Great Nations” could not find a more rewarding subject. Perhaps it could be called Mark Twain or…
A Conversation with Ivan Maximovich, a Connoisseur of Russian Literature and Culture. I.M. You said that the great Russian poets are the Ryabinins and what about Pushkin, our national pride, the verses of whom we were taught starting from the school bench. V.N. Do you know what? Definitely, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799-1837) was a great…
Nowhere I could find the real pictures of the Ryabinins great Russian poets, epic story tellers. This is why it is shown here a piece of an artist’s imagination of old Russian story tellers. To attune your ear to the Russian ancient melody it is included also the performance of folk Russian group “Belorybitsa”, song…