A small art gallery in St. Petersburg, Anna Nova is well
hidden but it's well worth
the trek to find this diamond in the desert. Here's how to find it:
walk some two blocks from metro-station Mayakovskaja, then
walk down a grey path that winds through yellowish backyards, then
turn left, and there it is! The way is certainly Peter-pan-ish:
"second to the right, straight on 'till morning, that's where I'll
be waiting" - with
the only one amendment – there won't be Peter Pan himself to welcome you,
but Pasha, the gallery-keeper (Barry's famous character doesn't bear any
comparison with this real-life personage)...
Read the rest of: "Anna Nova Gallery"»
What is left for mama's boys (and girls) when all the clubs in the city
are occupied by doped-up teens acting agressively towards perpetually
high-strung art students? Where should we go, when cinemas are too dark
for these prudish girls (that someone will use the cover of darkness
for their own dark ways is the most common fear of an overage square),
when creepy old ladies restrain our melancholic reflections in our
philarmonic armchairs and our empiric attempts to find new concepts in
old museum artifacts? The conclusion is obvious: head for a café...
Read the rest of: "Cafés Imitate Life in St. Petersburg"»  We Russians just don't know when to stop. Most people would
consider this mental peculiarity a drawback. We, on the other hand,
are proud of it (that's because we don't know when to stop being proud either).
This sweeping generalization applies equally to alcohol consumption and building
skyscrapers. For proof, one needs to look no further than the "Moscow City" project that has been under development for the past decade. Many an architectural rendering has been discarded during this timespan - only to be replaced by drawings of towers that are bigger, better, badder. And more "Moscow". (Like Moscow actually needs vertical growth).
Last year, SiteBits wrote about the "Federation Complex" - two towers of 340 and 240 meters respectively. This year, this already feels too short.
We need another tower and we're talking at least 600 meters...
Read the rest of: "Moscow in Foster Care"» 
What do you do if you're a Russian architect wishing to please
your tsar? Why, you build an ice palace in the Palace Square, of course! This architectural
technique has been used, to varying degrees of success, at least twice in the past three hunred years.
We're happy to report
that the most recent application did not yet result in any decapitations or torn out
tongues (the first one did). Yet for some of us, waiting outside for 2 hours with the Russian winter
in full swing may be the modern day equivalent of these severe punishments.
Puzzled? Read the explanations and see more pictures of the Ice Palace in the article.
Read the rest of: "Ice Palace"» 
Via eXile.ru
Do you know of such urban creatures as Arbusius Azerbaijanius,
Pafus Maximus, or Sugarus Daddius? If not, you probably haven't read eXile's
illustrated field guide to Moscow (exile.ru).
Check it out, it's witty and funny... especially if you've been to Moscow.
If not, but you're planning on visiting, it can be useful as almost every type they describe really exists and is really common. Might as
well prepare yourself for the jungle Moscow is.
[Field Guide To Moscow]
(exile.ru)
Construction began today in
Moscow
on the site of what is
to become the tallest European skyscraper.
The "FEDERATION"
complex will include two towers, measuring 340 and 240 meters
respectively and will be part of "Moscow-City" -
a gargantuan multi-building project that has been under development for over
a decade now.
The possibility that the new towers
(and not the Kremlin) may soon become the standard
"postcard" view of Moscow is bothering many. Not us.
Russia  |
