I have to say, Moscow City government seems in no big hurry this year to decorate the city centre for the festive season. New Year trees have already sprung up in and around some public places, particularly shopping centres. The Mayor’s house was also decorated in advance. However, some of the places (like The Russian State Library) didn’t have any decorations even on December 20, and Tverskaya St was only being planted with real Xmas trees on the same day. The decision to use real, not artificial, fir trees was not bad as such, but as it happens the execution of such decision has left a lot to be desired. You can see that toys were taken straight from the shop and hung on the branches – even labels were not taken off.
My short walk down Tverskaya St on that terribly frosty and cold winter evening brought yet another gem of a bizarre coincidence. Similar to a project that once toon place in York (UK), Tverskaya and some adjacent streets are decorated with reproductions of well-known paintings by Russian artist. For the purpose of this post I suggest to contemplate this photo. A beautiful naked lady brushes her black hair in a painting by Karl Brullov. It’s minus 15, as a matter of fact, and just looking at her makes one shiver with cold. One would’ve thought that these paintings could be at least complementary to the season. Alas, it seems this thought hasn’t crossed the minds of those behind the project.
