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New Story By Francis Scott Fitzgerald – Thank You For the Light

A New Story by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Thank You for the Lighthttp://www.scribd.com/embeds/114755395/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-1nhowynoj8ej38kzepy2

A beautiful synopsis from Scribd:

“This newly discovered short story by one of the greatest writers of twentieth-century American literature, F. Scott Fitzgerald, will surprise and delight. Thank You for the Light is a masterfully crafted story—spare, strange, and wonderful, albeit a departure from Fitzgerald’s usual style. A widowed, corset saleswoman, Mrs. Hanson, whose chief pleasure in life is cigarettes, discovers that social disapproval of smoking is widespread in her new sales territory. Deprived of this simple comfort, she receives solace, and a light, from an unexpected source. Fitzgerald originally submitted the story to The New Yorker in 1936, four years before his death, but it was rejected. The editors said that it was “altogether out of the question” and added, “It seems to us so curious and so unlike the kind of thing we associate with him and really too fantastic.” Almost eighty years later, Fitzgerald’s grandchildren found the story among his papers and the Fitzgerald scholar James West encouraged them to send the story to the magazine once again. This time around the magazine decided to publish it, and now it is available in this special eBook edition”.

Original Paolo Veronese Pieta Found In Tashkent

An original painting by Paolo Veronese (La Pieta) was identified at Tashkent Art Museum. It was thought to belong to an unknown painter of the Venetian school.

While some Russians openly express disdain for workers from Uzbekistan, the capital of the CIS state has now got an impressive claim to fame. One painting at the Tashkent Art Museum has long been ascribed to an unknown artist. It is now declared to be the original Paolo Veronese’s La Pieta (The Mourning of Christ). Veronese was a celebrated master of the late Italian Renaissance. The image currently shown by RIA Novosti website does indeed resemble Veronese’s manner and lighting:

Paolo Veronese, La Pieta (RIA Novosti)

The painting that used to hang on the third floor of the art museum was brought to Tashkent by the Grand Duke Nikolas Constantinovich (1850-1918). His diary mentions that this was an original painting, most likely brought from one of his journeys to Europe in 1860-70s. However, it was only the restoration work that led to revisiting the diaries, conducting analyses and eventually declaring that Tashkent State Fine Arts Museum happens to own the painting by the great Italian.

The leader of the restoration project Dilshod Azizov said that more “important announcements” were to made at a later stage.

The initial announcement came earlier in November, and the Radio Liberty correspondents and art historians from the West were not quite sure the canvas could indeed belong to Veronese, although they did not doubt its Venetian origins.

The Grand Duke Nikolas was an eccentric member of the Russian imperial family, and Tashkent museum holds another testimony of the love for Italian art on the part of this Romanov. During one of his voyages to Europe with his beloved Fanny Lear, a divorcée from America, he visited the villa Borghese where he saw a nude sculpture of Polina Borghese, Napoleon’s sister, by Antonio Canova. The Grand Duke was so impressed that he commissioned a similar sculpture to an Italian master Tommaso Solari, but obviously with Fanny’s face instead of Polina’s. The exact copy was later sent to St. Petersburg where it stood in a park for a number of years. When the Grand Duke was already in exile, forever separated from his beloved American, his mother found the sculpture during a walk in the park and decided to send it to Tashkent.

So the exact copy of Canova’s sculpture commemorating an American woman who, inadvertently perhaps, led the Grand Duke to ruin, can now be seen in full glory at Tashkent State Fine Arts Museum. But a Western or Russian traveller needs not to go so far to see it: a smaller copy is displayed at the Yussupov Palace in St. Petersburg. And of course, there are other Italian Renaissance paintings in Russia, but to see the original Paolo Veronese La Pieta you will now need to go to Uzbekistan.

Tommaso Solari, a copy after Antonio Canova,
Tashkent State Fine Arts Museum (Wikipedia)

Other posts in Renaissance Painting archives.

Plyos In Ivanovo Region Opens a Central Museum For Tourists

Plyos, the view of the Volga River (infotravel.ru)

I’ve been twice to Ivanovo Region in the last two years, and now the news has it that a new museum has been opened in Plyos, a beautiful small town half-way between Ivanovo and Kostroma. I have not been there yet.

The museum is called Prisutstvennye Mesta, which in a literal English translation means “government offices”. These provincial towns, as in England, used to be quaint regional creations in the 19th c. where government officials indeed went, sometimes to purchase the dead souls, as Nikolai Gogol told us. The regional authorities mostly likely meant that this is the central place for Sobornaya Gora tourist complex, so the verb “prisutstvovat'” is used in its literal meaning, as in “to be in the place”.

The museum (which reconstruction cost the regional budget RUB 130mln) contains a permanent exhibition following the age-long history of Plyos. The ground floor houses the offices of the local lore museum. More temporary exhibitions will unravel the little-known pages of Plyos’s history. The current exhibition that can be seen during the next 6 months is dedicated to the Time of Troubles of the early 17th c. The museum also accommodates tourists with disabilities.

The town of Plyos had been founded in 1410 by the Great Prince Vassily I. Later archaeological excavations revealed that earlier settlements in the area date as far back as 9-14th cc. During the Time of Troubles Plyos changed hands many times, going between Russians and Poles, until eventually it remained in Russian hands. The ancient wooden fortress perished in these battles and was never restored. The oldest cathedral dates back to 1699, but most cathedrals and churches were built in 19th c., some in commemoration of victory against Napoleon.

The development of Volga trading fleet led to the industry growth at Plyos. There were breweries, ten smithies, salt warehouse, and numerous stalls that sold silks and wool. A fabric plant was also opened in Plyos in the 19th c.

And like many Volga towns (Yaroslavl, Kineshma) Plyos boasted unforgettable landscapes that attracted many an artist. The Russian painter Isaac Levitan lived and worked in Plyos in 1888-1889. His museum was opened in 1970s at the house he rented while staying in Plyos

Thanksgiving Etiquette: Setting Up a Festive Table

I know a lot of American citizens read this blog, and November 23 is the traditional festival of Thanksgiving. When I was at school, in English lessons we read stories of this festival. The story was invariably such that the pioneers arrived on Mayflower to the New World, at first there was no food, but then they managed to catch some wild turkeys, and thus gave thanks to God for not failing the poor emigrants. This is how the tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving has started.

There was this interesting infographic for Thanksgiving etiquette, which I thought may be either of use or of interest. I hope you enjoy it. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Twelve Advice For Christmas In Recession

Christmas season has started in Russia, too, although we celebrate New Year first, and Christmas follows in January.

I know many people suffer badly this year in Britain. Some lose jobs, others have to stretch their budget to stay on a healthy diet. I’ve come across this heart-aching article earlier this week – Food for thought by Miss South, which brought back some painful memories of 2008 when I was out of work for some 6 months when recession had first struck. Losing a job was easier than finding one, but we normally only consider the “job hunting” part of the experience to describe how badly we felt. Food and other kind of deprivation is often omitted, whereas it is the inability to eat well (and that’s not packs of Mars bars!) and to socialise and to attend the memorable events that makes one feel the most miserable.

I guess for quite a lot of my compatriots in Britain this Christmas is going to be sad, dull, and deprived of one or another lovely thing. So, based on my experience and reading, this is the advice I’d give to anyone in dare situation:

1. Do not put blame on anybody.
OK, it may be Tory, or better Labour, or even Thatcher, or maybe even the U.S. or God who is the reason why the world (or the UK, or you, for that matter) suffer. You cannot change it. Even if you change the government, you cannot change America or God. Do not blame anyone, this only strengthens your already negative thinking.

2. Find something beautiful in whatever you look at.
In fact, make it a point of your life. There is so much beauty in life that goes unnoticed simply because we always “look up to the sky” and see Titian coupled with Dali and Britney Spears. If you can imagine anything like this, you will agree it’s not beautiful at all. So start noticing beauty around you. It is there, very close to where you are right now. I’ve been looking at the thermoelectric station and a busy road for most of my life, but I never actually saw them. To tell the truth, I saw the English fields, the French castles, and at best – the sci-fi landscapes.

3. You only fail when you’ve stopped learning.
If you want to get anywhere in life, you have to make mistakes. No matter how many wise men prepared you for the journey, it’s a new journey in a new era in a new country in different circumstances. You are bound to fail at least once, so go for it and stop whining.

4. Albert Einstein gave this definition to insanity: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
Enough said. This involves asking some difficult questions. Whether this is about personal relationships or profession, it’s all the same. If you want to change the world, change yourself. Stop expecting a different result from the same thing. It doesn’t work, it won’t, and it shouldn’t. Otherwise everyone could do it.

5. Always look on the bright side of life.
I’ve lost two close relatives, I’ve been out of job, I look after a very elderly Grandma and have to help my disabled mother, and I also have to work. Yes, there are moments when I also wish things were easier and less complex. But most of the time I am grateful for my friends, health, peace in my country and worldwide (most of the time), and all the things I can enjoy. Legion is their name, from art to sport, through science, social disciplines, short-haul travels, and every new experiences, especially if the latter come for free. It’s hard for some (even my mother) to see my point, but the more interests you have, the more opportunities there are – either for work, or for lifting up your mood. As a matter of fact, I was unwell this week, but on Thursday night I’m going to the theatre with my best friend in Moscow. And it’s free.

6. Sex is not the only free entertainment available.
Back in December 2008, the majority of Brits were opting for some bed action as a free entertainment. Already in May it was clear that entertainment brought the most natural results. But it’s instinctive. For the record, I’ve not visited quite a few Russian museums because I got so unused to the idea of paying for the entry, I cannot bring myself to paying the fee, nevermind queuing outside, like they do at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. But in Britain where museums and parks are free, there’s no excuse. This brings you close to 1) Beauty, 2) positive outlook on life, and 3) opportunities.

7. Look for opportunities.
They say recession is the best time to start a business or learn a new skill. The fee is down to your negotiation. When you have the bills to pay and to support your family, negotiating some upfront payment for overwork would be OK for me. Yes, you must then live up to your own promise. The beautiful thing is you never exactly know where this may take you. You may get the job, or you may get the skill and experience, and an even better paid job. To start, just say to yourself “I’m taking every good opportunity”, or such like, and see what happens.

8. Do not wait for the perfect job. Make best of the one you have.
The mistake most of us make is described as “if I were paid more, I’d do more”. This is a typical worker’s attitude who does not count his or her emotional contribution to work. The truth is (and I know it very well) you cannot be successful when your heart is not involved. Remember also that you are getting paid for what you ask. If you ask to be paid for the job you never did, there must be a very good reason for a prospective employer not to turn you down. I knew nothing about PPC marketing when I went to work for Latitude Group, but I knew foreign languages. I could provide them with the skill they needed the most, and in return they taught me and initiated me into the industry, for which I cannot be grateful enough.
On another hand, if you ask to be paid for the actual experience, you will always earn less. This may be a short-term solution, but it’s best not to forget about it.

9. Learn to plan.
This involves both planning your day (week, month, year) and budgeting (i.e. money planning). Recession, being out of work, or just any kind of money difficulty is the best time to learn this important skill. Do you have a diary or a planner? Do you keep it, in that you actually do things you’ve planned? Do you track your expenses? The point is not to kick yourself for spending that extra quid on a pack of Mars bars. It’s about understanding at what point and why you decided to buy the Mars bars and finding a possible substitute to it. But don’t forget that planning underpins the success, so learn to do it now, not when recession ends.

10. Whatever you want to do, can be done here and now.
I recommend you read Essays on Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson:
http://www.archive.org/stream/e00ssaysoftravelstevrich?ui=embed#mode/2up
It’s a mesmerising account of a Scotsman journey aboard a ship to the New World with many other emigrants. A kaleidoscope of characters, with the protagonist’s musings on personal behaviour, makes a brilliant piece of travel writing. Yet this is not all. At one point Stevenson says one important thing: if you want to do something, you can do this here and now. You don’t need to travel to the New World or elsewhere to make a difference. At least you can start here and now. We’re often thinking of the likes of Mikhail Baryshnikov who made it both in Russia and in New York (I’m attempting a pun on the famous song here). What we forget is that Baryshnikov had emigrated when he was already a well-known ballet dancer, not a disillusioned wannabe.

11. Learn any skills that you lack that can help you to manage things better.
This can range from the aforementioned planning to cooking, knitting, sewing, hand crafting – anything that can help you to save or earn money.

12. When Life gets in your way, don’t try to get on with it.
Having your goals and priorities in front of you can help you manage any recession or problem. Different to it, if your goals are vague, it’s easy to fall prey to the momentous pressure. If you have a loving relationship and a good family, the most important thing is to preserve it during the financial downtime. Don’t blame anyone, don’t do the same thing again and again expecting a new result, learn something new together and look for opportunities. Chances are, for you recession will end earlier.

Why, you ask? Because I know that the law of attraction works. The positive thinking can work wonders. And when two or more loving people unite their forces, a brilliant result is guaranteed.

I hope you have a good festive season this year.

Moscow Bus Queues

Many a contemporary megalopolis suffers from the abundance of cars and people. Moscow is no exception, and its endless traffic jams have long become notorious. But let me now introduce you to another kind of queue: people waiting for a bus to go home. For the second week running we’ve been for a rare treat near the district where I live. It was next to impossible to get on a bus a week ago: I spent 40 minutes waiting for one of the two buses to arrive. One never arrived; three buses from another route went past the bus stop to their bus terminal.

The photos have been taken just now, at 19:40-19:48. Normally at this time buses run regularly, and the traffic density gets lower. Instead those who don’t want to wait are trying to jam themselves into a rather tiny bus, and there’s also a massive queue of those who are waiting for a passenger van.

The Battle On the Ice (1242-2012)

He who comes to us with a sword
shall die of the same sword” –
Sergei Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky poster

The Great Russian Prince Alexander Nevsky died on November 14, 1263. He is largely known for his victory over the Livonian Order on Chudskoe Lake (Lake Peipus) in April 1242. The so-called Battle on the Ice celebrated 770th anniversary this year.

Some claim that the Battle on Ice has only “appeared” thanks to the Soviet propaganda supported and popularised by Sergei Eisenstein’s fine masterpiece, Alexander Nevsky. Indeed, the 13th c. was marked by the so-called Northern Crusades organised by the Western (German and Scandinavian) armies and knight orders against the pagan peoples of the Baltic Region. The territories of the modern-day Estonia and Lithuania had been attacked, and Russia was a target too, along the northern and western borders. It was under these circumstances that attacks on Russian north-western cities were carried out repeatedly, and in this sense there were possibly several “battles on ice” fought, although only the battle on Chudskoe Lake (Lake Peipus) went down into history with so much fanfare.

The Battle on Ice claimed lives of some 400 Livonian Knights and 50 more were taken prisoners. The battle was significant in that the Livonian Order had to agree to make peace on Russian terms: the knights retreated, giving back all Russian territories they had captured. The Chudskoe Lake battle is also a splendid example of military manoeuvering: the Livonian Order sent their entire army against a small Russian troupe, only to be surrounded by the rest of the Russian forces.

The number of casualties is still under a dispute. What is obvious, however, is that the Battle on the Ice hammered the final nail in the coffin of the already unsuccessful 1240-1242 campaign of the Order against the Slavic lands.

It is easy to understand why on the eve of the Nazi invasion and during the war the version of the Battle on the Ice eloquently propagated by Eisenstein’s epic movie became so popular and continues to feed the imagination to this day. 1942 also happened to be the Battle’s 700th anniversary, which fact was commemorated in the war-time film posters.

Historians note that there were at least one other battle that was much more successful, and that is the Rakvere Battle (Battle of Wesenberg, or Rakovor) fought on February 18, 1268 by Alexander Nevsky’s son, Dmitry of Pereslavl, and Daumantas of Pskov. The Western forces were thoroughly defeated and had not approached Russia’s western border for the next thirty years.

The Battle on the Ice was widely commemorated not only in film, but music (the score by Sergei Prokofiev was used in Eisenstein’s film) and literature (an eponymous long poem by Konstantin Simonov was also published in 1938). It actually is interesting – if you believe in any such thing – to look at this avalanche of musings on the Russo-German relations a year before the World War 2 had started. The anticipation of yet another war had been palpable, and all the leading states – Britain, France, Germany, the U.S., and the USSR – each secretly plotted either against the Capitalist West or the Socialist East. Without any specific “promise” of an impending war how could the Russian film director and poet in the same year produce (or present) a work that mulled over the historical fact of military antagonism between Russia and Germany? Of course, Germans were there simply due to an historical coincidence. But what if contemplating the invasion and its victorious overcoming had actually led to a re-enactment of both in 1941-45?

Today the Battle on the Ice, as it was reconstructed in Eisenstein’s film, is a part of Russia’s contemporary popular culture. The final video of a Russian commercial for bread crumbs proves the point.

The Battle on the Ice – An extract from the film (medieval people all fought in the same manner, but it is quite obvious where Mel Gibson would draw his inspiration from for battle scenes in The Braveheart.

The Battle on the Ice 

And if you have not seen it, here is a full film, courtesy of Mosfilm.

Pascal Quignard Visits Russian State Library

Sadly the news come in a bit late, so I will not be able to attend this public lecture – but the French author Pascal Quignard is visiting Moscow and will give a talk today at the Russian State Library.

The talk, hosted by a journalist Konstantin Milchin, will see Quignard read from his new and yet untranslated book Les Désarçonnés, speak on the immanently linked Death, Love, and Music, and explain the possibility of creating music with words.

Announced by Theory&Practice.

 

Marshak of the Soviet Union: To Samuil Marshak’s 125th Anniversary

The famous Russian poet and translator Samuil Marshak was born on November 3, 1887. This year marks his 125th anniversary. He is particularly known to the Western audience and scholars as a translator who made Shakespeare’s sonnets and Robert Burns’s poetry available to the Russian readers. What is less known is his contribution to the tradition of children’s poetry in Russia, and this post will look at precisely this.

This wonderful person was once called “Marshak of the Soviet Union”. Indeed, together with Kornei Chukovsky, Agniya Barto, and Sergei Mikhalkov, he was the main children’s poet, and it would be hard to single out any one of the four. Possibly, Marshak and Chukovsky would stand apart since they had not merely drawn inspiration from the everyday life of Soviet children, but also from the endless well of world literature. And still Marshak stands out in his own right with his beautiful, melodic poems and plays in verses in which he reconstructed a magical world of childhood.

So below are links to the previous posts on this blog where Marshak work featured, as well as several books from my home library.

Samuil Marshak – In the Van (Translated into English by Margaret Wettlin)

Samuil Marshak – In the Vanhttp://www.scribd.com/embeds/112006657/content?start_page=1&view_mode=book&access_key=key-ers0x51nvdfhbimrcwm

Marshak’s translation of Love and Poverty poem by Robert Burns that became a famous song in the Soviet adaptation of Charley’s Aunt by Brandon Thomas.

Another translation of Robert Burns, this time The Little Black Boy.

Samuil Marshak – Cat’s House (in Russian)
A beautiful fairy tale about the feline couple who once declined taking two orphaned kittens in the house. Then their house burnt down, and they had to look for shelter which they found with the kittens. A story of compassion, friendship, and the need of the family.

Samuil Marshak – Cat’s Househttp://www.scribd.com/embeds/112003690/content?start_page=1&view_mode=book&access_key=key-23svg11wypfstk1r6vlv

Samuil Marshak – The Tale of a Hero Nobody Knows (English translation by Peter Tempest)
A poetisation of the Soviet youth: a “hero” is a guy who acts according to circumstances, saving people, and shuns recognition.

Samuil Marshak – The Tale of a Hero Nobody Knowshttp://www.scribd.com/embeds/109381612/content?start_page=1&view_mode=book&access_key=key-23wg5v69dcb3cntk2xa7

Samuil Marshak – Petits d’animaux derriere les barreaux (French translation by Catherine Emery) 
Short poems about animal cubs.

Samuil Marchak – Petits d’animaux derriere les barreauxhttp://www.scribd.com/embeds/106628764/content?start_page=1&view_mode=book&access_key=key-23nd2yiojs9xoi4nxxe

 

Tina, After Anton Chekhov Stories

I’m presently sitting in the audience at the House of Actor in Moscow watching a play after Chekhov stories.

My overall impression is very positive, although there were a few times during the play when I thought it was possible to find another solution, way of conveying the same idea, but in a more powerful manner.

The story follows two brothers trying to get their money from a Jewish girl whose father took money from the elder brother. She’s got no intention of giving the money, but instead uses all her charm and “cynicism” to get both brothers infatuated with her. To use her own words, people blame the Jews for the perils of this world but the only ones to blame are not Jews but Jewish women.

This is not a racist story, on the contrary, this is a story of pre- and misconceptions dissolving, melting in the heat of femininity, whatever its nationality. Young actors, Schepkin School of Acting graduates, are giving brilliant performances, dancing, singing and portraying their characters. A special note goes to David Russell who is American yet decided to make a career at the Russian stage. A part of me is grinning that now, after years of Russian actors mastering their English there is an American who’s reading Russian lines from the stage. But at the same time I’m reliving the same feeling of pride for someone who mastered Russian and can actually act in my first native language. That alone makes David very good.

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