May 27, 2020

Poetic Graffiti, Self-Isolation, and Skyrocketing Views


Poetic Graffiti, Self-Isolation, and Skyrocketing Views
Photo by Sunyu Kim on Unsplash

“On the day of his 80th birthday, Brodsky returned to Pestel Street—he is looking directly at his balcony in the house where he lived, those same one and a half rooms from where he left forever. But poets always return.”

– Creators of a large graffiti display depicting the poet Joseph Brodsky that appeared in St. Petersburg after the poet’s recent birthday

 

Runner-Up Quotes

“Despite the positive factors, we see that hospitalization figures are still high. Moreover, the number of deaths from coronavirus in May will be significantly higher than in April, since the peak of the virus occurred at the beginning of May. Obviously, the hardest phase will be in May.”

-Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, on the necessity of maintaining self-isolation in response to increasing numbers of people on the streets of Moscow

“The number of music video views has skyrocketed.”

– Eurovision YouTube Channel organizers, on Little Big’s clip breaking the channel’s record for fastest acceleration of views; in a little over two months the music video had over 100 million views
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Survival Russian
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Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas
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The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.

 
The Little Humpbacked Horse
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The Little Humpbacked Horse

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.

How Russia Got That Way
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A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.

White Magic
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White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

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Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka
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Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.

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