tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87285646018788296952024-03-13T23:28:45.272-07:00Dining and a World of Art: The Russian SamovarBlog about the Heart and Soul of Russian Culture in Manhattan's Theater DistrictMargo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-15660026361654030622011-12-12T11:43:00.001-08:002011-12-13T05:54:18.869-08:00We are the 146%!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ah, Samovar! So good to be back together with you. We feared change, but Alex, the Samovar’s new manager, with the full support of owners Roman and Larisa, seems to be on the right track. The lambburgers (lamburgers? help me, Spellcheck! Spell check?) came with perfectly sautéed mixed veggies, and a savvy customer could ask for a Georgian equivalent of wasabi if ketchup didn’t seem right. Yes, there are indeed new Georgian items on the menu, including an elegant and tasty, if rather petite, version of the classic cheesy pastry, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">khachapuri</i>. So much to explore here, folks. Join the 146% of us who will be stuffing our bellies, if not our ballot boxes, at the Samovar. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But the best was when, somewhere in the middle of a plain old Sunday night, it happened again!
An opera singer I am authorized to identify only as Kostya took it into
his head to treat us to a few traditional Russian songs—and with the sensitive, funny and marvelous accompaniment of pianist Vladimir Silantiev, plus a cameo by a soprano friend, a bit of opera as well. Magic!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">P.S. I do realize that the above video is dark and mostly sideways. That's how the Samovar was last night.</span></div>Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-28337733839161904552011-12-12T11:42:00.000-08:002011-12-12T11:42:10.204-08:00Farrar, Straus & Giroux Reading Tonight7pm. Samovar. Will Hermes (sounds forceful, yet divinely luxurious) and Ellen Ullman (her reading will be entirely in vowels and semi-vowels!).Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-61893401155390214982011-05-03T11:36:00.000-07:002011-05-03T11:36:27.909-07:00Platonov Scholars Bring "Style, Context, Meaning" to the Samovar<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I was going to title this entry “The Sluices of Epiphany”—wouldn’t it be clever, after all, to nod at one and the same time to the short story by Andrei Platonov and to the way ambrosia flows through the Samovar? In the context of <a href="http://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/get.php?brand=sipa_sa&id=47062&vt=detail&context=standalone">“Andrei Platonov: Style, Context, Meaning” (the first North American academic conference devoted to that author)</a>, the participants of which stylishly chose to close the proceedings (where else?) in the heart of New York’s Russian-American literary life? But then I thought I had better read the story first, to see what kind of parallel I would actually be implying. Dear reader, if you do not know Russian your best hope is that nobody ever takes it into his or her head to translate this dark and linguistically very challenging work into English (although here I must immediately contradict myself by saying that <a href="http://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&tbo=1&q=Robert+Chandler&btnG=Search+Books#sclient=psy&hl=en&tbo=1&tbm=bks&source=hp&q=inauthor%3A%22Robert+Chandler%22+Platonov+&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=38ce3bf19d98e4c6">Robert Chandler</a> and his collaborators have done an amazing job with Platonov, and if Chandler happens to take on this story as well, so might you). It’s something like </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Silent Spring</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> meets the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">GuLAG Archipelago</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, but compressed into a fraction of the length, and told in a mix of early 18-century-like idioms that will make your head spin. But “The Sluices of Epiphany” was published in 1927, when Rachel Carson and Alexander Solzhenitsyn were running around in short pants. Well, okay, Carson was old enough to vote. Honestly, I can hardly believe it was published, so clearly (albeit allegorically) does it condemn the Great Soviet Engineering Project and the human slavery said project entailed. And you can guess what kind of life was in store at this point for Platonov and his family.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Meanwhile, back at the Samovar… Because of what Platonov does with language in service of humanism—and you can read about that in Joseph Brodsky’s essay, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=N5Nzm2uihkAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Brodsky+Less+Than+One&hl=en&ei=kkHATbKjBpGosAPE48mTCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">“Catastrophes in the Air”</a>—his work attracts some of the nicest, smartest and, yes, well, most idiosyncratic Slavists in the world, many of whom came together at the Samovar to relax after the conference. The Samovar was an especially meaningful venue, as Brodsky, a co-founder (see <a href="http://myrussiansamovar.blogspot.com/2010/05/joseph-brodskys-70th-birthday.html">this previous entry</a>), was an avid admirer and promoter of Platonov’s work. In the photo below of brilliant Slavist Jonathan Brooks Platt, sitting in “Brodsky’s corner,” you can see (if you look closely) that even Brodsky joined merrily in the general celebration of Platonov’s North American academic conference debut, going so far as to don a lampshade.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBeORGT9dZginYtgErtDObwNGtSzAO6ZleYCmc6J3oOw1uPOUxIazVKIKs3DUdiUzlwzBDgsBliHuodh1XE5OmVzrC94sXn9ksFXfYtNGSMm8RxgolbMRck5wcmWIB6i8CE2N29B3WACI/s1600/Platt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBeORGT9dZginYtgErtDObwNGtSzAO6ZleYCmc6J3oOw1uPOUxIazVKIKs3DUdiUzlwzBDgsBliHuodh1XE5OmVzrC94sXn9ksFXfYtNGSMm8RxgolbMRck5wcmWIB6i8CE2N29B3WACI/s320/Platt.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</span></div><!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-37486742721007680732011-01-27T10:37:00.000-08:002011-01-27T10:57:07.580-08:00Tomorrow: Fundraiser for the Brodsky Fellowship Fund<div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 577px;"><tbody>
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</div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">January 27, 2011 № 6</span><o:p></o:p></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tel.:800-585-2521</span><o:p></o:p></div></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><hr align="left" noshade="" size="2" style="color: #cc0000;" width="100%" /></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <img height="198" id="_x0000_i1027" src="https://staticapp.icpsc.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/391073/27d19992ef45259325e11052b3865cad/image/gif" width="302" /></span><o:p></o:p></div></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 7.5pt;">Photo by N.Sharymova </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Joseph Brodsky's Memorial </span><o:p></o:p></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">15 years without the Poet </span><o:p></o:p></div><div align="center" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Russian Samovar<br />
Friday, January 28th</span><o:p></o:p></div><div align="center" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">7 pm </span><o:p></o:p></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">"Brodsky's Venice" and "Brodsky in Lithuania" Presentation</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><em><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 7.5pt;">To honor Joseph Brodsky, the great poet and writer, Nobel Prize Laureate, M.I.Miltchik, editor-in-chief of the project and the head of The Fund on Creation of Brodsky’s Museum in St. Petersburg and Perlov Design Center released two books:<a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=1018071259&msgid=1659245&act=ID60&c=391073&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fontanka.ru%2F2010%2F02%2F25%2F043%2F" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">"Brodsky's Venice"</a>(2010) and <a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=1018071259&msgid=1659245&act=ID60&c=391073&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fru.delfi.lt%2Fmisc%2Fculture%2Fv-rossii---prezentaciya-knigi-iosif-brodskij-v-litve.d%3Fid%3D32486251%26rsslink%3Dtrue" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">"Brodsky in Lithuania"</a>(2010). Today <a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=1018071259&msgid=1659245&act=ID60&c=391073&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.timeout.ru%2Fexhibition%2Fplace%2F31099%2F%3Fcity%3D3" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Perlov Design Center </a>and <a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=1018071259&msgid=1659245&act=ID60&c=391073&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.yandex.ru%2Fpeople%2Fmil1chik_mikhail.html" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Mikhail Miltchick,</a> <a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=1018071259&msgid=1659245&act=ID60&c=391073&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.akhmatova.spb.ru%2Fupload%2Fpress%2Fpress_N111_ru.html" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Yasha Klots</a> and<a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=1018071259&msgid=1659245&act=ID60&c=391073&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F%23%21%2Fnshar" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"> Natasha Sharymova</a> plan to create a new book of the series - "Brodsky's New York". The project needs informational support of Russian New Yorkers such as photos and video.</span></em><o:p></o:p></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ina Blisnetsova, Andrey Gritsman, Roman Kaplan, Ann Kjellberg, Irina Mashinskaya, Maya Pritsker, Alexei Tsvetkov</span></strong></span><o:p></o:p></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The guests of the evening will have an opportunity to order the mentioned books and make donations to <a href="http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=1018071259&msgid=1659245&act=ID60&c=391073&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.josephbrodsky.org" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Joseph Brodsky Memorial Fellowship Fund (New York)</a>.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"></span><o:p></o:p></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
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256 West 52nd Street<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
212.757.0168</span></div>Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-24744844135208844892010-12-13T06:13:00.000-08:002010-12-13T06:15:27.647-08:00Who is this clown?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3IkjRC3SGKi8gY28KF8K9N78zWAI8aoeU8_kExrp2chIU2bxyLTAfRYHrWqKTDRQwpcT7wbjcP1sMe2eXZJsrBWeW_Rd3peIy3REq9eIzYAQ-wiIfN2OWQ0cmwiTZ4aHvk0GNCCZnN1I/s1600/_IMG0988_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3IkjRC3SGKi8gY28KF8K9N78zWAI8aoeU8_kExrp2chIU2bxyLTAfRYHrWqKTDRQwpcT7wbjcP1sMe2eXZJsrBWeW_Rd3peIy3REq9eIzYAQ-wiIfN2OWQ0cmwiTZ4aHvk0GNCCZnN1I/s320/_IMG0988_2.jpg" width="294" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The one on the right, I mean. Not just any clown, this is Slava Polunin, the renowned inventor of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM1ERk91N5w">Slava’s Snowshow!</a> After the nightly blizzard that ended his Broadway show back in 2008, it must have been nice to slip into shorter shoes, a dry Martini, and perhaps the Samovar's special blini with caviar. Slava, isn't it time again to treat us to laughter, Russian melancholy, and exciting special effects--in short, to once again take New York by storm?</span><o:p></o:p></div>Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-85625098571973197202010-10-22T21:07:00.000-07:002010-10-22T21:07:17.273-07:00Dual book launch this Sunday at 6pm!<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Two new books of poetry make their debut this Sunday: </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Live Landscape</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> by <a href="http://www.cervenabarvapress.com/gritsmaninterview.htm">Andrey Gritsman</a> and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">No Other Paradise</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> by <a href="http://www.cortlandreview.com/features/05/spring/index.html">Kurt Brown</a>. Brown, founder of the Aspen Writers’ Conference and Gritsman, host of a lovely poetry series at the Cornelia Street Café right here in nyc and editor of the international poetry journal </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Interpoezia</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, have both done yeoman’s duty (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeoman">whatever that is</a>) in narrowing the gap between poetry and the people who love her. Looks like an all-English reading, with a focus on heaven and earth instead of the usual Russian Inferno. What better way to round out your weekend? </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</div><!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-80432615156852950572010-10-15T16:24:00.000-07:002010-10-15T16:24:49.727-07:00“Cardinal Points” Launch Party Oct. 17!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRBPRloqrYc3Y1FKTVnHqDJ4rncchIsuWF3Vs53DSYrPw3TmiHzIV9G4qZT3cJcDSwtwN80Ap1jQB0UmkYYmFGL5QpgJMZ-42ZGHW9ERSSyyxFVa20v6oGLMXaQEy4rQmqUJLKfpu297U/s1600/CardinalPoints.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRBPRloqrYc3Y1FKTVnHqDJ4rncchIsuWF3Vs53DSYrPw3TmiHzIV9G4qZT3cJcDSwtwN80Ap1jQB0UmkYYmFGL5QpgJMZ-42ZGHW9ERSSyyxFVa20v6oGLMXaQEy4rQmqUJLKfpu297U/s1600/CardinalPoints.jpg" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Where, if not from the center of all things cultural, would you launch a literary journal called <a href="http://www.stosvet.net/stosvet_eng.html">“Cardinal Points”</a>? The English language version of a fine recent addition to the literary scene (the Russian </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Storony sveta</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, masterminded by poets Irina Mashinski and Oleg Woolf), will be deservedly celebrating its impressive inaugural issue you know where, at 6:30pm this Sunday. More broadly conceived than a journal of translation, this issue includes poetry and prose from the leading lights and most interesting new voices of our times, in both original and translated English: Alicia Ostriker, Glyn Maxwell, Polina Barskova, Ilya Kaminsky, Robert Chandler (guest editor of this issue), Annie Finch, and many, many more. It is an issue-cornucopia, and I expect the evening of celebration will match, since many of its contributors will be in attendance.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-78524743017991148652010-09-10T19:42:00.000-07:002010-09-10T19:42:41.674-07:00Mikhail Youzhny’s U.S. Open Secret?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5QISmez7lHqziQ-S33Gif8h1Lw78ZI7yEiywHTJ0Bx6ABAhqozB7G-hSpAOcrRL77fRA2yP3WQMNAyT5Xutp0GVcpSxVcmu1NvZQ8G1GW8TIM3p8X3wMRGOusWtb3iTkQXrhwgyMXhjM/s1600/Samovar_Youzhny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5QISmez7lHqziQ-S33Gif8h1Lw78ZI7yEiywHTJ0Bx6ABAhqozB7G-hSpAOcrRL77fRA2yP3WQMNAyT5Xutp0GVcpSxVcmu1NvZQ8G1GW8TIM3p8X3wMRGOusWtb3iTkQXrhwgyMXhjM/s320/Samovar_Youzhny.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roman and Youzhny</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">How was it that 12</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">th</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-seeded Russian tennis start Mikhail Youzhny was able to get the better of “marathon man” Stanislas Wawrinka and surge into the semi-finals of the U.S. Open yesterday (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6885X320100910?type=GCA-USOpen2010">see article here</a>)? It may be that he had the necessary reserves of strength and agility because he eats his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasha">kasha</a>—at the Samovar! “It is terrific kasha,” I thought I heard Youzhny commenting to the media. “But that was just getting into semi-finals. I want more.”</span></span>Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-44886245911481042692010-09-07T10:34:00.000-07:002010-09-07T10:34:16.759-07:00Not just a reading--it's a MULTIPLE book launch! TONIGHT!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This just in, folks: everything you need to know about tonight's reading at the Sammy, complete with varying font shapes and sizes, a healthy helping of bold, and more white space than you can shake a stick at:</span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Tuesday, September 7, at 7 PM<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><b>Russian Samovar Arts Club<o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"> Please join poets <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><i>ANDREY GRITSMAN<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><i>CARMEN FIRAN <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><i>RICHARD MILAZZO <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.0in; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><i>ADRIAN SANGEORZAN<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"> for the launch of their recent books & poetry readings <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
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</div><h1>LIVE LANDSCAPE <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;">(Cervena Barva Press)</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></h1><h1><span style="font-weight: normal;">and</span> GREATEST HITS <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;">(Pudding House Press</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">)</span> by Andrey Gritsman<o:p></o:p></h1><h1> <o:p></o:p></h1><h1>ROCK AND DEW by Carmen Firan<o:p></o:p></h1><h1><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;">Translations into English by Adam J. Sorkin, Andrei Codrescu, Isaiah Sheffer<o:p></o:p></span></h1><h1><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal;">(Sheep Meadow Press, 2010)<o:p></o:p></span></h1><h1> <o:p></o:p></h1><h1>EASTERN SHADOWS <o:p></o:p></h1><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Translations into Romanian by Adrian Sangeorzan; <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">(bilingual edition English- Romanian, Scrisul Romanesc Press, 2010)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">and </span><b>KEATS DYING IN YOUR ARMS</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">(Editions Passage St.-Hubert, Brussels</span>) <b>by Richard Milazzo</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><b>THE ANATOMY OF THE MOON</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><b>by Adrian Sangeorzan</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Translations into English by Razvan Hotaranu;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> bilingual edition English- Romanian, Scrisul Romanesc Press, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Russian Samovar<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">Arts Club, Second Floor<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">256 W 52nd STREET, by 8 Ave., NEW YORK, NY 10019, 212-7570168<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Andrey Gritsman</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> – Russian-American poet and essayist, he has been living in the US since 1981. Author of several collections of poetry in English and in his native Russian.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">He edits poetry magazine INTERPOEZIA and runs reading series at Cornelia Street Café in New York City.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Carmen Firan</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> – born in Romania, s</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;">he has been living in New York since 2000. She has published twenty books including poetry, novels, essays, and short stories. Among her most recent books are <i>Words and Flesh,</i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;"> novellas and essays, Talisman Publishers, 2009 and <i>Rock and Dew,</i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Times;"> selected poems, Sheep Meadow Press, 2010.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Richard Milazzo</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> – poet, essayist, art critic & curator, editor and publisher, he is the author of many books, including two major monographs ( <i>Saint Clair Cemin, </i></span>Brent Sikkema Editions and<i> The Paintings of Ross Bleckner,</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> Editions Alain Noirhomme) and volumes of poetry : </span><i>Small China Moon, Keats Dying in Your Arms, </i><span style="font-style: normal;">and </span><i>The Fishmonger’s Door.</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> He lives and works in New York City.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Adrian Sangeorzan - </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">is the author of several books of poetry, fiction, and memoirs, including the poetry books <i>Tattoos on Marble</i></span> and <i>Over the Lifeline</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Spuyten Duyvil Press) and the most recent </span><i>Vitali,</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> a novel, and </span><i>The Anatomy of the Moon</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, 2010. He is a Romanian born living in New York since 1990.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><br />
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</span></div>Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-45454388443358804952010-09-06T16:11:00.000-07:002010-09-06T16:14:28.617-07:00Samovar Set to Simmer in September!<!--StartFragment--><span style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:EN-USfont-family:";font-size:12.0pt;">The Russian Samovar, after its annual week-long fall cleaning, is all burnished and shiny and ready to receive you. The post-Labor Day re-opening (Tuesday, September 7) features...that’s right, a poetry reading! This one is in English and Russian, and if I knew who was reading I would tell you. Anyway, it is sure to be festive, and wouldn’t you like to be the first to set foot on the freshly polished dance floor? </span><!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-1737815559664279092010-06-05T08:06:00.000-07:002010-06-05T08:16:11.991-07:00Tomorrow! Vladimir Gandelsman, 7pmA rare chance to hear one of the best of his generation reading his own poetry, and, who knows, perhaps some of his beautiful translations into Russian of some of the best English language poets (Auden, Stevens, Lewis Carroll...). Expect the evening to be electrifying--after all, the poet graduated from Leningrad Electro-technical Institute! You can have a look at <a href="http://pages.sbcglobal.net/vladimirgandelsman/index.html">his own web site here</a>, and see you there.Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-71758815053604770032010-05-26T16:29:00.000-07:002010-05-26T17:19:40.229-07:00Joseph Brodsky's 70th Birthday<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Start all the clocks! </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Hook up the telephone!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Allow the dog to bark without a juicy bone!</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times CY', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times CY', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Hmmm... Anybody have a really joyful birthday poem? Please let me know, I’d like to read it the next time I’m at a birthday gathering in honor of a beloved person no longer with us.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Joseph Brodsky was not just the poet and co-founder of the Russian Samovar who would have turned 70 this past Monday, May 24th. He was the man who claimed that the rise of free thinking in the Soviet Union began not with Solzhenitsyn's </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich</span></i></span><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, but with the series of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Tarzan</span></i></span><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> movies that were part of the cache of "trophy films"captured by the Soviets in WWII and subsequently screened all over the USSR. Who authorized that, I’d like to know?! If you have a fresh look at those films, as I have and recommend you do, you may see that they are an object lesson in rejecting the norms of society, retreating to one's individual paradise, living for the present, and returning meaning to language. Johnny Weismuller, as Tarzan, wastes no words: “Jane swim now!” he says. And, of course, "Uhhhh-ee-uh-ee-uhhh-ee-uh-ee-uhhhhhh! </span></span><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(</span></span><span style="font-family:";"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwHWbsvgQUE"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">hear it here</span></a></span><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">) as he swings through the air from vine to vine.</span></span></p><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 316px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsXRTZKjrKhy2wK7OsM2tifN5Pn3Mhww2DYlA858_8A_fF9azfWCa8-HJ16QC1jpIP9MifiqslbKhVpWrXDQGFsaNmn5CZqpgfGjRjSXHsh4Sjucor-eSdve3a0tm0WnRC_kB6hKdbvc/s400/6a00d83451c83e69e200e5509142e58833-800wi.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5475732308985046482" /> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Tarzan’s was one lesson Brodsky took to heart. He quit school, went on expeditions to god-forsaken places, devoured every poetic influence he could get his hands on, chased girls, got in trouble with the law, did hard time, emigrated to the United States, taught at Mount Holyoke, became a New Yorker, married a princess, and frequently brooded or laughed in the back corner of the Samovar with friends from all over the world. All while writing poetry and prose, some of which will surely stand the test of time and continue to be read and enjoyed as long as people still do that sort of thing.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">On Monday night, the tribute to Brodsky came in poetic and musical forms, from the sound of his own voice recordings to new and old translations of Shelley and Auden, to music by Grieg and Schumann and Bloch. Two Davids, Lehman and Rieff, said neat things about Brodsky. Sunny von B</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ülow, poor thing, looked in briefly as a mute shade. </span><a href="http://www.myspace.com/colchenco"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Vasily Kolchenko</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> performed his own lovely setting of Brodsky’s early “</span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Воротишься на родину</span></span><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">” [You come back to your homeland] for bard and acoustic guitar. And with that, more or less, everybody headed upstairs to remember Brodsky in more gustatory fashion. O, the kulibiak (a long pastry filled with cabbage, meat or fish)! O, the shining vodkas and non-alcoholic cranberry drinks! O, the kilometers of salads of every shape, color and form! As Hamlet may or may not have said, depending on which folio we go by, and meaning precisely what, we know not/naught, “O, o, o, o!” </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-1738607993292296852010-04-09T14:17:00.001-07:002010-04-09T15:50:16.077-07:00Spring got you down?<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There is always poetry at the Samovar to cheer you up. This Sunday at 6:30pm, for instance, you can have Ina Bliznetsova's poetry delivered directly to your ears by the means of her very own (incredible, earthy) voice. Wishing you had time to brush up on your classical mythology and art history? Let Ms. Bliznetsova evoke it all for you in sculpted stanzas, while you sip ambrosia. Here's </span><a href="http://magazines.russ.ru/authors/b/ibliznetsova/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">a link to some published work</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-39983621582324657132010-02-07T19:13:00.000-08:002010-02-08T05:39:30.733-08:00Bakhyt Kenjeev This Thursday<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">«We will drown you in a sea of poetry!» Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is reputed to have exclaimed while banging his shoe rhythmically on a conference table at the United Nations. Those words now seem prophetic, at least when it comes to readings at the Samovar. Next up, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">this Thursday at 7pm</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, will be Bakhyt Kenjeev. Let's stop right there: Bakhyt. In Cyrillic letters, even better: Бахыт. These are the letters—the big-bellied Б, the velar fricative X marking the exact center of the name, followed by Russia's impossible vowel Ы (known as «yery» with the accent on the second syllable), which even in Russian is never, never supposed to follow «х» but sometimes does anyway—these are the letters, I say, that inspired children's writer Theodore Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Suess, to write his immortal work </span><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Zebra-Dr-Seuss/dp/B001IB4BL4/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265597632&sr=1-10"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">On Beyond Zebra</span></a></i></span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. I feel a great kinship with Dr. Suess' unnamed hero in his journey beyond the letters of the English alphabet. He could be speaking for me when he says:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the places I go there are things that I see</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">That I </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">never</span></i></span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> could spell if I stopped with the Z.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I'm telling you this 'cause you're one of my friends.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">My</span></i></span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> alphabet starts where </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">your</span></i></span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> alphabet ends!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And look at the realm we've reached: Бахыт Кенжеев. How, with a name like that, could you not become a man of letters? If you understand Russian, or love Russian poetry, or just feel like letting Kenjeev's Mandelstam-edged elegaic sound wash over you before you surface for the third and final time, check out the </span><a href="http://bakhyt.narod.ru/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">poems on his website</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> and come to his rare New York City appearance this Thursday.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-80739781932363198952010-01-29T06:13:00.000-08:002010-01-29T07:22:45.123-08:00February 4: Elena Fanailova reading<a href="http://www.uglyducklingpresse.org/mission.html">Ugly Duckling Presse</a> (is the final "e" silent?), located in a former can factory in the none-too-scenic Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, hand-typesets and prints many of its beautiful publications on a vintage letterpress (nice <a href="http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/poetry-in-motion-ugly-duckling-presse/">NYT article</a> on the press here). To celebrate their latest Swan, presumably from Matvei Yankelovich's East European series, the UDP-e invites you to a reading, (you know where) <b>this Thursday, February 4, at 7pm</b>. Elena Fanailova is: poet, journalist, host for Radio Liberty's "Far from Moscow" program, linguist, teacher and even (my favorite) a graduate of the Voronezh Medical Institute and at one time a practicing doctor! Welcome to your first full-length collection in English translation, Dr. Fanailova! Oh, and the reading will be moderated by the eminent writer, translator, biographer, and co-founder of Columbia University's Center for Literary Translation <a href="http://michaelscammell.com/">Michael Scammell</a>, whose own magisterial biography of Arthur Koestler just came out to the most inspired reviews I've seen in years. See you there!Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-30348768744670064952010-01-18T08:43:00.000-08:002010-01-18T09:55:14.452-08:00A Mountain of Crumbs<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7FO9J061mqJS1JMjvSh5MjfuDEeqgkWWx5UbYmexO5-o5_5qBcyKlmC8B_JsNCpOWquPhXkzxDqgh4rUsMPEMGx-1AHl1rMgNH9ECtwiDO9YvmOO8a7Ozt3PKDQXDXQxPgWdH-4hGbLs/s1600-h/IMG_2700.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7FO9J061mqJS1JMjvSh5MjfuDEeqgkWWx5UbYmexO5-o5_5qBcyKlmC8B_JsNCpOWquPhXkzxDqgh4rUsMPEMGx-1AHl1rMgNH9ECtwiDO9YvmOO8a7Ozt3PKDQXDXQxPgWdH-4hGbLs/s400/IMG_2700.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428134984199034066" /></a><br /><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">See the mountain of books artfully arrayed? It was the debut party this past Thursday for author Elena Gorokhova and her memoir about growing up in Russia during what we used to call the Era of Stagnation (Brezhnev, the eyebrows, the-government-will provide-consumer-goods-if-the-people-will-pretend-to-believe-in-Communism, wink-wink, nudge-nudge). </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">Simon <span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">and Schuster, <i>A Mountain of Crumbs'</i></span><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"> publisher, put on a terrific spread that included the <span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">Samovar's famously satisfying <i>pelmeni</i></span><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"> (meat dumplings in broth), beef Stroganoff, black bread, smoked salmon, herring and potatoes, beet salad...I could go on and on. </span></span></span></p><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Ht0heyJIfqH6alH8ohtFdTwNzL5hKqjZ6yKgQuHsxdp4zmZbknxPRRhpF6AOimBoI5Vzuea9qAkEDDJZ4YaDiWsB0YG3kPw5uYj8jjcRfa1MuESMcJTO9FbhjnR2Co_hij13Lxwwk08/s320/IMG_2707.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428136071914265378" /><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">Certainly the waitstaff went on and on, continually bringing more tasty treats until long after I faded into the New York night. No crumbs here, folks. Although I was the only plate-licker (see below). </span></p><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 271px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzn9Rn26B36KSVr7yyAyrBIgJK0651K9Qpu5txWhsQ8FhVa-MjaSHVDKSPJP-41VBz6PNum9dGQ8U7nasAZKzFxJ9FsMMuLljVYw8YI8hgAn-55i3cU1AUF8ZB_nfulwliVzsFjfjltWo/s320/IMG_2716_2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428137871357841666" /><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">Ernst Neizvestny came! The famous sculptor who during World War II actually died, but then revived to go on to art school, fame and controversy, has a website well worth perusing (you can begin doing so by clicking <a href="http://www.enstudio.com/">here</a>). Neizvestny is pictured here with Gorokhova (all photos of this event by Lauren Perlstein). And here are the foothills of <i>Crumbs:</i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">I wish my mother had come from Leningrad, from the world of Pushkin and the tsars, of granite embankments and lace ironwork, of pearly domes buttressing the low sky. Leningrad's sophistication would have infected her the moment she drew her first breath, and all the curved façades and stately bridges, marinated for more than two centuries in the city's wet, salty air, would have left a permanent mark of refinement on her soul.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">But she didn't. She came from the provincial town of Ivanovo in central Russia, where chickens lived in the kitchen and a pig squatted under the stairs, where streets were unpaved and houses made from wood. She came from where they lick plates.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Born three years before Russia turned into the Soviet Union, my mother became a mirror image of my motherland: overbearing, protective, difficult to leave. Our house was the seat of the <i>politburo</i></span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">, my mother its permanent chairman. She presided in our kitchen over a pot of borsch, a ladle in her hand, ordering us to eat in the same voice that made her anatomy students quiver. A survivor of the famine, Stalin's terror, and the Great Patriotic War, she controlled and protected, ferociously. What had happened to her was not going to happen to us. She sheltered us from dangers, experience, and life itself by a tight embrace that left us innocent and gasping for air.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">She commandeered trips to our crumbling dacha — under the Baltic clouds, spitting rain — to plant, weed, pick, and preserve for the winter whatever grew under the rare sun that never rose above the neighbor's pigsty. During brief northern summers we sloshed through a swamp to the shallow waters of the Gulf of Finland, warm and yellow as weak tea; we scooped mushrooms out of the forest moss and hung them on thread over the stove to dry for the winter. My mother planned, directed, and took charge, lugging buckets of water to beds of cucumbers and dill, elbowing in lines for sugar to preserve the fruit we'd need to treat winter colds. When September came, we were back in the city, rooting in the cupboard for gooseberry jam to cure my cough or black currant syrup to lower my father's blood pressure. We were back to the presidium speeches and winter coats padded with wool and preparations for more April digging.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Maybe if I hadn't spent every spring Sunday ankle-deep in cold, soggy dirt, I wouldn't have been so easily seduced by the decadent sound of the English language that poured from the grooves of a record called Audio-Lingual Drills, my tutor's pride. I might have gone to medical school, like my mother, or engineering school, like everyone else. I might have even married a Russian...<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.0pt;line-height:22.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">NY Times review </span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/books/13book.html?ref=books">here</a></span><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">. Bony appetite!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-5255928105045754482009-12-30T07:07:00.000-08:002009-12-30T07:12:58.438-08:00Очи черные (dark eyes)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2YQI8zZCGrZYmjZrKNhyphenhyphen0B-AfhYXlcg73F80W-lf9MLYtv5UXAZQjdbkzdkkRx_5CXWok3PrSpcoZjM68exqfoEqm2_plAFux_e_Mb7ZP6d8fpdZ_SmX25Rk1GR9LE-NzOy-Jz89q4Sk/s1600-h/IMG_0446_2.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 169px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2YQI8zZCGrZYmjZrKNhyphenhyphen0B-AfhYXlcg73F80W-lf9MLYtv5UXAZQjdbkzdkkRx_5CXWok3PrSpcoZjM68exqfoEqm2_plAFux_e_Mb7ZP6d8fpdZ_SmX25Rk1GR9LE-NzOy-Jz89q4Sk/s200/IMG_0446_2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421046679368087410" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Olga. O-llll-ga. The O is round, the L soft, the GA trails off into mysterious, distant realms. And her voice—it issues from some hidden, bubbling spring deep beneath the earth. Olga, late-week hostess of the Samovar, who are you, what secrets lie veiled behind your dark eyes (in this photo modestly averted)?? </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-37140767040536059452009-12-27T14:19:00.000-08:002009-12-28T16:06:51.291-08:00Roman Kaplan's Birthday<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times CY', serif;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">To do justice to Roman Kaplan's birthday party, held in the upper ether of the Samovar this past Wednesday evening, I turn to that surprising 18th-century Russian poet, Gavrila Derzhavin. Derzhavin, known to most as the witty singer of the praises of Empress Catherine II (herself credited with bringing an age of so-called Enlightenment to Russia, begun with the apparent murder of her despised husband, Peter III, at the hands of CII's lover, Count Orlov [pictured here because his plumage is much more colorful than Derzhavin's]), is [the subject is still "Derzhavin"]</span></p><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 246px; height: 329px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Gregoryorlov.jpg" border="0" alt="" /><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">fascinating in his own right. May I recommend Derzhavin's biography written by another amazing Russian poet, Vladislav Khodasevich? If you don't read Russian, you'll be glad to know that </span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Derzhavin-Biography-Wisconsin-Pushkin-Studies/dp/0299224201/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261952814&sr=8-2">a very nice translation by Angela Brintlinger</a></span><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"> was published in 2007. According to Khodasevich, the young would-be poet Derzhavin «soon forswore the high style of famed poets. For ceremonial odes and weighty themes he had neither the erudition nor the practical knowledge. He confused the Olympians and had seen the tsar only during sentry duty. He decided that in future he should not strive for Pindar but should rather sing simply, as in:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">What more could I desire? I write and kiss<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">My dear Anyuta—bliss.» (Brintlinger, pg. 14)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">And I, my friends, am—alas!—in a similar position. Except that even the simplest words presently fail me. Therefore, as I hinted above, I will now turn to Derzhavin himself to evoke for you what it felt like to be at Roman's XX'rd or XX'th (who's counting?) birthday celebration. I quote from the opening of Derzhavin's «Philosophers, Drunk and Sober»:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">Сосед! на свете всё пустое:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">Богатство, слава и чины.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">А если за добро прямое<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">Мечты быть могут почтены,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">То здраво и покойно жить,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">С друзьями время проводить,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">Красот любить, любимым быть,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">И с ними сладко есть и пить.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Как пенится вино прекрасно!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Какой в нем запах, вкус и цвет!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Почто терять часы напрасно?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Нальем, любезный мой сосед!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">Without Derzhavin and Karamzin, Pushkin would be nothing! Nothing! </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">For those who do not read Russian, I'll try here to give a rough idea, with interpolation:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">My neighbor! [this is the drunken philosopher speaking] All on earth is empty:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">All wealth, and glory and high rank. [Roman can wax similarly Ecclesiastes-esque, but he usually <span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">does this in French: “</span><span style="Times CY"font-family:";"><i>Dans ma vie toutes les choses sont perdues. Ma vie est futile.</i></span><span style="Times CY"font-family:";">”]</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">But if dreams can be regarded<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">as a good in and of themselves,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">Then it is sensible and peaceful to live,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">To pass the time with friends,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">To love beauties, and to be beloved,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">And sweet to eat and drink with them. [This is the story of Roman's life.]<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>How beauteously the wine doth foam!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>What fragrance in it, taste and color!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Wherefore ought we to waste our time?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Let's go ahead and pour, good neighbor!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">In short, it felt something like this at the Samovar last Wednesday. Toasts were heartfelt and yet not too lengthy, the faithful staff kept bringing more and more pork-based delicacies from the kitchen, the company was scintillating, good-hearted and altogether delighted to celebrate yet another rather amazing year of the Russian Samovar in the person of Roman Kaplan. </span></p><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-cmVXC-bPYUun5Dx5ipvfHlIcrNbVMgSt_DFHTEFXWpLgmSZgi27OP8hs945eFgm0OMB4CGv1mTkbyja_hVBte1ysBRtfYuYR2Oy6YJqMNnZ0eQua8FsWE1edCkMVSlvuCDc5vrdQ6jc/s320/IMG_0446.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5420049387056072530" /><p class="MsoNormal">Here are the impeccable Moon (see <a href="http://myrussiansamovar.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-high-moon.html">prior post</a>) and the Mysterious Olga handing out slices of Napoleon. And here is Roman, acknowledging a toast from Alexander Genis. </p><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU8j2SfdgPkgSlR46QVd1bu9BKznfpd3A5ql0aBcNM5f0mRZxUFiAgj3JZ_ux6XLVgTqTZriV_BqT9aFg32E2gvi0TiiXhus98K6VUAnB-jFVYkkzgrajmk2wHOoms7Lsh2zqFBAZCB6I/s320/IMG_0445.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5420050860217018738" />Looks like American poet Mark Strand in the background, what do you think?<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";">More to come soon, dear readers! I feel I've sadly neglected you of late…<o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-84061275695220973272009-10-27T05:29:00.000-07:002009-10-27T05:36:39.351-07:00Petrushevskaya sings cabaret! November 6, 8pmHer press agent wrote about this unmissable upcoming event better than I could hope to:<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 3px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 3px; "><b xsscleaned="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Ludmilla Petrushevskaya</b><span xsscleaned="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> is one of the most highly acclaimed Russian authors working today. Her brand new collection of stories, </span><i xsscleaned="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby</i><span xsscleaned="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> (Penguin Books), has just made the uppermost “Highbrow Brilliant” quadrant of New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix, and excerpts have appeared in Harper's and the New Yorker. But little do her U.S. fans know that, back home, Petrushevskaya is also an accomplished, quirky and unique cabaret singer.</span><br /><span xsscleaned="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </span><br /><span xsscleaned="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Now, thanks to the efforts of Moscow’s </span><b xsscleaned="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Snob Magazine</b><span xsscleaned="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">, she is taking her act on the road to NYC. "A Writer's Cabaret" is a show conceived, written, and performed by the author herself. Petrushevskaya, who is 71 and a classically trained singer, will sing a selection of classics from the European cabaret, including her own Russian versions of such songs as "Lily Marlene" and "Ma Vie en Rose.” There could be no better setting for it than</span><br /><span xsscleaned="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">the Russian Samovar, whose bohemian air and vodka infusions have long made it a favorite destination for writers and bon vivants of all stripes. </span></span></div>Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-31112255925273324922009-10-17T12:35:00.000-07:002009-10-17T12:46:39.938-07:00Still going up the down staircase: Bel Kaufman<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiif-22zOvyWG38kwgEkFA7yhTYcTq6wNVyUlxLh-xh7CybaedJvdafeZQuWG3osDZQmO2o00EOAzWxX5EE5R55om2oanEdHPgqYBZezeCvqZ8R5r5SunaD5L9DC3HNMfS43GU_A4Meenw/s1600-h/BelKaufman.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 311px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiif-22zOvyWG38kwgEkFA7yhTYcTq6wNVyUlxLh-xh7CybaedJvdafeZQuWG3osDZQmO2o00EOAzWxX5EE5R55om2oanEdHPgqYBZezeCvqZ8R5r5SunaD5L9DC3HNMfS43GU_A4Meenw/s320/BelKaufman.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393657615557825234" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In 1965 Bel Kaufman published a novel based on her up-and-down experiences teaching in the New York City public school system. That novel was called </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Up the Down Staircase</span></i></span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. It became a ripping bestseller and a film followed in 1967, starring Sandy Dennis as the idealistic young teacher who ultimately (spoiler here) refuses to be defeated by the bureacracy. I like to think that if all or even many New York City public school teachers made regular visits to the Russian Samovar as do Bel and her husband Sidney, students would somehow indirectly benefit by the inspiration imbibed there. Could said inspiration be enough for a new novel drawing public attention to the struggle of students and teachers with the massive monster that devours over a million New York City children every day and just as routinely spits them back out? How about it, Ms. Kaufman? Anybody?</span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-85652539513626656672009-09-30T06:17:00.000-07:002009-09-30T06:26:34.790-07:00Art Opening! Ksenia Golubkov (Ксения Голубкова)<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 272px; height: 350px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEc1jrbBTe_t0dBlOauJzSYTuCaL61PD46HVPxBbcTeEGybt1sV-LIP7KGiG_AQXGAj2z7gZqCh_GaITpPKfYnMaq6GRSYn6eECC6lWa6oz8pd-MUoPCwPuyQdLOy4jXlENMdIz98v3cQ/s400/0_18_1893_1206536061.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387249201802229458" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Image lifted from this </span><a href="http://superstyle.ru/news/1893"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">online article</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:"Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Samovar is not just about literature and food! Tomorrow, October 1, from 6 to 9pm you can begin your month festively by stopping in at the opening of Ksenia Golubkov's latest art exhibit. Come enjoy her beautiful batik-on-silk designs, or whatever it is she is working on lately. Here's a </span><a href="http://www.batikbyksenia.com/links.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">link to her site</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, where you can get a preview of her work…</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> <div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-22591215335049906842009-09-30T05:57:00.000-07:002009-09-30T06:00:12.737-07:00Aleksandr Kabakov tonight at 7:30!<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:"Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">If you don't already know and enjoy Aleksandr Kabakov's funny, satirical, big-hearted stories, or even if you do, you will surely enjoy his appearance in person (in Russian) tonight at the Sammy. A successor to Zoshchenko? You tell me.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:"Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Here's an excerpt from a story called «Миллион», about a man who soothes his insomnia thinking about what he would do with a million bucks, to whet your literary appetite:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:19.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times CY', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:19.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:"Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Да: живет Н.И. Огоньков, конечно, в Москве – где же у нас, кроме Москвы, человек получает тысячу долларов в месяц и ещё о чем-то мечтает?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:19.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:"Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">О, Москва, Москва, поразительный город! Кто только не живёт в нём, кто только не вдыхает жадно его несвежий, но прекрасный воздух, выдыхая вместе с азотом или чем там ещё свои страстные желания… Его колеблющиеся в горячем мареве башни и висящие в огненных закатах мосты, его слишком широкие, но непроезжие проспекты и изрытые тружениками благоустройства тротуары, его пыльные парки и памятники, размножающиеся, как кролики…</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:19.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:"Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Всё это, отвратительное и чарующее, окутано жаждой обладания, исходящей от коренных и, главным образом, от приезжих жителей.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:19.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:"Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Все хотят её, эту блядскую Москву, наутро забывающую, что она обещала случайному обладателю ночью, когда он, горячечно вертясь на ложе бессонницы, планировал долгую совместную жизнь и отдалённое счастье.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:19.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:"Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Будь моею, Москва! Отчего же нет, дорогой? Пожалуйста. С удовольствием. Утро вечера мудренее, ты проснёшься и удивишь всех своим проектом (проект, проект, как же иначе! всё и у всех теперь проект), и они понесут тебе деньги, а ты отдашь эти деньги мне, Москве, и мы станем с тобой жить вечно, во взаимной любви… Спи.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:"Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RU"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">И он спит, а утром – хрен ему вместо денег за проект! И бредёт он по Москве, все его толкают, и нет ему здесь места.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-81160357161881597272009-09-16T07:59:00.000-07:002009-09-16T08:07:37.903-07:00Reading This Tuesday: New Russian Fiction!<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Come hear it for yourselves, for free, in Russian and English: CEC ArtsLink and Tin House Books are launching a new, bilingual volume called </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. Finally, we're beyond "post-Soviet"! </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Authors and translators will read with their own lips! Reception! </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Tuesday, September 22, at 7pm</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. You can read more about this and related events </span><a href="http://www.cecartslink.org/featured_artist_IWP_writers.php"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, and even RSVP on facebook to ensure they order enough </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">zakuski</span></i></span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> for the reception. </span></span></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-53702562323843877232009-09-09T12:21:00.000-07:002009-09-09T12:41:08.769-07:00More Beautiful Women at the Samovar!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYmemIbntnpj-7rRLALp8B2T8i5sXmmYCYEjh_0HyEHQzyLQ8RZ3U5soS1OcJJ7XBL_5li2WWku7kR8DKwralMaLw1gtNXNwWLx8JejC0aEVOReXiThveFZEWBGiCAnHcUDfFB_S3nOO4/s1600-h/SamovarLadies.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYmemIbntnpj-7rRLALp8B2T8i5sXmmYCYEjh_0HyEHQzyLQ8RZ3U5soS1OcJJ7XBL_5li2WWku7kR8DKwralMaLw1gtNXNwWLx8JejC0aEVOReXiThveFZEWBGiCAnHcUDfFB_S3nOO4/s320/SamovarLadies.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379553433222893970" /></a><br /><br /><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";font-size:12.0pt;"><br />These women refused to be identified by name, because they were having Too Much Fun on Ladies' Night Out. Same goes for the lovely lass celebrating her birthday. She hadn't counted on Tort po-Kievsky and a rousing table-side birthday song! Note the<img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 259px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8T4Ww1_vdXvZ2gr-QnnGNuJMxiE3G6jYCc8w-naGDSVFdVH67x1tkiBF3YPpzxHAG2aYKYbODkd6O6-j6vNB3B2oGOIFW_MkbAqUWMGTs42Kcs26AYHOs7GMXaD6dPxHB6_YeReOZbyI/s320/SamovarBirthday.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379553019824190098" /> photo in the background, in which founders Joseph Brodsky and Mikhail Baryshnikov seem happy to join in celebrating. By the end of the evening, everyone spoke flawless Russian.<br /><!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="Times CY";mso-ansi-language:RUfont-family:";"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span><!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8728564601878829695.post-26087997851445005842009-09-01T14:55:00.000-07:002009-09-02T07:18:57.166-07:00But what about the food, you ask?<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Recently, I tried to wrest from Roman Kaplan the Samovar's recipe for the delicious beet soup spelled in our pathetic Latin letters variously as </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">borsht</span></i></span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">borshcht</span></i></span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">borscht</span></i></span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, or really however you want, but economically lettered in Russian as борщ. O, борщ! Your color so deeply pink, your taste so rich and hearty in winter, so refreshing in summer! You vary seasonally, you are endlessly attractive, you can be eaten (in Russia) or drunk (in America) hot or cold. Борщ, you are an ethnographic history of central and eastern Europe and Asia—from our family recipe we can trace (forgive the pun) our roots. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Roman was—there is no better word—cagey. Lynn Visson's</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Heritage-Cookbook-Preserved-Authentic/dp/1590201167/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></a><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Heritage-Cookbook-Preserved-Authentic/dp/1590201167/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Russian Heritage Cookbook: A Culinary Heritage Preserved in 360 Authentic Recipes</span></a></i></span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, newly updated and republished in 2009, happened to be lying on the table. He picked it up and said, «Sometimes we use this one.» I looked. There were several pages of recipes. I glanced over them and picked one out. «This one?» He looked. «Yes,» he replied. «But we don't use meat…we make our own stock, from beef…no celery…potatoes, yes…» And so on. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I'll keep trying, folks. And in the meantime you can't go wrong with Visson's truly authentic recipes—a lifetime of experience and research has gone into the making of that book. Or try </span><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Please-Table-Anya-von-Bremzen/dp/0894807536/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251850953&sr=1-1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Please to the Table</span></a></i></span><span lang="RU" style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, a delightful literary and gastronomical exploration of recipes from across the former Soviet Union. For the Samovar's own recipe, we may ultimately have to content ourselves with having the борщ onsite. But Roman did promise to share some vodka recipes soon…</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Margo Shohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08675283264247155638noreply@blogger.com2