“HE’S A SILENT GUARDIAN, A WATCHFUL PROTECTOR. A DARK KNIGHT.”
King of the Winter Hill
Month: February 2015
“Pop”ing Into Warhol’s World
Andy Warhol, the pop artist and cultural icon, was a prophet of our time when he said, “…in the future everyone will have their fifteen minutes of fame…” regardless of their ability.
Warhol certainly experienced and explored fame in his lifetime – living it in “wildly diverse social circles that included Bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy aristocrats,”* cultivating it through the mass marketing of his art and, finally, critiquing it as found in his book, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol.
A biography from the Warhol Foundation succinctly captures just how far ahead of his time he was, writing:
“…a skilled (analog) social networker, [Warhol] parlayed his fame one connection at a time, to the status of a globally recognized brand. Decades before widespread reliance on portable media devices, he documented his daily activities and interactions on his traveling audio tape recorder and beloved Minox 35 EL camera. Predating the hyper-personal outlets now provided on-line, Warhol captured life’s every minute detail in all its messy, ordinary glamour and broadcast it through his work, to a wide and receptive audience”** Read more
A Glimpse Into Russia’s Imperial Romanov Family
As part of our celebration of “all things Russia” for Valentine’s Day, be sure to read our post in Rose’s Ridge, “From Russia With Love,” and try our recipes of Russian dishes from Around The Table. Also learn some interesting facts and view beautiful pictures here.
The subject matter of Helen Rappaport’s new work, The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra (2014)*, is not a new topic. There are few families who are more well known or who have been the subject of more speculation, conspiracy, intrigue, and lore than the ill-fated Romanov family, the last imperial family of the tsarist autocracy in Russia.
There have been documentaries, films, books, and even children’s movies created around the hapless family and their untimely demise. The amount of interest in the topic is not surprising given that the narrative surrounding the Romanovs includes: an unstable mystic, a hemophilic heir, a royal family, a world war, a mass execution, and a potential secret survivor. Read more
I Can See Russia From Here!
As part of our celebration of “all things Russia” for Valentine’s Day, be sure to read our post in Rose’s Ridge, “From Russia With Love,” and try our recipes for Russian dishes from Around The Table.
“I am Russian. Russian by heart and soul, profoundly devoted to my land.”
– Fyodor Tyutchev (Russian poet 1803-1873)
Quick, interesting facts on Russia*:
- The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world, covering more than one ninth of the earth’s land area
- Russia spans nine time zones
- Russia contains one fourth of the world’s fresh water
- Russia is one of the top producers of natural gas and oil in the world
- Russia borders with more countries than any other country in the world; 14 countries and 2 with maritime boundaries (USA and Japan)
- Russia and America are less than 4km apart at the nearest point (near Sarah Palin’s Alaska)
- There are 9 million more women than men in Russia (Happy Valentine’s Day!)
- 70 percent of Russia is made up of Siberia, defined as a region of central and eastern Russia stretching from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean
- Lake Baikal in Siberia is the deepest and oldest lake in the world (it would take all the rivers of the world – Volga, Don, Dnepr and Yenisei, Ural and Ob, Ganges and Orinoko, Amazon and Thames, Seine and Oder – nearly one year to fill lake Baikal’s basin)
- Russia is the only country in the world washed by 12 seas
- The word “vodka” comes from the Russian word “voda” which means “water.”
Nostrovia!*
As part of our celebration of “all things Russia” for Valentine’s Day, be sure to read our post in Rose’s Ridge: “From Russia With Love.”
Enjoy a Russian meal with recipes below for Cabbage Soup, Chicken Kiev, and Russian Tea Cookies.
“Shchi” (Cabbage Soup)
“In Russia, cabbage soup…is made from cabbage, carrots, meat, onions, celery, and garlic, with a sour flavoring from apples, sour cream, or sauerkraut juice. A favorite for at least a thousand years, it can be found in Russian poems and prose, on the table of both rich and poor, and in the fond memory of every exile.” –Taken from Life is Meals by James and Kay Salter
Read more
Peace, Love and War
As part of our celebration of “all things Russia” for Valentine’s Day, be sure to read our post in Rose’s Ridge, “From Russia With Love,” and try our recipes of Russian dishes from Around The Table. Also learn some interesting facts and view beautiful pictures here.
“What makes the 19th century Russian writers so distinctive” writes Francine Prose in New York Times’ ‘Bookends’ from November 25, 2014, “is the force, the directness, the honesty and accuracy with which they depicted the most essential aspects of human experience – childbirth, childhood, death, first love, marriage, happiness, loneliness, betrayal, poverty, wealth, war and peace…”
Born to a prominent family in the Russian nobility, Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was regarded as a “virtually untouchable genius” whose two great works, War and Peace (1865-1869) and Anna Karenina (1875-1877) “combine unprecedented depth of characterization and keenness of observation with a profound interest in the philosophical underpinnings of everyday life.”* Read more
From Russia With Love
“Love,” Leo Tolstoy once said, “is life.” And love, like life, is multifaceted – it can be both beautiful and tragic in its complexity and mysteriousness.
As we approach this Valentine’s Day, with New England buried in Siberia-like snow, we can’t help but turn to Russia – a country whose complexity and mystery is just as vast and profound as the intricacy of love.
Winston Churchill, in a 1939 radio address, described it best when he said: “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma…”
And Fyodor Tyutcheve (1803-1873), one of Russia’s greatest 19th century poets, said: “Russia cannot be understood with the mind alone…” Read more
Snuggle Up With “Red Sparrow”
Please note: ATG is “traveling” this week along “Rose’s Ridge” in another “realm” – we’ll be back at the “table” next week!
Until then: With all of the winter storms snuggle up with a good Russian Spy Novel: Red Sparrow – a 2013 classic spy thriller by Jason Matthew, a veteran CIA officer with over 30 years as an officer of the CIA’s former Operations Directorate now known as the National Clandestine Service. It will transport you into the James Bond-esque world of secret operations and clandestine meetings in far-flung exotic places. And as an extra the author provides authentic Russian recipes, such as chicken Kiev and Schchi (Russian Cabbage Soup), that tantalize your culinary Russian imagination.
Skiing at Sugarbush
Please note: ATG is “traveling” this week along “Rose’s Ridge” in another “realm” – we’ll be back at the “table” next week!
Until then: Visit Sugarbush in Warren, Vermont for a day of skiing! Ski down the mountain to a Parisian Bistro, “Chez Henri“, for a hearty french-inspired lunch. Opened for 50 years since 1964, Henri is still serving “a slice of Paris in the Green Mountains.”
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies & Peanut Butter Cookies
Settle into February with delicious old-fashioned oatmeal raisin cookies – good for breakfast, lunch and a bedtime snack! Or try making the classic peanut butter cookie, replacing the hershey kisses with reese’s peanut butter cups. Yum! Read more