Last week, Booknik fought discrimination of the Chinese and kangaroos; he decided to give Booknik Jr. some schooling, visited Paris, Tarusa, and the Garden of Eden, conducted an orchestra, and made thieves listen to reason. Meanwhile, Booknik Jr. mastered the beginnings of witchcraft, and spent some jolly good time in Israel.
The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes
Talmud claims that the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes share the same author. As the times goes by, the singer of love becomes the singer of grief and disappointment, for he has come the long way from his youth to his old age. Adrian Finn performs his songs of love and disappointment at the same time. Julian Barnes is an optimistic pessimist, he is the joyous and cruel author, and he does not have any illusions of the human condition. In his eyes, all of it is monotony and finiteness. At least, this is what the Booknik literary critic Yevgenia Ritz believes. She is tough but merciful.
Jewish Sparks
Letters on Upbringing, by Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Distrust to the family, reliance on formal educational institutions, desire to guard one’s children from alien influence to the maximum, coldness to higher educational institutions, all these features are more or less characteristic of the ultra-orthodox thinking. However, the seventh the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, as Booknik’s expert in education and Hasidism Marina Karpova believes, had a more open mind than that. He was more liberal thinking than the most ultra-orthodox rabbis of his time were.
…and many other schooling shenanigans in the Books & Reviews section.
There are few actors who have more titles than Vladimir Etush, for he is, among other things, the People’s Artist of the USSR, the Laureate of the Russian Federation’s State Prize, the Laureate of the Stage Legend Prize, etc., etc. On the threshold of his ninetieth birthday, he is still the artistic director of the Shchukin’s School of Theater, he still performs in the Vakhtangov Theater, and he even appeared in the Jumble film almanac for kids. Recently, he has become an author, too, for his autobiography has already been published, titled Everything Acquired…. Booknik’s reporter Katerina Kudryavtseva interviewed Mr. Etush on his life in theater and out of it.
The Loss
The leap year took Eduard Steinberg, the maître of the so-called geometric abstractionism. It is highly symbolic that the Lebensraum of this follower to the Black Square creator was also geometric. It had the shape of an equilateral triangle, with vertices in Tarusa, Moscow, and Paris. On Wednesday, March 28, the artist died in that last city. He had been traveling between those points since 1988. Our reporter Kira Sapgir shares her love to the artist and geometry with Booknik readers.
…and many other artistic expressions in the Articles & Interviews section.
…where a human does not enjoy the right to his own ass.
On March 20, 2012, the changes in St. Petersburg municipal laws that ban public actions aimed at propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism, transgenderness among minors. Booknik reporter, and the fighter with all kinds of discrimination Mila Dubrovina, we hope, expressed the opinion of the most Booknik readers: “A conditional majority should always be on the side of a discriminated minority. It is conditional because there is no absolute or actual majority. There never is. There are temporarily healthy and handicapped people, there are AIDS victims, there are old people, and teenagers, orphans, and well-to-do kids, and there are those who abort and those who adopt. Today, you may be a part of a less discriminated minority, and tomorrow your minority becomes more discriminated.”
…and many other credible credos in the Events & Reports section.
The Funeral with a Band
The Conductor, directed Pavel Lungin
Booknik’s movie critic Max Tuula believes that in this film, Pavel Lungin breaks the mold of “ambassador of Russian culture” he had been cast in. This time, he does not present just another episode of Russian life. Despite the overflowing “orthodox Christianity,” he now tells a universally understandable story that is easy to imagine in any language, played out with characters of any ethnicity.
…and many other cinematic seasons in the Columns & Columns section.
Sederis Paberžėje. Režiserius Rimas Morkūnas. Teatras Menų faktūra. Vilnius
There is a pale black-and-white photo, from pre-war, on the curtain. The table is laid. There is a bottle of alcohol on it, some matzo bread, some maror, and the candles are not yet lit. Five very serious men look into the lens of the camera. The curtain rises. The same table is on stage, and the same five serious men sit there and look at the audience. They light the candles. They speak in a monstrous mix of Hebrew, Yiddish, Lithuanian, and Polish. They read Haggadah in Hebrew, and discuss it in other languages. The lady who sat next to the Booknik theater-going contributor Mikhail Gorelik whispered translation to him. Other spectators persevered.
…and any other extra extravaganzas in the Stories & Essays section.
Go Down, Moses
In the Pesach Haddadah, read at the table, the name of Moses is not mentioned even once. We have decided to correct this injustice, and come up with the celebration quiz on this prophet, and his namesakes.
…and many other correct corrections in the Contests & Quizzes section.
Hebrarium, the Lexicon of Jewish Whatnots, E3
Where is the Garden of Eden the great-great-great-grandfather of our video wizard Kirill Chichayev was banned from? What high position Albert Einstein refused? What did Jews do in Elephantine? Watch it, mates, and be merry.
Tweet Tweet, by David Krakauer
David Krakauer, DJ Socalled, and the Yiddish Fest Consolidated Capella perform Tweet Tweet. Nevertheless, first things should go first, and maestro Krakauer tells about himself, klezmer music, the past, and the present, exclusively for Booknik readers and watchers.
…and many other visual vistas in the Video Blog section.
Asya Kravchenko knows the answer to this question. All magicians sit at home, and, well, do magic. They would probably be happy to make all people happy, but the trouble is with people for they do not usually know very well what they want.
To Israel, with a Kid. The Notes of a Crazed Parent
On the upside of travelling with kids, there is one thing. You will never get bored. Especially if your kid is Asya Weisman’s kid: “There is a path on a slope near the hotel, lit with streetlights. On the first day, I said that we were going to walk from one lamppost to another, to train in walking on slopes. On subsequent days, we traveled from one lamppost to another no less than one hundred times. A day. Hello, lamppost! Bye-bye, lamppost! Maybe we should go see how that nice black guy chops the fronds of a high palm tree, shouldn’t we? Nope. I see. Hello, lamppost!”
…and many other travel travails at Booknik Jr., also known as Family Booknik, our own web site for kids and their parents.
Let’s go get them. Booknik and Family Booknik are supported by the AVI CHAI Foundation.
