May 23Things that work out and things that don’tHello there. I’m sure you don’t remember me. You’ll be staring at it, wondering who tf is this girl and what she’s doing in your feed. So let us present ourselves again. You must be one of those hundred wonderful people who decided to follow me back in 2020 when…Self6 min read
Published in P.S. I Love You·Nov 20, 2020The Mystery of CreationFiction Friday — So, that was last Friday. I had great plans for the evening — to draw myself a bath and chill for a bit with my own new toys that arrive in discreet boxes— so I tried my best to put the spawn to bed a little earlier. Naturally, that backfired. …Fiction5 min read
Published in P.S. I Love You·Nov 6, 2020My love for you will stop at nothingFiction Friday — She goes through the dusty boxes and broken furniture of the attic, settles on a stack of shabby leather suitcases under a tiny window, and fishes a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of her bra. Her white dress is stained and dirty from a long stair climb, and…Fiction4 min read
Oct 25, 2020Finally, fashion is starting to make senseFollowing the fashion world descending from celebrity castles to TikTok videos, as a bystander — For me, it starts within the deep snows of the Ural region of Russia. My university classmates repost translations of luxury runway shows, show off statement bags and LV checkered patterns. I move through the city wearing a second-hand fur coat, huge wool boots, and up to five layers of…Fashion6 min read
Oct 17, 2020How I Tried to Catch the Voidhands-on exploration of the forms of emptiness in urban life — Publish something every day, better trice. Hustle. Refresh the newsfeed. Read the news. Keep up. Network. Sell. Refresh. Watch. Buy. Share. For a Westerner of the twenty-first century, nothing is more unsettling than an empty space, than a piece of time and space not chock-full of content — be it…Self6 min read
Oct 4, 2020A tale of a butterfly that didn’t want to grow upOnce, I’ve found a pupa of a butterfly. Actually, it was my mom—the cocoon fell from a branch of blackcurrant where she was collecting the berries, and she brought it to me, without taking her heavy gardening gloves off. It was the middle of September, the time of falling leaves…Self4 min read
Published in P.S. I Love You·Sep 4, 2020What You Should Know Before I LeaveIs it you, or is it me? — Some days, I think you are not enough for me. Some days, I think you are way too much. Sure, you are not New York, or London, or any of these progressive, edgy, sci-fi megacities from the movies. You are not who I imagined being with. You know that. I…Self4 min read
Jul 26, 2020Feeling “green guilt?” Don’t be so self-absorbed.It’s okay to change the climate — Once upon a time — approximately 2.4 billion years ago — when the Earth was young, steamy (with volcano eruptions) and intoxicating (with over 70% of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere), there lived a bacteria called cyanobacteria. She floated in a world ocean surrounded by her merry single-celled cousins, busy…Climate Change5 min read
Published in The Culture Corner·Jul 14, 2020When the best drama is no drama at allPredicting a new genre for the coming decade — According to Aristotle’s “Poetics”, the role of theatre in human life was to drag the recipient through the catastrophe in order to help them achieve catharsis — a state of total purification of all emotions. Aristotle was an ancient philosopher whose ideas served as a stepping stone for modern cinema…Culture6 min read
Jun 17, 2020On celestial harmonies and the unbearable perfection of pesto sauceWhen you find yourself up at night discussing the meaning of life, again. — In Philipp Pullman’s vision of the afterlife, all human souls go to the underworld: a chilly place guarded by mean harpies who see every malicious twist within each soul, love to torture people, and are sensitive to lies. Those mistresses of the underworld have only one weakness: they have no…Mindfulness4 min read