{"id":831,"date":"2015-08-11T07:58:32","date_gmt":"2015-08-11T07:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=831"},"modified":"2015-08-11T08:03:37","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T08:03:37","slug":"moscow-the-post-modern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/?p=831","title":{"rendered":"Moscow, the Post-Modern"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"photo-13\"<\/a>Arriving in Moscow feels like stepping onto a crossroads of an entire world, like an ancient-turned-modern capital on the Silk Road.\u00a0 You see towering blocky skyscrapers and three train stations as once.\u00a0 People are cutting paths like compasses, their faces from Mongolia, Africa, Europe, Asia.<\/p>\n

From there, the city keeps moving fast, jutting at you like a constructivist collage, and like great cities, always confronting you with surprise.\u00a0 Tucked beside a Soviet ministry (whose hammer and sickle has been replaced by a Romanoff symbol), or besides a MacDonald\u2019s, you might come upon an intimate 16th century church.\u00a0 The gold domes of the Orthodox churches follow you like a full moon, slipping between the long perspectives as you walk at night.\u00a0 Three black sedans hum, their drivers waiting while three businessmen gossip after emerging from a historic steam banya.<\/p>\n

If Putin has been made into the West\u2019s enemy, Moscow doesn\u2019t feel like enemy territory.\u00a0 It\u2019s become a western capital of electric energy and surprising\u2026understatement.\u00a0 Just as the west is ejecting it, it\u2019s coming into its own.\u00a0 The coming out party might be a touch poignant.\u00a0 Frank Sinatra sings \u201cMisty\u201d and Ray Charles does \u201cHit the Road, Jack\u201d as if on permanent rotation, at restaurants of confident cuisine.<\/p>\n

There are wars of politics and pride, and wars of culture and cultures.\u00a0 Sanctions has created new ways of smuggling in Italian mozzarella and French montrachet on ships that might bring products from Brazil with a stopover in Marseilles. \u00a0And Putin has created a stink by burning stockpiles of food in a country that has often gone and goes hungry.<\/p>\n

Yet the sanctions are having curious tonic effect.\u00a0 Moscow is riding a burst of creative and entrepreneurial energy. \u00a0 If the world being against Russia confirms and affirms a world view, there is also perverse fun.\u00a0 Instead of rebelling and drinking, twenty and thirty somethings are doing and creating. The farm-to-table movement has produced LavkaLavka, a restaurant of exceptional cuisine with a groovy Brooklyn-like aura.\u00a0 The deconstructions and reconstruction of a folk traditions – deer with pine nuts, reimagined beetroot spelt, bear stew are great fun. \u00a0You feel energy in the espresso bars, the bakeries. \u00a0 Half the people in Moscow would blend into crowds on Manhattan streets. \u00a0 Yet paradoxes always live; to get to the espresso bar, you might have to walk planks across a construction site. The world gets closer as it pushes and divides.<\/p>\n

\"photo-14\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arriving in Moscow feels like stepping onto a crossroads of an entire world, like an ancient-turned-modern capital on the Silk Road.\u00a0 You see towering blocky skyscrapers and three train stations as once.\u00a0 People are cutting paths like compasses, their faces … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[291,292,287,289,288,290],"class_list":["post-831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cheese","tag-culture","tag-moscow","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-sanctions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4D5qU-dp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=831"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jillpearlman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}