Cold autumn of the twenty-second – Newspaper Kommersant No. 202 (7403) of 10/31/2022
[ad_1]
Last week, Marie Claire magazine celebrated its 25th anniversary in Russia with a party at the Noor bar with a Studio 54 dress code. It is, of course, a miracle that the magazine, without changing its name, reached its half-anniversary in October 2022 in Russia. One can only admire the managerial and human qualities of Viktor Shkulev, the owner of Shkulev Media Holding, who was able to keep glossy magazines in his portfolio of assets, and even continues to publish their printed versions. At the party, Mr. Shkulev preferred to get away from the guests. Of course, there was no VIP zone as such, but he managed to find free space in one of the small halls. From there they did not remove a long table, a man for 35 – and now he acted as a psychological barrier for random guests who do not know Mr. Shkulev personally. Only really strangers circled this table with congratulations and wishes: son-in-law Andrey Malakhov, or artist Pavel Pepperstein with a young lady.
In a word, the party was neither suspiciously rich (bottles of the basic Abrau-Durso were waiting in the ice bath), nor even too unbridled. In addition, Meduza, already recognized as a foreign agent, recently issued an indulgence to everyone for the necessary minimum of celebrations. And yet there was something wrong here: either the list of guests was too wide and heterogeneous, or the declared style. On the one hand, the Studio 54 dress code is on the shortlist of the most popular party styles (only “America during Prohibition” and “Hipsters” are more common). On the other hand, let’s remember the conditions under which this brightest nightclub worked in 1977: the sexual revolution has been successfully implemented, rock and roll is alive, the Vietnam War is over, Pablo Escobar has worked tirelessly, and Jagger is so young, and AIDS is still ahead. In general, there were reasons to revel. But in the late Moscow autumn of 2022, there is nothing like that.
On the same day, even the night before, two of my friends were detained and arrested. Both play far from the last parties precisely in secular processes: universal acquaintances and favorites. Of course, it would be naive to assume that secular life, not broken by either the pandemic or the NWO, will suddenly freeze because of these arrests. Rather, I froze. Therefore, to all other secular events of the week – and there were a presentation of perfume in the Historical Museum, and the opening of a new gallery on Baumanka – they preferred something different intonation.
For example, for the twentieth time the Top 1000 Russian Managers award was presented by the Association of Managers. Alexander Gafin and I remember her under the name “Aristos”. Actually, the appearance of Mr. Gafin in the “Helikon-Opera” at this event is even more surprising than the absence of its permanent hosts: Marianna Maksimovskaya and Yuri Kobaladze were replaced by Olesya Garipova and Alexander Tsypkin. Otherwise, complete stability: the association was both founded and headed by Dmitry Zelenin. “During these 20 years, about 150 professionals have taken the stage for awards,” he said as the guests gathered. This time, awards were presented in 17 nominations, and the mood of the awardees and recipients was such that they remembered the pandemic with the most nostalgic emotions. Except that the chairman of the Moscow City Duma, Alexei Shaposhnikov, who presented one of the awards, joked that it was very pleasant for him to take an envelope in his hands in the evening. Here even the usually resourceful Mr. Tsypkin sighed so deeply that he did not have time to formulate a reply joke.
The stability of the Managers’ Association was still not enough for me, so I turned to the eternal value – children’s laughter and fun. As part of the theatrical festival “Territory Kids”, its artistic director and driver Yulia Peresild read “Pippi Longstocking” accompanied by the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic. The children really laughed out loud listening to Pippi’s adventures, and the parents, among whom were Daria and Anton Zlatopolsky, Alexandra Lekomtseva and Alexei Karakhan, Ida Kekhman, Yulia Prudko and others, under the guidance of Mrs. Peresild, discordantly chanted: “I will swallow the pill, old I don’t want to be!” And it certainly was not about external signs.
[ad_2]
Source link
