Secret Service

Since the beginning of 2026, or almost, I have been binge watching spy thrillers. It seems to be my new pastime: watch and read spy fiction. And I found one recently in ITV that I wanted to mention here: Secret Service. It's with Gemma Aterton, a former Bond girl who made quite a nice little career since then. She is not my favourite actress, but I like her. She plays Kate Henderson, an MI6 agent in charge of the Russian desk, who finds out that one of the candidates for the position of UK prime minister might be a Russian mole. But she doesn't know which one. It's nothing too original, it has a few plot holes and you need to suspend your disbelief at times, but it's a solid and fairly well written thriller nonetheless. So yes, if you are living in the UK, I suggest you give it a go.

Unfamiliar Thriller

As I have a fair deal of free time on my hands, I have been waching a lot of spy thrillers. I discovered one recently, an eight episodes long German TV series set in Berlin, called Unfamiliar. So far it is very solid, violent and brutal like I like them, but very sober in its diaplay of violence at the same time. The plot is intelligent, does not go on melodramatic streaks or shiock value for the sake of it. It's also a nice change to see a spy stories set in contemporary Germany and not shortly before or during World War II. It's still traditional in many ways: the antagonist is a Russian agent. But then some things never change. So yes, I am going to binge watch this.

Russian Breakfast Tea

One of the many nice things about visiting my parents, is that I can plunder their tea stocks and find really nice brews. My mother does not like tea, my father only drinks it sporadically, so they have always more tea than needed. So anyway, long story short, I stumbled upon this brew from Mariage Frères, ironically enough a French tea company. I hadn't had a Russian type tea for a long while, so I had to try this Russian Breakfast Tea. Nicely smooth and strong, absolutely perfect. 

Pierre capture le Loup

J'ai toujours aimé les loups et j'ai toujours eu un intérêt pour le grand méchant loup. Enfant, il me faisait peur autant qu'il me fascinait. J'aimais donc beaucoup Pierre et le Loup. Surtout la version en livre-disque du Petit Ménestrel, qui était magnifique. Je partage une de ces illustrations ici. Ce que j'aimais avec Pierre, c'est sa débrouillardise.

Pierre et le Loup

Enfant, j'aimais beaucoup Pierre et le Loup. Je ne sais pas trop pourquoi, enfin si, parce que même si j'aime les loups, j'aime quand dans les contes ils sont présentés comme des antagonistes, des bêtes affamées et dangereuses. Enfin bref, le Petit Ménestrel en a fait un livre-disque absolument magnifique. J'ai essayé de trouver cette version sur YouTube afin de la partager, jusqu'ici je n'ai pas eu de succès. Mais d'ici là, voici une image tirée du livre-disque.

Hey Hey Rise Up

Big news in the musical world: Pink Floyd,which is incidentally my favourite rock band, has reunited after 28 years to compose a song to support Ukraine. Sure, it will not change everything, in the great scheme of things. And sure, this is not The Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here. That said... Hell yes!

Remembering the Ides of March (and why)

 Today is the 15th of March, day of the Ides of March, the anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar. I commemorate it every year on this blog, sometimes humorously, sometimes not. This year, I want to place this commemoration in a special light. I think the Ides of March taught us two very important lessons: 1)even the most powerful man in the world is vulnerable, if he made himself enough enemies and 2)we must be wary about the power vacuum created in the aftermaths of a coup d'état. Caesar's enemies succeeded murdering him, but it was Caesar's heirs that took power eventually. Nowadays, with the rather volatile situation we are living, I think we need to keep this in mind. So yes. Beware the Ides of March all right.

Le prix d'une conscience

Bon je ne veux déprimer personne sur la guerre en Ukraine et sur l'agression russe, mais j'ai lu cet article d'opinion dans la grosse Presse, intitulé L'Occident doit intervenir militairement. Par Rémi Landry, lieutenant-colonel des Forces armées canadiennes à la retraite. Rien que ça. Sans dire qu'il a raison (je ne suis vraiment pas un expert), je trouve que ses arguments ont de la valeur. Et il y a une voix désagréable qui me dit qu'on ne va pas toujours en guerre quand on le veut, quand on est prêt, quand c'est le moment opportun. Parfois on doit le faire. Même si les conséquences peuvent être catastrophiques. Il suffit que l'alternative soit pire encore. Et c'est ça qui m'a agacé avec le texte: sans trouver ses arguments infaillibles, ils sont quand même très solides. Des fois, le prix d'une conscience peut être très élevé. Phoque.

War and a Prima Donna

In the turmoil surrounding the Russian invasionn of Ukraine, you might have not noticed this piece of news. It took me a while to comment on it, but I thought it was important that I do, being an opera afficionado. Anyway, so Russian soprano Anna Netrebko will not be performing for the Metropolitan Opera because of her refusal to condemn her country's actions. From what I understand, she will not be performing for the time being. And I don't know what you think of it, but I'm glad and I think the Met took the right decision. I know of Netrebko's status in the operatic world, but I have not been following her career and she is not my favourite soprano. In fact, she'd ranks fairly low on my list, if I had a list. Something about her voice. But whatever her skills as an artist, I never liked how in the past she showed no reservation about backing up Putin as if she was a friend of his regime. I know it is difficult for an artist to be the citizen of a country ran by a despot, I know Putin is not the kind of person you want to cross. But she could have been discreet in the past instead of showing support for his warmongering. She did not. Also, her post on Facebook regarding the whole affair, trying to dismiss it as personal political opinions that should remain private, was nothing short of disgusting. She came off very much like the prima donna she is. Arrogant, capricious, self-entitled and self-centered. She may be a great artist, but she proved to be a very small person.

Badass Baritone

I found this video online recently and I wished to share it. It is Ukranian opera singer Yuriy Yurchuk singing his country's national anthem. Nothing left to say, except that the Badass Baritone is not only a trope in fiction, it's a reality.

One word about Ukraine

So Putin and Russia are at war with Ukraine. I am not a specialist of international relations, war or geopolitics anywhere, let alone in that oart of the world. And I try to keep this blog cheerful and positive as much as I can. But yes, I try to follow the news, although it depresses me. And it can strike pretty close to home, in a way: one of my colleagues is Polish and now living in Poland and I know they are very worried that the conflict may end up touching them. As in: they might have to make a run for it. She already packed one suitcase of essentials. Absolutely chilling.

Rasputin

I thought I would put some upbeat music song on this blog, just to get over the post holiday blues. Maybe not the most profound or the best song, but one that has recently proved quite popular with Wolfie: Rasputin from Boney M.. Which you probably very well, as it is quite catchy. This is maybe the main source of information many Westerners have about infamous mystic Grigori Rasputin, but in my case I first learned about him from my babysitter when I was aabout four (true story). I knew he was a giant of a man and had been murdered through multiple stabbing (I know he was allegedly poisoned, then shot, but from what I remember my babysitter told me he had been stabbed), nothing else. Anyway, here it is:

La compainte du phoque en Alaska en... russe

J'ai déjà blogué par le passé le grand classique de Beau Dommage, mais c'était trop beau, dans tous les sens du mot, pour laisser passer ça. La complainte du phoque en Alaska a donc été chantée une fois en Russe et, comme on dit par chez nous (ce chez nous qui n'est ni en Russie, ni en Alaska), ça rentre au poste. Peut-être que la glace et la solitude, c'est une chose que la Russie a en commun avec le Québec, de même que les amours perdus. Maintenant quelqu'un peut m'expliquer comment la chanson s'est faite d'abord remarquer ensuite traduire par un chansonnier russe?

Cold War Crimes

I wanted to give one ultimate reading suggestion for #Noirvember and was not sure what to suggest. Then today I found by chance this article about climate changes and the way it is reshaping geopolitical interests and potential conflicts in the Arctic. The first picture of the article and its content made me think of the graphic novel Whiteout by Greg Rucka, which is set in Antarctica. But more exactly its volume two, Whiteout: Melt, as it features Russian mercenaries dressed pretty much like them. Anyway, I will not give much of either plots away, let's just say that they're dark, violent and, more to the point, cold. And both belong equally to the crime fiction and spy fiction genres, but they have heart. I try to revisit them this time of year. I will do it again, especially now that the graphic novels are very topical.

Russian bird whistle

I have a Russian colleague at work and he recently came back from a holiday in his homeland (I've heard that Russians often call it the motherland). He is a nice guy and quite generous: back from his trip he gave me this bird whistle. That is one cool souvenir. It is a unique one too: the colours and the designs are different for each whistle. I am not the only one who received it, so I know. It has a high pitch sound, not exactly melodic, but not unpleasant. It makes for both an original decoration and, if you are bored and have nothing to do, an interesting toy. Seriously, I must have been blowing the whistle a thousand times since I had it. And it's Russian therefore exotic. I don't know if it has been hand made somewhere in a small Russian village or if it comes off from a factory in China, but it looks Russian and crafted. Anyway, I absolutely love my new bird whistle.

99 years of Anthony Burgess

Today is a very special dayt for me: it is my blogging anniversary (see my post in French here) is the birthday of Anthony Burgess, who would have been 99 today. My favourite writer, the author of A Clockwork Orange. This year is also the anniversary of the movie adaptation of his most famous novel. I blogged about it recently. But this is not about A Clockwork Orange I want to blog about tonight. It is a bit sad in fact that the rest of his work remained in the shadow of his dystopian book. Back in 1994, around that time of year, because I had read A Clockwork Orange, I wanted to discover more of his novels, I bought Honey for the Bears. This was a new discovery, the epic comedy telling the story of a British antique dealer selling cheap Western dresses in Soviet Russia, during a holiday there with his American wife. It was maybe the first time I was conscious to read 'true" literature. Even though I had read classics before, there was something about Honey for the Bears that really struck a chord with me. On a comical scale, it treated of serious questions about the absurdity of utopias (always dystopian in practice) and the survival of national and individual identities and cultures against two hegemonic powers. The novel confirmed Burgess as my favourite writer. After it, I went on to find every single book of Anthony Burgess I could get my hand on. So this is the book I want to find, in original English and read this year to celebrate Burgess. Sadly, if there is a new American edition being released, it is currently out of print in the UK. But anyway, there are many other novels, some I have not read yet, to celebrate 99 years of Anthony Burgess. I recommend that you do the same.

Cat's warmth

You want to know about a sweet bit of news that will make you go: "aaawww"? It did make me feel all fuzzy inside and gave me back some faith in... well, not in mankind, but in the world as a whole. It is of course about my favorite species of the animal kingdom: the cat. Not these two. The two on the picture are Fiyero and Bustopher, they are the cats of the friends of my wife, who live in Derbyshire. But they make for a great visual companion for this post. And it is also an excuse to upload another picture of cats.

So what is that bit of news? You may have read/heard of it already, but here it is: a stray cat has saved an abandoned baby from freezing in Russia. In Russia. Which means, during Russian winter. Not as nasty of where I come from, Russian winters, but they don't have the same heating system in Russia. It is a rough place. A cruel place too. And a cat saved a baby from freezing to death. This bit of news remind me why I never think of cats as cold and distant creatures: they are caring, sometimes far more than our fellow primates. This one could certainly gives lessons of empathy. Cats are superior creatures, intellectually and now I am tempted to think morally as well. Anyway, it is a sweet bit of news.

Fabergé and Octopussy

I checked on Google today, and because of today's doodle I discovered that it was the anniversary of Fabergé, the creator of the Fabergé eggs. This is not an original Fabergé egg, obviously. It is a copy of a copy: it represents the Fabergé egg in Octopussy. It was taken in the james Bond Museum in Keswick, which I think no longer exists. It was not a very good one anyway. All I know of Fabergé eggs, which is nothing, I know from the movie or The Property of a Lady, which is the short story the James Bond movie was freely based on. I never had much interest in jewellery, except as a MacGuffin for stories (they were heavily used in crime fiction of course, but in other genres too). When I learned about the birthday of Peter Carl Fabergé, all I could think of was Octopussy (I guess I was not the only one). I actually enjoyed the movie a lot, in spite of its flaws. Today, I thought I could watch it some time soon.