The Verge Historic Painting: Maslenitsa by Boris Kustodiev, 1919. This amazing painting depicts the Russian winter holiday festival just before Lent.
My own Holy Grail: Wagner’s great opera “Parsifal.” Wagner's greatest opera leaves the modern listener with a lot to think about.
The Great Fire of Rome and Nero’s fiddle: an egregious historical distortion. The emperor did not "fiddle while Rome burned." It's a bit more complicated than that.
This may be a good time to recall 1968, good and bad. Here are some things that were going on during those 12 tumultuous months.