One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen on the face of this earth — right up there with the Grand Canyon and il Duomo in Florence — is St. Basil’s cathedral in Moscow.
What it lacks in size it makes up for in an indefinable “surely nobody could have built THAT” quality.
I saw it a week ago Sunday, in Moscow.
And I wondered why there were snowboarding ramps right next to it.
Now I know.
The story’s from the Moscow Times
St. Basil’s Cathedral has seen executions, invading armies and intercontinental missiles on trucks in its backyard. But Russia’s most famous church now faces something more threatening, preservationists say: rock music and snowboarders.
There is no such thing as good vibrations for the 16th-century cathedral, according to the Public Council of Moscow’s Central Administrative District, which argued this week that a series of concerts and events near the cathedral, on Vasilyevsky Spusk and Red Square, could cause irreparable damage.
One of the events that particularly riled the council was a winter sports competition close to the cathedral earlier this month.
Here’s a shot where you can see a tent and some of the snowboarding stuff on the far right side…although you can’t see that it’s been sponsored by (I’m not making this up) Red Bull.
Your on-the-spot Muskrat Action News Team.
****
Re: yesterday’s post –
Here are some web sites for those minis games I’m getting into:
Flames of War (WWII 15 mm company-level)
Arc of Fire (WWII 25 mm skirmish)
GASLIGHT (25 mm weird science Victoriana skirmish)
Many gaming stores don’t carry Heroscape, since it’s carried by Walmart, and heavily discounted at other chain stores.
I can see their point, and sympathize. Still, it’s a bit of a shame, since Heroscape seems a perfect Gateway Game to hook kids on the hobby.
****
Guy McLimore, who lent his last name to Dork Tower’s Matt, is one of my favorite people on this planet.
If he wasn’t already, he would be for this: Microtactix, his company, makes some superb pdfs of buildings and such that gamers can download and construct, for minis games.
Guy saw I was building some Flames of War armies, and sent me some PDFs of a new 15mm Normandy range they put out.
A free sample (below) can be got by clicking here!
VERY cool stuff indeed.
****
And while we’re on the topic of “It Must Be Mine” kinda stuff:
Mike Krell very kindly sent me some totally nifty Cthulhu Awareness Wristbands from the UK.
As he eloquently put it on his web site:
“It all started when I was on the Tube, and found myself thinking “There are all these wristbands available to raise awareness of various worthy and important causes. So why has nobody produced wristbands to raise awareness of the inevitable return of the Great Old Ones?” After all, the inevitable demise of humanity amid the brain-melting horror of an awoken Cthulhu is something it’s probably worth being aware of.”
Be aware of Cthulhu. Because Cthulhu is aware of YOU…
Ia! Ia!