DADWAGON

Fifty years ago today, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space, preceded only by dogs and rockets. Twenty years ago, in a profoundly less celebrated event, I started learning Russian in a public high school classroom in San Francisco. The first essay I ever translated from our Russian textbooks was a short [...]

As I wrote about earlier this week, I’ve been a little obsessed with the question of how to balance my responsibilities as a father whose kids (presumably) need him and as a journalist who sometimes needs to go into (presumably, somewhat) dangerous situations. Who better to talk with, then, than Robert King, subject of the [...]

From our faithful Russian tipster, comes this video called “Elena Malysheva and the Member” that our tipster says “has had Moscow laughing all week.” That is, of course, no mean feat: Moscow hasn’t laughed for an entire week since Sean Connery tried to speak with a Russian accent. There’s not much to add to this [...]

Sure, it took a couple of years, but the video companion to my somewhat autobiographical Time article from Havana finally went up at time.com. I’m posting it here because I’m a notorious self-pimper, and because I love the guys I used to play music with there. Geopolitics is a bitch, and it has kept us [...]