Photographer Aleksey Petrosian’s stunning set detailing life in the former U.S.S.R. I cannot vouch for the their accuracy in portraying day to day Russian life, but the quality of the compositions is simply extraordinary.

Life in Russia [English Russia]

A felt artifact dating from 300 B.C. depicting a moustachioed Pazyryk horseman. The Pazyryk were an “ancient nomadic people who lived in the Altai Mountains lying in Siberian Russia south of the modern city of Novosibirsk, near the borders of China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.” This is the oldest portrait depicting a shaved individual with a moustache, immortalizing ancient man’s freedom from the much older, but less sophisticated, beard.

Pazyryk [Wikipedia]

This bright morn on SMC, three times three special treats: Tick vs. the Tick; Garfield vs. Lasagna Cat; Boris Badunov vs. Boris Gonunov!

And that’s just the appetizer! For the main course, enjoy the second and third episodes of Kimi wa Petto, the beautiful story of an all-too-successful career woman who finds a broken boy in a cardboard box, and decides to keep him.
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Nature slowly reclaims the space occupied by an abandoned train station in the former Russian territory of Abkhazia.

The End of the Empire [English Russia]

Ah, Canada, that frozen wonderland to the north, with its lush, rolling fields of moose, beer waterfalls, and socialized medicine. Truly, it is a snow covered Eden. This week’s Saturday Morning Cartoons is (mostly) presented by Canada, featuring animators (mostly) from Canada, or films distributed (mostly) by The National Film Board of Canada. If you are so inclined (and you should be) all of these videos, with the exception of the first, can be viewed in a higher resolution on YouTube.

• The Cat Came Back: From Cordell Barker. Mr. Johnson has a yellow cat, which he is desperately trying to rid himself of. His efforts prove…unsuccessful.

• Last Time in Clerkenwell: Russian animator Alex Budovsky’s follow-up to Bathtime in Clerkenwell featuring more mind bending flash animation and infectious music.

• The Danish Poet: Torill Kove’s 2007 Oscar winning mediation on her birth, and the serendipitous events which led to it. Simple, clean lines lend this one a children’s book aesthetic which works perfectly.

• Ryan: Directed by Chris Landreth, Ryan is an animated tribute to Canadian animator Ryan Larkin. Thirty years ago, at the National Film Board of Canada, Ryan produced some of the most influential animated films of his time. Winner of an Oscar in 2005, it’s a film whose visuals tell just as much of its story as its dialogue does.

• How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels: Craig Welch’s fantastic, creepy, surreal, Gorey-esque little film about a scientist’s quest for knowledge that is, perhaps, reserved for beings other than mere mortals. Cross hatching should be used more often in animation.

• Yellow Sticky Notes: Nine years worth of Jeff Chiba Stearns’s To-Do lists, written on sticky notes, animated with, well, sticky notes. Trust me, it works.

• Harvey Krumpet: I’m a big fan of Australian animator Adam Elliot’s work, having first seen his shorts Brother, Uncle, and Cousin through The Animation Show. Harvey Krumpet, narrated by Geoffrey Rush, continues the tradition of Elliot’s intimate storytelling; detailing the life of Harvey Krumpet, from his birth in Poland to the end of his life in Australia.

Saturday Morning Cartoons XXXIX: Oh Canada (Mostly) [YouTube]