Angry Planet TV

For some very interesting virtual tourism, check out www.angryplanet.tv, I recently saw an episode of this show on City TV (www.citytv.com) about ecological disasters in the former Soviet Union. The secret nuclear submarine base at Balaclava in Crimea was among the examples. The image above is a miniature model of one of the nuclear submarines that used to operate from this base, which is now a museum.  Since Crimea is once again Russian, could the base be re-commissioned?

The other, much better kinown Soviet disasters the program discussed were the drying up of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, Ukraine. Not all the episodes, apparently, concern man-made problems, some are about natural phenomenon such as volcanoes. On the Website of Angry Planet, you can watch an episode about an Indonesian volcano.

I suspect this could be a pretty depressing show to make, focusing as it does on problem areas of the world. However, it makes for fascinating viewing, and concerns subjects that could affect us all. I'm looking forward to seeing more, since I don't usually go out of my way to find difficulties when I travel.

On a happier note, I am looking forward to seeing a special exhibit of the exquisite Faberge eggs at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (mbam.qc.ca/faberge), which opens June 14  I suspect it is the same exhibition I saw several years ago in one of the Kremlin museums, but it would be well worth seeing again. I was particularly impressed there by an egg Nicholas II had given his mother, a tiny gold  model of the royal yacht Standart..

This weekend in Montreal we are welcoming the Formula One race, and the city is bussing with excitement. I'll be watching it on television. I've only seem one F1 race live, and I could see so little that it didn't encourage me to go again. ( I had a cheap ticket.) But the glamour of the crowd in Monaco made it all worthwhile, something one should experience at least once.