Author Archives: Natalia Antonova

Midsummer, 2013. I’m playing “The Last of Us”

I wrote this article about what it’s like to play “The Last of Us” the other day. It got me reminiscing. In the article, I make a passing reference to Russia in the 1990s, and how my friend said the same thing that I had been thinking for a while: some aspects of this most cerebralContinue reading “Midsummer, 2013. I’m playing “The Last of Us””

The best lines about becoming a parent are to be found in a post-apocalyptic vampire trilogy

“A baby wasn’t an idea, as love was an idea. A baby was a fact. It was a being with a mind and a nature, and you could feel about it any way you liked, but a baby wouldn’t care. Just by existing, it demanded that you believe in a future: the future it wouldContinue reading “The best lines about becoming a parent are to be found in a post-apocalyptic vampire trilogy”

The last of the binkie wars

I found this month-old gif (originally a cine via Cinemagram) of mine on my phone today: That was the day before we moved, leaving Novogireyevo for the older and stranger neighborhood of Kuzminki, also in eastern Moscow. Grandma had introduced Lev to the binkie when he was a few weeks old (without asking my permission,Continue reading “The last of the binkie wars”

And the cars, and the bars, my Carmen

I told the hostess I needed a nice table to work at, and I almost meant it. Almost. But what I really needed was to just watch the Skytrain pass overhead, suck on a cocktail straw, and read Caitlin Moran. I needed to remember myself, and so I got to remembering. What it feels likeContinue reading “And the cars, and the bars, my Carmen”