There's never a shortage of activities in Moscow, especially during the long, warm days of summer. The hardest part is deciding what tickles your fancy!

Music

This week’s major event is Sinéad O'Connor’s performance in Moscow’s B1 Maximum Club. The Grammy award-winning Irish singer and songwriter is ranked among the most distinctive and controversial pop stars of the 1990s, the first and in many ways the most influential of the numerous female performers. Her shaven head, angry visage, and shapeless wardrobe are a direct challenge to the popular culture's long-prevailing notions of femininity and sexuality. O'Connor undoubtedly changed the image of women in rock; railing against long-standing stereotypes simply by asserting herself not as a sex object but as a serious artist. The gig will take place on August 11 at 2000.

Address: B1 Maximum Club, Ordzhonikidze st., 11, Leninsky Prospekt metro station, Tel:   648-6777

For those into club music, Miss-Fitz from Germany is at Mio DJ Café on August 11. Maayan Nidam aka Miss-Fitz aka Crackwhore has been spinning and producing minimal techno and IDM for the past 8 years. Although based in Berlin, Fitz keeps on the move, spinning a mixture of glitch and techno around the globe in venues such as Club Transmediale Berlin, Decadance Belgium, Wolf+Lamb NY, Mono-club Amsterdam, multivitamin UK , Pacotek Jerusalem , Lyon, Mezzoforte Poland, Queue Philladelphia, Main Hall Montreal, No man’s land Switzerland and many more, keeping a monthly residency at Watergate Berlin.

Address:  Mio DJ Cafe, Kaluzhsakaya sq. 1, Oktyabrskaya metro station, TEL:  238 58 48

Ikra club/café/bar, specially designed to host concerts and has brilliant sound system, often attracts the biggest international and Russian acts.  Russian rock band Nochnye Snaipery (Night Snipers) – a rare guest on Moscow stages whose concert is always a big event for judges of music – performs here on Friday at 2000. Diana Arbenina’s group will present their new “Bonnie and Clyde” album.

And on Saturday the club welcomes alternative rock fans for Tequilajazz gig. The St. Petersburg’s band, known for its energetic live performances, characteristic rhythm section, rather minimalistic yet inventive arrangements, will present its new single ‘Berlin’.

Messer Chups, an experimental group from St. Petersburg, is here on Sunday at 2100.

Address: Ikra Club, Kazakova street, 8A, the building of Gogol Theatre, Metro ‘Kurskaya’, tel. 505-53-51.

Jazz lovers might enjoy spending Friday evening at Moscow Union of Composers Club that combines a restaurant of exclusive cuisine and an excellent live music spot. Tim Amann Quartet, or xTet as they prefer to call themselves, performs here on August 10 at 2030. The band is based in the West Midlands county of the UK and plays melodic and soulful contemporary jazz. The four core members of the group are also part of the award winning Walsall Jazz Orchestra.

Address: Bryusov lane, 8/10 build 2, Pushkinskaya or Okhotny Ryad metro station,  TEL: 629-65-63
 
Tochka Club welcomes everyone for Ethno-Show ‘Osimira’ from Belarus on August 11 at 1900. Formed in March 2002, the project has won popularity in Eastern Europe as each of their performance is a bright show and music. Osimira plays is a unique combination of old folk themes with modern rhythms and musical instruments. 

Address: Leninsky prospekt, 6, building 7, Oktyabrskaya metro station, TEL: 737-76-66

The Moscow “Classic-Ensemble” (flute, oboe, cor anglais, clarinet, French horn) performs Mozart, Hyadn, Vivaldi, Danzi at Museum Estate Ostankino on August 12 at 1700.

Address: 1-st Ostankinskaya street, 5, VDNH metro station,   Tel:  683-46-45

Festivals and open air events

Organised by the B.B.King Blues House, the IV Moscow International Blues Festival welcomes all lovers of this genre at Lefortovo Estate on August 11 for the only twelve-hour open air blues marathon in Russia. This year’s festival headliners are guitarists Ana Popovic and Marc Ford.

Ana Popovic, an incredible guitarist and vocalist, was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Her career has been meteoric, and shows no signs of slowing down. Ana is the first European ever nominated for ‘Best New Blues Artist’ at the W.C. Handy Award Show in Memphis, Tennessee (2003). She was also nominated for 'Best Blues Album' at the Jammie Awards in New York City, a three way nominee for 'Best Vocalist', 'Best Guitarist' and 'Best Album' at the French Blues Awards (2002), and she and her band won the prestigious jazz award 'Jazz A Juan revelation In Juan Le Pins' (France 2004).  

Marc Ford, a Grammy Award winner (2005) used to be a guitarist is the former lead guitarist of the rock and roll jam band The Black Crows.

Among other participants of the festival are The Crossroadz, Yuri Kaverkin, Alexey Agranovsky, Blues Doctors, Green Spirit, Hot Rod Band, Blues Cousin, Stainless Blues Band, Modern Blues Band, Dr. Nick and others.

Address:  Lefortovo Estate Park,  Krasnokazarmennaya st., 3, Aviamotornaya or Baumanskaya metro station, TEL: 8-499-612-52-17

Exhibitions

An exhibition of paintings featuring elephants takes place in Moscow’s ‘ Pop/off/Art’ gallery. The organisers of the ‘Russia is the Homeland of Elephants’ display say they have been surprised how many paintings are dedicated to these animals and decided to put them all on show.  Big and small, multi-coloured and black-and-white, they are hanging on the walls of the gallery. Among the artists presented are Andrey Vasnetsov, Konstantin Batynkov, Mikhail Molochnikov, Vladimir Nemuhin, Alexander Savko, Victor Sedov, Yuri Tatyanin, Andrey Hrzhanovsky, Vladimir Yankilevsky. The exhibition will last till August 25.

Address: Pop/off/Art gallery, Radio st. 6/4, entrance from Kazakova st., 7 min. walk from Kurskaya metro station, TEL: 261 78 83

Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents an exhibition by Finnish artist Terhi Heino (born in 1970) entitled “Tea Time”. About 30 works, including two videos, several sculptures and ready-mades, created within last few years are on display.

Terhi Heino creates surrealistic objects and sculptures from materials of organic origin or wastes: exhausted tea packs, onion peel or fish scales. The artist confesses that she can’t even imagine her works to be made of “new” materials, as there are so many things around us that can be remade. Not accidentally, one Finnish art-critic called Terhi Heino’s objects “green pop-art”. At the same time it’s important for the author to demonstrate esthetic perception of that material, the very colour of tea, its shades, collected into an abstract pattern. The compositions, subjected to principles of conceptualism and minimalism, where structure, material associations, light, time and colour are components of works.

The exhibition will be open from August 2 till August 26.

Address: Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Ermolaevsky lane, 17,  Mayakovskaya metro station, TEL: 694-28-90

A must-visit for photography lovers is an exhibition of black-and-white works by a prominent Russian photographer Sergey Borisov entitled ‘Time and People’. Organised by Moscow House of Photography. The display will take place at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall till August 31. 

Address: Manezhnaya square, 1, Aleksandrovsky Sad metro station, TEL: 231-33-25

Ballet

The annual Summer Ballet Festival takes place on the stage of Moscow's “New Opera” theatre from June, 17 till August, 28. This Russian unique mega-project is dedicated to make classical ballet popular to the masses. Four world-known ballet groups are taking part in this year's fest.

This week, the Russian State Ballet theatre, which has remained one of the leading Russian ballet companies for over 20 years, will perform on the stage of 'New Opera'. Their repertoire includes masterpieces of the world ballet classical repertoire and the best samples of modern choreography. The primary task of the Russian State Ballet is to preserve the heritage of the Russian and West-European choreography, alongside newer forms of dancing. Under the “Bolshoi” star-soloist and choreographer Viatcheslav Gordeev's leadership the Russian State Ballet was shaped into the high degree of artistic expression, gracefulness and body control we can enjoy today.

On Friday, August 10, you can watch ‘The Nutcracker’ – a famous fairy-tale ballet by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.  And ‘Swan Lake’ – another Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece – is on the stage of the New Opera on August 11, 12. 

Address: The Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre, Karetny Ryad 3/2 (Hermitage Garden), Pushkinskaya, Tverskaya or Mayakovskaya metro stations. Trolley buses: B or 10 to Karetny Ryad. Booking information: 505-68-03, 784-56-35. The performances start at 1900.

Cinema
 
Plenty of films in English language to watch in Moscow’s cinemas this weekend. And this time it’s not only popcorn-blockbusters, but some art movies too.

There are two films in “Oktyabr” multiplex, situated in the very heart of Moscow on Novy Arbat Street. As usual they are shown on the English-speaking eleventh screen ('Zal 11'). The headliner of the weekend is ‘Stardust’  the screen adaptation of a fantasy novel by one of America's favorite science-fiction authors – Neil Gaiman , and the most expensive British movie of all times. The team of director Matthew Vaughn created loads of visual effects and invited many big stars including brilliant Michelle Pfeiffer making a comeback to the screen after several years of absence.    And if you are too old for fantasy fairytales you can watch 'Knocked Up' , quite a shocking comedy for elder audience dedicated to the hardships of pregnancy from director Judd Apatow, famous for 'The 40-year-old Virgin'.

 
Address: Novy Arbat Street, 24, Metro 'Smolenskaya', tel. 545-05-05
 
No changes in the repertory of Dome cinema. Just like a week ago you can watch the 'Transformers'  from director Michael Bay and producer Steven Spielberg. Giant robots still turn into vehicles and fight each other. Animated masterpiece 'Shrek the Third', Steve Carell's benefit performance 'Evan Almighty' and ‘Knocked Up’ are also on the screen.  
 
Address: Olimpisky Prospect 18/1 (The Renaissance Hotel), 'Prospect mira' metro station, TEL: 931-98-73
 
35MM and director Jake Paltrow both wish you a ‘Good Night’. The romantic comedy with some dramatic elements will become a pleasant surprise for the fans of such films like “Science of the Sleep” and ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, as a tired 34-year-old clerk can meet the woman he loves only when he is sleeping – in his dreams. Penélope Cruz and Danny DeVito play in the movie. One thing is for sure, you won’t fall asleep in the cinema.
 
Address: Pokrovka street, 47/24, Metro 'Kurskaya' or 'Krasnye Vorota', tel. 917-18-83

Sports
 
Zinedine Zidane on big screen – Something a real football fan has to see! ‘Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait’ is a unique project. One of the world’s greatest players of all times was shot by 17 cameras during one of the Spanish League matches. 92 minutes of pure Zidane. The film is shown at 35 MM cinema.

 
Address: Pokrovka street, 47/24, Metro 'Kurskaya' or 'Krasnye Vorota', tel. 917-18-83     
 
This will not happen on the weekend, but it’s very important, especially for expats from Scotland. FC Celtic comes to Moscow to play Spartak in the Champions League qualifier. The match held at Luzhniki Olympic stadium on August 15 (20-00) is certainly the most important of all played in the capital this month.
 
And some Russia’s Premiere League action…
Locomotive Moscow are the favorites in Saturday’s match against Spartak Nalchik. But the main event is on Sunday. CSKA Moscow, struggling to regain the top position in the league, faces FC Moscow which is currently second and eager to achieve more. FC Moscow beat the CSKA in the first round, so a real battle is expected.
         

Also on the day, Khimki from Moscow Region play Dinamo, as both teams are pretty angry after they were eliminated in the Russian Cup on Wednesday.