Best new places in Vilnius by Pravda
Published on
The story is in Lithuanian, but it's worth taking a look at the photos and translating where to find them. I think all of them sound interesting. The source is Pravda, the free monthly Lithuanian hipster's bible. It started as an amateur cultural zine several years ago. First it had English summaries of every article.
Gradually, we saw it become increasingly professional, commercial, and, sorry to say, snobbish. It also uncritically supported some shady elite projects, such as the idea to establish a subsidiary of the Guggenheim museum in Vilnius, which has become a metaphor for corruption in cultural policy. The magazine lost another part of its credibility in my eyes when it published it first political advertisement during the last electoral campaign. It promoted Gintaras Steponavicius - he was standing in the middle of a colourful page, skilfully designed to please hipster eyes.
However, Pravda is an unparallelled source of "what, when and where?", and their creative columns are a good source to get to know Vilnius (it never tried to effectively embrace other cities, yet it always announces what cultural events are happening there). For example, their humorous series of stereotypical characters (drawn and described in a funny way, but without offence, so that everyone can relate them to at least a few people) was a delight; their descriptions of marginal streets of Vilnius are inspiring, and I often search out the music they recommend. Their website offers weekly free MP3 packages promoting new indie bands - something I always take advantage of.
It would be interesting to hear more opinions about Pravda. Meanwhile, check their gallery of Chinese fake goods - it made my day :D