Saturday, October 10, 2009

Cristina Tosio

New Stuff

Isabella Oelz

Daniel Charms, 31 Plays, #6


An Optical Illusion

Semion Semionovich, puts his glasses on, looks at a pine tree and he sees that in the pine tree sits a man showing him a fist.

Semion Semionovich, takes his glasses off, looks at the pine tree and sees that there is no one sitting in the pine tree.

Semion Semionovich, puts his glasses on, looks at the pine tree, and again sees that in the pine tree sits a man showing him a fist.

Semion Semionovich, takes his glasses off, looks at the pine tree and again sees that there is no one sitting in the pine tree.

Semion Semionovich, puts his glasses on, looks at the pine tree, and again sees that in the pine tree sits a man showing him a fist.

Semion Semionovich does not want to believe this phenomenon and considers it to be an optical illusion.

Mamie Van Doren

Year of the Horse (1997)



A documentary about Neil Young and Crazy Horse's 1996 concert tour with interviews with the band about their long history and backstage footage from the 1970s and 1980s.

Superb musical documentary with lots of great live performances demonstrating the band's live potential.

Zuzana Kopuncova

 

 
ph: Christophe Meimoon

CSNY/Déjà Vu (2008)



The war in Iraq is the backdrop as the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young "Freedom of Speech Tour" crisscrosses North America, and echoes of Vietnam-era anti-war sentiment abound as the band connects with today's audiences.

Fairly informative and amazingly halfway balanced concerning political bias, the music documentary does the usual mistake of never playing a song in its entirety.

Who's That Girl?

New stuff







Friday, October 9, 2009

Irina Shaykhlislamova

Franz Kafka: The Departure


I ordered that my horse be fetched from the barn. The servant didn't understand. I went to the barn myself, saddled and mounted the horse. In the distance I heard a trumpet blow, I asked him what it meant. He knew nothing and had heard nothing. At the gate he stopped me and asked: "Where is the master riding to?" "I do not know", I said. "Just away from here, just away from here. Evermore away from here, that is the only way I can reach my destination."
"So you know your destination", he asked. "Yes", I replied, "that is what I just had said. Away from here - that is my destination."

(translated by W.K.)

Charon Cooijmans

Daniel Charms, 31 Plays, #5


Petrov and Mosquitov

Petrov: Hey, Mosquitov! Let's go hunt mosquitoes!

Mosquitov: I'm not ready for mosquitoes yet. I'd rather go hunt a kitty!

Who's That Girl?

MirrorMask (2005)





In a fantasy world of opposing kingdoms, a 15-year old girl must find the fabled MirrorMask in order to save the kingdom and get home.

Wonderfully over-abundant fantasy, more dream-like than suspenseful

Josefine Buelow

Miniatures #15


I generally express my personal opinions moderately, and in verday life I hardly ever get into an argument. However, online, especially on discussion baords, my moderate opnions very often get drastic reactions from my friends. It seems that in the realm of virtual communication your standpoints appear to be so much more offensive.

W.K.

Diana Dondoe



Thursday, October 8, 2009

Vignettes #47



Often it is quite a task to find an accurate gift for someone. My idea was always to give something that I would treasure very much myself. Since I love books I usually give my friends and relatives a book.

My mother has come to cherish this kind of gift. Since she is not too well informed about literature and the major authors, each gift she receives from me is some kind of recommendation; there should be a certain relevance to what she's getting. So it should be an author she might here about in the news or a book which maybe is the talk of the day and some of her friends might have it read it, too.

This doesn't make it easier to find the right title, because it is often just a coincidence that she'd hear about the book elsewhere. Therefore her joy about the book is also combined with a certain amount of scepticism: why did I get this particular title and what is its relevance?

1988 was my greatest success: I had bought her Toni Morrison's novel Jazz, an American she had never heard of before and none of her friends did either. So at first it was just an obscure gift, but she did read it. A few months later Toni Morrison received the Nobel prize, and my mother was better informed about who the author was before anyone else did. And she admired my foresight...

Scarlett Johansson

Natalia Vodianova

Who's That Girl?

Daniel Charms, 31 Plays, #4


A Sonnet

An amazing thing happened to me today: I suddenly forgot which comes first - 7 or 8.

I went to my neighbors and asked them what they thought on the matter.

To their and my surprise, we suddenly discovered that they too couldn't recall the counting order. They remembered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, but they'd forgotten what comes next.

We all went to the overpriced grocery store, the one that's on the corner of Znamenskaya and Basseinaya Streets, and asked the cashier to resolve our dilemma. The cashier smiled sadly, pulled a small hammer out of her mouth and, after twitching her nose slightly left-right, said: - In my opinion, seven comes after eight, whenever eight comes after seven.

We thanked the cashier and cheerfully ran out of the store. But then, thinking carefully about the cashier's words, we got sad again since her words were void of any meaning.

What were we supposed to do? We went to the Summer Garden and started counting the trees. But upon reaching six in count, we stopped and begun to arguing: in the opinion of some, 7 went next; but in opinion of others, 8 did.

We were arguing for a long time when, by some sheer luck, a child fell off a park bench and broke both jaw bones. This distracted us from our argument.

And then, we all went home.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Rachel Clark

Quote


Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, "the greatest", but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is.

- Sydney J. Harris, journalist and author (1917-1986)

Janete Friedrich


ph: Renam Christofoletti

A Song a Day: The Twilight Sad

Just recently got this Scottish band recommended to me by my good friend Angelika, and I was instantly mesmerized.

Love the accent, too.

Biography here.

Emina Cunmulaj


ph: Arthur Elgort

New stuff

Ekaterina Kiseleva

Daniel Charms, 31 Plays, #3


(ph: Jan Lukas)

Falling Old Ladies

A certain old lady, out of excessive curiosity, fell out of a window and splattered on the ground.

Another old lady peeked out of the window, staring down at the remains of the first one, but she also, out of excessive curiosity, fell out of the window and splattered on the ground.

Then a third old lady fell out of the window, then a fourth, then a fifth.

By the time the sixth old lady fell out of the window, I got bored watching them and went to Maltsev market where, they say, someone gave a knitted shawl to a certain blind man.

Who's That Girl?

New stuff

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Elena Baguci

Kate Moss irrégulière

Anastasia Kuznetsova


 

ph: Carlotta Manaigo

Candice Boucher

Lucia Tresova

Daniel Charms, 31 Plays, #2


(art: Trevor Brown)

Things that happened

One day Orlov stuffed himself with so much mashed beans that he died. And Krylov, on finding out about Orlov, died too. And Spridinov died also, but for no reason whatsoever. And Spiridonov's wife fell off a kitchen cabinet and died as well. And Spridonov's children drowned in a pond. And Spiridonov's grandmother became an alcoholic and ended up on the street. And Mikailov stopped combing his hair and fell sick. And Kruglov sketched a drawing of a lady holding a whip and went mad. And Perevostov received four hundred roubles by wire and got so cocky about it that he got kicked out of work.

Good people are simply incapable of getting a firm foothold in life.