This blog is about movies I sometimes select to watch. This blog is also about music. This blog is about the reality. And whatever is not related to my professional interests, so no East Asian things here.
Disclaimer
If you disagree with what is written here, you are more than welcome to discuss it. I will respond to every comment.
1. Process of natural oil refining done by Ignacy Łukasiewicz -and the actual oil industry
That dude thought it was a nice idea to pump the black stuff from the depth of the Earth and change it into something useful. He invented gasoline, and a lot of other useful stuff. He was also the owner of the first oil drill in the word.
Why should you care?
...well everyone loves driving, right?
2. Manual mine detector
Józef Kosacki (1909–1990) was an officer in the Polish Army during World
War II. Like many soldiers at the time he really did not fancy losing
parts legs or life. With this in
mind Kosacki invented the Mine detector (Polish) Mark I in 1942. It was
the first mine detector that could be carried around and operated by one man
and the Mark 4c version remained in service with the British Army until
1995. Later versions are just a follow up of the previous one.
Why should you care?
Well, you probably don't have to if you live in Chicago or Warsaw. But if you live in Kabul you may find the idea of mine detection handy.
3. The Bulletproof Vest
It’s true that the Chinese or the Koreans or somebody messed about
with the idea of bulletproof vests in the 1850s but the first true
bulletproof vest of the kind you would recognize today was invented by a
Polish priest in Chicago in 1893.
Kazimierz Żegleń was born near Tarnopol (now Ternopil in western
Ukraine) in 1869. He moved to Chicago where he had been a priest for over 40 000 people. If he wasn't praying, he tried to invent a bulletproof vest. Noone really knows why, but I guess because people in Chicago carried a lot of guns around and weren't that friendly.
Why should you care?
If you are in the army, you do care. Current model in use is only a follow up to the original.
4. Radiation - the idea that some of the elements in nature are the source of ionizing radiation and that it can be used for both medicine and killing
Marie Skłodowska-Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist, famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences.
Her achievements included a theory of radioactivity (a term that she coined), techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms, using radioactive isotopes. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and in Warsaw, which remain major centres of medical research today. During World War I, she established the first military field radiological centres.
When she was dying, she was already aware of the fate radiation brings to the world, and that it will be used for nuclear weapons just as much as for medical purposes...if not more.
Why should you care?
Well if you don't by now, I cannot convince you.
5. First effective vaccine against epidemic typhus
Invented by Polish born biologist and chemist dr Rudolf Weigl many years ago. Another thing is that dr Weigl used typhus research to help rescue Jews during the WWII - he claimed he needs volunteers to test the vaccine.
6. Silicone processing
Jan Czochralski invented method which is till now used to process industrial silicone for electronics.
Why should you care?
Can you imagine not having a laptop now?
Or not using Facebook?
7. Graphen processing
Speaking of computers. Another generation of material used for the same purpose in electronics was invented in Poland too. To be exact we invented how to cheaply produce it - and it makes it global technology now.
I always claimed that Polish equivalent of Samsung could be created based on it, but hell, we sell the material globally and who knows, maybe these dudes will invent something more?
Why should you care?
Do you want to have a laptop which you can roll into your pocket? And cheap one?
Soon you will.
8. Digital reading apps for blind people - digital Braille
ZZ Braille Reader is used by many people now. Done by young Polish student Karol Stosik who won Imagine Cup 2012
Overally Polish students won Imagine Cup for 21 times now with far more things than I can remember.
Why should you care?
Yeah I know it intimidates. Polish women are one of the most beautiful in the world and the whole population smart. So if you want to have smart kids, you should get some Polish genes.
There are plenty of other things we invented or work on.
We don't have leading global technology businesses yet, but remember that 25 years ago we had been a communist state with empty shelves on the shops.
Happy Independence Day to all Polish people :) I wish you plenty of ideas, courage and hope. Let's unite for technology.
No idea what got me to write this entry. Had it been recent remarks from an Indian friend that I don't stick my nose from the comfort zone and must meet more people?
I very definately don't just stick to my comfort zone, however we all need mental comfort of sticking to those who are worth sticking to, that's my answer.
But regarding the rest he was right. I am a born traveller who got stuck on the couch a little bit for recent 2 years afraid of new chalenges and happy with safe mundane daily routines.
And yet I love being in different places which stumulate me enough to feel I am alive.
I remember how I got abroad for the first time. Not abroad to Slovakia via a mountain border, but really abroad and really to the West.
I was 19 when I won some contest for young brains. The reward was a summer school of National Trust with some collaboration with the University of Cambridge.
Dedham village pictured by John Constable. He was one of the first landscape painters in the world and is by far one of the most famous British artists ever.
I packed my suitcase and went to London. First real challenge was getting through the border control. I heard so many stories of people who got returned at the Heathrow airport without any reason that my legs were a little bit trembling when I approached Immigration Officer.
My mom was wise. She told me: "Who cares you are just a teenager from a middle income household? I will give you my old credit cards and let's make sure you dress nicely. You must really look rich and they will let you in". So she was right, I had my best outfit on myself and made sure the IO had seen the content of my wallet as I pretended to look for some paper in it.
I was in :) And out to the airport hall of Heathrow Terminal 2.
My taxi driver was not there. It was really the first time I had to speak English not at school but to really English people and it was a bit of stress too. I approached the Information Desk, said who I am and what happened. They told me to patiently wait and soon indeed my taxi driver arrived. He excused himself and told me he got stuck in traffic en route.
Willy Lotts House
It was late. I have not seen much from the car because it was already dark and I might have slept on the way. I learnt from that guy he was a single parent, a father of a teenage girl struggling to make ends meet. Courses to Heathrow to pick up clients of Flatford Mill was a big part of his monthly income.
I was greeted by the Head of the Field Study Council and shown my room. On later days everyone was so curious of me. They frankly had never met a foreigner from Eastern Europe before.
For me it also was a great experience. In Poland I was persecuted at school for my brains and probably for wearing one pair of jeans throuought high school as it was financially difficult time for my family. Used to being always poked and critisized I was initially scared of them all so hardly approached people. I remember it took my classmates 3 days to get me into the group.
I attended an Ecology class with kids from one of the English high schools. Bunch of them, few native English, Pakistani siblings - a brother and a sister and a Hindu from Kashmir - best buddies at school. They became my best buddies for forthcoming time. They also made me stop being scared of people...of how my life looked back in Poland I obviously never told them.
One of the walks I took - credit not mine because it is not mine video, but the person took the same route.
We have discussed a lot... I told stories about Poland and Polish life in general. They asked me lots of questions. I even got a first thing close to a boyfriend - my Kashmit friend used to walk next to me singing "I will follow you follow you wherever you may go". It was charming and sweet...even more charming was his natural shyness - real for a guy of my age back then. If compared to my British friends Polish people were agressive and spoiled. Also very narrrowminded.
We have learnt lots of things together :) I also got my interest in travelling and meeting new people back then :)
Later I was reassigned to a Natrual History class of professor Oliver Rackham. To meet even more new people and get a different experience. Young kids were much better than adults...adults were closed and stiff to some extent. But professor Rackham was a complete exception. I of course had no idea who he was back then and how influential figure in world science he really is up to date.
That white window sticking out was my room actually. Everyone thought it was the whole room, but it was only my window. Each morning at 4 am I was regularly awake by cocks and a train passing Manningtree station 4 km away.
He took long hours discussing a lot of things with me. Asked plenty of questions... and given me a book with his dedication.
But he was nevertheless right when he said" Maybe one day we'll meet. But it won't be soon".
He was right because back then Poland was still undeveloped. My British friends had email addresses, blogs, yahoo accounts and chats. It all made them connected and I did not have it for years to come. I had first miliitary access to internet in 2003 or 2004... later an hour long dial-up and only later in 2007 a fixed line. Now it all seems so natural to be connected to friends globally, but then I was an alien from an alien culture who appeared in lives of my friends for only a while and soon disappeared.
I walked around a lot. I remember cute little streams and green meadows full of cattle and horses. Everything so green and each little village marked with a high tower of usually medieval church made of stone which was visible on the skyline from afar.
Villages were full of small tiny rock houses and little bridges. People enjoyed sitting in tea gardens quietly talking to eachother and walking slowly. A pedestrian however, like me - was a strange thing to see by the road as everyone drives everywhere even if it is a rather small distance - like a kilometer to a shop.
I took long walks, some of them even 50 kilometers long, and even reached a shore where a local river falls in to the North Sea.
Flatford is a native village of John Constable who specialized in painting local landscapes. Of course things have changed since his times as people switched from horse carriages to the cars, but trees and rivers and some villages remained the same. Later I learned that it was preserved countryside, something hardly met in Poland where plenty of historic places are simply moved to country parks to be visited instead of being left in place. New architecture in the neighboirhood has to match a style as well, no mess or ugly new homes are allowed.
He was born and lived in Willy Lott's House, a place which was visible from my window and where we had several meetups with the professor sitting by the fire. It is still run as a hotel attached to Field Study Council.
People were rather friendly but most friendly and open were those young and those who were over 60... it is remarkable what is the reason of it. And, is it so today as well, and also is it only my own impression?
After some days I was driven to the local train station with a suitcase and purchased a ticket to London. My family's relatives were supposed to let me stay there for 2 nights because my flight was on tuesday and my stay in Flatford was ended on Sunday.
I decided to walk around London... it was London up to 10th storey still, bit grey and a little bit full of rubbish and cigarette smoke stinking here and there. It was mess but it was an organised mess, unlike Warsaw. It made as grey impression on me as Warsaw did for many years but people were very friendly.
I walked by the riverside probably entering plenty of forbidden places as I ended up in some industrial area. But again there were no clear signs which side of the road or harbour am I supposed to go so I did use what I have seen.
I remember meeting some construction guys who whistled at me... it happened to me a lot when I was a teenager, no idea why. Cars have beeped and men were whistling even here in Poland.
I met some homeless people sleeping in the backyard of Victoria Station. They were rather friendly and asked me what I was doing there. I was en route to Tower Bridge so they showed me which way I should go further.
At Tower a nice guardian let me in with my Swiss Army Knife despite of regulations because I was scared of losing it. Probably I also looked harmless too :) He told me to stay quiet about it but after so many years I think I make no harm. Who knows if he still works there, lol :)
I could not reach my family's folks and panicked a bit as it was already late afternoon. There was an Indian elderly guy who asked me wether I am ok. I told him the situation and he called his wife and asked her to prepare a bed for me. I was so shocked with his interest because in Poland we just look straight and pass on strangers. They could die on the street and noone would help them probably. This is how I spent the night, hosted by a very nice family of immigrants from India. Everyone treated me like their own daughter or sister or at times even better. It was also my first ever contact with Indian cuisine, but spiced up to European taste.
Mr and Mrs Kumar were also so interested in me, who I am and where do I come from. We sat late hours and I kept telling stories about Warsaw life etc. They had a shop with souvenirs near the Westminster Abbey.
The next day I met a Polish guy who helped me to navigate around subway lines... some trains were leaving in two different directions from the same platform, unlike in Seoul were lines cross and platforms are separated with only connecting corridors. It scared me a lot as being lost is not nice.
We made to Notting Hill - I think it was already after that famous movie but I am not really sure what brought us there... and I have seen the Hyde Park Corner where London street screamers meet and scream out whatever they want, sense or nonsense.
I bought some stuff at Portobello Road. It was not top cheap but still it is one of the cheapest outlet streets in the world.
And then I reached my family at Ealing Broadway. I have not met them since that moment. It was a stay in a typical big suburban villa with a garden, what an average middle class Londoneer achieves at some point. They got British citizenship via two paper marriages they made to British friends who they later divorced with mutual consent. It must have been a great friendship indeed for people to agree upon this - and a lot of trust too. It was a way to enter UK job market on equal basis and my mother's cousin made tremendous success out of it reaching one day a Downing Street 10 address with his consulting expertise.
I went to Liverpool Street by subway and collected my suitcase. I had only 8 pounds left as I was too proud to ask my mother's cousin for cash. I was thirsty too...and a little bit panicked as the Liverpool Street was not the end station of my line. But a nice Sikh helped me again as he simply asked me if I was alright after he had seen me glancing with stress via the windows of the train. He even brought me to my locker and asked wether I needed any further assistance. I thanked him and went on to look for a cab.
Cab driver was a very nice guy originally from Kenya. A very tall nicely built Massai - very intelligent and it was visible he read a lot and took any opportunity to learn new things he only could. We stayed in touch and he later proposed to me but I was not ready to settle down so young - I just turned 19 when it happened.
He dropped me off at the Heathrow and helped me to find a right gate to my plane. I paid exactly those 8 pounds and also had a sip of water cause I was thirsty.
So I went home. It was my first ever real adventure abroad.
Since then I have travelled many places and worked at as well. I am very definately not a couch potato in a comfort zone but a born traveller and I simply research reality...taste it, feel it. Process it.
But one thing doesn't change. I don't enjoy bars and typical European drunk parties. One beer with close friends or a glass of wine in good companionship is completely enough for me. I also don't enjoy clubs or other venues like that because I dislike too much noise. And no I don't go to a bar alone. Nowhere. Do I have to?
I enjoy casual conversation on the train and a fortune choice of wether I stay friends with this person or not. Joining street performers to listen to their show is also nice. A discussion on FB... there are so many ways of meeting new people. I don't have to join typical European drinking lifestyle to enjoy my life.
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When I find and scan my photos from that time I will put them here. Now enjoy this guys. :)
...out of nowhere, out of my thoughts,
let me sing you the Waltz,
about this one night stand.
Richard Linklater made another movie everyone remembers. What makes a movie "cult" in our Western comprehension? It must touch universal meanings, some images or emotions everyone carries in one's brain or the heart.
Before Sunset is the typical conversation movie. Two people who shared a teenager's style one night stand meet 9 years later by chance ( or by no chance ...?) in Paris during a bookfair.
Celine jumps from one guy into another but at the core she is lonely 30-something with a cat and Jesse is a suerficially stable dad of two and by now somebody's husband.
What is typical for Linklater he does not leave a clue how it ends. Wether Jesse stays with Celine and goes for a divorce? This is left painfully unanswered and every person who watches the movie has one own individual answer to this question depending on what he or she believes in.
My mathematical brain never really understood how is it even possible to do a story about a one night stand. The guy got what he wanted, used bit of charming chitchat and went his own way, it happens and it will happen.
Until recently when I realised that we all have at least one special memory we share with someone who is deep in the brain somewhere and always will be, and that not everything is so strictly black and white.
I missed the ending, I wanted Jesse and Celine be together as a source of hope. But now I guess it is more a challenge, a "what will you do with your story of the kind?" question. I must find my own answer for it.
"Italiani, io muoio, ricordatevi di me non come di una principessa, ma come di una vostra sorella italiana"- Remember me not as a princess, but as a fellow Italian sister
I had this movie on my UPC recorder ever since last August 2012. I never watched it because it takes almost 4 hrs and I knew it is an important movie, one that I would love to watch alone.
Mafalda di Savoia is a movie about a real person, Italian princess, daughter of Victor Emmanuel III, who married Philip of Hesse and hemce she because really involved in politics at the eve of nazi era in Europe, even if she did not really want it.
Princess Mafalda
Although hell of war in the background this movie is at first a movie about a life of a woman, her commitment to her family, her husband despite all odds and finally to her children.
Stefania Rocca portrays her in an absolutely genial way, to the extent I wonder why she was never nominated to ANY award for this work. For a person who admitted in many interviews that she had to learn great deal about the princess because she knew nothing about her before being asked to become Mafalda in the movie, creation was genial.
Princess Mafalda
But also Hary Prinz who plays Rudiger, her greatest antagonist who after years of male pursuit and her constant rejection becomes a master of her life and death in the concentration camp, is a genial actor.
Another one whom I would give an award if I could would be Franco Castellano for the role of doctor Maggio, Italian socialist who in the end would do his best to save the princess.
My favorite scene of this movie? I have 3 of them.
One is when Mafalda prefers to bath with her children already dressed in a ballroom gown cause this seems more fun than joining her husband for a party with Adolf Hitler.
Rudiger
Another one when she saves a Jewish girl risking being shot on the spot.
And another one when she falls to the feet of Rudiger, never giving up her pride for herself, but not hesitating if she knows this way she can save doctor Maggio.
I will not write spoilers here. This is a must watch for those who like good movies.
Doctor Maggio
Last but not least- costumes and makeup in the movie are really perfect.
Does it have any downsides, if it supposed to be critisism?
Hmmm.... maybe Buchenwald should be shown more drastically. But it is, believe me, drastic enough.
Moment of truth
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Mafalda di Savoia - Il coraggio di una principessa 2006
15 years ago I used to vanish from home for 3 months with no means of contact, now I have cellphone, email, twitter and so on.
Somehow I cannot imagine walking around with no cellphone. It gives me sense of security in case I would be kidnapped for trafficking or attacked or needed help in any occasion.
But 15 years ago I was travelling alone for holidays as a teenager and I had to walk 12 km through the hills to reach nearest phone booth.
My parents were ok with it. Somehow they trusted that I am reasonable and I will be allright.
But I was limited only to people I could meet in my real life and I must admit they weren't always best. Some of them were good some really crappy. Just like those met in the internet. They are both good and evil, attractive or annoying, stable or unstable etc.
I guess internet is just a new reality and we at the core stay the same.
Have you ever wondered what trust does mean in contemporary world and how does cyber world full of gadjets influence our lives in rather negative way?
Lets take Facebook for first shot. If someone doesn't like me can chose which information I can see and which not on his/ her timeline. If he or she doesn't wanna talk in a given moment he or she is hiding from me on chat mode. If your husband is having an affair and she is one of his FB friends you won't even know because he has hidden friendlist from anyone to see.
Ah forgot to add that when we all changed into timeline it was possible to erase visibility of any activity from a choosen person. So if you are divorced or have a messy breakup in your history you can clean it all up like it never happened. But it is also a good tool for players- as they can erase entire history of their prior prey hunting.
All for the sake of privacy. All in a good cause.
Now let's take Skype. Skype on the surface does not lie. It can have a mode settled to busy, away, or available. Also logging off and...invisible but for evryone not a chosen one person.
Let's take yahoo - now here you can turn invisible to a given friend despite all other options.
Gmail chat wasn't so problematic at all, it had a red mode, orange mode, green mode and grey mode- but there again you could only hide from everyone not a chosen person. But to give you more comfort, geeks had already thought about another application to make your life easy - you can turn orange on demand. Orange mode on gmail chat used to be an indication of just being away- i.e. a real information. Now if someone is orange on gmail chat he or she can ignore any message incoming cause he or she is away on assumption, when literally being at his or her desk.
Let's take a look what does it do to our behavior? Do we have a courage to face someone? A civil courage to say simple "Hey, see I am busy now, please contact me later". Or "Look you behaved really awful and I don't want to be your friend anymore". Discuss and face people.
No, instead cyber world enables us to take comforting way outs, prolong things, wait endlessly for God knows what, enables deception very much.
How many people do you know who are not hiding on gmail?
How many people do you know who are not orange on gmail because they have installed some app?
How many people do you know who would honestly refuse to talk to you, say they have no time, or simply admit to be angry in a given moment?
Close to none?
Dudes, it is getting worse than that... there will be 0 in the 2.0 World.
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I dream about a home without cables, electricity, or any fancy electronics. But I love to write this blog, so I guess I am electicity dependant ass.
I am wondering why I have not written this post earlier. Maybe because admitting to love for a historic series is a faux-pais among sophisticated cosmopolitan circles of mine? Or because my own understanding is too intimate, at the edge of something very personal?
So now after 4 seasons and at the beginning of the 5th one I do admit my love to a series Time of Honor.
Some years ago during a project focused on renacting groups recreating historic events related to occupied Warsaw I heared from one lady- veteran about consulting a script for the series dedicated to parashooted underground soldiers - Cichociemni.
These guys were trained in Great Britain by their former Polish instructors to be parashooted on the occupied territories with aim to profesionally organize resistance against Nazis but also against the Soviets who basically occupied half of the country.
Time of Honor is a result of private passion of many people. it recreates realities of pre-war Warsaw, occupation, Soviet invasion but also later hopeless fight put against Soviet domination and fiction state Stalin imposed in Jalta.
The script follows a story of friendship between 4 guys, their family life, love life and parallel stories. There is also a triangle. A Judas - Karol whose sister was held by Gestapo is trying to sell off his wife's friends into German hands. The very same Judas compromised by long term cooperation with the Germans starts cooperating with the Soviets. His wife leaves him during the war and unites with her lifetime love - trained underground soldier parashooted from Britain. Cichociemni - underground soldiers who never had given up their weapons and never recognized Soviet Polish state become his enemies forever. He would spend his life clinched between rests of remorse and passion for revenge... There is also a doctor Otto- a German with a golden heart who comes from Breslau and who faces death sentence for helping his love and friend dr Maria - wife of a Polish general. Each character has a unique and real personality, attitude, looks, style of walk, dress etc.
In the script there is nothing too long. No situation, no dialogue, nothing boring or too psychological. Pure action and thrill in war realities.
It is also not patriarchal story of brave male cocky dominance. They are male and female, but all of them are in combat despite their obvious sexual differences. All of these women seem far less intellectually castrated than many I meet in my contemporary life.
Last but not least. Music makes it! The author of the music album made already international career and received many awards both in Poland and abroad. Chajdecki is not a noname in music world. He is just 32 - my age, but since 16 cooperates with such institutions like Yale School of Drama or New York School of Visual Arts.
The music for the series was nominated for IFMCA in 2011.
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I cannot stop thinking that it somehow portrays private life and struggles of my grandma. It takes imagination to look at 86 year old woman and see Wanda or Ruda in her. Imagine she dressed and looked like the ladies in the series. That she behaved like them too... now she barely walks.
This is a story of childhood and dreams, also story of friendship and bonding...but let the tale begin.
When I was a little girl my dad used to take us all to Czechoslovakia ( now Czech and Slovakia) for long months of almost constant holidays. He never did care much wether we skip June and September of school cause he considered travelling much more schooling in our upbringing.
Indeed we have seen so many places, met so many people, I even got my first adorer that time- a nice fether of peacock from the Kinsky Castle was delivered straight into my hands by a very handsome dad's colleague :)
During that time I remember we had our tastes. We were testing local cusine and beverages. One of those snacks was Vyprazany Syr - baked cheese, legendary for those who know Czech Republic.
There was also beer which we could have tasted in little portions during that time, other times drinking non alcoholic beer sold in Czech Pubs especially for children. Yes, Czech Pubs are family places, not just spots full of drunken guys.
One of thoise childhood tastes is Vajecny Sen. This legendary liquor being produced in Dolny Kubin in Slovakia already has growing number of fans on Facebook. Also it is something which never lost quality during communism and something which does still taste good and was not bought by any French or German mass shit production corporate business.
This is how it looks:
This year I think I already had at least 5 bottles of Vajecny and some of them prepared for gifts. But because it is so fast gone I started researching if I can do it myself.
And guess what, yes I can. I will share here just a general receipe:
Składniki:
6 yellow parts of the egg
250 ml spirit or vodka
750 ml condensed milk
1 glass of sugar
1 pack of vanilla sugar
2 dark non sugared chocolates
Yolks mash with sugar to the clear mass, add milk, mix, later alcohol, mix, chocolates melt on the steam and add a bit of water. cool it down a bit, bottle it, close it. Leave for 24hrs. Shake. ready. Bon apetite!
Ah bonding issue: this is something you share with people. And if you think that you share it with a friend you know for 22 yerars...or 26 years... this is empasising bond. If you cannot make a beverage with your long term friend, you can't talk to people, can't connect with them...you are so very poor. Your life is empty, even if you had all of the money of this world. This is another person around making you rich.
It's holiday time. Everyone travels, so do I. I had a chance to learn how huge is my own country and - how diverse it is.
Above: New water sports center in Olsztyn
Firstly I went to Tatras and Cracow and enjoyed the south. Next I went to a friend to Olsztyn and stayed a couple of days with her.
This is Ermland, Warmia in Polish, one of historic provinces of Poland which always crushed with Teutonic Order, later taken by Prussian Kingdom to be finally considered a part of Heimat by Bismarck who unified Germany - which was inherited by the Nazi era and considered part of Germany by them too.
This all was named Ost Preussen by Bismarck. But it is a country of constant struggle between identities, economic ideas and ways of life for many centuries.
Above: Olsztyn Streets
Historically Preussen - Prusy in Polish was inhabited by Prussian tribes which bothered Mazovian Polish Dukes. Duke Conrad in 1226 thought he has enough of constant raides from the North and invited teutonic Order to settle peace at the border with hopes that conquered lands will fall to his prey later on.
But this did not happen... greed and brutality took over. Teutonic Knights travelled dressed in white coats with black single big cross with their eyes covered in steel helmets causing fear among locals... with time financial triubutes were raised so much that local people strived for survival. And Teutonic Order did not have enough. It went south and east...south and east....raised taxes and exploited lands...until in 1380's Polish rulers had enough and thought it is time to settle the matters final.
King Jagiełło - The Jagiellon - married the King of Poland ( yes no mistake) Jadwiga and unified the state into first form of European Union of that era - Polish Lithuanian State. His joint forces made a huge battle with Teutons in 1410. Battle which you still have a chance to watch as it is being recreated every year for quite a while now.
On one warm July day he smashed Teuton Knights and had a chance to take over the whole Teuton State, but he only received a pledge from some dukes, did not decide to completely control Teutons which was a huge mistake...as they again started to exploit their region.
Bishops of Ermland unlike surrounding provinces pledged loyalty to Polish state and decided to bound their fate with the Polish Kingdom. Ermland became a refuge for persecuted peasants and city merchants who could not expand trade elsewhere. During that time Copernicus worked as a governor of the province for some years, and it is there where he observed the sky so accurate that he written down his ideas thanks to which Columbus travelled westwards to India...
Above: Lidzbark Castle
Later Teutons decided to put an end to a Teuton State, secularized themselves and became more and more protestant with time. When previous Teuton Lands were protestant Ermland remained catholic. Masuren and Ermland resemble long era of complicated history and unique local mentality...
Russian Soviet army had put an end to what it used to be in 1945. For several more years their Death Squadrons wandered around vast forests and lakes and made sure that no more local inhabitants really survived, no more who they pledged loyalty to. Those who had anything in common with Nazis fled westwards and to the sea, and those who stayed had done no harm to anyone...they stayed cause they either felt Polish ( yeah I know, weird... how do you feel it? But you do if you speak a slang for several centuries and you have glympses only of any identity) or they have done no harm to anyone.
Above: One of first printed versions of Copernicus research about the Earth, planets and the sun - to be admired at Lidzbark Castle
The Soviets installed their military bases and huge state owned agriculture industries. They have cancelled any private properties... maybe red brick Prussian style buildings were not beautiful but they were far more nice than a lot of commie era buildings which haunt till present days suddenly appearing in the middle of forest.
Ermland now is the land of mixed trails...on one hand young people emigrate seeing no hope. On the other hand old Germans buy properties to settle down during their retirement. Michelin produces tires, there is a good university too. But more investment is needed especially in towns and cities, because tourism is not enough- brings cash only to chosen lucky ones who bought lakeside properties... the vision is needed, new ideas and new hope.
Till then, enjoy the tale of Ermland in photos...
Above: Lidzbark Castle...years ago very rich, later plaundered by Swedish and others to be finally carefully taken care of by the passionate caretakers from the Museum of Mazury and Warmia
A must visit cities and objects in Ermland: Lidzbark Warmiński- castle and walk around the town, Dobre Miasto - medieval era churches, Olsztyn with cute old town and cathedral and Klubokawiarnia Filmowa (movie cafe), Frombork with cathedral and old town and many others... Most of the things to see either for free or for not more than 2- 3 € per ticket. Local transportation very decent, but it's better to take your own car because this area is full of treasures everywhere.
I am grateful for caretakers of the Museum of Warmia and Mazury at the castle of Lidzbark for answering our questions and giving us an insight to the past and present of the castle.
Sometimes I do a wine goulash with variety of content. Whatever vegetables are there they end up in the pan and make goulash for me.
This time it was: 2 big carrots sliced into small tiny pieces, zukinie sliced into 0,5 cm pieces - 3 of them, 4 onions and 3 pieces of garlic. Spices included milled pepper, salt, sweet paprika powder and chilli paprika powder.
You can have it either with indian bread baked in tandoori oven ( matches very nice) or like me with small italian (real italian) macaroni balls.
First thing you do is glassing tiny chopped onions and garlic on olive oil or sunflower one ( will do as well). Later you put it aside and wait till it coold down.
Subsequently you have your carrots done like this above.
This is what you do with zukinie.
Now the fun part.. After the onions cool down it comes time for paprika. You add up paprika as much as all the pieces are nicely covered with it- or even more. Paprika powder can not be burnt!!! Add spoon of chilli paprika powder too. Ideally it should be dark red, but somehow in Poland it ends up orange. Put it aside into a bigger pot where you will be doing the actual goulash. Start frying chopped meat ( either beef or pork or even poultry if you like).
Use bouplion dice or cook chicken leg long enough before you prepare everything. Ideally 1- 2 soup base dice are enough for 800 ml of water ( circa). Boulion should not be too salty! Once it's boiled add the prefried meet to your onions in the other pot and add up boulion as high as it almost covers meat.
Once you see meat is soft add up carrots. Keep watching if you still feel strong paprika scent and taste ( don't mean too spicy here, strong is that you can differentiate you actually smell and taste paprika. If not, add some.
Some minutes after carrots when they are semi soft it's time for your zukinie. It is done quickly so watch it that it is just done but is not tearing into pieces. Check the taste, add some spices if you feel like it.
Final touch is wine. If it happens that after some students party of a friend cheap red wine is a leftover, keep the bottle. Such wine is perfect for cooking. I usually add up half of the tea glass inside a pot with goulash and minute after turn off the heat. If your macaroni, potatoes, rice or indian bread is already there, start eating :) Enjoy :)
This is my ready dish. With it a half glass of the red wine from small family winery in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse and my day is done. I have not done a single important or productive things today. I have a headache since very morning and decided to take a rest and enjoy cooking. Bon apetite! Let me know how was it.
One of the Warsaw modern cinemas. After 15 minutes the sound of pop-corn stopped annoying me. No, they did not finish it, they just stopped eating. For the first 15 minutes of the movie quiet conversations go on. Nothing seems to happen on the screen.
Indeed for people brought on with pompous and effective image of MI6 draw in their heads by James Bond, his fellow, George Smiley (excellent Gary Oldman) seems to be absolutely boring.
He is not sexy either. He wears grey coat and thick glasses, his hair could have seen a hairdresser weeks earlier. He seems to be grey guy doing grey job.
But the real picture of an intelligence officer is exactly that average looking chap. Watching his actions, we may feel like in a theatre. Despite moving around the streets on occasion, most of the plot happens between just a few people in not more than 4 or 5 rooms. Engaging dialogues in harmonious calm set where even a bee has it's place.
"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" has one genuine strength. The very very realistic scenery. Every detail in the movie is worked perfectly. There are no GSM towers on the horizon, or too modern cars, or any cellphone ringing anywhere. It is real London of the 70's, a little bit brownish, grey, rainy with low buildings, always dirty from forever smog.
The extreme accuracy with which the movie is done is I suppose a result of a close cooperation between the director Thomas Alfredson and the author of the book upon which the movie was done, John le Carre.
While every single of John le Carre's books is an ideal real life plot full of surprising events among very boring normal people, the book "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" is a special one. David John Moore Cornwell, as is le Carre's real name has got 20 years of active service in British intelligence. His role and identity in the Circus as MI6 is called among the workers, got burnt down due to betrayal of Kim Philby, one of the Great Five, group of smart Oxford students recruited into intelligence work. By writting the "Karla Trilogy" le Carre deals with memories of his own past in the service. Only long after those events he can finally write about it and be not afraid for his life.
In history there had been probably a number of moles situated at the top of British intelligence. One of them was allegedly Richard Hollis, the very head of MI5. Peter Wright who first wrote a book about him, could not have printed it anywhere outside Australia. He was forced into retirement and lived as a farmer until his death as a millionaire due to sells of his book "Spycatcher".
Several days ago the identity of another Russian spy who tried to infiltrate British high class was revealed by Daily Telegraph. Mikhail Repin, young, synpathetic, witty gentleman who spoke flawless english had done his best to try to recruit members of the Parliament and officials working at Downing Street 10.
He was cought. Maybe there is hope for Britain, that the country may improve it's image which got really compromised. If indeed there was a mole at the top, a lot of events in the history of 20th century makes sense, including the story of Polish army in the West which got buried officially and banned from publically being spoken about until the very fall of communism. There is indeed something in it....
For those boys who dream in their mucho heads about James Bond life. Beware.
Cash, maybe. Women, sometimes.
Peace of mind, never. Friends, never. Watching behind your shoulder, always.
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"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", Thomas Aldredson, 2011.
...in other words, I would expect more of Peter Weir.
But let's start from the very beginning. Some time ago I had finally seen that movie just because of family reasons. After all Siberian experience of forced labor, escapes from the camps, death shots in Katyń woodlands or elsewhere, that's all a family history, so watching a movie done by a great director in 21st century may make this thing kind of closer.
There are several guys in the camp of several different ethnicities. Some of them Russian, some of them French and a Polish guy (Jim Sturgees) who was betrayed by his own wife. Not of her own will, obviously. Soviet bastards forced her to do this. After all if you rape or beat the lady, not many of them are tough enough not to talk what the "authorities" want to hear.
In the camp we see rules of life. Urkas are the rule and among them the leader - called exactly Urka (Colin Farrell), not Walka like some idiots writting movie reviews want us to believe.
Soviets divided prisoners into political ones: enemies of the state, and Urkas - mere criminals, rapists, murderers, etc. After all every system has this kind of people. They had been rewarded by the camp rulers for spying on those political ones and exactly that is shown in the movie. Scenes in the camp belong to the best ones, because the rest is unfortunately not as good.
The rest of the movie shows the escape and obstacles on the way. But something was wrong with music. This movie had been too silent. Semi-desert had also been too silent. Several times there have been scenes repeated picturing the group walking down the bank of the Baikal Lake (deepest one in the world). These scenes might have been of bigger variety of angles, light etc.
Strong sides of the movie? Yes, there are two of them, well three. At first people responsible for light should be awarded with Oscar. It's been quite a while since I had seen a movie where light was worked out to the tiny detail. Currently noone seems to care and very often we see that a person is additionally lit up with a 300W light bulb even if the scene is shot outdoors. This is against a lot of rules, but rich producers of nowadays explain it by budget reasons. Oh really? They receive 10x that much as their predecessors some 20 years ago and yet 20 years ago light was light. It had to be obeyed with no exceptions.
So if you want to see a movie where a sunlight is a sunlight and if it shines it shines properly with right intensity from the proper side of a person, you should watch The Way Back to learn how to do it. If compared hardly any movie of recent matches up to this standard, and here including Avatar, Sherlock Holmes and many others.
Another plus is the scene when Urka decides to stay. In some conversations with Russian dissidents or from Vladimir Bukovsky book I have learned that the lowest category wolf still never ever leaves his pack. And that the most Soviet people did not want to pay the price of freedom. Known hell is still better than unknown heaven.
The third good thing in the movie is a feeling of reunion... a march to freedom, when finally in 1989 a husband can hug a wife whom he had not seen since 1940's. I won't say more. I would expect much much more of Peter Weir, but nevertheless it is a movie worth watching.
It's not a movie, but who knows, maybe one day someone uses it as a good script.
Up to 30% of aid funds in conflict areas are wrongly spent. Jean Mazurelle, former director of the World Bank branch in Kabul, estimated that 35%–40% of all international aid being sent to Afghanistan is “wrongly spent”. “In Afghanistan, the wastage of aid is sky-high: there is real looting going on. In the 30 years of my career, I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.
Similar looting took place in Somali, which cause direct American intervention back in 1992. Black market traded aid goods for real dollars there where people were dying of hunger.
As an author of War Games: The Story of Aid and War in Modern Times Linda Pulman says, foreign aid became a reason of some unrest and rebellions in many corners of the world. The logic behind it is simple: without violence and devastation, there is no aid. So, the more devastation, conflict, violence and terror, the more place seems to be in need of humanitarian approach, and together with it, real money comes.
In post-conflict Mozambique, mafia organizations founded NGO's which made a lot of attempts to swingle money from overseas aid funds.Foreign diplomats and UNDP workers were forced to carry guns if they really wanted to supervise how money is being spent. Some of them got themselves seriously injured.
Not only insurgents consider foreign aid as a good way to get richer. There is a growing number of websites which represent problems with some area by heartcatching words and no real concrete details of implemented projects, dare to ask good-willing people for donation. How many of them trust such websites? It is difficult to say. It is not easy to prove a hoax being done this way. What if these money are really helping someone?
How to recognize which initiative is trustworthy and which isn't? My long term practice in watching NGO actions tells me that each organization which wants to build social credibility, gathers some big names in their scientific or advisory boards, or the members themselves have long enough scientific or diplomatic careers that their call for money gives some hope, that it goes for real needs. Next thing is project evaluation report, which credible organization should do and publish at least once a year. What has been done? What did we accomplish? It is easier to monitor such things if it is a hard-aid NGO, much less easy if it is just a watchdog. But even a watchdog gains credibility by making it's actions really known.
I have known a lot of NGO activists and workers starting from Amnesty International, ending on local environmental initiatives. Some of them, after 10 years of hard work for bigger and better known NGO, started new initiative, new foundation which fulfilled certain niche, a space in society which still needs some action. The basis of trust however, are former careers of these people, their long years of experience, and the very simple fact that, they are not John Doe's.
If you see that the owner of some website which calls for donations and gives literally no solid information, is a John Doe, a "noname" with no achievements, no history, no background, skip it. If such a person wants to help others, there are thousands of better ways than starting his or her own "organization" in the age of 23 with a "donate" button using Joomla template.
If you really want to help, donate your work, donate your time for something local, something you really know. Give cloths away to Caritas, volunteer to clean space after the flood. If you need to give cash, think twice before you do.
...jump! So she avoided sight of scent hounds again. Another time on that winter night. Snow and ice crunching under their feet made it possible tobe heared from the far. But so she could be heard from a distance too. The skillful silent walk made very slight noise which her humters more felt than crealy heard.
She stopped to look around. Spruce, pinewood and oaks so high above closed their crowns up there. Warm steam of breath moved slowly away from her nosdrils. Lungs worked like crazy up and down. Pulse slowly very slowly went back to normal. Light of million stars glistened everywhere. She thought it is visible, the embrace of freeze which forces to struggle, makes trails visible. Hunting was easy for her in these long weeks in the forest. This time however she was being hunted for...
The passion of a goal in the air speeded dogs foreward. Lupa was there in the woods in front of them, strong, fast, but so vulnerable in her solitude. Scent of her fur excited their senses, scent of freedom they had never known.
She stopped resting and thinking and moved own slowly. Blackberry bushes marked the way to the swamps. Scream of tawny owl teared apart heavy silence in the air. Not far from her way of escape brave mother of the mice tribe gave herself up to the ancient pirate. Circle of life went on.
Not me! You will never get me!, thought she running restlessly ahead. Passing junipers and royal ferns Lupa could smell increasing humid essence of swamps ahead of her. It was the kingdom of elks where she headed. Never before needed she to be hidden so deeply in the woods running for dear life, trying to avoid the fate.
Moss gently moved under her paws. Instinct told her to stop going this way but instinct also told her to live. One step after another. In between fallen pines and small birches and willows she could see black mirror of water, black as a coal with none spark of a star in it. Waiting for it's victims... waiting patiently... for her?
Moss moved again as she jumped on a fallen pine. Another one she could see so far away. Too far to reach it! Bark of dogs went closer, her front paws slipped into the black sucking hell. Long seconds of struggle to get them out but why, for approaching nemezis. destiny? Is it her time now, is it what has to happen?
Goddess of nature herself helped her that moment. Told to stretch muscles and jump, her thin body almost reached the pole of pine, clinging to remains of birch she suffocated , breathed with a wistle trying to grasp a bit of air inside, pulling herself up. She laid on the pine getting strengths back. Long minutes seemed to pass endlessly. Her body shivered in convulsions. There, 100 m away ahead was the shelter of deep forest. If only she could get there?
Could she?... Her bright eyes measured difficulties. Only small birches and willows had given any hope for salvation. So she started gently jumping from one poor piece of wood to another. Had she fallen into black deepness she would never come up from it's embrace. Never...
But Goddess of Nature had grace on this night. Exhausted, grey mistress of night, climbed up the moss on the other side. Black hell let her go. On the other side, male cohort of hounds blinded with primeaval passion went on to the swamp to meet their destiny. She stood looking onto the dance macabre, kept watching first two brave ones as their nosdrils desperately tried to gasp and soon their bodies sucked into the black arms of death.
She stood watching the rest as they kept barking in a helpless desperation, could see her, could not get her.
"Darkness is my kingdom, not yours". Her proud pose had spoken unspeakable.
She turned her thin body and vanished in the woods. Long time could she hear desperate barking.
It has been a while since I had seen "Closer" by Mike Nichols. I had seen many more movies which I should write about here.
But. I had just closed a chapter in my life, directly related with life away from my circle of best friends and family. I met another best friends but after 6 months I am emotionally exhausted. Decided to sort out quantities of my stuff and found souvenirs and memoirs and many other things.
Have noticed how often one ends up clinged in a situation when it seems impossible not to get hurt because you have a ringing bell in your brain. Some people decide to listen to a ringing bell some decide to ignore it. Some yet decide to fight.
The director shows several of characters mutually involved in a romance. An affair starts between a lost guy who saves a young girl from some accident ( brilliant Natalie Portman here). Soon after he is bored with a heart given up to him on a plate and moves on an affair with a silent mysterious photographer (Julia Roberts) who thanks to our mr Lost (Jude Law) meets her husband (Clive Owen).
"Quit the crap" heard I from one close Dutch friend recently "if you want something you get it. As long as you believe in it you fight for it. You lose or you win but you fight".
Very soon betrayed husband finds out his wife's cheating actions and enraged makes a show of anger and jealousy on her. But suprisingly the director wants us not to see how he quits with dignity but how he fights her back. How he uses the very fact of a bond between a man and a woman and he fights her back successfully.
Mr Lost who ends up as Mr Looser in this moment returns to what he had rejected earlier, a young girl freshly heartbroken who unfortunately had sex with everyone would thought "honest and thuggish" Mr Husband in a moment of weakness. Rejected once again, Alice walks off in a crowd of people just as she walked in in the initial scenes. What happens with her later? Does her young inexperienced heart ever recover? Who does she become? That we do not know, this is the question the director leaves to be answered by everyone individually.
Despite enormous volume of pain it is still a movie of hope. It is subconsciouslly suggested to us. The dominant color in the movie is green, all shades of green including greenlike water in the aquarium, or greenlike surroundings of the streets and apartments. Green is a color of hope.
When Alice walks away she wins. Mr Lost stays himself alone first time ever crying because games after all, do not pay off.
Alice walks away to start over and to leave the chapter called "mistakes" behind her.
This all had come to my mind when l was watching Damien Rice today. Long time ago someone had send me a link and told me to watch a movie.
I was planning to watch Salt by Philip Noyce since my last birthday. Recently there was some occasion to get my hands on this picture.
Primary reason of interest was Daniel Olbrychski getting his 5 minutes in the movie, possibly 5 the most valuable ones. The main character, Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is a CIA agent under cover of a businesswoman. Her husband has no clue of her profession. Moreover he has no clue that she is a sleeping mole for ex-KGB officers who form a secret unit.
At one moment into the Agency HQ comes man called Orlov who reveals that there is a mole inside whose name is Salt. After his escape Evelyn Salt, exposed and trusted by noone, starts struggle for her survival and for saving the Russian president in a way that her Russian supervisors believe he is actually killed.
The director sets us off on a journey full of kicking, killing, jumping, speeding on the highway. The scenes with Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski) are one of the best ones, but even him who supposed to be falsely slow and sneaking like a snake makes a show of combat skills which are not really needed. Two scenes of conversations between Orlov and Salt are the only good sides of the picture. After all, the tension is not always about kicking whatever walks by. A silent threat of not even raised voice makes bigger impression.
The plot itself is outdated. Lee Harvey Oswald and Kennedy conspiracy theory are things no longer fashionable. In recent history of post -Soviet era the reality is full of secret service actions which would serve far better as a start-point of the movie. Enough to mention poisoning of colonel Litvenenko in this place, a mystery which still remains "unsolved".
Rare case, I don't remember music from this movie. Probably it was very well matched with whatever action and served it's purpose as a good background. Good music sometimes saves the movie, but I don't remember it.
By chance I checked who was the scriptwriter. Kurt Wimmer... is it really the same person who had written the Thomas Crown Affair screenplay? Everyone has better and worse outcomes of his work. But to write a successful script for a spy story is like writting a novel on it. It has to be very well prepared and thoroughly researched before writing any word. Otherwise any ultimate fan of political fiction, like me, will be disappointed. I didn't buy a cinema ticket, just seen dvd at the friend's place. And, I wouldn't buy it.
****
Is there anything she likes, a reader may ask. Yes. There is one movie done exceptionally well which pictures daily struggles of secret agents operating in the shadows of society and law. "Secret Agents" with Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel is a must watch and good rest after watching "Salt" Not that everything is perfect in that one either. I will write about it some time later.
