it’s already starting!!! 3:27!!!!!
Sunset Watch: Dec 19
3:25
Sunset Watch: Dec 18
3:26
You Gave It Away....
Last Christmas by Wham! has been in my face a lot this year because it's the favorite (English language?) Christmas song in Poland, which has given me a lot to wonder about.
First, why would this song be anyone's favorite Christmas song, much less the favorite Christmas song of an entire country!!?? Certainly the video shows George Michael at his most blond-with-dark-roots twink-a-deliciousness, but it's not a happy, holly, jolly tale. It's at best the story of a guy who is still incredibly sad at the way he was treated by this bitch (or guy), and more likely he has moved from sad to bitter and angry -- which is a darker and infinitely less healthy place to be 12 whole months later. Not happy, which is what society expects Christmas to be.
Second, I'm not really sure if I understand the lyrics. Not that they're a mire of deeply symbolic references, certainly not that! But he repeatedly tells us, "This year, to save me from tears, I'll give it (my heart) to someone special" -- except at the very end, when he says "Maybe next year I'll give it to someone, I'll give it to someone special". Sooooo, is he acknowledging that he is still carrying the proverbial torch, that he still loves this heart breaker? And does he tell this only to US, or does he admit this to the bitch too?
Next, even after 35 freakin’ years, whenever I hear "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, But the very next day," my mind finishes it with "you tore it apart"... I mean, the power of rhyming Heart and Apart overrides the thousands of times I've heard the song. And the rhyme actually found in the song -- "the very next day you gave it away" -- seems so infantile and weak — like American Budweiser.
But anyway, it is indeed the favorite Christmas song of Poland, and to celebrate this a radio station is staging an event in Krakow to set a Guiness Book Record of the most people singing this song at the same time.
It's happening Dec 23 -- the day I arrive in Krakow for my holiday -- but sadly many hours before I can get there. I would have loved to be part of this -- even if I'm not in agreement with it being the best Christmas song evah!
And yes, I really do have lots of time for thinking in Poland.
Don't Go Into The Forest, Little Red!
As part of my job, for my more mature students I must give an oral exam three times a year. I have to take each student out of the room and follow a specific sequence of questions and actions, requiring about 5 minutes for each student.
Therefore, I have to assign a class project to keep the students busy in the classroom.
I took evil pleasure in coming up with difficult, culturally relevant, and ironic projects for my classes.
My most advanced teens rose to the challenge, which was to write a favorable review of a movie called "Don't Go Into the Forest, Little Red!", a modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Here are two reviews of this imaginary movie by 14-year-olds.
"Don't Go Into the Forest, Little Red!" is a retelling of a classic book about Little Red. This one is definitely much darker and terrjfjed than original. Little Red is played by Emma Stone who definitely had time of her life playing that. The plot stayed similar comparing to original. Little Red still want to get to her Grandma play by Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn and then have to deal with a Wolf (played by Bill Murray). What is objectively good about a movie is it technical aspects. Naturalistic camera work, great lighting and big budget for sets and costumes, and special effects are defining a well made movie.
"Don't Go Into The Forest, Little Red!" is a interesting fantasy story. It has really good cast, like Christopher Lee playing the Hunter or Margot Robbie as a Little Red. The performance was good especially Margot Robbie who really get into her role. The film is set in a fantasy world with talking animals. The plot is about the Little Red who travels to her grandpa in order to give her a pie and a wine. At her journey she meet a wolf which ask her what is she doing here. She responds to him after that he pursue her to have fun in the forest and that is when he goes to Little Red grandpa and eat her. Then he dress up like her. In the end wolf eat but then comes the hunter which kills wolf and rescue the Little Red and her grandpa. The technical aspects of this file are very great especially in the last scene.
Lime in da Coconut
I just had to take a photo of this sweatshirt....
The 1940s-era tropical kitsch made me think of a postcard Rita Hayworth might have sent to hubby Orson Welles from Buenos Aires... I’m picturing big hibiscus flowers over the ear and Carmen Miranda fruit basket up-dos.
Looking closer we notice that not only are all the words English, but it’s bad English.... there are nonsensical combinations and bad spellings...
I saw the phenomenon in Italy, English writing on clothing... and in particular fake tourism tee shirts for Brooklyn and California.... but there the spelling was usually correct and the phrases were usually correct... and pop-culturally relevant...
Apparently this guy bought the shirt at Cropp, which is a Polish clothing store chain based in Gdańsk and found in every mall in Poland... Just one of several chain stores in a larger retail group which have stores in every mall in Poland.
…Thinking they should invest in an English consultant…
The Polish Sky
99% of the time, the Polish sky looks like Wilson Fisk's painting, the one he stares at... white and thick... and hopeless...
Poland Chic
For Christmas party, tight black dress, multiple layers of tights and leggings, a turtleneck, and snow boots.
Sadly you can’t see the boots, but they are fab, and I am rockin’ it Poland style!
Cold and Flu Season Update
I have contracted The Plague from a 10-year-old who sneezed on me. Lesson learned: never tempt Mother Nature
Friday Night in the Kingdom of Radom
On Friday night Rebecca my roommate and I went out after work. There’s a nice upbeat restaurant/bar downstairs from the school where we sometimes go. The waiter Damian speaks great English, though in the Polish tradition he likes to say “no, no, my English is bad…” He’s tall and smiles with a Lauren Hutton-esque gap and Flock of Seagulls hair.
We drank some killer dark beer with a fabulous flavor, and we had a Polish vodka shot with the requisite smalec (lard) on dense bread. Pickles required.
Then some of Rebecca’s adult students (in truth, her fave students) came to our table with a bottle of vodka and forced two more shots on us! Nostrowia!!
We split a dinner of Hungarian Goulash over a potato pancake. JHC! That’s some good eatin’!! The pancake was really like hash browns, and the goulash was fork tender.
This is my half of the order!
We stumbled home arm-in-arm — actually she guided me home because she is a professional drinker, whereas I am only an amateur — and then there was some drunk dialing going on…
All-in-all, a pretty successful excursion.
Friday Fish
I’ve been asked if the portions are really small, and therefore the people are not as obese in Poland as in the US.
The portions are slightly smaller than in the US, but it seems soup is always served as part of the (restaurant) meal. And these are big honkin’ bowls of soup— I’d guesstimate a good 12 ounces if not more... and always delicious.
In comparing today’s fish and chips (and two kinds of fabulous kraut) with last week’s baked fish with tots and kraut, definitely today’s portions were larger than last week... I couldn’t finish everything... but in today’s restaurant they don’t serve dessert as part of the lunch special. The price is the same.
There is much less obesity in Poland, but it still occurs (much more than in Italy).
Holiday Plans
I'm really excited about planning my Christmas trip. This time I'm going to Krakow. I'm meeting my friend Barb, an American who lives in Milan. This is Christmas-palooza Due (pronounced "doo eh"), as we were in Provence together last Christmas.
My first stop, as usual, was AirBNB where there are tons of fabulous apartments at great USD prices!
Next I talked to many of my colleagues and adult students about what I should see... and I consulted TripAdvisor.
It had totally left my mind (or perhaps been blocked) that Krakow is near Auschwitz and is also the city that Schindler operated in -- so these items are Priority 1. We both feel we must take time out of a happy holiday to be justifiably horrified -- lest people be allowed to forget.
After this we're going to be taking in the Christmas market, some old churches and synagogues, and maybe drinking some Polish vodka... Maybe...
It's Better in Poland
By Dec 1 2017 I had already had three terrible colds - debilitating and long lasting. I confirmed with an American doctor living in Milan that your body needs time to adjust to the strains of illnesses specific to a place, and as such it was normal for a newcomer to fall ill often until they build immunity.
Also, public trans (subways, trams, buses) are fantastic incubation pods for every plague flashing through the day cares and elementary schools -- the air you breath as well as all the surfaces, doors, card readers, hand rails, etc.
In Radom, though much colder than Milan, I haven't been sick once yet, even though I'm surrounded by plague carriers all day every day. I'm attributing this to taking mostly private cars and walking. And taking a big dose of Emergen-C every freakin day!
(Don't ask me if I'd rather be in Milan even WITH the probability of plague... Let's not go there...)
The Line Starts Here
I've never really thought in-depth about the process behind standing in line.
We learn it from our earliest forays into group care or education, a way for sitters or teachers to keep us corralled, safe, controlled. We're judged on how compliant and calm we are in the line.
Even into adulthood we judge others on how they perform in line. There's even a Big Bang Theory episode about In-Line-Etiquette (and I must say, I'm torn between the Sheldon hard line, and the Howard meh… ).
In a US shop, not a grocery store or big box store where checkout lines are very clearly demarcated, but in a shop where there may be only one or two cash registers, the line typically forms perpendicular to the counter. It’s just a thang. We all know it.
But in Poland, the line is formed parallel to the counter... so in small shops, at the meat counter in the grocery store, everywhere, you lean on the counter and inch yourself toward the person who is helping you... which means (in the case of the meat counter) that no one can even SEE what's in the counter until you're in the line and leaning up against the glass...
The lines are very orderly, everyone would get gold stars... I guess it's the residual training from Communist times.
I have never had this experience.
It was a very good year...
Oh! If you are a Netflix addict -- and really, who isn't -- there is a new Polish show on called 1983.
The linked article suggests that Americans will need to read subtitles -- and we know THAT will never happen -- but on my Italian Netflix there is dubbing in English, so I'm golden and you may be too.
The premise is of an alternate timeline where the Lech Walesa-led Solidarity-movement never came to fruition, Mr Gorbah-Chev never tore down the wall, and "the party" is stronger and more pervasive than ever.
I've just gotten into it, but a plotline of an old-school cop, mysteriously out of favor, following a series of so-called-suicides which no one wants investigated is prolly gonna keep my interest.
Watch closely, now... are ya watchin me now...
I find myself at the movies again on Saturday night. This time I saw "A Star is Born".
This movie has been made so many times. 1937.... Judy Garland in 1954... And then, from my youth, Barbra Streisand and Kris Krisofferson in 1976 (do the math, jerks!). I had the soundtrack on vinyl and it was meditative while doing my many household chores in high school.
"The black, black widow is sittin' in the middle of the web It's the fly she seeks.."
I notice right away that Bradley Cooper (of the glow-in-the-dark blue eyes) is taking on some kind of non-Bradley voice which I (wrongly!!!) attribute as an homage to Kris Krisofferson. It was actually an homage to hunka-hunka Sam Elliott (Lifeguard, anyone... anyone?) who plays Bradley's long-suffering less-successful brother.
Story is predictable -- fourth iteration, after all -- but seemed more ham-fisted with the morals... yes, Elly sold her soul for fame; yes, Jack was stupidly jealous of her rising star.
I didn't really enjoy the camera action in this file. Everything seemed very close... too close...
Three points of comparison leave me slightly favoring the 1976 version:
2018 - It seemed in this version, Elly kept her wide-eyed-wonder love for Jack, even in the face global humiliation and his disintegration before our eyes.
1976 - I felt that John Norman Howard took a more "manly" way out, than did Jackson Maine.
1976 - I preferred the tribute concert by Esther over that by Elly.
WTF-o-meter!!!! Andrew Dice Clay plays Elly's father!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Spoon and Fork
Omg! Another stellar meal today in my fave restaurant Fork and Spoon (Spoon and Fork???). Piping hot soup with boiled egg, kielbasa and a delicious broth; baked fish, sauerkraut, and tater tots; chocolate cake for dessert. It might have been chocolate carrot or chocolate orange and it had just a drizzle of cream cheese frosting... cake was a tad dry, but yummy!!! $6 including tip!!!
And on the way out, the waitress and I rescued a ladybug from certain death by broom, so maybe my luck is gonna change!!!
Bambi sighting
When we dropped the young teacher off at her family home deep in the forest, a group of deer were frolicking in the night. They didn’t want to move out of the road.
Not the greatest photo, but you get the gist.
Can You Say SAD?
Seasonal Affective Disorder
... So there's that....
I found myself at the cinema again today. I saw Crimes of Grindelwald. I came away ambivalent.
I'm an old-school HP fan, reading all seven books multiple times, and seeing the movies over and over. I am a true fan.
Those movies were kept on track, on plot, by the JKR canon -- there were books loved by millions and the author insisted that Hollywood not waiver away.
But this series, written in screenplay, is allowed to exist more for bigger and better special effects than for the plot (as always good vs. evil, if you look closely beyond the explosions to see it).
I give it three 'Meh'...
But hey, I went to the mall and saw some people.