Pociąg

Pamiętam, jak na zajeciach z czytania tekstów literackich na anglistyce dr Janusz Semrau z sobie tylko właściwą charyzmą zastanawiał się nad fenomenem podróżowania pociągiem, nad momentem spotkania się w jednym czasie, jednym miejscu grupy nieznajomych, nad potencjałem rozmowy, który z tej przypadkowej konstelacji wynika.

Przyszło mi to wspomnienie do głowy przy okazji oglądania Pociągu Jerzego Kawalerowicza, przedziwnego filmu drogi z 1959 roku, którego akcja toczy się w nocnym pociągu z Łodzi na Hel. W przedziale sypialnym pierwszej klasy spotykają się wbrew swojej woli tajemniczy mężczyzna (Leon Niemczyk), który szuka samotności i spokoju, oraz młoda, roztrzęsiona kobieta - Marta (Lucyna Winnicka). Trafia do męskiego przedziału przez przypadek, kupując w ostatniej chwili bilet od człowieka na dworcu. W drodzie nad Bałtyk towarzyszą im pasażerowie sąsiednich przedziałów, w tym ksiądz, poszukująca przygody mężatka z małżonkiem, jowialna konrolerka oraz zdesperowany były chłopak Marty, grany przez Zbyszka Cybulskiego.

Jest w ich przelotnym spotkaniu subtelna tajemnica, ale też nadzieja. Najpierw razem z pasażerami krok po kroku, rozmowa za rozmową, dowiadujemy się kto jest kim, oczywiście bez rezultatu, bez dotarcia do prawdy. Wręcz przeciwnie - w porywie chwili cały wagon, kierując się pozorami, domysłami i psychologią tłumu, widzi w mężyczyźnie granym przez Leona Niemczyka mordercę, gdy zatrzymuje go milicja. Dopiero przytomna interwencja Marty, która rozpoznaje podejrzanego w człowieku, który sprzedał jej bilet, przywraca honor niesłusznie oskarżonemu. Jeszcze więcej niedopowiedzenia jest w jego relacji z Martą, ich początkowej wrogości, nieprzystępności, która stopniowo odsłania przejmującą potrzebę kontaktu, rozmowy, poznania drugiego człowieka. Dla Marty, poturbowanej przez kolenych mężczyzn, deklarującej wolę życia w samotności, a jednocześnie pełnej nadziei, ufności, ciekawości, jest to niezbędne jak powietrze. Ta tęsknota za przygodą, porozumieniem, kontaktem wręcz buzuje z kobiety z sąsiedniego przedziału, znudzonej mężem prawnikiem.

Pociąg dojeżdża do Helu, natychmiast ginie nastrój zawieszenia, oderwania od rzeczywistości, wyczekiwania, tajemniczy mężczyzna okazuje się lekarzem, na którego na peronie czeka żona. Jego ucieczka nie ma w sobie tyle romantyczności, ile początkowo można by się domyślać - po prostu zapragnął odpoczynku po trzech trudnych operacjach, jednej tragicznie zakończonej. Marta nie znajduje w pociągu niczego ani nikogo, odchodzi plażą w nieznane, ucieka dalej. Jej adorator Staszek nie odzyskuje jej względów mimo swojej desperackiej pogoni. Inni pasażerowie też rozchodzą się każdy w swoją stronę.

Watch him in 2025

Kieron Williamson from Holt (Norfolk) may well be the artist to watch in 2025 when he will reach his 20s. Now, at the age of seven, this precocious child talent has art enthusiasts and dealers sign up in a growing waiting list for his future output. His painting gift, by now concentrated around tender landscapes, is becoming widely acknowledged and his parents begin to adjust their family life and upbringing to accommodate Kieron's spectacular abilities.

Vocab to remember:
1. Small boys aren't renowned for loquaciousness,
2. a nutritionist = dietetyk,
3. precocious = too mature for their age,
4. a child prodigy,
5. He's head and shoulders (= by far) above others.
6. an artist's temperament,
7. to be top of the class in maths,
8. to be all-or-nothing with things you do,
9. I can price it down for you.
10. acrylics, watercolours, pastels and oils.

Shorts blown to smithereens (II)

There were a few unique gems among the films I got to translate for AleKino! and one that stands out (the only one I actually made a copy of) is a Norwegian short Oh, My God!. It's a hilarious memory flashback to childhood in the early 80s in Norway when obsession with sex and freer eroticism ran high and seduced preadolescent girls into a bizarre initiation ritual. Fascinated by nude magazines sporting snapshots of women in erotic poses and full of descriptions of ecstasy, a group of girlfriends, 12-year-old or so, are led by Charlene, a blond ringleader, into believing they can get an guaranteed orgasm if they follow her odd recipe that includes a tablespoon and a cup of warm water. At a secret sex convention in Charlene's pink-dominated room, one by one, they take the orgasm set, step into a wardrobe and within seconds start yelling in excitement, pretending to come. Under Charlene's terror, no participant dares call the bluff and the awkward session goes on until the main protagonist (and the narrator), at first sheepishly, then with outstanding cunning, decides to shock her girlfriends by outperforming them in ecstasy shrieks and seizures. She carries it out so convincingly that other girls, including the cheeky, fake Charlene, are stunned into doubting whether she possibly might have had a true orgasm, which instantly elevates her to the status of a teenage hero.

Based on a short story by Anna Bache-Wiig, it develops seemlessy with a narrator voice-over, which I adore, guiding a viewer through teenage vulnerabilities, perceptions and misperceptions with delicious irony and distance grown-ups can afford when looking back at the eventful, though compeletly illogical, times of early adolescence. For me, the film felt as if I'd just heard a friend of mine retelling me, over beer, another embarrassing memory of her as a 12-year-old and me bursting in laughter at the punchline, which I actually did.

Three other shorts that fell into my hands were OK, but it was much harder for me to identify with their content, style or subject matter. The South-Korean Rubout, telling a distressing story of the last phone call between a manager trapped in a train that is about to fall from a bridge and his wife, has even won a prize at the festival, but still failed to move me. So did the Norwegian Deconstruction workers, a meaning-of-life dialogue between a young builder and his older colleague at the construction site who conclude that it's best to accept life and its limitations as they are, and the Mexican Niño de mis ojos (The apple of my eyes), which I nonetheless enjoyed as an exercise in my budding Spanish.

¿Que haces? = Co robisz?
¿Necessito ajuda? = Potrzebujesz pomocy?
La Bamba by Los Lobos is a classic whose lyrics are often used in Spanish classes.

Here is what a meringue means in English.

Are you smarter than McCutcheon?

I wanted to see some UK game show and stumbled across Are you smarter than a 10-year-old?, a TV quiz that takes contestants back to school times and questions them on National Curriculum. It's great as a language resource and a window into the British culture. Its special charity edition introduced me to a UK celebrity of versatile talents and incredible beauty Martine McCutcheon, interviewed here by G2.

Shorts blown to smithereens (1)

On top of a number of feature films, AleKino! asked me to work on several shorts, some of which proved incredibly appealing.

Birth by Signe Baumane, here in her other funny animation, gave a fast-paced, light-hearted overview of the horrors a pregnant teenager has to go through in a backward community where all other women have to offer in terms of support are stories of personal hurt and disappointment. In less than a quarter of an hour the girl protagonist is dragged through her unexpected pregnancy, put down by her complaining mother, disillusioned, hysterical aunts and unsympathetic doctor, until she gives birth to a hellish, little boy who instantly has her enslaved. Neatly animated, the film ironically overblows the teenage fears and adult phobias towards babies and relationships that their arrival shapes. It may be a tad too gruesome for a very young audience and a degree of distance is necessary not to freak out at the sight of balooning pregnant bellies or zombie fetuses in medical charts.

Lots of excellent vocab:
1. noisy with cicadas, outside cicadas buzzed,
2. to tear at the seams,
3. to blow/smash a stereotype to smithereens (little pieces),
4. septic = ropiejący, a septic wound,
5. She pressed a baby to her bosom.
6. Immediately after birth, nurses give a baby a rinse,
7. delivery = poród,
8. "I know something, you don't know" kind of laugh,
9. the umbilical cord,
10. a pause of comprehension.

I let myself be enchanted by Aphrodite's Farm, a sweet New Zealand fable about a family milk farm somewhere at the foothills of Mount Taranaki (Egmont), whose dairy products are not only flavoursome, but also blessed with the magical qualities of prolonging life, improving health and enhancing talent. The bliss of this Maori household comes to an abrupt end when the head of the family dies of a heart attack, leaving his wife and three beautiful dauhthers helpless. To make matters worse, their plight gets compunded when Friday, a helping hand they hired to lift the farm from recession, takes a shining, fully requited, to one of the daughters. Little do they know that the milk potion, which their farm earns a living from, relies on a constellation of three virgin daughters for its extraordinary powers. Magical milk goes sour, its properties gone, Friday is banished and the farm declines further. Only to be reborn in 9 months' time when a newborn virgin repairs the ancient circle the ranch is based on.

1. Kia ora is a Maori greeting and one of key expressions that made their way to modern English, especially in New Zealand,
2. The farm was short-handed,
3. Horses refused to lift a hoof,
4. Absence makes the heart grow fonder,
5. foolhardy = szaleńczy, nierozstropny,
6. impetuos = zapalczywy, porywczy,
7. a lot of hard yakka = work,
8. the bloodline = pochodzenie
9. heal the infirm and cure the lame,
10. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say...
11. to get a big agro = get angry or hostile for no reason.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child

Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World had me running to the library to get more books on philosophy when I was 15 or so and, I hate to say it, it might shoulder some responsibility for me steering towards the humanities in later life. The book was stunning in the way it threw open giant philosophical questions teenagers start to feel strongly about and need some friendly exposure to. It was rich, but not suffocatingly so, in terminology that a 15-year-old mind is ready to soak in enthusiastically in an attempt to come to terms with first strong doubts.

I was doubly thrilled then when Ale Kino! commissioned me to translate Through a Glass, Darkly, a Norwegian production based on Gaarder's 1993 novel I haven't read. It's a multi-layered story of Cecilia, a vibrant 13-year-old girl who is doomed to prematurely die of cancer. The film traces her last days, which coincide with Christmas, when her touch with the world becomes compellingly intense and beyond what most ordinary people can experience. She daydreams a lot, transporting herself and the audience to her earlier days when, still unspoiled by the illness, she fell in love for the first time while on holiday in Spain. Edging nearer and nearer death as days go by, she begins to see Ariel the angel who seems to be there to soften her untimely transition. With her prognosis worsening and hopes of recovery practically disappearing, Cecilia, thanks to Ariel's heavenly assistance and teachings, gradually makes peace with her fate and finally - hand in hand with the angel - crosses the boundary between life and death.

It's a touching film, even more so if you watch it for the second time, as I had to, very carefully, scene after scene, in order to translate it. Its warmth and profound understanding of fragile human condition is hard to overrate, though some may criticize it for sentimentalism and blending different spiritual traditions into one. As for me, it wasn't annoying in the least and I see tangible value in Gaarder's modern-day reflection on difficult moral problems and everyday tragedies that people face irrespective of their material comforts or technological advancement. His inclusion of the Bible, with its enduring strength as a source of wisdom and contemplation, makes Though a Glass, Darkly both appealingly old-fashioned and plainly moving. It's the First Epistole to the Corinthians that provides the philosophical backbone to the story, with the title directly taken from it and a number of references throughout the film, and Gaarder deserves praise for reaching out to the classics to reestablish them in relation to life in the 21st century.

Language and ideas to remember:
1. bone marrow = szpik kostny,
2. a looking glass is another way to say a mirror,
3. hernia = przepuklina,
4. to tingle = to have prickling, stinging sensation (Her foot began to tingle, so she shifted her position),
5. hydrogen peroxide = a mild antiseptic (woda utleniona)

Out of the dark

Stonehenge, a British landmark in the middle of Salisbury Plain, plays host to the UK's druidic and pagan communities as they celebrate the winter solistice, the shortest day of the year after which the amount of sunshine gradually grows until the summer solistice, the longest day of the year. In a largely post-religious Britian, the events at Stonehenge attract a considerable audience from a general public, drawn by their percived spirituality and extraordinary ambience. Their appeal might be growing proportionately to the increasing commercialization of Christmas in the UK, which for most has lost its devotional basis.

Social class reclassified

While reading the latest report on the pre-election opinion polls and the sinking chances of the Conservatives to form an overall majority, rather than a hung parliament, I stumbled across the terms AB top social group, C1, C2 and the bottom DE group. It's clearly just another way to classify voters (or consumers) that comes as an alternative to the classic breakdown into upper, middle and working classes. It seems to have more to do with business research than academic sociology and is designed to direct products or advertising with greater precision. And since politics adapts rapidly to the demands of economic efficiency, it gladly resorts to the same, sharper, more analytical instruments businesses have at their disposal.

Crime stories

My interest in crime revived after a series of unexpectadly robust crime-and-punishment lessons for my ESL students. I was honestly taken aback by how enthusiastic people got about the topic which - in the end - seems rather distanced from their daily lives. As ususal, I was repeatedly caught red-handed by how-do-you-say type of questions and it inspired me to read more on crime, which is not difficult, if you consider how high it ranks with newspaper editors and readers. Here's a compilation of crime stories from different sources:
1) A teaching assitant stabbed to death by an angry chef.
2) A hit-and-run mother sent to mental institution following her diagnosis.
3) Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain's daughter granted a restraining order against her mother.

UK Christmas strikes plus snow chaos

In case you believed transport workers' strikes before Christmas were pitifully reserved for Poland, here's a report on how BA baggage handlers have caused chaos at Heathrow days before celebrations start.

Wintry conditions, for which British institutions and infrustructure aren't well cut out, tend to cause disruptions well beyond what is known in Poland.

The saga continued for a number of days, with a staggering increase in road accidents, widespread airport cancellations and delays and paralysing infrastructure problems, as the UK suffered from Arctic temperatures (of up to -16C in areas of Scotland) it is barely prepared for.

Poland makes headlines

Poland made headlines again when until now unidentified thieves stole a world-famous sign at the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Papers around the world turned their attention to Oświęcim, a town in the south of Poland, where the German extermination site was located and where the memorial is visited each year by thousands of visitors. I'm afraid a common perception of the Poles as a nation of crooks, petty and large-scale, is bound to get solidified after this disgraceful incident. Some press reactions the world over here, here, here and here.

The botched theft mastermind is now said to have come from Britain.

An American Vision

I stumbled across some clippings from the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine I tore away when I was in California in the summer of 2006 for the work and travel programme. The reason I stacked them away is because they featured an article on a French photographer Michelle Vignes, who continues to document American life from her base in SF. Her snapshots of the black community, which she has been tracing since the 60s with the special focus on music and musicians, and the American natives, revealing their age-old rituals and changing status, command the highest respect, both for her craftsmanship as a photographer and her thorough immersion in the cultures she portrays.

It came as no surprise to me, after seeing her shots, that she'd worked under the wings of Henri Cartier-Bresson for some time. Her photos, with their sensitivity, attention to cultural detail and insider's perspective, are evocative of style associated with Bresson and Magnum Photos.

Anxieties of a 5-year-old

In Morrison Gets a Baby Sister, another film I translated for AleKino!, the world turns upside down for a 5-year-old Morrison whose parents announce the arrival of his baby sister. This means sweeping changes in the boy's priviledged position at the centre of the family and sensing this unfavourable turn Morrison takes action. He goes on a series of unlikely adventures, stealing his dad's car, which he'd been trained to drive, and kidnapping his newly born sister. Distressed parents almost go out their mind and the village community is roused to its feet to join the desperate search for missing kids. Funnily, the most outstanding helper is a clumsy village police officer, who keeps chasing cars and tractors on his motocycle just to let them go free with a mild warning, whatever their offense. These's no doubt at any point that we're waiting for the happy end and it comes indeed with Morrison bravely reestablishing his position in the family and falling in love with his new sister.

Some good vocab:
1) cut the crap = cut the comedy,
2) threadbare tyres = worn tyres,
3) a hummingbird = koliber,
4) in a jiffy,
5) give a home birth

Gym or dog?

Here's an interesting piece from The Daily Mail on the latest research into physical exercise. The paper reports that walking a dog has a greater impact on bodily condition than going to the gym on a regular basis. Not only does a pooch require a twice-daily workout outdoors and the owner has no choice but to provide it, regardless of weather or mood, but it's also more enjoyable for people who see the gym as a crushing bore and an unbearably artificial setting. In fact, some readers commented that it's a standard procedure for cardiologists to recommend older patients to get a dog as part of their healthy lifestyle. There surely was a vocal backlash from gym lovers and workout pros arguing that walking a dog is nowhere near reaching levels of involvement needed for losing weight or engaging muscles, tendons or ligaments fully, but I don't think these scientific arguments may dissauade anyone from having a dog. A gym is just a gym, but there is much more than just a workout companion to a dog.

Some language to remember:
1) a free-for-all has a double meaning
2) a layabout = a bum
3) Plod = a slow-witted police officer
4) tendons = ścięgna
5) ligaments = wiązadła
6) a dumbbell = ciężarek
7) a bench is a basic piece of gym equipment
8) I tip my hat to... = Chylę czoło przed...

The noughties revisited

As 2009 and with it the decade draw to an end, the British papers start to compile ultimate rankings and charts for everything from political events to sport to every kind of art. Here's The Daily Telegraph setting out 100 defining cultural moments month after month and it sparkles with memories and catchphrase names and here's an umbrella site that collects a few review lists for 00s.

Other papers use this end-of-decade opportunity too. Interestingly, the Guardian ran a hands-on anthropology piece on what was lost or forgotten as ten years went by, with the cassettes topping the list. There's still good three weeks left until the end of December and I dread to think what comes next in The Guardian's series of the noughties flashbacks.

November overload

If the teaching season in full swing wasn't enough, November brings along a string of film translation jobs for the film festival AleKino!, incredibly enjoyable but time-consuming. In previous years I could barely manage to keep so many balls in the air and this resulted in a period of tense, undercooked lessons and some shoddy translations, but this year my discipline and time management got better and I retained high standards while remaining relatively relaxed. Still, I could find neither time nor energy to post entries on the blog, even though I had more to say than ever.

Let's try to make up for it by looking back at the past three-four weeks, in particular at the films I was commissioned to translate.

How often do you get to see a Latvian production? I had this rare opportunity with Little Robbers, a skillfully-told story of an ordinary Lativan family that finds itself in a pickle when the father loses his job, defaults on his mortgage and the bank mercilessly reposseses their house. Angered by this drastic turn of events, Robby (5) and his sister Louise (7) set out to help their troubled parents and draw up a scheme to rob the bank that took away their home. They nearly get away with the robbery, but eager security cameras record as they get out of rubbish bins, having first visited the vault, and leave the place with stolen cash. What they don't know is that most banknotes had been counterfeited by the bank employees.

The hapless team of security men and the bank manager, all of them involved in the counterfeiting fraud, rush off to chase them, ending up at their grandparents' farm where the poor family holds out in tough times. Through grandpa's cunning and Robby's bravery, all fraudsters get beaten up or caught in shameful circumstances and the police arrives to discover the extent of the bank fraud. In the happy end, Robby and Louise are given the award for their contribution to uncovering the rigging scheme at the bank and the family moves back to where they'd been evicted from.

Even though Robbers weren't designed for my age group, I enojoyed the charm of a simple story behind it (how topical it was in the bank-induced financial crisis) and its clear good-or-evil message that modern children are in a tremendous need to be exposed to. And the language - how often do you get to hear some beutiful Latvian?

To remember:
1_ This is a picklock and lock picking,
2_ Not a lot of people get to see a bank vault,
3_ When you have a puncture, you drive with flat tyres,
4_ A mutt is another way to say a mongrel dog,
5_ I'll box your ears = You'll get a good thrashing.

Rewers gets good reviews

A broadly affirmative review at Variety places Rewers at an advantage in the run-up to the Oscar Awards for the the best foreign film.

A must read interview

There's an interview with Micheal Winner at G2 to read when I have time.

Nowy sezon w muzyce

Po letnich festiwalach następuje zazwyczaj chwila wytchnienia, a potem nieprawdopodobny urodzaj nowych płyt w listopadzie i grudniu. Warto wtedy zwracać baczniejszą uwagę na kilka audycji w Trójce, bo z pewnością przemykają się tam artyści z przyszłorocznego OFFa czy Jarocina. W tym roku stawiam na Jacka Hawryluka jako głos, który może mnie najlepiej poprowadzić przez gąszcz nowości. Na jego korzyść przemawia to, że oprócz anglosasów gra też muzykę ze świata frankofońskiego, na której się nie znam, a z przyjemnością poznaję. Odrobina odmiany jeszcze nikomu nie zaszkodziła. Kilka pierwszych typów na przyszły rok lub po prostu nazw wartych zapamiętania: 1) kolejny piorunujący przedstawiciel Americany, pobrzmiewający starym dobrym Sufjanem Stevensem, Chris Garneau, 2) jeszcze jedna smutnawa Amerykanka, odkryta przeze mnie podczas audycji Wojciecha Manna, Rachael Yamagata, 3) dobrze znany z filmu Once duet the Swell Season.

Co lubię w życiu

Miałem kiedyś konto na Naszej-klasie, a na niej listę tego, co lubię w życiu:

- reportaże w "Dużym Formacie",
- sok pomarańczowy,
- saunę na golasa,
- Wilno,
- Edwarda Hoppera
- tanie linie lotnicze,
- restaurację Vermanitis przy Elisabetesilela w Rydze,
- Cognitive Metaphor Theory,
- jeździć na łyżwach,
- recenzje Tadeusza Sobolewskiego,
- dolary,
- piwo pszeniczne,
- Sufjana Stevensa,
- Death Cab for Cutie,
- park Sołacki i Rusałkę w Poznaniu,
- San Diego, San Francisco, całą Kalifornię,
- mBank,
- Erykę Badu,
- The Economist,
- Tatry w zimie,
- uczyć fajnych ludzi i uczyć się od nich,
- International Herald Tribune,
- ironię,
- amerykański realizm, szczególnie w opowiadaniach, np. "The Bride comes to Yellow Sky" Stephena Crane'a,
- umiarkowane temperatury, precz z Południem,
- wczesne Smashing Pumpkins, szczególnie za teledyski,
- jesień i wiosnę,
- Interpol,
- last.fm,
- angielski humor,
- Noisettes,
- Sashę Baron Cohena,
- życie samotne,
- życie z kobietą,
- teatr im. Witkacego w Zakopanem,
- dobrze zarabiać,
- dowcipy na drugiej strony "Metra", jak idę rano do pracy,
- grać w tenisa z Alicją,
- niekończące się dyskusje o wszystkim z najstarszym bratem,
- jeździć na koncerty, festiwale i narty ze starszym bratem i jego znajomymi,
- gotować enchiladas,
- Johna Frusciante,
- Dolinę Pięciu Stawów,
- bezprzewodowy internet,
- Stary Browar w Poznaniu,
- kawałek "Brothers on a Hotel Bed",
- tanie filmy na dvd,
- wspominać w dobrym towarzystwie to, co minęło,
- delikatesy "Piotr i Paweł" oraz "Alma",
- mleczko zagęszczone o smaku karmelowym,
- film "Co gryzie Gilberta Grape'a",
- inwestować,
- "Terminatora II",
- poniedziałki,
- dobre eseje (np. Tennessee Williams - "The Catastrophe of Success") i wywiady (np. Katarzyna Bielas "Niesformatowani"),
- sobotnie dodatki do gazet codziennych, tj. "Świąteczną", "Wysokie Obcasy", "Europę" i "Plus-Minus",
- GPW,
- Leszka Balcerowicza,
- serial "Cudowne lata",
- dokumenty podróżnicze Michaela Palina,
- the Beatles Anthology
- bossa novy, np. Antonio Carlos Jobima,
- Coco Mbassi,
- teledysk "Nothing is Forever" Silver Rocket,
- youtube.com,
- Jane's Addiction,
- dom rodzinny w Bolesławcu,
- portrety Giuseppe Arcimboldo,
- fotografie Gregory Colberta,
- Bjork,
- grać w nogę,
- teledysk "Gone Daddy Gone" Gnarls Barkley,
- Frou Frou,
- język hiszpański,
- spać do południa, kiedy mam wolne i jest zima,
- wstawać bardzo rano, kiedy pracuję lub nie ma zimy,
- biegi długodystansowe,
- Wrocław,
- sałatkę kiwi-banan-cytryna,
- Sir Toby's Hostel w Pradze i całą ideę hostellingu,
- tłumaczyć, najbardziej filmy, najmniej dla firm budowlanych,
- reklamy HSBC z serii "Never underestimate the importance of local knowledge",
- moją współlokatorkę i współlokatora,
- dzielnicę Jeżyce w Poznaniu,
- polską szkołę dokumentu (np. Łozińskiego, Karabasza, Kieślowskiego),
- wyniki wyborów 2007,
- jogurt pitny Milko o smaku czerwonej pomarańczy lub moreli,
- tańczyć z K.,
- ciuchy GAP i Banana Republic,
- dokumenty Adama Curtisa z BBC, np. "The Trap",
- lenistwo w weekend po tygodniu pracy,
- koty,
- book sales w amerykańskich bibliotekach,
- zupy w Green Way'u,
- "Sztuczki" i inne filmy o ulotnej tematyce,
- opendemocracy.org,
- rysunki satyryczne Randy Glasbergena,
- Amy Winehouse,
- Google Page Creator,
- Trójkę, a w niej najbardziej Agnieszkę Szydłowską,
- British Council,
- stok w Harrahovie
- wspomnienia z dzieciństwa,
- spotykać się po przerwie ze starymi znajomymi: Ajem, Kijowskim, Tytusem, Dominikiem, Tomkiem,
- pistacje,
- płytę "Kid A" Radiohead, szczególnie za "How to disappear completely",
- rozmawiać o muzyce, filmach, książkach i ideach,
- niektóre nauki Anthony'ego De Mello,
- Emily Mortimer,
- Jake'a Gyllenhaala w "Donnie Darko" i "Brokeback Mountain",
- "Little Motel" by Modest Mouse,
- sery,
- Lipton z mlekiem,
- segregować śmieci,
- Alicię Keys,
- grapefruity,
- Paula Austera,
- festiwal EthnoPort w Poznaniu,
- festiwal Era Nowe Horyzonty we Wrocławiu,
- festiwal Open'er w Gdynii,
- festiwal OFF w Myslowicach,
- trase kolejowa Zagrzeb-Ljubljana,
- angażujące, zaskakujące koncerty,
- Zadie Smith,
- sok jednodniowy marchwiowo-selerowy Marwit,
- chorwackie wyspy,
- odkrywać nową sztukę,
- Kaukaz,
- miesięcznik "Machina",

Bird migration

Autumns may well be my favourite season for their buzz and variety. Part of its appeal comes from a sharp increase in my activity as the teaching time starts at schools and I keep living high on adrenaline for most of colder months and with the arrival of the spring everyhing seems to quiten down for me in anticipation of rather uneventful summers when I need to think harder to stay busy and focused. Importantly, the October revival quickly reaches my finances and it's during the autumn when the lion's share of my yearly income gets generated. But money isn't all there is to leave-dropping months.

What I relish in is the variety of nature they bring along. The carnival of autumn colours has probably no match the year over and its intensity is overwhelming in Poland where seasons tend to differ greatly. I know this sounds soppy, but in the unforgiving cityscape I chose to settle down in, it breathes a taste of spirituality and metaphysics to observe the little that remains of nature here succumb to its everlasting cycles and change so violently in plain view.

Or to see a flock of brids migrate to their wintering sites in sunnier, southern regions. It's hard to say why, but a sight of birds in V formation, flying in amazing order and with logic-defying precision, makes me pause and wonder. The rare sound of a flock of migrating cranes or storks chattering high in the air never fails to leave me bewildered.

Leona's sensitivity exposed

Fame comes at a price and Leona Lewis' head smashing by a disillusioned fan during a public meeting at a bookstore is just the latest in a string of similar stories. In the interview with the X-Factor artist, who became a stunning success internationally, the Daily Mail paints a favourable picture of the girl who's extremely sensitive and reacts passionately to violence and hardships. She recounts a racist incident her father and she were involved in at a boutique in London, when her black dad was brusquely asked to leave the place by the suspicious shop assistant.

Language to remember:
A) Her boyfriend has been with her through thick and thin.
B) a home-coming gig,
C) I've been in rehearsals,
D) If you are level-headed, you are balanced, reliable, stable,
E) Leona is approachable to fans,
F) She doesn't flash her private parts or sniff cocaine,
G) Some people dismiss her as a boring girl thinking pink thoughts,
H) See the world through red-tinted spectacles,
I) Learn to live in the real world, grow a spine and thicken her skin,
J) I find her a bit soppy = sentimental

Gang Fantasy

The cinema is supposed to dramatise the story and make it more appealing, but in the case of Martin Scorsese's blockbuster Gangs of New York it was the real thing the film was based on that got the better of me. Revolving around the gang rivalry in NYC in the mid-19th century and starring a stunning cast, Gangs couldn't avoid all the trappings of the Hollywood production that made it unbearibly oversimplified, sentimental and geared towards fantasy, rather than a historical film. There's no denying a great deal of care has been applied to recreating settings, costumes, accents and political circumstances of the time, but it may still strike the audience as slightly overdone, sanitized, out of touch with its harsh historic realities. Not even a string of A-list actors from both sides of the Atlantic could save the semblance of watching a well-documented piece of history, rather than another mediocre action film.

Unsatisfied by the feature, I turned to DVD extras and found what I wanted - commentary by historians, interviews and a Discovery Channel documentary on the Five Points, the street intersection in Manhattan where most of the film takes place and the notorious place over which the gangs fight. All these add-ons nicely interplay with the content of the drama, shedding more light on historical figures that dominate the screen, especially one of the most corrupted politicians in the history of American politics William Tweed, who led Tammany Hall, as well as on wider social events that seem to get washed out in the strongly personalised story of the film. You can't possibly hold it against a Hollywood production that it resorted to this kind of techniques for cinematic effect, but the commentary on Draft Riots and the imapact of the American Civil War rightly put the whole gang rivalry in perspective.

Gangs of New York, inspired by Herbet Ashbury's novel, deserve respect for venturing to portray a forgotten piece of American urban history, enriching our picture of how the American identity was forged in its early stages. On top of that, it deserves respect for inspiring the audience to discover more about the issue which seems to focus much of what America is about.

Language to retain:
1. a keepsake = a memento,
3. Frenchify means to become more and more French-like, but it referred to suffering from venerial diseases, too,
5. a fire hydrant = a fire plug,
7. rickety buildings,
9. Irish confetti = stones thrown at windows or in a fight,
11. sneak peaks from the film
13. the ordered life of the 20th century,
15. to set the pattern for,
17. Tweed: The first rule of democracy: The ballots don't make the results, accountans do. Keep counting.
19. Tweed: The appearance of the law must be upheld, especially while it's being broken.

Prawosławna wyspa

Dałem się skusić nietypowemu w Polsce plakatowi z ikoną prawosławną i odwiedziłem kino w Zamku w ramach Dni Kultury Prawosławnej, żeby obejrzeć doceniony na całym świecie i popularny w Rosji film Pawła Łungina "Wyspa" oparty o klasyczny motyw zbrodni i kary.

Zaczyna się w czasie II wojny światowej, kiedy w napadzie strachu i histerii niedoświadczony rosyjski żołnierz zabija za namową Niemców swojego dowódcę. Ratuje się przed śmiercią, ale to wydarzenie naznacza go na całe życie i kiedy spotykamy go po raz drugie jest mnichem w prawosławnym zakonie gdzieś na peryferiach Rosji. Żyje w ciągłym poczuciu wagi swojego grzechu i nieustannie pokutuje za moment słabości, ale jednocześnie jest rozchwytywany przez wiernych dzięki swojej przystępności oraz zdolności uleczania modlitwą. Jego niedoskonała przeszłość, świadomość powszechności, a nie wyjątkowości grzechu zbliża go do przeciętnych ludzi, nieustannie błądzących, niepewnych, żyjących w świecie tak różnym od scholastycznego, gmachowego życia oficjeli zakonnych. Zresztą Anatoly jest też sekretnie podziwiany przez swoich kolegów z zakonu za prostotę życia, za bezkompromisowość, za szacunek wśród wiernych, nazywany jest świętym.

Film konczy się w momencie, kiedy główny bohater pomaga wyleczyć z obłędu córkę mężczyzny, który okazuje się owym przełożonym z czasów wojny światowej, cudownie ocalałym. Dochodzi między nimi do rozmowy, pojednania, wyznania i wybaczenia grzechów, a Anatoly, choć wciąż pełen skruchy za swoje grzechy, odchodzi z tego świata pogodzony z Bogiem.

To dla mnie za każdym razem olbrzymia przyjemność, żeby wyrwać się z kręgu filmu i kultury anglosaskiej, w swojej wersji popularnej totalnie wtórnej i wypranej z atrakcyjności, a rosyjska alternatywa jest nie do pogardzenia. "Wyspa" gra jednak trochę na schematach, opowiada po raz kolejny historię dobrze znaną, skłania do wniosków co najmniej powtórnych, ale za to tak uniweralnych, że warto je powtarzać, i w takiej scenerii, że warto je odkryć na nowo. Zaprasza do życia blisko ze sobą, do mierzenia się z własnymi niedoskonałościami, grzechami, do dzielenia się tym doświadczeniem z innymi, do prostego kontaktu z ludźmi.

No i ten język rosyjski, którego nigdy formalnie się nie uczyłem, który pozostanie pewnie moim niespełnionym marzeniem do końca życia.

Sputnik nad polską reklamą

Widziałem ostatnio co najmniej trzy reklamy w polskiej telewizji parodiujące rosyjską rzeczywistość. Po pierwsze, nieprawdopodobny Tomasz Kot w roli Anatolija Kaszpirowskiego w promocyjnym video Netii hipnotyzuje szczegółami oferty. Po drugie, Ikea wypuściła serię reklamówek z akcją umieszczoną w kosmosie, jedna lepsze od drugiej.

Zaległości z teatru

Dostałem od Kici na imieniny bilety do Teatru Nowego na komedię "Przyjęcie dla głupca" i poszliśmy. Widziałem już kiedyś u brata w Krakowie francuski film "Kolacja dla palantów", oparty na tym samym tekście, więc znałem już intrygę oraz niezamierzone konsekwencje, które odwracają sztukę do góry nogami, ale z drugiej strony nigdy nie byłem w żadnym teatrze w Poznaniu. W reżyserii Tadeusza Bradeckiego, ta paryska komedia była odrobinę delikatniejsza, z inspektorem podatkowym o trochę przyjemniejszym usposobieniu, co jest zrozumiałe w mieszczańskim, urzędniczym Poznaniu. Nie zawiedli aktorzy, choć dla mojego oka, przyzwyczajonegoo do sali kinowej lub ekranu komputera, każdy żywy aktor jest objawieniem, powiewem świeżości, chodzącą ulotnością. W roli głupca popisowo zagrał Mirosław Kropielnicki, biła od niego energia i chęć, a nie jest to takie oczywiste w mniejszych ośrodkach jak Poznań.

BNP on BBC

Nick Griffin's appearance on BBC's Question Time caused a sensation in Britain and attracted voices of protest for allowing the leader of the country's largest far-right party to use this high-profile platform just ahead of the general elections.

The discussion panel included Diane Abbott, the best-known British black politician.

Polish Tate

Here's Mirosław Bałka at Tate Modern, opening his installation in the Unilever Series.

BNP in heroes' clothing

The British Army veterans are determined to cut off any links to the British National Party, a whites-only political organisation that opposes immigration and multiculturalism, which has been seeking to attach itself to British ex-servicemen. Its leaders ostentatiously sport insignia and symbols associated with the veteran communisty, such as a poppy badge, but in fact its overt endorsement from the Armed Forces is scant.

Nuclear tax

As the issue of securing a steady supply of electricity becomes critical for the UK, with its declining reserves of fossil fuels, aged nuclear reactors and a budding market of the renewables, the government admits planning to impose a new tax on electricity bills to help subsidise the creation and operation of new nuclear facilities. The move is bound to run into criticism for prioritising nuclear power over renewables and for tapping taxpayers' money which is already spead too thin.

Language:
1. a levy = a tarrif, a tax
2. to recoup the cost of building a plant = to return or to receive the equivalent
3. the matter has come to a head = The matter has reached a critical stage
4. The tax is taking effect on Sept 7.
5. be a byword for = a symbol for, represent sth
6. be loath to admit = be reluctant to admit

What a Feeling

One Times journalist went out of her way to pinpoint the issue of sexism in the City of London, which is known for its chauvinistic treatment of women, but had a hard time getting any senior female employee to contribute. It's a direct result of how the media attention sex discrimination in the Square Mile generously got in the past is now backfiring. The two female success stories the journalist managed to contact do nothing but solidify the reigning stereotypes of career girls.

One is a high-ranking manager in a bank who carries out a balancing act between professional and family life with amazing integrity and determination. She and her husband, who agreed to quit his job as a journalist and run their house instead, head a family with nine children, no small achievement in these circumstances, but at the price of extraordinary concentration and occasional bursts of emotional fragility.

On the opposite end, the other successful City woman who owns her consulting business is consciously brushing aside any semblance of family life, admitting that strains she has to put up with are not cut out for familial well-being. With blatant sincerity and calculation, she prioritises the world of multi-million deals and high-octane jobs over anything that a decision to settle down might bring along.

It's stunning how knowingly young financiers and bankers sign up to a lifestyle which is by any standards profligate and unsustainable and promotes values few ordinary people or communities could uphold. But greed, together with the promise of a flashy, spectacular life, keeps talented individuals flowing in and the vibrant after-hours scene, with mobs of stunning hotties determined to tap their resources or capitalise on their connections ready to lapdance.

Language to remember:
+ You can't have your cake and eat it.
+ I'd be unfair on my partner.
+ I'm a bitch to work for.
+ child-bearing age,
+ a health club = a gym,
+ They are cut from the same cloth.
+ Money is a draw.
+ a coin's flip from the Bank of England,
+ cannon-fodder faces,
+ a chat-up line,
+ a bevvy = a drink, We had a few bevvies last night.
+ dressed to the nines,
+ to sleep around to get ahead,
+ to sleep your way to the top,
+ be resigned to the fact that,
+ pinch somebody on the bottom, pinch somebody on the bollocks,
+ It's a bear pit.
+ The Square Mile

Au pair bitten

A story of a Hungarian au pair in the UK who was bitten by a police dog while a squad raided the house where she worked in search for ex-offenders.

Language to remember:
1. a police dog burst into her room,
2. to savage = to attack without restraint or pity, to attack ferociously,
3. oblivious to/of her presence,
4. They threw open the door,
5. a snarling dog = warczący pies,
6. have a knife stuck in your leg,
7. a handler = somebody who trains or exhibits animals,
8. be given a tetanus jab,
9. be put on a drip delivering antibiotics = apply intravenous therapy
10. tooth marks couldn't be stitched up,
11. a halfway house,
12. duck inside a house,
13. He clambered out of the window = Wygramolił się przez okno.
14. They knocked the trellis down.

Renewable Retailer

Tesco broke stunning news today when it set out its plan to transform into a green business in terms of carbon emission. The largest British supermarket, active in a number of overseas markets, intends to create its own windfarms which could generate energy needed for refrigeration, heating and lighting at its facilities in the UK. It's a dramatic shift in the company's approach to electricity and it comes just weeks before the critical United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. In practice, Tesco's departure from fossil fuel-generated power means a massive potential reduction in carbon emissions, since the supermarket chain claims one seventh of the High Street retail martket.

89 revisited

The Daily Telegraph launched a new series in which its journalist goes on a revision journey across eastern and central Europe, twenty years after the revolution of 1989 brought about a complete transformation in the region.

Delicate British economy

Amid the first signs of recovery there are increasing voices of concern about the spiralling public debt in the UK, which in the coming years might prove the single most challenging issue for the administration. Part of the problem is that the British public got used to high levels of government spending and feel entitled to most services and privileges and scaling them back rouses fierce protests. In fact, some professions and social group are bracing for protest and civil disobedience in an attempt to put pressure on the government to increase their pay. Economists predict that Britain is bound to join the infamous club of most-indebted Western nations, which includes the notoriously extravagant United States of America.

Vocab:
1. profligate = recklessly wasteful, wildly extravagant,
2. retrenchment = reduction, curtailment of expenses,
3. boom-time pay rises

Art out of nothing

Environmentalism is opening up new avenues. Leo Sewell, an artist, creates sculptures from scraps of waste.

Sicknote culture, UK clone

Talking heads in Poland revel in painting a picture of Poland as an outstanding country, in its shortcomings and in its achievements. More often than not, their claims are based on weak foundations, incomplete statistics or simply ignorance of the outside world, which tends to share, to different degrees, most of Polish faults and strengths.

One case in point is the so-called sicknote culture, which is seen as a typically Polish invention, but in fact has easily reached other nations, recently the UK. Britain is just waking up to the extent of the problem, with less than a fifth of incapacity benefits lawfully claimed and the system of handing out sick notes ridiculously lenient. Striving to tone done the unemployment figures, Labour pursued policies which actually encouraged people to claim health benefits instead of registering as the jobless. It recently set up a make-shift review procedure to sift through those pocketing government help, but it's the new cabinet that is going face the issue in its entirety.

Brilliant language:
1. a sick note,
2. claim incapacity benefits,
3. claim government handouts,
4. a claimant,
5. be on incapacity benefit,
6. undergo stringent medical tests,
7. put on unemployment benefit,
8. a massive underestimate,
9. a freeloader,
10, a taxpayer,
11. suffer ill health,
12. be in a wheelchair and on continual painkillers,
13. The rot starts at the top,
14. They were caught stealing,
15. the benefits culture,
16. DLA.

Expenses scandal

The Parliamentary scandal at Westminster over illegally claimed expenses continues and casts a pall over a growing number of MPs, inluding the PM who agreed to pay back some of the cash. Luckily for the Conservatives, their leader David Cameron is one of those politicians who have a clear record on the issue, which might be a real asset in the upcoming election campain and a boost in terms of public trust. The scandal was revealed by the investigation led by the veteran MP Thomas Legg, who now attracts serious criticism from his colleagues, unhappy with his zeal and his tendency to judge on retrospective decisions.

Language:
1. balderdash is another term for nonsense,
2. a grandee is a person of high rank,
3. When you heckle, you interrupt and annoy somebody, e.g. while giving a presentation

More scandalous expenses

Another MP, a deputy speaker of the Lords, Paul of Marylebone, has been discovered claiming money in expenses that he wasn't entitled to have. Despite owning a stunning fortune and property across Britain, he declared living in a flat outside London so that Parliamant refunded the costs of his stays in the capital to the amount of £38,000. As it turned out, no one has ever seen him stay over there and it was typically occupied by his employee in this area. An important Labour donor, he's just another in a string of dishonest MPs, now running at about 100, who made use of their position to lay their hands on Westminster expenses.

Langauge:
0. claim cash allowances,
1. an apartment block,
2. Nudge, nugde, wink, wink, taken from a Python sketch, can be used when you're implying something,
3. sacked for gross misconduct,
4. follow the rules to the letter,
5. the ballot box,
6. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours,
7. It goes from bad to worse.
8. If he had any decency, he should have already resigned, but this is an old-fashihoned idea.
9. within easy commuting distance from,
10. You can be non-domicile in the UK and get preferential treatment in the tax system.

Peace for Obama

Two days after President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the premature recognition is attracting more and more doubt and suspicion in the United States. For an aspiring and still relatively unaccomplished politician, such an accolade turns out to be more of an embarrassment and nuisance in a society which is ruthlessly critical of its representatives and prioritises achievements over high-flying rhetoric. With a lot of criticism piling on Obama for being too much of a celebrity and too little of a hands-on politician, the Nobel Prize comes at an inopportune moment, fuelling reservations about the President's record. The astonishment with which the decision has been met in the United States, and abroad, indicates how serious modern threats are taken and how unwilling the public is to appreciate politicians just for what they say, rather than for their actions. Clearly, it also reflects the American values that underscore restraint and work ethic, at the end of which, not at the beginning, is the recognition.

Far from being impossible to pinpint, the list of Obama's early, largely symbolic, successes, even though not seen as such by all, is indeed counting.

Alternative Fest Poznań

The idea was triggered by a perceived lack of young, indie bands performing in Poznań and in its first edition Poznań Alternative Fest is running a series of such gigs scattered all over autumn. This Wednesday, the fest featured the Australian rising stars, the Drones, supported by Orchid, Polish newcomers who, dominated by women musicians and with a female vocalist, reminded me of Gaba Kulka, The Corrs or Tori Amos.

Before the performance I duly went over the Drones' discography, hyped up by the organisers as representing a compelling mix of modern Australian psychodelia and lots of nearly classic rock influences, like Neil Young or Nick Cave. It did catch on with me, leaving the impression of decent, well-produced Anglo-Saxon hard rock, a little too sombre for mainstream festivals or music televisions, but with some tunes just an inch from a hit quality, melodic, easy to remember or hum along.

A bit reserved and aloof, except for the smiling guitarist, they pulled out a good gig, alternating between their better known songs and less palatable noise in reasonanble proportions and leaving quite a bit of energy on stage. It was the frontman, a skinny, absent-minded bloke, entirely preoccupied with music, who made an impression of somebody in deep trance, burning himself out as he yelps out the lyrics. For me, this jerkiness and unrestrained involvement on stage is practically synonymous with being authentic and his presence on stage brought to my mind how the vocalists of Handsome Furs or Muse, both amazing artists, look and vibrate live, fragile, vulnerable, desperate.

The performance was far from immaculate, with lots of pauses and technical glitches, and some boredom staring from musicians' faces at times, but I managed to wind down nicely and this is what I went there for.

Their latest album reviewed on Pitchfork here.

New PM?

After David Cameron's speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, foreign commentators started portraying him as a certain successor to Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, but on the home front reviews have been rather mixed. We may not be just witnessing the birth of the new PM, but the sentiment has been clearly turning away from the Conservative Party and it's the Tories who seem to be going with the flow of the public opinion now. Seen as good at handling the economy, Cameron's party has unrolled a programme of austerity measures, including spending cuts, pay freezes and a timetable for later retirement, in an effort to pay down Britain's budget deficit, the single most important issue identified by the frontrunners for the new government. Disenchated with politicians, the British public may be a little reluctant in handing out an easy, overwhelming victory to the Conservaties, who appear to lack temperament and momementum of the New Labour in 1997, but after 12 years of Labour rule, there is a growing expectation for a change.

It's interesting David Cameron, a matter-of-fact politician representing quite a rigid, business-like party, ventured a personal, emotional address at the conference, orientated towards inspiration rather than policy details. Importantly, he chose to include references to his son's death, a personal tragedy that took away the 4-year-old Ivan this year and moved Britain.

Language to take:

81 by way of, as in "His talk included little by way of policy details",
82 make a pitch for, a useful idiom meaning try (persuade somebody), as in "Like many other speakers, she made a pitch for stopping Muslim immigration",
83 a widening wealth gap,
84 to default on one's debt = nie wywiązywać się ze spłaty długów

Academic pecking order

Four out of ten best universities in the world are located in Britain: Cambridge, University College London, Oxford and Imperial College London, but a whopping investment at Asian higher education institutions and their improved management mean their soaring reputation in international tables. Still ranking far from the top, with the Tokyo University barely 22nd, they nonetheless tend to move up, while American universities, now well ahead of the pack, with Yale and Harvard in the top three together with Cambridge, are overall in a descending trend.

Sorry you were out

Britan's discovering how its Royal Mail posties cut corners in delivering their parcels by leaving sorry-you-were-out cards even when people are at home to save themselves a load.

The 2009 Booker Prize award goes to Hilary Mantel for her novel set in the Tudor era.

The Polish right-of-centre government is being engulfed by a wave of corruption allegations in relation to illegal lobbying practices. There's been a huge government reshufflement, but if the affair is exacerbated by new, compromising facts, it might eventually bring down the Civic Platform or remove it from power for a long time.

Peak at the Press

The Guardian reports that Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduces a pay freeze in the public sector, which will mostly affect senior civil servants, NHS managers and other high-ranking officials, including quangos. The announcement came days before the Conservative Party Conference, in a way stealing the show from the Tories, who considered putting forward a similar move at their conference. The way the message was delivered is seen as a breach of an unspoken convention by which parties are not supposed to comment or announce policies at and around each other's conferences and the Labour Party broke that tradition ushering a programme associated with the Conservatives.

Good lanaguge:
1. a quango is an employee of a quasi non-governmental organisation,
2. frontline services include health care, schooling or the police,
3. "The decision was seen as a sign that the broadest shoulders must carry the heaviest load"

The Tories intend to raise the retirement age to 66 starting in 2016 to cut the budget deficit, a move announced by the shadow chancellor George Osbourne. With the average life expectancy at 86, it's essential that steps are taken. Now, a record 11% of men over 65 are still in work.

Good language:
1. unpalatable measure,
2. spending constraint

Stella and some scepticism

I find it harder and harder each year to warm up into the rhythm of the teaching season, which possibly indicates that I'm losing steam as an English teacher. How long is it going to take me? One year, two, three? I'm rather sceptical about the longer run, both in terms of my enthusiam and the market for English teaching in Poland. But it'd require immense strength to complete an educational and professional U turn now, leaving experience and habits aside and embracing something new. And it might mean a temporary fall in earnings on quite a large scale, but I could get over it provided there was a new direction for me to pursue.

Meanwhile, the Guardian published an interview with Stella McCartney, the ex-Beatle's daughter and a fashion designer, in which she sets out her environmental attitudes and talks at length about childhood, career and fashion industry.

Good language and facts to remember:
01. every inch means in every respect, entirely, as in: "Mozart was every inch a genius",
02. rye toast = żytni chleb,
03. Stella is an outspoken vegetarian,
04. You can try to reduce your carbon footprint,
05. A trenchant respect is a vigorous, keen, distinct respect,
06. Ecotricity is an English green energy company operating wind turbines,
07. Ben 10 is an American animated series,
08. McCartney's first collection was universally panned = harshly reviewed,
09. If you butter somebody up, you compliement them excessively, as in: He was a proficient flatterer, particularly good at buttering up young attractive women,
10. Biodegradable carrier bags are growing in populatiry.

The Price of Talent

The X Factor winner and her hardships after fame started taking toll on her life , the Daily Mail article.

Sun turns its back on Labour

With a general election in Britain approaching fast and the autumn of party conferences in full swing, there's been some major shifts in the country's politics. It may not be until next May when the British go to the polls, but the Sun, the best-selling newspaper in the UK, has already changed sides and after three runs (1997, 2001 and 2005) when it lent its support to the rejuvenated Tony Blair's New labour it has again backed the Conservaties, yelling on the front page that "Labour has lost it". It's subject to debate whether one redtop newspaper can actually swing the results with its endorsement of one party or another, but after it sided with Labour in recent elections and against it in 1992, when it ran a scolding piece to undermine Neil Kinnock, there's little doubt it vastly helps to have it in your camp. Anyhow, the declaration from the Sun political editiors that the Labour government has run its course is capable of reverberating across the public opinion and sending shockwaves through the corridors of power on Whitehall and in Brighton, where the annual Labour conference is taking place.

Antonioni commented on

With considerable reluctance I sat down to refresh my memory of Antonioni's Blow-up after a moment of forgetfulness at the local British Council led me to rent it for a week. I'm not sure, but this might have been the third time I've been through it, driven by the cult aura around it and my being unsatisfied with the understanding of it.

And again, even though I found myself appreciating the story, its documentary value in terms of showing the Swinging Sixties in London or the detective mystery, I was nowhere near getting carried away with Antonioni's mastery. More importantly still, the deep philosophical and aesthetic strands in the film, so extensively commented on by critics and mentioned until today, constantly eluded my attention. It was David Hemmings character who was sending a signal I was able to decode with his jaded, amoral attitude towards life and women, but there is more to this film, admittedly, than just critique of the 60s loose ethic.

I'd probably have given up on Blow-up, which I actually did halfway through the film, if it hadn't been for one extra feature on the DVD. By accident, I hit the audio commentary in the DVD extras and soon learned that it was the entire film with subtle voiceover from Peter Brunette, a professor of film studies at Wake Forest University and the Antonioni expert. Step by step, without much noticing the scholarly intervention, yet enjoying it enormously for its depth and many-sidedness, I started recognising how nicely layered and superemely crafted Blow-up is. Some of Brunette's interpretations did no more than confirm my early intuitions, especially concerning the questions of morality and some scenes which escape easy explanation.

I like the way Brunette shed light on the epistemological drive of the main character in Blow-up, his desire to know, to discover the truth, to verify his interpretation of reality. Indeed, viewers are faced with the same challenges, trying to find answers to the most aching questions laid open by the photo shoot in the park and never actually managing to do so. And its in how Antonioni combined this whodunnit kind of story with the more philosophical and aesthetic dilemmas about the nature of visual art and its value as evidence where the Italian director's picture truely reveals its masterly thrust. Brunette offers compelling remarks which could easily pass for academic quotes. For example, he argues that in Blow-up Antonioni wants to point out that all meaning is socially constructed and achieved only in group understanding, rather than individual understanding (made clear by the scene in the park when Hemmings sees the dead body but seeks another person's verification to establish firmly what he thinks is true or by the closing scene when Hemmins lets himself be drawn into a mime game of tennis and sees a ball where no ball is to be seen objectively). He also says that Antononi draws the audience attention to the fact that a visual image doesn't give us meaning directly, unproblematically, but that it's contextual (the stunning Yardbirds scene when a broken neck of the guitar becomes the subject of a fierce battle between the fans, but instantaneously loses its significance outside this context).

Lots of good language there:
1_ This is a propeller,
2_ When you blow up a frame, you enlarge it,
3_ This is Veruschka, a famous German model, popular in the 1960s,
4_ Paparazzi sneak up on celebrities to take their photos,
5_ Some films are made with a hand-held camera,
6_ Hemmings to Redgrave: Don't let spoil everything. We've only just met.
7_ A devil-may-care attitude is a reckless attitude,
8_ You can be stoned out of you mind,
9_ When you get as good as you give, you receive no more than you've put in,
10_ Hemmings likes being a step ahead in the film.

Welcome to the Jungle

After the World War II Britain has been experiencing a steady, robust influx of immigrants and the question of who to admit and who to turn down at the borders has continued to be a vexing public issue. After a wave of non-white New Commonwealth migrants following the process of decolonisation, which started for good in 1945, and the first signs of racial tensions and social discontent in the UK cities, the 1960s saw restrictive legislation in the form of two Commonwealth Immigration Acts (1962, 1968), and the Immigration Act of 1971. The post-colonial immigration went on, using both legal and illegal channels, and was coupled with immigration from Eastern European countries, Africa and Asia, leading to the developement of sizeable immigrant communities all over Britain. Contrary to popular belief, tough, the UK may like to see itself as a multi-ethnic society, but in fact only less than 10% of its population is non-white and, on top of that, most of it is concentrated in London (50%) and other major urban centres (Birmingham, Glasgow), leaving wide swathes of the country racially homogenous.

I remember the 1990s in Poland, when the prospect of the EU membership was nowhere in sight and such comforts as passportless travel in Europe belonged to political fiction, with most Poles having a hard time to get into the UK, requiring a visa, a difficult-to-obtain work permit or an expensive language course. Still, Britain, next to Germany and the USA, remained a destination of choice for hundreds of Polish fortune-seekers, unfazed by the hardships along the way. In a way, they paved the way for the massive migration from Poland after May 2004, when Poland's inclusion in the EU made it possible not only to enter the UK but also legally seek employment there. Even though extremely well-received by most standards, the numbers of the newcomers from the Eastern European nations fuelled suspicion and alarm among more hysterical parties in the public debate, like the Sun, as well as from those who keep claiming that Britain is overcrowded.

Spotlight has turned away from European incomers and local communities seem to have accommodated them remarkably well, despite repeated reports of ethnically-inspired crime and other distressing stories. However, immigration remains Britain's high priority as candidates from other troubled countries continue to knock on its door due to its reputation for ample social support for asylum-seekers and others. Along the northern coast of France alone, there are reputed to be located ten detention centres for those who were caught by the French and British police while being smuggled northwards. For such human trafficking, which has grown into a full scale business with aspiring asylum-seekers from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq or Eritrea paying up to 15.000 pounds to reach the shores of the promised land, Britain has been a supreme final destination, unrivalled by any other European country.

Mancunian Factory

After Anton Corbijn's brilliant "Control", which squeezed tears out of the toughest girlfriend of mine, "24 Hour Party People" is another feature dealing with the wild pop music scene in the 70s and 80s in Manchester. Revolving around the figure of Tony Wilson, the man behind the Madchester revolution who created a home for such bands as Joy Division or The Happy Mondays in his loosely managed Factory Records, known for their policy of avoiding contracts.

The film traces Wilson's engagement in pop music from his days as a host in the cult TV show "So it goes" in 1976, and than as he veers towards staging events and promoting bands it shows the early gigs at the Factory club. During one such performance, we witness a famous fit of epilepsy Ian Curtis of Joy Division had before his decline into depression and finally suicide. The story takes us as far as the bankrupcy of both Factory Records and The Haçienda when years of mismanagement and living on the edge start taking its toll on Tony and his partners.

Steve Coogan starring Wilson is much more convincing here than funny as Alan Partridge, but overall "24 Hour" lacks the music pieces which are so nicely scattered all over "Control", giving it a feeling of variety and much speedier pace.

Language to remember:
1. If you live in Manchester, you're a Manc or a Mancunian,
2. When something gets the better of you, it wins over you,
3. You don't want to be called a wanker,
4. The Factory club was a live music venue,
5. Wilson to his wife: Don't beat about the bush. I give you a straight question, I need a straight answer. Are you leaving me?,
6. For fuck's sake is just stronger for god's sake,
7. Wilson to the club audience a minute before the club was repossessed: I'd like you to leave in a disorderly fashion. Take the chairs, music equipment, anything. Just use it wisely,
8. A friend breaks the news of Curtis's suicide to Wilson: Ian's dead. He's hung himself.
9. Wilson to his wife on seeing him getting a blow-job by a hooker: It's not what it seems,
10. A bona fide offer is a genuine offer.

Just get on with it

Septembers are productive when it comes to my book-reading and it was no different this September, even more so because it had two long foreign trips to complete and they tend to sharpen my bookworm acumen.

Anne Enright's "The Gathering", the 2007 Booker, was among my Septemeber choices, a bleak, unforgiving account of a troubled childhood in a large Irish family by Veronica, one of the surviving daughters. She brings her uneasy memories forward as she goes about organising her brother's funeral and the wake after Liam commits suicide by throwing himself into the sea. With twelve children, the Hegartys never managed to create an ideal growing-up environment, with their mother clearly giving privilege to the boys, their father exerting cold and strict authority, in particular in religious and sexual matters, and all the siblings trying to find their own way quickly, however erroneously, rather than supporting each other.

Bruised and scarred for life, Veronica goes on to start a family of her own, with two lovely daughters, a prosperous husband and a neat house, but she continues to be plagued by insecurities and phobias, all rooted in her early life. At the deepest and most traumatic, she harbours the scene she witnessed as a little girl in her granny's house when a family friend, a regular guest there, sexually molested her brother Liam, a young boy then. Barely established in her mind's eye, this distressing picture provides evidence and explanation for his disorientation and instability in later life. Except for Victoria, no one is aware of what happened then in the grandma's house and, to make matters worse, no one seems interested in digging out these old wrongs. In Victoria's judgement, that eventful day triggered what later came to become a failed fate of her beloved brother, including his suicide.

It's dark literature, full of hurt and unhealed grievances, some of which may strike a reader as possibly over the top, but what this book portrays is a troubled psychology of an adult woman in search of her unsettled childhood. Almost by definition, it has to carry a load of distrust and paranoia. I found this focus on individual experience, however aching and troubling, a true advantage and a nice change from other, overgeneralised books I've recently read. It reads like a cathartic confession, a well-hidden diary of a person who is looking for a vent for too much she's been through.

In fairness, it's not just memories of injustice and neglect, but a handful of happier moments or simply daily chores as well, which makes it easier to follow and identify with.

Lots of language worth remembering, but unluckily I missed my notebook most of the time. Parts of what I noted down:
+ I can't for the life of me remember,
+ a flu jab,
+ to hump may mean to fuck,
+ Are you on roaming?,
+ a peaked cap,
+ You get your bloods done = You have your blood test done,
+ You smoke roll-ups,
+ You pass people on the streets,
+ You leave your baby with a child-minder,
+ This is a button fly and this is a finger-stall.

Mild disappointment

To criticise Quentin Tarantino, a walking legend of the cinema, is probably beyond most of his aficionados' comprehension and power, but his latest film fantasy, which takes us back to the times of the World War II into Nazi-occupied France, deserves a degree of reservation.

Inglorious Basterds is far from original in its storyline, with alternative scenarios for the Nazi domination of Europe in abundance in literature and film. True, there is this imaginative Jewish revenge commando, taking justice in their violent hands and symbolically making up for the passivity of the Holocaust victims. That's a fairly new concept, if you take out Defiance with Daniel Craig, in particular at the hands of Tarantino's wild imagination.

I also get the feeling Tarantino got stuck in the revenge rut, most of his other films, e.g. Kill Bill or Death Proof, driven by vendetta and vindicating the rights of the oppressed, turning the victimhood upside down. On top of that, violence, for which Quentin is notorious, keeps annoying here, although the times admittedly justify it, but it would be great to see Tarantino make his film around other techniques once.

What I liked, on the other hand, was acting, especially Christoph Waltz in the hysterical role of a cruel and cunning Col. Hans Linda, brilliantly switching between languages and using his extraordinary intelligence to track down his Jewish victims. Playing a wide array of moods, from a concerned, apparently slow-minded interviewer in the opening scene, which ends in the slaughter of the hiding Dreyfus family, to a fanatical, dominating Goebells security chief, to a foreseeing end-of-war surrender-seeker. Brad Pitt, speaking rough heavily-accented Italian and acting on a simple redneck logic of cruel revenge, is another marvel to watch.

Other than that it's languages in the film that made it a real pleasure for me to watch, with French, English and German in practically equal proportions, sprinkled with a tad of Italian, not a usual feature of a Hollywood production.

Some favourable and unfavourable reviews here, here and here and here.

Upswing

After a tighter year, there has been sure signals that the coming teaching season might see the return to prosperity I experienced in 2007/2008. It's marvellous news, especially that a rise in income will be coupled with the new challenges I've been long looking forward to. One is that quite a fair share of my load is going to concern technical English, a welcome change from general low-level courses. Another is that I was finally given a life and institutions course at the English department to teach, which means time-consuming preparation, but also greater satisfaction for me. Finally, it seems that's bound to be a critical year for my PhD programme, with three promising conferences to wait for and new creative momentum I haven't felt before.

Summer's gone

Going back to work after delicious holidays is like trying to start a rarely-used car after a harsh winter, but one way or another I'll have to summon most of my life energies to close the lazy summer and reopen the teaching season. Well, on top of other discomforts, October marks the beginning of increased traffic and human crowds in the streets, slower and more congested public transport, queues in the shops, all of which contribute to urban frustration. Ok, the dust should finally settle down, the old winter rhythms should return and the daily toil of the academic year should become much more bearable. I've been through it before, so I won't let it take its full toll on me again, working wisely to tone down the October hysteria.

The good part is that the winter is just around the corner, with colder temperatures, harsher conditions, less sunlight and people's tendency to indulge in leisurely introspection, which I adore and take pleasure in. Other than that, the bank balance will surely improve as language schools give out their groups, mamas call for desperate private lessons and businesses fill their employees' schedules with English trainings. Busy times ahead. It's just that the lovely laziness of the summer months hasn't yet faded away.

Long time, no post

It was a busy fortnight and basically without access to a computer. First, equipped in a newly-made presentation, I flew to Stockholm, looking and feeling heavenly in the mild late summer sun, for the Metaphor Festival. As most language conferences, it was an inspiring blend of good and band, exciting and boring, new and old, but it did give me a spur and some food for thought. I enjoyed meeting professor Andrew Goatly in person, a modest man plagued with doubts about the direction of his efforts as any other researcher, even of vastly lower standing.

I loved the social side of the conference too.

And then, having barely touched down from Sweden, I was off to Turkey for a weekly holiday in the sun with my girlfriend. I don't remember unwinding so thoroughly in quite some time, just taking a swim, sunning oneself to madness, gobbling up tons of exquisite food, learning Turkish from the locals and charting the neighbourhood of the hotel. A hell of an end for my long, eventful summer holidays.

Once a year

I got my iPod stolen in a hostel I was staying at in Stockholm. To make matters worse, it was my fault and my only, having left my bag completely unattended over the evening. I was lucky the thief was considerate enough to leave alone my travel documents, especially the Ryanair boarding pass and the railway ticket.

I have a feeling every once in a while there is a payment day for all the good that you experience most of the time and there's no way to insure yourself against it. This time round it was my iPod that had to go in a casual hostel theft, and before I was punished by means of the early morning fine for crossing the street on red, the perverse fine for drinking in a public place or the costly ticket inspection on a tram the day my pass expired and just as I was trying to get to the driver's centre to pass my exams.

I hope I've paid my dues to misfortune this year and can now roam the world freely, waiting for the next year to take me by surprise.

The Office weekend

David Brent? Finchey? Mackenzie Crook playing Gareth? It's embarrassing, but I wasn't familiar with these names until yesterday when I renewed my British Council card and went for The Office, a TV series I read about but never really even considered watching. This state of affairs is now over, I've seen the complete series 1 and 2, which is pretty much everything they've made in the UK version.

The idea behind the series is just brilliant, simple but spot on. It's a fake documantary following the daily toil of a paper merchant office in the uninspiring British city of Slough. The job is mindless and no effort is made in the film to change that, all the staff mucking around or doing the usual office chores, getting bored at their workstations, passing the time, playing tricks on each other. And it's the odd collection of employees in the office that makes the difference, in particular the hyperactive, egomaniacal boss who never loses an opportunity make a fool of himself. He's reinforced in his obsessions, especially his insatiable urge to make others laugh, and self-love by his personal assistant, an awkward, socially retarded Gareth, who keeps dreaming of taking the office over and bringing in the rule of iron fist. There's also Tim, a timid, funny guy, just turning 30, who still lives with his parents, and Dawn, a receptionist, who he quietly fancies, but who's in a relationship with a coarse warehouse worker.

I like the setting of the series, away from glamour and perfection, and this everyday eccentricity that nicely mirrors what most people go through day after day, either working in offices or elsewhere. Seeking to imitate real life, it's peppered with ordinary language, imperfect, lacking the soundbite quality of American series, but highly educational in terms of slang or UK pecularities,. Here's a quick round-up of some phrases and names I learned while watching:

1) When you're poor or disabled in the UK, you might claim money off DSS, these's a nasty scene in one episode when David and Gareth speak over each other to the camera how they would test the eligibility of the disabled to receive benefits, with one wheelchaired employee listening with growing disbelief,
2) I'd been wondering for long what you call a bum-bag,
3) since "The Office" plays on the racial and homophobic obsessions in the UK, the stock of terms to describe a homosexual is long there: a poofter, a bender, a bummer,
4) I've never eaten a proper flan and I'm not sure how to translate it into Polish,
5) I didn't know a (leather) basque had a different meaning to an adjective descibing somebody from the Basque Country,
6) There is a vital difference between a midget and a dwarf, the latter having disproportionate limbs in addition to being markedly small,
7) When you're on waccy-baccy, you're on marijuana,
8) Slough is near London and a crushing bore,
9) Morecambe and Wise, a British comedy double act, has ranked 14th on the list of Britain's 100 greatest TV programmes,
10) Rory Bremner is another comedy legend in the UK.

In rude health

I suppose there is no country in the world where people are fully, or even in a large part, satisfied with the quality of its health service. Poland has seen a gradual but steady split between the public and private health care systems, with more lucrative professions, like dentists or opticians, now in practice uncovered by the obligatory medical insurance. Even though it took a huge step forward, the Polish health care system is notorious for long waiting lines to specialists and poor pay for the staff and there seems to be no viable solution to any of these, or other, hardships.

I'm young enough not be a regular at the doctor's and whenever I go I don't really feel shortchanged or mistreated, but I'm well aware of other patients' problems.

Created 60 years ago, Britain's National Health Service has a way better reputation among its Polish patients, recruited from the recent wave of immigration, but it attracts a lot of criticism from Britions, despite gigantic spending on health care, which accounts for 16% of all government spending (article here). Its undeniable advantage, especially against its American equivalent, is that it's universal and free, so that no one needing medical help is left with a horrendous bill to pay at the end of their treatment. Of course, you may argue, this invites health tourists and serves illegal immigrants all too well, but then it's more a question of fixing the leaks in the system than overhauling it.

With the staff of allegedly 1,6m employees, the NHS operates an impressive network of GP services, health centres, hospitals and recently polyclinics, as well as such institutions as nursing homes.

As for the US, endless reform discussions and bills, followed by controversy and opposition, seem to plague the health system, still leaving a vast group of the Americans uninsured and facing the exorbitant costs of treatment. President Obama's determined to change it for good, but his plans are exposed to uncompromising resistance and the heath issues might turn out to be his harshest test in domestic politics. A short overview of the American health system and debates around it here.

Too rich to perform

Conclusions for the UK from the latest comparative OECD study of the youth are dire, with the harshest one being that relatively to resources and funding available British teenagers are doing very badly practically across the board. It has alarming rates of teenage drunkenness and underage pregnancy. One in ten 15-19 year-olds in Britain is a so-called neet - not in employmemt, education or training. While their school satisfaction tends to be higher than average, probably due to high quality schooling and ample resources, British teenagers' performace in both reading and maths is disappointing, halfway down the tables.