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.
Saturday, 19 December 2009
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.
The botched theft mastermind is now said to have come from Britain.
Sunday, 13 December 2009
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.
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
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...
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...
Thursday, 10 December 2009
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.
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.
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.
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