Finally, the music video directed by Matthew Schroeder to the music by Bajzel is ready!
You can see me there, like for half a second ;-)
You can watch the video either at Matt's web page (better quality) or on youtube.
You can see me there several times for few milliseconds starting at around 2min 58sec:
If you live in Poznan, come to Dragon Pub (Zamkowa 3) on Monday (26th of November) evening (starting 8pm) - Bajzel will be playing there and I will be drinking a beer and maybe even dancing.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
I'm (hardly) alive
Bleh, it's so cold here... I came to fully realize it today courtesy of American embassy in Warsaw where I had a pleasure to stand in line outside their building for 1.5h while waiting to meet with a consul to prolong my visa. What a lovely experience. Makes you really wonder if you want to go to the US at all if you are treated like this.
On the positive note seeing family and friends is wonderful and warms me up within a second...
On the positive note seeing family and friends is wonderful and warms me up within a second...
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
hasta la vista amigos!
In few hours I will be sitting in the plane heading east, to the old continent. While drinking Margarita I will be contemplating the beauty of the clouds around me and I will be wondering if my old friends that I am about to see have changed during this past year or not...
I will be back in SF on 27th of November, and probably there will not be that many posts till then. But let's see what the life will bring.
Poland, I live in Poland:
I will be back in SF on 27th of November, and probably there will not be that many posts till then. But let's see what the life will bring.
Poland, I live in Poland:
dating; experiment continues
I wanted to write something smart, but it seems that my head is empty right now, so it will not happen. Instead enjoy this: dating dictionary
David Seymour at de Young
On Sunday N. and I went to de Young (Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco located in Golden Gate Park). I have never laughed that much in an arts museum before. Thanks ;-)
The part of de Young exhibition that both of us liked the most was dedicated to the photography of David Seymour (Chim).
David Seymour (or actually David Szymin) was a Polish-born Jew, who studied photography in Germany and France, before settling down in the US. He lived in interesting times and documented them extremely well in his capturing photographs. de Young exhibition of his photos spans through the demonstrations of French workers in the 1930s, Spanish civil war, aftermath of the Second World War in Eastern Europe, earthquake in Greece and Suez War (during which he was killed). I was very impressed with all those photos - not only they document life in those turbulent times, but they are also aesthetically beautiful and they very well capture the emotions of people photographed.
Seymour must have been very well recognized already in his own times as he was also hired to take photos of various famous people (e.g. Pablo Picasso, Peggy Guggenheim, Bernard Berenson, Arturo Toscanini, Ingrid Bergman, Sophia Loren, Kirk Douglas, Audrey Hepburn and many others) and several of these photos can also be seen at de Young's exhibit, e.g. this famous photo of Bernard Berenson, an acclaimed art historian of the Italian Renaissance admiring the beauty of the nude sculpture of Antonio Canova's Pauline Bonaparte at Borghese Gallery in Rome, Italy.
Another of his photographs that moved me a lot was this photo of Tereska, "a child in a residence for disturbed children, Poland". Explanation to this photo states that Tereska grew up in a German concentration camp during World War II and as a result of it, when asked to draw "home", she was merely able to sketch few mixed-up lines. I found that photo very disturbing and I still can not get Tereska's face out of my head.
Here is Seymour’s most famous photograph of the Spanish civil war, which by now has become an iconic image of that conflict. If you have a bit of free time, you should definitely go to de Young an check out these and others of his photos.
The other exhibit that I liked a lot (but which N. did not consider to be art at all) was entitled The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend. I think I grew up to start appreciating sculpture to the same extent as I appreciate paintings.
Below are few pics from de Young.
One of the galleries viewed from the top:
A giant still life:
Bird's view of the gallery with the giant still life sculpture(?)/installation(?):
Yet another gallery:
I reflect in art:
The part of de Young exhibition that both of us liked the most was dedicated to the photography of David Seymour (Chim).
David Seymour (or actually David Szymin) was a Polish-born Jew, who studied photography in Germany and France, before settling down in the US. He lived in interesting times and documented them extremely well in his capturing photographs. de Young exhibition of his photos spans through the demonstrations of French workers in the 1930s, Spanish civil war, aftermath of the Second World War in Eastern Europe, earthquake in Greece and Suez War (during which he was killed). I was very impressed with all those photos - not only they document life in those turbulent times, but they are also aesthetically beautiful and they very well capture the emotions of people photographed.
Seymour must have been very well recognized already in his own times as he was also hired to take photos of various famous people (e.g. Pablo Picasso, Peggy Guggenheim, Bernard Berenson, Arturo Toscanini, Ingrid Bergman, Sophia Loren, Kirk Douglas, Audrey Hepburn and many others) and several of these photos can also be seen at de Young's exhibit, e.g. this famous photo of Bernard Berenson, an acclaimed art historian of the Italian Renaissance admiring the beauty of the nude sculpture of Antonio Canova's Pauline Bonaparte at Borghese Gallery in Rome, Italy.
Another of his photographs that moved me a lot was this photo of Tereska, "a child in a residence for disturbed children, Poland". Explanation to this photo states that Tereska grew up in a German concentration camp during World War II and as a result of it, when asked to draw "home", she was merely able to sketch few mixed-up lines. I found that photo very disturbing and I still can not get Tereska's face out of my head.
Here is Seymour’s most famous photograph of the Spanish civil war, which by now has become an iconic image of that conflict. If you have a bit of free time, you should definitely go to de Young an check out these and others of his photos.
The other exhibit that I liked a lot (but which N. did not consider to be art at all) was entitled The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend. I think I grew up to start appreciating sculpture to the same extent as I appreciate paintings.
Below are few pics from de Young.
One of the galleries viewed from the top:
A giant still life:
Bird's view of the gallery with the giant still life sculpture(?)/installation(?):
Yet another gallery:
I reflect in art:
bike, sex, privacy
As everybody knows I am in love with my bike, but still BBC reports a story of somebody who clearly must love his bike even more than I do mine... Read it, it's absolutely hilarious: link
Photo Booth
aka Attack of Clones aka La donna e mobile aka why I prefer to waste time instead of sleeping (or packing)
Monday, November 12, 2007
intelligence burried in hips
Recent paper from "Evolution and Human Behaviour" demonstrates that women with curvy figures are brighter than their slim counterparts and produce more intelligent offspring (These results are based on the study including 16,000 women and girls, which measured their performance on cognitive tests). Here is link to BBC article about this issue.
Viva la pasta!
Viva la pasta!
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Free Rice for the hungry
Play Free Rice game, learn new vocabulary and feed the hungry. The game is both good for people fluent in English and for the ones who just recently learned this language. Based on your first few replies, it decides on which level your English vocabulary is and thereafter it gives you question at appropriate level. With each word which meaning you knew correctly you gain 10 grains of rice that will be distributed among the world's poorest people by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).
Each one grain, one person, one voice, one vote can make a difference:
Each one grain, one person, one voice, one vote can make a difference:
Friday, November 9, 2007
Led by Destiny
My dearest friend Ania is the most kind, caring and thoughtful person in the world. All what she does says: I think about you, I care about you and I love you.
When she came to visit me recently in SF, she brought me a book that is not easy to get: "Led by Destiny" written by Kinga Freespirit about her (and her boyfriend's, Chopin) hitchhiking trip around the world. Already the fact that she managed to get that book for me is impressive enough, but being as amazing as Ania is, she of course even managed to get this book signed by Chopin with a personal dedication to me... (Kinga couldn't have signed it as she had died a year ago during her trip through Africa)
This also shows how bad I am. I got this book two months ago and only yesterday night I saw the dedication. But when I saw it, I almost started crying as I again got reminded how lucky I am to have so many wonderful friends around me.
Thank you so much Anutku. And thank you to all my other amazing friends. You make me feel the most loved person on earth.
When she came to visit me recently in SF, she brought me a book that is not easy to get: "Led by Destiny" written by Kinga Freespirit about her (and her boyfriend's, Chopin) hitchhiking trip around the world. Already the fact that she managed to get that book for me is impressive enough, but being as amazing as Ania is, she of course even managed to get this book signed by Chopin with a personal dedication to me... (Kinga couldn't have signed it as she had died a year ago during her trip through Africa)
This also shows how bad I am. I got this book two months ago and only yesterday night I saw the dedication. But when I saw it, I almost started crying as I again got reminded how lucky I am to have so many wonderful friends around me.
Thank you so much Anutku. And thank you to all my other amazing friends. You make me feel the most loved person on earth.
Night of Souls
On the 2nd of November, Latin/South American community of San Francisco celebrates "Night of Souls", which is much closer to Polish tradition of celebrating "Day of Dead" than Halloween. This celebration starts with a procession through Mission District and ends at one of the parks where everybody who wants can set up a kind of altar commemorating their relatives/friends that passed recently. As you can see from the photos below many people dress up that night as ghosts, still I did not have a feeling that they did it "for fun" or to spice up the party, but rather to better experience the reflective metaphysical nature of this event.
I am very grateful to my friend Lev for letting me be part of this celebration. And for a very nice evening afterwards in his and Molly's company.
I am very grateful to my friend Lev for letting me be part of this celebration. And for a very nice evening afterwards in his and Molly's company.
