popkitchen

the beginning of the end

popkitchen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:28:37 +0000

The final season of Lost needs to resolve all the mysteries, tie all the loose ends.

The authors made a turn towards mythology, there is talk of “forces of good and evil” and if after six years of loyalty we end up with some Lord of the Rings ending, I give up …

Life according to Eggers

popkitchen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:30:05 +0000

New Sam Mendes’s film is another one in the series of indy flicks. If you are not familiar with the genre, let me help, those are the films starring cute geeks (Micheal Cera is always welcome), just enough socially adjusted for a wide audience (most of them are high school or university students, if not, budding writers), but still a little bit on the weird side. There is no promiscuity in indy flicks, because SHE is the ONE. Well, since life is measured against songs of The Smiths or Belle and Sebastian.

At a glance, Away We Go is meeting most of these criteria, moreover the music of Alexei Murdoch is central to the story. What I believe gives more authenticity to the film is the script written by Dave Eggers and Vendella Vida, a real-life married couple, who based the film on their own experience before the birth of their first child. The main characters in the film, Burt and Verona, are making a roadtrip in order to find the best place to raise their child. They are meeting all kinds of freaks on the way, but the trip was not taken so they could learn something about themselves, so that one of life’s misconception could be shattered, they just wanna find a nice place to live. When they do, the movie ends. And the place is truly beautiful.

The life-likedness of characters is apparently Eggers’s speciality, as he started his writing career with a memoire appropriately entitled for under 30-year old A Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius. It makes you wonder how much one can be presumptious? Well, Dave has an interesting story to tell, not particularly unique, however the way he perceives things and then writes about them catches reader’s attention. Following the death of both parents in the span of just a few months, Dave took parental duties for his then 13-year old brother Christopher (called Toph in the book). They move to San Francisco and despite dirty dishes, pigsty of a house, playing games, by acting as a parent, Dave is growing up on his own, as well.

dave eggers's books by ari@flickr

eggers signing books by ari@flickr

In the meantime, Eggers founded literary journal McSweeney, started the creative writing workshops and won TED award for the contribution to public schools. Not everything he did was based on his life, recently Eggers worked as a scriptwritter of the film Where the Wild Things Are, directed by Spike Jonze, based on the story of Maurice Sendak.

A Perfect Day for Bananafish

popkitchen — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:50:36 +0000

happyjackeats@flickr

Kind of an obituary in New York Times.
My all-time favorite short story.

R.I.P. Jerome David Salinger

if not now, when

popkitchen — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:05:15 +0000

Holocaust Memorial Day was marked today. By coincidence, currently I am reading a novel by Italian Jewish writer Primo Levi If Not Now, When (Se non ora, quando), which follows a group of Russian Jews making their way through Ukraine and Poland to Italy, starting in 1943. Levi’s opus was shaped by his own experience from the concentration camp, which followed his brief period of fighting with Italian partisans.

For a title, Levi is using a Jewish saying, originating from Hilel the Elder, one of the most imporant religious leaders of the Jews. In the book, this saying is transformed into a poem, recited by one of the characters, during a break from marching through desolate areas. It captures the Jewish experience, as well as the stories of the characters in the book

Do you recognize us? We are the flock of the ghetto,
Fleeced for a thousand years, resigned to the offence.
We are the tailors, the scribes, and the cantors
Withered in the shadow of the Cross.
Now we have learned the paths of the forests,
We have learned to shoot, and we hit straight on.
If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If not thus, how? And if not now, when?
Our brothers have risen to heaven
Through the ovens of Sobibor and of Treblinka,
They have dug themselves a grave in the air.
Only we few have survived
For the honor of our submerged people,
For vengeance, and for witness.
If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If not thus, how? And if not now, when?
We are the sons of David and the stubborn ones of Massada.
Each of us bears in his pocket the stone
Which smashed the forehead of Goliath.
Brothers, away from the Europe of tombs:
Let us climb together toward the land
Where we will be men among other men.
If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
And if not thus, how? And if not now, when?

After reciting of the poem and a story on its author Martin the Carpenter, Gedaleh, leader of the partizan gang says „That’s enough now: these aren’t the thoughts for everyday. They’re alright every now and then, but if you live with them you just poison yourself, and you’re not a partisan anymore. And bear this in mind: I believe only in three things: vodka, women and submachine gun. Once I also believed in reason, but now anymore“.

Levi thought of this book as his adventure novel and throughout the first two hundred pages (which is where I am right now), you are following the advances of a unit, their conversations on war, life before the war, family and what pushes them ahead, as the place they are fleeing from never recognized them as their own.
I am off to continue reading. I leave you to the first part of the TV documentary on Levi’s visit to Auschwitz in the beginning of the eighties.

run for cover

popkitchen — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:13:07 +0000

dude crush@Flickr
First time I encountered women fully covered in black cloth, was in London. I will admit, in that moment, during a passing-by on the street, I felt a little bit at unease. I am waiting for the theorists-on-call to tell me that I encountered the Other, from whom I did not know what to expect. As well as that burka (which is the name of this garment) actually proves that an identity (the visual one, face as a marker of gender and age) is a construct, as with people dressed this way you can not really tell the difference. Could have been the place I was at, as though I felt “white men’s burden”, thinking how can we judge and regulate the culture we do not know nothing about, especially as we are so proud of human rights and democracy, then we just have to swallow the uneasiness we feel around fully veiled women.

pooyan@flickr

Criticism, as well as calls to ban the veil, come from people on the right (I could only imagine how
via Religious Fashion
uneasy they feel) and who would like to stand with the right-wing people and their values. I have two objections to the case, from my own experience. They are more of a questions then outright calls for the ban. While visiting a primary school in West London, I noticed 10-year old girls wearing the hijab. Well, that’s not a free choice, it is a result of growing up in families that respect those rules. Also, what if I decide to visit Iran, Jemen or Saudi Arabia during summer and wear my traditional clothes, consisting of shorts and flip flops, no covers included. After all, that is a part of my cultural tradition.

It remains to be seen what will happen with the proposal of the French MPs to ban the full veil on public places. Considering the severity of articles of Sharia Law, do Muslims have the right to object, Ray Hanania, American of Palestinian origin is asking on his blog Palestine Note.
Me, I am waiting for some entrepreneur to launch hijab or burka, as a luxury good, the latest fashion must-have. I am already seeing Lady GaGa’s next video.

haiti

popkitchen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:14:11 +0000

Arcade Fire - Haiti

Help out by donating to your local branch of UNICEF

partizan flicks

popkitchen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:06:34 +0000

picasso poster for the battle of neretva

Big-budget action films are not being made in any of the post-Yugoslav countries. If anyone dares, the product looks like a cheap imitation of a Hollywood film, with audiences staying clear of cinemas. New generations could not envision that former country, aside from artistic achievements embodied in black wave cinema and popular comedies, had a developed movie industry, in which action films dealing with the conflict between Nazis and partisans held a prominent spot.

After its premiere in Motuvun film festival in Istria, Croatia, a documentary on partizan films had its screening in Belgrade this weekend. Directed by Igor Stoimenov, who already embarked on a similar nostalgic journey with a series Robna kuca (Department Store) on Yugoslav pop cultural phenomena (new wave music, football, Sarajevo winter Olympics from 84), it is not focusing on their politics, but the myths surrounding the films, authors and actors and accompanying trivia.

valter beer

From epic battles (The Battle on Neretva, starring Orson Welles and Yul Bryner) to partizan thrillers and westerns, authors tell a story on the possibly most unique film genre to emerge from Yugoslavia. Naturally, partizan films portrayed the dominant ideology of the times, reducing the complex national conflict, in addition to occupation by the Germans, to a simplistic story about good and evil. In the retrospect, they did not manage to indoctrinate its audience – generations who grew up with it, managed to take down Communism, but more importantly lead the country into bloody civil war. It seems that the basic anti-Fascist message eluded most of them.

Is it nostalgia for times long gone or resurgence of collective memory, yet story about Richard Burton playing Tito, drunk while at it (“they brought a whole boat of Chivas for him”), Picasso making a poster for Neretva film and Das ist Valter being the most popular film in China for decades, has to provoke some kind of a sentiment.

Das ist Valter dubbed in Chinese

A New Prague?

popkitchen — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:20:41 +0000

Before I illuminate you on what the title means, if you haven’t already guessed, I need to go over the news of the day. Serbian President Boris Tadic was in an official visit to Italy, where he was joined by the half of the Government, but that’s whole different matter. What I want to tell you is this – it is better to be George Clooney then sun tanned. On a press conference, Berlusoni first said that Italy and Serbia have many similarities, but that he
does not like Serbian language, as it is not melodic enough. Furthermore, he is intrigued over how opera sounds in Serbian. Most likely an opera he would hear in Serbian would be familiar to him, in the only language he speaks. But then introducing Tadic, Berlusconi said “Now I introduce President Clooney”, alluding to the salt and pepper hairstyle of our President. Tadic smiled and said that Serbia and Italy agree on everything, except the independence of Kosovo, il Cavaliere interrupted saying the relations could get worse if Dejan Stankovic, football player from Inter scores a goal against Berlusconi’s own A.C. Milan.

Caro Silvio, sei un buffone. Ma penso che Serbi ti piaccono.

Watch the whole deal at Corriere della Sera website.

Why Prague? Alternative tourist guide giant Lonely Planet declared Belgrade as the first among Top 10 cities to party the night away, which was reported by Reuters. Wow, if that is really true, why do I always end up in the same bar on Friday night? Seriously, Belgrade can not compete with the cultural/musical offer of some top European destinations, but its night life is lively, probably it is more spontaneous than in much larger capitals. For example, you can listen to Eros Ramazzoti that Silvio B. would always applaud to, as well as Scottish punky pipers, while drinking whiskey.

But Belgrade, as well the whole of Serbia is getting old. In an article for The Economist, Tim Judah wrote about demography of former Yugoslav countries, entitling the piece Balkan Storks.

Why is Belgrade marching against Fascism?

popkitchen — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:27:26 +0000

20 years after the fall of Berlin Wall.
If at that time Serbia made a bad choice, is it still doing it?
Small group of citizens of Belgrade protested against the rising tide of nationalism. There were more policemen and photographers than demonstrators.
I took this photo today at work.

On that other note, Transitions Online made a special website on the occasion of the fall of the Berlin Wall, with comments, analysis and testemonies.

bored to death

popkitchen — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:21:44 +0000

Or Instead of Manhattan, first we take Brooklyn.

New HBO series is about a writer, not able to write his second novel and left by his girlfriend, so desperate that he posts an ad on Cragislist, advertising himself as a private detective. “I read so many Raymond Chandler novels, that I think I could do this” Johnatan says, who is played by Jason Schwartzman. In this insane endeavour, he is joined by a grumpy comic writer (Zach Galifianakis) and magazine editor for which Johnatan writes (Ted Danson from Cheers). Despite the attempts at noir aesthetics (Johnatan’s suits and trenches, meeting clients in shady bars), as the team is led by Schwartzman the show is Wes Anderson-quirky combination of the contemporary and retro. He is the same as the movies like Rushmore and Darjeeling Limited, clumsy, immature, boyishly naive, slightly on the side of bizzare, even though the series is based on the life of its author Johnatan Ames. In one episode, Serbian actress Branka Katic makes an appearance.

Brooklyn native, Ames wanted to create a show reflective the spirit of this part of NYC – easygoing manner, over reflection, tendency towards authentic. He managed that, as Gawker says that this is the perfect show for hipsters. In my opinion, it is making it a candidate for an early ax.
Shot on original locations, as Ames lives in Fort Green, he wanted to celebrate the neighborhood. Brooklyn itself is known by its racial and ethnic diversity (significant percentage of population is African American, there are a number of national communities – Italians, Rusians, Polish, among others). The neighborhood became fashionable, it is frequently heard that „Brooklyn is the new Manhattan“.

Get to know Brooklyn through pop culture

In the popular culture, Brooklyn has been present through hip hop (which is originally from Bronx), then indy music, with the opening of number of clubs in Williamsburg.

For those who read: Johnatan Lethem Motherless Brooklyn

For those who watch films: The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach), Smoke (Wayne Wang),
Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)

*Disclaimer: Bear in mind that this is written by a person, who did not see B from Brooklyn. Currently, she gathered around a quarter of funds necessary for a trip to NYC.