Posts for April, 2008

April 29, 2008

Pursuing the fabled maximum

The World Snooker Championship this year has certainly been entertaining. Newcomer Liang Wenbo’s marathon 13-12 victory over Joe Swail proved to be a tense finish after the youngster made a number of rash errors (deserved of his “Kamikaze Kid” nickname) to allow Joe Swail to creep back from 12-8. Should he win the competition he [...]

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Mała anegdota

Kiedy byłem w Polsce pierwszy raz, mieszkałem z przyjaciółką w Olsztynie. Rano matka mojej przyjaciółki zapytała mnie, czy chciałbym kawę lub herbatę. Wtedy jeszcze prawie wcale nie rozumiałem po polsku, tylko piąte przez dziesiąte - “dziękuję”, “proszę”, “przepraszam”, “nie rozumiem” - ale dlatego, że jestem z Wielkiej Brytanii, oczywiście chciałem herbatę! Odpowiedziałem po prostu “proszę”, [...]

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April 24, 2008

Conversations with Stalin

’s probably about time I got around to finally writing about some of the books that I read, a little in the vein of the 52-in-52 meme. This probably won’t start a trend, but Milovan Đilas’

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Gołota back on form

Caught a replay of Andrzej Gołota’s title fight with Mike Mollo from back in January last night on Eurosport. The derby (both boxers Chicago residents) went the distance, with Gołota taking some punishment from Mollo’s right hand leaving him with an eye that always looked like it could cause the fight to end. Nevertheless, Mollo [...]

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April 21, 2008

Krystyna Janda in Dublin

On Saturday I went to a meeting with Krystyna Janda presented by The National Creativity Centre Foundation, in the National Gallery in Dublin. The meeting principally took the form of a questions and answers session, conducted by the famous Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi, ahead of the Irish première of Krystyna Janda’s monologue adaptation of Vedrana [...]

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April 15, 2008

О ком?

Just a little character development from a recent Russian class:
Лет 30 назад он пользовался уважением, и это несмотря на то, что он был низким и хрупким. Он сверкал харизмой и его глаза светились силой молодости, его ум работал замечательно когда он красноречиво и убедительно представлял свои страсти и мечты: воплощение юношеского идеализма.
Сегодня, та же самая [...]

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April 11, 2008

Words from the page

Courtesy of Caro, here’s my contributory few lines from The Lives of the Great Composers by Harold C. Schonberg, page 123, three sentences from the fifth one on:
And, indeed, the coda of the first movement, with its slippery, chromatic bass and the awesome moans above it, remains a paralyzing experience. That is the way the [...]

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