Why So Red?

Cuba's Communism

2013-06-26T11:10:00.003-05:00

Today I was searching the internet for a series of photographs of homes in Cuba and in my search for these pictures I remember vividly (but yet cannot remember the name of the photographer), I discovered Jan Sochor.

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Putin Speaks English and German (and French)

2013-06-13T16:08:00.000-05:00

I'm waaaay behind on all the things, but here's a belated Wednesday post highlighting Putin's linguistic capabilities.

Putin speaks Russian, French (obviously), German, and English. Is there some other one I don't know about? Not surprised about the French because I swear every Russian book I've read uses French phrases (even after translation) and Russia's power was during the height of French's fashionability. It's not uncommon for anyone in Europe or Russia to know French in some capacity.

It only makes sense that he speaks German since Putin was stationed as a KGB officer in Dresden for 5 years. I cannot help but think of Lara in Good Bye, Lenin! because the accent is the exact same.

Then there's English. This is the video that came out with him speaking English. He obviously has used English before (doubt that Obama speaks any of the other three languages), but everyone is making note of this video. I certainly did because I've never seen video of him using English, let alone for such a span of time. Does anyone else notice that he makes weird facial contortions with certain English sounds? It looks like it pains him to utter them out loud. I worked with an Italian woman in Budapest who would always repeat the hideous "er" sound whenever she uttered it, just to make fun of how ugly it sounded. We often would just start saying "er! er! ERRRRR!" to be funny because, let's face it, it really is a hideous sound.

No videos of French, and why would I even care! France isn't part of this blog!

Monday Film Review: 5 Elephants

2013-06-10T22:00:00.000-05:00

The Goethe Institut in Chicago is always showing movies or having cultural events to promote German culture. Despite taking classes there and being generally impressed, I never made it to their events until now. They were showing Die Frau mit den 5 Elephanten (The Woman with 5 Elephants) and I forced my husband to attend with me.
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Pilsen - Many Kilometers Away

2013-06-05T10:00:00.000-05:00

A while back, I did a post about eastern European immigration into Chicago and their presence in various neighborhoods. I became inspired to start searching in my own backyard for the comforts and culture of Europe, which lie thousands of kilometers and dollars away from me. This is going to be very fun for me because it gives me a chance to dust off my camera, see neighborhoods I don't often venture, and get to know my city and Europe better. My partner in crime is none other than the Ms. Christine Armbruster, who is slowly becoming synonymous with this blog. She's an amazing adventure companion and her photography far, far outshines my own. Christine and Taylor are taking over European Chicago, one step at a time. Get ready for TONS of pictures.

Monday Film Review: Dekalog

2013-06-03T10:00:00.000-05:00

You'll have to excuse if this post waxes rhapsodic or if I get overly emotional. I have never loved a movie/series so intensely at first viewing. At this point, I have viewed all of them at least three times and I have deliberately sought out more of his work. The epic Dekalog film series by Krzysztof Kieślowski is a work of brilliance. It was my first introduction to the legendary director and by all means was the best one.

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5/31 Review: Checking Facts, Basketball, and ICTY, WHY?

2013-05-31T11:42:00.000-05:00

News

BIGGEST NEWS OF THE WEEK:

"#ICTY judgements are consistent, logical and contribute to reconciliation in the Balkans," said no one, ever. bit.ly/11dXlny
— Nastasja Vojvodić (@nastasja__v) May 30, 2013

All I'm going to say about that ^^ is holy balls of hellfire, I am slowly starting to hate ICTY. Make up your mind about what is ancillary and what is not.

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Monday Book Review: Us

2013-05-28T10:54:00.000-05:00

Today's review is a day late because here in the US, we were on holiday. Memorial Day weekend means you are only allowed to do several things: barbeque, do yard work, and eat. I did all three (FTW). Now on to your regularly scheduled post (1 day delayed).

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5/24 Review - Dramatics and Righting Historical Wrongs

2013-05-24T11:14:00.000-05:00

Friday means reflecting on our past week. Tune in to get a gist of the big news, my opinions on the news, videos, art, and music. My discoveries are yours to enjoy!

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Animation Gluttony

2013-05-22T10:53:00.000-05:00

I love seeing animations and so do you! They're not all with English subtitles, so bust out that translating software/website. Today has a wide selection from countries, styles, and even time periods (though not one is past 1990). Gear up for some beautiful animation, which goes so unappreciated these days.

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Monday Film Review: Farewell

2013-05-20T12:22:00.006-05:00

One of my favorite films (I don't care about the haters out there) is rather conventional, relatively well-known for a foreign film, and deals with the time shortly before and after the fall of the Wall. The main actor is pretty hunky and it's in German. Good Bye, Lenin! is a general crowd pleaser, I know, and it will hardly be a surprise that I love it and it will keep a soft spot in my heart. Like Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), it's palatable for an American audience; my husband is a relatively good barometer for American responses and he liked it.

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5/17 Reflections and Sharing Time

2013-05-17T14:28:00.000-05:00

This is the round up of the past 7 days. Short news blurbs/my opinions on them, and some cool stuff I tweeted about for those who don't follow me/scroll through the little box to the right.
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Hungarian Ethnography & Folklore

2013-05-15T12:00:00.001-05:00

I discovered this site a number of weeks ago, but never got around to featuring it. I don't fully recollect how I got to it, but it has visual beauty and information that one needs to learn about rural Hungary. I lived in Budapest and only ventured outside the city to go to Belgrade, Vienna, and Lake Balaton. This meant I didn't get to experience the non-urban aspect of Hungarian culture, which was a real shame. When I end up Hungary again, I'll be sure to visit smaller places and soak in more of the traditional culture.

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Monday Film Review: Tapping In, Helping Out

2013-05-13T12:42:00.001-05:00

This film is a little old, but still a powerful punch of morality in the Soviet realm. If you haven't seen Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), you need to view it as soon as possible. It was the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2007 and though I can't speak for the other contenders, this movie was worth every bit of its weight in Oscar gold. Even my parents loved it, and they are not inclined to love communist things. I can't remember if I picked it or not.

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Pawel Kuczynski

2013-05-08T12:32:00.001-05:00

I found Pawel's work on Imgur, but he also has a Toon Pool page. I'd suggest visting his official website. I have included some of his satirical work, but his unofficial page on Facebook and a Tumblr (with some gifs!) have a plethora. His work is not only visually arresting, but the satirical nature gives it heft. This post is more pictures, less talk, so here's a quick bio I found on Pawel:
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Monday Book Review: The Frog's Ass

2013-05-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

I have discovered time travel, so rest assured this was published on Monday, but only when I went back into the past today. It's a weird time loop thing that can never fully be explained by science or fiction. This book had sat in my mental queue for quite some time since I had seen Kelly Hignett mention that it was a swell read. By the grace of Stalin, it was in the library for me to snatch up and experience; I had run out of books in my own house to read. This is my story.

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May Day!

2013-05-01T12:46:00.001-05:00

I won't write a post on the history of May Day because there is plenty of information that is searchable with those two words. It's a historic day and has contained various significance over the centuries, including the communist cry for the worker and Hitler's Tempelhof rally/his death. I wanted to insert a little bit of lightheartedness and personal for the day instead of all those historical facts. Pretty sure that's going to be covered with great frequency. Who's ready to learn about a May Day tradition?

(I do want to apologize for the delay/absence in content--I do this in my spare time and I haven't had much of that lately.)

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Get a Taste of Eastern Europe

2013-04-24T12:41:00.000-05:00

I came across this magnificent Pinterest user: A Curious Taste. It is a complete smorgasbord of pictures from all around the world, including the beloved CEE, and even has a board specifically for cuisine blogs. I found a number on there that I would like to share for those interested in making authentic cuisine from these areas, and added to the list to fill in the gaps. I had to cut so many blogs that had no English translations/translation function. :((

This is by no means an exhaustive list. Plenty of cooking and recipe websites have sections for regional cuisines that aren't difficult to find, but I sought for original blogs in English. There are plenty of regional cuisine cookbooks as well, so do not feel limited to the internet (is that a limitation? I wonder...)

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Chechnya: A Little Background Series, Part 2

2013-04-23T10:34:00.000-05:00

Due to the events in Boston, Chechnya is the hot topic. There is a lot of solid, fair information out there, but there's also really prejudiced, xenophobic information as well. This post should hopefully condense the history of the neighboring north Caucus neighbors as well as Chechnya and give context since the name and history of this region will be tossed about for the next couple of weeks, at least. Let me clearly state this now: it is unclear whether the conflict in Chechnya has any relevance to the Boston bombing and I am not endorsing a direct link between the two. This is merely to give more information about a misunderstood, seldom-taught corner of the world and it's best to have more straight information out when it's being talked about. Let us proceed.

Chechnya is right on the border of Georgia. This borderland of the former Soviet Union/USSR has been embroiled in conflict for the past while. Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Chechnya all occupy the Caucus between the Caspian and Black Seas. The proximity of all these regions, their wars, and continued disputes is important when considering the state of Chechnya. Since there is a lot going on, I've broken it down by the conflicted region. There is a lot going on here, so I've broken it down into 3 post, culminating in Chechnya. This post is discussing South Ossetia. Abkhazia's post is here.

Monday FILM Review: Serbian Hero

2013-04-22T11:57:00.001-05:00

Today's Monday review is going to be a film, not a book! It's time to get a little multimedia in my reviews. For those following me on Twitter, you saw that I went to see "Slaughter Nick for President" on Friday at CIMM Fest. I seldom get to watch movies about eastern Europe because my husband does not have the same taste, and my selections tend to be downers (which he wishes to avoid). I have to be careful about my selections because he would not tolerate a film like "Sátántangó", which is 7 hours long. I don't even know if I can get him to commit to "Dekalog" (which I cherish in my heart) despite that it's essentially like a TV series. The point is, we both had to win. I got Serbia in there and he got some feel-good.

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Chechnya: A Little Background Series

2013-04-20T10:21:00.002-05:00

Moving Forward: 4/19 Review

2013-04-19T12:52:00.000-05:00

This past week hasn't been the flashiest in terms of news, but there has been some movement on the political scene.

Central Europe

Hungary got quite a bit of negative attention this week, and for more than solely-political reasons. To add to the constitutional changes that Fidesz has put into action, they've decided to annoy Brussels with an ad hoc tax to pay EU fines. Delightful. It had one thing going in its favor: the ruling on the violent interrogation was upheld.

Romania made two big decisions this week: 1) they are abandoning their original EU target year and postponing until 2020 and 2) they are proposing a property restitution bill to settle disputes from collectivization during the Soviet era. A Romanian daily paper is concerned that this will fuel the Romanian real estate bubble.

Germany has a new party emerging: Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which has an outline of its political stances here (in German - sorry!). Surprise, surprise, they are not pro-EU/United States of Europe and challenging the CDU/CSU coalition that's been in power since Merkel stepped up the podium.

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Katyń (Forest) Massacre

2013-04-17T11:18:00.000-05:00

Today's focus is on a historical event that has great significance to Poles. Poland and Russia have a long and tangled history of clashes and Katyń was among many bloody events. The Katyń forest is just outside Smolensk, a fact that will prove interesting later in the story. The massacre occurred in April and May of 1940 and is the result of an infamous non-aggression pact.

Monday Book Review: Hasonmás

2013-04-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

"Már túljártam életem felén, amikor egy szeles, tavaszi napon eszembe jutott Esti Kornél." Lászlo Krasznahorkai says that it is the most beautiful sentence in Hungarian and written by Dezső Kosztolányi in Kornél Esti. In English it reads, "I had passed the midpoint of my life, when one windy day in spring, I remembered Kornél Esti." Thus begins the tale of two doppelgangers, or as they would say in Hungarian hasonmás, reconciling after decades apart.

Baring It All: 4/12 Recap

2013-04-12T14:52:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the recap of the week. There's so much to read and know that I've taken the liberty of condensing it for you. If you want to see these things as they happen, follow me on Twitter! You just have to click that button over to the right. It's not far... You can also see who I follow; I discovered that Twitter is the best place to find anything on CEE and there are fantastic, smart people to interact with.

Let's get to it.

Country Spotlight: Montenegro

2013-04-10T15:20:00.000-05:00

It's been a long, long time since I have spotlighted a country and it's time to revive it. Today will be focused on Montenegro! I have completely neglected the country, but here I am to shed some light on the country, which has been popping up in the news due to some presidential problems. Though besotted with corruption, the EU approved accession talks. Let's dive in to Crno Gora!

via

Name

The name Montenegro actually comes from the Venetian word for Crna Gora (sometimes transliterated as Tsrna Gora): Monte Negro. It means "black mountain".

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