On December 15:

37 Nero, Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, was born.

1791  The United States Bill of Rights became law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.

1832 Gustave Eiffel, French engineer and architect (Eiffel tower), was born.

1863 The mountain railway from Anina to Oravita in Romania was used for the first time.

1891  James Naismith introduced the first version of basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school’s gymnasium, and two teams of nine players.

As I See It, J. Paul Getty’s Autobiography

1915 – World War I: Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig replaced John French, 1st Earl of Ypres as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force.

1930 Edna O’Brien, Irish novelist and short story writer, was born.

1933  – Donald Woods, South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist, was born.

1939 Cindy Birdsong, American singer (The Supremes), was born.

 The Supremes Jean Terrell (left), Cindy Birdsong (center), Mary Wilson (right) circa 1970

1939  Gone with the Wind received its première at Loew’s Grand Theater in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

1944 The Finance Act (No. 3) abolished the Chinese poll tax, introduced in 1881, which was described by Minister of Finance Walter Nash as a ‘blot on our legislation’.

1951 The towering Belmont railway viaduct, which bridged a deep gully at Paparangi, northeast of Johnsonville, Wellington, built in 1885 by the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company, was demolished by Territorial Army engineers.

1955  Jens Olsen’s World Clock started by Swedish King Frederick IX and Jens Olsen’s youngest grandchild Birgit.

 The back of Jens Olsen’s World Clock

1965  Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieved the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7.

1973  John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, was found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10, 1973.

1978  President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States will recognize the People’s Republic of China and cut off all relations with Taiwan.

1997 The Treaty of Bangkok was signed allowing the transformation of Southeast Asia into a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone.

2000 The 3rd reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was shut down due to foreign political pressure.

2001 The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopened after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean.

2006  First flight of the F-35 Lightning II.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Peter Haining (ed) – Summoned From The Tomb (Digit, 1966)

Introduction – Peter Haining

Robert Bloch – Hell On Earth *
Washington Irving – Guests From Gibbet Island
Bram Stoker – The Judges House
J. S. Le Fanu – The Bully Of Chapelizod
Ivar Jorgensen – The Curse  *
Alexander Pushkin – The Coffin-Maker
Clive Pemberton – “Purple Eyes” *
Ambrose Bierce – A Watcher By The Dead
August Derleth – The Whippoorwills In The Hills
Edgar Allan Poe – Hop-Frog

A “Screaming Shuddering Spine-chilling TEN horror classics by the great masters of suspense” no less, including three stories (*) which didn’t make it into the later, much expanded hardback (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1973).  Groovy graveyard cover artwork too!

See also the Summoned From The Tomb thread on the Vault of Evil forum.

Marjorie Bowen (ed.) -  More Great Tales of Horror (John Lane, 1935)

Help! Cover Wanted!

James Hogg – Laird of Cassway
J. S. Le Fanu – Wicked Captain Walshawe of Wauling
Allan Cunningham – Wooden Woman (aka The Haunted Ships)
W. W. Fenn – The Roon With the Arras
James Hogg – Laird of Wineholm
Allan Cunningham – Ezra Peden
Alexander Pushkin – The Coffin Maker
Anon – The Fatal Hour (translated from French by Marjorie Bowen)
Anon – Elie Anderson’s Revenge
Mrs. Catherine Crowe – The Haunted Mill
Anon – The Laird of Cool’s Ghost
J. S. Le Fanu – The Sexton’s Adventure
Anon – The Suitor of Selkirk
W.W. Fenn – Hand on the Latch
J.S. Le Fanu – Vision of Tom Chuff
Anon – Fain Bride
J. Smith – Black Joe O’ the Bow
Mrs. Catherine Crowe – A Ghost in Prison
Anon – The Accursed Portrait (translated from French by Marjorie Bowen)
Robert Chambers – Infernal Major Weir
J. S. Le Fanu – Spectre Lovers
Anon – The Murder Hole
J. G. Lockhart – Perling Joan
W.W. Fenn – Ghost on the Chain Pier
D. M. Moir – Resurrectior Men
Allan Cunningham – The Ghost With the Golden Casket

I know it’s not much of an exclusive, but I can reveal the new Archbishop of Birmingham’s favourite novel.

When I interviewed Bishop Bernard Longley earlier this year, he told me, somewhat reluctantly, that he was a big fan of Russian literature. Pressed to name his favourite author, he went for Alexander Pushkin.

He said he returned again and again to Pushkin’s celebrated novel in verse, Eugene Onegin. The bishop, who is an excellent singer, said one of the reasons he loved it was that it has inspired so many great adaptations, notably Tchaikovsky’s operatic version.

Photo: Eugene Onegin and Vladimir Lensky’s duel

* * *
Ворон к ворону летит,
Ворон ворону кричит:
Ворон! где б нам отобедать?
Как бы нам о том проведать?

Ворон ворону в ответ:
Знаю, будет нам обед;
В чистом поле под ракитой
Богатырь лежит убитый.

Кем убит и отчего,
Знает сокол лишь его,
Да кобылка вороная,
Да хозяйка молодая.

Сокол в рощу улетел,
На кобылку недруг сел,
А хозяйка ждет милого
Не убитого, живого.

1828

* * *
Quạ tìm quạ họp đàn,
Quạ hỏi quạ ầm ĩ:
Bữa ăn trưa ở đâu?
Làm sao biết được nhỉ?

Quạ hỏi, quạ trả lời:
Tớ biết, có ăn rồi;
Một tráng sĩ nằm chết
Giữa đồng, dưới gốc sồi.

Vì sao chàng bị giết,
Ai là kẻ ra tay,
Chim ưng, ngựa ô biết,
Và cô chủ trẻ hay.

Vào rừng chim ưng bay,
Ngựa kẻ thù chiếm mất,
Cô chủ đợi người yêu,
Còn sống, chưa bị giết.

1828

I was tempted to watch this atmospheric adaptation of Alexander Pushkin’s early 19th-century verse novel because of the fine cast, headed by Ralph Fiennes as world-weary aristocrat Eugene Onegin, Liv Tyler as the heroine, country girl Tatyana, and Toby Stephens as Onegin’s idealistic friend Vladimir Lensky.

However, fine as the actors are, I think in the end it will be the stunning scenery, the cinematography (by historical drama expert Remi Adefarasin) and above all the snow that stay with me from this production.  Recently I watched the BBC mini-series The Impressionists, which uses slightly blurred colours to make its landscapes look uncannily like the paintings. This feature film often has the same kind of visual effect, slightly blurring and fading to create a haunting, dream-like impression.

The film is something of a Fiennes family project, with Martha Fiennes directing, her brother Ralph doubling as the star and the executive producer, and another brother, Magnus, having composed the haunting music, which nonetheless sounds very Russian to me. The blend of music and scenery reminded me of David Lean’s Dr Zhivago (1965), though I don’t think there are any balalaikas. I don’t know anything much about the screenwriter, Peter Ettedgui, but see from the imdb that he also scripted Vigo (1998), which is another tragic story, tracing the brief life of French film-maker Jean Vigo.

The film opens with a weary Onegin travelling through the Russian countryside after leaving St Petersburg to go to the deathbed of his uncle, a country aristocrat. His sophisticated lifestyle in St Petersburg, an endless succession of opera visits and affairs, is suggested in flashback, before he arrives in the bleak countryside – where he inherits the estate and meets Lensky, forming an instant friendship.

I should warn that I’m about to give away the whole plot of the film as I can’t really discuss it further without doing so – I don’t usually worry too much about spoilers, but there are a couple of twists, so if you don’t know the story, you might want to stop reading here.

Lensky is engaged to Olga (Lena Headey) and proudly introduces Onegin to his beloved, together with her mother (Harriet Walter, a great costume drama actress) and her sister, Tatyana.  Onegin’s jaded air of sophistication proves wildly attractive to Tatyana, who writes him a love letter declaring her feelings – however, he rejects her and then pointedly dances with Olga at Tatyana’s name day celebration, leading to disaster when a jealous Lensky challenges him to a duel.

Ralph Fiennes as Onegin

The duel scene is probably the most memorable part of the film, as the two friends meet in the snow, although it has been made clear that neither really wants to fight  - Lensky is terrified and Onegin is full of regret for what he has done. But a system of deadly etiquette has run away with them, there is no turning back, and, in a haunting visual image, Lensky ends up lying dead in the snow with blood spreading around him.

Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler

A guilt-ridden Onegin leaves the area and in effect disappears – but reappears several years later in Moscow, where he  runs into Tatyana at a party. She is now married to his cousin, Prince Nikitin (Martin Donovan), and is the leader of society – despite rejecting her earlier, Onegin now falls hopelessly in love with her and starts to stalk her path, but she has determined she will always be faithful to her husband and is now the one to reject her old love.

Some reviews I’ve read suggest that Fiennes, as Onegin, seems too cold for his deep emotion to be convincing, but I’d say that is the point – this is a  cold, world-weary man who nevertheless finds himself passionately in love, when it is too late for the emotion to change him or undo the things he has done which have blighted his life. Tyler is also convincing as the girl who becomes separated from her past, in effect sold in marriage, and has to live in a system of etiquette just as cruel as the one which led to the duel.

Throughout, the cinematography is magnificent, and there are many vivid parallels between later and earlier scenes, such as the way Onegin is shown writing his hopeless declaration to Tatyana, with a close-up focus on his pen and the ink forming the letters, just as in earlier scenes where she was the one writing to him.

Liv Tyler as Tatyana

After watching the film the first time, I quickly read Pushkin’s story in a prose translation by Roger Clarke, published by Wordsworth Classics – there are a lot of verse translations, but, from reading a few extracts from these online, I felt they all seemed full of forced rhymes.  The story written down feels very different from the film because Pushkin himself is so present as narrator and is just as important a character as Onegin, constantly digressing to talk about his own life and making witty side comments. The text is also full of references to other writers, from Goethe and Rousseau to  Samuel Richardson.   None of this is present in the film, which, as a result, has a much bleaker, barer feeling to it – but I’d say the same intensity is there in both, even if it sometimes lies below the surface in the text.

Tsarskoye Selo is commonly known as the city of Alexander Pushkin, the Great Russian poet. It is also the beautiful place of Imperial palaces and parks.

The educational movie translated on several languages helps you to feel this magic spirit.

The movie contains both educational and historical material.

Watch this free trailer and enjoy!

Some Brie-head interviewed over here at ShatterColors Literary Review. I guess he edits the magazine or something. So he’s interviewing himself in his own magazine?  And he publishes himself in his own magazine? Hell, I don’t know. I’m tired after running a hill workout. Then I read this, making me more tired. He’s one literary dude, though. Very literary, no doubt.

Robert Scott Leyse (14 bucks he prefers you use all three names) says some really un-sightful things here.

Like he says that he attended a “writing event.” Sounded like he had a hell of a good time, too. In his words, I thought, “What does a gathering of clowns spouting pretentious rubbish and thirsting to have their asses kissed have to do with writing?”

Touche, Robert Scott Leyse. “Thirsting to have their asses kissed” is an excellent image, or maybe just a mixed metaphor/dating service for burros. Either way, I love a man who can recognize a clown in disguise (or were the writers wearing their red noses and giant shoes?).  Reminds me of the grandmother in Flannery O’ Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Grannie wears very clean underwear and knows exactly how to identify “Good Men.” Only takes her a few minutes, too. (Unfortunately, she is soon executed, along with the entire family she leads directly to their collective doom.)

I’ll just jot down this epic poem here, la-dee-da….

One problem I have with Robert Scott Leyse is that the people I meet at “writing events” are scared of clowns. Also they are self-deprecating, witty, humble, interesting, well-read, grinders at the page after page, and know how to drink a shit-load of quality ale. (Those that don’t drink beer I maybe never meet.)

Possibly we attend different conferences?

As an editor Robert Scott Leyse prefers, “love stories, at whatever stage of a relationship…”

Hey! I do too, maybe. So good call, maybe.

Then Robert Scott Leyse reveals his true internal thrumming, as he drops the dark and stormy nights of his intellect onto flash fiction.

Egads! Run for the big tent, you clowns!

On flash fiction (you can hear the disgust steeping in his bottom lip like a tobacco chaw): “It’s a writing exercise, useful in learning the virtues of succinctness of expression. As for it being a viable form… Basically, some corner-cutting smartass thought, “Hey, why waste these writing exercises? Why not doll them up in fancy terminology — call them ‘flash fiction,’ ‘flashers,’ or ‘impromptus’ — and persuade people they’re real stories? That way, I’ll be able to churn out three or four or five of them a night!” Needless to say, I neither read nor publish writing exercises.”

I adore that last sentence. Cutting, shall we say. In fact, fuck it, all short forms are actually writing exercises, especially those damn sonnet things. I mean how can 14 lines be “viable”? Yo, parable, fable, mythology, psalm, and all you annoying hieroglyphics, please go away or at the very least add a whole lot of words, OK? Can we get some more words, seriously? Back up the fucking WORD truck, beep-beep-beep. MORE, MORE, like in a legislature or a contract.

And, yes, you pegged me, Robert Scott Leyse, since I do write and read flash fiction, I am indeed a “corner-cutting smartass.”

[But Impromptus? That sounds like a type of water dwelling dinosaur in a children's book. Dude, don't bring that one out in public, just a friendly tip.]

Speaking of “corner-cutters,” and since I just spent a semester with a grad student researching a bit of the inexhaustible history of flash fiction as a genre, other corner cutting clowns would include:

Margaret Atwood, Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, Dave Eggers (a ton here), David Foster Wallace, Tara L. Masih, Pu Songling, Kim Chinquee, J. G. Ballard, Jim Harrison, Kobo Abe, Primo Levi, Angela Carter, Max Steele, Barry Graham, Umberto Eco, H. H. Munro, Don Delillo, Mervyn Peake, Anton Chekhov, Kurt Vonnegut, Andrei Bely, W.B. Yeats, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Luigi Pirandello, D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, John Steinbeck, George Orwell, Ander Monson, Mark Twain, Marianne Gingher, Wu Jingzi, Dubus (x 2), Vladimir Nabokov, Oscar Wilde, Molly Gaudry, Agatha Christie, Dr. Seuss, Jaroslav Hasek, Samule Beckett, Jeff Noon, Matt Bell, Aesop, Deb Olen Unferth, Patricia Highsmith, Emily Bronte, Franz Kafka, Italo Calvino, John Updike, Jill Christman, Julian Barnes, Richard Wright, Sherman Alexie, Sara Teasdale, Shane Jones, Diane Williams, Jesus H. Christ, Blake Butler, Maya Angelou, W. G. Sebald, Edmund White, Thomas Pynchon, Raymond Carver, Carolyn Forche, Djuna Barnes, Virginia Woolf, Buddha, Dorothy Parker, Tao Lin (oh, fuck him [I kid]), Carol Bly, Russell Banks, John David Lovelace, Krishna, Richard Brautigan, Ezra Pound, Scott Garson, Michael Kimball, Jewel, Robert Olen Butler, Gertrude Stein, Alexander Pushkin, Joseph Young, Emile Zola, Ursula Kroeber Le Guin, Michael Martone, Hart Crane, Tania Hershman, Joyce Carol Oates, John Edgar Wideman, Rose Terry Cooke, Plato, Katherine Anne Porter, Kate Chopin, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez.

hanging out, corner-cutting...

I could go on, but it gets ridiculous the number of authors in the canon, and outside the canon, and shooting from a cannon (a la Hunter S.), that have worked in this genre, and didn’t I just say I was tired, and also I need my typing finger for clowning tomorrow morning.

I just got to clown, yo.

Wouldn’t want to be with that “impromptu” crowd, anyway, would you? What’s next, you start valuing other forms of brevity, like say oysters, shots of bourbon, sudden kisses, short films, or the well-cut diamond?

A writing exercise? Flash fiction is to a writing exercise as a haiku is to a pretzel. Something. I disagree, Robert Scott Leyse. And what if a flash WAS a writing exercise? What if someone wrote a story in the shape of an apartment building (Georges Perec) or as a travel guide (Martone) or I don’t know a freaking examination. On and on…or can stories only be one way, “love stories, at whatever…” etc.

[A red fox just loped across my backyard. Is it limping or loping? I mean loping is like attitude. Limping you probably got car-struck crossing highway 69]

Oh hell, I digress, and if you read this blog you know where I will digress to, like a ship drifting to harbor…1.) preheat oven. 2.) slice corn tortillas. 3.) Add cheese and “impromptu” toppings.

Well, I just had some kick ass nachos. It felt good. It didn’t take long, they are often listed as appetizer…so eat my board shorts (those are the very, very, very long shorts, sir, I think you will like them), Mr. Robert Scott Leyse.

(BTW, here is an exam, a writing exercise, as you would say.)

Well, what can you do? Not human at all, is it, the flash fiction above…drivel, really.

No, no, know.

Now?

I am going to go relax in the bath.

I will not! For me, a hot shower. I said hot.

And quick.

And good.

*

Beer prices are going up. (again)

Here’s what the D-bag at Budweiser says: “The environment is very favorable, we think.” (He means for price increases.)

Here is the D at MillerCoors: “We have seen very strong pricing to date this year, and we are projecting a favorable pricing environment moving forward.”

Can you believe people who work at a brewery talk like this? I am done with these fools. Can you smell the cynicism in the voices of these guys? It’s micro-brew only now (was heading percentage-wise that way anyway). I mean I feel like I am buying my beer from an attorney, and he’s laughing right in my face. Going home and telling his wife about all the suckers he found today in his “pricing environment.”

*

Kind words from The Prettiest Girl in School about Eggs here. Thank you for reading!

*

S

This movie is a Fantastic one.  Hats Off for Director Martha Fiennes . I will strongly recommend you to watch this movie. If you want Download link than Contact me by commenting .

Александр Пушкин

Я пережил свои желанья,
Я разлюбил свои мечты;
Остались мне одни страданья,
Плоды сердечной пустоты.

Под бурями судьбы жестокой
Увял цветущий мой венец -
Живу печальный, одинокой,
И жду: придет ли мой конец?

Так, поздним хладом пораженный,
Как бури слышен зимний свист,
Один – на ветке обнаженной
Трепещет запоздалый лист!..

1821

Aleksandr Pushkin

Mọi khát khao tôi đã trải hết rồi,
Đã thôi yêu những ước mơ bỏng cháy;
Còn lại toàn đớn đau khổ ải,
Sinh ra trong trống rỗng tâm hồn.

Giữa bão giông khắc nghiệt của đời
Héo rũ rồi vương miện hoa tươi –
Tôi sống buồn và cô đơn lắm,
Tôi chờ: đâu kết cục đời tôi?

Bị thương trong cơn lạnh tái tê,
Như bão nổi tiếng gió rít bốn bề,
Tôi một mình trên cành trơ trụi,
Chiếc lá muộn màng run lúc đông về.

1821

So, last night was my Mommy and me night (we do those every summer in my family). Before leaving, I babysat Lydia and watched some Twilight Zone and Shatner’s Raw Nerve (with Leonard Nimoy!!!) and after leaving we headed off to Borders.

I got a twenty-five dollar gift card (I always want to call it a gift ‘certificate’) for my birthday and I hadn’t used it as of yet, so it was the perfect time. I like having gift cards because I have a horrendous time buying things with actual money (more about that later… I’m terribly indecisive) so having something that pretty much forces you to confine it to one store (though the gift card can be used at Waldenbooks and somewhere else as well- same category of stores, anyway) is excellent.

The first thing I bought was pretty much a given as soon as I saw it:

Star Trek Uno!

Next was a bit more difficult to decide on, but I ended up buying this:

41 Stories by O. Henry!

After Borders, we went to Philly’s for dinner, and then on to WONDER BOOKS (oh, and I re-realized for the umpteenth time that it’s actually called Wonder Book, without the S on the end, but after calling it Wonder Books for so long it will be hard for me to change.

Okay, so we spent AGES in Wonder Book, because it is so awesome. I ended up being more drawn to the sales, mainly the dollar section (which boasted a frightening amount of books about Scientology), and I ended up bringing home:
-A Russian-English dictionary (it’s HUGE and all Russian books were ninety-nine cents, so I got it for LESS THAN A DOLLAR)
-A Russian children’s book translated into English (written by Alexander Pushkin)
-A ninety-five cent print that I got just because I liked it (upon closer research, I have found that it is a print of Francois Marius Granet, an adorable French painter)
this is pretty much exactly what it looks like:

-Three postcards, two with pictures of foreign scientists on them and one with the Toy Story crew on it… I’ve always loved Toy Story (postcards were three for a dollar)
-A book of Alfred Hitchcock’s anthologies (one dollar)
-A Hedwig bookmark (rest in peace)

And then, our evening was over and I had the worst’s night sleep of my life. It involved a nightmare where I was being shot at at a mall, freezing cold temperatures, waking up literally every couple of minutes, and then me waking up, taking my temperature, and realizing that I really am sick, running a temperature and everything. That’s strange, because I hardly ever get sick, and I only missed one day of school last year for being sick. (the other day I was absent was when I missed the PSATs because I forgot it was a full day of school)

I’ll probably have a nap now and hope that my throbbing head rests soon.

Aw, I just looked up a picture of Alexander Pushkin, and he’s fantastically cute:

EDIT: I was going to dutifully post last night, but as it turned out our computer wasn’t working. It’s all better now.

Cindy Brandle Dance Company in Searching for SuperGirl.

Another month, another Wednesday, another Dancin’ Feats. As always, poured after the jump for those who prefer to stay put.

While the concert-dance industry continues to be populated by a preponderance of women in all areas, a tradition as curious as it is unfortunate nevertheless soldiers on: The highest ranks of artistic and executive directorship continue to be held predominantly by men. An inspiring bit of contrary evidence, however, is increasingly more visible here in Chicago. The rapid growth of our dance community is due in large part to women founding new companies and expanding existing organizations. Should trends continue—and I hope they do—we could shortly find ourselves in a completely new paradigm of gender equality in dance leadership.

Anyone who’s ever doubted the staying power of a new year’s resolution should know the story of The Moving Architects. A Pennsylvania native here since 2003, Erin Carlisle Norton decided four years later on Jan. 1 she would start her own dance company; later this month the company will premiere her newest work, Stops on the Line, as part of a multitude of cultural events spurred by the 100th anniversary of visionary urbanist Daniel Burnham’s plan for the city of Chicago. True to their name, the Architects pay homage to the planner by way of what is perhaps the single most significant building to the plan and this city’s history, Burnham’s own Union Station. An evening-length work in one act, Stops on the Line evokes a specificity of time and place, and blends abstract composition and character-driven dance-theater scenes with a sure hand. Original music performed by composer Ian Hatcher makes a solid pair of rails, driving staccato rhythms chugging along in effective contrast to the delicate instrumentation of acoustic guitar and glockenspiel.

A recent recipient of the Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Grant, Julia Rae Antonick is off and running into her big year with PEND, a premiere collaboration with dancers Katie McCaughan and The Humans’ Precious Jennings along with composer Joseph St. Charles. As comfortable with unpredictability as Norton is meditatively deliberate, her creation unfolds alongside a stated aim to unfold from within a deep commitment to discovery through investigation. Antonick is wildly generative: Even her shortest creative processes yield a wealth of material. She’s a young prospector who’s found herself in a perpetual gold rush, and it will be worth watching how all that movement is sorted and applied for PEND and her project for the Dancemakers Forum, Duologue.

Appropriately enough, Cindy Brandle’s latest work directly addresses the state of contemporary women. Searching for SuperGirl looks at this not just through the lens of dance, however: It’s a multimedia evening that includes an exhibit of images by photographer Kat Fitzgerald (who contributes to Windy City Times, among other publications), original music by pillar of the community Barry Bennett, short films by Carl Wiedemann and Breakbone Dance Co.’s Atalee Judy, as well as pre-show music by Brandle herself.

Bravely opening her process to the public, Ginger Krebs has taken on the body itself for the premiere dance Rehearsals for Becoming Gods. In a succinct summary of the work, Krebs states the observance that humans are becoming increasingly dissociated from their bodies, viewing them more often as “states from which to escape, humiliating betrayals of our ideals, and uncooperative entities that require management.” Five dancers step in to assist her in using movement, logically enough, as a medium through which she can further explore this point of view.

Last (alphabetically) but not least, Zephyr Dance represents the upperclass women of this month’s unofficial festival of female choreographers. A decade on the scene, Artistic Director Michelle Kranicke and her associate, Emily Stein, will each show a piece for their annual spring concert; while I haven’t seen Stein’s suite of four solos, The Forest, Kranicke’s Erased Dance—also a quartet—was on last month’s Epiphany Dance Experiment program and clearly demonstrates she’s no novice. Moving as a single entity, the dancers reminded me of the rhythmic purities and faded lines of Agnes Martin’s large canvases; the dance rewards a balanced combination of wandering thought and patient focus.

Three of these performances are being held at my new favorite venue, Epiphany Episcopal Church, 201 S. Ashland. Stops on the Line, May 15-16 at 8 p.m., is $15 in advance at  www.themovingarchitects.org; Rehearsals for Becoming Gods, May 30-31 at 3 p.m., is free; and Zephyr Dance’s Spring Concert, June 4-6 at 8 p.m., is $20 at  www.zephyrdance.com .

Cindy Brandle Dance Company presents Searching for SuperGirl at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, May 15-16 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20; call 773-509-1709 or visit www.brownpapertickets.com .

PEND, by Julia Rae Antonick, is at Overdier Hall at the United Church of Rogers Park, 1545 W. Morse, May 29-30 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 each; see www.seechicagodance.com .

Also in the mix:

—Boris Eifman has had a good deal of ink spilled over him recently. Touted by many as a “savior” to the grand, multi-act story ballet, his St. Petersburg-based company will interpret his interpretation of the quintessential Russian novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, chosen as a frame through which the immensely complex question of the state of the Russian soul may be answered. The production will take place at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress, May 14-15 at 7:30 p.m.; May 16 at 8 p.m.; and May 17 at 2 p.m. $32-77. Visit www.auditoriumtheatre.org for more information.

—Ayako Kato’s Epiphany Dance Experiment, mentioned above, continues with Simply Showing, featuring choreography by Janet Schmid, Melissa Simo and J’Sun Howard as well as groups Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting and Green Cross at the Epiphany Episcopal Church, Sunday, May 17, at 6 p.m. There is a $12 suggested donation. Visit epiphanydance.blogspot.com.

—Quicksilver Occasion Pieces names the evening of May 29 at Wicker Park rehearsal and performance studio Silverspace. Houston bassist Thomas Helton will accompany dancer Asimina Chremos and vocalist Carol Genetti for an informal performance with refreshments. It will be at 1474 N. Milwaukee at 8 p.m. Donations accepted; visit www.asiminachremos.com and web.mac.com/thomashelton.

—Title of the year goes to Chicago Tap Theatre’s “fairy tale tap dance opera” with a touch of the meta, Little Dead Riding Hood. Find out what happens when pigeonholed characters say “enough!” and take matters into their own … shoes. It will run at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, May 29-June 14. Tickets are $18-30; see www.chicagotaptheatre.com .

—Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s final program under the leadership of Jim Vincent includes his latest (but perhaps not last) creation for the company, Slipstream, to Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge. Joining it are audience faves Extremely Close by Alejandro Cerrudo and Nacho Duato’s Gnawa. At the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph, June 4 at 7:30 p.m.; June 6 at 8 p.m.; and June 7 at 3 p.m. More information is available at www.hubbardstreetdance.com

La dama de las Picas o de los tres naipes
Alexander Pushkin
Voz: Eusebio Barroso de la Iglesia
Duración 65 Minutos
Música: Butterfly Tea, Antonio Raffone y Zero project (cc:by-sa)

Precio de la descarga: 2 Euros

Alejandro Pushkin nació en Moscú en 1799. Se le considera uno de los más grandes narradores de la literatura rusa.
Falleció en 1839.

La tempestad de nieve o La nevasca
Alexander Pushkin
Voz: Carlos Alberto Lara Carranza
Duración: 32 Minutos
Música: Zero-project (cc:by-sa)

Precio de la descarga: 2 Euros

Pushkin está considerado el poeta ruso que mejor supo lograr la fusión de los valores tradicionales de su patria con el intelectualismo europeo del momento.
Relatos cortos más importantes: El disparo, la hija del capitán, La tempestad de nieve o la nevasca y La dama de las picas o de los tres naipes.

El fabricante de ataúdes
Alexander Pushkin
Voz: Carlos Alberto Lara Carranza
Duración: 22 Minutos
Música: Dreamerion, Gregoire Lourme & Matthew Tyas (cc:by-sa)

Precio de la descarga: 2 Euros

Todos los audiolibros de Alexander Pushkin

Pocos audiolibros consiguen una atmósfera tan terrorífica y agobiante como la que aquí les presentamos. Esperamos que disfruten con su reiterada escucha.
Audiolibros de terror.

Milan based, Siberian born designer Max Kibardin, was inspired for his Summer 2009 collection by Alexander Pushkin’s poem, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, a palace built in the sixteenth century in the capital of the Khans of Crimea (Ukraine)

It depicts a story of love and death : Khan Girey, a Tatar Khan, infatuated by Maria, a young Polish woman, captures and takes her to his harem, ordering her to live with his first wife Zarema; she became jealous and stabs Maria to death. Zarema was ordered executed thereafter. Khan built a fountain in memory of his lost love, devoting his life to watch the water trickling like tears.

Kibardin, formerly trained as an architect, shows in this collection traces of Ottoman architecture through gold, lace patterns and geometric cuts, adding color and movement in shapes that resembles young odalisques from the Bakhchisarai’s harem.

After his tenure at the Furla Talent Hub, Max has now been appointed as creative director for the Italian shoe house, Lorenzo Banfi. His successful and steady career is much like a Foutain of Tears, but tears of joy.

www.maxkibardin.com

-K&J

The frost already cracks and crunches;
The fields are silver where they froze…
(And you, good reader, with your hunches,
Expect the rhyme, so take it – Rose!)

-  Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin

Beset with yearning and with rhyme —
I scare a flock of ducks from resting;
And hearing my sweet stanzas soar,
The flap their wings and fly from shore.
And as I watch them disappearing,
A hunter hidden in the brush
Damns poetry for interfering
And, whistling, fires with a rush.

-  Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin

Montague Summers (ed.) – The Grimoire and Other Supernatural Stories (Fortune Press, 1936)

Montague Summers – Introduction

J.W. Polidori – The Vampyre
Charles Maturin – Leixup Castle
Alexander Pushkin – The Queen of Spades
Erckmann-Chatrian – The Polish Jew
J. S. Le Fanu – Schalken, the Painter
J. S. Le Fanu – Wicked Captain Walshawe of Wauling
J. S. Le Fanu – Dickon the Devil
Charles Ollier – The Haunted House of Paddington
Mrs. Hartley – Chantry Manor-House
Anonymous – The Story of Salome
Anonymous – The Spectre Hand
Anonymous “The Tregethans’ Curse: or, the Weird Woman
Montague Summers – The Grimoire
Anonymous (Montague Summers ?) -The Man on the Stairs

A magic moment I remember:
I raised my eyes and you were there.
A fleeting vision, the quintessence
Of all that’s beautiful and rare.

I pray to mute despair and anguish
To vain pursuits the world esteems,
Long did I near your soothing accents,
Long did your features haunt my dreams.

Time passed- A rebel storm-blast scattered
The reveries that once were mine
And I forgot your soothing accents,
Your features gracefully divine.

In dark days of enforced retirement
I gazed upon grey skies above
With no ideals to inspire me,
No one to cry for, live for, love.

Then came a moment of renaissance,
I looked up- you again are there,
A fleeting vision, the quintessence
Of all that`s beautiful and rare. – Alexander Pushkin

A couple of days ago, the London Times published Rachel Polonsky’s review of two new books of Pushkin — one, a new translation of Eugene Onegin by Stanley Mitchell, and the other Andrew Kahn’s study of Pushkin through analysis of his library, and thus his interactions with the intellectual developments of his day. While Polonsky seems not to know about Douglas Hofstadter’s cheeky post-Falen translation (it must not have made it to the UK), she writes in depth about how Onegin has been translated. Some space is of course given to the critical scuffle between Wilson and Nabokov over Nabokov’s “unreadable” translation, but she also discusses the different aspects of Pushkin’s novel-in-verse that are preserved or abandoned in different translations — generally, euphony vs. nuance of meaning. “In any given instance,” she says, “a translator’s gain is paid for with loss.” Thus, Polonsky suggests, only multiple versions can provide a more or less complete translation:

A translation is a portrait; it hints at the essence of an original. The more likenesses the better, then, for, as Wilhelm von Humboldt said, “many translations result . . . in a cumulative approximation”.

While I prefer to think in terms not of losses but of emphases, I recognize that there may be no really meaningful distinction. Still, for more on the topic of multiple translations, see an earlier post here.

-ar

Alexandr Pushkin

Nếu bị cuộc đời lừa dối

Nếu bị cuộc đời lừa dối,
Xin đừng giận, chớ ưu phiền!
Hãy gắng nhẫn chịu ngày buồn:
Để tin ngày vui sẽ đến.

Trong tương lai tim ta sống;
Hiện tại dẫu có âu sầu:
Tất cả đều thoáng qua mau;
Qua rồi, lại thành tươi đẹp .
Александр Пушкин

Если жизнь тебя обманет

Если жизнь тебя обманет,
Не печалься, не сердись!
В день уныния смирись:
День веселья, верь, настанет.

Сердце в будущем живет;
Настоящее уныло:
Всё мгновенно, всё пройдет;
Что пройдет, то будет мило.

This blog entry is a continuation from yesterday where I showcased three of my former writing students who gave a talk at an AIWC weekly meeting to about 40 ex-pat women (and men) who are from all over the world.  They shared from their hearts about their grandparents stories, quotes and photos.  First up was Aray, whose great grandfather is the famous Abay.  Her grandfather is pictured behind the president of Kazakhstan some years ago, he is wearing medals. 

 This is what President Nazerbayev said about Abay in 1995 which was voted as “The Year of Abay” by UNESCO: 

“Honestly, there is no need to find the basis of our strong Kazakh beginnings somewhere abroad. All we need to do is find Abay… the world of Abay is our guiding star. Each person who cares for the wealth of his nation, ought to read Abay, ought to grasp his wise advice.”

On the last slide Aray showed a photo of Abay with the following quote: 

“The world is the ocean. Time, like a wind races the waves of generations, changing each other. They disappear but the ocean remains the same.”

The next speaker was Laura whose grandfather was sent to Siberia for 15 years because it was thought he was a Kazakh nationalist when he presented a paper titled: “About Preparing Scientific Specialists in Kazakhstan.”  He was sent to one of the most terrible gulags as part of the intelligentsia.  However, not only did he live among other political prisoners but also there were killers and thieves at his gulag.  Many died not only from hunger and cold but some prisoners were murdered.  This is what Laura wrote:

“But as my father told me, everyone respected my granddad because of his justice, erudition, wide reading and strength of will.  Fifteen tormented years he struggled with death, repeating to himself again and again: “I will survive.”  He was not one of those men who ever gave up.

He DID survive and several years after his release, my grandfather defended his dissertation in math and was a highly respected professor at a university.”

Finally, Aida spoke about her grandmother who had survived ALZHIR, a prison camp for women who were married to “Enemies of the People.”  She was still a young newlywed when her husband was taken away and she was sent to do hard labor for ten years.  She found out later that her husband had been killed, she remarried and the photo below is her family that she hoped to live and see.

Aida had interviewed her on May 25, 2005 and these are her words from that interview, she has since passed on.

“One day when we came after very difficult working day to our barracks, I started to recite the poem of the Alexander Pushkin about bravery and hope…The jailer of our barracks stayed silently and then added: even if we separate you from your family and your high elite community and force you to work, you are still morally unbreakable.  I wonder at your power!”

Is it no wonder that I love teaching these kinds of students who have such amazing stories passed on to them from their grandparents?  Indeed, I am very, very privileged to know these three Kazakh girls among the 100s others who have been my students this past year in Almaty, Kazakhstan.