Week 7: „I’m the Doctor. – Doctor Who?”

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Doctor_Who_logo_2012.svg

Doctor Who is a popular British science fiction series produced by the BBC, broadcasted from 1963. In 1989, discontinued its emissions, and in 1996 was made a television film. The series resumed in 2005. Doctor Who appears in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest series of science fiction in the world.

The title character “The Doctor” is an eccentric time traveler , who travels in a blue police booth with his new-found companions. Don’t be mistaken, this police booth isn’t an ordinary police booth, it allows to travel through time and space, and the thing that amazes everyone is that it’s bigger on the inside. During his travels not only he shows us the new amazing worlds but also some historical figures such as Van Gogh, Churchill, as well as events like Titanic or destruction of Pompeii. The Doctor himself appears to be the last living Time Lord, a race which perished in the Great War of Time. Time Lords besides vast knowledge about universe and time possess an ability which grants them almost immortality. This allows the Doctor to be reborn every time he is about to die and live in new form.

http://postfiles6.naver.net/20131214_293/omerta22_1387021473818wq9pq_PNG/The-Doctors-Who.png?type=w2

At first, Doctor Who was an educational television program which was supposed to teach audience about history and futuristic innovations through the time travel. After some time though it changed to science fiction tv series. Show produced 26 seasons and due to falling number of viewers and few other factors, the show was canceled in 1989. It finally returned in 2005 and is aired since. The new series produced 7 seasons with 8th airing in august 2014.

Up till now there were 11 incarnations of the doctor, each with his own part in the series and played by different actor with different personality. There were also other doctors as War Doctor and the Valeyard, but their roles were written in such a way that doesn’t disrupt the numerical naming. Right now the next 12th doctor is played by Peter Capaldi and it seems that there will be many more doctors in the future.

1. Have you watched the series? What do you think about it?
2. Why do you think people still want to watch the Doctor?

Week 7: Vampires from PRL

http://kochamksiazki.pl/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/pilipiuk-andrzej-wampir-z-m-3.jpg

Have you ever heard about vampires? Well that’s something everyone heard about. Some see them as sparkling teenagers, some as well-mannered lords and some as seeking blood beasts. But have you ever thought how would a vampire look like in People’s Republic of Poland? Welcome to the 80s when toilet paper was scarce, Turkish jeans was a peak of the fashion and streets were filled with worst creatures that ever existed… communists. Oh, and also vampires. How to fight those creatures when government profess atheism? Holy water? Crucifix? We don’t believe superstitions. Garlic? Sorry, granulated and imported from Czechoslovakia. You would think that this is the best place for vampire to live. Well, you are wrong. In this society it’s hard to call yourself the count. Blood of common people tastes awfully and vampire powers are long forgotten. What to do in this kind of situation? You have to be cunning, and Polish people are excellent in that.

I hope you liked my little introduction. What I am presenting to you is the book written by Andrzej Pilipiuk, called “Wampir z M-3”. If you already know “Jakub Wędrowycz” you might like this. This book is a collection of stories about a pack of vampires that are trying to live peacefully in a Warsaw during the times of PRL. Of course there are people who don’t like their plans and try to get rid of them, with SB in the front and grandmother Adelaide with commando veterans in the back. You might think that simple life is easy, and you couldn’t be more wrong. Here every simple and trivial thing (such as getting a birthday present) can grow into an epic challenge. Interested? I hope so. 

1. Do you know any Andrzej Pilipiuk books?
2. Maybe you have already read “Wampir z M-3”, if not would you like to?

Week 7: What can go wrong?

                        http://movingtobainbridge.com/images/port_of_Seattle_at_night.jpg

12 a.m, harbor of Seattle. For the last 10 minutes Simon was organizing those 20 men he was entrusted with. Today’s mission has to go well at any cost. He is very anxious. He knows that plan is good, but with those guys around there everything can go badly. Suddenly he hears the voice on the radio. It’s John. “Okay, everything is prepared here. We have few crates of Molotov cocktail. Guys are scared, because it’s their first time on the mission, but I think few throws will lighten them up. If you know what I mean.” – said John. “Right. How about you Angus. Are you ready to go? – asked Simon. “Ready! Oh by the way, you are buying drinks today?” – asked Angus. “Yeah, yeah. Okay now. Radio silence for 5 minutes and we start when G is ready. – replied Simon. He put his radio down and crouched silently. The only sound he could hear was quiet sound of the waves… and a little addition. “OH MY GOD! WHY DOES IT HAS TO BE SO HEAVY! UGH!” – grumbled Gregory climbing on the hangar 400 meters from John. When he finally reached the roof, he placed his new weighting 20 kg sniper rifle, sat next to it and sighed deeply. Right after him, at the top of the roof, climbed the other guy with box of ammunition, which Greg ordered him to bring. This is when Greg realized his mistake. “Don’t even think about it.” – said Greg gazing at the other guy. “G… are you ready” – asked Simon with trembling voice. “Yes, yes. I am ready” – replied Greg, quickly preparing the rifle. “Alright… Angus you are ready to go” – said Simon. “Exquisite!” – replied Angus while sitting in a car full of explosives. Angus started the engine and decided to quickly check how things are looking inside the targeted hangar. What can go wrong?

Well… everything went wrong, but that’s how most plans work. What you have read here is part of the RPG session me and my friends played in. Don’t worry, everything worked out… somehow. At least there wasn’t any casualties…  on our side. I realize that not every one of you played RPG and that is cool I am not trying to talk about RPG here. What I am interested are funny situations you had while playing video games? Maybe some of you write your own story, or just read/watched/heard something amazing?

Week7: Reading books

When I have some free time, I can just sit and relax -  I enjoy reading books. Not a magazine, a book. I have a whole list of books I want to read. 

But from the beginning.

Some time ago I came across articles about reading books. To be exact, about not reading books anymore.

LINK

And a similar one about Polish people - why we don’t read books in our country(they are in Polish so I won’t post them here)

It got me thinking. Really? I am surrounded by the people who always read books, my parents, grandma, my sister and so on. So it is extremely hard for me to believe that an average Pole reads one, I emphasise - ONE - book a year. 

Is it because we (Poles) don’t have much time for it. We have to work so hard all the time to make ends meet, when we are able to relax we don’t want to read, we prefer to do other stuff. Something more entertaining. Like watching movies, TV series, playing video games. And the most time consuming activity in the whole world - surfing the Internet. How much time do you spent on social media every day hm? And now compare it with the time you spend on reading books. Any reflection?

One can say that books are too expansive nowadays and people can afford to buy them. Libraries are poorly equipped and we cannot rely on them. It can be a good point but surely we can try to find some sales/good libraries/lend from a friend. We must make an effort. Or maybe we have become too lazy to do so.

                                               (source: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/files/2012/10/200px-DaVinciCode.jpeg)

(source: http://www.book.hipopotamstudio.pl/wp-content/gallery/daniel/Harry_Potter_I.jpg)

I also wanted to mention Kindle. It is a device, which allows us to store books. It is rather light and comfortable. You can now read whenever and wherever you want. It is becoming more and more popular among the crowd you can now even buy books in a special format in shops like Empik. I think it is a great solution for many, but to be honest not for me. I love books not just for the content. I also pay attention to its cover, the kind of paper, even the characteristic smell. It all makes reading books  much more rewarding.

                                        (source:http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/tequila/dp/KT-slate-02-lg._V399156101_.jpg)

Do you like reading books? What are your favourites?

How many books do you read a year?

Do you use Kindle or do you prefer to read a printed book?

Do you read books in English or any other foreign language?

Week7: Stay healthy

(source: https://www.facebook.com/NikeRunningPoland/photos/a.197078450310690.46962.195907987094403/763461233672406/?type=1&theater)

Yes. We have all heard it some many times. Literally everywhere. TV, Internet, radio…Beautiful young people tell us that if we do the same we will become like them. Yeah, yeah.

But seriously guys, it IS really important to stay fit& healthy right? I mean at least I think so…For me the real beauty is just about being 100 percent healthy but at the same time I try to be a realist, not fooled by all those commercials. This is what I do:

I spent a lot of my time at the computer so I really try to exercise every day. At least 15 minutes a day, just for my spine. One physiotherapist gave me some great exercises and I stick to them. They are magnificent. After performing them I really feel blood flowing through my veins. Great energy.

But one has to burn some calories too right? So 3 times a week I do some training. And it depends on the weather. One day I will do some running - remember always run on the grass, never on a pavement if you want to protect your tendons. Another day I exercise „with my telly”. I just love this series P90X. It is quite hard but I feel so good after performing it. I used to do the same thing with Ewa Chodakowska, but I think she is not so good, her trainings are boring, she doesn’t do the warm up very well and stretching is also pretty bad. Personal trainers have become quite popular nowadays.

Examples:

Ewa Chodakowska

(source:https://www.facebook.com/chodakowskaewa)

Anna Lewandowska

(source: https://www.facebook.com/healthyplanbyann)

And finally food, I hate diets. Starving yourself is the stupidest thing one can do. And now we often hear that someone is on a diet, especially girls. Everyone wants to look like those anorexic models. Pointless and stupid. And are they really so gorgeous? Not really. Check out models from the 90s like Cindy Crawford - now we’re talking. I blame high fashion and media for that but it is quite a different story. So back to the food. It is pointless to be on a strict diet. Just try to eat reasonably. Give up fast food, drink your water and you will be just fine.

(source: https://www.facebook.com/healthyplanbyann)

All in all, I think that the best way to be is not just taking care of your mind but also of your body. 

Do you agree with me? 

Or maybe you just don’t care at all ?

Do you like to work out?
What do you do to stay fit?

Any thoughts guys?

Week7: Modern Art - Yes or No?

Art. We all know what it is right? Everyone ( I suppose) has been at least once in a museum with classic art. We have seen paintings and sculptures from ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages and modern centuries. Art was luxurious, not for everyone. And then in the 20^th  century something started to change. Not only in art but in all parts of lives and that change influenced art. The artist was not only a craftsman anymore but he has become so much more, some kind of interpreter of the world. The only rule now in art is that there are no more rules anymore. 

Historians say that it started with Dadaists. Marcel Duchamp was the first man to put a common thing in a museum and called it art. And so we have modern art.

                                                 Marcel Duchamp - Fountain

                                                 (source:http://www.histmag.org/grafika/archiwalia/mag53/images/k_sztuka2.jpg)

I often hear these words: „Art? Ph..I could have done it myself”. People don’t understand modern art because it is something extremely different from classic art. It is often strange and ugly but it is not trying to be neither pretty nor easy to understand. It is not created to satisfy our visual needs of beauty. It is supposed to make us think about some serious matters. But without a comment we are not able to even realise what is going on, most of the time. 

Anish Kapoor

(source:http://www.histmag.org/grafika/archiwalia/mag53/images/k_sztuka2.jpg)

(source:http://blogs.cofa.unsw.edu.au/artwrite/?tag=anish-kapoor)

(source:http://globalresearchreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Modern-art-was-CIA-weapon.jpg)

In my opinion modern art does not exist without this comment, given by the museum or by an artist himself and that is why for me it is no longer art. It is too different. It should have another name.

When visiting Zachęta I have always this feeling that the best thing from there is the building. And trust me I really try to understand and think about the message that the artist was aiming at presenting to us. Should such a form of creation be judged by different rules? For example, we should not evaluate photography using rules reserved for paintings, as Susan Sontag used to empahasise…

Sometimes modern art can be really interesting and fun, art for art:

(source: http://freshome.com/2013/02/22/sculpting-irreverance-giant-dog-marking-its-territory-on-modern-art-museum/)

Anish Kapoor

(source:http://blogs.cofa.unsw.edu.au/artwrite/?tag=anish-kapoor)

Everything can now become art and everyone can become an artist. Has art finished or is it just developing? 

Here you can find nice short artice "7 reasons why modern art is ugly":

http://artfulgreendot.com/2013/12/7-reasons-why-modern-art-is-ugly/

Do you like modern art? Why yes/ no. 
What do you think about modern art?

Do you often go to Modern Art Museums like CSW,  Zaczęta, Tate Gallery  or MoMa?

Museums:

http://www.moma.org

http://www.tate.org.uk

http://www.zacheta.art.pl

Update: There is an exhibition of Tomaszewski in Zachęta now so maybe I will at last enjoy visit there:P 

Week 6: Explore the world of Star Wars

Always when something awakens my interest, I want to watch it, read about it, have it always with me, etc.

I have the same thing with STAR WARS, of which I'm a huge fan. I love to consort with it very often. And in fact I can't complain for lack of ways to do it.

In STAR WARS franchise there are so many things related to the movies you can interact, that the SW fans are one of the most luckiest of all the fans in the world. There are games, toys, books, music, RPG's, animated series and many many more.

The most greatest of things about the SW universe is that it is extensible, thanks to George Lucas, who allows, even encourages other artists, like novel authors of gamescript writers, to create an Expanded Universe of STAR WARS. In result, they bring not infrequently excellent books, games and comic books.

For example, not so long ago I read brilliant book entitled Revan by Drew Karpyshyn, which action is placed nearly 4000 years before the events from the The Phantom Menace movie. Also Darth Bane trilogy from that same author is terrific, I heartly recommend it. Heard that Timothy Zahn is very good writer and I must confess, I haven't read any of his works, which is unforgivable, for a declared SW addict. Promise to catch up ASAP. ;)

Furthermore, there are different kinds of dictionaries, from which we can read and see characters, locations or objects from the movies, or for example a books with cross-sections of spaceships, vehicles and crafts.

Noteworthy are also SW PC and video games, such as: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Knights Of The Old Republic, Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, The Force Unleashed I and II, Star Wars: Racer and many more. All of the mentioned I played and can breezily say they're worth checking. Especially Jedi Knight series and KotOR series.

Lately I am playing MMORPG game called Star Wars: The Old Republic which is loosely connected to the plot from the two KotOR titles. Despite I was sceptical to it at first, the game is, in a word, groovy. The plot, the graphics, the characters and most of all, the enormous size of the universe of the game, all of these are refined in the tiniest detail. I recommend this to all the game players. It'll give you hours of entertainment and fun.

And question time:

• What do you think about expanding a movie trilogy/saga? Is it good for the fans or the creator?
• Have you read any of the STAR WARS books? If yes, what are the titles?
• The best SW game, in your opinion?

Week 6: Superhero movies then and now

How come the superhero movies are nowadays rated almost equally as serious drama films? Frequently they're even higher. Is it a result from a higher pressure on the complexity of plot and characters psyche? Or is it just thanks to "the more and bigger, the better" policy? I think maybe it's both.

It started with couple of guys who started writing action comics in late 1930. First, there was a Superman, the America's role model citizen. A superhero character who achieved notable fame and success in the US right from the start. After that it was only a matter of time when there was coming more and more superheroes.

Ten or fifteen years after Superman came to life, someone finally hitted on an idea to bring him to the silver screen. 15 years later there was first Batman production.

But the real superhero-movies marathon became in the late 70's when first Superman, starring Christopher Reeve, took place. Nothing remained the same since then.

I think it was a pretty good piece, despite of a bit childish tone and poor acting (not to mention these horrible red-blue Superman tights...). But the most unfortunate periods in my opinion happened in the 80's and mostly 90's. Pictures like Captain America, Howard The Duck,

Superman IV, Batman & Robin, The Phantom, Darkman II-III, were, gently speaking, a misfire. In that time there were also jewels like Tim Burton's Batman, with bull’s eye hit role of Jack Nicholson as Joker (on the right picture), and Batman Returns, or The Mask starring brilliant Jim Carrey.

Then, in year 2000 came - the X-Men. This film, by Bryan Singer, changed the way we look at the superhero movies. Here we had, apart action and special effects, the emotional depth; something we hardly could get earlier in such productions. Mutants, the main characters, are the outcasts of community, unaccepted for their unnatural abilities. The only place where they can find a shelter is professor Charles Xavier's school. This base gives the movie elaborated and complex story line.

The filmmakers are trying to give people more "emotionally advanced" and untrivial entertainment, since then.

Is it good for the superhero genre? Shouldn't it be light and infantyle, like the comics? I think the world is continuously evolving, so people are expecting more from comic books and in consequence - movies based on them.

Question time:

• What do you think about superhero movies and their evolution? Should they change/evolve?
• Do you like this kind of movies? What are your favorites?
• What is the best period in the superhero movies history?

Week 6: Movies in sound

One of the things that is essential to every movie, is in my opinion - music. But not just music that we hear in a radio or know as classical. Film music should be something more vivid, flexible. And to achieve this, composer has to sort of "feel" the movie, try to experience the scenes with the characters and the viewer.

Composer, who definitely have these skills and writes excellent music to almost every film he involves in, is John Williams.

Number of recognisable themes he created is impressive: Star Wars saga, Superman, Indiana Jones quadrilogy, Jaws, E.T., Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Home Alone, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Harry Potter I-III, Catch Me If You Can, Hook, etc.

I think there are very few film music composers, who created such a collection of recognisable movie themes.

Furthermore Williams has the talent to interpret the story with irregular notes and ambient stains, which hangs together and is still great to listen. He writes music which in many cases is in more classical style but he also checks good in more light climates, like swing for example.

But not only Williams is my favourite soundtrack composer. There are guys like John Barry, known for his notable James Bond movie scores, Danny Elfman, mostly known for his frequent collaborations with Tim Burton on his movies, Hans Zimmer with his majestic and pompous style, Howard Shore - the father of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy music, Alan Silvestri with his Back To The Future characteristic main theme. All of them are almost equally great composers of film music.

I think that if it weren't be for them and their music, the films wouldn't be as entertaing as they are. On the other hand, would these composers write this music if there were no movies? Hard to tell.

• Do you listen film music? What soundtracks do you have in possession, which would you recommend?
• Are you familliar with the movie scores I mentioned in the text? If so, what do you think about them?
• What is your favourite film music composer and/or movie soundtrack? What do you like about him/it?

Week 5: Virtual Travels with Google

I would like you to read/watch the presentation Virtual Travels with Google published at http://konwersatorium3.blogspot.com/2014/03/week-3-virtual-travels-with-google.html and  comment on/discuss it.

Week 5: Entrepreneurship in Poland

I would like you to read/watch the presentation Entrepreneurship in Poland  published at http://konwersatorium3.blogspot.com/2014/03/week3-entrepreneurship-in-poland.html and  comment on/discuss it.