Posters of the 1989 Velvet Revolution
November and December 1989 saw student protest’s in Prague and other cities that led to the Sametová revoluce ( velvet revolution) that saw the end of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Last year the release of a bi-lingual (Czech and English) book with some of the posters that were seen all over the cities accompanied by interviews with the creators of the posters. I received a copy of the book this afternoon and have thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
A interview with the author of the book and those involved can read here. (This interview also convinced me to buy the book 
)
The book can be purchased here
A surprise film
Depression in films could not be more accurately shown than in the French film Un homme qui dort. From the very beginning the narrator utters
Your alarm clock goes off, you do not stir, you remain in your bed,you close your eyes again. It is not a premeditated action, or rather it’s not an action at all, but an absence of action……
I knew I would enjoy this film. There are many other words that I can relate to very well.
the feeling of your existence, the impression of belonging to or being in the world, is starting to slip away from you.
Your past, your present, and your future merge into one: they are now just the heaviness of your limbs…..
As the minutes, hours, days, weeks, months have dragged on without a realistic hope of finding work, the above sinks straight into my being. I have not climbed as anywhere as low into depression as the films single character has which is also why I can recommend this film to anyone regardless of mental state.
The short camera shots where we see a old man with a walking stick sitting on a bench opposite the main character and the tone of the sole actor walking through the Champs-Élysées and other notably places in Paris are executed flawlessly in black and white film.
Waiting in hospitals
Contrary to expectation I have no gripes today while I waited with my mother to be seen by a doctor. Within 10 minutes she was up on her feet and behind closed doors for a ear test. I looked after (overflowing the poor kid with cut up pieces of apple) a child that my mother takes care of, Andy Murray was playing Rafael Nadal in order to get to the Australian Open semi-finals on a conspicuous flat screen with the subtitles taking over a quarter of the screen. Five minutes past and my mum reappeared waiting too see another doctor. After she was seen by the second doctor, we left a small pile of half eaten apple that dribbled out of the kids mouth on the floor while I was keeping my attention somewhere else.
I consider myself very lucky, I was foreseeing moans for my mother incessantly from the small adolescent while I was more than happy just to watch the game.
Tired out fiction
There is nothing more boring than having to read the same characters and similar story lines from a authors 5th book. Its like a 25 year old television soap .
In the guardian Toby Lichtig wrote
I was considering this recently when I picked up the new John Irving novel, Last Night in Twisted River. My first thought was this: I wonder when a bear will appear? This was followed by similar conjectures about severed body parts, young men being seduced/abused by older women, flatulent dogs and riffs on wrestling. Sure enough they all turned up (the bear early on; a severed hand and farting dog much later). And this annoyed me. It is one thing to make a genre out of your own writing and to return to the source of your preoccupations; it is another to litter your oeuvre with the same leitmotifs time and again. Irving’s work is not about bears or wrestling or what it means to be (or be around) a farting dog. So why do these flights of fancy always seem to crop up?
Of course there is a limit to what can actually be written, I in fact enjoy reading novels set during the world war 2, its the authors views that appear fresh that appeal to me.
What could he be filming?
I was walking around Prague on January 6th 2010 at around 13:00 (CET) and noticed someone filming, I was unfortunately in a rush to notice what was being filmed. I am quite intrigued to know if anyone can enlighten me to what happened.
Criticising soldiers in wars
Deciding to be a professional soldier for some may well be an attractive alternative to long term unemployment or continuous low paid brain dead work. Its very hard to blame someone for deciding the former. Is attacking a soldier for fighting in a war (as part of their job) that one does not agree with fair ?
When soldiers come back from Iraq and Afghanistan dead, disrespect for them is considered intolerable. David Rodin wrote a interesting article for the BBC where he asks whether this intolerance is stepping on freedom of speech.
In my humble opinion nobody is exempt from criticism because criticism is a fundamental right that invariable leads to open debates. These soldiers are not conscripts and like anybody else in the UK are free to choose what they do with their lives. I think the government as well as the soldiers involved have every right to be on the receiving end of criticism.
I am not insensitive to the people that became soldiers before this war and therefore as part of their job have to fight in a war. Lance Corporal Joe Glenton decided to refuse to fight in Afghanistan on the grounds that the war was unjust, then why can’t any soldier for that matter decide to refuse fighting? Unfortunately Joe Glenton is committing a crime by refusing to fight therefore making it very unlikely that there will be a mass refusal of British soldiers in the on-going war.
I don’t think chastising soldiers does anything positive to end the war instead encouraging them to think about the war they are fighting in would be of better value.
Strangely quiet
I decided that I needed to get out of the house after watching from the window, the snow falling .
The journey was not as white as the garden that I looked out at, I hope the temperature plunges tonight, snow can turn any ugly place into something quite beautiful .
After going to the renovated Barclay’s bank that confounded me, I went clothes viewing. Where were all the people shopping for christmas? I walked into Burtons and I was one of two people looking . Don’t misunderstand, it was great not having to squeeze past lots of people just to find out the size of a jumper that I like is not available. My mother went last Saturday shopping and observed the same. The majority of shopping must be online or people have less money this year…
compelled to write something …
Its been a long time since I have written here, its been due to a large lack of enthusiasm.
Last night I got around to watching a film that was created for free. The films quaint blend of dark humour and the leading role of a teenager’s compassion for the elderly results into a almost Amélie quality. Mette as the teenager is known by, indifferently looks after old people that have crazy habits. A heartfelt attachment to them develops into organizing dates for the old people in the flats. Nasty old people can be downloaded with various subtitles.
I have got back into driving after a decade long hiatus, the first lesson was surprisingly quite easy, not to sound boastful, I only managed to stall a few times whilst in traffic.
I magically escaped what was supposed to be a British Airways cabin crew strike starting on the 21st of December because it has been put one day forward.
…
Are you allowed to work here ?
I went for a informal chat today about the possibility of some work experience, after about 5 minutes the interviewer found some water for me as the nearest water supply was faulty, subsequently she gave the cup to me and said
Are you allowed to work here ? I noticed some grammatical mistakes in your email and thought English was not your first language. You should be careful as most employers would see the mistake and not contact you.
My immediate instinct was to laugh and agree with her.
In the past my national identity has been questioned numerous times .
Are you really English, where are you from?
The less you speak, the more you will hear
On reading the very short Dr Laurie Helgoe interview on being a introvert, the last two sentences
Don’t assume that your fun is an introvert’s fun. Parties are often BOR-ing to an introvert.
Introverts need to withdraw to refuel. Don’t take it personally.
evoked a reasoning to my mind that feels very close to home, those that may know me, I am not a massive fan of parties, I would much rather meet with a few friends or acquaintances in a quiet setting. In the past I have tried forging relationships at local music concerts without too much success. There tend to be self-contained groups of people which I have found really difficult to join.
Silences in conversations are additionally comfortable with me, I don’t see the urgency to fill the void when the void is doing just great. My Finnish friend once said to me
if there’s nothing important to say, then it’s better to shut up
we say that, and act like that.
I think that’s a very good motto to live by, too many people talk shit when they really do not need to.
Its not that I don’t want to hear what people say or some snobby disposition, quite the contrary, for something interesting I will happily listen to for hours.
when I lived for a few months in France, young people could not get their heads around the fact that young people in England share homes, they stressed how they could not imagine to be potentially surrounded by someone at any time of the day. Its not so straight forward, homes in England are so expensive and its a culture the majority of people are accustomed to, nonetheless I do share that feeling with my French friends.
For a long time I thought I was that weird loner, its wonderful to know they are other people out there that feel the same way towards life.