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This post is going to be very short, and there’s a big chance that by the time I finish writing it, it’ll stop snowing, as well. But – at the moment – it is snowing!
Alas, I’m not good enough at uploading pictures from my mobile; besides, the snow comes down with rain, thus so far you can only see it in the air. But my winter season has been made, anyway.
It doesn’t always take much to make me happy.
Update
As I predicted, snow has stopped. This was in Clifton, kind of between Manchester and Bolton. And in Glossop it snowed heavily enough for Richard to take a few awesome pictures! Do have a look – and you’ll probably understand why I’m so ecstatic about the snow.
In olden days, when grandfather was just a little boy and wore red trousers, a red jacket, a sash around his waist, and a feather in his cap – for that’s the way little boys dressed in his childhood when they wore their best clothes – so many things were different from nowadays.
I adore this opening. The artist who read the tale was male, and his voice was mature, a bit husky and very kind, like a real grandpa’s voice. It so happened that I had never had a grandfather telling me fairy tales, so the record-player was my imaginary grandpa on this occasion. And so the Grandpa was telling me that he had come to a big town, and
that first night he came to the big town, the weather was worse than any we ever have read about in the papers, a storm such as there had never been within man’s memory. All the air was full of roof tiles; old wooden fences were blown over; a wheelbarrow even ran for its life by itself along the street. The wind howled in the air; it whistled and it shook everything. It was indeed a terrible storm. The water in the canal ran over the banks, not knowing where it belonged. The storm swept over the town, carrying the chimneys with it; more than one old, proud church tower bent and has never been quite straight since.
Above all, the storm shifted the signboards. My favourite ‘shift’ has always been this one:
The sign “Establishment for Higher Education” was moved to the pool hall, and the Establishment itself received a board inscribed, “Babies Brought up Here by the Bottle.”
I really like this Andersen’s tale, because he is better known for his beautiful, romantic and sometimes forlorn stories, like The Wild Swans, The Swineherd, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Little Mermaid, etc. In The Storm Shifts the Signboards Andersen reveals his talent of a satirist, which in turn makes one appreciate his literary talent differently, not simply that of a composer of all those beautiful fairy tales, but as a witty, subtle and versatile author.
Getting back to our weather changes, Andersen tells us that there had never been such a storm again in his Grandpa’s time, or much later. But, I feel, if those winds continue blowing (and we are told, they will), we might very well see another signboard reshuffle.
Links:
Hans Christian Andersen, The Storm Shifts the Signboards (English translation by Jean Hersholt)
Stormen flytter Skilt (Fascimile and text in Danish)
Der Sturm zieht mit den Shieldern um (German translation)
La tempestad cambia los rotulos (Spanish translation)
Unfortunately, it seems that the French translation (L’Orage déplace les enseignes) by Regis Boyer is only available from print: Andersen, H. C., Les Oeuvres (Paris, Gallimard, 1992). Italian translation (La tempesta sposta le insegne) by Kirsten Bech is in: Andersen, H. C., Fiabe (Roma, 1994).
Now, I look at the BBC weather forecast, and what do I see? I see that they forecast +6 C. this Friday in Moscow. This is normally the weather for mid-March.
The BBC reported yesterday on the effect such mild winter is having on people and animals. It is, in one word, depressive. I’ve spoken to someone with whom I used to study at the University in Moscow, and the person admitted being depressed. The bears in the zoo didn’t hybernate. It may sound amusing, but in Russia we are used to the heaps of snow in the streets, and skiing, and skating, and wearing huge winter coats, and maybe if this kind of weather visits my country next winter my people will take it differently.
Better still, the winds (one of which is currently howling and wailing at my window) have been playing tricks with radio listeners. Thus, people in Somerset had got a taster of Moscow radio, while people in Canada were stunned to listen weather forecast for Somerset. Unfortunately, the report doesn’t say what radio station had gone with the winds to Moscow.
I have experienced my bit of depression in the winter 2003/4, which was my first winter in England. When it snowed for about half an hour on New Year’s night, I was over the Moon. But otherwise it was lonely and unhappy. Admittedly, I probably couldn’t concentrate on this too much, as I was studying, so my mind was preoccupied with other things. But looking at what I was writing at the time, I realise that the climatic change which I could by no means escape did leave its mark.
and so forth.
Now, if we go to Defoe’s page at Wiki, it seems that Duguid’s efforts have brought some results. Defoe’s date of birth is now dated between 1659 and 1661, his father is no longer a butcher (although a member of the Butcher’s Company), etc. But, as Paul writes in his blog, The Quality of Information, Wikipedia may go to print, and in this case they need to be strict with their authors. He blogs a lot about whether or not Wikipedia can be trusted.
What sometimes stuns me about Wiki is its choice for articles. Russian Wiki, for instance, is still very much behind her English or French sisters, but some content is hardly of an encyclopedic nature. I was amazed to find out that a girl who’s only just made one film and hasn’t yet received any prizes etc., has already got a Wiki page. This has clearly been done for promotion, and I don’t honestly think that this is in line with the spirit of encyclopedia (even the one written by ‘simple’ people).
Links:
Paul Duguid’s blog, The Quality of Information, http://infoqual.blogspot.com/
Berkeley University Podcasts and Video Lectures, http://webcast.berkeley.edu/
History of Information course, the lecture mentioned in this post is called ‘Search, Storage and Retrieval’.
Previous choice of the Berkeley video lectures available from Google Videos (David Lynch on cinema and Modern Literary Manuscripts).
I’ve got the impression that in the three years that I was away, one half of my friends got married, and another half have been working really hard for the benefit of the discipline (History). Most of them seem to be working in the museums and galleries, as well as on TV. Some teach.
Also I need advice, please. Exzibit.net, where quite a few of my articles have been published, is now
apparently extinct. I found out today, and it feels embarrassing that I’m linking to the website, whereas it no longer works. It showcased my writing, and obviously I use those texts as references on my CV. I would appreciate any advice on what maybe the best platform for republishing them. The texts presumably still exist in cache, but I cannot refer to that.
Thanks!
Oh, and by the way, it’s New Year again, old style. So, all best!
Update: Exzibit.net is working again. It didn’t work yesterday, and I’ve set up a WordPress blog for the texts. I think I will still use it, though.
In all five minutes, from 12.02 to 12.07, it never occurred to me that I was standing right by my train. Only when the train has disappeared and I heard the announcement of the train to Blackpool and saw a change on the timeboard, only then did I realise that I have just missed my train to Liverpool.
I’ll be going to London again at the end of this month. I won’t be surprised if I end up in Glasgow.
In fact, when yesterday I was checking train times on Nationalrail.co.uk, the system didn’t reply to my query straight away, claiming a mistake. There could be several reasons for a mistake, including this one:
…you may be looking for an unexisting destination, e.g. London to Birmingham via Glasgow…
Anyway, my heart warmed when I saw this ITN video of a hugging lion. I think it’s a good proof of the animals being able to 1) think, 2) be human (almost). If anybody puts this video up on YouTube, please let me know. We all need that lion hug. 🙂
As a matter of fact – this is just a piece of professional knowledge, nothing else – Gerald of Wales, a 12th c. chronicler, in The History and Topography of Ireland mentions a story of a lion falling in (and reportedly making) love with a lady. He claims to have seen that in Paris. Unfortunately, Gerald has got a very prudish take on this story, maintaining the impossibility of such behaviour. Well, as we see from the video, this ‘beastly love’ was probably nothing more, but an affectionate hug.
Update. Thanks to Craig who has heard my plea to find the ‘lion hug’ video on YouTube… and here it is! Thank you, Craig! And thank you to the rescuer, we all commend you!
Mood: *purr*
I always knew Paris would be my city – despite the fact that I’ve never been there. And I never actually take interest in different online polls, like this one. But this time it’s different, because it looks like I do belong in Paris. If I am to make my New Year resolution come true, then this will be my destination.
| You Belong in Paris |
 Stylish and a little sassy, you were meant for Paris. The art, the fashion, the wine, the men! Whether you’re enjoying the cafe life or a beautiful park… You’ll love living in the most chic place on earth. |
The first Global Orgasm Day took place on December 22, 2006. If you’re Amélie Poulain, you probably know, exactly how many people are having an orgasm this very minute. And you will think: surely, there’s so much positive energy flowing right now, what’s the point of creating a positive outbreak three days before Christmas?
Well, the idea is simple: what we do every day, we do for pleasure. What we do on December 22, we do for peace. Think of it in John Lennon’s words: ‘Give peace a chance’ and ‘make love, not war’. And this is exactly the underlying idea of the Global Orgasm movement.
You can read more at the campaign’s official website, www.globalorgasm.org. One thing I will say – why did they only use women’s pictures? Isn’t it sexist?
There are no actual figures on the number of orgasms, but there is the statistics of visits to the Global Orgasm page on December 22. So, the most peace-loving people live in Madrid – the whopping 5286. Moscow did well, too – 1366 (Gosh, I’m proud of my home city!). London managed 899, with no results (as it seems) for Manchester. But I heard people in England had left their Christmas shopping till the last minute in 2006, so that may be the reason for such poor performance.
Folks, this needs changing in 2007. Put December 22 in your diary as the Global Pea…, I mean, Love-Making Day.
For my part, I blogged about Art in Liverpool. I do love art, and I do love making art.
And in Moscow there was finally a premiere of Wolfhound, on December 22, too. The film’s official site is currently working in Russian and English, but French and German versions are coming up soon. To go to the English page, click on the shield.
And this is the French audiotake on the global participation in the peace-making process. It highlights some things that people did on that day, like snorring or shooting. The audio file was featured in Libération Online. As a matter of fact, Paris did very well, too – 3448.