opiczarna

Two Poems For Those Who Miss Their Four-Legged Friends

2009-12-14T15:24:00.000-08:00

In Memoriam Maruška [*13.8.1995 - +14.12.2009]

DON'T CRY FOR ME WHEN I'M GONE

--- (Author unknown) ---

Three score and ten are given to man,
But ours is a much briefer span.
So, though I give you all my heart,
The time will come when we must part.
But all around you, you will see,
Creatures that speak to you of me;
A tired horse, a hunted thing,
A sparrow with a broken wing ...
Pity - and help (I know you will)
And somehow, I will be with you still;
And I shall know, although I'm gone,
The love I gave you lingers on.

DOG'S PRAYER

--- (Author unknown) ---

[Translated from Czech by VT; Edited by MP]

My master:
It is said that I am the best friend of man.
That is true.
I do everything for you
That I can.
I worship you as God.
In my eyes you can read trust and love.
I try to return to you everything good

That you give me.
I am ageing beside you and your children,
I watch your house,
Guide the blind,
Save people from ruins and avalanches,
Pull sleds,
Help to catch criminals,
Entertain people in circuses,

Suffer pain in laboratories for your health.
A million times I wag my tail
To thank you for your care,
To welcome you home,

To show you my hapiness.
If everyone left you,
I would stay with you forever.
Please, my master
Don't leave me
And let me live with you my life as a dog.

I'll be grateful and loyal as any being in the world.

And, my dear master, when the time comes,

When I will not be healthy and will not have joy in life,

Do not send me away from you.

Rather hold me gently in your merciful hands

And let me find eternal rest

And leave with the knowledge

That my fate was safest in your hands.

Bring Back the Bomber!!! - An Open Letter to Tom Drapeau

2009-10-26T01:51:00.000-07:00

(By a strange quirk of propeller fate Bronx Bomber is the Featured Member on the Front Page of propeller as I write these words – exactly where he deserves to be!)

Dear Tom,

I don't know precisely what led to BronxBomber's banning - there's no visible evidence - but I do know that his loss would be a serious blow to propeller. What I heard was that it was a provocation from dropkickalib that became the trigger for an unacceptable comment by BB; I suspect that this might have occurred in the "Cheney Is a 'Maniacal' Hypocrite " thread, in the course of which dropkickalib, in his/her customary mode, also addressed crespi as crappie, sabretoooth as sabredouche - while his/her name seems to be deliberately calculated to make people see red. Let’s just call it unacceptable provocation.

You will hear from others about this - there is a heads-up about it doing the rounds - but this is my own personal plea, though after attempting unsuccessfully dozen times to send this to you as a propeller PM, I’ve now decided to post it as an open letter to you on my partner's blog and thence to publish it as a propeller story – and keep my fingers crossed that it won’t be trashed or provoke my own banishment..

Like many others, I profoundly desire to see BB reinstated. I consider his quirky tales essential leavening for the propeller feast and it has seemed sometimes that he has virtually lived for propeller during the whole time that I've been there – apart from occasional medical absences. If he made a misjudgement yesterday it is far outweighed by the many kind words he has written to many individuals during this time, while dealing with his own health-difficulties and other challenges.

I suspect that it would cause him serious emotional anguish to be excluded – nor does he have the option to sneak back in without being recognised. He's one of a kind, inimitable and entirely himself. I tried to meet with him in person, the last time that I was in NYC but, alas, he declined. (I did meet a couple of other members, however, which was a real treat.)

However, in regard to the policy.. The internet by its nature is a highly volatile, edgy medium and the messages on blogs, like e-mail messages, can very easily be misread/misunderstood; far more so than a phone call, in which you can hear the expression that goes with the words, or even a carefully considered letter. The nicest and best-intentioned people in the world risk getting carried away, based on a misreading of the tone behind the words, which can invoke undue or illogical passion. At the same time it is exactly the edginess that involves people and keeps them hooked - and frequently inspires them. It seems that one can't exist without the other, like yin & yang..

Here on propeller we can find absolute brilliance and inspiration on one hand, while the flipside is the lack of veracity, the petty BS and the name-calling that demean the individuals posting it and, naturally, makes the site less wholesome and palatable for all of us [unless, of course we are its exceptionally subtle perpetrators :) ].

I certainly don't claim to be untainted by the muck-zone myself and a couple of times have gone to bed worrying that a particularly barbed comment of mine was below-the-belt or might be deemed beyond the pale and deserving of perpetual banishment - and NO I am NOT going to list any of those here for further consideration..

I simply hope and suggest that BB may be granted a reprieve - based on popular demand and of a weighing of the positive vs. the negative of his overall propeller presence..

I would also like to suggest, in terms of policy, that no single comment that does not actually threaten another member or contain palpable obscenity should in itself be considered grounds for expulsion.

What would be entirely fair and overall beneficial to propeller would be a 3-strikes policy – with 2 warnings. If we are all obliged to continually look over our shoulder and perpetually rein ourselves in propeller will be the loser because it will become boring! I suggest that this will improve standards far more than draconian banishment of much appreciated individuals.

Finally, perhaps some other previous cases of banning could also be reviewed – I would make a plea for Mountainman and for AceofSpades; despite the fact that the latter once threatened me with “exposure” we later became friends – and isn’t THAT a model of how propeller should work?

I would not like to be the Captain of this ship – whether its perceived as a rusty old tub about to founder on the rocks or as a luxury Cruise Liner, all ship-shape and Bristol fashion. Kudos goes to you Tom for keeping us afloat; I believe that you have deservedly gained the respect of the community. I also believe that in this eventuality the reprieve of BB will do nothing but enhance that respect.

My Best Regards to you and to all my other fellow-propellerites, with my personal pledge to attempt to better absorb the rough with the smooth, as a gift to myself – not because of fear of banishment!

Gama

Red Russian Army Choir & Leningrad Cowboys - Delilah

2009-10-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Delilah

HAPPY SPECIAL DAY, GAMA!!!

2009-09-29T00:38:00.001-07:00

The Rolling Stones-Sympathy For The Devil

Robbie Williams: Supreme

2009-09-28T02:58:00.001-07:00

Supreme

The Male Brain and the Female Brain

2009-09-27T02:42:00.000-07:00

Hun Huur Tu

2009-09-19T06:33:00.001-07:00

Orphan's Lament

Vera Bila

2009-09-17T12:44:00.001-07:00

"Sar Me Khare Avava"

Edith Piaf

2009-09-15T09:04:00.001-07:00

Non Je Ne Regrette Rien

PRAGUE DAILY MONITOR: High on Hornacko

2009-08-29T05:42:00.000-07:00

High on Horňácko

BY MARTIN MRÁZ | PRAGUE DAILY MONITOR |

28 AUGUST 2009

Horňácké slavnosti annually features music and dance from the 10 villages that make up the Horňácko region. (Martin Mráz)

The annual Horňácké slavnosti (Horňácko celebrations) that take place in the village of Velká nad Veličkou are like a small but prized gem among the Moravia's folklore festivals. While larger events such as the ones that take place in nearby Strážnice feature multiple stages and performers from other countries, Horňácké slavnosti are an intimate affair, with only one stage and featuring solely local performers. Landscape plays a dominant role in this small region: Horňácko translates as something akin to highlands, and the festival takes place on the hillside of Strážná hůrka (Sentinel hill), with a beautiful view over the surrounding landscape.

This tiny region contains only 10 villages as officially defined by ethnographers. The culture of Horňácko is considered to be among the purest and most well-preserved in the Czech Republic, perhaps a result of the hilly area's relative isolation in the past. Tradition is strong here – not just as a nostalgic museum piece pulled out and dusted off once a year, but as an everyday part of people's lives.

My connection to Moravian folklore is quite personal: Until my family's emigration to Canada in 1969, my father was the primáš (lead violinist) of a cimbalom band from Ostrava, Technik, and I was used to hearing the music at home.

In the summer of 1990, shortly after the fall of the communist regime, I visited what was then still Czechoslovakia for the first time since emigrating. I visited the Strážnice and Horňácko festivals along with my parents, who on these occasions once again met up with people they had last seen 30 years earlier or more. The Horňácko festival started in 1957, so this was the first one that took place in a free Czechoslovakia. Emotions ran high, but one could not help but wonder if as the country opened up to foreign influences, tradition such as this would wane and be swamped by as the high-voltage noise of western popular culture – at least as far as the younger generation was concerned.

Czech and especially Moravian traditional music and folklore has had to rehabilitate itself somewhat: The communist regime misused it to its own ends, and, much as dead heroes did, folk music served as a safe alternative to more contemporary, unpredictable forms of culture, with the added bonus of originating among poor country people, thus the "toiling masses". But, perhaps surprisingly, certainly happily, it has not remained something played by just a few old-timers – yes, there are the grey eminences such as Martin Hrbáč, whose band has been playing since 1966 – but there are also young people. And any culture that can claim teenagers among its enthusiastic proponents must be alive and well.

This year's programme began, as always on Friday, on Strážná hůrka, toward the end of one of this summer's hottest and sultriest days. The audience sat on the simple plank benches that rise up on the hillside above the open stage. Others sat at picnic-style tables to the side, underneath fruit trees, including the plum trees that make for the first step in slivovice, the drink of choice in this region – along with the ever-present and excellent Moravian wine and beer, of course. The dancers danced and the signers sang as the bands played, and simple stands did a brisk business in wine, beer, smoked ribs, langoše, brine pickles, and other assorted delicacies. The official programme may end before midnight, but the festivities certainly do not, with musicians simply moving over a couple dozen metres to continue playing "where the party is" As always, dawn came to find a few tenacious souls still celebrating and others in somewhat more horizontal and comatose positions.

Unfortunately, this year Saturday's programme was rained-out and had to be moved to the kulturní dům, or cultural centre, in Velká, which has nowhere near the capacity of Strážná hůrka and all the charm of a high school gym. As if to make amends for this insult, the weather cleared up on Sunday and it was a perfect day for the closing festivities, which traditionally take place at an old windmill estate above the village of Kuželov a few kilometres away. Here the atmosphere is even more intimate, with attendance in the hundreds compared with the several thousand that attend the main festival in Velká. And so the festival ended as it began, with the timeless music of Horňácko wafting in the warm late afternoon air and the setting sun illuminating its colourful traditional costumes. These were only my third Horňácké slavnosti (Why? I ask myself) but they certainly won't be the last.

Marushka!

2009-08-23T07:12:00.000-07:00

Marushka enjoying life in some beautiful corners of the Czech Lands:
Prague - Charles Bridge ; Melnik - Confluence of the Elbe and the Vltava Rivers; Dolni Kounice - former Rosa Coeli Monastery; on way to Choustnik Castle; Sudejov; Chynov - in front of Bilek's Villa; Choustnik Castle; Avenue up to Kamenny Vrch near Skalna; Home; Dandelions near Skalna.
Music by Antonin Dvorak: "Slavonic Dances"