How classical music can bridge divides

Thursday, 18 June 2009, 23:05 | Category : Crumbs, Politics, Human Rights & Other Serious Stuff
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The story of 16 year old Abel Selaocoe, who plays the cello. He sees classical music as his destiny, even though according to stereotypes black musicians are not associated with the genre.

MONTHLY SUMMARY: May 2009 aka too many things happening at once

Wednesday, 17 June 2009, 18:54 | Category : Life & Stuff, Loaves, Monthly Summaries
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{MONTHLY SUMMARIES}
My Month in Brief
May was a month during which everything kept happening insanely fast and planning anything seemed completely impossible - something would always turn things upside down :-/
Major Events
The month started very inauspiciously when my dad fainted in the local shop. They called the ambulance and my dad refused to go with them [...]

Two male penguins adopt a chick

Monday, 15 June 2009, 20:43 | Category : Crumbs, Curiosities
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I thought this was a rather amusing story :)

The barbers who fled the Taliban

This is an article about those who fled the Swat valley, but from a very different angle:
There are about seven barbers in Rangmala, a camp for displaced people which is a couple of kilometres from Malakand Top.
Although they want to go back home once the Taliban have gone they are relishing the chance to work [...]

Who will succeed Kim Jong-il?

That’s what the media have been speculating about recently. I found this pretty interesting - an interview with Kim Jong-il’s eldest son and in English no less. I’ve never seen an interview with anybody high up in North Korea’s hierarchy before.

The joys of homoerotic prison movies with no plot (46-okunen no koi reviewed)

{FILM DIARY}
46-okunen no koi (Japan, 2006)
Seen: Saturday, 6th June 2009 (DVD, repeat viewing)
Runtime: 85′
Director: Takashi Miike
Cast: Ryuhei Matsuda, Masanobu Ando
Production House: Eisei Gekijo, Excellent Film, Maki Production, Shochiku Company, Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo
Plot: (from imdb)
An unknown future. A boy confesses to the murder of another in an all-boy juvenile detention facility. More an exercise in style [...]

What happens when nutty people keep visiting your garden (Záhrada reviewed)

{FILM DIARY}
Záhrada (Slovakia/France, 1995)
Seen: Saturday, 6th June 2009 (DVD, repeat viewing)
Runtime: 99′
Director: Martin Sulík
Cast: Marián Labuda, Roman Luknár, Zuzana Sulajová, Jana Svandová
Production House: Artcam International, Charlie's Bratislava, STV, Slovenská filmová tvorba Koliba (SFT)
Plot: (from imdb)
Jakub’s life arrived at a dead-end. He leaves his job, and gets into conflict with his father. The trouble just grows [...]

Native Americans suing oil companies for global warming

Below I’ve embedded a video about how the Inpupiat community in Kivalina, Alaska are bringing a law suit against the major oil companies. Due to global warming their village will have to be relocated. The move is very costly and they hope to get the necessary money through the law suit.
The villagers will try to [...]

Brüno publicity

The Borat publicity was crazy, but the Brüno publicity is shaping up to be some of the most tasteless, crass and vulgar publicity that Hollywood has seen - check out Brüno’s spread in Marie Clair - Brüno’s A-Z is quite something ;)
I guess there’ll be a lot more articles and interviews like that to report [...]

Bollywood ends strike

Tuesday, 9 June 2009, 20:06 | Category : Bollywood & the Indian film industry, Crumbs
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The strike I’ve been following has finally come to an end - it lasted two months. More details on the settlement can be found here.
Consequently, release dates for the coming major Bollywood releases have finally been announced :)