Stories about Arts & Culture from December, 2006
Ukraine: The New Year's
Carpetblogger posts pictures and writes about the New Year's in Kyiv.
Poland: Honorary King
The beatroot reports: “46 members of the Polish parliament have tabled a motion to name Jesus Christ as the ‘honorary King of the Republic of Poland’. […] There is an historical precedent to this mad move, however. The Virgin Mary was made Honorary Queen of Poland 350 years ago by...
Estonia: Christmas Customs
Itching for Eestimaa writes about Estonian Christmas customs.
Chilean Christmas Consumer Behavior
Christmas is coming. This post takes a look at Chileans’ consumer behaviour during holidays. Writing about what Chileans are buying for presents, Luis Alarcon (ES) describes top-selling present: El éxito de esta navidad, poleras (polos, tshirt) con las pólemicas imágenes de Allende y el reciente fallecido Pinochet. Los encargados aseguran...
Estonia: Estonica
A Step At A Time links to Estonica, “a web encyclopedia about Estonia, in English and Estonian.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Minshall's Vision
“T&T Carnival has become a celebrity thing and mas’, in its purest sense, is not about celebrity. In fact, it’s the antithesis of it,” writes Francomenz, as she reports on Peter Minshall's vision for the festival.
Madagascar: The First Indian Ocean Musical Network
El Sono Mondial announces that (Fr): “A seminar about financial management of cultural enterprises specializing in music (organized by the International Organization of La Francophonie) took place last week [in Madagascar] … The participants discussed creating the first Indian Ocean musical and cultural network.“
Costa Rica Blog Wrapup: CAFTA, Christmas and arts.
Highlights from Costa Rica's blogs these past weeks. We have more on the CAFTA, complaints on Christmas, and posts on artistic and cultural events. We'll begin with a touch of humour: Lachi in Prueba de Artista posts a video taken during an Anime-manga event where they got an undesired dose...
Festival Internacional de la Cancion de Autor
Panamanian songwriter Gonzalo Horna has a review about the first Festival Internacional de la Canción de Autor in which he participated as the opening artist. Read more about this event.
China: more on boycotting Christmas
Granitestudio comments on the recent call by PhD students in China on boycotting Christmas celebration.
Japan: how to survive the year end party
Alexpappas from Japundit gives the readers some tips on how to survive a Japanese style year end party – Bonenkai.
Lithuania: Camerata Klaipeda
Music and Life – Everywhere! writes about the Lithuanian Camerata Klaipeda – “a very interesting little string orchestra” – and other music matters.
The Balkans: Reading List
South East Europe Online compiles a list of English-language books on the Balkans.
Arabisc: Moroccan Authorities Lack Humour, says Blogger
In Morocco, a newspaper is being sued for publishing an article on jokes which Moroccans enjoy. Blogger Hjiouij thinks its not discussing religious issues that the authorities object to in print but rather any attempt to ridicule Moroccan King Mohammed the Fifth. قبل دقائق خمس أعلنت التلفزة الرسمية أن الوزير...
China: cultural critique on consuming Christmas
Zhao mu re-posts an open letter written by10 PhD students in China (all from top univeristy) which criticized the celebration of Christmas in China. The students suggest government to ban and discourage advocation and promotion of Christmas consumption by education department and commercial sectors in order to preserve “Chinese cultural...
St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Nine Mornings Festival
“The choir was far from melodious but I couldn't believe I was hearing right.” Being serenaded with Christmas carols encourages Abeni “to shake off the gloomy feeling” and be part of the Nine Mornings Festival – a unique Vincentian tradition.
Laos: Touristy Vang Vieng
Popagandhi leaves Laos in a hurry after discovering how touristy Laotian city of Vang Vieng has become. Laos was one of the last South East Asian country to be opened to tourists. “Everybody sold the same mediocre and expensive food tailored for the Western palate. Everybody played the same music....
Kenya/Tanzania: cultural differences
Africa Affairs blog has the fourth part of socio-cultural differences between Kenyans and Tanzanians. Links to previous posts on the subject are at the end.
Serbia: Belgrade
Eric Gordy of East Ethnia lists things he likes about Belgrade – as well as “other things”: “Beogradski radio: Every station, including the ones I don't like, has its individual character.”
Freedom of speech and music celebrations in the Moroccan Blogosphere
Many different subjects were in the spotlight last week, in the Moroccan blogosphere. I'll start with Farid and his interesting numbers (Fr) about blogging in Morocco. Then comes Reda who found out, thanks to Shimon Peres, that there is a connection between laziness and Islam(Fr). The European Union is a...
Kenya/Tanzania: East Africa's old songs
Steve Ntwiga's musical link takes us to East Africa's Orchestra Mangelepa and Jamhuri Jazz Band.
