Stories about Arts & Culture from May, 2008
Iran:Ballgard,a Persian Funk Group
LegoFish, Iranian blogger and designer, informs us that Ballgard's new CD is now available. Ballgard draws from the musical styles of Funk, Hard Rock and Iranian Folk music themes. Watch Ballgard's video here and get more information here.
Saramago's reaction at the lauch of Blindness, the film
Bárbara Axt [pt] publishes a spot on video showing Jose Saramago‘s reaction just after watching Blindness, an adaptation of his book by Brazilian Fernando Meirelles, which was launched the Cannes film festival on Wednesday. “I am so happy to watch this film… as I was when I finished writing the...
Brazil: Promoting the country's fine art
Guilherme Montana [pt] starts a new series of posts about Brazilian fine art. “The first artist to be honored in this rudimentary humbly artifact of online publication is one that lives and paints the Central West area. His name is Humberto Espíndola, and the picture is Bovinocultura V – Boi-Águia,...
Colombian anti-military youth group commemorates 10 years of resistance
Last May 17th marked the ten year aniversary of the Antimili sonoro, an event organized by the Youth Network as a way to spread the word about resistance to the mandatory military service in Colombia through music. The date was celebrated with a concert, and the whole month of May was programmed with conferences, talks and marches commemorating the 10 years of the youth organization's Disobedience and Civil Resistance movement. Showcasing the invitation to the events, the promotional clips and a short video from one of the ska bands playing in the concert.
Europe: Eurovision Semi-Finals
Pestiside.hu, Megan Case, and Lex Libertas – on the Eurovision semi-finals results.
Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria: Zorba the Greek
Greater Surbiton quotes from Nikos Kazantzakis‘ “Zorba the Greek”: “Given current Greek policy toward Macedonia, it is illuminating to read the words that Kazantzakis placed in the mouth of this most popular of Greek fictional heroes when the latter described his role in the Greek struggle to colonise Macedonia […].”
Russia, Ukraine: Photos
Photos from Russia and Ukraine by Flickr user In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (via Olechko).
Barbados: Living in Bim
Callaloo Soup blogs about a few things she forgot about life in Barbados.
YouTube starts citizen journalism channel
Giving citizen journalism videos more airtime has just gotten easier: YouTube video uploading website has opened a new channel exclusively for citizen videos named CitizenNews. Vloggers who specialize in reporting what is going on where they live can now subscribe to the channel and let the world know what is going on.
Anguilla: Culture Shock
“Cultural identity is as equally important as political independence and economic self-sufficiency in the process of nation-building. Cultural development is the bedrock of the creation of a national identity”: Corruption-free Anguilla wonders whether the island has a culture.
Azerbaijan: Eurovision Debut Reaction
In Mutatione Fortitud, the blog of a political scientist from Azerbaijan, comments on his country's first ever debut in this year's Eurovision Song Contest and says that it appears as if the song, Day After Day, was “pretty successful.” The Revolving Madventist Church of the Golden Worm of Mu agrees...
China: All CCTV, Entertainment Banned
Sun Bin reported that in the three days national mourning for Sichuan earthquake victims, all T.V channels become CCTV. Literally speaking, most of the entertainment channels, including Star T.V and HBO are banned locally, with a mourning message.
Kyrgyzstan: Manas Epos
Elena from neweurasia presents a short podcast with the extracts from the national Kyrgyz epos “Manas”.
Mexico: Construction of New Sumaya Museum
The new Sumaya museum is being constructed in Mexico City thanks to billionaire Carlos Slim. México Para Los Mexicanos [es] examines some questions about the museum's location and whether proper thought has been given to how this increased traffic will affect the neighborhood's residents.
Serbia: More on Eurovision
Anegdote comments on Eurovision: “But gay in the original sense of the word: happy, cheerful, was Bosnian song, which gets all my regards for not being a yet another stupid once-upon-a-time-turbo-folk-now-ethno-pop cry for euthanasia.”
Armenia/Azerbaijan: Eurovision Success
After yesterday's success enjoyed by the Armenian and Azerbaijani entries in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, Unzipped posts a photograph of Armenia's Sirusho celebrating. In the comments section of the post both myself and the blogger agree that the reason we like the photograph is that “she looks lovely” and...
Azerbaijan: Eurovision Debut
The Long Aye-lander in Glasgow comments on the first semi-final of this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, Serbia. The blog pays special attention to Azerbaijan's debut entry and says that with “a guy in huge angel wings, gyrating girls in leather dresses and ear-splitting falsetto” there's no point in...
Russia, Latvia: Young Russia vs Edvīns Šņore
Latvian Abroad writes about Young Russia's protest against The Soviet Story, a documentary by a young Latvian director Edvīns Šņore.
Poland: Photoblogs
Polandian reviews Polish photoblogs.
Serbia: Belgrade Cab Drivers; Eurovision
Inno & Irja Blog – on Belgrade's cab drivers and the Eurovision Song Contest.
Guatemala: Local Handicrafts
Guate 360 [es] takes a look at local handicrafts in Guatemala and the people behind the creation of these works.
