Stories about Arts & Culture from April, 2006
Russia: Comedian Mikhail Zadornov
W. Shedd of The Accidental Russophile posts a bio of Russian comedian Mikhail Zadornov and supplies a translation of two of his pieces: a Soviet-time “Conversation of a Rest Home Deputy Director with Guests on the Day of Their Arrival” and a more recent one, “Russian business, or the Eighth...
Songkran fun in Chiang Mai
Greg at Vagabonding begins! joins the Songkran festivities in Chiang Mai. Songkran is also known as Water Festival and it marks the Thai new year.
Songkran – the good and the bad
Bangkok resident Chatchai Kongaut lists the pros and the cons of Songkran festival.
Hong Kong: Same sex discourse
Has Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain given homophobia a foothold within the Cantonese language? The flagrant harbour blogger gives us the both the short and long answer in ‘Brokeback Mounting.’
Dominican Republic: Deportees and film premiere
Daily Dominican Republic News reports that the US Immigration and Naturalization Service has deported 942 Dominican ex-convicts so far this year, and that the premiere of the film “The Feast of the Goat”, based on Mario Vargas Llosa's novel about Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, took place in Santo Domingo.
Guadeloupe: Maryse Condé reading
Geoffrey Philps reports on a reading by Guadeloupean writer Maryse Condé at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida.
Cuba: Birthday blog list
Regalado.blogia.com celebrates (es) her first anniversary with a catalog of some of the blogs and bloggers with whom she has made connections in the past year.
Belarus: “Almost an Open Letter to Hollywood Producers”
Andrei Khrapavitski wonders why there hasn't appeared a single Hollywood movie about Belarus, “the baffling country between Russia and Poland.”
Aruba: Linguistic prowess
“When our tourists find out that those who grew up here can speak at least four languages, there are usually exclamations of wonder and marvel at our linguistic prowess,” says ArubaGirl, in her explanation as to why most Arubans speak Dutch, English, Spanish and Papiamento.
Traffic In Viet Nam
The traffic can be a nightmare for visitors to Viet Nam for the first time. Believe it or not, there are transport rules but people don't seem really interested in following them. Three or four people on one motor bike is a common sight, particularly with the young and young...
Ukraine: Promoting Books in Ukrainian
A group of Ukrainian LJ users concerned about the sorry state of Ukrainian-language book publishing had a lively discussion on how the situation could be improved. One blogger even drew a parallel with the Aymara language of faraway Bolivia. Below are just a few snippets of this conversation (UKR): swalllage-kits:...
No interest in local music
Conspiracypenguins lament on the lack of interest in local music in Singapore.
Caribbean: On mangoes
“I'm standing under the cool dark shade of my julie mango tree looking for my breakfast,” writes Attillah at The Pan Collective in her paean to one of the Caribbean's favourite non-indigenous fruit.
China: Satire in the media
Jason Li from Virtual China translates a post from Linghucong's Blog [zh] which looks at the “increasing amount of feature articles that possess a well-informed, sharp, satirical edge” seen on major Chinese portal website Netease.
African music (#6)
Coupé-Décalé? I went blank when my lady friend Tchi asked if I knew about Coupé-Décalé. A wiki entry for Coupé-Décalé provides a brief definition: “The Coupe-Decale created by Doucoure during the militaro-political crisis in Cote d'Ivoire,reflects the aspirations of the Ivorian youth. Coupe-Decale is a very melodious and percussive African...
Lockout for junior gamers?
Gameshogun counters a Filipino politician's comments that online games produce violent people. Representative Florencio “Bem ” Noel is proposing that internet cafes should not allow minor and student gamers after 6 or 7 PM.
Myanmar's water festival
This week is the Thingyan or Water Festival in Myanmar. Thingyan is the new year according to the Burmese traditional lunar calendar. Sean, a Myanmar citizen living in Singapore, reminisces of home and takes us to Myanmar to shows us how they celebrate this festival over there.
Levels of stupidity
Taiwanese politician and talk show host Li Ao is not a popular guy in Singapore at the moment. Li Ao had remarked last year that Singaporeans are stupider than Taiwan and Hong Kong people. Last week, on his talk show he finally explained that reason he had labelled Singaporeans as...
India: Painting Hindu Gods
Blowin’ in the wind attempts to understand MF Hussain's creative urges and motives when it comes to potrayal of Hindu gods and godesses in his art.
Armenia: Cultural Destruction
Onnik Krikorian notes that Armenian cultural and religious monuments are not just being destroyed in neighboring countries but also in Armenia by Armenians.
Cambodia: Khmer-American Celebrity Featured in Weblogger Community
Born in 1983, Soben Houn, who stands on the international stage as Miss Utah USA 2006, represents Cambodian-American communities and Cambodia as a whole. As a celebrity, she will promote the significance of higher education in this digital age. And, she is looking to compete in Miss USA 2006 on...
