Department of New Dance Mixes for the New Year

Allow me to pass along a New Year's gift from my Prague DJ friend Doug Arellanes, a.k.a. Dougiegyro. Let me put it in Doug's words:

Heyas,

Seeing as New Year's is coming up and you may be hosting or going to parties, here is my New Year's gift to you: the new mix I compiled, called Žižkoteca, after the Žižkov club where I play, the Palac Akropolis. It's uploading now, and will be available for download at this address:

http://www.arellanes.com/zizkoteca

I've put it up in two formats: a single long MP3 file, or if you prefer individual tracks, there's a ZIP file with all the tracks in there. (If you're burning a CD, be sure to set the pause between tracks to "0 seconds" otherwise there'll be these weird gaps in there. There's a CD cover there as well in PDF, should you want one.)

It's mostly Latin house, but there are a few surprises thrown in there too.

Happy New Year's!

dougie

And (a late) Happy New Year's from StickFinger, too.


posted by AZ @ Friday, January 02, 2004

 

Department of Strange and, to My Ears, Eerie-Sounding Branches of Federal Government

Did *you* know the United States has an ambassador for (and office of) international religious freedom? I didn't, until I read this story.


posted by AZ @ Tuesday, December 23, 2003

 

Department of Things That Make Me Sick to My Stomach

Supplemental Report on September 11 Detainees' Allegations of Abuse at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York

Though physically paling in comparison to the other allegations of abuse documented in the report, this part struck me as especially sick and sadistic: "T-Shirt with Flag and Slogan"


posted by AZ @ Tuesday, December 23, 2003

 

Nephrology Department

So it turns out that my kidney doctor, Gerald Appel, who is the nation's leading authority on my disease, IGA nephropathy, also ministers to NBA star Alonzo Mourning, who is being forced to retire because of his kidney problems. Who knew?

I don't follow the NBA, or any pro sports, for that matter, so I only found out when I walked into Dr. Appel's office today and saw on the wall an article with a photo of him from the New York Times. (It ran on Dec. 4, so you have to pay to access it now or I'd give y'all the link.)


posted by AZ @ Wednesday, December 17, 2003

 

Department of Things I Would Have Blogged Long Ago Had I Had a Blog at the Time That I Can Now Blog Because I Have One (a.k.a. Czech Matchboxes Rule)

(Be) Careful, Kids


posted by AZ @ Wednesday, December 17, 2003

 

Department of the Things You Find Out When You Google Yourself

Last year I translated a play for a series called New Czech Plays: Staged Readings in Translation. This is an event the Czech Center New York—in particular, its whip-smart, energetic deputy director, Irena Kovarova—launched in 2002 to offer, duh, new Czech plays to theater-hungry New Yorkers in an intimate, informal setting.

The series is fantastic. Every play I've been to has been followed by an enlightening and entertaining discussion between members of the cast and the audience, which is typically a mix of Czech-Americans, assorted East European emigrés, American Czechophiles, and New York theaterites. Often Irena will also invite a director or author from the Czech Republic to speak as well, and I never fail to walk away feeling that I've learned something new about acting or writing or any aspect of theater you can think of pretty much. And, most pleasing to me, it is one of the only times I have ever heard "regular" people talk about translation.

I should add here too that the series, though only two years old, has already proved itself so popular that the 2004 edition is going to be held at the illustrious Public Theater, founded by the legendary Joseph Papp.

The play I translated for last year's series, Minach, by Iva Volánková, was a 2002 winner of the Alfred Radok Prize, awarded each year since 1992 to the best original Czech and Slovak plays. Apart from a chunk of crownage, the winners are honored by having their works translated into English (and possibly other languages as well; I just don't know about that), in the hope that they will be performed in other countries.

So I knew my translation was going to be published, but until this evening I didn't know it had already happened! (To be honest, I had wanted to do a little more work on it still, after I saw it performed in the Czech Center's series. Oh well.)

P.S. I have also this evening, while putting off work on the translation I should be doing right now, added a few more links on Czech lit, City Sister Silver, and Jáchym Topol. Czech lit lovers, live it up!


posted by AZ @ Wednesday, December 17, 2003

 

Department of Bands That Include Bartenders from Enid's

I've added Enon to my music links below. In this case, it's the bass player, Toko, who tends bar at Enid's (when she's not out on tour with the band, that is). She also plays keyboards and sings, wonderfully.

Enon has a really fun and interesting Web site, including a joke "Livecam" feature, two MP3s, three videos, and a free, Web-only song of the month, hidden in a different place on the site each time around. Plus the usual photos, discography, and tour news.

The best thing about Enon, though, is that they are *great* in concert, and these days they are almost always touring, so you can be sure they'll be coming soon to a club near you—even if you live in Europe, Australia, or Japan.


posted by AZ @ Tuesday, December 16, 2003

 

Department of What Life Is Like, And Don't You Forget It



(Courtesy of Katharena Eiermann)


posted by AZ @ Monday, December 15, 2003

 

Department of They Came to Play, Part II

Paula Zahn of CNN spoke with a Jew and a Muslim about the First Annual Muslim Football Tournament, noted here on Dec. 8th.

It seems the names of some of the teams have caused consternation among overly sensitive types who don't understand the principles behind naming a football team in this country. (Apparently, the critics won out; clicking on the teams link reveals that a couple of the names cited in the interview as offensive—in particular, Mujahideen and Soldiers of Allah—have since been changed. Intifada, however, remains.)

Here is the transcript of the Paula Zahn interview (scroll down to the first mention of Sabiha Khan).


posted by AZ @ Monday, December 15, 2003

 

Department of Putting to Rest, Once and for All, Old Czarist Propaganda

Specialists from the Simon Wiesenthal Center have written a book that scholars say is the first item-by-item rebuttal of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

It's about f***in' time.


posted by AZ @ Monday, December 15, 2003

 

Department of Politically Correct Synonymetry

I just discovered that my copy of Microsoft Word does not offer any synonyms for the words slave or slavery. No bondage, no serfdom, no servitude, nothin'. How stupid.


posted by AZ @ Saturday, December 13, 2003

 

Department of Moving On

Lizzy Ratner, with whom I've marched the streets a time or two, has a profile of Eli Pariser of MoveOn in the current New York Observer.


posted by AZ @ Thursday, December 11, 2003

 

Department of What It Was Like Trying to Get Back Into Our House After Going Out "for a Few" During the Snowstorm This Past Weekend

If I could only get that damn key in the lock . . .

(Courtesy of G. A. Cerny, who himself got it from ex-Prognosisite Ken Layne.)


posted by AZ @ Tuesday, December 09, 2003

 

Department of the Place to Be This Thursday Night

POST ROAD 7 Publication Party
December 11 @ 7:30
KGB
85 E. 4th St. (bet. Second and Third)
Performances by Jonathan Ames and John Wesley Harding
Free
www.postroadmag.com


posted by AZ @ Tuesday, December 09, 2003

 

Department of One of the Coolest Sites I've Encountered in Many a Moon

Give it a ride with Led Zep. (Thanks, Doug!)


posted by AZ @ Monday, December 08, 2003

 

Department of They Came to Play

First Annual Muslim Football Tournament, Irvine, California; January 4, 2004



"Taking the Intifada to the Football Field"


posted by AZ @ Monday, December 08, 2003

 

Department of Shocking Exports

"A new Amnesty International report charges that in 2002, the Bush administration violated the spirit of its own export policy and approved the sale of equipment implicated in torture to Yemen, Jordan, Morocco and Thailand, despite the countries' documented use of such weapons to punish, mistreat and inflict torture on prisoners. The U.S. is also alleged to have handed suspects in the 'war on terror' to the same countries.

"The total value of US exports of electro-shock weapons was $14.7 million in 2002 and exports of restraints totaled $4.4 million in the same period. The Commerce and State Departments approved these sales, permitting 45 countries to purchase electro-shock technology, including 19 that had been cited for the use of such weapons to inflict torture since 1990."



Read the rest of the press release.

Read the report: The Pain Merchants: Security equipment and its use in torture and other ill treatment


posted by AZ @ Monday, December 08, 2003