Ecoutez S'il Vous Plait

back "home"

Sorry no posts from Krakow. Things were a bit busy, and internet was not easily accessible. I am back in Oslo now. A small selection of photos up on Flickr. I didn't take many. I hope to get more from some of the students who took more.

Pretty much everything went very well, except for the sickness which spread through nearly the entire group and had me exhausted for nearly the entire trip. I'll write more at some point.

Warsaw Pt 2

Well, the time in Warsaw is nearing an end. Tomorrow afternoon all us folks will be taking the train to Krakow. Its been a long and tiring week, but it has also been rewarding and incredible. Sickness has also been a central theme. I'm still getting over whatever it is I have, Tim has been in rough shape, and two of the students have come down with similar symptoms over the last couple days.

On Wednesday we visited the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning, and Youth Social Democrats. Tim and I also dined on pirogies and had a couple beers while I got to take my first look at the re-built Old Town.

Thursday we visited Caritas (a Catholic social aid org), the Historical Museum of Warsaw, and the Campaign Against Homophobia. I had delicious Chicken Masala and disgusting Chicken Kebab.

Friday began with a three-hour session at the Committee for European Integration. Over an extended lunch break I took a trip to the top of Warsaw's most famous monument, the Palace of Culture and Science. Our group reconvened for a two hour chat with the Norwegian Ambassador to Poland. Pat Mulvihill, Director of Operations at HECUA, arrived. He'll be joining our course for the next two weeks or so. We finished the week with a visit to the intense Warsaw Uprising Museum. I brought the group, sans Tim, to the Indian restaurant I had enjoyed the evening before. My night ended fairly early, but I still had a drink with the students in our hostel.

Today was a day off and I've been getting some needed rest. An easy morning and just walking around different parts of the city: the city center, the new town, and a neighborhood across the river, Praga. I picked up a book: Murakami's "The Wind Up Bird Chronicle." I also had a delicious chocolate eclair from the famed pastry-shop Blilke. Don't know what tonight will hold...

Warsaw Pt 1

I'm in Warsaw, and wouldn't you know it I've come down with something. Nothing too bad, but its making me exhausted and stopping me from exploring and enjoying this place. Still, I've managed to have a hot cheap lunch at one of the traditional milk bars. Milk bars are thusly named because the don't serve booze, but they do serve Polish home cooking for super cheap. I had pirogies! They were good. I had hoped to explore the old town this evening, but I just didnt have it in me. There will be time though, we are here until Sunday.

Class wise we have visited the Sejm (the parliament) and the US embassy. The embassy was not so great, they just wanted to talk about the missile defense shield, aka star wars. Tomorrow should be an exciting day. We are visiting the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the Coalition for Women and Families, and the Young Social Democrats.

I dont have too many first impressions. It is an ugly city since it was destroyed in the second world war and rebuilt by communists. There are huge billboards everywhere. There are huge boulevards dominated by car traffic. I smell car exhaust everywhere, dont know if its because Im more sensitive to it being sick or if the city is that much more polluted. Cars park half on the sidewalks here, so its hard to get away from the automobile domination. Not pedestrian friendly, from the bit Ive seen. But again, I havent gotten to explore too much yet.

Catholicism is fierce here and its tied up in a strange nationalistic thing. There are crucifixes and religious statues everywhere. That milk bar had a cross in it, for example. A church near our hostel had a big sign outside that said it was impossible to understand Poland without Christ. Here is a funny story*: In 1997 a right wing party was in government. Late one night they stealthily installed a crucifix in the front of parliamentary chamber, the Sejm. Since then, no one has dared to take it down.

Here is another fun fact about the Sejm: the final parliament of the second polish republic, in the interwar period, was made up of only 65% ethnic Poles. The remainder were Polish Jews and folks who were ethnicallz Germans, Lithuanians, Ukranians, Belarussians, etc. Today, all but 1 of the 565 members of the Polish Parliament are ethnically Polish.

*This story was not actually funny.

Black Lips

I'm totally gonna see these guys Saturday.

Solitaire

Not much going on around these parts. Over the weekend I went to a party held by a bunch of Spaniards, but otherwise it rained. I'm going to Poland next week, from the 7th to the 18th, for the big DSE field trip. We believe it will be an intense and rewarding two weeks. In other program news this morning I led a seminar on human rights that went pretty well. The program has been pretty fantastic, and the students have been a joy to teach and learn with. I'm home in two months which is difficult to understand and wonderful to look forward to.

Passion for the Possible

Corita Kent was an artist, teacher, philosopher, political activist, and possibly one of the most innovative and unusual pop artists of the 1960’s. However, what is perhaps even more incredible is that she was a catholic nun.

As the unorthodox leader of California's Immaculate Heart art department, her teachings and art making would become her career path for most of her life.

With a love of silkscreen printmaking, in 1962 Sister Corita began using popular culture images such as archetypal American consumerist products, grocery store signage and newspaper clippings alongside spiritual texts, song lyrics and literary writings as the textural focus of her work. She could be seen as the positive west-coast alternative to Warhol, possibly pre-dating him.

With fame, came the opportunity to bring her contemporaries to lecture at her teachings. Illustrious speakers including luminaries such as designers Charles and Ray Eames, musician John Cage, graphic designer Saul Bass and film director Alfred Hitchcock. During the countries significant change and unsettled political climate during the 1960's, Corita's representation of this unrest coupled with her rebellious and unconventional methodology infuriated certain conservative church leaders. She was dubbed a "guerilla with a paint brush” and left the order in 1969.

During the 1970's, living quietlty and devoted solely to making art, Corita was diagnosed with cancer and six months to live. She entered an immensely productive period creating several hundred serigraph designs for posters, book sleeves and murals as well as the “Love” postage stamp, reportedly the best-selling stamp in history. Corita eventually succumbed to cancer and died seven years later.

All of the above text was written by Aaron Rose, former curator of the Alleged Gallery in NYC and co-curator of the Beautiful Losers. I first saw the her work on Mumble Magazine online, and if you're interested in seeing more of Sister Corita's work you can check there. While I was in Berlin I stopped into the CircleCulture Gallery and this exhibit was being shown, to my surprise and happiness. Its pretty incredible stuff !