5/31 Review: Checking Facts, Basketball, and ICTY, WHY?

News

BIGGEST NEWS OF THE WEEK:

"#ICTY judgements are consistent, logical and contribute to reconciliation in the Balkans," said no one, ever. bit.ly/11dXlny
— Nastasja Vojvodić (@nastasja__v) May 30, 2013

All I'm going to say about that ^^ is holy balls of hellfire, I am slowly starting to hate ICTY.  Make up your mind about what is ancillary and what is not.

5/17 Reflections and Sharing Time

 This is the round up of the past 7 days. Short news blurbs/my opinions on them, and some cool stuff I tweeted about for those who don't follow me/scroll through the little box to the right.

Get a Taste of Eastern Europe

I came across this magnificent Pinterest user: A Curious Taste.  It is a complete smorgasbord of pictures from all around the world, including the beloved CEE, and even has a board specifically for cuisine blogs.  I found a number on there that I would like to share for those interested in making authentic cuisine from these areas, and added to the list to fill in the gaps.  I had to cut so many blogs that had no English translations/translation function.  :((

This is by no means an exhaustive list.  Plenty of cooking and recipe websites have sections for regional cuisines that aren't difficult to find, but I sought for original blogs in English.  There are plenty of regional cuisine cookbooks as well, so do not feel limited to the internet (is that a limitation? I wonder...)

Europe Came to Chicago

I don't mention Chicago on this blog as much as I should.  I grew up just to the north of it and came back after college.  While I hadn't anticipated staying, it seems Chicago had other plans and got me a job and married within my second year of being back.  This place has a very soft/large place in my heart and it's not just nostalgia.  Though the winters are harsh and unpleasant, the summers are season-long celebrations.  The Parks and Recreation Department blows most of its budget during those 4 blissful months by hosting all manner of free events, whether outdoors at Grant Park, the Pritzker Pavillion in Millenium Park  (with the famous "Cloud Gate"/the Bean nearby), or just any park that exists in the city.  Then neighborhoods and any organization that wants to have a party does it during that time.  There's never a thing NOT to do.  It is, hands down, the most enjoyable part of the year despite oppressive humidity and heat.  There's cool stuff to do indoors, like our fabulous museums, and year-round, but the real taste is in summer.  You see all the ethnic mixing and vibrant culture bursting out of the concrete.

Communism and Fire

Self-immolation is a way to get attention.  Just ask Ndreca, Palach, Plocek, and Zajíc.  There is a whole list that I can barely fathom, especially since the last one was in 15 days ago.  They've picked up popularity, though I wasn't aware of almost any of the immolations in the past 10 years, which have to do with Tibet or an Indian province that would like to separate.  But they had a strong tradition in the USSR.

Riga Fashion Week

This week is Fashion Week in Riga, and I'm tweeting all about it! (See left-hand side of blog)  I've already written about a few here, but now that Twitter has expanded my world, I can do a more full report on the whole week of fashion and what I loved.  So far I loooove Triinu Pungits as much as ever, but Janis Šnē totally gripped me with (what I will consider) icicle inspired designs, possibly origami inspired since they look like paper.  Plus, putting icicle-origami daggers where your eyebrows are is totally what I'm into.  Because, FASHION.  People who have no imagination hate on haute design because it's inaccessible, but people who understand flights of fancy and the power of image through clothing get it.  I love me some practical wear, but I love some crazy shit that I would never dare wear outside the house because I am a timid person.  It's fun to see clothing be a wearable piece of art instead of the boring reasons we all wear clothes.

So follow my handle for some more fashion updates before I do a round-up of my favorite Riga fashion moments. (I am really hoping mareunrols shows up because their stuff is BOMB, too)  If you need the lowdown on a few designers in CEE to fully appreciate my tweets, read up here.

Election Season!

It's election season, and how!  As America gears up for its presidential election, let's reflect on elections for our beloved former USSR satellites.

Let's do a quick round-up of recent elections:

Minimal Olympics Coverage

I haven't been able to watch the Olympics--no TV and no time--but I try to keep abreast in the major events of the Olympics.  I would do more in-depth coverage of ECE nations if I didn't have a day job and public transit didn't eat up additional hours of my day.  I would love to simply watch athletics for hours on end, but being an adult has completely eroded whatever time and enthusiasm I have left at the end of the day.

I wasn't aware that Slovakia had a company that made competition canoes.  Were you?  Luckily, my RSS feeds (see my page for the ones I follow!) brought this to my attention.  I see that Eastern Europe is doing pretty well in the medal count, all things considered.  The full list of medal counts are here on ESPN, but here is the individual list linked for your quick reference (these only include counties that have medals):
Belarus
Croatia 
Czech Republic
Germany
Hungary
Lithuania
Moldova 
Poland
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia (notice the number of canoeing medals!)
Slovenia
Ukraine

The medal count per capita in these countries must be higher than the USA, which has a ridiculous number of medals.  It seriously resembles the 1% getting the larger part of the spoil.  It is worthy to note that Hungary has more medals than Brazil (where my mother-in-law is from) or India, which is embarrassing for those BRIC countries.  You'd think that a "backwater" Eastern European nation with a despotically inclined PM would not get more medals than two of the fastest growing economies with large populations.  Funny, ain't it?

Lithuania & Belarus Student Fashion

I regularly follow a number of blogs, including those on fashion.  I gravitate toward the fringe fashion blogs as opposed to "recycle your closet!!11" kinds.  I have particularly enjoyed Style Bubble, which almost anyone in the fashion blogosphere knows about.  She's a big deal.  I love that Susie Bubble features student work and that she also features an incredible amount of international work; she doesn't settle for the big name fashion shows, but digs into the local fashion scenes to see what's ticking on the grassroots level.

I found this post on a student showing called ITS, which was also judged by the one and only Marina Abramović. I should probably do a post on her in the near future because she is one of the more compelling modern artists and is from the Yugosphere.  Anyway, two fashion designers of interest were featured!  See the photos below for a sneak peak and then read her post.  I would hate to rip off her work, so let me simply direct you to the good stuff.

Lithuanian Animation

It's not Animation Week, but the popularity of those posts have prompted a new addition since I didn't have anything more interesting up my sleeve.  I was able to scrounge up some interesting animators from the small country, and even found some from one of my blog followers, Ruah Edelstein. 

Lithuania

via

This week is COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT Week.

I've wanted to post on Lithuania for weeks since I realized, to my great horror, that this Baltic country hasn't been featured at all.  I guess I kept thinking I had posted about Lithuania when it was in fact Latvia.  I want to establish that I do know they are not the same country, but their names became conflated in my mind for reasons unknown to me.  To correct this horrible error and befuddling oversight, I am dedicating a post to Lithuania the country.

American Culture, Imported

Instead of actual writing, I will just share The Simpsons in various Eastern European languages. It was fun listening to the various languages with such a familiar show.  Hope you enjoy!