Searching Chekhov

I don't feel sleepy, and I have nothing better to do. :)

If you don't like reading, on Lydia's Lounge you can actually listen to one of Chekhov's short stories, "The Bet", read by Lydia. It's thirteen and half minutes long.

Maybe I should listen to Bob Dylan more? This tidbit was totally new to me:

"In Dylan's 2004 memoir, Chronicles, Vol. 1, he claims that although one album of his songs was entirely inspired by short stories by Anton Chekhov, many of his fans and critics treat it as autobiographical. This passage is often cited as a reference to Blood On The Tracks."

Wkitten has written a poem about a dream she saw about Anton Chekhov. Here's an excerpt:

"In the smoking carriage, Dr Anton Chekhov
converses in odd German with Friedrich Nietzsche.
The latter talks all sturm and drang, destiny --
ash has fallen on his trouser leg

Chekhov is polite, but notices the ash
He’s a microscope with the small things, that’s doctoring
for insight, everything is a symptom. I can tell
he is a little bored. I interrupt, we talk"

And I have to say that reading this poem "Russian Vodka" makes it very clear that I'm not the only person obsessed with Anton Chekhov.

Differing opinions

I searched the blogs to see if there's something written about Anton Chekhov. Gladly at least Blog Prince shares my opinion that he is the best writer ever. :) Blog Prince writes:

"Through his writing he offered a diagnosis of sorts of his contemporary Russia and much of what he wrote about in his plays turned out to be prophetic. He offered a diagnosis, but never a remedy or cure, other than perhaps the love of life that clearly seeps through most of his work. He was a consumptive for pretty much all of his adult life. It confined him and ultimately took his life in his early 40s. But it gave him such an appreciation for life."

Clearly all people do not agree with this, since L'Homme de Plaisir writes that:

"his stories had no value to me but to describe one horrible situation after another. I had incredible difficulty forcing myself to complete this book, and I was very happy when I had finished it. I truly do not understand why Chekhov is considered a great writer."

One thing you learn very quickly on the internet is that there are always differing opinions about everything. One would think that this would help people to be more tolerant, but there doesn't seem to be too many signs of that happening these days unfortunately.

Zoice

Zoice is a new internet radio station that I've been listening to occasionally lately. It is Finnish, so you can hear a lot of Finnish "radio friendly" music. I can't exactly recommend it, but I'm giving it a benefit of doubt, because it's well, new, and it's supposed to be interactive. You can tell the player if you like the song playing or if you never want to hear it again. At least it's easy to use.

Why do Finnish people mumble?

I've been reading a book on Finnish grammar. Oh man, it's complicated. The one thing I found new and interesting is that our language has always aimed to be easily pronounced. That means that we don't necessarily bother to pronounce things very clearly, and we tend to mumble. You've been warned!

The 78th Academy Awards

I stayed up all night and watched the ceremonies with a little bottle of cheap sparkling wine. I didn't like the first-time host Jon Stewart too much. Somehow the whole show seemed a bit too serious, maybe it's also because of the movies that were competing. It's a good thing that they are making movies with more meaningful themes naturally, but I expect only light entertainment from the Oscars: glamorous dresses and fun moments.

I haven't seen many of the films (yet), so I guess I didn't know who to root for. I've seen "Wallace and Gromit", but I liked "Corpse Bride" much better. Okay, so I'm a huge Tim Burton fan, and I'm amazed how he never wins anything! It doesn't really matter I know, but still I'd like to hear his acceptance speech one day. BTW Philip Seymour Hoffman didn't bark at all in his speech as was rumored beforehand. (He made some kind of pact with his friends about it when younger.)

I cheered for Ang Lee because I like him, but I haven't seen "Brokeback Mountain" yet either. I will very soon I promise. I have seen "Walk the Line", so I was happy that Reese Witherspoon won. I think she deserved it. While Joaquin Phoenix is one of my favorite film stars I don't really think he should've gotten an Oscar even if he did great as Johnny Cash. The whole movie was rather predictable even if there was nothing wrong with it. Maybe there's just been too many biopics lately.

The women always look beautiful, but I guess the retro glamour doesn't work that well for me, because I think I've seen better. I liked some of the black dresses best. I thought Rachel Weisz and Felicity Huffman looked great for example. And Keira Knightley of course. The men were as boring as usual. On the red carpet they always mentioned it only took them about three minutes to get dressed (Tim Burton) or that they are wearing the same thing for the 10th year in a row (George Clooney), so a retro macho attitude seems to be going strong. ;)

Browsing

So I like to push the "next blog" -button and see what comes up. Here are some examples:

Indaus is written by an Indian guy living in Australia. He follows at least cricket and things happening in India.

If you're interested in African American woman's perspective, go to Cynthia's Interests.

Terrorism is a controversial subject of course. You can find writings about it at least in Terrorism News, Terrorism Unveiled and The Counterterrorism Blog.