On Golden Pond

There's no many films like that. "On Golden Pond" is special, because of few different reasons and first of all is that I can't remember any other movie which could describe senility and family relationships in so honest way.

"On Golden Pond" is an American drama directed by Mark Rydell in 1981. The plot tells the story of Norman Thayer, a retired proffesor and his wife- Ethel. They continue the long tradition of spending each summer on the lake, in a place called Golden Pond. The main part of the film is about their relationship and senility showed in a very specific way.

But not only their relationship is the most important. Durring staying on Golden Pond they are visited by Chelsea- their daughter and only child, who trys to put her personal life. The situation between she and her father is complicated and not easy. I read although, what is quite surprising, that Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda, who played roles of Norman and Chelsea had very similar realtionship, so probably durring actining they based on their real story.

Regardless of the plot, I like this film because of beautiful views and some warmth, that is difficult to express in words. I'm sure that I will back to this movie from time to time.

The theory of temperaments

Have you ever heard about the theory of temperaments? I used to treat something like that as a fables, but now I think that there is something in it and it's good to know own personality type.

The theory of temperaments was invented by ancient Greeks. It assumed that in general there are four fundamental personal types: optimistic and bossy SANGUINE, bad-tempered or irritable CHOLERIC, sensitive, quiet and analitical MELANCHOLIC and slow and peaceful PHLEGMATIC.

What is interesting, acient people believed that people's mood is connected with body fluids, called humors, like: blood, bile (black and yellow) and phlegma. For example Hippocrates thought, that people live in a harmony when all humors in their bodys are balanced.

I read about those theorys from time to time, made for fun some psychological tests and I can say that I'm a hundered per cent melancholic. I know about strong and weak sides of people, which have that personality type. When I'm frustrated about that I often recall in minds famous people for exaple some artists, or just characters, that I admire, which are or was also a melancholic.

Do you know what your personality type is? Are you happy about it or not really?

How to survive examination sesion - Part 2

Months ago I wrote about tricks that help me to survive examination sesion. Now I try to use that rules, because when the weather is great is much harder to stay at home and learn. Of course the most pleasant rule is to think about holidays or make some nice plans for first days after examination sesion. I've already done both.

I hope that after my last exam I'll visit "Escape room" in Poznań with my friends. I heard about it a lot, but still haven't tried. The clue of the game is that there is a team (group of people from 2 to 5) closed in some special room. They have only one hour to escape and can do that, if they find soultions or answers for all riddles. It's quite good alternative for bowling, paintball or cinema and it's advertised as an entertainment for everyone: old and young, group of friends or whole family.

I can't wait to try it, but first... I back to my revision before the exam.

The heat in the city

Like many people I love summer. I think, that I don't have to say why. Thousands of pleasure things are connected with word "summer" and: holidays, sun, dresses, adventures, rest are only small part of them. But what to do when the temperature is really high and we can't go away from the city?

There are many culture institutions that we can visit, of course, but there are some nice propositions for those who want spend some time in nature, too. For example in Poznań it became popular to rest by the river. We have something that can be called "city beach". As I heard it is possible to join in some joga or fitness excercises, which are organised there for free. You can also take part in a "boule" play or listen to some concerts organised in the area of "KontenerArt".

I think it's a grat example of how easy we can create some common, cool space as a residents and probably in every city there is some area that could be use for something similar. 

How to survive the heat in your city? Are there some interesting soultions of using space like that?

Women in adverts

Everybody knows that many adverts base on stereotypes. The authors of adverts still use them, because it's psychologically proved that we remember things better if we already have known them or if they are connected with our subconsciousness. But if we looked critically at them only for a while, we would see how unbelivable is that advertising industry hadn't left that strategy. And, what is quite sad, that we must be stll easily influenced.

Few days ago I saw an advert, which really irritates me. The poster of "Plus" showed young woman dressed in a red dress with some bow in  hairs. Her body language says: "I'm a cute, stupid, little girl with a lot minutes on my phone and I have no idea what am I doing with my hands" And... that was strange. To compare I put here although an advert of "Plus" with man...:

The clue of that comparison is obvious: women are still discriminated in the world of adverts. Or maby there is some concept in that view and it'll be explained in television spots? I hope so, but I'm not sure.

When wy try to refresh classics...

It is said that classical literature is something that everybody knows and sometimes talks about, but none read. It isn't true at all, even nowadays when reading isn't a popular thing.

People willingly starts to read some classics when there is a film based on a book, which they can watch before. And if we think about last years we see, that there were many screening like that. Because of that people became intrested in works of: Tolstoy, Hugo, Fitzgerald or many others "canonic authors", again.

To pleased whimsical contemporary public sometimes directors of films like that choose some extraordinary solutions. We can see that for example in the last "The Great Gatsby" screaning. There is a scene of amazing party in Gatsby's house and soundtrack to it is the "Little party never killed nobody" singing by Fergie. During watching it I wasn't very annoyed, rather surprised but I can imagine and understand many people who would say that it destroyes all atmosphere which characterized the book. Have you already watched the newest "The Great Gatsby"? What do you think about "refreshing" classics?

Have you ever thought about having a dog?

I had been dreaming about having a dog since I was 4. My parents weren't very happy with that idea. When I was trying to persuade them to buy a pet they asked me about some crucial points connected with that topic. Our negotiations have must been quite funny. For example, to check if was enough responsible, my mum had been asking: "How will you take care of a dog? Do you know how many duties dog owners have?" I had been replying: "I will feed him, I will go for a walks and I won't allow him to get into a flat if he will be sweaty..."

Beacuse having a dog was a dream of my younger sister too, after years my parents agreed to buy one. Now, Goldi, cute bright golden retriever is the member of our family. To the letter, because he sleeps in our bads (often in my, specially since I've lived in Poznań) and always he is first passenger when it comes to going on holiday :)

La Biennale di Venezia

Few weeks ago I took part in a wonderful trip to Venice. I learnt a lot about that beautiful and specific city. I saw admirable architecture, tasted Italian wine and had the opportunity to ascertain, that in general Italians don't speak English.To tell the truth, they don't speak any another foregin languages, too. They just love their language and don't have any complexys on that point. What a happy people! 

One of my favourite part of the trip was sightseeing the exhibition of "La Biennale di Venezia". It's an international competition, in which every country can report their representant and he, she or the whole group of artists prepare some installation about anything they want. There were many funny, wired, stupid, inspiring and shocking works and probably that's exactly the essence of contemporary art. For me one of the most lovely installations was japanese work, which was built from many old keys hanged on red string. Regardless of simplicity of that metaphor staying in that magic room was a great experience.

What is a humanistic wedding ?

A humanistic wedding is a ceremony dedicated to couples which don’t identify with any religion, but want to experience this special and important day in their own ways. They are quite popular in western countries like Norway, Scotland and USA (in this countries they’re although connected with legal effects, what isn’t a rule).
The first humanistic wedding in Poland took place in 2007. Couple could choose where they want to take an oath and what exactly they put in it. The assumption of humanistic weddings is to made them as individual as possible. Almost everything depends on couple’s imagination. It become an attractive alternative for homosexual couples or divorcees. In Poland weddings like that haven’t got any legal force, but if you want you can take a civil wedding first and legalize your relation (of course if you are heterosexual only- skip at the beginning of the sentence!)
What else? If you are a fan of “Friends” probably you remember that Monica and Chandler took a humanistic wedding and the person who provide the ceremony was Joey. This option- getting married when your friend is a “master” of ceremony is really possible, too.

Few words after watching “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”

It isn’t any new movie and I don’t know why I found it after ten years since its premiere. Probably because in 2004, when this film was played in cinemas I was too young to understand this rather complicated plot and topic. “Enternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” depicts relation between introvert Joel (Jim Carrey) and eccentric Clementine (Kate Winslet). They meet each other one day by chance and fall in love. But it isn’t easy for them to tolerate themselves for a long time and in the end Clementine decides that she wants to clean her mind from memories connected with Joel. It’s possible because there is a firm which do that. It’s a science-fiction aspect of a story.
I really enjoyed this film. It reminds me later (but for my watching earlier) movie titled “Mr. Nobody”, which says something about memories, too.
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is sometimes classified as romantic comedy sometimes as science-fiction drama. I prefer this second class. In my opinion this movie says something important about relationships. It’s a good choice as a film, that we can watch with whole family. For me it’s the first not-only comedy role of Jim Carrey, too.
To sum up: we can have fun watching this film and fell realistic emotions. After all, we can believe for a while that it’s possible to remove unwonted memories from our head. It’s such a great and pleasant idea, isn’t it?

How to survive the examination session? Learn a lot and… think about holidays!

It’s a well-known truth: when we have a lot of work or when we’re overtired or depressed it’s a good idea to designate some reward that we’ll get when the busy period will over. It’s a basic trick that helps us to motivate ourselves.
For students the most stressful period is the examination session, of course. This year for example during my repetition to exams I made some plans about next holidays and thought about the last (one of my favourite holiday picture below). Getting some nice plans is a quite good way to reduce stress. But there is one important rule: you have to learn hard first, not only think about reward! And that’s a challenge, because as every student know well, there are a thousands of important things (including flat cleaning!) that you have to do before you sit down… and open books.

The heroes of our childhood.

Have you ever thought about heroes of your childhood? It’s always a pleasant topic to talk with people, especially with our peers . Probably if we think about it critically, we can learn something interesting about ourselves. But please don’t treat it completely serious! It’s just a funny task during which you can fell a little bit like Freud or another famous psychologist.

I remember that for me it was very funny when my mom related me that one of my first idol from cartoon was… “Conan the Barbarian”. I was three or four when I got up every morning wanting to watch new Conan’s adventures. But there was a little problem. I couldn’t watch it on my own, because apart I loved this film I was really scared during watching it! How you maybe guess every morning when the intro-song started I radically woke up my parents and forced them to watch it with me. I suppose it isn’t their favourite experience of parenthood… But what about the other heroes?
After Conan there was a “power ranger’s” time and in the end a total fascination of little green dragon-Tabaluga. As I remember, as a child I didn’t really like this cute stories about princess, at all. My first  girl-idol was Anne from L. M. Montgomery’s series, but it was already during the primary school.
When I think about first heroes of my childhood I guess that probably I was a tomboy. As I remember, no one see anything wrong in it, and what is quite funny, it was a years before the period of “gender equality” :) How about your heroes?

“There’s no place like home”

The examination session is in progress, but I’ve already passed first exams and backed home for a week. After 1,5 years living in Poznań it’s such a funny feeling when you’re watching your home town from a “perspective of stranger”. But actually I wanted to write about something else. Returns always remind me one story of my childhood, when I got a role of Dorothy in a school play titled “The Wizard of Oz”. The Dorothy was a small girl, who was looking for a way home. During her journey, maybe as you know, she met a lion, scarecrow and Tin-men. They had some own specific problems, but at the end the Wizard of Oz helped them all. Dorothy to get back home needed a magic shoes and a special spell. She had to repeat three times formula: “There’s no place like home”. Because I’m quite sentimental, I think I understand this phrase much better, now.

New realisation of polish great poem “Dziady” by Radosław Rychcik

Are ”Dziady” telling “only” a polish story about polish history to polish spectators? And what happen if we mix John Kennedy, Merlin Monroe and Martin Luther King into a well-known plot? In his new realisation of polish great poem Radosław Rychcik is trying to answer this extraordinary questions by totally turning traditional order of reading the “Bible of polish literature”. In the theatre we get a Joker instead of Guślarz and a basketball field instead of cemetery chapel. We although get a challenging task of interpreting a whole. For me this realisation is an interesting experiment which is shows an universal aspects of a poem. If you haven’t watched it yet… do it as promptly as possible!

 

Why watching sports for relax isn't always a good idea?

Do you like watch sports on television for relax? It's such a big pleasure when we fall into a world of competition with keeping our fingers crossed. However, maybe it isn't a good idea to watch matches for relax when you're a fan of the polish handball team! I became convinced that after watching match between Poland and Spain at World Championship in Quatar.
I was learning all Sunday for my exam in history of literature when my father called my to relate first half. After that I couldn’t not take a break and watch a second. I believed that it helped me to clean my minds because I’ve become nervous about tomorrow exam. It was quite naïve idea, because the match was very dramatic. Finally, we won but after a crazy extra time. It was fantastic experience to watch that spectacle, but for sure there are a thousands of better ways to relax than support polish handball team…

”Theory of everything”- the power of love

I was waiting impatiently for the film that depicts the story of Stephen Hawking’s career and private life. I’m such a big fan of movies like that, which focus on “great brains” and show the power of love. I' ve still rememberd “Beautiful Mind”, another film with familiar plot, and because of that I had great expectations of “Theory of everything”. I watched it yesterday with my family and I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed. It wasn’t wasted time, but I’m under the impression that there was something unrealistic and false in this film. Maybe it’s because of too many pompous scenes. During the film I sometimes felt it like watching sequence of beautiful touching pictures, which didn’t make up an integral whole. Anyway, the film is worth seeing because of two main characters and actors, who create it in a great way.

Why "World like an oyster"?

I was looking for some English idiom that I could use as a title of my blog. I enjoyed "The world is your oyster" the most. The polish counterpart of it is "Świat stoi przed tobą otworem" or "Mieć świat u swoich stóp". When I found this idiom on some website there was a short explaination: "The world is your oyster" means that you're keeping it (oyster = world) in your hands. The oyster is completely vulnerable so you can do with it anything you want. It's optimistic and powerful phrase, but I was thinking about another aspects of it. Well, we're keeping it in our hands, but it's an OYSTER- awful slippy (it's easy to drop it) jellied creature. But it can be delicious, too. It's a brilliant metaphor of the world, isn't it?