Fund Me, Semour

Can't Euro-Arteest types do anything anymore without state funding?

Mute magazine has had its grant from the Arts Council of England cut by 100 per cent as from 2012, one of over 200 "losers" in a latest round of funding cuts

News Digest from the Fake-Crisis Management Center, no. 2011\04E

Shout out if you're underwhemled. NAB study rejects spectrum 'crisis'

The Hill (blog)

The White House, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the wireless industry have cited a spectrum crisis as a justification for policies that will repurpose TV airwaves for mobile broadband use.

According to NAB, the study shows "that insufficient analysis and reliance on faulty information in the formation of the FCC's National Broadband Plan has led to the overstated assumption of a nationwide spectrum 'crisis.'"

The author writes that the basis for the spectrum crisis language is "underwhelming,"

News Digest from the Fake-Crisis Management Center, no. 2011\04D

Powerful asteroid whizzes past Earth

Brahmand Defence and Aerospace News:

LONDON (PTI): An asteroid as powerful as 15 atomic bombs has whizzed past the Earth from a distance 10 times that of the moon.

Hide the livestock, and count the silver!!!

No Moo Shoo, Sherlock

Study: EU firms shut out of $1 trillion Chinese market

What WOULD we do without studies?

The report by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China on Wednesday (20 April) said "fragmented, inconsistent, and unevenly implemented" rules surrounding bidding processes were acting as de facto barriers to the firms.

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past 20 years, you might notice that that is China’s M.O. It used to be Europe’s M.O., but they were undercut.

Fables of the Deconstruction

It's a mashup, but it has the feeling of the time captured fairly well... and in living color.

"Ich war Neunzehn"

"Ich war Neunzehn" (I was Nineteen), a DDR DEFA film production from 1968

Description:

Based on the biography of its director, Konrad Wolf, this film chronicles the closing days of the World War II through the eyes of a young German who is a Red Army translator with a front line propaganda team. He must deal with weary Wehrmacht officers, opportunistic politicians, frightened civilains, surviving political prisoners and apolitical intellectuals, as well as the pressures of battle. Wolf was the older son of one of DEFA's founders, as well as the brother of a head of East German Intelligence. Directed by Konrad Wolf; featuring Jaecki Schwarz, Wassili Liwanow, Alexej Ejboshenko, and Galina Polskich. East Germany, 1968, B&W, 115 minutes

ArtHausArt

What Night is it, Kids? It’s Movie Night!

Peter Lorre is listed as a film director only once in his biography. It was a film he also played a lead role in. From 1950, here is part of „Der Verlorene”, or ”The Lost Ones”. The German language film doesn’t go long without visiting film noir style image framing and lighting, and the entire thing has a characteristic silence that brings out the characteristics of his voice, and the facial expressions of the cast.

Now if only he could find a way to work Sidney Greenstreet into it...

Brit Flick: Gasbags (1941)

Meet The Crazy Gang

Near Distant Ago: the Beginnings

How You Know when Civilization has Reached a Dead End

A Legacy left behind by the Red Army: Soljanka

Of which there were very few good legacies, but like that evil genius Ripley’s love of Gulasch, mine is a weakness for Soljanka, a picante soup made popular among Eastern Germans by way of contact with their Soviet military comrades / douchebags / occupiers.

I have translated the recipe from the original Klingon, to which I’ve added my personal touches:

- 200 g /7-8 oz. of Yellow onion, finely chopped (avoid the vidalias or any new-fangled mild varieties)
- 100 g /3-1/2 oz. of unsliced bacon, cubed into small pieces
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 100 g /3-1/2 oz. of Tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon of Paprika
- 2 medium sized pickles (dill or sour are best), “julienne” cut to the extent one can with a pickle
- 500 g of meat: sausage, leftovers, or trimmed tips of pork or ham (anything, really, even leftover chicken!)
- (Add a tbp. of butter, if the meats are all lean.)
- 1,5 liters/ 3 pints of Beef stock (powdered stock may also be used, but omit the salt if you do)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon of capers

For decoration:

- Thin lemon wedges (thin sliced rings cut into triangles)
- Sour crème
- Dill

Optional:

- Parsley
- A few sliced olives, or any other pickled favorites.
- Pepperoncini (one of my favorites)

Preparation:

Sauté the onions and bacon in the bottom of your soup pot, until the onions clarify. Do not let them brown.
Add all of the meats, pickles, and paprika for a few moments until they soften.
Then pour in the soup stock.
Add the lemon wedges to the stock, salt and pepper to taste.
Let it come to a boil, and then let it simmer for at least 15 minutes and up to 45 minutes.
Just prior to serving, add the capers, and all the optional faves, as well as the sour crème dollop right in the middle of the bowl.

Decorate with small lemon wedges an a small dollop of sour crème. Some prefer the sour crème “on the side”, or otherwise spoon out the amount they deem excessive prior to stirring it in. Some the dill reserved from preparation is also a good thing to drizzle on top.

Makes 4 servings, or 2 if served without any other dish. Serve with rye or black bread on the side, the gamiest smelling type that you can find.

This is one of the simpler recipes, prone to a more pickle dominated taste, but is easily tempered by using a little bit more bacon or sausage.



Clink on the photo for an excellent Ukranian Soljanka recipe, which has a much fresher taste, not masked as heavily by the tomato paste. It should take on the taste of creative variations more readily.