Peter Korchnak / American Robotnik

Czech Theater Coming to Town…With Your Help

 Posted by  We Are Here  No Responses »
May 172012
 
Czech Theater Coming to Town...With Your Help

Join my new Ahoj PDX friend Katerina Bohadlova on Wednesday, May 30th, at MacTarnahan’s Taproom for an evening of music and merriment to benefit a not-for-profit project of the Czech contemporary theater company Geisslers Hofcomoedianten. A founder of Geisslers, Katerina is bringing the Prague-based troupe to Portland for dates from October 15th to 18th.  In addition to nightly performances, Geisslers Hofcomoedianten will also lead workshops with with students at PSU and Lewis & Clark College, exchange experiences with local artists, and meet with the community. For your $30 cash at the door, you [...] Continue reading >

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Through Other Lenses: American Robotnik’s Readings for May 2012

 Posted by  Been Reviewin'  No Responses »
May 132012
 
Through Other Lenses: American Robotnik's Readings for May 2012

From the RSS Feed “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” by Stephen Marche, The Atlantic, May 2012 – “American culture, high and low, is about self-expression and personal authenticity. The price of self-determination and self-reliance has often been loneliness. But Americans have always been willing to pay that price.” Social media is helping to raise the price. “Facebook Isn’t Making Us Lonely” by Eric Klinenberg, Slate, April 19, 2012 – There are at least two sides to every story. “America’s Secret Growth Weapon: Why Immigration Really, Really Matters” by Derek [...] Continue reading >

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For Those About to Vote I Salute You

 Posted by  New World, New Life  No Responses »
May 112012
 
For Those About to Vote I Salute You

This weekend I’ll cast my first vote in an American election—the “May 15, 2012 Primary Election.”* It’s a big deal. Everyone remembers pivotal moments of their life: Slovaks where they were when Czechoslovakia ceased to exist and independent Slovakia came into existence; (East) Germans when the Wall came down; Americans where they were when the planes hit the Towers. I remember the exact moment I decided to apply for U.S. citizenship and be a part of this nation: on the evening of November 4th, 2008, as I watched Barack Obama [...] Continue reading >

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Portland, Central Europe

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May 052012
 
Portland, Central Europe

Central Europe came to Portland, Oregon, last week. In the span of five days, from Friday, April 27th, to Tuesday, May Day, I experienced at least 7 Central European countries and Russia without leaving the East Side of town. Who said there’s only one America? Stop 1: Serbia, Bosnia, and Thereabouts at Mississippi Pizza The Krebsic Orkestar is a 14-piece local brass band that plays about a gig a month at various venues around town. I don’t know much more about The Krebsic Orkestar,* other than it is the brainchild [...] Continue reading >

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Like the Danube

 Posted by  Memories of Now  No Responses »
May 012012
 
Like the Danube

No matter what we call it and whether or not we speak of it as such, Central Europe was, is, and probably continue to be. Like the Danube, which existed long before it was called the Danube. Central Europe may well outlive us. The existence of Central Europe is thus a given. And yet Central Europe is transitory, provisional. It is neither east nor west; it is both east and west. —George Konrád in "Melancholy of Rebirth: Essays From Post-Communist Central Europe, 1989-1994"  

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How Thinking in Another Language Improves Your Decision-Making

 Posted by  New World, New Life  No Responses »
Apr 272012
 
How Thinking in Another Language Improves Your Decision-Making

The title of the recent study, published in the journal Psychological Science summarizes why mastering foreign languages is good for you and the world: "The Foreign-Language Effect: Thinking in a Foreign Tongue Reduces Decision Biases." Only the abstract is accessible as of now, but even that reveals plenty (emphasis mine): Using a foreign language reduces decision-making biases. Four experiments show that the framing effect disappears when choices are presented in a foreign tongue. Whereas people were risk averse for gains and risk seeking for losses when choices were presented in their native tongue, they were not [...] Continue reading >

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Dick Clark and the Death of an Unknown Celebrity

 Posted by  Kultur Clash  1 Response »
Apr 252012
 
Dick Clark and the Death of an Unknown Celebrity

Dick Clark passed away last week and the news left me unmoved. But as the narrative of Clark’s cultural impact unfolded over the next few days, once again I found myself scrambling on the acculturation treadmill. The NPR news segment identified Dick Clark as the TV host of "American Bandstand" and the New Year’s Eve countdown at Times Square; later I learned he had been the first American "television personality." Having seen the music show, which ran from 1957 to 1987, precisely zero times and the "New Year’s Rockin’ Eve" only for a [...] Continue reading >

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Between East and West Is a Long Road

 Posted by  Been Reviewin'  No Responses »
Apr 232012
 
Between East and West Is a Long Road

Eighteen years ago Anne Applebaum traveled through the flat lands between Russia and Poland and documented her journey in "Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe."  At first glance, it was a different time: Communist governments had toppled a few years before and the chaos of transition to democracy pervaded all life. But, Applebaum presages what Anne Porter documented in last year’s "The Ghosts of Europe": history casts a long shadow across time. Shifting borders, clashing empires, and old conflicts turn making sense of the borderlands into a daunting [...] Continue reading >

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The New Outsiders

 Posted by  We Are Here  3 Responses »
Apr 192012
 
The New Outsiders

Richard Florida’s 2002 book "The Rise of the Creative Class", has become a landmark study on the ascendance and impact of creatives on the American economy. The Creative Class, a socioeconomic force comprising knowledge workers, artists, and creative professionals, drives economic development, innovation, and the growth of post-industrial cities.* Florida finds only mixed evidence on the impact of immigration on development and growth. Immigrant, What Is He Good For? Citing a plethora of sources, Florida first shows that not only has "[o]penness to entrepreneurial individuals from around the glove long [...] Continue reading >

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Through Other Lenses: American Robotnik’s Readings for April 2012

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Apr 152012
 
Through Other Lenses: American Robotnik's Readings for April 2012

Articles and Blog Posts "Rise of the Single-Woman Voter" by Hanna Rosin, Slate, March 13, 2012 – On the rise of the fastest-growing voter group. "These days your daughter, or even your mistress, is the better campaign target." "Sexuality, Independence, Economic Empowerment: A Q&A with Liza Mundy" by Marc Schultz, Publishers Weekly, March 16, 2012 – The author of "The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love and Family" talks about a trend of women out-earning their male spouses. On the flipside, "America wants to [...] Continue reading >

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I Dream of Places Far From Here

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Apr 052012
 
I Dream of Places Far From Here

"Immigrant" by Nitin Sawhney, from the 1999 album Beyond Skin

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The Stories of Others

 Posted by  Memories of Now  2 Responses »
Mar 312012
 
The Stories of Others

It was the fate of [Eastern European] borderland nations always to know yourself through the stories of others, to realize yourself only with the help of others. —Anne Applebaum in "Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe"

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Head-Spinning in America

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Mar 272012
 
Head-Spinning in America

The title of Bertrand-Henri Lévy’s "American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of de Tocqueville" is both accurate and deceiving. Lévy’s prison tours are a thin pretext for his travels through the United States in 2004, an afterthought in the dizzy-inducing whirlwind of a trip.  Whereas Jean Beaudrillard spun, in "America," his account in terms of space (the desert), Lévy narrates the country as movement (the road). The result reflects the approach: Lévy breezes through the land in fragments and enumerations. Similar to any lengthy road trip, as soon as I settled into the book [...] Continue reading >

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Particles in a Kaleidoscope

 Posted by  Memories of Now  No Responses »
Mar 232012
 
Particles in a Kaleidoscope

In a certain sense I can consider myself a typical Eastern European. It seems to be true that his differentia specifica can be boiled down to a lack of form—both inner and outer. His good qualities—intellectual avidity, fervor in discussion, a sense of irony, freshness of feeling, spacial (or geographical) fantasy—derive from a basic weakness: he always remains an adolescent, governed by a sudden ebb or flow of inner chaos. Form is achieved in stable societies. My own case is enough to verify how much of an effort it [...] Continue reading >

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American Euphemisms and Evasive Thinking, Part 2

 Posted by  Kultur Clash  2 Responses »
Mar 192012
 
American Euphemisms and Evasive Thinking, Part 2

In his 1965 essay "On Evasive Thinking", Václav Havel bemoans a degradation of language from being "a means of signifying reality, and of enabling us to come to an understanding of it" to being "an end in itself". Havel saw the "verbal mysticism" or "ritualization of language" cause the word as such to cease to be a sign for a category and instead gain "a kind of occult power to transform one reality into another". Havel discussed this shift in the context of 1960′s Czechoslovakia, but the similarity with American [...] Continue reading >

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