back through the years...

This task made me think a lot, made me recall and miss my childhood. But I guess that I am not the only one here.


It is so strange that the moment I opened the old, hidden photo album my head filled with memories of colors, scents and emotions. I recalled hours spent on playing, experiments done and things discovered. Because for me, childhood means a stage of discovering. I was a very inquiring child - I asked a lot of questions and always wanted to know "what", "how" "when"... and my personal favorite: "WHY".


But I was not alone in my voyage through new lands full of unknown natural forces, animals, gadgets and inventions - I was not alone in my discovery of the world - I had guides, my parents. They were patient enough to answer all my questions and to make me believe that it is possible to understand the complexity of the world around. And I guess I still have some of this inquisitivness left...


Oh gee, I got very sentimental and poetic. But the pictures here do not in any way fit this mood:) This is me, still young and beautiful, aged: 2 months, 2 and 3 years.

sleepless in...museum

Hundreds of people on the streets, concerts, exhibitions, performances and many, many more - any idea what an event may encompass so much and at the same time offer so little more than every single day? The answer is another edition of a worldwide known festival "Long Night of Museums". I was just wondering why this event is so popular. But at the very beginning, I would like to point out the fact that I also took part in this and had lots of fun and enriched my cultural knowledge in just a couple of hours.

The idea of the event is to open all museums in the city, make them available to anybody, free of charge, during a weekend night (this ime it was on Saturday, May 17, from 5 pm to 1 am). Generally the exibitions that are presented at the museums do not differ significantly from their usual look, there might be, however, some additional performances, lectures or workshops organized. But it still surprises me that so many people are attracted to come and see the exhibitions, very often even those who would never think of visiting a place like a museum on a regular basis. Is it just a matter of money? Could a simple marketing trick stimulate masses to literally storm every possible museum? I doubt it. So there must be something else in it that makes a night at the museum so attractive. Maybe it is the atmosphere of discovering secrets, of mistery and unveiling the unknown places in the middle of the night that makes the event so luring. Or maybe people just want to explore art and history and such events just encourage them to do so. Hopefully, some will savor in higher culture and drop by to the museum not just during this one night in year. :)

not that "Little Dragon"

Has any of you ever heard about a Swedish band called "Little Dragon"? I suppose not, but neither have I. Not until this week.

It all started when a friend of mine recommended to me a band which I liked very much, and to my great surprise and happiness I had discovered that they were having a concert in Poznan this week - on Thursday in SQ club in Stary Browar. That was one of the best concerts that I have recently been to. It was more something you could call a "close-circle party" only for people who really knew the music and recognized the name of the band (but I hope that I was not the only exception;)) But after an hour I completely fell in love with their music and the atmosphere during the concert. Even now, while writing this post I am listening to both tranquilizing and energizing rythms of their songs.
The band consists of four people, a girl (who is a vocal) and three guys who look like real Vikings and play the drums, bass and keyboard. The music they make is a kind of mixture of folk, jazz, electro, soul and dub...so more or less everything. But nevertheless, I do recommend! :)

little dragon at myspace.com

world in press photo

I am overwhelmed again! It seems more like a small tradition of mine that every year somewhere in May I visit an exhibition of the best press photo of the year. And it wasn't much different this time. In the grand hall of CK Zamek in Poznan you can see the photographs that were awarded in World Press Photo contest in 2007. Categories in which prizes were given range from contemporary issues, through portraits, people, stories, sports and nature - with the two latter that always attract me the most. I am a huge fan and amateur of photography in general and I treat this exhibition as some kind of feast or even a fetish:) And I wasn't disappointed. There are several shots that made me speechless! Like for example this one:


Can words say more about killing gorillas in Kongo? This is not a simple shot, it is an artwork shouting at the viewer not to stay indifferent.

Or this, in which the dress of an African girl hangs on a barbed-wire fence after she has crossed the Israeli-Egyptian border with her family.

If you intend to visit the show be prepared for some voilent and dramatic scenes, some where blood serves as a part of composition, where emotions of people are as acute as their glance, but also for some catching the relief, love and passing beauty of moments.
Enjoy! :)

first CPU experience

hmmm, I think it was a long time ago, somewhere in the elementary school. In the second grade for my First Communion present (which seems more like a tradition among many of us) I got my first computer - brand new Amiga 1200:) I even remember it today, looked more like an extended keyboard with floppy disc drive at one side. And guess what, my first program to run on it was a very simple English course for children! Then of coure I had some games (hours spent on one where you had to control a kind of pad and a ball and using a ball destroy as many bricks as possible:) My first encounter with a magical machine, i.e. a real PC (a big beige box full of buttons and twinkling little lamps, that made a lot of noise and produced lots of heat:)) was during IT classes. I was taught how to turn on, operate and make use of it...and it all seemed like magic!:) and now, what would be our life without a computer...