drugs
august 2011
_editorial
The discussion on drugs is becoming ever increasing, some states of the USA are beginning to decriminalize marijuana and some countries already use this drug to help in medical treatments. But most of the times, this discussion revolves around erroneous facts and assumptions that are not liable and do not represent the actual happenings of the world. Historically some drugs have been criminalized and governments are conducting a war against such substances since then, a long lasting war, that has wasted billions that could have been spent otherwise. It’s well-known that some drugs are indeed very harmful to the user, but even those, in most cases, are used by populations native to it’s origins in cults and other religious and cultural events. Knowing this, besides the financial hole created by this war, it also affects many secular cultures that stop being free to perpetuate their traditions. By opening the discussion on drugs in this issue of Libertas, we do not expect any substances to become legal, but rather to inform and show that there are other paths we can follow, and that most the ideas on the topic are based on common sense that is often mistakenly naive and close minded, serving the purpose of the conservation of ideals we do not live anymore. Daniel Nunes
Front and back cover photos by Alexandre Fonseca. This page: Stereophoto from http://www.flickr.com/ photos/24443965@N08/3490800504/in/set72157617576449676/ Credits page: Public domain Bayer’s Heroin bottle
_contents 04 The meaning of addiction 07 Blood Off 08 Raising awareness, building
united europe
11 pigs in maputo 12 famous coffee shops in amsterdam 14 14 The music that constanly plays in
my head
15 Defending drugs in difficult
times
17 I have seen it 18 interview with craig walker 21 addiction of the 21st century 22 events
Libertas 23 drugs published august 2011
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article.
The meaning of ADDICTION Ramon Martensen
I woke up with a terrible taste in my mouth. I have been smoking like a chimney and I drank too much. My throat is sore. While I light up my first cigarette of the day I think about how I should really quite this shit. Obviously I am not gaining anything from it. I only feel sick the next day or at least tired and empty. So why do I keep on doing it? I don’t consider myself a stupid or foolish person. The common thought would be that a sane person shouldn’t do anything that doesn’t improve his feeling of wellbeing. But maybe we shouldn’t seek the essence of addiction or any kind of drug use in gaining something, but rather in missing something. In a basic sense addiction creates a need. In teaching yourself to miss something very intensely, you create a feeling of missing something in order to be able to strive for the disappearance of this feeling. I am not sure of that is necessarily a bad thing. Let me explain this. In my view humans need something to strive for; a motivation to keep them going. It is what gives our lives meaning. It focuses our energy and gives us a reason to get up in the morning. That in combination with short periods of fulfilment we feel when we have achieved our goals, is a reason to be activated to participate in life. If this is not present, we slip into apathy and even sometimes depression. To set these goals, or find the things worth striving for we need a certain level of reflective ability to know which goals and motivation are worth striving for, for ourselves as individuals. We also need the skills and abilities to bring that which we choose as our goals into practice in our surroundings. At this point I lack this ability. I live in a country
that is not mine. I know only a few people and for now I have little knowledge or measures to bring my goals into practice. My workshops and events attract few to no participants and I still have to figure out how to create a bigger project. It is in my personality to need a lot of time to find my way and build meaningful or functional relations in the society surrounding me. To know how things are done and then actually doing them is something that has to grow on me. Now I feel really disconnected to my surroundings because I haven’t taken part in shaping it. There is no me in it and therefore my indifference and detachment towards it grows. I am feeling less and less appealed to be part of it because there is no reason for me to be in it. There are no needs for me to be fulfilled in this environment and therefore there is no motivation. I have seen a lot of people around me struggling with this, sometimes because they were not able to formulate their own goals and sometimes because they didn’t have the means or skills to follow them actively. So what makes people like me and they want to wake up in the morning and just go and do things? That is where the principle of addiction comes into play. If you feel incapable of actively striving for anything you will create a need. Instead of try and gain something new, you will create a missing of something so there is something you can want and strive for. The need of any drug is very concrete. There is no doubt about what it is you are striving for. The thing you have learned to miss! It drives people to run from one short moment of fulfilment to another.
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So why should this kind of replacement necessarily be wrong? Well for starters because in my case it will give me cancer probably and I don’t like to cough my head off either. Smelling like an ashtray is not appealing to anyone. But there is a more urgent reason why addiction is not a legitimate substitute for a self created sort of meaning. It does not give you the feeling of selfworth you gain from formulating and achieving a self set needs and goals. No growth or development comes from it and also the drugs you strive for aren’t in any way connected to you as a person. They are there for anyone who
wants them and in many ways they are easy to obtain. So I know I will have to work on creating and achieving my own needs and goals in this situation, and I will. But until that time I will enjoy my morning cigarette. And when I get up because the addiction drove me out of bed, I might as well stay awake and go to the park to meet some friends or write a story, read a book or build new relations with people who can help me for my work. Yes, a cigarette, a cup of coffee and a nice fresh morning air.
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events Le FestiBlue s Inrternati on
al de Montre al
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Le FestiBlues Internationa de Montreal l features som e of Quebec’s fine st blues mus icians and attrac ts around 6000 spectators to the park Ahu ntsic and other sm all venues ar ound town. The eage rly awaited R elève en Blues cont est discovers and nurtures youn g local talent .
what where when website
Le FestiBlues Inrternational de Mon treal Montreal, Ca nada 10th to 14th
of August h tt p: // w w w .f es ti bl ue s. com/
al Tuscan Sun Festiv ezzo, hosts Cortona, near Ar Sun Tuscan annual the st mo ’s pe ro Festival, one of Eu ts. en ev l ra ltu cu prestigious sic to food, From classical mu d alternative art exhibitions an al offers an tiv medicine, the fes of artistic m tru ec sp unmissable explores the programming that five senses.
what where when
l
Tuscan Sun Festiva Cortona, Italy
of 30th of July to 7th August
website
/
http://www.boxol.it
blood of Farah Anwar
Lesson of equality, Can’t be forgotten Right of independence Difficult to achieve Fight of two Massacre of third Innocent and innocuous Victim of oppressor Victory or Fail Causes blood shed yours or mine Life is precious Poorer blood can’t be nasty Prominence isn’t confined to rich It pains equally When blood seeps. But still then, Why? World only gather For affluent people And memorize them As a sacred trust And poor, The valiant Who fray Till last breathe Till a drop of blood Is always notorious Wow!! One suck blood Other sheds it Freedom fighter of one Terrorist for other Daily dies Millions of people Who cares! But, Whenever, Richer blood drops It gets rapt, Before, It touches the ground What u will call this? How much mean it is…
Poetry.
Linocut by Kristina Karkov (http://www.etsy.com/listing/75841377/hide-and-seek?ref=pr_shop)
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Rafa Rafa Group Youth in Action Training Course:
Raising Awareness, Building United Europe
text and photos
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Rafa Rafa Group 18 – 25 of June 2011, Stuttgart, Germany This outstanding training course took place during the last week of June in the South of Germany and gathered together almost 30 people from 12 European countries. The main goals of the training were to sensitize youth workers on multicultural cooperation and to build their capacity to become agents of positive change in various divided communities. For all the participants and even for trainers this week left wonderful impressions, brought so many positive emotions and plenty of knowledge, that it would be impermissible and impossible to keep our memories only among us and not to share it with the others. Twelve is only the “official” number of countries represented at the project. The real number of the countries participated in this training course was almost 20. Hard to imagine how this international group of individuals with different cultural backgrounds, their own vision, language and traditions, their own knowledge and sense of
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humour composed an unforgettable mosaic and at the same time formed a united community. On the second day we took part in an exercise called Rafa Rafa”, which influenced the whole event and our life during the project. We were separated into 2 groups. Each group represented one culture with its own traditions and different lifestyles. People of the first culture were very warm to each other and foreigners; they expressed their feelings in very positive way by dancing, singing and hugging each other. Representatives of the second group oppositely were very serious, concentrated, worked a lot and did not like to be close to each other. After some time “living” separately, representatives of each culture tried to integrate to the other society one by one. This activity illustrated the difficulties and problems one may encounter when interacting with different persons, introduced the way how different cultures treat in-group and out-group members, pointed out the importance, value and effectiveness of non-verbal communication.
But the most wonderful thing was that after this exercise involuntarily we started to live as one big family adopting the happy lifestyle of the first RAFA culture. Subconsciously we even took some songs and greeting signs from the game using them afterwards in our real life. This was something special that made us feel united for the rest of the project. We shared our positive emotions with people around and spread out our great mood and positive energy even to passersby on the street. Day by day we increased the level of outcomes from the training. Even though we got plenty of information every day, diverse learning approach, chosen by our wonderful trainers Natalya Seriakova and Dragan Atanasov, didn’t even give us a chance to be bored. Apart from well prepared and in a professional and clear manner presented theoretical material we gained good practical knowledge through interesting and challenging tasks. The teaching manner of the trainers and warm team atmosphere encouraged us to be strongly active
and to contribute a lot with our ideas and actions in order that we were able to learn more from each other. We got a very valuable experience of creating and later implementing our own workshops. We discovered this process from the start, understood that it is not as hard as we thought before, but also very interesting and challenging work at the same time that makes your brain think. We worked in small teams preparing short, but informative workshops about six different intercultural topics: European citizenship, stereotypes, sexual education, discrimination, cultural diversity and active participation. The result exceeded all our expectations. Thanks to this experience we could not only exchange our ideas, watch different working styles, adopt into life many creative approaches, but even develop the ground for future projects, which should be implemented in Europe during the next year.
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This project helped to ensure once again that every person is unique and wonderful in his own way and everybody deserves respect and acceptance. We tried to learn how to be more tolerant, understandable to each other, how to appreciate similarities and not to let differences create a barriers between us. These are some of the comments participants gave after the project:
“This one week of training course has offered me what University training could not provide” Selina from France “Through different simulations we learn to act and react, so when
facing the similar situation in real life you will think twice before doing any actions, before judging or making any conclusions without hearing a whole story.” Natalia from Estonia “We learnt how to work as a member of a team and respect ideas from other people with different cultural backgrounds.” Merve from Turkey “We really believe in the realization of those projects and also hope
that the partnerships established during this training course will be extremely beneficial for our further cooperation.” Georgiana from Rumania.
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article.
We all hope that this project was just the first step at the beginning and we will try to put into practice and share knowledge and values we got during this unforgettable time in Stuttgart. From all our hearts we would like to thank Natalia Seriakova and Dragan Atanasov and JUBUK organization for creating and organizing such a good and professional training course.
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Pigs in Maputo
Pig cartoons of life in Mozambique by Iris Yan
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No bags allowed in a furniture shop
Microsoft
pigs in maputo.
for more, every day: pigsinmaputo.blogspot.com/
Famous coffeeshops in Amsterdam Anita Kalmane
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article.
I do not smoke tobacco or weed. I have never even been inside a coffee shop and I am determined to keep it like this. Yet I live in Amsterdam, “the capital of coffee shops”, and I am writing an article about coffee shops.
In case if you did not know, Dutch “coffee shop” does not specialize in coffee, although you can get that there as well – but the personnel will be more happy to offer you different kind of weed, space cakes and other similar stuff. Isn’t it surprising that one can know a lot about coffee shops even without visiting them? I can smell weed even from a few meters away, I can tell if my neighbor has been smoking it and if there is a coffee shop around the corner. I simply smell it, and I am not the only one. I also know about a few coffee shops here in Amsterdam, which are worth attention even if you are not going to step inside them yourself.
De Dampkring
Have you seen the crime comedy film “Ocean’s Twelve” with George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon? If no, watch it. If yes, then you should know that one of the scenes was filmed in the coffee shop “De Dampkring”, which is right in the middle of Amsterdam. It is one of the most decorated and stylish coffee shops (at least from outside), although tourists do not go there for the quality of weed, but rather for being able to see the place where they filmed “Ocean’s Twelve”, although it has been said that since that the place is not so good as it used to be and the prices are more expensive. They even have “Ocean’s Twelve Haze!” and other things for celebrity lovers. The Bulldog Don’t worry, it is not as scary as it sounds. The Bulldog has several coffee shops in Amsterdam, but it’s famous for the fact that it was the first coffee shop in Amsterdam back in 1975. Obviously I do not know how it looked back in those days, but if you pass by the coffee shop, which is still operating nowadays, you have a feeling that it is quite old. In the 70ties it was not easy to run a coffee shop as the owner and his stuff were arrested dozens of times, but they never gave up and the police probably just got tired of arresting them so often... By the way, the house where the first coffee shop was opened and used to be a sex shop before!
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Green House
When you take a look at Green House’s website, for a moment you might think that you have got the wrong address – it looks more like a clothing line instead of a coffee shop. In 1993 Green House was opened as the first artistic coffee shop in the Netherlands and has kept its artistic approach till now. The coffee shop has won several awards (including one for the best atmosphere) and welcomed a huge list of celebrities, including Eminem and Lenny Kravitz. Samenentereng Actually I am not sure how famous this coffee shop is, but I have passed by it dozens of times and its exterior still continues to surprise me. It does not look like a coffee shop. It does not even look like a right building to be in a city, rather a pile of wooden beams and useless stuff left outside by hippies / homeless people / other weirdoes. It took a while to notice that it is actually a coffee shop and reviews say that it is worth visiting it even only because of its interior!
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photo by galdo trouchky (http://www.flickr.com/photos/galdo_trouchky/)
Music!
The music that constantly plays in my head! Valentina Joshevska
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The Macedonian musician Madzirov, so called “bottleman” attributed to be one of the first musicians to give birth to a genre that produces music using the sound of bottles, made an impact on the music scene with a new release. His recent album “Roots on a roof,” contains a magical sound that makes the listener’s heart beat faster; filling it with the joy of pleasant sound from its music. That was proved by his recent performance which took place during the world festival “OFF-Fest” at its 10 years of celebration. His leading role with the orchestra touches deeply the heart of the people gathered there in order to absorb the last drop of god’s gift called music. Every single sound that Madzirov produces tells a different story. His music unfolds a different background and has something unspoken by anyone, so far. Is it just his nature that people from that part of Macedonia where he comes from share in common the knowledge, talent or skills that only great minds possess. The sad cry of the violin is followed by the pleasant sound of the percussion. It is a perfect connection of different sounds that provoke positive vibrations. The music’s flow is directed in perfect harmony and leads every listener to hear a story that no one can manage to say. It’s something that was dug in everyone’s souls and it’s a matter of time before it can surface. Even though “Roots on a roof” might attract fans who prefer Jazz sound, the result is a record that’s progressive and, absolutely beautiful and pleasant for a wide range audience. Madzirov’s music makes a perfect connection between the simple and the complex expression of sound. On the one hand it moves in a straight line and after a while makes you unconscious, and you are not able to touch the ground realistically. There is a magic in his music. You can smell the air listening to his music; you can feel the cry of your heart, which transfers into mild joyfulness. It can touch your feelings and leave you pleasant emotions. Simply put it is the music that changed my music perspectives in a positive manner. You must have good ears to hear it, good senses to accept it. It’s simply music that completely fills your senses.
Watch and listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztzaMaNutV M&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l6fCkoazQ&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=fmgzQdrqeG4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e78vN-vgkd4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zgWDzLgp Cc&feature=related http://www.thebottleman.com/
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Review.
images from the site http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=22037
Defending drugs in difficult times Charlotte Großkopf
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You think cigarettes kill? Then you are obviously one of the unfortunate ones who have not heard of Nick Naylor yet. Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), chief spokesman of the tobacco industry, is a first rate equivocator and the protagonist of the grandiloquently and hilariously slick satire Thank you for smoking. Since health activists, tobacco critics and especially Senator Finistirre (William H. Macy) declared war to Big Tobacco, speaking on behalf of cigarettes has meant
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sitting in a hot chair. By twisting words, bending the truth and rounding off his speeches with an innocent smile, Nick wins even the verbal duels that have no prospect of success. Even the so-called Captain (Robert Duvall), tobacco tycoon and Nick’s big boss, regards Nick as his much longed for son and potential successor. At the turning point of the story, Nick’s life is attacked by fanatic health fiends who regard him as a danger to society and try to kill him with an overdose of nicotine. Plastered with nicotine patches he barely survives the plot and continues to rule over the tobacco industry, even though he can’t
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even smoke a single cigarette any more. But he takes advantage of this situation and emerges the winner due to the public compassion. Nick Naylor seems to have the Midas touch, but then his volubility and his penchant for pretty women get him into hot water. A fateful fling with the freshfaced journalist Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes) leads on to a both occupational and private fiasco. But Nick Naylor would not be called Nick Naylor if he could not talk his way out… So much for the movie “Thank You for Smoking” by Jason Reitman, who was said to have made a perfect directing debut. The independent production was a great success in 2006. A lot of people watched it and loved it, but only a few knew: The canny story is much older. In 1994, 12 years earlier, the novel by Christopher Buckley had been released and acclaimed for being a hilariously honest satire which reveals the sanctimony and manipulability of the American society. Most of the readers had been amazed by Buckley’s narrative techniques. The plot lines of the book and film run parallel for most part, but some alterations were made when turning the book into a movie. Still, both the movie and novel criticize the viciousness of spin doctors and multinational corporations on one side and the sanctimony and selfrighteousness of the anti-tobacco associations on the other. Of course, neither the book nor the film can be commended as the “latest tip” anymore. The
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novel now is 17 years old and director Jason Reitman has made other box-office hits such as “Juno” (2007) and “Up in the Air” (2009) since then. Nevertheless, both artworks shine a light on the zeitgeist of the last decades. Especially the novel is full of allusions to political, social, economic, and media incidents of the early nineties. Buckley had his fingers at the pulse of the time, inventing plot lines (product placement of cigarettes, hush money for the former cigarette advertisement icons, etc.) that – partly – turned out to be on the actual agenda of the tobacco lobbyists. Today, things have changed. Substantial damages had to be paid by Big Tobacco – with a huge negative impact on the public opinion on smoking. In almost every European country, smoking in public places is now banned. The tobacco lobbyists have become almost tame here. Now, this could indicate that maybe they have learned something or that humankind itself has improved a bit. But industry watchers have another reason for this: Big Tobacco has dropped the difficult markets Europe and North America in favor of the emerging markets Asia and Latin America. Say no more but: Gracias por fumar and サンキュ ー・スモーキング!
photo: George Eastman House Collection
I have seen it Farah Anwar
I have seen falling leaves Fasten waves and shaken trees Loneliness of midnight In the willingness of moonlight In Eagerness to hit the sky Shattering volcano beneath hill See, the water waves unifying To reach the moon; they are behind The clouds! These are raining again To prove the earth; of what they love The flying ants, gets killed with light But keep struggling; with meaningless life They say mother is a symbol of the trust and love! Dove throws her eggs, reason; single human touch One good hand changes the world, can you believe? Help snake by one hand; get bite against relieve Don’t you think it’s all about nature? When trust leads you to qualms, Keeping patience for right time; It would be waiting for life time Destination changes with ways, But, life would stop; at one end This trust would not matter at all! Neither the pigsty; you gone with, If you win life; you are winner And you lost it; you are looser
photo: Jon Rawlinson (http://www.flickr.com/photos/london/)
Poetry.
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Marjan Angelovski
interview with
18 Marjan Angelovski: How do you spend your time in Dublin and what do you do for fun apart of working on music? Craig Walker: I like watching movies at home and going to the cinema, read books, watch football, hang out in coffee bars and spend time with family and friends and try not to obsess too much about music. What is your opinion of the European Union; is it better to stay away from the union like Norway and Switzerland? It’s a difficult question because we live in the age of ‘culture of fear’ and if we are to believe analysts, economists and politicians we would be fucked if we weren’t part of the EU. But considering what’s happened here in Ireland and Greece I’m not sure anyone believes them anymore. So perhaps it would be better to stay aside and use the strengths we have as individuals to make our world a better place. Who knows?
interview.
What is your opinion of Egypt these days, and about politics overall? I think we have to applaud the Egyptians for standing up to an oppressor and saying ‘we aren’t taking it anymore’. Politics in general I find really difficult to stomach as it seems all of them everywhere in the world are driven by desire, ego, power, - not really the kind of people who should be telling us how to live our lives. Let’s go back to the 80s when you and your brother Keith Walker founded “Power of Dreams”, tell us something about that and about the reunion? I was 15 when I started the band and by the time I was 18 we had signed to Polydor, the home of some of my heroes like the Jam and the Who. Very cool and all the songs were our own. We toured the world and had a ball. The reunion was fun and it was nice to revisit my teen years again onstage every night for a couple of weeks.
On your twitter profile you wrote that Grammy awards looked like the last days of the Roman Empire? Why the Grammy, Brit and MTV awards are going down? The music industry as it has been for the past 60 years is over and those big self-congratulatory award ceremonies that the labels have orchestrated are going to fall just like the dinosaurs did. I think it’s a good thing. In your opinion what is the worst? Lady Gaga, Kathy Parry and the others from MTV today or maybe we will find out after 100 years from now? In your opinion who is the worst artist/band in music? I like pop music when it’s good and makes peoples better but someone like Lady Ga Ga I find utterly revolting. You can see the absolute, calculated plan for success, the desperation to be famous and shit music. Nobody will listen to Lady Ga Ga or Katy Perry in 100 years time. Probably not even in 10 years time hope! Who’s your favorite artist? The Smiths. What advice would you give to fellow bands? Don’t listen to anyone who wants you to change what you believe to being something that you are not. Keep going!!! Archive began their European tour in 2004 without you and posting on their website that “Walker would not be joining the band as he has left Archive due to personal differences”. Why did you leave? Sometimes things get complicated and broken and they can’t be fixed. “Again” is one of the best wonders in Music Wonders Archive; when Darius wrote this song, what did you say? I and Dan were also co-writers of that song so it kind of came together over a long period. It was never a song on piano or guitar that was finished so that situation you described never happened. Do you have a favorite project that you’ve worked on? I like them all really, I’m proud of Power of Dreams, the work I did with Archive, Fitzcarraldo Sessions,
soundtrack work with Nathaniel Mechaly and my solo album Siames but I’m really excited making my second solo album right now and I think it might be the best thing I’ve ever done. What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and who writes your songs? Songs for me have to come from emotions whatever they may be: anger, love, hate etc. I write my songs and co-write with various people also. I have never heard a song with so much love and hate like “Siamese” (best song of 2010); it goes: “I can barely speak and make a sound you make me feel secure and than you make me sick”. If you are composer of “Siamese” how did you write this song, was it like an effect from something or were you hurt by someone? I wrote that with Bardi Johannsson in Iceland; it kind of sums up the understanding of love for me. On the one hand it can be bliss and the most beautiful thing imaginable and then switch to something that makes you sick to your stomach. It’s the most amazing emotion and that’s why so many songs are love songs. Which song you perform most frequently? Do you ever play any covers? I play a lot of solo stuff and some archive and power of dreams and occasionally an Smiths cover! At this point, what is your favorite song? Right now Bloom from the Radiohead album The King Of Limbs, just great and god bless. What do you know about Macedonia? That it’s close to Greece and Bulgaria and Bosnia and was part of the former Yugoslavia and I have heard it is a very beautiful place. Is there any chance to come to Macedonia one day, and make a concert? I would love to!!! Do you have any upcoming shows? Tell us about your next shows? Nothing planned at the moment as I’m really trying to finish my 2nd solo album, maybe in the summer some shows I hope.
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Your song “To Be the Man” is with more heaviness; from which project is this song? It was recorded for a movie soundtrack but ended up not getting used, but it may be on my new album. What’s new in the recording of your music? It’s very raw, no hiding in noise or technology, laying it out honest and stripped to the bone.
self, unhappy with life” - my question is why is the past always better than the present, is it because we were too young or not? When you are young life is like an unraveling flower that is full of possibility and life seems like it will last forever. We get older and realize that nothing lasts forever and we all turn to dust, but life is great and a crazy adventure that we should all enjoy while we can.
Today I don’t believe in words “best friends” maybe because we are living in a materialistic world; if you have a friend not “best” but real, are they from the music scene or not? I have friends who don’t work in music at all and I have friends who do. I tend to spend a little time in both camps.
On Music Wonders Best Artists/Bands of All the Time, you’re one of the best artist, but who is your favorite from our List (excluding yourself) and what is your opinion about our runner-up, Sivert Høyem? Great list wow. Sivert is great and I guess I would pick Terry Hall as I am a massive Specials fan and love his voice/music.
“When I was young, when I was free, when I was never wrong, than we grow old, unhappy with our
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20 events Santiago
Internati
onal Film Festival
Over 90 film s and docu mentaries compete in the n ational a internation nd al categor ies at the Santiago Internation al Film Festival (SANFIC). Screening take place s in the cap ital’s majo cinemas r and the supporting programm e includes and discu talks ssions wit h industry profession als.
what where when website
Santiago
Internation
al
Film Festi
val
Santiago, 19th to 27
Chile
th of Augu st http://www .sanfic.com /
To be honest, I was not supposed to write about this. Just a few days ago I wrote an e-mail to Daniel, our editor-in-chief, and agreed on the subject I am going to write about. However, I did not start writing it as soon as I had free time – as I was disturbed by another addiction.
Addiction of the 21st Century Anita Kalmane How do you think – what is the most dangerous addiction of the 21st century? Be honest when replying! Drugs? Bullshit. Alcohol? Old school. Smoking? Gimme a break. What is my opinion? I am convinced that internet and online media are the biggest addiction nowadays. Facebook, Twitter, online newspapers, e-mails, Skype, YouTube and more, and more, and more. Once you turn on your laptop / computer, you can’t switch it off. It just seems wrong. There is always something more to read, to watch, to check. Sound familiar? I wasn’t like that before – but that was long time ago. I still remember nights when I couldn’t fall asleep before I had finished reading the book, even if it was 3am in the morning. I would visit my grandma in a quiet evening or wondering in the bookshop and/or toy store when I was a kid; a good kid. And then we got our first computer at home. I do not know how old I was, probably around 10-11. Luckily, we did not have internet yet – it was a luxury at those times. However, from that moment on I spent my days in front of it. At first, writing school assignments. Afterward – writing poems and essays, letters to my pen-pals (I still used the “real” post to send them!) and soon writing letters to save in a diskette (yes, it was long time ago) to go to e-cafe next morning and send it to a friend by e-mail. When I was around 12-13, I begged my Mum to have internet at home. She did not agree, so I started to go to e-cafes every day and spend hours there, chatting with friends online and building online websites. A few years later, we finally got an internet connection. Sleepless nights? You got it. Then - my first laptop, my first wireless connection at home... It seems like ages ago, I think that I was 20 years old and moved in my first apartment alone. The time is flying!
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Now do not tell me that I am the only one like that. I know I am not, and my point is – look at yourself and answer: “How much time per day do you spend online? And how much time is spent doing something important and the rest – just “checking for a second”? I know dozens of people who are my “friends” in social networking sites, but I have not spoken with them in the real life for ages. I do not know how they are doing – apart what is written in their profiles. I am not in contact with them – except when they send me “spam” messages about a recently read article, somebody who needs a blood donation, petition to sign or anything like that. I do not read newspapers – except when I am in public transport. I do not watch TV and I do not go to cinema. I do it all online nowadays. Thanks God, I still go to theatre plays, festivals, concerts and exhibitions! And I am scared to think about the arising percentage of people who need glasses.
background photo: Don Bergquist
(http://don-denver.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html)
article.
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Summer Ballet Festival
Preserving Russia’s cul tural legacy, the Summer Ballet Festival presents a two-mo nth classical repertoire enh anced by modern choreography. Performances by internati onally acclaimed ballet groups are held at the Natalia Sats Mu sical Theatre, close to the Mo scow State University.
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Summer Ballet Festival Moscow, Russia 12th of July to 10th of September
website
http://www. summerballet.ru/eng. html
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credits Libertas Team: Daniel Nunes Vladimíra Brávková Dragan Atanasov Kristijan Nikodinovski Scott Pinkster Christine Moore Ivana Galapceva Carolina Santana
Contributors for this issue: Alexandre Fonseca Anita kalmane Charlotte Großkopf Farah Anwar Marjan Angelovski Rafa rafa Group Ramon Martensen Valentina Joshevska
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