The RIA translator wins yet another Big Green Weenie Award. The title isn’t Dreams of Space… if it were, Yolkin would’ve used мечты, not планы. Again, the translator trashes Yolkin’s play on words (it has overtones of “Comic Aspirations”). He showed the daftness of some teen dreams by using a pompous title juxtaposed with a faintly-ridiculous caricature. On top of that, it’s best to keep the boy’s exclamation to a single word, as is it in the original… doing one’s best to keep the somewhat-sardonic comparison between the grandiose remark with the prosaic reality… you CAN do it. Is Yolkin commenting on his own youthful dreams?
Moriak’s being forced out of Chicago, obviously, by the Synod. The timeline’s unclear, but it seems he’ll be gone by Easter. Someone asked the question, “Who would Moriak’s replacement be?” One person comes to mind as a possibility… Fr Paul Gassios. He was runner up to Moriak, and was also one of the candidates for hierarch of the OCA‘s Bulgarian Diocese. In both cases, he lost out to “monks” (Matthias and Golitizen). He would’ve been the choice if Moriak hadn’t put on such a good show. This has Gassios’ background (and a bit of video). He’s currently at the Bulgarian cathedral in Rossford OH. It’s much in his favour that he knows the ways of the Diocese of the Midwest, as they were under Vladyki Job Osacky, as he was a priest in the diocese for 11 years under Job. Apparently, he’s a well-liked, genial sort.
At the last Diocesan Council meeting held in Stroudsburg PA on 4 March 2013, I was appointed Chairman of the Search Committee to select a candidate (or candidates) for our Diocesan Assembly to nominate and for the Holy Synod to elect for the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania. A committee will be formed shortly, which will include diocesan deans, and one clergy and one lay representative from each deanery. More information will be forthcoming in the April monthly newsletter.
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If Moriak is on the outs and is about to get le sabot, it explains why Jillions didn’t go to Rome for the papal shindig. He and Lyonyo were too busy shoring up a crumbling edifice… in the end, their efforts to try to salvage Moriak’s situation damaged the OCA’s cred. Was the damage irrevocable? Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean that the OCA will go under next month, or even next year. Look at how long the Ottoman Empire lingered… long after it ceased being a credible and coherent state structure. In addition, never underestimate the potential of a rotten-borough institution to cause mischief… if you have any doubts on that score, ask the Armenians about the Great Crime. In the end game, we need MORE vigilance, not less… do note the antics of First Family stalwarts such as Victor Potapov, Ray Velencia, and Bobby K. Keep one eye open at all times…
1 January 2013, marked yet another anniversary of Nu, Pogodi! (Just You Wait!)… viewers have hailed the cartoon series as a Soviet animation masterpiece for over 40 years now. The series is proudly positioned amongst the top five Soviet and Russian films, as rated by IMDb (Internet Movie Database) users. Meanwhile, as it turns out, Soviet officials were poised to shut the project down after a few successful episodes.
Ever since the Soviet era, Russians have been fond of this animated series about the mischievous Wolf chasing the Hare. The latter can actually be considered the epitome of an ideal Soviet person… as an athlete with advanced engineering skills, he takes part in amateur performances, lives a healthy lifestyle, and abides by the rules. The author and scriptwriter of the series, Aleksandr Kurlyandsky, said about how the series was created, “We decided the film should be a pursuit. We were young and humorous, and we wanted a film packed with as many gags as possible, which a pursuit easily lends itself to. There were no tiring discussions about who should be the chaser and the one being chased… we settled on traditional Russian folklore characters”.
The cartoon series scored 8.9 points out of 10 on the Internet Movie Database website (IMDb.com), with users, in their reviews, lauding the humorous sketches, the appropriate background music, and the charm of its main characters, as well as the accurate reflection of Soviet reality. For instance, mail-3839(USA) wrote, “Besides the adventures in the chase for the rabbit, you see nostalgic elements of Russian urban and suburban life. Where else can you find a children’s cartoon where the bad wolf smokes cigarettes, drinks beer while eating dried salted fish, steals, and vandalises property? One can’t help but fall in love with both the hero and villain”.
Tony Straka (USA) said, “Another factor which differentiates Nu, Pogodi! from other cartoons, is that the background music isn’t orchestrated for the cartoon series, but rather popular Russian/contemporary songs are incorporated. You’ll hear popular music from the time that particular cartoon was made. Wolf will be chasing Hare in an episode from the late 1970s, whilst a disco tune is playing; another episode from 1984 contains techno/pop music from that particular time period. The visual effects are set to the music, which allows for some comical moments!”
The pilot episode of the series… a sketch about the Wolf and the Hare directed by Gennady Sokolsky and later used as a prototype for the series… was featured in the first number of the first cartoon journal, Vesyolaya Karusel (Happy Merry-Go-Round). In the sketch, as the Wolf fails to hit the mark shaped as the Hare at a shooting range, the slogan (the famous “Nu, pogodi!”) that later became the name of the series appears for the first time. The series was produced by the Soyuzmultfilm studio from 1969 to 1993, with 18 main episodes created, followed by a sequel in the early 2000s. The main episodes were directed by Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin, and his son Aleksei taking over the reins for the sequel.
Nu, Pogodi! very truly captures the reality and artefacts of its time. The entire environment that is now perceived as the retro charm of the cartoon was actually true for the Soviet people of the 1970s and 1980s… commodity shortages, cars, telephone booths, soda vending machines, and holiday destinations. Even the soundtrack for some of the episodes featured certain popular hits of the time… for instance, Song About a Friend by Vladimir Vysotsky, or songs by pop icon Alla Pugachyova. Likewise, the songs written for the Hare and the Wolf are still popular and often quoted. Even some of the events in the storyline are true… for instance, the scene of one of the episodes is set in Moscow during the 1980 Summer Olympics.
The production of the series sparked numerous stories and anecdotes. It’s believed that the government didn’t like the image of one of the main characters, the Wolf; and the government didn’t approve of singer, songwriter, actor, and poet Vladimir Vysotsky, who was cast as the voice for the Wolf, either. It’s also known that the project was nearly shut down after the first few episodes, after Feliks Kamov (one of the scriptwriters) decided to emigrate to Israel. Actor Anatoly Papanov rescued it, he was eventually cast as the voice for the Wolf, he had immense popularity at the time… he complained to a Communist Party chief that his family would miss the cartoon heroes, and production was resumed without too many changes.
Meanwhile, the end of the Soviet era didn’t mean the end of troubles with government approvals for the series. After the law On Protection of Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Developmenttook effect in September 2012, some media reports suggested that Nu, Pogodi! would be assigned an 18+ rating and aired only after 23.00. Aleksei Kotyonochkin, the director of the latest Nu, Pogodi! episodes, responded. “I can remember the instruction to cut out drinking scenes during the anti-alcohol campaign, but then again, it was just an order. It’s the Law now.They certainly know how to make laws in Russia…”
Now, Nu, Pogodi! is often compared to Tom and Jerry. However, according to his son, the first time Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin saw the American series was in 1987, when 16 episodes of its Soviet rival had already been produced. Aleksei said proudly, “Tom and Jerry is actually about gags, but our film is more than just gags. We’re now preparing a full-length 3-D animated production. We’d like to move away from the old format and use more speech and characters (including supporting characters) in the new film”.
The Mayan Calendar ends on 21 December 2012 with a galactic alignment and cataclysmic events, we’ll see a new era in human consciousness, and our planet will change as we join and become one with the universe, with those who designed and created us. These are just some of the things that are supposed to occur on 21 December 2012 at 11.11:11 UTC. Is there any basis for any of these claims? Read on to find out more, and do stock up on supplies, the end is near.
In less than a month, we’re coming up on a date that has many in the world worried… 21 December 2012. Many people believe that either it’ll be the end of the world, the Apocalypse, the day of the Earth’s total destruction, or the beginning of a rebirth, a sort of transformation, or even that we’ll all be transported to something like heaven, and that we’ll all live in paradise. For the most part, the majority see the date as being the latter, a sort of rebirth, or a move to another level, rather than the end of the world. Regardless, there’s very wide speculation that cataclysmic and apocalyptic events are soon to take place. With less than a month to go, can one really give credence to such speculation, or should we all be laughing at these prophecies? On 22 December, all should be clear.
The main proponents who believe that 21 December 2012 is the end of time or a rebirth cite the end of the Mayan calendar, which isn’t really an end, but rather when, according to Mayanist scholars, the calendar is reset to begin the next cycle called the 14th Baktun, marked by the end date of the 13th Baktun or 13.0.0.0.0. They also try to tie in several celestial alignments, including the alignment of the Sun, the Earth, and the centre of the Milky Way. Some Mayanists believe that the ancient Mayans unlocked the code of the universe, which is something akin to computer binary code, which was used to “program” the universe and even our own DNA. Their use of a system of ones and zeroes was remarkably accurate in formulating their calendar and cosmic maps. They even predicted the Galactic Alignment, an event which takes place only once every 26,000 years, then, the Winter Solstice occurs, and the Sun is going to be at the intersect point of Ecliptic of the Milky Way Galaxy and its Equator.
The I Ching also predicts that after 21 December 2012 everything afterwards will be new. It’s important to note that the I Ching also used a binary code, which was the equivalent of zeroes and ones. The I Ching, known as the Book of Changes or Zhouyi, is one of the oldest texts known to man, and it contains a system for divination not unlike geomancy or the Ifásystem. It’s believed to have originated sometime in the 3rd to the 2nd millennium BC. It believed the I Ching was a calendar.
Christianity, with its many interpretations and speculations, is also full of references to the end times happening during our times, although theologians can’t agree on the exact timing of any single date or event. Many of those who believe in the Torah code, a code used to decrypt secret messages in the bible, also point to the date in question as being the end of the world. Eschatologists who use the Bible to predict the end, along with many ordinary Christians, point to many other signs that they see as warnings, many occurring in the Book of Revelations written by the Apostle John. Briefly, they say that the Antichrist would appear and sign a peace pact with Israel for seven years, a period they call the Tribulation. This period would herald the appearance of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the seventh seal, after which Antichrist would attempt to destroy Jerusalem, leading to the Battle of Armageddon, when Jesus Christ would return and destroy the Antichrist. Some say this is all happening today. Has there been a breaking of a seven-year pact with Israel? That and the final assault on Jerusalem would have to take place within the next couple of weeks if we’re to believe the biblical versions.
Then, there are those who follow Terrance McKenna, who take credence in his Timewave Zero theory and his numerological formula, which he claimed calculates correlations between time events during history. He calculated the end of the world to be shortly before 21 December 2012, but then decided that the Mayans must’ve been more accurate. Events that are supposed to happen on that date include a black hole swallowing up the Earth, a collision with a planet called the Nibiru Cataclysm, our four-dimensional souls becoming aware of their three-dimensional existence and joining together with the great cosmic mind, the magnetic poles shifting polarity (causing the planet to be torn apart), planets aligning, a beam of light charging the sun from the centre of the galaxy causing flares which would engulf the earth, a fifth element being invented in a particle collider which swallows the Earth, man inventing time travel, and other cataclysms.
All of these things have no real basis in science, and we shouldn’t worry about them or take them too seriously. My advice for 21 December 2012 11.11 UTC… if you must, take the day off, you never know if someone who decides to end it all might take you with them (just kidding), read a book, call your family and friends, make plans for 22 December, check out Anonymous and their Tyler release, watch a film, or have a good meal. Who knows? It may be your last!
