My trip to Taipei (or a story from one of the Canadian delegates of JCI World Congress in Taiwan)

My trip to Taipei, to be honest, was a mind-blowing experience, and not because of the combination of my first trip to Asian country, JCI World Congress, and flight to warm place (+25 Celsius) after Calgarian November, but, also, because it was right place, right time, and right people around me there.
Totally different world and life-style were revealed to me: a big, vibrant, hectic, sub-tropical city. A billboard "Welcome to JCI World Congress in Taipei" confirmed our expectations that it will be an inspiring and intriguing experience. A disciplined and quiet Taiwanese cab driver took me and my friend Gary to our hotel - a small, with a local flavor, place, our home in Taipei for 7 days.
7 am in Taipei. After more than 13 hour flight we are tired, hungry, want to take a shower; however, the check-in time is only at 2 pm. As with any new and exciting adventure, adrenalin in my blood doesn't let me feel sleepy. We are going for a almost 6 hour walk around the city - exploring not-touristic places and remote from the city-center streets.
Around 2 pm we are in our room: it is so small that we barely find space for two suitcases, two beds almost touching each other, a city-view - a concrete wall 3 feet away from a window. Warm refreshing shower, a glass of wine, and a short nap have changed the perception of the room - it became bigger and cozier, while the view has acquired positive qualities, such as a lower level of street noise.
After 3 hours of rest, we are getting ready for JCI opening ceremony at 6 pm. Taipei itself has a very developed subway-system, for just $35/week pass, it is relatively easy to transfer from almost any part of the city. We decided not to experiment for the first time and to take a taxi (it costs us $3) from our hotel to Taipei Arena, formerly known as the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium, which is big enough to seat more than 4,500 JCI delegates from 120 countries.
My fist JCI World congress memory: the square in front of the Arena, hundreds of people under drizzling subtropical rain, and waving flags of almost all represented countries. Fairly big German delegation was attracting everyone's attention by their bright, grass-green t-shirts and active, full of excitement behaviour - they were promoting 2014 JCI World Congress in Leipzig, Germany.
The opening ceremony has started, and whole stadiums was welcoming presidents from 120 countries. "The president of JCI-Canada," - announced MC (the list was in alphabetical order), and Francois Begin, went on the stage, Canadian delegation stood up to applause him, big Canadian flag appeared on the screen - I would say that something magnetic and powerful was in this moment, I may assume that Olympic athletes experience something similar when they on the stage to accept a medal. At least that how I felt.
Around 11 pm. We are in our hotel room, reviewing tomorrow's schedule and discussing plans for the week in Taipei - it looked like the Congress will be full of the events: trainings, awards, forums, sessions, internationally themed parties, and simply fun networking with the same-minded individuals age 18 to 40 from all over the world.
And Monday has started with JCI Morning show at 9 am and has finished at 3 am with European night. I forgot to mention that during the whole week of the Congress - the background music was "Gangnam Style" by PSY, so keep it mind while reading it, personally me, I have heard this song there more than 100 times, and this internationally acclaimed hit song will be associated with 2012 JCI World Congress in Taipei forever.
Between various sessions and presentations, JCI-Calgary delegation could find some time for several excursions: to Taipei 101 Tower, the tallest (509 m/1669.9 ft.) building from year 2004 until 2010, it offers 101 floors, amazing view, and the world fastest (it takes 37 seconds to get on the top) elevator made by Toshiba. The ticket is only about $15 Canadian.Weather was nice and sunny, we have enjoyed Taipei view and even could have sent souvenir postcards to our families from the top of this building. Haven't heard from my sister yet, if she got Taipei 101 card or not.
Another tour was to Asus head office in Taipei, where we listened to a short presentation and could see and touch recently issued laptops, tablets, and other gadgets of this corporation.
On Wednesday, on the third day of a Congress, I had a chance to attend a presentation of Stan Shih (http://www.acga-asia.org/public/files/2009-07-CV-StanShih.pdf) the co-founder of Acer Group - charismatic, inspiring, and strong businessman and leader. The level of how he recognized and respected by Taiwanese (and most Asian) people would be easier to compare with Bill Gates in the States. During his presentation, Stan Shih compared Western and Eastern business approaches and gave a short overview of, developed by him, a management model, which he called "Wang Dao" - the Way of the King.
His presentation added another missing part into my "whole perception of Asia" puzzle - how diverse could be approaches in different parts of the world to life and business, for example, the sense of family and community, long-term vision (sometimes 10-20 years ahead), and respect to elder generation, small children, and various authorities. Having Asian blood in myself, but being westernized by American books, movies, media, I always had a constant desire to clarify an inner conflict of two totally opposite cultures inside of me.
This trip to Taiwan has helped me to view, in some aspects, quite opposite concepts more clearly, under different angles, where, with globalization of businesses and connections, we need to use as many tools, approaches, teachings, which are and were successful, to be able to "evolutionize" gradually and more efficiently for our future generations.
Talking further about international experience - Junior Chamber International has a tradition - every world congress there are themed parties; during this Congress I have experienced Korean/Asian, European (which I mentioned before), Japanese, and, "Global village" nights. During these events, each country presents something unique and distinctive about their culture, for example, Japanese night is usually a highlight of JCI World congress each year and the main reason is, in addition to uniqueness of "the land of the rising sun" itself, JCI Japan is one of the biggest and advanced JCI communities in the world.
Another event, which, I think, definitely worth mentioning is JCI TOYP (Ten outstanding young persons) award. TOYP is JCI World program which is "intended formally recognize young people who excel in their chosen fields and thus exemplify the best attributes of the world's young people" (quote from Wikipedia "JCI"). On Wednesday night, 10 awardees were invited on the stage of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, a short video story was presented about each person. These stories were so diverse and heartening, and behind each award was a lot of dedication, commitment and passion for community projects.
Each of the TOYP laureates worth acknowledgment here in my blog; however, a speech of the young lady from Madagascar, Fela Mijoro Razafinjato, impressed me the most, and want to share it with you. After being diagnosed with poliomyelitis at the age of three, Fela Mijoro continued her life journey developing humanitarian, voluntary leadership skills and becoming a founder of the organization which provided assistance to more that 2 million disabled persons. The story sounds impressive, but her speech in front of more than 1000 JCI World congress delegates was even more fascinating. She spoke in French, and, unfortunately, I did not have an electronic translator with me, but her strong voice, articulation, energy, commitment to the project, and definitely passion were the best interpreters at that moment.
Forums, sessions, trainings, and the last, fifth, day of the Congress approached. The Gala night with traditional taiwanese dinner was an exclamation mark of the whole convention. Next day we had our flight to Calgary. I didn't feel sad on my way to Taipei international airport because I had strong believe and, now, desire to come back to Taiwan again, to absorb and learn as much as possible about culture and people of this exceptional country.

Nabokov's quartet

Bought a book at the used books store in Lethbridge. "Nabokov - a master of English prose - the most extraordinary phenomenon since Conrad" (Edmund Wilson). The book was published in 1966./
Купила книгу, изданную в 1966 году в Нью-Йорке, в магазине подержанных книг. Набоков признанный мастер английской прозы. Люблю его стиль.

Value for shareholders

Food for thought. Cartoon from @NewYorker http://www.newyorker.com/humor/issuecartoons/2012/11/26/cartoons_20121119#slide=6

Judith I Bridgland: That Stolen Modigliani Painting in Skyfall

Judith I Bridgland: That Stolen Modigliani Painting in Skyfall: It was back to the cinema again last night, this time to take my son to see the new James Bond film Skyfall ('not enough car chases').  Whi...

The Habit of being Happy

It sounds very easy and fun, like in Bobby McFerrin's song - don't worry, be happy.
When I was 14 years old, I had read the book of, nowadays, a classic inspirational writer Dale Carnegie "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living"
At that time, and very often now, it was hard to imagine for me not worrying because I was worrying about everything: my school, my appearance, my classmates, my teachers, and many other things, which any, relatively standard, teenager is worrying about. Therefore, for me it was an almost impossible task to digest and contemplate that book, but I have finished it and even memorized and tried to practice some parts of it.
Surprisingly, more than 17 years passed since, and almost everything in regards of worrying stayed the same, except the scene and probably some characters - classmates were substituted by colleagues, school by work; moreover, because my life has more activity, there are more things which "deserve" headache.
As a person with analytical mind, I am trying to find some logical and shortest way to solve this problem, before it reached its climax, after which normally follows an emotional collapse.
Practicing yoga and keeping a journal help me to focus on what important for me: my health and well-being of my family. However, sometimes, any person can be stupid enough to forget about these essential elements of one's life (yes, I want to be rude here and use word - stupid, because that how it is). This self-pity game happened to me last week again, I was on my way to C-train station, angry and unhappy about everything and everyone.
Then C-train arrived, I found a warm place to sit (do not forget about winter in Calgary), still contemplating my imaginary problems. Next to me was sitting a guy, tall, good-looking, strong jaw line, and skin which became rough from wind, from his clothing I was guessing that he was working at some construction site and was on his way home. He was chatting with his friend, smiling, in other words, he looked content. After some time, I have noticed that he doesn't have right hand, he was using his left hand dialing numbers on the phone, texting, and by the way he was doing it, was clear that he lost his arm just recently, a couple years ago. Watching him, I felt ashamed of my mood, my thoughts, which were minor compare to his or anyone's health related problems.
We dwell in the past or in the future, want some imaginary "toys", stuff, or promotions at work, then we get all above, and still being unhappy, we want more and more. Greed or constant desire of something imaginary, which, many generations were taught by Gordon Gekko, is good, occupied our minds like mantra, virus. Being pressured by media, which persuading us that we ARE already unhappy without some product: cereal, a shampoo, a car, a house (the list is limitless), we forget about the most important part of our life - the present, and everything, which surrounds us right now: our parents, friends, warm house, health.
There is nothing needed, to be honest, the rest of the list is just game, which we were forced to participate and toys, which we were told to acquire.
The answer sounds simple, but difficult to implement and practice every day, the state of being content and balanced should become a habit, which implanted into our minds. I have realized that reading the book "The power of habit. Why we do what we do in life and business" by Charles Duhigg, the power of habit, the habit loop, could be applied to almost everything: fitness, healthy eating, etc. and, also, I am pretty sure, to the state of happiness. It is not a part of personality, it is a habit which should be trained, nurtured every day.
I was lucky, my mom have thought me some elements of life-enjoyment. However, being many thousand miles from her, here in Canada, doesn't help me, and I forget, sometimes, the simplicity and importance of developing this habit. My mom could have been a professional motivational speaker - she knows a lot about Habit of being Happy (let's name it this way). She was born in a very poor family in the Southern part of Ural Mountains, Russia. When she was one year old, she had lost her right eye. Imagine being a teenage girl in 60s with one eye. My mom had been spending all her teenage years at the library, hiding, from such immature and very often cruel world, behind book shelves. What I admire in her the most that she did not give up, she studied very hard, entered the University to become a veterinarian. There, she joined various student groups, where she had met my dad, a bright and handsome guy. And here I am. All my childhood I do not remember any whining, complaining about life difficulties (trust me, life before, during, and after Soviet Union collapse was tough), there always was hope and enjoyment of life each moment.
My mom still knows how to cheer me up, when I call her, she knows a lot about Habit of being Happy. And, I assume, we all have a choice to obtain this knowledge and keep it in our hearts.

Cultural Neuroscience and Startups

Great article from http://www.bizstone.com/

Cultural Neuroscience and Startups

Henry David Thoreau said, "As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives." The emerging interdisciplinary field of cultural neuroscience deals with daily social realities and how they can affect individual members of a culture—perhaps a startup culture.

At a recent World Congress on Positive Psychology Dr Richard J. Davidson from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shared research into the positive benefits of compassion and his work reminded me of the startup culture I'm so keen to encourage. Dr. Davidson effectively showed that mindfulness and compassion can enhance the prefrontal cortex—an area of our brain that helps us determine good from bad, controls our personality, and guides us toward our goals.

Previous research published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience showed devastatingly negative results both in the brain and even on organs when stressors are given to produce anxiety. So, if you work with people who are stressing you out or making you anxious then you may be hurting yourself mentally and physically. Ideally, you should work in an environment with compassion, mindfulness, respect, and good, healthy debate when it's needed.

Companies can be a vehicle for positive individual transformation. Startups have a unique ability to create a culture of compassion that helps us improve and in so doing, we are more likely to make a difference in the lives of others. It's possible to build a business, help people, and enjoy our work. How we approach our work is often as important as the work itself because the way we treat each other, our shared environment, and the way we cooperate shapes us as people.

Whatever your role is at the company you work for—whether you're an executive with many reports, or an individual contributor on a team, practicing regular, daily mindfulness and compassion will make you a healthier, more productive person. Additionally, the people you work with are going to respond better and do better work. The outcome is going to be a superior product or service, a happier user or client, and in the best case—a positive global impact.
Posted by Biz Stone

I love living in the city

I love living in the city.
Started appreciate that only after living in a small farmer city of the Southern Alberta.
Please do not get me wrong - I am not a "fancy-shmancy" big city girl, quite opposite. I was born in a village, moved to a small town when I was a kid, and only when I was 17 years old, I have moved to a bigger city, the capital of the province where I am from, and went to the University there.
And now I am in Calgary. I live in downtown of this city.
I love sound of my heels on the sidewalk, love smell of dry leaves, love smell of asphalt after snow or rain.
Love all these people around me: different, strange, happy, unhappy, single in this big crowd, dressed how it suits to each personality.
I love coming back to my apartment on the sixth floor with downtown view and looking through the window of my bedroom, seeing a Greek grocery store down on the street. I love this movement on the street, lights of the city, noise of the city: sirens, voices, music, and car engines

"Dance, dance"

There is something mystical in this painting on 17th Ave Calgary. Would be perfect as illustration for Murakami's novels/ Есть что-то мистическое в этой картине на 17-ой авеню Калгари. Напоминает иллюстрацию к произведениям Харуки Мураками.

Cole Porter "You are the Top"

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=njzqv5gWt6k&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dnjzqv5gWt6k

Cole Porter loved to write songs with lists of various items. "You're the Top" is probably the best known of these list songs. It was written for the Broadway show "Anything Goes" in 1934. Porter composed it during a cruise on Germany's Rhine River. He asked his fellow passengers to tell him what they considered important in their lives, or important in general, and Porter worked them into the lyric. For the record, he names an astonishing 37 persons, places and things in the course of the song. I've included a visual reference to every item he mentions.


Actually there are many variations on "You're the Top," with the list changing with the times. This version is the one Porter himself recorded in 1934. It's been digitally remastered and cleaned up and sounds about as good as it did the day he laid down the track. Porter wasn't much of a singer, but he more than makes up for that with his enthusiasm and sense of fun.

Here is the lyrics:

At words poetic, I'm so pathetic
That I always have found it best,
Instead of getting 'em off my chest,
To let 'em rest unexpressed,
I hate parading my serenading
As I'll probably miss a bar,
But if this ditty is not so pretty
At least it'll tell you
How great you are.

You're the top!
You're the Coliseum.
You're the top!
You're the Louver Museum.
You're a melody from a symphony by Strauss
You're a Bendel bonnet,
A Shakespeare's sonnet,
You're Mickey Mouse.
You're the Nile,
You're the Tower of Pisa,
You're the smile on the Mona Lisa
I'm a worthless check, a total wreck, a flop,
But if, baby, I'm the bottom you're the top!

Your words poetic are not pathetic.
On the other hand, babe, you shine,
And I can feel after every line
A thrill divine
Down my spine.
Now gifted humans like Vincent Youmans
Might think that your song is bad,
But I got a notion
I'll second the motion
And this is what I'm going to add;

You're the top!
You're Mahatma Gandhi.
You're the top!
You're Napoleon Brandy.
You're the purple light
Of a summer night in Spain,
You're the National Gallery
You're Garbo's salary,
You're cellophane.
You're sublime,
You're turkey dinner,
You're the time, the time of a Derby winner
I'm a toy balloon that’s fated soon to pop
But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

You're the top!
You're an arrow collar
You're the top!
You're a Coolidge dollar,
You're the nimble tread
Of the feet of Fred Astaire,
You're an O'Neill drama,

You're Whistler's mama!

You're camembert.

You're a rose,
You're Inferno's Dante,

You're the nose
On the great Durante.
I'm just in a way,
As the French would say, "de trop".
But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

You're the top!
You're a dance in Bali.
You're the top!
You're a hot tamale.
You're an angel, you,
Simply too, too, too diveen,
You're a Boticcelli,
You're Keats,
You're Shelly!

You're Ovaltine!
You're a boom,
You're the dam at Boulder,
You're the moon,
Over Mae West's shoulder,
I'm the nominee of the G.O.P.

Or GOP!

But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You're the top!

You're the top!
You're a Waldorf salad.
You're the top!
You're a Berlin ballad.
You're the boats that glide
On the sleepy Zuider Zee,
You're an old Dutch master,

You're Lady Astor,
You're broccoli!
You're romance,
You're the steppes of Russia,
You're the pants, on a Roxy usher,
I'm a broken doll, a fol-de-rol, a blop,

But if, baby, I'm the bottom,
You are the Top

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS OF SQUASH

One month ago I have joined squash beginners classes.
Before I moved to Canada, I had never heard about this game, and was surprised that such an entertaining game is not in Olympics. Therefore, I asked my coach about the history of that game and googled some additional info, which I want to share here in my blog.

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS OF SQUASH

by Ted Wallbutton

For over 1000 years man has invented and enjoyed a variety of games played by hitting a ball with either a closed fist – as in “fives” or “bunch of fingers” – or with some form of bat or racket. Around the year 1148 the French played “la Paume”, meaning “the palm of the hand”, which developed into Jeu de Paume, Real Tennis, Royal Tennis or, if you play the sport, simply Tennis. At sometime in the early 19th century this obsession with rackets and balls spawned another variety of the sport in the unlikely birthplace of the Fleet Prison in London. The prisoners in “The Fleet”, mainly debtors, took their exercise by hitting a ball against walls, of which there were many, with rackets and so started the game of “Rackets”. Rackets progressed, by some strange route, to Harrow and other select English schools about 1820 and it was from this source that our own sport of Squash, or Squash Rackets, developed.
Squash was invented in Harrow school around 1830, when the pupils discovered that a punctured Rackets ball, which “squashed” on impact with the wall, produced a game with a greater variety of shots and required much more effort on the part of the players, who could not simply wait for the ball to bounce back to them as with Rackets. The variant proved popular and in 1864 the first four Squash courts were constructed at the school and Squash was officially founded as a sport in its own right.
In those early days Squash, as with all other sports, was without any form of international standardisation and it was inevitable that slight variations in the way it was played, and the equipment used, would occur. Luckily only two main streams of activity followed, one in England with its 21 feet wide courts and “soft” ball and the other in North America, with its 18½ feet wide courts and “hard” ball and with both courts having the same length of 32 feet the universality of Squash was not seriously challenged. We will look at these two branches separately and also at the way in which Squash spread to almost every nation in the world.
THE WORLD SCENE
In its early days international Squash was controlled by the Squash Rackets Association of England and the United States Squash Rackets Association, but in 1966 representatives of the sport from Australia, Great Britain, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, USA, Canada and the United Arab Republic met in London and agreed to form the International Squash Rackets Association (ISRF), the first meeting of which was held on 5 January 1967.
The ISRF continued to thrive and was amalgamated with the Women’s International Squash Federation in 1985. In 1992 the name of the Federation was changed to the World Squash Federation (WSF), finally recognising that the sport had been universally referred to simply as “Squash”, rather than “Squash Rackets”, for most of its existence.
Squash is played in some 185 countries, on nearly 50,000 courts, and the WSF now has 150 Squash playing National Associations in membership. It is the sole International Federation for the sport, as recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and maintains responsibility for the Rules of the Game, Court and Equipment Specifications, Refereeing and Coaching. The WSF maintains a World Calendar of events, organises and promotes World Championships for Men, Women, Junior Men, Junior Women and Masters age groups in both singles and doubles Squash; and leads its Member Nations in programmes for the development of the sport.
Squash has been played for over 140 years, grown sensationally in the last forty and is now poised to become one of the largest and best loved of all sports.

http://www.worldsquash.org/ws/?page_id=839

Fall in Calgary

Classic Fall pictures. Late Autumn in Calgary 2012

Fall

One of the reasons why I love my apartment - fireplace

А люди как книги

Люди как книги.
Начиная где-то с 12-13 лет меня стали интересовать люди - разные личности, непонятные, потерянные, сильные, умные, глупые, зрелые и не совсем, они стали для меня заменой книг, которые я поглощала страницами начиная с 4 лет. А оказалось, что люди могут быть более интересными, познавательными, поучительными, мотивирующими, чем книги. С тех пор так ничего не изменилось. В дополнении к книгам, я прознаю мир через людей - этих странных и неизведанных, до сих пор для меня, существ..(пауза и смайлик)
Каждый из нас пишет свою, образно говоря, "Книгу жизни"... И когда я встречаю нового человека, я определяю хочу ли я прочесть эту "книгу" от корки до корки, просто полистать или мне достаточно посмотреть на обложку и все становится понятно. А есть такие "произведения", которые хочется перечитывать снова и снова или, прочитав "вступление", потом не терпится "поглотить" эту книгу. Наверное это и есть влюбленность

It's Raining in Love

"It's Raining in Love"
I don't know what it is,
but I distrust myself
when I start to like a girl a lot.

It makes me nervous.
I don’t say the right things
or perhaps I start
to examine,
evaluate,
compute
what I am saying.

If I say, "Do you think it's going to rain?"
and she says, "I don’t know,"
I start thinking: Does she really like me?

In other words
I get a little creepy.

A friend of mine once said,
"It's twenty times better to be friends
with someone
than it is to be in love with them."

I think he's right and besides,
it's raining somewhere, programming flowers
and keeping snails happy.
That's all taken care of.

BUT
if a girl likes me a lot
and starts getting real nervous
and suddenly begins asking me funny questions
and looks sad if I give the wrong answers
and she says things like,
"Do you think it's going to rain?"
and I say, "It beats me,"
and she says, "Oh,"
and looks a little sad
at the clear blue California sky
I think: Thank God, it's you, baby, this time
instead of me.

First Published
Hollow Orange 4 1967: n. pg.
Published at 642 Shrader Street, San Francisco, California by Cranium Press
Edited by Clifford Burke
String tied wrappers
Featured three poems by Brautigan: "Comets," "It's Raining in Love," and "Nine Things."

Commencement speech of Eric Schmidt, Google, Executive Chairman

"Find a way to say yes to things. Say yes to invitations to a new country. Say yes to meeting new friends. Say yes to learning a new language, picking up a new sport. Yes is how you get your first job, and your next job. Yes is how you find your spouse, and even your kids. Even if it's a bit edgy, a bit out of your comfort zone, saying yes means you will do something new, meet someone new, and make a difference in your life, and likely in others' lives as well...Yes is a tiny word that can do big things. Say it often."

About love. Once upon a time...(From "Committed" by Elizabeth Gilbert)

"Once upon a time, Aristophanes relates (in a scene from Plato's The Symposium), there were gods in the heavens and humans down on earth. But we humans did not look the way we look today. Instead, we each had two heads and four legs and four arms - a perfect melding...of two people joined together, seamlessly united into one being. We came in three different possible gender or sexual variations: male/female meldings, male/male meldings, and female/female meldings, depending on what suited each creature the best. Since we each had the perfect partner sewn into the very fabric of our being, we were all happy. Thus, all of us...moved across the earth much the same way that they planets travel through the heavens - dreamily, orderly, smoothly. We lacked for nothing; we had no unmet needs; we wanted nobody. There was no strife and no chaos. We were whole.

But in our wholeness, we became overly proud. In our pride, we neglected to worship the gods. The mighty Zeus punished us for our neglect by cutting all the double-headed, eight-limbed, perfectly contented humans in half, thereby creating a world of cruelly severed one-headed, two-armed, two-legged miserable creatures. In this moment of mass amputation, Zeus inflicted on mankind that most painful of human conditions; the dull and constant sense that we are not quite whole. For the rest of time, humans would be born sensing that there was some missing part - a lost half...and that this missing part was out there someplace, spinning through the universe in the form of another person. We would also be born believing that if only we searched relentlessly enough, we might someday find that vanished half, that other soul. Through union with the other, we would recomplete our original form, never to experience loneliness again.

This is the singular fantasy of human intimacy; that one plus one will somehow, someday, equal one. But Aristophanes warned that this dream of completion-through-love is impossible...the original cleaved halves of the severed eight-limbed humans were far too scattered for any of us to ever find our missing halves again. Sexual union can make a person feel completed and sated for a while (Aristophanes surmised that Zeus had given humans the gift of orgasm out of pity, specifically so that we could feel temporarily melded again...), but eventually, one way or another, we will all be left alone with ourselves in the end. So the loneliness continues, which causes us to mate with the wrong people over and over again, seeking perfected union. We may even believe at times that we have found our other half but it's more likely that all we've found is somebody else who is searching for his other half - somebody who is equally desperate to believe that he has found that completion in us."

Вуди Аллен и его фильм "Полночь в Париже"

Наконец-то посмотрела фильм Вуди Аллена " Полночь в Париже". Не смотря на отзывы, что у этого фильма слишком предсказуемый "сладкий" парижский сюжет, картина мне понравилась.
Мне показалось, именно показалось (хотя Аллен всегда очень многогранен), что я поймала, поняла, уловила идею В. Аллена, талантливейшего сценариста и режиссера нашего времени, что именно он вкладывал в этот фильм, когда созидал, обдумывал кино о Париже. Сейчас попробую объяснить...
Как каждый финансист мечтает жить в Нью-Йорке или Лондоне, каждый по-настоящему творческий человек, наверное (я не творческий человек), мечтает жить в Париже -в городе, который содержит в себе неисчерпаемый и вседоступный запас энергии, побуждающий писать стихи, книги, сценарии и картины. Для самого Вуди Аллена 1920-е годы в Париже обладают именно тем магнетизмом, той историей, которая его вдохновляла и вдохновляет. Неудивительно, что фильм наполнен великими художниками, писателями, композиторами того времени, их произведения, высказывания позволяют беспокойной творческой душе творить, созидать, двигаться вперед; и так будет всегда, что и являлось одним из скромных озарений главного героя - в Прекрасную Эпоху (Belle Époque) таким маяком была эпоха Возрождения (Renaissance), а для главного героя фильма это Париж 1920-го.
Меня приятно удивил актер Оуэн Уилсон ( Owen Wilson), которого я помню по фильмам с Джеки Чаном. Удивила его способность сравнительно точно передавать манеру разговора Вуди Аллена, в начале фильма я даже приняла голос за кадром за голос Аллена.
И последнее наблюдение: Вуди Аллен, почти во всех своих фильмах, очень внимательно исследует отношения между мужчиной и женщиной, а именно то, что ведет к браку или к любым долгосрочным отношениям, и во многих картинах Аллена можно отследить как он, через талантливо написанные диалоги своих героев, демонстрирует деструктивную структуру брака, "случайных" партнерских обязательств, особенно если это касается творческого роста и развития. В фильме "Полночь в Париже" главный герой, проявив силу, непонятно откуда проявившегося, характера, избегает стереотипного, тормозящего его в творчестве (наверное по мнению Аллена) брака.
Иными словами, фильм заканчивается, так как зритель хотел бы его завершить - все неотвеченные вопросы отвечены, решительные действия предприняты, герой движется вперед. Аллен с возрастом становится все более снисходителен к своим поклонникам, не забывая при этом расширить их кругозор. Я лично для себя открыла музыканта и композитора Коула Портера и писательницу и критика Гертруду Штайн. Уже приступила к изучению их творчества.
Я не знаю, если Аллен задумывался об этом, но могу с уверенностью сказать, что для меня лично он давно вошел в список величайших представителей американского кинематографа 1970-2010 годов, и может быть кто-нибудь в 2090 году будет завидовать мне, что я жила в одну эпоху с братьями Коэн, Вуди Алленом, Тарантино, Германом, Гришковцом, Улицкой, Radiohead и т.д.