The seven questions meme
From moth2fic. Miles of happily meandering babbling ahead. Comment if you'd like the magnificent seven for you.
1) Are there many birds around your house to photograph and which are your favourite 'subjects' among them?
There's more of birds than people use to expect in towns, even not metropolies. Rooks, jackdaws, magpies and tits are ubiquitous. Plenty of singing little things will come with the spring, and chaffinchs are the loudest and, besides starlings, the easiest to see, when larks are the first to sing and never to be seen. Once in a blue moon, there comes a hooded crow or a woodpecker, flashing its red cap, not caring about cars a few metres below. Fieldfares ceased to come in winter, when the nearest rowan tree was cut down, and I don't remember when for the last time I saw a waxwing or a bullfinch here. Sadly, there's almost no sparrows in the city, they lost against pigeons, same as collared doves, when twenty or fifteen years ago they were everywhere, and you were surprised seeing a pigeon. For mallards and gulls I'd have to go a kilometer or more, same as for jays or wagtails, and you never know when and where you'll suddenly spot a blackbird or a stork or, a breathtaking experience, a black stork, a half-legendary creature from books and red lists, hardly believable when flying or walking into a real day of the real life, not caring about your dropping jaw.
Maybe impressive magpies or woodpeckers or jays are tempting targets when planned home, but in fact, such things aren't something to plan. The most tempting target is the bird just at the moment hopping before the lens, the best photo is the one with a good focus, composition, background and, last but not least, the bird's pose and expression. A good photo of an old, moulting hen is better than a poor photo of a black stork. One can dream, of course, and hope that someday you'll catch a tern hovering over a river and staring into water or even darting for a fish. But it's mostly the matter of luck, and a popular sight doesn't have to mean an easy photo, like the everyday choice of swallows presenting a nearly impossible shot. Not to mention that when you'll walk through the city park with an ice-cream in hand, nuthatches will be marching trunks in four rows and singing Happy Birthday, but when you stalk with a camera, the park is absolutely nuthatchless.
2) What are your feelings and emotions with regard to cats?
My feelings for cats are fluffy! >^.^< Just like I wrote in the five words meme.
3) I know you enjoy art; what is your preferred medium?
It's never the one and only. Every medium, every school, every style has its merits and unique features. As a receiver, I pay much attention to the skill and the style of an artist. They can be similar, but there's no two identical styles, same as in writing. They identify like fingerprints. And it's often that a medium is a part of a style, cause artists have their preferences, and with time, the medium becomes a part of their identity, its characteristic features, difficulties and possibilities show in the artist's hand.
Individual styles aside, I like media which distinctly show the tool - pencil grains on thick paper, half-transparent strokes of digital speed painting, dried stains in watercolor and so on. Hyperrealistic works hiding any traces of tools are amazing too, but in other way. I admire watercolors very much, for many reasons: well done, they depict things very faithfully, at the same time showing very clearly their own structure; they're very “light”, look casual and deceptively simple; they demand a lot of courage, probably the only medium even less forgiving mistakes must be Chinese ink painting on silk. I like also things on the verge of art and trick: mosaic images, typographic images, trompe l'oeils... Anything where the medium is the core part of the idea. I love also very detailed, intricate things, keeping an eye, leading it to and fro, making it to look closely and carefully... Arabic ornaments and calligraphy, gothic architecture... or aerial and satellite photos.
Myself, I prefer media needing simple tools and possible to correct, mostly just a pencil. Funny, when I take a pen, I always have my heart in throat and I'm half sure it'll go wrong, cause it's hard to correct mistakes in pen, and then I'm surprised that my line is often better with this, than in pencil. And the next time I'm anxious again, and again... Graphic software determines the result too, but one can talk rather about software families than single programs. Sometimes there are also some differences in the latter group, like the veiled, feather-soft outcome of Apophysis, compared to heavy solids and metallic sheets of Incendia, both fractal software. But most often, comparing Photoshop to GIMP is like comparing Staedtler's pencil to Koh-i-Noor's pencil, not pencils in general to watercolors. So, talking about choices in digital media is talking about kinds of graphic. Oddly enough, I rather don't like vector graphics, though maybe I could, with its automatically corrected lines and leading of errand hand. But it feels too smooth to me, somehow cold and artificial, and I use it very rarely. Besides, as a total amateur, I most often use just manipulating tools, like GIMP, more than painters. My dream about a software able to read imagination is still unfulfilled. :)
4) How much do you know about the Polish anti-ACTA protests and is there any further info?
I'm pretty certain that there's more to learn than I've gathered, but on the other hand, I'm more interested in discussions and single articles, than every news, statistics, reports and so on.
The main and current facts in shortest words: 1. Poland officially signed ACTA on January 26th; 2. the act needs ratification yet, to come into effect; 3. not all the Government & the Parliament is like-minded, and some offices, especially Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data, have been protesting long before it became good for popularity, not to mention that even not-lawyers can see that ACTA clashes with the Polish Constitution, so the Constitutional Tribunal can have the last word; 4. no one, even people supporting ACTA, thinks the matter is finished.
Now, in my personal view, the official facts aren't the most interesting things here. Actually, IMHO, they aren't even the most important. The things which are, are more complicate, but far more worth a look and a thought.
a. Politicians.
Russians have a saying for that, и страшно, и смешно, i strashno, i smeshno, 'frightful and funny at once'. Politicians in general are regarded hardly better than pimps, and I doubt it's unlike in most of countries, but this time, the ACTA affair presented the best theatre in town, a surreal grotesque for free, no tickets needed. Every day you had bigger and bigger eyes, really. At first, it started with the social outrage that ACTA was discussed and accepted in secret, and that it was accepted at all, but quickly you began to feel as if you inquired a little boy about the wet floor in a room, and he said 'Oh, but I wasn't there from yesterday at all, and I didn't bring any cat at all, and that gold fish was old anyway!' 'Huh?', you think, 'the fish...? The fish, where is it, indeed!!!' In first days, Anonymous put down a few official sites, the Parliament and some ministries including. The first official words of the spokesman? “Don't worry, we haven't seen any ugly hackers, cause there's nothing stolen or changed. The sites are just overloaded, we're very happy of such popularity!” Well, in case if you were intrigued about these guffaws of laughter which surely were audible over three oceans, now you know what it was for... Next attackers weren't only Anonymous and DDoS, a few governmental sites got, ahem, variable addings, including the own site of the spokesman, which, reportedly, welcomed visitors with words “And now? Will you say again about popularity?”, and other one announced “What we found here, was: Login: admin, Password: admin1”. This time, many people didn't believe. Once you're in, you can write what you like, and who can prove that true or fake? Because, come on, there are some limits of idiocy in the world, right? No, turned out there aren't. The interviewed Minister of Digitalization (yay! btw I've learned we have such a ministry! I'm waiting to learn yet what useful work it does, if any), asked about that, told more or less “Well, we're beginning in the virtual world, we're learning yet”. Curtain, please.
The thing is, that the Government and politicians in general turned out utterly surprised and bewildered about matters they have to cope with. And no, I don't mean just “the virtual world”, but the sort of people who demanded answers. It clearly looks like the Government didn't realize that this time they didn’t talk to a mute mob gathered around TVs, but their words were checked and verified in minutes after telling, cause that's how the Internet works. That's why this time it weren't just lies, but silly, infantile lies, and a blunder after a blunder. One can wonder whether they got at last, what was wrong with telling “we have to sign, cause all countries signed already!” (in time when no one signed yet, except USA and Japan), or with deleting of five thousands anti-ACTA comments from the Prime Minister's official Facebook account, on claim that they were vulgar. Irony of the fate, one of the very few politicians with the mature approach to the matter, responsive and willing to serious talk with outraged people, turned out a transsexual deputy, just having started her political career and, of course, despised by many 'decent & God-fearing' politicians. Sadly but unsurprisingly, at the same time not so decent in the ACTA affair. There's still a long way to the real decency, but seems that the Government realized at last about the disaster of public relation, cause now there are heaps of hurried political correctness, not that it makes the Government sounding more honest... In the top days of protests, the Prime Minister was oh-so-firm-and-order-loving, saying “we can't bow under blackmail”, and now, after signing, he's all “it was too haste and without consideration of public opinion”. No, really? What a surprise...
b. Media.
It's not so very surprising that mainstream TVs failed in looking objective, in a such matter, but the real fail was that journalists seemed hardly better oriented than politicians. Radio stations seemed a bit more understanding what's going on, and I don’t know about paper media, but anyway, that's TV who rules the public opinion the most. And turning TV on, you could think that TV journalists came here from Mars, or maybe that's you who is an E.T.? “Internauts came out on streets!” Yep, usually we know no sunlight, not to mention we don't go to work, school, shops, that's not we, who every day fills streets, that's not we, who drives, buys, sells, teaches, runs businesses, offices, hospitals, universities and railway stations. Most of non-Internet aspects of ACTA drowned in all that, it was just plenty of kids... *cough* ...sorry, “young people” making strange fuss, cause someone “mislead and instigated them” (seriously, I’m quoting).
c. At the side of E.T.s.
As you maybe noticed, I'm writing “was”, cause the main storm seems to be done. Nevertheless, still there are coming new voices from time to time, not only from single people and not only from 'Internauts', whatever it means in this case. Besides online petitions, there is at least one serious, mass action for organizing a referendum (with paper, real signs and so on). Institutes of social sciences began to run researches and are sending polls for opinions on ACTA.
It seems that the force of the storm was surprising for everyone. I'm not sure how it looked from abroad, especially that it covered more or less all the Europe (if we talk only about ACTA protests), so it’s hard to point at something unique in a particular country. In the space of a week, there were dozens and hundreds of thousands signs in petitions and thousands people on streets. Actually, it were street protests, what really woke uninterested or oblivious non-Internet media, cause the general Anonymous’ Tango Down, two or three days before, was only a minor curiosity. The protests were in dozens of towns, from a few hundreds to dozens of thousands people each one. A less mentioned fact, unfortunately that week was the hardest week of this winter, -15°C or worse, in the middle of day, and yet there were crowds and crowds. The Internet, of course, seethed all the time. There were also opinions of lawyers, pointing dangers of ACTA one by one, and of artists, mostly musicians and writers, the majority of them (seriously, I know 1 (one) exception) outraged and saying that all this “protection” in such a form makes more harm to them than helps. A fantasy writer, Ewa Białołęcka, described how it would make her creative work very hard, cause, you know, makers and consumers of culture are actually the same people.
Many people, me including, says that it's not just the ACTA matter, but that ACTA is only a chapter in a longer and bigger story. Many thinks and feels that we're eyewitnesses and participants of a moment in history. Such was the feeling of what you could see on streets and in the Net. All deficiency of mainstream media aside, still it was the first time when you could hear about the file sharing culture and the current reality of the Internet in the public TV, in a live transmission (there was a debate in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister on February 6th, with Internet journalists, bloggers and scientists invited; press material in English, video, transcription), and that was quite an unusual feeling. I share the view of people who say that they from longer time expected the evolution if not revolution of the intellectual property law, clearly not fitting problems of the present world and, in this context, ACTA and similar things are a disappointing and astonishing surprise, cause it petrifies the current state and even intensify its fails. I share also opinion of these who say that averting ACTA doesn't finish the matter, cause ACTA is just a symptom, not the disease itself.
5) I know you love Sharpe and PotC. Are there any other films/series you really like?
Oddly enough, in the last years I almost ceased to watch anything, comparing to previous years/decades. Now it's maybe a dozen of films a year, and most of my old fascinations are more memories than current interests. Quite probable that I'm on a hiatus of sort...
If we talk about films, literally, there's no particular fancies in my choices, now. Out of fannish interest I'll go for anything with Johnny Depp, and, occasionally, for different things sparking my curiosity, like Agora, or The King's Speech, or Puss in Boots (nah, that wasn't curiosity, that was must-see duty *g*). I like Disney and Disney-like animations, The Lion King is sort of my 'Top 5 of the Most Important in the Life', and in newer ones I like Shrek and Ratatouille. Most of my life I'm also a die-hard fan of Looney Tunes, that is Buggs Bunny & Co. I always support that idiot Sylvester, damn that yellow nuisance... And Tom&Jerry, but only the old ones, up to ‘70! And speaking of old ones, there always are things which you've seen a hundred and fourteen times, rarely or never from the opening credits, but when they're aired for the hundred and fifteenth time and the TV is on, you always somehow stop in passing, and begin to watch, no matter from which moment, things like The Great Escape, or Dirty Dozen, or Benji the Hunted, or Polish Jak rozpętałem II wojnę światową. For films in general, I like things with atmosphere and original, well cared look. Tim Burton has the credit of trust from me, though not always pays it back. Sf & fantasy of '80 (more or less) has some particular flavour for me, Willow, Labyrinth, John Carpenter's films, The Fly, Alien... I'm also delighted by LotR, but I don't consider myself a real fan.
If we talk not so much about literal 'films' as rather 'fandoms', there are things I'm in obsessive love with, things I'm on friendly terms with, and things I more or less enjoy to read/watch. If 'really like' means the first group, then this answer would be a very short list, cause currently it's only PotC and Sharpe. The list of friends is a bit longer; they're things staying with me at least a dozen years or more and aren't on my mind constantly, but I'll prick my ears at anything related to them. I'm a fan of Good Omens, obsessively years ago, then lurking the fandom for a year or so, now a bit less. Also Discworld, but I'm not interested in the fandom, except fanarts, sometimes. Others long-year 'friends' are rather given authors in general, than any particular works of them. Terry Pratchett, Joanna Chmielewska, Szymon Kobyliński, Stephen King. The list of things just liked, hm... Some films are up there, and some of authors: Jane Austen, Gerald Durrell, Janusz Zajdel, Mark Twain, Dennis Lehane, Kir Bulychev… Actually, the border between 'friends' and 'enjoyed ones' is rather volatile.
I rarely like poetry. In fiction, I'm for Sf & fantasy or history, a bit less for crime & detective or adventure or western, the least for pure romance or drama.
I don't find myself in the general 'Yay! TV shows!'. I tried this and that, casted a few glances here and there, but it didn't work. There was a time, when I'd been keeping the trace of fifteen TV shows at once, but the last one I really cared for, it was Nash Bridges. Another popular thing entirely out of my world is manga & anime, which catches my eye or gives me a fleeting smile at the best, leaves me indifferent at most of cases, and repels at the worst (I'm pathologically allergic for some of manga expressions and anime “agog” animation of movement).
6) Which season of the year do you like best and why?
Spring, I think, cause it's fresh, fragrant and promising, especially May. It's like the first of free days, better than the last one, half-spoiled by the perspective of what comes after. But in general, every season has its merits, as long as it doesn't make walking hard, with layers of clothes, knife-sharp air, icy or slushy roads.
7) What sort of music do you listen to most often?
It's not 'what do I listen to most often', but 'what do I listen to at all'. I'm a visual animal, I'm not able to live without reading and any gallery/album catches my eye immediately, but it's quite natural to me, to pass weeks and months with not a thought about music. My idea of relax is a book in silence. Background music in everyday situations is more an annoying distraction than a need, for me. I assume that the music in a movie is good, when I notice it at all.
There is music which just flows around me, in buses, in shops, in every place where people feel uncomfortable without some working volumes. Most often it's just radio with the current top list or evergreens. I'm sick of 10% of what I hear (e.g. most of hip hop, or Polish group Sistars, or also Polish exhumed revived Kombii), I'm bored with 80% (e.g. Anastacia, or Shakira, or Robbie Williams, or Polish Piasek), mildly pleased with 5% (e.g. Lady GaGa's Alejandro or Polish IRA's Taki sam, or also Polish De Mono's Życie to sen), and quite happy with the last 5% (e.g. Queen, or Bee Gees, or Polish Budka Suflera, or single pieces, like Adiemus, or Polish Lady Pank's Zostawcie Titanica). But in general, I remember most of that when I hear it, and forget immediately after, and when it follows me, I'm annoyed.
There is also music which I listen to deliberately and enjoy when it follows me. Usually it's not “I must hear something, anything now!”, but “I like it, so I must find time for listening to it”. Most probably I'd be able to write down these cases from all my life, and most probably I wouldn't need more than twenty numbers for this list. Most often, they are no sorts of music, nor even all groups, but single pieces. In the last years, due of the Internet, there was more of such things than in all my life before. Between others, it was PotC soundtrack, Sweeney Todd (the movie) soundtrack, Genesis' Firth of Fifth (for the guitar), Satanorium (I like sung poetry in good performances, and Satanorium is my favourite concert, shown in 1997; here's a few songs of that: 1, 2, 3), some chosen songs of Katarzyna Groniec (e.g. Port Amsterdam, Godzina miłowania, Ona jest), a few musical pieces: El Tango de Roxanne (my reaction for Moulin Rouge can be described mostly as 'Huh...? Ugh... Yawn...', with one except of Tango, which is gorgeous!), Chicago's Cell Block Tango, some of Notre Dame de Paris in the performance of Robert Janowski (Cathedrals and, with Garou, Belle), and a few dozen of shanties and shanty-or-folk-like things.
In general, the lyrics matters a lot to me, and it's more probable that I'll like a distinct melody than something jazz-like. But I don't consider myself a music lover.
1) Are there many birds around your house to photograph and which are your favourite 'subjects' among them?
There's more of birds than people use to expect in towns, even not metropolies. Rooks, jackdaws, magpies and tits are ubiquitous. Plenty of singing little things will come with the spring, and chaffinchs are the loudest and, besides starlings, the easiest to see, when larks are the first to sing and never to be seen. Once in a blue moon, there comes a hooded crow or a woodpecker, flashing its red cap, not caring about cars a few metres below. Fieldfares ceased to come in winter, when the nearest rowan tree was cut down, and I don't remember when for the last time I saw a waxwing or a bullfinch here. Sadly, there's almost no sparrows in the city, they lost against pigeons, same as collared doves, when twenty or fifteen years ago they were everywhere, and you were surprised seeing a pigeon. For mallards and gulls I'd have to go a kilometer or more, same as for jays or wagtails, and you never know when and where you'll suddenly spot a blackbird or a stork or, a breathtaking experience, a black stork, a half-legendary creature from books and red lists, hardly believable when flying or walking into a real day of the real life, not caring about your dropping jaw.
Maybe impressive magpies or woodpeckers or jays are tempting targets when planned home, but in fact, such things aren't something to plan. The most tempting target is the bird just at the moment hopping before the lens, the best photo is the one with a good focus, composition, background and, last but not least, the bird's pose and expression. A good photo of an old, moulting hen is better than a poor photo of a black stork. One can dream, of course, and hope that someday you'll catch a tern hovering over a river and staring into water or even darting for a fish. But it's mostly the matter of luck, and a popular sight doesn't have to mean an easy photo, like the everyday choice of swallows presenting a nearly impossible shot. Not to mention that when you'll walk through the city park with an ice-cream in hand, nuthatches will be marching trunks in four rows and singing Happy Birthday, but when you stalk with a camera, the park is absolutely nuthatchless.
2) What are your feelings and emotions with regard to cats?
My feelings for cats are fluffy! >^.^< Just like I wrote in the five words meme.
3) I know you enjoy art; what is your preferred medium?
It's never the one and only. Every medium, every school, every style has its merits and unique features. As a receiver, I pay much attention to the skill and the style of an artist. They can be similar, but there's no two identical styles, same as in writing. They identify like fingerprints. And it's often that a medium is a part of a style, cause artists have their preferences, and with time, the medium becomes a part of their identity, its characteristic features, difficulties and possibilities show in the artist's hand.
Individual styles aside, I like media which distinctly show the tool - pencil grains on thick paper, half-transparent strokes of digital speed painting, dried stains in watercolor and so on. Hyperrealistic works hiding any traces of tools are amazing too, but in other way. I admire watercolors very much, for many reasons: well done, they depict things very faithfully, at the same time showing very clearly their own structure; they're very “light”, look casual and deceptively simple; they demand a lot of courage, probably the only medium even less forgiving mistakes must be Chinese ink painting on silk. I like also things on the verge of art and trick: mosaic images, typographic images, trompe l'oeils... Anything where the medium is the core part of the idea. I love also very detailed, intricate things, keeping an eye, leading it to and fro, making it to look closely and carefully... Arabic ornaments and calligraphy, gothic architecture... or aerial and satellite photos.
Myself, I prefer media needing simple tools and possible to correct, mostly just a pencil. Funny, when I take a pen, I always have my heart in throat and I'm half sure it'll go wrong, cause it's hard to correct mistakes in pen, and then I'm surprised that my line is often better with this, than in pencil. And the next time I'm anxious again, and again... Graphic software determines the result too, but one can talk rather about software families than single programs. Sometimes there are also some differences in the latter group, like the veiled, feather-soft outcome of Apophysis, compared to heavy solids and metallic sheets of Incendia, both fractal software. But most often, comparing Photoshop to GIMP is like comparing Staedtler's pencil to Koh-i-Noor's pencil, not pencils in general to watercolors. So, talking about choices in digital media is talking about kinds of graphic. Oddly enough, I rather don't like vector graphics, though maybe I could, with its automatically corrected lines and leading of errand hand. But it feels too smooth to me, somehow cold and artificial, and I use it very rarely. Besides, as a total amateur, I most often use just manipulating tools, like GIMP, more than painters. My dream about a software able to read imagination is still unfulfilled. :)
4) How much do you know about the Polish anti-ACTA protests and is there any further info?
I'm pretty certain that there's more to learn than I've gathered, but on the other hand, I'm more interested in discussions and single articles, than every news, statistics, reports and so on.
The main and current facts in shortest words: 1. Poland officially signed ACTA on January 26th; 2. the act needs ratification yet, to come into effect; 3. not all the Government & the Parliament is like-minded, and some offices, especially Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data, have been protesting long before it became good for popularity, not to mention that even not-lawyers can see that ACTA clashes with the Polish Constitution, so the Constitutional Tribunal can have the last word; 4. no one, even people supporting ACTA, thinks the matter is finished.
Now, in my personal view, the official facts aren't the most interesting things here. Actually, IMHO, they aren't even the most important. The things which are, are more complicate, but far more worth a look and a thought.
a. Politicians.
Russians have a saying for that, и страшно, и смешно, i strashno, i smeshno, 'frightful and funny at once'. Politicians in general are regarded hardly better than pimps, and I doubt it's unlike in most of countries, but this time, the ACTA affair presented the best theatre in town, a surreal grotesque for free, no tickets needed. Every day you had bigger and bigger eyes, really. At first, it started with the social outrage that ACTA was discussed and accepted in secret, and that it was accepted at all, but quickly you began to feel as if you inquired a little boy about the wet floor in a room, and he said 'Oh, but I wasn't there from yesterday at all, and I didn't bring any cat at all, and that gold fish was old anyway!' 'Huh?', you think, 'the fish...? The fish, where is it, indeed!!!' In first days, Anonymous put down a few official sites, the Parliament and some ministries including. The first official words of the spokesman? “Don't worry, we haven't seen any ugly hackers, cause there's nothing stolen or changed. The sites are just overloaded, we're very happy of such popularity!” Well, in case if you were intrigued about these guffaws of laughter which surely were audible over three oceans, now you know what it was for... Next attackers weren't only Anonymous and DDoS, a few governmental sites got, ahem, variable addings, including the own site of the spokesman, which, reportedly, welcomed visitors with words “And now? Will you say again about popularity?”, and other one announced “What we found here, was: Login: admin, Password: admin1”. This time, many people didn't believe. Once you're in, you can write what you like, and who can prove that true or fake? Because, come on, there are some limits of idiocy in the world, right? No, turned out there aren't. The interviewed Minister of Digitalization (yay! btw I've learned we have such a ministry! I'm waiting to learn yet what useful work it does, if any), asked about that, told more or less “Well, we're beginning in the virtual world, we're learning yet”. Curtain, please.
The thing is, that the Government and politicians in general turned out utterly surprised and bewildered about matters they have to cope with. And no, I don't mean just “the virtual world”, but the sort of people who demanded answers. It clearly looks like the Government didn't realize that this time they didn’t talk to a mute mob gathered around TVs, but their words were checked and verified in minutes after telling, cause that's how the Internet works. That's why this time it weren't just lies, but silly, infantile lies, and a blunder after a blunder. One can wonder whether they got at last, what was wrong with telling “we have to sign, cause all countries signed already!” (in time when no one signed yet, except USA and Japan), or with deleting of five thousands anti-ACTA comments from the Prime Minister's official Facebook account, on claim that they were vulgar. Irony of the fate, one of the very few politicians with the mature approach to the matter, responsive and willing to serious talk with outraged people, turned out a transsexual deputy, just having started her political career and, of course, despised by many 'decent & God-fearing' politicians. Sadly but unsurprisingly, at the same time not so decent in the ACTA affair. There's still a long way to the real decency, but seems that the Government realized at last about the disaster of public relation, cause now there are heaps of hurried political correctness, not that it makes the Government sounding more honest... In the top days of protests, the Prime Minister was oh-so-firm-and-order-loving, saying “we can't bow under blackmail”, and now, after signing, he's all “it was too haste and without consideration of public opinion”. No, really? What a surprise...
b. Media.
It's not so very surprising that mainstream TVs failed in looking objective, in a such matter, but the real fail was that journalists seemed hardly better oriented than politicians. Radio stations seemed a bit more understanding what's going on, and I don’t know about paper media, but anyway, that's TV who rules the public opinion the most. And turning TV on, you could think that TV journalists came here from Mars, or maybe that's you who is an E.T.? “Internauts came out on streets!” Yep, usually we know no sunlight, not to mention we don't go to work, school, shops, that's not we, who every day fills streets, that's not we, who drives, buys, sells, teaches, runs businesses, offices, hospitals, universities and railway stations. Most of non-Internet aspects of ACTA drowned in all that, it was just plenty of kids... *cough* ...sorry, “young people” making strange fuss, cause someone “mislead and instigated them” (seriously, I’m quoting).
c. At the side of E.T.s.
As you maybe noticed, I'm writing “was”, cause the main storm seems to be done. Nevertheless, still there are coming new voices from time to time, not only from single people and not only from 'Internauts', whatever it means in this case. Besides online petitions, there is at least one serious, mass action for organizing a referendum (with paper, real signs and so on). Institutes of social sciences began to run researches and are sending polls for opinions on ACTA.
It seems that the force of the storm was surprising for everyone. I'm not sure how it looked from abroad, especially that it covered more or less all the Europe (if we talk only about ACTA protests), so it’s hard to point at something unique in a particular country. In the space of a week, there were dozens and hundreds of thousands signs in petitions and thousands people on streets. Actually, it were street protests, what really woke uninterested or oblivious non-Internet media, cause the general Anonymous’ Tango Down, two or three days before, was only a minor curiosity. The protests were in dozens of towns, from a few hundreds to dozens of thousands people each one. A less mentioned fact, unfortunately that week was the hardest week of this winter, -15°C or worse, in the middle of day, and yet there were crowds and crowds. The Internet, of course, seethed all the time. There were also opinions of lawyers, pointing dangers of ACTA one by one, and of artists, mostly musicians and writers, the majority of them (seriously, I know 1 (one) exception) outraged and saying that all this “protection” in such a form makes more harm to them than helps. A fantasy writer, Ewa Białołęcka, described how it would make her creative work very hard, cause, you know, makers and consumers of culture are actually the same people.
Many people, me including, says that it's not just the ACTA matter, but that ACTA is only a chapter in a longer and bigger story. Many thinks and feels that we're eyewitnesses and participants of a moment in history. Such was the feeling of what you could see on streets and in the Net. All deficiency of mainstream media aside, still it was the first time when you could hear about the file sharing culture and the current reality of the Internet in the public TV, in a live transmission (there was a debate in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister on February 6th, with Internet journalists, bloggers and scientists invited; press material in English, video, transcription), and that was quite an unusual feeling. I share the view of people who say that they from longer time expected the evolution if not revolution of the intellectual property law, clearly not fitting problems of the present world and, in this context, ACTA and similar things are a disappointing and astonishing surprise, cause it petrifies the current state and even intensify its fails. I share also opinion of these who say that averting ACTA doesn't finish the matter, cause ACTA is just a symptom, not the disease itself.
5) I know you love Sharpe and PotC. Are there any other films/series you really like?
Oddly enough, in the last years I almost ceased to watch anything, comparing to previous years/decades. Now it's maybe a dozen of films a year, and most of my old fascinations are more memories than current interests. Quite probable that I'm on a hiatus of sort...
If we talk about films, literally, there's no particular fancies in my choices, now. Out of fannish interest I'll go for anything with Johnny Depp, and, occasionally, for different things sparking my curiosity, like Agora, or The King's Speech, or Puss in Boots (nah, that wasn't curiosity, that was must-see duty *g*). I like Disney and Disney-like animations, The Lion King is sort of my 'Top 5 of the Most Important in the Life', and in newer ones I like Shrek and Ratatouille. Most of my life I'm also a die-hard fan of Looney Tunes, that is Buggs Bunny & Co. I always support that idiot Sylvester, damn that yellow nuisance... And Tom&Jerry, but only the old ones, up to ‘70! And speaking of old ones, there always are things which you've seen a hundred and fourteen times, rarely or never from the opening credits, but when they're aired for the hundred and fifteenth time and the TV is on, you always somehow stop in passing, and begin to watch, no matter from which moment, things like The Great Escape, or Dirty Dozen, or Benji the Hunted, or Polish Jak rozpętałem II wojnę światową. For films in general, I like things with atmosphere and original, well cared look. Tim Burton has the credit of trust from me, though not always pays it back. Sf & fantasy of '80 (more or less) has some particular flavour for me, Willow, Labyrinth, John Carpenter's films, The Fly, Alien... I'm also delighted by LotR, but I don't consider myself a real fan.
If we talk not so much about literal 'films' as rather 'fandoms', there are things I'm in obsessive love with, things I'm on friendly terms with, and things I more or less enjoy to read/watch. If 'really like' means the first group, then this answer would be a very short list, cause currently it's only PotC and Sharpe. The list of friends is a bit longer; they're things staying with me at least a dozen years or more and aren't on my mind constantly, but I'll prick my ears at anything related to them. I'm a fan of Good Omens, obsessively years ago, then lurking the fandom for a year or so, now a bit less. Also Discworld, but I'm not interested in the fandom, except fanarts, sometimes. Others long-year 'friends' are rather given authors in general, than any particular works of them. Terry Pratchett, Joanna Chmielewska, Szymon Kobyliński, Stephen King. The list of things just liked, hm... Some films are up there, and some of authors: Jane Austen, Gerald Durrell, Janusz Zajdel, Mark Twain, Dennis Lehane, Kir Bulychev… Actually, the border between 'friends' and 'enjoyed ones' is rather volatile.
I rarely like poetry. In fiction, I'm for Sf & fantasy or history, a bit less for crime & detective or adventure or western, the least for pure romance or drama.
I don't find myself in the general 'Yay! TV shows!'. I tried this and that, casted a few glances here and there, but it didn't work. There was a time, when I'd been keeping the trace of fifteen TV shows at once, but the last one I really cared for, it was Nash Bridges. Another popular thing entirely out of my world is manga & anime, which catches my eye or gives me a fleeting smile at the best, leaves me indifferent at most of cases, and repels at the worst (I'm pathologically allergic for some of manga expressions and anime “agog” animation of movement).
6) Which season of the year do you like best and why?
Spring, I think, cause it's fresh, fragrant and promising, especially May. It's like the first of free days, better than the last one, half-spoiled by the perspective of what comes after. But in general, every season has its merits, as long as it doesn't make walking hard, with layers of clothes, knife-sharp air, icy or slushy roads.
7) What sort of music do you listen to most often?
It's not 'what do I listen to most often', but 'what do I listen to at all'. I'm a visual animal, I'm not able to live without reading and any gallery/album catches my eye immediately, but it's quite natural to me, to pass weeks and months with not a thought about music. My idea of relax is a book in silence. Background music in everyday situations is more an annoying distraction than a need, for me. I assume that the music in a movie is good, when I notice it at all.
There is music which just flows around me, in buses, in shops, in every place where people feel uncomfortable without some working volumes. Most often it's just radio with the current top list or evergreens. I'm sick of 10% of what I hear (e.g. most of hip hop, or Polish group Sistars, or also Polish exhumed revived Kombii), I'm bored with 80% (e.g. Anastacia, or Shakira, or Robbie Williams, or Polish Piasek), mildly pleased with 5% (e.g. Lady GaGa's Alejandro or Polish IRA's Taki sam, or also Polish De Mono's Życie to sen), and quite happy with the last 5% (e.g. Queen, or Bee Gees, or Polish Budka Suflera, or single pieces, like Adiemus, or Polish Lady Pank's Zostawcie Titanica). But in general, I remember most of that when I hear it, and forget immediately after, and when it follows me, I'm annoyed.
There is also music which I listen to deliberately and enjoy when it follows me. Usually it's not “I must hear something, anything now!”, but “I like it, so I must find time for listening to it”. Most probably I'd be able to write down these cases from all my life, and most probably I wouldn't need more than twenty numbers for this list. Most often, they are no sorts of music, nor even all groups, but single pieces. In the last years, due of the Internet, there was more of such things than in all my life before. Between others, it was PotC soundtrack, Sweeney Todd (the movie) soundtrack, Genesis' Firth of Fifth (for the guitar), Satanorium (I like sung poetry in good performances, and Satanorium is my favourite concert, shown in 1997; here's a few songs of that: 1, 2, 3), some chosen songs of Katarzyna Groniec (e.g. Port Amsterdam, Godzina miłowania, Ona jest), a few musical pieces: El Tango de Roxanne (my reaction for Moulin Rouge can be described mostly as 'Huh...? Ugh... Yawn...', with one except of Tango, which is gorgeous!), Chicago's Cell Block Tango, some of Notre Dame de Paris in the performance of Robert Janowski (Cathedrals and, with Garou, Belle), and a few dozen of shanties and shanty-or-folk-like things.
In general, the lyrics matters a lot to me, and it's more probable that I'll like a distinct melody than something jazz-like. But I don't consider myself a music lover.