tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61901382011-04-21T19:48:48.799-04:00Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comBlogger291100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1092581532636402482004-08-15T10:48:00.000-04:002004-08-15T10:52:12.636-04:00

I just submitted another nomination, I guess making the sins in my books 9, instead of 7 or 8. Here it is: A nomination for the 8th deadly - close/narrow mindedness. Narrow mindedness (in the sense of resistance to knowledge) means one is closed to acknowledging, considering, let alone understanding, alternatives to one's point that occur on one's path after the point of indoctrination (

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1090778571064955292004-07-25T13:58:00.000-04:002004-07-25T14:02:51.063-04:00

I just emailed BBC my nomination for the 8th deadly sin as part of a programme on my favourite radio channel, called Midsummer Sins, examining the deadly sins from a contemporary perspective. The programme's subtitle promises to verify the relevance the 7 deadly sins have today.  However, I suspect that the 7 deadly since are perhaps beyond historical evaluation since they refer to those human

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1090774099892726932004-07-25T12:47:00.000-04:002004-07-25T12:48:19.893-04:00

Dishonesty/deception (together with judgment) is the gravest trespassing against the human spirit and at the bottom of our failure to understand and come to terms with ourselves and the world around. Dishonesty in the sense of self-deception where the tendency to twist our mind, the facts, others perception, in the implicit hope of seeing and/or validating whatever our cultural/ideological

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1087154056780184552004-06-13T14:08:00.000-04:002004-06-13T15:26:24.300-04:00

Time does not heal. It smudges, allowing dust, rubble and other perishables to pile upon the wound - submerging it in the recesses of our understanding until it is barely detectable and, we believe, forgotten. But Alzheimer's disease is hardly a state of healthy oblivion. Only awareness can treat a wound - dusting it, cleaning it and letting oxygen heal it while we face the adversary who's

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1087081549324956202004-06-12T18:47:00.000-04:002004-06-12T19:09:09.533-04:00

Why can't we manage our lives, our time that is (since what is life but the relentless passing of time in one direction - death)? That was the question of the conversation we were having with a colleague when she remarked: "We are greedy for materials when it comes to creating our artwork. Imagine," she said,"having $1,000 and thinking of all the things this amount could buy - it could buy you a

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1079326597560042812004-03-14T23:56:00.000-05:002004-03-14T23:59:52.513-05:00

Long live the man who captured the collective imagination all stars, starlets and wannabes lust after! Earnest and devoid of irony (or artistry for that matter), he did bang the contemporary social narcissist on the head with his sudden unaffected sincere unapologetic rise to fame. And, I suspect, he did alter, at least a bit, pop history itself in the process. A shere delight of humour and (un)

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1076975910518041142004-02-16T18:48:00.000-05:002004-06-12T18:46:56.833-04:00

I forgot to report on another minor miracle. One of the producers I work with and a friend to behold gave birth to her second 14th of February daughter last Saturday. Two love children make me reconsider the significance of Valentine's Day - a holiday I had no reference for until last year when I exclaimed: "Today is a year since I quit smoking." And my friend asked: "Do you mean Valentine's Day?

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1076975096377524562004-02-16T18:07:00.000-05:002004-02-16T18:48:44.246-05:00

And more often than not a little scary even. Finding out what lurks in the hearts of those close to us is a chilling sight. A few years ago, when I was separating with my long-term partner, I had a terrifying dream. I was overhearing the conversation of two men that were very close to me but I couldn't identify. By the intonation of their voices, I could tell that they were commenting me in an

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1075085710827525372004-01-25T21:39:00.000-05:002004-02-16T18:09:42.576-05:00

I just watched Cirque du Soleil on TV and was flooded by childhood memories. My father often used to take me to the circus when I was a kid (now my best friend works at Cirque du Soleil and I haven't visited once). In those days downtown Sofia sported its own permanent circus - a gathering spot for children and pedophiles alike. I vaguely remember how once I walked out of the circus alone, I

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1075054977018139742004-01-25T11:54:00.000-05:002004-01-25T21:41:45.140-05:00

"Don't try to impress me", I'd usually say or think whenever someone would get laterally self-agrandising. You know the situation - someone behaving so as to hopefully shock you with brilliance and instantly submit you to the irresistable personalities. If you decline to be impressed, you are instantly, silently and subversively resented for the rest of your relationship's duration. What was my

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1074726039839209922004-01-21T17:51:00.000-05:002004-01-21T18:02:41.530-05:00

Today i just discovered that during the period my grandfather was Minister of Trade in a post-WWII totalitarian regime, people who left the country without permission could be sentenced to death and their families sent to concentration camps. I never knew about that bizarre law, because my uncle had left the country in the 60s, obviously after it was abolished. Ironic that I left the country

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1074290132751849762004-01-16T14:55:00.000-05:002004-01-16T16:59:51.670-05:00

I am listening to the pop music maverick of my childhood, whose CD was just brought to me from my partner back from a trip to the old country. Emil Dimitrov was a singer with a voluminous voice and a dramatic manner the theatrical exaggeration of which I`ve always loved to impersonate. He wore romantic outfits, a dreamy expression and a sumptuous signature wig referring to the last moments of his

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1073670402297104812004-01-09T12:12:00.000-05:002004-01-11T13:58:39.790-05:00

I am listening to the Virtual State and the Manipulation of Political Polarities by Dave Emory (www.spitfirelist.com) - surprisingly and as suggested by the title, it tackles the same core questions that engaged and bothered me while I was recently in New York and which were the topics of most of our conversations there. MoveOn.org is casting the final votes for an anti-Bush ad - go, check them

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1073493200109118782004-01-07T11:11:00.000-05:002004-01-07T11:33:39.543-05:00

I dreamt I was in Sofia, it was summer and very sunny. Walking through the park of the Palace of Culture, a friend sopped and turned to me: "I just heard the voice (of God) telling me not to turn for help or your grandma wll die before three o'clock this morning". Another warning came shortly before, telling me almost the exact same thing. They bothe heard the voice under a tree and later I

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1073418654828566752004-01-06T14:39:00.000-05:002004-01-07T11:37:05.230-05:00

Forgot to report on the most sneakily consistent weird trend - the Canadian infiltration of U.S. culture. While in New York, two of the four films that were playing in the repertory cinema in the East Village were Canadian flicks - The Barbarian Invasions by Denis Arcand and Les Triplettes de Belleville, a French/Canadian co-production I already wrote about in a previous post, made here in

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1073416434799568912004-01-06T13:51:00.000-05:002004-01-06T14:35:35.120-05:00

A soft snow greeted me in Montreal, perfectly matching the soft pashmina scarf I got as a present from the freind I visited in New York (and which I haven't taken off since) and the funny soft slippers I got as a Christmas present from my friends here, at home, with whom I spent Christmas. I wonder whether all this is not a sign that I'll have a soft and gentle year. For once. Ferocity has had

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1073149252408017532004-01-03T11:28:00.000-05:002004-01-06T14:34:20.933-05:00

Ideological thinking is big in this city. It seems most of its residents want to belong to a team that fights against another team, like European soccer fans. Only soccer is not too popular here so they sublimate in anything from politics to the choice of neighbourhood cafes. Conspirators vs. social naturalists, fundamentalists vs. atheists, extreme right vs. extreme left, with no middle space

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1072977849209932612004-01-01T12:03:00.000-05:002004-01-06T14:32:59.090-05:00

Nothing specific, or rather all the strangely fleeting details of my morning thoughts, is all that comes to mind as i'm starting to write the first entry of the New Year. Greeting the New seasonal cycle on the day agreed upon by most contemporary cultures is an uncanny experience, come to think of it closely. A convention turned corporeal, a physically experienced abstraction, a concept heavy

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1072837241644059342003-12-30T21:02:00.000-05:002004-01-06T14:29:37.813-05:00

"Any criminal record?" Asked the customes officer. "Pleanty," I answered bemused. He beamed at me: (Welcome to America!) The orange alert faded into pale yeallow and now, some days later, it has completely disappeared or rather, turned into an abstraction of the colour frequencies it symbolicallly refers to. The weather in NYC is reminiscent of the autumn when I walked down Brooklyn bridge to

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1072127376598871812003-12-22T15:35:00.000-05:002004-01-06T14:26:37.393-05:00

I grew up in the most enchanted neighbourhood on Earth. The balcony of our spacious apartment overlooked three parks - the King's Park, the Park of the Pidgeons and the Holy Synod Park and three churches - the Russian Church with its colours and candy-like domes, the St. Sophia Church, the oldest Romanesque construction in town and St. ALeksander Nevsky's church - the largest (and most

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1072078300934920732003-12-22T00:39:00.000-05:002004-01-06T14:39:23.023-05:00

My friend Arto and I are leading somwhat parallel lives, coming to terms with the phenomenon of alienation and trying to convey it in questionably funny scripts. When my mother read my feature script (not on alienation though), she put it down, sighing: "It's very well written, but I don't understand why you said it was funny." Arto's characters are looking for happiness, mine search for meaning,

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1071989932247055752003-12-20T22:57:00.000-05:002003-12-21T02:30:06.280-05:00

Vivre le vent, vivre le vent, vivre le vent d'hiver - this is what i keep hearing anywhere I go lately and, strangely, but my heart does mean it. I haven't welcomed a winter so warmly for the past quite a few few years. And the wind - when did I come to terns with the wind, when did I turn it into my inner drift? I may not have cought the exact moment, but the wind is magic. Les Triplettes de

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1071769812755846452003-12-18T12:35:00.000-05:002003-12-18T21:48:58.613-05:00

"The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live." Joan Borysenko This was the first thing I read today after I walked to work through an enchanted city dressed in lace of snow. The question is indeed not whether we'll die, but how we will die as life is nothing but the path we take to reach our end. An American souldier had died in Iraq, the news read and, in the same breath: "

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1071605681835662272003-12-16T14:57:00.000-05:002003-12-18T15:31:44.166-05:00

Last night I watched the fascinating propaganda news on CNN. This channel is a testament to broadcast absurdity. Even the secure propaganda machine in the former Eastern Block would not be as blunt and shallow - it seems the American people are well anaesthesized to nuances of deceitfulness. Still, sifting through the rubble of dramatization one can always find a few useful facts. In fact, the

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1071491545121774062003-12-15T07:32:00.000-05:002003-12-15T08:10:28.433-05:00

Today, or rather yesterday, the US/British forces seem to have caught Saddam Hussein. A convenient boost to Bush and an all too timely present for the holidays, Saddam looked like a younger Santa in the picture first published on Yahoo - an old wise man – bushy beard, deep sad thoughtful gleaming eyes. I don’t know what to think so I don’t. My guest and I briefly discussed the possibility of a

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1071390856242064752003-12-14T03:34:00.000-05:002003-12-14T03:34:29.266-05:00

Today I started to change my regime, partly inspired by yesterday’s memories and more seriously – by my chronic misalignment with time that has stranded me with more on my plate than I can realistically tackle, ending up finishing nothing. Anyway, I started converting to Leonardo’s regime of sleeping for 15 minutes every 4 hours – a system I had unsuccessfully tried that in my adolescence when I

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1071308160406981322003-12-13T03:56:00.000-05:002003-12-14T03:33:40.456-05:00

The program about Berlioz ended with an unusual story. Once, while still a medical student in Paris, Berlioz went to the opera, which he frequented as a true music fanatic. His accomplice in those escapades was another student from med school, who subsequently became a famous Parisian doctor. Sitting next to them was a fellow who apparently was unhappy with the particular opera of the night.

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1071246905295363602003-12-12T11:33:00.000-05:002003-12-14T03:46:18.290-05:00

(This blog was created yesterday 11 December 2003 but the system had some problems publishing and, like the blog from the day before, ended up in drafts - at least managed to save it and republish it at a later date, i.e. today) Today is the 200th anniversary of Berlioz. It was never my predicament to listen to him closely, if at all. A few times I'd just incidentally hear something by him and

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6190138.post-1071246771340046462003-12-12T11:30:00.000-05:002003-12-12T11:33:04.063-05:00

(This post was created on 10 december 2003 and then somehow it ended up in drafts wherefrom I could no longer retrieve it except through copy and paste, hence the date discrepancy) This is my first blog writing, just after about an hour of surfing blogs and checking out how it's done. So it will be a veritable blog - blabbing whatever. Perhaps the way I arrived at this blog is worth telling as

Jona Pelovskahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08556131451910988658noreply@blogger.com