воскресенье, 24 июня 2007 г.

Literature

Hello everybody!
I propose another interesting topic to discuss - literature. In this topic you are free to write about any of your famous books and authors, irrespective of their nationality!As for me, I`m fond of reading, and some of my favourite books are in my Profile.


понедельник, 18 июня 2007 г.

Argentinian cuisine

They say, that a person is what he eats. We may either agree or disagree with this statement, but there is no denying that national cuisine is a crucially important layer of national culture. 
That`s why I think it reasonable to get to know something about Argentinian cuisine :
its general characteristic,  the most popular dishes and products and the degree of its popularity in the world.
Here is some information I came upon in the Internet, still, the comments from our Argentinian collegues will be much more useful :)

  • The specialty of Argentine food is steaks and grilled meat. Argentine beef is low on fat and cholesterol and has a special flavor too. Another determining factor in Argentinian cuisine is that Argentina is the world's major producer of wheat, beans, maize, soybeans, beef and milk. Thus, these items are commonly used on the table in the likes of wheat based Italian dishes or the Argentine Pizza.
  •  C точки зрения аргентинцев, обед без мяса – не обед. Аргентинская говядина по праву считается лучшей в мире и многие посетители ресторанов отдают предпочтение именно ей. Ягненка, оленину и птицу называют «карне бланка» (carne blanca) или белое мясо. Мясные рестораны называются «парильяс» (parillas), при входе в них вы увидите изображение быка. Кроме мясных блюд из свинины, телятины, цыпленка и ягненка вам предложат салаты и десерты, итальянскую пасту и вегетарианские блюда. Самое популярное и вкусное блюдо из аргентинского мяса – «парильядас» (parilladas), это большие куски мяса, приготовленные на открытой решетке. Попробуйте всемирно известное мясо «бифе де чорисо» (bife de chorizo).
    Выход к океану, а также высоко развитое животноводство позволяют аргентинским поварам готовить блюда, способные удовлетворить самого изысканного гурмана. Креветки по-римски, жареные, вареные, тушеные, копченые; острые устрицы, горчичный цыпленок (а также цыплята на пару с шампиньонами, паприкой, миндалем, зеленью, замоченные в пиве), бараньи ребрышки, пинчос или чурраско (мясо на шпажках, приготовленное на открытом огне), холодный суп гаспачо из протертых помидоров и огурцов, шампиньоны в кипящем вине и т.д. Это лишь краткое перечисление типичных аргентинских блюд.
    Что касается морской кухни, то она преобладает в районе озер в Патагонии, где очень вкусно готовят форель. Вегетарианская же кухня появилась лишь четверть века назад, поэтому такие рестораны есть только в крупных городах.


Tango, My love

Here is some general information about tango, from WkiPedia

"Argentine Tango consists of a variety of styles that developed in different regions and eras, and in response to the crowding of the venue and even the fashions in clothing. Even though they all developed in Argentina and Uruguay, they were also exposed to influences reimported from Europe and North America. Consequently there is a good deal of confusion and overlap between the styles as they are now danced - and fusions continue to evolve.

Argentine Tango is danced in an embrace that can vary from very open, in which leader and follower connect at arms length, to very closed, in which the connection is chest-to-chest, or anywhere in between. Close embrace is often associated with the more traditional styles, while open embrace leaves room for many of the embellishments and figures that are associated with Tango Nuevo.

Tango is essentially walking with a partner and the music. Musicality (i.e. dancing appropriately to the emotion and speed of a tango) is an extremely important element of tangoing. A good dancer is one who makes you see the music. Also, dancers generally keep their feet close to the floor as they walk, the ankles and knees brushing as one leg passes the other.

Argentine Tango relies heavily on improvisation; although certain patterns of movement have been codified by instructors over the years as a device to instruct dancers, there is no "basic step." One of the only constants across all Argentine Tango styles, is that the follower will usually be led to alternate feet. Another is that the follower rarely has her weight on both feet at the same time. Argentine tango is a new orientation of couple dancing. As most dances have a rational-pattern which can be predicted by the follower, the ballast of previous perceptions about strict rules has to be thrown overboard and replaced by a real communication contact, creating a direct non-verbal dialogue. A tango is a living act in the moment as it happens.

Argentine Tango is danced counterclockwise around the outside of the dance floor (the "line of dance") and dance "traffic" often segregates into a number of "lanes"; cutting across the middle of the floor is frowned upon. In general, the middle of the floor is where you find either beginners who lack floor navigation skills or people who are performing "showy" figures or patterns that take up more dance floor space. It is acceptable to stop briefly in the line of dance to perform stationary figures, as long as the other dancers are not unduly impeded. The school of thought about this is, if there is open space in front of you, there are likely people waiting behind you. Dancers are expected to respect the other couples on the floor; colliding or even crowding another couple, or stepping on others' feet is to be avoided strenuously. It is considered rude; in addition to possible physical harm rendered, it can be disruptive to a couple's musicality."

And some additions from me. First of all, as I`ve already said, the most prominent Argentine tango composer was Astor Piazzolla,  one of my favourite composers. 

And some emotional words from the bottom of my heart. 
 
Nothing can be compared to the feeling of a dancer performing tango. Passion, wonderful music, the warmth of your partner`s body, the strenghth of his arms embracing you, love and hatrid, tears and anger, high heels, black dress, serious face... And passion, passion again and all around, the air is hot, agitated and passionate, your breath is hard and hot, your eyes glimpse, your lips burn. You dance and die, revive and kill, fight and win. There are no loosers in this fight. The only loser is the one with tears in his eyes, the one who has no partner to embrace, no enemy to fight with. 
Tango is life. Tango is passion. Tango is illness.

Argentinian cartoons

Hello everybody! These are the most popular Argentinian cartoon characters, they are very cute, are they not?
Mafalda  
http://todohistorietas.com.ar/Mafalda0.jpg  
 http://todohistorietas.com.ar/Mafalda15.gif  
http://todohistorietas.com.ar/mafaldaedit.gif
LOS PERSONAJES DE GARCIA FERRE---
http://todohistorietas.com.ar/ferre2.htm  - I like them immensely!

CLEMENTE
http://todohistorietas.com.ar/Clemente.htm#TOP



..and some more personages
http://todohistorietas.com.ar/otrospersonajes.htm

I like all of them - they are quite original, they present robust personalities, they are individuals, just like our Russian cartoon characters!
Do you like them? I ask both Russians and Argentinians!

суббота, 16 июня 2007 г.

Russia-Argentina
Hello everybody! At first I guess I`ll venture to inroduce myself. My name is Ksenia, I am a 19-year old student of the faculty of foreign languages. Frankly speaking, I have miscellaneous interests in life, and a very general description of them looks like "I`m interested in the most beautiful and intricate aspects of life". To be more concrete, I`ll say that among my interests are Dancing as art, the Fine Arts, theatre, international communication and etc. I`m very glad to participate in our project dedicated to Latin America. I guess it`s enough with my introduction.

In the course of the development of our project each of us chose a country to investigate. My country is Argentina and it`s not by chance: first of all, it`s Tango that has my heart and I`d like to know as much as possible about it - guess you`ll help me! I also adore diversity in Argentinian nature and would like to know some interesting fact about its geography, nature, places of interest. I`m not very well informed about the history of Argentina - shame on me, but I wish I were!

I hope our communication will be interesting, pleasant, useful and informative.