I thought that I would post some photos of Pidhajtsi in wintertime. I am playing around with using the FotoPages site for posting my photos, so click here to see more.
By the way, I am not doing much writing at the moment as I, in addition to having my hands full as everyone else with the holidays, am spending a lot of time catching up on reading that I have fallen way behind on: ya know, Ukraine blogs, journals, Ukraine-lists and e-poshtas, Kuzio and Kyiv Post articles, etc., all the usual culprits. I'm also making a huge push to finish both Robert Service's recent biography of Lenin as well as to get through Slavoj Zizek's 40 pp essay "Repeating Lenin" and all the commentary it has provoked (the essay has become an infamous and provocative attempt to look at Lenin's thought and revive a form of Leninism for the 21st century). Revival of Lenin is not a rallying point for me, but the essay is thought provoking; check it out here. (Note: those who hate intellectual discourse or Cultural Studies-eese, stay clear of this piece; you'll just make yourselves mad. However, it actually is a well done piece; Zizek is always an entertaining writer, if at times a bit righteous and overly flamboyant.)
More in the New Year. . .
5 comments:
thanks for the photos stefan! they remind me of a christmas i spent in a selo outside of kolomiya. magic. we actually went out at midnight to hear the animals speak! (now we just watch madagascar)
Stefan,
I was wondering if you are still in Pihaitsi or back in Minneapolis.
Wherever you may be, enjoy the New Year!
Yosyf
Petro--I am sure that you will agree that Xmas in Ukraine is quite different that it is in the US. It is much more solemn and spiritual than in the US (at least in Western Ukraine), WAY less focused on buying buying buying. It really makes a difference, it seems to me, that the gift exchanging happens earlier, for St Mykola day--and even then Ukrainians do not seem to go as bizerk about shopping and giving/getting gifts. At least in Pidhajtsi, the git-giving was mostly just for the kids, not the adults. Poverty may be part of the reason for this, but if it is, it is only one part. Xmas is more spiritual and traditional, and the rituals around Xmas time are great to experience. I am glad you had that experience, and I am really curious about the listening-to-the-animals experience you had. We did not do that in Pidhajtsi, but any visitor to Ukraine, especially the rural parts, can not escape observing that the people of Ukraine are incomparably closer to nature than the majority of postmodern Americans--even than most American agribusiness farmers. . .
Yosyf--I am back in Minneapolis for a while, so if you are here as well, I would love to meet up some time!
Z novam rokam!
Stefan
Stefan,
Thanks for writing back. I most certainly would. Is your e-mail as listed: ontorev@yahoo.com?
Happy New Year!
Yosyf
Hey Yosyf,
you got the email right: ontorev@yahoo.com
Drop me a line!
Stefan
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