GPS | AZERBAIJAN | Puppets from around the world raise hopes for the future in Baku
Why was the opening ceremony of the second international puppet theater festival in Azerbaijan so damn solemn an occasion? Probably because the organizers have put so much hope in it. In November 2011, when the first international theater festival opened in Baku, the Azerbaijan State Puppet Theater turned 80 years old. It is a venerable institution. It was the first time such a large-scale international festival was organized in the history of Azerbaijani theater.
GPS | TACLOBAN | Filipino writes message on basketball court: “Help SOS!!! We Need Food”
How can you help this man asking the world for help? In this post, I outline the latest information I can gather, as of November 12, 2013, about relief assistance for the victims of super typhoon Yolanda (aka Haiyan in international circles).
GPS | RUSSIA | In protest of the Kremlin, Russian performance artist nails his scrotum on Red Square cobblestones (NSFW)
Pyotr Pavlensky’s bodily public actions “involve the actual power mechanisms.” His performances of sewing his mouth closed in protest against the arrest of Pussy Riot, or lying naked in barbed wire to protest harsh laws, have had wide international resonance.
GPS | CZECH REPUBLIC | A church of bones in Kutna Hora
This is not Tolkien’s Mines of Moria. This is not an image from Peter Jackson’s upcoming Hobbit film sequel subtitled The Desolation of Smaug. This is Sedlec’s Church in the city of Kutna Hora in the Czech Republic.
GPS | THE AMERICAS: Florida | Spectacular photos of Port Everglades Power Plant demolished
For more than 50 years, the power plant’s four 350-foot, candy-cane-striped stacks and four 7,500-ton boilers marked South Florida’s skyline. The power plant demolition, pictured here, is the largest in Florida’s history and the company’s third in three years.
GPS | THE AMERICAS: New York City | Epic “Noli Me Tangere” opera takes a bow in New York City
GPS | THE AMERICAS | NEW YORK CITY | The cast numbers 30 singers. The pit houses 35-piece orchestra musicians. On sheer numbers alone, the Noli Me Tangere Opera is a large-scale … Continue reading
NAKED DIPLOMACY | 450 naked runners race as part of Free Pussy Riot campaign
The prompt to begin the naked run in the Netherlands was given 14:30 via Skype from Russia by a Pussy Riot member. Runners wearing nothing but helmets and sneakers in the Netherlands show support for Russian punk band Pussy Riot.
GPS | NEW YORK: Rainbow colors flood Empire State Building on Gay Pride
It’s been an amazing week for gay rights. The U.S. Supreme Court dumped the federal Defense of Marriage Act and declined to reinstate a ban on same-sex marriage in California. … Continue reading
Texas university hosts cultural expedition to Guatemala
The group will use Casa Herrera, a 17th-century Spanish Colonial property located in the heart of Antigua, as a home base while exploring local, historical points of interest and taking part in lectures and tours taught by professors from the university and Mesoamerican scholars.
GPS | ROMANIA: Horia-Roman Patapievici, curajos erou, a declarat că va demisiona de la conducerea Institutului Cultural Român”
A gallery exhibition at the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York displayed the Cărtureşti spirit. Cărtureşti is a cultural venue that functions as a bookshop, tea studio, and project space, taking direct action towards revitalizing the Romanian artistic life, urban pleasures and social responsibilities.
GPS | Romania: Acting workshops of Andrei Şerban Traveling Academy in Mogoşoaia
“Brancovan Palaces” Cultural Center in Mogoşoaia hosted the workshops of this traveling academy. The actors worked on Shakespeare and Romanian classic playwright Ion Luca Caragiale (the centenary of whose death is celebrated this year)
Because it Cannes: Agence France Presse wraps French city with glamorous photos of movie stars
The selected photos in Cannes have a lot of pointing and waving in them: Alfred Hitchcock fingering the viewer directly, Michael Douglas waving in the air, Tony Curtis also pointing a finger, Quentin Tarantino with two palms up in the air, and Sophia Loren also with her arms up
GPS | Philippines: Puerto Princesa Underground River officially named one of the new 7 wonders of nature
The underground river, which measures about 5 miles, is a popular tourist destination in the country and has previosuly been declared as a world heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
Why are Asian Americans invisible on New York stages? Feb. 13 industry town hall confronts the powers-that-be.
“Asian American performers are the least likely among the major minority groups to play roles that are not defined by their race,” says a coalition of Asian American actors.
GPS | Panama: A view of the Panama Canal from the dizzying heights of a cable car
Because of the proximity of the Gamboa to Panama City, this upper section of the Chagres River Basin, which is protected by Chagres National Park (founded in 1985), is quickly becoming a family-fun adventure and ecotourist destination.
GPS India | A sad vision of India’s world heritage site in Gujarat
In the past, these step wells were frequented by travelers and caravans as stopovers along trade routes. But lately they have not been maintained very well.
GPS | Korea: Altar of a shaman for a ritual ceremony held on an island
GPS | ASIA: In October 2005, I took a bus to Yangtze Island in South Korea and attended a private Daedong Gut (shaman ritual) by the Korean shaman, Kim Keumhwa, a … Continue reading
GPS | Panama: Two turtles adoring the sun
GPS | CENTRAL AMERICA: Monkey Island lives up to its name. Located at the Gamboa Rainforest in Panama, a boat ride tour around Gatun Lake, which surrounds Monkey Island, is a … Continue reading
GPS | Belarus: Vladimir Lenin Monument on Independence Square in Minsk
GPS| EUROPE: Minsk was totally destroyed during World War II and rebuilt in classical social realist style by the Soviets after the war. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union … Continue reading