Archive of articles - November 2002, page 14

Police to investigate oil spill

Culture Shock: Rocking out, Slovak style

BECAUSE it's not always easy to keep up with the US underground industrial-rock scene when you're living in Liptovský Mikuláš, or the guitar-driven rock bands from Great Britain I so dearly love, I jumped at the chance to witness an exposition of local music when it recently came my way. After all, I thought, perhaps I would be turned on to something new. At the very least, I hoped I would have an enjoyable evening out.As it happened, it was an event of ups and downs and everything in between. In general, I found the caliber of musical talent to be surprisingly high, especially considering it all came from this semi-secluded northern valley. While certain folks are bound to be put off by one or two acts in any variety show, the fact that little Liptov can produce an evening of such varied styles reflects not only the boundless reaches of music, but also the will of the local people to explore them.

Dance lessons

Courts, corruption in sights

Living in Fulla's 'Slovak World'

THE LIST of 24 artists currently displaying paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures at the Slovak National Gallery (SNG) reads like a Who's Who of Slovak modern art. The project's aim is to celebrate the late painter Ľudovít Fulla's 100th birthday and his distinctive view of the Slovak people and their traditions."Fulla is one of the last significant Slovak painters to depict Slovakia as an entity in his art; where the mythical coexists with the actual and the fantastic intertwines with reality. In his pictures, Slovakia is idyllic, and yet industrialised and influenced by socialism," says the exhibition's curator Aurel Hrabušický.

Unions oppose shock therapy

Auto insurance to rise 50 per cent

From boardroom to prison cell: The career of Jozef Majský

HE GETS UP at 5:45, just like all the other prisoners, eats breakfast and then cleans his cell. Visits from his family are limited to one half-hour a month in the presence of a police investigator. His mail is read by prison staff before it is passed on. Jozef Majský, for years considered Slovakia's richest man, is awaiting trial in jail, his wealth and influence for once beyond reach.It's an ignominious fate for the fast-talking Majský, who since emerging in the early 1990s as a shrewd trader has boasted of bribing state officials and bankrolling political parties, but who until this year has never been officially challenged.Given the seriousness of the latest charges, however, Majský's many political friends may not want to be seen influencing the outcome of his trial, even if they could.

EcoMin sees Sk4.9 billion in dividends

Slovakia struggles with e-travel

FOR ARMCHAIR travellers and tourists planning holidays, the Internet has become an indispensable tool for preparing a trip - from researching country information to booking tickets, accommodation and other services.Internet users looking at Slovakia, however, may find themselves in a confusing loop of web links with little hope of lining up that perfect view of the Tatras, let alone actually getting to the mountains.While a growing number of hotels offer online booking possibilities, finding them requires patience, and travel agents say Slovakia's lack of a central reservation system is holding back tourist development on the Internet.

Review: A lot of fuss about nothing

DIRECTOR, choreographer and author of the ambitious music-dance show Circus World, Ján Ďurovčík, was explicit at the event's preview: "This is unambiguously a concert, with almost no story. It respects no genre. It's not theatre. It's a concert, it's a show and it's the Rolling Stones."In case you missed the massive publicity drive, the project has the largest sound system and most spectacular light show ever been built in Slovakia. But it is certainly not a concert. The performers are the dancers and musicians of SĽUK, a professional folk ensemble whose goal is to preserve rich folk-art traditions and present them to a wider audience in a modern way.

Catholic Church hopes for three new treaties with Vatican

THE CABINET has pledged stronger cooperation with the Catholic Church and the pope following a recent visit by President Rudolf Schuster to the Vatican, his first foreign visit since the September parliamentary elections.The cabinet has promised to address state financing of the Catholic Church, Catholic education in state schools and issues surrounding objections of conscience, such as whether information gleaned from confessions should be considered privileged.Local Catholic authorities are now hopeful that specific bilateral treaties between the state and the Vatican will be passed within the four-year term of the new cabinet.

More cops driving drunk

Reader feedback: Roma OK in the USA

Martinka not coming home just yet

Cabinet to raise VAT to meet demands

Review: Frantic search for identity leaves viewers asking why

AMNESIA is a very useful subject for both film and literature. A hero's search for his identity can take him anywhere, and on his journey he can encounter all dangers imaginable. Often a story about amnesia is told using flashbacks, a technique used by many writers and filmmakers to create suspense and to keep the reader or viewer guessing until the very end.In The Bourne Identity, secret agent Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is not able to revisit his past because the CIA is trying to kill him as a result of his involvement in a failed mission. At the start of the movie he is found close to death by Italian fishermen. He is then chased from the moment he sets foot on dry land not knowing who he is. The only link he has to his past is a Swiss bank account number.

Reader feedback: A day to remember

Top Pick: Two similar but different works

AT THE BEGINNING of the 20th century, before the first world war, contemporary music entered a new era. The use of romanticism in music had been exhausted and composers had to search for new means of expression during those turbulent times. While some stretched the traditional principles to their limits, others developed new strategies.The Slovak National Theatre (SND) recently added two works from that period to its repertoire; Austrian Arnold Schönberg's opera Erwartung (Expectation) and Italian Giacomo Puccini's one-act Il Tabarro (The Coat). While both works portray the mood of the day, they do it quite differently, and the SND is staging them together.As artists, both composers sensitively convey the social and artistic crises that the world was coming to grips with at the turn of the century. Puccini remains faithful to traditional compositional principles but puts a new spin on them, whereas Schönberg radically deviates from what has come before.