#neo sarajevo

[eteroutsider]

you know them. you've met them.

#artists on tumblr #neo sarajevo #varvara #kdp #arter #eteroutsider #ocs

[rabih-saad]

Merry Christmas 🎅 🎄 folks.

#ibanezprestige #ibanezjem #Ibanez Jem7vwh #tso #Christmas eve Sarajevo #guitar #metal guitarist #guitar licks #neo classical #e minor #stevevai #guitarsolo

[mariacallous]

BERLIN – Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, changed everything for Ukraine, for Europe, and for global politics. The world entered a new era of great-power rivalry in which war could no longer be excluded. Apart from the immediate victims, Russia’s aggression most concerned Europe. A great power seeking to extinguish an independent smaller country by force challenges the core principles upon which the European order of states has organized itself for decades.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war stands in stark contrast to the self-dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, which occurred in a largely non-violent manner. Since the “Gorbachev miracle” – when the Soviet Union started pursuing liberalizing reforms in the 1980s – Europeans had begun to imagine that Immanuel Kant’s vision of perpetual peace on the continent might be possible. It was not.

The problem was that many Russian elites’ interpretation of the globally significant events of the late 1980s could not be more opposed to Kant’s idea. They saw the demise of the great Russian empire (which the Soviets had recreated) as a devastating defeat. Though they had no choice but to accept the humiliation, they told themselves they would do so only temporarily until the balance of power had changed. Then the great historical revision could begin.

Thus, the 2022 attack on Ukraine should be viewed as merely the most ambitious of the revisionist wars Russia has waged since Putin came to power. We can expect many more, especially if Donald Trump returns to the White House and effectively withdraws the United States from NATO.

But Putin’s latest war not only changed the rules of co-existence on the European continent; it also changed the global order. By triggering a sweeping re-militarization of foreign policy, the war has seemingly returned us to a time, deep in the twentieth century, when wars of conquest were a staple of the great-power toolkit. Now, like then, might makes right.

Even during the decades-long Cold War, there was no risk of a “new Sarajevo” – the political fuse that detonated the first World War – because the standoff between two nuclear superpowers subordinated all other interests, ideologies, and political conflicts. What mattered were the superpowers’ own claims to power and stability within the territories they controlled. The risk of another world war had been replaced by the risk of mutual assured destruction, which functioned as an automatic stabilizer within the bipolar system of the Cold War.

Behind Putin’s war on Ukraine is the neo-imperial goal that many Russian elites share: to make Russia great again by reversing the results of the collapse of the Soviet Union. On December 8, 1991, the presidents of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine met in Białowieża National Park and agreed to dissolve the Soviet Union, reducing a “superpower” to a regional (albeit still nuclear-armed) power in the form of the Russian Federation.

No, Putin does not want to revive the communist Soviet Union. Today’s Russian elite knows that the Soviet system could not be sustained. Putin has embraced autocracy, oligarchy, and empire to restore Russia’s status as a global power, but he also knows that Russia lacks the economic and technological prerequisites to achieve this on its own.

For its part, Ukraine wants to join the West – meaning the European Union and the transatlantic security community of NATO. Should it succeed, it would probably be lost to Russia for good, and its own embrace of Western values would pose a grave danger to Putin’s regime. Ukraine’s modernization would lead Russians to ask why their political system has consistently failed to achieve similar results. From a “Great Russia” perspective, it would compound the disaster of 1991. That is why the stakes in Ukraine are so high, and why it is so hard to imagine the conflict ending through compromise.

Even in the case of an armistice along the frozen front line, neither Russia nor Ukraine will distance themselves politically from their true war aims. The Kremlin will not give up on the complete conquest and subjugation (if not annexation) of Ukraine, and Ukraine will not abandon its goal of liberating all its territory (including Crimea) and joining the EU and NATO. An armistice thus would be a volatile interim solution involving the defense of a highly dangerous “line of control” on which Ukraine’s freedom and Europe’s security depend.

Since Russia no longer has the economic, military, and technological capabilities to compete for the top spot on the world stage, its only option is to become a permanent junior partner to China, implying quasi-voluntary submission under a kind of second Mongol vassalage. Let us not forget: Russia survived two attacks from the West in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – by Napoleon and Hitler, respectively. The only invaders who have conquered it were the Mongols in the winter of 1237-38. Throughout Russia’s history, its vulnerability in the east has had far-reaching consequences.

The main geopolitical divide of the twenty-first century will center on the Sino-American rivalry. Though Russia will hold a junior position, it nonetheless will play an important role as a supplier of raw materials and – owing to its dreams of empire – as a permanent security risk. Whether this will be enough to satisfy Russian elites’ self-image is an open question.

[vernadskova]

I see the upcoming ADF-Wagenknecht hitlerites are looking for the bomb that kills all slavs again

[doubleattitude]

Radix Dance Convention Nationals, Las Vegas 2022: RESULTS

Protege:

Cash Prizes:

Winners: $1000

Runners-up: $500

Mini

Top 31:

Tayah Klimuck Peyton Nowacki Helena Olaerts Greta Wagner Alexis Kathol Addyson Paul Khloe Kwon Aria Du Sara Von Rotz Taehgan Vue Piper Perusse Natalie Gerami Josh Lundy Isabella Piedrahita Zoe Flores Chase Castle

Top 15:

Dylan Custodio Lucia Piedrahita Neo Del Corral Skyla Lucena Devyn Scherff Emily Polis Karyna Majeroni Isabella Kouznetsova Everleigh Soutas

Top 6:

Regan Gerena Diana Kouznetsova Roxie Onellion Camila Giraldo Ellary Day Szyndlar

Winner:

Skylar Wong (Woodbury Dance Center)

Junior

Top 31:

Brooklyn Ladia Hailey Panchame Madison Carmody Bella Ray D’Armas Ariela Ephraim Alexcia Roloff-Hafenbreadl Avery Maycunich Kylie Carter Elie Rabin Riley Zeitler Zachary Gibson Elizabeth Bilecki Claire Avonne Kingston Jackson Jue

Top 17:

Campbell Clark Victoria Martinez Anya Inger Georgia Beth Peters Sophia Schiano Failenn Daley Kya Massimino Leila Winker Paislyn Schroeder Santiago Sosa Esme Chou Angelina Elliott

Top 5:

Haiden Neuville Kylee Casares Alexis Mayer Kaili Kester

Winner:

Aaliyah Dixon (Summit Dance Shoppe)

Teen:

Top 31:

Giselle Gandarilla Emmy Claire Kaiden Ronnie Lewis Kenzie Jones Cooper Macalalad Natalia Wazio Keoni Guerrero Rachel Loiselle Ava Raucci Mia Ibach Kendyl Fay Nicholas Bustos Ayla Rodriguez Rylee Young

Top 17:

Brianna Hicks Addison Middleton Ian Stegeman Kaitlyn Tom Trent Grappe Kylee Ngo Sophie Garcia Carly Thinfen Izzy Howard Gracyn French Colin Bendziewicz

Top 6:

Luke Barrett Avery Cashen Keagan Capps Kira Chan Sabine Nehls

Winner:

Dyllan Blackburn (Project 21)

Senior

Top 33:

Mia Tassani Angelina Flores Kaitlyn Allen Tyra Polke Edon Hartzy Perris Amento Eliazar Jimenez Maddie Thanos Sophie Grabau Madison Burkhart Jessica Babich Minda Li Marissa Brunner Kaitlyn Babich Peyton Martineau Louise Hindsbo Nina Sawaya Kai Javier

Top 15:

Ava La France Cayla Bennish Devin Mar Bella Tagle Destanye Diaz Kayla Pereira Jordyn Green Anthony Ciaccio Forest Myers

Top 6:

Sarah Moore Jackson Roloff-Hafenbreadl Emma Mather Sam Fine Emily Madden

Winner:

Easton Magliarditi (The Rock Center for Dance)

Finals:

High Scores by Age:

Cash Prizes:

1st: $200

2nd: $100

3rd: $50

Rookie Solo

Top 7

4th: Preslie Ball- ‘Boots’

4th: Margaret Mason- ‘Over the Rainbow’

5th: Caydence Zuehlke- ‘Tea’

6th: Nola Molter- ‘Look At Me’

7th: Zoey Brooke- ‘End of Time’

7th: Emery Bourne- ‘Footwurkin’

7th: Colette Stutzman- ‘My Girl’

7th: Elory Otto- ‘Speaking French’

7th: Rue Willis- ‘Woman’

8th: Sienna Bastler- ‘Please Mr Postman’

9th: Shale Herrera- ‘La Vie En Rose’

10th: Giselle Pilorin- ‘My Boyfriend’s Back’

10th: Emma Acosta- ‘Sweet Dreams’

2nd runner-up ($250)

James Iwamoto- ‘Lost’ (Pave School of the Arts)

1st runner-up ($350)

Hadley Morse- ‘Into the Great’ (Summit Dance Shoppe)

Top Soloist ($500)

Cece Chung- ‘I’m Going Bananas’ (Project 21)

Mini Solo

Top 7

4th: Regan Gerena- ‘Cinema Italiano’

5th: Emily Polis- ‘House of Keta’

6th: Tova Thompson- ‘Pulse’

6th: Anita Rodriguez- ‘The Garden’

6th: Zoe Flores- ‘Transitions’

7th: Karyna Majeroni- ‘La Rouge’

8th: Alexis Kathol- ‘The Author’

9th: Dylan Custodio- ‘Derive’

9th: Ella Dobler- ‘Did I Stutter?’

9th: Neo Del Corral- ‘Hold Me’

9th: Delilah Hewitt- ‘Lament’

9th: Addison Price- ‘Sarajevo’

10th: Lucia Piedrahita- ‘Camera’s Rolling’

10th: Greta Wagner- ‘If You Were Here’

2nd runner-up ($250)

Diana Kouznetsova- ‘Rinse + Repeat’ (Project 21)

1st runner-up ($350)

Skylar Wong- ‘Best of My Love’ (Woodbury Dance Center)

Top Soloist ($500)

Isabella Kouznetsova- ‘Wake Up’ (Project 21)

Junior Solo

Top 7

4th: Zoe Zielinski- ‘Girl From Ipanema’

4th: Angelina Elliott- ‘Look What Your Love Has Done To Me’

5th: Emily Joy Core- ‘Alpha’

5th: Kya Massimino- ‘Arena’

5th: Avery Maycunich- ‘With You’

6th: Anya Inger- ‘Attitude’

6th: Victoria Johnson- ‘Insensible’

6th: Payton Gourely- ‘Mad World’

7th: Victoria Martinez- ‘Music Is the Answer’

7th: Claire Avonne Kingston- ‘State of Awareness’

8th: Tiara Sherman- ‘Belly of the Beast’

9th: Avery Lee- ‘Arches’

9th: Bella Rey D’Armas- ‘Dimensions’

9th: Sasha Milstein- ‘Nature Boy’

10th: Leighton Werner- ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’

10th: Alexcia Roloff-Hafenbreadl- ‘Far From Home’

10th: Esme Chou- ‘Withheld’

3rd runner-up ($250)

Teagan Chavez- ‘That’s Life’ (AVANTI Dance Company)

2nd runner-up ($250)

Alexis Mayer- ‘Winter Morning II’ (The Rock Center for Dance)

1st runner-up ($350)

Kylee Casares- ‘Home With You’ (Stars Dance Studio)

Top Soloist ($500)

Aaliyah Dixon- ‘Silence’ (Summit Dance Shoppe)

Teen Solo

Top 7:

4th: Sophie Garcia- ‘Evermore’

5th: Giselle Gandarilla- ‘La Vie’

6th: Keoni Guerrero- ‘Blackjack’

6th: Colin Bendziewicz- ‘Don’t Worry’

7th: Sarah Laskowski- ‘Good Evening, Welcome’

7th: Kenzie Jones- ‘The Bottom Line’

8th: Addison Middleton- ‘Closing’

8th: Bella Saferstein- ‘Dangerous’

8th: Kennie Shen- ‘Man’s World’

8th: June Hurley- ‘Mr Sandman’

9th: Kylie Vandeest- ‘Awoo’

10th: Gracyn French- ‘I Did It All Over Again’

10th: Amelia Duncan- ‘My Way’

2nd runner-up ($250)

Ian Stegeman- ‘Aria’ (Woodbury Dance Center)

1st runner-up ($350)

Izzy Howard- ‘Adveniat’ (The Rock Center for Dance)

Top Soloist ($500)

Dyllan Blackburn- ‘A Pale’ (Project 21)

Senior Solo

Top 7

4th: Jackson Roloff-Hafenbreadl- ‘Moon’

5th: Sophie Grabau- ‘Women’

6th: Sophia Cobo- ‘Funny Girl’

7th: Emily Madden- ‘Concerto In F Minor’

8th: Forest Myers- ‘Parameters’

9th: Emma Mather- ‘Dancing’

9th: Rachel Leon- ‘Die For You’

9th: Levi Sherman- ‘I Know It’s Over’

10th: Edon Hartzy- ‘Solitude’

10th: Erica Vannucci- ‘Step Off the Train’

3rd runner-up ($250)

Easton Magliarditi- ‘Jealous’ (The Rock Center for Dance)

2nd runner-up ($250)

Sam Fine- ‘To Multiply’ (Stars Dance Studio)

1st runner-up ($350)

Destanye Diaz- ‘Unhurt’ (Stars Dance Studio)

Top Soloist ($500)

Selena Hamilton- ‘Supermodel’ (Project 21)

Rookie Duet/Trio

1st: The Movement Dance Academy- ‘One’

2nd: Studio X- ‘Turn to Stone’

3rd: Studio X- ‘Human’

4th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Remember Me’ 

4th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Mr Big Stuff’

5th: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Dream’

Mini Duet/Trio

1st: Project 21- ‘The Blue or Red Pill’

2nd: New Level Dance Company- ‘Complex Notion’

3rd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘The Meadow’

3rd: Studio X- ‘Ready or Npt’

4th: Danceplex- ‘Evening Rise’

5th: Studio 19 Dance Complex- ‘Sophisticated’

Junior Duet/Trio

1st: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Only the Bravest’

2nd: Mather Dance Company- ‘Memories’

3rd: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Together’

4th: The Difference Dance Company- ‘The Pure’

5th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Dreamgirls’

Teen Duet/Trio

1st: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Mine’

2nd: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Surrender’

3rd: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Still’

4th: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Love Lockdown’

5th: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘You and I Both’

Senior Duet/Trio

1st: Project 21- ‘Shaping’

2nd: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Power vs Passion’

3rd: CanDance Studios- ‘Backseat’

4th: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Fire My Heart’

5th: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Voice Like’

Rookie Group

1st: Project 21- ‘It’s Raining Men’

2nd: Pave School of the Arts- ‘You Make Me Feel So Young’

3rd: The Movement Dance Academy- ‘What About Us’

4th: Impact Dance- ‘Like A Prayer’

5th: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Boogie Shoes’

Mini Group

1st: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Bangalore Whispers’

2nd: Project 21- ‘1+1=2′

3rd: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Colors’

4th: Mather Dance Company- ‘Click Clack’

5th: Project 21- ‘That’s Amore’

Junior Group

1st: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Don’t Forget Me’

2nd: Project 21- ‘My Pumps’

2nd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Never Going Back Again’

3rd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Vogue’

4th: Cypress Dance Project- ‘What Is Love?’

4th: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Supermarket Woman’

4th: Project 21- ‘Something Bad Is About to Happen’

5th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Up Against the Wind’

5th: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Dance Me’

Teen Group

1st: Impact Dance Studio- ‘Bang Bang’

2nd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Sound & Color’

3rd: Mather Dance Company- ‘Blower’s Daughter’

3rd: CanDance Studios- ‘Glitter’

4th: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Home’

4th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘The Letting Go’

5th: The Difference Dance Company- ‘So Broken’

5th: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘The Ride’

Senior Group

1st: Mather Dance Company- ‘Crime For Crime’

1st: Distinction Dance Company- ‘Do You’

2nd: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘These Days’

3rd: Project 21- ‘Destination’

4th: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Bloodline’

4th: Mather Dance Company- ‘To Be Loved’

5th: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Night’

5th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Ode to a Love Lost’

5th: Mather Dance Company- ‘Stayaway’

Rookie Line

1st: The Movement Dance Academy- ‘Last Dance’

2nd: Studio X- ‘Drumline’

3rd: Pave School of the Arts- ‘Looking Good and Feeling Gorgeous’

4th: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Party People’

Mini Line

1st: Impact Dance Studio- ‘What About Us’

2nd: Impact Dance Studio- ‘Don’t Mean A Thing’

2nd: Mather Dance Company- ‘Tens’

3rd: Mather Dance Company- ‘Via Dolorosa’

4th: Project 21- ‘Fashionista’

4th: Impact Dance Studio- ‘River Deep’

5th: Project 21- ‘Dawn’

Junior Line

1st: Impact Dance Studio- ‘When Doves Cry’

2nd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘9 to 5′

3rd: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Tribal Beauties’

4th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Applause’

4th: Pave School of the Arts- ‘I Feel Pretty’

5th: Impact Dance Studio- ‘It’s All Coming Back’

Teen Line

1st: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Welcome to the Internet’

2nd: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Cinema (Act II)

3rd: Mather Dance Company- ‘Crazy Love’

4th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Wasteland’

5th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Against Me’

5th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Call Waiting’

5th: Project 21- ‘Dangerous’

5th: Haja Dance Company- ‘Everything Must Change’

5th: Project 21- ‘Malevolence’

5th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Traditions’

Senior Line

1st: Mather Dance Company- ‘Gravity’

2nd: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Ric Flair Drip’

3rd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Young & Free’

4th: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Now Boarding’

5th: CanDance Studios- ‘M.I.R’

Rookie Extended Line

1st: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Do Your Thing’

2nd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Rockin’ Robin’

3rd: Impact Dance- ‘When You Believe’

4th: Artistic Motion Dance- ‘Cool Rider’

4th: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘You Are Enough’

5th: Impact Dance- ‘Wash That Man’

Mini Extended Line

1st: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Cinema (Act 1)’

2nd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’

3rd: Impact Dance- ‘Hernandos Hideaway’

3rd: CanDance Studios- ‘Lip Gloss’

4th: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Shake My Hand’

5th: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Pink Cadillac’

5th: Pave School of the Arts- ‘Shoeless Joe’

Junior Extended Line

1st: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘My Way’

2nd: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Collateral Damage’

3rd: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘I Want You’

4th: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘You Make Me Feel’

5th: Project 21- ‘Hey, Hi, Hello’

Teen Extended Line

1st: Impact Dance Studio- ‘Sing’

2nd: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘No Time To Stand and Stare’

3rd: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Slip n Slide(s)’

4th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Runaway’

5th: CanDance Studios- ‘Sound of Awakening’

Senior Extended Line

1st: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Out For Blood’

2nd: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘All Dessen Mud’

2nd: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Check It Out’

3rd: Project 21- ‘Cell Block Tango’

4th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Love Game’

5th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Fallout’

Mini Production

1st: Impact Dance Studio- ‘Pump It Up’

2nd: Impact Dance- ‘Low’

3rd: CanDance Studios- ‘National Pastime’

3rd: Impact Dance- ‘The One’

Junior Production

1st: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Back to the Swing’

1st: The Movement Dance Academy- ‘Love Shack’

2nd: CanDance Studios- ‘Unite’

3rd: Impact Dance- ‘Yala’

4th: Artistic Motion Dance- ‘Money’

Teen Production

1st: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Por Mi Alma’

2nd: Project 21- ‘Love Letter to Ari’

3rd: CanDance Studios- ‘Eat’

4th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Funk & Soul’

5th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Mr. Bojangles’

Senior Production

1st: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘We Run This’

High Score by Performance Division:

Voucher Prizes:

1st: $200

2nd: $100

3rd: $50

Rookie Jazz

1st: Project 21- ‘It’s Raining Men’

2nd: The Movement Dance Academy- ‘Last Dance’

3rd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Forever Your Girl’

4th: Mather Dance Company- ‘We Love Freddy’

4th: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Rockin’ Robin’

5th: CanDance Studios- ‘Love Shack’

5th: Impact Dance- ‘Ladies Room’

Rookie Hip-Hop

1st: Artistic Motion Dance- ‘Lose Control’

2nd: Studio X- ‘Drumline’

3rd: Impact Dance- ‘Going Back to Cali’

4th: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Nursery Rhymes’

5th: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Beggin’

Rookie Tap

1st: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Boogie Shoes’

2nd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Do Your Thing’

3rd: Artistic Motion Dance- ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’

4th: Mather Dance Company- ‘These Boots’

Rookie Lyrical

1st: The Movement Dance Academy- ‘What About Us’

2nd: Impact Dance- ‘Like A Prayer’

3rd: Impact Dance- ‘When You Believe’

4th: Artistic Motion Dance- ‘Keep You Safe’

5th: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘You Are Enough’

Rookie Musical Theatre

1st: Pave School of the Arts- ‘Hernando’s Hideaway’

2nd: Dance Studio C- ‘This Little Piggy’

Rookie Specialty

Pave School of the Arts- ‘You Make Me Feel So Young’

Mini Jazz

1st: Mather Dance Company- ‘Tens’

2nd: Project 21- ‘1+1=2′

3rd: Project 21- ‘Fashionista’

3rd: Impact Dance Studio- ‘River Deep’

4th: Mather Dance Company- ‘Click Clack’

5th: Mather Dance Company- ‘Hush Hush’

Mini Ballet

1st: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Swan Lake Waltz’

2nd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Saute Sonata’

3rd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Simple Symphony’

3rd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Spanish Dance’

4th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Flute Concerto No 2′

Mini Hip-Hop

1st: Impact Dance Studio- ‘Pump It Up’

2nd: CanDance Studios- ‘Lip Gloss’

3rd: Impact Dance- ‘Low’

4th: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Oh Okay’

5th: Heat Dance Studio- ‘Lil Funk’

Mini Tap

1st: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Shake My Hand’

2nd: Studio 19 Dance Complex- ‘Dr Bones’

3rd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘For The Navy’

4th: Artistic Motion Dance- ‘PYT’

4th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Dance With Me Tonight’

5th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Think’

Mini Lyrical

1st: Impact Dance Studio- ‘What About Us’

2nd: Mather Dance Company- ‘Via Dolorosa’

3rd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Imagine’

4th: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’

5th: Mather Dance Company- ‘Hold On To Me’

Mini Musical Theatre

1st: Impact Dance Studio- ‘Don’t Mean A Thing’

2nd: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Cinema (Act 1)’

3rd: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Thankful’

4th: Impact Dance- ‘Hernandos Hideaway’

5th: Pave School of the Arts- ‘Shoeless Joe’

Mini Contemporary

1st: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Colors’

2nd: Project 21- ‘Dawn’

3rd: Project 21- ‘Big Spender’

4th: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Escape Artist’

5th: Studio X- ‘Green Light’

Mini Specialty

1st: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Bangalore Whispers’

2nd: Project 21- ‘That’s Amore’

3rd: Mather Dance Company- ‘Orange Colored Sky’

4th: Pave School of the Arts- ‘Higher’

5th: Pave School of the Arts- ‘Footloose’

Junior Jazz

1st: Impact Dance Studio- ‘When Doves Cry’

2nd: Pave School of the Arts- ‘I Feel Pretty’

2nd: Project 21- ‘My Pumps’

2nd: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Applause’

3rd: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘I Want You’

4th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Vogue’

5th: Project 21- ‘Purse First’

Junior Ballet

1st: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Tribal Beauties’

2nd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Ninety-Five Five’

3rd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Atlas’

4th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘After Bach’

5th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Anitra’s Dance’

Junior Hip-Hop

1st: CanDance Studios- ‘Stacked’

2nd: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Playground’

3rd: Artistic Motion Dance- ‘In Your Dreams’

4th: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Love You Different’

5th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘We Will Rock You’

Junior Tap

1st: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Never Going Back Again’

2nd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘You Make Me Feel’

3rd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Back to the Swing’

4th: Artistic Motion Dance- ‘All About That Bass’

5th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Mayhem’

Junior Lyrical

1st: Impact Dance Studio-  ‘It’s All Coming Back’

2nd: Impact Dance Studio- ‘Read All About It’

3rd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Up Against the Wind’

4th: Mather Dance Company- ‘Permanent’

5th: The Movement Dance Academy- ‘Out of Hiding’

5th: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Me In 20 Years’

5th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Color Me In’

Junior Musical Theatre

1st: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Going Down’

2nd: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Neighbors’

3rd: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Bend and Snap’

4th: Impact Dance- ‘Mein Herr’

5th: Artistic Motion Dance- ‘Money’

Junior Contemporary

1st: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘My Way’

2nd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Don’t Forget Me’

3rd: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Collateral Damage’

4th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘9 to 5′

5th: Project 21- ‘Something Bad Is About To Happen’

5th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘The Dance’

Junior Ballroom

1st: Project 21- ‘Hey, Hi, Hello’

2nd: CanDance Studios- ‘Pusher Love’

Junior Specialty

1st: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Supermarket Woman’

2nd: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Do You’

2nd: CanDance Studios- ‘Unite’

3rd: The Studio Project- ‘Visual Distortion’

4th: Dance Studio C- ‘Hey Mr DJ’

5th: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘The Birds’

Teen Group

Teen Jazz

1st: Distinction Dance Company- ‘Clap Clap’

2nd: Dance Studio C- ‘Last Night’

3rd: Orange County Performing Arts Academy- ‘London Bridge’

4th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Maniac’

5th: Visionary Dancer- ‘La Vita Nuova’

Teen Hip-Hop

1st: Dancers’ Pointe- ‘Club 229′

Teen Tap

1st: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Sound & Color’

2nd: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Escape’

3rd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Because the Night’

4th: Gotta Dance- ‘My Boo’

5th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘We Built This City’

Teen Lyrical

1st: Mather Dance Company- ‘Blower’s Daughter’

2nd: Haja Dance Company- ‘Lost’

3rd: Dance Studio C- ‘Slow It Down’

4th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘I Surrender’

5th: Heat Dance Studio- ‘Beautiful’

Teen Musical Theatre

1st: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Mein Herr’

2nd: Impact Dance- ‘Be Italian’

3rd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Six’

Teen Contemporary

1st: CanDance Studios- ‘Glitter’

2nd: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Home’

2nd: Stars Dance Studio- ‘The Letting Go’

3rd: The Difference Dance Company- ‘So Broken’

3rd: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘The Ride’

4th: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Mary’

4th: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Daylight’

4th: CanDance Studios- ‘Not Your Honey’

4th: Artistic Motion Dance- ‘Dangerous’

5th: Dance Studio C- ‘Somebody Else’

Teen Ballroom

1st: The Colony- ‘Fade’

Teen Specialty

1st: Impact Dance Studio- ‘Bang Bang’

2nd: Impact Dance- ‘My Immortal

3rd: Dance Studio C- ‘Used To Know’

3rd: Dance Studio C- ‘Get Your Freak On’

4th: The Studio Project- ‘When Going Through It, Count To Four’

5th: Impact Dance- ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’

Teen Line, Extended Line, Production

Teen Jazz

1st: Project 21- ‘Love Letter to Ari’

2nd: Project 21- ‘Dangerous’

2nd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Funk & Soul’

3rd: Haja Dance Company- ‘A Ni Ni’

3rd: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Mr Roboto’

3rd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Future Nostalgia’

4th: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Fly Away’

5th: Haja Dance Company- ‘Doves’

5th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Eating The Runway’

Teen Hip-Hop

1st: CanDance Studios- ‘Hijacked’

2nd: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Tokyo Drift’

3rd: Project 21- ‘Pop’

4th: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Underground’

5th: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Don’t Go Yet’

Teen Tap

1st: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Scoop’

2nd: Artistic Motion Dance- ‘Baltimore’s Fireflies’

3rd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘No Matter Where You Are’

4th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Take On Me’

Teen Lyrical

1st: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Here is to Life’

2nd: Haja Dance Company- ‘You’re Gonna Love Me’

3rd: Visionary Dancer- ‘Swim Good’

4th: Artistic Motion Dance- ‘2 Steps Away’

5th: Impact Dance- ‘Something Like This’

Teen Musical Theatre

1st: Impact Dance Studio- ‘Sing’

2nd: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Welcome to the Internet’

3rd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Mr. Bojangles’

4th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Cupid’

5th: Artistic Motion Dance- ‘Whipped Into Shape’

Teen Contemporary

1st: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Por Mi Alma’

2nd: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘No Time To Stand and Stare’

3rd: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Cinema (Act II)

4th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Runaway’

5th: CanDance Studios- ‘Sound of Awakening’

5th: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Wasteland’

Teen Ballroom

1st: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Salome’

2nd: CanDance Studios- ‘Rooooooooosendo and His Ladies’

Teen Specialty

1st: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Slip n Slide(s)’

1st: Mather Dance Company- ‘Crazy Love’

2nd: CanDance Studios- ‘Eat’

3rd: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Call Waiting’

4th: Distinction Dance Company- ‘Don’t Jealous Me’

5th: CanDance Studios- ‘Format It’

Senior Jazz

1st: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘Check It Out’

2nd: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Love Game’

3rd: Haja Dance Company- ‘Check It Out’

4th: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘The Chain’

5th: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Fallout’

Senior Ballet

1st: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Circular Concerto’

Senior Hip-Hop

1st: CanDance Studios- ‘M.I.R’

2nd: Distinction Dance Company- ‘Icon’

3rd: Impact Dance- ‘Rake It Up’

4th: The Haus Dance Agency- ‘Role Modelz’

5th: Gotta Dance- ‘Do You?’

Senior Tap

1st: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘The Way’

2nd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘We Run This’

Senior Lyrical

1st: Mather Dance Company- ‘Gravity’

2nd: Mather Dance Company- ‘To Be Loved’

3rd: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Ode to a Love Lost’

4th: Impact Dance- ‘Come On Love’

5th: Impact Dance- ‘Used To Be Mine’

Senior Musical Theatre

1st: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Now Boarding’

2nd: Project 21- ‘Cell Block Tango’

3rd: Gotta Dance- ‘She Works Hard For the Money’

Senior Contemporary

1st: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Out For Blood’

2nd: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘These Days’

3rd: Project 21- ‘Destination’

3rd: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Young & Free’

4th: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Bloodline’

5th: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Night’

5th: Mather Dance Company- ‘Stayaway’

Senior Specialty

1st: Distinction Dance Company- ‘Do You’

1st: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Ric Flair Drip’

1st: Mather Dance Company- ‘Crime For Crime’

2nd: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘All Dessen Mud’

3rd: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘Forever’

4th: Impact Dance- ‘Power’

5th: Mather Dance Company- ‘Detonate’

Best of Radix:

Cash Prizes:

Winner: $1000

1st runner-up: $500

2nd runner-up: $250

Runners-up: $150

Rookie

Winner:

Project 21- ‘It’s Raining Men’

Mini

Winner: Mather Dance Company- ‘Tens’

1st runner-up: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Bangalore Whispers’

2nd runner-up: Impact Dance Studio- ‘What About Us’

3rd runner-up: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Colors’

4th runner-up: Project 21- ‘1+1=2′

5th runner-up: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Cinema (Act 1)’

Junior

Winner: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘My Way’

1st runner-up: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Tribal Beauties’

2nd runner-up: Impact Dance Studio- ‘When Doves Cry’

3rd runner-up: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘Collateral Damage’

4th runner-up: Summit Dance Shoppe- ‘9 to 5′

5th runner-up: Pave School of the Arts- ‘I Feel Pretty’

6th runner-up: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Applause’

7th runner-up: Project 21- ‘My Pumps’

Teen Group

Winner: CanDance Studios- ‘Glitter’

1st runner-up: Impact Dance Studio- ‘Bang Bang’

2nd runner-up: Mather Dance Company- ‘Blower’s Daughter’

3rd runner-up: Stars Dance Studio- ‘The Letting Go’

4th runner-up: Woodbury Dance Center- ‘Sound & Color’

5th runner-up: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Home’

Teen Line, Extended Line, Production

Winner: Impact Dance Studio- ‘Sing’

1st runner-up: Evoke Dance Movement- ‘No Time To Stand and Stare’

2nd runner-up: The Rock Center for Dance- ‘Welcome to the Internet’

3rd runner-up: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Por Mi Alma’

4th runner-up: Project 21- ‘Love Letter to Ari’

Senior

Winner: Mather Dance Company- ‘Gravity’

1st runner-up: Stars Dance Studio- ‘Out For Blood’

2nd runner-up: Distinction Dance Company- ‘Do You’

3rd runner-up: AVANTI Dance Company- ‘These Days’

4th runner-up: The Difference Dance Company- ‘Ric Flair Drip’

Best in Show ($10,000)

Winner

Impact Dance Studio- ‘Sing’

[themovementquality]

Since the season has ended i thought I'd do something to appreciate my favorite solos of this year!

note: this is meant to be just for fun!

the order is random

Favourite mini solos (age 8-10) 2021-2022

Skylar Wong- Everything Must Change

Skylar Wong- Best of My Love

Zoe Flores- Changes

Zoe Flores- Storm

Harper Anderson- Last waltz

Denise Torres- Danger Boy

Kensington Dressing- The light within

Kensington Dressing- Tuesday

Diana Kouznetsova- Wind it up

Diana Kouznetsova- Rinse + repeat

Elsie Sandall- Origins

Elsie Sandall- Come together

Ellary Day Szyndlar- Enyo

Ellary Day Szyndlar- After Life

Isabella Kouznetsova- Wake up

Isabella Kouznetsova- I gotcha

Roxie Onellion- Vildik

Kelsie Jacobson- She used to be mine

Kelsie Jacobson- End of everything

Lilly Anderson- Silent night

Lilly Anderson- Ring them bells

Camila Giraldo- Joga

Reagan Gerena- Cinema Italiano

Reagan Gerena- Queen Bee

Neo Del Corral- Hold me

Dylan Custodio- This is not the end

Delilah Hewitt- These boots

Emily Polis- The fool

Emily Polis- House of Keta

Karyna Majeroni- What about me

Addison Price- Sarajevo

Finley Ashfield- Hidden within

Finley Ashfield- She's a lady

#might do other ages as well #i just want to share my favorites of this yeat that's all

[xasha777]

In the year 2424, the world had long since transformed into a civilization where the boundaries between the organic and the inanimate were indistinct. Amongst the bustling streets of Neo-Vienna, a peculiar artifact stood out, exhibited in the renowned Museum of Temporal Oddities—the relic was a cube, its entire surface seemingly composed of an organic, chocolate-like substance, save for an eerily lifelike human eye and the embossed number '4'.

Legend had it that the cube was an enigmatic vestige from an experimental time-travel project known as "The Habsburg Initiative". The project was an ambitious attempt by the greatest minds of the 23rd century to alter history for the better. Their target was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, an event which historically led to the outbreak of the First World War. The initiative's plan was simple yet daring: prevent the assassination and thus, the war.

The cube was, in fact, a 'Chrono-Sarcophagus', designed to be a time traveler's pod, engineered to transport a single agent back to Sarajevo on that fateful day. The '4' embossed on its side represented the fourth iteration of the pod, optimized after three prior unsuccessful attempts to change the course of history. The initiative was to send back an agent who would swap the real Archduke with a replica at the moment of the assassination, effectively faking the Archduke’s death to avert the looming war.

However, something unforeseen occurred during the fourth deployment. As the Chrono-Sarcophagus activated its temporal engines, a glitch in the matrix of time sent a shockwave through the fabric of reality. Instead of transporting the agent back to 1914, the pod itself became a living paradox, its material fusing with the essence of the agent, the Archduke, and the threads of countless timelines.

The eye that now gazed out from the cube was all that remained of the agent, a sentient guardian of time, perpetually observing the ever-flowing river of causality. They became an anomaly, a living testament to the perils of tampering with the time stream. The eye was aware of all the realities that could have been, the wars avoided, the peace never achieved, and the infinite cost of playing with history.

As for the world, it continued on, unaware that the eye in the museum was more than a mere exhibit. It was the silent watcher of what was, what is, and what might have been, a relic of a time when humanity dared to rewrite its own past, only to learn that some moments in history are pivotal for reasons too complex to unravel.

And thus, the cube with the watchful eye remained in Neo-Vienna, a reminder of the Archduke who was never saved, the wars that followed, and the echoes of a future that could have been vastly different. It was a symbol of humanity's reach exceeding its grasp, a cautionary tale about the fragility of time and the hubris of those who would attempt to control it.

[sauolasa]

Sarajevo, Erdogan in visita tra campagna elettorale e relazioni neo-ottomane

L'arrivo del presidente turco sembra abbia riportato in vita la polemica non soltanto con croati e serbo-bosniaci, ma anche all'interno della rappresentanza bosgnacca che teme ingerenze per favorire la vittoria della moglie dell'attuale presidente Izbetegovic alle elezioni di ottobre

#Sarajevo #Erdogan in visita tra campagna elettorale e relazioni neo-ottomane News | Euronews RSS

[architectuul]

The Story Of  The Abandoned Car Factory Pragovka

Prague is a city of postcard-perfect architecture: from immaculate works of Gothic beauty – like St. Vitus Cathedral and the 13th century Old New Synagogue in Josefov – to the statue-lined Charles Bridge, or the monumental neo-Renaissance building of the National Museum looking out across Wenceslas Square. It is not a city that most would associate with industrial decay, however Prague’s former palaces of industry are no less grand, even while history is in the process of burying them.

The Praga Car Factory Pragovka. | Photo via E-Factory.cz

The Praga Car Factory Pragovka on the city’s eastern edge was once the beating heart of the Czechoslovak manufacturing industry. It played a significant role in the city’s 20th century history, but it was here at the Prague’s darkest days was set into motion. In 1968 workers at Pragovka sent a letter to the Soviet Embassy requesting support in the fight against liberalisation. This letter, published in Pravda, would then be used as justification for the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.

The Praga Car Factory today. | Photo Katka Havlíková

Pragovka is abandoned since the turn of the 21st century and is now a sprawling ruin, its extravagant factory halls succumbing slowly to time and nature. In 2017 I went to explore what was left of it. The Car Factory was founded in 1907 as a manufacturing site in the eastern suburbs of Prague, with just 30 employees. Two years later, its parent company adopted the name ‘Praga’ – the car brand used the Latin form of the city’s name in the hope of sounding more international. During WWI the Praga factory (then known as the First Czech-Moravian Machine Factory) supplied the Austro-Hungarian army; then after 1918 and the independence of Czechoslovakia, it began to focus more on passenger cars.

The main hall of the Pragovka factory in 2017. | Photo Katka Havlíková

The large, angled windows allowed plenty of natural light to enter, reducing electricity costs. | Photo Katka Havlíková

In 1927 Praga was incorporated into the new ČKD (Českomoravská Kolben-Daněk) group, one of the largest engineering companies in Czechoslovakia. Among other vehicles (including tanks, locomotives, tractors, motorcycles and metro cars), ČKD produced cars under the Praga, Škoda and Tatra brands, and was famous for making the Tatra T3 tramcar – a design which would sell almost 14,000 units, and become an iconic sight on the streets of socialist cities from Sarajevo to Tashkent. Meanwhile as many as half of the taxis on Prague’s streets had rolled out of this factory.

Left: Cover of a 1962 sales brochure from Strojexport, featuring the Tatra T3 tramcar. Right: Vintage poster featuring the Tatra T77.

In recent years, the Pragovka complex has been recognised as a heritage site and some of its spaces have been developed into an arts district. There is a retro-themed ‘Pragovka Cafe,’ and the place hosts film screenings, concerts and festivals. Reportedly as many as a hundred local artists have studios now on the former factory grounds, while the large E-Factory building has been converted into a gallery space. 

Some outer buildings still remain, linked by covered walkways. Other buildings have been bulldozed. | Photo Katka Havlíková

There’s talk of building apartments here too in future, a trendy new community rising up amidst the industrial decay. A large part of the complex remains off-limits for now though – and it was here that we entered. During the visit of Prague was fortunate enough to be offered a tour of its best ruins the local photographer Katka Havlíková. 

Raised gas pipes above an overgrown courtyard. | Photo Katka Havlíková

The factory has been abandoned long enough for creepers and graffiti to cover many of its surfaces. | Photo Katka Havlíková

Katka picks a careful path through the debris-field, towards the first of the factory’s grand production halls. | Photo Katka Havlíková

She led us around the back of the factory where we scrambled up a slope of rubble to reach a promontory at the corner of the former yard. Ahead of us lay a sea of green. Thick vegetation hid the concrete courtyard, with only the occasional street light, rising like drowning hands from water, to suggest that anything unnatural lay beneath. The main buildings, those still standing, were just visible through the trees and so we cut a path down through the overgrown wreckage towards the old factory halls.

The largest of Pragovka’s manufacturing halls looks no less grand today with its full-height windows. | Photo Katka Havlíková

After poking around in a few of the outer buildings that rise now out of bushes and debris, we made it finally to the main manufacturing halls of Pragovka. It was strange to see a building this grand left to ruin. The complex was built back in a time when factories and power plants were temples of the people – places of pride, not merely function, their spaces defined with grand architectural flourishes. This main hall could have been a train station, not a car factory. Natural light illuminated the hall from floor-to-ceiling windows (much of their glass still intact), while pillars supported an arched ceiling high above.

Nature creeps into Pragovka – vines find a way inside through broken window, letterboxes, or any other breach in the outer wall. | Photo Katka Havlíková

We didn’t see the new arts district at all – a fact indicative of just how large this complex was – but it was hard to imagine how any small business or community project could successfully take over a space like this. The factory halls were beautiful, but built on such a scale that maintenance and repairs would be an extraordinary burden, particularly after all these years of decline. 

Two levels of offices lined the wall. | Photo Katka Havlíková

A staircase connects floors inside the main building. | Photo Katka Havlíková

The seeming inevitability of this factory’s ruin cast a melancholy mood over the few hours we spent wandering the halls of Pragovka. Right now, like this, with the warm sun slicing in sideways through the dirty glass windows, and the greenery of nature’s scouts – along with bursts of bright graffiti – lending fresh colour to the otherwise muted palette of pastel-painted walls and pillars: Pragovka might never look this good again.

Old ledgers amongst broken glass in the courtyard.| Photo Katka Havlíková

When Pragovka falls, much of its history will be buried with it; and perhaps for some, that might be for the best. Pragovka is remembered not only as the heart of the Czechoslovak manufacturing industry, but it is also a place where the communists made their stand – forever linking these buildings with a historic victory for the pro-Soviet movement. In 1968 the Soviet Union and its allies led an overnight invasion of Czechoslovakia – to suppress the Prague Spring, a growing liberalisation movement under First Secretary Alexander Dubček. Although history remembers the event as an act of totalitarian foreign aggression, that invasion was not, in fact, universally unwelcome. 

A wall has collapsed to reveal the stairwell inside. | Photo Katka Havlíková

Numerous workers’ unions in Czechoslovakia supported Soviet intervention in their country, and one of the key triggers of the invasion was a letter of invitation, that was written here, at the Praga Car Factory. In 1971 the Czechoslovak journalist Josef Maxa authored A Year is Eight Months, which recounts the events of the Prague Spring and leading up to the invasion. “Moscow’s Pravda published a letter from ninety-nine workers in the Pragovka factory in Prague to the Soviet Embassy,” he wrote. “The letter denounced the Czechoslovakian enemies of socialism and of the Soviet Union.” That document was known as the “Letter of the Ninety-nine Praguers,” and it warned the Soviet Embassy how: “the manifestations of the democratisation of society in our republic threaten the building of socialism and in so doing, attack the blood-hardened friendship between the Czech and Soviet peoples” (as paraphrased by Martin Půlpán). 

Rooftop above one of the manufacturing halls.| Photo Katka Havlíková

The letter claimed that all honest citizens of Czechoslovakia felt safer in the presence of Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops occupying their country. When Pravda printed the letter, on 30 July 1968, along with all ninety-nine signatures, the document would be used as justification for the swift invasion that followed in August. The incoming normalisation government that subsequently took charge of Czechoslovakia would valorise the authors of that letter – raising a memorial plaque at the main entrance to Pragovka, that read: “In the revolutionary tradition of this great workers’ nation, a letter with ninety-nine signatures was sent to the USSR in the critical year of 1968, requesting support and assistance in fighting anti-socialist forces.”

A bright and airy side room near the main factory floor. | Photo Katka Havlíková

Nowadays that plaque is long gone. The gates of Pragovka stand barred, and the halls where the letter was written are lost to a maze of rubble, weeds and graffiti. The factory’s decline today is an inevitability – it is a temple to a lost industry, a relic displaced from its time and no longer fit for purpose in the new industrial landscape of the Czech Republic. 

The wall in a former office space. | Photo Katka Havlíková

Though Pragovka’s political history likely doesn’t help to endear these halls to the citizens of contemporary Prague – and it’s hard not to read some level of symbolism as this celebrated factory, once enshrined like a victorious battlefield in Czechoslovakia’s communist historiography, is slowly carved up, and crushed, by the oncoming future.

--

by Darmon Richter

[adapted with permission from an article at Ex Utopia]

#foma

[schlock-luster-video]

Today in neo-noir / thriller movie history: on August 12, 2016 the restored version of Taxi Driver was screened at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Here's some Travis Bickle art to mark the occasion!

#taxi driver #sarajevo film festival #sarajevo #film festival #martin scorsese #robert deniro #robert de niro #thriller film #psychological drama #psychological thriller #crime thriller #national film registry #vigilante films #vigilante film #70s movies #70s cinema #1970s #fan art #book art #pen art #pen drawing #movie art #drawing #art #pop art #modern art #pop surrealism #movie history #portrait #cult movies

[eteroutsider]

it is once again goth girls time

#neo sarajevo #kdp #varvara #goth #lesbian #OCs #arter #eteroutsider

[mariacallous]

The Bucharest Court of Appeal opened an extradition procedure to the US for the US far-rightist of Romanian origin Robert Paul Rundo, 33, arrested last week by Romanian authorities in a gym in Bucharest.

Rundo leads a neo-Nazi group in the US, which has been active for several years in Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary, promoting white supremacy. He is also involved in the world of martial arts.

It is not known when Rundo entered Romania, but the authorities who detained him found a document identifying him as Robert Lazar Pavic.

US authorities have submitted a request for his provisional arrest with a view to extradition, saying that, between December 2016 and October 2018, in the State of California and other parts of the US, he conspired with others to use physical violence against individuals and groups that did not support their ideology.

Rundo was arrested in the US in 2018 in connection with violent events in California, but was released after charges were dismissed and he then left the country. According to the Anti-Defamation League, he attempted to create a white supremacist group in Eastern Europe.

Rundo is co-founder of the Rise Above Movement, RAM, a mixed martial arts club and allegedly posted videos and images online of them performing military hand-to-hand combat training, interspersed with pictures and videos of them assaulting people at political meetings, accompanied by messages in support of the ideology of white supremacy.

ProPublica investigated RAM and its footage shows Rundo being detained by law enforcement for violence at a political rally. It states that Rundo “pleaded guilty in the past to stabbing a Latino man five times in a gang fight.”

In an interview with a podcast promoting neo-Nazi ideology in September 2020, Rundo claimed to have left the US due to harassment and used anti-Semitic language about Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf”.

In 2020 Bellingcat revealed that Rundo was in Serbia and had posted videos on Telegram of himself and others writing supremacist messages on walls in Belgrade.

BIRN contacted Rundo in 2022 for an interview but it never happened. Later, he said he did not attend the scheduled interview in Sarajevo, Bosnia, because he was banned from entering the country.

[bulgarianrhapsodies]

The Eastern European melancholia

I spent the last week walking around the house, filled with anxiety. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. My father calls me. He starts talking about yet another political scandal that is currently taking over Bulgaria. It’s been 8 months since the protests started. It’s been 4 months since the local media privately owned by the oligarchs muted the people. He changes the topic. “How is it there?”

How is it here? To be honest I don’t know anymore. I’ve been here for almost 4 years now. And I’ve never felt more disconnected from the here and the there. Who am I?, who am I?, I need a reminder. A movie. A Bulgarian movie. Something to visually ground me. A story to pat me on the shoulder, and stare over the ugly concrete jungle of apartment buildings with me.

Eastern plays.

Kamen Kalev’s debut movie Eastern Plays premiered in 2009 at the Sarajevo Film Festival and immediately won the audience and the award from the International Confederation of Art Cinemas. Eastern Plays doesn’t have the intention to show you much more than the above-mentioned ugly leftover buildings of the communist era and the deep financial crisis sucking on the Bulgarian society like a leech. Reminiscent of the years-long process of the Bulgarian society to fit into European expectations, this movie will make you believe in true misfortune. In 90 minutes we follow the life of Christo, an artist and former opioid addict going through methadone maintenance. And there is his brother Georgi, a teenager who joined a neo-nazi group, driven by his internalized hatred towards his family. The plot already culminates in the first half an hour, as Georgi and his skinhead squad attack a Turkish family on the street. While walking by, Christo becomes a victim of the attack as well and is taken to the hospital with the family. Isil, the daughter of the attacked family, starts secretly meeting with Christo during the time her father is in the hospital.

Isil is the Balkanized depiction of the manic pixie dream girl, who comes to save the troubled fragile man. However, Isil isn’t the savior Christo hoped her to be. Instead, the encounter with the spiritually elevated Isil is the beginning of the end for Christo. After meeting her, Christo realizes how rotten his reality is. And instead of trying to fix it, he spirals down in a chain of self-destruction.

Their prolonged existential conversations about souls, spirits, and the emotionally damaged societies they both live in serve as a literal depiction of the so typical Eastern European melancholia. Always looking either somewhere in the future or somewhere far from home, the Eastern nations always feel like they don’t fit in their own homes, in their own realities. But how could they, when there’s always a there waiting for you to discover it and save you from the here?

If you are not of Balkan origin, Eastern Plays will definitely make you feel alienated and even pushed away from its very time and space-specific issues. However, you have to try and look past that hostility, because on the other side of it you’ll hear a cry for help of a nation that has been shouting at the void since 1989. A nation exploited by capitalism; chewed and spat out by the forced democratic reformation. A country taken over by radical movements and political propaganda. A reality so horrid, you would wish it was fiction.

Unfortunately, it is all real. Because the movie is based on a true story. A story still lived by many today.

[militant-holy-knight]

Published Studies after the Arab-spring revolutions have recommended, to the western decision-making circles, the idea of the conditioned integration for the Islamists.

The studies stipulated the Islamists’ acceptance of consociationalism with secularists. This condition requires trained them to accept the rules of democracy, respect the human rights, freedoms, renouncing violence, diversity of the legislation’s sources and maintains the rights of the religious minorities.

To enter this condition into force, the westerners sought to Islamist force to be as the bridge between the East and West. They aimed to combat terrorism and extremism, through a good Islamic-Western relation, achieving stability in the ME for the various interests of the west.

Erdogan loomed for the western confidence as he was the trusted leader who can tame the Muslim Brotherhood group. That is because he has presented himself in the beginning of his political life as a strong Islamist partner reflects the spirit of democratic modernism in an Islamist style.

After two decades, this path and western choice reflects a lack of knowledge of the nature of the religious movements and currents in the East. Turkey, under the rule of Erdogan and his allies within the political Islamist Movements, has become a bridge of tensions, instead of being the attenuation coefficient of the Islamist hostility to West.  Moreover, features of Neo-Ottomans and Arab Islamists caliphate shaped to threat the European interests.

Currently, Erdogan’s Islamist allies spread the hatred and extremism against the west. In addition to the Turkish sharp shifts against the Western interests through an alliance with Russia and Iran.

Tensions escalate between Europe and Turkey, over the latter exploiting refugee’s crisis and backing terrorists to move to the European countries, in order to achieve its interest. Turkey sought to this malevolence slap to cover the fallen of the political Islam project in the Arab region.

The flow of terrorists into Europe is linked to Erdogan’s and Brotherhood’s promoting to the past conflicts between the West and East. They used the history of the Crusades to escalate these disputes, especially after Turkey fail to join the European Union.  

Erdogan ... The Neo-Ottoman invader

With the Turkish and Arab Islamists, Erdogan has great aspirations to viciously expand its influence over the Islamic World through the imaginary of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey’s president considers that Muslims throughout the Middle East and Balkans have a desire to restore the empire’s former glory and release the Islamic world from dependency for West.

Erdogan used his alliances with the Islamism political and jihadist organizations as a reprisals and settling of accounts with Europe, after his accusation Europe of participating in the coup attempt, and supporting Fathallah Gulin group. As well as he did not want his new activity to remain in the context of a phased revenge, but among strategic project.

Erdogan considered Europe direct threat to the Turkish national security, this reflected on the Turks’ convictions. In a survey conducted by a think-tank, 87.6 % of participants agreed that “European countries want to divide Turkey”.

Erdogan has promoted the idea of existence a European conspiracy targets Islam, through Western scenario seek to eliminate the unity of the Islamic world. He has tried to rally Muslims behind the Turkish Sultan in defense of religion and sanctities, which produced in his speeches a classification of the world in the way of al-Qaeda, based on the dichotomy “Darusslam and Dar al-Harb or (Dar al-Islam and territory of war)”.

In his previous speeches, Erdogan expressed his emphasis on the historical conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the European countries. He also has claimed that he represents the Islamic world to confront the Western threat.

The Turkish president poses himself as a sole guarantor to save the Islamic identity from the international conspiracy.  He intentionally aims at spreading feelings of hatred and provoking violent reactions against the West.

“A dirty scenario is being carried out to destroy the unity, future, common sense and richness of the Muslim world,” Erdogan said. The Turkish president accused the West of exporting all its historical diseases to the Muslim world.

In his victory speech, Erdogan alluded to his aspiration to be a voice in the West for the Islamic world and Muslims, saying “Believe me, Sarajevo won today as much as Istanbul, Beirut won as much as Izmir, Damascus won as much as Ankara, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, the West Bank, Jerusalem won as much as Diyarbakir”.

Erdogan sought by these sweet, low-crooked words to secure his existence and influence in the ME, to restore the historical extent of the Ottoman Empire.

The intellectual reference of Erdogan’s Caliphate

The alleged Ottoman Empire, Erdogan has utilized the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate, so he developed prosperous relations with them. He also shares them in rejecting the Western civilization and the values of pluralism and democracy.

Erdogan’s Caliphate based on two basic principles, first; the nationalism ideology of Hassan El-Banna, who founded the Brotherhood in 1928, in response to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, to accommodate the goal of restoring the Caliphate in the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology.

The second principle is Sayyid Qutb’s idea, in which he lays out a plan and makes a call to action to re-create the Muslim world on strictly Quranic grounds, casting off what Qutb calls Jahiliyyah. According to Qutb, the Muslim community has been extinct for a few centuries and reverted to Jahiliyyah, so this society and its current governments should be fought.

These two principles allow Erdogan to legitimize overthrowing of the Arab regimes, to replace these regimes with an Islamic caliphate under his leadership.

In order to lead major change projects and lead the political and jihadist Islam in the face of supposed Western conspiracies, Turkey has to establish a complex religious caliphate through tools controlled by Erdogan, starting from the status of the caliphate, which must be transformed into an inspired religious state model. This project based on several axes:

First: Ideologize Turkey

Erdogan sought to reform the ideology and identity of the Turkish people by re-instilling Ottoman heritage within the collective memory by carrying out an internal revolution that would lead to establishing a theocracy ruled an authoritarian state, sought to an expansionist empire.

As an Ottoman sultan, Erdogan practiced his political hegemony and undermine the opponents. He also has stigmatized the opponents with a betrayal of the interests of Turkish people. Freedoms and the values of democracy and pluralism have retreated.

After Turkey became a unitary state, the horror of having a contrary opinion widespread as what happens in Daesh state, as both Turkey and Daesh accuses the opponents with betrayal.  

The practices of the Turkish president in power in recent years have the sane ideology roots of Daesh, although he does not appear in the traditional Islamists’ appearance, such as beard.

He is acting as head of one faction of the Turkish people, not all of them. Erdogan has a philosophy similar to that used by the Emirs of terrorist groups. After the last elections, Turkish political is expected to be affected by Daesh with regard to the individualism of power, discrimination against minorities, and the elimination of the citizenship.

It also demanded the reintroduction of compulsory religious education in Turkish basic schools and changes the curriculum of education, religion, and ethics by deleting topics that handle with morality and general virtues.

The concept of jihad also included in the curriculum, after changes approved by the Turkish Minister of Education in early 2017.

Second: Recruits the Arab Islamists

Turkey received the Arab Islamists after the failure of the Islamist party situation in the Arab countries. Erodgan has had two approaches to take: first: the traditional Arab regime based on main basics included Egypt, UAE, KSA, or support the Caliphate project.

Two main factors contributed in the failure of the party experience of the Arab Islamists in their countries. The first is inconsistent with the local Arab situation, which seeks to maintain and protect the state institutions and save its borders and cohesion, while it consistent with the draft of the Caliphate led by Erdogan.

The second was Erdogan’s keenness to benefit from these entities, in the context of his plan to remove his local political rivals.

Hence, Erdogan exploits the frustrations of the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies within the political Islamists, after their failure in power, to promote his alleged Caliphate.

The Islamists, on the other hand, put their last hope on Erdogan and his regime to get out of their major crisis after their isolation from power, and the restriction on their activities in the Arab world.

Third: The Jihadists... the deterrence tool of Erdogan’s Caliphate

Erdogan’s government has maintained the relationship with the Takfiri and Jihadi armed organizations such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda. The current stage is more appropriate than the previous one for the Turkish government to achieve its Caliphate model.

Therefore, the leaders of the Brotherhood promoted to Turkey under the leadership of Erdogan as it represents the hope to save the reputation of the Islamist ideology in general, and the leadership of what they call “Holy Jihad” in the Arab countries, especially after Daesh’ setbacks.

The Brotherhood’s leaders named Erdogan as a historical Islamic leader who has succeeded in eradicating secularism in Turkey. He has succeeded in subjugating the Turkish army to his authority, as well as his challenging to the West and the US.

Erdogan and the Muslim Brotherhood exploit the decline and losses of the jihadi organizations and sought to regional regimes and a strong state to compensate for the defeats they suffered. This is accepted by jihadist circles to complete the Caliphate project.

Summary and recommendations

Turkey and Qatar are responsible for the instability of the security situation in Europe through supporting the political Islam outside their country after the Arab countries tried to absorb it and give it a chance to work in the context of local Arab experiences.

Some Western political and intellectual circles are also responsible for that. This frightening ideological alliance contributed in supporting a Misunderstanding for the nature of the political Islam in the West, especially the Brotherhood, and the truth of its objectives.

The following should be considered:

First, Understanding that The threat of the political and jihadist Islamist, in addition, its sponsors no longer only to the Middle East, but also has reached to Europe, so we have to understand how should we deal with it.

Second, studying the effect of isolating the Brotherhood on its sponsors. The Arab countries hindered the Turkish project, and the isolation of the Muslim Brotherhood within the Arab world was the strongest Arab action to combat Erdogan’s plans.

Third, the efforts of the Arab countries should be supported by the European countries and the USA. The main factor that strengthened the Arab position is their unity to fight such these terrorist groups.

Fourth, respect the Arab league and the other regional organization, as they are the appropriate partner for establishing stability and security in the world.

Fifth: The elimination of terrorism shall be achieved with dismantling the Iranian-Turkish-Qatari ideological alliance and the alliance of the neo-Ottoman Islamists, which targets Arab national security and threatens the security and stability of Europe.

#terrorism #politics #news

[the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress]

By Peter Maass October 10 2019, 5:34 p.m.

Stockholm is more than 1,500 miles from Sarajevo, and the war in Bosnia was halted in 1995, so there’s a lot of time and distance between the Swedes who just chose the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature and the nasty war that happened in the heart of the Balkans a generation ago. But that’s no excuse for the decision to give this year’s prize to Peter Handke, who denies that a well-documented genocide was committed by Serbs against Muslims in Bosnia.

We live in perplexing times when the U.S. president saw “very fine people” among neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, and we have a television network that traffics in racism and conspiracy theories. Our world is being described in fraudulent ways, and history is being rewritten to suit these distorted narratives. The last thing we need, and the last thing I’d expect to happen, is for an intellectual honor as paramount as the Nobel Prize to go to a writer who embodies the prime intellectual diseases of our era. And let’s remember that the Nobel selection comes at a moment when violent white supremacists are singling out the 1990s Serbs as heroic avatars of what needs to be done in our world. It’s dumbfounding that the Nobel Committee would seize this moment to honor an Austrian writer who defends these war criminals and dissembles on their behalf.

What were they thinking?

I honestly don’t know where to begin with this whole thing. But let me start by making clear what I am not saying. I am not saying that we should not read Handke’s literary work. My objection is not a version of the age-old question of whether we should listen to Richard Wagner. Go ahead and listen to Wagner. Go ahead and read Handke. My point is this: It is one thing to read him — it is quite another to bestow upon him a prize that delivers a great amount of legitimacy to his entire body of work, not just the novels and plays that are most impeccable and nonpolitical.

[Continue reading]

#theintercept.com #article link #article excerpt #Novel Prize for Literaure #genocide #white supermacists #Trump #racism #2019 #2010s #Bosnia #war crimes #Muslims #Peter Handke

[certainwoman]

“These voters became the first targets of war propaganda engineered by neo-nationalist political leaders. In their rhetoric, they claimed that the ‘‘unnatural’’ socialist regime had replaced religion, tradition, shared blood, and kin for the emancipation of the working class, women, and proletarian internationalism. The nationalistic discourse, for its part, offered a set of values constructed as traditional, which could easily be perceived as ‘‘natural.’’ According to these ‘‘new’’ values, men were assigned the role of the ‘‘real warrior,’’ while women were assigned the responsibilities for the reproduction of the group, as well as the custody of cultural values and cultural identity. These proscriptions became the basis for the ‘‘new’’ society and the nationalist family in the region.  

 Rural-urban migrants were the initial group from whom the ‘‘real warriors’’ were recruited, and they eagerly mobilized behind their leaders’ ethnic-national projects. A mini-survey that profiled fifty volunteers in the Serbian paramilitary forces, who were members of the Serbian Radical Party (srs),5 illustrates this point. Undertaken by the then Serbian independent newspaper Borba at the end of 1991, the survey demonstrates that most of the volunteers were of arural background but with a permanent residence in one of the regional urban centres in Serbia.

 Feeling economic, social, and political pressures, these men began to engage in military combat, and some committed incomprehensibly cruel crimes. Yet behind the brutal images of these male perpetrators and the inhumanity and destruction that raged throughout the region, there were many thousands of tragic examples of men psychologically destroyed by pressures to take part in these wars.   

Miroslav Milenkovic´, born in 1951, a construction worker and reservist from the Serbian town Gornji Milanovac, was among those who could not give themselves up to violence and hate. He could not accept that he must pick up a gun and kill in order to prove himself a worthy representative of his ethnic-nation, a patriot, and, above all, a real man. Milenkovic´, like many others, was drafted as a reservist in the army. On September 20, 1991, when he reached Šid, a town on the border of Serbia and Croatia, Milenkovic��killed himself. Standing between two groups of reservists in the town square–on the one side were men who refused to take up weapons and thus faced incarceration, and on the other side were men who had chosen to take up arms in preparation for the war front in Croatia – he shot himself.

(...)

Indeed, militarization and war in the region were not straightforward processes of change. Political leaders and elites had to deploy different types of manipulation and control over the population in order to achieve their nationalistic goals. With respect to women, for example, the high rates of women’s unemployment, which resulted from economic restructuring, were justified and embraced by nationalists as women’s long overdue return to their sacred and natural family and household duties. In order to secure this natural order, nationalists established different ways of controlling women through state mechanisms, which violated their basic rights. The first instances of such control were the restrictions placed on women’s reproductive freedoms and the introduction of pro-life policies.

Between 1988 and 1991, feminists in the region focused more attention on preventing the manipulation of women’s reproductive rights for nationalistic purposes. Before the revival of ethnic nationalism, feminist activists in socialist Yugoslavia had voiced concern mainly about the ‘‘ woman question’’ as defined under state socialism.9  This group of urban, educated, predominantly young, middle-class women publicly challenged the socialist patriarchy and the assumption that the struggle for the equality of women was synonymous with class struggle. The changing social and political context altered the character of their activism. It became a more explicitly political form of protest against the specific violation of concrete women’s rights. As a result, the first autonomous women’s groups, established in the late 1970s, were transformed in the early 1990s into women’s lobbies, women’s parliaments, and umbrella organizations. These new feminist initiatives linked women across republic/ethnic-national boundaries. Among other achievements, their campaigns succeeded in preventing the republican parliaments from prohibiting abortion, although pro-life aspirations remained one of the important social and political goals of the governments. 

The outbreak of war and the violent destruction of the country and the lives of its peoples brought women face to face with new forms of oppression and victimization. Feminists reacted to the new political crisis by shifting their activism to anti-war politics. Feminist groups issued protest statements to the governments and the public, expressing their disagreement with militarization and with the warmongering tendencies of the political elite. Gradually, they were joined by some of the women who had been previously engaged in the ‘‘Mothers’ Movement,’’ which had emerged throughout the region at the beginning of the wars. These spontaneous protests by mothers first began in Serbia, in the summer of 1991, in reaction to the federal army’s intervention in Slovenia, after the latter declared unilateral independence. Hundreds of women stormed the Serbian Parliament during its session, demanding a peaceful solution to the crisis and the immediate return of their sons involved in the military intervention in Slovenia.10 This protest was followed by similar protests in Ljubljana (Slovenia), Zagreb (Croatia), and Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina), which were also organized across ethnic-national lines and which were joined by feminist and peace groups.”

Maja Korac, Women Organizing against Ethnic Nationalism and War in the Post-Yugoslav States

#maja korac #feminism #nationalism #yugoslavia