Khamoro - World gypsy festival in Prague, Czech republic

A festival of gypsy music called Khamoro in Prague was established in 1999, when producers Jelena and Dzemil Silajdzic came fro the former Yugoslavia to Prague. Because they were movie producers and co-operated with Emir Kusturica on movies abour Roma people, they had a good relationship with the Roma people and decided to organize a concert for the music group Khamoro. After that, because this concert was very successful, they decided to organise a festival named after the band Khamoro, which means sun.

Khamoro 2004, Gala concert

These musicians and groups parcitipated at the festival in 2004: Amparo Cortez (Spain/Belgium), Viktor Buzylov & Zlatni Cikani Ruska (Russia), Terne chave (Czech Rep.), Ziringaglia (Italy), Fanfara din Cozmesti (Romania),Bratsch (France), Romano drom (Hungary), Raya and her Gypsy Legacy (Norway), Kokavere Lavutara (Slovakia), Ferus King Mustafov (Macedonia).
In may 2005 there will be: Saban Bajramovic, Banjara (India), Bechari (Brasil) and many others from everywhere.
Viktor Buzylov & Zlatni cikani ruska
Here's the link to the official site of the Khamoro Festival. Link
And here's the videoclip of the Khamoro 2003

Djangology - great blog for the gypsy jazz guitarists

I just found Djangology, a great blog of the Django (a nick name of the owner), who is a manouche guitarist and runs this blog. Hundreds of usable links for the Django style guitarists with a lot of stuff including instructions, tablatures, mp3s etc. I found out what is my christmas wish for the next year. This is how it looks like:

Favino #902

Isn't she beautiful? Real beauty, but Django wants $ 4.000 for the guitar.
When i get enough speed for soloing on such an instrument, then i will look for something like this. Yes, i will. Till then i'll be ok with my other three low budget guitars.
Here's the (Link
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More on tsunami and animals senses

A month ago Blue Moos published The sixth sense, a tsunami related story about animals who detected abnormal activity of the nature, reacted the next second and saved their lives. In update part there is also a story about Khao Lak Trumpets, describing chained elephants who were crying and trumpeting in their efforts to get free and run away. They finally broke chains, lifted some people with their trunks on their backs and fled to higher ground.
A columnist Peta India wrote very interesting article where she describes different species of animals and their "sensoring system" for problems.

"Living on their own in the wild, their home, animals develop and keep sharp their senses so that they can take care of themselves in case of predictable danger. They also learn to observe other animals' signals. So, a sea gull flying over the sea may sense a storm and come back to the mainland and the monkeys sitting on the trees will see this and take action. The monkeys' calls and their flight to safety will in turn tell the other animals of the jungle. In this way, animals have cleverly survived many natural disasters."

Here's the full story

A speech about environmentalism by the man who wrote Jurassic park

Michael Crichton, started a degree in English at Harvard University, switched to anthropology and, after graduating, enrolled at Harvard Medical School. While studying, he wrote a number of thrillers including The Andromeda Strain, which became a bestseller and a Hollywood film. Crichton went on to become a full-time writer, and is credited as the creator of the techno-thriller. He has sold more than 100 million books, many of which have been made into films, including Jurassic Park and Disclosure. He has also directed six films, is the creator of the television show ER and has a dinosaur, Bienosaurus crichtoni, named after him. He is divorced and lives in Los Angeles.
He also wrote this excellent speech about environmentalism i really enjoyed. You can find it (here). And a link to his website (here).

The Wisdom of Warren Buffett

I just found this "Stuf i think" blog owned by Darren Johnson, a 23 year old entrepreneur who wants to change the world. He recently spent 6 hours in Omaha talking with Warren Buffett. They didn't talk about the money things. They talked about life.
"As a big fan of "Top" lists, I've compiled the "Top 5" things (prioritized) I learned from Warren Buffett that day:"

1. Be Grateful
There are roughly 6 Billion people in the world. Imagine the worlds biggest lottery where every one of those 6 Billion people was required to draw a ticket. Printed on each ticket were the circumstances in which they would be required to live for the rest of their lives.

Printed on each ticket were the following items:
- Sex
- Race
- Place of Birth (Country, State, City, etc.)
- Type of Government
- Parents names, income levels & occupations
- IQ (a normal distribution, with a 66% chance of your IQ being 100 & a standard deviation of 20)
- Weight, height, eye color, hair color, etc.
- Personality traits, temperment, wit, sense of humor
- Health risks

2. Be Ethical & Fair
3. Be Trustworthy
4. Invest in Your Circle of Competence
5. Do What You Love

Very nice reading.

Ever heard of a "Burning man" ceremony?

As Burning Man approaches its 20th year, Bay Area artists are staging a revolt that goes to the soul of the mega-event.

Tickets for a Burning man 2005 are currently $225, going fast, and available online or via mail order

30.000 participants in 2004

People band together to create the performances, fantastic art projects, and theme camps, sometimes larger than any one person could accomplish. A person hanging upside down spinning fire would not seem nearly as amazing without all the music, dancers, and jungle scenes. By creating your own awesome experience, you end up ensuring that other people have a good time too. Your creativity is a gift to others and vice versa. When everyone creates magic together, it becomes a giant positive feedback engine, and a gift for everyone.The Burning Man festival is a week-long art and culture celebration that takes place in the desert of Northwestern Nevada. The celebration of Burning Man's annual fire ceremony began in 1986, created by Larry Harvey and Jerry James. For the next four years, its annual fire party was held at Baker Beach in San Francisco. In 1990, the Park police interceded to prevent the culminating conflagration of the statue. This was a transitional moment for Burning Man as the event evolved with a new location, a change of date, and the beginning of a new meaning for the celebration. This viewpoint is an observation of the events surrounding Burning Man's presence in that year.



Like the best art, Burning Man looks different from each perspective. From a detached distance, you might just see a big art party in the desert. Step up to it and study the details and you'll notice dusty artists toiling over impossible creations, ravers feeling their musical bliss, humans making a gift economy work, and disparate tribes building unique camps into a cohesive – and fairly substantial – temporary city.

But at its most basic level, Burning Man is now a business, a limited liability corporation with an annual budget of about $7.5 million, derived from selling tickets that will next year cost between $175 and $250, depending on when you buy them. The budget pays for permits and other direct costs and for the salaries of dozens of employees, including the board of directors, known as the Borg.

Senses special: The art of seeing without sight

IT IS an odd sight. A middle-aged man, fully reclined, drawing pictures of hammers and mugs and animal figurines on a special clipboard, which is balanced precariously on a pillow atop his ample stomach.
The painter is Esref Armagan. He is blind from his birth. And he is here in Boston to see if a peek inside his brain can explain how a man who has never seen can paint pictures that the sighted easily recognise - and even admire. He paints houses and mountains and lakes and faces and butterflies, but he's never seen any of these things. He depicts colour, shadow and perspective, but it is not clear how he could have witnessed these things either. How does he do it?
A work of a blind man.

Because if Armagan can represent images in the same way a sighted person can, it raises big questions not only about how our brains construct mental images, but also about the role those images play in seeing. Do we build up mental images using just our eyes or do other senses contribute too? How much can congenitally blind people really understand about space and the layout of objects within it? How much "seeing" does a blind person actually do?

Link