kiberkambaris - Jura ŽagariÅa mÄjas lapas
kiberkambaris - Jura ŽagariÅa mÄjas lapas
kiberkambaris - Jura ŽagariÅa mÄjas lapas
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IN THIS ISSUE<br />
LETTERS AND CULTURE. Baiba Bičole cultivated<br />
her distinctive voice in the so-called<br />
“Hell’s Kitchen” school of Latvian poetry −<br />
as much in tune with the naturalistic heritage<br />
of the Old Country as with the avantgarde<br />
of the New World. Here she brings us<br />
four new poems, characteristically brimming<br />
with visionary imagery, yet tightly bound to<br />
physical reality. She recounts, in one of her<br />
poems, momentarily losing track of a friend<br />
on a tour of the MoMA, then spotting his<br />
grey-clad figure in Henri Matisse’s painting<br />
Dance, happily laughing, blue eyes flashing,<br />
whirling and floating in the ring of naked<br />
pink women against an azure sky... ••• In<br />
December 2008 poet Knuts Skujenieks received<br />
an award from the Baltic Assembly for<br />
the publication of his eight-volume collected<br />
works Raksti. Skujenieks’ article deals with<br />
his arrest for anti-Soviet activities in 1962<br />
and seven subsequent years in the Siberian<br />
Gulag and concludes, sadly, that his lifelong<br />
fight for the integrity of the written word has<br />
been fought against windmills: Opportunism<br />
and conformity are rife today even without<br />
totalitarianism. ••• London-born playwright,<br />
novelist, poet, translator and scholar,<br />
Juris Rozītis, has lived in Australia and<br />
currently resides in Sweden. In “Dish Rag”,<br />
a short fragment of a larger work in progress,<br />
he tells of a Latvian boy in Tasmania<br />
wanting to purchase a dish towel as a gift<br />
for his mother and failing to come up with<br />
quite the right word for it. ••• In a 2003<br />
essay Inta Ezergaile (1932-2005) spotlights<br />
three important Latvian women poets in exile,<br />
Velta Toma, Astrīde Ivaska and Rita Gāle.<br />
••• Poet Ingmāra Balode eloquently passes<br />
judgment on poet Eduards Aivars’ latest effort,<br />
Sarah’s Love: Aivars tries to depict the<br />
bare essentials, but so bare, that its genre is<br />
erotica. ••• Juris Šlesers takes a long hard<br />
look at the third volume of Jānis Krēsliņš’, Sr.,<br />
collected works, and finds much to admire,<br />
but takes exception to his apparent overuse<br />
of the epithet “marxofascist” − especially<br />
when applied to Jaunā Gaita (in the ‘70’s...)<br />
••• Ildze Kronta comments on a memoir,<br />
Barjērskrējiens (Hurdle Run) by Jānis Škapars,<br />
editor of Literatūra un Māksla (Literature and<br />
Art) 1969-1985: Without compromise there<br />
would not have been such a newspaper, but<br />
compromise, undeniably, sacrificed something...<br />
••• The latest installment of Eva<br />
Eglāja-Kristsone’s study of cultural contacts<br />
between occupied Latvia and the Latvian exile<br />
community focuses on the period 1968-<br />
1971 and, in particular, on Olaf Stumbrs’ and<br />
Valentīns Pelēcis’ trips to Latvia.<br />
MEMOIR. Actor-playwright Uldis Siliņš has<br />
a special talent for provoking smiles in the<br />
grimmest of situations. In a chapter from his<br />
autobiography he relates some experiences<br />
as a teenage war refugee in Germany.<br />
VISUAL ART. Featured are color reproductions<br />
of a monotype by Gerda Roze, an<br />
acrylic by Ināra Matīsa and photography by<br />
Līga Balode-Svikss. Roze and Matīsa are nonrepresentational<br />
abstractionists who have<br />
delighted our readers in previous issues, but<br />
Balode-Svikss, an accomplished young artist<br />
who has exhibited widely in the US and<br />
Latvia, is a newcomer to these pages.<br />
CURRENT EVENTS AND OPINION. The passing<br />
of John Updike, many of whose novels<br />
have been translated into the Latvian language,<br />
is marked by Jānis Krēsliņš, Sr. with<br />
a translation of his poem “Requiem”. •••<br />
Juris Šlesers points to evidence of a looming<br />
demographic crisis for Latvia and proposes<br />
coming to grips with it by importing, accepting,<br />
integrating, adopting and marrying<br />
foreigners. ••• In Letters from Readers,<br />
one Pelikāns comments on the January 13<br />
near-riot in Riga and draws parallels with the<br />
historic real riot on the same date in 1905.<br />
••• The Jānis Bieriņš award this year goes<br />
to Baiba Bredovska, a teacher in Hamilton<br />
Latvian School in Canada. ••• Archy the<br />
Cockroach drops his mask of civility, declares<br />
war on humanity, and abandons all diacritical<br />
marks in the Kiberkambaris column.<br />
MARGINALIA. Culture news briefs from all<br />
over the world. JG welcomes two new contributors:<br />
Vita Gaiķe in the Recent Books section<br />
and Māris Brancis in the Visual Arts section.<br />
BOOK REVIEWS. The third collection of poetry<br />
by Kārlis Vērdiņš (Lalita Muižniece); the<br />
seventh volume of the collected works of<br />
Dzintars Sodums, a novel by Jānis Rokpelnis,<br />
In Love With Jerzy Kosinski by Agate Nesaule,<br />
and a history of Latvian theater in the US and<br />
Canada by Viktors Hausmanis (Juris Silenieks);<br />
a biography of the great chorusmasters Gido<br />
and Imants Kokars by Laima Muktupāvela<br />
(Biruta Sūrmane); The Case for Latvia by<br />
Jukka Rislaki (Gundars Ķeniņš-Kings and Aija<br />
Veldre Beldava); the fall 2008 issue of the<br />
Journal of Baltic Studies (Gundars Ķeniņš-<br />
Kings); a play by the Rumanian playwright<br />
Saviana Stănescu (Jānis Krēsliņš, jun.); a novel<br />
by Inga Žolude (Aina Siksna); and October<br />
2008 to March 2009 issues of the literary<br />
monthly Karogs (Juris Zommers). J.Ž.