Oscar nominated shorts: A world tour

by Jamie Rhein on

Every year as a member of the Columbus Academy Motion Picture Pickers (CAMPP) I embark on a movie going frenzy to see all the movies nominated in every major category. Not on the list of my obligatory must-sees were the films nominated for Short Features and Short Animation, but I saw them anyway and highly recommend them as a way to enjoy the scope of humanity and art.

For the past three years I’ve seen the nominated movies in both categories all in a row, one after another–10 in all. This is one way to travel from country to country, from sensibility to sensibility in a few hours. What strikes me is that, although there are often cultural influences and differences particular to each country from which the movies hail, there are many thematic similarities among them. What this shows to me is through the diversity, we can always relate. Terrific stories are terrific in any language.

These movies are making the rounds. Check out film festivals or independent cinemas to see if you can catch them. Here’s the list of the films and which country they are from:

Short Film (Live Action)

Short Film (Animated)

For clips of the animated shorts, head to BuzzSugar.

Photo of the Day (01.15.08)

by Martha Edwards on


I never been a particularly religious person, but seeing nuns always makes me pause for a moment, as if I’m in the presence of a saint or a god-like figure. This photo captures that feeling perfectly — with the gentle mist thinly veiling the trees in the background and the bundled nuns going about their day in the foreground, the photo has enough depth to be a inspire the spiritual side in all of us. Thank to Our Man Where for the stunning image.

Have an inspiring image of your own? Submit it to our Gadling Flickr Pool.

Photo of the Day 1/6/2008

by Catherine Bodry on


According to the tags on ourmanwhere’s page, this photo was taken in Krakow, Poland during the Christmas season. I love the old-school feel of the shot, as though it were taken 60 year ago. The sun seems to hover over and beam magically from above the distant cathedral, as though the two were spiritually connected.

If you’ve got some great travel photos to share, upload them to Gadling’s Flickr pool. We peruse the pool daily for cool shots for our Photo of the Day feature!

Independence days and elephants

by Jamie Rhein on

I’ve whipped out my International Calendar to see what might be left to tell about November before it slips away from Eastern Standard Time in a few hours. What I see is a whole lot of independence days and a slew of other politically geared occasions.

  • Nov. 1–Antigua-Barbuda gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1980.
  • Nov. 3–Dominica gained independence from the UK in 1978. Panama gained Independence from Colombia in 1903 and Micronesia gained independence from the U.S. in 1980.
  • Nov. 9–Cambodia gained independence from France in 1953.
  • Nov. 11–Poland gained independence in 1918; Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975.
  • Nov. 18–Latvia gained independence from Russia in 1918; Morocco from France in 1956.
  • Nov. 25–Suriname gained independence
  • Nov. 28–Mauritania gained Independence from France in 1968 and Albania gained Independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912, Panama gained independence from Spain in 1821 and East Timor gained independence from Portugal in 1975.
  • Nov. 30-Barbados gained independence from the U.K. in 1966

Other than these, Tonga has had Constitution Day (Nov. 4); Russia, Revolution Day (Nov. 7); Brazil, Republic Day (Nov. 15); and Vanuatu has had National Unity Day, (Nov. 29)

My favorite happening of the bunch of events that occurred this month, though, is the Surin Elephant Round-Up in Thailand.

Polish fortune-telling holiday: Get a candle, a key and a right shoe

by Jamie Rhein on

Tonight is St. Andrew’s Eve where fortunes are told if you happen to be in Poland or around a large Polish community. These days, the fortunes are male or female friendly, but in the past were female fare. Also called Andrzejki, this holiday is thanks to St. Andrew (as in one of the disciples) who is the patron saint.

The night of fortune-telling designed to predict a person’s fate in love, wealth and marriage involves a bit of practice it seems–and a vivid imagination. The love and wealth prediction is the trickiest. People gather at parties where each tells the others’ fortunes based on information gathered from melted wax and shadows.

Here’s what you do:

  1. Get a candle. Melt the wax
  2. Turn off the lights
  3. Pour the melted wax through the hole of a key into a bowl of water. Naturally, get a key with a large hole.
  4. When the wax hardens into a shape, look at it, or the shadow that it makes to see what that person’s fortune is.

This is what you can tell if you are an intuitive fortune-teller type. The person’s country of origin (if the person speaks Polish and if you are in Poland, this might be a safe bet), the person’s future love match, and what the person’s profession will be.

If this sounds a little dicey and complicated, try shoe throwing. It’s another St. Andrew’s Eve tradition. Here’s how you do this one. Everybody at the party takes off his or her right shoe. Stand in a line across a room from a door. Throw the shoe towards the door. Whoever gets his or her shoe closer to the door will get married first. I would say if you don’t really want to get married first, don’t lob it. A gentle toss will suffice. You can always say, “Ooops, it slipped.”

Here’s another way to play this one. Starting at the wall across from the door, one person puts the heel of her shoe against the wall. Another person puts the heal of her shoe against the toe of the other person’s shoe. Another person repeats the step with her shoe. Whichever shoe is the one that reaches the door is the one that the owner will get married first. Clear as mud?

I looked around to see if I can find a particular St. Andrew’s Eve event for you to go to. Nope. I did find several articles talking about it. Here’s one from the Warsaw Voice where I culled my how tos. You can practice your Polish with this one. The cities in the U.S. and Canada mentioned as having large Polish communities are Detroit, San Francisco, Toronto and New York. This article describes even more fortune-telling games.