Deacon’s Blog

• Friday, February 12: Polish-American Buffet 4-8pm.
• Sunday, February 14: Tony’s Polka Band, Polish-American kitchen, cash bar 2:30-6:30pm.
• Sunday, February 21: Capital USA Dance, Ballroom; Ballroom; Ballroom! (and refreshments). Music by Dan DeBennetto. Lessons by Eric Singleman. Class 6:15-7pm; Dancing until 10pm. Members $9; Non $12; College $5; Free under 18. Contact James DeForge at 518-233-0957 or by E-mail.
• Sunday, February 28: Community Ballroom Dance, 6:30 – 10pm. Every fourth Sunday of the month and open to all Ballroom Dance enthusiasts. Enjoy a Cha Cha dance lesson at 6:30pm by Eileen Spadaro. General dancing begins at 7pm with music selections by Gary Burgess. At 8:30 pm, Thomas and Katherine Hourigan will dance a ‘Slow Waltz.’ Cost: $10 includes the lesson.

The Polish Community Center is located at 225 Washington Ave Ext, Albany NY 12205. Call 518-456-3995 for more information.

Poland - Polish - Polonia Announcements, Dance, Ethnicity, Food

2010 marks the 200th anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin’s birth. In honor of the occasion iTunes is highlighting Alice Sara Ott’s album of Chopin waltzes. You can take a sample listen at the iTunes website.

Fryderyk Chopin was born March 1, 1810 at the village of Żelazowa Wola, in the Duchy of Warsaw. He was regarded a child-prodigy pianist. He left Poland for good on November 2, 1830 for a trip to Italy. The outbreak of the Polish November Uprising seven days later, and its subsequent suppression by Russia, led to Chopin’s becoming one of many expatriates of the Polish Great Emigration.

Settling in Paris, Chopin worked as a composer and piano teacher, while giving few public performances. Chopin remained an ardent Polish patriot throughout his short life. For the greater part of his life Chopin suffered from poor health; he died in Paris on October 17, 1849 of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Chopin’s compositions, of which there are over 230, were written primarily for the piano as solo instrument. Though technically demanding, they emphasize nuance and expressive depth rather than sheer virtuosity. Chopin invented musical forms such as the instrumental ballade and was responsible for major innovations in the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu and prélude.

Alice Sara Ott, a German-Japanese pianist, was born in Munich in 1988. Her second compilation, noted above, is a series of complete waltzes by Frederic Chopin.

The following is Piosenka litewska from Chopin’s Polish Songs, Op. 74

Poland - Polish - Polonia Announcements, Arts, Chopin, Culture, freedom, History, immigration, Music, Piano

Dr. John Z. Guzlowski’s blog Lightning and Ashes will begin posting a series of audio and video interviews with people who were interviewed by Dr. Bogusia Wojciechowska for her book on the Polish Catholic experience in WWII, Waiting to Be Heard.

The first of these interviews is with Lilka Croydon-Trzcinska who, as a young girl, fought with the Polish resistance and was sentenced to Auschwitz.

Poland - Polish - Polonia Education, History

New developments have recently taken place in the effort led by the Polish American Congress (PAC) to have a commemorative stamp issued for Lt. Colonel Matt Urban. Background information about the effort is available at the Congress website

In the recent exchange of correspondence between Anthony J. Bajdek, Polish American Congress’ Vice President for American Affairs and the United States Postal Service, Terrence W. McCaffrey, Manager, Stamp Development, United States Postal Service advised that the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee has recently reviewed the proposal for a commemorative stamp honoring Matt Urban. “I am pleased to inform you Lt. Colonel Matt Urban is now under consideration for possible future stamp issuance. (…) Currently, the 2010 and 2011 stamp programs are completed, and stamp subjects for the 2012 program and subsequent years are being selected” he wrote.

To date, the Polish American Congress has collected thousands of signatures in support of the issuance of this stamp. Per USPS request, all those petitions are going to be forwarded within the next month or so to the USPS for the Committee’s review. After that, the collection is going to return to the PAC.

Among the signatories are many veterans of World War II, one of whom, for example, is Walter Stanko of Swansea, MA who served in the U. S. 9th Infantry Division with Matt Urban. Walter has collected some 5,000 signatures of Americans living in the Naragansett Bay area of New
England. The Polish American Congress was also advised that additional petitions and letters might be sent at any time.

Before submitting its current collection, however, the Polish American Congress seeks to gather as many additional signatures as possible to “freshen up the bouquet” and show the community’s support for the effort.

Please help us to honor the memory of Matt Urban (1919-1995), who is tied with Audie Murphy for being the most decorated American combat soldier of World War II. Murphy was honored with a USPS commemorative stamp in 1999-2000.

To make that happen, please download the petition, collect as many signatures as possible and return the form(s) to the Polish American Congress.

Time is now of the essence, so please make sure to return the signatures by March 15, 2010 to:

Matt Urban Stamp Campaign
Polish American Congress
1612 K Street NW, Suite 410
Washington, DC 20006

Poland - Polish - Polonia Matt Urban, PAC, Philatelic, Stamps

BVMC kitchen is serving a Polish/American Buffet on Friday, February 5th from 4 – 7:30 PM. The buffet is $15 all you can eat, children 6-12 $6; under 5 free. The buffet includes:

Gołąbki, bigos, potato pancakes w/applesauce or sour cream, kluski, kielbasa w/sauerkraut, potato & cheese or kraut pierogi. Also available are baked ziti w/meatballs, eggplant parmesan, tossed salad, Italian and Rye bread. Desserts: chocolate cake, bread pudding, tapioca pudding. Hot Coffee and Tea. BVMC will also be selling frozen Polish food.

Blessed Virgin Mary of Czestochowa, 250 Maxwell Rd., Latham, NY. Call 518-453-2258 for more information.

PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia Announcements, Food

Lenten Pierogi Sale at Good Shepherd Polish National Catholic Church, 269 E. Main St. Plymouth. Potato with sharp cheese and potato with jalapeno peppers pierogies will be sold Sunday and Feb. 21, and March 7. Cost is $7/dozen. Farmer’s cheese pierogies will be sold only on March 21 at $9/dozen. Farmer’s cheese orders are due by Feb. 28. Please call 570-779-4781 to place all orders.

PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia Announcements, Food

Yes, he’s an accordionist, but neither the music nor dance are Polka. The winner of Poland’s Got Talent, Marcin Wyrostek and his group, Tango Corazon Quintet, have just released an album, “Magia del tango” (loosely: The Magic of Tango). Here’s a sample:

Poles have a great affinity for the Tango and it is hard to find a Pole who can’t bust a few great Tango moves.

The Polka, at least in the style found in Polish-American circles, is generally unheard of in Poland. Traditional Polka like dances such as the Mazur in addition to four other dances, the Polonez, Krakowiak, Kujawiak, and Oberek, are the five “National Dances” of Poland. Franz Xaver Scharwenka wrote 5 Polish Dances for piano, Op. 3 which walks through the five. Here is Op.3, No.2

Art, Poland - Polish - Polonia Classical, Dance, Music, Scharwenka, Tango

United States Institutes 2010 (program szkoleniowy w USA dla nauczycieli i wykładowców z całego świata)

USA Ambasada USA w Warszawie zaprasza do składania podań na program Study of the United States Institutes (SUSI), który odbędzie się w lecie 2010 roku.

Applications Accepted until January 25, 2010 (Podania można składać do 25 stycznia 2010).

The U.S. Embassy in Warsaw is pleased to invite candidate nominations for the Summer 2010 Study of the United States Institutes (SUSI) for University Faculty and Secondary School Educators. University-Level and Faculty members participate in intensive post-graduate level academic programs with integrated study tours. The programs provide foreign university faculty and other scholars the opportunity to deepen their understanding of American society, culture and institutions. The ultimate goal is to strengthen curricula and to improve the quality of teaching about the United States in academic institutions abroad. Secondary School Educators attend a six-week post-graduate seminar in the United States. All of the institute programs will be held this summer at different U.S. universities and colleges beginning in mid-June 2010. Space in the institutes is very limited. To be competitive, candidates must have excellent proficiency in English and outstanding qualifications. Application Deadline: January 25, 2010.

The SUSI programs in six institutes for University-Level and Faculty members:

• Study of the U.S. Institute on U.S. Culture and Society
• Study of the U.S. Institute on American Politics and Political Thought
• Study of the U.S. Institute on Contemporary American Literature
• Study of the U.S. Institute on Foreign Policy
• Study of the U.S. Institute on Journalism and Media
• Study of the U.S. Institute on Religious Pluralism

SUSI Programs for Secondary School Educators:

The institute programs are an opportunity for secondary school teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum developers, textbook writers, and other educational professionals to attend a six-week post-graduate seminar in the United States.

All of the institute programs will be held this summer at different U.S. universities and colleges over the course of six weeks beginning in mid June 2010.

Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia Announcements, Education

From the BBC: English lessons for ‘Polish’ dog

A dog caused confusion in an animal home when he failed to respond to basic commands – until staff realised he could only understand Polish.

Staff at the RSPCA centre in Oldham, Greater Manchester, originally thought Cent the collie was deaf.

But when they looked into his history they realised he came from a Polish family and so did not “speak” English.

So staff brushed up on Polish commands and, four months on, they say Cent is now bilingual and ready for a new home.

“When he came in he wasn’t responding to the basic commands,” said care assistant Karen Heath.

“We couldn’t understand why at first but when we’ve looked at his records and his history he has come from a Polish family.

“So obviously we’ve gathered from that he doesn’t understand the English language, so therefore he won’t understand our basic commands.”

Staff turned to the internet for phrases Cent could recognise – although they are unsure of the pronunciation…

A consequence of the massive Polish emigration to England which is now returning to Poland due to better economic conditions back home.

Current Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia Economics, Humor

From The Economist: Wrongly labelled: The economic downturn has made it harder to speak sensibly of a region called “eastern Europe”

IT WAS never a very coherent idea and it is becoming a damaging one. “Eastern Europe” is a geographical oddity that includes the Czech Republic (in the middle of the continent) but not Greece or Cyprus (supposedly “western” Europe but in the far south-east). It makes little sense historically either: it includes countries (like Ukraine) that were under the heel of the Soviet empire for decades and those (Albania, say) that only brushed it. Some of those countries had harsh planned economies; others had their own version of “goulash communism” (Hungary) or “self-managed socialism” (Yugoslavia).

Already unreliable in 1989, the label has stretched to meaninglessness as those countries’ fortunes have diverged since the collapse of communism. The nearly 30 states that once, either under their own names or as part of somewhere else, bore the label “communist” now have more differences than similarities. Yet calling them “eastern Europe” suggests not only a common fate under totalitarian rule, but a host of ills that go with it: a troubled history then; bad government and economic misery now.

The economic downturn has shown how misleading this is. Worries about “contagion” from the banking crisis in Latvia raised risk premiums in otherwise solid economies such as Poland and the Czech Republic—a nonsense based on outsiders’ perceptions of other outsiders’ fears. In fact, the continent’s biggest financial upheaval is in Iceland (see article, article), and the biggest forecast budget deficits in the European Union next year will not be in some basket-cases from the ex-communist “east” but in Britain and in Greece. The new government in Athens is grappling with a budget deficit of at least 12.7% of GDP and possibly as much as 14.5%. European Commission officials are discussing that in Greece this week…

Of course Eastern Europe was always a political construct arising from a natavist world view coupled with anti-communist politics of the Cold War. Geographically, the center of Europe is in Lithuania, and Poland is resolutely in the middle of Central Europe.

It is also interesting to note that several Cold War constructs still prevail. Poles are the last “Eastern Europeans” who need a visa to travel to the United States, and at a prohibitive cost at that. Also, there is still a lack of degree equivalency so that Poles coming to the U.S., as doctors, dentists, and in other professions, must finance a whole second education. All of this is what’s left of an unfortunate history, one, as the article suggests, that we must get beyond.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political Family and Friends, freedom, geography, History