Timur PANKOV
ALMATY, August 21
(THE GLOBE)
Christian Slater began his acting career at 7, which only seems like an exceedingly precocious age to enter showbiz until you consider his parentage. His mother, Mary Jo, has enjoyed a long career as a prominent casting director, and when a small role came up on the long-running soap opera One Life To Live, she thought nothing of casting her young son in the part.
By the time he was 9, Slater had shifted his acting focus to the stage, where he enjoyed no small success starring opposite Dick Van Dyke in a touring production of The Music Man, before moving on to Broadway productions of Macbeth and David Copperfield. Nine years after his soap debut, Slater�s face first appeared on movie screens, in the supporting role of Binx in the 1985 teen-rebellion flick The Legend of Billie Jean.
For his sophomore film outing, Slater played another teenager with his own share of adolescent difficulties, but the setting couldn�t have been further removed from Billie Jean�s Texas milieu. In the mediaeval murder mystery The Name of the Rose, he appeared as the young novice to Sean Connery�s monk-cum-detective. In the underappreciated black comedy Heathers, he portrayed a young Jack Nicholson-type anarchist-killer who encourages Winona Ryder (with whom he had a real-life fling) to poison the ringleader of a high school clique; and his Pump Up the Volume hero whipped the entire student body of his high school into a frenzy via his own pirate radio station.
In the �90s, Slater transitioned easily from pubescent characterizations to adult leads, establishing himself as a bona-fide movie star with his appearances in well-received flicks like True Romance (1993), Interview With the Vampire (1994), and Murder in the First (1995). The same year that he chatted up the undead in Interview, Slater�s off-screen shenanigans once again landed him in the headlines, when he was arrested at a New York airport for attempting to board an airplane carrying a gun in his luggage. Around the same time, he broke off his engagement to model Nina Huang, who then proceeded to slap him with a messy palimony suit (their eventual out-of-court settlement reportedly cost Slater some $100,000). Surprisingly, all the bad press didn�t seem to impact Slater�s box-office drawing potential all that much, as 1996 witnessed him sharing top billing with John Travolta in Hong Kong action-meister John Woo�s first Hollywood project, the very successful Broken Arrow.
But the following year proved a difficult one for Slater, on both the career and personal fronts. His black comedy Julian Po was deeply unsatisfying, and the film that would eventually be released as Hard Rain was bumped from its scheduled May 1997 slot to a dead-zone January release. By the time the fracas was over, Slater had injured a cop and been rendered unconscious by a police-administered chokehold. He admitted to taking heroin and cocaine prior to the incident, and subsequently voluntarily checked himself into a drug rehabilitation clinic. Though the felony charges against him were ultimately dropped, Slater was sentenced to a 90-day jail term, two months of which he served.
Professionally speaking, the embattled actor appeared opposite Cameron Diaz in the coal-black comedy Very Bad Things, and headed to Broadway to star in a production of Warren Leight�s critically acclaimed play Side Man. Personally speaking, Slater and girlfriend Ryan Haddon welcomed a son, Jaden Christopher, in April 1999.
Almaty, Aug18
(THE GLOBE)
The first annual international volleyball competition for the Kazakhstan President�s cup was opened and held on Wednesday.
According to the organisers of this big sport event, this year volleyball teams from Turkey, Byelorussia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Kazakhstan will compete for the right to receive the cup.
We remind you, that till this year this annual competition was regularly held in Pavlodar. But after the appointment of a new regional administration, the President�s Cup has become just useless.
From this year onwards the cup will live in the southern capital of our republic. According to Almaty Akim, another peculiarity of this competition is that for the first time men�s team will take part in the competition.
In this year women�s volleyball teams which have already taken part in the Kazakhstan competition, such as �Levski-Sikonko�, and MGFSO from Moscow, while �Honghe� from China and �Bursaspor� from Turkey will take part in this competition for the first time.
In women�s competition Almaty team �Glotur� and the national youth�s team represent our republic.
�Communalnik� from Byelorussia, �Neftyannik� from Russia, �Bishkek� from Kyrgyzstan, �Beko� from Turkey, as well as Almaty CSKA and the national men�s team of Kazakhstan will compete in the men�s competition.
The general sponsor of this competition is Eurasian Bank, which established the prize fund for participants of the competition.
By Alberto MENGONI
(THE GLOBE)
A genius, as known, may manifest himself by the simple enunciation of a theory, by the single creation of a masterpiece, by the lone announcement of an intuition, by the sole composition of a melody, or he can reveal himself by the continuous practice of his disciplines linking a lifetime of studies, researches and experiences, or, else, he can prove to be so by the bonanza of his talents.
To the latter category belongs Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a man whom literature, science and politics spread little secrets in his 83 years of life.
Amateur scientist with serious researches conducted on acoustics, optics, geology, botany, morphology, osteology that lead him to the publication of treaties on such matters. Fine diplomat and wise politician, qualities that awarded him the posts of secret counsellor and president of the chamber in the Dukedom of Saxe-Weimar. But most of all Germany�s foremost literary figure, Goethe stands on a level of his own unparelleled both by his and ours contemporaries.
Versatile and polyhedric as his voracious curiosity made him to be, it was in literature that he expressed the most of his talent: works such as �Faust�, �Die Wahlverwandtschaften� (elective affinities) and �Werther� belong to the Gotha of the world literature, expressing an unmatched universal validity.
Thanks to his tireless literary production the German language has matured a lyric form unknown before. In fact, after Martin Luther no German-speaking country has produced writers able to develop its expressive possibilities until Goethe�s star started to shine.
Born at Frankfurt am Main on August 28th, 1749 in a well-off bourgeois family, he got educated at home learning both classical and modern languages (Greek, Latin, English, French and Italian), music and dance too, but also sketching, history, natural sciences and, of course, religion.
At the age of 16 he entered the law school of Erfurt University in 1765, getting however his graduation at Strasbourg in 1771. The following year he was practicing law at Wetzlar and then in his hometown on the River Main.
His inclinations, however, are much more attracted by the world of arts and nature than by the bourgeois activity his father han planned for him.
In Leipzig he practiced sketching by Oeser, while at Strasbourg his writing need emerges in such a flow that that between 1771 and 1775 is the most prolific of his life.
At that time his ideal is an all-natural man, self-sufficient and independent, an icon that becomes the banner of the literary movement he leads, �Sturm und Drang� in those early years of his life. Goethe is the planner of the artistic movement program that elects Shakespeare as its literary patron.
The Naturlichkeit (naturalness) of that ideal man means to Goethe freedom to feel passions and emotions which find expression in works such as �G�tz von Berlichingen� (1771), �Wanderers Sturmlied� (1772), �Prometheus� (1773), �G�tter, Helden und Wieland� (1773) and his immortal �Die Leiden des jugen Werthers� (1774).
The artist is restless, his acute mind makes him look for new experiences, increase his knowledge, learn from seeing, so he sets for the first of his �voyages de acculturation�, destination Switzerland, in 1775.
Getting back to Germany during the same year, he makes the central move of his life by accepting Duke Carl August�s invitation to join his court at Weimar. Save for further voyages Goethe will never leave this place up to his death in 1832.
His bourgeois ideas that, full of hope the writer suggests to the duke, failed to enchant Carl August that did not allow him to influence his political leadership. Disenchantment was step by step chocking the artist�s social and political vitality, so much so that in 1782 he had already lost hope to inject some Enlightenment principles in the governing policy of the sovereign. In lieu of his success as the duke�s �grey eminence�, Goethe dives himself in a tourbillon of loving affairs in Weimar and elsewhere, so to win for himself the enviable �title� of ladies� man. He wants love that, as an artist, he considers the only human not alienated productivity, a by-product of the natural man of the �Sturm und Drang� literary rebel movement.
At the same time he fights the politically not gratifying court activity with further �voyages de connaissance� through Harz in 1777, 1783, 1784 and again in Switzerland in 1779 and 1780. Not by chance his character Wilhelm Meister declares �A clever man finds his best education on his journeys�. But most of all he finds consolation in his second artistic production, once more of colossal proportions: �Wilhelm Meisters theatralische Sendung� (1776 � 1785), a portion of �Tasso� and some of his most appealing poems such as �Wanderers Nachtlied�, �Gesang der Geister �ber den Wassen� and �Rastlose Liebe�.
All this is not enough, the genius� mind feels trapped in conventional schemes and circles that the artist�s vivid intelligence strongly refuses: there�s so much still to be learned, so much to be witnessed, so much to be experimented, in brief �more light� to be seen. So Goethe takes leave from the duke and for two years he will be the wayfarer of his lyrics, setting for a trip in Italy that will constitute his rebirth both artistically and scientifically. He will be touring the Belpaese from 1786 to 1788, from Florence to Naples, from Sicily to Rome, making geological and mineralogical researches, taking notes on the climate and the botany of the peninsula, drawing sketches of monuments, landscapes and trees alike. All material that will be the source for his �Italienische Reise� written betwen 1816 and 1817. He will not forget either his ladies� man role, helped in this by his fluency in Italian, and his socializing ability that will acquaint him to J.H.W. Tischbein who will portray the poet in his famous �Romantic Campagna� painting.
But first of all Goethe is a writer and that voyage fires his creativity: �Iphigenie auf Tauris� and �Egmont� might very well be considered �made in Italy�.
Much to his regret his leave comes to an end, Weimar court eagerly awaits him since her cultural predominance in the German world was fading away since his departure. Back at Weimar, Goethe sets up to work again, but this time he concentrates himself only on cultural and social activities giving up all posts of political application. He, the capital�s resident genius, works as a magnet to attract scores of Europe�s leading literary, artistic and yes, once more, political figures such as Beethoven, Madame de Sta�l, Metternich and Schiller who, in friendly terms with Goethe since 1794, ends up in moving to Weimar in 1799.
Goethe will be received by Napoleon too who looked for the moment of meeting not only the fine politician, but the gifted �Werther��s author, perhaps flattered by Goethe�s sympathy for the French emperor.
Goethe becomes the first director of Weimar�s new theatre in 1791, director of Anna Amalia�s library, but takes also over responsabilities for Jena University library and natural sciences institute. At this stage science owns him the discovery of the human intramaxillary bone.
The artist, as said, was a genius and he didn�t spare his dynamism getting involved in some Weimar architectural projects, where he made sure his neo-classicism tastes be evident, as in the Roman House he designed for the duke as a summer residence on the Ilm river banks.
His preference for neo-classical forms are also shown in his own town house and the main ducal palace, heralding most impressive interiors.
Failing to convince the duke to apply a more liberal policy, at least the poet achieved another goal equally dear to him: to his credit goes the duke�s policy toward the free use of amenities such as libraries, the ducal art collection, parks and theatre performances by ordinary citizens, financed by the saving obtained through the dukedom army reduction.
But the years immediately after his return to Weimar from his Italian regeneration, are rich of artistic fruits that mark his �classic� phase: he completed �Tasso� and publishes �R�mische Elegien� in 1790, �Der Gross Cophta� (1792), �Der B�rgergeneral� (1793), �Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre� (1795-�96), �Hermann und Dorothea� (1797) and starts a fruitful co-operation with Schiller, publishing magazines such as �Horen�, �Musenalmanach� and �Propyl�en�.
He doesn�t forget his scientific studies and publishes in 1791-�92 �Beitr�ge zur Optik� and works on his colours theory �Farbenlehre�.
The years of the poet�s maturity are those of the 19th century once more spent in frantic artistic, scientific and philosophical productivity. For the genius art and science are fingers of the same hand, they need to support each other to cast an overall vision of the world, Goethe�s Weltanschauung. The man, as part of nature comes first, it�s through his five senses that nature�s secrets will be revealed and it is through his five senses that art takes form.
These last years are giving the world masterpieces such as �Die Wahlverwandtschaften� (1809), and the second part of �Faust� (1830) and appreciable works such as �Zur Morphologie� (1820), �Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre� (1821-�27) and ��ber Kunst und Altertum� (1816 � 1832).
Goethe drafts also his autobiography �Dichtung und Wahrheit� (poetry and truth) (1811 � 1832 ) and at this time, aging, he loves Marianne von Willemer who inspired his later poems �West�stlichter Diwan� (1819), �Trilogie der Leidenschaft� and �Marienbader Elegie� (1823).
The author dies at Weimar aged 83, in 1832, still burned by the rebellious flame of knowledge, leaving a spiritual will well depicted by his final two words: �More light�!
Germany as a whole, useless to say, marks her most famous son�s birth 250th anniversary with exhibitions and special events to pay him a truly well deserved tribute.
August 21, 1944 - Delegates from the U.S., the U.S.S.R., Great Britain, and China lay the groundwork for the establishment of the United Nations at the Dumbarton Oaks conference in Washington, D.C.
August 21, 1959 - Following a vote of approval by the residents of the Hawaiian Islands, President Eisenhower signs an executive order on this day, making Hawaii the fiftieth state.
August 23, 1939 - Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop sign a ten-year non-aggression pact, exposing Poland to attack by Soviet and German forces who divide the country in two.
August 23, 1942 - The Battle of Stalingrad, Russia, begins. After losing 500,000 square miles and millions of men to invading German forces, Soviet resurgence out of the rubble of Stalingrad marks a turning point in World War II.
August 24, 1932 - Amelia Earhart begins the first transcontinental nonstop flight by a woman when she takes off from Los Angeles, California in her red Wasp-powered Lockheed airplane. She lands in Newark, New Jersey, the next day, having flown the 2,600-mile journey in nineteen hours and five minutes.
August 24, 1956 - An army H-21 helicopter completes the first transcontinental helicopter flight, flying from San Diego, California, to Washington, D.C., in thirty-seven hours.
August 24, 1991 - In the aftermath of the failed coup against him, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as general secretary of the Communist Party. Control of the government shifts to the democracy-minded and popularly elected President of the Russian Republic Boris Yeltsin.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
© 1998 IPA House. All Rights Reserved.