February/March, 2008 Ideas of the Season Holidays and Events Images of Belarus Talented and Creative On the Wings of Music Make the World Closer Burst Out Laughing Sum 41 created a new music disc. This disc is called "Underclass Hero", which should help this pop-punk group to be the best punk band after the terrible and unpopular album "Chuck". Canadian pop-punks from Alaska (Ontario) only compose music and songs for a group. They can't do something else, but Sum 41 is cheerful and funny band. Every boy from Sum 41 plays the guitar, piano and different drums. And in 1991 this friends created their own group in university. The name of this collective "Sum 41" (the 41st day of summer) appeared in 1996. This summer day was the first day in a real music life of this band. But only some people know, that Sum 41 had another name "My Nuts Are Huge Kaspir", but it was only little joke... There are many punk groups, which influenced on Sum 41. For example, NOFX, Metallica, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Sex Pistols. Sum 41- is a very popular punk group in Canada, USA, Europe and Britain. Some songs were taken for different comedies. For example: "The Hell Song", "Over My Head"," In To Deep". You can find these songs in a comedy "American Pie". Sum 41 was very popular after the disc "Half Hour Of Power" and after golden songs of "All Killer, No Filler". These two discs had 2 million copies and all fans in the world were proud of this difficult work of Sum 41. The next music album "Does This Look Infected?" was very popular with two cool hits "Pieces" and "Still Waiting". "Pieces" is a slow, wonderful and song about love, but "Still Waiting"- is a hard, cheerful, and mad song about friends and friendship. Sum 41 is against George Bush and all the wars in the world, so some "political" songs are forbidden on TV and radio. But Sum 41 is a talented and funny, understanding and cheerful band. Many fans of this group will wait next albums with real cool music. And Sum 41 will try to create a lot of hits in the near future! Karina Timofeeva, Cheslav Vozisov 9 “C” from Elena Nikolayevna Bashilova and the “Kaskad” Theatre The first night that took place on February, 22 at the Assembly Hall was a success. After the performance we asked the Head of the “Temple Of my Soul” Club for an interview. – What influenced the choice of these stories and how did the idea to make such a performance appear? – Nowadays teenagers don’t read a lot, and many love stories stay unknown. I wanted such stories to be presented on the stage. Maybe someone will be interested in them and decide to get acquainted with them closely. And secondly, my class, 11 “B”, is close to the great art of theatre. For many years we have been making various performances. And this year we have found it possible to create such a dramatized show where everyone will get a leading role to realize his abilities. This way our idea was created. We wanted to show that gentle love exists, because love is such a feeling which always should be in blossom. I think that heroes of “Master and Margarita”, “Botfly”, “Blizzards” can cure our hearts and make them more sensitive. – What feelings filled you and the actors during rehearsals, before and after the performance? – Every first night brings a lot of difficulties such as the choice of costumes, music and scenery. It’s not easy to gather all the students to rehearse because the students are getting prepared for entrance exams to universities. Of course the first night can be nervous but after the performance the actors feel an enormous happiness and pleasure. That’s why nobody has refused to take part in this festival of love. Boys were ready to admit love, to kneel to girls. Everybody was enthusiastic about this idea. And we even carried out a video shooting of these fragments to be presented to a school museum. – Do you think everything turned out to be successful? – Yes. At least the emotional call of the hall was very powerful, the spectators apprehended very intimately. Katya Totikova, Ksenia Parshina 9 “A” It was 2005. On September 11th a group of students from our gymnasia, Sidorov Vsevolod Vasilievich, Markevich Natalia Pavlovna and Shpikat Tatiana Ilyinishna took a trip to Sweden. In general they travelled almost by all means of transport. The city where they lived was named Herganes, and it is situated on the southwest of Sweden. We interviewed Natalia Pavlovna and some of the students who participated in the project. She introduced Sweden to us. - What was the first thing you pay attention to, when you arrived? - Probably, cleanliness. For example at the airport the floor was covered with laminate and a small baby was creeping on the floor absolutely quietly and adults did not pay any attention to it. In general they give their children more freedom. Also there is no separate post service in Sweden. Post offices are situated on gasoline stations. - How does a Swedish house look like? - Although near private houses there are flowers, usually, houses outside look ordinary. But inside, there are unusual style and grace, different statues, ornaments, etc. - Do the Swedes strongly differ from us? - No, we are very similar, but they are very quiet. It is difficult to make them express their feelings. They are certainly less temperamental than we are, but it isn’t boring to communicate with them. They are straightforward. - Did any unusual or funny situations happen there? - Well, not very awful, but … The matter was that there is always only one dish on the table, and several salads and everyone helps himself. By the way they offer only once. It happened several times that they offered something, and you refused quickly. Then you understood it would be good to eat that, but nobody offered it again. There was another amusing situation. When we went to the mountain, one Swede, wishing to reduce the way, got into the bog and lost her trainers there. The Swedes didn’t make a big problem about it. They all make no fuss about such things. - Are there any youth organizations, like BRCY (БРСМ), scouts? - Yes, there are scouts and other organizations, but the Swedes prefer to gather small groups and to discuss different problems, from convenience of children's carriages up to the problems connected with ecology or smoking. They consider that this way of solving a problem is more real, than in any mullions-strong organization. - What aim is it better to pursue, when you go to Sweden? - The sea. And probably … culture of Vikings. There is the biggest museum of Southern Sweden in Lund. There are villages of Vikings, various inscriptions on stones and many other things. And some things even are allowed to be touched. The Swedes, too. So if you want to have quiet but exciting holidays, to communicate with straightforward and affable people and enjoy the sea, choose Sweden! You won’t regret it! Ksenia Parshina 9 “A” Katia Totikova 9 “A” At the beginning I want to explain why I have chosen these images. Some of them are not well-known and I suppose that it will bе interesting to reflect great diversity of our Belarusian culture from different sights. Тhe first picture reflects the epoch of enlightenment in Belarus. You can see Francisk Skorina there. This man began to print books and he gave education to people. Не worked in the 15- 16th centuries, and now, in the modern world we remember about his deeds. The second image shows us the national Belarusian dish – potato pies. I think that every country needs to have food introduction, because when some foreigners read about it they will know what they сan order in a restaurant during their visit. Another picture shows us the stock – the symbol of Belarus. This bird symbolizes freedom and it lives up on the roofs of the country houses and brings luck. Then I include the image of the “Borisov stone” which is situated near St. Sofia Cathedral and shows us the pagan times, when people believed that if they told а pray to this stone, success would attend them. The bagpipe is the national folk instrument. А piece of modern Belarus is the National Library – the new home for books and one of the landmarks of our capital. I didn't mention sport games in my project, because it’s so very hard to tell about all of them. Sport development in our country is at high level and we сan chose any kind of sport to satisfy everybody’s personal taste. And in the end I’d like to explain the choice of the background. It symbolizes awakening of wonderful Belarusian nature. Alevtina Kuzmenkova, 11 “B” Belarus is а unique country. The Belarusians know the history of their Motherland and they are proud of its past, culture and art. Тhe landscape of Belarus is quite original because the human influence here is not so great as in western Europe. So I have decided to choose Lake Naroch as the background idea of mу project as I consider that the lake symbolizes the whole Belarus. Many tourists visit this magnificent place. Тhe mighty aurochs is the symbol of Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Heroic people live in this country and it was perfectly demonstrated during the Nazist occupation. Brest fortress is а sacred place for every citizen of Belarus.