NationStates Jolt Archive


Contemporary artists and writers

Ariddia
06-12-2007, 17:12
OOC: Simply list a few of the major writers and artists from your nation, with a brief description and/or a link to their NSwiki article.

Ariddian Isles

Writers

ABEL MOEAKI (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/abel_moeaki.html) is perhaps Ariddia’s most famous writer. He is the author of Daybreak (translated in French as: La Nuit Sans Lendemain), a novel depicting the tentative, ultimately doomed friendship of two soldiers on opposite sides during a ferocious war. The focus of the novel is on the lives of the soldiers, and of civilians affected by the hostilities; the war itself is perceived as a senseless blur, and Moeaki deliberately refrains from elaborating on who the enemy nations are or why they are fighting. The implication is that the who and why of those who started the war are of no great importance, and should not distract from the horrific realities of the war itself. The novel conveys a sense of helpless anger at the futility of what the protagonists are subjected to.

Daybreak was later adapted into a film, adding the power of visual medium to the deeply moving, shocking and disturbing qualities of the novel. It remains one of the few Ariddian films to have met with significant critical and public acclaim abroad.

Moeaki is a Professor of Literature at Haven University.


BASTIEN FERAILLER (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/bastien_ferailler.html) is a contemporary Ariddian philosopher. He is an advocate of the theory of Determinism, and has defined free will as "an illusion necessary to the functioning of the human mind. Even Determinists behave as if free will were a reality. To embrace the truth on anything more than a purely intellectual level would render all action impossible".

Ferailler has also written to denounce the dangers of "the capitalist deconstruction of the social contract". He has stressed the importance of societal norms in forming what many believe to be "objective truths, absolute morals and unquestioned normality", and urges his readers to "question all norms, reflect upon their origins, subjectivity and bases".

Ferailler teaches philosophy and literature at the University of Rêvane. His most famous works include Refuting the Myth of "Human Nature": An Analysis of Societal, Economic and Cultural Norms in Capitalist and Non-Capitalist Societies, Why We Should Delude Ourselves: The Illusion of Free Will and Religion and Social Cohesiveness.


For more on Ariddian literature, see the NSwiki article on that topic (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/ariddian_literature.html).

Painters

UKENIO MINOWA (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/ukenio_minowa.html) is an Ariddian painter noted for his strikingly detailed rendering of clouds, his paintings so realistic as to be almost photographic.

Of mixed Polynesian and Oriental descent, Minowa immigrated to Ariddia at the age of 27, and now resides permanently in a small town in the immediate suburbs of Cité-Belle. His most famous work, Panorama, is striking in its exquisite detail, and is exhibited along with several other of his paintings in the Museum of Realism in the city of Espérence. Minowa has also, however, dabbled in impressionism.

"I've wanted to paint clouds since I was a child," he once explained. "I've always found them fascinating. As a child, I imagined some mythical being making great efforts of detail to paint them across the sky, and I wanted to do the same in my own limited way."

When not painting, Minowa helps grow vegetables in collectively-worked fields near his home.


DENISE SAO (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/denise_sao.html) is a noted Ariddian painter. She is an Indigenous Ariddian of mixed ethnic and cultural background. Her paintings reflect the challenges of modernity, as well as the intellectually stimulating but sometimes difficult dialogue (or "multilogue", as she calls it) and partial merging between cultures.

Many of her works may be seen at the Museum of National Art in Cité-Belle, Ariddia.

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/1349/saotimewv8yo3.jpg
Time, a work by Denise Sao.


Singers / musicians

PING (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/ping.html) (real name: Nathalie Greenfields) is a famous pop singer in West Ariddia. She is actively pro-communist, which, in an ultra-capitalist society, has no doubt helped increase her fan base.

She was born in a relatively poor family in the town of Port-Rochebleue, on the southern coast of West Ariddia. She grew up in a desperately poor area of the town, seeing beggars every day as she went to school. At the age of 13, shortly after she had begun work at a factory, she was arrested for stealing food in a supermarket. These experiences left her deeply embittered, but she used them to fuel her creative talent.

It was while singing in the street for money at the age of 17 that she was noticed by a record company, who decided to take a risk and give her a chance to express her talent. Within months, "Ping", as she chose to call herself, was a phenomenal success. Within two years, she was organising free concerts as well as paying ones.

Finding herself suddenly wealthy, Ping moved herself, her family and her friends to better housing, and was able to pay for their healthcare. She also now had the money to attend university, and enrolled in economics courses, paying for the studies of her younger brother and several long-time friends as well.

"I want to find out why our society isn't working, and what can be done about it," she told the media when asked why she was choosing to study economics.

As her popularity increased, she began to openly express support for the Democratic Communist Party, and appealed to those who would not usually vote to cast a vote for communism. "It works up in North-West Ariddia," she explained in an interview. "It's all about social justice and treating people like actual human beings, and we can make it work here too."


CHANG XUE (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/chang_xue.html) (or Chang Sue) (sy:창수에,zh:張雪, dkr:장설) is a contemporary Ariddian musician. Her given name (Xue) is pronounced soo-eh in Syokaji and shoo-eh in Chinese.

Born in the inner suburbs of Sokojito Dosi, Unified Capitalizt States, Chang Xue is the second of three children. She was raised and educated there. She learnt to play the piano at a very young age, soon followed by a variety of other musical instruments. Her proficiency at music, combined with her soft, beautiful singing voice, led her to join music clubs from childhood. She signed her first contract to record solos at the age of 15.

By the time she attended university, Chang Xue had recorded several CDs, mostly solos of herself singing soft-voiced songs of her own writing, and accompanying them herself with piano or guitar. She sang mostly in Syokaji. She studied for two years at the university in Sokojito Dosi, before going to West Ariddia to complete her degree at the University of Aqeyr, in response to a contract offered by an Aqeyr-based records company.

During a holiday in neighbouring socialist Ariddia, Chang was struck by the Ariddians’ way of life, so different to anything she had ever experienced. Expressing her profound admiration for its communitarian ethos and solidarity, Chang later settled there permanently.

Chang sings in Syokaji, Chinese and French. Her songs are mostly gentle, soulful and soothing, and she is noted for her soft, melodious voice. Her best-known song is Lac d’automne.

Chang’s specialty is to put words to the music of the composer she most admires: Tchaikovsky. She has also written and performed some songs to the music of Mozart.

Her songs are mostly peaceful, soothing, beautiful and apolitical, but she has written two passionate, moving songs in English, Eyes Turned Inwards and Crying, which denounce selfishness and people’s lack of caring for the suffering of human beings (and animals) around the planet. These songs were destined for a foreign audience, and were released together as a CD single; they are Chang’s only songs in English. The choice of language was primarily for the lyrics to be widely understood.

Today, Chang Xue is one of Ariddia’s best-known singers and musicians.


For your eyes don't see the pain,
In your heart there is no rain
You have your eyes turned inwards
Your eyes turned inwards
Nothing there to see but you
You can't see what's oh so true
You have your eyes turned inwards
Your eyes turned inwards

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/8017/pingchangxueuu4.jpg
Kulikovia
06-12-2007, 18:37
The Worker's State of Kulikovia

Writers

Anya Kazimirez: She is Kulikovia's most notable investigative journalist for The Worker's Report, a non-state sponsored news media. Her greatest accomplishment stems from uncovering a political scandal which caused major reprocussions throughout the government. After a young secretary to Yalta Oil was murdered and the following police inquiry stalled, Anya investigated further and uncovered a web of lies, deceit, and greed. Through an unnamed insider, she recovered evidence of a cover-up involving the woman's death and a planned monopoly of the energy industry by Yalta Oil which threatened to take hundreds of thousands of jobs away from the workers of the state. Several executives were arrested and sent to prison and a senator was forced to step down and answer before a select Committee. She won the Proletariat Prize in investigative journalism two years later and continues to work at the Worker's Report.

Sergei Menshkoff: Considered one of the top contemporary writers. He wrote several short stories and a few essays on government during his time as a Political Theory teacher at the University of Jonensberg. For over ten years he worked on and off on an epic piece of literature. Love and Revolution became one of the most popular novels written in Kulikovia. The story is set in the backdrop of the turbulent times surrounding the Great Patriotic Revolution during the early and late eighties. The story centers around a young couple, Lukas and Katharine who enjoyed an ideal star-crossed relationship. Their relationship ends abruptly and sadly around mysterious circumstances and the two part on bitter terms. The novel now takes place in the late eighties and reintroduces the two main characters on two opposite ends of an ever increasing rift in society. Katharine is a party organizer for The National Party, the ruling and only party in Kulikovia under the suppressive rule of Chancellor Botha. Lukas is an investigative reporter bent on revealing the truth about the government. He begins an investigation on party chairman Johan Strauss, a corrupt and amorous leader. Lukas intends to leak evidence of the party's true nature to outside sources as eveyone blindly follows the party in Kulikovia, except for a select few. The journalist meets with these last free thinkers of Kulikovia, philosophers, writers, painters, the last in the nation. Dogged by secret police he believes he may be killed in the name of the truth but has nothing to live for, but the truth. Strauss approaches Katherine and offers a lucrative and important position in exchange for exposing Lukas as a traitor. She agrees, still angered over what he did to their relationship. They bump into each other and quickly rekindle their old passions and feelings. Katherine begins to question her motives and falls back in love with Lukas who now finds another reason to live, her. At the climax of the story, Lukas is captured before Katherine and tell him the truth and disappears from the world. Broken and bitter to her own blindness to the truth, she leaks the information to the outside. The next morning, she awakes to a nation in revolution. It won critical acclaim for describing real world events and weaving them into an original and captivating storyline. He won the Proletariat Prize for Writing and continues to write.

Singers

Red Flag: Red Flag is a punk band which rose from a two bit garage band to mainstream artists. Their original feel to music breathed a breathe of fresh air into the Kulikovian music. Their smash hit albumn Walls of Judah offered a stark glimpse into the ongoing struggle in Palestine and Israel. They won Six Music Awards and released another albumn which sold a record abount. Each member grew up with one another in the industry city of Kulka and rose up from their poor upbringings to tell the struggle of the streets and a bright future. They continue to sing at sold out concerts and charity events.

Valkyrie: Real name is Tanya Trechencko is a famous pop singer in Kulikovia. Mixing Kulikovian folk music with a modern beat which has earned her Best Female Artist of 2007.
The Turkic Shahdom
06-12-2007, 21:59
Singers
Nuri Stambol - A top class Singer signed with the band Tanrim Ceza (gods punishment) is known for his talents as a Emcee and Guitarist his top song was Sinan's City in honour of the young sporting prince of the al-Kose Dynasty the third in line to the throne.

Sahin al-Tair - A singer who is known for his ownership of the Basketball team Sekerspor BK and Iki Ligasi side Sekerspor SK.
East Micronesia
07-12-2007, 01:03
Greetings from East Micronesia! As the citizens of this fledgling nation are largely occupied by the continual demands of communal farming at the fabled sticky rice terraces, they have little free time to devote to aesthetic pursuits.

Nonetheless, one East Micronesian has risen to some small level of international prominence: the master takraw martial artist, Pararittikrai "Bub" Aung Song. Following the recent global film success of Thai actor Tony Jaa, Aung Song has produced and starred in a number of modest straight-to-VCD action movies showcasing the national sport of takraw, a regional variant of volleyball in which participants compete using only their feet and incredible gymnastic abilities to keep a small wicker ball aloft. Aung Song's most recent film, Furious Feet of Fury, has been tentatively selected as the official East Micronesian submission to the 2008 Cannes film festival.
Rejistania
11-12-2007, 06:22
Rejistanians have no concept of copyright as western nations often do, so often art is anonymous and something you can encounter in everyday life. For example: Every rejistani administrator (they call themselves 'shamans') knows the poem of IT patriotism. It goes like this:

(It is pronounced rather kireshi at some parts: SI is either /zi:/ or /ze:i/, TAREN is /ta:xen/, x sounds at the end of a term are pronounced as /ʂ/ (or /s`/ in X-SAMPA))


"What do they think, how can it be
that rejis's still use their SI?
These things are horribly outdated!"
- "My friend, they are not deprecated"
The shaman walked into the sight,
the admin smiled with some delight.
"SIstems you might consider slow,
but friend, please do not sink so low.
If we can give them a fair test,
compare to your ones, they are best."
The admin smiled just like a lizard
"This is a challenge, SI-Wizard,
No matter wether SIX or TAREN,
You use a Skoda, no McLaren!"
The shaman smiled as well with glee,
"My friend of posix, we will see."
They said they'd plan, not telling lies
a benchmark system they devised,
which did (despite a lot to lose)
compare the rigs for server-use.
The day approached when truth would be
revealed for Ities and for SI,
The admin thought his rig would last,
cause a SI is not quite fast,
The shaman was not telling lies,
when saying: "I did optimize"
Eventually (time's that way)
arrived the fateful benchmark day.

The shaman and the admin felt
their rightness would be soon revealed.
The shaman watched the scene with glee
he knew his TAREN, knew his SI,
his UNEK and his Xi as well
(and many more as you can tell).
The admins face started to frown,
his windows seemed to let him down.
The systems which he operated,
appeared to be quite deprecated
compared to to a high degree
up-ninined technology.
Defeat admitted was, quite sadly
not knowing why he failed so badly.
The shaman gave the explanation
"I used a bit optimization.
And even if they don't look shiny,
these applications sure are tiny.
Your programs take too long to load
they do suffer from feature-bloat.
And this is why on my machine,
The code's as fast as it is lean."
The admin kept his voice quite low:
"How much so no one ever'll know?"