Warsaw (Poland): Arkadia Christmas Decorations

The Christmas decorations are already up in Warsaw, Poland.  Love the big glittery ball above.  You can walk around Arkadia looking at loads of these balls, listening to Christmas music.

These basic Christmastide pleasures are not that easy to find in my native Britain now, as nutty politically-'correct' politicians do not want to 'offend' Muhammadans.

Warsaw (Poland): The Hare Krishnas in Late Autumnal Darkness

A few shots of some young Polish Hare Krishnas enjoying themselves on early Friday evening in Warsaw city centre here.

First, near the central metro station, they were dancing about and enjoying singing the hypnotic 'Krishna' mantra:

What I liked about them is that they seemed to enjoy having their picture taken, there was no aversion whatsoever:

Had seen them the previous Friday evening jigging their way down Marszałkowska from the city centre:

Just wish I'd had a proper camera on me to capture the atmosphere more effectively: autumn turning into winter, full of the young Krishnas' glazed-like joy.

Warsaw (Poland): The LDS (Mormons) on Nowy Swiat

As a non-Mormon, my favourite LDS (Mormon) place in Warsaw is the old centre on Nowy Swiat.

This centre was acquired by the Mormons well before the fall of communism when it wasn't possible for religions or new religious movements to openly proselytise in Poland.  However, during the later part of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s, some older American LDS missionary couples (and even the first two young missionaries in the late 1980s) stayed in this centre paving the way for the Polish LDS mission to be formed with the greater religious freedom that would quickly come after the fall of communism in 1989.

Below, you can see a Polish combined version of three LDS books of scripture: 'The Book of Mormon'; 'Doctrine & Covenants'; and 'The Pearl of Great Price':

Out of these three books, I would say that 'Doctrine & Covenants' is the best read for a non-Mormon, as it deals with how Mormonism started adopting temple rituals in the later chapters of the book.

And below, there is a pictorial focus on Jesus Christ being 'The Saviour':

However, the LDS are non-Trinitarian Christians so they view Jesus as being lesser in status than God the Father (who they directly address as 'Heavenly Father' in their prayers).

And below there is a pictorial focus on LDS temples where Mormonism starts to more radically move away from mainstream Christianity:

In the temple, 'worthy LDS' (who are viewed as being sufficiently morally clean and give 10% of their earnings to the LDS Church) do proxy baptisms for dead people (often ancestors); and receive eternal marriage and the endowment ceremony (where it is said that they believe they start turning into gods themselves) for both themselves and dead people.

Warsaw: Being Neo-Vegetarian

Couple of shots of my vegetarian main meal from yesterday which included lettuce; cucumber; green pepper; mixed salad; beetroot; red cabbage; and boiled carrots; potatoes; aubergine; and courgette; and steamed tofu - topped with cottage cheese and leek:

I'm not a 100% vegetarian.  Today, I felt my stomach screaming out for meat so I had a lamb kebab, but for two weeks before this, no meat had passed my lips.  Just find that being a neo-vegetarian makes life a lot easier for my digestion system.  Think that semi-vegetarianism and neo-vegetarianism offer healthy alternatives to strict vegetarianism; veganism; and exaggerated meat-eating diets.

Operation Mindcrime (Geoff Tate) Live at Warsaw Klub Progresja 25th November 2015

First saw Queensryche in the mid-90s at Manchester Apollo back in the Chris Degarmo glory days, and saw them again at Warsaw Stodoła in 2008 when they were still a very good band.  Thus, despite Geoff Tate's Operation Mindcrime getting some negative press, I thought that I still had to check them out at Warsaw Klub Progresja last night.

To a small but genuinely appreciative audience, the band came on with 'Revolution Calling' and went through the whole of the classic 'Operation Mindcrime' album.  'I Don't Believe in Love' and 'Eyes of a Strange' are my two other favourite tunes from this great album.

It seems fair to say that Geoff Tate's voice can no longer reach a very high pitch, but this didn't matter too much, as it was just good to listen to 'Operation Mindcrime' in its entirety live:

Tate was joined on stage to do 'Suite Sister Mary' by the young Irish lady from 'Fire & Water' (the opening band from Cork in Ireland):

 My favourite tunes of the night were 'Burn' and 'Re-inventing the Future' from the recently released Operation Mindcrime album, 'The Key':

Just got the impression that the band looked a bit more naturally together doing their own numbers rather than the old Queensryche tunes:

And all the band members quite clearly buzzed off the small but appreciative audience:

And of course, as we headed towards the end of a two-hour set, we got more Queensryche classics like 'Silent Lucidity' and 'Jet City Woman'

Final few thoughts on this gig:  it may not have reached the heights of the two occasions I saw Queensryche back in the day, but it was still worth turning out for.  I also find Operation Mindcrime a good band in their own right, and think they should do more of their own stuff (especially from 'The Key') live.

Starting Reading George Eliot's 'Silas Marner'

Currently reading George Eliot's 'Silas Marner' whenever I have a few minutes spare on the underground or tram in Warsaw, or to keep me away from getting addicted to the curse of Facebook.

I'm only about 70 pages into this 200-page or so novella, but so far, the gods seem to be completely against poor Silas: being banished from his home place for a theft he never did, and then years later, being robbed of his life savings.  However, having seen a wonderful BBC series of 'Silas Marner' many years ago, I know that things will start brightening up for poor Silas.

Glad that 'Silas Marner' is only a couple of hundred pages.  Only other George Eliot I've read was 'Adam Bede' (a big novel) many years ago studying Literature at university.

A Great Tune

As autumn turns into winter, Jonny Cash's wonderful cover of Neil Diamond's 'Solitary Man' gives me strength.