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Lectors – not just for church anymore

From The Wall Street Journal: On Polish TV, Desperate Wives Sound Like Guys

Voice-Over Artists Strive To Keep Dialogue Flat;

WARSAW — When Walt Disney Co. brought the hit ABC TV series “Desperate Housewives” to Poland, producers found just the right local actor to do the voices of the show’s sexy, tempestuous female stars: Andrzej Matul, a 59-year-old guy with a deep voice and a flat delivery.

Mr. Matul is a lektor. In Poland, American shows aren’t dubbed by actors mimicking the original, English-speaking actors. A lektor, the Polish term for voice-over artist, simply reads all the dialogue in Polish. While the lektor drones on, viewers hear the original English soundtrack faintly in the background.

On Polish TV they can be heard every day: lektors, men who read the voices of every part in foreign TV shows, including women and children. See some examples and a report by WSJ’s Aaron Patrick. The approach is popular in Poland, where viewers still feel comfortable with a style deeply rooted in the country’s communist past. Lektors, traditionally men with husky voices, pride themselves on their utterly emotionless delivery, a craft honed through thousands of hours in recording studios. Fans appreciate the timbre of their voices, often tempered by years of cigarette smoking.

Jan Wilkans, 49, who got his first lektoring job narrating a pirated version of the movie “Dead Poets Society,” says he has his own rule: “Interpretation, yes; expression, no.”

Lektoring is also popular among American TV distributors. It offers them a low-budget way to get their programming into a market with a young population and strong economy.

As a result, lektoring is booming, just when it should be dying out as viewers all over the world are coming to expect higher production values.

About 45 foreign channels started up in Poland in the past five years, including the Discovery Channel, ESPN and HBO Polska. Last week, the British Broadcasting Corp. said it is starting three channels with lektored programming in Poland. The Disney Channel began broadcasting in December. On the main networks there are often more than eight hours a day of lektors reading in Polish what is being said in English and other languages.

“It doesn’t seem right to Westerners,” says Costa Kotsianis, managing director of Hippeis Media Ltd., which translates shows throughout Europe from its headquarters in London. “But the very good lektors can record a whole show in one take. It saves a lot of money.”

One little problem is that Polish words are generally longer than English words, and they’re rich in consonants. A lektor can’t fall behind the action and he needs to read in a steady, slow, low voice. So, the dialogue is simplified.

In “Desperate Housewives,” for example, a seven-word apology from prim Bree Van De Kamp to her husband at his hospital bedside becomes three, with Mr. Matul saying, “Mam wyrzuty sumienia.” (“I have pangs of remorse.”)…

The same applies to films. No reading subtitles, just the lektor.

On my visits to Poland I found it off putting at first, but grew to like it. I listened to the characters for the drama and inflection, and listened to the lektor for the words. No different than the little voice in my head reading the subtitles, among other things 😉 .

Christian Witness, Media, Saints and Martyrs, , ,

On the Commemoration of St. Francis (ooops)

From the Herald Tribune: Dutch priest blesses beasts in Catholic church on World Animal Day

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands: A canary, a goldfish, a guinea pig, a handful of cats and more than two dozen dogs received blessings from a Catholic priest in church Thursday to mark World Animal Day….

I have no problem with such blessings, which hearken back to the blessing of fields, flocks, and livestock. Helps us to remember our agrarian roots and to be thankful for all of God’s creatures and creation.

That being said, notice the co-opted term. No more St. Francis (mentioned only as the patron saint of animals), just World Animal Day and a rather funny pious tradition that makes the folks back home all warm and fuzzy.

They should be required to at least add a footnote: Respect for God’s creation, and our stewardship of it, brought to you by the Catholic Church.

Current Events, Media, Perspective, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political,

Of comments, heat, and the Rev. Rydzyk

My recent posting on the possibility of an Indian National Catholic Church (INCC) elicited a few comments.

It seems that when I post something slightly provocative I get a few comments.

I’ve often wondered if my homilies are too staid. They don’t tend to obtain comments or criticism to any extent (by-the-way, I appreciate Fr. Martin Fox’s and Deacon Dan Wright’s occasional comments on my homilies). I’m thinking that my homilies should be more provocative, contain more heat, ne pas?

Now obviously my commentary on the possibility of an INCC was slightly tongue-in-cheek.

The real point was an exhibition of issues faith communities face when dealing with an administrative bureaucracy that evolves into a roadblock to faith and a detriment to communal interaction – for the faith.

That bureaucracy is the self-same faced by the founders of the PNCC so many years ago. It is the same bureaucracy Luther faced down. The same bureaucracy that any genuine reformer has had to deal with (and remember Bishop Hodur tried to work from the inside on reasonable reform).

Now the Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk, CSsR is another case-in-point.

This priest has built an enormous empire that is centered around his media outlet, primarily Radio Maryja. With down-to-earth appeals (the Holy Mass, Rosary, children calling in to recite prayers), he has appealed to working class and rural listenersThe MSM characterization of those who follow Radio Maryja as poor and uneducated Poles (read dumb Pollacks) is deeply insulting and incorrect. I’ve personally seen children come from these villages, enter an American High School, and come out a year later as valedictorians. I hope that the MSM gets a clue someday about the people they put down so willingly. who have a strong grounding in their faith. I say, nothing wrong with that.

Rather than focus on those core themes, and activating people through prayer, self-sacrifice, and charity, he has corrupted his empire into a money making political machine. He has not activated Catholics, he has activated politicos.

He holds sway over a large sector of “conservativeAs the Young Fogey would point out, not at all like real conservatives” voters; and much in the same manner as Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson, etc., he has ushered in political leaders, from whom he expects allegiance.

The threat of censure has been hung over his head by the Polish Bishops, but in reality they do nothing.

This, like the INCC issue, is meant to point to the weaknesses in a bureaucracy that is in need of reform. Maybe you would call it another stop, a sign post in the Twilight Zone of reform.

As to the Rev. Rydzyk, in my opinion he is in need of strong medicine, so that he might recall who and what he is, a priest, a member of the Redemptorists, and a servant of Jesus Christ and His Church. The Roman Church, being true to what She represents, would do well to have the Superior General of the Redemptorists call him to repentance, and remove him from his empire. A good priest would walk away, sic transit gloria mundi. Should he refuse, suspend him. Should he further refuse, excommunicate him.

But, all that is dependent upon the action of a bureaucracy.

A story on the Rev. Rydzyk’s most recent foray into identity politics and his reach into the political arena follows:

From the AP via the UJF of Tidewater: Israel urges Poland, Catholic church to condemn priest over anti-Semitic comments

WARSAW, Poland – Israel is urging Polish and Roman Catholic authorities to condemn a prominent priest over reported anti-Jewish comments, which its ambassador described Monday as the worst case of anti-Semitic speech in Poland in decades.

The Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk, who runs a conservative media empire that includes the Catholic station Radio Maryja, was allegedly caught on tape suggesting that Jews are greedy and Polish President Lech Kaczynski is subservient to Jewish lobbies.

The remarks allegedly were made in the spring, but they only surfaced this month in the weekly magazine Wprost. Rydzyk himself has rejected accusations of anti-Semitism and said he “didn’t intend to offend anyone.”

Israel’s ambassador to Poland, David Peleg, said the statements mark a setback in the progress Poland has made toward Jewish-Catholic reconciliation and in fighting anti-Semitism since Communism fell, and said extensive diplomatic efforts were under way to persuade Warsaw to condemn the priest.

…

“I hope to see a condemnation from the Catholic Church of Poland,” Peleg said.

So far, Poland’s leaders have withheld comment, saying they were waiting to see if the tapes were authentic.

But the Rome-based Redemptorists – the missionary order to which Rydzyk belongs – supported him in a statement published last week in Nasz Dziennik, a daily newspaper that belongs to Rydzyk’s media empire.

“Concerning the content of the ‘tapes,’ which bear signs of compilation, Father Tadeusz Rydzyk does not confirm the anti-Semitic attitude ascribed to him. And as his brothers who know him, we know that such an attitude is alien to him,” the order’s chief representative in Poland, the Rev. Zdzislaw Klafka, wrote in a statement printed on the front page of Nasz Dziennik.

Klafka also called Wprost’s scoop a “serious provocation” and “media manipulation” and said Wprost has a history of offending Catholics.

Rydzyk himself has suggested the tapes were doctored.

The tapes allegedly caught Rydzyk accusing President Kaczynski of subservience to Jewish lobbies. He also allegedly called the nation’s first lady, Maria Kaczynska, a “witch” for supporting abortion rights and said she should be euthanized for that.

Oh, and bring on the heat…

Current Events, Media

Humorous headlines

From the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany’s newspaper The Evangelist:

On the Motu: Overture to Schismatics: Pope expands use of Latin liturgy

In a long awaited overture to disaffected and even schismatic Catholic traditionalists…

They are exploring “how to implement” the document. I can’t imagine that it will be implemented all that much as there can’t be all that many schismatics running around the Albany diocese.

Also notice the common MSM error repeated in the headline.

On the clarification of subsist: Vatican congregation asserts Catholic Church is true church

Besides the typo on “true Church” it all doesn’t matter that much, because, you see, it’s only a Congregation making an assertion.

…and a caption beneath pictures of young people at a leadership institute:

Teen Catholics gathered recently at Pyramid Life Center in Paradox for the Christian Leadership Institute…

It would appear that the Pyramid Center is a Roman Catholic institution, at least based on their programming. I seem to recall Catholic centers and institutions being named after saints, our Lady, or the Lord. Now, paradoxically, it appears that young Catholic leaders are trained at the Pyramid.

Oh great all seeing eye, make us like unto you…

Current Events, Media, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political

Please – fear your physician next

You would think that Michael Moore’s Sicko would have instilled a fear of American medicine in everyone’s mind, but no.

Now we have to ramp up the fear mongering – fear of all those overtly foreign physicians that staff our hospitals. You know, the ones you see to get your Lipitor or Viagra… They are poisoning you and they are going to blow you up.

From the Washington Post: Bomb Plot Suspects Are Foreign Physicians

LONDON, July 3 — Police investigating last weekend’s failed bomb attacks in London and Glasgow on Tuesday questioned foreign-born doctors who are suspected of plotting the attacks, while a suspicious piece of luggage at Heathrow Airport forced the evacuation of thousands of travelers and the cancellation of more than 100 flights.

All eight suspects now in custody are believed to have worked for Britain’s National Health Service, seven as doctors or medical students and one as a laboratory technician, according to officials and British media reports. One of the eight is being held in Australia. The suspects are said to have earned their medical degrees in Iraq, Jordan, India and other countries before immigrating to Britain…

Of course folks here in the U.S. of A. never overgeneralize. We are never led by the media into painting anyone who is foreign born with broad brush strokes, lets say í  la today’s articles regarding the Simpson’s movie promo…

For instance, from the San Francisco Chronicle: Please to be enjoying a promotional gimmick.

We laugh at foreigners when its easy, fear them when we need a scapegoat. It is easier to fear the Arabs, Indians, and Pakistanis then it is to know them.

It’s easier to ask, ‘Why are they here?’ then to ask our President: “Why are we there?”

Of course the Rev. Andrew Greeley pegs it in Ethnic biases stronger than ever.

It’s all about nativism. We never threw out that bigotry. We exercise it with every ethnic joke and by our mimicry.

As the 19th century turned into the 20th, Americans began to worry about the stability of their society and its culture. Strange languages were spoken on the streets, strange-looking people in strange clothes were shopping in our stores. Strange smells percolated in certain neighborhoods. Strange customs were appearing on strange holidays. These strangers were pouring into our country. They threatened our democracy, our way of life, our culture, our religious beliefs, our economy, our blood stock. Why didn’t they stay in their own countries?

The answer is they were caught in a demographic transition — the birth rate had increased and the death rate had fallen. A population explosion was driving people out of eastern and southern Europe.

In the decade before the beginning of the Great War, the government established a commission, presided over by Sen. William P. Dillingham of Vermont, to recommend restrictions of immigration from Europe. Many of the immigrants were of inferior races, as 19th century ”scientific” racialism defined inferior. It was evident to explorers that Asian and African races were inferior to the ”white” races. However, all one had to do was to observe eastern and southern Europeans to realize that they were inferior too. Indeed, the most successful of the races were the white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Surely they represented, along perhaps with the Germans, the greatest progress in human civilization.

Therefore, the Dillingham Commission informed the country that it was patent that Italians were an innately criminal race, that the Poles had very limited intelligence, that Jews were incapable of honest business dealings and that the Irish were shiftless, superstitious and incapable of ambition. Such individuals could never become good Americans. On the basis of ”science” like this, the commission recommended draconian limitations on immigration. The country sighed with relief.

These ”racial” stereotypes persist — not as vehement as they once were, but still part of the national unconscious. ”The Godfather” and ”The Sopranos” fit perfectly. So does the film ”The Break-up,” in which Vince Vaughn plays an insensitive oaf. He is subtly labeled “Pole” by the huge Polish flag, complete with the Polish eagle, on the wall of his office. The lazy, alcoholic Irish laugh all the way to their hedge-fund manager.

A Mexican-American high school sophomore sent me an e-mail asking why other Americans hate them so much and tell so many lies about them. My answer is that Dillingham is alive and well. They don’t want more people with somewhat darker skin who can never become good Americans.

Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington has argued that Mexicans do not want to acculturate into our Protestant political and social system. Don’t tell me, kid, that you can refute all the “facts” they propound to establish your inferiority (you’re second generation, but you have no right to the educated prose of your e-mail). The bigots (less than a third of the country) who hate you know in the depths of their souls that you and your kind are an inferior people who are trying to take over their country and ruin it. We don’t need no more Mexican flags at soccer matches and certainly no more statues of Guadalupe parading down our streets…

Media, Perspective

We don’t need no stinkin’

…badges.

There’s been some discussion recently about a ‘voluntary’ blogging code of conduct (I can get a badge and add more bling to my sidebars). Here’s a perspective from the Index on Censorship.

Now I’m all for manners and civility in the blogsphere. For me it comes down to this. If you want a civil blog, and your com-boxes to contain civil discourse, no badge or code is going to do it. You have to manage your blog. Isn’t that the thing that makes for a great blog, the writers involvment?

Sure, if you want to write a few tidbits here and there about your personal adventures that’s fine – for your and perhaps grandma’s reading enjoyment. But if you, in any way, choose to be serious, you’ll be involved. You’ll write on some sort of regular schedule, prune the comment spam (better yet, use Akismet), and monitor AND respond to your com-boxes.

What you say? You’re Arianna Huffington and you can’t manage the whole thing (we should all have this problem) by yourself. Well then, get yourself down to your local geek, writers, or politicians watering hole and hire a few folks to help you out.

Unfortunately it would appear that some desire cover, just in case they have to unceremoniously delete someone’s snarky commentary. Look, friend, I’m a member of the state, and we don’t put up with that, and because of our laws, I’ve got to delete you.

Uh, yeah. But only if you need a state (read any organized community) to act as cover for your lack of personal standards, courage, fortitude, or management ability.

Don’t you just hate it when a non-system evolves into a system?

anarchy symbol

Christian Witness, Current Events, Media, Perspective,

Imus, Ima, Imum

A little Lingua Latina humor from my college days.

Frankly, as far as I’m concerned, fire every shock jock, talking head, conservative, liberal, doctor, or anyone with an opinion from every radio and television station. These people make my skin crawl.

People who listen to them fall into two categories.

  1. Those who need affirmation in their beliefs.
  2. Those who are looking to have their empty heads filled with something.

I grew-up listening to WKBW-AM radio in Buffalo. These guys had enough broadcasting wattage to reach Virginia. They had music, family safe humor, the news and weather. That’s what radio should be, even AM radio.

But its come to this, the airwaves filled with mindless blather by people who like to hear themselves talk – and get paid a lot for it. Need ratings? Blather. Need more ratings, insult someone.

On the Imus issue I found Al Roker’s commentary on the issue to be not all that enlightening – what else could he say – but I did find the com-boxes disturbing.

Why?

Because many of them touted out the old lines: “I’m not a racist but…” ; “I love you but…” ; “What he said is wrong, and I’m no racist, but…” ; “I have a lot of black friends, but…”

Everyone needed to couch their language and their commentary just in case someone might think ill of them.

I’d ask everyone there, everyone with a comment, how do you live? What do you do in your day to day in dealings with people? Are you fair, honest, and trustworthy? Do you treat everyone with dignity? Are you so unsure of your own actions and lifestyle as to apologize before you even begin talking?

It’s time to take a step back.

Live a life that exhibits dignity, and treat people with human dignity. That DOES NOT mean you have to agree with their lifestyle choices, or in any way support what they believe in. It simply means that you must accept and preserve their humanity before all people. It means that you see yourself in them, in their eyes, in their souls regardless of color, creed, orientation, or membership in a terrorist organization.

Yep, even the ‘bad guys.’ We torture them, we torture ourselves.

Folks like Mr. Imus never got that. No one has dignity, not his peeps, not even the reflection he sees in the mirror. That’s the sad part. No firing will fix that. Only grace can fix that.

God help us to see the humanity of all our brothers and sisters. Help us to see your reflection in them.

Current Events, Media, Perspective

Just in time for Holy Week

From WorldNetDaily: Pastor: Idea Christ died for sins ‘insane’

Calls Easter message ‘repulsive’ —“ makes ‘God sound like a psychopath’

Church of England traditionalists, wearied by the battles over homosexuality in the church and the clergy, are about to take it on their spiritual chins once again when a leading “gay” cleric will tell listeners to BBC Radio 4 that Christianity’s traditional teaching on Christ’s crucifixion for the sins of mankind is “repulsive,” “insane” and makes “God sound like a psychopath…”

What’s left to say to the folks who own a Church’s message to the extent such theological amateurs do. It’s not even the ‘gay’ thing. It’s the whole idea that any god would forfeit their lofty throne to become human, with all the requisite suffering inherent in humanity, and why?

And once a god commits to such an undertaking, wouldn’t he wish to free those whose suffering he shares in? Would he not only wish to free them, but also wish to give them hope? And, should he suffer an ignominious death, wouldn’t he wish it (being a god and all) to be meritorious.

Thankfully such a god exists, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I guess some folks, trained in seminary and all, just can’t connect those dots. Of course, you need faith. Otherwise, you fashion for yourself a god who is a psychopath (or you’re a gnostic).

Current Events, Media, Political,

Dancing with the… political humor?

Ok, I don’t really watch much TV at all. I’ll watch the local news from time to time. Living in the state capital makes for some interesting news. That being said, my wife and I are big fans of American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.

I have my favorites and I cast my votes, but that’s not what this post is about.

Tonight, Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron made a hilarious comment – and I caught the subtle message therein. He was doing the whole bit on making sure you vote for your favorites when he said (I’m paraphrasing):

With what’s going on in the world you feel as if your vote doesn’t count, as if no one’s listening? Well we listen to you, cast your vote.

The sad part is that he’s right. The majority of American want out troops home, and actually voted that way. But, let’s see, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran next! Yep, I’d agree. Only Dancing with the Stars and American Idol listen. At least Edyta is still dancing and Melinda is still singing.

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