Michal posts "commercial spot" online...

Intends to cheer up fellow Polish students struggling with English...

In full HD...

And, like all his videos, in 720p as well...

Not to mention 540p...

And 360p for those with weak internet connections...

Michal believes in broad accessibility...

Michal posts pronunciation videos...

ANCIENT

ANSWER

BEAUTY

BLOOD

CHOICE

CORRIDOR

Putting pronunciation in context...

Aural comprehension tested with oral questions...

Concerning topics ranging from history...

To botany...

And human behavior...

Don’t treat foreign language students like babies, says Michal...

Michal publishes audio recordings of example sentences being read...

ANSWER

ARM

ASH

BAG

BALL

BAR

BIT

BOX

BRANCH

BUTTON

CHAIR

CHANCE

CHEST

CHIMNEY

COAL

COFFEE

COLLAR

COLOR

COURSE

CREATURE

CURTAIN

DAY

DESK

EAR

EDGE

ENTRANCE

EYE

FACE

FACT

FINGER

FIRE

FLOOR

FOOD

GAME

GAS

GLASS

HALF

HAND

HEAD

HEART

IDEA

JAW

LEG

LETTER

LIFE

LINE

LIP

LOT

MAIL

MAP

MIND

MOMENT

MOUTH

MUSIC

NAME

NATURE

NECK

NOSE

PICTURE

POCKET

POINT

POOL

PROBLEM

RADIO

RAIN

ROCK

SAND

SEAT

SHELL

SHOULDER

SIGN

SKY

SOUND

SQUARE

STATE

STEAM

STORM

STORY

SUN

TABLE

TENT

THING

THROAT

TICKET

WALL

WATER

WIND

WINDOW

Michal imports first batch of fine art; handcrafted merchandise from Silesia...

Handbags...

Earrings...

Suspenders; fantastic decorative collar...

All handcrafted by strong, beautiful, creative Polish women...

Priced to sell and ready to ship to residents of the United States...

Revenue from collection roughly represents cost per annum of keeping Michal's website online...

Represents bare minimum of sales needed to keep good work going...

Michal intends to leverage experience abroad...

Continue to import quality fine art from Poland into the United States...

Even as he prepares his own show...

Providing safe and profitable long term investment for fellow citizens...

Discusses venture in sales pitch...

Invites all those with cash savings to consider potential of Silesian artists...

Michal takes some time off to read...

Finally plucks his 1994 Book-of-the-Month Club edition of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles off shelf and reads it…

Finds it selling for $244.59 on Amazon…

Wonders if any part of his Fiction Corpus will be "Book of the Month" when his corpse is 64...

Goes on to read and enjoy A Study in Scarlet…

Inspired by watching fabulous Jeremy Brett…

And losing or having absolutely no interest in various "artifically hip" renditions...

Discovers thrilling exploits of real-life "amateur" detective in Sidney Kirkpatrick's engaging (though poorly titled) book, Hitler's Holy Relics, which well describes Captain Horn's "most spectacular feat…"

War theme leads him to borrow sister's copy of Georgetown's reprint edition of Jan Karski's thrilling wartime memoir, Story of a Secret State...

Then plucks from shelf 2001 Karta editon of Ucieczka z getta by Halina Zawadzka borrowed from his graphic-design-credited godmother in 2002…

Is stunned by difference of perspective between young Polish cavalier Karski and even younger Jewish girl "Living in Fear on the Aryan Side" as English version of chilling memoir is called...

Michal listens to Suzanne Toren's beautiful unabridged recording of Doris Kearns Goodwin's spectacular quadruple biography of Lincoln and members of his cabinet, Team of Rivals, from Recorded Books…

Follows it up with Stephen Hoye's unabridged performance of The Man Who Saved the Union, an informative, if somewhat less probing biography of that great man and sorely undervalued president, Hiram Ulysses "S." Grant by H.W. Brands…

Tries out Thomas Cahill's abridged recording of his passionate chronicle, or rather sextuple biography, grandiloquently called, Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe…

Fondly recalls own rhetorical atrocities engendered by energetic "Jesuit formation" as reviewer Ingrid Rowland politely puts its...

Compares it to Ian Mortimer's broad and unfettered account of "Shitbrook" and other jewels of life in 14th century England after listening to Jonathan Keeble's well read recording of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England…

Wishes Jonanthan Keeble had been hired to narrate Reza Aslan's sober analysis of the pre-risen rabble-rouser later known as Christ, called Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth...

Compares those revolutionary times with the ones so vividly captured in Simon Shama's engrossing account of turbulent and bloody late eighteenth century France, Citizen: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, after listening to the very composed and British Classics on Tape cassette recording made by the late Frederick Davidson...

Realizes not much has changed...

Michal takes time off to attend the LOTOS Jazz Festival in Bielsko Biała, Poland, the "15th Bielska Zadymka Jazzowa..."

Sees American Gretchen Parlato perform in vintage Bielsko theatre...

Almost dies of hunger during long-winded, self-congratulatory festival "awards" ceremony...

No food for ticket-paying guests, just event organizers...

Concessions limited to candy bars...long lines...

Michal then sees Benny Golson Sextet perform "I Remember Clifford" show...

Feels bad for Benny and Co. as tired spectators start trickling away after midnight...

Apologizes to Margo for bringing her to such a mess...

Takes Margo in search of food, gets stopped for jaywalking by bored, immature young policemen...

Margo chastises...gets chastised back...

On way to restaurant/club that's open "to the last client" but whose kitchen closes at 10:00...

Next night climbs mountain to see Bruut! play at alpine hut on summit...

Great music marred by cramped conditions, atmosphere of inattention among many attendees...

Michal wonders why people would come so far and cram into such a small space just to be seen...

Catches illness soon afterwards and wonders who's to blame...

Michal goes on nude hike in New York's Ramapo Mountains with fellow Young Naturists...

Convinces too-prude-to-be-nude sister to go skinny dipping...

Goes on second hike with YNA in New Jersey...on hottest day of year...

Almost loses "big finger" to snapping turtle...

Attends YNA NJ Gathering at Goodland Country Club...

Joins Reverend Goddess Charmaine's interfaith Holy Body Worship...

Experiences a strong sense of spiritual satisfaction...

Michal attends the 25th International Festival of Puppetry Art...

Thoroughly enjoys the Shanghai Puppet Theatre Company's performance of Goose and Frog and Other Stories under the kind direction of He Xiaoxing...

Is intrigued and inspired by Iranian company Yase Tamam's delicately handled production of The Earth and the Universe...

Based on six books of poetry by Sufi saint and poet Rūmī known collectively as Masnavi-I Ma'navi; that is, Rhyming Couplets of Profound Spiritual Meaning...

Was astonished by Julia Arbey's performance of Nicole Mossoux's seminal dance of religious skepticism, Juste Ciel...

Her head shook so violently at start, was convinced she wasn't human but in fact a life-like puppet of amazing accuracy and detail, handled with the precision of a robot!

In his defense, it was a festival of puppetry art...

Michal takes time off to attend the "15th Film Review: CINEMA ON THE BORDER" in Cieszyn on the Polish-Czech border…

Watches six new films…

Hungarian Benedek Fliegauf's portrayal of poor gypsies…

Karel Chlupáček's frustratingly ambitious freshman account of an abused Czech girl's masochistic entrance into prostitution…

Juraj Krasnohorský's pleasant presentation of the life lived by some of Bratislava's more confused citizens...

Three Polish films…

Including Władysław Pasikowski's chilling yarn based upon the echoes of Polish-Jewish tragedy in Jedwabne…

Marcin Krzyształowicz's moody tale of freedom fighters and betrayal…

And Sławomir Fabicki's meticulously crafted and forgiving account of marriage, rape and neighborly love…

Michal checks out documentaries presented by the Cieszyn festival in honor of the 25th anniversary of Film Studio Kalejdoskop…

Jan Sosiński's fascinating account of a cross-dressing Albanian woman accepted by her family as a brother, and granted all the benefits thereof…

Piotr Jaworski's tale of Poland's late-blooming colonial exuberance for Africa…

And in remembrance of the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians...

The Heymann brothers' account of an Israeli-Palestinian school...

And Georgi Lazarevski's moving portrayal of the isolation and sense of community within an old folks' home right next to the Israeli-built wall around the West Bank...

Michal notes festival also featured a retrospective of Jerzy Stuhr's work...

Including his fabulous collaboration with the late Krzysztof Kieślowski in 1979...

And again in '88...

A retrospective of Peter Solan's work (in what would be the last year of his life) included an interesting collobration with Zbynek Brynych and Jerzy Skolomowski from 1968...

And a presentation of Central European musicals included Leonard Buczkowski's immortal account of occupied Warsaw, Forbidden Songs...

And a cheerful, entertaining, and yet very peculiar "perhaps propaganda" piece from Socialist Czechoslovakia...

Michal enjoys watching great motion picture videos...

Sorts them according to his periodic table of culture...

eXistenZ

Slither

The Black Hole

Art being the expression of an idea, much worthy science fiction, horror, fantasy, falls into first column...

Their true task: to make a philosophical statement, on the experience of physical reality in the case of eXistenZ, on the menace of self-aggrandizment in Slither, or the perils of subjugating personal freedoms to an ideology as in The Black Hole...

Many films traditionally categorized in different genres are actually fundamentally similar...

Black Sunday

Stand by Me

The Virgin Spring

These films, though superficially different, build up the second pillar of culture: capitalism, labor, etc...

All focus eloquently on people as they work, whether it be an investigator and his terrorist quarry, a group of children navigating the world and negotiating a sense of community, or a medieval farmer acting as host to men who murderered his daughter...

Third pillar of culture - family, love, prayer - most securely built by a sense of comedy even in the face of deep adversity...

The Sapphires

Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend's Boyfriend

Caddyshack

Whether that adversity be racism and war, stubborness of opinion and social awkwardness, or income inequality and class difference...

Central pillar of culture - law, assembly, constitution - always best built by stories of protest and the sufferings of those who do the protesting...

Breaker Morant

Kon-Tiki

Korczak

October Sky

Serpico

Strike

Touching the Void

In the Name of the Father

Fifth pillar of culture - movement, nature, science - built largely by strong documentaries that demand more than mere attention, but awe...

You're Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don't

On Death Row

How to Survive a Plague

Sixth pillar - education, children - built by solid period pieces, whose focus is on describing a community at a particular time and place...

Barbara

End of Watch

Farewell, My Queen

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Seventh pillar - hope, democracy, strength, armed forces - decidedly composed of creative accounts of conflict...

Whether or not they fetishize war, a soldier's sacrifice, or a leader's folly...

Battle of Britain

Gallipoli

Zulu Dawn

Michal hears fascinatingly complex bird song again and again...

Full of trills, consistently eludes identification...

Sister introduces him to helpful website...

Finally identifies bird; ends years of frustration...

Michal meets with long-time friend, human rights activist and political organizer Nathan Kleinman...

Browses the diverse and beautiful seed collection that will form the basis for a cooperative...

Michal's weight measured at doctor's office...

Nurse's aide seems surprised; says nothing...

Michal chats casually with "German girl" on social network for nudists...

Is asked entirely out of blue for length of his "big finger..."

Deflects question; continues to feel disturbed by maladroit segue...