Latest news with #Wolski
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
You can remember Deep Thought, Milwaukee's abandoned boat, with this limited-edition bobblehead
Deep Thought, Milwaukee's favorite abandoned boat, may soon be gone, but you can remember its six-month stay on the lakefront with a limited-edition bobblehead. The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee announced April 25 that the Deep Thought Milwaukee Abandoned Boat Bobble is available for pre-order in the museum's online store. "The bobble features the boat that has become an unofficial Milwaukee landmark after it was abandoned in mid-October 2024 along the city's lakefront ...," National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum co-founder and CEO Phil Sklar said in an email to the Journal Sentinel. "This bobble will give anyone who wants to remember Milwaukee's most famous boat the opportunity to have a replica version in bobble form!" The graffiti-covered bobble boat is positioned on two springs on an oval, blue, water-and-sand-textured base with "Deep Thought" printed in white letters on the front of the base. The bobblehead is about 8 inches long. Only 2,025 bobbleheads will be available, exclusively in the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum's online store. They're $35, plus a flat-rate shipping charge of $8 per order. They're expected to ship in November 2025, according to a news release from the museum. Deep Thought, a 33-foot Chris-Craft Roamer, became stuck between Milwaukee's McKinley Marina and Bradford Beach on Oct. 13 after its Mississippi-based owners ran out of gas. Weather, costs and other challenges repeatedly delayed the boat's removal. As the months went by, Deep Thought became somewhat of a Milwaukee icon, earning an entry on Google Maps, its own "I Closed Wolski's" sticker and T-shirts and other merch inspired by it. Eventually, it became covered in graffiti. Most of its electronics have been picked over or destroyed. Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson recently called it dangerous and an "eyesore." After uncertainty about who would be responsible for organizing and paying for the boat's removal, Johnson announced Wednesday that an anonymous donor had offered to cover at least part of the cost of removal. Jerry Guyer, the owner of Jerry's Silo Marina, and his team have been working to get the boat unstuck throughout the week. The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum is at 170 S. 1st St. in Milwaukee. Deep Thought is far from the museum's first bobblehead depicting a Milwaukee legend ― others include Bay View celebrity The Milverine and famous Brewers fan Front Row Amy. More: Anonymous donor paying for Deep Thought's removal from Milwaukee shoreline More: All of our reporting on Deep Thought, the abandoned boat along Lake Michigan in Milwaukee This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bobblehead Museum releases Deep Thought abandoned boat bobblehead
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘The Big Chief' Director Investigates Soviet Spy Ringmaster Leopold Trepper and Antisemitism in Communist-Era Poland
Tomasz Wolski's documentary 'The Big Chief,' which world premiered this week at Visions du Réel, follows the life of Soviet spy ringmaster Leopold Trepper. Variety speaks to Wolski about the film. Trepper, a Polish-Jewish communist, ran a network of Soviet spies across Western Europe, named by the Germans as the Red Orchestra, from the mid-1930s until 1942, when he was captured by the Gestapo and then escaped. When he returned to Moscow after the war he fell out of favor and was imprisoned for 10 years. When he went back to Poland, he led the country's Jewish community for some years, but was persecuted, and denied permission to emigrate to Israel. More from Variety Visions du Réel Crowns 'The Prince of Nanawa' as Grand Prix Winner, 'The Vanishing Point' Claims Burning Lights Award Raoul Peck on His Cannes-Bound George Orwell Documentary and the Threat of Dictatorship: 'Terror Comes Slowly' 'The Golden Swan' Director on Bringing to Screen Her Brother's 'Journey From Hate to Reconciliation' Before Murder by Terrorists In 2016, Wolski was researching another film, 'An Ordinary Country,' in Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, which holds documents and footage from the Nazi occupation through the decades of Soviet domination that followed. 'I was preparing a film about Poland through the eyes of secret service officers,' he says. 'And, at some point, I found documents and film reels that were labelled Leopold Trepper.' He didn't know who Trepper was, but was intrigued and delved into the files and footage. There were more than 20 reels of film in this trove, showing interviews with Trepper conducted by a French crew, led by Jean-Pierre Elkabach, from the 1970s, and confiscated at the airport. After Trepper was denied the right to move to Israel, and was put under round-the-clock surveillance, Elkabach and other supporters in France mounted a campaign to allow him to leave Poland. The head of the French intelligence service said that Trepper had collaborated with the Gestapo during the Nazi occupation of France and betrayed members of the Resistance to save his own skin. Trepper's allies fought this in court and won, resulting in the French spy chief being removed. However, there remains many enigmatic aspects to Trepper's story, and for Wolski that is the point. 'I made this film because I deeply believe you can't be sure of what happened in the past,' he says. 'I mean, we have problems finding out what's going on around us now, so how do you get to the truth about some event that happened 80 years ago?' He adds: 'I don't agree with journalists and historians who try to base their work on documents in the archives.' One of the issues is that the competing intelligence agencies, including the French, Poles and the KGB, were all planting false information as part of their campaigns of disinformation during the Cold War. One of the central issues is whether Trepper genuinely collaborated with the Gestapo after he was captured or, as he claimed later, he was feeding them false information and alerted the Soviets that the Red Orchestra had been compromised. 'I have a lot of doubts [about whether he genuinely betrayed the Allies], and I would even go as far as saying that I don't believe that,' Wolski says. 'But maybe, he just wanted to save his life. I don't know. I mean the thing is that we cannot judge.' He adds: 'I don't want to judge some of the decision made during the war, when their lives were threatened. We don't know how we would behave in that situation. Completely different rules applied at that time, so it's really hard to go there.' One of the issues dealt with in the film was the antisemitism that was prevalent in Poland, especially after the 1968 student protests. 'Antisemitism is still present in Poland. I think we have a huge problem [with that], especially its impact in the past. A few years ago, when we had a different government, they clamped down on historians who were trying to find out the truth [about Polish antisemitism].' He adds: 'For some reason, we cannot accept that it happened. But, when your life is miserable, you have to find someone to blame, and the Jews are often [an easy target].' He says: 'This story is also about the Westerners who really wanted to help someone that was living [under a despotic state] in the East.' Wolski himself had to deal with the divisive nature of politics in Poland. When he first submitted the project to the Polish Film Institute, under the previous conservative government, he was rejected. He had explained he wanted to be even handed but he was told that if he portrayed Trepper as a traitor he might get his funding. But, later, after a change in the expert in charge of the decision-making at the institute, he got his funding. At another funding body in Poland, the decision-maker questioned whether Trepper was actually Polish as he was born in an area that was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire at the time. 'The Big Chief' is produced by Anna Gawlita at Kijora Film. The co-producers are Polish Television TVP S.A., INA, Atoms & Void, KBF, and the Mazovia Institute of Culture. It is co-financed by the Polish Film Institute. 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Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Spokane Symphony concertmaster composes violin solo for astronaut Anne McClain as she launches somewhere 'Over the Rainbow'
Mar. 15—Spokane astronaut Anne McClain has a theme song to listen to as she returns to space. When Spokane Symphony's lead violinist and concertmaster Mateusz Wolski heard that McClain was part of NASA's Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station, he was inspired to compose a song for the moment. "I just felt compelled to create something nice for her and knowing how much the Spokanites here appreciate her," said Wolski, the symphony concertmaster. "It just came over me." He recently watched the film "Wicked," so he was thinking about "The Wizard of Oz." Stuck in his head was the theme "Over the Rainbow" — a song about hopes, dreams and, in a way, coming home. He adapted the melody into an original composition evoking the cosmos. After a few hours of practice last weekend, he recorded it on his iPhone from his music stand and texted it to McClain, wishing her the best on her travel. He didn't expect it to be publicized, but McClain loved it so much she shared it. She also sent it to herself so she can listen to it aboard the ISS, he said. "It feels completely surreal from my perspective," Wolski said. "All I was trying to do was — a person like her with all the stress happening in the world could use something uplifting and beautiful." Wolski plans to record a higher-quality version after NASA asked to share it. He also plans to perform it as an encore at the symphony's Masterworks concerts March 29-30 at Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox. Wolski met McClain a little more than five years ago when she was a special guest for the symphony at a concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Wolski asked her lots of questions about space travel, and the two kept in touch. The short tribute is about 21/2 minutes long, but it's much more than a simple cover. "When you hear the theme, you know what the song is, but the way I set it up to create a mood, you don't know what will happen next," Wolski said. To capture the sense of large distance in space travel, Wolski uses a combination of very high and very low registers on the violin, oscillating back and forth. It's a difficult maneuver, Wolski said, but it has the effect of sounding like two violins playing at the same time. Ultimately, the piece is a fusion of Wolski's lifelong fascination with art and science. "It's a natural bridge between exploration of what is out there and at the same time looking inward and being connected." James Hanlon's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
