Totallympics Annual International Song Contest 2021

[heywoodu 15,135]

10 hours ago, dcro said:

I'm sitting in office

Duuuuuuuuuuuude work at home whenever possible!!  

 

Spoiler

Alright, bedtime....waking up early tomorrow because Tuesday is my office day  

 

[heywoodu 15,135]

You can only swap with teammates nowadays? I'd gladly help Mexico out of their way-too-early-in-the-morning slot  

[rybak 3,217]

Today we will introduce another two teams, first of them are...

 

Toruń Gingerbreads

 

 

The team consists of five countries

 

•  Ireland
•  Germany
•  Brazil
•  Bulgaria
•  India

 

Toruń gingerbread (Pierniki Toruńskie in Polish) is a traditional Polish gingerbread that has been produced since the Middle Ages in the city of Toruń.

 

Pierniki Toruńskie, as they are known in Polish, are an icon of Poland's national cuisine. They have traditionally been presented as a gift by the city of Toruń to Polish leaders, artists and others who have distinguished themselves in Polish society, and to Polish kings. Baking molds survive with likenesses of king Sigismund III of Poland, king Władysław IV Vasa and Queen Cecilia Renata as well as the royal seal with the Polish eagle and crests of several provinces. Other notables who have received gift gingerbread from the city include Marie Casimire Louise (French princess and widow of King John III Sobieski), Napoléon Bonaparte (during whose visit the whole city was illuminated and bells were rung all over the city), Zygmunt Krasiński (one of Poland's Three Bards), painter Jan Matejko, actress Helena Modjeska, Marshal Józef Piłsudski, pianist Artur Rubinstein, poet Czesław Miłosz, Lech Wałęsa and Pope John Paul II.

 

 

 

Since at least the Middle Ages, pierniki have been connected with Toruń in Polish proverbs and legends. One legend claims that gingerbread was a gift from the Queen of the Bees to the apprentice Bogumił. A 17th-century epigram by poet Fryderyk Hoffman speaks of the four best things in Poland: "The vodka of Gdańsk, Toruń gingerbread, the ladies of Kraków, and the Warsaw shoes".

 

The 18th-century poet and fabulist Ignacy Krasicki, who greatly favored the gingerbread, wrote of them in his celebrated poems. When the precocious 15-year-old composer Frédéric Chopin visited Szafarnia, a small village near the river Drwęca, he stopped over in Toruń, where he was a guest of his godfather, the penologist Fryderyk Florian Skarbek. Chopin sampled the city's famous confection and grew so fond of it that he wrote a letter about it to his friends and colleagues. He even sent some to Warsaw. In honor of this, Poland's largest producer of Toruń gingerbread, the Kopernik Confectionery Company, has created a special heart-shaped gingerbread called Scherzo, bearing Chopin's likeness on the wrapper.

 

 

Toruń holds an annual celebration of gingerbread called "Święto Piernika" (the Gingerbread Festival).

 

There are two main producers of Toruń gingerbread: the confectionery factory "Kopernik" S.A., and the Toruń Bakery. The first upholds its legal rights to the brand name and is the successor to a company that was founded in 1763 by Johann Weese. The second company was formed by Toruń bakers who specialized in producing gingerbread; its aim is to spread knowledge of the craft and to produce fine gingerbread for restaurants, parties and elite meetings.

 

Did you bought some gingerbreads already? If yes, let's go to visit the team base Toruń.

 

 

Toruń is a historical city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since 1999, Toruń has been a seat of the self-government of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and is one of its two capitals, together with Bydgoszcz. The cities and neighboring counties form the Bydgoszcz–Toruń twin city metropolitan area.

 

Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland, with the first settlement dated back to the 8th century and later having been expanded in 1233 by the Teutonic Knights. Over centuries, it was the home for people of diverse backgrounds and religions. From 1264 until 1411, Toruń was part of the Hanseatic League and by the 17th century it was one of the elite trading points, which greatly affected the city's architecture ranging from Brick Gothic to Mannerism and Baroque. In the early-modern age, Toruń was a royal city of Poland and it was one of the four largest cities in the country at the time. Toruń is renowned for the Museum of Gingerbread, whose baking tradition dates back nearly a millennium, as well as its large Cathedral. Toruń is noted for its very high standard of living and quality of life. In 1997, the medieval part of the city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2007, the Old Town of Toruń was added to the list of Seven Wonders of Poland. This city is also the birthplace of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

 

 

First attraction where we will go is Museum of Gingerbread (Muzeum Piernika in Polish) it's a museum located in medieval old town of Toruń. Visitors take part in an interactive show through which they are taught how to make a traditional gingerbread. The show consist of two parts - first visitors are shown how the dough was made in Middle Ages. Having prepared dough, everyone then makes their own gingerbread using traditional baking molds. Throughout the whole show visitors are guided by the master of bakery, a gingerbread witch and the craftsmen. The museum is located on 9, Rabiańska Strett, in an early 19th-century granary, and visitors also participate in flour production using millstones. The museum forms part of the gingerbread tradition still living in town.

 

 

Another place is Artus Manor, a local government cultural institution, established in 1995. The style of the building is defined as the Dutch Neo-Renaissance. The façade is three-storey, built with face brick with significant use of red sandstone (ground floor, decorative details), significantly oversized in relation to the adjacent buildings of the Market Square. Apart from neo-Renaissance motifs, there are also references to the original, Gothic-Renaissance building - sharp-edged windows and bossage on the ground floor, turrets flanking the façade, crenellation crowning the building. The structure is covered with a high, hipped roof - its silhouette is clearly visible in the skyline of Toruń.

 

 

As next we will visit a Planetarium - space popularization center. The planetarium, whose first director was Lucjan Broniewicz, was opened on February 17, 1994. On February 19 of the same year, the first astronomical show took place there. Over the next few years, changes took place during the presentation of the shows. In May 1995, the slides presented by the projector in the planetarium were combined into panoramas. In November 1997, the "all-sky" system was set up, which allowed the entire dome to be covered with a slide image. From June 26, 2005, the planetarium also hosts an interactive exhibition - Orbitarium.

The main planetarium projector (RFP model) was produced by the German company Zeiss. The dome of the planetarium, creating an artificial sky, is 15 meters in diameter, which makes it one of the three largest in Poland. There are 196 seats in the projection room under the dome. On February 12, 2018, an exhibition - MARS # 17 Base was opened in the planetarium. On March 2, 2019, the authorities of the facility organized a celebration of its 25th anniversary 

 

 

The Copernicus House is a historic, Gothic tenement house which belonged to the Copernicus family in the second half of the 15th century. It is considered by many historians to be the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus.

 

The tenement house dates back to 1370 and is what was called a granary house, which in the Middle Ages performed both residential and storage functions. At the end of the 14th century, the cloth merchant Herbord Platte became the owner of the house. In 1459, Lucas I Watzenrode, Nicolaus Copernicus' grandfather, took over the house from his nephew, Szymon Falbrecht, and soon gave it to his daughter Barbara Watzenrode and her spouse, Nicolaus Copernicus senior. Many historians point to this building as the place where Nicolaus Copernicus was born in 1473. 7 years after Nicolaus Copernicus was born, in 1480, the Copernicus family sold the building to Georg Polnische.

 

 

In the nineteenth century, the building was adapted for rental apartments. At that time, its interiors were rebuilt and the facade was plastered. In 1929 the house was entered in the register of monuments for the first time. It was put on this list again in 1970.

The tenement house was renovated between 1972 and 1973. During the works, its former spatial layout was restored, reconstructing, among others, a tall vestibule with a kitchen corner, a staircase and a wooden suspended room (ground floor). Renovation also included the building's façade decorated with a sharp-edged portal, brick friezes and vertical recesses decorated with traceries. Since 1973 the building houses the Nicolaus Copernicus Museum.

[rybak 3,217]

9 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

I think we’re good. One or both of us will likely be present then.

Considering fact that you are living in California you probably will not go to sleep in Friday/Saturday night, right?  

[rybak 3,217]

13 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

You can only swap with teammates nowadays? I'd gladly help Mexico out of their way-too-early-in-the-morning slot  

Yes, to avoid messing up with counting points in Team Challenge  

[Olympian1010 7,971]

11 minutes ago, rybak said:

Considering fact that you are living in California you probably will not go to sleep in Friday/Saturday night, right?  

Pretty much. That’s what I’ve done for the last edition or two. 

[dcro 10,210]

STOP THE COUNT! Award

 

As we step into the TISC week, with the Grand Final to be held in Poland on Saturday, April 17th, it is time to complete our tour of the TISC Special Awards. There are three different Special Awards in total. The J'en Suis La Award and the Passionfruit Award have been introduced in 2018 as part of the 10th edition Jubilee legacy, while the newly formed STOP THE COUNT! Award got first celebrated in the Netherlands last year.

 

While nobody really aims (or wants) to claim these awards, they do serve their purpose within the TISC festivities, if nothing else to remind us all of the exciting Grand Final journeys that the various award recipients have experienced. Today, we will revisit the STOP THE COUNT! Award...

 

 

 

The STOP THE COUNT! Award is quite simply reserved for the last non-winning leader of a given contest. In an unlikely scenario where the eventual winner leads from start to finish, the award will be left unclaimed.

 

The only STOP THE COUNT! Award presented so far was received by Canada at the 2020 Open. Their entry Rude (by MAGIC!) wished the Grand Final had stopped after the Vote #14, as it was the last time they were able to hold Serbia at bay...

 

 

STOP THE COUNT! Award - Hall of Fame

 

2020 Open -  Canada

 

MAGIC! - Rude

Last lead: 40.0% votes in (14/35)

Final rank: 2nd

 

 

 

Join us for this Saturday's Grand Final, as we embark on a journey to find out who will be the newest TISC Special Awards recipients.

[rybak 3,217]

The second team which we will introduce today is...

 

Leszno Speedway Racers

 

 

The team consists of four countries

 

•  Mexico
•  Finland
•  Argentina
•  Czech Republic

 

Speedway, also called Motorcycle speedway is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines which use only one gear and have no brakes; racing takes place on a flat oval track usually consisting of dirt, loosely packed shale, or crushed rock (mostly used in Australia and New Zealand). Competitors use this surface to slide their machines sideways, powersliding or broadsiding into the bends. On the straight sections of the track the motorcycles reach speeds of up to 70 miles per hour (110 km/h).

 

There are now both domestic and international competitions in a number of countries including the Speedway World Cup whilst the highest overall scoring individual in the Speedway Grand Prix events is pronounced the world champion. Speedway is popular in Central and Northern Europe and to a lesser extent in Australia and North America. A variant of track racing, speedway is administered internationally by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Domestic speedway events are regulated by FIM affiliated national motor sport federations.

 

 

Speedway is one of the most popular sports in Poland and is governed by the Main Commission for Speedway Sport which is a part of the Polish Motor Union (Polski Związek Motorowy - PZM). The PZM is a member of the FIM and the Union Européenne de Motocyclisme (UEM).

The Polish Extraleague has the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The first speedway meetings in Poland were held in the 1930s and league racing began in 1948 There are three championships in Poland: individual (IMP), pairs (MPPK) and team (the DMP consisting of three leagues). The Junior under-21 championships also has three competitions: individual (MIMP), pairs (MMPPK) and team (MDMP). There are three leagues: Extraleague, First League and Second League. In the 2007 season, the Extraleague and First League had eight teams competing and the Second League had seven teams. The GKSŻ organizes the Golden Helmet, Silver Helmet (Under-21) and Bronze Helmet (Under-19) competitions. Individual meetings such as the Criterium of Polish Speedway League Aces – Mieczysław Połukard Memorial, Alfred Smoczyk Memorial and Edward Jancarz Memorial are also popular.

 

The Polish National team are the final champions of the now-defunct Speedway World Cup, having won the competition eight times in all. Poland has produced three Individual World Champions, Jerzy Szczakiel in 1973, Tomasz Gollob in 2010 and Bartosz Zmarzlik in 2019 and 2020. The Polish junior team won the Under-21 World Championship in 2005 and 2006 and since 2003 four Polish juniors have won the Under-21 Individual World Championship. In total, seven Polish riders have been World Champions at Under-21 level.

 

Now, after some sport emotions, let's visit the team base, city of Leszno.

 

 

Leszno is a historic city in western Poland, within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the seventh-largest city in the province. Currently it's the seat of Leszno County.

 

The city's unrecorded history dates back to the 13th century. It was first mentioned in historical documents in 1393, when the estate was the property of a noble named Stefan Karnin-Wieniawa. The family eventually adopted the name Leszczyński (literal meaning "of Leszno"), derived from the name of their estate as was the custom among the Polish nobility.

 

 

In around 1516, a community of Protestants known as the Unity of the Brethren (Unitas fratrum) were expelled from the Bohemian lands by King Vladislaus II and settled in Leszno. They were invited by the Leszczyński family, who were since 1473 imperial counts and had converted to Calvinism. The arrival of the Bohemian Protestants as well as weavers from nearby Silesia helped the settlement to grow and made it possible to become a town in 1547 by a privilege according to Magdeburg Law granted by King Sigismund I of Poland. Leszno was a private town, administratively located in the Wschowa County in the Poznań Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown, Leszno was also the largest printing center in Greater Poland thanks to the activity of the Protestant community, whose number continuously increased because of inflow of refugees from Silesia, Bohemia and Moravia during the Thirty Years War. In 1631, Leszno was vested with further privileges by King Sigismund III Vasa, treating it as equal with the most important cities of Poland such as Kraków, Gdańsk and Warsaw. By the 17th century, the town had a renowned Gymnasium (school) which was headed by Jan Amos Komenský (known in English as Comenius), an educator and the last bishop of the Unity of the Brethren. From 1638 until his death in 1647, Johann Heermann, a German-speaking poet, lived in Leszno. Between 1636 and 1639, the town became fortified and its area increased

 

The era of Leszno's prosperity and cultural prominence ended during the Second Northern War, when the town was burnt down on 28 April 1656 by the Swedes. Quickly rebuilt afterwards, it was again set on fire during the Great Northern War by Russian forces in 1707 and was ravaged by plague in 1709. The Leszczyński family owned the city until 1738 when King Stanislaus I Leszczyński sold it to Alexander Joseph Sułkowski following his abdication. One of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through Leszno in the 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often traveled that route.

 

One of attractions is Town Hall, a Baroque three-story building with a tall, slender tower, the seat of Leszno's authorities, considered to be one of the most beautiful town halls in Greater Poland. The first town hall in Leszno was built in the years 1637-1639. It was consumed by a fire in 1656. Reconstruction took place in 1660 under the leadership of Martin Woyda, but the building burned down again in 1707, during the Northern War.

 

 

The existing building dates from the years 1707-1708 or 1709, and its architect was the Italian architect Pompeo Ferrari, brought by the starost of Greater Poland, Rafał Leszczyński. It was rebuilt several times. In 2020, the façade and the ground floor were renovated with a change of colors.

 

The Town Hall in Leszno is built on a rectangular plan and has three floors. The corners of the body are emphasized by double Corinthian columns. The entrance is dominated by a four-sided tower with clock faces, topped with an observation deck and an octagonal turret with a tin cupola and a double dome. Above the entrance portal there is a cartouche of the Sułkowski family, Sulima (1738) and Iustica - the personification of law and justice, who holds a sword in her right hand and a scales in her left hand. There are also numerous commemorative plaques on the facade, including built on the occasion of the 300th birthday of King Stanisław Leszczyński, a plaque commemorating the 400th anniversary of the city and dedicated to the soldiers of the Leszno garrison defending the city in 1939. In some rooms, barrel vaults with lunettes have been preserved. 

 

[Fly_like_a_don 1,089]

11 hours ago, Federer91 said:

I can swap with India, if needed.   

Though I'll be awake at that time still I might be tired since I will be out that day. I guess 8.45pm  IST will be perfect for me. @rybak I'd like to swap my voting position  with Bulgaria. 

[Wumo 3,001]

  Mali    

Songhoy Blues - Barre