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Molvanîa
''Molvanîa'' (subtitled ''A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry'') is a book parodying travel guidebooks. The guide describes the fictional country Molvanîa, a post-Soviet state, a nation described as "the birthplace of the whooping cough" and "owner of Europe's oldest nuclear reactor". It was created by Australians Tom Gleisner, Santo Cilauro and Rob Sitch (locally known for ''The D-Generation'' and '' The Panel'' in Australia). Along with the other Jetlag Travel volumes, 2004's '' Phaic Tăn'' and 2006's '' San Sombrèro'', the book parodies both the language of heritage tourism and the legacy of colonialism and imperialism. The book has been criticized for promoting racial stereotypes. History The book became a surprise success after its initial publication in Australia, sparking a bidding war for the international publication rights. Qantas has even run the half-hour video segment produced in association with the book on its international flights. About Molvanîa T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phaic Tăn
''Phaic Tăn'' (subtitled ''Sunstroke on a Shoestring'') is a 2004 parody travel guidebook examining imaginary country Phaic Tăn. The book was written by Australians Tom Gleisner, Santo Cilauro, and Rob Sitch. Along with the other Jetlag Travel volumes, 2003's ''Molvanîa'' and 2006's '' San Sombrèro'', the book parodies both the language of heritage tourism and the legacy of colonialism and imperialism. About Phaic Tăn The Kingdom of Phaic Tăn is a composite creation of a number of stereotypes and clichés about South East Asian countries. Phaic Tăn is said to be situated in Indochina. Place names in Phaic Tăn initially seem to be Vietnamese or Thai, but they form English language puns, hence the capital is called "Bumpattabumpah" ("bumper to bumper"). "Phaic Tăn" can be read as "Fake Tan". Also, the districts are the mountainous "Pha Phlung" ("far flung"), the infertile "Sukkondat" ("suck on that"), the hyper "Buhng Lunhg" ("bung lung"; Australian slang 'bung', mea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santo Cilauro
Santo Luigi Cilauro (born 25 November 1961) is an Australian comedian, television and feature film producer, screenwriter, actor, author and cameraman who is also a co-founder of ''The D-Generation''. Known as the weatherman in ''Frontline'', he is also an author and former radio presenter on the Triple M Network, and achieved worldwide fame with the viral video ''Elektronik Supersonik''. Early life Cilauro was born in 1961 in Melbourne, Australia to parents of Italian descent. Cilauro attended the University of Melbourne in the 1980s and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws in 1987. In 1984, while walking to his aunt's house in Melbourne, he stumbled across a Juventus press conference during their tour of Australia, and after seeing coach Giovanni Trapattoni struggle to answer questions in English, used his Italian skills to translate, which resulted in Cilauro becoming the team translator for the rest of the tour. Acting and production work Cilauro sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Sombrèro
''San Sombrèro'' (subtitled ''A Land of Carnivals, Cocktails and Coups'') is a parody travel guide book examining the eponymous fictional country, described as the birthplace of tinted sunglasses and sequins. This country is set in Central America, and was created by Australian comedic writers Tom Gleisner, Santo Cilauro and Rob Sitch (of ''The D-Generation'' and '' The Panel'' fame). Along with the other Jetlag Travel volumes, 2003's ''Molvanîa'' and 2004's ''Phaic Tăn'', the book parodies both the language of heritage tourism and the legacy of colonialism and imperialism. In Spanish, San Sombrèro would be translated into English as "Saint Hat", "San" being the shortened word for the Spanish word "santo" meaning saint, and "sombrero" (no accent mark in real-world Spanish) meaning hat. According to the book the "full and technically correct" name of San Sombrèro is the "Democratic Free People's United Republic of San Sombrèro", and citizens may be arrested, without a wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rob Sitch
Robert Ian Sitch (born 17 March 1962) is an Australian director, producer, screenwriter, actor and comedian. Early life Sitch was born in 1962, the son of Melbourne bus proprietor Charles (Charlie) Sitch. Sitch attended St Kevin's College and Melbourne Grammar and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery in 1987 from the University of Melbourne, where he resided at Trinity College. He worked at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne, where he assisted in the deliveries of newborns. He practised medicine for a short time. Career Sitch is currently a member of the Working Dog production company which have produced the television shows ''Frontline'', '' A River Somewhere'', '' The Panel'', ''Thank God You're Here'' and ''Utopia'' and the feature films '' The Castle'', ''The Dish'' and ''Any Questions for Ben?''. Sitch co-wrote and directed each of these films. In 2006, to mark 50 years of television in Australia, the Nine Network special ''50 Years 50 Stars'' listed S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The D-Generation
''The D-Generation'' was a popular and influential Australian TV sketch comedy show, produced and broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for two series, between 1986 and 1987. A further four specials were broadcast on the Seven Network between 1988 and 1989. The show would also serve as a stepping stone for many early incarnations of iconic characters, including Lynne Postlethwaite, Gina Hard-Faced B***h, Eileen Maverick and Kelvin Cunnington. Synopsis The series was produced and directed by Kris Noble and was created and written by a group of Melbourne University students who had gained local notoriety for their stage work: Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro, Marg Downey, Michael Veitch, Magda Szubanski, John Harrison, and Tom Gleisner. Also part of the original team was Nick Bufalo, who appeared in the unscreened one-hour ''D-Generation'' pilot (1985), before accepting a long-running role on TV soap ''A Country Practice''. Several of Bufalo's sketches from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Gleisner
Thomas Edmund Gleisner (born 24 October 1962) is an Australian comedian, television presenter, producer, director, writer, occasional actor and author. Gleisner currently hosts Network 10's ''Have You Been Paying Attention?''. Early life and education Gleisner was educated at Xavier College in Melbourne, Australia. Gleisner attended the University of Melbourne in the 1980s, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws in 1987. He was a law student in University of Melbourne when he began working with Santo Cilauro and Rob Sitch in the 1983 Law Revue ''Legal A.I.D.S.''. Gleisner wrote and performed in the 1985 Melbourne University Revue ''Too Cool for Sandals'', and was credited as a writer on ''The D-Generation'' (1986–1987) but not as a regular performer. He did, however, turn up on numerous occasions as a guest star (he featured more prominently in the second season, to fill in for Rob Sitch who was juggling writing/performing for the show with his studies) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fictional Country
A fictional country is a country that is made up for fictional stories, and does not exist in real life, or one that people believe in without proof. Sailors have always mistaken low clouds for land masses, and in later times this was given the name Dutch capes. Other fictional lands appear most commonly as settings or subjects of myth, literature, film, or video games. They may also be used for technical reasons in actual reality for use in the development of specifications, such as the fictional country of ''Bookland'', which is used to allow European Article Number "country" codes 978 and 979 to be used for ISBNs assigned to books, and code 977 to be assigned for use for ISSN numbers on magazines and other periodicals. Also, the ISO 3166 country code "ZZ" is reserved as a fictional country code. Fictional countries appear commonly in stories of early science fiction (or scientific romance). Such countries supposedly form part of the normal Earth landscape, although not l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founded in November 1920; it began international passenger flights in May 1935. ''Qantas'' is an acronym of the airline's original name, Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, as it originally served Queensland and the Northern Territory, and is popularly nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo". Qantas is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance. The airline is based in the Sydney suburb of Mascot, adjacent to its main hub at Sydney Airport. , Qantas had a 65 per cent share of the Australian domestic market and carried 14.9 per cent of all passengers travelling into and out of Australia. Various subsidiary airlines operate to regional centres and on some trunk routes within Australia under the QantasLink banner. Qantas also owns Je ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chernobyl
Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about north of Kyiv, and southwest of the Belarusian city of Gomel. Before its evacuation, the city had about 14,000 residents, while around 1,000 people live in the city today. First mentioned as a ducal hunting lodge in 1193, the city has changed hands multiple times over the course of history. Jews moved into the city in the 16th century, and a now-defunct monastery was established in the area in 1626. By the end of the 18th century, Chernobyl was a major centre of Hasidic Judaism under the Twersky Dynasty, who left Chernobyl after the city was subject to pogroms in the early 20th century. The Jewish community was later murdered during the Holocaust. Chernobyl was chosen as the site of Ukraine's first nuclear power plant in 1972, locat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and the Black Sea to the southeast. It has a predominantly Temperate climate, temperate-continental climate, and an area of , with a population of around 19 million. Romania is the List of European countries by area, twelfth-largest country in Europe and the List of European Union member states by population, sixth-most populous member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, followed by Iași, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Constanța, Craiova, Brașov, and Galați. The Danube, Europe's second-longest river, rises in Germany's Black Forest and flows in a southeasterly direction for , before emptying into Romania's Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Roma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moldova
Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states with limited recognition, unrecognised state of Transnistria lies across the Dniester river on the country's eastern border with Ukraine. Moldova's Capital city, capital and largest city is Chișinău. Most of Moldovan territory was a part of the Principality of Moldavia from the 14th century until 1812, when it was Treaty of Bucharest (1812), ceded to the Russian Empire by the Ottoman Empire (to which Moldavia was a Vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, vassal state) and became known as Bessarabia. In 1856, southern Bessarabia was returned to Moldavia, which three years later united with Wallachia to form United Principalities, Romania, but Russian rule was restored over the whole of the region in 1878. During the 1917 Russian Revolution, B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and the Adriatic Sea to the southwest. Slovenia is mostly mountainous and forested, covers , and has a population of 2.1 million (2,108,708 people). Slovenes constitute over 80% of the country's population. Slovene, a South Slavic language, is the official language. Slovenia has a predominantly temperate continental climate, with the exception of the Slovene Littoral and the Julian Alps. A sub-mediterranean climate reaches to the northern extensions of the Dinaric Alps that traverse the country in a northwest–southeast direction. The Julian Alps in the northwest have an alpine climate. Toward the northeastern Pannonian Basin, a continental climate is more pronounced. Ljubljana, the capital and largest city of Slovenia, is geogr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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