User:Thalperi/Sandbox

Tamir Halperin, a.k.a. Tamirosław, is a retired IT consultant temporarily living in Warsaw, Poland. non-Professionally, Tamir is an activist, humanitarian, poet and working with high school aged adults to develop student journalism initiatives.

Background
Marcin is a remote descendant of the Polish Renaissancepoet Jan Kochanowski (left), most recognized for his 1580 Laments, dedicated to daughter Urszula (which is happened to be also the name of Marcin's mother, while Jan being his grandfather's). The nickname Kochaś, which has been attached to Marcin (Polish:Martin) since kindergarten, may unfortunately evoke various connotations for some, as it's a common Polishcolloquialism, literally for: sweetheart or loverboy.

He is proud of his hometown Gdańsk (today part of the Tricity), the historic place, in which, in 1939 World War II started, and where in 1980 Poland's and eventually Eastern Europe's communism saw itsend in the revolutionary Gdańsk Shipyard. This inspiredU2 in the band's 1983 song "New Year's Day". Recently, the annual celebration of Poland's 1980 revolution (on an anniversary of Gdańsk Agreement) is documented on live albums including Jean Michel Jarre's 2005 Live from Gdańsk and David Gilmour's 2008 best selling Live in Gdańsk.

Since 1999 Marcin lives in Warsaw, struggled by history Poland's fast growing capital city (home of the unfortunate Palace of Culture and Science), where Frédéric Chopin and Marie Curie grew up -— and which David Bowie ("Warszawa") and Basia(London Warsaw New York) sang about.

Journalism
In 1994, his first job was co-hosting and producing a music show in the somewhat legendary local radio station,Radio ARnet. After moving to Warsaw, Marcin was a news journalist in the daily Życie. He also contributed articles for the New York City-based Polish dailyNowy Dziennik, national daily Rzeczpospolita, as well as album reviews and interviews with musicians for music magazines Tylko Rock and Machina.

After contibuting to a lifestyle section of the daily Nowy Dzień he was a journalist and online editor of Gazeta Wyborcza and had a weekly column on entertainment websites.

Beyond
As a part of the digital marketing strategies, Marcin has been managing an Internet presence for several brands — on social media marketing channels including Facebook and Twitter.

His other personal favorite topics are brand management and product placement in feature films.

Music
Marcin is a music lover and constant observer of the music industry. Most of all he's a fan of electronic music (ambient, techno, industrial). Nevertheless he considers The Beatles the popular music's essence.

He admires work of many contemporary musicians, including: Trent Reznor, Maynard James Keenan, Billy Corgan,Michael Jackson, Damon Albarn, Björk, Mike Patton, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones and Prince. Marcin's most inspiring bands are The KLF and The Smashing Pumpkins.

Movies and TV series
Marcin values such directors as: Steven Spielberg (especially for his Saving Private Ryan and A.I.), Clint Eastwood (The Bridges of Madison County), Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill) — and actors: George Clooney (Intolerable Cruelty),Leonardo di Caprio (The Aviator), Jodie Foster (Panic Room) and The Frat Pack comedies.

He is a big fan of contemporary American television series: HBO's The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Big Love and Carnivàle — as well as Showtime'sDexter, Weeds, Californicationand Secret Diary of a Call Girl. And beside such casual thrillers as Fox's unmercifully dragging 24, Prison Break and the uncompromising Showtime's documentaryPenn & Teller: Bullshit!, Marcin has also been intrigued by ABC's Lost and Fox's medical drama House.

His recent favorites include AMC's 1960s' advertising agency drama Mad Men and HBO'svampire supernatural drama True Blood.

Science fiction
Being at the same age as George Lucas' science fiction film Star Wars, Marcin remembers The Empire Strikes Back as one of the first films he saw in a movie theater. However, from the two globally recognized media franchises he prefers Star Trek as the one he enjoys more. Although, the 2009prequel film Star Trek was Marcin's most expected in the recent years, but eventually, a disappointment.

Marcin is particularly fascinated by the concept of time travel and a predestination paradox, especially thanks to the impact of Robert Zemeckis' 1985 Back to the Future Part II. Hence the big interest in the recent ABC's FlashForward and the re-imagined V.

Currently, his most anticipated feature films of the genre are: the upcoming film adaptation of the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons; the 2011 two-part prequel to The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, The Hobbit — and the announcednew film based on Frank Herbert's Dune (and hopefully, all the other novels of the Dune series).

Contributions
As a Wikipedian, during his free time Marcin contributes to Wikipedia articles mostly in the WikiProject Albums. Some of his recent contributions include:
 * Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (concept album by The Smashing Pumpkins)
 * Heligoland (Massive Attack album)
 * The Orb and related articles
 * Death Magnetic (Metallica album)
 * End Titles... Stories for Film (Unkle album – and related articles)
 * Brotherhood (The Chemical Brothers compilation album)
 * Nine Inch Nails – and related articles on the band's albums
 * Radiohead: The Best Of (Radiohead compilation album – and related articles)
 * Last Night (Moby album)
 * "V" Is for Vagina and "V" Is for Viagra. The Remixes (Puscifer albums – and related articles)
 * Sigur Rós (band and albums articles)
 * Anna Maria Jopek (Polish singer)
 * Ania (Polish singer)
 * Last Train to Lhasa (Banco de Gaia album)