We take a short break from our regularly-scheduled programming of my journal entries from China to bring you the following awesomeness:

Please, if you haven’t already checked out this short-but-amazingly comprehensive look at the way we extract resources, form them into products, market them, consume them and then throw them away, watch this incredible video, called simply “The Story of Stuff”. Here is the introduction teaser, with much more at the website. Help spread the word far and wide - this is basic stuff that we should all know!

Chopok, Slovakia

Finally got my computer back on track - it took about 2.5 months and a complete hard-drive salvage, then reformat, then reinstall from windows right on up. Luckily (and not a small bit disturbingly) most of my favorite and most-used programs were easily recovered.

So, the first order of blogging business since then will be to post on the epic snowboarding trip I took in February to Chopok, Slovakia. It was a great time, with a group of Hungarian friends and a good American buddy who I’d first met during my exchange student year in Japan, who was visiting. Strangely enough, we realized that we’d never actually met in the United States - first we skated together in Nagoya, then met up in Montreal for New Year’s 2005, and now here in Hungary/Slovakia.

G-Money and the Def Selector. Beyond those mountains (the high Tatras) in the distance is Poland.

Anyway, Chopok is reputed to be the best resort in Slovakia, and in my limited experience, it definitely lived up to this hype. As already mentioned, just about everything involved in this trip was in some way epic, from getting lost driving in the back roads of the Low Tatra mountains to having to wrestle with snow chains twice a day (more on that in a moment), to riding through untracked, if not perfectly fresh, snow amidst and over beautiful trees and rocks.

The mountain itself had two sides - the more developed and better serviced, but consequently much busier north side, and the sun-bathed, wide open and generally low key, but slow-lifted south side - which were once connected via surface lift but are no longer so. Thus, you can get from the south side to the north, but not back. Fortunately, this was not a problem, as the south stayed in the sun much longer, and was thus much more pleasureable to ride late into the afternoon.

Our accomodations consisted of a cozy cottage about 20 minutes drive from, and at about the same altitude (i.e. into the snow) as the ski area. As the road to the resort first went lower in elevation before rising back up into the snow, we were forced to remove and then reattach the chains on our tires once in each direction. Having never used them before, it was certainly a learning experience that we got very good at after flinging around metal chains in subzero temperatures while other cars whizz by (not always under complete control).

The riding was great. We almost immediately forwent the marked trails, which had been scraped pretty clean by lesser snowsports enthusiasts and the winds, for the off-piste and glade terrain. Getting to the summit was no pleasure, though, as it consisted of first one poma lift (one of those platter things that you stick between your legs and let pull you, which are basically a crotch-breaker for snowboarders), then a really-slow quad chairlift, then TWO MORE dreaded poma lifts, one of which covered a path perpendicular to the fall line, making it nearly impossible to stay on the thing. Overall it took nearly 45 minutes just to get up the hill.

Summit shreds

Thankfully, getting down was worth it. First we usually traversed the wide open upper bowls and made a few long, fast carves before getting into the mine-field like scrub brush. It was fun and good practice to seek out lines between the relatively soft new pines about 1-2 feet tall (if you blew it you could just cruise over them, more or less) before getting into the full size tree runs below. Here was where trying to stay on top of the terrain was important, because getting too deep into the fall line inevitably led to a stream or collection of rocks that necessitated unstrapping one’s bindings in order to cross or dig out of. Needless to say we did our fair share of trying to walk through knee-deep powder (not fun) after finding ourselves in a watery cul-de-sac. But these times were worth the tree-dodging, line-spotting, silence of nature and whoops of joy that we mostly experienced.

More pictures and videos after the jump.

(more…)

A while back E and I were on the Boat, just having a few drinks with friends, when suddenly we found our feet tapping and heads bobbing. Soon the drinks were dropped, the sweaters tossed in a corner and we were full on rocking out to some jazzy, disco-y, funky music, with a singer that just made you remember what the hell singing is supposed to be about in a club.

The next day, we found out this was the Singas Project. “Sin gas” is Spanish for “without pop” - meaning this was no teenie-bopper-friendly BS, but some soulful dance-jazz that we found ourselves immediately enamored with. Check out the below video (be patient with the crowd chatting at the beginning) and let me know if you want their album - I’d be happy to buy it and ship it to you, because I think they’re that cool.

At last, a trailer for the incredible film my buddy Peter has been working on. Looks fantastic!

“Lot’s wife stopped concentrating for one second, just for one freaking second she let her guard down, and she turned around and glanced at the towering blaze. And in one half of a split-[expletive]-second she turned into a pillar of salt. Lot and his children couldn’t even turn around to look at her, or else they too might be turned into pillars of who knows what spice.”

Hi, this is not a very good post for such a long delay, but it’s worth it. Turn up the sound, boyeee.

I recently attended the above mentioned event, hosted here in Budapest for the first time in 25 years, and was happily dumbfounded by the impressive array of skills on display. The strongest contending teams were from the U.S., Japan, and of course Hungary, but more than a dozen countries were represented, some by only one competitor.

The winner of the 3×3x3 “classic” cube was Yu Nakajima of Japan, with an average (of five attempts) in the final of 12.46 seconds. American Andrew Kang finished second (13.05) and fellow nihonjin Mitsuki Gunji finished third (13.05). World records: Hungarian Mátyás Kuti 5×5 1:45.07 (average), 3×3 multiple blindfolded 15 cubes in 46:17, 4×4 blindfolded 6:12.32 (not to mention placing in the top three in almost every other category), Ryan Patricio 3×3 one-handed 21.13 (average), Lukasz Cialon 2×2 3.91 (average), Erik Akkersdijk Megaminx 1:17.46 (single) 1:19.16 (average).

Perhaps the most mind-boggling feat (though not witnessed by me) was the solving of a 5×5x5 cube blindfolded(!!) by an 11-year-old kid from India named Bernett Orlando, who was the only competitor to finish, at a time of 55:39. Just imagine trying to solve something exponentially more complex than the original cube, entirely without looking at it, puzzling in the dark for nearly an hour. Hats off Bernett! Also incredible was Kuti’s solving of 15 consecutive cubes blindfolded, setting a new world record.

The seclusive Ernő Rubik was in attendance for the anniversary event, and presented several awards. He looks a little like Mr. Spock.

Although I’m sure the tension was pretty high among the (mostly boys) there to compete, the actual competition is a bit anti-climactic, as most categories have several rounds and are based on an average of times. In the audience sat supporters and teammates, often fiddling with their own weird puzzles, or timing themselves with a friend. The coolest thing I saw was at the after party (they hit the Coca Cola pretty hard, those boys), where members of different teams were pairing off and competing informally among themselves, with one person solving the cube with their eyes closed (without looking at it first, which is how it works in the official competition) and the other telling them how to solve it. With spider-like fingers dancing, you can see the gears turning very quickly in their young minds.

Here’s a video (unfortunately in Hungarian) with a good picture of what went down. Peep the “Cubinator” robot at the end - you give it a messed up cube to solve and it even talks trash while solving it! Its “face” looks a bit like my favorite rapper, MF DOOM.

I think it’s my annual tradition to write something introspective and searching about the state of politics 6 years after you know what. But I’m pretty sick of it all, so I’ll just post a link to the following documentary film, which you should have a look at, even though it’s a conspiracy theory and anyway it’s irrelevant because the war hawk neocons got away with their dastardly deeds for another attempt at world domination anyway, and we still haven’t done shit to stop it. I guess when that mortgage bubble pops and oil prices continue to rise we’ll finally have to do something, right? Whatevs, just give this a look if you have a free 90 minutes.

Just in time for the next edition of the Budapest Bardroom, here is the soon-to-be-infamous theory of local art-historian and long-term expat Dzseff: that the cookie monster is really a . . . . just, kidding, you’ll have to watch the video to find out!

Here’s a link to a text version of the presentation, with footnotes, sources, and more information. Stay tuned for part two, being revealed tomorrow at the Bardroom, and hopefully online soon for the world to see and be shocked!

I’ve totally fallen behind in blogging, but this one got the blood boiling (thanks Matt!) and it needs to be shared. Please watch the videos at the link below and share your thoughts. Is it all over for America?

Bill Moyers: Tough Talk on Impeachment 

*Title (and video) stolen from JapanProbe.

Ever wanted to know what it’s like to be the main attraction in one of those conveyor-belt sushi joints in Japan? Well this is it:

Whoops, forgot to post yesterday! So I will have to post twice today. First, here are some Communist-era cartoons from the former Czechoslovakia. They depict the adventures of a Mole and his friends.

And more . . .

Mole in the city part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5RFuS6X7bI

Mole in the city part 3 (final)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwMGwSAXpLU

Mole and the swallow (Krtek & vlastovka)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWxNlg7N7go

Mole and the hedgehog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwDFKtA7xsw&mode=related&search=

Mole and mushrooms (with narrator)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ9bkjvqmTA&mode=related&search=

Mole and the green star
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lugJIegVR4&mode=related&search=

Mole and the coal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwirnKRX0Us&mode=related&search=

Mole and the snail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F6_SWr4puE&mode=related&search=

Krtek a maminka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FCjeadXcR4&mode=related&search=

Mole and tv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgOwsNziIeM&mode=related&search=

Krek a tranzistor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKlTM4zMME0&mode=related&search=

Have been meaning to post this beautifully-produced video of San Francisco bicylcists doing their most excellent thing, the achievement of which should be the goal of any serious rider (along with winning the Tour de France 7 times in a row, a la Lance). These guys bomb hills with no brakes, skidding to maintain some control and just cruising through cross street traffic like they had a death wish. Of course, skateboarders have been doing this since, well skateboarding started, but these guys deserve respect. As my sister might say, in Chinese, “you are crazy in head, question?”

Post videos. Sheesh! It’s such instant gratification. My latest foray into mind-numbing-ness is this handy-dandy instructional video for how to make mashups - from Sue “Granny” Teller. The best part is when she big-ups What-What!

I’ve been listening to mashups for a while now and have even toyed with the idea of creating a few of my own. I think it’s by far the most creative thing to come out of pop music in at least a decade, not to mention a very significant social and political issue (that of copyright infringement). SO freshhhhh!