Pécs and Villány
There was another long weekend this last weekend, for the holiday of Pentecost, which I didn’t even know existed until I lived in Hungary, and since I was a sorry excuse for a boyfriend on E’s recent name’s day, I took her to the southern cities of Pécs and Villány.
The pictures are here.
We got up early after a not-too-late-but-still-late night at Szimpla kert and Sark kert and attempted to make the 9:30am train, and even got there with plenty of time to spare, but alas it was sold out. We bought tickets for the next one at 12:30 and went to the Zoo in the meantime, which was actually really fun. I had been meaning to go because of the famous baby rhinoceros (my favorite animal) named Layla, which was the first born in captivity through artificial insemination.
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[SIC] Party Selecta’d
Thursday May 24th 2007, 2:56 pm
Filed under:
Hungary“Buddha Beach and Retro Beach is one the most popular places not only among the Hungarians, but foreign guests either. The “beach” is situated on the bank of the Duna river from where you can see a fascinating picture: the main building of Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Gellért Hotel and so-called mountain, Szabadság and Petőfi bridges. The most beautiful time is evening when you can sit in a bungalow or in the VIP zone and drink a cocktail. There are two open-airs at the place: Buddha and Retro Beach with new design, equipment, palms, dance floors and sitting places. The open-airs offer different music programs: jazz live, salsa party, funky night, electronic day, house and club music, retro party, lounge live. This year is newness the delicious dishes with the Costes Restaurant quality offer on the Buddha Beach and the grill terrace on the Retro Beach.”
Jeez, Get Off My Back!
Friday May 18th 2007, 3:51 pm
Filed under:
Home“Dear Dan,
Greetings from Trinity College! Spring has arrived in Hartford and the Trinity College Fund is gearing up for the last few months of the fiscal year. You have been a generous supporter of the College in the past and know the importance of giving back to your alma mater.
Last year you donated $6 to Trinity, and we are hoping that you will consider doing so again this year. You can give through our online giving page at https://www.alumniconnections.com/donate/trinity/, by calling our 24-hour gift line at (800) 771-6184, or by mailing a check to:
The Trinity College Fund
Williams Memorial
300 Summit Street
Hartford, CT 06106
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns and I hope you consider a gift to Trinity College!
Best,
Jennifer Tougas
Annual Giving Officer
Trinity College
300 Summit Street
Hartford, CT 06106
(860) 297-2365
800) 771-6184 - 24-Hour Gift Line
Click here to give to Trinity!“
The View from Here
My desk, where the fun begins.
The view. Notice the lovely street they decided to destroy.
Funzine 1st Birthday Party
Wednesday May 16th 2007, 2:46 pm
Filed under:
GeneralCome one, come all.
(I just love that retro-active time-stamping! 
Deadline Day
Tuesday May 15th 2007, 12:16 pm
Filed under:
HungaryMonday was our deadline day. I woke up before the alarm, despite going to bed later than usual around 1:30am the previous night. Perhaps I’d gained some energy from our dangerously relaxing weekend, spent mostly lying on various grassy surfaces in the sun. We need to make up for the gray winter.
Had my usual breakfast of cheeses and toast and headed to work hopeful that we would finish today and not push our deadline back another day, which happens more often than I care to admit - and I’m not even the editor-in-chief. Spent the day finishing up what needed to be done- some events here, a PR article there, a lifestyle piece in the middle, some phonetically spelled Hungarian sentences and (another) sappy editorial to edit as bookends. Did I mention that once my boss asked me to write his editorial, then (to my great horror) put my name on it? I mean, he thought he was doing me a favor, as if you could just draw straws for who gets to be editor that week and I could add it to my resume. I’ve since written them twice more. The irony of it all, of course, is that when he writes them himself, he uses a pseudonym, and a pathetic one at that: Justin Case.
Had lunch with my lovely American co-worker M at a pizza place for yuppies and tourists on Ráday utca called Pink Cadillac. It seemed like everyone around us was speaking English, though our young waiter, crew-cut glistening and acne stains only beginning to fade, spoke to us only in Hungarian. I couldn’t decide if it was because he couldn’t or wouldn’t speak English, or because he was tactfully playing along at our rudimentary language skills, or he was just becoming a sad victim of the Italian tourism pox. The pizza was good.
Ostensibly I think we should be finishing each issue on a Friday, then proofing it thoroughly on Monday with fresher eyes. The fact is, we haven’t been in the habit of proofing at all, and it was painfully obvious in our last issue. Granted, it was rushed- three days ahead of schedule to beat a four-day weekend -but we really aren’t building any support by publishing a shoddy rag. So I made it my mission to stay late and proof the thing no matter what.
That meant I got home around 9:30 p.m. E was at her sister’s place, checking out their new garden, which she reports is very cute. I sat on our fifth-floor balcony in my boxer shorts, hidden by darkness and the ugly frosted-glass barriers and sparing the neighbors any embarrassment as I watched the few stars, listened to the distant tinkling of a rock-club across the river, and ate a small plate of strawberries. Oh yes, the magical season (yes, my American brethren, there IS a season for strawberries, and most fruit for that matter, which you are NOT supposed to get in the winter) of strawberries-by-the-kilogram will soon be upon us, prized for it’s competitive price ($2.50/kg for the expensive ones) and incomparable taste. These are no fist-sized, apple-red, plasticine monuments to genetic “enhancement” that have little taste and even less nutritional value, but knuckle size, gnarled berries of Jacques-ian lore that melt on your tongue with just the right balance of sugary temptation and sour fulfillment. I look forward to a summer of fresh strawberry shakes and vegetarian barbecues, the latter unfortunately only by our own design.
The warm summer air a reassuring temperature, though probably early for this time of year, I watched the fifteen or twenty stars that made it through the light pollution and regular pollution to bring ancient light to my eyes. They all seemed to be twinkling rapidly between white and red, and yes, I’m sure they weren’t planes, which were easy to spot as they looked like massive fireballs ascending and descending at Ferihegy 1 and 2 about 20 km to the east. One star was much brighter that the rest; at least 2-3 times so. I briefly attempted to search for it on the ‘net (what would one Google? “brightest star tonight”?), then gave up. It’s probably a planet anyway.
In the late afternoon I had a meeting with my other boss, that of Sales and Marketing. This meeting was important because we were finally discussing the terms of my contractual employment request. I will get it, with the caveat that I commit to another year, which would probably only begin in August, as the bureaucratic process actually takes months to slog through, with considerable expense. I have to tell them my intent in the next few days.
Big decision time.
Kaiten Camera
Tuesday May 15th 2007, 10:27 am
Filed under:
Japan,
Videos*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:
Summertime, and the Living is Easy
Sunday May 13th 2007, 11:02 pm
Filed under:
HungaryThis weekend was perhaps the perfect summer weekend of relaxation. We spent the afternoons of both days basking in the glorious May sunshine, Saturday on Margit Island, Sunday in our own backyard, just splayed out and dozing after a beer or two and a picnic lunch. If you’re at the Island and sit near the grand fountain, when the wind blows a certain direction you get a cool mist that always arouses a laugh or a shriek from those assembled. Both nights we’ve also hit the kértek, or garden bars, which open around this time for the summer season. These places are the best place to hang out at night in the summer, mostly because it’s warm outside but also because the cigarette smoke is mitigated. There’s a great post on my new favorite Budapest-based blog about the death of the kért scene, which I think is pretty spot-on. Essentially, nothing good lasts forever. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
Next bit of positivity was the new book I’ve started, Prague. I’m just 35 pages in but I already love it.
Ceux Qui Marchent Debout
Saw a great brass/combination band from France last night at Trafó called CQMD. The line up is comprised of two percussionists, both of whom carry their drums, marching band style, three horn players (tuba, trombone, trumpet) and a banjo. They rocked it, bringing a combination of lively brass band funk that gets your feet jumping and head bopping to the stage and with the addition of the banjo and amplification to give it more musical texture and creativity. From my very limited experience with new-school brass bands, which are the hippest thing to hit the U.S. in years, I could see that this one had roots in the outdoor, unamplified, party band area, then progressed to a more musical, staged act. They still came down into the crowd to mix it up, which is a trademark of the style, and the Hungarians loved it.
Fuzzy and Scrubbing
Friday May 11th 2007, 10:38 am
Filed under:
Hungary“Toy Dolls (UK) – Zöld Pardon - május 24. 20:00
We arrived to a historic moment, in fact it’s about the ones, we will keep mentioning for many days – in the form of a substancial headache. A World star comes to the ZP: the Toy Dolls. From London to Tokio everyone knows the name of the band, to whom the not too complicated, but very cheerful punk music based on fuzzy and scrubbing guitar can cause a convenient level of adrenalin. Everybody should start training their calves, a spontain championship is expectable about shifting the centre of gravity.”
Who wouldn’t want to go to this?!
Edit THIS, [sic]
“Holdudvar
The meeting point of culinaria, arts and having fun on Margaret Island
People who wanted to relax loved this green area even in the middle ages and it has remained the destination for those who take a few minute walk to spend their free time in an environment safe from the noise and dust of the town. In the present place of Holdudvar there was a castle and it also was a manorial estate but finally in the 19th century it was reconstructed according to the plans of Miklós Ybl one of Hungary’s greatest architects and it bacame a famous social meeting point in that period. Visitors were welcome by fine food, drinks, music and of course a big host of guests.
The years have passed since then in line with the history of Hungary made several changes for this group of buildings too. Changes of names, reconstructions and then forty years of communism all left their marks on the building. One of the funniest objects of this legacy is the neon sign Casino on the southern frontage. This tipically social raelistic something contradictorily recalls the world before Great War II. In the preceeding few decades of the great change in 1989-1990 its reputation was increasing due to the capacity and perhaps the low prices of the place. There is hardly anybody born in1960’s or earlier living in Budapest who does not know Casino. You can easily check this by doing a little, private survey.
At the end of the1990’s mass cuisine, beer and goulash-party was not enough in the world of new demands. The restaurant closed down and its condition became worse and worse year by year. Only God knows what had happened to these buildings if this institution would not have been taken up by a small group of young catering managers, architects and artists. The garden was filled up by life again in 2006. The garden furniture and the sofas of the indoor room offers comfort to the guests, cooks are busy in the kitchen and they get fine meals of top quality ingredients. Phisically more active guests can spend their time playing table football, table tennis and petanque. A gallery has opened where exhibitions of fine arts and others come after each other. For example on May 16th the representative art bazaar of the always busy Király st. Boulevard and Brezsnyev Gallery moved (www.bbgaleria.hu) into Holdudvar for a whole month to publicise its contemporary painters’ works. From May 27th the rear, grass covered rest garden will become an open-air cinema on every Sunday. And for the sake of foreigners either living in or just visiting Hungary the staff of Funzine magazine will choose films certainly with English subtitles on every second week.
An extra speciality and surprise of Holdudvar is that the show goes on even at night and different dj’s will mix music everyday till the end of September. Though do not be surprised if you happen to get into a gig or a fashion show because events like those enrich usually the opening parties of the exhibitions.
And last but not least it is so easy to find the way there. It only takes a 3 minute walk from the middle of Margaret Bridge towards the fountain and Holdudvar is simply right behind that.”
New Books!
Tuesday May 08th 2007, 10:39 pm
Filed under:
GeneralBasically, this will be the nerdiest post ever. I wouldn’t be a Freeman if I didn’t love reading. But I basically read for a living. All day I sit in front of a computer and edit really bad English into only moderately bad English, interspersed with a solid dosage of reading various blogs and news sites. I’ve recently become quite suspicious of the New York Times, first and foremost because I’ve been reading some of Gore Vidal’s essays in his book The Last Empire. Vidal’s theories are pretty far out, but his writing style is infectious, and I think he at least raises some excellent points. He kind of reminds me of a wittier, more sarcastic Noam Chomsky, the latter being only slightly more convincing due to his conspicuous use of facts. I certainly agree with Vidal that the U.S. is in a moderate state of fascism, with the major corporations and elite political figures at the helm, and supported by a senseless media that plays lapdog to these masters. This was reinforced by a front-page (web) story about this “plot” to attack a fort in New Jersey, a depressingly sensationalistic and fearmongering piece that could not reinforce paranoia and racial profiling more. Anyway, I digress.
What I meant to write about was the other two books I got today, from none other than Treehugger Dan’s Used Bookstore and Organic Fair-Trade Coffeeshop: Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie and Prague by Arthur Phillips. The former will be the first Rushdie I’ve read (E, who is my savior in terms of exposure to literature [among other ways. She also got me the Vidal book] says this one is better than the Satanic Verses) and is bound to be exciting, and the latter has just gotten a lot of hype, and it’s really about Budapest, not Prague. Expect reviews in the next few months.
Florence
Sunday May 06th 2007, 9:25 pm
Filed under:
TravelBeen meaning to write about the trip to Florence, Italy, so here it is. In the central three weeks of April, my parents came to Europe to visit me, E, and the great Renaissance painters my father happens to be on a first-name basis with. They flew to Budapest the first weekend, spent the middle 10 days in Italy, then returned to BP for their final weekend. We wanted to spend some more time with them, and anyhow were in need of an escape from the last winter sluggishness in the city, so we agreed to let them take us to Florence for a three day weekend.
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Two Wheeled Dreams
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?”
Macaframa SF Track Bike Promo
01:18
It is a shame...
