discreet diarrhoea

Petőfi's Statue in Shanghai

2007-09-07T05:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from the unveiling of Petőfi Sándor's statue in Shanghai's Lu Xun Park. The Chinese poet Lu Xun translated the works of our national poet into Chinese. The poem "Szabadág, szerelem" became very popular in China and they still teach it to children all across the country.
The highlight of the ceremony were Chinese pupils reciting this poem.
Palya Bea performed a few songs with Mr Szokolay Dongó, the "special guests" delivered their speeches, finally the Prime Minister unveiled the statue together with the Governor of Hongkou.
The new statue is well situated in front of the Lu Xun museum. Petőfi is the second foreign poet with a statue in Shanghai (after Pushkin).

Urban Art in Shanghai

2007-09-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

They don't have many graffiti taggers in Shanghai. Commercial taggers dominate the walls... They are everywhere.

Shanghai photos

2007-09-05T06:12:00.000-07:00

Isn't it beautiful?

Food in China

2007-09-05T05:42:00.000-07:00

I don't want to write about Chinese cuisine.
You all know that it is very old, very good, very diverse... blablabla.

I only want to tell you what I had for lunch:
Húsleves és tojásos lecsó egy adag rizzsel.
Broth and a lecsó with a portion of rice.
Real Magyar dishes at a small Uygur restaurant in Shanghai...
I paid 8 RMB, it's 80 Cent, 200 Forint.

In Magyaristan you pay more nowadays.

Hungarian Cultural Season in China

2007-09-03T22:12:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, the “Hungarian Cultural Season in China 2007-2008” had its opening festivities in Beijing.

The aim of this event series is to strengthen Chinese-Hungarian relations and popularizing Hungary as a place for Chinese investments in the heart of Europe.
Since 2004 China is the fifth biggest trading partner of Hungary, the Chinese already made bigger investments such as the Asia Center. There was an article about this topic in Monday's issue of the China Daily.

The first event in the scope of the cultural season was the opening of an exhibition on Kodály Zoltán's life and work at the campus of the Beijing Normal University, mainly organized by the Chinese Kodály Association. As for the fact that the “opening” was held in another building than the exhibition has been set up, I would rather call the event two hours of showmanship mixed with some musical part. It was simply the official part with the focus on the big shots, not so much on the culture.
The cultural part of this event was not so impressive. The best part was a Chinese children's choir performing some Kodály songs. They were very sweet and it was a nice gesture from the Chinese party.
The Hungarian appearance was not so great. The renowned pianist Tamás Vásáry performed well, but that was no surprise. The other Hungarian performer, Ági Szalóki was not a good choice. Still, the Csángó songs she has chosen were very nice, a fact which saved her performance.

The speeches were appropriate to the occasion.
Prof. Dr. Zhong Binglin, the president of the Beihing Normal University, was first, Hungary's prime minister followed. Mr Gyurcsány acted like a good prime minister, his speech was well written and better delivered than I expected. He mainly emphasized Kodály's importance in music history and education.

Only one thing in his speech sounded wrong: “This is the biggest Hungarian cultural event in abroad ever”. That's simply not true.

The second programme on the schedule was the vernissage of an exhibition on Hungarian Gypsy art at the Boyi Gallery. I wrote a seperate article on the exhibition itself. They had live “Gipsy” music, which gave the vernissage a big touch of kitsch... I love folk music, so I liked it.

In the evening a concert was held in the Sun Yat-sen Concert Hall. Mister Vásáry played piano again, accompanied by his wife, the ballett dancer Henriett Tunyogi. There were also a few folk dancers, some operetta actors and a bunch of instumentalists. Szalóki and her friend Beáta Palya were nothing extraordinary.

The positive highlights of the concert were Róbert Farkas (violin, accordion) and Antal Kovács (guitar, vocal). They brought authenticity and cheer to the Sun Yat-sen Hall.

Chinese internet café

2007-09-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

At the moment I am sitting in the "East B@r" in Shanghai, an internet café with around 100 computers. Of course they have air conditioning, at least 5 or 6 devices... More surpisingly the owners of this place are also in possession of a several number of cockroaches and less surprisingly they have no English speaking staff.
It is dark in here. One third of the Chinese guys is doing daytrade, one third of them is playing World of Warcraft, the rest is doing "normal" stuff. A temple of China's young internet addicts.
Very interesting.

First impression of Shanghai

2007-09-03T19:57:00.000-07:00

Iwas touched by this sight... couldn't help...
I stand there for an hour and watched the lights and the ships on the Huangpu river.

Shanghai shows how Budapest would look without the Demszky-regime.
The neoclassical city center is very similar to Budapest, the modern skyline is the thing our city government withholds from us. But of course Budapest shares the negative aspects of Shanghai: abandoned buildings, homeless people, prostitution.

Air conditioning in China

2007-09-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

There is one pretty annoying thing in China: air conditioning.
The Chinese just don't get it - AC is unnatural, unhealthy and a waste of energy.
Air conditioners are everywhere... In two weeks I got two colds, that's not a bad stat.
It's terrible to think about how much energy is wasted through 1 billion Chinese air conditioning systems...
I admire the Japanese for their Cool Biz campaign.
They really need it... A Japanese guy programmed the AC system in our hostel room to produce a temperatur of 12 degree Celsius.

Sok minden és semmi

2007-09-01T01:09:00.001-07:00

Yo.

I moved to a new place, because I needed a change. It was just too comfortable in my hotel... Now I pay five times less than before, but on the other hand I am surrounded by backpackers.

I spent the past few days in 798, often accompanied by Noi Morei or other (street) artists. It is incredible how much they construct there... not only infrastructure, also huge show rooms everywhere. I don't really think that there is the need for so many places, but hey!, China is a big country and it is cheap to make something there.

Tomorrow the Hungarian Cultural Season begins with an opening concert in the Forbidden City. I got a ticket from the Hungarian Embassy. Now I am going to the vernissage of the Anish Kapoor exhibition in 798.

Here are some new pics:

Exhibition - Sin Jin Yuan: "Dolls"

2007-08-29T02:02:00.000-07:00

Fu Zi Tang Gallery, North of Long March, 798 Art Zone

2007 August 25 - September 26

On Sunday, I attended the vernissage of an exhibition at the 798 Art Zone featuring works by Su Jin Yuan (his blog can be found here), a fresh graduate from China's Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Su Jin Yuan was born in Fujian; after graduating from the School for Arts and Crafts in his native city in 2002, he continued his studies at the Academy in Beijing. "Dolls" is his first single exhibition. The works displayed at this show are definetely more than appropriate for a debut exhibition at the beginning of a great career in art.

The exhibition is named after the different sized figurines he produces. The sculptures are very expressive, but difficult to describe. Although "Dolls" was advertised as a sculptural show, there were indeed some mixed technique paintings as well.
The works were very much after my fancy: traditional material mixed with today's influence. The tendency of Su Jin Yuan's works is more towards applied arts than toward fine arts, maybe this is a consequence of his former studies in Fujian. I think this is the right direction of contemporary art: focus on the technique, on the way of painting, on objective beauty.

It is sad that we don't know more of that kind of Chinese contemporary art in Europe.
Seeing Su Jun Yuan's works fills me with hope, because his paintings and sculptures show that Chinese contemporary art is not lost.

798 and Chinese contemporary art

2007-08-28T00:45:00.000-07:00

I became attached to the 798 Art Zone. I don't want to exaggerate, but it is really nice and has a similar atmosphere as the former Tuzraktar in Budapest, an independent cultural center I was involved in.

There is much to see and 798 is pretty big, so I decided to focus on one part of the district and visit the other parts the following days.

The first surprise was the presence of graffiti. I was already used to the thought that there is no subculture in Beijing, but I was not absolutely right. It's true: there is almost no graffiti in the city, the only mural paintings are sayings of Mao. 798 seems to be an exterritorial place in the city full of tags and throw-ups.

The second surprise was how much the government supports the art district. Of course I don't know the details and I heard a rumour about the close-down of 798, but you can see a lot of construction there, the government is building streets in the district, obviously for visitors during the Olympics next year. The Tuzraktar was not supported by our government at all. The fact that 798 exists for several years means a lot.

Partly I have to revise my opinion on Chinese art life. Still, I stand by my opinion that there is no living subculture in Beijing. There is no artistic self-expression of the people threw the methods of urban art. Alternative contemporary art is in a ghetto situation, as the 798 art district shows.
But: This ghetto situation is definitely better than the average situation in Western countries. In my experience a “Forbidden City of Arts”, an island in the city without the aesthetic control of advertisers and politics, with galleries, restaurants, tea houses, cafés, book stores and alternative fashion boutiques on one place is great. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
Especially in such a big country as China it is important to have a center of art, where the different art scenes of the country are able to present their works.

In the meantime, I read some articles about the the art district in Western media. Often the authors criticize the fact that art life in China is so much supported by the government. Now that I have seen the place I can surely tell you that I admire this solution. If I would have to decide between the government and the private economy as a sponsor for my project, I would choose the government. If the government sponsors something, you can see where your tax money goes and you don't have to put ugly adverts anywhere.

In my last entry about Chinese art life I proclaimed quite radical statements about art life in China. Now that I have seen many galleries and spoke to many artists I have to admit: I was partly wrong. There are indeed great contemporary artists in China. I heard that there are several good academies and art schools stressing quality, technique, but also creativity.

Of course cultural exchange is missing, everybody wants to go abroad, but only a very few can, and so on... After all I took a look at the homepage of the Beijing Tokyo Art Projects, one of the most important galleries at 798. It says: "Having closely followed the development of Chinese contemporary art since the late 1980s, Yukihito Tabata set up the gallery with the intention of bringing artists from China, Japan and Korea together and introducing them to a wider audience."
I am happy to read this and I know how important this is, but I still think somebody could do more, and not only on the basis of private business.
My former radical statements are understandable when you look at all the crap we get to see in Europe. The Chinese contemporary art presented for example at this year's Art Basel was just... it is difficult to explain it without using four-letter words.

Anyway, here you have some more pictures from 798 – just to give you an impression:

FBL/ NoiMorei @ 798

2007-08-27T03:47:00.000-07:00

At the 798 Art Zone I met the FBL Crew from the southern city of Guangzhou and the Hungarian urban artist Noi Morei. It was an amusing afternoon...

Urban Art, Graffiti @ 798

2007-08-27T03:02:00.000-07:00

The 798 Art Zone is full of throw-ups, tags, pieces, stickers, posters and pochoirs.

Chinese writers have problems getting normal cans and caps. It gives the walls an oldschool look, but I like it.

Here you go:

Show in Beijing

2007-08-26T00:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it turned out that I am going to curate the "Beijing Abandoned" show in the Dongcheng district of Beijing. It will be the first exhibition within the scope of the "Da Chen Gallery", a Chinese-Hungarian cultural exchange project of the Youth for Europe Association.

Chinese contemporary art and calligraphy

2007-08-25T01:18:00.000-07:00

Dear fellows!

Since three days I am looking for something like subculture. It is sad, but most of the people in Beijing have not even found their way in mainstream. China has a global problem: It is a country to vegetate in, but nothing more.

I spoke to some calligraphers again. It is quite interesting that the art schools have small galleries all over the city where young students can sell their own (and their teachers') works to finance their schools and and their studies.

A Chinese girl from one of the autonomous regions told me that she had come to Beijing for the summer¨to volunteer and sell paintings. She is just finishing art academy, so I asked her about further plans. Because of the bad job prospects for artists she wants to work “something” in Beijing.
Other students told me about their short trips abroad. They were not talking about study trips...
I mention this, because Chinese art schools seem to lack real innovation.

In my opinion Chinese visual artists should visit other countries as well (I know that singers do it), to get some new influences. Reproducing your art since eight generations is not very healthy. You may say that calligraphy is about reproducing the same letters again and again like a buddhist mantra. That's just not true. The technique stays the same, also some of the motifs, but for example the content may change. Japanese artists – I'd like to mention my favourite contemporary artist Tenmyouya Hisashi – synthesize the traditional line with the modern one. I would not advise Chinese artists to imitate the Japanese, the Korean or overseas Asian artists, but studying the contemporary art of those countries could help China to find its own, genuine way. It is important to understand that China had troubles for the last 200 years, 8 generations! During times of political problems art life suffers, and yet we didn't speak about the Cultural Revolution. Of course every other Asian country had similar problems, but they did not have those significant breaks in their culture.

Ai Weiwei, an artist whom I respect but not admire, tries to express those breaks in his art. The problem with him is his anarchic art definition. He says, “Everybody is an artist”. Chinese art is craft. Craft is about technique, technique is about practise.
By the way: Ai Weiwei is pretty unknown in China - compared to his popularity in Western countries.

On Sunday I am going to visit the 798 Art Zone, the Disneyland of Chinese contemporary art. I hope to find at least one remarkable artist.

Forbidden City with photos

2007-08-24T23:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had my tourist's day. Sightseeing is absolutely important and young travellers often underestimate the importance of checking out famous spots. It tells you a lot about the people... What are they proud of? How do they behave at their sights? Why are they behaving in that way?

The Forbidden City and the imperial gardens are beautiful. My problem is that I care too much about details. I see careless work everywhere... Some of the old temples are as charming as waiting halls at railway stations. Anyway, I took some photos. I tried to focus on interesting views and details.

Very nice...

Vörös zászlónk leng, lengeti a szél! A csata, harc bíbor hajnalán...

Sporty Communism.

Visual culture...

I think it's funny.

We need more pagodas in Europe!

Wooden cealings in the Forbidden City. The style reminds me of Reformed Churches in Eastern Hungary and Transsylvania...

Interesting chimera (I am not happy with this architectural term) in the Forbidden City.

A boring ornament, but often used.

Dragon column.

Interesting advertisement in a "communist" country...

No comment.

One of the many "Székely gates" in the Forbidden City.

Who is the real world power? Matryoshka!

Our "csodaszarvas" has a place in the Forbidden City... The deer is a mythological figure and a kind of guardian spirit, in the Hungarian tradition. Other important "totem animals" in Hungary are the turul, the dragon, the grey wolve and some more. They all have their roots in Central Asia. The deer and the dragon have also a long tradition in China, they were already heraldic animals of clans in ancient times.

In Hungary we have political scandals about turul statues... Photos like this one show how stupid this is.

Some interesting chimeras again.

I want to live there.

Beijing again

2007-08-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

Hi there.

Did I mention that I love this city...?

I know what the critics will say, but I don't care. There are bad suburbs in Europe as well.

The day before yesterday I met a Chinese calligrapher in the city. We drank a beer and some tea together. It was nice.
There are always common issues between calligraphers.
He told me a friend of his named his child after Budapest, because he used to work there.
It was very interesting for me to hear a new translation of the name of my country. I thought Xiongyali (Hungary) means "avaricious barbars", my new friend translated it "brave warriors, who are successful in economy". Of course he knew about the Huns (xiong) and like many Chinese he believed that Hungarians are relatives of the Huns.

Here are some boring photos:

(View from my hotel room; communism with visual culture; retaining wall of the Forbidden City; stupid plagiarism)

First impression of Beijing

2007-08-21T04:27:00.000-07:00

Yeeha...
I arrived in Beijing.
The city center is great, very modern, very clean and highly developed.
I live in a hotel next to the Forbidden City... a very nice view.

The people are funny... a city of comedians.

After one minute of internet I realized a thing I absolutely dislike: internet censorship. OK, I knew it before, but realizing (better: experiencing) the fact that it is just not possible to visit foreign blogs or wikipedia is very strange. I can write blog entries, but I can't take a look at them afterwards.
I am sure it has also positive aspects for Chinese society, but at the moment I consider this censorship as uncomfortable and a little bit annoying.

Hamburg-Amsterdam

2007-08-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

After four days in Hamburg I finally ended up in Amsterdam.

I am a little bit sick, that's why I can't really enjoy the place. Today evening I'm flying to Beijing.

Hamburg was nice. I used to live there for two years when I was a child. There were times when I did not like the city, but this time I had good weather and a nice hotel, so I liked it. It is easy to satisfy me...

Well, I think I should go.

See ya (azaz szia) in Asia.

Backjumps Live Issue #3

2007-08-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

Backjumps – The Live Issue #3

Kunstraum Kreuzberg-Bethanien, Berlin

2007 June 23 – August 19

This exhibition was disappointing. It is the second Backjumps Exhibition I have seen (after #1) and I feel regression.

The Backjumps – founded by Adrian Nabi – used to be an urban art magazine for about ten years. It started as a pure graffiti fanzine, later it became the leading magazine for urban visual arts. Since 2003 Adrian converted the conception of the magazine into a series of exhibitions mainly in Berlin.

The first “Live Issue” in 2003 was fantastic, but now, four years later the fire is missing. I think I understand the situation – very probably it is boring to create an urban art exhibition at the same place for the fourth time.

Of course the exhibition is interesting. A lot of interesting artists came to Berlin to exhibit their photos and pieces, but you have to be on a certain level to enjoy the works. If you present a big exhibition on urban art to the public you should try to show works which convince foreign people of the importance of this art form. The actual exhibits are just not very well chosen and ugly presented.

I respect Mr. Adrian Nabi for the work he did in Berlin. I respect him for the Backjumps magazine and the great exhibitions he organized in the past. I respect him, because he is doing his thing for quite a long time and I think that young organizers of urban art events could learn a lot of him. Still I think that he should reconsider his conception about the Backjumps exhibitions. 70 % of the pictures and installations exhibited in

the “Live Issue” have the same look and the same purpose as the works of other modern artists you can see in “normal” museums – only that those “expansive” exhibits are much better. Some of the works were just provocative in a stupid way... I think our whole visual surrounding is so sexed up that it is just uninteresting and unamusing to see copulating couples on wallpapers. Sex doesn't sell automatically nowadays.

Nevertheless there was one thing I was happy to recognize.

In my opinion as an organizer, an artist and a consumer I dislike the tendency within urban art towards computer-based graphic design.

Adrian Nabi seems to share this opinion: I think there was nothing on the exhibition which is not hand-made.

I am curious about the next projects of Adrian Nabi and his fellows. On the occasion of the cultural program “Germany in Japan” they organized an exhibition in Tokyo in 2005. I hope there are new projects budding outside Germany.

PS: In 2004 the Goethe Institute made a film about Adrian Nabi and the Backjumps. It also features one of my favourite urban artists, Akim One Nguyen.

Japanese poster art

2007-08-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

“Japanische Plakate - Heute”

Kunstbibliothek, Berlin

2007 June 15 – September 2

Once again Japanese graphic design rules.

I got to the exhibition by a fortunate coincidence. I was on my way to the Scythian exhibition when I saw a poster in the subway station. The poster already had a great artwork, so I thought: why not? My limit for one day is 5 exhibitions or 2 big museums.

“Japanische Plakate - Heute” shows 158 posters from 24 artists. They are all master pieces.

After Munich, Zurich, Prague and Berlin the exhibition moves to Warsaw, there is the last chance to take a look at the exhibits.

My favourite poster – I guess it is very famous, but I did not know it before – is the following:

It is simple, but perfect.

Scythian exhibition in Berlin

2007-08-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

“Im Zeichen des goldenen Greifen. Königsgräber der Skythen”

Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin

2007 July 6 - October 1

I have to admit: I laughed when I read the title of the exhibition. First, there is no griffin in Central Asia. Second, there where no kings in Central Asia.

In this mainstream exhibition our dear Csodaszarvas becomes a profane “deer figure”, our beloved Turul becomes a griffin and – I think that's the most ridiculous – the Dragon becomes a “rolled animal”.

But let's forget about the details: the showed material is really great and we have to be thankful that somebody deals with the great cultures of the steppe. The beautiful gold works – all have been presents to the dead – embarrasses every admirer of ancient Greek culture.

To contain the embarrassment they presented the treasure of Mezôkeresztes-Zöldhalompuszta, where they found a Greek necklace. Wearing gold chains made by the big, beautiful and mighty Greeks! Those Scythian guys must have been very sophisticated...

The photo material was also very good. They had a nice wall with steppe pictures from Hungary to Kazakhstan – they used similar motifs and perspectives, so every region looked the same.

The exhibition was also a punch in the face to some people in Eastern Europe. If you mention the Scythians in Hungary the people call you a fascist. The different Scythian influenced cultures and peoples where presented as one cultural conglomerate; the organizers stressed the importance of the steppe warriors and traders for the connection between East and West.

A sentence in the exhibition guide illustrates a problem I had: “Kimmerer, Skythen, Sarmaten, Hunnen und Awaren, im Mittelalter Turkvölker, Tartaren und Mongolen, stellten eine permanente Bedrohung der zivilisierten Welt dar. Je nach politischer Konstellation kontrollierten die Steppenkrieger die Handelswege zwischen Ost und West, errichteten kurzlebige Grossreiche und verschwanden wieder aus der Geschichte”.

There is one people missing: the Magyar. Do they think we belong to the Huns, Avars or Turks? I would be happy! But when we tell it, they say Turanism is the worst kind of chauvinism.
“Permanent danger to the civilised world” Excuse me... what? That's the worst kind of Western chauvinism I ever read. They had exhibits from the ninth century B.C. What civilised world do they mean?
“Short-lived empires”? Dynasties from steppe origin ruled China. Hungary's empire lasted 1000 years.

The conclusion: You should visit the exhibition when you're in Berlin. I don't want to know how a real admirer of ancient Egyptian culture feels when he visits a mainstream exhibition on that topic – but I enjoy looking at all those beautiful things human hands (I hope so) have done. It is the same with this exhibition. “Im Zeichen des goldenen Greifen” is the first really big exhibition on Scythian art with exhibits from Hungary, Kazakhstan, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Germany ever.

Budapest-Dresden-Berlin

2007-08-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

I managed it to get to Berlin with a delay of only 18 hours. Although I organized a car at the lift center (www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de) the generous chaos of post-sziget days have destroyed my thoughtful planning. Finally, I went by train in a nice sleeping car. Much more expensive, but comfortable.

I had a nice stop in Dresden, one of those overrated cities in Germany's East. I think it is still the most beautiful city in that region but is suffers from the same plague every Eastern-German city except for Berlin suffers from: it is empty. Restored buildings everywhere, the grave of billions of tax-payer's money, but the city centre reminds you of a museum.

Leipzig – the other “boom city” – is even worse. I visited the city 3 years ago for a meeting of the German Government's youth magazine Schekker I publish in. There it is not necessary for graffiti writers to climb on buildings to paint rooftops, it is enough to enter a building and paint from inside on the windows. The buildings are abandoned.

During my last days in Hungary I had to work a lot – I consider communicating and networking as labour. Mister Péter Polonyi, Hungarian China-expert and author of several books on the topic, is one of the man I had the honour to meet.

On my last morning in Budapest I had breakfast with the DJ and producer Kurock. He stresses „DJ Q-Rock“, but it looks terrible in my opinion. You can listen to his music at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/qrock28

He is also the main producer of the one and only NOAD Crew...
http://www.myspace.com/noadcrew

Everybody was asking me whether I go to the Sziget festival or not. Well, I am not so much into open air festivals and the biggest open air festival of Europe sounds like trouble in my ears. A crowded island full of drunk „dirty-feet-french-gals“ (quote from Habib da Great), impolite police officers and security guards of Hungary's biggest private army... No, thanks.
It is funny... The Sziget is the only successful thing Hungary has and the media already says that it was loss-making business this year. Also a characteristic thing for Hungary is that they want to build a new city district on the island of the Sziget festival in the next years, so the festival has to move.

I liked the atmosphere in Budapest. Last time I visited the city I couldn't wait to leave it aga
in. I am a local patriot of the Pest-Side, but sometimes it is too much of everything. On my “Journey (back) to the West” I went through the Balkan-like city of Vienna. Desperation! Returning to my hood in Kleinbasel was a relieve, I never felt something like that in my lifetime. I became aggressive being offended by all those impolite, noisy people everywhere... my Calvinist anger became rampant seeing all those wasted lives.

The last week was different. Without spending lots of cash I lived an almost aristocratic life in high-level cafés, bars and restaurants. I visited the “Wine weeks” at Balatonfüred and a thermal bath. I lived “the life of a bored millionaire”, my father would say.
The problem begins when you put your CS bank card to the cash machine.
While my grandmother thinks 800 Forints (3 Euros) are too much for a bottle of wine, I think it's definately too cheap. High-level offers have a very low price in Madjaristan and they even get cheaper. At the same time all basic victuals get more and more expansive.
Now the people do not complain as much as during the last winter period. But as we know the next winter will come...

Today I read a nice article on the Calvin Church in Budapest. They are building a new metro line below the church. They have big problems saving the building. When they started to build the new line in that district it was my first thought that the church is in danger. I don't want to judge anybody, but I can imagine that it fits in well in a conception. Now they started a big campaign against the parish, claiming that the parish was not willing to pay reconstruction works on the building. From what money?
I used to go to that church (I was also baptised in it) and I remember how hard it was to grant the money to repair the main window.

Second entry

2007-08-13T16:01:00.002-07:00

Why the hell would I write a first entry?
I'll start with a second one... it sounds better.

"Discreet diarrhoea" is my fifth blog (also a good number), I think it is some kind of mysterious power which forces thee to mention the number of never-kept weblogs.

Dear friends:
I am in Budapest right now, tomorrow I am going to travel to Berlin.
According to my plans I'll visit Hamburg this weekend and China next week for a month... Deo volente, of course.

I have another important announcement to make.
I will keep this weblog in English (I could do it in Hungarian or German also, maybe even better). The reason is obvious: English is my own uneasy compromise with global society.

Pax et bonum!

First entry

2007-08-13T16:01:00.001-07:00