das ben podcast

there's lots of great things on the internet - cornographic pictures, ads for cornograhy, and even pictures of baby corn. but once you've had enough of sweet sweet corn, check out this nz music podcast featuring some great bands and artists from new zealand, including Toy Love, Tama Waipara, and Tadpole, and then despite me not beginning with a T, you can still hear Das Ben track Blood on my Shoe.

enjoy.

(by the way, i'm just being silly, i don't support cornography or anything that degrades fruit and vegetables)

budapest

so this week, G and i went to budapest with Dad, my brother, and my sister. Two years ago i'd been to Budapest. on that trip i saw a spring beautiful city waking up the west and tourism, i felt like i was seeing the city my grandparents loved so much in the 1920s. this trip Budapest was cold and dark, as was the weather. it was the week of the anniversary of the 1956 revolution and streets were closed for demonstrations by a Nationalist movement who burnt cars and attacked journalists and probably had no real connection with the philosophy behind the 56 revolution. we had to avoid large areas of the city and watch out for fascists. I felt like i was seeing the city that treated my father and grandparents so horribly in the 1940s.

But it was amazing, we stayed in a big apartment in the middle of Pest, close to Vaci Utce, the main shopping street (although Dad remembers it as being the poshest shops in the 1940s, whereas today there was a lot of cheap tourist crap on sale too). Dad showed us his old apartment, synagogue, his grandparents' apartment, his old primary and high schools, and the ghetto where he was forced to live in the winter of 1944. the tour was filled with ghosts as we thought about Dad's parents, aunts and uncles, and friends, and mourned the parts of the story that we'll now never know because no one alive remembers those details. Possibly the most moving part of the trip for me was being in the synagogue which Dad's grandfather helped establish. It is now a holocaust museum, dark corridors filled with pictures and movies that describe the evil events of the war, then at the end of the museum is the synagogue, white walls and brightly lit, with plaques about the importance of remembering what happened and also continuing to live.

We also saw some of the tourist sites, particularly on the Buda side of the river which was away from the demonstrations. Budapest is filled with statues commemorating everyone and everything, usually people that fought valiently but ultimately lost some battle or another, although from the statues you can't always tell that they lost the battle. Favourite statue was a depiction of King Matyas out on a hunt with his dogs and scribe. to the side of the group is a peasant woman, Helen, who fell in love with the hunter, then died of a broken heart when she discovered he was the king. unfortunately his hunting dogs weren't Hungarian Viszlers, national dog of Hungary, mascot for the Plastic Kitchen, and inspiration for the song 'you're a dog, i'll treat you like one'.

ketchup

so i'm in london. its still a great town. busy noisy dirty and so much fun. there's always stuff happening which i always mean to go to, and occasionally i do. so first three quick stories about things i've done, then a quick story about what i'll do next.

Warwick Castle - two weekends ago we had a great day at warwick castle, up near Lamington Spa. can't remember who used to live in it or why its there, but if you want to know more you can wiki it here .damn its a cool castle, we ran around the ramparts, explored the dungeon, avoided the annoying madame taussauds wax displays, watched demonstrations of long bows and catapaults, and marvelled at the hedges cut to be shaped like peacocks (and real peacocks wondered around laughing at the humans and our lack of plumage). all in all a great weekend, ruined only by watching all blacks play some poor rugby in a bar filled with french people (they didn't play in the bar, although they may well have been drinking at half time).

Brighton - oh i do love to be besides the seaside, i do love to be beside the sea. get mugged by seagulls wanting our doughnuts, and narrowly avoided getting mugged by penny arcades that wanted our coins. dazzled by the pavillion, bach of king george iv (who if blackadder the third is to be believed was actually edmund blackadder), and i stared in awe in a guitar shop while everyone else shopped. still haven't got a guitar, i kind of feel like i should get a flat before i get a guitar. one day soon...

Jeffrey Lewis - one of my favourite musicians (and oddly the third new york jewish antifolk musician gig i've seen in a row), played a stonking set in brick lane the other night. on cd he plays quiet songs about his quirky miserable life, but on stage he brought some friends and made some noise. one of the oddest rock and roll moments i have ever seen was during the penultimate song when he had the whole crowd singing along with his chorus 'we don't want no LSD tonight' (its the sequel song to an earlier song 'the last time i did acid i went insane'). so the gig stonked up a storm and i went home after buying the cd of the opening act Wave Pictures (who was actually Andre Herman Dune - who i saw play last month, maybe the music scene here is smaller than i thought).

oh and i've got a job. won't write much about it, other than to say that we'll be giving out questionnaires to people, which contain this question:
Are you male or female?
Yes or No (tick box)

not sure i want to meet the 'No's.