4 posts tagged “vacation”

i like living in italy.  i like the flavors, the sounds, the people, the constant changing of life and the array of ways in which i find myself on a day to day basis.  that being said, upon arriving in london, i also appreciated the simple comprehension quality of people talking english. 

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mind you, it shouldn't be taken for granted that i understand everything that is being said.  with few exceptions, british english manages to be quite a different monster than the american slang that i am accustomed to.  still, the pleasure was all mine on thursday evening.

Cafe Emm with H&C

after leaving boBo and giordana to their own devices, henrik, chris and i headed to dinner.  Cafe Emm is a place that is "cheap and cheerful", a term to be reiterated for most of the things that we did over the next three days.  the last time i frequented the restaurant was when i dumped whats-his-name in 2001.  but that's another story.

we had a lot of catching up to do.  it had been six months since i'd been with chris in ventotene, a year with henrik when we visited pinzolo on our last birthday.  but like riding a bike, we seem not to forget the momentum and pick up where we left off.  over a bottle of wine and an endless amount of laughter, this thought was rather pleasant.

On Exhibitions

boBo and i had discussed on the outset of this trip that we may or may not connect with one another once we left budapest.  he has friends there and so do i.  he had not been in the same place with both pierre and giordana since they lived in paris many years ago.  the agreement was essentially no pressure and if we met up, then so be it.

gratefully the entire group of seven managed to get to the serpentine gallery within minutes of each other on the following day.  what struck me immediately upon exiting the tube station was the brisk weather that somehow only affects london, at least in my experience.  the sun was in full exposure and the sky couldn't have been a deeper blue than it was.  yet the wind reminded us all that it was still march but brought with it a vitality and vividness to the colors and life that made me stop on many occasions and smile inside.  for all its negative areas, london is a particular town in my heart.

we observed two exhibitions that day.  the derek jarman showing was the highlight and i think the others might concur.  being set at the serpentine required that it couldn't have been obnoxiously elongated.  the attention deficiency disorder in me appreciated that.  besides, being mostly video, the set up was most appreciated.  unlike the typical white box where i am relentlessly endeavoring to find a seat because i despise standing up for any length of time, we were graciously provided with large bean bags to lounge around in and enjoy the visuals.  

although the second visit was to the tate modern (one of my favorite destinations on the south bank), the duchamp/man ray/picabia show was in complete contrast to the previously mentioned one.  long, long, and long.  it was worth seeing some of the pieces and i am very interested in dadaism as a whole.  i especially enjoyed the short film entr'acte directed by rené claire, written by picabia.

Rainy Saturdays

with boBo off to brighton along with pierre and giordana and chris exhausted from the previous night of drinking and dancing at ghetto, henrik and i met at the v&a for a light lunch and then off to Soho to see the edge of heaven.  only knowing that it was recommended by henrik's boyfriend marcus and it had something to do with german/turkish relations, i was amazed at how involved i became in the film.  very subtle but made quite a mark.  go see it.

with that, the weekend passed and i sit here hoping that work will come soon along with a plethora of ideas for upcoming projects that are mixing around in my head trying to make sense and come to birth on some level.  

i did hear back from MIT simply stating that the project had arrived and is in deliberation at the moment.  again, fingers crossed.

now that we have been back for a couple of days and the pictures have all been uploaded to flickr, it is now the time to digest and somehow express the multitude of events that transpired over the week in budapest and london.  when we were on the bus from the pisa airport to santa maria novella train station, boBo leaned over to me and asked what were the highlights of the trip for me.

i believe, in an effort to be efficient and more importantly not to linger too long in front of this computer and bore the many eyes that possibly may scan this blog, i will simply share those events instead of a minute-by-minute recounting.

The Train to Girodana's

the initial experience of being dropped off in a language so unfamiliar is possibly a normal state of recognition and cannot easily be forgotten.  even being in italy with italian being the usual fare, the english manages to sideswipe me into not having to be forced necessarily in speaking all of the time.  anyway, there are so many words that are similar enough that even one who doesn't speak a lick could get by.  hungary, on the other hand, is not such a place.  partially overwhelming and exhilarating at the same time, we managed to find the correct train in order to meet Giordana, boBo's friend since his Paris days many years ago.  

i had heard so much about her and finally i was going to have the pleasure of meeting her.  indeed it was just that.

The Turkish Baths

upon seeing henrik for the first time in Victoria Station on thursday evening, he commented on how good my skin looked.  the first place i could lay the blame was on the thermal baths that we indulged ourselves in throughout the week in budapest.  

although i enjoyed the first two, namely Szechenyi and  Gellert, the two that boBo and i experienced on tuesday and wednesday confirmed where i was and how much i liked what i was doing.  Kiraly and Rudas were quite similar in format (the latter being considerably larger) but had more of an ancient feel to them with their domed ceiling allowing spots of natural light filter in to cast a somber, relaxing light to the atmosphere.  the water seemed warmer at the last two and overall they felt more comfortable to lounge around in.  never-mind the fact that at Kiraly, where only men were permitted which was the same at Rudacz, i was the witness to two relatively older men (let's just say they were in their twilight...) expressing their "love" for one another in one of the smaller pools.  although some others stayed in the pool and seemed ambivalent to the goings on, i took heed to avoid those waters for the remainder of the stay.

Feszek

Time Out described Feszek in this way: The recently spruced up baroque-style interior, watched over by plaster nudes, is pretty impressive.  I am not sure if impressive is the correct word, but we found it quite magical.  Finding ourselves in the entrance hall manned by an older gentlemen at a very large, wooden desk apparently to direct traffic, we soon were sitting on pillows around a table full of goulash and various meets and fish.  The walls being a neon blue just accentuated the atmosphere of sterility and an odd no-man's-land air somewhere between westernization and something that used to have to do with communist socialism.  

after a delectable meal, we heard noises coming from the basement and soon were among a starkly different scene with loud music and a rock band having a music release party.  one of the singers, i presume Annie from ANNIE AND THE BARBIES, invited us into the seemingly exclusive soiree to watch their new videos. 

LOWFEST

all was not steam rooms and sloshy drinks, however.  at regular intervals we would see posters for LOWFEST and finally on my birthday we made it to an Wim Delvoye's exhibit.  his Cloaca was certainly work trekking in the cold to see.  visit boBo's blog to read more about it.  afterwards we headed to Merlin to see Wewilllivestorm by Benjamin Verdonck.  The HP/De Tijd calls Verdonck the Bustor Keaton of the Flemish and Dutch theatre.  although the performance was enjoyable, i'm not sure if this would be an exaggerated viewpoint or not.  it's always more comfortable to compare.

crimeny...this is getting larger than i initially planned, so i will leave the london aspect of the trip for yet another day.

i've been back from the states, or more luxuriously, not on a holiday, since the beginning of the year.  the past two months have entailed a lot of newness for me: opportunities to instruct and probably more profoundly, to learn.  to learn how to teach more effectively and to understand where my weaknesses are and where they...well, are not.

che ti ne frega

last night saw the last vestiges of the first in a series of eight-week intensive courses that i am teaching at The New Renaissance Florence Film School with the showing of the student's film EVEolution. 

today i did what i haven't been able to do in quite a extensive period of time: sleep in.  boBo still calls me "the farmer" as i do have the tendency to be up by 6:00, maybe 7:00 if i'm tired.  rising myself at 11:00, however, felt more on the level of euphoria than possibly much needed sleep.  though i must admit i did have nightmares of trying to help the students complete the editing process.  war scars?

Mercato Centrale Firenze

the intended purposes of the day were to get up and buy a guide book, in english, of budapest.  boBo and i leave tomorrow for the city divided by the danube and having no time to read up on it, i was intending to spend the day in a crash course in hungarian history.  but after an invitation to brunch by leah, i was easily persuaded.

Mercato Centrale Firenze

waffles, eggs, bacon, mimosas...yum.

around 5:00 (late, late brunch), i headed out to a few different bookstores to find the book.  not as easy as one might think.  but i've spent the remainder of the evening prepping myself for yet another culture trying to grasp that indeed i am about to head out on holiday.  the thermal baths are beckoning...

She's Got Legs.