November 2011

To Each His Own
Budapest, Hungary
2011

I guess I should say “to each his or her own.” Anyway, these are four passengers waiting for the next tram in our neighborhood in Budapest. The trams, buses, trolley buses and subways that comprise the public transportation system in Budapest have the most extensive coverage of the area than any place I’ve been before and it seemed like you never have to wait more than a couple of minutes for the next one at any stop. One had just left this stop at the time I took the photo, which is why there were so few people waiting for the next one. No more public transportation for us though as we are on our way back home to Bozeman, where the token public transportation system (a few buses) is very, very sparse, although the rides are free, for now anyway.

The Enlightenment
Szentendre, Hungary
2011

A glass of beer brightening up some dinner conversation.

Quiet Time
Budapest, Hungary
2011

After being in this big noisy city for two and a half weeks, I was in need of a more tranquil experience and found it by taking a stroll in the 100+ acre Kerepesi cemetery. It is right in the middle of central Budapest but it’s size and the tall brick wall surrounding it kept out most of the outside noise. It was a very peaceful walk, at least until the military funeral started up at one end, but even that was nice as the band was playing soothing music that carried out across the grounds.

Neo-Noir
Budapest, Hungary
2011

In writing yesterday’s post I mentioned gothic horror films, which lead me to doing a little reading about them on the internet where I found the photo below from the 1920’s horror film Nosferatu. That photo reminded me of the photo above that I took of Zippy going down the stairs of our apartment building the other night.

But I don’t associate Budapest with gothic horror films as much as I do those of the film noir genre. It is dark here–a lot. And I think Budapest has a love affair with sparsely placed low-wattage light bulbs. While there are occasional well lit spots, even the busiest of streets are very dark by American standards and the side streets even darker, as are many public spaces in building interiors and courtyards.

Our building (the stray graffiti in the photo not withstanding) is a fairly typical mid-quality apartment building, but after dark looks like the perfect setting for some cold-war spy drama. In fact I suppose it could have been just that given the history of the city. It’s a good thing the crime rate here is very low or being out amongst the shadows at night would make me very nervous. As it is, I just enjoy going out and pretending the city is one big neo-noir film set.

Viola and Violino
Budapest, Hungary
2011

Some well-worn music parts waiting in the wings of Matthias Church for their next performance. Classical concerts in the local churches are quite popular here. One evening we stopped to take a look at St. Anne’s Church in  Batthyány Square. The church was closed and very dark inside except for some lights up by the alter that we could see peering in the windows in the entrance alcove. Just as we were looking in, this deep, thunderous, minor-tone organ music rang out from the organ loft directly above us. It was either their intruder alert going off or some organist practicing for a performance. In either case it was very impressive, not unlike an ominous prelude to an early gothic horror movie.

Matthias Candles
Budapest, Hungary
2011

A view from one of the upper galleries into the main sanctuary of Matthias Church.

For André
Budapest, Hungary
2011

I suggested the other day that Brassaï was the most famous Hungarian fine art photographer. I could be wrong about that; he’s actually one of three very famous Hungarian photographers I know of, the other two being André Kertész and Robert Capa. Capa was more of a photo-journalist than a fine art photographer so maybe the battle is between Brassaï and Kertész for the best Hungarian fine art photographer. In fact it doesn’t matter, I like them both and Brassaï actually studied under Kertész for a time in Paris so there is a lot of similarity between the two.

We were fortunate that there is an extensive Kertész retrospective currently on display at the Hungarian National Museum, just a few blocks from the apartment where we are staying here in Budapest. I’m not sure I’ve seen any of Kertész’s work outside of books before so the exhibition was a real treat for me. One thing I learned was how much adding a small human element or the suggestion of a human presence to an otherwise abstract or structurally formal scene really makes a composition come alive. That was a timely lesson for me as my intent on this trip was to do more with human subjects; of course without denying my continued interest in scenes with strong geometric components. Purposely combining the two themes had not really come to mind before, but what a perfect idea.

60 Andrássy út
Budapest, Hungary
2011

All the humor about the Russian occupation of Hungary ends when you reach this building at 60 Andrássy út in Budapest. It was here that the Arrow Cross (Nazi-occupied Hungary’s version of the Gestapo) set up headquarters. When the Nazis left the Soviets took over the space for their own local KGB-like secret police. 3200 people were murdered by the Nazis or the Soviets in this building. Another 600,000-700,000 Hungarians were sent to gulags in Russian for dissident activity, real or imagined. Half of them never returned.

The building now houses a very sobering House of Terror museum chronicling the double occupation by the Nazis and the Soviets. The portraits lining the outside of the building are of some of the Hungarians executed by the Soviets in the aftermath of the 1956 uprising against their occupation. The flowers were placed at the memorial on All Saint’s Day (which is treated in Hungary much as Memorial Day is in the U.S.).

The Domino Effect
Budapest, Hungary
2011

I don’t think I’ve ever taken a photograph of a McDonald’s restaurant before. But this rather ordinary looking one is very special–it was the very first McDonald’s ever opened behind the iron curtain. I wonder if the government leaders that let it in knew it would become the capitalist straw that broke the back of the communist economic camel. O.K. maybe I’m giving McDonald’s a little too much credit here, but today there are McDonald’s everywhere in Budapest and it’s still the only place we’ve found with free refills on soft drinks, not to mention all the ice you want to cool it down. How can you compete with that kind of free-market economics?

Seating Plan
Budapest, Hungary
2011

The view of the main floor of the Hungarian National Opera from up in the peanut gallery prior to a performance of Rossini’s La Cenerentola two nights ago. (The place ended up packed, we got there early for the photo ops.) Last weekend when we went to see Verdi’s Rigoletto, we actually sat on the main floor where the seats go for ten times as much as we paid for these high up seats. Surprisingly the view and the sound form the cheap seats was essentially the same as from the main floor seats.

La Cenerentola is the story of Cinderella, with some major differences compared to Disney’s movie version (unfortunately the only reference point I have). The wicked stepmother is replaced by a stepfather, the Fairy Godmother is replaced by  a philosopher, Cinderella’s name is Angelina and she is identified not by her glass slipper but by her bracelet. And at least in the Hungarian version, those birds, mice, etc. that were always helping out Cinderella are replaced by a bunch of clowns that sit around the stage most of the performance and the fancy carriage she went in to the ball was replaced by a junky old car.

Both operas we saw where of course performed in Italian. There were  supertitle translations displayed on a screen above the stage but they translated the Italian into Hungarian. So we didn’t always know exactly what was going on, although we had some idea since we’d read synopses of the stories on the internet before going. Still we found the operas entertaining.

The Hungarian opera has a world-class reputation but I must say in my extremely meager opera experience (the only other ones I’ve seen have been live broadcasts on movie screens) the Metropolitan Opera in New York City is considerably better. As they say, I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like.