Antisemtism in Budapest

"Be kind rewind", directed by Michel Gondry (2007)

Jerry is a junkyard worker who attempts to sabotage a power plant he suspects of causing his headaches. But he inadvertently causes his brain to become magnetized, leading to the unintentional destruction of all the movies in his friend's store. In order to keep the store's one loyal customer, an elderly lady with a tenuous grasp on reality, the pair re-create a long line of films including The Lion King, Rush Hour, Ghostbusters, When We Were Kings, Driving Miss Daisy, and Robocop, putting themselves and their townspeople into it. They become the biggest stars in their neighborhood. Written by Anonymous
Source: imdb.com

Barakonyi Szabolcs

Barakonyi Szabolcs is a Hungarian photographer.
I discovered his work at Dorottya Galeria.

I have been very impressed by the "Tatabanya" collection.
Tatabanya is a city located 35 miles west from Budapest and belongs to those many communist industrial cities.
Although the Iron Curtain has fallen and Hungary is now member of the EU, those who lived in this city, and most especially the teenagers, don't see a decent future.

For more information about Barakonyi Szabolcs work, go check his website
http://barakonyi.com/

"99 Francs", directed by Jan Kounen

Octave est le maître du monde : il exerce la profession de rédacteur publicitaire. Il décide aujourd'hui ce que vous allez vouloir demain. Pour lui, "l'homme est un produit comme les autres". Octave travaille pour la plus grosse agence de pub du monde : Ross & Witchcraft, surnommée "La Ross". Il est couvert d'argent, de filles et de cocaïne. Pourtant, il doute.
Deux événements vont bouleverser le cours de la vie d'Octave. Son histoire d'amour avec Sophie, la plus belle employée de l'agence, et une réunion chez Madone pour vendre
un film de pub à ce géant du produit laitier. Le doué Octave déjante alors et décide de se rebeller contre le système qui l'a créé, en sabotant sa plus grande campagne.
De Paris, où négocient les patrons d'agences, à Miami, où l'on tourne un spot sous antidépresseurs, de Saint-Germain-des-Prés à une île perdue d'Amérique Centrale, Octave parviendra-t-il à échapper à sa prison dorée ?
Source: allocine.fr

"Reservoir dogs", directed be Quentin Tarantino (1992)

Six criminals, who are strangers to each other, are hired by a crime boss Joe Cabot to carry out a diamond robbery. Right at the outset, they are given false names with an intention that they won't get too close and concentrate on the job instead. They are completely sure that the robbery is going to be a success. But when the police show up right at the time and the site of the robbery, panic spreads amongst the group members and one of them is killed in the subsequent shootout along with a few policemen and civilians. When the remaining people assemble at the premeditated rendezvous point (a warehouse), they begin to suspect that one of them is an undercover cop. Written by Soumitra
Source: imdb.com

"Casablanca", directed by Michael Curtiz (1943)

In World War II Casablanca, Rick Blaine, exiled American and former freedom fighter, runs the most popular nightspot in town. The cynical lone wolf Blaine comes into the possession of two valuable letters of transit. When Nazi Major Strasser arrives in Casablanca, the sycophantic police Captain Renault does what he can to please him, including detaining Czech underground leader Victor Laszlo. Much to Rick's surprise, Lazslo arrives with Ilsa, Rick's one time love. Rick is very bitter towards Ilsa, who ran out on him in Paris, but when he learns she had good reason to, they plan to run off together again using the letters of transit. Well, that was their original plan.... Written by Gary Jackson {garyjack5@cogeco.ca}
Source: imdb.com

My opinion: Humphrey Bogart is absolutely amazing! Ingrid Bergman is wonderful... she reminds me someone I knew...

Historia de un Letrero (Story of a sign)

Great

"Lawrence of Arabia", directed by David Lean (1962)

An inordinately complex man who has been labeled everything from hero, to charlatan, to sadist, Thomas Edward Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert, then sought anonymity as a common soldier under an assumed name. The story opens with the death of Lawrence in a motorcycle accident in London at the age of 47, then flashbacks to recount his adventures: as a young intelligence officer in Cairo in 1916, he is given leave to investigate the progress of the Arab revolt against the Turks in World War I. In the desert, he organizes a guerrilla army and--for two years--leads the Arabs in harassing the Turks with desert raids, train-wrecking and camel attacks. Eventually, he leads his army northward and helps a British General destroy the power of the Ottoman Empire. Written by alfiehitchie
Source: imdb.com

My opinion: A fantastic epopee in the Egyptian desert. Great Peter O'Toole! a 7 oscars movie! with nomination for O'Toole and Omar Sharif!

"La Haine", directed by Mathieu Kassovitz

Synopsis: The film follows three young men and their time spent in the French suburban "ghetto," over a span of twenty-four hours. Vinz, a Jew, Saïd, an Arab, and Hubert, a black boxer, have grown up in these French suburbs where high levels of diversity coupled with the racist and oppressive police force have raised tensions to a critical breaking point. During the riots that took place a night before, a police officer lost his handgun in the ensuing madness, only to leave it for Vinz to find. Now, with a newfound means to gain the respect he deserves, Vinz vows to kill a cop if his friend Abdel dies in the hospital, due the beating he received while in police custody. Written by b4arr2y

My opinion: Great movie. At the end of the movie, the narrator (Hubert) says the following "it's the story of a falling society, trying to re-assure herself that everything is ok so far... coz the most important is not the way you fall, but how you'll land"...well, La Haine was shoot in 1996...we are now in 2008... and it is, still, a perfect presentation of the French society.

Carlton... you're the best of the best !!!

Racism

...and now you know.

Banksy

Banksy is a well-known pseudo-anonymous[1][2] British graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol[1] and to have been born in 1974,[3] but there is substantial public uncertainty about his identity and personal and biographical details.[4] According to Tristan Manco, Banksy "was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier engineer, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s."[5] His artworks are often-satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics. His street art, which combines graffiti writing with a distinctive stencilling technique, is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris and members of the anarcho-punk band Crass who maintained a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube System in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His art has appeared in cities around the world.[6] Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians.

Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti or mount exhibitions of screenprints in commercial galleries.[7]

source: imdb.com

For more about Banksy and some other leading figures of Street Art, check the following website www.luxuryculture.com

Dominique Perrault

was born in clermont ferrand in 1953 and now lives
and works in paris.
he received his architecture degree in paris in 1978 and his
certificate in town planning at the ecole nationale des ponts et
chaussées in 1979. in 1980, he received a postgraduate degree
in history at the ecole des hautes etudes in social sciences.
dominique perrault opened his paris office in 1981.
he won the international competition for the construction of
the french national library in 1989, and in 1992, the international
competition for the olympic velodrome and swimming pool in
berlin, for which he opened another office in germany.
these two projects ensured his international fame.
in 1996, he won the competition for the court of justice of the
european community in luxembourg, and opened a third office in
luxembourg in 2000. in 2002, perrault opened two more agencies,
one in barcelona and another in baltimore in the united states.
dominique perrault's work is extremely varied and includes
many new constructions and numerous renovations.
the architectural programs of these projects range from large
buildings, such as cultural or sports projects, to smaller projects,
such as urban insertions in blighted urban areas to private
housing in prestigious neighbourhoods.
in june 2003 he won the competition of an additional building
to the mariinsky theatre in st. petersburg, russia.
perrault's design was chosen from a shortlist of eleven during
secret voting by an international jury.
he gives many lectures and participates in numerous juries and
seminars. dominique perrault also teaches at several foreign
universities, among them in barcelona and brussels and at the
E.T.H. in zürich, switzerland.
he has been awarded various prizes, notably the great national
prize of architecture in 1996 and the mies van der rohe prize
for the national library in france in 1997.
furthermore, perrault is chevalier of the legion of honour,
member of the architecture academy, honourable member of
the german association of architects [BDA] and
an honorary fellow of the royal institute of british architects.
from november 1998 to february 2001 he was president of the
french institute of architects.
dominique perrault is currently an architectural consultant
for the mayor of barcelona.

did you always want to be an architect when you were a child?
'architect' for me is a very conservative term.
I am a 'project-man'. I like to develop projects, to make some
new project.
today it is in the field of architecture, tomorrow I do not know.

where do you work on your designs and projects?
I try to stay for three days a week in my office in paris
to work with my team.
and during traveling, usually it is possible to think.
but the final decision is in my office, with my team around me.

when you're working, do you discuss or exchange ideas with colleagues,
with other designers?
not alot, because I like to work very fast.
you can change details, or the whole concept...
because if you work very fast, you can change,
but if you are very slow,
it's immposible to change.
I think it's a good strategy!

quicktime clip
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describe your style, like a good friend of yours would describe it.
it's really difficult for me, becuase I produce this work,
and it's difficult to know exactly why...

I would like to say only one thing:
it is the research in the field of architecture.
it is not only about the the process, or about the finished idea.
I test, test, test, and I test again.
that is experimentation!
when we test - we might get something!
we learn from it and from this lesson might benefit a new project.
behind the complex study and the development of the idea,
which define the architect as a creator,
it is 'time' itself that is undoubtedly the object of the architect’s
whole attention, his only preoccupation, the permanent
restlessness of a present he tirelessly seeks to actualize.
indeed, what contemporary architecture challenges, is the idea
of 'time' that has formed the very essence of architectural culture,
an idea which turns every building into a monument, a memory,
a truth. it is a real work, like a scientific work, like in biology,
or mathematics, or astronomy. it is a real scientific work.

do you think there is an evolution from the begining of your work
until now, in your thoughts, in your forms?
now it is absolutely a new period, because we use geometry,
a rational shape, and a very efficient organization about function
itself. but now with some new materials, like metal fabric,
we transform, we develop the the architecture with relation in a
landscape. because my final idea is not anymore that I want to
build some buildings, I want to build a landscape.

is there any designer and/or architect, you appreciate a lot?
yes, but these are good for culture and education.
they are our cultural roots.
if you speak about buckminster fuller, for example,
for me his work is very close; but if you speak about le corbusier,
it is very far.
principles derive from praxis, from an outgoing research in
which the specificity of a space is endlessly reinvented, of a form,
of an intervention. architecture should be lacking in reference,
neither modern, nor postmodern - should reject history.

and young architects ?
yes, some are very interesting,
I am a little bit dissapointed by the situation in france,
because the state of france doesn't support young architecture,
and it is a pity because we have some young talent in france.

any advice for the young ?
we should plead for validity in architecture.
then we might get a more effective architecture, one to be
experienced by all, one that

source: designboom.com

Sans les nababs, les Chinois s’ennuieraient !

“Il est glorieux de s’enrichir”, avait dit Deng Xiaoping pour encourager ses concitoyens à prendre leur envol. De plus en plus nombreux, les très riches Chinois sont enviés, mais n’attirent guère la sympathie du peuple.

Xin Zhoukan (extraits)
Canton

"L'argent parle mandarin" : cette expression chère aux investisseurs occidentaux fait référence à l’afflux actuel de capitaux en Chine. Ceux-ci ont favorisé à leur tour l’émergence de nouvelles grosses fortunes chinoises, et l’on a assisté à une explosion de la richesse dans le pays en 2007. Qu’ils figurent dans le rapport Hurun [qui publie, depuis 1999, la liste des Chinois les plus riches] ou au classement de Forbes, les nouveaux riches chinois de 2007 font parler d’eux comme jamais auparavant.
Un élément vient cependant ternir la gloire de ces grosses fortunes : il s’agit de la “haine des riches” qui se répand dans les mentalités. L’expression a émergé de nulle part et a déferlé sur tous les cyberforums – des plus petits aux plus grands –, sur les blogs, dans la presse écrite, ainsi que dans les conversations de trottoir. Toute la société semble focalisée sur les riches, et ils ont tout le monde à dos, à commencer par les fonctionnaires des impôts, les kidnappeurs et les journalistes de la presse à scandale.
On trouve les attitudes les plus diverses parmi les élus du palmarès des cent plus grosses fortunes, rapporte Rupert Hoogewerf, à ­l’origine du rapport Hurun. Certains auraient payé pour figurer dans la liste, tandis que d’autres ont eu des sueurs froides en voyant leur nom dans le classement. On se souvient de Mou ­Qizhong, le premier milliardaire originaire de Chine populaire [condamné à la prison à vie pour escroquerie en mai 2000], de la riche actrice Liu Xiaoqing, sans oublier tous ces milliardaires impliqués dans des affaires ou assassinés…

La bourse est devenue le premier pourvoyeur de richesses

Les premiers ultrariches de Chine ne voulaient pas porter cette étiquette, ils ne voulaient pas mettre en péril leurs biens et choisissaient de faire profil bas. Ils craignaient d’entendre soudain résonner le cri du fou du film La Cité des hibiscus [Xie Jin, 1986] : “En avant pour la lutte !” [évoquant le début d’un mouvement politique dont les “bourgeois” étaient la cible].
Lors du banquet en l’honneur de l’introduction en Bourse du groupe de haute technologie Fuxing, Guo Guangchang, son directeur, a chanté à s’en casser la voix Les Vrais Héros [une ode aux gens ordinaires] et il a promis de se consacrer à des activités caritatives lorsqu’il aurait 50 ans.
Les riches cherchent en effet à trouver le moyen de disperser leurs richesses. Il existe en gros trois moyens : les dons ou les opérations de parrainage ; la distribution de parts de société ; enfin, la succession. En réalité, le premier procédé est le moins répandu et, de plus, il dépend de l’intégrité morale des individus. Ainsi, le magnat de l’immobilier Yang ­Guoqiang, tout en venant en aide à des écoles et en faisant œuvre de philanthropie, a cédé son capital boursier à sa fille Yang Huiyan, ce qui a inévitablement fait naître des soupçons sur son intention de vouloir échapper au fisc.
L’économie de marché a permis à la population de disposer de plus d’argent, et les citoyens peuvent détenir des parts de société. Les sociétés Beida Fangzheng et Tsinghua Unisplendour ont affirmé vouloir créer cent milliardaires ou mille millionnaires, et c’est désormais la règle de posséder des actions dans des secteurs économiques émergents comme l’informatique et les télécommunications.
De nos jours, la Bourse est le plus grand pourvoyeur de richesses. Qu’est-ce qui pèche le plus dans notre système et empêche la diffusion des richesses au sein de la société ?
D’après des chiffres d’origine étrangère, la Chine compterait 250 000 millionnaires (en dollars américains) : elle arriverait ainsi à la sixième place mondiale et à la deuxième en Asie. Ces grandes familles fortunées représentent seulement 0,4 % de la population chinoise, mais détiennent 70 % des richesses du pays. La liste du rapport Hurun donne les noms de 50 000 personnes possédant une fortune s’élevant à plusieurs dizaines de millions de dollars et de 200 riches possédant plus d’une centaine de millions de dollars. Trente ans après le lancement de la politique de réforme et d’ouverture, la Chine ne manque pas, de toute évidence, de gens fortunés. Une enquête effectuée l’an dernier par le journal Nanfang Zhoumo montrait pourtant que les riches n’éprouvaient pas un sentiment de sécurité ; la moitié d’entre eux avouaient ne pas savoir ce que la vie leur réservait…

Les grosses fortunes ont le sentiment d’avoir commis un péché

On dit que “celui qui fait fortune se couvre de gloire, tandis que celui qui sombre dans la misère est un nul”! Pourtant, les premiers enrichis ont été sévèrement stigmatisés. Une enquête récente du Zhongguo Qingnian Bao (“Journal de la jeunesse chinoise”) montre que plus de 60 % des personnes interrogées estiment que les grosses fortunes chinoises sont des gens “peu ou assez peu honorables”. Moins de 4 % des sondés estiment que ce sont des gens “bien” ou “assez bien”. Les millionnaires chinois sont très mal vus quand il s’agit de juger leur sens de la responsabilité sociale, leur caractère charitable ou la légitimité de leur fortune. Les grosses fortunes chinoises ont le sentiment d’avoir commis un péché : aussi, dès qu’elles ont de ­l’argent, elles font en sorte de prendre une nationalité étrangère ; même en donnant beaucoup ­d’argent à des œuvres caritatives, ces gens ne parviennent pas à se faire pardonner. C’est un cercle vicieux qui empêche la diffusion des richesses parmi les Chinois.
Il faut pourtant reconnaître, en toute justice, que depuis trente ans les nababs chinois ont permis à cette société ingrate de devenir beaucoup plus brillante, intéressante et en phase avec son temps. En Occident, on dit : "Si l’on retirait des cages d’un zoo tous les animaux qui créent des ennuis, il n’y aurait plus aucune animation dans ces cages." De même, si toutes les grosses fortunes quittaient la Chine, notre propre ménagerie risquerait de devenir un lieu très ennuyeux.

(Xin Zhoukan, Canton)
Xiao Feng
Xin Bao
Source: courrierinternational.com

Mon opinion: C'est bizarre, ca me fait vaguement penser a un pays que je connais... j'y ai meme grandi d'ailleur...

"Waltz with Bashir", directed by Ari Folman

One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there's a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can't remember a thing anymore about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images. Written by intlpress@aol.com
Source: imdb.com

My opinion: It's a very very good movie. I personally recommend it, whether you are interested in the middle east conflicts or not. Even though it's frame is based on Lebanon wars and massacre of Sabra and Chatilas' camp, it is an extraordinary legacy on youngster mistakes. Nothing is good in war.

Sziget Music Festival 2008

My opinion: It was great! even though I went there alone... get a little annoyed of that, it was very nice. Very frankly I've been kind of disappointed by JUSTICE performance... far far far from Fedde le Grand!
Excpet that, Sziget is a HUGE fesival in Hungary along with Balaton Sound Festival.
For a week, you get bands from all over the world, from Jazz to electro and hard rock and so on. Besides, you can do some shopping as well with local stuff.
It was a good experience... definitely something to do with 5/10 friends !