Pornography. Or is it?

A week ago we went to see Simon Stephen’s play entitled ‘Pornography’. I didn’t quite know what to expect from a title like this and I have to admit that even after having seen it, I cannot seem to make a connection. Maybe it won’t keep me from understanding bits of the play itself.

On the theatre’s website it reads that the play centres on three main events, the Live 8 concert, London winning the rights to organize the Olympic Games in 2012 and the July 7 bombings in the underground. These events are mentioned constantly by the characters in the play; however, I think that none of these things have anything to do with what it really is about: monotonic everyday life of common people, and the way they experience it. We learn about the characters’ hidden aggressions, fears, sometimes filthy desires, and inner selves. All of them seem to be deeply disappointed in life as such, dwelling in their own problems and never care about anything else. Even one of the terrorists himself appears, and being a terrorist apparently doesn’t make him less human than the others in the play. He is just like anyone else, struggling with himself and the world.

To create a disturbing feeling (at least in me) the play uses visual and sound effects and also an enormous amount of repetition and cursing in the text itself. The glass dividers hung from above at certain points of the stage also emphasize the phenomenon of being estranged from everything and everyone. Most of the characters don’t interact with each other directly, if they talk to each other they are standing on the opposite sides of the glass wall. If they do meet however, it always ends up badly, abusing each other.

In this respect ‘Pornography’ reminded me of a movie, ‘Crash’ I saw a couple of years ago. As the title already suggests, it’s about how people don’t interact with each other properly any more, they merely crash when their ways meet but then they go on and that’s it.

Maybe pornography refers to the repressed aggression that lives in all of us and is unleashed when we ‘crash’. Maybe it’s just a catching title to bring us viewers into the theatre. My verdict is that it’s worth giving this play a try though you’ll most probably leave the theatre with mixed feelings.

The one about collaboration

The ability to cooperate, collaborate, and to be able to work in a team is crucial when it comes to work or business but probably even more crucial when it comes to relationships between people.

Even if we sometimes aren’t willing to admit it, we are sociable creatures by our nature, we crave each others’ company, but to be able to successfully coexist we need to cooperate. With the development of new technologies like the Internet, and within that, web 2.0 applications, whole new ways and possibilities of collaboration have started to appear, by which I am truly amazed. Let me bring some random examples that I’ve come across lately.

Let’s take for example 30 Seconds to Mars’ upcoming album, which anyone from all over the world had the opportunity to contribute to. The band was using the audience as sort of a ‘musical instrument.’ Simply by recording their voice, scream, whisper, clap, etc. and hitting the ‘send’ button fans could become part of the ‘choir’ on their next album. Also, by submitting a picture of themselves they had the opportunity to get on the album’s cover – it will appear with 2000 different covers this December.

Or there’s the English writer Neil Gaiman’s attempt at getting people to collaborate on something online: a twitter novel. He tweeted the first sentence and twitter users continued the story. The final storyline is still being put together and the story will be published as an audio book (that can be downloaded for free) later. This is also something I call an interesting experiment. I was always wondering where the limits of online collaboration might be, but after hearing about all these, I’m starting to doubt whether it has any limits as such.

Encouraging people to collaborate in order to create something enjoyable and creative is an effort that I greatly admire. Now the only thing to keep in mind is to have an ‘offline’ life as well. Visiting others’ pets on Pet society doesn’t count as social life and a comment on facebook/ myspace/ whatever cannot replace a friendly smile or a hug. Or at least I hope so.

The cursing hedgehog :)

Yes, it's a hedgehog, and yes, it does curse all the time. In Finnish (of course it has English translation too). I think it's hilarious.
How did I come across this comic? I happen to have a class on Finnish youth literature this semester and this is something we'll talk about next week :)



You can see the rest here: http://www.thecursinghedgehog.com/
Warning, it contains some harsh language (it's called cursing so what else would you expect...)

Rain

Something I'm listening to right now because it's raining, because this song makes me think, and because I like Within Temptation a lot :)




Enjoy!

Edit: sometimes youtube suddenly decides that this video isn't available in Hungary, sorry for that. I'm trying to find a different version...

1989

In the peace and quiet of the countryside even the birth of a democracy is a quietly unfolding process. People like me who have not been able to witness the happenings (or rather were not capable of understanding them just yet) might be lead to think that when changes came it meant that at once the whole country was turned upside down and the fires of revolution were burning within every single soul. This was not the case according to my mother’s and grandmother’s recollections, though of course seeing history in motion (even if only from far away) in 1989 must have been a once in a lifetime experience.

In 1989 my parents already lived in the little village near the Austrian border where they still live today. At the time of the democratic transformation they were busy nursing their one-year-old daughter, me.

Their recollections about that period of time are mostly about things seen broadcasted on television. They recalled seeing round-table discussions, speeches at Imre Nagy’s reburial, Mátyás Szűrös proclaiming the third republic in October. Those were expectant, hopeful times. Some of the possibilities mentioned in different people’s speeches were almost too frighteningly “free” to consider real. My mother for example remembers that Viktor Orbán’s thoughts seemed astonishing to her and made her stop and think for a moment: how does that young man dare say all that? is he allowed to say all that now?

It took some time for them to be truly able to grasp the freedom that suddenly dawned on them that time. My mother and my grandmother agree that they were expecting a better life after the changes. It would have been interesting to hear more of what my grandmother, who has witnessed the rise and fall of so many different political systems during her life, has to say about these matters but she was rather reluctant to speak. I think she must have seen enough changes already and none of those have brought what she hoped for. Even though one thing even my grandma has to admit at the end of our little talk: successful changes or not, there is still no denying that 1989 was a great year in our history.

Fogasház: something to sink your teeth into...

One of the many things Budapest is famous for is its numerous art bars (‘romkocsma’ – literally translates to ‘ruin pub’). These places are located in buildings due to be demolished and are usually short-lived and constantly moving locations. Their magic lies mostly in their temporariness. When I entered Fogasház my first impression was that it was just another one of them, offering visitors drinks and deviant atmosphere. Soon it turned out that there was more to the place than what I thought at first sight.

Fogasház is a relatively new pub, it opened only this August in the 7^th district (VII. Akácfa utca 51.) If walking down the street you see a sign of a set of dentures, look no further. The door under the sign leads not to the dentist’s but to a small courtyard casually furnished with some tables and benches and dimly lit by multi-coloured light bulbs hung across the yard over our heads. The strange name and the sign are inherited from a denture repair workshop that was located in the building earlier.

The definition of the place is ‘cultural reception site’ (‘kulturális befogadótér’), indicating that what we’re dealing with is more than a simple pub. Fogasház offers yet undiscovered, talented contemporary artists a place where they can exhibit their works in a unique environment, and also it gives out studios to artists for free, giving them the chance to create, work, practice and hopefully develop themselves in a welcoming environment. Musicians are also welcome and encouraged to perform here. Do not expect loud rock concerts though, this place respects its neighbours.

Fogasház is run by KOHÓ Cultural Association whose aim is to promote culture and bring contemporary artists closer to their audience. The place is still “under construction” (not even their proper pieces of furniture have arrived yet) but people of KOHÓ are more than enthusiastic about it. They would like to create galleries, a small theatre and a screening room, and also extend the pub part to the second floor (all this of course while keeping the intimate, ruin-y atmosphere).

I honestly hope they succeed because there was something about the place that had me captivated in an instant. I look forward to spending more pleasant nights there with a glass of wine, checking out artworks, listening to great music, involved in a good conversation because this is just the place to do so.

For more information and programs check out www.fogashaz.hu

First post :)

Hi everyone,

So this is a blog that I've created partly because I've been playing around with the thought of trying myself at blogging for a while and I thought I'd give it a go now, and also because at university I'm attending a writing class this semester and our task is to set up a blog (and use it of course :))
This is my very first blog, and English is not my mother tongue, so please bear with me :)

Picture by Amy Brown