the other switzerland

i can never fight the glare at museums, especially for photography. it is very tricky. on top of trying to be as casual about it as possible since i didnt purchase a photo-ticket, sometimes the museum guards are still about it. today i went out for a walk to enjoy one of the seldom sunny and clear, albeit it a bit bitter, and went by the mai mano haz, the hungarian house of photography. i figured i would go in and see what new exhibits were up.

hans peter klauser's collection of documentary photographs of alpen rural life in the twentieth century. incredibly beautiful and genuinely provoking. there was another one i really liked, a scientist trying to photograph a giant man and so he was standing on a wooden stool. the guard was standing near it so i couldnt get a shot of it.

 i hope you see this one clear though because it is the most darling photograph of a swiss grandma embroidering. i like her round spectacles, her small scissors, and the potted plants on the sill. i find it romantic in that simple cottage life-style sort of way.

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mail day today

i love coming home from work through a big wrought iron gate and peeking in my metal mail box to the left if there is even a letter, just one letter waiting for me that doesnt come from the bank or the tax office. today there was more than a letter, there were the stamps  i bought off of etsy a couple weeks ago. safely arrived from the us of a. they are lovely. rubber glued onto sanded pieces of wood. i just have to find an ink pad now, which won't be too hard when there is a stationary store underneath our apartment. it will be my first stop tomorrow morning.

my grandpa is a train engineer, well at least he used to be. now he just runs a train museum in saskatoon. i never really much paid attention to the rails until recently. now that i live in a city with a metro system, i ride it sometimes four times a day to get to and fro, to work and home from work. from one side of the danube to the other, just to see what buda is up to. maybe i am old fashion, or just lacking an engineer mind, but i am sincerely fascinated by this underground train and if it does not run on coal, then how does it get from deak ter to arpad hid to keleti? electricity? for the first time in maybe ever, mechanics and systems are sparking my interest. i think a very long distant phone call is in order to grandpa and grandma in probably snowy saskatchewan.

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tuesday mornings

morning jackets and cotton nighties

natural sunlight in the morning with coffee in my tea cup. extra milk and satin sheets. silk soy. dreams that end in unicorn rides. a rainbow will do.

double bass in the background and melodic jazz notes floating up to the ceiling, staying there like helium balloons / bounce

knitting needles in my hair, long long hair and analogue everything.

jade plant casting shadows. shapes on my wall. i trace them with my pencil.

notions for the past and an open view for the future. one one two three four.

sipping in this moment, one sip, two. coffee / done /

niagara / missing days at frog pond farm

call display gives me away when i call old friends with skype. its really too bad. i almost had her, jen coorsh. but i cant fool her. even if there was no display, somehow she always knows.

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saturday rain / sunday clouds

i went walking near the danube on saturday to re-appreciate the city and the river side. the boat bars are really something that i never noticed and they sit there docked for casual drinks waiting for the dining room to fill at dinner when they will embark for a dinner tour of budapest's bridges. romance but terribly over-priced.

sometimes i miss what is on the ground but i did manage to look down at the right moment, noticing this honeycomb grate in the pavement. another image to add to my collection.

trying to see more museums on weekends, this week's choice was the hungarian museum of trade and tourism. at the toy exhibition on the toy trade in budapest from the nineteenth c, there was an interesting collection of communist board games and toys that really we could laugh at but were serious brain-wash for kids... fulfill the plan, with flag, wheat, and scythe in hand.

upstairs was a large collection of socialist posters and ads dating from 1945 to 89. nice styles and drawings from a time when poster design was an actual art and it is really clear how many artists tried to go against the socialist formula for advertisement. a funny quote at the exhibition was that advertisement was a necessary evil against the socialist regime. an interesting education in hungarian print design and communist history that i never paid attention to in high school.

eat fish, the best mouthful!

buy fish from kozert shops!

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honeycombs.

so far stitching of the honeycombs i mentioned before. slow but goes definitely faster when watching back episodes of the big bang theory. the comb itself is simple but completely perfect. it is stable and strong and it is no wonder that bees chose it for their hives. i find it everywhere in design, textiles and architecture right now. maybe it has always been there but i am running into it all over budapest.

one could say this might be an ode to a single shape.

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mardi soir

tired eyes and tired fingers. i think i can finally feel a slight titch of carpal tunnel setting in by the end of the day after slouching in an office chair and typing day after day. maybe its just my body telling me it is having a hard time readjusting to a work schedule and office life again.

in the mean time, the yarn shop at kalvin ter is finally open again after the holidays so i can get another skein to finish the wrap around cowl ive been working on and also im stitching some honeycombs on muslin for a small piece im working on, for the sake of arting and producing.

is it too late to make some new years resolutions? i am working on a short list...
listening to belle & sebastian

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pierrot le fou // dimanche soir

pierrot le fou for evening entertainment tonight. whimsical and dangerous i love the thin line between story and reality that these characters walk. it is a nice contrast between childish games and serious murder crimes as mariane prances through forests with her stuffed puppy and holds the rifle steady and doesnt even flinch at the shot.

qu'est ce que je peux faire?
je'sais pas quoi faire.

after watching godard i always want to go into film, not in the camera film but behind the film and edit and write. i always want to learn french again. lines from his films find ways to linger in my mind for days afterwards. sometimes pure poetry other times pure absurdity.

the sign of a good film.

tomorrow work begins again, i am both excited and frustrated by this thought.

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