27.6.10

when a passport needs a stamp, jump to croatia











visas // immigration // schengen // permits // papers // headaches

almost done with headaches over stacks of paperwork, to get a permit to work for peanuts, time limits and overdue notices. let's stop it all. free trade and free work, is that the answer? 

xenophobia, is that the answer?

if i have to run across borders, let's make a day of it. 
a few photographs from our short border-crossing trip to croatia:

vintage bikes
shuttered windows
castles against turkish invasions
spheres in a portico
eye spy
lakeside picnic


25.6.10

where did i leave off?

funny, a week passes and i feel like i've barely blinked an eye.
caught a cold up in the hills. frozen rain, late night dances, hours of meditation // drains.
drinking apfel und karotten saft, just because it tastes good.
riding trains and ungodly hours, with a sandwich in my pocket.

finished: james joyce - a portrait of the artist as a young man
impressions: joyce is not for me

last minute run to the immigration office just in time, papers updated and a quick jaunt to zagreb tomorrow. funny, i was in czech republic for 5 days and didn't take hardly any photographs. too busy, too busy. i saw 3 rainbows though, that is something. travelling solo, well at least partner-less was refreshing and good, [space] at the right time.

tenovice:


18.6.10

tenovice // cz




for now i am here but shortly i'll be making my way to find a '94 VW golf on the buda side of the city. 5 of us are going to squeeze in, drive 7 hours to a small village on the other side of prague to meditate for the weekend. tenovice.

czech country side & friends, the perfect combination?

see you next week //

17.6.10

a letter to a boston terrier


dear boston terrier,

i saw you once, wiggling your little bum as your tried to keep up in the street, your owner far ahead. you had a brother with you and the both of you were snorting and panting. budapest is hot in the summer, i know.

i walked past and thought you were adorable. i know i always say i like big dogs, but you are too cute to pass up, your ears and your funny smile. boston terrier, i'd be glad to bring you home any day.

from, katie.

[img]

16.6.10

sandalion / sandal


new summer shoes.
olive green straps and a comfy leather sole // vagabond

now for that pedicure

sandals for my sandalled feet.

15.6.10

if a buddha had a pet chihuahua


he'd look something like this.
and you thought buddhas couldn't have pet chihuahuas. ha!
[16th k]

14.6.10

thoughts that meander

i walk every day along a shaded promenade, reading while i walk. im the girl with my nose stuffed into yellowing pages at any given opportunity. i ascent and descend dozens of sets of moving stairs, with a book open, walking and getting on and off the metro while reading have all been mastered.

now its is james joyce, 
portrait of the artist as a young man.

i won't lie, for the first time in a very long time i've skimmed over dozens of pages in a book that im reading, sermons, god this and god that, repent, confess, damnation in hell. while crossing petnehazy utca i thought, all of this symbolism, all of these rituals and scriptures that i am so ready to skim over, i've grown completely bored by catholicism, christian symbols and how even admitted non-god believers still accept and or contribute to their meaning by day and by night.

// la virgin //

once i bought paperweight for one euro. a bargain. it is the shape of a pyramid, clear, and inside is a small disk with an image of the virgin mary on it, clad in a blue robe, hands held together at her heart. why would a buddhist buy such a thing.

i couldnt get over how banal an object it was, a plastic paperweight and that 'they' thought of putting a virgin mary inside of it, a daily reminder to say their prayers perhaps. pure ridiculous perhaps. i couldn't leave it behind. now it serves my desk as a daily reminder

// schiele has nothing to do with this //

9.6.10

effortless concentration

[effortless concentration]

breathe in / breathe out
object. mind resting. continuous...
breathing in / breathing out. again and again.

they call it shin-e  and results in a comfortable and wonderful experience, one where the self dissolves. ego disappearing, space is taking over. don't forget to eat.


[limitless comfort]

sinking mind // in the jungles of india

[effortless concentration]

img: unknown source / possibly ffffound

8.6.10

on contemplation.

sitting under the lamp, the balcony aglow. thinking about cravings i used to have. some i still do.

french riviera // chocolate aztec tea // being a mother to a plant.

setting suns and sprouting mint. this balcony garden that i once deemed hopeless seems to be doing better than i thought possible. today i sun burned by lips, i changed the film in my camera, i walked until my feet hurt, i watched a classic film and read some james joyce.

alone for contemplation and my finger tips ache for a camel. not for the nicotine or the rush of blood to my head but for the holding. something to be held more than a pencil or a paint brush. something more than an electric mouse and keys that aren't made of bones or ivory.

i miss susi's company and sewing into the dusk until our eyes couldn't see anymore. ott's ginger tea.

i've cut my thumb on a tuna can.

7.6.10

much love mondays: black low tops

if there is anything i love more than converse shoes its this pair of low tops, simple and classic.
its a shoe i can never get tired of, no matter how many pairs i go through.

tell anna what you love on mondays.

6.6.10

saturday // cactus day




i love discovering new parts of the city.
i love free passes because he is an "editor" of a gardening magazine.
i love wearing pretty dresses.
i love cactus // cacti?

i love david too.

1.6.10

cat's eye // margaret atwood

i realise that if i hope to any extent to get the real hungarian experience while im living here i should read hungarian literature. (un)fortunately its not commonly translated into english, or at least not that ive found and the british council library seems to have a good stack of atwood books. so i continue on reading atwood's books that i never made time to read before.

cat's eye //

potential has a shelf life

he considers me also a little fragile because artistic. i need to be cared for, like a potted plant

there were no men in this painting, but it was about men, the kind who caused women to fall. i did not ascribe any intentions to these men. they were like the weather, they didn't have a mind. they merely drenched you or struck you like lightening and moved in, mindless as blizzards. or they were like rocks, a line of sharp slippery rocks with jagged edges. you could walk with care along between the rocks, picking your steps, and if you slipped you'd fall and cut yourself, but it was no use blaming the rocks.


stories from a childhood, stories from her present, controversial artist returns to toronto for a retrospective. hometowns bring back a life of memories from her earliest catching caterpillars in ontario's far north to life drawing class at the art college. i was captivated every page. she has a way with words, this margaret atwood.

memories are unreliably coloured: one can only know this later. i don't think im 'later' yet.

identity / the nature of artistic creativity / worth / coming of age.