pocket diary budapest

Monday, 4 January 2016

First Snow of the Year

Overtaken by jealousy I kept ogling the Instagram feeds of people living in apparently Arctic places, such Istanbul, Belgrade and Bucharest, for they had snow. And now it's here as well- judging by the grand total of one night of snow I got to shoot last year, not here to stay, so I had to snap it immediately, before it becomes slush, traffic jams and broken ankles.

Saturday, 2 January 2016

Home for the Holidays

It's quite fashionable to moan about the white Christmases of yore and how they don't happen anymore, but I honestly can't recall any. It's not just that I cannot remember a snow-apocalypse type Christmas, I simply can't say if there was snow, ever. This is probably partly due to the fact that I was particularly susceptible to colds as a child, and I would dread winter weather in any of its forms, as it could trigger anything from sniffles to mild pneumonia. Nothing lethal, of course, but Christmas with mild pneumonia kind of loses some of its shine.

On the other hand, I do think that December is not a typical snow month in Arad. Because I clearly remember biggish snowfalls in November, and pretty devastating ones in both January and February. Those of February had a particular knack at annoying me, as I was kind of already waiting for spring and then, oh damn, let me shovel myself out of five feet of snow on my way to school.

I was therefore completely cool with the fact that on the 23rd of December I undertook my final Christmas shopping in what could be called splendid spring sunshine, while listening to people tragically complain about how they really don't feel like mulled wine, but they'd rather have a spritzer. Have it, for Pete's sake, add some cinnamon and you're good to go.

I was also quite delighted by not having my hands freeze on my shopping bags, and taking in some vitamin D in the process. For the rest of time, it was quite foggy. Which is more wintry, sure, and I do think it looks splendid, but fog is also ruined for us these days, since it's most probably not good old honest fog, but it's hideous industrial friend, smog. But no matter what, commonplace as it sounds, it's good to be home for Christmas, doing some of the things you always did, and some new ones too, because every tradition has to start somewhere, I guess.

Friday, 1 January 2016

A Good List Goes a Long Way- The 2015 Edition

What better way to spend New Year's Day than cooking up some lists- since even in the new year I'm still the old me and really can't cook anything else. And I just don't do new year's resolutions either, I like the element of surprise of my accomplishments throughout the year. I could probably pull off a resolution plan for day one, covering stuff like watch the New Year's concert of the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Garmisch-Partenkirchen stage of the Vierschanzen ski jumping tournament (yes, I am flaunting my German and yes, they share the quality of being activities best done lying down with a cup of tea). And I have already shared U2's New Year's Day on Facebook- nothing beats a job well done right from the beginning.

So then, to the yearly lists. I again bungled the ten in the films category, because every time I wanted to kick one out I had the impression it'd end up feeling like Macaulay Culkin left home alone, and look what that did to the man two decades later. So I hatched the ingenious plan of letting them be fifteen, since we were in 2015, after all. And yet again, some might be 2014 leftovers as well, because the distribution of films hasn't gone stratospheric round here last year either. And also, I intentionally left out two movies, Son of Saul and Aferim!, partly because seventeen would have been a silly number, and partly because, although I do acknowledge them both as being great movies, I just did not love them. Therefore here goes the list of the idiot who prefers The Man from U.N.C.L.E. over the most critically acclaimed movie of the year.

Ex Machina
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Victoria
Amy
Star Wars- Episode VII-The Force Awakens
Spectre
Sicario
Macbeth
A Most Violent Year
La Isla Minima/Marshland
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Duke of Burgundy
Relatos Selvajes/Wild Tales
Winter Sleep
Leviathan

The Internet being a glorious thing, my Goodreads account provided me with a list of my year in books- which comes in handy, though I must be the humbug and complain about how it used to be somehow nicer to scribble the titles into a notebook, most likely some tattered thing, and not a Moleskine that costs an arm and a leg. This being said, having the whole registry handed to me on a silver platter made it easier to chose the ten I liked most, and although I am a fiend of new releases, these are obviously written at the most random points in time and space, I just happened to chance upon them in 2015. As a side note, I must absolutely mention how Brooklyn the movie didn't do Brooklyn the book any justice- those little plot tweaks that made it more Hollywood material basically altered the whole meaning of the story, and I much prefer the one in the book.

Elena Ferrante- L'amica geniale/My Brilliant Friend
Jonathan Wilson- Inverting the Pyramid
Haruk Murakami- Hear the Wind Sing / Pinball, 1973
Karl Ove Knausgård- Dancing in the Dark
Christos Tsiolkas- The Slap
Orhan Pamuk-A Strangeness in My Mind
Jonathan Franzen- Purity
Natsume Soseki- I Am a Cat
Meg Wollitzer- The Interestings
Colm Toibin- Brooklyn

Since I pulled the little fifteen trick with the films, I said why the hell not, let's do it with the songs too, which resulted in realizing I had sixteen and binge listening to them to find the odd one out, and the more I listened the more I couldn't decide, so yes I am still crap at sticking to firm rules (you now see why I don't do those resolutions, don't you.)

EL VY- Return to the Moon
Grimes- California
Foals- Mountain at My Gates
Chvrches- Leave a Trace
Jamie XX- Loud Places
Savages- The Answer
Wolf Alice- Bros
Coldplay- Adventure of a Lifetime
Editors-Ocean of Night
Ibeyi- Stranger Lover
Florence and the Machine- What Kind of Man
Ghostpoet-Be Right Back, Moving House
School of Seven Bells- Open Your Eyes
New Order- Tutti Frutti
Foxes- Body Talk
Hot Chip- Need You Know

The albums were an easier task, since the Internet doesn't only compile nice lists for us, but it also gives us ADD, and whenever I settle down to listen to an entire album, I find myself skipping to something else in no time. Therefore, in a resolution of some sorts (see how consequent I am being here), I will try to listen to more albums in 2016, lest the horror of 2014 happen again. Yes, my favourite album of 2014 was actually not on the list I compiled at the end of the year, because I'd never listened to it in full. Well, now I have. A few dozen times at least. For your reference, it's ALT-J's This is All Yours.

Speaking of ALT-J and them having been to Sziget, the club concert scene was somehow more subdued in 2015 compared to the previous year, at least when it comes to the genres I fancy, but at least it ended on a high with Editors playing in Barba Negra. So I have my new year's wishes too: more great concerts in clubs. Sziget was a blast though, and it brought me Interpol, who were on my wishlist, so this year I'll go for Coldplay, The Last Shadow Puppets and Jamie XX (whose album is great and got extra brownie points for spelling colour right) and I am totally excited for the already confirmed Chvrches and Sigur Rós.

Grimes- Art Angels
Editors- In Dream
Foals- What Went Down
Jamie Xx- In Colour (New XX reference, LCD SS)
New Order- Music Complete
Hot Chip- Why Make Sense?
Florence and the Machine- How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
Ibeyi- Ibeyi
Blur- The Magic Whip
Chvrches- Every Open Eye