Culture, with big 'C'

WORDS

2009-05-19T21:00:00.003+02:00

June is coming. Nothing interesting in this month will happen, although I found a strange article here.

Have you read it?
...

So, some people keep on tracking words in the great mass of information and they count approximately the exact number of existing words. My favorite one comes from (what a surprise!) the vocabulary of Internet communities.

"Defriend". While typing I'm using now spell checker and it underlines the word. So we have to wait so that defriending should become an official, widely accepted expression for "deleting somebody from your friends in iWiW, Facebook, MyVip, PerfSpot, etc".

Poor students of English language! By the next semester there will be more than 1 million English words. At least, they have the choice of synonyms.

EXERCISES DE STYLE

2009-05-12T19:15:00.003+02:00

(!not corrected version!)

Notation

Sétatér on a March morning. I was contemplating on a bench, watching people walking by. I caught sight of a woman of about 65 years. She was walking a dog. This pet stopped to satisfy its needs. In a few seconds a great pile of hot chocolate was smiling at the passers-by, but by that time they, the woman and the dog had disappeared. Instead of them, flies started to come into view to clear away the excrement.

Surprises

How nice weather we had in March! I was enjoying the sunshine on a bench of Sétatér when, you’ll never guess what happened! An old woman! Her dog! I could hardly believe my eyes when the gentile, old woman let the product of her pet lying on the street. What a shame! It was incredible! Not talking about that brown mass and the flies!

Dream

Everything was so foggy that I could only hear people’s chat and the birds’ songs, all mixed in my ears with the pulsation of blood in my veins. Then I saw yelp and knocks of shoes and smell of naphthalene. Suddenly, I heard brownness and those beating voices disappeared. All I can remember after that is the buzz of flies.

Precision

Early morning, 08:23’43” GMT, 23th March 2009, sitting on the first pew (or bench) right to the stairs of Sétatér, Pécs (46°04’39.70” N; 18°13’26.69” E). A lady, experienced exactly 63 years + 3 months + 2 days + 11 hours, walking with a 2 years and 83 days old golden retriever (RAL color code: 8001) with the velocity of 0.8 m/s. Right in front of me the dog stopped and started to take up a position as if it would have let something out from its body. Its product, you know, is a sort of transformed food (RAL color code: 8017) of 4cm³. The lady took a look at it for 2 seconds and passed by, dragging her dog with the force of 50 N. In 2.5 minutes flies (Musca domestica) started to appear on the scene.

Hesitation

I’m not sure about that but it seems to me that it was in… or in… No, no, it must have been March. And it was morning, or could it be the late afternoon? I remember the position of the Sun, so let me claim that it was morning. Then I was in… School? Maybe. More likely I was in the street, near to a sort of church… let me see… I was in Sétatér. I was walking to school… or rather I had no course that day… or I had but I played the wag. All in all, I was in Sétatér on a March morning. And… what I’d like to tell, it has something to do with dogs. Barking? Animal protection? Friendship? Dirt, perhaps? There was an old (wo)man with a dog, yes, that’s right: a lady with a dog. I was passing next to them… ??? … or I rather think that I was sitting. No doubt. Then the dog, er, sniffed me? Or a tree? Rather, it dropped a brown… yellow? Brown, for I remember flying animals coming down to it… flies they must have been.

LIVING IN THE SUNLIGHT, LOVING IN THE MOONLIGHT*

2009-04-28T12:31:00.004+02:00

… Having a wonderful time* in the summer of zero-nine(1).

I hopefully finish every of my x-ams by June (and I would also like not to fail).

I will welcome this season by singing Sur le pont d’Avignon (yep, I’ll dance, as well).

I’m planning working from July to August on the melon fields, but I’m not sure about this seasonal occupation; however money is needed under whatever circumstances. It can happen – who knows! – that I’ll end up on an ocean liner as animator or pianist (although I really don’t know what those black dots on a sheet stand for).

All I know is that I will learn as much as I can, s-pecially psychology (and anatomy). As for parties, I don’t believe I will have any. I have them during school year, so Summer – on the first place – is for me, and for my maimed family.

Oh, and Ah don’wanna miss observing the starry sky (particularly during the period of shooting stars). I’ll be lying and listening to piano music of Debussy, Joplin, and soundtracks of Hot Bubblegum (that means music of the ‘50-‘60-‘70s). That's how I'll be contemplating... Good night Summer, good night Love(2).

I'll be also getting closer to Death. But yes, I’m still looking for the Summer (3).

* refering to Tiny Tim's song

(1) refering to Bryan Adams' Summer of '69

(2) Baby Sisters' song xD (and also a novel or whatever)

(3) Chris Rea's song

STORY FROM THE BLACKBOARD

2009-04-03T12:46:00.003+02:00

I whipped up a writing using the expressions that you can see below.

Like a mosquito I whisked off a girl. I must admit that she was really on the top of that certain scale but that loving mechanism wouldn't work in me. So I missed the opportunity (or to better say I threw it away) to have a nice girlfriend.

As I later got know she had a vast web of friends who - I can't describe them with more convenient words - were worshippers of the Evil... After this bit of information I was really astonished. You can imagine how deeply if I tell you that I first saw her in a church next to the priest as an alter-server. Then suddenly I started to think of things like voo-doo dolls and spells cast on me during arcane rituals... Yes, I should have dealt with the aftermath of this "break up". What a hindsight! But my fear doesn't lead me to put things right between she and me, and by no means I would coil a rope around my neck. I would never commit suicide.

All in all, I will try to understand her duality by taking into consideration a potential talk with her. And, who knows, we may end up as a couple.

THE SOUND OF AMERICA

2009-03-24T17:31:00.010+01:00

It came to pass that I wound up with my parents in the cinema.

Father's last experience about cinema is back in the years of his youth. So after watching the movie he praised the sound system and the wide screen. But even the moving picture didn't let him be untouched. Partly because it was about the era of his childhood. So the music and love affairs of the film, as well as politics, might have brought up some memories for him.

It was rock 'n rolling. I take the liberty to call it "the Hungarian Grease".

Sure you know or at least you have heard about it. Originally it is a play that can be seen in a theater of the capital city but a director screened it and now enjoyable in 5.1 (I mean the music... the visual content is still in 2D - unlike in theater).

Starring: my first impression was that he was a Tobey Maguire-like guy (Tobey as in the film Pleasantville) but probably I meant it because of their hairstyle (and I also have to admit that my face-recognition-system has some bugs...). This guy is Tamás Szabó Kimmel.

And now, here's a short description of the movie: ... music, music, music as the most important actor of the film is partly (a little part) in English but the best known Hungária hits (like "Kisser king" or "Roll on up the rug tonight") are also involved. By these great works it tries to depict the circumstances of the birth of the greatest hungarian rock 'n' roll band with the leadership of a man who had experienced the american way of life. The man "without who there's no Christmas".

While we were coming out of the projection room my parents - as a remark on one of my comment - said how strict the system was in those times: one could not say whatever. All I could reply is "Yea, I know". After those great Hungarian comedies (Csinibaba, Csocsó, ...) after the jokes of Géza Hofi and after historical documentations, too - I know what "the West" meant, what was that so called "Show What You Know" and the words "sabotage" and "espionage".

The film was Made in Hungária (ironically a Beatless song came to my mind: Back to the USSR)

RULEZ

2009-03-04T17:57:00.018+01:00

I wrote a few points. I think, they form the basis of human relationships for they are the essential features of a cultivated man/woman. It's from my own experience but you may agree with some thoughts of this entry. Well, this list can be developed - on the one hand by your comments...

First of all we should respect our fellow-being in the following aspects:
accept the fact that he might like another style in clothing, film, music, book, and that he is interested in other activities. Furthermore we must accept the deviance of his way of life: he like alcohol (so he is alcoholic), he is drug/Internet-addict, he is homo/bi/etc-sexual.

These were the first steps. And now, let me propose what attitude you should take on when you find yourself facing a person unsympathetic for you. Do not quarrel, instead of it just argue: while the former demands rough tongue (which is not a characteristic of a cultivated mind) the latter is free of emotion, it is more or less calm without hurting our partner. And I also like to advert briefly to an up-to-date habit: a wise man does not participate in demonstrations without enough knowledge about both sides.

In the light of these points I have to accept if someone's mind works differently. :)

That's all folks!

ANGEL, ARE YOU THERE?

2009-02-11T12:53:00.007+01:00

“I can’t see ya, but I know you’re here. I can feel it.”(1)
- said Peter Falk in Der Himmel über Berlin.
The story of this film (translated as The Sky above Berlin or Wings of Desire directed by Wim Wenders)(2) can be summed up in one simple sentence: an angel envies the life of humans and finally he becomes a man. Despite the simplicity of the story, this desire reveals deep feelings and thoughts. They are the elements that form the base of the film.
We can agree that the greatness of this movie is not the action but the words of thoughts.
While listening to these contemplations sometimes existing only on mental plane I can feel the divinity, a kind of angelic. I can see clearly what are they talking about. I hope, you also can.

„When the child was a child
It walked with its arms swinging,
wanted the brook to be a river,
the river to be a torrent,
and this puddle to be the sea.
When the child was a child,
it didn’t know that it was a child,
everything was soulful,
and all souls were one.
When the child was a child,
it had no opinion about anything,
had no habits,
it often sat cross-legged,
took off running,
had a cowlick in its hair,
and made no faces when photographed.”(3)
"It's great to live by the spirit,
to testify day by day for eternity,
only what's spiritual in people's minds.
But sometimes I'm fed up with my spiritual existence.
Instead of forever hovering above
I'd like to feel a weight grow in me
to end the infinity and to tie me to earth.
[…]
To sit at an empty place at a card table
and be greeted, even by a nod.
[…]
As you're walking, to feel your bones moving along.
At last to guess, instead of always knowing.
[…]
Or at last to feel how it is
to take off shoes under a table
and wriggle your toes barefoot, like that."(4)

Watch it, feel it and open your eyes to recognise angels on earth...
(1) more quotations:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093191/quotes
(2) film information:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093191/
(3) from
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wings_of_Desire
(4) see (1)

ONLY RHYTHM

2009-02-04T13:36:00.005+01:00

nineteen fifty-five
two hundred and seventy-nine
three quarter, fifty thousands
sixty, sixty, sixty-two

one million, one hundred
ninety, forty, fifty, three
twenty-one, twenty-nine
forty-four dot seventy-five

thirteen zero-zero
thirteen fifty-five
thirteen sixty, sixty-two
thirteen hundred milliard