MetaFilter posts tagged with hungary

1989, revolution in Eastern Europe

Kattullus — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:49:20 -0800

The BBC World Service has put together a special report on the 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe (they also have a simpler portal). There is a wealth of material, including TV reports on key events from the BBC archives, interviews, a map timeline, a report on Catholicism's role in the 1989 revolutions, a first-hand report of what it was like to gather news in East Germany during that time and much more.

Hungarian-Slovak relations are tense these days

vac2003 — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:22:39 -0800

First there was the State Language Act that many Hungarians and EU observers claim discriminates against the significant Hungarian minority in Slovakia. The Slovaks were predictably indigent. The issue isn't new though. Relations soured further when the Slovaks recently refused entry to the Hungarian President. Clearly, there is much history to overcome.

Gasparcolor

Kattullus — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:49:24 -0800

Colour on the Thames is a 7 minute film shot in 1935 using Gasparcolor, one of the many early forms of tinting black and white film. Beside Colour on the Thames, which provides a wonderful view of 1930's England, the only film made in Gasparcolor I could find online was Colour Flight by New Zealand artist Len Lye, an abstract cartoon set to instrumental 1930's pop music. The story of Gasparcolor is in itself interesting, for instance touching on Nazis, Hungary between the wars and early color animation.

RaDaK

tellurian — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:27:07 -0800

The manuscripts of David Kaufmann, Jewish scholar extraordinaire. Wonderful illuminations, inventive typography and even a little bit of naughtiness.

Sunday's Gloomy

empath — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:52:56 -0800

Hungary may be the gloomiest country on earth. Believed by its people to be suffering from a centuries long curse, it's most famous modern musical export is probably the "Hungarian Suicide Song" - Gloomy Sunday. Originally popularized by Billie Holiday in the US (with an upbeat ending tacked onto the original lyrics), it's been covered dozens of times since then. Links to a few of my favorites inside: Heather Nova Sarah McLaughlin Bjork Sarah Brightman Venetian Snares Ray Charles Elvis Costello Genesis (not the famous one) Kronos Quartet Angela Poka (in Hungarian) Happy Sunday, Everyone!

Russia stops all gas supply to Europe via Ukraine

b. — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:13:11 -0800

Newsfilter: It's that time of the year again, though now it seems to be more serious. Russia stopped all gas supply to Europe via Ukraine on Wednesday, January 7, 2009. The EU depends on Russia for about a quarter of its total gas supplies, some 80% of which is pumped through Ukraine. At least seventeen countries are affected, many of them severely as Russia is their primary or only source of gas. While similar disputes between Russia and Ukraine already happened before, this is the first time it starts to directly affect people in other countries. In Bulgaria central heating shuts down in several towns, many schools are closed. Some factories had to stop production in Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia. Bulgaria and Slovakia are considering restarting their old nuclear power plants to get the extra energy. EU has called in the heads of the Russian and Ukrainian gas companies for emergency talks in Brussels.

Do you know these children?

Asparagirl — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:32:10 -0800

Do you, or an older relative of yours, recognize any of these children? More than 70 children separated from their families during WWII, now all elderly men and women, are using the Internet to try to find some answers about their pasts, their families, and sometimes even their own names. They are soliciting help and suggestions in the comments sections on each story. Sadly typical story: "The infant was hungry and crying, so her mother asked for milk from a Polish couple that happened to be on the train station. The Polish man brought milk for the baby. Then the Jewish mother asked if they would want to take the baby as their own because she could not keep it. This couple did not have any children, so after some consideration, they agreed. They asked the Jewish mother who she was, but she told them that it was better for them and for the baby not to know who she was. She then gave her newborn baby girl, who was probably one month old, to the Polish couple. The Polish couple raised the girl as if she was their biological daughter and never told her how she had come into the family. The girl grew up, married and had a son. It is this son who wants to find his Jewish roots..."

Food and Beverages in Hungary

Wolfdog — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:31:44 -0800

Food and Beverages in Hungary is a pretty excellent blog, particularly for anyone who's interested in food, beverages, and/or Hungary.

Righteous among the Peoples

Skeptic — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:59:58 -0800

In March 1944, Nazi Germany occupied its ally Hungary and immediately began preparing the extermination of Hungary's Jews. A small band of diplomats from neutral countries and the Red Cross put their lives at risk to try to smuggle as many Jews as possible out of Hungary from under Adolf Eichmann's nose. While Raoul Wallenberg remains the best known of these "Righteous among the Nations", there's no doubt that the most intriguing character was Giorgio "Jorge" Perlasca. A fugitive himself, as an Italian national who had refused his allegiance to Mussolini's puppet Salò Republic, Perlasca had found refuge at the Spanish embassy, where he immediately received a Spanish passport as a veteran from the Italian Francoist volunteers of the CTV in the Spanish Civil War, and joined the Spanish chargé d'affaires, Ángel Sanz Briz, in protecting as many Sephardic (and not-so-Sephardic) Jews as possible under a 1924 Spanish decree granting citizenship to these descendants of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. When the Spanish diplomats were withdrawn to Switzerland, Perlasca appointed himself Spanish ambassador and continued Sanz Briz' efforts at enormous personal risk. After the war, he proceeded to retreat into obscurity until rediscovered forty years later.

Current insulator fun

tellurian — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:52:04 -0800

From a .com to a .info netting the price of a Westinghouse (R-Skirt) "Telluride" Type B. SB (part of the Greatest Insulator Find in the History of the Hobby). via Zoltan Drinoczi. [previously]

Carbohydrate Loading

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:33:28 -0800

World Record Spaghetti Bridge Bala’zs Botka of Hungary’s Budapest Polytechnic set a world record by building a spaghetti bridge weighing 994.9 grams (2.19 pounds) that held 352.62 kilograms (777 pounds) before breaking. Hungarian competitors in the heavyweight division took the top six spots. YouTube link of the Hungarian team at last year's competition. Rules.

Iminimi

Wolfdog — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:34:05 -0800

Here we have a virulent earworm (with a high language-independent sing-along quotient) from early 80's Hungary. Over here we have a site for constructing catastrophic webcam karaoke versions.

Romani portraits

madamjujujive — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:26:07 -0800

The Roma Journeys - contemporary photographs of Roma life in Hungary, India, Greece, Romania, France, Russia, and Finland by Joakim Eskildsen. For more photo essays and info on the Roma, see two superb prior posts by plep and taz.

Gaida! Gaida! Gaida!

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 07:00:33 -0800

The gaida is a bagpipe from Southeastern Europe. Gaida mp3s? Lots of 'em here. Gaida on the YouTubes? Why, yes. Yes, of course. Certainly. There's a bunch. Really. A lot. And electric ones? Yup. And here's a deflated one. But do any hippies play this thing? And dance to it? Sure! But the real question is: What is the problem with this gaida?

After Stalin in Poland and Hungary

Wolfdog — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 06:52:44 -0800

Learn the Truth is an excellent (Flash) presentation on the years after Stalin's death in Poland and Hungary. There's also a plain HTML version.

Hungarian Rapper

skepticX — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 03:00:08 -0800

Stop the War video performed by Speak the Hungarian Rapper. Try not to laugh. Fan page with lyrics and song analysis.

Hungary 1956. Still divided after Fifty years.

zaelic — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 14:34:46 -0800

Fifty years ago, on October 23, 1956, Hungarians rose up in a violent revolt against the Soviet occupation and Communist domination of their government and country. The revolt was not materially supported by NATO or its allies, and - given the timing - was doomed to failure. Today, many of the heroes are forgotten. After 16 years of democratic government, Hungarian politics is still bitterly divided and Hungarians are unable to celebrate this anniversary with a single united National ceremony.

Worst violence in Hungary since the fall of communism...

handee — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 03:59:30 -0800

"We lied in the morning, and we lied in the evening," ... "Evidently, we lied throughout the last year-and-a-half, two years. You can't show me any significant government measure that we can be proud of, other than, in the end, we managed to drag the government back from the brink." 150 injured in rioting. brought about by the leak of a taped speech by Ferenc Gyurcsány wikipedia

Laszlo Kovacs, Vilmos Zsigmund, and the Hungarian Revolution

milquetoast — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 06:49:08 -0800

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. A key documentary artifact of the uprising is Magyarország lángokban (Hungary in Flames) [embedded .wmv], partly composed of footage shot by two young film school students using whatever equipment they could find. Narrowly avoiding capture by the Communists, the duo smuggled 10,000 feet of film out of the country in spare tires and potato sacks; there's much more to the story, but better to hear Vilmos tell it in his own words. [.rm] Eventually, they made their way to America, where László Kovács, ASC (Five Easy Pieces, Ghost Busters, more) and Vilmos Zsigmund, ASC (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Deliverance, more) became two of the most prolific cinematographers in Hollywood history. [more inside]

Heard about the cat with Bubonic Plague in Flagstaff?

If I Had An Anus — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 07:41:14 -0800

The RSOE Global Disasters Service tracks seismic activity, bird flu, chemical spills and even vehicle accidents by monitoring and processing data of approximately 600-700 news sources, many researching institutes and realtime data of forecasting services. I've subscribed to the RSS feed and you should too . . . you've been getting too much sleep anyway. [via]

It's Raining Forints, Henderson!

rob511 — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 23:51:09 -0800

How do you say, "I have a gub" in Hungarian? (registration or video viewing required) Attila Ambrus, the handsome, courtly Whiskey Robber of Budapest, shares his tale with Salon, and what a yarn it is! After fleeing his native Romania beneath a train, Ambrus was variously a pelt-smuggler, Zamboni-wrangler, world-class hockey failure, gravedigger, and dog-walker, until he found his true calling in 1993: relieving banks of their cash. Then the story gets interesting, involving bad disguises, flowers for the bank tellers, a nervous stomach, a prison break via knotted bedclothes, and pursuit by his own Lieut. Columbo. It all added up to folk heroism for "Chicky Panther," until they put him away in Hungary's maximum security slammer, where he languishes today. Now he's talking, and Hollywood's listening.

Mit könny meg szép szó meg nem tart

Wolfdog — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 09:41:09 -0800

Several dozen folk, popular and art songs from Hungary (in Real Audio and MP3).

Tanár úr kérem!

Wolfdog — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 06:46:17 -0800

School stories (long out of print in English) of Frigyes Karinthy. Short, funny, and occasionally bittersweet; favorites include The Good Student and The Bad Student Tested, and Hanging From the Apparatus.

Sylvia Plachy

matteo — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 13:39:41 -0800

'Falling in love with the truth'. On Dec. 10, 1956, exactly one month after Soviet troops crushed the last hopes of the Hungarian Revolution, 13-year-old Sylvia Plachy lay hidden in a farm cart that was carrying her toward the Austrian border. That night, Plachy and her parents escaped, finally making their way to the United States. The family settled in Queens, New York, where the teenager grew up to become one of the most incisive photographers of her generation. Many of the photographs will be displayed this spring at the Rose Gallery in Los Angeles, and are on view now at New York's Hunter Fox Gallery, where Plachy (scroll down) recently talked about the book and her career. Her pictures "have to do with what memory looks like,' she explains. "How you remember things. Not so much how they are, but how they get translated." Oh, she's Adrien Brody's mom and she uses a Holga.

60 Andrássy

Wolfdog — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 17:16:06 -0800

Terrorháza [Flash]. Having survived two terror regimes, it was felt that the time had come for Hungary to erect a fitting memorial to the victims, and at the same time to present a picture of what life was like for Hungarians in those times. A tour of the Terror Musuem at 60 Andrássy út in Budapest. After the introduction, proceed to the Exhibition link.