TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

  

VIEWING ALL POSTS FOR: JULY 2006

Monday, July 31, 2006

10:12 PM
Posted by jodi rose

ten hours and another world away. very well preserved turkish gentleman offered me a smoke from his hookah outside the internet cafe, after I smiled when his burning ash went flying. I declined politely, am already on the edge of sleep and sanity. well, its not so bad, just feel jetlagged from the train. had a lovely compartment with group of young hungarian boys who looked very rocknroll, and had an unusual amount of luggage each. when I asked them why - almost as much as me - they confessed to doing hungarian dancing, with the black boots and vest and puffy white shirt and are on their way to perform in a small town outside berlin. they ended up partying in the corridor with an endless supply of 2l plastic bottles of home made red wine, and portable speakers taped to the bathroom pipes - highway to hell was playing when I walked past. the other occupant was a strapping young man who grew up in sydney, originally from slovakia and now playing soccer professionally in the czech national league. had an enjoyable afternoon watching the czech countryside flick past, especially after prague the trainline ran along the river, steep hills and wooden huts galore.
Fell in love with hauptbahnhof, those bullet lifts between all the platforms are spectacular, everything well laid out and easy to find, evne the luggage storage. traipsed over to zoo palast and picked up the keys for the apartment from roland, then found an above average thai curry at the station and wound my way over to friedrichshain, up the 5 flights of stairs - my fingers are still swollen from suitcases - relaxed on the lush pink cord lounge and then back out to get acqauinted with my new environment.
loving it, smoky decadent bars on every corner, red one across the street from me and the gun man bar with heavy metal in case I miss the green pub. people smile and chat to me randomly on the street - even soccer boy commented on how much people stare suspiciously in slovakia, it really is that noticeable - and the heavenly feeling of blending in somewhat. beautiful old east berlin apartments, highly graffitied although I think that is from a bygone era, definitely feels more trendy than edgy now, still plenty of grit though. have to drag myself back upstairs to collapse, more exploring tomorrow.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

5:47 PM
Posted by jodi rose

The dirty blues band delivered an evening of appropriately swampy rhythms, and Hollywood Rose provided a fair simulacrum of the original. Played my favourites - of the genre - sweet child and their version of knocking on heavens door - as twilight meandered over the Danube. Wonderful stormy evening, had a magnificent swim as the thunder burst and rain intensified, until finally the plavcik blew the whistle and we all had to get out. Avoiding being electrified in case of lightning strike I guess.

One last evening talking nonsense, more or less, with english speaking cohorts at the green, discussed focus and lack thereof. The problem with being an artist is that when you lose motivation, no-one else is really affected, unlike running a business. No one else relies on you, or actually requires your services... some people may be disappointed or hope for more, but ultimately the artist is the one who it really matters to. Also when you are doing something as esoteric as art with no intrinsic useful purpose or monetary value, except as informed by the vagaries of fashion and notoriously unpredictable art market - then if you lose your belief in what you are doing, it is truly lost. Which makes it all the more essential to maintain a strong sense of self-belief and faith in what you do. And keep getting up in the morning.

The town had emptied out this morning, but a new batch of holiday makers arrived in the afternoon. Starting to see the patterns of behaviour. One last iced coffee at my favourite cafes, and thats all folks.

I have already charted my route in berlin, from spandau bahnhof where the train gets in, to zoo palast for the key of my temporary apartment, and on to gartnerstrasse. The wonders of bvg.de. I love a good online journey planner. If we could only devise one fo the conceptual path, I would be set!!

Friday, July 28, 2006

2:38 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Last of the unraveling. woke up for my massage today, all smooth and unkinked now.

I had a spontaneous evening swim earlier this week in the most gorgeous outdoor pool on the hill at Kovacspatak, where Andrea and Robert have a summer house, and everyone used to go for student camp as teenagers. The water was unusually cool, with only four other people swimming, and the evening light changing over the moutains from oranges to pinks and dusky blue.
Hundreds of tiny spotted frogs jumped off the path as I walked back to the car, being eaten by ferocious mosquitos.

Checked out the first day of Dunafest, which used to be called the beer festival but changed due to a new sponsor, and is on for three days in the square opposite the basilica. Big line-up of well known Hungarian and Slovak bands, everything from blues to heavy metal and ska: I am particularly looking forward to Hollywood Rose, the guns nroses tribute and local boys California who I drank with at the pub over winter. Click on the link to bands on the left of the Dunafest website to hear some of their songs.

Last night was fun, danced to a great Jamaican Ska influenced Slovak band Polemic, who are on high rotation at the green pub jukebox, almost knocking Robbie Williams off the most played spot. Went back later with Kate for more pogo-ing with Ska Hecc, and enjoyed watching the kids go crazy with tango and waltzing mixed in as well.

Re-reading Cold Comfort Farm which brings out the comic aspects of rural life and is strangely apt here, and made a great haul of second hand books for the train trip, a mix of trashy romance and literaure, Ian McEwan Enduring the Love and the Lovely Bones being the hard stuff. More Freya North and Venus Envy for lighter moments. Interspersed with a fine selection of DVDs from Audrey, highlights so far Being Julia, with Annette Bening giving a magnificent performance as an actress of a certain age refusing to go gently into that goodnight, and the fairly average Maid in Manhattan and Two Weeks Notice both still entertaining. ahh Sandra.

Time for lunch at the Hotel today, then wander back to my room for a few hours reading before the concert tonight. Plenty of cultural diversity here, why not invest in the southest part of Slovakia!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

4:14 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Something about this place always brings me back to the body. It's very focused on the corporeal - food, sun, swimming, weather - and language. Endless conversations about food and speech.

Finished re-reading Siri Hustvedt - What I Loved - such an incredible book. Read it.

Watching storm clouds darken the Danube, and tease the overheated land with dry thunder and purple lightning but no rain for hours. Finally the rain burst out and temperature dropped ten degrees.

Thinking about the people who reflect you back to yourself in different ways, and sometimes you receive the most interesting fragments back from unexpected quarters. Siri talks about how the view of yourself is always missing from your own perspective, and it being impossible to really see yourself as others see you. That interests me in terms of trying to write your own story, how much you have to make up about yourself in the world, catching reflections here and there, a strong inner dialogue but joining the two is the tricky part.

For me, it's a matter of containment, finding a form that is porous and flexible enough yet still holds a shape or structure. I could happily spend my days watching storms, those elemental forces pulsing with life. That is what seems to be missing in my everyday world, and being out here on the edge of society doesn't automatically bring the intensity and passion one might imagine. Some days feel like a flat line drawing moving through cardboard cutouts, nothing is real and I'm not quite there either.
Still learning, and I can see more clearly now the things that don't bring complexity and depth to life, and sensing that if you only discover parts of yourself in someone else, then perhaps the richness of various relationships - friends family strangers lovers people on buses - can help unlock some of the hidden character. That or fuschia pink fingernails.

Moving on soon, up to Berlin for a few weeks. Quite excited about being back there. And finding myself in the secret parallel Berlin life that continues without me. Had an intriguing visit to Jack's Hurley factory yesterday.

Watched one of the sticks being made from start to finish, and some demonstration hurling against the walls, then a dvd from last years championships .

His brother is apparently a Hurling icon. Found it very enjoyable, both simply watching someone work with incredible precision and focus, and seeing the whole process from raw materials to smooth finished product.

All I have right now is a pile of logs, but will take that rough wood and shape it, refine and polish them into a box of beautifully shaped, smooth prose.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

3:57 PM
Posted by jodi rose

I couldn't remember my visa card pin for over a week, vanished completely out of my head on a trip to Esztergom one day. Both cards were new and so hadn't become embedded deeply enough in my subconscious, and once you stop and try to focus on the numbers they seem to evaporate. Tried random and likely combinations twice a day, scared the machine would eat it on the third mistake. Tried a whole series of numbers which popped out of my subconscious and felt vaguely familiar, but none worked, and the more you try and remember, or think about it the less sense it makes. A bit like life really. I guess.

At least I could still sign for things or shop online, but thankfully the amnesia has passed now. It felt symptomatic of a deeper malaise. Something about knowing I had a purpose once, and now despite the almost laughable misapprehension displayed by some that I have a structure to my life via this bridge project, I feel somewhat adrift, an intangible sense of being slightly off-kilter or at a loose-end. Which hasn't completely abated, despite the return of my lost code.

The rejections keep coming, a little too regularly now. It appears the electronic-media-art-festival circuit is no longer sure how it fits into their program, or they've seen it all before. Oh dear. Such a short shelf life as an idea has. Is that a backlash I feel?
No, just being paranoid or maybe realistic. No need to take these things to heart, in fact it can be a relief to find yourself out of fashion, all the more reason to keep on doing it... More than just a trend.

So, I'm working on alternative options and assessing partnership possibilities. Construction industry, engineering, architects, concrete companies - these kind of corporate structures I am curious about, and have an inkling of how we can work together from completely different approaches.

Florian, the current bridge guard who is an artist and engineer has promised some interesting contacts, and I have a list longer than my arm of people to approach. What is needed now is some kind of whizzbang technical setup that can be applied anywhere, and adapted to various outcomes but is simple and elegant. Old technology could be the answer. Telephone, radio... testing testing. can you hear me? So, it's not quite over yet, just a brief hiatus. regroup, rethink, reposition, restart.

Glanced at the world news last week and it was horribly depressing. Hasn't Beruit been bombed enough? What did happen to that earthquake warning system? surely it can't be that hard to set up some kind of rudimentary information relay. Telephone providers could send text messages to all their users, they don't seem to mind doing it for advertising, and it would reach enough people surely for the word to spread quickly. Look at flash mobs.

Best not think about the real world sometimes. It's going to be a bumpy ride when I do seriously try to reintegrate. Although Jack thinks I will be fine, and he's a cynical pragmatist if ever I met one. Most people seem to be getting through the day as best they can, and then distracting themselves with whatever amusement or entertainment works. Not a criticism, but reflecting on this in my slovakian riveria town. People come for holidays here from far more remote villages, and make their own fun, playing catch in the pool for hours on end, then strolling with ice creams. It reminds me of family holiday in sussex inlet, or the farm in new zealand, where you really did have to make your own diversions. That and the fabulous sixties floral prints and orange lace curtains.

A little nihilistic today, nothing means anything - there is no deeper significance other than what you give it. So do it playfully with passion and irreverence. Something fun and lighthearted, populist and silly is very appealing to me right now.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

5:47 PM
Posted by jodi rose

fleshy foods
roast heck
unraveling
signals
perception
shift

-nothing comes into being until there are the words-
unconsciously unraveling myself back to a new point of departure. poemcrazy p197
susan wooldridge writes:
belgian physicist Ilya Prigogine won a Nobel Prize in 1977 for his theory of dissipative structures, a kind of chaos theory. He showed that a period of dissolution is necessary before any system - a cell, a society, a solar system or person - can jump to a higher level of organisation. Seen this way, unraveling or disintegration is a vital, creative event making way for the new.

yes. I am glad we have sorted that out. now I can feel free to dissolve in peace. into sunshine flickering dandelions outside time hovering dragonfly between worlds.

and later... quote :the way to center is by abandonment. Am I willing to give up what i have in order to be what I am not yet? sometimes it is best if we dont know where we are going, as long as we take the steps: end quote

overcoming the vague all pervasive guilt about life as an artist to embrace chance, chaos, unexpected meetings, celebrate food laughter and love.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

4:53 PM
Posted by jodi rose

moments ticking by eternity
i have tied myself to the stars
satin hibiscus petals dance
a viennese debutante parachute

Monday, July 17, 2006

6:58 PM
Posted by jodi rose

throwing out words like apricots
plucked today from the tree in muszla
who know where they land or what fruit
springs from these strange musings

its my birthday this week
feel free to write and celebrate, commiserate and eat cake!!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

2:21 PM
Posted by jodi rose

I met two very attractive young Danish girls who are world champion bridge players in Bratislava the other week. They laughed when I expressed surprise, and told me that playing bridge is actually quite sexy now. Well, who woulda thunk it? Guess I had better get my mikes out again, and it gives me a chance to quote the immortal Mae West, who said:

Good sex is like good bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand.
Mae West

It,s funny - sorry I lost the apostrophe on slovak keyboard and haven,t found it yet - people keep acting as though I have done something amazing by coming back here. What are you doing here? they ask first, and when I tell them I come back for a summer holiday, as everyone told me it was so lovely and I promised I would, they are surprised and say in wonder, its so great that youre here. Really, like some kind of incredible accomplishment.
With that and my native english skills, I feel blessed.
Very cute, like the daughter of the music school headmistress who greeted me effusively at the pub the other night- I couldnt quite remember who she was at first - now we arrange to meet at the stage on the small danube in Esztergom for a concert by the Budapest Jazz Orchestra. Last night saw Andrea playing accordion with tango dancers and singers, and a fabulous Klezmer band from Bratislava.

Visiting the Shaolin Temple the other day was lovely. The monks were standing around playing ping-pong, no kung-fu demonstration just then. Dobogoko means beating or thumping rocks in old Hungarian, and as I mentioned earlier, when the Dalai Lama visited he spoke of the place having special lei line energy and being the beating heart of the world. Wandered into the tiny stone arch wine cellar which is now the temple, and had to sit quietly for a few minutes with very powerful vibrant sense of peace.

The next evening I saw a film purely for ewan mcgregor - he could read the phone book and I would be entranced - a thriller called -Stay-. The entire summer movie program here is all thrillers, but its good to see alternative genres I guess. Than romantic comedy I mean - must get onto Audrey and her lending library again.

Anyway, the film opens with this incredible sense of claustrophobia, and sound that was so like the alien squeaking on batman bridge, it shocked me. You see wheels spinning and cables flash past and realise it is some kind of car accident, on a bridge.
I was hooked instantly, wonderful mosaiac collages of bridge cables superimposed from different angles with a deep dark blue. The story built a sense of dislocation and unreality very subtly - noticed people dressed in matching clothes at odd times, and then scenes repeated for no apparent reason, until you start to realise there is something going on with parallel universes or time-space continuum stretching and reversing. Striking editing transitions too, with one face or shoe cutting into a completely different scene, but left you wondering if that person was real or a ghost or alter eog facet of themselves.
Not to spoil the plot, which continues to build an eerie feeling of haunting or hallucination until the final denouement when the space between the cables on brooklyn bridge is shimmering with pulsing light and energy zapping from them. I was literally agape, staring at the screen as images from ideas about the bridge as a place of transcendence and lifting of the veil between worlds played out on film. Wonderful. Completely turned my head inside out.

Friday, July 14, 2006

4:56 PM
Posted by jodi rose

manicure - 85 sk (au 3.72)
pedicure - 200 sk (au 8.77)
haircut - 150 sk (au 6.59)
fernet - 15 sk (au 0.65)
pizza - 125 sk (au 5.40)
beer - 30 sk (au 1.31)
movie - sk 59 (au 2.58)

meditation on heart chakra in shaolin temple at Dobogoko, the beating heart of the world according to the Dalai Lama - priceless!!

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

12:18 AM
Posted by jodi rose

another astonishing hairdressing experience.. from helsinki to berlin, chiang mai to sturovo, I love a completely sign language and picture pointing haircut. you never quite know what you will get.
todays version is very slightly inclined towards mushroom head, but just managed to avoid it through timely miming intervention; a bit longer over the ears, please... and has entirely rid me of the lingering bleached split ends and the last few months accumulated follicle memories. Having an almost overwhelming urge to dye it bright red. Yasmin suggested it was a good time for a makeover, and I am convinced that hair must hold some kind of cellular trauma, it feels so liberating to be shorn.

Enough of such frivolities though, people here keep reminding me of how privileged I am, to be lucky enough to have been born into an english speaking country. Made for life, it seems. Not that I think I would make a great english teacher, but if the current lassitude towards re-engaging with my art career continues, it may be one of the only viable options. At least I could live in berlin... this weeks folly. Forget Glasgow, everything is too tenuous and the UK so expensive, plus I have been infected with all that nasty media commentary about appearance and weight and skin tone bringing on angsty teen body image flashbacks, although positive contrast with number of normal size women out and about in funky, sassy, sexy outfits and no apologies. Quite scary how quickly it overcomes the feminist scruples and woman of the world ideology. Best not to be in an english speaking country, I feel, then youre somewhat immune to all the white noise of media programming. Reading :the battersea park rd to enlightenment: which is far more sincere than I expected, sassy and cute but filled with personal epiphanies - makes me want to run off and do a tai chi retreat in the french hillside, or join a convent. For a weekend at least. The apple crumble sounded truly divine, and I could convert for a good dessert!

Swimming almost every day, had a long sunny afternoon in the backyard-farm with Gyuri and his international hungarian gulas patry. A fews Scots, a Finn, a German, some English lasses, scattered Hungarians and my good Australian self. Much larking around, drinking wine and soda, then beer which came in 2L plastic bottles from the nearest pub, and eventually retired to the Green Pub to watch the world cup final. Must say I was disappointed, all those injuries to start with, and then endless penalty kicks - but happy for the Italians to win. Couldnt remember which team was which for most of the game, but liked the ones in blue. So much for imbibing local colour, everyone seems to have given up on the cup and we almost had the place to ourselves. A private lounge with excellent service and a dangerously small tab.

Still have the idea in the back of my mind that I am going to get around to some work in the near future. Its the only thing stopping me going crazy with guilt at my decadent lifestyle, cafe hopping with a trashy novel for most of the day after the hour in the pool.
Trying to get some planning done for the future, some thoughts of settling somewhere for at least a year are getting more insistent, as is the desire to get this bridge symphony done for once and all, and write the accompanying novel-memoir book thing.
Ah well, just keep filling those pages, it comes when it comes. Someone reacted with horror at my intention of editing some coherence into the writing; now why would you go and do a crazy thing like that?
Hmmmm why indeed. Chaos, eros and bacchanalia all the way. Although it does get a little exhausting maintaining such a lush reputation, but who is to say what is fact and what fiction? Never let the truth get in the way, as they say, of a good story.

Saturday, July 8, 2006

4:12 AM
Posted by jodi rose

it has only been three days and I miss glasgow terribly, and all the people there I am just getting to know. huge apologies for shocking bad manners to dav and all the maxwell park crew, its not like me to just not show up, but somehow got distracted with deadlines for writing residency and prior engagement with theatre party and just plain forgot.
anyway, hope they will talk to me again one day.
at least a lapse in good form is pretty much the worst of my worries right now. although this intense heat - mid thirties going down to twenties at night - reminds me of just how much I hated sydney summers growing up. I know it seems churlish, but to be always a little bit sweaty and red-faced and limp haired is not that enjoyable. and you cant spend twentyfour hours in the water, often have to work or study or sit on sticky plastic bus seats. ugh.
today I found the community swimming pool which in contrast to the main spa-baths centre only had 80-100 holidaying families shrieking and dive bombing each other, instead of 1,800! Much more relaxing, surrounded by huge oak trees, right next to the danube, looking out over hills, with lovely old wooden sunbenches around the pool. The water is still 32 degrees or so, not the cold shock of australian ocean that I am used to, but refreshing nonetheless. So now can begin the regime of daily swims in the twelve step program against advanced sloth.... fingers crossed. It is also run by vadas baths and hotel, who have generously sponsored my stay here, and provide guests with a free pass to enter all their facilities.
unwinding just a little, unravelling too.
time for an evening walk perhaps.
I was starting to feel like the girl in that russian fairy tale who puts on these enchanted red shoes that make the wearer dance until they keel over with exhaustion. waiting for the music to stop.

Friday, July 7, 2006

10:06 PM
Posted by jodi rose

page after page of scambled thoughts rendered illegible in my notebook. it helps get them clear in my head, and then dont really need to read them again. lay awake listening to what sounded like country drag racing taking place on the street, and bursts of music from the green pub not too onerous.
still in shock at the summer diet - identical to winter so far, heavy on the gulas light on the vegetables. surviving on apricots and strawberry sorbet - or zmirzilina as its rather fabulously called in slovak.
although reading all these articles about the decline of family dinners and people eating together in the UK made me think we could all benefit from a trip to small hungarian-slovak border towns. no-one would dream of missing the sit down family lunch.
andrea made vegetable soup and crumbed cauliflower for lunch yesterday, then we drove across the bridge to hungary to see Memoirs of Geisha.
Sumptuous and heartrending, I loved being transported so completely into another world, with its intricate rituals and deeply ingrained rules, all swept away in the path of war. but ending happily. sigh.
Then wandered the pesia zona, enduring the synth solos from a cover-band at the hollywood bar - never gonna dance again, and dont go changing, being the heights of his talent. watched the people go by, tanned and loose from their holiday in the sun, imbibing whatever the town has to offer.
miki and melinda took me on a tour of the spa-thermal baths, where all the pools are open now. favourite being the fake wave pool and - of course - huge outdoor spa.
settling into the rhythym of life here again, long hazy days and restless nights with moments of lucidity - really need one of those pens with a light for nocturnal scribbling - and questions of life and purpose bubbling through at odd moments. ah well, it may all make sense one day. or not.

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

11:55 PM
Posted by jodi rose

you have arrived.
so said the ad for glasgow in bmi inflight magazine. I am prepared to take their word for it. Think I might be here now.
lovely being back in the town for summer, everyone was right, it is a completely different place. the afternoon heat promises lazy days by the vadas pool and long evenings in the hills after harvesting grapes all day. welcome to your 51st home, laughed miki as he met me with andrea and malinda at the station from the bratislava train, and installed me at the vadas tourist hotel - as opposed to the luxury one. which is fine by me, too much decadence can get oppressive after a while - no, really - and there is something very calm and welcoming about the minimal room looking out onto the main street, although my view of the basilica is obscured by trees. my new home is literally right next door to the green pub, which any of you who followed my adventures here in winter may find as hilarious as I do. just hope the walls are thick enough to keep some of the loud music out. or else I will be tempted to get up and join the party. all good intentions for now, of swimming every day and climbing mountains. not inside drinking. no, really.

there is something deeply satisfying about returning to a place, I find, that allows the connections you make to deepend and your experiences of it richer.
it is time for me to start collecting these fractured scattered puffballs of my life and draw them into something coherent. after a little holiday...

Monday, July 3, 2006

11:46 PM
Posted by jodi rose

back in the blue attic, listening to keith jarrett, working through the 5 page to-do list so I can really feel I deserve this 'holiday'.
last week is the closest thing to a 'normal life' I've had in I can't remember how long. very grounding, coming in to the same place each day, typing away, then out in the evenings for various social events.
russell took me along to see their work in the kelvingrove preview showing - gorgeous museum, all those natural science exhibits you remember as a kid, stuffed animals, crusader battle axes, some amazing artworks. went for a donder along vast halls with gorgeous sightlines of bizarre artefacts through the archeways; Dali crucifixion painting, lots of impressionist works, crazy Scottish heritage room - very cool. made souveneir pennies then went for an innocent gun at the goat. (innes and gunn fabulous whisky brewed ale. mmm)
thursday over to edinburgh for nazli's theatre company first birthday, met some lovely people, came back and friday managed to drink too much and make new friends on the dance floor at the pig and butterfly. lucy and nts crowd having much-needed debrief about work, so I had a dance activist moment to the old boys orchestra or something like it, playing hilarious johnny cash - meets love boat style covers of disco hits - from paris to berlin; doncha (wish your boyfriend was hot like me) with bongos, roland synth and acoustic guitar. unexpectedly fab.
meandered around the west enjoying the sunshine on saturday, walk along kelvin river almost like being in the country, had 2nd hand retail therapy (and then had to repack this morning - ouch. it's deeply embarassing being such a seasoned traveller and yet consitutionally incapable of traveling light. maybe hypnotherapy would work ;)
and hung out in various cafes, then fairly much repeated on sunday with a trip to the transport museum, absorbing displays of beautiful antique cars, buses, trains, ship models, an old glasgow street. lovely.
like I said, close to a normal life. you can't even begin to imagine how much I needed that. caught up with philippa on phone from LA last night, only one star spotting so far, but he's a good one - the dark haired wilson brother (luke) at her local ultra hip santa monica coffee shop. then various actors in the auditions, and suitably decadent visit to chateau marmont bar, but no sky bar visit yet.
and for me, it's off to slovakia in the morning then a quick trip to berlin and back here for a few weeks. don't really want to leave, it's berlin 2002 all over again, but getting to recognise the signs better and respond to them these days.