some tags around town

It may just be because we spend most of our time in what could be called downtown Budapest, but it seems like most available surfaces are to some extent covered in graffiti. Some of it is fairly artistic and well-rendered (like the pedestrian underpass in Szentendre, which is almost like a collaborative mural), while some of it is pretty badass-looking, and could go up against most of the tagging i've seen back home. The best graffiti, though, is that which is written relatively legibly in english, because, for whatever reason, usage errors are magnified when something is spraypainted onto a wall (or sharpied on to a church dome, as i'll get to in a minute).

I went ahead and chose some favorites that we've seen so far (Peter has been compliling a similar mental list for english language t-shirts):

-"RAINMAN..." -- really, who wants to be Rain Man? have they seen this movie? i mean, really. This one is visible off the tram by Oktogon (the most appropriately named landmark intersection ever, as it turns out)

-"I love techno!" -- this was the one written on the dome of the Basilica of Esztergom, unsigned (i have a picture, for when i figure out how to post pictures). did we really need to find that out? Also, is a church roof really the most appropriate place for it?

-"punk is not dead" -- um, my mistake. i just see the author saying it with sort of that whiny tone, like 'punk is not dead, okay?', which really takes away from the anger and social force that signified the time when punk was actually not dead. The effect was magnified since the tag was on a building on a street where it didn't seem like anything was happening at all, let alone punk.

-"The Cure" -- I like the Cure, but... as graffiti, it's kind of funny. What's next, 'the Smiths'?

-"WIZARD - LIZARD" -- this one is visible off the trolleybus on the way to school. We can't figure out whether the person saw how similar the words were without knowing what they meant and assumed a common root (hungarian is a pre-and suffix-oriented language), or if they did know what the words meant and just liked the way they rhymed.

-"Helvetica nevergoesoutofstyle" -- this one was in a pedestrian tunnel by the varhegy (Castle Hill) on the Buda side. Although the tunnel was covered with graffiti, this one really stood out for some reason. It made me realize how stylish Helvetica looks, and how disappointed I am that it's not available for me to post in.

-there's also some good mural-type graffiti near the Millenium Park in Buda, where we saw the concert of American show tunes played by a youth orchestra from Israel, and also near the tram stop on the bridge to Margitsziget (Margaret Island), supposedly the sketchiest place in the city after dark.

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On an unrelated note, I've been seeing these bumper stickers around. They have a big "H" on them, superimposed over the outline of a country colored like a Hungarian flag, only the shape of the country definitely doesn't look anything like Hungary. I found this mildly confusing until I found out last week that that was, in fact, the shape of the Hungarian bit of the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to WWI and the Treaty of Versailles, back when Hungary included an outlet to the sea (about where Croatia is now) and large chunks of most of its present-day neighbors. So, rather than a fairly benign (or at least typical) declaration of national pride, these bumper stickers are a statement of protest and Hungarian irridentism (the desire for the return of territory to which a nation feels entitled). And as a history major, I'm not down with that. Who knew?

Alright, that's all I have (time for) right now. We'll work on making updates shorter and more frequent, but next time, next time. For now, szia!