Kitty Summer Music

These two acts are not what I typically go crazy about music wise but I think they are good, and I need all the good music I can find right now.

La Roux has a certain hysterical note in her voice that according to my books should be annoying as hell, but instead it cheerfully makes me thinking about the 80's and prompts me to dance. Yeah Yeah Yeahs are on the rocky side of pop and I love their vocalist's hair! They sound great live - enjoy!

Michael Jackson - a star if there was ever one, an unmatched talent and inspiration to generations, a controversial and mysterious personality...

I am sad to see the heroes of my generation pass away and I am once again reminded how short and hard to define life is. Michael Jackson's music and the joy his performances brought me are the best consolation I will get, and I am glad that I was lucky enough to be his fan. So long, MJ! You were great!

Funny Quotes by Random Great People X

• Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.

- Jules Renard

• Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad.

- George Bernard Shaw

• Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.

- Walter Lippmann

• Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

- Benjamin Franklin

• Delusions of grandeur make me feel a lot better about myself.

- Jane Wagner

• I've done the calculation and your chances of winning the lottery are identical whether you play or not.

- Fran Lebowitz

• Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by confessing our parents' shortcomings.

- Laurence J. Peter

• I've gone into hundreds of [fortune-teller's parlors], and have been told thousands of things, but nobody ever told me I was a policewoman getting ready to arrest her.

- New York City detective

• You see things and you say: “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say: “Why not?”

George Bernard Shaw

• The artist doesn't have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don't have the time to read reviews.

- William Faulkner

• A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

- Oscar Wilde

• I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.

- Poul Anderson

• It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.

- Isaac Asimov

I don't need blood to be spilled for my entertainment!

Let's talk about pain.

When you cut your finger, it hurts. It's not that bad, but it's unpleasant, even if it is just a small paper cut. When you break your finger it hurts even more, and if you break your arm the pain becomes splitting. What about if you lose a limb? How about if you get stabbed? Or shot? How much does that hurt?

Human body is an amazing creation. Our skin can feel even the slightest touch of a feather, even the most miniature tickle of a sun ray that falls upon it. Nerves send signals to our brain and it registers the contact. And when the contact is painful, our brain reacts violently - we not only feel the physical pain, we feel the anger after being slapped in the face and we feel the despair after we lose a limb.

Now, animals are not much different than us in that aspect. When you accidentally step on your dog's paw it utters a cry. When foxes are being skinned for their fur while still alive...how do you think that feels?!

Let's talk about animals.

We love animals. We adore our pets and we sing lullabies about bunnies and bears and fluffy kitties to our children at bedtime. We blame the bees and storks for babies and we say stuff like "strong as a bull" or "brave as a lion". We love animals. We love chicken and pork. We love tuna sandwiches. Humans are so funny - we admire animals and still treat them as a source for food and clothing and entertainment, not as living and feeling beings they in fact are. We do awful things to them and we don't realize that this is not only dangerous for the environment, but also extremely inhuman.

I have been trying to be a vegetarian for almost two years now, but I sometimes slip into tasting meat on different occasions - when craving, when eating out and the menu doesn't offer proper vegetarian meals and so on...but I am consciously working on that and I exercise my will power every chance I get. I am really devoted to the cause of not eating meat because I believe that it will make difference. Almost 90 % of what I buy for my meat eating husband is free range and the idea of trying to convert him and the rest of my family and friends to vegetarianism crosses my mind often. It's a process and I know that if I try hard I will succeed to a satisfying degree. I know how to do it fast and efficient - I must only make them watch EATHLINGS. Any sane and self-respected person with even half a soul left in this corrupted and cynical world will at least consider to stop eating meat when he or she sees how the modern capitalist food is being produced. And one day I will have children on my own. I will have to make some tough decisions about their diet but I'm sure that they will be okay.

However, reduce-reuse-recycle doesn't always help the environment and the animals we harm to sustain our lifestyle. Sometimes we have to boycott circuses and zoos. Sometimes we have to go out and protest. Sometimes we have to actively intervene with cruel practices. Such is the case with the Corridas - the Spanish traditional bullfighting. It is a spectacle leftover from times we overcame and evolved from, a bloody celebration of torture and human triumph over the animal (and according to some retrogressive mentalities - the lesser) world.

Before I go into detail, I must urge you to think about ideas. Ideas and ideals make civilization progressing. There are good ideas and bad ideas. It is very hard to say which idea is one or the other, but with ideals is easier - just look what's going on in North Korea or in Iran (and even in Bulgaria been it less violent). Those in power hold people hostages to ideals that are purely wrong and harmful. I am aware that I'm mixing politics and human rights with animal rights here but I know what I'm doing.

I am comparing two visions - one of a Spanish bull lying on the ground, it's muzzle bloody and it's eyes blank, spears sticking out of it's body, and another of a young Iranian woman shot in the heart, blood streaming out of her nose and mouth in her last moments on Earth before she dies in her father's arms. How do you like that dear friends and neighbours? I couldn't help but see the similarities when I first saw the online video from the anti-government protest in Iran and then the photo of the dead bull in Pamplona on a PETA protest leaflet. So much blood...



Yes, there are completely different IDEALS behind both protests; one is against treating people like cattle and another against treating cattle like...I don't even know what to say here - like we are insane and heartless murderers. Still, the outcome is the same. Any IDEAL which prompts people to stand up against injustice and downright cruelty is worth fighting for.



But let me go back to bullfighting. For a whole week thousands of locals and tourists gather, and PAY to witness the a ritual which is advertised as glorious and entertaining (for the benefit of pompously dressed up males with questionable skills in avoiding collision with a big animal) but is in fact nothing short of gorry, gruesome and truly sad. Old and sick bulls are chosen to be killed in those rituals, and they are being weakened for weeks before the "fight". They put laxatives in their food and heavy sandbags on their backs. They are often beaten. They file their horns down to the tender quick and they drug them. Prior to the Running, electric prods and sharp sticks are used to rile the bulls in a frenzy. Petroleum jelly is put in their eyes to blind them. Wet newspaper is stuffed in their ears and their vocal cords are cut to prevent the audience to hear their cries. Lances are driven into the bulls' neck muscles so they can't lift their heads. By the time the matador appears the bulls are weak from blood loss and disoriented from being chased in circles. When the "fight" finally begins, the bull is already on the verge of collapsing, held only by his last instinct of survival. All dignity is stripped down from him and he is confused, desperate and suffering. Then, in the ring, the toreador slaughters the bull by stabbing the bull repeatedly in the spine. The bull's death is slow and not just ugly, it's petrifying and maddening. Often he wears long blankets to hide their entrails, which spill out when they are gorged and disemboweled.



Please, do not support this torture and do your part to help putting a stop to it once and for all! I am sure that you don't need blood to be spilled for your entertainment. I am sure that you don't want to pay for this to be happening.



Bullfighting and such practices are not just wrong and unethical, they are utterly cruel. They are unnecessary. When supporting the cause of suffering animals, please also think about you and your children! Ask yourself: Is the world going to be better after this? Are WE going to be better after this? Yes, it will be and we will be. It is not naive to believe that, it is rational, civilized, and progressive thinking. It is a good thing.



P.S Needless to say, I am in ecstasy when it happens for the bull to stab the matador. I tell myself that he deserves it and I hope he feels at least half as bad as the bull....such line of thoughts, however, are not very constructive. I admit that violence doesn't work well against violence in the long run. Even when the bull stabs the matador in self-defense (we humans always need to classify things, don't we) I know that it is only natural and doesn't do much justice for the big scheme of things. Most often than not the bull is not given this chance.



All photos from the PETA Anti-bullfighting protest in London are by me (all rights reserved). For the full collection of the event photos click here.

Building a Better World (and some very bizarre houses too)

Last month I went on a city trip in the search for an interesting building which I could capture with my camera and eventually submit it to a Nikon D90 group competition in Flickr. I found pretty good stuff here in London - statues, skyscrapers, old structures and houses, but at the end I decided that I won't win the competition with what I got. Photography is a tricky thing, it's not only the object, but the angle and the lighting and the editing afterwards...and it can be pretty exhausting to have it wall perfect.

I was chatting with my friend Selma when it occurred to me that I should not complain; she does photography too and Sofia can be very fascinating place, especially through a photo lens, but still cannot compete with London architecturally. I am lucky to be here and to enjoy its advantages...still I suspect that there are places in the world where architecture has triumphed to an unbelievable levels. I took a couple of weeks to research the world's most interesting buildings and here is what I came up with. This post is dedicated to my father-in-law John Pfeiffer. He knows why!

NOTE: Have to click and see larger for better viewing (right click and 'open in a new tab' works best).

1. Burj Dubai


Burj Dubai (‎meaning "Dubai Tower") is a skyscraper under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the tallest man-made structure on Earth. At 140 floors, it is currently the tallest structure on earth, taller than the worlds tallest building Taipei 101, but the construction is still under progress, which makes it the tallest structure but not the tallest building. Construction began on September 21, 2004, and it is expected to be completed and ready for occupation in September 2009 with the building 169 floors and over 800 meters high, taller than Taipei 101
by almost 40%...

The tower is designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, who also designed the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Freedom Tower in New York City, among numerous other famous high-rises. The building resembles the bundled tube form of the Sears Tower, but is not a tube structure. The design of Burj Dubai is reminiscent of the Frank Lloyd Wright vision for The Illinois, a mile
high skyscraper designed for Chicago, Illinois. Burj Dubai is expected to rise to 150% of the height of the Sears Tower. The design of Burj Dubai is ostensibly derived from the patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture.

The tower is composed of three elements arranged around a central core. As the tower rises from the flat desert base, setbacks occur at each element in an upward spiralling pattern, decreasing the cross section of the tower as it reaches toward the sky. At the top, the central core emerges and is sculpted to form a finishing spire. A Y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of
the Persian Gulf. Viewed from above or from the base, the form also evokes the onion domes of Islamic architecture. During the design process, engineers rotated the building 120 degrees from its original layout to reduce stress from prevailing winds. The tower, at its tallest point, sways a total of 3.35 meters. The exterior cladding of Burj Dubai will consist of reflective glazing, and aluminum and textured stainless steel spandrel panels with vertical tubular fins. The cladding system is designed to withstand Dubai's extreme summer temperatures. Floors 45 through 108 will have 700 private apartments on 64 floors (which, according to the developer, sold out within eight hours of going on sale). An outdoor zero-entry swimming pool will be located on the 78th
floor of the tower. Corporate offices and suites will fill most of the remaining floors, except for a 123rd floor lobby and 124th floor indoor/outdoor observation deck. The spire - itself over 200 m (700 ft) tall - will hold communications equipment. It will also feature the world's fastest elevator, a total of 56 elevators will be installed that can each carry 42 people at a time.

2. Al Burj


Al Burj (meaning 'The Tower') is a supertall skyscraper soon to be tallest in the world (taller than Burj Dubai) proposed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates by developer Al Nakheel. The tower was originally proposed in 2004 as the centerpiece of Palm Jumeirah, one of the world's largest man-made islands. The final height of the tower would be 1,200 m (3,937 ft), reduced from an initial height of 1,600 m (5,249 ft) or just under one mile. It was to be named "The Pinnacle" and rise from the centre of a canal on the trunk of the island.

The original design conceived by Pei Partnership Architects was to have 180+ floors comprising ultra-luxury apartments, restaurants, a large health club, and an observation deck. The building actually consisted of three separate towers built around a hollow interior and joined together by several sky bridges functioning as sky lobbies. On top of each sky bridge was a sky garden. One of the towers was shorter than the other two with a large outdoor pool on the roof, while the other two were topped with large spires. In the latest redesign the basic shape has remained the same, three towers connected by sky bridges with two twin spires and one tower shorter than the others. What has changed is the number of sky bridges: from 4 to 10. The building is also to be mixed-use rather than wholly residential.

3. Aqua Tower


Aqua is an 82-story mixed-use residential skyscraper under construction in the Lakeshore East development in downtown Chicago.[2] It is currently topped-out at 819 ft (250 m), and will include six levels of parking below ground. The building's eight-story, 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m2) base will be topped by a 82,550 sq ft (7,669 m2) terrace with gardens, gazebos, pools, hot tubs, a walking/running track and fire pit. Each floor will cover approximately 16,000 sq ft (1,500 m2).

4. Dubai's Waterfront Project


I don't have detailed information about that but it looks like it doesn't need much explanation....However, I'm a little skeptical that it will really look that way. The computer graphics appear much too blue and green. The reality in Dubai (witnessed by my friend Selma who spent months there) is mostly sand, sand storms, heat, and more sand...

5. The Palm Islands and The World, Dubai

The Palm Islands
Al Nakheel Properties

The three artificial islands that make up the Palm (comprising the Palm Jumeirah, the Palm Jebel Ali, and the Palm Deira) are the world's biggest man-made islands. Each was built from a staggering 1 billion cubic meters of dredged sand and stone, taken from Dubai's sea bed and configured into individual islands and surrounding breakwaters. The complex will house a variety of tourist attractions, ranging from spas and diving sites to apartments and theaters. The entire complex is designed to collectively resemble a date palm tree when seen from the sky.

The World
Al Nakheel Properties

Ever wish the world was smaller? This group of more than 250 man-made islands was designed to resemble the entire world when seen from the air. The islands, which range from 250,000 to 900,000 square feet, can be bought by individual developers or private owners -- starting at
$6.85 million.

The only way to get between each island is by boat...or yacht, given the clientele. A notable engineering feat: The project incorporates two protective breakwaters to protect the islands from waves, consisting of one submerged reef (the outer breakwater) and an above-water structure (the inner breakwater).

6. Hydropolis

Hydropolis
Joachim Hauser

This hotel, the world's first underwater luxury resort, brings new meaning to the "ocean-view room." Situated 66 feet below the surface of the Persian Gulf, Hydropolis will feature 220 guest suites. Reinforced by concrete and steel, its Plexiglas walls and bubble-shaped dome ceilings offer sights of fish and other sea creatures. It's scheduled to open in late 2007.

7. The Tulip Island, Holland

The Dutch government is considering a radical plan to build a £7 billion island in the shape of a tulip in the North Sea to relieve pressure on its overcrowded cities and protect the coastline from rising sea levels.

8. Some more Dubai Projects

The Burj Al Alam

The Burj Al Alam (meaning "World Tower") is a 108 storey, 501 m skyscraper, under construction in the Business Bay area of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is designed to resemble a crystal flower. It is to become one of the world's tallest buildings. The tower is being built by the Fortune Group which also has a number of other projects in Dubai such as the Fortune Tower and the Fortune Bay. It will contain 74 floors of office space, a retail area at the base, and a high-end hotel and serviced apartments in the top 27 floors. The hotel section is to contain the highest hotel rooms in the world. The building will also feature a 6-storey crown that will contain
a Turkish bath, sky garden, and other club facilities. Construction started on 12 November 2006 and is expected to complete by 2010.

The Burj Al Alam tower building features a crown that consists of a sky garden, club facilities and Spa. The designs include a full curtain wall system, with three external curtain wall ‘petals’. Burj Al Alam will offer offices and serviced apartments of uncommon beauty and style - as well as the most enticing array of amenities, recreation and pleasure. The tower is strategically designed to accentuate the view of Business Bay Creek on the South side and the Burj Dubai super-high rise
tower on the North. An extensive podium design, with specialty design retail spaces featuring luxury designer brands, will serve as the first point of approach.

It harbours 104 Service Apartment Units along with 200 Hotel Suites, a check-in Sky Lobby, 6 F&B outlets, gym & pool and over 4300 Car Parking Spaces exclusively for the residential owners.In addition, it has 74 Storeies of office spaces, where the office floor plate varies from
3,243 m2 to 1,537 m2. It also caters 26 passenger and 4 goods lifts.

Dubai Lagoon

9. Harbor of Rotterdam Project

And if you think that's crazy, just wait and see some of the already existing buildings below...But first, let me pay respect to some of the prettiest!

10. Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum located in Agra, India, built by Persian/Turkish (Mughal) Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal (also "the Taj") is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Ottoman and Islamic architectural styles. In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was cited as "the jewel of Islamic art and one of the niversally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage."

While the white domed marble mausoleum is its most familiar component, the Taj Mahal is actually an integrated complex of structures. Building began around 1632 and was completed around 1653, and employed thousands of artisans and craftsmen. The construction of the Taj Mahal was entrusted to a board of architects under imperial supervision including Abd ul-Karim Ma'mur Khan, Makramat Khan, and the Persian Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, although Lahauri is generally considered to be the principal designer.

11. Saint Basil's Cathedral

The Cathedral of Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat, or simply Pokrovskiy Cathedral - better known as the Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed , Saint Basil's Cathedral is a multi-tented church on the Red Square in Moscow that also features distinctive onion domes.

It is very often mistaken for the Church of the Savior on Blood, located in St. Petersburg. In the West, it is frequently confused with the Kremlin which overlooks it. Arguably the most recognized building in Russia, it is an international symbol for the nation and for the city of Moscow.

12. Walt Disney Concert Hall

The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Avenue, 1st and 2nd Streets, it seats 2,265 people and serves (among other purposes) as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Lillian Disney made an initial gift in 1987 to build a world-class performance venue as a gift to the people of Los Angeles and a tribute to Walt Disney's devotion to the arts. The Frank Gehry-designed building opened on October 23 2003. While the architecture (as with other Gehry works) evoked polarized opinions, the acoustics of the concert hall (designed by Yasuhisa Toyota) were widely praised in contrast to its predecessor, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

13. The Experience Music Project Seattle

The Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame is a museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction located in Seattle, Washington. The Frank Gehry-designed museum building is located on the campus of the Seattle Center, adjacent to the Space Needle and the Seattle Center Monorail, which runs through the building.

14. The Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre on Bennelong Point in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who in 2003 received the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour.

“ There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world – a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent. ”

The Opera House was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007. It is one of the world's most distinctive 20th century buildings, and one of the most famous performing arts centres in the world.

15. More futuristic projects:

Hong Kong's Waterfront

Revolution Tower, Panama

Istambul's Waterfront

Tokyo, Japan

16. La Grande Motte, France


La Grande-Motte is a commune in the Hérault departement in Languedoc-
Roussillon in southern France.

17. Habitat 67, Canada

Panorama

Habitat 67 is a housing complex and landmark located on the Marc-Drouin Quay on the Saint Lawrence River at 2600, Pierre Dupuy Avenue in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its design was created by architect Moshe Safdie based on his master's thesis at McGill University and built as part of Expo 67.

18. Forest Spiral, Germany


The Waldspirale is the name of a residential building complex in Darmstadt, Germany built in the 1990s. The name translates into English as spiral forest, reflecting both the general plan of the building and the fact that it has a green roof. It was designed by Viennese artist riedensreich Hundertwasser, built by the Bauverein Darmstadt company, and planned and implemented by the architect Heinz M. Springmann. The building was completed in 2000.

19. Wonderworks theme park, Orlando, Florida.


20. The Crooked House, Poland

The Crooked House, built in 2004, is an addition at a popular shopping center, and is a major tourist attraction in Sopot, Poland.

21. Museo Dalí, Figueres

The Dalí Theatre and Museum (Teatre-Museu Dalí in Catalan language), is a museum of the artist Salvador Dalí in his home town of Figueres, in Catalonia. The heart of the museum was the building that housed the town's theatre when Dalí was a child, and where one of the first public exhibitions of young Dalí's art was shown. The old theater was bombed in the Spanish Civil War and remained in a state of ruin for decades until Dalí and the mayor of Figueres decided to rebuild it as a museum dedicated to the town's most famous son in 1960. The museum also occupies buildings and courtyards adjacent to the old theater building.

22. Bird's Nest Stadium

Beijing National Stadium was designed for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. Located in the Olympic Green, the US$423 million stadium is the world's largest steel structure. The design was awarded to a submission from the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron in April 2003, after a bidding process that included 13 final submissions. The design, which originated from the study of Chinese ceramics, implemented steel beams in order to hide supports for the retractable roof; giving the stadium the appearance of a "Bird's nest". Ai Weiwei, the artistic consultant, played a critical role in pushing the design to have unique Chinese characteristics. Ironically, the retractable roof was later removed from the design after inspiring the stadium's most recognizable aspect. Ground was broken in December 2003 and the stadium officially opened in June 2008.

23. Kansas City Library - a dreamy place for those who love books! ;)

24. Bubble House, France - my personal favorite!

The ‘bubble house’ of Tourrettes-sur-Loup, France, is only 35 years old and has yet to be finished, but that hasn’t stopped the French ministry of culture from listing it as a historic monument. Designed in the 70s by Hungarian architect Antti Lovag for fashion designer Pierre Cardin, the bubble house is futuristic yet organic, with lots of built-in furniture and oval, convex windows. The design is meant to take optimal advantage of the volcanic Côte d’Azur landscape, and its windows certainly provide a beautiful view of the Mediterranean.

25. The Stone House, Portugal


26. The Basket Building, Ohio


This monument is, in fact, the world's largest basket, and it's also the seven-story corporate headquarters of the Longaberger Basket Company.

27. Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, Clifton Hill, Niagara Falls, Ontario


28. Bart Prince's Architecture

Architect Bart Prince is renowned for his incredibly creative approach to designing structures. The homes he has created look nothing like the boxy houses you and I live in; they’re quirky, they’re organic, and they’re most definitely one-of-a-kind. Prince says his designs start from the inside out, and that every home he builds has an idea behind it. Pictured are Prince’s own home in Albuquerque (top) and the Seymour residence in Los Altos, California.

29. Dar al Hajar, Yemen


This striking rock palace is not a hotel or a museum. It’s not even a primary residence. Dar al Hajar was built as a ‘summer home’ by Imam Yahya in the 1930s, and it’s a stunning example of rock-cut architecture. Standing at the base of this imposing structure, you have to crane your neck to see the top. The palace has since been restored so that visitors can buy a ticket and get a breathtaking 360-degree view of the surrounding landscape.


30. Wooden Skyscraper - Arkhangelsk, Russia


Nikolai Sutyagin, a former gangster, began building this ‘wooden skyscraper’ in Arkhangelsk, Russia with the intention of it being only a two-story building. But, a trip to see wooden houses in Japan and Norway convinced him that he hadn’t used roof space efficiently enough, so he kept building. “First I added three floors but then the house looked ungainly, like a mushroom,” he said. “So I added another and it still didn’t look right so I kept going. What you see today is a happy accident.” The multimillionaire became a pauper after his possessions were destroyed during a stint in prison, and the house is now decaying around him, but he still lives in the bottom floor with his wife.

31. The Upside Down House, Poland


Polish businessman and philanthropist Daniel Czapiewski built The Upside Down House as a statement about the Communist era and the end of the world. It took 114 days to build because the workers were so disoriented by the angles of the walls. It certainly attracts its fair share of tourists to the tiny village of Szymbark, who often become dizzy and ‘seasick’ after just a few moments inside.

32. The Hang Nga Villa, Vietnam


Looking like something out of a child’s fairytale gone wrong, the bizarre-looking structure in Dalat, Vietnam was built by the daughter of Ho Chi Minh’s right-hand man. Madame Hang Nga created the Hang Nga Villa – now known simply as ‘Crazy House’ – to reflect her interest in art and architecture. Made of concrete, the house now serves as a restaurant and reception area for an adjacent French colonial-style hotel in a jolting contrast in architectural styles. The inside is said to be even stranger, with all the kitschy decor you can handle, including a giant eagle with red Christmas light eyes, “for the Americans”.

33. Inversion House – Houston, Texas


When two old studio buildings owned by The Art League in Houston were set to be demolished, they decided to take the opportunity to turn them into a temporary art installation. Artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck sculpturally altered the two buildings, peeling off the exterior siding of the front building to simulate the appearance of a funnel-like vortex. The opening was actually a tiny hallway (only kids could fit through it) that passed through the two structures and emptied out into an adjacent courtyard.

34. Floating House - Ukraine


An optical illusion? Trick of Photoshop? Nobody really seems to know much about this supposed ‘floating barn’ which was reportedly located in Ukraine and may or may not still be standing. Cantilevered barns do exist - mostly in the Appalachian region of the United States – but usually aren’t quite this dramatic looking. Real or fake, it’s certainly pretty striking.

35. Space House – Signal Mountain, Tennessee

The ‘Space House’ in Signal Mountain, Tennessee was built by Curtis King and his sons in the 1970s and is quite a draw for curiosity seekers in the area, who have been filing by and taking photos for decades. Six concrete support pillars look like landing gear beneath the main part of the building. The Space House sold on the auction block in March 2008 but the buyer defaulted, so it’s being offered for “whatever the public is willing to pay”.

36. Hundertwasser Haus – Vienna, Austria


Austrian artist Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser may not be well known across most of the world, but anyone who has visited Vienna knows of his iconic creation, the Hundertwasser Haus. It’s an apartment complex characterized by patchwork paint, undulating floors, the incorporation of vegetation and a façade with seemingly no rhyme or reason to its structure. Hundertwasser reportedly took no payment for designing it, considering it a public service to prevent something ugly going up in its place.

37. The Lotus Temple, India

When the concrete suppliers threatened to put up prices threatening the labourers work, the labourers offered to go round and “amend their position” with some roughhouse tactics. The architect intervened (almost unheard of) explaining how they were all building a temple of unity where violence could play no part. In light of this, the concrete supplier cut his prices, increased production and contributed to the construction of this extraordinary building, a genuine temple to celebrate life and which now receives more visitors than the Taj Mahal which remembers the death of the wife of a man who almost bankrupted the state coffers with his self-interested passion.

38. The Atomium, Brussels

The Atomium is a monument built for Expo '58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Designed by André Waterkeyn, it is 102-metres (335 ft) tall, with nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. Tubes which connect the spheres along the 12 edges of the cube and all eight vertices to the centre enclose escalators connecting the spheres which contain exhibit halls and other public spaces. The top sphere provides a panoramic view of Brussels. Each sphere is 18 metres in diameter. Three spheres are currently (2008) closed to the visitors, others are easily reachable with escalator. The vertical vertex contains a lift which was considered very fast and advanced at the time of building (the speed is 5 m/s).

39. Nautilus House, Mexico

The open concept inside the house is dominated by smooth surfaces, spiral stairs and natural plantings that makes the inhabitants feel like they’re living inside a snail who swallowed the entire contents of somebody’s back yard. While the house is surrounded on three sides by the bustling Mexico City, its West side (where most of its portal-style windows are located) has a breathtaking view of the mountains.

40. Solar Furnace, France

The term "solar furnace" has also evolved to refer to solar concentrator heating systems using parabolic mirrors or heliostats where 538 °C (1,000 °F) is now commonly achieved. The largest solar furnace in the world is at Odeillo in the Pyrenees-Orientales in France, opened in 1970. It employs an array of plane mirrors to gather the rays of light from the sun, reflecting them on to a larger curved mirror. The rays are then focused onto an area the size of a cooking pot and can reach 3,000 °C (5,430 °F).

41. The Neverwas Haul

This was at Burning Man ‘07 and the outside doesn’t do it justice. Inside everything is true to that style from the books on the shelves to the furniture. There is an elevator inside and a balcony on the roof that overlooked the black rock playa. (a comment by a visitor)

42. Device to Root Out Evil, Vancouver, Canada

Date: first exhibited in the 1997

Architect (artist): Dennis Oppenheim

Purpose: Sculpture

More info: It was too hot for New York City; too hot for Stanford University. But a controversial, imposing sculpture by renowned international artist Dennis Oppenheim finally found a public home in laid-back Vancouver.

A country church is seen balancing on it’s steeple, as if it had been lifted by a terrific force and brought to the site as a device or method of rooting out evil forces.

43. The Church of Hallgrimur

Location: Reykjavik, Iceland

Date: 1945-1986

Architect: Guðjón Samuelssondesign

Purpose: Church

More info: The Hallgrimskirkja (literally, the church of Hallgrimur) is Lutheran parish church that in addition to being very unusual is also a very tall one, reaching 74.5 metres (244 ft) height. This Lutheran parish church is the fourth tallest architectural structure in Iceland. It is named after the Icelandic poet and clergyman Hallgrimur Petursson.The church is also used as an observation tower. It took incredibly long to build it (38 years!) Construction took time from 1945 to 1986.The Architect of this building is Guðjon Samuelssondesign.

44. Cubic Houses, Rotterdam

Location: Overblaak 70, 3011 MH Rotterdam, Netherlands

Dates: 1982 - 1984

Architect: Piet Blom

Purpose: housing complex

More info: The original idea of these cubic houses came about in the 1970s. The concept behind these houses is that Piet Blom tries to create a forest by each cube representing an abstract tree; therefore the whole village becomes a forest. The cubes contain the living areas, which are split into three levels. The triangle-shaped lower level contains the living area. The middle level contains the sleeping area and a bathroom, while the top level, also in a triangular shape, is used as either an extra bedroom or a living space.

Time Traveling: Two Favorite Comics Artists from the 90's!

Back in the day in Bulgaria (and even now to some degree) it was very hard to find music magazines like SPIN and the Rolling Stone. In the early 90's, the years when the punk broke, you had to go to O4Z, an underground music store located in the small central streets of old Sofia, which smelled like a damp cellar and its walls were covered with graffiti all the way to the ceiling. Down the stairs there were rows of guitars hanging from their necks like gallows-birds and racks with black t-shirts with metal bands logos; there were skulls and bones and chains and bongs and pipes and nose-earrings and belts with spikes and military boots on shelves all over the place. O4Z translated as MAVO - Monsters and Villains Organization, as it was in the Teddy Ruxspin cartoon.

The shop was always full with smoke and quiet but heavy music, and that's why I liked going there so much. It was adventurous. I used to buy cassette tapes with bootleg records of Nirvana concerts and I still keep my Alice in Chains t-shirt I got from there in 1994 - it's now only holes and threads sticking out, but it's maybe the most precious piece of clothing that I own.

Once I was down at the shop, looking longingly at two tapes on the counter, unable to choose between them. I only had the money for one. The first was a Sonic Youth album and the second was the brand new No Quarter by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. I was feeling uneasy because I knew that the guy behind the counter was very close to losing his patience. He was hairy and smelled like last night's liquor, and I was only 15. At the end he took my money, wrapped the Sonic Youth tape and slapped the Page&Plant cassette in my hand. "It's a gift," he said, "Go ahead! Enjoy it!".

I gave it to my Dad for his birthday later this year. He was the one responsible for my love of rock and roll anyways...

So if you wanted to find any sufficient news about the world of rock, you had to browse through a binder full with clippings and torn out magazine pages sorted out in order of the band it wrote about. You could buy a page for less than one leva. My best find was an article about Courtney Love supplied with pictures of her lying on a messy bed surrounded by pillows and guitars. She was wearing a lace cream-colored dress and there was a ribbon in her bleached hair. Courtney Love looking dazed and confused, her trademark, and on a wall behind her NATION OF ULYSSES was written in lipstick. I had this photo taped above my study desk at home and I used to look at it for hours, wondering what it must feel like to live like this.

The distributors in the early 90's used to supply with western music magazines only a several newsagents in Sofia, and often only one copy of each issue, which was sold on the unimaginative price of 20 leva, while the only local music magazine Rhythm cost merely 3 leva or so. Not that there weren't people who wanted to read about music, it's just that they were too few. And the rock music fans in particular were often not financially enabled to pay as much. The distributors saw no profit in that and didn't bother. There was BRAVO, the Bulgarian version, but it was a pop media. The true rock fans used to gather their knowledge from information channels like the good old radio Tangra (a brilliant station with a pirate spirit which was later sold and changed, then went bankrupt and ceased broadcasting until the early 2000's when it came back online) but mainly by word of mouth. I'm still amazed how well that worked.

Someone would get a hold of a TOOL album and will talk about it with his friends when they gather in the neighborhood, and later they will get the tape from him and copy it. Then someone will write TOOL on a wall and I would see the name and wonder what it is (but know that it must be alternative because it's written among the names of bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam) and if I was lucky enough, I could stay late and watch MTV's 90 Minutes or Headbangers Ball, and they would play a song by TOOL. I didn't like them so much but I appreciated them because they made good music and good music was scarce.

MTV was scarce, too. My family had cable TV for the amazing period of 5 years and I think it was a sort of compensation for the lack of any other extra goods that our household could not afford after the big crisis in 1991-1993. I was the only one who watched MTV rigorously - I honestly believe that the channel was cool back then. It was already picking up the trend to commercialize and to transform good music into commodity but there still were artistic commercials and funny shows and, of course, Unplugged.



I have a strong fascination with the 90's culture. I was part of it and I enjoyed every single minute of excitement and hope and bitter taste it gave me. Today I wonder how it ever lasted so long... all those broken guitars and vocal cords and dreams. It was a thundery time, but it was sweet. Somehow it enabled me to do things by myself, to discover the world, to get to know how it works without imposеd rules and brainwashing advertisement. The 90's meant freedom to me, of the interesting kind. Everything was raw. Everything was underground.

Then, Kurt Cobain died and things blew up badly. Yet I think that the Seattle Sound, the alternative and art part of it at least, really faded away after the last Soundgarden album in 1996. Music changed then and the world changed with it. Again. The industry became a little more powerful, the messages became a little more simple and user-friendly, the fashion became a little cleaner. A little too much.

And somewhere in between, in 1995 to be exact, I bought my first SPIN magazine. I couldn't really afford it but I bought it just the same. It had Cobain's face in black and white for a cover (how clever - people were mostly done with grieving him by that time and recapping his death had become no more than a trick to sell another copy before the Next Big Think came up), many pages about rock music, and a fold up of Courtney Love in Versace outfit. There were a couple of cartoons I found inside too - and today they justify my purchase a 100%. One was by Joe Sacco, representing the Young Man as a Young Man - a satire about the end of the Grunge Era, and the other comics was by Peter Bagge (the author of HATE) , portraying the birth of the legendary Sub Pop Records.

I had lost the precious SPIN issue somewhere along the way, but I found copies of the two cartoons on the net (God bless technology). Here they are, and if you are roughly my age and with a similar nostalgic inclinations as me, you will most probably enjoy them well!

Click to enlarge!

Continental Train Wreck

Hurray! I finally found a rock band in London that sounds hard enough to me, and also grimy and melodious. It is in fact a duo. A Canadian duo. The words of the day are Continental Train Wreck.

I was shooting around Thames (with my Nikon, mind you) the other day, waiting for the sunset so I can capture some night city apparitions, when I heard some good noise coming from the South Bank. Approaching fast despite of the pain in my tired from tramping the city feet, I beheld two guys who appeared to be torturing a set of drums and a bass in a way that was disturbing for most of the tourists in the area and honestly freaking out the seagulls. For me, however, the noise was as powerful as if I was made of steel and the London Eye was one big magnet.

Under its ever-turning capsules, in one of which I got engaged at 135 feet, Dan Philippi + Nick Philippi were playing their music in a bit different romantic fashion - indeed the one that makes every rock soul to resonate with each distorted chord and to echo with every crash of the cymbal. I was reminded right there and then, completely unprepared (which is the best kind of surprise) and opened as a clam, that rock music is the best thing ever! YEAH!

Well, I didn't bang my head but I bought a £ 5 CD (homemade, still warm from the CD burner, wrapped in a page from an old music magazine), asked politely for a business card (saying: "IF YOU CAN'T CONVINCE THEM, CONFUSE THEM"), and took the time of a song to think about that feeling. Looking at the faces of the two brothers I was once again amazed by the discovery that rock musicians always look like children that had grown too fast but refuse to go further and to grow old. It was amusing and somehow exciting - in moments like this I understand how groupies feel. You just want to go up there on the stage (no stage here, only the pavement and the band with their gear) and hug them and tell them: "Guys, you're great!"

I decided to do that in a more elegant way, though, so I 'blog' them. Here, thank you guys for making me feel!

Continental Train Wreck's music is, obviously, strong and unique. They play drums and a bass, completed with a number of distortion and effect pedals. At the time I watched them live they didn't sing, but the recorded versions of their songs contain vocals by Dan Philippi. They do remind me of some other bands, but not in their style or sound, but in their spirit - The White Stripes comes to mind (a duo with drums and the eerie guitar techniques of Jack White) and also the crazy bass line of Queens of the Stone Age. The similarities end up here - this band sports a intensely individual mode of rockin'. Let me tell you about it. CTW sound fantastic live.

There's no much room for missing each other with only two instruments and no voice, yet the synchrony between Dan and Nick is perfect (and maybe it's natural as they are brothers). It was a bit too loud, just enough to curve the sound and to make the bass flow in a very cosmic way. The tracks were short and tight, performed with discipline but also with passion (and Nick explaining that they are still warming up between every new song). The bass carried out the melodies as well as the rhythm, which was very impressive and somehow surreal, as we are usually trained to expect and to search for higher guitar notes and low bass notes in a rock song. The drums, just a kick and a hi-hat, were managed by Dan with loving energy and precision.... Writing about music is almost like talking about food - it often leaves you hungry for something you can't quite name. Therefore, I taped the boys and if my words fail, there's always the real thing:

And if you like what you hear, go to Continental Train Wreck's myspace page and find out more. You can also find them at South Bank on a dry evening, and they play all night! Enjoy!

I Really Really Wish...

...to stop hearing about new cases of old ways to kill animals.

I also really wished to publish a cheerful post on an optimistic subject after all this thinking and talking about war and racism. Alas, the world is not the beautiful place I'm wishing for and working for. Yet.

M&S have changed their policy about selling tuna that is not dolphin friendly, or caught by means of overfishing after being influenced by a movie called The End of the Line. This movie, along with Food Inc., The Cove and Earthlings (which, I must warn you, is the most gruesome thing I've ever seen - I am a tough girl but I went trough a serious emotional and physical shock after I watched it and I don't think I ever fully recovered - still, it was also very healthy in a way. I am a vegetarian since) is a part of a new wave of awareness that is spreading, hopefully, wider and wider around the world, among all classes and nationalities and races and ages.

This awareness is needed to help people think with their heads before purchasing a food product and eating it in blissful happiness, not knowing that God doesn't have anything to do with it coming to their table, but we - the people. If out there there are people who murder dolphins as an industry, or skin foxes alive, the rest of the people should stand up and say: "No, we're not going to buy this and we're not going to eat it and we're not going to wear it!"

I believe that today everyone can survive, and more - can be healthy and happy - without eating battery chicken or without wearing fur. I will be sorry if I don't ever win Pulitzer or if I never go out in Space, but come on, I will not regret for not tasting whale meat. I will be grateful.

It is very, very hard for an average person to eat only free-range, organic, fair trade and environmentally friendly products - they are expensive and not always easily obtainable, but it's worth the shot. It's all about choice. Choice is power and we must take it back, because it concerns our health and our future. I am not going to get all political here, but I must say it clear and loud: I refuse to be a part of this atrocity! Destroying Nature in order to produce cheap low-quality foods (or expensive foods for rich people who eat in fancy restaurants in the time they're not busy making more money, which consequently more often than not contributes to destroying Nature further) that make us sick and addicted, that dictate our lifestyle and brainwash us with advertisement that is all lies. I don't know when exactly this happened but I suspect it was somewhere between Fight Club and The Battle of Seattle.

Come on, be honest: is that real progress?! Is that the great evolution of the human kind? Is that the ultimate height that we can reach? Is that a dream to hope for and work for and teach your children to believe in?

I guess that the people reading my blog (yes, all 4 or 5 of them) will agree easily - once again I'm preaching to the converted and wasting my breath. But to those who think that living for the moment is "cool" and that thinking for the future is too complicated and silly - you guys watch those movies and think again.

Thinking is good. It took us so far. Now we have to think some more and act accordingly.

Here are the trailers of The Cove and The End of the Line. I hope I will manage to spread the word and to send the right message. And remember: the easiest was to help animals is not to eat them! The hardest way is still about to be discovered...

Some Thoughts on Racism

I am a white 28 years old woman from Bulgaria who never traveled outside of her country until she was 25. I was 20 when I first met a black man in person, and I never had a friend from other ethnic background till I met John, who later became my boyfriend, fiancee and a husband. I have seen racial diversity only in films and I have encountered different cultures only in magazines and books before I started traveling. My parents are white, my upbringing is very traditional, and my education until recently was limited.

Still, in spite all the factors that should have contributed to a certain suspiciousness and possibly to a low level of tolerance towards different races and cultures, I am not a racist. Here you go - I do not understand racism. Oh, how I want to understand! If I did, I could fight it better. For now, people just call me an IDEALIST and discard my arguments against racism as silly. This annoys me, but also makes me feel sorry for them. If someone needs to have an enemy to blame for all that is wrong with his own life, then this person has a lot of things that are wrong. A lot!

But listen:

According to the 2001 census quoted in Wikipedia, Bulgaria's population consists mainly of ethnic Bulgarian (83.9%), with two sizable minorities - Turks (9.4%) and Roma (4.7%). It's been almost 20 years since the political climate changed in Bulgaria and people not only travel more frequently abroad, but also foreigners can explore the country and bring their impressions back home, for better and for worse. Even before the change the Bulgarian Black Sea coast was a main tourist attraction for German, Russian, Polish and UK visitors.

Lately, more and more foreign people visit and even settle in Bulgaria. Englishmen found out that the land there is cheap and pretty, and they buy houses in small mountain villages, raise cattle and help rebuilding the communities. International business flourishes in the big cities and things have, generally, opened up quite a lot, especially after Bulgaria became a member of the EU. Yet, you can seldom see black people in Sofia and non in the country. Asian people, mainly Chinese and Vietnamese, have come to Bulgaria to live and work, and despite the fact that the economic state is harsh, they maintain a successful restaurant businesses and, of course, attire merchandise.

In Bulgaria there are many Romas. There are also many Turkish people, and although both groups are technically Bulgarian, no one calls them that. They call them Gypsies and Turks. To make you understand my point I'll try explaining how white Bulgarian people think. It is not an easy task. I am slightly embarrassed by their mentality and very, very frustrated - like many other things, racism is rooted deeply into the consciousness of all Balkan nations, but although some like to make it a complex issue, it is for me plain and obvious enough.


Romas, or Gypsies, are descendants of travelers and nomads with Arabic or Indian roots. I am not familiar with their history, but I know some things of personal experience and observation on their contemporary cousins in Bulgaria. For the most part, they live in small neighborhoods or communes, just like Fillipovtsi in Sofia (10 minutes away from my home) or Stolipinovo in Plovdiv. Mainly, they are scattered and keep together, for reasons of both intolerance by the majority of white Bulgarian and because of the natural tendency of people to live among 'their own'.

Now, the Bulgarian gypsies are poor. With the exception of the 'big bosses' of a few Roma families, and couple of hundred educated members of the minority (as Bulgarians keep insisting to call them) who hold well paid administrative posts and have good professions, or small businesses, most gypsy people are among the poorest in Bulgaria. I will not even attempt to give reasons why, I will try only to present with facts. I can speculate that the gypsy people tend to avoid integration and education and that's why they fail to get good jobs, but even if that's true, what are the reasons that this happens?! Is it because gypsies are often objects of discrimination and are not given high positions (or even any position) just because they are gypsies? Or it's because they have to find a way to work instead to attend school, because they have no money to pay for the clothes, shoes and books they need for school?

Maybe yes, maybe not. The fact is, however, that the majority of white Bulgarians explain this problem as this: Gypsies are lazy and stupid by nature, and that's why they don't do well in society.

Gypsies are neither lazy nor stupid. Such generalization is not only ignorant, but also cruel. It is, most of all, easy. When people find such formula, they stick to it because it relieves them from the responsibility to think further and to act. Most white Bulgarians, I suspect, find the situations with the gypsies convenient. They can point fingers and say: "This is what is wrong with our society." Unfortunately for them, the statistics show a different truth. A huge percent of the white Bulgarian children come out of school practically illiterate and they rarely continue with their higher education. The level is critically low, and my father who is a high-school Physics teacher can confirm that. He told me the following story the other day:

"I met a colleague of mine yesterday in the hallway of the school as I was going in class. She said: 'You'll never believe what happened to me!' I have been a teacher for more than 16 years and I doubted that she can ever surprise me with something, yet she did.

'During the test last week,' she told me, 'a student of mine submitted an empty double sheet folded in two. Just before he exited the room I opened the sheet and I saw 10 leva (5 euros) lying in the middle. I called my student back and I asked him what is that. He told me that I knew what that was....'

I asked her in which class did this happen. She replied it was in 8th G.

'I took him to the principle's office and explained the problem. The principle got really upset and raised her voice. My student at first stood his ground and actually said that his mother knew all about the money.' I laughed because it seemed so ridiculous. Not only the fact that an 8th grader would try bribing a teacher (imagine what would he do in 10th grade when things will certainly become harder, not to mention that a person who buys his grades doesn't get any knowledge whatsoever), and not by the fact that the sum offered was what is was (who sets the tariff?!) but by the fact that the boy's mother was in with him on that!!!

My colleague continued: 'Soon, however, the boy became frightened and started crying. He was facing severe punishment and probable suspension. Then, pressured by the circumstances, he said: "But I've done this with Mr. Petrov too...and it was all right!"'

Needless to say, my father was speechless. He laughed it off, because we, Bulgarians, are used to laugh. You have to laugh when you live in a country practically built on absurdities. This boy was white Bulgarian. Some will argue that a gypsy boy would not have had the money to give or even if he had it, he wouldn't use it for something like this....but I think that such argument only exposes racism further and must not be taken seriously.

But let's continue. Gypsies can be seen begging on the streets. Most of them are not homeless, but have made begging a sort of profession. That's a fact. Adults send little children out there and at the end of the day they collect all the money the children have begged from passers by. This is practically a business. And there's a training in it - children are supposed to look as poor as possible, dirty and hungry. It is a sad sight. It is heartbreaking. Yet, white Bulgarians often not only ignore the begging Gypsy children, but also chase them away like flies. How many times I've heard: "Go away you fucking gypsy shit." You see, I don't believe in charity in the form of giving money or goods to people without any control or a possibility of involvement. If there are people in need, you help them get on their feet so they can work for their own bread. But the lack of any mercy the white Bulgarians show is atrocious. They don't see the begging kids as children, they don't see them as human beings at all. They see them as little monkeys who will climb on you head if you offer them food in your hand.


There were monkeys. And bears. The dancing bears were a great attraction when no one among the white Bulgarians had ever heard of animal rights, not even mentioning human rights. Gypsies have many ways to make you give them money. I would say that they earn it, even if it's in their own way (not everyone can be an engineer or a white collar city worker). They said the bears were tortured and that everyone can play the gadulka, so why we have to give those people money?! Gypsies are very musical people. They play well and when they can't, they at least do it with a feeling...I will always give money to a performing Gypsy. Their music is fascinating - pretty and sad at the same time.



Well, other ways of Gypsies to obtain money is not as lyrical. I was at the hospital once, struggling with a kidney infection, and during the short walk in the garden of the hospital I heard two doctors talking about a patient they have received two hours ago. It was a girl of 4 hit by a car. A Gypsy girl. The police was questioning the mother a few meters away from us, and the mother was crying in her passionate, almost theatrical Gypsy way, with a lot of curses and appeals to her Gods. I asked the doctors what had happened. You see, there's a big intersection near the hospital entrance. The hospital itself is the biggest in Sofia and handles the emergencies and the worst cases. The story went that the mother of the girl who was ran over actually pushed her in front of the car. It was a 'standard' performance Gypsy people gave, the doctors told me. When the kid was hit, they demanded a pay off from the driver as a compensation and an insurance - the mother then would not sue him...And because the hospital was so close by, the kid was taken care of fast, and with little luck it survived.

I am apt to believe this story. The doctors who told me were all white Bulgarians but they seemed not to care if their patients are Gypsies or not. They were just a couple of tired surgeons who have seen a lot, and making up such story somehow didn't fit. There is another reason I'm willing to take it as true - I worked for the Police Force for long enough to see some stuff myself.

Our dispatch room was located on the same floor as the heavy criminal detectives and the robbery specialists. Many times we had coffee together and talked about our work. The chief officer of Robberies once saw my wallet sticking out of my jeans pocket and he smiled his cynical smile, saying: "I hope you don't carry your wallet like this out there!" Of course I knew better; Sofia is a heaven of the pick-pockets, but I still listened in dismay at his story. He told me how Gypsies are trained in stealing from very young age, and by their early teens they become masters in the craft. Mothers hold their babies with one hand, and pick your pockets with the other - that's how the infants "learned from the crib". Fathers cut their children's fingers off, so they could more easily reach in your purse. They could look you in the eye, the officer said, and rob you blind.

I don't have any reason not to believe him. In the morning after night shift we used to receive a bulletin with the crimes that have been done during the night. Most of them are robberies and most of the doers were 'from Roma background', as the official police expression goes.

Then why, dear friends and neighbors, why the two times I have been mugged was by a white Bulgarian guys? Why I have never had problems with Gypsies? I have never confronted a Gypsy person - I leave them alone and they do that too. Yes, I hold my purse tight when I ride the public transport in Sofia, and I try smiling to the flock of kids that beg me for some change 'please, kako, please, give me a quarter, you are very pretty kako!' but if I know something about human nature is that your true feelings always show up in your eyes. And I never looked at a Gypsy with hatred.

Or maybe I'm lucky...But somehow I know it's not luck. I just show respect and awareness to those people and they don't cause me any trouble. No words are necessary. Gypsies are like playful loud kids - if you tease them, they will make you crazy. And they will like it.

And why not? I've seen two groups of white Bulgarian football fans colliding and I promise you, it's not pretty. Aggression and hatred exist everywhere. I was thinking: some people say they hate Italians, but who doesn't like pizza?! Who doesn't want to wear Armani?! And the French - oh, they are so lazy and whatnot, but tell me is there anyone who would refuse a nice little French perfume? And there are all the rest racial stereotypes: Germans are workaholics with no sense of humor, Eastern Europeans have no manners, Russians are drunks and all South Americans ever wanted to do is to dance and have fun!

So according to the racial stereotype, Gypsies are cruel to their children...and they have at least 10 with each wife. Now, they do have a lots of children. Just as some Catholics (for different reason, but with the same effect). Who are we to judge how many children one should have?!! It has proven very popular in America to have a reality show if you have more than 5 babies. Give me a break!

And as cruelty goes, I am ready to argue that in any given white 'civilized' society, including Bulgarian, domestic violence holds 1st place in the list of overlooked but extremely serious problems. How many of you have heard of the story about the Gypsy girl in the hospital I just told? Yes, Bulgaria is a small country and who gives a fuck about it anyways. But I bet that you have heard too many stories of domestic abuse, you see it in the news every single day and you even might have experienced it. Slapping and punching? Humiliation? Oh, that's very normal.

Okay, I am not supporting either of the above; obviously I am playing counselor for the both sides here and I warned you that it's not easy. Everyone saw Slumdog Millionaire and what they did to the begging kids is the truth - I know that in Bulgaria too they mutilate children so they could beg more efficiently....I don't know what to say about that, except it's illegal, immoral and gruesome. Still, such generalizing is wrong. Not all Gypsies do it.

Gypsies are dirty and often smelly and have teeth missing. Yes. But is that enough to hate them? They don't often have access to health care and often lack running water. White Bulgarians say that Gypsies just don't like to take showers, but I never met a person who really dislikes taking showers. Discrimination works on so many levels and this is one of the lowest. It is true that Gypsies have horse carriages and go around gathering garbage. This makes them dirty, but also makes them the biggest percent of Bulgarians who actually recycle! What about that!



Their scavenging groups often attract stray dogs and we have too many stray dogs already (not Gypsies fault, but the government's!) and this might be dangerous. They also abuse the welfare system and take benefits they don't always need. So many problems and so less willpower to fight them. But let me be clear - those problems taken all together make an average of maybe 3 percent of the overall amount of problems that Bulgaria has. Top 5 - corruption, organized crime, bad economic decisions, low level of professional educations, pessimism among all ages and social groups.



We were visiting friends of ours, a Bulgarian family who moved recently to the English countryside. They are doing exceptionally well, living the perfect bourgeoisie life of the suburbia with a house and two cars, big TV and barbecue. They have earned it. They worked hard for it. After dinner we started talking about racism. I don't know why this subject always comes out when John is among Bulgarians (hahahahaha). Anywho, the temperature was raising gradually and finally escalated when our hostess said that she is not a racist but doesn't like Gypsies. I tried to argue. I said that people are not forced to like all other people - suit yourself, dislike people as much as you like! But have a reason to dislike them, and have a good reason. I can't dislike someone because he's a Gypsy. If he steals and cheats, if he has bat temper, if he wants to hurt me...I listed all those negative qualities and actions which might prompt me to dislike someone and I stated that I will this someone has them, I will freely dislike him even if he's fucking PINK in color.

She called me an IDEALIST. I wanted to call her a racist, but I felt bad. It's very very hard to have racists for friends. It's a sliding scale and I'm not saying that she is ready to put all Gypsies in the gas chamber...but in my heart I know that she is intolerant. Her argument was this:

"When you have kids, you'll know!"

Well thank you very much! Now I know that one day I will be complete human being! I don't even realize how unwholesome I am now...Ha! Using a child to justify your own misconceptions about races and people is ridiculous. Instead of trying to teach this kid to be open minded and to accept differences (and isn't it how the world is being changed - one person at a time, one day at a time), she will teach him in being a hater. And being different is not always a skin matter. What if there is a disabled person in your family? What if you lose a leg? How nice it would be then if you hear someone saying: "Oh, I don't want my child to me near this cripple!"

Oh, and I have taken care of a kid. I have raised my niece since she was a baby. We never had anything against Gypsies. They are not our enemies! Ally, my niece will be 7 on Sunday. She knows that black people are called black people and not by another word which our bourgeoisie friends used not until very recently, when they had to learn better if they wanted to live in a developed European country. Ally lives in a county with a lot of problems, but if we do our job to raise her right, she herself will have a lot less, no matter where she goes.

I know I'm probably preaching to the converted here. Something tells me that racism is still happening nevertheless. There are segregated proms in America and a considerate amount of extreme nationalists, who won seats in the Euro Parliament in the last elections...

Didn't we already evolved enough?

1957. The first day of Dorothy Counts at the Harry Harding High School in the United States . Counts was one of the first black students admitted in the school, and she was no longer able to stand the harassment after 4 days.

War - The Ugliest Word

Two days ago was the day in 1972 when a girl named Phan Thi Kim Phuc was photographed naked and covered in napalm, running down a road among many other terrified children in Vietnam.

I had many arguments with different people about war. They could never convince me that war is good for humanity or that it had or will ever have any positive outcomes. They, however, succeeded in seriously pissing me off! I don't understand how human beings with mothers, fathers, children and friends, people with brains and hands and legs, people who have jobs and education and life, for Christ's sake, still willingly vote for war, advocate war and participate in war. I just don't get it!

War is that picture.

Take a good look.

1972. Trangbang, South Vietnam, 8 June 1972. Phan Thi Kim Phuc (center) flees from the scene where South Vietnamese planes have mistakenly dropped napalm.

Many wars have been led before and after Vietnam. They all brought destruction, death and sorrow upon this world and neither one brought prosperity or happiness. Did you know that in the World War II 73,169,900 people died. That's SEVENTY-THREE MILLION, ONE HUNDRED SIXTY NINE THOUSAND AND NINE HUNDRED people total. They died horrible deaths. Some died on the front, some died in gas chambers, many died of hunger, cold and sickness. Children died. Cities were destroyed. Culture was destroyed. Nature was destroyed. Lives were destroyed. What was gained? I'm not sure...

There are still insane dictators out there who want to rule by their own rules. There are still nuclear weapons ready to be used. There is still white supremacy all over the world and hatred and lust for power. Well, if war doesn't work against those awful, awful things, what does?! I'm not a great thinker and I'm not a leader, but I have family and a husband and I want to have children one day. All I want from life is to live a good one, to have some big laughs meanwhile and to try give my best back to the people I love.

Go ahead, call me silly and naive! Call me idealistic once again. I don't mind, but I'll tell you - I will do anything for the people I love. My worst enemy is war, because war takes loved ones away. You can argue forever, but the truth is that love is constructive and war is destructive. Yes, it's that simple. And the next time you want to say how useless the "Make Love Not War" slogan is, think about that:

1963. Thich Quang Duc, the Buddhist priest in Southern Vietnam , burns himself to death protesting the government’s torture policy against priests. Thich Quang Dug never made a sound or moved while he was burning.

February 1, 1968. South Vietnam police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan shots a young man, whom he suspects to be a Viet Kong soldier.

April 1980. A kid in Uganda about to die of hunger with a missionary.Karamoja district, Uganda.

1989. Beijing, China, 4 June 1989. A demonstrator confronts a line of People’s Liberation Army tanks during Tiananmen Square demonstrations for democratic reform.

1994. Rwanda. Hutu man mutilated by the Hutu ‘Interahamwe’ militia, who suspected him of sympathizing with the Tutsi rebels.

2003. An Iraqi prisoner of war tries to calm down his child.

North Korea - What's Going On There?

Something like:
"We must make the Great Leader comrade Kim Il Sung revolutionary ideology our faith and make his instructions our creed."

I am both fascinated and terrified by the country of North Korea. Terrified because of the bad news that keep coming out of there despite of the rigorously imposed media silence - new nuclear tests that are no doubt a serious threat for the world's peace and climate and, of course, the recent conviction of two journalists, sentenced to 12 years hard labor in a camp. I am also fascinated by North Korea, especially after I researched it in FLICKR: through a photo lens even crime and sin might appear...beautiful.

The truth is that there are people there, people just like you and me, children and mothers, young men that have other dreams then marching in tight lines, singing propaganda songs and dancing in thousands to celebrate a lie while feeling weak and hungry from systematic malnourishment. There are very smart and pretty people there, and I believe that even though they are guilty of obeying an insane and evil regime, they are not bad people. Robbed of choice they are, scared and even brainwashed - yes, but not evil.

This is all very romantic, but what is to be done? North Korea doesn't have any diplomatic relations with the west (not counting Cuba) and no international law has power over it. I and John were talking about it the other day, hypothesizing about how those people could be 'set free'. The American way met the Oriental way and he proposed war, I - riot. After short consideration however, we realized that war means death and sorrow (what's going to happen if North Korea uses its nuclear weapons? Think about that...) and riot means something very similar. If the regime goes down, it will make sure that as many people as possible go down with it as well. North Korea is behind technology and communication wise, but they still have 2 000 000 soldiers at the boarder...

We contemplated a liberation by means of superheroes with superpowers and laughed at that, but our laughter was bitter. We discarded the subject reluctantly, the way people just get quiet and still when everything is said, or when talking doesn't work any more. Still, I continued thinking about North Korea. Being aware is a powerful thing. Not much better than nothing, but still something. People risk their lives at this very moment to escape North Korea and I am thinking about them.

All the kids in North Korea are involved in the Pioneers, a Party operated movement. Children enter the organization in elementary school and remain there until adolescence. The children wear red kerchiefs, and when they are not at school, kids can roam the streets, but they have to remain with friends of their own age and gender.

You know, once Bulgaria was a Communist country. What NK has now is actually very far away from the ideals and principles of Communism, but can't help to see similarities and to understand in some bizarre and twisted way how life must feel there. I once too attended a Manifestation and I wore blue neck-tie (never got to wear the red Pioneer tie, in 1989 the Communism fell in Bulgaria). I once too sung songs and visited the Mausoleum where the body of one of the leaders lay mummified. Oh, I was a child of the Socialist Revolution....and somehow I remember all that with certain tender emotion. Bulgaria had built a social communism which was at least livable and functional. There were restrictions but there was also press and TV and imported goods, and some people did travel; and we were never hungry. We came close to be hungry AFTERWARDS, didn't we! The bumps on the road were real mountains and we struggled, but that came after, before we had a simple, quiet and happy life.

I'm not advocating communism here. As I said, Bulgaria wasn't a paradise, but it was a good place to live as any, at least in the last two or three decades of the regime. North Korea isn't. They had exhausted almost all of their natural resources and do not have almost any import or export. They murder people without trial and they kill people slowly by making them work for a hollow cause, for fake ideals. And, surprise, surprise, the personality cult towards Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il aided by fear and force, is what maintain the whole circus.

Former President Kim Il Sung is named the Eternal Sun. He was the leader of North Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death, when he was succeeded by his son Kim Jong-il. He was also the General Secretary of the Workers Party of Korea. He is designated in the constitution as the country's Eternal President. You can see his face everywhere in the country. North Korea runs on its own calendar, based on the Juche. In 2000 for example, North Korea was in Juche years, year 89!

In fact, I'm not a big fan of capitalism either. The change in Bulgaria came on a price - just read the news and you will realize that democracy there is not what democracy in America or in England is. It is extremely hard to decide what's best for the people, because deciding for all the people means centralizing the power once again. And I'll tell you something: I know from a personal experience that voting not always means choice.

I haven't found a political system that suits me perfectly yet, and at this late date (28 and too old to really believe in politics, knowing so much about life and human nature as it is) I am skeptical that I will ever find. My fault is that I am very critical and I can't stand to be told what to do, being it in the form of dictatorship or advertisement. I worked for the system for over 6 years in a free 'democratic' Bulgaria and I had my taste in authority...The only ideals I could believe in are being a hippie or being a grunge :)

Having the freedom to make choices in one of the great human things. Life is hard and life is not fair - in communism, in capitalism or in anarchy. Yet choosing is what people should be able to do for themselves. Bulgaria, and many ex-communist Eastern European countries, survived the change and I'm sure that the people in North Korea will survive it too. I hope that one day, and for the sake of all crushed dreams and lives I hope this day will be soon, the people in NK will decide that they want to choose for themselves and that they will be able to. It will be hard but it will be also good.

Here I'm posting some facts and notions by people who have actually been in North Korea this very year. Most photos and some comments by Eric Lafforgue.

Giant mass movement in the Pyongyang stadium. Each time the kids turns a page to create a new giant picture, they shout; it's really impressive, as it's mixed with the noise of thousands of pages turned at the same second...

Pollution in the city of Pyongyang...

In NK, every young man stay for 6 years in the Army. It means that for 6 years, they won't have many news from their families for most of them because there is no email, mobile or private phone in North Korea.

The highways in North Korea are huge and there are almost no cars. Planes could land there. You can even see kids playing in the middle of the road. Security is a major problem because children and old people are not used to seeing cars, so they cross over the roads at any time, without watching out for oncoming traffic...
The only cars you can sometimes come across on highways are military ones, and most of them are stopped by the side of road, broken down. Or you can see brand new Mercedes cars belonging to the north Korean officials passing by at very high speed.

One Star General Pak Chan Su. When we asked him why he had so many medals, he answered that he killed a lot of people!..Stupid question! Pyongyang , North Korea

The mass games Arirang - 100,000 people performing a choreographed show of simultaneous dancing and gymnastics on the pitch of Pyongyang's May Day stadium.

Mansudae Hill, in Pyongyang, where we were again invited to lay flowers and pay our respects to the Great Leader Kim Il Sung. Those girls were doing the same thing, and were filmed too by a man from the NK TV. Then later, the national TV broadcasted the pictures of foreigners coming from around the world to pay respect to the Leader. Masters in propaganda!

The lack of light in North Korea - another way of isolation.

A movie poster in the streets. Is it a love story? Not sure if people in NK are attracted by a movie that is not about spying!
North Korea produces a lot of movies. In September they organize a kind of Cannes festival in Pyongyang...
The Chollima studios are huge, with fake Japanese villages, Chinese quarters, English cottages... On TV you can watch 2 channels: one broadcasts movies and Korean shows, the second shows old news reports with Kim Il Sung welcoming Caucescu, African dictators, various communist leaders, etc. It is forbidden to have a satellite dish.

Music is everywhere: in the streets, in planes, in restaurants, in buildings, in buses, in the subway…If you are lucky you will even see some workers building roads, with a live military band to stimulate them in their endeavor.

On April 15, birthday of the late Kim Il Sung, Mass dancing on Kim Il Sung Square. More than 100 000 dancers are standing on the giant square. The audience is invited to join them. The music is performed by a live band.
The show lasts for one hour, then the lights are turned off, and less than 5 minutes the square is empty and everybody goes home in the dark streets of Pyongyang.
It’s a good time for the young people to meet each other, as there are no discotheques or bars in North Korea. Weddings have to be submitted to the Workers party for approval. During the ceremony, the young couple has to swear fidelity and faith to the Great leader. Weddings take place between people from the same castes.

Dare to Dream!

I was thinking lately....what are the craziest things I would do if I could. Things that doesn't necessarily involve money or the guts to do them. So I came up with the following list. No presences for originality, just some funny ideas!

• I would like to see the Earth from Space and to experience zero gravity.

• I would like to bathe in champagne!

• I would like to have a thoughts recording machine.

• I would love to meet an alien.

• I would love to see a real living dinosaur.

• I want to transport in the past and to see how things were back then.

• I want to see the future too!

• I want to live as a boy for a day.

• I really want to live as a cat for a day!

• I would like to do magic.

Sunday Apple

This is how I feel today! Sad but lovely, and most definitely strange.

I Have Tickets for FAITH NO MORE! Yeah!

The band did reunite and will play live on 14th of August at Spirit of Bourgas festival in Bulgaria!!! I am in ecstasy!

The Soundtrack of North London

Another video blog entry from our crazy crib! Enjoy!

Bon Appetit

We Heart Wolverine

Despite that in the last movie they got rid of all the edgy jokes and four-letter words, and made it a kid's tale, we still love Wolverine. He is mean, he is immortal and he is funny.

Here's my favorite part of the third X-Men: Wolverine VS The Kitten.

Aargh!

Oh!

Hello. Do you want some tea?

I see you have claws too!

Smells like fish....

I'm so cool!

Funny Quotes by Random Great People IX

• A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.

- Robert Heinlein

• Men live in a fantasy world. I know this because I am one, and I actually receive my mail there.

- Scott Adams

• I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

- Thomas A. Edison

• Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. Teach a man to create an artificial shortage of fish and he will eat steak.

- Jay Leno

• The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.

- Doug Larson

• We are the people our parents warned us about.

- Jimmy Buffett

• My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.

- George Bernard Shaw

• People find life entirely too time-consuming.

- Stanislaw J. Lec

• Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.

- John Kenneth Galbraith

• I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.

- Rita Rudner

• To err is human; to forgive, infrequent.

- Franklin P. Adams

• People who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy.

- Bob Hope

• It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

- Duglas Adams

• Many a man who falls in love with a dimple make the mistake of marrying the whole girl.

- Evan Esar

The Games We Used To Play

Happy International Children's Day!!!

John as a baby!

Me, 3 years old!

Earlier I published a post about my favorite children cartoons and movies. This got me thinking about all the games we used to play and the ways we passed the time when there weren't i-pods and video games and internet. It is amazing what I remembered! I realize now that I and my friends were lucky to live in such age between the communism and democracy, between tradition and change, in a still safe but dynamic world, roaming freely and depending only on our own imagination to have fun.

Here's a list of some of the most lovely and interesting activities I managed to recall. Some of those games will not make sense to most people - they are strictly Bulgarian, but for the most part they are perfectly universal!

• Gathering herbs.
• Collecting stamps.
• Elastic rope jumping.
• Movie game - One says the alphabet silently in one's mind and another says STOP. Then everyone has to say a title of a movie starting with the letter which was chosen.
• Collecting cardboard and glass bottles for recycling.
• Creating Lexicon - a notebook full of things you like with glued pictures and drawings inside. There is a list of questions on the front page. You show this to your friends and ask them to answer the questions and write them down in a new page in your notebook. That's how you got to know your friends better; their favorite color and meal and hobbies.
• Creating a reading diary with a list of all the books you have read.
• To play 'featherball'.
• To throw Frisbee.
• To search for a four leaved clover.
• To gather a 'Timur Brigade' and to help old people to cross the road or to clean the garden behind the apartment building.
• To climb trees.
• To play 'Cowboys and Indians'
• To collect postcards. The 3D ones were the most precious.
• To collect little calendars from around the world. The 'plastic' ones were the best!
• To collect napkins.
• To exchange postcards, calendars or napkins with other children.
• To play cards - WAR and Kent.
• To play 'Mikado'

• To play 'To Strike, To Strike..'
• To play 'King, Gate King, Open the Gates!'.
• To play 'Jumping Horse'.
• To play 'National Ball' or 'People's Ball'. It was my favorite ball game.
• To gather a gang.
• To spin a ring.
• To draw a house on the pavement with chalk, with the furniture and all, and to play 'family'.
• To find the magic ring of Arabella.
• To play tag - 'Jmichka'
• To make Ikebana.

• To make a bird feeding station.
• To chase firebugs at night.
• To organize a quiz with small prizes.
• To make a herbarium.
• To play spin the bottle (when we were 11 or 12).
• To build a camp fire.
• To roast potatoes buried in the ember.
• To tell each other ghost stories.
• To call the Queen of Spades.
• To knit bracelets.
  

• To make a paper doll with paper clothes.
• To greet Neptune in the sea.
• To make a kite and to let it fly.
• To make a rag doll.
• To give a rag or paper doll show at a homemade theater.

• To print a paper. Mine was called 'Friends' and lasted about 10 editions. I sold all of the copies myself at school and I was very proud of it.
• To read books. Lots of books.
• To make experiments with liquids and magnets and fire.
• To plant a bean and watch it grow.
• To learn Russian songs.
• To be a member of the local children's library.
• To play 'Drop a Handkerchief'.
• To build a tent.
• To build a house from cardboard.
• To build a house from snow and to have a war with snowballs.
• To have a secret whistle signal.
• To have a secret handshake.
• To have a secret second name.
• To look at the stars and to find Canis Major.
• To visit the Bells at the 'Flag of Peace' Assembly.

• To write a note, put it in a bottle and let it sail in the sea.
• To whittle little figures from wood.
• To make a hat from a newspaper.
• To have a pet, any pet.
• To play with 'Black Peter' cards.
• To eat 'Eskimo' ice cream.
• To drink boza and eat banichka.

• To play 'Blind Granny'.
• To play 'Broken Phone'.
• To go to the countryside at your grandparents' village and stay there for 3 full months.
• To build a sand castle.
• To try to learn to do magic tricks.
• To make a 'chair' with your hands with another kid and to carry around a third on it.
• To play 'Drunk Carrot'.
• To make a salter from a piece of paper.

• To draw and to make application posters.
• To try to arrange the Rubik's Cube.
• To play 'Oh, Happy King, Do You Have the Time?' hahaha!
• To make a tangle from a elastics and then to untangle it.
• To build a tree house.

• To collect 'Love is...' or 'Turbo' bubble gum pictures.

• To dress up in Mom's dress and heels.
• To listen to the morning story on the radio.

When I read this list now, and it is probably not even a full one, I can't help but wonder why I was so anxious to grow up.... :)

And here are some of the toys and stuff that were very popular amongst us a bit later, when the imported goods began flowing in Bulgaria and the information about the Western world became more accessible:

Dummy Candies

The cash register toy

The stick-on earrings!

The water pump game!

The whistle candy

The Attack of the Squirrel!!!

I don't know if I should love or hate London for that!