Frozen spinach hearts, Latin speaking horses and mind bending Grindcore

Friday (24th) was another day of exploration around Łódź, trying to tick off the many places to see in this never-ending city. First was the Church, or Katedra, which is 2 minutes away from the flat. I wouldn't even like to attempt to describe the style of architecture of the building, but you can get a link here, though Google translated, you get an idea of the place. There was a service at the time, the songs during these services still catch my attention, and the church is welcome to guests, but maybe not so touristy during the sunday mass, but any God doubting heathen can still enjoy the intricate, complex and grandiose design of this church.

I later ended up in one of the many parks of Łódź, which I gather was the Park Staromiejski, closest to Manufaktura. Many people told me before I made the move, that Poland in Autumn was when you could see the country at it's most sparkling and beatiful, and now I see why. As most people from Łódź, Łódź-ians (perhaps?!), will agree, the city is blessed to have so many green areas in a mass of dark and decrepit buildings from years gone past, and from what I've read there are plenty of hidden sculptural, artistic and natural treasures in many of the other parks around the city.

Along with the lovely greenery, art and festivals never seem to stop in Łódź, with exhibtions and shows happening throughout the year at all times. The excerpt attached below is from the Fokus Łódź Biennale 2010  the photo comes from Miru Kim's 'I pig therefore I am'. Which was refreshing to see animal rights and animal welfare issues in the public's reach without giving the impression of  being preachy or being an ignorable single issue protest, the description reading,

Miru Kim's I Pig therefore I am

The work is about the absurdity of mass production of animals
and how that relates to our own lives. Seeing images of hog
farms itself has an emotional impact on most people. I add myself
in the space to add an element of direct contact between
the pigs in the industrial farm and the audience (human
onlooker). There are many interpretations possible also
because of the cultural connotations of pigs. I am mostly
interested in pigs as creatures that are very similar to humans.
I found it appropriate to place the photos of pig farms in the lightboxes
in the pass. It brings more attention to how the urban dwellers
ignore the "ugly” parts of industrial production of what they eat.
The light-boxes also turn the crowded and sometimes dangerous
pass into something else, into a kind of art-space.

'ATM'

Suffering Mind

The evening brought one of my most anticipated events of the week, a loud, noisy and mind bending grindcore gig with Polish grind dudes, Suffering Mind. At the same venue as last week's affair, the Bycze Oko, though the turnout was smaller, the atmosphere was as welcoming and for me, a lot more fun. Diffenbachia, a local bunch, were tight and more on the metallic side of grind (no links, sorry!) then a band, who we'll call ATM for now, played a fun and catchy style of goregrind, with a nice dose of silly dancing and a fast cover of Queen's 'We Will Rock You'. Suffering Mind ended the night with short, sharp set of Phobia style grind, living up to the smiles they created on my face when listening to them on record, though myself and many others could have happily seen them playing for longer. I was also introduced to a special brand of DIY Vodka,  which safe to say, was strong. Also met some more nice punk folk, including Kuchar and discussing the future release of Suffering Mind's 2" record, and have further cemented plans to do a Grind/Powerviolence band in Łódź, results to follow.

The Cameraman's Revenge

Suffering Mind

Saturday (25th) I made a trek over to the Se-Ma-For Film Festival closing night, with fellow grind and film nerds, Paweł and Paulina. Se-Ma-Four is one of Poland's most prolific and active animation studios, specialising in puppet animation, opening in 1947, the studio has created some of Poland's most recognisible children's characters and short animations, including the Oscar award winning animations, Peter and the Wolf and the 1983 film, 'Tango',  by Zbigniew Rybczyński. The evening consisted of a lot of 'dziękuję bardzo' s (thank you very much) and speeches from the organisers and directors, plus screenings of animations from the early 1900s including work from pioneering animator French Georges Méliès and Russian Ladislaw Starewicz. The films were accompanied with live improvisations from two groups of Warsaw origin.  We also treated to a rare piece of film by Lodz animator, Witold Giersz, famous for his Czerwone i Czarne (the Red and the Black) animation and his work on children's animation. See the post above for short videos with some of this work.

Frozen Spinach Hearts. Don't ask.