Thurs (14th) is the celebrated Teacher's Day in Poland, which is also common throughout most of Europe and many countries around the world, but unfortunatley, I've never heard of it in the UK, but it must happen! As a teacher on this day, you can be expected to recieve gifts and thanks in the form of; cake, chocolate, flowers and all important highlighter pens and stationery. There are no formal lessons this day and the pupils and teachers are expected to dress extra smart while at school. Though only one day in the year, I think it's an essential example of attempting to ease relations between teachers and pupils and not to see each others situations in direct opposites, plus I don't think anyone would argue with a day that could be full of cake eating.
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| White Factory (not one of mine) |
As we didn't have the after school English Classes this week, myself, two teachers and some of the pupils headed down to the
White Factory on Piotrkowska, luckily 5 mins walk from my flat. Initially the impressions of the factory were dissapointing, as I feared there would be endless rooms of old weaving machines, but there was only one, luckily. The majority of the factory is given up to a Tapestry Art Exhibiton, with a vast array of contemporary sewing, tapestry and textile based art from all over the world. Unluckly, I didn't take my camera this time... but I will be uploading photos soon.
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| Miraz |
Later that evening I met with some of the
Couchsurfers from Łódź and travellers in the area. For those unfamiliar with Couchsurfing, the main site is
here and more info is
here, my summary being that if you want to meet new people, travel, gain new experiences and restore your faith in humanity's ability for kidness, then give it a try. The problem being though that at these meetings and after the conversaitons of travel, I'm often thinking,
"oh I wanna go there... maybe...." The night finished with a nice dose of heavy Dubstep at the Bagdad Cafe, though the DJs mixing was a bit shoddy, I was still smiling from ear to ear from hearing intensily loud sub bass attacks.
Fri (15th) second official Polish lesson, slowly but surely making tracks with this one, my new favourite phrase being, "
jak leci?" which is used like "how's it going?" or "how you doing?", but the literal translation to English is something along the lines of, "how does it fly?" or "how is it flying?".
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| Alert! Alert! |
Soon after, I made my way to Lublin again, a last minute message convinced me to go back to this beautiful city for some ear melting punk noise at Lublin's Tektura. Still have to get adjusted the unknown condition of each train and the smoking laws when travelling by rail in Poland, still quite exciting for me and my wide, English eyes. We were treated to a delicious meal of Vegan food at the venue, cooked by Poland's no.2 Punk chef, Strus. So good I had 3 portions, and while looking at this plate of; kasza (grain), beans, tomatoes, salad, chillis, beetroot, onion, potatoes and much more, I wanted to give this to any person who has asked,
"Well, what do vegans eat?!" Plus I can't forget the homemade alcoholic cherries that were given to each paying punter...
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| Vaaza |
The gig was in celebration of Mike Champagne's birthday, and throughly awesome birthday celebration it was. The first band were
Miraż (Mirage), pretty raw but catchy all female punk/new wave stylings, good stuff! I missed most of Anemia 77, but from what I gather they were kinda sing a long old punk type stuff, I was informed they are part of the 'Punk Polka' scene, which runs in the nihilist vein of punk, with songs mainly about; drinking and fighting, but I gather they're keen Anti-Fascists! Both the US Latino bands, Deskoncidos and Vaaza shared members and as guessed, sounded quite similar, but that sound was awesome! Both pretty full on, d-beat/thrash/hardcore, with high energy and a real treat for the eyes. Alert! Alert! though were the real highlight, noisy and raw D-Beat/Crust with some moments of raw power, with a certain Japanese Noise Crust feel to it, heavily distorted and high end guitars with dual male/female vocals, with the reverb at 11, lovely stuff.
Sat (16th) woke up to a welcoming breakfast, made up of the remnants of last night's feast and plenty of coffee to start the day, with some interesting discussions about Polish history. Saw a little of Lublin, but I still think I have to spend a weekend here doing some discoveries. Lublin is a deeply catholic and traditional area part of Poland, last week there were 400 + demonstraters proclaiming that Jesus should be crowned '
King of Poland', this week we found posters for a kind of Polish Defence group, a typically conservative, racist and homophobic group with it's ideals in the distant past and generally not being very Christian. But unfortunatley, from what I've been reading, there is a rise of intolerance spreading across Europe, no suprises why this is all happening again...
Sun (17th) made it back to Lodz safe and sound, though much colder, the '
winter of the millenium' that has been mentioned by many and in the press is creeping ever closer, with expected temperatures to be as low as -30C, in comparison to last year's feeble -20C. Think it's time to the get beard back to full health. I had my first jam with local youth powerviolence/grind dudes,
You are Wrong, felt good to play power chords and super speed again and it was nice to see a group so young with a solid set of songs who are eager to play in any way they can.
New beer reccomendation comes in the form of,
Lubuskie. After missing British Ale, this beer salvaged some of those tastes; a light Pilsner style lager, but made with Hops, 6%. Well worth checking out if you can find it.
I have another batch of Polish punk and hardcore sounds to upload as well, along with some experimental work from the
Magic Carpathians Project.
The Anthology of Experimental Polish Animation DVD remains unwatched too, but expect links soon.
Sat (16th) woke up to a welcoming breakfast, made up of the remnants of last night's feast and plenty of coffee to start the day, with some interesting discussions about Polish history. Saw a little of Lublin, but I still think I have to spend a weekend here doing some discoveries. Lublin is a deeply catholic and traditional area part of Poland, last week there were 400 + demonstraters proclaiming that Jesus should be crowned 'King of Poland', this week we found posters for a kind of Polish Defence group, a typically conservative, racist and homophobic group with it's ideals in the distant past and generally not being very Christian. But unfortunatley, from what I've been reading, there is a rise of intolerance spreading across Europe, no suprises why this is all happening again...
Had my first adventure on Polish trains to Warsaw with Tim, as most people have mentioned, the trains are pretty slow, but we got there in good time and was a pleasure to have non-stop chats about travels, music and expectations. The gig was in a small cafe at the Arts Department of the Warsaw University. Though not playing any gigs that weekend, I was treated to an awesome level of hospitality; food, drink and somewhere to sleep, it couldn't've been better. The gig had a quiet turnout, I was hoping to see more of The Loft Conversion, but the company and welcome made the night great. Sat (8th) we were treated to a breakfast at Relaks, a cafe on the outskirts of the centre, walking through the doors and hearing The Cinematic Orchestra's - 'The Man with a Movie Camera' soundtrack and seeing the walls covered in old Polish Tourist Board posters cheered my little face. Though only seeing a small part of Warsaw, I know I have to see more, and I will be doing very soon...
There were plans for Tim to play another gig in between Warsaw and Lublin, but it fell through, so we were left with an empty slot. A last minute text and phoning session ended in Tim playing in the front room of our flat on Sun (9th). Fine friends from Łódź came and the night was rather awesome. Tim played to a small audience of no more than 15, with candles and a backdrop projection of Polish Animation. Trying to sum up how this night was is difficult (not due to alcohol....), but in all it was a pleasent gathering of Łódź dudes, and Tim. See photos below for details.
Though none of the bands really grabbed me, Drown my Day were solid and funny, but Setting the Woods on Fire, were a nice suprise, as for someone who is very specific about the kind of emo they enjoy, they seemed to have the right mix, without becoming whingey, moany or too melodramatic, which is where most emo starts to irritate me. Linkage - 
Sunday (3rd) included a nice little stroll with the housemate to 2 of the many parks of Lodz... see photos below... And we finally made it to see the main exhibition of the Biennale Festival, to which we are neighbours. Located in an old cinema, the cinema currently not in use and is instead used for one off arts events and festivals. The exhibiton felt like an adventure, with homemade arrow signs pointing in all directions around the building, with us not knowing which rooms were empty and which had art, needless to say the; broken windows, radiators, flaky paint on the walls and other signs of degradation added to the atmosphere of the show. You could chose to float in each room as you pleased, some simple pleasures including floral sketches on walls and blocks of abstract painting. And to more complex videos on traditional Polish funeral song, Italian volcanos, naked men on Piotrkowska and other films focussing on birthdays, memories and the past. Easily one of the best art exhibitions I've been to in a long time.
