From the 23rd of November 2012 until the 17th of February 2013, the Ludwig Museum, Budapest´s contemporary art museum, will hold the exhibition The Freedom of Sound. John Cage behind the Iron Curtain.

John Cage was undoubtedly one of the most influential composers of the past century. To put him simply as a great musical artist would be a far cry from the achievements this unique American artist got.

To be able to summarise John Cage´s CV, we could say that he was a pioneer in the art world. In many fields he is known as the father of electronic music. He experimented with rhythms, with musical structure and with the instruments themselves. He had a huge influence inside the movement known as aleatoric music. He was a revolutionary in each of his controversial works. This skill meant that he had a huge number of detractors, although they were overwhelmingly beaten in numbers by his supporters and admirers. Cage was influential to more than one generation of composers and artists. Modern dance wouldn´t exist as such as we know it today had it not been for the collaboration of John Cage and Merce Cunningham.

He also participated in the field of visual art of the 20th century. Chance was the essence in which he based his works. he also innovated in the use of materials to carry out his works. Foam, stones, cotton wool or even fire were used by Cage for the making of some of his most famous works.

He even produced a film, also based on the aleatoric phenomenons of One, although he never saw it on the big screen since he passed away before the film premiered.

John Cage is also catalogued as a philosopher and writer. His dense bibliography is made up by a large variety of books, essays and articles.

Without doubt, he was one of the most influential figures of the post-war avant-garde. His light illuminated even the composers of Eastern Europe, as he was invited to numerous events and conferences in the main capitals of these countries.

This exhibition pays a deserved tribute to the mark left by this 20th century genius in the countries behind the iron curtain. During that time, Cage collaborated often with the Ludwig Museum in Budapest.

For two months, the second floor of this museum will exhibit writings, documents, works of art and visual and sound files by both John Cage and many artists influenced by him. Also, many lectures will be carried out, documentaries will be screened and colloquia will be organized. This is a great chance to present this fantastic figure of the 20th century to the new generation.

The museum will offer guided visits in order not to miss a single bit of the exhibited material. You can book your tickets in advance from the official museum website for 5 euros each.

Hungary is a beautiful country and its capital, Budapest, has all the ingredients to leave the visitor satisfied: culture, leisure, history and hidden places with a lot of charm to get lost in for hours on end.

Salermico

To visit the Pearl of the Danube, we recommend that you rent Budapest accommodation apartments . There are many apartments to stay in when spending a few days visiting a city. There´s no need anymore to go to a hotel to feel at home when you´re travelling. If you´ve not tried it yet, I highly recommend it.

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Autumn is usually that time of the year that is often taken for granted, to which no one pays attention to. What I mean is that summer is always a solid block of heat and high temperatures while winter is bitter cold, it snows in some parts and there are fewer opportunities to leave home. Spring and autumn move from one pole to another. But autumn holds the promise of the end of an era, the days transfer from heat to a more comforting temperature. During fall longer walks occur due to the nice cozy weather, riding bikes, drinking coffee on the streets or just smoking a cigarette while the leafs fall of the trees is a tradition practiced by many. The smell in the streets also changes, the dry tree leafs spreads through the air, after every step you hear the rustle of the leafs under your shoes. Transiting through the city becomes more peaceful and especially if you live in a city like Budapest, the influx of tourists and walking is reduced and the center becomes more comfortable and interesting.

Budapest yet, despite the large number of tourists coming to the streets, does not reach the degree of madness that places like Paris, London, New York and Berlin have during their summers. Summer in New York for example, is very uncomfortable with so many tourists on the subway checking their maps lost in the vastness of the underground, filling the streets of Times Square photographing every single moving object, eating junk, food. The Eiffel Tower in Paris fills with never ending cues of people, the Thames river is plagued by a line of people taking photos. But Budapest,  despite much of its tourism its magic remains intact. Imagine walking in autumn through the streets, feeling  the beauty of the people of Hungary, enjoying your meal in the temperate climate of autumn without any haste, strolling through the ancient and romantic streets this wonderful city has to offer its visitors

Another reason to be in Budapest is the Autumn Festival taking place in this city every year. During these days, Budapest is full of options You can listen to or see the best art, music, photography, sculpture, dancing and many more experimental arts and fashion as well as all the new multimedia technology. Exhibitions and film screenings complete this great event. This is a feast for any art lover or anyone who wants to know more of what is done today in the world of contemporary expression.

For more information, visit the following website : http://www.fesztivalvaros.hu/

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Budapest and discover the wonders that this city has to offer during fall, along with its its vibrant cultural scene that has something for everyone. Do not miss this opportunity during fall, where it is also possible to find very comfortable flights and mingle with people on the streets more in talking mood than in a smashing bars one. Budapest Autumn magic just for you and your people.

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Translated by: Marc
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The pleasures of wine are told from remote times. This pleasant drink has accompanied the whole world during millenniums and it�s a true traditional in a large part of the tables in the Western world. The relation of wine with culture are diverse and deep, as is its symbology that goes from the religious rituals to pagan and profane ones. It is, undoubtedly, the drink that blesses churches and turns into Christ�s blood, with the sacred elixir that encourages intoxication, poetical deliriums and sexual romance. And there�s nothing more exciting that wine to increase the temperatures at the time of making love. Many of the well-known poets have sung odes to wine and its delicacies, the chaos that it provokes, its magical power and the inspiration that it produces.

Charles Baudelaire, father of modern poetry without a shadow of a doubt, is one of the main poets that made of wine a constant subject and from which many lessons can be learned. In his poetry, wine is a powerful narcotic that not only becomes the inciter of lust and passions, the blood of the lamb that spills and drinks to reach those �Artificial Paradises� that he talked about so much and he provoked with his harmonious and melancholic writings, but at the same time, in the voluptuous condition that, in the intoxication from wine, you can reach states of illumination and sacred pronunciation. That�s how wine provokes visions, brilliant ideas, even miraculous, and it�s the drink where dark and secret poetry reside.

That�s how the ancestral ceremonies to Baccus are a type of calling to the invocation of the unseen. The stupor that wine generates makes of the body a tame machinery for the gathering of imagination and dreams. And effectively, dreaming under the influences of wine becomes an experience that is blurred and filled with images of many colours. At the same time, wine incites lust and sexual desire in men and women, and is therefore the nocturnal drink that best favours romance. Imagine what it must be like to have some wine in Budapest and in the International Wine Festival. Certainly, a favourable moment for romance and to meet beautiful people who are open to adventure. This international festival takes place every year where thousands of exhibitors from around the world participate, as well as music, meetings and, above all, the animated participation of thousands of people searching for the perfect wine, the sweetest aroma that the mind can manage, romance and, who knows, maybe love too. For more information and the timetables of events of this festival on each day, visit this webpage:  http://www.aborfesztival.hu/

Alexa Ray

What better than getting apartments in Budapest and be part of this international festival with the best wine and where you will surely find someone with who to share it with and spend a moment of sensuality, party and beauty in one of the most romantic cities in the whole of Europe.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Usually summer festivals are a headache. It is not just about traveling and touring the grounds, you must pay attention to many things, also in the interest of a festival you run into people like you, attentive to everything, looking to have a good time, but the other side they move like herds where and then you end up tired, bored and uninterested to continue enjoying the music. Sometimes it makes you wonder why you did it.

And no wonder, nothing escapes this dismal market, so unfortunately necessary . Hopefully the bands will receive at least something of all that is invested in this generation of large festivals, especially in Europe. Interestingly however, despite all these problems cities like Budapest give these options a new form of tourism: a little classical and traditional music , opera and folk, as well as various surprises yet to be confirmed, the Budafest or Festival of Music is a welcoming option if you are in this city during those days. Look at it this way: leave behind all the noise that brings summer and enjoy the best traditional spaces such as churches, basilicas and theaters. Have you ever heard the clarity of sound in a concert in a church? Levels of reverberation in a church are always high, and prevent the sound from spreading and bouncing everywhere, creating a mantle of sound that startles you.

Travel costs throughout the summer vary , depending on how you handle your schedule, transportation, food and other options to enjoy while you are away from home. However, there is nothing better than living in a city at least four to six weeks to learn, recognize and understand how it is organized and learn about people, habits, hidden streets, strange places. The Budafest is a good excuse to stay in Budapest for sure. If you love classical music, this festival will transport you to magical  moments in beautiful locations within the city itself, where you can share with other connoisseurs of the genre unforgettable evenings. Also, its variety of presentations and interpretations, can be a pleasant experience for those who want to learn more about classical music and traditional opera.

For more information and updates of events, you can access this page: http://www.budafest.hu/

Alexa Ray

Nothing better than getting apartments in Budapest and enjoying these days of sun and music . Romance guaranteed.

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Translated by: Marc
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Video art is one of the most used ways of artistic expression in today�s world. From the first experiments that took place at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s by people like Nam June Paik, Andy Warhol or Fred Forest, the use of the video as a way of support, it has been used as well as an undisputed catalyst of images and resolutions, colour textures and moving figures, as an entrance so that sound can be more relevant in galleries and museums, chained to the image, in which way it became essential in performances, facilities and exhibitions. And, of course, despite cinematography and television already being audio and image united as issuers of meaning, on the other hand, the video gives any camera user enough potential to become the generator of visual and sound realities and the possibility of telling a story or changing history. The experience of the apprehension of the video is completely different. It�s not cinema, it�s not TV, it�s video!

That way, the democratic encounter with the video, is in understanding the rest of the possibilities that it holds and will hold. Today, all of us are potential video artists, from our multiple webcams, computers and webpages. The visual consumer of this time isn�t passive and shouldn�t stop being so. Recently, via YouTube, we�ve been able to be aware of peaceful, political movements in different countries, thanks to tapes that were uploaded onto the net in real time, informing a public who is ever-desiring for fresh information and, above all, with the will to want to “share” images, sounds, videos, art, etc. It�s funny to acknowledge that in the first experimental experiences with video, there are the first traces of video games, digital animation, 3D, current advertising and pornography.

And thus, the information unfolds around the world quicker and quicker and more precisely all the time. What we call “sharing” from social networks, is closer to a viral or contagious process, where information can�t stop and runs it�s course. Video art, with all of its potential and the tradition that it represents, has contributed during the last twenty years to create better communication and serving platforms, from its experimentalism to developing better information transmission methods on the net. The video art culture, it has to be said, comes in the same way with the sounds of electronica, digital curiosity and mass media. All of these phenomenons, discussions and projections of the best European video art, can be found at Crosstalk Festival of Video Art in Budapest, which will take place in July. For more information on the event, as well as timetables and presentations, visit this website which will shortly be updated:  http://crosstalk.hu/

Alexa Ray

Nothing better than renting apartments in Budapest and getting to know the best European video art. Have a great time, also, in one of the cities with more history and beauty that remain on the old continent. Art is always the best excuse to find new friends and problems.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Metalfest is the most anticipated metal music festival for the lovers of music�s most explosive genre, and which will take place in Budapest from the 3rd to the 5th of June of 2011  in the Youth Camp Leisure Centre. This festival known as the “Liberty Party” is celebrated outdoors attracts thousands of European Metal and specially Eastern European metal band fans, and is conceived as a open air event committed to the gathering of global metal tribes of the most intense metal bands

Heavy Metal or Metal Music was born in the early seventies and the term “heavy metal” is said to have been invented by William S. Burroughs in his novel “The Soft Machine” whose character Uranian Wally is nicked named  The Heavy Metal kid due to his addiction to hardcore drugs. There are others that situate the origin of this word after hearing some remarks about the quality of Jimi Hendricks music, qualifying it as heavy metal falling from the skies, even though the most assertive point out that heavy metal is related with deep decadence  and is an expression that gathers the social effects of the Vietnam war and the reflective crisis of ethic values in the industrial societies developing their dark and somber dressing code of black leather, piercings, studs and bullet belts.

Heavy Metal music originates from the North American blues and  British rock movements, specially with the performances of bands like Cream or The who, who would use distortion and feedback to end their shows creating a brutal aural experience. This sound transformation process generated an interest for new bands, that definitely saw in rocks shallow melodic music bands of the time as an unqualified representation of the general youth feeling where dark heavy sounds were more appropriate,

Metal is a movement that is born in the London underground and expands throughout the world as an counter-cultural expression. Amongst the very first metal bands, Judas Priest is one of the most well known and became a worldwide famous band with a legion of hundreds of thousands of followers.

Since that moment, Heavy Metal became a landmark of the outsiders,  feared for its dark aesthetical dressing code, intense antisocial lyrics and the brutal guitar volume, many considered it a music genre that came from the devil. Fearful countries like china or middle eastern ones banned heavy metal concerts considering them dangerous for the youth, luckily that has changed and metal concerts are no longer seen as a threat in the vast majority of countries

Since the seventies, heavy metal has created a whole array of sub categories such as Speed Metal, Death Metal, White Metal, Doom Metal, Metalcore among many others. This festival will unite bands of many different metal styles, such as the band Piranha from Latin America ,Metal 4 Bremen from Germany or Metalflirt from Denmark

This year�s Metalfest will be a huge party where festival goers will only have to bring their tents to spend a couple of incredible fun days seeing their favorite metal groups along with escapades to all kinds of shopping booths in the festival�s premises  to buy merchandise of their favorite bands. If you want to enjoy a new and intense experience, don�t miss th

More info:  http://www.hu.metalfest.eu/

Nancy Guzman

If you plan to stay a few days in apartments in Budapest you should  attend this free music festival.

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Translated by: Marc
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