On March 19 the American rock band Rise Against will perform at the Petőfi Csarnok in Budapest. Rise Against was formed in 1999 in Chicago, under the name “Transistor Revolt.” The band consists of vocalist Tim McIlrath, bassist and singer Joe Principe, Brandon Barnes on drums, and Zach Blair who considered the leader of the group.

Their style, labeled as hardcore punk or  melodic hardcore punk rock has made them to be considered one of the best bands of the last decades of its kind.

Rise Against�s name appeared in 2001 with their first album Unravenlig, produced by Mass Giorgini. Two years later, their second album Revolutions Per Minute was released. These were years of great effort to enhance their early work, being the opening act for bands like Strung Out and No Use fora Name.

In 2004 they released their album Siren Songo of the Counter Culture that will lead them to the Billboards 200 top sellers and to be certified by the Recording Industry Association of America .

During that year they will tour the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia, performing at different festivals: Taste of Chaos, Reading and Leeds, as well as tours of Germany and the UK. The following year they release their fourth album The Sufferer & the Witness, peaking at No. 10 in the US Billlboard and selling over 48 000 copies in its first week. This album was certified gold by the RIAA in 2007.

Appeal to Reaso came the following year and sold more than 60 000 copies, peaking at No. 3 at the Billlboard 200, this being the most successful album that the band has had throughout their career. Always following the line of social criticism but returning to a sound of their earlier recordings, this album kept rising the quality of Rise Against.

In 2010 their sixth album appears, Another Station: Another Mile, with material intended primarily for live performances. A year later Endgame is released with the vocals of several guest artists where as it is usual with the work of the band, the lyrics talk about reality and social and environmental problems,but always with an optimistic and positive view of the struggle to transform injustice into justice.

Among the social activities that the band partake in the social media it is worth mentioning that they are all members of PETA, an organization in favor of animal rights and that is clearly reflected in their video Ready to Fall, which shows the destruction of the environment. The whole band is strictly vegetarian and claim no use of alcohol and drugs.

Their political position has also been very clear in the last election supporting Obama and even claiming on more than one occasion their rejection of the governmental policy during the administration of George W. Bush.

For more information: http://www.lastfm.es/event/3096281+Rise+Against+at+Pet%C5%91fi+Csarnok+on+19+March+2012

Nancy Guzman

If you are considering visiting one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, do not forget to rent apartments in Budapest and have a great time with its musical panorama.

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Traveling with a pet can be difficult, sometimes you cannot take your dearest with you and have to leave him with a friend or relative, sometimes even home alone without anyone to accompany or take him for a walk. Usually, the most popular pets in the house are cats and dogs. Cats, are much more independent than their canine counterparts and may tend to be more practical to transport from one place to another, as they are smaller, consume less food and by nature how know manage to go to the bathroom without the direction of humans. In that sense, cats are much more practical and easier to take care of. Their own character almost magical and mysterious makes them the most favorite pets for many.

On the other hand, dogs have a much more affectionate character, and what seems a heavy dependence on the master, it ends up being likewise a great affection and concern for others, loyalty and protection in the same way. Dogs usually have the capacity, due to their long cohabitation with humans, to adopt many features of the character of their masters, as well as getting to know when something is wrong or when to protect the common area of the house.

Sometimes, it�s much more fun to travel with your dog, but likewise complicated. Beyond going to a large park, golf course or city tour, what do you do, when it comes to food? Many places are increasingly willing to allow the entrance of your pet. If you go to Budapest for example, you can find some very good restaurants, which are also “dog friendly”. Here is a brief list:

Kispipa is a cozy restaurant where you eat with your dog, really adorable. Ideal atmosphere and a continental menu, founded more than 20 years ago, Kispipa also offers live music with a pianist every night, and various dishes and drinks.

Kanaan is restaurant that has been open since 1989. In addition to serving delicious dishes, it is a café and pastry shop, where you can taste the best desserts. Your dog will be welcome to accompany you while you enjoy lunch or dinner.

Remiz is a rather expensive restaurant that really worth to try, especially if you have not tasted the best of Hungarian cuisine. Friendly with pets, of course, Remiz will please you so much that you will be willing to continue discovering dishes and flavors during your visit in Budapest.

Kiskakukk, has been open since 1913. This restaurant is showcasing the freshest dishes of Hungarian cuisine, with traditional and modern dishes that you will enjoy while your pet is with you in a very friendly atmosphere.

Alexa Ray

Get apartments in Budapest and feel free to explore the city with your pet. Budapest offers many facilities for you to spend pleasant moments of relaxation with your pet.

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Theater had a realistic slope for many years. It was not until the late nineteenth century when it started to appear a change in this trend, mainly due to the various artistic vanguards and the advent of modernity. So, thanks to advances in visual media through symbolism and abstraction, theater took a step to higher levels of representation, staging and proposals. Today, contemporary drama uses a variety of new resources ranging from video, installation and increasingly minimal and conceptual staging, in which new records interact with aesthetic, political, current and controversial stories.

Perhaps the greatest example of total contemporary theater is the King Ubu by Alfred Jarry, a piece with multiple variations and recurring themes, works both the in stage and the subject matter from a political irony and humor truly amazing for its time. Jarry was a visionary, and as such, a precursor of Dadaism and other “isms” of the time. The curious thing about a piece like King Ubu, is that besides its high sarcasm, questioning the political environment of its time, anarchic and volatile capacity, is structured from the meaning and quite complex language games, in which the reader or anyone who witnesses the piece, simply get carried away by logic staged games. In this work, too, shedding is minimal nature of the staging of contemporary art.

Antonin Artaud took a step forward in creating theater. With his theories on the “Theatre of Cruelty,” Artaud not only proposes new means even more abstract and metaphysical included in the staging. It was after his explorations in Mexico with peyote in the Tarahumara tribes Theatre Artaud understood as a profound exploration of the unconscious, which also reveals a ritualistic nature scene on the set. So Artaud makes plays in their colors appear as substances, or occurrences that increased the volume on stage. What encourages Artaud is not stable look over the world, but rather quite the contrary. Artaud reveals the short depth of human spirit and the horror of the void, the inability to be present or be in the unrecognized breath by breath, no more than a pathetic construction of meanings around us, and that reality invention is also empty, no other culture density that gives, and which confuses us, contra lateral and manipulated.

The Contemporary Drama Festival Budapest has over ten years. During this period, there have been more than a hundred international performances in the festival, which each year continues to cause interest at the Hungarian public as well as internationally. The festival is a very interesting space in which new proposals for theater and performance converse, mingle, and generate new creations. For more information, visit the following website: http://dramafestival.hu/

Alexa Ray

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Translated by: Hans
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The most extreme sounds of the German scene are probably electronica and metal. It�s no coincidence that bands such as Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Metallica and Exodus, Thrash Metal greats, swear blind that the European crowd, especially the German one, is much more extreme than the American crowd. It�s so much so that in the 80s, after leaving a Slayer concert in Germany for example, you could find a sea of glass, broken bottles, metals and chains, as well as traces of blood of course, on the stages where this extreme band played. In the same way, the quantity of incredible thrash metal bands which have played in Germany along the years is very long, and some of them are already classics: Sodom, Destruction and Kreator.

The history of electro, in Germany, is also long. You just have to give one single name: Kraftwerk. Formed in Düsseldorf under the name of Organisation, later Kraftwerk, the voyage of this band begins with the most experimental Krautrock, with sweet and travelling sounds, until they became �Menschmachine�, creators of techno before techno, and the rest of inventions which impregnated electronica in the following years. Of course that the debt of Rammstein with acts such as Throbbing Gristle or Einstürzende Neubaten is also, more than obvious. But in the case of these two bands, predecessors the the punk generation, the industrial and the experimentation looked to impact on lacerating levels with the staging and the use of non-conventional instruments, had more to do with a matter which faced the same terms as live performance, outside rock towards the performative.

Now, what Rammstein does isn�t exactly metal or electro, maybe something like rap. How to define a band which uses thunderous guitars, quick phrasings, industrial sounds and a German tone of voice which borders opera, to put it in some way. Rammstein today, is like an invention of the 90s, from the �Trainspotting� generation, and from the years that, for the first time, mainstream became in apparent honest communion with the industry and independent music, which actually never happened of course. Rammstein is part of the �Neue Deutsche Härte� movement, a term invented for the new genre which they were, supposedly, promoting with other bands such as Oomph!, Stahlhammer, Samsas Traum and Megaherz.

Today, the Rammstein experience is bordering parody, and in many cases it�s derisory. Rammstein�s passage in the musical industry, and with its supposed hard and industrial sound, isn�t but the answer that they�re still being distributed by a label like Universal. They�ve sold millions of albums and their apotheosic concerts, full of violent images, drama and special effects, are another live show which is interesting to see if what you want is, of course, that the musical media carries on constructing false gods, false images and generating more sales for artists who aren�t exactly new or refreshing. For more information on Rammstein and their tour, you can visit the following website:http://www.rammstein.de/

Alexa Ray

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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There is a before and after Cicciolina, both in pornography and in Italian politics. But first we should ask what strange twist of fate causes women born in Hungary to be some of the most beautiful on the planet. It�s no joke. Hungarian women have a very particular grace and beauty that has made them perhaps the most desirable women in the world. Some of the most attractive porn actresses working today come from this country.

But to tell this story, we must go back in time. The history of pornography in Hungary dates from the period after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Until then, both production and distribution of pornography was illegal in communist Hungary. However the laws were changed with the arrival of “democracy” and these more permissive laws soon allowed this country to come to the forefront of the industry. Foreign directors were quick to take advantage of Hungary’s permissive laws, its low production costs and its large numbers of attractive actresses. 

However, the history of La Cicciolina dates from long before the Wall fell, and although her story is mainly connected to Italian culture and government, it is worth noting that she is from Budapest. In the 60�s she worked as a model in Hungary, and it wasn’t until the early 70�s that she began to develop her career in Italy. In the 80�s she starred in her first hardcore film and her fame grew even more. After this, she entered politics and, in 1987, was elected to the Italian parliament with more than twenty thousand votes. Her prime aims were to combat the nuclear threat and world hunger.

Among the most memorable moments of her time in parliament was the occasion she offered to have sex with Saddam Hussein in exchange for him releasing prisoners during the Gulf War. After failing to be elected again in 1991, she became one of the founders of the Partito dell�Amore, along with the porn actress, Moana Pozzi. Her further attempts to take an active part in politics failed, as did her offer to Osama bin Laden to have sex with him in exchange for an end to violence in the Middle East.

Although the successes of Cicciolina’s political career may have been negligible, her presence in the Italian parliament undoubtedly had an impact on European society. The fact that she found enough support to be able to crossover from the “underground” world of porn to the international political arena opened many people’s eyes to the true market size of pornography and its deep integration in contemporary culture. In pornography’s revelatory power of display, in its rawness, and in its blatant use of sexual intercourse as a means of production and capital, it explodes all society’s ideals, whether moral, political or religious about what sex means in our culture. La Cicciolina represented the impulse of downtrodden women everywhere to take control for themselves and wield some of the power in an industry, religion and world ruled by men.

Alexa Ray

There can be nothing better than renting apartments in Budapest and exploring this city, which, as well as being beautiful, is also the home of some of the best porn stars working today.

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Translated by: Ben Palmer
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If you are traveling in Budapest, do not forget to visit the Ludwig Museum and its current exhibition “Unmistakable sentences”, which shows its collection from a renewed focus between arts and politics.

“Unmistakable Sentences”, is being exhibit at the Ludwig Museum until the 14^th of August. This exhibition shows works of art focused on the troubled, complex and often ambiguous relation between politics and aesthetics. The subject is vast, ranging from individual cases to abstract reflections about the fate of social utopias, the operation of cultural memory and the artist�s role in maintaining a political speech.

The relation between arts and politics in Hungary became too radical because of the extensive censorship exercised by the political power of the former regime, which defined a very direct existential tendency of contemporary production, as well as putting a strong influence on how they later saw this period and the works of the time were shown.

It is clear that production was not independent from the international stage; many works were born from the dialogue with the international contemporary world of arts, or in explicit opposition to it. An important example of this can be seen in World War II, when abstract art was used as a means of political propaganda in the West, and the same happened in Hungary during the Socialist Realism, period in which the artists from this movement were encouraged to take a dissenting position.

In “Unmistakable sentences,” this issue is addressed through a selection of important works from the collection of the museum, instead of presenting the most relevant work of the time, it focuses on recent acquisitions, intending to show to a wider audience. Among these works, many of which are shown for the first time, include the works of the Hungarian artists Tamás Kaszás, Ádám Kokesch, István Csákán and Csaba Nemes and also very well known works of international artists such as Harun Farocki, Simon Starling, Zbigniew Libera, Mladen Stilinović, Goran Trbuljak and Bálint Szombathy.

An interesting aspect of this exhibition, curated by Katalin Timar, is the decision of not to exhibit the works following historical standards or chronological principles, instead of that the exhibition is displayed in an original way that allows us to highlight the thematic and formal aspects of its works. Some of these connections may seem very simple and trivial, but are very useful to give the viewer a different starting point and unprecedented to find new meanings in known works. In fact, “Unmistakable sentences” wants to avoid showing the works in the same old way that often hides deep relations among works that are not directly linked. For this reason, it invites the viewer to actively participate in the show free of existing structures.

menschauser

Then, we recommend you to rent apartments in Budapest and get to know the local art from this amazing display.

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Translated by: Hans
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