One Tree Hill – A new teen drama with  the same old story of a family, love, fashion and basketball, in it’s seventh successful season. My character is Mouth who’s dream is to become a real sports reporter. His love life is not too happy – he is kind of a loser – but he has a huge heart, and huge ears as well…

The Skins in a BAFTA-winning British television series. Its success is mainly due to the scandalous topics such as drug use or homosexuality. Maxxie is a gay guy whose dream is to become a professional dancer. One of my favorite scenes was when he announced in front of his class that he is a slut and he is very sorry about it…

One of my best jobs was the little Inu Yasha hero, Shippou, who is aKitsune-youkai, meaning a fox-spirit.  He was attacked by the evil lightning-brothers, who took a fragment of a small fox, and killed his father. Shippou was alone and wanted to revenge his father’s death. This is how he met the main characters, Inuyasha and Kagome, Sango and Miroku. It was absolutely impossible to use this tone of voice for 167 episodes… but I just loved it!

“budapest is a city i have always wanted to visit – rich history, their language is an isolate on the european continent [it's an altaic language more closely related to finnish, mongolian, japanese and korean than to any other groups], they have a culture of spending long afternoons in thermal baths, and the danube is a famous river. i was not disappointed!

my reason for coming was the hungarian custom nookanooka show organized by csap viktor, our man on the ground in budapest. the show featured 35 local artists, and i was blown-away by the enthusiasm and craft the artists applied to the competition. i will update the nookanooka pages on our website as soon i get the official photographs and artists bios from csap. larry tee was dj at the after party, and it was great catching up with him [i haven't seen larry since he moved to london]. i got to become friends with the madonna of hungary, kristóf steiner who splits his time between budapest and tel aviv and was our emcee for the evening. really great guy!

the only unfortunate thing was some planning issues, mainly the may day holiday weekend. like NYC on labor day, more than half of the city was out-of-town! hopefully the show will travel within buda or pest to continue the buzz when the city is back to full-tilt! i’ll keep you posted.

so, let me end by saying, if you haven’t thought of it, visit budapest! it’s affordable, extremely bicycle friendly [i rented a bike for 2 days and it was AMAZING] and full of things to do. as for best thermal, i recommend széchenyi. gallért is more famous [matthew barney's cremaster cycle was partly filmed there] but not as nice overall [poorly signed, only some of the staff are helpful]. széchenyi is in a beautiful park with an amusement part and museums, so you can kill a whole day there!”

Travel with Benjamin…

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is curious indeed: the story starts in 1920’s after the World War as a little baby boy is born into the body of a nearly hundred year old Metushelah. His mother died while she was giving birth, and as his father, after seeing the baby with his all-wrinkled skin, decides to get rid of his own flesh and blood as soon as possible. After finding his new home with a family who knows exactly how is it to be different from all the others, we discover the secret: the strange little old boy is actually growing younger and younger as the years go by. The Forrest Gump-like storyline gives us the impression that we are all relatives, friends and mentors in this adventouros life. And although we feel we are a part of his path, we can never be as close to him as a little girl… woman… old lady, who has to go climb all the stairs of heavens and hell if she doesn’t want to give up on her loved one.

Anyone who saw the fantastic movie, “Babel” knows exactly how the chemistry works between Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Not just because she is pretty, tall and has an appearance of a queen, and he is charming and handsome as he has ever been, but also because both of them are shining with the glow of the classic Hollywood stars, and never seem superficial for a single second. Through three and a half-hour long movie, the actors and the creators are spoiling us with so many colors that the film never seems boring or heavy. Of course it helps a lot, that the movie is flawless also from a virtual point of view. The excellent work of the visual artists, designers and the entire crew is deserving every single technical Oscar which the film was nominated for. It also worth every minute what the make-up artists spent with applying the mask on Pitt, for turning him into Benjamin Button… it took five whole hours every single day.

The screenwriter Eric Roth based his story on a novel by Scott Fitzgerald, and even if the title is the same, the dramaturgy is as different as it can be. In the original story a sage was born old, with knowledge and wisdom, and later on he dies having forgotten everything, without even understanding how does it happen – he is just getting lost in the dark. Roth decided to introduce his own Benjamin as old man only in appearance, but with the mind of a newborn baby. This small twist entirely changes the character of the hero: it seems like Benjamin has nothing to loose and he is becoming younger, more handsome, and also wiser. But towards the end of the story, Roth decides to change his tune again, and now the little hero is suddenly loosing everything: his wisdom, his intelligence and most importantly his capability for being in love.

The plot ends in our days, as the Katrina hurricane destroys New-Orleans. The dramatic ending is not only spectacular but it works as an amazing metaphor: we usually deal with the acceptance of death in our own silent and personal way, trying to think about it as a natural part of life. But to loose our loved ones while we are still alive, can cause a real storm inside. A storm which in the end can be more devestating than the death itself…

Surise, sunset… sunrise!

His Hello was the end of her endings
Her laugh was their first step down the aisle
His hand would be hers to hold forever
His forever was as simple as her smile
He said she was what was missing
She said instantly she knew
She was a question to be answered
And his answer was, “I do”…

My confessions on Leo…

Leo is a student whose wide eyes and curly hair project sensitive boyishness. He is vaguely aware that there’s something wrong with his relationship with beautiful Andrea. What’s worse, Leo’s mom is pressuring them to get married. Uncomfortable with Andrea’s requests for sex, Leo pretends he has to study. He goes to hide in the apartment he shares with a pothead who spends his days watching “Star Wars.” Away from everyone’s prying eyes, Leo searches online for friends. Timid and awkward at first, he invites one or two men to his room, only to have them leave when he says he just wants to talk. Then Leo stumbles into old girlfriend Caro, who has become listless and chronically depressed. As they grow closer, he finds that she, too, has a repressed secret. Leo’s visits to an understanding therapist, plus his new love for a candid man named Seba, help him begin to answer his questions about himself.

As the festival’s official site describes, the film explores the moments of unexpected connection that can lead to confession and acceptance. Love, loss, grief, guilt, desires, and fear are all more easily managed if we have the courage to face them.

You can catch the movie in Budapest…

…on the 21-22nd of May, in Művész cinema, at 20:30
23-24th of May, Puskin cinema, at 20:30
25-26th of May, Művész cinema, at 17:00
28th of May, Toldi cinema – ask for the details about the all day workshops and talkshows.

Jump for his love!

The so-called “Andy Warhol of dance music”, Larry Tee has served as one of the foremost influencers of the independent party scene worldwide, beginning with his production of the B-52′s smash hit, the eponymous “Rock Lobster”. Following that auspicious start, Tee’s tastemaking powers only increased, asout of his late 1990s Brooklyn club nights emerged the electro-rock hybrid “Electroclash” sound that became an international phenomenon. Not to rest on its success, Tee continued to push the bar forward with his recent dirty electro-house album Club Badd, featuring appearances by Princess Superstar, Perez Hilton, Roxy Cottontail, Diplo, and collaboration with Steve Aoki and Santogold its tracks are routinely featured in MSTRKRFT and Justice live sets, among others.

Party hosts, and support DJs, Kollektiva and Kunk have each put their own unique stamps on Budapest nightlife Kollektiva with its rave-flavored events featuring such acts as the Bloody Beetroots, Yuksek, Foamo, and Jaymo & Andy George; while Kunk’s indie-nu-disco styled parties have featured Anoraak, Russ Chimes, Thieves Like Us, and The Twelves as guests. Also DJing a special electroclash set in the bar area will be Budapest’s longstanding arbiter of indie, Gumipop.

Kicking off the evening’s happenings is the announcement of the Nooka toy figure design contests for Nooka, with none other than the creator of the accessory watch himself present, Matthew Waldman – who is a long-time friend of Larry Tee, coincidentally.

What: Kollektiva and Kunk present: Larry Tee (USA) + Special Nooka Design Night
When: Friday, April 30, 10pm – 5am
Where: Merlin, Gerlóczy u. 4, 1052 Budapest
DJs Main Stage: Larry Tee; TMX, FullStereo, Popbitch (Kollektiva); Cigi (Kunk)
DJs Bar Area: Gumipop DJs
Personal hosting by: Kristof Steiner
Entry: 1500 HUF

Hello, stranger…

Rachel  was born in northern Russia in 1890, and died in Tel Aviv in 1931 of tuberculosis, which she contracted while working in schools for refugee children during World War I in Russia. All her poetry was published under her first name only, sometimes spelled ‘Rachel’, sometimes ‘Ra’hel’.  Rachel immigrated to Palestine in 1909, during the period of Ottoman rule, and lived for nearly four years at an agricultural girls’ school on the shores of the Kinneret. In 1913 she traveled to France to study agronomy, and spent the war years in Russia. The poet returned to Palestine in 1919, to Kibbutz Degania, but soon left, as her illness prevented her from working with children, and made physical labor an impossibility as well. She lived out her last years in loneliness in a room in Tel Aviv, and was buried at the Kinneret.

Most of her poetry was published in her last years, her language is so simple and clear, her descriptions deep and emotional; her love poems emphasize pain, loneliness and longing, while the rest often treat the strong connection to the landscape, to biblical figures, to human fate and the puzzle of death. I’m so proud and happy that she is not lonely anymore… I’m her new neighbor.

“Spring and early morning –
do you remember that spring, that day? –
our garden at the foot of Mount Carmel,
facing the blue of the bay?

You are standing under an olive,
and I, like a bird on a spray,
am perched on the silvery tree-top.
We are cutting black branches away.

From below, your saw’s rhythmic buzzing
reaches me in my tree,
and I rain down from above you
aragments of poetry.

Remember that morning, that gladness?
They were – and disappeared,
like the short spring of our country,
the short spring of our years.”

Rachel Bluwstein – Our Garden

Caught in the Middle…

As contestants contort their bodies to fit through cut-out shapes in an advancing Styrofoam wall, it’s almost more fun to see them fail than to succeed. Hole in the Wall takes its cue from silly and sometimes outrageous Japanese game shows. The American version of this human Tetris game is over stylized and over produced, and as Carrie Grosvenor’s telly critics says: it actually is funny.

Contestants wear silver spandex suits accented with their team colors, while the kinda bitchy hosts, Balázs and Jani tells them that “It’s time (pause) to face (pause) the hole!” To be honest I don’t think I ever enjoyed so much falling into the pool, since we had a cute, blonde Baywatch kinda lifeguard, who always pulled me out of trouble…

What do ya all think? Did I look like the Tin Man… or more like Posh Spice?

Perfection with a twist…

“Life is a work of art you gotta paint it colorful,
Can make it anything u want don’t have to stick to any rules
You don’t need a high IQ to succeed in what you do,
You just gotta have no doubt just believe in yourself.

Doubters, non-believers.. once were dreamers.
One of these days you’ll open up your eyes… and you’ll realize:

That girl was a one time teenage drama queen
A hot, tough everyday wannabe…
but she’ll have changed her destiny.. now she’s a somebody.
That girl was a wild child dreamer but she found herself.
Cuz she believes in nothin else and you’ll look back and you wont believe that girl was me.”

I might be in an all-girlie-pinky mood, but this is ssso kabbalistic for me! It’s all about certainty. Whatever you guys might say, LiLo rocks!

The time is now!

Dear Kristóf,

My prayers are with the people of Haiti. I can’t imagine the terrible pain and suffering they are experiencing. Sadly, the depths of the tragedy are just becoming known and the need for our support grows more urgent with every passing moment. I have given a donation of $250,000 to assist Haiti’s earthquake victims through Partners in Health, one of Haiti’s leading health care providers. I urge all of my friends and fans around the world to join me collectively to match my contribution or give in any way you can.

Many of you will remember Dr. Paul Farmer, a founding director of Partners in Health, from my film, “I Am Because We Are.” Paul is a medical anthropologist and a physician who has dedicated his life to treating some of the world’s poorest populations. Paul has been working alongside Haitians for decades, empowering them to improve their own communities. His dedication to Haiti and his transformative work there has inspired my own work in Malawi.

I realize I’ve asked for your help before. But when the suffering of tens of thousands of people comes into our homes and touches us the way the situation in Haiti has, I believe we are called to act. Right now, Partners in Health is rushing to provide medical supplies and additional staff to the 120 doctors and hundred of nurses they already have on the ground in Haiti. Supplies are quickly running out. I’m inspired by Partners in Health, and I whole-heartedly support their work. Please join me in supporting their relief efforts, which are needed more now than ever before. Please donate to Partners in Health now: http://www.raisingmalawi.org/partnersinhealth

We cannot sit idly by and watch the suffering of so many. We must act now.

Thank you for your support,

Madonna