The city of party and poverty

Before avoiding not to write about my trip to Madrid for one month, I take the advantage that I have some time to do so. It wont be long since not much happened and it wasnt mostly about sightseeing. So pictures and text in a proportionate amount.

There is not much to say about the capital's landscape, probably because it should rather be a moonscape. Deserted and dull mountains represent the dryest part of Spain, where water scarcity is quite a problem.

After landing we take the airport metro where I have enough time to wonder how is it possible that in 25 years Madrid built 12 metro lines. "One of the biggest metro lines on the world" says the proud sign everywhere, and I wonder how can we stucked in with building the 4th metro line in Budapest for more than 5 years.

After the underground city, finally we see something from the real one. Fancy streets, classicist buildings everywhere, and a lot of people- everywhere. Even if Madrid doesnt have much attractions, the atmosphere created by the people makes it outstanding. Go out any night in the inner city, and every ally you ll find three pubs full with people.

Honestly, if there werent so much homeless people in the streets, I would be surprised that the crisis affects the country. But there are a lot of beggars, more than in any other citiesI've been to, and this makes the picture more nuanced. Elia says 'we re so good at faking things, pretending we dont suffer, we have money, and we can afford anything, but the truth is we cant'.

Truth be told, besides the vagrants most people look really rich- like a city full with only high-class citizens.

There are a few things that make Madrid much more liberal and open-minded than a lot of other cities, including my capital. The Chueca is the famous gay district of the city, and seriously, if you're coming from a conservative country, its gonna shock you a bit, and the view of gay couples on the streets are also much more frequent. Also, what was surprising for me (probably cause its quite an issue here) the fact that hookers are working in the heart of the city.

Madrid is expensive, way more than Budapest, almost four times than Trabzon, and I really dont want to make the comparison with Iran. But since the lack of money, we mostly stayed in the city, maybe next time we ll visit other towns also.

I have to say that Madrid, be it dry and expensive, the atmosphere created by the people makes it unforgettable. What expalins more, just as the second I came back, I was already looking for tickets to Madrid...

Not with you anymore- The new RHCP album

If I was talking first about music in the previous post as a topic of my writings, now I should start this blog also with some nice melodies.

Let's start with a humble review of the new RHCP record, Im with you. For those who follow both blogs, I hope you will recognize the difference- Im trying not to translate literally.

So maybe a few of you already know that RHCP has been my no.1 band for a long time. The shock came with the departure of guitarists and official soul of the band, John Frusciante. Josh Klinghoffer jazz-weirdo jumped in as a substitution, who had been already playing with the peppers for a couple of years. In addition, bassist Flea prepared for the new album with attending music school, drummer Chad Smith continued playing with the supergroup Chickenfoot, and the lithuanian origin (thats for you, Vita, Monika, Egle and Dovydas) Anthony was also taking some extra singing lessons. Truth be told, he badly needed it, just check out some concert videos.

Everything is set for a rebirth, the only question is that if its gonna be outstanding or awful? The answer is somewhere in the middle.

For those (and for me as well), who expect nice guitar domination, Im with you is a definite dissapointment. Josh is a nice guitarists, but his melodies are forgettable, and only assists from the background. The only songs that jump at and thus my favorites were the super-pulsing Even you, Brutus? and the old-chili style Annie wants a baby. During the the rest of the album Josh stays in the background, and when he tries some solos, the result is mostly awful, like the one in Ethiopia. Compare any of the solos with Monarchy of roses'! The only honest and improvisative one on the album. Even Josh admitted that he took his mentor's (Frusciante) advice, and tried to not think while composing. He should've kept this hint during the full album.

So lacking the guitar, the album relies mostly on the others. Flea is doing his best, throbbling and funky bass melodies, crazy trumpet improvizations and nice rhytmic piano chords color the songs, which all make you feel like a rockstar while listening to it.

Though there are some misfits as well, like Happiness loves company, where the eclecticity is too much, and the little flute-motif is ubearably annoying. And there is no guitar to correct it.

The mandatory sad ballad of Im with you is Brendan's death song. What was always great about the peppers is that they could write these ballads proportionately, not to cheesy nor pink. Now the custom is left behind, and Brendan's song got too far with the cheesyness, merging to the level of the one-and-only cheesy song Road trippin'.

Some may argue that the tenth album of the peppers fits in the full picture, cause with a new guitarists they couldnt have created anything better, and I have to agree with that. But for me, the RHCP was always equal with THE guitar, and the new album totally lacks it.

So as a final judgement: Im with you is precisely like the song Did I let you know. Creative, happy, and smart in composing, but not enough- a song (album) only that reminds us something good that happened a decade ago, but it cannot be brought back.

The "great" opening

It has been such a long time for deciding the launch of a blog in english. In most cases I was just to lazy to do so, but now somehow I feel that I'm capable for it. So a few words as a prologue, before starting anything...

I've been writing my blog since I was 17. A few times I wrote some posts in english but nothing serious really. In general, I have to say that my blogs were never meant to be that serious, maybe for the audience, but never for me.

Back in time (before erasmus in trabzon) sadly, most of the posts were full of self-loathing and other simiral, pathetic feelings so when I came back I was so fed up with it that I launched www.balatony.blogspot.com , the fifth blog in a row.

Now that I have a considerable number of foreign friends who would be probably interested, I'm launching the sixth, which is gonna be mostly the translation of the hungarian one. Though I'll bear in mind writing about stuff that are interesting for you- so I wont write much about hungarian politics etc.

Mostly I write about everything that comes to my mind: music, movies, self, book, politics, environmentalism (thats a touchy topic :) or even short stories that popped out from my brain.

As for my grammar/english, please ignore the mistakes I make, I love talking but as for the writing, it has been a looooong time since I was frequently writing anything in english.

Ah and in case of you wondering, the name "Balatony" comes from the great hungarian movie "Taxidermia", not to be confused with lake Balaton.

That'll do it for a starter, today I'll update with one more post. Have fun, enjoy and...stuff.