Birdie N-am N-am :(

This blog needs a New Birth, not necessarily a french, charming one, but a revival !
verdamnte scheisse, zis is Germany and it's swarming with reasons to write.
Damn white screen nausea and clumsiness with words, and the lazyess...be gone, never to let matters die again!

Birdy Nam Nam (which you can also find as 'Birdie') are playing in berlin, precisely when i'm taking wing to Weimar, that is on the 1st of May weekend. Bar 25 will also open its narrow door to hipster-land...and many nasty fumes will fill this city on a swamp. e-nough about berlin, let's be melancolic and try not to desecrate Goethe's gartenhaus out of frustration. but jesus, look at the line-up the size of toilet paper roll at the opening. what i'd like to know is whether kate moss is throwing her own stash in the game or would two or three ibiza puppets have to help her our again. either way, happy sodoma and gomorra mashing up! see you next week :D

referen-doom

why i don't want a uninominal two-round system and why i am sick to my stomach of Romanian politics:

1.because i thought i was living in a REPRESENTATIVE democracy, and that implies i select a few people to mind state and local-level administration so that I wouldn't bother with it, and go about my daily affairs. i think it's obsolete and unbecoming to have two referenda a year. sadly enough, the one who called for both-the president- find no other way than being rough-and-tough with the opponents. it is more dramatic when it seems there is no plan B to the people answering NO to the president's question, nor for the case of low turnout. all in all, i fear that this will only be a consultative
activity, and the decision on the future electoral system (which only through a miracle will turn to law before the 2009 elections) will come down to political bargain. alas, nothing beats having people pay themselves for extracting their common opinion- takes the edge out of conducting an opinion poll and delivers into the hands of politicians *a more legitimate* baby.

2. i have little trust in the political opinions of my fellow citizens, who have been thrashed around by media means, and bombarded with a zillion paradoxes. they just don't have(for various complicated reasons) the maturity and clear reason to handpick their parliament. i wish politics wouldn't be such a prosperous business in Romania and that parties would not live under the think heavy cloud of corruption all the time. the process of uninominal selection leaves a lot of space and creates big incentives for rigging elections, mostly in the rural areas.

3. grim colours: let's contemplate who would be those "big, stable parties" worthy enough of manufactured majorities in the parliament. ups, they are both of social democrat denomination, hm, so i would have my left, and my other left.a bit disoriented? of course, there would be no chance for the invigoration of a Romanian right as feeble as it is now, not even by putting all the right parties in the same hat. no other parties would be encouraged to appear, thus no minority voices heard.

4. want to reform the political class? how about making it less profitable to be a politician (lower salaries, no free accommodation in Bucharest, no protocol vehicles, a lot more whistle blowing, what-have-you) so that those looking to make a fortune would not turn to the doors of political parties but go into business and have only capitalism on their minds.

good riddance, the dice are cast!

neighborhood jam session

E-URANUS, the open air cinema in bucharest where i spent many a lonely summer evenings this year, indulging my movie addiction, had closed with a special event involving the local community.

i happen to be there at a urban cyclist meeting one week before, when my bike drew the attention of a group of gypsie kids from the area; i spent about an hour talking to them, and afterwards they invited me to their show. the project was called Biluna behing which stands a group of apparently socially engaged artists called The Offensive of Generosity. basically, what i understood them to be advocating is a change from none to some involvement from the members of a community in its organic development. because the romanian society does not have the knowledge, nor practice of anything simmilar, we would indeed need the helping creative hands of these folks. and the fact that they started with Rahova (a well-known part of bucharest, which translates: poverty, crime, gypsies, garbage, carelessness, decay) should be tell us that they're willing to fight giants.

the event on the 1st of october-i.e. the jam session- was prepared much in advance; the young actors, directors and musicians worked with the kids using their native sense of rhythm, while making them feel like important little stars. all in all, i like this *offensive*, i liked the kids, but i still have my reserves about their parents who care very little about their education; should the fact that they permitted the kids to get involved in this project mean any significant change in their opinions? or they saw the project as mere free fun, nothing educational, thus worthwhile.

i felt as at a kindergarden festivity, where the strong personality of each child cannot be held back and chaos errupts. i hope the group of artists won't lose contact with these kids and help them further. even so, there is need for public support. from a decent playground to programs helping them stay in school.

activate your green self!

this is one event i have always wanted to take part in. this year, in my newly found quality of independent self-made-almost-woman i shall materialize this wish. main reason: ecology and inform myself about how evolved are romanian ecologist NGOs. secondly: people+nature. third: music, hay jumping, some climbing , my tent and a nice guy to match it.......sounds like good fun.

nevertheless, cyanide usage in mining is dangerous and reckless and it lapses me why this is done to begin with. the campaign *romania without cyanide* needs public support, so offer yours, please: this is what you can do

note that in Parliament the initiative to prohibit the use of cyanide in mining has been taken by a member of the Hungarian Democratic Union-senator Kovacs and renown nationalist (Great Romania Party) Funar. Aparently the disaster in 2000 in Baia Mare was not serious enough for a quick political movement, or shall we take it that when big money is involved, the wheels of human decency stop turning? if this had been initiated by a single party or two of a simillar orientation, i would have tagged it as mere electoral rhetoric; since it brings these two together, even after so much time has passed from the first signal, one can only hope it passes and sustain it as best as she/he can.

to sphere it all up, get your details on Fanfest

ride with pride

last night i dreamt i was riding a bike through a snow-covered forest and others around me were plunging their bikes on soft huge cusions. I CAN DO THAT .....me thinks.......but downhill riding is not quite so...

in a short while, in Parang mountains the madness comes unleashed- Drop'n'Roll.
i just love their intro text:

*Drop'n'Roll was created for those who want to discover new places, new courses and new opportunities in an undiscovered Paradise of Wild and Steep. Drop'n'Roll is, first of all, a dedication to all people who just WANT TO RIDE. Drop'n'Roll is also a shout-out to all of you who are against classical courses, federations and anything official that stops the Natural in our lives. But Drop'n'Roll is also a movement for those enagaged in their riding. We believe in the unmatched fun and good vibes that emerge when you go to ride a place for the first time, since there is no greater feeling in the world than having around your best friends.*