Johnstown, PA - Cambria City, represent!

Confidential to Christina -- I swear I was going to do a post about this!

I've been doing things Rusyn for quite a long time, mostly as part of an organized group doing some public program to promote things Rusyn -- but this post shows a progression of Rusyn culture in America. Why? Because this event of Rusyns was developed organically, thematically and anarchistically. A bunch of Rusyns got together to do something highly related to being Rusyn, almost spontaneously though also very planned. It was a great time, and something that I hope happens elsewhere, because it is culture-building.

The day started with visits to the main places of the American Carpatho-Russian Greek Catholic Orthodox Church -- we went to liturgy, to the chancery, to the seminary. After that, a great lunch at a Johnstown restaurant, and finally what was for me the main attraction -- the Heritage Discovery Center.

It's relatively new, and so the museology is new. Like at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, you are given a person to follow through the museum -- I think they had 8 or 10 people to choose from in Johnstown. I was a young female immigrant from Calabria who came to America to get married -- but being the museum geek that I am, I also waited around every kiosk where you scan your card so that I could see what the other ones were like also. They definitely represent a cross-section of the diverse groups who came to Johnstown.

We had a rather lengthy introduction at the ticket desk, which contextualized the mass immigration to the US between 1870-1920ish as the result of mass depopulation after the Civil War -- maybe that's one reason, but I think that the whole situation is much more nuanced than just that. Then, the only negative sort of thing that happened there: at the end of his talk, the introducer mentioned that at the end, we would be asked at a kiosk "Should we allow more immigrants into the United States?" and that we should answer yes, because then we would find out what really happened to the person we had gone with through the museum. I don't know how often this guy works, and I was happy to see that people overwhelmingly said yes, but it wasn't really good of him to give us that information and I definitely think the results are skewed, as much as I'd like to think that visiting the Heritage Discovery Center helps people to remember that they are descendants of (often illiterate, non Anglophone) immigrants so that they change their stance on people who immigrate to the US today.

The visit is a well-organized forced-path experiential-learning extravaganza:
(click to enlarge photos)

First, you arrive at Ellis Island, where the train ticket agent calls you a unwashed idiot or something xenophobic, and then you sit in the train station in Johnstown watching trains arrive and people meet their friends and relatives who have just arrived in America (above).


At various points throughout the exhibition, you can listen to actors reading first-hand accounts of immigration narratives. I tend to have a problem with faux accents in museum settings -- this is a trick also used at another great museum about immigration, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum -- I don't think that the device really helps explain the situation, and it comes off as cheesy, crude and gimmicky. Here though, I really liked this diorama/sound bank. It looked great and served its purpose really well -- you can see how well designed the HDC is.


The interactives were fun for everyone. One was about separating coal from rocks on a moving conveyor belt, which was also really fun and showed how labor-intensive industry was at that time. They also really make it clear that they (established WASP boss people) felt that these dangerous jobs were unskilled labor, which I think is far from the truth.


Personally, I would have loved to have learned more about labor organizing, but I also know that a lot of immigrants, especially from eastern Europe, were not interested in being organized. It's really enough of a topic for a stand-alone exhibit. Again, amazing design with a standard style that just really worked throughout the galleries.

Not content to see just one museum in Johnstown, we also went over to the Johnstown Flood Museum.

Mostly I hissed at the arrogance of the wealthy who caused the flood, and wished that Alexander Berkman had succeeded. The museum is small, but also really well done, and brings the situation to the present with a photo gallery of contemporary Johnstown -- how far things have come... Pennsylvanians really get off on lighted 3D map displays in museums (cf. Gettysburg), but they're so cool because they really are helpful and it's nice to not be looking at some computer-generated thing.

Our day ended with a trip up and down the world's steepest inclined plane that can also hold 3 cars:
We got drinks at the top. / It was vertigo-inducing.

Bahamas

What an excellent break this was!

Alas, I had no idea what to expect, but I didn't expect that the Bahamas would be so American. However, we were able to find quite a lot of 'authenticity' there, which made it pretty cool. It was great to walk on the beach and lay on the beach and swim, which was delightfully relaxing. Happy wishes to Chris and Amy, whose wedding we attended while we were there!

These were some Versailles-esque gardens installed by the first developer of Paradise Island, Huntingdon Hartford. It was a bit strange, with a replica Farnese Hercules and some other medieval French, 19th century and Modern sculptures, all of which were unfortunately badly weatherbeaten and not in good condition at all. At the top is a 14th century cloister that was bought from William Randolph Hearst -- also not in particularly good shape. The result is the gauche taste of American industrialists that now appear to have an Ozymandias complex.


The trained flamingos at Ardastra Gardens were such a hoot!!! Even cooler was that before the show, we were able to mingle with them without a fence between us. There were also free range peacocks, which I now have learned (from an evolutionary anthropologist) engage in costly signaling similar to the way humans do.


We had a really great Bahamian meal on Arawak Cay right before going to Ardastra Gardens. Then, while walking through the straw market, I noticed that the ladies working there had this really great looking food, and I wondered where it came from since it didn't seem like they had brought it. I was trying to get out of the straw market anyway because it was stuffy and overwhelming and I didn't really want to buy anything. When I got out, I saw a lady selling food out of the back of her minivan -- $7 for the above, which is a great deal for the Bahamas as far as food is concerned! I got turkey, rice, lasagna (with a cheddar-ish cheese) and potato salad. There were other options available as well, like chicken plus this amazing local bread. I know I got something that the locals eat and I really enjoyed it.


This is a local ice company, and I find the entendre to be hysterical. I'll leave it at that.


Arrrrgh! Being a Japanese tourist in Nassau -- NB my Kalik Gold in a bag.


This bungalow is very cute but very fake and has something to do with the James Bond movies, though I forget which one. It's probably either Thunderball or Casino Royale, but I'm really not sure. Probably Casino Royale. Elsewhere in Nassau there are places with further connection to Thunderball, and we stayed one compound away from where parts of Casino Royale was filmed. The behemoth Atlantis is in view behind it.

Portland

What an excellent Spring Break!

After a late arrival Monday night, we (Anna, Marko, me) got up Tuesday and headed to the Portland Japanese Garden for their annual free day. We also had some pizza at Rocco's and went to the vast, overwhelming Powell's Books main location. We also drove up Mount Tabor -- it was excellent that we spent a large chunk of the day outdoors. That evening, Anna and I went to see Girls Rock: The Movie, a documentary about the Rock n' Roll Camp for Girls, an annual camp that "builds girls self-esteem through music creation and performance." The movie was super cute, and highly enjoyable, though there were some issues that came up as Anna and I discussed it afterwards. Here's the trailer:



After the film, we went and picked up Marko and then met some friends (hi Gessi and Phil!) at the Horse Brass, where I enjoyed the super special treat of Widmer Hefeweizen on tap. There are many things about Portland that it seems it's easy for locals to take for granted, and one of the top things on my list would be Widmer on tap. I also had some Lompoc C-Note IPA that was really good. IPAs are really hot right now, hops to the maxx. Another very appealing thing about the establishment were their sausage dishes: english sausage wrapped in a pastry roll and this really amazing thing which is a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage and then deep fried. Amazing.

So then Wednesday, Anna volunteers at In Other Words, the last Feminist non-profit bookstore in the country. I hung out there with her and caught up on zines. After that, we headed downtown to grab some Voodoo Doughnuts. I had a Bavarian cream-filled (similar to my old Boston Creme standby) and a vegan doughnut -- to see what all the fuss was about. It was a cake doughnut with icing and topped with the inside of Butterfinger chocolate bars. Supersweet and both were super great. We kicked it around downtown some more, walked through Pioneer Square and went to get the car to park it downtown.

That night, we dropped by a party Gessi was having, but Anna and I had to go so we could go see Brass Menažeri and Vagabond Opera at Someday Lounge. Brass Menažeri had a woman tapan player who absolutely kicked ass. After their set, I talked to her for a few minutes, and complimented her, and she said it was interesting how women always came up to her to compliment her on her playing. I told her I'd been listening and dancing to this sort of music for ages and had never seen a woman doing it. She was great, and also a great vocalist. They brought their own dance instigator with them, and so it was great to dance ala Balkan for most of the set, which I hadn't done in ages. They were a bit more traditional, and Vagabond Opera was more postmodern, but still absolutely stunning. They had a neo-bohemian cabaret thing going on, which was so incredibly fun. Their awesome band member Lesley was a wonderful singer and musician but also coaxed some gorgeous music out of the saw, which takes some major skill. VO ended with some flame dancing -- there was some flame eating and throwing earlier on -- which ended with a bang and not a whimper. Anna said it was the best show she'd been to since she'd been in Portland, and I'd definitely agree it was quite possibly one of the best shows I've been to. Here's a video I made from my cellphone video camera -- not very good quality but it gives some of the feeling:



On Thursday, we met up with my friend Laura and her husband Jim and new baby Luca! Jim's daughter also joined us for lunch and we had a really pleasant afternoon. We met at the Tao of Tea (Anna, being a diligent student of Chinese, decided the most proper pronunciation was the dao of dea)and then we went and got us some really amazing Lebanese food at Hoda's on Belmont Street. After that, we had to get back so we could head down to Last Thursday on Alberta Street for some gallery openings. It was cool to see what sorts of art is going on out there. My favorite art was at the Bitch Magazine headquarters -- not because it was overt, but because it was sophisticatedly evocative. We went over to IOW to meet Marko for That Time of the Month: Borders, Citizenship and Language: The Attack on Immigrants and the Crisis for Humanity. It was great to listen to some local activists discussing tactics and strategies for overcoming the racism that is so ubiquitous in this country right now.

As if it couldn't get any better, more live music. This time, Chervona (MySpace) and Polka Madre at the Alberta Street Pub. The great asset to both of these bands were their clarinet players. We danced the whole time to Chervona, I enjoyed my fill of New Belgium Sunshine Wheat. Polka Madre took a while to get cranking, but then they turned out to be fun to dance to as well. They came off as really cerebral (as opposed to soulful), and had an Exploding Plastic Inevitable projection thing going on which made things somewhat intense. Polka Madre is best described as post-ska, and the kids who were dancing to Chervona were not really the kids dancing to Polka Madre -- as evidenced by dance style. Another great time.

Friday, Anna had to work, and Marko and I went to a place where he wanted to meet with someone for some funding. Turned out she wasn't there, and so after, we almost gassed up the car and drove to the beach or Mount Hood, but the weather was bad and there wasn't quite enough time. We went to the Laughing Horse Radical Bookstore Collective, helped Meghan clear out her place, and had some very good Thai food with some of the strangest waitstaff I think any of us had ever experienced. We picked up Anna at work and then hung out for a bit and got me to the airport. It sucked to have to leave. There's already a ton more things I'd like to do and see, and I was so happy and excited to meet Anna's crew out there, and talk and dance with all of them!

The plane ride home was good and bad. I had made reservations for a window seat, to be able to sleep a bit more effectively, but two women with 2 small kids asked if me and the other guy in my row would move so they could sit together. I then got an aisle seat, with these 2 little kids and a group of hormonal young teen school kids behind me. They carried on the entire flight, taking flash photos on a dark plane. I slept a bit. Changing seats had some silver lining, as my row was a hot Austrian Nike intern and an opera singer. :)
Got my Dunkin Donuts coffee on the plane (love you, JetBlue) and headed back to NJ.

Back in the grind.
See you soon, Portland.

Some of the Math (Geometry)

So, now's the time to dust off Google Maps! (For a Google Earth-friendly KML file, click on the link and choose the option on the upper right corner.) The interactive map has most of the places I visited, along with some bars, restaurants, and hotels. There are some short notes in there that may or may not have made it into the blog, so check it out.

Farthest Location West: Le Château de Versailles, Ile-de-France, France
Farthest Location East: Bistra, Maramures, Romania
Approximate West-East Distance: 1000 miles/1600 kilometers

Farthest Location North: Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Farthest Location South: Padova, Veneto, Italy
Approximate North-South Distance: 440 miles/715 kilometers

Since I actually made a big circle, the travel in Europe distance is more like ≈2350 miles/3780 kilometers. If you add in starting at Newark and ending in Pittsburgh, we're talking 10,000 miles/16,000 kilometers. Also, remember that these distances are approximate because they're as the crow flies and assuming that the Earth is a perfect sphere (it's not, actually) with a radius of 3963.1 miles.

Some Free Advertising

Slowly but surely, I'll wrap up the blogging for this trip -- a few more things will come.

I wanted to make some comments on some of the places I stayed during my trip, and give some free advertising/referrals to the places I stayed that I'd certainly go back to. Eventually, I'll add some photos to this post as well.

Das kleine Stapelhäuschen Zimmer
Fischmarkt 1-3, 50667 Köln
book online via KolnTourismus, 30€/night, sink in the room, bathroom in the hall.
I really liked this place, it is above a restaurant but I definitely couldn't hear anything even though I was on the first floor. The staff was helpful even though they did not really speak English and I did not really speak German. The room was small but very adequate, and the wood furniture made it look like I was where I was supposed to be and it was authentic-seeming. I took a taxi to the hotel, but the driver and most residents of Cologne that he asked had no idea where the Fischmarkt was, even though it was within spitting distance of both the train station and the Rhine (and the Museum Ludwig and Roman Museum for that matter). Definitely a great location in the center of everything.

Hotel Ibis München City
Dachauer str. 21, 80335 Munich
book online at Ibis Hotels, around 70€/night, private bathroom.
I stayed here, because the place I was originally booked to stay, and where I did stay for one night, was a nightmare: the Hotel Flora does not come recommended. It was a horrible place, I didn't feel safe, and the bathroom facilities were really not convenient. My standards are pretty low, but since I didn't feel safe, I moved to the Hotel Ibis München City, just down the street. Though it was nearly 2x more expensive, I got my money's worth since I really used the room quite a bit, and napped before the opera because I didn't sleep well the night before in the Hotel Flora due to the mattress that was attached to the bed with zipties and the fact that I did not feel safe. The Hotel Ibis staff was exceptionally helpful, there was free internet in the lobby, and wifi-for-pay in all of the rooms, like most places in Germany. The room was small, but exceptionally well-designed, functional and bright, aimed at single business travelers.

Hotel Perla Sigheteana
str. Avram Iancu 65A, Sighetu Marmatiei
book online on their website, not sure of the cost, private bathroom.
Thanks to whoever booked this for me! After all of the hoopla about going to exotic, unknown Romania, this place was a joy. It was so super safe, the staff was very helpful and they all seemed to speak at least a little English, which was helpful. The location outside of town means that there's a huge, gorgeous bar/garden out back, and a view of it and the mountains from the balcony! It's a pleasant walk back and forth, but a taxi from the center of the center to there cost about a dollar, which was generally worth it, and the Sighetian taxi drivers were very accommodating. Breakfast was exceptionally good, with a huge selection of very good food.

Agape Guesthouse - Pension
Erzsébet körút 2, 1073 Budapest
I booked using hostelworld.com, around 35€/night, private bathroom.
I remember having booked a private bathroom, but then it was a pleasant surprise, because the other bathroooms are shared between two rooms, which isn't bad. They seem to have apartments in the building, so the only drawback was that I had to walk up to the 4th floor, which would not have been bad except that I had 40 pounds of books with me, but that was my own problem anyway. The room was clean, the bathroom was clean, and there was a fan in the room! The fan made my pleasant stay even more pleasant. NB a key deposit is necessary here, but security was great.

Hotel de Nesle
7 rue de Nesle, 75006 Paris
Reservations only by phone, so dust off your French, 55-75€/night, shower and toilet in the hall.
I kind of wanted to keep this place all to myself, but in the interest of being transparent, I'm mentioning it. This place was phenomenally wonderful and an insane bargain for the neighborhood: walking distance to the Louvre, Ile-Saint-Louis, Marais, Latin Quarter, everything. No breakfast, and shared bathrooms everywhere. However, the staff was lovely, it was impeccably clean, and the decor was unbelievable: original, tasteful, and varied. Definitely an exceptional hotel.

THANKS:DANKE:ĎAKUJEM:GRAZIE

As I'm at the end of my trip, I'd like to thank the people who were kind enough to host me at some point throughout my time in Europe. It was lovely to be with you, to experience your home town (whether permanent, adopted or temporary), share meals with you, and on an excessively practical note, you may have no idea how helpful it was that I had somewhere very comfortable to do laundry:

• Anne and Joerg
• Dušan, Mária, Petra and Baba
• Jason

There are of course many other people who were involved in the success of this trip, but I am especially greatful to those who were kind enough to open their homes to me.

La Biennale di Venezia !!!!!!!!

Really, this is just some flava, because there is too much to say. As it is, I will have to edit this post, add to it, etc. But for now, I will say that Sophie Calle is where it's at.

VENEZIA!

This visit to Venice was so incredibly lovely, probably because it was calm, relaxed, and still incredibly stimulating and special as only Venice can be. I did not go anywhere near San Marco, I avoided the tourist traps (unless you consider the Peggy Guggenheim Collection a tourist trap -- maybe a certain kind of tourist?), and instead focused on being there during the Biennale (!) and caught up on the best of the best of contemporary art and also took a trip out (off the map, nearly) to the Giudecca and Torcello. A quick run through the Accademia kept me grounded.

The lagoon, when the sun is so bright that the colors are unbelievable.

At night, the water is like glass.

This is an amazing piece of Italian engineering. It's a pulley system for hanging your laundry over the bathtub sans static rack, but rather these stringy pole things. High ceilings are a must.

On the way out to Torcello, on a ruined island in the Lagoon. There was a beautiful bird, and then there were birds on Torcello, too. It was nice to hear birds and see them enjoy the water, which is a healthy sign.

A Best General View of the Basilica of S. Maria Assunta on Torcello. The mosaics in there complement Ravenna perfectly. Later Byzantine mosaics uber alles!

A garden on Torcello.

As usual, I met a super cool artist (actually, quite a few, but some in particular) right before I had to go, which meant that the meeting was cut entirely too short. In one case, he was a typically charming Italian, who actually just presented a painting to the Vatican Museum 2 weeks ago, and said that the current pope is actually a very warm and nice individual. So, maybe I'll rethink my stance or modify it a bit. I've got his card, and would definitely pay a studio visit again -- this one happened by chance, and the fact that it did amazes me. The studio is stuffed to the brink of health hazard with layers of dust and paper, with recent paintings (referred to as svedute) perched on top of these layers of dust and paper. It was a little harrowing, but definitely a wonderful time.

I cut my trip to the airport way too short, thank God the plane was delayed 1/2 hour.

Budapest

I was not in Budapest long enough, I need to go back very soon. I know people call cities cosmopolitan without batting an eye, but Budapest was very cosmopolitan, furreal, and the Budapestians seem to be such cool people.

A shoutout to cousin Jimmy, who suggested I go to the Szoborpark, an excellent suggestion. The Szoborpark (Statue Park) is a museum dedicated to the fall of communism, and is where they've put many of the statues from around Budapest that were propaganda monuments most people didn't want around anymore, but they didn't want to get rid of them, either. There are some interesting thoughts about outdoor museum conservation issues to be had.

A Best General View of the park.

Stalin's Boots, from the Stalin Statue in Budapest. In a move ala Berlin, Baghdad, et al, during the 1956 Revolution, the Budapestians tore down the statue at the knees. It happened to stand above the viewing stand (also in the picture) used by the bigtime Party people during military parades, but from 1956-1989, they were ironically standing under this symbol of the 1956 Revolution, the antithesis of what they stood for. There's a lot of irony in 20th century communism.

Now, for the most imporant thing I accomplished while in Budapest:

LANGOS!!!

Langos (pronounced lan-go-sh) is a magical Hungarian street food that can be found in other eastern European countries who were formerly oppressed by Hungarians during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is deep fried dough, with soft cheese, garlic juice, and grated cheese on top, which is melty and gooey and delightfully delicious. This is not the time of year to be eating it really, because it is hot and heavy, but there are few pleasures on Earth this good, and it was worth the ensuing two days of garlic breath. I had it with a Borsodi beer, making the whole thing exceptionally authentic. ...In many places, my language is limited to me asking for my favorite local food: éna souvlaki, Παρακαλω; langos, kérem, köszönöm; poutine, merci.

Sighet Marmatiei, Romania

Oh how I loved being in Romania. The people were so beautiful, and it's probably one of the last places in Europe where cows still create traffic jams. I think cows creating traffic jams are a good thing.

The road to the market, which I found by accident, but was quite tickled by.

NB the mountain of paprika. As far as food is concerned, I ate quite a bit of polenta in Romania.
Polenta is love.

The next four photos are of the village of Bistra. Bistra is a village near Sighet where a multinational task-force went to visit and distribute Rusyn propaganda, to great success. We did not de-Ukrainianize the villagers, we just informed them that they had a choice, and that one of their choices was to identify as Rusyn. Overall, it went very well.

Back to Sighet:This is the birthplace of Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, who wrote the book Night, which is a very good book. He is the man who coined the term 'holocaust'.

In the Ethnographic Museum, a mixed-media accoutrement to the Bethlehem Play.

The Prison Museum and Memorial/Museum of Arrested Thought. This was an exceptionally powerful museum. It was established at the same time as the museums at Normandy and Auschwitz, and almost every cell of the three floors is a different exhibit about how people were suppressed during communism, mostly in Romania but of course actually all over Eastern Europe, which they mention.

Over 8000 Romanians were killed in prisons or as the result of forced labor during the Communist era. The number is well over 8000, which is all they have records for. Nonetheless, too many people died. The photos help really make it almost better than words, because the eyes are the window to the soul.

This is a model of a ballot box used in the 1946 elections. It has a false bottom, which is how the communists came to power by being democratically elected.

One of the cell doors.

Sculpture garden out back, behind the actual memorial, which has some Maya Lin style to it.

In case anyone thought I may have been uncomfortable, this was the view from my balcony in the hotel. Thanks to whoever arranged it, it was super-pleasant.

The car ride from Sighet to Budapest took around 5 hours, I think. Maybe 4. We took road 19 from Sighet over the mountain pass to Satu Mare, crossed at Petea, and then got to Budapest however was fastest.