Please, give those architects some credit here—bringing people closer is a great, beautiful thing.

A paralyzed man asked for my help this morning. He just crossed the road in his wheelchair and he was attempting to escalate the sidewalk curb—without a chance of succeeding. I did my best, but at one time, while climbing down the high curb, the frame touched the ground and the wheelchair got stuck.

Not without a sense of weird irony, all this was taking place on the sidewalk in front of Victoria Palace (the government building). The guards were watching.

The curbstones in front of the government building are brand new. A few days ago the old stone blocks were removed and the new ones placed in their place. Here’s the catch: the old ones did have wheelchair ramps. The new ones don’t.

Fuck that, why ramps? We’re a healthy nation in perfect shape! Look on the streets: no infirm folks, no wheelchairs.

Because they cannot possibly afford to leave their homes.

I did not have the opportunity to share a disabled person’s view on things—minor things, like high sidewalk curbs and lack of proper wheelchair access ramps turn into a living hell. Designed by incompetent morons and built by two-legged brutes, the streets are constructed against the handicapped.

A big hand of applause for the Mayor of Bucharest and for all those wonderful, decent people who run this city—thank you, guys!

Romanian Atheneum in Bucharest, as seen last night.

We love to hate its guts, but every now and then we must concede: Bucharest has its moments. Yes, they are still few and far in-between, but they do exist and least we can do is stop in our way for a minute and acknowledge them.

Victor Rebengiuc, one of Romania’s greatest living actors, Bucharest, 2007.

Accomplished greatness comes prepackaged with either ginormous arrogance or serene humbleness and it rarely falls in between.

With a monumental filmography comprising almost fifty movies — and spanning over more than 5 decades — Victor Rebengiuc manages to remain a sweet, gentle giant.

Weather goes berserk

In Bucharest the temperature dropped from 41°C a week ago to 15°C today. That’s a 26°C variation in a week. Many countries do not have such a contrast between summer and winter, let alone in a few days.

And the 41°C is the official figure measured just outside the city — while on Bucharest boulevards temperatures in excess of 45 were noted. That would mark a more than 30°C decrease.

Come on folks, we can do better than this! Now close the fridges and switch on the heaters to try this again.

Mona Lisa stencil graffiti, Oxford 2004.

Mona Lisa-Woody Woodpecker stencil graffiti in Roman Square, Bucharest 2007.

Oxford’s stencil statement renders a scholarly tongue-in-cheek play on representation medium — art paint in spray-pait, 4 years in 4 minutes etc. Street-level postmodernism.

Bucharest street artist chooses to morph renaissance magnum opus into screwball comedy (Woody Woodpecker plays Mona Lisa or vice-versa) with a deeper layers of meaning: during communism (our childhood) among the few American¹ cartoon shows allowed on Romanian Public Television² were Woody Woodpecker episodes.

I see classroom pundit witticism vs. street retro-anarchy. What do you see?

¹ Read “capitalist imperialism,” as the communist propaganda machinery dubbed Western countries in general and America in special.

² State-owned and then tightly controlled Romanian Public Television was the only television station in existence. Commercial TV station were unimaginable at the time.

I don’t enjoy writing about politics, but as 2006 was drawing to an end, developments were building up.

A few remarkable specimens crawled out of the sewers lately but they’re marginal compared to the one who has the power to rule them all. And it’s not even his merit. It is media’s.

Some journalists have little reason for sleeping well at night — during 2006 they proved crassly irresponsible in a self-distructive kind of way by promoting the extreme-right “militant of light,” Mr. Becali, a growing force that once created by reckless media people is rapidly becoming a serious menace.

Consequently, he clocks in second now in the polls and experts predict his figures will continue to climb in 2007. Consider the following dystopian scenario: a heart attack or an accident disables President Basescu in near future. What then?

The full half

This XIth Francophonie Summit in Bucharest will paralyze the centre of the city and the hysteria already begun. Closed streets, police, helicopters, poker-faced guys with swollen armpits, unavailable parking spots, closed institutions.

Even dogs have to get passing permits in order to have access on the closed streets.

We’re opening up towards Europe by closing down the city to its own citizens.

However, let’s see the full half of glass in the story — I think this is a reasonable price to pay for all the refurbishing that’s going on in Bucharest for the last few weeks. We now have a cleaner city that hopefully will educate the citizens that cleaner is better. Even the Victory Square and its surroundings turned into a more civilized place.