Even if it was only the second edition, it seems like a tradition became for Femei pe Mătăsari urban festival to be opened by a fashion show by Wilhelmina Arz. It take place in the evening before, on a stage built on the street, where the next day people will roam.
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Every event, no matter how glamourous it is, must have a sordid side, like this moment of real live on Mătăsari street (is happening just in front of the concert stage).
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One of the attractions at Femei pe Mătăsari was a run in high heels, at which everyone was accepted (including guys) with a single condition: to wear high heels. Not even the height was an issue, participants were split in groups based on the heel size.
In the middle of this was also a small group of feminist fundamentalists, protesting and calling such thing "sexist". They were a few and people pretty much ignored them, initially I didn't even thought about taking a picture of their group, but when noticed I accidentally have one changed my mind, better talk about issues than keeping them covered.
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If the premier hipster event in Bucharest is Street Delivery, there had to be a copycat, that's what hipsters do, copy the "alternative" things. Happening only a week after, Femei pe Mătăsari (Women on Matasari) has pretty much the same feel with Street Delivery, many of the booths are in both places, still this one is more commercial, there are a lot of sellers offering their hand-made wares, from clothes to earrings to cupcakes. At they don't even have beer, only radler.
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It quickly became the most common fast food around here after its introduction a few years ago, you practically can find shawarma anywhere in the city. When talking about something you have to eat in a hurry and keep you full, we pretty much forgot our mititei and skipped over hamburgers and hot dogs, directly to shawarma.
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Last weekend in the evening we passed trough the Old City when I remembered about the Caragiale festival taking place there in the streets. The festival opened just a few days before and a detour was in order to see what is about, but in the way to it we encountered this couple, going in the same direction (they looked at the play less than one minute and left) - they were perfect for the setting, if Caragiale would be alive, such people would be the heroes of his comic writings.
In the street, the Masca Theatre was playing an adaptation upon Caragiale's "O noapte furtunoasă", which the audience seemed to enjoy (Caragiale has only a few plays and some of his shorter pieces may be theatrically adapted, but will that be enough for 100 representations, as advertised?). This one was a strange adaptation, with white costumes (more like the living statues the Masca actors do often) and with Caragiale himself introduced as a character in the play.
I can't get out of my head the above-mentioned couple and it fitting in the scene, the tough (and rich?) guy getting his "demoiselle" in the city center to see "comedies" (or more like her dragging him there) and she being like.... like in that picture, which does not need much words. They say Caragiale live forever among us.
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After all, Street Delivery this year was not all bad, there were some friends and we did our own things, jumping, shooting and such.
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Street Delivery is the biggest hipster event taking place in Bucharest and it takes place in the middle of June, the perfect moment for a hipster to show his true colors with the obligatory hat and scarf during an incredibly hot summer day. It has everything you expect from such an event, from "Salvati Rosia Montana" to graffiti and comics to cotton candy to and beer to workshops and to dubstep. Even a booth from the local Apple Computer distributor was there.
And since the Carturesti library chain thought is a good promotional opportunity, they, as organizer, held a photography contest from the event, so about half of the hipsters there had a camera, dreaming of taking "that" picture and winning the contest. So I took only a few pics.
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Cancan is one of the most known local tabloids focusing on celebrities and such stuff (to judge its level, the article I am talking about here is about a Facebook fight between a dancer and the nephew of a rich guy) and I just discovered back this January they used a couple of my photos for an article, here's a screen capture from their website:
Obviously, they had no legal right to post them, neither from the photographer (me), nor the model (Alicia), it looks like they just lifted the images from a Facebook album of mine (stupid them, they could have obtained better quality from the g+ equivalent album) (the model has also a copy, but she put on her profile only one of the two images used by the tabloid).
On the legal side, the photos on Facebook are just put there, so they are full protected by copyright, according with the Romanian law. On Picasaweb/Google Plus, where there is such an option, I have put them under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike, which still require an user (Cancan in this case) to credit the author and keep the license. Is true I did a mistake: forgot to add a watermark, which I do with images like this which are likely to be misuses, but the presence of a watermark was no influence on the law and copyright (copyright is applied by default) and the tabloid modified the crop anyway. They act like everything is online is free to use, which is false but used by other media outlets from the entire world.
So what I am doing next? Nothing, I won't sue the tabloid (probably they expect that much, people to be busy with other things to sue them), but I will post the pictures here, for reference and for people to be able to see the original, compared with the tabloid editing. I do like to share content and I do it all the time, but under the rules I want, which means most of the time a Free license.
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I genuinely hate the way people damage their phone-taken photos with crappy effects made with Instagram, so last weekend when I took part in a photo hunt in the Cișmigiu Park under the "Retro" theme, I was really unhappy with the requirements: put your camera to shoot on sepia and gives the photos like that. Why I consciously damage my photos by permanently erasing the color information? But those were the rules...
We had 7 points we had to cover, all with pompous names, and in the end my team selected my pictures in 4 cases, they were as such: easy reading
The tree from the water
Crețulescu Alley panorama
and Sun under the bridge
The pictures weren't that good, the team didn't win anything, however in the end my team mate Laura won the special prize for the best picture (sorry, her picture for in the shadow of the lost time is not online at the time of this writing).
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Wandering trough a magic land in only expected to find a magic moon to watch over it during the night (they say Moon is a must for a civilization worshipping the Sun, as supposedly were those ancient civilizations from the kingdom of Luana).
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Good looking and everything, I won't eat that until I learn is perfectly safe and edible. supposedly isn't, so a picture was enough for me.
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This ladder is not just pointing to the sky, is part of the entrance to the cell of Dionisie Torcătorul, so it may have a bit of extra holiness.
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I know this is more of a donkey, but simply couldn't resist the silly title. Hello!
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Sorry for the following long post, is unusual but covering the topic in another way it would be harder. Recently I had the opportunity for a trip in Buzău Mountains, also known as the kingdom of Luana, a less known part of Romania, where out guide told us a lot of legends and stories from prehistory, ancient history, medieval history, modern history and current times, a fabulous mix which would make, I think, good material for something like an entire season of Stargate SG1. Take all stories below with a grain of salt (I do that).
The first objective was an animal (reptile) shaped stone, which have some old inscriptions and based on its shape, may have been used as a sacrifice altar back in the ancient times. It also has a base that may cover some things below.
Then a circular portal, pretty much looking like the Stargate portals which may be a gate, if you know how to activate it.
The cell of hermit Dionisie Torcatorul is documented from the medieval times, but is a cave which, upon the looks of the carving may have been used by Dacians in the ancient times and even before that, in the stone age.
As many other objective from that age, Dionisie's cell is guarded by a phallic symbol/sculpture:
Fundul Peșterii is something unique as is a stone age / prehistoric living place in a vaginal shape:
And next to it, there is another phallic symbol:
Tihăria is a mountain, but is also a wall, like a part of the walls of the citadel of the giants, who lived there before humans. Maybe the city of king Luana, which was guarded by a sun:
Somewhere in the forests there are springs with water of life, which king Luana used to heal and revive people. Those may be the sulphuric springs I drank from myself (I don't feel special now):
Also carved in stone is Iosif's little church, which is also documented from medieval times and probably lived long before that.
At Scaunele Spătarului, the legendary Negru Voda, founder of the country, brought his captains and have them titles and lands around, their names can be found in the mountains nearby.
And you can see with your eyes prehistoric writings:
The cave church in Aluniș is known from medieval times, but it was built on an older cave:
The living quarters next to it are unlike Christian living quarters, so they have to be Dacic, at least
As the sacrificial stones and altar above:
There are tunnels everywhere, in many cases triangular and they have magic properties, possibly teleporting people in various places far away:
Piatra Ingăurită was again a medieval hermit church hosting people fleeing away from anti-Christian prosecution, but by the look of the carving, it seems used since stone age
Crucea Spătarului is a sign on the mountain, from more modern times (XIX century) when a noble wanted to hide his treasury
As there is near a map for finding it. If only one can read it...
Before the forest grew, Ghereta was a good observation point over the entire valley and the entrance in the giants (before the human times) citadel:
Bucătăria looks like a kitchen and hat smoke leftovers on the ceiling, but it looks like the place for the holly fire of Dacians:
Țurțudui mountain is an old place, with prehistoric carvings, but it was also a place where supposedly the military in the 80'ies conducted paranormal researches
And when the experiments ended with a disasters, they dynamited the place (I am not sure the dynamite effects looks like that) and blocked the path by cutting trees
Agatonul Now was yet another medieval hermit church for refugees:
And before it, Agatonul Vechi was used, until destroyed by an earthquake:
Closer to the valley and civilisation, the Fundătura monastery was prosperous back in its medieval times:
Near Rugionasa you can see pictographic writings, similar with Sumerian tablets:
And also a yearly calendar, reminding of the Sumerian civilization
If you raise your eyes, on the other mountain you can see a human face, a bearded Dac
Not far from there, in Ulmeț, you can find some trovants or babe, curiously made growing stones, which you can't tell if they are natural or man made.
An Stargate SG1 season I said? Well... thinking there are many other place we lacked the time to see, I would say maybe two.
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