Welcome, dear Reader!
Sometimes it's nice to write down and share with others thoughts, feelings, moods, images, stories... In this blog I have personal stories, poems and sometimes short stories, and in my other blog more stuff: travel and other photos, health, business and other tips as well.
I hope you will enjoy them. And it's always appreciated if you share, like, comment.
With love,
- Andrea Gerak
This was yesterday the Forbes Thought Of The Day which I liked a lot:
"Give me the making of a people's songs, and I care not who makes its laws." - by Andrew Fletcher, Scottish politician, writer, patriot.
The European Union is a big subject, and now let's just try to reduce it to basically one question one might very easily wonder about. My country, Hungary is under the fire of the globalist elite - one country of the European Union that claims her rights to keep her autonomy and is not willing to play the "being starved into obedience" game that is forced upon one country after the other.
Thank you very much World, for giving us so much attention these days!
On March 15, we are celebrating the 1848 Revolution which ignited a fire all over Europe that time and changed the face of the continent.
165 years ago, the same Europe was grateful to us for the ideas of independence, and the same Europe was grateful to us also in 1989 and after, for our key role in breaking down the Berlin Wall and the communist block and helping many countries on their route of sovereignty and changing the face of the continent - but what we get from Europe today, in the 21st century, is not congratulations on our National Holiday, nor gratitude or support, only criticism, scorn and threats.
So what is happening now?
A glorious day...
Kattints a képre, van még sokkal több / Click on the picture for much more
Greetings from Vienna
I am here till the end of this month; if someone is around, let's have a coffee :-)
Az utcán találtam... Boldog Bálint-napot! / Found this in the street... Happy Valentine's!
Watch G.A.T.E. 3.0 Live from here - Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment
I couldn't stay up all night, for the evening program started just before 4am Central Europe Time, but Jim Carry is here with us now:
"Accidentally" I bumped into this video (actually, it came up in a forum where a bunch of us would discuss topics such asYour Wish Is Your Command).
In it: Jim Carrey gives a speech about Intention and how we create our own lives, he talks to Andrea, about his mother and why is a child born into this world - it was my son's birthday today... Happy to be your mom, kiddo!
Hello everybody, can I still do that?
Recently so many things are happening with me in Real Life that I simply can't keep up with all the emails, messages, notifications, invitations, birthday and other greetings, postings, news, uploading and sorting out photos, and what not.
Would you have ever guessed for example, that before Christmas, I traveled to Hungary from Stockholm with a 40-ton truck,
sol·stice /ˈsɑ:lstəs/ noun
plural sol·stic·es [count] : one of the two times during the year when the Sun is farthest North or South of the Equator ◊The summer solstice occurs around June 22 and the winter solstice occurs around December 22.
It is supposed to be a significant date today - at the moment I don't have time to think about it, so much to do. Have to find it out later, if I missed out on something major :-) Will you let me know please?
The simple waiting room...
It's worth viewing the pictures in larger sizes, on their Flickr pages: Click on a photo >>> Actions >>> View all sizes
It was a wonderful weekend with 2 gigs for Hungarian communities here in Sweden. So LOVELY! I will have much more to tell you about it a bit later, now only I wish you all good night the flowers that I got:
Isn't it cute: one place was an elderly home and each old lady & gentleman and their families received a hand made invitation by the staff!
Election Eve in the USA – strange thing for a Hungarian: in my country we have campaign silence 24 hours before the Big Day.
Big Day today: the European Union received the Nobel Peace Prize.
First week of September is almost gone, kids went back to school, grown-ups back to their jobs, theaters, music clubs, courses, businesses are opening again, customer services operate - back to normal life, after lazy summer weeks.
Just catching up quickly: after being only on my mobile phone for a good while (and typing everything on this tiny little Sony Ericsson, even the previous post Party!!!) and going to internet cafés (where they only have Swedish keyboards, of course), I can't tell you what a difference it makes to have my little precious netbook back!
If you (just like me) were not one of the fortunate 80 000 fans in Népstadion, Budapest in 1986 when legendary rock band Queen had its legendary concert behind the iron curtain, here is the chance to enjoy it!
QUEEN: Hungarian Rhapsody - Live In Budapest in the cinemas from September 20!
With the Olympics just over, my Hungary came to #9 in all the participating countries: 8 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze medals, great job, girls & boys!!! Watching the competitions, the victories and the defeats, the champions and those who didn't make it, one might get these types of thoughts for a moment or two:
"What can a man accomplish?", "I would never be able to do that", "It's too difficult", "I am not that good", "That is much more than what I can do", "Could I ever be able to achieve something really big?", "It's easy for them, they have extraordinary talents", "I wonder how far I could go..."
But who sets your limits?
No, Stockholm Pride was nothing for me at all. Instead, on Saturday I had a fun girls' evening out with my Exquisite Graphic Artist friend Maluni . After an interesting meeting with other artists at a café and inhaling some exhaust gas, on the way home we took a couple of minutes to talk over our collaboration.
My previous post No More Waiting received certain reactions: I got some phone calls :-) and comments. One fan asked two questions:
1. Where am I moving on to?
2. Why do I have to keep on moving?
Great questions, thank you, and that doesn't mean that I love to talk about myself and grab it as an opportunity to draw attention to me, myself & I.
What I personally had to say, I already did yesterday in the poem, that's how far making my private life public goes at the moment.
But these two questions are indeed inspiring; I guess every now and then all of us run into them.
Saw this today from the backyard:
And it got me thinking:
NO MORE WAITING
No more waiting for the man to call you,
No more waiting for him
to say: "I want you",
No more waiting for the anointed ones
to tell: "Yes you're a good girl",
This is a private, unlisted posting, not promoted on my social networks or other places. It is only for those friends and contacts of mine whom I would like to greet for their birthdays.
What to do on a Saturday night when half of the world is watching football but you have a quite challenging life situation to solve and you feel for a moment or two that it's just too much?
One of the best methods to pick yourself up quickly, a simple walk is out of question, you are happy to have gotten into the house finally, after being out for hours. So what to do?
If you - just like me - missed the Venus transit yesterday, don't worry: 105 years is enough time to pick the best equipment and observation spot on Earth. Or elsewhere. Keep it in mind for the next lifetime ;-)
Until then, I figured that these 3 things could be something to be busy with:
Eurovision Song Contest is over, Loreen (Sweden) won, grattis!!!
She did deserve the winning, but my favorite was not her though, and sorry, not my Hungary either (I do like Compact Disco's song video, but that's obviously not for the stage)...
A young boy from another small country, Estonia took my heart: Ott Lepland, with his no-fuzz but truly powerful song Kuula.
No surprise that the song and the performance did not win - it was not too much of a fancy show. But man, was it a voice and was it a feeling!
Dear Whitney,
If you see this somehow, please know that
You Will Always Be One Of My Greatest Inspirations
Any singer could only look up to you and learn from you.
Now the moment has come when I could only repeat your very own words to Michael Jackson and to other great stars in music who are now shining on us from above:
I should rather say good night.
No, good morning! is in order: yesterday I decided to try how is it to be a morning person. Which didn't seem to be an option for me, as singer, musicians and other such artsy types are known to work and be alive most in the late hours.
Picnik was a great online photo editing service that I will have to discontinue using.
Their email today didn't came as the best news, and as one can see from the reactions of Google shutting them down, I am not the only one who is not truly satisfied with having to lose a great tool I have been using for my photos.
First day of 2012, on Viking Land which is gloomy, if I look out of the window. Perfect time to cuddle up on the sofa with candles and a nice tea. Okay, have to admit that I had some chocolate, too.
In Hungary, we have (or perhaps only had?) a belief that whatever one does on the first day of the year, that will they do through the whole year.
I don't know if that's true, but it gives a perfect occasion to do only things one loves to do :-)
Just one more quick thought about Christmas, after previous post:
My Mom said when I called them on Christmas Eve:
...and I am in my Stockholm hide-out, somewhere in Viking Land. I didn't go home this year - in our family, it has been always kind of usual that some of us were away at Christmas time: fireman father, brother, musician husband, singer me, and I have also done volunteer work abroad.
Sure it is always nice to see my family, but we celebrate each other whenever I go home, regardless of the date.
I should probably continue with my Sweden Anniversary Inventory, - well, indeed I am putting things in order: started to clean out old stuff from my life that I can't use or don't want any more.
Getting rid of things that I don't need or don't want, saying "no" to offers, jobs, people that are not in alignment with my life, where I don't feel "HELL YEAH!", figuring out things that I do want...
After coming home from a nice Lucia party with a few friends (and getting over the sugar shock), I lit some candles and made a cup of white tea with vanilla: celebrating my Sweden Anniversary. On this day, the 13th of December 2005, I came to Stockholm from England, with my then-husband, a Swedish man.
We had Ł0.91 (yes, 91 Pennies) in our pocket, in total.
Now it's a good moment to take a look at where am I at these days.
It just hit me: I love my little country Hungary, and no matter what is the political or economical situation, I always feel terrific there... But I also lived in Austria for a year, in Switzerland for 3 years, in Germany for a few months and in England for a year - and somehow I spent the most time so far in the country that I disliked the most...
Incredible times around Andrea's house these weeks...Let me share with you a few things that are happening.
I had some tough financial deadlines to meet, the last one today, and it looked there was basically no chance to make them. But miracles kept coming my way, day after day...
Today I shouldn't be doing anything else but full blast promoting my partnership offer for companies and organizations, but now I stopped for a moment, because I got some urgent pondering to do.
While making my lunch, I was skipping around in the house and dancing, singing silly stuff that I just made up, and they all sounded happy. Actually, one of them could make a good punch line of a song, I might work on it later.
These weeks, I have started to make some songs on my own! The words mostly in English, as in most of my poems so far, and the melodies are as far from Hungarian folk songs as it can get.
And the fact that these tunes that I am creating are mostly happy, cheerful ones, made me think for a moment.
(I indeed sing this song every now and then:)
„Midnight, not a sound from the pavement,
Has the Moon lost her memory, she is smiling alone,
In the lamp light the withered leaves collect at my feet,
And the wind begins to moan”...
So many things are happening in my life recently that I could just sit here for hours a day and write my journal...
Only one small bit: it almost feels like I am under some kind of a magic spell or something :-)
Not a long time ago, on a night full of wonders, I wrote my very first song on my own... I have written poems or words that could be good song lyrics, but this was the first time when I also came up with a melody to it. Feels fantastic!!
Few days ago I had my very first lottery win... Okay, not a huge amount at all, but still! Got cash, just like that :-)
Tonight, I was singing a little bit at a music pub - not Hungarian, Irish, Turkish, Gypsy or whatever folk songs or nothing else what I would normally do or what would be expected from me, but blues. Just got into the mood and made up something right on the spot and it sounded great :-)
Feeling fabulous and excited these days :-))
Now what's next? Dear Universe, keep them coming, I can take it, thank you!!! :-)))
The world has just lost another great person, unnecessarily. R.I.P. Steve Jobs
If I remember right, it's been already 16 years that I have visited Lake Balaton... In Tihany for a seminar, before that also in Tihany as a young family, three of us with the baby, befre that in Balatonszepezd at a training camp with the folk dance group of my hometown, and in pioneer camps a couple of times, in Zánka - hm... how do you say this in English: in a training camp for leaders of the smallest pioneer units (=őrsvezetőképző)... and as a child, two times in Balatonlelle with my family.
Now I was excited to go to Lelle again,
Between two festivals (Global Summit of Hungarians in Balatonlelle at Lake Balaton, and Translyvania Is My Homeland in Veröce, at the Donau Bend see my calendar), I spent a few lovely days at Lake Velence... (pictures of all these places soon).
I knew about the Méta Camp, for in my younger years these kind of camps used to be my life, and the musicians and dancers who were teaching were all my friends, and I wished I could attend. It was a nice surprise to discover it
On my birthday, I sometimes get into a philosophical mood... Around this day of the year, it is indeed usual that something happens where I feel a new life has began in one way or the other.
At the age of 10, by an accidental meeting with another little girl, I got introduced to the local folk dance group, and that set me on a path for this life.
When I was 19, I spent my birthday in a hospital with an unusually heavy Hepatitis where the doctors said I needed to be very careful with moving, for at least a half year. A few weeks later I was on stage, touring with the dance group in Slovakia...
In 1993, I got my son as a present - two years later in January, I broke up with his father and we divorced. In the same time, my beloved Grandma, who used to sing the lullabies...
First Monday in January: new week, new month, new year, new decade... Just another grey, ordinary day, or are you looking forward? I spent part of the New Year's Eve with my friend Beata Salamon, paid her a spontaneous visit, after she found out from my Facebook comment that I was sitting at a nearby KFC, enjoying that I could go online with my brand new little netbook (brought to me by Little Jesus, the Christmas-present-bringer in Hungary). Oh yeah, after 3 months (three months!) without a computer was way too long for me, I felt like catching up a bit... We had a great time, some girl talk, and fun with his kid and his friend. And what a delicious töltöttkáposzta (stuffed cabbage) her father has made, oh my! With smoked pork, of course, which is not really for a vegetarian (for health...
Just a test to try if I can post from my phone. If yes, yuppeeee! And fellow musicians, you should all have Hostbaby as your website host, because they are simply unbeatable (no, I don't get any commission for promoting them).
On the photo: a lousy picture I took with my phone, of the rose I got at Brugges Festival last Thursday :-)
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Today, 1st of October is International Music Day, which has been celebrated worldwide for 35 years.
Can someone tell me snälla, where do I find information about how it is held in Sweden? I can't find anything about it in the news or event calendars, which makes me quite sad... (just between us, because many of you ask why am I moving back to Hungary from here: lack of music life in Sweden is one of the main reasons...)
Probably I will need to go out myself and do some singing... It's beautiful sunshine here in Stockholm after all, and around town there are some places with great acoustics, like the Parliament, streets of Gamla stan, spots in the subway... Perhaps in front of the Royal Palace? That must sound really royal!
Welcome to some of my shows, if you are around, just follow the voice :-)
For those who...
I was told to be lucky to be able to live in one of the world's most peaceful and decent countries, and that's what I can read at various lists and articles where they compare countries. Alright, let's see.
Sweden hasn't been in war for a few hundreds years, that must show it! Well, it's not a secret that in WWII for example, Sweden sold arms to both sides and made shit loadz of money on it - hence a nice economic boom.
Also a known fact that Swedish soldiers serve in Afghanistan - doesn't that make Sweden take part in a war?
And what about the training fields for NATO (in a neutral country, which is beating her chest so much about being a model country for neutrality - correct me, if I am wrong)?
More and more details of manufacturing and selling weapons by Swedish companies and authorities are coming to...
A few weeks ago in August, Stockholm had its yearly Kulturfestival, which is one of the greatest things here, with free events around the town. One of them was The Gypsy Queens & Kings with the Mahala Rai Banda, just in front of the Opera House.
And the Queen of Queens (well, I would say The Queen of Gypsies, for she was the only one from all the female performers to deserve this title, in my humble opinion): Esma Redzepova.
After a short stay in Hungary, I am back in Stockholm for a few weeks to arrange a couple of things - I had an AWESOME time and can hardly wait to go back to my little homeland!
Some random impressions from a concert I had with my friends:
Photo gallery (pictures being uploaded continuously) of St Stephen's Day Festivities where Andrea Gerak & Friends gave a hot concert in front of 5000 people in Ibrany, Eastern Hungary.
It was an incredible feeling to visit the then village where my family came from and where I have spent many summers in my childhood with my Grandma and cousins. Now, after more than 20 years, Ibrány became a town and its face has changed a lot, with great modern buildings, a very nice, prospering little city - yet I arrived home to my folks, met several relatives and...
It's very well time to finish my little series about how to avoid failures in choosing your partner... I was quite busy in the last few months with different things, and it seems like I have written up most of the things I had to say about this matter - at least, I don't really have attention on them any more, instead, I am looking forward to the future :-)
But just for the record and to make it complete, here is one last thing that might be useful for some of you - in fact, I wish so much I'd had known this better!am looking into the future :-)
Quick recap of the previous articles (if the links won't work, go here):
Mistake #1: Different communication levels
Mistake #2: Too different purposes, lifestyles
As I said in my previous post Imagining where I showed my first ever poem in my mother tongue to those who read Hungarian, there was yet another poem in the making, but in English, just as all of the earlier ones.
Voila!
DRIFTING
Drifting in your music,
Passionate,
Ethereal,
Ecstatic.
Drifting in your talking,
Meaningful,
Playful,
Caring.
Drifting in your being,
Powerful,
Loveful,
Yearning.
You are drifting me away
To places I have never seen -
Or are these places
I have always known,
Always wanted to be?
I wonder
Where are you taking me?
Drifting me along...
- Andrea Gerak
My poems:
Been hit by creativity... I have written a couple of poems in the past 12 years, but for some mysterious reason, only in English, none of them in my mother tongue...
And now my very first Hungarian poem was just born! Which is again, a bit mysterious, because in the past decade, I spent more time abroad than in my homeland, I haven't been there now for more than 9 months... Here it is for those of you who understand this strange little language and want to read it.
Tried to translate it into English, but I find it rather difficult: not only technically, having to find the right words in a foreign language, but more importantly, I feel it would lose something from its mood, the spontaneous atmosphere, the feeling I had right then and right there. For me, it...
Since my 4 years I have spent in Sweden, one of my greatest experiences was this concert last Saturday: Elisabeth Kontomanou at Huddinge Jazz Festival (Stockholm).
The internationally touring brilliant singer put an outstanding show on the stage, featuring her outstanding vocals conveyed with passion and communication, great stage presence, remarkable musicians and vocalists, songs that gave chills, tears or joy to the audience, making them clapping, tapping, singing along, laughing, or submerging deep in their thoughts and emotions, evoked by the melodies.
A very professional performance and very human in the same time; Elisabeth is a master of keeping contact with the audience in a lovely manner.
Have to mention how respectfully she treated her colleagues on stage: six of them being excellent young talents (three of them in fact her sons!), and despite of that we could witness a few first time performances, such as the opening song, each...
Yesterday evening I went to a very nice vernissage at Södra Teatern (=Southern Theater), of Jonas Rahm painter who has arranged to treat us with great music and an exceptional location, too (and yummy sun-dried black olives from Greece...)
See my impressions from before, during and after the event - a wonderful evening in Stockholm!
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Researchers of the Swedish Karolinska Institute just came up with an ingeniously insane study where they confirm that "distinction between psychological illness and creative thinking is wafer thin", as they say it on The Local: (Fine line between ingenious and insane: study).
Giving big, scientific words and explanations that seem oh so scientific, simply seems insanely ridiculous to me. Blatantly put: this study (just as the similar ones designed to explain why certain human behaviors - good or bad - come from certain brain malfunctions) doesn't prove a sh*t. For the very simple fact that there is no such a thing as "psychological illness". All those "diseases" have been and are being invented by psychiatrists, in order to sell medications for profits and control the population as a herd of sheep.
Watch the next phases of this...
...or maybe bragging, as it may sound to some of you... My friends are telling me all the time that I should not be so modest about my singing - so here you go :-)
Since a couple of days, I am sorting out a few things around me with the help of a friend: spotting moments in my past that still had an effect on me - and I tell you: they are NOT good effects, and one can be surprised about how long time ago they have happened...
With freeing the attention captured in old stories, it is obviously much easier to see one's present situations, handle problems and get the show really going.
Well, I just find it interesting what reactions I got only in the course of 24 hours: two new friends on Facebook who heard me for the first time, likened...
I asked shortly ago: To Idol Or Not To Idol? Several young girls (and a few boys) who heard me singing wanted me definitely to go for the Swedish Idol for which they had the Stockholm selection round yesterday.
Well, I had a legitimate excuse not to participate: I just got out of a bad cold when I was not able to sing for more than a week, today being the first day when I dared to try. (It worked nicely :-) But anyway, I didn't plan to go, for these talent shows are not really for artists with decades on stage behind them - and I am not sure if I ever want to be a Swedish Idol.
My friends told me I should take the plunge: "Show 'em how to sing a Swedish song for real!" I am sure I could do that, apart from that the pronunciation is quite...
Not talking about my preferences about how a man should look, with or without an art work on his face, because that's not the point, but about the moustache (mustache, for you Americans) growing campaigns by various cancer organizations to collect money and raise awareness for prostate cancer - which are all a big scam.
Certainly there will be some of you who, reading this now, would like to shout at me: “HOW DO YOU DARE?!?!?!
All these people are giving their hearts, best intentions and money to help those unfortunate ones who need to fight (in this case: prostate) cancer – and you girl dare to claim that this noble campaign is a scam???
Well, I do. Chill out folks, and get some basic knowledge about cancer itself and how these cancer organizations work.
The helping intention of all these people who want to contribute can’t be overemphasized or -acknowledged. But. One should...
I guess if I had a daughter or two, we would be good girlfriends. But as I don't have any, I can have as many as I want to.
In the last 4 days, I met 7 young girls for the first time, and I was so happy to see that only a couple of minutes talking with them made a positive difference in their lives - I hope so.
On Thursday afternoon two girls with angel voices were sitting on a corner, strumming their guitars. I (along with a couple tourists) was listening to them for a while, it was beautiful! They were not busking, just trying out some songs. But I saw that people wanted to give them money. I went to them and we had a little singer chat. They were 14, and had a dream to perform, to be famous artists. I acknowledged them for...
Little good surprises are happening: yesterday met 2 girlfriends in town, one minute after I've thought about them, and they invited me for a yummy dinner. Later, I discovered a bunch of wonderful photos in my camera from the past week or so that I have forgot about, AND I could hardly believe this one: found my Hungarian SIM card I lost a couple of months ago! I have 3 phone numbers but only 2 phones I like to use, so I always had to change the tiny little cards and keep one of them in my purse, that's how I dropped it.
When I stepped out of the door this afternoon, I saw something red on the ground - and there was it, my SIM card with my Hungarian phone number! As the snow and all the winter rubbish is disappearing, it had a chance to surface. Yayyy!!! I can...
In the summer of 2002, I did a few songs for an exhibition of a very fine Hungarian painter Mária Jeremiás, in a beautiful church in Budapest. (How wonderful is that: to have beautiful paintings and songs in a sacred place?) These words came into my mind in the early spring next year, on my way back to Budapest from Vienna, while I was looking at the still snowy scene from a bus.
Unfortunately, I lost contact with the lady and can't find her, so I can't show you her delicate painting...
DANCING VIOLETS
(for a painting of Mária Jeremiás)
Have you ever seen violets when they dance?
As I look out of my window,
Trees are heavy from silver snow,
The horizon is a big white pillow.
But spring is coming soon, a new chance,
And they will dance, the violets.
They turn, jump, wave, bend,
Spread happiness...
I love blogging... Just created another one... on the English news site for Sweden, The Local, and I named it Stuck in Stockholm. Often I would like to write more about my experiences than what my Stockholm photo blog would allow, and also, I guess it's the best to change viewpoints on my love & hate relationship with Sweden, with locals and expats living here. Sometimes to let out a little steam... or to get an answer to something I can't figure out.
People keep me asking all the time how did I get here in Sweden, how long ago, what do I do here, etc - here you go:
I arrived here 4 years ago (to be exact, on Lucia's Day 2005), from England where I met the guy I married there. Me from Hungary, he from Sweden, got to know each other near to...
Still in poetry mood... Planning to make a book. Now I looked through the words I have written so far and found one period in my life when I wrote the most.
It was a couple of years back when I had some hard times, generally in life.
No news that as an artist, I am more sensitive to different things in life than the average, my perception is sharper and my emotions are more intense.
And also no news that as a pretty girl, I have gotten into a couple of situations with boys through my life. Interestingly enough, several of the stories ended with painfully burning myself, heart broken to 1 000 000 pieces.
In those short years I am talking about now, the most poetically fruitful era of Andrea Gerak, I died at...
I decided to give more publicity to some of my writings, so I started to submit them to articles sites - don't be surprised if you see my name at other places.
This is one of them; I wrote it in October, but it is not outdated, for I know many people who are looking for ways to handle cancer or helping others to deal with it, volunteer for cancer organizations, etc.
CANCER RESEARCH: FORWARD OR BACKWARD?
Who benefits really from the official cancer research efforts? Most probably not the patients. Since I've gone through a cancer, I am studying the subject from various sources available for the public, and sometimes I find astonishing facts they don't talk about.
"Fight cancer", "Beat cancer" are very popular expressions these days, and it is good so. Although October, the Breast Cancer Awareness Month is over, one can see many people wearing pink ribbons on...
For a moment, I became a Hussar girl - I figured Hussarina would be the English word for it.
And on a side note: Happy Birthday to my Dad!!!
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Oh I love that when things are happening!!
This weekend: a Hungarian folk dance party with Barozda, a birthday (or two, if I can make it), and the celebration for the Hungarian national holiday March 15.
And I just made a little video to one of my songs, enjoy, and have an awesome weekend everybody!
AND spring is officially here!!!!!
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Looks like they are coming up, one after the other...
This is my very first poem I wrote way back when I was living in Vienna for a while, exactly these days of the year, middle of March. On a Sunday morning, around 7 o'clock, I woke up to the notion of having the first words of a poem in my mind.
Opened my eyes quickly, got paper and pencil and finished it. And strange enough, but a bit later I was also thinking about a melody for it, still didn't do anything with it. Just these days now I scraped it out from my back drawers and started to work it out.
Even more strange that that time, I didn't even have a clue of who was the person I was writing it to...
I'LL BE YOU
Take my love and I'll be you,
Take my thought and I'll be you,
Take...
March 15 is the first one in the year of the three big national holidays in Hungary, memorial day for the Hungarian revolution in 1848.
There can be a lot to say about this historical event, from various viewpoints, so let's just stick with what this day symbolizes: we, these 15 million people, in Hungary, in the neighboring countries and all over the world, we are Hungarians, with our own special characteristics and culture.
Wishing all my compatriots dignified celebrations, with these traditional Hungarian folk music pieces - what can be better from a Hungarian folk singer?
Also in Hungary by Andrea Gerak, with a nice photo
In the mood for poetry these days... After the previous one that I have posted, Why did you come to me, I was thinking about another one that I also wrote a couple of years ago, for another fantastic guy I had.
He was a musician, an extraordinarily gifted performer, a great soul and a very nice man. We would talk about all kind of stuff, he was also quite philosophical and spiritual, we had some wonderful time in his home studio, working on new songs, he would take his guitar and we'd sing together, shared a few moments even on stage when I did backing vocals for him, accompanied him to some of his gigs in great places - just a perfect life for two artists... But that time I was making Mistake #5 (from my series on How not to choose the right partner?, see previous postings,#5...
It's another kind of love matter than some of my previous postings, here I will show you one of my big loves of my life :-)
I am a bit surprised that I am still getting the "Where are you from?" type of questions all the time, although one can see it everywhere about me: "Hungary", "Hungarian". All my bios, profiles etc start with "I am a Hungarian artist", "The Hungarian singer..." and such - don't people read even the very first words about another person when they connect up with them???
Anyway, here is one thing to show you where am I from, my forever love, Budapest (let's take this, to make it simple; those who really want to know, can find out that I am from the Northern-East part of Hungary). A friend of mine just showed me a video about it: Get engaged,with some Hungarian music of...
In the article on How not to choose the right partner? Mistake #4 I mentioned a wonderful romance I have had, and that I have written a few poems to that man. I pointed to the Andrea's Stories blog (which I just updated a little bit a minute ago) to see the poems, but now I realized that I have only posted some of them on Facebook - so here is one.
WHY DID YOU COME TO ME?
Why did you come to me?
Why did you call me?
Why did you listen to me?
Why did you look at me?
Why did you talk to me?
Why did you play with me?
Why did you need me?
Why did you get me?
Why did you take me...
From the previous post How not to choose the right partner? Mistake #3, simply follows
Mistake #4:
when you don't look, only listen.
This one should be very simple, yet so many times we fall for the trap...
Interesting that I have planned this topic as the next one for my series, and yesterday I bumped into exactly this in two different places. One was a friend's status update on Facebook, the other one was a blog post I read called No More I Love You's, by Wolynski (who has also contributed to my Mistake #3 article with his comment).
Of course, the flowers, whispering I Love You's and sweet nothings, candle light and all that jazz, will fancy your girl and make a romance romance,...
Sending flowers for all my fellow girls, chicks, gals, sisters, women, ladies - did I miss anyone?
Here they are, look more stunning on black background and in larger size.
Not the Travolta movie (oh, I love that!), but a quick note on a recent happenstance. I started to write a series on relationships (How not to choose the right partner? Mistake #1, Mistake#2, Mistake #3 and there will come a few more), some of you have read it.
According to a few feedback, certain people became quite disturbed by it and the examples I gave (without names, of course).
For the time being, I withdrew my articles as drafts, until I decide if I wanna keep them or delete them forever. Probably I will publish them again, because from others I heard that it was helpful. (UPDATE, 2/March: I did restore them.)
What I have to say about it right now is this: there is no reason to get strongly emotional about it...
As I am getting some interesting feedback (pro and contra) on my previous posts Mistake #1 and Mistake #2, it's time to elaborate it a little more.
I take up now a point that I wanted to talk about a bit later: How the two people can have a happy relationship, if their lifestyles are different. Am I saying, for example, that an artist can only be happy with another artist? No, I am not: I know several happy couples where only one of them is an artist, so it can obviously work out well: a performing pianist with a wife who makes him a warm home and takes care of the children, a singer girl with a husband who keeps her feet on the ground and deals with the administrative matters, and so on, there are others as well.
The point is: how is your spouse actually supporting...
I have not done too much promotion for my new album This Way, Sweetheart! yet and interesting things are happening.
A few days ago I met a guy shortly, a real huge Viking, all in black leather and stuff, a true heavy metal fan. I sang just one song to him as his friends - actually, I was not even finished with the first verse when he reached for his valet and bought my CD...
This was the second time that strangers I met and who heard about my songs for the very first time in their entire life, heard this one particular song only and bought a whole album.
Talking about this one: Beli Buba, Beli - maybe you will like it, too :-)
Just a little lullaby, in a strange language that is understood by...
Red and pink hearts, flowers and gift boxes&bags, chocolates, cards and love songs everywhere - Valentine's.
I hope all of you who celebrate it, had a wonderful time!
That (the decoration and gifts part) was the "head in the clouds" side of it, beauty, creation, romance and all, so let's take a look at the "feet on the ground" side of love and relationships as well - at the end of the day, one will find that without a solid foundation, cards, flowers and chocolates are very nice, but will not do all the work needed to a happy relationship...
And is you want some songs, my latest album is full of love songs (14, out of 17 tracks), happy ones, sad ones - what you just wish:
For...
Is it appropriate to say that one had a great fun at a memorial concert? Because I did, just as all the attendees at the packed Stampen, the famous jazz-blues establishment in Gamla stan (the old town of Stockholm) this afternoon. A few hours (4?) long blues jam session, as a tribute to Erik Strandh pianist who died last Saturday in a heart attack, just after a concert in his hometown Helsingborg with his band Our Thing, at the age of 60.As I am not too familiar with the blues scene (and not with the music scene in Stockholm in general),I didn't know Erik Strandh; one of my friends, guitarist Thierry Laprevote invited me, who played with him at that last gig...
One of the last...
Okay, so you are so much in love that nothing else matters and you would go to the end of the world with your partner, right? Even if you have to give up your home, your career, your hobbies, move away from family and friends and your beloved hometown, - as long as you two are together, nothing bad can happen and everything is hunky-dory, love will get you through everything.
That's beautiful and very romantic! This is what we have all read in the wonderful books and seen in the movies, these are the stories to sigh and dream about. But how does it work in actual life? It might and when it does, you see a truly happy couple. Only you must not make
Mistake #2:
Too different...
So it's World Cancer Day today - I didn't think cancer was something to celebrate...
Okay, as it is a real concern for many people (indeed, many of my friends talk about themselves, family members or friends having this disease and I myself got through it exactly 2 years ago), and there are a lot of questions, misconceptions, uncertainties, false data and controversies in the subject, let's take another look at it. These are my own observations and conclusions, and you are invited to look at facts and make up your own mind.
A few months ago, regarding the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, October, I pointed out a couple of controversies of the official cancer politics:
Cancer research: forward or backward? and Is cancer caused by the genes?
Let's go further.
It's great that the WHO is showing signs of improvement and hope when they now...
I have been doing so excellent at this that it entitles me to have a good laugh about it and write a couple of expert words. If you live in a happy relationship, it is not for you, if only with the purpose of sharing your experiences of what did work, of which I would love to hear.
Summarizing these mistakes and errors one can make when choosing a partner one wants to hook up with, will hopefully help a couple of people not to make them. Because I can assure you, they don't work - these are either my personal experiences (here you go, if you ever wanted a peek into Andrea Gerak's personal life), either stories I have seen in my immediate environment.
As I am an artist and many of my friends are artists, most of these examples will be from...
I guess I need to go and buy a hyper-waterproof mascara - after reading all the birthday wishes, greetings, cards, this seems to be a proper thing to do, to be prepared for tomorrow's Hungarian folk music and dance party with Barozda, where the violin and the other strings touch right the very bottom of one's heart... (If you are around Stockholm, here is the info and I'll be more than happy to see you there!)
This is what I had: Budapest pastry/cake - a Swedish yummyness
So today is the day when I became - as a dear friend put it - one more year, more beautiful :-))
And indeed, I feel so: one more year more active, creative, happy, free... Now when I am over 40, I can...
Life has its happenings, good and bad, happy news, sad news. Whereas two of my Facebook friends got married on the birthday of a third one, next day a dear MySpace friend's daughter passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, on New Year's Eve.
I can imagine that the deepest sadness can be losing one's child - I remember my Grandma and the New Year's Eve I spent with her, right after the funeral of one of his beloved sons...
And I have seen the birth certificate of my big sister, her name was Dead-Born Gerák...
I am not in the age yet when my friends should leave this world, but some of them already did, and I wrote these words to them (in 2006, published here)
IT'S NOT TOO LATE
You've gone away -
When will I see you?
Where will I find you?
Now that you are far...
I got quite some responses to my new year's greeting, (like for example a lady whom I have met only once, 6 years ago, phoning me from Germany and offering her place to stay, if I am ever around that area...), and a few people (amongst my friend a professor of the Hungarian Academy of Science) suggested a little correction: that the new decade does not start with 2010 but with 2011.
Yes my friends, you are completely right! That's what I knew too, and I was a bit confused about seeing all the big fuzz in the media and advertisements, tv etc programs, summarizing the old decade and welcoming the new one, so just to be sure, I asked an expert: my son has high level mathemathics at a very good school, studying it in English, and doing alright (I think I can brag a bit :-))
And...
Probably the nicest surprise of the year was to hear that two of my beautiful Facebook friends got married yesterday, so I am sending them this poem I wrote a few years ago, for another friend... and if you, dear Reader know about somebody around you getting married, feel free to greet them with these words:
(for a marriage)
The beat of my heart,
hope of my thought,
sound of my sigh,
spark of my eye,
all is yours, from now on.
Or, if I have a headache,
if I make a mistake,
almost feel I can't,
and my duty is hard,
it's also yours, from now on.
But the stroke of my hand,
calm of my strength,
dream of my goal,
love of my soul,
all is yours, from now on.
- Andrea Gerak
So Christmas is over, New Year is here AND my birthday is coming, hurray!!
I was thinking about what would I like as a present, of course besides that I would love an aluminium MacBook Pro to replace my very old laptop which might die at any second, and a Caribbean cruise... And sure I have some other wishes, but this is what I can make public:
Did a little math and saw that it's a couple of more days till The Date (Jan 15, if you want to mark it in your calendar :-) And exactly as many days left as the number of tracks of my new album.
I figured: let's post one song a day, with as much info as I can, with lyrics, where are the songs from, etc; probably won't be able to...
Came home shortly from the city, pretty tired after a big photo walk, put things quickly in order (we left in a hurry, my son had to catch his flight to Budapest), lit a bunch of candles, put on a ring I haven't had for a good while and painted my nails bright red, just to feel more appropriate for the day, and drank up almost the half big bottle of Julmust (that's a Swedish Christmas special soda, somewhat similar to coke) - so this is Christmas...
My Christmas, on my own, after a long while.
I know many people feel sad this time of the year when they don't have anybody to share it with, or when these dates are connected to some very unpleasant memory, like losing someone dear - I could tell a couple of stories when I have seen people...
Yeah, I took a LOT of photos last Tuesday, not only had a wonderful time with the performances and the gala dinner at the Road To Copenhagen Conference.
I am posting them in my Travel photo blog, here are the first two postings:
For more pictures and the stories of the day, click on the links above.
Did you ever have an accident? We know, that was an unfortunate coincidence.
Did you ever run to school or work and missed all the buses and subways and arrived late? (I did...) Coincidence - great way to explain yourself out of the situation.
Did you know people who lost their jobs, family and health in the same time? Poor guy - coincidence.
While another suddenly got an extremely good job offer and found the mate of his life? He was just lucky - coincidence...
coincidence= the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection; also: any of these occurrences (Merriam-Websters)
In a video, I heard a few words by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz on this subject: "Belief in coincidence is neither scientific, nor religious. From a scientific standpoint, there is scientific determinism. Well, from a religious standpoint, there are things...
It's so strange for me to have a Christmas party on the 6th of December - in Hungary and a few countries around, Santa Claus comes on the night from Dec 5 to Dec 6, as a tradition of Saint Nicholas.
The most important part is the gifts: he is giving sweets to the good kids :-))
But here in Sweden they don't know about this absolutely vital part of the holiday season, so it's already Christmas parties everywhere, that's how we had one concert yesterday for a couple of dozen friends.
The young girls dancing to Michael Jackson were just gorgeous, and my friends The Divas: Mimmi, Julia and Anneli with the surprise band The Devils, and Odea from Los Angeles rocked the house. I did Greensleeves and a completely different style: Change The World from Eric Clapton, the three girls backing me up, was cool :-) ...
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
I think with their album, I have my son's Christmas present
-- Andrea Gerak
Andrea is the female version of Andrew, and I absolutely hated it for a long time, because all I knew was that it meant "manly". How can a girl be called "man, manly"??????
I began to like it only a few years ago when I was studying something and in a big Webster's dictionary I discovered the Indo-European root of this name: "power, force, vital energy". Wow! That one I approved!
Today is St Andrew's Day which is Apostle Andrew's feast day and Scotland's national holiday. He is also a patron saint for a few other countries in Europe and a lot of traditional activities are connected to his day.
Name days are celebrated in Hungary almost like birthdays, they bear a similar importance. Especially a couple of old ones, like of saints etc. So is Andrew's (András - ondh-raash), which is my father's and my brother's name as well.
And...
One of my Facebook friends Munir Mezyed Palestinian poet (please go and say hello to him) translated a poem of mine into Arabic, and chose a portrait ÙŽas an illustration. Voila!
I never celebrated Thanksgiving, in fact, I didn't even know what was it about - in my part of the world, we don't have it. All I knew was that Americans would eat turkey - until last night when I read a bit about it.
I thought if I was getting the most fans from the US, outside of Hungary, it would be nice from me to greet them. So what shall I wish you, my friends, on this day?
First of all that you all have a great dinner with your loved ones, family and friends. That you enjoy every bite, every sip, every second of it. You talk, laugh, maybe sing or play, contemplate nice memories you have together.
And that you create plans, dreams, goals so that one or a few Thanksgivings later, those will add to the things you achieved and will be nice memories.
I also learned a...
After my Saturday evening adventures with going to Esklistuna for the recording (and of course going to bed very late), Sunday brought another kind of adventure, an Afternoon Tea concert.
Had to get up early, to do my hair (which I simply can't manage in this Scandinavian climat) and to give my voice enough time to wake up.
It was a very exciting event, because actually it was a premier: first performance together with a Romanian pianist Julien Matei and a Swedish singer-songwriter Ewa Wikström. We put together a nice little show that fit to the gorgeous place - just look at these scenes (oops, I still have to figure out how to paste pictures here directly)
Julien played his own compositions on the piano, I sang something acapella, Ewa sang her songs and accompanied herself on the piano, and we girls...
This is from about a week ago, but in case you missed this cool music, here it is, for your listening pleasure!
A few great music artists, brought to you by Andrea Gerak, with personal comments, enjoy!
After I had 3 auditions in the first 3 days of the week (of which one of them was a demo recording session with a Swedish composer-producer who has written for example famous Christmas songs that are big not only in Sweden but in the UK, US, Italy and produced some of the now big name Swedish artists) plus practiced for the recording of my new album, and that involved listening to my own and others singing almost non-stop, intensely using my throat for about 4 hours a day on an average, I needed to have some instrumental-only sounds.
Here is a selection of music from my friends I listened to in the last couple of...
(my first short story; get a nice drink, make yourself cozy and enjoy!)
Little Birdie loved fruit. Not all kind, she did have some likes and dislikes: she wouldn’t even go near to rotten ones or those that have been soaked in chemicals and other stinky poisons, but she loved crispy, juicy ones. Somehow not really gooseberries or plums, they were just okay.
Her favorites were apples; she could probably just live on it.
She was walking, flying and jumping around in the Big Orchard, minding her own business, saying hello to the walking trees and bushes, other birds, rabbits and deers, chirping, playing and dancing with them, making plans with them of how could the Orchard be arranged in a better way, admiring the greens and blues, smelling the sweet flowers, sometimes fighting for survival, crying for a few loved ones she has lost, trilling with rejoice so...
Many of you are asking how did the recording go on Saturday. The recording itself went great! But my trip to Eskilstuna and back...
On the way there, I was happy, because finally it was blue sky and sunshine and I could hardly wait to watch the sunset over the beautiful Swedish countryside! Only my train was delayed with 25 minutes, which meant that I haven't even caught the last rays, the sun goes down already at 3pm these days :-(
Was even worse on the way back, I had a ticket to the 10pm train, but we finished earlier and I could make it to the 8 o'clock train, hurray! Slight problem being that my ticket was not valid for this one (which is just weird, it's a 1-hour ride on a simple regional line, so it's plain bureaucracy), so I either had to buy a new ticket, either get off...
Fight for peace, fight against cancer, fight against poverty, fight against environmental problems, fight for children, fight for rights, fight for life, fight for love. We hear these words all the time and it seems that all the good people of the world are fighting - isn't that strange?
Hi, this is Andrea Gerak, opening this blog.
While you can read the news - surprisingly - in the News section (press releases, announcements etc), here you shall connect with me personally.
Happenings in my life, random thoughts, interesting things I bump into, backstage stories and such.
I already have countless blogs, only my Blogger empire is big enough, and then there is MySpace, Facebook and... Okay, I just found out that the awesome guys at HostBaby created this fantastic blogging feature, I thought I should give it a go and invite you to have a peek into my life here in my home, i.e. on my own website.
This way you don't have to jump around to different sites to check what's going on, so I will probably copy some...
Still October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And I am hearing from many of my friends that their family members, relatives, friends are struggling with some form of cancer, so I would like to help them.
In a previous post I expressed my doubts and reservations about the current methods of official "cancer politics", i.e. chemical drugs and similar agressive treatments are advertised and applied heavily, along with the permanent claims that researches need incredible amount of money every year, without getting any close to the real roots to the problem and offering effective solutions to handle those. Probably it is time to dig deep and handle.
