Magyar Hírek, 1984 (37. évfolyam, 2-26. szám)
1984-02-18 / 4. szám
hesitation, he sprayed the lot over the iü-mannered visitors. The Budapest Zoo has some enthusiastic backers, among others a Hungarian engineer, who lives in South America, and supplies, by air, rare grasshoppers, scorpions, millipeds, scarabs to the House of Insects. On his rare visits home, he spends hours in the house of Insects, enjoying the racket of the wondering Hungarian children. Another good friend of the Zoo who presented his major collection of see shells and snails, is also an engineer. Now these are on permanent exhibition. Since then the Zoo is continuously receiving corals, see stars, and other creatures of the oceans. The two young elephants, Arun and Kali came from India. They were bought. The problem was to get the necessary emigration papers, since India is becoming more reluctant to let elephants leave the country, because of their declining numbers. The executives of the Zoo rereived the support of the Indian Embassy in Budapest to get over that obstacle. Protection of native animals is becoming tougher in most countries, there are therefore fewer opportunities for the Zoo to make new acquisitions. The help of Hungarians living in foreign countries, who may be able to assist is therefore always welcome. The main problem at the present is the renewal of the salt water aquarium. The only salt water aquarium in Hungary is just being reconstructed in the cellar of the Palm House, which was designed by the office of the builder of the Eiffel tower in Paris. The ceremonial opening is planned for the summer of 1984. The Zoo is the business not only of Budapest, but of the whole country. A new Zoo is planned on the Northern outskirts of the city somewhere near the Békásmegyer housing estate. The new Zoo would take up some 60-80 hectares there, and the Danube would supply water in plenty. Some characteristic buildings of the old Zoo, which have been declared historic monuments long ago, will be saved, and might fill some other role. The old, much-beloved Zoo will stay where it is for a long time yet. Young people of today may still walk in the Japanese garden, enjoy the tulips of the rockgarden in the spring, and make love there as their parents and grandparents used to in their time. SÁNDOR HOLDAS were all that could be saved by the end of the siege. The hippopotamus survived the winter without heating, and the keepers solved the problem of feeding with the see grass filling of old mattresses. He ate it, though with doubtful enjoyment. The great personality of the drawn out rebuilding was the recently deceased Csaba Anghi. For many long years he was head of the Department of Mammals, later becoming the director of the Zoo. The whole country knew his stout figure and white beard. He put the Zoo on its feet again, but even he could not give it more room. The fate of famous old Zoos caught up also with the Budapest one: it was hammed in by buildings. The Budapest Zoo was designed for two three hundred thousand visitors a year. The gardens were spacious enough to cope with that many people comfortably. A total of 300,000 tickets were sold in 1938 but the flow of visitors turned into a flood in later years. In the past ten years, an average of 1,700,000 people have paid to visit the Zoo each year. People living in the city have a deep yearning for nature, they like to walk along the quiet avenues, admiring the beautiful details of the park, looking at the successors of Siam, the elephant, or Jonah the hippopotamus, of eternal fame with just as much interest as their parents had done. The Zoo always had illustrious residents. Jonah was a famous hippopotamus, whose present successor in the pools is Jonah the 11th. They have been given numbers, like kings. Practical jokers in Budapest ring the Zoo by in their hundreds on 1st April, or New Years Eve, enquiring warmly about Mr. Jonah health. Special staff are on duty on these days, and ladies, with nerves of steel give courteous answers. Siam was a famous elephant who lived in Budapest for decades. He earned his living in the literal sense. People put 2 fillér coins in his trunk, which he accepted, took to the keeper in the comer who gave him a slice of bread in exchange. He had a developed sense of the worth of money, accepting only the coin of the realm, taking vengeance on those who offered him buttons. Talking about vengeance, Siam had a successor worthy of him: Sultan, the Indian elephant bull. When he begged in vain, he walked to his bath, syphoned up dirty water and without Bikinis and Coroners — Hungarian Rock News Every year in early spring the European rock “industry" holds its own promotional fair in Cannes, in France. Every year, the Hungarian record companies dash off a few singles (in English) by the groups they think commercial enough to break into a foreign — any foreign — chart. This spring, the word is that hopes are being pinned on East and Bikini to find the kind of commercial recognition that The Newton Family achieved in Japan late last year. Their chances in Cannes are probably no better or no worse than those of the other two thousand whose tapes are being hawked around the A and R men, independent producers, promoters and other. All this is by way of saying that the mainstream at the moment is not doing anything particularly striking — in fact at the moment it sounds a little jaded, uninspired. East in concert can generate enthusiasm among their own following with their brand of heavy metal but its doubtful if they break into, lets say, the British singles chart. As for Bikini (who are basically Beatrix reformed in both senses), their version of post-punk may be too acerbic for a chart audience and too bland for their own following here. Still they are pointing in the direction that Hungarian rock seems to be heading at the moment. For punk is what is happening now in the clubs and small concerts. Younger groups are appearing with a dizzying speed — many disappearing almost as quickly. Incidentally punk in Hungary describes a range which would include “experimental” and even some “new wave” elsewhere. The cult Budapest group right now is Vágtázó Halottkémek (The Galloppins? Coroners) which is probably the only punk group in the world headed by an astronomer. (Yes, astronomer — none of your sixties I Ching and astrological charts nonsense here.) They have caught on with mid-thirties hip Budapest and are featured in Gábor Body’s new film Kutya Éji Dala (Dog’s Night Song). They have not recorded and are unlikely to as their ferocious style is one that can only come over in performance. The less abrasive Bizottság (The Committee), who were the first of the groups drawn from the art world, have cut their only album and retired. They were an important group and two of their pieces Szerelem (Love) and Putty putty are already classics. They will be missed. The other big loss to the Budapest clubs was Európa Kiadó (The Europa Publishing House — also the name of one of the most important publishers here) whose final concerts before Christmas were crammed. They produced the sharpest, witties lyrics of any the straight punk groups and they will be heard from again individually or collectivelly. Punk is ferment, the mainstream quiet? Not quite as the biggest audiences ever in Hungary, were at last summer’s open-air performances of István a király (István the king) — no less than 100,000 a night. Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Cats had its second non-London production here and the original Hungarian rock musical, Sztárcsinálók, is still running. It adds up to the quite recent and astonishing rise of the rock musical here. But that is worth an article in itself. PETER DOHERTY 31
