Strange YouTube journey this morning as I sought some quickie material for a reporting day. Inspired by Dr. Swerve-On’s latest installment of Fresh Produce, I started off looking for George Benson’s version of “California Dreaming.” Yet I somehow ended up fixated on the video above, in which Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu pays a visit to […]
Entries Tagged as 'Romania'
Despots of a Feather
November 9th, 2011 · Comments Off on Despots of a Feather
Tags:dictatorship·Kim Il-sung·Nicolae Ceausescu·North Korea·Pyongyang·Romania
Who’s Hero?
June 28th, 2011 · 2 Comments
Though my ability to feed my family depends entirely on humankind’s affinity for written communication, I’m often surprised by the power of words. Case in point: the developing brouhaha between Hungary and Romania over a plaque tacked onto a statue of King Matthias (right). The monument is located in the Romanian town of Cluj, where […]
Tags:diplomacy·Hungary·King Matthias·Medieval history·politics·Romania
The Last Beer Run
March 16th, 2010 · 4 Comments
The sign above, which features script that translates as “Attention: Drunks,” was briefly part of a safety initiative in the Romanian town of Pecica. The mayor was concerned that too many of inebriated pedestrians were getting mowed down by cars, and so sought to duplicate a series of warning signs that he had once encountered […]
Let There Be Hydroelectricity
December 16th, 2009 · 4 Comments
Explicitly Communist architecture gets a unfairly bad rap from critics. Sure, builders behind the Iron Curtain were overly fond of dismal panelaks and other multi-dwelling units that reeked of dingy misery. But when the last true believers in the dictatorship of the proletariat decided to go the triumphalist route, man, did they ever pull it […]
Tags:architecture·art·Communism·dictatorship·mythology·Nicolae Ceausescu·Romania·statues
Ceausescu Through the Looking Glass
August 13th, 2009 · Comments Off on Ceausescu Through the Looking Glass
Richmonda, Virginia’s DJ Carlito specializes in digging up vintage, totally random vacation films and setting them to music. We’re absolute suckers for all things Romanian, so the above clip is a fave. But also check out Carlito’s found footage from Tunisia in 1967—not to mention this Indonesian propaganda flick from the heyday of (we think) […]
Tags:1960s·DJ Carlito·Indonesia·movies·Romania·travel·Tunisia