Local elections, round I

It only happens once every few years and they give you a sticker to put on the back of your if card Just think, for the next 4 years whenever you have to use your id, the clerk you hand it to will sneak that instinctive look on it’s back and go *eddie izzard voice*”ah, a responsible person!!!”

Tomorrow we’re voting for the mayor of where ever in Romania you are. For elections where I reside, which is a small “town” just outside of Bucharest we have candidates of all colours, and I do mean it literally: oranges, 2 reds, yellows, 2 greens, a black, a blue also known as PD-L, PSD, Uniunea Pesionarilor, PNL, PNG-cd, Partidul Verde, Partidul Romilor, Partidul Consevator.

There’s another reason, apart from the sticker bit, I’m so thrilled about election day: NO MORE CAMPAIGNING! And hopefully we’ll have it wraped up from the first round *I wish* . I’ve had more than enough in the past month of cars up and down the street all day with speakers on , tactic used by most parties. Enough already! I think a good part of the population of here has enriched their wardrobe with at least a few t-shirts, caps, aprons, short not to mention the extensive collection of lighters, pens, bags, notepads etc. All this besides the usable goods, you know the usual: oil , flower, sugar….cash…give and incentives to join/adhere/etc.

So pretty much:

Bookfest 2008

And yet another under-promoted event(taking place at Romexpo from 4 to 8 june)

To start with: their website. It’s freakink blank! Less then a week before! Sorry, but Gaudeamus had an not only a list of publishing houses but also maps of where they were going to be!

This weeks TimeOut allegedly had a piece of Bookfest…in fact more a piece,long one, on audiobooks which impress me so little I have tried ‘em And even with something I like, several books by Anne Rice. Nope, didn’t work for me. Maybe next time I’m commuting to/from Brussels I’ll give ‘em a try, but in Bucharest, in traffic, no way.

They’re going to have 14.000 square meters to show off over 50000 titles by over 160 publishing houses spread out over 5000 square meters. Do we care?! NO!!!!!!!!!! It’s an absolutely useless piece of information used by the organisers to allegedly impress us. It sounds rather dubious to me, just like the director of 10.000 BS threw those unrealistic numbers in our faces to distract from the fact the the movie sucked!!!

I don’t know how much 14.000 square meters is! I’d to find Cocteau’s Les Enfants Terribles , now THAT would impress me!

This year’s BookFest is taking place in pavilions 13 to 17. Which might be good cause the central pavilion makes for a lousy display area.

If I’d be mean I’d say that either they plan of selling at least 50.000 book to the number of people that know how to get to romexpo(like people in bucharest) and that know romexpo inside out or else I don’t see why they wouldn’t put in directions or a plan of the place, much like this one :

And now for what makes this BookFest special is that we have music Yes, yes, they also have some Writers Union event going on, but we have live rock music.

Now, I haven’t seen it on a bookfest related website but I did come across a newsletter announcing Travka to play at Romexpo on the 8 (it was signed Bianca Boitan
PR TRAVKA ) and before it, according to Last.fm Kumm announced to play Bookfest on the 6 and according to Rori Luna Amara is playing , I’m guessing on 4,5 or 7 .

Btw, checking last.fm noticed Travka have a lot of gigs coming up so thumbs up to their management team and looking forward to seeing Travka at Bookfest.

Go buy books! Relax with lunch/dinner(cause it does tend to take a while) at the Hard Rock, after! See you all there!

Now you do know that’s a figure a speech Don’t all rush in there , I do dislike a crow. Thanks!

BookFest

Title: BookFest
Location: Romexpo
Start Date: 2008-06-04
End Date: 2008-06-08