TRAVELERT: Krakow Concert and Event Alerts

Can we call their music “noisy?” Yes! Challenging, troubling even! The bundles of neurons which try to make sense of auditory impulses before sending them to your brain will be confused! Try them out for yourself, but grab hold of the desk first to steady yourself.  They’re from the US — Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where they formed in 1990. They carry the flag of the “math rock” people, I am told, but the band themselves dislike this category. They sound so weird you might at first think they’ve mistuned their guitars.

Wrap them around your face or maybe wear them as a hat on Tuesday, 1 May at 20.00 at Forty Kleparz. Ed Wood (the band, not the deceased filmmaker) is opening for them. Admission is 45 PLN, unless you plan ahead.

Pink Freud is one of the best and well-known “weird Jazz” bands in Poland, playing electro, alternative and experimental jazz.  It is intelligent, fun and energetic music that may bend your brain in half. They’re playing to promote their new album “Monster of Jazz.” Catch them Fabryka on Friday, 28 May at 20.00 for 35 PLN (which is cheap, considering how famous they are!) after previewing their music on MySpace.

See an exhibit of Bogdan Konopka’s photography at the Manggha Center. The exhibition (called The Grey Empire) will be on display until the 30th of May, and it documents the Polish photographer’s Chinese adventures. While you’re there checking out the photography, be sure to taste the green tea ice cream…

Yes, despite the name, catch them on Saturday, 21 May at 20.00 at Śródmiejski Ośrodek Kultury (located on Mikołajska street in the old city center, number 2). “The Sunday Sessions” are a local songwriting collective consisting of “seven or so” members from Ireland, South Africa, Poland, Scotland and Germany. After hiding away somewhere for a while to write songs, they have just recently emerged into public to perform music they describe as “folky-acoustic.” They are known to swap instruments and singing duties during their performances. A warm but lively evening is guaranteed. And since they’re a brand new band (but a good one) hurry to catch what will surely be one of their last free shows . . .

Every Wednesday night the pub Ptasiek in Kazimierz hosts a jam session. Starting around 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. and going until late at night (or early in the morning) you can see groups form and dissipate with each new song sometimes. From jazz to rock to blues, it’s always entertaining to watch the musicians (many of whom have never played together) interact, and you never know what you’ll get. Some are professionals, most are local (but performers from other cities and countries often drop by) and many are armatures with day jobs or guys who usually busk on street corners. Bring your harmonica, guitar, kazoo or Yamaha keyboard and join in, or just sit and enjoy.

photo from Madmolecule on Flickr.

The quiz happens every Thursday at Kraków’s most labyrinthine and well-ventilated Irish Pub. Join the competition for 25 Złoty per team (teams have no more than 5 people each) and do your best to answer 4 rounds of 10 questions on a variety of topics. The winning team gets a lot of free beer, the losing teams get a lifetime of regret. It can be fun, but beware!  Some people take their pub quizzes very seriously. Starts at 21.30 each Thursday.

The Wisła is finally beginning to go down, but basements the city is still partially paralysed by unacceptably high levels of water. At least three people have drowned in the last 48 hours, the Auschwitz museum site is threatened, and farms in villages near Kraków and throughout Małopolska (Lesser Poland) are flooded to varying degrees. Water in the Wisła is 3 meters higher than the “state of emergency” levels. How long has it been raining now? A week? Two? Six months? I can’t remember. One roundabout (Grunwaldskie) near the hostel has police directing traffic, as the tunnels that pedestrians cross under have flooded. A major bridge (Most Dębnicki) has been closed, so traffic in the city is mayhem. Despite the apocalyptic tone of the Polish press (the press loves a good apocalypse) there is no cause for panic, but the flooding is definitely causing major problems. Take a look at some photos here, and try to stay dry.

The Sanghaloka Buddist Centre in Krakow offers an introduction to Buddhist Mediation in Kazimierz every Monday from 7 to 9 pm at Augustianska Str. 4. Each week they alternate between two meditation practices dating back to the time of the Buddha: the mindfulness of breathing and the metta bhavana (development of strong positive emotions towards oneself and others, all beings). All are invited to attend, and a 7 PLN donation is suggested. You can read more about these meditation methods at The Friends of the Western Buddhist and Wildmind Buddhist Mediation.

You may have noticed the weird trailers that recently appeared in Plac Wolnica, decorated with leering demons and other neo-rustic patterned beasts. It seems that these (open and on display from 6 to 23 May) are part of the 2010 Etnodizajn festival sponsored by the Ethnographic museum on Plac Wolnica, where modern Polish artists celebrate Poland’s rich visual folk history. For example, they’ve loosed artist Olaf Cirut into their archives, allowing him to incorporate folk objects into his installation. The festival also features a smattering of objects to interact with along the Wisla river. Like everything the Etnodizajn people do, this exhibit offers ergonomic and harmonious post-normal objects from the bright retro future.

You can read a more coherent explanation of this event via The Krakow Post.

Museum Night in Cracow

On the night of 14 May 2010 all museums in Kraków will be open for free admission from 19.00 to 01.00. And this city has a lot of museums – you can find a partial list here in English. The city’s most famous museums might be a little hard to get into because of massive queues, but the smaller ones are usually easily accessible. You could visit the Aeronautical museum near Nowa Huta or the Transport museum in Kazimierz, or in the city center the Pharmacy museum or the Hipolit Polish interiors museum (featuring the acclaimed and charming Kot Hipolit). Your ‘ticket’ (a commemorative coin available at any museum for a ‘symbolic’ 1 Zloty) will get you in and is a nice memento of the evening. Museum Night (Krakowskiej Nocy Muzeów) isn’t just limited to the city center, though, or even the city. The Wieliczka Salt Mine is included, as well as the Niepołomice museum just outside the city in the village of Niepołomice.

As every year, Photomonth in Krakow brings their audiences over thirty exhibitions, meetings with artists, lectures, film screenings, and workshops. This year’s theme is the photographic art of Great Britain. The opening is on May 7th at 6:00 p.m. at Starmach Gallery.

The main programme of Photomonth in Krakow is paired with an extensive accompanying programme. On Saturday, May 8th, after sunset, Slide Nite will commence – a night-time show of photography from Poland and abroad, held in Krakow’s clubs and in the open air. Photography lovers will have a chance to meet the invited artists, but also see the various exhibitions, around which they will be led by the curators and photographers themselves, who will talk about their work. Lectures and meetings, a performance by students of Krakow’s Theatre Academy and a large selection of accompanying exhibitions will ensure that, once again, May in Krakow means photography.

The ceremonial inauguration of the festival will be Friday May 7th, but from Tuesday till Thursday (4-6.05) exhibitions will be opened in the framework of the Show OFF Section. On Sunday (9.05) the accompanying events will get underway. Entry to almost all of the Photomonth exhibitions (apart from the Bunkier Sztuki, the National Museum and International Cultural Center) is free. The festival runs till May 30th.

text from: http://www.photomonth.com/index.php/en/page/4/press-info.html

Yes, on three Thursdays (the 6th, the 13th and the 20th of May) there will be a piano performance in Kinoteatr Uciecha at Starowiślna Street no.16, which is just around the block from the hostel.

Here’s what they’ll be playing:

Imagine your old Polish Aunt (you know, the one from Silesia who plays the accordian) wore a cowboy hat, and took a lot of amphetamines, and actually there were several of her, and they were all men. Then your Aunt would have been the band Mitch & Mitch! They describe their music as “Country and Eastern,” maybe a kind of psychedelic ostalgie vision of The Grand Ole Opry. Their lyrics are often psychotic whoops and yodeling — no words. If you kiss them, you will taste the peyote on their shaggy moustaches. And the dust of a desert road baking under a cactus sun. Concert starts Wednesday, May 5th at 21.00 in Drukarnia. Visit the Mitch & Mitch MySpace page to sample their music first, just in case.

Smash out your eardrums in the cellar at Łódż Kaliska as the Belfast band And So I Watch You From Afar set their guitars to kill!!!! Preview their music on their MySpace page and then show up for the concert on Sunday, May 2nd. The show starts at 20.00.