Plenty of Nothing

Sleeping Lady With Black Vase

Sleeping Lady With Black Vase was painted by Hungarian Cubist Róbert Berény in 1927 or 1928 and had disappeared from public knowledge until the release in 1999 of Stuart Little, when an art historian spotted it in a scene with Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie. Read about it here. Source.

 

Dragon Locksmith Sign

Signage for Béla Hikman, locksmith, 1931. Source.

Hunyadi László

Erkel Ferenc's Hunyadi László (1844) is the first important Hungarian opera. You can watch a modern production of it here.

Savaria Történelmi Karnevál

It's the Savaria Historical Festival, when the people of Szombathely celebrate living in the oldest Roman town in Hungary, and also listen to hot jazz. Source.

The Pannonian Sea

Nine million years ago Hungary was underwater. The Pannonian Sea, like the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea and late lamented Aral Sea, was a relic of the ocean that used to separate northern Eurasia from Africa, Arabia and India before they all crashed together and created the Alps, the mountains of Turkey and Iran, and the Himalayas. Source.

Liszt

Statue of Franz Liszt pounding it out in Ferenc Liszt Square, Budapest. Source.

About the MOL Liga

The MOL Liga is the top hockey league in Hungary. Several of the clubs are located in neighbouring Romania and Slovakia, but all of them are within the historic boundaries of the Kingdom of Hungary, which just goes to show that old empires don't die, they reformulate themselves as sporting organizations. MOL, a Hungarian petrochemical company, is the league sponsor.

Each team plays a 42-game season stretching from September to February. Six teams make the playoffs. The Hungarian and Romanian clubs also participate in national championships in their home countries.

The clubs are:

DAB-Docler. The Steel Bulls. Founded in 1977. 6-time Hungarian champion, and twice MOL Liga winner. Colours: red, white and black. Their rink, Dunaújvárosi Jégcsarnok, holds 4,000. Dunaújváros is a steel town smack in the middle of Hungary.

Ferencvárosi TC. Founded 1928. 25-time Hungarian champion. Green and white. Pesterzsébeti Jégcsarnok in Budapest holds 1,500.

Miskolci JJSE. Ice Bears. Founded 1978. They play at Miskolc Ice Hall, capacity 1,304. Black, yellow and white. Miskolc is a steel town in northeast Hungary.

Újpesti TE. ÚTE for short. Founded 1955. 13-time Hungarian champion. Újpesti Jégcsarnok in Budapest holds 2,200. Purple and white.

ASC Corona 2010 Braşov. Wolves. From Brașov, Transylvania. Corona is an alternate name for the place, meaning crown. It was also known as Stalin City for a few years. The club was founded in 2007. They play at Brașov Olympic Ice Rink, capacity 2,000. Yellow and blue.

HSC Csíkszereda. Founded 1929. They play in 4,000-seat Lajos Vákár Ice Hall in Miercurea Ciuc in the Hungarian-speaking part of Transylvania. 15-time Romanian champion, and 2010-11 MOL Liga winner. Blue and white.

HK FTC Nové Zámky. 2013-14 MOL Liga champion. Founded in 1965, they played in the second-tier of Slovak hockey until 2008. The club's logo and colours (green, white, blue) are based on the coat of arms of Nové Zámky which depict the city's 17th-century fortifications. Their arena holds 3,000.

Debreceni HK. Founded 1989. Red, yellow, white and black. Their rink holds 500. Debrecen is the largest city in eastern Hungary.

Hungarian is one of those rare languages with its own name for ice hockey: jégkorong.

February! February!

Well, no, actually it's To Arms! To Arms! a poster designed by Róbert Berény for the 1919 Hungarian revolution.