Czech FAKER!
Moderators: rickenbrother, ajish4
Well, as far as USSR is concerned (i've had to consult my Dad since i wasn't born until 1978), owning or buying western goods in 50s-60s was not a crime. Reselling - yes, that was illegal. Distributing "taboo" books, and sometimes even owning them - yes. But owning or buying western goods wasn't illegal. They were hard to get, that's true, but not illegal.
Nothing will get you dead quicker than being deadly serious about yourself.
I'm sorry, I did not mean to imply that buying or owning was illegal, just difficult. According to my Czech friends, the local police would decide how to interpret and apply the law (or make their own). Some were hard-liners looking to make a name for themselves with the party while others were more likely to look the other way.
You get your p-bass pup, you get your j-bass pup, you get a broken g-string, and all for only $1000E!
Jolana made one very futuristic WIRELESS instrument - in 1963. Think Jetsons.
http://meatexz.com/cheesyguitars/jolana_bigbeat.html
Jolana made one very futuristic WIRELESS instrument - in 1963. Think Jetsons.
http://meatexz.com/cheesyguitars/jolana_bigbeat.html
Kris - I never lived in Poland, only visited a couple times in my youth (late 70's), and I have family members here in the states that did grow up there...
A weird aspect of the Polish experience during the Communist era was that the pursuit of western (read American) hard currency was very open. We were required to exchange some small amount of dollars for zloty at the official exchange rate at the airport (was it 33 or 66 to 1?) but on the street you could just say "americize pinienze" (spelling probably atrociously wrong
) and you'd have 5 people offering you 100 to 150 to 1.
The word I got was that if you had zloty and wanted a car you waited years. You had dollars you had the car in week or so. I'm not sure that other Iron Curtain countries had such an open "black market", or such an open embrace of western economy.
I do recall buying a trumpet my first trip to Poland - it was a nice enough sounding horn, but in the long run it was not well made. But other thing I got there have help up well - a beautiful hand carved chess set has stood the test of time, and all of the crystal my parent bought is still as beautiful as the day we smuggled it into the USA
Does my clouded memory ring true to someone who actually lived 2+ decades over there?
A weird aspect of the Polish experience during the Communist era was that the pursuit of western (read American) hard currency was very open. We were required to exchange some small amount of dollars for zloty at the official exchange rate at the airport (was it 33 or 66 to 1?) but on the street you could just say "americize pinienze" (spelling probably atrociously wrong
) and you'd have 5 people offering you 100 to 150 to 1. The word I got was that if you had zloty and wanted a car you waited years. You had dollars you had the car in week or so. I'm not sure that other Iron Curtain countries had such an open "black market", or such an open embrace of western economy.
I do recall buying a trumpet my first trip to Poland - it was a nice enough sounding horn, but in the long run it was not well made. But other thing I got there have help up well - a beautiful hand carved chess set has stood the test of time, and all of the crystal my parent bought is still as beautiful as the day we smuggled it into the USA
Does my clouded memory ring true to someone who actually lived 2+ decades over there?
Above e-mail is inactive. try ed_ardzinski@**** where **** is Hotmail.com or Yahoo.com. I tend to see things inthe hotmail box quicker...
Ted - I am from Krakow and still have my family there. The story about being beaten for playing jazz is not true. It can't be. Poland is known to have the world class jazz musicians well known in the U.S (Michal Urbaniak, Urszula Dudziak, Adam Makowicz and some more) that got their start in the 60ties and seventies.
Well, I was in a quite prominent band there too and I really can't say I was persecuted.
Ed - Your information is correct. In the 70ties the exchange was 100 to 1 indeed. The car story needs a correction. Yes, you had to wait for years to get a car for zlotys, but you could get it legally for foreign currency (US $. Deutchmarks, British Pounds etc) through a special state owned company called Pevex. It was design to sell goods in Poland for foreign currency to generate it this way in a legal process.
Well, I was in a quite prominent band there too and I really can't say I was persecuted.
Ed - Your information is correct. In the 70ties the exchange was 100 to 1 indeed. The car story needs a correction. Yes, you had to wait for years to get a car for zlotys, but you could get it legally for foreign currency (US $. Deutchmarks, British Pounds etc) through a special state owned company called Pevex. It was design to sell goods in Poland for foreign currency to generate it this way in a legal process.
I am good with my fingers and I can do it all night !
The man from Belarus said what you say. In fact, my conversation with the jazz musicians is what started the conversation with the man from Belarus. He insisted that the Czechs feel that the Poles complain too much and vise versa. Each side believing that the other was not made to suffer as much as they were. I dismissed his remarks as the same. So you don't think there is any truth to what the jazz guy said?
Ted - NO there can't be any truth to what the jazz guy said. I am from Krakow and I lived there through all the "rough" times. Krakow is the cultural capital of Poland and we had numerous jazz clubs in the city. All well known. Also Krakow is the educational center (11 schools of higher education) and all the campuses were also buzzing with great music. I have been to Czechoslovakia and East Germany in the seventies. They had more goods in the stores at the time, but the atmosphere on the streets was kind of tense. I loved Hungary though. Very relaxed and friendly.
I am good with my fingers and I can do it all night !
Krakow is one of my favorite European cities. What a beautiful place. The culture you speak of is very evident. I was amazed by the quality of the musicians in the clubs and on the streets. We stayed in a small hotel on Ulica Grodska, just off of the big square. The street was filled with talented musicians day and night. BTW Hungary is still very friendly and pleasant. I spent some time in Budapest recently and really enjoyed it.
Do you suppose there is some incentive in telling foreign visitors such horror stories? The man in Prague (another cultural city) with the Cold War era guitars emphasized the point that the makers of the instruments ran the risk of being jailed or killed for what they were doing. I should add that he was not offering the instruments for sale. He said they were his personal collection and he liked to share them with visitors to his shop.
Do you suppose there is some incentive in telling foreign visitors such horror stories? The man in Prague (another cultural city) with the Cold War era guitars emphasized the point that the makers of the instruments ran the risk of being jailed or killed for what they were doing. I should add that he was not offering the instruments for sale. He said they were his personal collection and he liked to share them with visitors to his shop.
Off topic slightly, but Kris, did you ever see SBB in concert? Jozef Skrzek had an impressive amount of analog synths (e.g. Mini-Moog, Micro Moog, Polymoog, Moog Sonic Six) and other keyboards. Good bass player too, I think he still plays an old aluminium-necked Kramer.
SBB is one of my favourite prog bands. I love "Pamiec" and "Memento Z Banalnym Tryptykiem" albums especially.
SBB is one of my favourite prog bands. I love "Pamiec" and "Memento Z Banalnym Tryptykiem" albums especially.
I don't know if there was an incentive unless he was about to apply for the political asylum in the U.S.. The plain truth is that if you did not mess with politics, you were free to do whatever you wanted and particularly in culture and music. I was a part of a prominent band with 7 albums behind me and my country was nothing but proud of us. Yes, I played Fenders and Rics all that time too.
Yes, I know Grodzka street. There is DOM POLONII on the corner of Grodzka and the main square that also serves as a hotel.
Yes, I know Grodzka street. There is DOM POLONII on the corner of Grodzka and the main square that also serves as a hotel.
I am good with my fingers and I can do it all night !
I have fond memories of my time in Poland, but I spent most of my time in Warsaw. The first time there, in 1976, with my folks, we hired a taxi driver who took us around the country for the three weeks. We have relatives in the NE (Bialystok -sp again uncertain - area), and we did spend some time in the other major cities - Krakow, Gdansk, Wroclaw. I had a couple cousins from the US studying in Wroclaw. I especially enjoyed Gdansk (and swimming in the Baltic - brrrrrr) and Zakopne (in the mountains).
The second time there was 1978, on an "organized vacation" through the Polish Consulate. I was there for a month, made great friends, had a rough grasp of the language in order to change $ with the locals and order food at the restaurants. As American with some cash we lived like royalty then - the equivalent of a $1.25 could get a big breakfast at one of the major hotels in Warsaw.
It was an interesting time to be there, and I got the impression from the locals I met that there were the undercurrents of big change in the works. I remember one older guy telling me (while I exchanged cash with him) that the Communist government had "helped rebuild the country after the war, but we're outgrowing them". Two years later the labor union Solidarity formed, an unheard of development in a Communist country. And eventually it was Solidarity that took down the Communists in Poland, and started the chain reaction that led to the falling of the Berlin Wall.
I recall the line from Jesus Jone's "Right Her Right Now": I saw the decade end and the world had changed in the blink of an eye...
I find pride that it was my (ethnic) relatives that started that ball rolling, and glad that I had slightly more than a spectators view of it!
The second time there was 1978, on an "organized vacation" through the Polish Consulate. I was there for a month, made great friends, had a rough grasp of the language in order to change $ with the locals and order food at the restaurants. As American with some cash we lived like royalty then - the equivalent of a $1.25 could get a big breakfast at one of the major hotels in Warsaw.
It was an interesting time to be there, and I got the impression from the locals I met that there were the undercurrents of big change in the works. I remember one older guy telling me (while I exchanged cash with him) that the Communist government had "helped rebuild the country after the war, but we're outgrowing them". Two years later the labor union Solidarity formed, an unheard of development in a Communist country. And eventually it was Solidarity that took down the Communists in Poland, and started the chain reaction that led to the falling of the Berlin Wall.
I recall the line from Jesus Jone's "Right Her Right Now": I saw the decade end and the world had changed in the blink of an eye...
I find pride that it was my (ethnic) relatives that started that ball rolling, and glad that I had slightly more than a spectators view of it!
Above e-mail is inactive. try ed_ardzinski@**** where **** is Hotmail.com or Yahoo.com. I tend to see things inthe hotmail box quicker...
Possible reasons for telling "horror stories":
a) "joking" purpose, or "well, from what i've heard, Americans think such and such, so i'm gonna tell this guy exactly what he's expecting to hear";
b) in order to show how much better life became after the change of... after the change, and to show respect for a person who came from the country which is sometimes considered responsible for the change. Like, saying "Now we don't have all those troubles but we have lots of goods";
c) showing (or perhaps pretending) the importance of themselves. If you did your job - like, made instruments and such - then fine. And if you were sued by, say, KGB for making instruments, that's another story, and you become a more interesting person.
Leonid Utesov's jazz orchestra debuted in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) as early as in 1929, btw...
a) "joking" purpose, or "well, from what i've heard, Americans think such and such, so i'm gonna tell this guy exactly what he's expecting to hear";
b) in order to show how much better life became after the change of... after the change, and to show respect for a person who came from the country which is sometimes considered responsible for the change. Like, saying "Now we don't have all those troubles but we have lots of goods";
c) showing (or perhaps pretending) the importance of themselves. If you did your job - like, made instruments and such - then fine. And if you were sued by, say, KGB for making instruments, that's another story, and you become a more interesting person.
Leonid Utesov's jazz orchestra debuted in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) as early as in 1929, btw...
Nothing will get you dead quicker than being deadly serious about yourself.
Pekka - Yes, I know SBB and Jozef Skrzek personally. We worked together a lot in the late seventies. I also had a great relationship with Antymos Apostolis (guitar) and Jerzy Piotrowski (drums) I love their first and second albums In particular " Nowy Horyzont" (The New horizon)
Email me privately and we can chat more about it.
Email me privately and we can chat more about it.
I am good with my fingers and I can do it all night !