Listening to the Misfits today on the way home from work, I came to a realization: on the surface, the Misfits aren't very good. Although I remember a time when virtually everyone I knew, punks, metalheads, skaters, thought the Misfits were brilliant. There is one notable exception, but his favorite band was Queensryche, so his opinion doesn't count for anything anyway. This is the same guy who used to make fun of the song titles on Metallica's Master of Puppets album. He never actually listened to the album.
As for the Misfits, they were extremely popular for an underground band in the 1980s. Their albums, along with Black Flag and a few select others, were in just about everyone's record collection and their singles, all with limited production runs, were very desired on the collectors' market and heavily bootlegged.
However, on first listen, a lot of people would say that the band isn't very good. Pretty much every one of their records is sloppy. The exception is the proto-thrash final LP, Earth A.D., which featured former Black Flag drummer Robo. Pretty much every one of their records has entirely too much reverb, making it sound as though recorded in a cave. Most of the records are mixed unusually for hardcore, with Glenn Danzig's vocals way out front and Jerry Only's bass right behind. On the earliest records, Only's bass is more 60's pop, but he became a quick study of Motorhead's Lemmy and it is his trademark punchy, distorted sound that is present on most of the Misfits subsequent recordings. Also, unusually for hardcore, Glenn Danzig was a huge fan of 50's singers Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley and the Misfits records featured this type of vocal style over loud guitars. There was also a touch of Jim Morrison in there, which eventually reared its ugly head in Danzig.
The lyrics were mostly inspired by old horror films or real-life events such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the death of Marilyn Monroe. This is quite different from other bands associated with the scene the Misfits came from, which was generally more concerned about the direction the country was headed under Reagan or how they were being treated by the police.
In the final analysis, it's this combination that really made the Misfits great. They certainly weren't the best musicians. Their records sounded weird. The singer sang like Roy Orbison. The lyrical themes were dark, but not topical. In short, they sounded like nothing else out there at the time and as such were embraced by a number of different scenes. They are most associated with the early 80's hardcore scene, but they had an obvious influence on late 80's thrash. Bands like AFI tread in the space the Misfits carved out, but there's still nothing that really sounds like they did. Even Jerry Only's "resurrected" Misfits don't sound the same; they're too well rehearsed, their records sound too contemporary. As for Glenn Danzig, he left that sound behind with Samhain, a more heavy metal influenced group that would eventually morph into Danzig.
NOTE: The final installment of Plitvička jezera will appear later in the week. Before then, I will be reviewing the Stereolab shows I caught over the weekend.
The lighting wasn't nearly as good in late afternoon, so I got a lot fewer interesting photos after lunch, but I did get a few.
Water on the C trail.
More water on the C trail.
Tree.
The rickety bridge.
It's almost unbelievable how clear the water is here.
This boat was tucked in a corner near a cave.
Waterfall head on.
A small pool at the top of a waterfall.
Log in another pool.
One day in Zagreb was quite enough for just about everyone. However, we had no plan and about six days left before we had to be back in Budapest. We had pretty much ruled out Dubrovnik at this point as it was too far. A couple of Australians we met at the train station the night we arrived in Zagreb were on their way to a national park they had heard about. James had seen something about it somewhere else and insisted we go check it out. So, he and Timika figured out how to get out there, booked us a couple of cabins and we headed to the bus station. The bus trip was about three or four hours driving into nothing. We didn't realize the cabins were a couple of kilometers from the park entrance and inadvertently missed our stop. Eventually, we were able to catch a bus back a stop to Camp "Korana," which we decide meant cat, since there were so many feral cats about the place.
Dinner came in the form of the "party mix," a selection of meats in a package, chips, cheese, crackers and loads of beer, all procured from the general store. We spent the evening playing cards with some Finnish guys and making plans for the next morning.
We arrived in Zagreb around 10:00 and set out immediately for the hostel. We had to take the tram all the way across town to the edge of the suburbs. There is a chocolate factory on the corner by the tram station, and one can smell it throughout the neighborhood. We trekked to the hostel, checked in, got directions to an all night gas station with food and set out. I got my first (and only) Yugo sighting behind the gas station. I also had my first taste of the pepperoni sandwiches they sell in all the convenience stores. I would be eating them for the remainder of our stay in Croatia.
The next morning, we set out to explore Zagreb proper, starting with the neighborhood around the hostel, as we heard there was a good restaurant down the street.
Graffiti.
Apartment building.
TRG Ban Josip Jelacic.
Remains of the market, TRG Ban Josip Jelacic. This is right down the plaza from the Rubelj Grill, where we ended up eating excellent pizza some five hours later. (No my color-correction skills did not suddenly massively improve. The next two rolls are slide.)
We foolishly did not purchase return tickets from Tokaj. I'm not sure why. It might have been because we thought we might have been able to buy tickets direct to Zagreb. There was no such luck, however, and we took the same train from Tokaj back to Budapest with about 2 hours before the next train to Zagreb. We spent about 40 minutes standing in a huge queue in the international ticket wing. We could have been out of there in 3 minutes if we'd bought the tickets on Sunday. We ended up with a person in 2 different queues hoping that one of them would be quick. After buying tickets, we decided there was time for a meal in train station restaurant.
That meal, improbably enough, ended up being one of the best of our trip. James and I got our chance here for a good bowl of the cold fruit soup, and it was excellent. I had the veal with pancakes (I forget the Hungarian name), and that was also excellent. And I was expecting overpriced, mediocre food. I spent most of the rest of the 30 minutes before our train attempting to call the hostel in Zagreb to let them know we'd be in about a half-hour after front desk closing. I'm not sure why it's so difficult to use the international phone cards in
Hungary, but I had problems the whole trip.
Random train yard approaching Budapest.
Lake Balaton from the train.
One might notice I'm saying little about Tokaj. Everything was fabulous. The people are friendly, the wine is excellent, the food is excellent. We weren't there nearly long enough. I hope to spend a week there in the future. We promised the proprietor of Huli Panzio we would stay there next time we're in Tokaj, but for more than one night. Some day we will make good on that, and there will be more Tokaji drunk. And perhaps we will have a way to tote out more than 4 or 5 bottles each. 
Many cranes make their home in Tokaj and are considered good luck.
Taken on the walk to dinner. 
Two rivers meet.
Tokaj station patform, looking southwest.
Tokaj station patform, looking northeast.
Tokaj, from our room in Huli Panzio. 
Rakoczi Ut. Looking north.
Rakoczi Pince. Home of Hetszolo Wines.
James was adamant that we visit Citadel Hill. We didn't have time for much of anything in Buda, but that's the one thing he wanted to see. Accordingly, we took the tram down the river and exited near the Hotel Gellert. The climb was very unkind to Liz's knees and to my general lack of good health, but the view from the hill is excellent. 
Erzabet Hid (Elizabeth Bridge) from Citadel Hill.
Budapest, looking north from Citadel Hill. I took shots in each direction from the south side of the Citadel as the sun set. Liz and James disappeared while I was shooting through a roll of film. Eventually, I packed up the camera and realized they'd gone. I walked along the road around the Citadel and saw a small bar set up in a row of food and souvenir stands. The two of them were at the bar sipping wine. I went to join them, but stopped when I saw this:
Buda Castle, from Citadel Hill.
When I joined James and Liz, they were talking with the bartender, Martin, about Budapest and the US. They were two drinks into the survey of Hungarian alcoholic drinks. We continued through the survey and when James told Martin that we had yet to experience Gulyás, we were invited to join him for dinner. He and his uncle had a pot on in the back and were getting ready to eat. We had a wonderful dinner of Gulyás and red wine (Egri Bikavér or something similar) and a couple more drinks to follow up. Eventually, we settled the bill and began the trek back down the hill. 
Pest, looking south from Citadel Hill.
Our objective the following day was to see a bit of Buda. We didn't have nearly enough time to see much of it, but we wanted to at least see a couple of things. First, we needed to visit Keleti pályaudvar to buy train tickets for our Monday trip to Tokaj. We had a bit of trouble finding anyone who spoke English at the station on a Sunday, but eventually we were able to find the train we needed on schedule, find our way to the right window and buy the tickets in very broken Hungarian. 
Arena Plaza is around the corner from the train station. We went in search of an open Tesco, but alas it was a national holiday and most of the Plaza was closed. It is, however, very important that one not take pictures of the plaza. I took this picture from the street and then a few minutes later whilst I was taking a picture of the back of the train station across the street, an Arena Plaza security guard yelled at me in German and said I couldn't take pictures. 
Following our Tesco misadventure, we hopped back on the Metro and rode across the river to Buda. This is the not-quite-the-postcard shot of the Parliament building, complete with scaffolding on the south side.
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