My first post. My first post ever.

I've always thought of blogging as being closer to stand-up comedy or spoken-word performance than actual writing. But enough people have told me I should start a blog, that it's a bit of a waste for me not to have one.

So, to introduce myself...I arrived in Budapest last week on a Fulbright. My plan is to write a fun popular history of the Hungarian animation industry in the '60s, '70s and '80s. You've never seen a Hungarian cartoon? Well, here's the most famous one. On the one hand it's a highly technical depiction of a fly's view of the world. On the other hand, it's a metaphor of the individual trying to survive under a totalitarian regime. It won an Academy Award in 1981.

It's about 15 years too late for Budapest to still claim an exotic appeal for Americans. But there are things here you don't get in other Western and Central European capitals. Several central buildings still have bulletholes from the 1956 uprising. A few of them still have scars from World War II. Everyone complains that the buildings could use some serious renovations, but they're probably more charming with peeling paint and crumbling plaster. If the city were cleaned up it would run the risk of turning into a Disneyfied Vienna.

Hungary is the fifth country outside the United States I will have lived in, after the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Bulgaria and Latvia. I've done quite a bit of work in arts journalism in the past. But this year should be a little different.