Fraser Raeburn
@fraserraeburn
Historian interested in foreign fighters, transnational solidarities, emotion, anti-fascism and the Spanish Civil War. Currently based at @uvahumanities.bsky.social. Author 'Scots and the Spanish Civil War' (EUP, 2020). He/him.
As a bonus extra detail from this weird little commemorative site: the empty helmet sitting on the marker was sculpted with a bullet hole.
Dislike these on principle, but this is a good example of how profoundly useless AI summaries can be. An outdoor area shuts in winter, a busy restaurant should be booked ahead and they're famous for *signature* cocktails, so ignore that and ask for something off menu?
Cool little eastern bloc antique - set of nested hedgehog ashtrays that can be assembled to make a single, giant mecha hedgehog. Based on a classic Walter Bosse design, but I think these are the ones Aeroflot used to give out as souvenirs back in the 1950s and 1960s.
Got an exceptionally rare google notification for my own name, and it turned out to be a photo credit for an article about Budapest Pride.
A sign of the political times - Tisza signs are being sold on Hungarian Vinted, this one with a c. 70 euro asking price.
Choosing to believe that the convenience store is being supremely passive aggressive here
Currently skeeting from Bambi Eszpresszó, one of the last communist era cafes in central Budapest, just down the road from the Tissza election rally and it is *vibing* right now.
Unclear if Tissza has multiple of these things or whether this is their og campaign truck. If the latter, good chance of this ending up in a museum someday!
They've shut down a major road along the Danube so that TV reporting can have a dramatic backdrop
Nice little surprise in the mail today - the new edition of "Quando vient la nuit", featuring a new chapter by me back on my old Scottish International Brigade nonsense.
JD Vance arriving in Budapest today to bolster Fidesz's campaign against being beholden to evil foreign politicians.
The inclusion of 'praise be to Allah' is the best sign yet Trump is still alive; no social media intern would ever think to drop that in of their own accord.
We've had one trans day of visibility, yes. But what about second trans day of visibility?
Little snapshot of Budapest - a slightly battered but ornate entryway leading to a secluded little courtyard, home to what I can only assume is the finest erotic shop in all the land.
As someone who came of age in the context of 2000s-era Australian foreign policy, it is very, very funny that Australia is just about the only country with a navy who isn't getting pressured to sail it into the Strait of Hormuz. John Howard must be fuming.
CfP from the Swiss Social Archives in Zurich for the 90th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War's outbreak - an especial focus on the conflict's legacy and memory, and its place within wider histories. Looks great!
My petty gripes with the use of 'forgotten' as a framing device continues. While Katharine Atholl and Eoin O'Duffy might not be read as often as Orwell, there is no universe in which their writing on the SCW can be regarded as 'forgotten' or even 'neglected'...
"I dunno, it feels like people might read this the wrong way" "You're right, let's put a line next to it to disambiguate things"