At the age of 18 Hajós won two gold medals at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens as a swimmer, later he became the member of Hungary’s national champion football team in three consecutive years (1901, 1902 and 1903), the team’s coach in 1906, but also worked as a football referee between 1897 and 1904. In the meantime, he was studying architecture at Budapest University of Technology and Economics (in short, BME). Inspired by Art Nouveau, Eclecticism, and modern styles, he specialized in sports facilities and designed several sports grounds, schools, and swimming stadiums with the most well-known being the Alfréd Hajós National Swimming Stadium in Margitsziget.

Mór Jókai was born on 18 February 1825.

Also known as “the great Hungarian storyteller,” Móric Jókay, later changed to Mór Jókai, is one of the most prominent figures of 19^th century’s Hungarian literature. He belonged to the literary revolutionists of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, a group called Márciusi ifjak that roughly translates to the Young People of March in English. They took the lead in the events of 15 March 1848: they gathered at the Pilvax Café House, wrote the proclamation for their 12 demands and went from university to university. Followed by a growing crowd, Sándor Petőfi read the National Song (a poem written by Petőfi) out loud and Jókai cited the proclamation. The Young People of March are thought to have inspired the revolution.
As a novelist, Jókai is famous for his unique style that merges the features of both realism and romanticism. His huge oeuvre includes grandiose novels such as The Man with the Golden Touch (1872) and The Baron’s Sons (1869).

Mihály Munkácsy was born on 20 February 1844.

One of the most prominent representatives of 19^th century Hungarian painting is Transcarpathia-born Mihály Munkácsy. The influence of his patriotism, love relationships and religious affiliation was significant on many of his artworks. Being familiar with the city and village life of Hungarian society, his genre paintings embody ordinary village people of his time: in fact, the painting that made him famous worldwide captures a typical condemned cell of 1870, hence the title “Condemned Cell I”. If you only check one Hungarian painting in your life, it should be Condemned Cell I. by Mihály Munkácsy. Head to Hungarian National Gallery to do so! The most acknowledged award in applied arts, the Mihály Munkácsy Prize also pays tribute to the painter’s art oeuvre.

Mari Jászai was born on 24 February 1850.

One of the greatest Hungarian actresses, Mari Jászai was a natural tragedienne, known for her powerful performances and passionate character. Before she took up acting as a career, she was a chorus singer in Székesfehérvár. She joined the National Theatre of Hungary in 1872, where she was soon given leading roles, such as Éva in Imre Madách’s The Tragedy of Man, Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the title role in Sophocles’ Antigone and Electra. She also appeared in two Hungarian silent films, Viceroy Bank (1914) and The Vagrant (1914). After her resigning from the theatre in 1925, she recited the poems of Sándor Petőfi throughout the country. Her memoir was published posthumously in 1927.

When did the idea of FUNZINE come to life?

The concept was born back in 2005, about one year before establishing the company. I was working for multinational companies for years in an international environment, where I could see that there was such a demand for this kind of a magazine. On the other hand, that was the time when some of the festivals started to attract more and more foreign people, the expat communities seemed to be expanding, just like the number of tourists were increasing as well. We wanted to create a useful guide to those who would like to discover Budapest, either by coming to visit for a few days or deciding to live here.

How did you come up with the name?

Well, to be honest, I didn’t really like the name at the beginning. I couldn’t believe that this strange little word could make us memorable at all. FUN was for having fun, of course, and the ending came from the word magazine, as we were only planning to launch that one single print issue that you can see each month. The fact that our portfolio was able to become this colourful was completely beyond our expectations. But it is actually a good representation of our work attitude and philosophy, meaning we’ve always tried to satisfy our clients, offer more to our partners and our readers.

The brand celebrates its 11^th birthday this year. What are you the most proud of?

I’m very proud of the fact that we can talk about a brand, and I’m also proud of the spirit and the message of our products. I’m happy to look back on the journey we’ve been through so far, the steps we’ve taken along the way to develop in the past eleven years.

As a leader, what do you consider to be the biggest challenge?

The most difficult task is probably to keep the motivation and the enthusiasm, not only in myself but in the whole team.

How can you recharge your energy and spirit?

I love travelling: whenever you step out of your comfort zone, you can see things from a different perspective with regard to your job or your private life. Sometimes, you get closer to a solution by distancing yourself from it for a bit.

Which were the most significant milestones in the company’s life?

The first one was establishing our event management branch, then publishing the Balaton/Hungary FUNZINE magazines. Gaining a number of special issues on various topics was another huge step, just like continuously developing our distribution network that lets us reach so many readers. We’ve recently made some improvements on the digital front, too: we launched our new website and currently working on our mobile application. There’s always another goal to accomplish.

Via Indiewire

John Towner Williams started out in 1955 when he began his studies at the Juilliard School of Music.  He moved to Los Angeles to work with Henry Mancini, composing for some of the most popular television series of the 1960s. In 1968, he received his first Oscar nomination. (Last year he was nominated for the prestigious award for the 50th time!)

His scores became the hallmarks of such historical movie characters as Indiana Jones, E.T., Darth Vader and many more! Here are some of our favourite movie scores by John Williams!