listen live, listen good.

It's official! You can now listen URBAN FM live online. Just log onto www.radiourbanfm.com, click on the ListenLIVE! button, and hear the soundwaves travel to you eardrum. We just hope that we are able to keep it as technical-problem free as possible. When you cannot hear it, check your internet connection or just wait a couple of seconds. Or just have some grape juice.

7Stories high mushrooms

It's another day. Another peppermint-flavoured tea. Yesterday, we were at this USAID sponsored workshop - something that has to do with local governance. We were the moderators/notetakers during this 1day workshop. Anyways, what i managed to get out of that workshop while quickly moving my fingertips - as albanian municipality leaders were sprint-speaking - is that there's a lot of talk in the air, and that talk will probably just have evaporated by now in the beautifully arranged rooms of the Gorenje Complex, Prishtina; thoughts that our beloved municipality leaders just forgot to pick up, like they picked up their check for participating in the workshop. Well, sure. This is no surprise at all. The atmosphere was good, and knowing that you were 7floors above ground, made you feel higher. Or so it seemed. The lunch part of this was one observation that should have been watched more closely: everyone was ordering everything that they never would have ordered - if they were paying from their own wallet. Again, this is a basic human instinct and it's "nothing" wrong with that. I ordered a cream-mushroom soup (tried it earlier), and Pasta De La Casa (had not tried it earlier). The cream-mushroom soup was ... well ... just cream. It blocked my throat, and i had to leave it aside. Then the pasta came: the main course. Just thinking about that makes my tummy woozy. I had not eaten for 12 hours, and then I had to eat fast (something i'm not used to), and something that was not destined to be eaten fast! With that done, the fruit salad came. That was the only part that was probably enjoyable to eat. A spoon-full of icream from another plate, and a cake from another plate, and i just about had it. Man, i haven't eaten this much since ... well, i cannot remember, but it's been a long while.

All i know is that i was not feeling that well after a couple of hours. i had to drink mineral-water to neutralize the mushrooms (badly cooked) still in my intestines. yuuk! Mineral-water and Coca-Cola seemed to do the trick, and i was relieved. Talk about a day of boring/mind-numbing presentations, fingertip exercises, mushrooms gone wild and me walking straight into the womens' rest-room. Huh.

AJVAR Sample#1: Glass Container

Seasons(ajvar)Greetings

I've been out for a couple of days, due to a bad case of non-internet connectivicitus. It's scary. Anyways, the rash from my last week's blood(sucking) donation is changing colors and I had some chilling thoughts as I saw it progress from a light blue/green, to a more dark tone. But i think it's nothing serious. Man, the weather is getting quite cold down here. It's like we are encapsulated by these motionless clouds, bringing only rain and winds. But i sort of like it. It makes you stay indoors (for a change), and with exams on the horizon, i wish it will stay like this for a couple of more days.

Ajvar has landed. Yes, it's the season where everyone is out buying papprikas, churn them into their meat grinding machines and after 5 hours of constant mixing that red/papprika ingredient (while the big pan sits on a hot stove), the miracleous product that keeps bellies full all winter is ready! Well, you still have to put it in small glass conatiners and then ship it to your final destination (cellars). My grandmother still keeps this ajvar-making tradition alive, but their daughters are not keen on seeing another ajvar-season next year. It's enough. It takes a lot to go through this ajvar-making process. Usually, someone one ends up feeling sick (grandmother), and the others suffer from fatigue (the rest).

Ramadan has landed as well, and with it, this huge fiery dragon that scares people away from the streets (huge fiery dragons don't exist). Everything is quiet, and it's not because of the weather. People are on hibernation mode and do not do much. The reason being: Ramadan. This is where we get it all wrong: Ramadan does not mean that we should hibernate or tha we should stay up until 5, eat, then sleep until 2-3PM, wake up, wait for another 3 hours and then eat again! Argh. I don't not much about Islam (eventhough I was born one), but i know this: This month is a month that should not be characterized by huge feasts, huge dinners (Iftars) or anything out of the ordinary. Instead, people should follow the same life pattern, and not eat more than they usually do just because they don't eat for a very long time. Anyways, this was just me expressing myself about this.

Seasons(ajvar)Greetings to all! (of you that know what ajvar is). I'll post some pics of this special Balkan treat. haha.

www.radiourbanfm.com

Urban Radio Station URBAN FM 103.5 is online. After a year and a half, the webpage is up and running. Of course, you'll find nothing that will inform you about the radio shows because the sites main components/info are missing. We'll put things up, hang them there for you to see. Hopefully. It took a year and a half for a website (a new world record), but i'm sure it will take less to put things up. www.radiourbanfm.com

bloodsucker.

There is me. Lying. Waiting for the needle to tear my vein open at an exact random point. Yes, this is my first time that I've done this and i actually feel "filtered" - 100g out blood out, and in come the other 100g in the form of: food. Giving blood was not such a big deal. Seeing the huge needle in your arm was bit of a deal. But that passed. My mother kept screaming at me about the possible infections that might have entered my "fragile" body. And i was angry a bit, for she did not see the positive signs of this. Of course, things like that happen, but I feel good that i was part of something like this. It was scary to see that plastic blood-bag filling and filling and filling ... and i thought they were going to suck me dry. But naah. Haven't seen a needle in me for a long time. Had to try it. Even if it meant giving blood.

Preview: "TRIBUTE TO MY PUMA's"

In the next coming days, I'll post some pics of me and my PUMA's during our happy times. "TRIBUTE TO MY PUMA's" will be open soon. I'm really sad that I won't be wearing them all the time. The reason why i'm doing this is because i really love them, and together we've walked through many things.

chairalyzed.

Just did this. I'm just sitting around doing nothing (work-related). Stuck to the chair and brief walks around the offices. The sun is making its way out. Steadily.

rain.

It's fire kid! Fire!

Ahh. Make that a double Ahh. Finally, I do not have people running around my laptop, writing emails from my laptop, doing a research project on my laptop and chatting from my laptop. Seems as though only MUSE decided to stay around (MUSE's latest album is soo political ... but that voice/scream/shout, it makes you shiver) Huh. I do not know why but the plague of the Bad Internet Connection reached me through Bardhi (he was suffering from it as well). I don't know why, but uploading photos seems impossible today (I'm so frustrated right now). Damn.

Today I had no clue what day it was. I thought it was Wednesday, or I don't know. It seemed as though I was warpped in a "Weekdayum Continoum" (just made that word up). Had a project to finish today, and finished it finally. Constant headaches seem to follow my every step and every head-turn that I make. I don't know why. It's this pressure that has been playing around for the last couple of days. Shhh. Don't want to wake up the headache. I think it's sleeping.

Anyway, the reason with this post was to post some pictures of the night me, nitasan, and anitasan went out to this Kid-Carnival, hosted by UrbanFM103.5. Performers/Jokers from Macedonia (part albanian part macedonian speaking) performed while crowds of angry kid-mob almost robbed the performers off their juggling pins and balls. The kids went berzerk, grabbing almost everything and just running around while throwing things in the air. But anywas, the FIRESHOW was a good finale and encore. The reason why I mentioned this kid-carnival was that it turned out to be a great day. Nitasan, me and anitasan were just wonderfully positioned to enjoy the open air, people, and the unusual atmosphere. Prishtina was so empty that day. Maybe we wandered in the "not-so-cool" parts of her, but I'm glad we did. It was a wonderful day.

Pictures courtesy of Nita. She just wandered around while me and anita looked around.

headache.

It was one of those days where signify that the weekdays end in a climax of work related projects. And so they end. Temporariy at least. 'PlasticElastic Radiots' seemed to cut the hard edges with smoothness, and calm me down. Of course, in the build up to the radio program, we had technical difficulties with one of our bands that we were going to air that night. Lorik's quick thinking came passing by and whoila! Problem no more. Everything went tick-tock from the moment on. I do not know why, but the cigarete smoke, dimmness, hyperactive behaviour, the studio itself sometimes make my head swirl and I feel dizzy. But it's okay. Work, walk, run, 10min pit stop at home for a snack, run, run, UrbanFM Radio Station, run around, done, walk/run, Club 212, Jazz, darkness...

Those were the moments when I just ran to our office's back yard and just stood still. The grass is green and I have a headache.

pin

Last night my friends at the company (MDA) thought that it'll be exciting to offer a 10-pin bowling challenge to some of our other friends at a differnet company (ENTERMEDIA).

A management consulting and training company vs. a design company. 20 somethings vs. 20 somethings. Sure. It'll be fun and balls all around. We waited for maybe an hour for our turn, and we finally got two lanes side-by-side. Of course, I was grouped as one of the Entermedia guys (which I had nothing against, since the owner is one of my best friends). That competitiveness soon dissapeared as we indulged ourselves into who makes a strike. (May I remind you that we really suck at bowling). Getting second twice on the score sheet wasn't that bad. Beating Leutrim (entermedia) by a pin was actually satisfying. haha. Pins, bowling balls, flying pins (nice band name ... hope that nobody took it), bright/flouroscent orange/yellow bowling shoes, funny smell, a touch of sweat, late at night and a stomach of laughs. Nice way to start a Saturd... oh wait.. today is Friday. Shit.

A/C vehicle

Path to stardom. Or just a regular back home from a late night shift. A/C mode of transportation style.

mySpace

Light. A friend to chat with on lonely nights. A sense of security. Technological landscape. Automated responses. Financial backing. (made-up thoughts of the person who set his "stand" in front of an ATM).

9/11/06

This was supposed to be posted 2days ago, but I just could not get my mouse to point to the blogger website. I was busy with work, and had a friend with whom I work with (and we were both using my laptop), so I couldn't. Anyways, this pic just shows the spirit that we have here for the September 11. And it's cool. The flag hung at the top of the AUK entrance, swinging in the wind ... gently. In fact, the "Mayor" of Prishtina suggested an idea that "an obelisk" should be errected somewhere in the city of Prishtina to commemorate this day! ... it is not that I am against remembering the victims of 9/11, but when you have an idea like that thrown at you without even discussing the idea with the public.. that pisses me off - not cool. Plus, I think when you "over-do" something, it gets really annoying and artificial. But, here I am: In a city that has massive billboards dedicated to the 9/11 tragedy, a 911 film festival in which Eliza Dushku is a guest of honor, american flags raised at the half-mark, candles lit on streets, children's programs where they sing and dance covered in the american flag's shadows... it is too much man. We love the US (hurray) but that does not mean we have to (radio edit). It's just too much.

Fido, sit down boy! SIT!

True

A shot of the sun just creeping over the buildings in my neighborhood. The sun would have been more visible if it wasn't for those extra flats that were built on top of buldings. Well, at least this part does not look like a piece of lego put on top of a building (believe me, most of the buildings look like that). This one has more of a smooth "attachment", no rough edges here. I love legos, but not the lego building made up of parts that do not fit, and that can crumble at any instance.
Thanx Bardh for linking my blog to yours. appreciate it. Lots.

P.S.: Bardhi was right. sometimes I come to judgments too quick, and that bugs me. The voices do resemble a bit, but the bands differ: Ben Bridwell's voice is much more powerfull than James Mercer's, and the Band of Horses songs have more emotion in them. True.

laugh"laugh"drink"walk

Saturday. the night you are excused in a way for your behavior. or so I think. the digital camera gave way to partial coverage of a night out with ermira (hum), anita (mum), and nita (yum). Nita did all the shots, the rest of us just acted in an un-orthodox way (for Prishtina). We laughed a lot, ermira kept telling some funny one-liners, anita made you laugh with her sweet laughter, and nita was part of it all. we ended up in a newly opened jazz club. comfy place, should go there more often. Rona (the singer at the club) has a great voice, and she's the only albanian female singer that I like to hear sing. Others can just put a plug in it and shut up. But they don't listen/care. Anyways, it was a night to remember. Hope that more nights like this are lined up.

P.S.: On the last pic, those two swirly shadows are not shadows. They're Ermira and Anita. walking. I did not know how that police car made it's way in nita's pic. ugly background to a smooth foreground combination.

onAir

Friday's (sept. 8th) radio broadcast. We played tracks from The Decemberists albums (Castaways&Cutouts, The Crane Wife, Picaresque and Her Majesty). Nice narrative songs. We also played the "Everything All the Time" album by the Band of Horses. The funeral is a great song. They resemble The Shins a bit, but they're cool. Loki had too many glasses of beer, and I had some, so we had 'constructive' arguments/conversations. Nita was around. She kept flying around the room with the camera on her tiny hand. Pic courtesy of nita. thanx.

i think i got it.

Got a new digital camera. well, it's not new actually since I never had one. but it's new as in "new". Got to finish making a damn questionnaire, but my mind keeps drifting with radio waves ... thanx Anita for keeping my spirits up and ready to 'microphone' them away to your ears.

I think I got the hand of this blog. HipHip Hurray!

onRadio

This is something that "ns did for our new radio show on UrbanFM - PlasticElastic Radiots, about indie music. it's a great gift. I thank her a lot for that. The pic is better than the radio show. much better. better-better.