last night at ODA theatre. for this year.

After a rough day handing out presents and some last minute late present shopping for our friends, we barely made it to the last show at ODA theater. It was my favorite pianist and saxophonist playing, while Berat painted a picture on a huge canvas and a guy recording him do that on another canvas screen. Liburn, the regular pianist, is also getting better at tweaking the synth output and playing with the tones like crazy (he did a freakish interpretation of the EU's - our adopted - anthem). But the focus was more on the painting, and Berat was good, despite the fact that he looked like he had a clock ticking somewhere - the final piece that he made looked like he was in a super hurry. It was a first for me, so it was good, although it could have (might) been better if he was not in such a rush. All credit to him and the guys that created such a wonderful atmoshere in a rather chilling place (-8degrees celsuis). My Coke did not freeze, but it stayed at the same temperature, which was pleasant to drink.

Starving, we went to this new pizza place - which is all finished in white color, and almost ate our fingers off. Such a nice place. Such a great place, that we will visit soon-soon.

I guess this is the last post for this season of goodness.
Happy New Year people. Warmth all around.

ivan moudov: wine for openings. at Stacion

Tonight we went to an exhibit at "Stacion" Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, and it was all about wine. It was -286degrees outside, so it was good to take a break from folding presents and checking this exhibit from a young Bulgarian artist, Ivan Moudov: Wine for openings. The guy prepared the wine for this occassion himself, in Bulgaria, and then labeled the bottles and brought it here for us to taste. Thank you Ivan, kind of you. The wine was okay, you could feel the freshness in your mouth, and it did make me feel awfully weird after 2hours. Nita gave the curator of the event a gift, and he gave her a bottle of the artist's wine, which she held it in her hand all the time.

The funniest thing happened when Alban, a friend, came and told Nita to put the wine in her bag, since people started asking if they could take a bottle, like Nita did. Of course, the bottles were part of the exhibition and had to be returned, and were worth a lot of money (so we were told). Anyways, Nita kept the bottle, we drank the rest and went back to her office to join the rest in wrapping the last of the gifts for this year.

I would have to agree with Valon, a friend, that the exhibit was flat and it was not new (his words were more harsh and he did not like it at all), and it would have been nice if he could tell us stories for those bottles. Fisi was even shouting how stupid the whole idea/labeling was, and why it was so super expensive in the first place. I was told that a couple of our friends had and performed such ideas earlier on, much earlier. I felt sad for the wine, since they were served and waited to be gullped in our throats, without anything being said about them. It was not that good wine, but we drank it, a glass of it.

We then ended up talking about the lack of theatre plays in the city and how the majority of the acting scene are snobs that are good at asking the government for money.

from slovenia with salt.

This is a gift that was handed out at work. It's a pack of salt, 500gr of it. These were handed to other companies that are in the network of Telekom Slovenije. Once they handed these out, people were offended and joked around, since handing out salt at the end of the year, well, is not that welcoming around here. If it was sugar, no complaints would be made. It felt kind of weird at first, but after I read more into the letters that were attached to it, I learned that salt is actually considered lucky and vital. Which makes sense, but we're just not used to it.

I like the gift, nicely packed, and it's the best pack of salt I might receive, ever. Will use it tomorrow to make scrambled eggs and taste the salt.

Santa's little helpers

Today my stomach was fed three times, which is more than my stomach can take, and probably ate some really unhealthy food, which I did not mind. I enjoyed it a lot actually, since I had some really good and fun times with my friends at Ogilvy Kosova (nita invited me over to help her with something that they were doing). The weirdest surprise came when two of our friends went to Skopje, Macedonia, just to buy some food and then came back - outside was snowing and roads were almost frozen and dangerous to drive. Scissors cut tape and strings were tied in knots, and this is all i'll say for now, the rest I'll share when time comes - which is quite soon actually. My eyelids are fat eyelids right now, and no one's to blame. Hands are a bit shaky and my knees and neck need a good rub.

I'll keep posting on this, and keep hanging out with such nice and friendly people.
Merry belated Christmas.

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marvelous times.

I went to the youngest birthday ever. nita's sister gave birth to a wonderful child. the child has not been named yet, but i call him Jonjoni (they have another son called Jon, so it's nice to just added another "jon" to the original name). Took a lot of random photos of people and things around the room where Tringa was staying, and posted these two random ones (so glad that they did not have to use that plastic seal with rubber bands around - it looket like that), since the rest would not convey the sheer joy that was floating around each and every smile+hug, and might loose that effect.

Nita's dad has been recovering well and is feeling better, which is good and i'm happy for him and his family.

Jonjoni is a little more than 12hours old today. I guess this is the most proper time to say happy birth day to him, which I should have.

surprise gift.

came back to my room to find this laying on the table. a nice neighbor gave this as a graduation gift. it's really hard to tell what is it at first sight, but then you can tell that it portrays "defining" points in Prishtina. but it also sets this mythical and almost medieval tone to Prishtina - which is not actually right, or is it? last night's movie made me think a lot about the city, and my perspective about it. This hand-made gypsum piece reminds me of wooden artifacts that my grandparents used to hang on walls. you don't see these things decorating any walls these days, but only occasionally.

it's nice to receive gifts, any kind, even this kind.
it's just that some gifts can be displayed on the wall, and others should be put away as silent reminders.

thank you neighbor for your kindness.

tonight is cancelled.

as part of the SkenaUP festival, there was the world premiere (as the co-producer called it) screening of a joint Irish-Kosovar production movie. surprisingly, the movie felt good. it was so good in fact, that i still have that sweet and warm taste in my mind. the photograpy and the picture elementes were amazing (i've never seen my home city in such a perspective). it showed how ugly the city really is, which made me sad, but the richness of the photography and colors filled me with hope.

they way the actors played on screen was almost the same as they are in real life - good people, with amazing talent. i must admit that one of the most enjoyable elements of the film was the fact that everyone (apart from the Irish guy) spoke in the same dialect that people around here speak - and that, i could relate myself with. it was so exhilirating to hear that. the whole worldplay was wrapped with it.

the story was about a young couple, a part of which (the girl) wanted desperately to get married to this odd/shut other part of the couple (the boy). there was something special about the acting part of the girl (she sang Cat Power's Werewolf at the ending credits - in albanian!): she added the dialogue to it all and was the central figure in almost each scene. Armend Kabash (played as a TMK soldier) was another pole around which the movie revolved.
here's more.



well done to you all.




uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn





i hate it when the tv's is blazing with football.i know, but it can get too much. and then on the other side you have the oval UN security council table around which clueless individuals (when it comes to the real issue of Kosove), strap stupid decisions that will have a profound impact on any future development of this place.

it's a shame why vital decisions have to be made at such a sweet moment.
leave us alone, please.

frostwhite.

things are not so sweet and peachy.

once again, we went out to show the frustration with the latest political decisions that show the fragility of our country. the damp colors of clothes and the gloomy weather made the protest march seem so depressing and sad, which was not really the case. not many people were waving the flag that was imposed on us - which really shows that we do not associate ourselves so much with it. so why do we have it then? it was an emotional day and glad we were part of it.

we even held a banner that nita made.

dinner at viska's. joyous

i should have put this moment up long before now (maybe a week or two before), because it was one of those nights that will be stuck to that old patch of good-memories belt. family gatherings are rare but this one happened at the right moment. my aunt, visare, has had a fair share of medical problems with her eye (when young, someone pointed an arrow and it landed straight into her eye). this night was nothing like it, with food, drinks, and good/laughing spirits and kindness all around. other took some photos of that night, but i had my crappy phone camera and i took some too (i knew that the pictures taken by others would take ages to arrive) - this happens because they never send them out. anyways.

i laughed so hard that night, that it will be remembered on each other laugh i have from now on. man, wish these happened more often these days.


``
thanks tezja visare for everything. wish that you won't have to go thru the same again.
stay healthy.

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it happened.

_/



I STAYED UP
+WITNESSED
CHANGE



/_

we're on the map.

so glad that i can finally select my country from the drop-down-list of countries. i voted earlier.

animal collective. skopje

it was such a rush yester-night. not knowing where the hotel is, not able to call the guy who bought the tickets or even reach him when we managed to call, not knowing where the venue was or how to get there or where to go after we found out that the venue was changed (I did not know what to do at this moment and instinctively me and nita just pulled down two posters from the doors, nicely rolled them and went to the taxi), and all other unknowns made it memorable. the place where they played was right underneath the city's train-station-tracks, but no trains were heard. can't believe how pure the whole place sounded. a couple of new/new songs played, and our feet/soul danced. found this video.




""
still can't believe how that night was pieced together.
but it was so good.

updates.

nita finally updated her blog. check out some really nice portraits she shot for her studies here.

weekend drive.

we took a ride down to a town that houses the two coal-powered electric plants. the reason we did this was that nita is completing a photoshoot for her studies, and at the same time it was fun to see the large objects up-close. While nita was photographing, a police car pulled over and started asking questions that made us immediately into high-profile suspects: we were supposedly endangering to put the entire region of Kosova on a black-out with our actions - that's what we were told. The pictures show the main field with power transmission grids.

we do not know if you're laying mines or putting granades around - said the police officer.

No signs were around that prohibited us from taking shots (apart from the part where the power-plant was located), so i pointed out the lack of protectin for these areas - which for some reason enraged the police officers. The conversation with the local police officer was beyond rational and they were really rude. At one point, he told me to shut up and move three feet - or - i would be faced with brutal force - and - almost arrested a friend of ours. Our arguments did not seem to help at all and each response got us into trouble.

of course, it was hilarious and i cannot (still) believe that our police force is so full of dumb people who cannot judge any situation / protect and serve. they left us alone, and we had to move from the power-plant > but nita made enough shots and continued her project elsewhere (which was the whole point).

this got me inspired to travel lost more around Kosova and see more closely where i live in.
might post some pics later on from the whole project.

frozen burst.

shoot this quickly while on my way back to work. got a new camera, and might go around take few shoots of the new surrounding.

time of the comet is terrible. horrible. terrible

Time of the Comet is a movie set in Albania at the beginning of WWI, and sees a small group of Albanian villagers as they travel to meet the newly crowned King of Albania (a German King) and pledge their allegiance to him - all this so that they fight the armies of the Ottoman Empire. It also makes it the most expensive movie that any Albanian has produced (it cost around 2.5milion Euros) But this "Time of the Comet" movie made me want to puke in its first 10mins and me and nita had to leave earlier because I could not take it anymore. Another friend of ours could not take it either.

The script/screenplay is unbelievably dumb+lifeless; the lines that actors say are vague/fake, and even in the most serious of dialogues, the audience was made to laugh,
the lead actor was more concerned with the looks than the way he acted/talked; there was no story line, although the historical story was rich in itself, but they've devoured any meaning of it; but the scenery and the camera shoots were ok.

the movie was dull, empty, stupid, pathetic.
at moments it seemed like one of those badly dubbed turkish movies.

There was a large audience, and the air conditioning was not working properly. It reminded me of the awful school excursions where you were trapped in a dirty bus seat, sweat all around and you could not escape the crumpy TV playing turbo-folk videos of yester-years new year festivities.




I want my 3euros back, please.
Thank you.

chalkidiki. thessaloniki. greece

shot with a 35mm film camera. converted it to digital. roughness remains - which is good.