DAM Festival#

#Day 5

For tonight's program, a talented young man from Prishtina charmed the crowds as his fingers did the talking on the piano pieces he played. The crowds were happy, since most of the crowd were probably the relatives of the guy playing the piano. Then a saxophone quartet (not part of the DAM Festival), played some pretty neat stuff - and their performance of dancing and playing around the crowds, creating a surround sound made it even better.
Anyways, as broke as we were to go somewhere else, we got some pretty good sounds tonight.
I could not help notice how long the curtains were in that hall, and how red they were, and how I wanted to get rid of stupid, super-long curtains blocking the windows of the hall. Not to mention the molecular-shaped lighting above us, painted in red.
The other thing I would get rid of in all of these events, is the advertisers and their banners on each corner. I mean, sure, they give tremendous money on sponsoring events like this, and my hat goes to them, but come on. It would be a lot more exposure if one of the banks/other sponsors fixed the creaking floor, and provide the hall a new set of chairs - these ones are red and uncomfortable and dirty. Newspapers would probably write about that, and the sponsor would get publicity, and people some joy.
But then again, we will be stuck with sponsors trying to overwhelm these cultural events with their banners, flyers, pamphlets, and other degrading, cheap promotional material.
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I have to search why are all classical music instruments painted in gold. Wouldn't be nice to have a black saxophone, red drum-set, blue guitar and yellow bass player?

DAM FESTIVAL # Third edition
#5th night - Petrit Ceku



Tonight the red hall at the Youth Center (ex-Boro Ramizi, communist labeling - but still the main hall is called the "red" hall) was packed with people young and old. A very talented guitar player simply mesmerized us all. Petrit Ceku, born here but now living in Zagreb, Croatia, sounded like he had a back-up guitar orchestra with him. But the thing is that he did not. Petrit and someone from the 17th century in Venice could be friends, since he that this look that "made me imagine the boats of Venice". His stage presence was good, and his performance masterful. The sounds he produced were so melodic, so full of color, that - probably for the first time - made me want to listen to it more and start liking these festivals even more. The guy was unbelievable, and the stage was nicely set - there were two mirrors so you could also see the back of the guitarist if you wanted to. We saw friends at the concert, some people that normaly do not like classical music, but don't have where to go. Most of the decorations were red-dyed cloth, and black-dyed cloth, and I imagined that a plane came crashing into the hall, cutting us all up and splashing the walls and floor with red - so that each square of the hall is red. Sponsors for the event gave so much money, and yet they could not fix the screeching makeshift floors that they improvized for the festival.
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Petrit was probably not aware of any of that (the occasional noise, the number of the crowd) - because he was playing with his eyes shut all the time and his ears wrapped around his guitar sounds. It looked as if the deep emotional feel that he had put into the songs made him do that. His hands seemed to know their way on their own.

Such a melodic night, from a really talented/promising individual.

more#DAMfestival
read more# petrit ceku
read more# prizes.

Nine years today.

The only time we rented our very own air-force for more than 60 days.
It was also the day I new what a Tomahawk is, a F-117, B-2, and all those flying fortresses.
The term "humanitarian intervention" was coined.
A sovereign state was bombed for not halting its crimes against us here.
Chills move up and down my spine, arms and legs as I write this.
The activation order, what a climax.

Depleted uranium was also a term I got to know.But no-one wants to know of it today.

Thanks to everyone for lending their air-force from that day,
and for being so good to us from then onwards. More or less, the military at least.

NATO // USA // USANATO // USANATO USA // NATO USAUSA // NATOUSANATO // NATO // USA // USANATO // USAUSA // NATO//

Once again, we are featured on a tv series. This time its on the Flight of the Conchords (episode 6).
In this scene a badly burnt-out kid appears, burned by Albi - the discriminating Dragon, that's sitting next to him.
Albi clearly discriminated the little Albanian boy,
but in the end they ate chewing-gum cake, and Albi's tears that turned into rainbow-colored jellybeans, and sang-along.

^managed to mount Ubuntu on my work computer. i like it, and will adjust to it in no time. thanks Betim.
^on the way to the bus stop, a really young male child was weird enough to publicly kiss a young woman's behind. I could not imagine what that you child would grow up to be. Then the bus-ticketeer came and I had to pay the man 20cents.

Snow,

It was one of those snow days that you do not expect to see when you wake up. Especially after sunny days pass by that make you feel that the last of winter was only yesterday. I guess mother nature has had an increase in her sense of humor, and decided to send algae-formed snow-flakes. Naah, people did not seem to care for the snow, and it make me feel _well_ kind of sad for it. They took it for granted and snow did not like it. Most of it quickly melted, but some chunks of snow still lay around on the streets, looking as alien as the new moons discovered.

I will miss snow, and hope that we get some next winter.
Goodbye last snow of the winter.

with cold hands,
/////////
vigani

+++
Saturday and sunday were sun-days, and all to powerful effects to stay at home. Going to Skopje is overrated i think, except if you explore other parts of this huge city - which we will try to do. The initial plan was to go with nita's work colleagues to Boga, a rugged mountainous region near Peja. But they decided not to go. Being eager to get away from the city for a day, we decided to pack our bags with food from the bakery, get a couple of DVDs, music, 1.3MP camera-phone /since i broke my camera/ stock on some milk and cheese, and give that rugged, rocky, mountainous, yet beautiful scenery that people talk about a try. A snowboard jumping contents "Jump to the maxxx!" - organized by the Snowman/Snownjeri org was scheduled to be held on Sunday - another reason for going there. We knew how to get to Prizren, but then had no clue how to climb to Prevalle. People there were so friendly, that a few questions asked and we made it on the right path to Prevalle. It was past three small villages. Cattle and unfinished buildings were a frequent accurance, but what was striking - or not - was that women were chopping wood, carrying hay, feeding the cattle, working the land... only on some occasions that we saw men do any work. Yes, they were mostly engaged in house-building I guess, but still the women there (young and old) were doing a lot of work. Women wore colorful, baggy clothes; old / young they all looked the same pale faces.



As we made our way up the mountain at 37km/h, we saw that the area was beautiful, and kind of resembled Brezovica (they share the same mountain range), the roads were narrow, and there was this steepeness which we were not aware, but min-e the car was super aware. We had no clue where to go, and what language to speak to the locals there /they were kosovars, but we heard turkish and serbian being spoken/. It was an alien land, which we got immediately familiar since the town center had only 1 "main" road and a couple of houses. Looking for a place where we can stay for the night was not that easy. On the first stop, I went to this good looking wooden building that clearly was just recently built, and tried to ask for a room. It was fishy from the start, since the building had banners that read how God love good people and that. Again, I entered their "logged" doors (they were actual logs for doors), and saw people with beards and women with scarves - first sign that this is no ordinary room-renting place. A kind young guy showed me around and it was amazing to see how decorated that place was! The rooms were great, but they also had copies of the Ku'ran in each room and in each part of the building. By the looks that the young man gave me, it was clear that I was not invited. The young man even said that: "The director has to first approve if you can stay or not", which made the stay even less desirable. I kindly said thank you and left. We were lucky on our second try, and found a quirky room on top of a restaurant, nice people. For 20eur a night, we took the room. Seriously, the interior designer of the room must have had wood coming out of his/her ears, since all the room was covered in wooden decorations. The most "wooden" part of the room that I wanted to take home was the small step that eased your way up the upper level of the two-level room. We bought nothing at the restaurant, because we enjoyed our bakery food too much. A cleaning lady was urgenlty needed to first burn down the room, then repairit, repaint it, and then clean it propely. Not to say that the room was dirty, but it was not clean either. we did not mind (for a while).



The next day we went to see the only improvized ski-lift, and some snow that was left over. The sun was incredibly shinning and we almost went snowblind /nita did for about a minute or ten minutes/. We met Beni, one of the organizers of the snowjumping event, and said hi, and he told us how the snow had melted day by day. The jump was ready, flags were waiving, and people were expected to come (the DJ came as we were descending from the mountain).



We left for Prizren at 11am, then Prishtina, and did not see the snowjumping event because Prevalle was just got too much, and was not an interesting place anymore. We praised the organizers, blessed them, gave the 20euros to the restaurant owner, left the garbage behind, door open and drove away. We saw some of our friends that were heading for the snow piste (artan, emira, then valon+anyla). Good times spent on the mountains. Prevalla is definitely a place to visit, and stay long weekends. One thing that keeps bothering me about these beautiful, pristine places is the damn restaurants that keep creeping up everywhere, destroying the very nature people want to visit. It is a poor place, and people there are in desprate need of money. A tough way of living off the mountain, but at least they were not as harsh as the rocky mountains.

new comedy at ODA

Illyrian-Roman War // Comedy
Cute comedy, nice actors, and enjoyed it a lot. Laughs were shared in a hospitable and surprisingly warm atmosphere at the theater. I really liked the actors, and they put up a splendid display - portraying that we, descendants of Illyrians, were not as courageous as we first thought. But a play worthy of watching. Its good that ODA puts up new plays once in a while, considering the way they are mostly secluded and ignored from local funding.

It runs on March 5, 6, 7, from 20:00h. It also runs on other dates. 3eur tix. be sure to go there and have fun'ness.

check +web.

...the fact that it has translated to its broadest meaning, the struggle of a suppressed nation, gives me much pleasure. I would like to wish all individuals and nations good luck in their battle for independence. Justice!"

Bjork.


more. &
more here.

Night out with cans+icecream

It's so hard to find a place where you can calmly stay without having to breath your lungs out from the dim cigarette smoke that lives in almost every cafe around here. so me and nita thought we go out and look for ice-cream in one-too-many of our super-duper markets. we went to 4 of them, i think, and each one of them was in the outskirts of the city. none of the supermarkets had ice-cream: one had a 50% off on previous year's ice-cream which looked like somebody had tasted them, and then puked them back to be frozen, so we did not take them; and in another one it took an assistant almost 7min. to go look for some and then in the end they looked disgusting as well.

*we wanted ice-cream so badly, and none of the supermarkets made our tongue's wishes come true. So, we were supermarket-walking, and just looking at stuff really. And then I was curious to try some far eastern products (and some cheap south american ones), and we got: a jar of sweet & sour sauce, coconut milk, 6 tacos and buritos "dinner ready", a kinder chocolate bar, and some Haribos. My recent food taste lies in Asian food, especially Chinese (probably one of the reasons why I traveled to Skopje for. Stars Ocean. such delicious food).

The supermarkets looked so clean and colorful at night, and when there were only me and nita walking around. The patterns that shelved cans, bags of chips, dips, sauces, bread, cookies, candies and other stuff made were fascinating; not to mention the perfect light conditions for a shot. Plastics really shone tonight, I can tell you that.

After another 10mins. or so around the city, protected by Eluise-the-car, we headed home; with a quite vivid memory of empty supermarkets at 10pm, with rich colorful goods stacked, floors cleaned and sleepy attendants. I sort of wanted to sleep there.