More Kids from Croatia

Comic Relief; Best for Holiday Season

Isn't this great? I guess you really have to be blase and cynical not to simply adore it..

Happy New Year!

Midnight Ramblings

As an aside, what with the current politics and statements by prominent officials and would-be officials ranging from war in Europe to Middle East, there's room for NG and History channel paranoia more than ever.
Are we indeed to reveal the final Apocalypse chapter?
***
I was at a party yesterday; this guy insisted world could be much, much worse off.
"Some people get by with a little understanding,
Some people get by with a whole lot more.
Oh, I don't know why you gotta be so undemanding -
I want more!"

What Would You Say to World at Large, aged 38?

All your fault; nobody else's.

What Would You Say to 16-y.o. You?

The secret is you must not know the secret.

Miroslav Artić

WORD

I travel

from word to word,

looking for a word

more wordy and different

than all other words.

NEITHER WEAKNESS NOR FEAR

This weakness of mine

fear has not engendered,

nor is fear

child of my weakness.

The case is they both feed on my being.

And every day

foster my being.

Fear and weakness,

day in and out.

Marijan Alaniz

It is a rare moment indeed when I discover some astounding contemporary Croatian poetry.

(I am mostly used to words like 'cunt' rhyming with 'whiskey' - as in case of this poetry competition I participated in some ten years back; this was the winner.)

So, without any further ado, Marijan Alaniz in English, translated by myself:

MY SUMMER

The scent of rancid figs announced the death of yet another summer. And they say, only what is dead is truly ours. It is but memory that can boast eternity and always visit what it remembers. This is why I shall bid good-bye to summer with a smile, summer soon to become just mine. I am already looking forward to our meetings when we are alone, without any disturbance. My summer and me, me and my summer, and when all have left, there will be the two of us.

¢ 2000

I LOVE YOU NOW AND THEN

I love you now and then

and don't be sad to hear this confession.

I don't think there is love

that lasts for more than a moment.
This after all wouldn't be love,
perhaps habit at best..
Feeling is born and lives in the moment
of its existence.

And the moment is forever.

I love you now and then
and whoever says that because of this
I don't love you – is lying!
This awareness of momentariness
affords this splendid opportunity
to fall in love with you again,
each time differently
and every time as if for the first time.
Whoever says they love differently,
blending moments into one,
loves insipidly and
takes love lightly..
As if it were here to last for good,
as if we were meant to have it.

And so, please allow me
to love you now and then,
leaving the time in between these moments
just to me,
so I can imagine this moment
when I will fall for you again.

¢ 15 Nov 2000

Objects of Desire

We've craved others as things forever I think, submission, violence and all too, but contemporary capitalism has introduced wanting things - almost sexually.

Today, I eavesdropped on adolescent conversation: it was all about mobile phones. No idea in sight. Phone dictionary thus got to replace command of English. Whee, it knows every word.

Glad as I am that I climbed trees, I now also have a daily changing, and exhaustive, list of things I want. It is important to note the realms of dreams and reality overlap here: thus I do not yearn for a Porsche but a VW. It's also time I upgraded to a tablet; and I do like that shirt-like jacket and need a new motorcycle.

Of course, there's a book on this. Marc Auge would have it "quickly changing life itself is attracting the attention of anthropologists."
Still, with a personal goal of wanting to experience for the sake of it, I say I'm really glad I left paper notes on desk and also that I got to experience instant communication.

One of the wisest things I have ever heard came from an English girl I met whan I was 16: "You can't undo it."

20 Years Later

I never know which is more unsettling: when foreigners basically have no idea where they are at all, and avoid local matters, or when the few bizarre, inquisitive ones broach the subject of the recent war.

6 December 1991 was the peak of the Serb and Montenegrin assault on the Dubrovnik region, with literally thousands of shells hitting the Old Town.

I am usually all in favour of problematizing the issue of the collapse of a complex state - but it's just the warring, drunk mob stole, burned and killed everything in sight, even the airport equipment which they then just installed across the border.

The following photo was taken that day. I was 18 at the time and lived. This 23 aged young man did not.

The Win

Well, this HDZ party that more or less ruled Croatia since the end of socialism lost the elections heavily.

Their main blunder, apart from robbing the country of its vast share of wealth, is never learning the difference between party and state, just one of the ancient habits that was superimposed on what was proclaimed as new, all adorned with newspeak lingo.

The Social-Democrats had one 4 year mandate back in early 2000s but failed to implement any changes. To do this, I am afraid, you do need to render a few officials jobless. These people anyway live imitations of real lives and it is high time they went to the market, I say.

This would enable the left to recruit those shamelessly opportunistic. It was eerie to watch those mentally unstable go mad ten years ago using official HDZ propaganda as their starting point - yes, the followers must be won over.

Or else. We're gonna have more of what this comic clip is parodying:

It begins with "Let the crooks in!," goes through "Now let's agree that half the members of HDZ will join the ranks of SDP," and finally ends with "Then you give it all back in four year's time."

Btw, I love these WWII stunts. My favourite moment is one of Hitler: the Downfall moments when two scared young women listen to raging Adolf behind a closed door, one of them subtitled as: "Don't worry; I arranged visa for Bosnia." Hilarious.

Commentary

Croatia is having parliamentary elections on Sunday.

This won't go well with non-Croatian-speaking audience but I guess Google translate will do for these few words.

FT was the only paper worth reading during the past 20 years or so, but it had to go.

On How It Is

credits: a net person

"Prayer"

There's an old quotation about opera: "If it ain't worth saying - you sing it."

Well, these days I'm using photos. The idea for this one came from S. (featured); the venue is the Dubrovnik Art Gallery terrace; shot in BW:

Then, there's another one: "Art is science made clear."

Back to Roots

Good ol' rock'n'roll, straight out of Croatia, on the eve of 2012; naturally, with a touch of nihilistic postmodernism (rating 4 out of 5):

World Clock

Mid-Way

When I was from Cupid's passions free, my Muse was mute and wrote no elegy.

Ovid, Amores
Roman poet (43 BC - 17 AD)

Radio Winter

Settling in in my old-new Dubrovnik.

Preps for the new amateur Radio show on UNIDU 97.50 MHz are underway: www.egotrip.com.hr

1. show will deal with Marc Auge (we need to study the everyday);
2. Gadamer (method);
3. micro-environment (the Philosophy of Small Places by the unfortunately now late Konstantinovic);
4. Belles lettres? (Death in Venice or the nuts who write); and
5. the contemporary (sexuality: Michel Schneider).

There will be 10 shows more but I plan a break after each five. The broadcast should start some time after New Year's.

Vis

Quote of the Month

My ideal relaxation is working on upholstry. I spend hours in junk shops buying furniture. I do all the upholstery work myself, and it's like therapy.
Pamela Anderson (1967 - )

OSs

I spent three days transitioning.

First of all, I'm resting from a tiring summer and this is reason enough to be in bed for three days, installing different things, why not. Incidentally, due to lousy connexion I also discovered the Download Manager.

Well, this is how it is: on old desktop I am running W7 and Jolicloud; dual boot. Very impressed with the cloud: not merely the technical stuff - this, I would say, requires some further polishing but with the design. Most Linux systems actually acutely lack solid graphic designers.

The little HP Mini 2133 unfortunately cannot stand much of anything so I opted for the EasyPeasy version of Ubuntu.

The third in line is the proper laptop. I cannot sacrifice Windows here because I do need Office for real translation work, and I have invested in W programs a little over the years too.
However, I will also try to squeeze MeeGo in. Again, design! It's so cute and would be my very first choice.

That's it - a boring post really - no philosophy whatsoever.
Now I'm off to the island of Vis for three days. Check it out on the map - it's smack in the middle of the Adriatic. And it's one of the places, apart from Bol on Brač that I indulged myself in while I was loaded, I've always wanted to visit. There'll be photos.