I've got a few meetings scheduled in Serbia, Sarajevo, and Croatia. Hoping to have a few more lined up by the time i depart for the mythic realm that was Yugoslavia.
This long weekend break from school, I'll make a trial of packing things for the trip to see where I'm at as far as space and weight goes, continuing reading, set up my profile and mission statement on Couch Surfing, and sketch a geographic itinerary. I've made some orders for books and a couple of items I still need for the Travelogue, but other than that, I need only to stay focused on the remaining weeks of school and the three papers and two exams left this semester. Then three weeks of nothing but work and antici ... pation. :)
50 days from now I'll be somewhere over the Atlantic en route to Heathrow before the immediate hop from there to Budapest.
Life may be sweeter for this, I don't know...
· • ·
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Contact. 3... 2... 1...
So I finally got off my electronic missives to a couple of notable persons in the Balkans. Directors Danis Tanović and Emir Kusturica. Incidentally, both are Sarajevans, with one having returned to Sarajevo after the wars and the other relocating in (apparently) more than merely geography from where he was before the wars.
I would feel honored and privalaged if I can even have a correspondence with them, let alone getting to meet and speak with them first-hand.
52 days until I hop on that big ol' jet airliner that will carry me to Far Away.
Excitement is starting to simmer at a mid-boil. :)
· • ·
I would feel honored and privalaged if I can even have a correspondence with them, let alone getting to meet and speak with them first-hand.
52 days until I hop on that big ol' jet airliner that will carry me to Far Away.
Excitement is starting to simmer at a mid-boil. :)
· • ·
Monday, March 22, 2010
In Memoriam.
One of my war heroes died Sunday morning.
Margaret Moth did all of her combat shooting with a camera. She survived being shot in the face in Sarajevo in 1992, but she fell prey to the cancer snipering down the alley of her intestines.
Gravity feels a little heavier, the air a little thicker, today.
· • ·
Margaret Moth did all of her combat shooting with a camera. She survived being shot in the face in Sarajevo in 1992, but she fell prey to the cancer snipering down the alley of her intestines.
Gravity feels a little heavier, the air a little thicker, today.
· • ·
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Writing a roped puma
Imagine two people holding a captured puma on a rope.
If they want to approach each other,
the puma will attack, because the rope will slacken;
only if they both pull simultaneously on the rope
is the puma equidistant from the two of them.
That is why it is so hard for they who read
and they who write
to reach each other:
between them lies a mutual thought captured on ropes
that they pull in opposite directions.
―Milorad Pavić
· • ·
If they want to approach each other,
the puma will attack, because the rope will slacken;
only if they both pull simultaneously on the rope
is the puma equidistant from the two of them.
That is why it is so hard for they who read
and they who write
to reach each other:
between them lies a mutual thought captured on ropes
that they pull in opposite directions.
―Milorad Pavić
· • ·
Friday, February 26, 2010
Admira & Boško, 1968-1993
Lipe cvatu
Sve je isto ko i lani, hej
Samo srce moje i srce tvoje
U ljubavi više ne stoje...
Lime trees blossom
everything is the same as last year, hey
only in your heart and my heart
the love no longer stands...
· • ·
Sarajevan Humor: The Curfew
This guy is going home and is stopped by two guards.
"Where are you going?" one of the guards asks, "It's late."
"I know, I'm trying to make it home before curfew," the guy says.
So the guard shoots him dead.
"Why'd you do that?" the second guard asks, "It's still 20 minutes before curfew."
"Yes," the first guard says, "But I know where that guy lived, and he couldn't have made it home in time."
· • ·
"Where are you going?" one of the guards asks, "It's late."
"I know, I'm trying to make it home before curfew," the guy says.
So the guard shoots him dead.
"Why'd you do that?" the second guard asks, "It's still 20 minutes before curfew."
"Yes," the first guard says, "But I know where that guy lived, and he couldn't have made it home in time."
· • ·
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Opening Thoughts
87 days until the Balkan travelogue begins. Starting to get excited about things. Tickets are purchased, for the most part, and I'm making a list of things I'd like to take and such ilk as that. Travel light this time. Last time over, I had just a bit too much and carrying two bags was cumbersome and inconvenient. This time I'm taking a backpack with an empty daypack inside. And no laptop. I'll take the camera and some flash drives, and then use internet cafés to upload photos and transfer copies and post updates. Be a lot easier on the awareness energy and concern with delicacy in carrying the backpack if there's no computer involved.
The trek will begin in Budapest where I hope to score another sweet deal on Tokaji like I had and didn't take advantage of last time, and will ship a case home. Then down to Beograd where I will cross paths with C. Slough and Natasha D. Slough offered to show me around Beograd and Natasha is asking Zoran Živković if I can sit in on a class with them and maybe talk about the wars, if he's willing.
Beyond that there only the most general of plans. Republika Srpska and the museums of atrocity. Sarajevo, where I hope to cross paths with Danis Tanović and Zlatko Dizdarević. Through Mostar to the Hravatska coast. Dubrovnik for as long as I can stand... ;) A place I've often dreamed about.
After ferrys up the coast, meandering to Rijeka, then train to Ljubljana and a flight to Paris. I'll have about 18 hours in the City of Lights, enough time to drink some coffee and pay a vist to Uncle Charles in Montparnasse. The next morning, a Eurostar to London and then the flights back home.
That's when the organization of the collected notes and experience produces a Fellowship essay, a poster project, which is likely to include, on my part, a multimedia production. This trip is also going to furnish me with an English Honors project. I already have an idea as to what I want to that be and accomplish.
87 days. A lot to do before then.
Staying up until 5 am this morning isn't helping to get any of that done... but it is providing the foundations for this chronicle.
Ah. Laku noć.
· • ·
The trek will begin in Budapest where I hope to score another sweet deal on Tokaji like I had and didn't take advantage of last time, and will ship a case home. Then down to Beograd where I will cross paths with C. Slough and Natasha D. Slough offered to show me around Beograd and Natasha is asking Zoran Živković if I can sit in on a class with them and maybe talk about the wars, if he's willing.
Beyond that there only the most general of plans. Republika Srpska and the museums of atrocity. Sarajevo, where I hope to cross paths with Danis Tanović and Zlatko Dizdarević. Through Mostar to the Hravatska coast. Dubrovnik for as long as I can stand... ;) A place I've often dreamed about.
After ferrys up the coast, meandering to Rijeka, then train to Ljubljana and a flight to Paris. I'll have about 18 hours in the City of Lights, enough time to drink some coffee and pay a vist to Uncle Charles in Montparnasse. The next morning, a Eurostar to London and then the flights back home.
That's when the organization of the collected notes and experience produces a Fellowship essay, a poster project, which is likely to include, on my part, a multimedia production. This trip is also going to furnish me with an English Honors project. I already have an idea as to what I want to that be and accomplish.
87 days. A lot to do before then.
Staying up until 5 am this morning isn't helping to get any of that done... but it is providing the foundations for this chronicle.
Ah. Laku noć.
· • ·
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