Excellent shots done by “paparazzo character” Nikola Tamindžic of B92 and Radio Politika fame ;)
Feel free to browse through the archives and reminiscent the past. Have fun and see you around.
]]>Months: December, October, September, November, August
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Search Keyphrases: balkan hot step, communist architecture, gypsy lifestyle, srpska slova, graffiti clothing
]]>Last Friday we were invited to a great event called COURAGE, which was a silent auction of photography. It was held in the Meatpacking district at the Milk Studios. Event itself was organized by North Six and all the proceeds from the silent auction went to The Topsy Foundations, a home for children who have been orphaned by AIDS. Photograhers ranged from well known fashion photographers like Craig McDean, Walter Chin and Patrick McMullan to a lesser known group of talents.
Once we made the full circle and looked at all 60 photos, we picked our favorite and started to bid :) We didn’t plan on bidding but as the evening went on and Red Bull free mixed drinks started to do their thing, we found ourselves with only one woman to outbid. She was as eager as us to get her hands on the beautiful portrait of a young South African girl by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.**
It turns out, she was a little bit more determined to get it. We asked why so much devotion for the photo. She said it was a present for her husband. It was tight until the last moment, exchanging the pen and madly scribbling our names down, right before the closing. She won. We congratuled.
We did good considering that we never really went with an idea to bid and walk away with a great photo and some major cash deductions. But the experience of a good cause, great art and young people on a gambling high was wonderful and one to remember. Not to mention that it was a clear reminder of why we love living in New York.
** As a side note, you might recognize Adam and Oliver’s photographs from Colors Magazine, where they worked as Creative Editors and principal photographers until the end of 2002.
]]>Evo prvih utisaka o blog servisima a vama sretno u potrazi za zanimljivim autorima!
For everyone who lived or understands life in Eastern Europe, pay special attention to his Playground photo. It is a perfect depiction of an Eastern European playground. I am telling you, this exact photo exists somewhere in Belgrade and probably in many other parts of Eastern Europe. I have seen it many times while growing up in Belgrade. Cracks in the asphalt are a must, as well as the bushes with a life of their own, just growing here and there. Of course, you can’t miss the building in the background. Typical communist architecture - box with many balconies and lots of life inside. Not to sound nostalgic, but I can hear the dishes being washed and can definitely smell the food being prepared while the children are playing outside, on this very playground.
As I said, if you’ve lived in Eastern Europe, you will know what I mean. And if you haven’t, than say hello to a photo that represents a perfect example of a piece of an Eastern European life.
Here is the rest of the small gallery we put together to show Filip Kwiatkowski’s photos from the summer in Warsaw.
]]>Their jazzy version of N.O.A.H’s Balkan hot step was recorded and aired for The Other Side show two weeks ago and I had a blast listening to it over at Simon’s Basic Soul radio show. This was band’s first live perfomance so check out the other tracks and mixes as well.
Ladies and gentlemen, live and accoustic:
The Sugar Beats Band — “Balkan hot step” (Real Audio stream, 7 min.)
Excellent shots done by “paparazzo character” Nikola Tamindžic of B92 and Radio Politika fame ;)
To check out Munchies’ agitating sax and fat bass, tune into Basic Soul archived stream (Real Audio stream, first track, 00:30 - 06:06) or visit Juno records’ catalogue and listen to one minute samples from all 3 tracks.
More info on upcoming 12” can be found on Cosmic Sounds label.
Feel it!
]]>We exit the airport. Sunshine. Of course. We cross the road to Sofitel Hotel. We sit in the outside cafe and order two Frappes. Ahhh…that familiar taste of Greek coffee…we already feel all the NYC stress starting to slowly drip off our bodies…we still have a lot to go to completely defrost but we feel it has started…
After coffee, and paying a steep price of 5 euros for it, we enter the hotel, to the 8th floor, to what they call a “Wellness corner”.
And wellness corner it is. A spa. With a number of massages to choose from. We get the “jetlag massage”. 65 euros for 50 minutes. 50 minutes of heaven. I fell asleep on the table. Feeling hot bubbles underneath my back. Some kind of special mud. I don’t care what it is. It feels unbelievably good. I just smile. I am in Greece and I am starting to defrost.
After the shower, I feel I would have paid 65 euros just for that shower and the comfortable bathrob that I didn’t want to take off. I look at my sister. She doesn’t look like she spent 10 hours in economy class. She is ready for Mykonos. And so am I. We say “ef haristo” (thank you) 50 times to the maseusse and we exit feeling like million dollars.
We are now ready for our 20 minute flight to Mykonos and everything that awaits us there.
]]>cope: Odgledao sam ceo video. Steva i Boki — “gde si brate cmok, cmok”
cope: Boki je bio urađen kao u najboljim danima, mora da je povukao tri crte sa njegovog novog shiny ipod-a :)
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]]>“A production total of 250,000 for the Audi TT demonstrates the success of this model and the expertise of our Hungarian workforce. This is also reflected by the high level of demand,” declared Thomas Faustmann, Managing Director of AUDI HUNGARIA MOTOR Kft., a fully-owned subsidiary of AUDI AG.
[…]
Audi Hungaria, based in Györ, is also the principal engine supplier of the Audi Group. It has been Hungary’s largest exporter for many years, and is one of the country’s highest-revenue enterprises.
Super easy Markdown is in da house. I went through posts and switched everything down. Feed readers please ignore updated items since updates are related to HTML markup only. Note to girls: Writing posts is now dead easy.
Link to our long awaited and well hidden Gallery is now part of the top level navigation. The biggest news within the gallery is the header images archive, which, in album view also looks like a bunch of PEZ candys :). Detailed image locations & descriptions are coming soon.
With two recent sub-posts, it is my pleasure to officially introduce Danica (a.k.a. Dacili). Danica recently contributed with two personal texts (in Serbian), more to come.
I got rid of the geeky stuff from the footer and replaced them with links to site feeds. In case you don’t know, feeds are short summary of what’s new on our site. Once you subscribe to feed, you will get notified about new posts and will be able to read them. If your local RSS or Atom guru is busy at the moment, check out kids’ favourite - Bloglines service.
From other departments, I decided this year to switch from snowboarding to skiing. Huuu-huu!
Sada, sa vremenske distance od mesec dana, Santorini deluje kao san. Sve je tu, na jednom mestu: vulkan, crni pesak, crvene stene. Moji imperativi za leto 2004 bili su samo more i plaža, ali dobila sam daleko više (zahvaljujući pre svega dobroj kinti koju smo spucali, ali kad podvučem crtu vredelo je svaki evro).
Santorini jednostavno mami da ga do kraja istražite… Krenuću od kraja.
]]>Ja bih svoju idealnu turu definitivno završila Ijom. Sve je tamo tako stylish, čak i samo ime grada ušuškanog na samom vrhu ostrva. Možda ste već čuli za Iju, to je ono mesto na kome se svake večeri skuplja više stotina ljudi da bi aplaudiralo kada sunce zađe. To je ono mesto sa kog se pruža najlepši horizont na otvoreno more, sa starinskom vetrenjačom umesto svetionika. Tamo su kuće pastelne, ulice romantične, crkve sa plavim kapicama, a kafići doterani svako veče. Bazeni izviru iz zgrada, pločnici su topli i blistavi, a jedna šarmantna, mala pijaca, tik uz visoki gradski sat, prekrivena je velikom roze krošnjom. Iskreno priznajem, zavedena sam na prvi pogled.
Ipak, mi smo bili u Firi.
Kada ste već na jednom tako fancy kikladskom ostrvu, nemojte da se šalite: soba sa pogledom ili ništa. Fira tu nema konkurenciju. Sa prozora naše sobe svakog jutra ponovo smo, kao omađijani, proučavali ugašeni vulkan koji, na našu nesreću, ovoga puta nije proradio. Nema veze, sama činjenica da smo bili na vrhu, iznad 300 metara strmih stena, dovoljna je da vam proradi adrenalin. Ostatak priče pretpostavljate: sa takve pozicije loži vas sve što vidite — plavetnilo koje vas okružuje, brodovi koji dolaze i odlaze, magarci koji prelaze dnevnu turističku rutu, rano svitanje, purpurni zalazak sunca, mesečina, svetionik koji blinkće…
Zanima vas kakve su plaže? Korektne, ali ne više od toga. Ipak, brzo to prebolite. Preporučujem Red Beach: neponovljiv vizuelni doživljaj. Bordo stene — tirkizno more i, naravno, crni pesak. E da, ponekad se na vrhu stena nađe neki ludak koji u po bela dana nešto lovi. Još nismo našli logično objašnjenje — šta?
Kad ste već tamo, morate da vidite Akrotiri, preistorijsko nalazište u blizini. Teško mi je da pojmim da je neko pre 4.000 godina imao toliko šmeka. Posude sa delfinima i cvetovima, zidovi sa devojkama koje plešu. Kuriozitet je, naravno, soba sa plavim majmunima, čista avangarda za to vreme. Teorija mog dečka je da je nastala tako što je neki bogati, istripovani lik došao na ideju da sruši sve konvencije i uvede novi stil u ukrašavanju enterijera. “Hoću majmune na zidovima! I to plave. Nađite ih kako znate i umete!” Sjajno… Sve što sam zapamtila je da su bili miroljubivi, malecki (svega metar pedeset) i da su zapalili pre nego što je počela erupcija vulkana.
Vratimo se plažama. Preporuku definitivno dajemo za Kam(p)ari Beach. Svi oni koji su detinjstvo provodili po dalmatinskim primorskim mestima (kroatofili u srcu i duši) ovde će se najviše osećati _kao kod kuće_. Plus, rivijera najbolja na ostrvu. Shopping: nikako. Ne znam zašto, ali Santorini je carstvo kiča. Ovom prilikom izdvojiću upaljač u obliku japanke – kakav trash. Sa druge strane, klopa je kao izmišljena. Naše omiljeno mesto bio je “Posejdon”, ali nije loša ni jedna tipična grčka taverna u centru Fire koju ćete lako naći jer je ispred nje svake večeri red. Čeka se, ali se zato posle dobro klopa. Šta god da izaberete nećete pogrešiti.
Sada dolazimo do bolne tačke: noćni život. Naime, kao prosečan Beograđanin koji je za ovo letovanje radio k’o crnac, niste u poziciji mnogo da birate. Deset evra po osobi za ulaz je cifra koju nismo mogli da svarimo. Kada shvatite da tokom večeri želite da se šetate od kluba do kluba, uz obavezno piće ili neku kafu “sa pogledom na more”, nemate više nedoumica. Žao mi je, drugi put. Ipak, upotrebili smo nešto od šarma, pa smo tako, valjda zahvaljujući pristojnom outfitu i mojoj igri nasred ulice, jedno veče pušteni za dž u tamošnji hit-bar Murphy’s. Bilo je super: svi lepi, svi raspoloženi, ribe na stolovima, muzika za skakanje i besplatno piće. Cenim da su i drugi klubovi odlični, barem sudeći po urađenim i veselim licima stranaca koji su iz njih izlazili.
I za kraj, poslastica. Poslednjeg dana, sa sve spakovanim koferima, saznajemo da smo zarobljeni na ostrvu. Grčki tradicionalni specijalitet: jak je vetar i brodovi ne plove. Iako vas to malkice izvede iz takta, u dubini duše pomislite: savršeno, ostaćemo barem još jedan dan duže. Kome se, uopšte, vraća u Beograd.
Sutradan, tokom leta (brodovi i dalje nisu plovili) zaključili smo da se brže stiže avionom od Santorinija do Atine nego busom od Konjarnika do centra grada. Toliko o Srbiji. Kad smo stigli u “domovinu”, surova stvarnost nas je odmah dočekala: mrgudi na sve strane, pre svega na predizbornim bilbordima. Kakav horor-grad. Prvo što se zapitate kada sletite na Surčin (odvratnog li imena za jedan aerodrom) jeste “šta ću ja ovde”?. Nažalost, to je pitanje na koje ni posle mesec dana nemate pravi odgovor. Zato, dragi Beograđani, zlatno pravilo posle svakog dobrog letovanja: pravite se da ste to samo sanjali, biće vam lakše.
— Danica Radeka
For us summer lasts until the last day we can wear sandals and our feet do not turn blue. We don’t measure our seasons by Barneys windows and editorials in Harpers Bazaar. No we don’t.
This summer we are having a late departure. On Friday we are off into the late summer serenity, towards a softer light and still warm blue sea. Mykonos 2004.
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Too bad Nikola Tesla didn’t use a good intellectual property law firm
, says a US law firm in their advertisement.
Do you know who Tesla is?
Think radio. Think electricity. Think transmitting electricity over long distances. Think - Not on friendly terms with Edison.
Tesla is a Serbian inventor, engineer and scientist.
And do you know why he didn’t hire an intellectual property law firm to protect his patents?
Probably because he is from the Balkans and therefore not as inclined as the rest of the world to think about profit making.
You see, the part of brain that stimulates thoughts about actually making profit has not been used for generations in Serbia. We are generations of people who put emphasis on taking life easy. Why? Because our system was set up so that no matter how much you worked, your profit would be the same. So, we were clever and we chose to sip our coffee and read paper until 10:00 and leave work at 15:00.
That behavior stayed for generations and at this point it is safely situated deep in our blood.
Tesla’s time (1856-1943), however, wasn’t the time of communism but time of Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire. Different systems but basics are the same. No profit making because you are the Empire’s second class citizen.
So, of course, we took it easy. And our profit making part of the brain started to decay right then and there.
Having said all that, it is likely that if Tesla wasn’t from the Balkans he would be more inclined to think about profits, he would probably be paying a hefty attorney fee to a firm like Seed Law while we would be writing our electricity bills to ConTesla, not ConEdison.
Take this post as a lesson that applies worldwide:
For the people in the Balkans — Start exercising the profit making part of your brains.
For the people worldwide — Know who Tesla is. In a world that we live in, bombarded with the sea of information every day, this is one of those rare pieces of information that you would actually read and remember.
Because the mark Tesla left behind is that important.
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