I know it is viral, but I like it :)

Taken from Darko's gmail signature, qt little commercial.

Holidays holidayyysss

             Hyvää joulua ja onnellista uotta vuotta!
        Joyeux Noel et une bonne et heureuse Nouvelle Annee!
          Prettige Kerstdagen en een gelukkig Nieuwjaar!
             Sretan Božić i Novogodišnji praznici!

Friday, 25th "(U)POZNAVANJE" - modern dance/physical theatre

Here in Belgrade students live in couple of student dormitories scattered around the city. The one I have spent my 5 years of studies is the biggest one - one and only "Studenjak" i.e. Student City. It is placed in the area of Belgrade built after the WWII , called New Belgrade, and it is a world of itself, with 5000 students residing, student restaurant, library, cinema, theater stage, festivals of AAE movie (author, alternative, engaged = AAE; copyrighted by Slavac), lectures, literary evenings... very rich cultural program, and amazingly enough FREE or almost free. I am still, years after, very attached to the Student city, and collect their monthly cultural guide every 1st in the month, and visit whenever I can, really. And these last three months I had the chance not just to consume, but to produce myself :) I am very happy to announce to you the public presentation of the modern dance/physical theater workshop, under the name of "(U)POZNAVANJE", best translated as: meeting each other.
It is a workshop led by Sanja Cvrkotic, a choreographer,a dancer, a dance teacher, with classical ballet education and the path of modern dance and theater choreography taken afterward (many awards, many plays, workshops participated). Being a part of that workshop is amazingly fun for me. It is about meeting with your own body, (im)balance, breathing, weight, anatomy, improvisation, contact-improvisation, relaxation. There is like 9-10 of us participants, different degrees of "body intelligence", different degrees of mind and/or body stiffness (mine would probably be the highest there heheh, just can't let myself loose no way). But then while playing and doing some funny exercises and "tasks" I believe we created quite some of a performance. So, don't miss this Friday, 20:30, Student City, Belgrade!
The pics are from the website of Student City, upper left: Jovana, Biljana,Jelica and Biljana in a midst of a "chair exercise". Picture below: Sanja.

Quite some of a Friday in Belgrade

Friday, the 18th December, Belgrade, Serbia, do not miss! :)
1) The book night special event organized by book publishers, at 4 locations in the city, "stay awake with the book", book night, today, from 18h to 24h, quite some time for wondering through bookshops, nerdyyyy, yummy :) :) :) some special treats like vine and chocolate tasting and some VIPs to be seen included.
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Epilogue: since the prices were 50% or more lowered, there were queues of people outside waiting..

2) Hell of a concert! Meet Balkand alternative band scene! My favorite newer band from Croatia, Lollobrigida!!!
----Here their video used to be but not any more, they don't deserve it ----
(the best alternative band in region according to MTV Adria), cute little jumpy songs, crazy lyrics and crazy girls :) "Foreplay" at the concert, Serbian band Petrol ... promising, very promising. Place: Dom omladine (The House for Youth), price 800 RSD = 9 euro.
Okey,okey,I admit, I made a mistake. It was hell of a concert my ass. Petrol sounded all but unique, boring,like every other alternative band on the scene. And they were late. And not only them, Lollobrigidas themselves were ooh-sooo-late,so I was there at 21h as an idiot, they started 22:40. Bah, I am done with them for good. Of course, not because they behaved like they are bloody RollingStones and put us wait long, but because of the show itself. Oooo it is a pure show biz, commercial so much that it hurts. Jumping around in some stupid silver wanna-be-original costumes, the lead vocal blabbering around, intentionally arrogant, bitchy, playing cool playing smart, s.t.u.p.i.d. And ok, like,they are Croats, and they are playing in Belgrade, no big deal. But she couldn't stop picking on Serbs, like: "Hi, Serbs, haven't played in Belgrade for 1,5 years, ooo , you have grown up, you are huge, look at you..." I mean, what's the point in mentioning "Serbs Serbs" in every second sentence? And the crowd was wanna-be-urban teenage "alternative" crowd, who really came there cause they like they silly image and stupid jumpy songs. Like those kids give a fuck for Serbs/Croats stuff. So Lollobrigidas darlings, you have ruined my evening, I was there for u at -10 degrees, frozen like a penguin. You won't be seeing me anymore.

3) This Friday and also Saturday Lira Vega, a really authentic Serbian alternative band, unique energy.
I've listened them before, so this is error-proof: it is going to be a great gig.

Snooooow

A view from the window this morning 8am. It started yesterday, it is beauuutiiifuuul, and it is also paralyzing for the city .. prepare for traffic issues.

Fića, read:feetja, a car found in museums in Western Europe and on the streets in post communist (South)Eastern Europe: a bit of snow can't harm it.

Nouvelle Vague in Belgrade

The most cherished French band in Serbia. Tonight and tomorrow night (the tickets for the first day went in a sec). I used to listen them obsessively, day after day.


(Think the tickets are officially gone,but could be bought at KC Grad and Biletarnica, 1500 RSD = 17euro)

The 3rd Science Festival Belgrade

Some were very happy to have me convinced them to join, some felt a crowd is a bit overwhelming and took a beer to calm the nerves :D(which is verbatim from Serbian "pivce za živce" beer-for-nerves, it rhymes :)).
I lobbied my friends to visit the Science Festival. I had four superb rationales: more than 20 scientific institutions will do funny and children-friendly experiments and simulations, across the street popular scientific lectures will be held by prestigious Serbian science names, thirdly, movies will be played and finally, and the most important, Lidočka, my best friend who is a genetic scientist will also participate, she can take one's DNA, split it apart, make it glow and other cool microbiological stuff. So I have had great great fun :) good for me hehe. I have learned that potato with iodine turns black, the blacker, the more starch (and nutritive value) it has, ripe apple with iodine will not change color,gas flame can dance with music, penguins take good care of their hygiene, they can't leave the nest cause of freeze, so they fire out their penguin poop with huge pressure, as far as it is possible. I saw some mixture that got in flame in contact with water. Math,physics, biology (uuuuf, scary snakes were VIPs there), genetics, just choose the topic and see a funny experiment or installation. All this happens in a very beautiful interior of the former clothes-mall called Cluz ( click on 360 degree view). Then you cross the street, enter SKC (student cultural center) and movies begin. A movie about stem cells, blood transfusion in emergencies, and other even cooler ;) topics.
Finally a journey through space and centuries followed ...(so special that earns the privilege of the next entry topic :))
And this is really not all, not even half of it :) pics may say more right here.
PS: Three day event had amazing 17000 visitors, from 5 to 95 years old, ticket was 3 euros or so.

Hyvaa Finnish independence day!

Apart from organizing a set of festivities honoring Nicho's below mentioned bday :) Finland is today also celebrating its independence day! Hyvää itsenäisyyspäivä !!! Unfortunately, I stayed in Finland just long enough to miss this day, so I am not sure what exactly is happening there today. Wikipedia says it is 92 years since Finns got rid off Russians. My precious book on Finland mentions that each year on today, the President hosts a grand reception "to which the leading figures in the country plus accredited diplomats and ordinary citizens who have distinguished themselves in some way are invited". Tarja Halonen was the first women to organize this party.
Slavac-International does however have some fresh reports from the "face of the place" (as we Serbs would literary say):
(M.T.A from Helsinki, 21:05h)I am watching a 5 hrs reception on TV the president received all ambassadors and important people. Jajajaja dunno maybe in the center there was some thing
(N.B.M from Tampere, 21:13h) In Tampere the city was full of people and fireworks. Next time I will carry a camera or buy a better fone :) hehehhe
(J.A.T from Turku, 21:56h) Not "party" time, but serious celebration time. Everyone puts a blue and white candle in the window, they rise their flags.

System.out.println("Hello World!");

"You have promised us a blog, what happened to the blooooog?" - asks my friend Nicho for already three months. "Will do, will do Nicho, this very afternoon!"
I am proud to announce that there is no more beating around the bush- This_Very_Afternoon has been now irreversibly set to Sunday, December 6th, 2009 - Nicholas' BDAYYYYYY (Happy birthday dear dear friend!).
And like every serious endeavor does, "Slavac International Unlimited" is also having its mission, vision and goals. Allow an introduction.

Goals - to have rss feeds of all my friends from IMMIT, Finland, Netherlands, France and wider (aliens included) set up to this very blogaddress and checked out regularly. Even more crucial, to have my ass disciplined and update on regular basis (to make it tangible, minimum once a week).


Mission - to provide real time insights on what is happening in the peculiar habitat called Balkans, more precisely Belgrade. The domains of interest: culture, hapennings, events, fun stuff, guides, everyday life tips, a diary on implications/complications of being settled here.


Vision - to become globally popular destination for travelers and fans of Belgrade, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Balkans, where they find all the insider info they can't find on official travel websites. After becoming a global Internet success I plan to monetize and become rich and free! :D kekeke

Till soon,
urs Slavo
PS: the image in the corner is found here (we don't want to steal other people bits and bytes, do we)