Feeling blues

It might be the weather. It might be the fact that I worked for 9 hours, followed by 4 hours of lectures and I'm just to tired. Or it might be just this decade...
Since I can't and won't publish something illegal, here's just a little blues session of some uknown guitar player practising in his kitchen. It's not me BTW. Beside the fact that I don't play guitar, he looks way to happy for being me (haha- you see, great minds show irony even in the moments of dispair).
Anyway. Tomorrow is a new day.

THE watering holes...

The weekend is on its last breath, and since I still feel some of its consequences, I think the only right thing to write of, is the reason why I feel like I do.
OK, as some of you know- I was never shy of having a drink or two (or more -haha). But there's something about bars back home that make them the easiest place to let go of any breaks. I mean- pubs of Ireland, are great. Outdoor caffes (that's right- alcohol can be served in caffes in here) on the banks of Ljubljanica river in summer just as good if not better. But small and simple watering holes of home are simply without any competition. There's something in the air, that makes you relax. The way people speak that makes you welcome. I guess I could apply Cheers theme song to my little drinkin' theory ("Sometimes you wanna go, where everybody knows your name,..."). But the fact is that even complete strangers get the feeling of being in some familiar place, and they tend to come back. I guess the best reason would be, that those bars are essentially village public houses. Virtually everybody knows anybody. They know your name, they know your parents, where you come from, what you do... And nobody is shy of getting ridicously pissed, since he/she saw most of everybody else being pissed as well. And you're usually surrounded with at least some people getting into same state anyway. Nobody is afraid of engaging complete stranger in a dialogue, as long as they find a language to communicate in, and the person shows interest in conversation.
Anyway. Feel like healing my liver, the next weekend's in only 5 days... ;-)

Sometimes it's enough to go for ONE glass of beer, and you find yourself in same bar6 hours later ;-)

Travel need...

I'm currently under heavy travel depletion. It's been so long since I was out of the country, that I need to think when it was. That's not normal. I used to travel abroad every few months, and in last year I've been away twice!!! And as winter- as nonexisting as it was- is on it's final days the feeling just gets stronger. So... Where to go?
Here's my current list of wishes (isn't ordered by importance):

• somewhere to Eastern Europe (Poland perhaps?)
• Wales or Scottland
• Honduras (hey- I've got a thing about Honduras)
• crossing Canada on Trans Canada highway- East to West
• trekking Canada's North (OK, perhaps I'm not ready for this one yet)
• lazying on tropic beaches of Vietnam
• visiting island nation of Tuvalu before islands disappear bellow Pacific ocean due to global warming
• places around Europe where I've already been to, but absolutely loved- like Ireland, Slovakia, Germany,...
  

OK, since at the moment I'm not really full of money somewhere in Europe would make a good start. Even just a city break. Any suggestions? ;-)

Picture from happier days- Boeing 737, flight from Klagenfurt to Stansted on one of my trips to Ireland

Hidden jewels

More than a century ago one of the greatest Slovenian writers Ivan Cankar wrote a short novel called Kurent. Kurent is a creature from Slavic mythology, sometimes refered as the god of growth and hedonism. There are many fairy tells about Kurent in many Slavic countries. Most of them involve the story of Kurent obtaining magical objects from devil in exchange for his soul. With help of this toys Kurent manages to (temporarily) catch death and eventually makes even tricking devil himself. The traces of mythological Kurent can be seen today, when Kurent (represented by man doll) is a scape goat at Mardi Gras- being punished for his sins by death, the funeral being the high point of Mardi Gras. In NE Slovenia korant(i) are Mardi Gras characters dressed in sheep skin, with bells around their waists. The celebration of Mardi Gras there is called kurentovanje.
In Cankar's novel Kurent is transformed into travelling artist, musician and the representer of good things of the nation. As he travels around the country he notices the good and the bad things going on in Slovenia at the time of Cankar's writting. It is a deep novel, which has strong autobigraphical, national and social connotations. The starting chapter of the novel, called "Heavens bellow Triglav" is one of most beautiful praise to the homeland. I can't and won't translate the whole chapter, since it's big and my English is not up to task. But basically the narrator says how at the time of Genesis God was travelling the Earth with sack full of natural wonders- beautifull mountains, lush valleys, islands and other natural monuments. By the time he reached lands bellow Triglav the sack was all but empty of big things. So he emptied all that was left in the sack- loads of wonders that weren't big, but often even more beautiful. And since there were many in the sack, Slovenia was full of them....
It is to often that we search something far away, although we have it under our nose. One of these things is Iški vintgar- the canyon of Iška river, only 20 km from Ljubljana. Can you believe such beauty can be found only a short drive from gray concrete?

Iški vintgar

Dreamt of heron

Felt suspended by rays of stars, gliding on waves of wind, with gray heron guiding me over dead calm canyons, over falls of splashing, untamed rivers and dark forests. The darkness penetrated only by pale moonshine and dance of fireflies. Felt a cold hand sqeezing at my throat, as the unvisible grip of IT made me feel... And fear... And hope...

Without you

A friend of mine, Jernej Mihelič recently started a blog in Slovene language. Among other things he posted the video of Gašper Mihelič (his brother) singing Without you acompanied by our tamburica group (Viniski tamburasi). The video was recorded with mobile phone, so the picture and sound is far from perfect and song is a bit corny, but here's just an example how tamburicas sound with contemporary music (Jernej did a great job arranging song for tamburicas BTW)...

I think we all agree, that Gašper has a great voice, and hopefully a bright future in singing- he sure has a talent.
For anyone who isn't sure what tamburica is- tamburica is a musical instrument with strings, similar to mandolin or balalaika, that is mostly played in western Balkans. You can read more about tamburica at the home page of one of the best (semi)professional tamburica groups of Slovenia- Šukar . They play mostly Roma music, and already published 5 CDs.
In one of my next posts I hope I'll find time to write something more about tamburica group I play in- Viniški tamburaši....

Good things come to those who wait

Might be an advertising slogan of Guinness, but also to some things I do. Anyways. I'm sort of a man who considers himself a hedonist. Which also includes love for good food and drinks. And since I enjoy a friendship of quite many such people,we gather now and than at ones apartment and try to cook little something. We tried Chinese, Mexican, and when it was my turn we cooked some mediteranean dishes. Here are some results:

Davor was very passionate about his Tomatoes with mozzarella

Nobody touches my bolognese sauce (at least not till it's done!)

And while some of us cooked some pretended to be conversing...

Vanja chopping red paprika for paella

Paella, which turned out to be sort of risotto (hey- still mediteranean, right? ;-)

And why the title? Well the dinner was cooked on 25th November. ;-) Ah, well...