Archives for April, 2004

A picture from the Gallery Kranj. Used with permission.

EU membership is now just a few hours away, so I thought I’d put together some links about Slovenia. Glorious ones, of course.

First up is the Gallery Kranj, which knocks me out even more than Ukraine girls.

The pictures are beautiful but not in a traditional postcard-ish, wish-you-were-here kinda way. In fact, it’s often impossible to clearly recognize Slovenia in many of them. Some are wonderfully surreal. Don’t forget to check the three submenus: the city, the country and the Alps. And definitely don’t miss the insect photos if, like me, you have a weakness for insect photos.

At any rate: kudos to Nathalie Lawhead and company. (And for more Nathalie-related goodness, don’t miss her exquisite BlueSuburbia. It’s flashtastic.) I’d also like to thank the wonderful taz for pointing my nose in their direction.

If traditional photos are more your thing, then the German magazine Stern has recently put up a very nice collection of pictures of Slovenia. It’s part of their “New Europe” series. If you can read German, I recommend checking out their story on Slovenia. It’s nicely done, with the exception of this horrendous map, which manages to misspell four out of 12 Slovenian cities.

Note to Stern: Nothing says sloppy like messing up a simple map.¹

Stern has been running stories on all the new EU members lately. The collected articles are conveniently located here. You might notice that the Baltic States are unfairly jammed together into one article, as are Slovakia and the Czech Republic, but I suppose it’s better than nothing.

If you feel confident about your knowledge of incoming EU states, then the BBC has put together a series of quizzes to make you feel like a total idiot. Their Slovenia Quiz is extremely hard. I scored a shameful 8 out of 10. (Thanks to Arellanes for pointing them out!)

Give the quiz a try and let me know how you did.²

The BBC site also has two videos about Ljubljana. (Part one, part two) You’ll need RealPlayer to see them.

That’s all for now… See you in the EU!

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1) It’s Murska Sobota not Muska Sobota, Rogaska Slatina not Rogasca Slatina, Novo Mesto not Novo Mestro, and Nova Gorica not Nova Gorcia. Also, the river is more commonly called Sava, not Save. And Drau is the German word for the river Drava. Not that there’s anything wrong with calling it the Drau… it’s just that everything else on the map is in Slovene.

2) The ones I got wrong: The one about Deseti Brat and the question about the rare species. Oddly enough I got the same score (8/10) on the Czech Republic quiz, despite having been there only once… and briefly.

According to this year’s World Economic Forum competitiveness report, Slovenia has a more competitive economy than its G7 neighbor, Italy. You can read the UPI story here. I don’t take much stock in it, unfortunately. As the BBC notes "The rankings are mainly based on a survey of executive opinion carried out by the World Economics Forum every year." In other words, Italy has a lot of angry and frustrated executives. More than Slovenia. So if you’re in the Executive Stress Relief business, now is the time to enter the Italian market.

Anyhow. According to the report, Finland and the United States have the two most competitive economies on Earth. Sweden and Denmark follow. The BBC’s round-up of the top ten is here.

I poked around the World Economic Forum site trying to find out more, but walked away with empty hands and the vague urge to smash something — like a bank window or something. This tantalizing page, for example, boasts competitive reports for each of the incoming EU states, including Slovenia, but all of the links are dead.

And that’s why I decided to give the WEF a failing grade in my annual Internet Competiveness Report for 2004. Better luck next year, fellas.

Slovenia sent a handful of soldiers to Afghanistan, but apparently only one officer to US Central Command. Either that or their page hasn’t been updated lately.

Here’s the United States Central Command Coalition Page for Slovenia. And here’s the coalition page.

(Via Blogo Slovo)

A satellite photo of Koper and the Adriatic Sea.

I mentioned before that I like maps. So when I saw National Geographic’s MapMachine I nearly had an aneurysm of joy. It’s mapalicious. There are 28 available maps of Slovenia, ranging from satellite photos to topographical and ecological maps. You can also find maps for cities and regions. (Carniola is, sadly but fairly, not included.) So, as Jack Torrance suggested to Wendy, with regard to the Snow Cat and radio, in the movie The Shining: "Go check it out!" (Thanks Gyan!)

The Glory of Carniola now has 100 glorious, consecutive posts. How long can the streak last? And how long until the police find the bodies in the basement?

Only time will tell.

Tanja Kovac: The biggest fan of Michael Jackson in Slovenia and possibly beyond.

Things may not be going well for Michael Jackson in California right now, but here in Slovenia he has the unwavering love and support of a fan named Tanja Kovac. The 23-year-old financial assistant from Ljubljana runs MJSlo.com, a Slovenian portal dedicated to the king of pop. Recently, Tanja was kind enough to talk with The Glory of Carniola. Here’s what she had to say about being a Michael Jackson fan, her collection of Jackson stuff, and the charges against him.

The Glory of Carniola: When was the first time you heard a Michael Jackson song, and how did you react?

Tanja Kovac: The first time I heard a Michael Jackson song was way back in 1987. It was the time when Michael was on his world tour for BAD. I was just 7 years old and I only knew Michael by the way he looks. When I first became his fan I didn’t even know that he was a singer. I just came into my sister’s room and saw a poster of him on the wall and my eyes immediately turned to him. I remember asking my sister who this man was and my mouth was just wide open. I just couldn’t believe that one man could look so beautiful. A week after that I heard the whole BAD album when my sister brought it home so I could hear it. I guess my very first song by Michael was BAD since that’s the first song on the album. When I heard it I fell in love with him even more. He just has it all: the looks, the voice and such a wonderful character. I remember being very much in shock over his whole image and music.

TGoC: What’s in your current Michael Jackson collection?

Tanja: I have a large collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia. There are so many MJ things that people don’t even know exist. I have all of his albums, singles, vinyls, picture discs, special edition discs, his rare mixes and tapes, Jackson 5 and The Jacksons albums… all about his music. Then I have so many of his books, magazines (from all over the world), song books, calendars, notebooks, PVC bags with MJ on it, puzzles, MJ perfumes, sculptures, badges, stickers, over 1500 of his original photos, over 100 videocasettes of rare footage of Michael Jackson, pillows, posters, promotional posters, tour books, flags, caps, Mystery drink cans, MJ dolls (which sing the Black or White song), T-shirts, Billie Jean glove, hats (one of them was touched by Michael himself), DVD’s, concert tickets, original History tour bag,… My most special items are two Michael Jackson autographs that I got when I went to see Michael live (Berlin and London). I made a tattoo on my right arm of one of the autographs.

A tattoo of Michael Jackson’s signature adorns Tanja’s right arm.

TGoC: Tell me about the tatoo. Do you have any more — or are you planning on more?

Tanja: I always wanted to have a MJ tattoo and this dream came true for me just two days after I met Michael in Harrods, London. It was in June 2002. First I wanted to make a tattoo of Michael’s face but since I didn’t have enough money to do that, I decided it would be best to make a tattoo of a MJ autograph that my boyfriend got from Michael personally just a few days before. Everyone who saw it till this day has said it looks amazing, I’ve never heard anyone say anything bad about it. Yes, I plan to do more of them. I want a tattoo of Michael’s face and I believe I will get it done soon.

TGoC: Does your boyfriend ever get jealous of your love for Michael Jackson?

Tanja: No. My boyfriend never gets jealous of my GIGANTIC love for Michael. He was even with me when I got the chance to meet Michael and didn’t mind that I kissed Michael’s hand. My boyfriend is a Michael Jackson fan as well.

TGoC: Is it difficult, as a fan, to watch what’s happening to MJ now? How do you know he is innocent? And what would you say to people who already think he’s guilty?

Tanja: Yes it is so painful to see what is happening to him now. I cannot believe that people can be so mean and cruel to make such an injustice against him just because of money. It breaks my heart to see him in pain and I want this injustice to end very soon. I organised a vigil – support event here in Ljubljana to show all Slovenian people that Michael is being framed. Fans came from all over Slovenia and even Croatia and Bosnia and together we talked to people about the truth of these allegations. We spread leaflets with information and gave Michael all our support. Everyone had a banner with them saying: »Michael is INNOCENT« and some MJ items like hats, gloves, T-shirts, posters; I made a web page called MJSlo.com where I inform people about all the news that is happening with Michael Jackson now. I translate the news from English to Slovenian so people can get the right information. I was sick and tired of reading false stories about Michael in our newspapers and that’s why I decided to do MJSlo.com.

You ask me how I know that Michael is innocent? I have been a Michael Jackson fan for 17 years already and through the years I have lived and breathed Michael Jackson. I got to know him through his interviews, shows, rare footage that I have of him, private recordings, I got to meet him live six times and talk to him, and through all these years I have seen whatta man he is. He has a great heart and a brilliant mind and I tell you there is NO WAY Michael ever did what they accuse him of. Everyone who knows Michael personally says the same. That’s just not in Michael’s heart, he could not even think of that. It’s people with sick minds that think like that. He is totally Innocent of any wrong doing.

To the people who already think he’s guilty I would like to quote Michael’s saying »Don’t judge a man until you have walked in his moccasins for two weeks.« Get the right information about these allegations, please visit MJSlo.com and read the truth about Michael Jackson and his life! If that’s still not enough for you wait and hear the truth in court. Lies run sprints, truth runs marathons. The truth will win this marathon!!!

Facts about Tanja

Place of birth: Ljubljana
Age: 23
Occupation: Financial assistant
Favorite MJ song: All of them, I could never decide, I love all MJ songs equally.
Hobbies: Being a Michael Jackson fan: listening to his music, collecting his items and enjoying my life by travelling to see him live.
Hopes for the future: That Michael Jackson would have a great life and that people would stop accusing him of false allegations. I wish him all the best in this world, lots of health, happiness and creativity. I hope the press would back off once and for all and would give him some credit for what he has done for this world.

This language identification page is a pretty neat tool.

I typed in the Slovenian phrase Kaj pa te ti tu delas, ne me basat, idi v rit which is a lyric from a popular song by Zoran Predin. And it worked.

Interestingly, if I cut the phrase to just: Kaj pa te ti tu delas, ne me basat it thinks it’s Albanian.

You can choose from among different methods to identify a language. I chose the XRCE Content Analysis Language Identifier, because it sounds deadly. And serious.

But some of the other ones work well, too. They’re just probably not as deadly.

Slovenia has done a lot of renovating since the collapse of Yugoslavia, but there are still plenty of neglected and dilapidated structures around.

Sometimes you can see two identical buildings standing next to each other — one of them freshly renovated, the other one not. Architects call this the “Two-Face Effect.” (Actually, they don’t… But they should.)

Here are three examples of the effect in action:

Beer: The cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.

The KBS Beer Bottle Collection has over 2246 beers in its online collection, which are rated on a scale of one to ten by beer-lovers and alcoholics from around the world.

The collection includes the Slovenian beer Lasko and the Belgo-Slovenian beer Union. At the moment, Lasko has a score of 6.17 with 18 votes. Union has slightly less: 6.07 points with 15 votes.

The Union-Lasko rivalry is intense. Really. I’ve never heard someone say, for example, that they enjoy both beers. Or that they pretty much taste the same. It’s always: “I drink Lasko and piss Union!” (a popular joke here) or vice versa. In my opinion, both taste fine. I probably have a slight preference for Lasko because it has a stronger flavor and because on Lasko’s web site, I learned that “experts recommend beer as a means of losing weight; because it accelerates the passing of urine and water from the body.” I had no idea beer was so good for you. And apparently, losing weight isn’t the only benefit of beer! Check this list for more. You might decide to start drinking beer non-stop from now on. In which case you’d probably live forever.

Interestingly, both Union and Lasko are rated below the global average score, which is 6.41.

Click to enlarge.

With me you sleep on hard floors
between scorpions and
there where you pick fruits and murmur

you are color
you are color