Archives for January, 2005

A pretty bizarre and mean-spirited article has appeared on the e-zine Pestiside.hu, calling Slovenia an "oscure statelet" and the people of Slovenia "vile," "she-goats," and "snaggle-toothed, accordion-playing hillbillies."

The rant is part of their plan to win the category "Best Weblog Focused On A Single Country Or Region" at the European Weblog Awards. So far it seems to be working, which is why The Glory of Carniola urgently needs your vote.

If you didn’t vote yet, go there, find the category "Best Weblog Focused On A Single Country Or Region" and vote for The Glory of Carniola. If not for this site, then at least for the glory of Slovenia.

Vote!

UPDATE: Although I appreciate the votes in the "Best Weblog" category, I’m rooting for Petite Anglaise to win. Please save your votes for the "Best Weblog Focused On A Single Country Or Region" category! The vote ends tomorrow.

MiÅ¡o KovaÄ? still draws enthusiastic crowds to his concerts.

Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek discusses toilets, pubic hair and ideology in a clip from the East Art Map.

The East Art Map is a database of Eastern European art from 1945 to the present. It currently includes 17 countries and 218 artists, and features everything from sculptures to oil paintings to videos. According to the creators’ concept:

"Every single move by an artist in Western European civilization is
documented. Did you know there is no such thing in Eastern Europe?
[…] This was so for decades, but it doesn’t have to be like this
anymore. We are planning to transform the legends and stories of the
underground into a legal art history. […] History is not given. It
has to be constructed."

Clicking on the part of the cube marked "SI" brings up a list of 18 Slovenian artists or artistic movements, including Laibach and the NSK, as well as the "giant of Ljubljana" himself, Mr. Slavoj Žižek. (His rant is, in my opinion, the shining highlight in Slovenia’s otherwise disappointing collection. I can’t link directly to it, but you’ll find it under: "The Ljubljana Alternative or Subcultural Movement." It’s doubleplusgood.)

(via doubleplusgood)

Vote TGoC for a better tomorrow!

The First AFOE European Weblog awards are underway, and this blog has been nominated in two categories: "Best Weblog" and "Best Weblog Focused On A Single Country Or Region." I have no chance of winning the first category; it includes a well-known heavyweight that has about 1000 times more traffic, and 1000 times more IQ points, than this site. Even worse, the other leading contender is Petite Anglaise, who has promised to pose in satin pajamas if she wins. In French, this is what’s known as a coup de grace, or decisive finishing blow, because in the online universe nothing trumps the promise of seeing a woman lounging around in her jammies. It’s a royal flush. The only effective countermeasure I could take would be to slip some dioxin in her morning coffee. A lot, though. You don’t want to mess something like that up.

The second category ("Best Weblog Focused On A Single Country Or Region") looks a bit more promising. Carniola is currently leading, but that can quickly change. In other words, this is not the time to rest and wonder what Petite Anglaise looks like in her pajamas, or whether it will be a blurry picture that hides her face, and how bitterly, bitterly disappointing that would be. Now is the time to go to the polls in full force and cast votes, either for this blog or for some of the other great bloggers on this glorious continent we call Europe.

You can get your democracy on here.

(Thanks in advance to everyone who will, or already has, supported this site!)

Fredy’s got the touch; he’s got the power!

A lot of people have asked me why I haven’t posted anything about Slovenian singing sensation and anti-talent Fredy Miler. The answer is I don’t know. One thing is for sure, though: I’m very late to this party. Last October already, BeeBee posted a link to the now-infamous video,  Vedno si sanjala njega. (32 MB) The title in English would be You always dreamt of him and it’s 3:19 minutes of poorly processed cheese. (The popular show Radio GA GA aired an English version of it, as sung by a George W. Bush impersonator. The mp3 of that is here.) (655 KB)

The video itself is actually old. It was released, forgotten, then resurrected by the Internet, where it suddenly became a national phenomenon. Like William Hung in the United States, or Dajdou in the Czech Republic, Fredy mixes enthusiasm and confidence with a questionable amount of talent. His nasally voice, psychedelic green vest and signature unibrow are now universally recognized here.

The question is how long that will last.

Links:
Fredy Miler photo gallery
Vedno si sanjala njega (The original video) (32 MB)
Ljubezen ti (New video) (77 MB)
A Fredy Miler wannabe (A fan’s home video) (7.8 MB)

Maribor hosted the 41st Golden Fox ski race this weekend.

To paraphrase Gary Lineker: "The Golden Fox is a simple competition; 70 women go racing down a slope and in the end, Anja Paerson always wins."

On Sunday, Anja Paerson of Sweden took the Golden Fox trophy for the third consecutive time, and won the slalom event for the fifth consecutive time. "It’s a special place for me," she later told reporters.

Meanwhile, Slovenia’s Tina Maze managed to win the giant slalom event on Saturday — to the absolute delight of the home crowd. But she fell to the inevitability of Paerson the next day, meaning that Slovenia’s eight-year dry spell on Pohorje continues.

The gorgeous weather (and Maze’s hoped-for win) made this year’s event a lot more enjoyable than previous ones. I was a bit surprised by the low turnout on Sunday, but was told repeatedly that it had a lot to do with ticket prices. Standing room was SIT 2000 (8 euros) while bleacher seats rang in at SIT 6000. (25 euros) Certainly high for local circumstances.

Either way: congratulations to Anja, this year’s (and next year’s) Golden Fox!

This weekend Melania.. uh.. she’ll, uh.. what was I just talking about?

This Saturday, 58-year-old billionaire Donald Trump will marry 34-year-old Slovenian model Melania Knauss in Palm Beach. Mr. Trump is currently number 74 on the Forbes list of 400 richest Americans, with an estimated worth of $2.6 billion. (That’s 481,260,015,869 Slovene tolars for those of you counting at home.)

Ms. Knauss is currently number 18 on the GQ list of GQ girls. Her wedding dress, a Christian Dior Haute Couture that recently graced the cover of Vogue, took over a thousand hours to make and costs about $200,000. Her wedding ring is just a touch more expensive, at $1.5 million.

It’s an extravaganza that will also be attended by a long list of celebrities, including:

• Clint Eastwood
• Oprah Winfrey
• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Usher
• Luciano Pavarotti
• P. Diddy
• Muhammad Ali
• Shaquille O’Neal

…and more.

In conclusion, I’d like to wish the future Mr. and Mrs. Trump all the best in the future, and remind them that this site is always eager for patrons, and would be perfectly willing to rename itself "The Glory of Trump" or even "The Trump of Trump," if so desired.

Mazel tov!

Slovenia’s triangle demonstrates 4 simultaneous 24 hour days within a single rotation of Earth AND that Slovenia is #1 in the 2004 Wealth of Nations Triangle Index.

I’m grateful to Robert of the Maltese blog Wired Temples for pointing out that Slovenia took first place in the 2004 Wealth of Nations Triangle Index. The index is compiled by the Boston-based WorldPaper, of which I know very little. (Actually nothing, but their "about" page is here if you’re curious.)

According to this, their index is calculated by measuring:

"…a nation’s wealth as a balance among three legs of a
triangle, one each for Economic Environment, Information-Exchange
Environment, and Social Environment. Each leg is composed of 21 equally
weighted variables, with data collected in 2002 or 2003 from a number
of internationally respected sources (see Sources). The more balance,
the better the chances for sustained long-term development."

The triangle, which somehow reminds me of the Time Cube, allows for a maximum score of 2400; or 800 per category. You can see that Slovenia did the best in the social category, followed by information and economy. Despite being number one, it still scored 141 points below the average "developed country." (See the bottom of this page.)

Nicholas Sullivan gives a brief summary of this year’s results here, while DuÅ¡an Snoj (editor of Gospodarski Vestnik) provides a look at Slovenia’s "rise to number one" here.

(Thanks Robert!)

Click image to enlarge. (Opens in new window)

The magazine Travel and Leisure published a one-page profile of Slovenia in its January 2005 edition, declaring it "the new Switzerland." The article reads:

"Tucked between Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Croatia, Slovenia has all the romantic attributes you expect to find on a trip to Switzerland: cobblestoned streets, sky-blue lakes, snowcapped mountains, historic grand hotels — plus a cosmopolitan capital (Ljubljana) and an up-and-coming wine region. Why, then, has no one you know visited this country of 2 million residents, where health-conscious Europeans have been skiing and taking the curative waters of Dolenjske Toplice and other spas for centuries? Expect to see Slovenia, one of the newest members of the European Union, attracting more visitors pining for an undiscovered place in the Old World."

This isn’t the first time Slovenia has appeared in Travel and Leisure. In 1999, before Slovenia was the new Switzerland, Ljubljana was "the next Prague."

Coming soon: Slovenia’s Julian Alps, the new Pennine Alps.

(Thanks Tron!)

Strah (Fear) by Željko Pervan. Click to enlarge.

This article by Croatian columnist Željko Pervan wonders what there is to fear about Slovenia. Although he throws a few insults this way, he manages to raise some interesting points. I won’t translate everything, but the first paragraph, which pretty much sets the tone, reads:

"We have a thousand islands, Slovenes have none. We have hundreds of beaches, they have two. We have thousands of fishermen, they have fourteen. Who are we fighting with? Whose access to the sea are we preventing? What are we afraid of? Both of their fishing boats, Kmet Silni and Napaka, catch exactly as many fish as I leave on my plate after lunch."

Pervan criticizes Croatians for being too "stingy" with the Adriatic, and later describes Slovenia as "very likeable and harmless." He can be a bit condescending at times, with this joke about Slovenes being particularly annoying:

"When they go to the seaside, not all of them can go at once. Someone has to stay in Slovenia. Even if they all hit the road, they just lock up Slovenia and go. There are so few of them that if one of them catches a cold, they’re all sneezing, coughing and sniffling."

The way he jokes, you’d think Croatia was some densely populated urban zone. In fact, Croatia has only 4.5 million people — not even half of the population of metropolitan Chicago. Globally, Croatia is ranked about 118th in the world, behind countries like Togo and Papua New Guinea. That doesn’t mean Slovenia isn’t a small country. It is. But Croatia laughing at Slovenia for being small is like a dwarf calling a midget short.

You can read the article (in Croatian) here: Željko Pervan: Strah.

(Thanks Jana!)