Archives for June, 2007

That’s Split in the distant background.

I’m back from the island of Brač. Some unorganized thoughts:

* I was stunned by the omnipresence of Slovenian beer Laško there. Someone at that brewery deserves “Manager of the Millennium” award, because in two separate locales I visited they had neither Karlovačko nor Ožujsko (two local brands) but did have Laško. And there is green-goat paraphernalia everywhere. (See picture above) I suppose one can be a Croatian patriot and still love Laško (see: Balkan Baby) but beer in this region is such a politically sensitive subject that I’m just amazed Laško is even available outside of Styria, much less Slovenia.¹

* Slovenes are the quietest tourists that ever toured. I think they’re on the polar opposite end of the spectrum as Americans, who seem to speak so that the entire beach can hear them. (Or at least so that Croatian women can hear them.)

* A brief visit to a real estate agency on Brač will cure you of the idea that Slovenian properties are expensive.

Asking price: €2,000,000.

* I decided to give up on caffeine for the holiday, just to see what would happen. Well, what happened is that I had a total system collapse. I couldn’t believe it. I always thought that the effects of caffeine were partly psychological, or that I had built up such an immunity to it over the years that it no longer affected me. But it hit me hard. I was constantly drowsy and unrested. On the third day, I had a three-hour nap in the afternoon; then went to bed at 8 p.m. because I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I had to give up after that because I was at serious risk of sleeping through the entire vacation. The withdrawal period apparently can take upwards of five days, so I might give it a go some other time. Still, it was an interesting (and depressing) thing to learn about myself.

* I still think about sharks when swimming in the Adriatic. I hope you burn in hell, Discovery Channel, you lousy bastards.

That’s all for now. I’m spending this week in Berlin (as promised) on a press junket of sorts, but if I can get to a computer I’ll try to write a few words from there. Otherwise I’ll be back soon.

1. On the subject of availability: I saw two Australians chugging Laško from 1-liter plastic bottles, something I haven’t seen here before. Another thing generally missing here: Croatian beers. Supermarkets will have a few foreign brands, but I’ve never seen Karlovačko for sale. The people at Karlovačka pivovara need to dump whatever losers are running the firm and import some of Laško’s managers. [back]

I’m off to the Adriatic for a few days, followed by a visit to Berlin for a few days. Back soon.

—> Pengovsky’s video wrap-up of Blogres
My presentation is available to see here.

—> Never too early to start drinking beer?
Another great picture by ma.tija.cc

—> Similarities between Yiddish and Slovene
A great post; I only wish it was longer.

—> “Everyone: Croatians aren’t as friendly as Slovenians”
Not sure I would agree with that.

I guess I do. I don’t know. Are its initials N.V.?

Lea kindly sent me a heads up about the upcoming 2008 Trend Report, whose title page mentions Slovenia. Note that this doesn’t mean that Slovenia is a trendmaker. That possibility was immediately forfeited this past March when the country decided to air Big Brother — about a decade after that show was first popular. (To use an analogy, this would be like …Baby One More Time currently being a popular new hit on Slovenian radio; both Britney and BB were big in 1999.)

And just for the record, I hate all of you sonuvabitches for watching that show. Yes, yes, I know that includes a lot of my friends, colleagues, fellow bloggers, even members of my own family, but still: Do you realize what you’ve done? Do you? Serbia just finished airing its version of Celebrity Big Brother… According to my pop conversion calculator, that means Slovenia will do its own version of that cultural uppercut to the face within a year or two. Our only hope at this point is that some sort of mass extinction event takes us all out before then.

But back to this trends thing. It’s an interesting example of how ambiguous English can be at times. The problem here is how exactly they want to use Slovenia. One could understand the title as two things:

1) Slovenia (and Singapore) are themselves one of the exciting new trends of 2008.
2) Slovenia (and Singapore) are just random geographic markers, i.e. this is a guide to trends from one end of the Earth (Slovenia) to another (Singapore).

I’m curious to know which is correct, but not 400-euro curious. I suppose we’ll have to wait. In the meantime, if Slovenia suddenly gets super trendy or something, please let me know so that I can put my cool face on. The one that says: “Man, I moved to this country before it was the cool thing to do. You new arrivals are all sonuvabitches.”

(Thanks Lea!)

The official trailer for Michael Moore’s SiCKO.

The new Michael Moore movie is scheduled for release by the end of this month. If you’re in Slovenia, you probably already know that the country appears in the film as well as in the official trailer above.

I’m a bit late coming to this. (If you speak Slovene, a TV report can be seen here) But I had some advance warning that it was coming. Back in February, one of the producers contacted me wanting to talk about the Slovenian health care system. (I think this post led them to me) We talked for a bit, but in the end they seemed to be mostly interested in finding “something strange” about the country. This was around carnival time, so I suggested going to Ptuj for Slovenia’s somewhat unique take on that. They hinted that they might do some filming in Ljubljana, and try to catch some kurenti there.

But in the end, they chose a clip from the popular sitcom Naša Mala Klinika, which features lots of goofy-looking doctors. Apparently, the actors were neither thrilled nor consulted about this. (Permission was given via the studio)

I’m also hoping that the movie isn’t needlessly harsh on Slovenia. I was hoping that their point would be: “If a poorer country of 2 million people can achieve universal health care, why can’t the world’s greatest hyperpower?” and not: “Our system sucks so much that we almost suck as much as Slovenia, OMGWTF amirite?”

SiCKO opens on June 29, 2007.

(Thanks Boštjan!)

These Slovenes don’t even know that nuclear armageddon may soon be upon them!

Author Richard Lourie recently wrote a stupid editorial that appeared in various Russian newspapers. In it, he warns against the expansion of NATO and includes this particularly stupid sentence:

“The United States and the rest of the West are now in the rather odd position of risking armageddon to defend Slovenia.”

Here’s why I think this stupid sentence is so stupid:

1) The U.S. and the West have always been in the “rather odd position” of defending smaller states from bigger ones. From the very minute that NATO went live in 1949, the U.S. was in the “rather odd position” of having to defend countries like Denmark, Iceland and Portugal from atomic death. In other words, the current arrangement is not new, not noteworthy, and definitely not “odd” because it’s always been like this. The only difference between today and 1949 is that today there isn’t even a real threat anymore. (Unless you subscribe to the theory that the Soviet Union faked its death and will soon return.) Which brings me to point number two:

2) DEFEND SLOVENIA FROM WHAT EXACTLY? Try to think up a scenario where Slovenia somehow provokes a nuclear holocaust. Not just any scenario. Try to think of one that doesn’t make you sound like a total nutter. You can’t. You know why? Because only a total nutter thinks that Slovenia is some kind of dangerous security liability for the west. If anything, the reverse is true: the smaller NATO countries are being pulled along for various missions abroad by the larger ones, namely America. Slovenia has sent troops to Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and many other places, but nowhere unilaterally. Who exactly is in an odd position in this relationship? Because:

3) Let’s suspend disbelief for a moment and assume that somehow Slovenia goes to war. Raise your hand if you honestly think that NATO would feel compelled to rush to Slovenia’s defense. If hostilities erupted at the border, do you think the U.S. would scramble fighters from Aviano? If your hand is up right now, please close it into a fist and then direct it repeatedly into your own face, because you chose…… poorly. Regardless of what the NATO charter says, you can’t tell me that NATO will go to war unless it actually wants to.

And that’s why I think it’s a stupid sentence.

Demonstrating how to rip out a man’s heart and show it to him, at Blogres. [Photo by]

There are a lot of summaries of the big blogging conference floating around so I’ll just quickly throw in my thoughts. First, I felt a bit uneasy before my turn at the podium. I arrived at about 10:15 a.m., meaning that the first presentation had already begun. I didn’t want to barge in so I quietly sat and watched the in-house feed. What I saw was a very professional-looking powerpoint presentation. I’ve never made a powerpoint file in my life, so I started feeling a bit anxious about the thing I had brought along. But what really spooked me was the next speaker, who made a few offhanded jokes and was met with silence. As in total silence. Not even a polite “heh” or anything. It was clear that this wasn’t just a tough audience; it was a brutal audience. And I was next.

A few things helped me calm down before I walked in. First, the organizers were great — especially Lea, who was supremely patient with me. (I learned on Wednesday that the deadline to turn in your presentation was Wednesday. I had nothing ready and at the time still didn’t know how to use powerpoint. Thank God for caffeine.) Second, I bumped into Borut, who exudes this it’s-all-good vibe wherever he goes. That helped. And third, I noticed Mare checking in, said hello, and was flattered to hear that he had come to see me. (Thankfully he also wasn’t disappointed, although I absolutely agree that my ending should have had more punch. This is a recurring problem of mine. Not sure what to do about it.)

Overall, I was surprised at how well it went. And I was relieved that I wasn’t met with stony silence, because that would have been just plain awful. I don’t think any of the presentations will be available anywhere, but if they are I will post them here.

Afterwards, I had a chance to briefly meet and greet some good folks like had, Klemen (whose pictures of the event are here), hirkani, and others. I then stepped out for a ménage-à-trois (minus the ménage) with Pengovsky and Poulette. We sat and drank for hours and although we took an oath of secrecy about the contents of our conversation, I will say this: Poulette is as cool and classy as her blog makes you think she is, and Pengovsky is more knowledgeable than the Slovenian wikipedia. It was, in a word, awesome.

We returned to see some more presentations, both of them good: One by Baya and one by Lesjak’s replacement. And that was it. I missed nymphee, unfortunately, and I missed sunshine (we walked right past each other without a glimmer of recognition) and many others.

I wish I knew of a stronger way to end this post but I don’t.

Thanks to everyone who came and thanks to the organizers for having me!

—> Some differences between Slovenes and Austrians
By Maja, who’s been in Austria for four years now.

—> Jonas does his own version of a Dormeo mattress ad (NSFW!)
“Tonight I’ll sleep like a baby,” he says.

—> Take Boštjan’s survey about the future of his site
The legendary Burger.si needs you! (In Slovene only)

—> How a Slovenian TV station changed broadcasting in Italy
The amazing story of TV Koper/Capodistria by Jaka.

—> “Clothes make the man”
…said the weirdo mannequins hanging over central Ljubljana.

Have a great weekend!

A compelling Tito documentary by Janja Glagovac and RTV Slovenia.

I found this documentary to be pretty riveting and despite severe restrictions on my time watched the entire thing. Please note that it has English subtitles throughout, which is great. Here’s a quick run-down of what the film deals with:

* Tito’s death
* Tito’s toxicology team
* Tito’s awesome wardrobe
* The Queen’s visit (including a waltz with Tito)
* Tito’s visits abroad (including a scene where he speaks English at a press conference with Kennedy)
* Tito’s self-destructive eating habits (Veal or chicken for breakfast?? The money quote: “Everything had to be greasy.”)
* To the waiter who once spilled food on him: “What are you waiting for, you put some on my back now put some on my plate so I can eat.”
* A Slovenian veteran talks about the famous Raid on Drvar attempt to capture Tito during WWII.
* Tito’s awesome wardrobe again (Camel-hair underwear??)
* His meeting with Khrushchev (includes a funny story about Tito paddling him with a billiard stick)
* A bit about Jovanka, his ill-fated wife
* His death

I did feel like a few things were missing. The film kind of grazes over some formative events. I’d like to know more, for example, about his time in Russia, as well as the power struggles of the post-war period, his legendary womanizing, his break with Stalin, his suppression of dissent, and perhaps more about the man himself. I suppose it should have been longer.

Maybe there’s a director’s cut?

(Via the new and promising Vunzvraga)

I’ve found a new personal motto.

This cover, starring Kiko Nestorovski, is the first to contain an ontologically complete and free-standing Weltanschauung. The title is: Hey, Life, You Demand A Lot.

I don’t think you could possibly add anything else to that. It’s almost as if Kiko singlehandedly ended philosophy in just four words.

I so want it on a t-shirt.

(Thanks Mark!)