Boban!!!
Wow, boban Markovic was such a great show! he went on last night with his son Marko and the place just exploded. If you're in Berkeley in September, definitely go see them at Ashkenaz.
Extra Action put on a good show as well. It's safe to say that they were the only band at the show with majorettes in hot pants. Unfortunately the majorettes (and female trumpet players) got harrassed by the crowd. These Serbian guys don't really know how to be subtle.
The party hasn't stopped since Boban's set. It feels like more people arrive every hour; it's difficult to move around in the streets now. I went to bed at around 3:30 last night and since my apartment is close by, I could barely sleep last night. Then at 7 this morning they shot off the cannons (of course, what is a festival without cannons?) I thought someone was "getting their war on" (this was actually on a shirt I saw the other day.) (Speaking of shirts, the other best-seller here at the fair is "Jebem the country without Guca".
There was a parade today with all the bands and I tried recording it, but the levels were too high and there's a lot of distortion. On the opposite end of recording hell, I was recording a klapa group from Cacak this morning and had the internal mic on, so they sound about 5 miles away. Hopefully I'll get this thing figured out before I leave Serbia.
I've decided that there are three dances in Serbia: one folk dance (you know, the one serbian one), the generic euro clubbing dance, and the "nationalistic dance". The nationalistic dance is done whenever a slow patriotic song comes on. All the young guys start singing at the top of their lungs, take off their shirts to show how manly and Serbian they are, and start waving something-- a serbian flag, or their shirt, or maybe a tree branch (photographic proof coming soon). It's also good if you can climb on something really tall, like the Guca Trumpet statue. Then you stand there and wave your arms around, right before your friends catch you and carry you off to puke in the bushes.
It's strange, the kids go crazy when Boban plays hava nagila. But then I've seen a few of them with nazi/hitler paraphanalia. My host brother has a sign in his room that says "punk is not dead/ kill the Albanians". I'm not sure how strongly the nationalistic sentiments are tied to nazi ideas. I hope not too strongly, given the large number of shirts/airfresheners/lighters, etc with Serbian generals on them.
Despite all that negative political stuff-- this definitely feels like a safe festival to me, as festivals go. I haven't seen any fights, I haven't been harrassed (then again, I'v e made it a point to not interact with the uber-drunk serbian guys much).
Extra Action put on a good show as well. It's safe to say that they were the only band at the show with majorettes in hot pants. Unfortunately the majorettes (and female trumpet players) got harrassed by the crowd. These Serbian guys don't really know how to be subtle.
The party hasn't stopped since Boban's set. It feels like more people arrive every hour; it's difficult to move around in the streets now. I went to bed at around 3:30 last night and since my apartment is close by, I could barely sleep last night. Then at 7 this morning they shot off the cannons (of course, what is a festival without cannons?) I thought someone was "getting their war on" (this was actually on a shirt I saw the other day.) (Speaking of shirts, the other best-seller here at the fair is "Jebem the country without Guca".
There was a parade today with all the bands and I tried recording it, but the levels were too high and there's a lot of distortion. On the opposite end of recording hell, I was recording a klapa group from Cacak this morning and had the internal mic on, so they sound about 5 miles away. Hopefully I'll get this thing figured out before I leave Serbia.
I've decided that there are three dances in Serbia: one folk dance (you know, the one serbian one), the generic euro clubbing dance, and the "nationalistic dance". The nationalistic dance is done whenever a slow patriotic song comes on. All the young guys start singing at the top of their lungs, take off their shirts to show how manly and Serbian they are, and start waving something-- a serbian flag, or their shirt, or maybe a tree branch (photographic proof coming soon). It's also good if you can climb on something really tall, like the Guca Trumpet statue. Then you stand there and wave your arms around, right before your friends catch you and carry you off to puke in the bushes.
It's strange, the kids go crazy when Boban plays hava nagila. But then I've seen a few of them with nazi/hitler paraphanalia. My host brother has a sign in his room that says "punk is not dead/ kill the Albanians". I'm not sure how strongly the nationalistic sentiments are tied to nazi ideas. I hope not too strongly, given the large number of shirts/airfresheners/lighters, etc with Serbian generals on them.
Despite all that negative political stuff-- this definitely feels like a safe festival to me, as festivals go. I haven't seen any fights, I haven't been harrassed (then again, I'v e made it a point to not interact with the uber-drunk serbian guys much).
posted by Ana at 8:45 PM
2 Comments:
Ana,
We've been reading your blog. I can not believe you put a picture of Cowisocky(my bunny). I can't wait until your next posting. Love, Sara
Thanks for your blog. Your descriptions of Guca bring back a flood of memories. I was there in 2002. Boban was not there that year (a big surprise to us), but we were able to hear him in Boston a few weeks after we returned home! He's coming to Boston this Sept, and we've already bought our tickets.
- Sandy Ward
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