Yucky Tricks

A weekend or so ago, The Captain's mom, The Captain, and I went down to a family vineyard in the Dolenjska region where she's from. From what she told me, we were going down to have lunch and say hello to family members; she talked a LOT before we left but that was all the information she really gave. Off the back of that information, The Captain and I got dressed up smartly, loaded up the car, and left.



...so you can imagine how perturbed I was when we pulled up to the vineyard, got out of the car, and were handed buckets, scissors, and gloves. CapMama turned to us and was like "You guys have a change of clothes, right?" Steam blew out of my head and -- despite the fact that this happens all the time* -- it took everything I had to keep quiet and go with the flow.



I walked up the steep hill into the vineyard with my brand new ankle boots on, angered about the state of my new shoes and frightened I'd fall down the hill.



After leaning against a fence post for 15 minutes watching everyone else work, I finally decided to jump in and help pick some grapes. It was nasty work, as this year's mix of weather coupled with the neighboring vineyards bout with mold (the neighbour, who probably inherited the damn vineyard, refuses to come out and pick grapes anymore and just leaves them to rot year after year) meant that most of the grapes were either dried like raisins or totally moldy.



Our job was to knock away all the sour grapes and pick out the few decent looking ones. Messy, stinky, yucky work.



I ended up taking my shoes and socks off so I could get a grip on the ground and not slide down the hill.



It ended up being the best decision; though I did have to contend with pesky people walking past me every few minutes with admonishments and "concern" that I would catch cold (catching cold seems to be the worst fate that can befall you in this country, geez.)

Anyway, after an hour or two of this cruel punishment, at least I got a good meal (pictures to come)....and, of course, this little blog post.



*Slovenians have a bad habit of not giving you necessary information unless you explicity ask for it. Problem being that you don't know what you don't know. Frustration!

Venice Architecture Biennale 2010

The Captain and I made it over to Venice for the Architecture Biennale. Here are a few pics:









The Belgian pavilion was my favorite hands down. It was full of used interiors.


this was a work table surface that sat next to a copy machine


a big foam model of the city in the dutch pavilion


a big strange spanish toy sculpture thing


a detail shot


another detail shot






the cafeteria


the polish pavilion


the egyptian pavilion


the serbian pavilion, which happened to be full of a group of friendly young serbians








American pavilion






Czech and Slovak was lovely


the Canadian exhibition was an interactive manmade plastic forest

A Thursday Thought Exercise: Dreaming of A Perfect City

people second-lining in the streets in New Orleans

A friend on Facebook recently pointed me to this interesting Wall Street Journal article from last year where musician, artist, writer, designer, and one of my favorite people on the planet, David Byrne, outlines the elements of what would comprise his perfect city. As a person who is currently dissatisfied with where she lives but unsure as to where to go next, this is a perfect thought exercise for me. But I think I come up a little short since I have so many places I still feel like I need to visit before I could craft my Ultimate City. But for now I can still present you with....

Features of the City of My (Current) Dreams*

Size: Half the size of New York would be good. Maybe limited to the size of the three boroughs that I frequented the most -- Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn. Trim the fat, there's still plenty city there.

Density: The density of Berlin seemed just right to me. At around 3.4million (according to Wikipedia), it is less than half the size of NYC (and 1.5X larger than the entire country of Slovenia), which means you can usually get a seat on the subway and you don't usually have to fight for sidewalk space, but you still run into (or try to avoid) people you know on the streets. I also crave good people watching, something that this level of density offers.

Sensibility and attitude: It would be a mix of New York and Berlin. I'd take the Berlin laid- back kindness mixed with the grizzled and blunt attitude of an old school native Brooklynite.

Security: I always feel pretty safe in NYC, because there are almost always plenty of people out on the streets.

Chaos and danger: There is something about the organized chaos of New York City that I really love. You don't know what you will find around a corner. There can be a film crew shooting or a man taking a crap on a sidewalk. It makes for interesting cocktail chat and creative inspiration.

Mixed Use - Creative/Culture Areas: New York does this mighty nicely, with work/live space where artists can paint or sculpt all day and then have awesome loft parties or dance exhibitions or rock shows in the evening. Ljubljana has Metelkova, but it is too grungey for my taste (plus it is only one place, not an area) as are these kinds of spaces in Berkeley and San Francisco. When it's done well, New York does it really smashingly and that would be a nice feature for my dream city.

Transportation: My ideal city would have precious few cars and lots of bike lanes, buses, and subway lines...maybe some sort of congestion charge like in London to limit the number of cars in the center.



Public Space: I can't think of a city I've been to that really gets parks fabulously right (NYC does OK), but my dream city would have good green parks with ample space for exercising, walking animals, kids playgrounds, and public concerts and events.

Community: New Orleans does this gorgeously. The city is so many different communities laid on top each other in so many fantastic formations focused on art, food, music, activism, academia.... They may not have the greatest work ethic but they do have a strong party ethic and a wonderfully unique culture that hold people together in good times and bad.

Dancing In The Street: New Orleans wins for this one with its impromptu and very fun second line culture, though Berlin comes a close second with its "Any Reason is a Good Reason to Dance in the Street" attitude. New Orleans wins for better music. :)

*to be continually updated as I travel



Top 10 Cities I Think Will Affect My Vision After I Visit Them
1) Sao Paulo
2) Barcelona
3) Tokyo
4) Hong Kong
5) Dakar
6) Johannesburg
7) Bombay
8) Stockholm
9) Istanbul
10) Chicago

What about you?

The Return

Sorry things have been so slow for so long. The Captain and I had a very important date.



I'm back in Wheelville and will now try to be more diligent about posting.

Carneeeeeevaaaaal!

After our trip to lovely Murska Sobota, we figured that since it was carnival weekend and since we were passing through Lower Styria, we should stop in Ptuj which is the oldest city in the country (established by Celts!) and also Slovenian Carnival Central. This is the place where they have these awesome kurents (pagan characters that are meant to scare off evil spirits) and I finally got to see them in all their crazy pagan costumed glory.

The carnival was a good time like a mini Mardi Gras and it gave me hope that at least some people in this country know and want to have a good time.

Photo and video evidence follows:












Pippi Longstockings (or Pippi Langestrumpfe in German) was a popular costume








commentary on the economy and the country's (low but slightly increased) birthrate


Some commentary on last year's controversy about whether muslims could build a mosque in Ljubljana




alas carnival seems to be the time for people to really crack out the racism and on top of all the "Indians", "Jamaicans", and even "geishas" that I saw, there was this "gypsy caravan" of people with their faces painted brown. Ay yi yi. Ironically enough, just a few miles away some Roma people were actually having an international conference just a few days before. Here's to their continued struggle in the face of this kinda crap.

Love and Obstacles - the tour

Ever since I read the short story Love and Obstacles by Bosnian writer, Aleksander Hemon, I've been curious to visit Murska Sobota in northeast Slovenia. So this Valentine's/Carnival weekend, The Captain and I headed up there. I really enjoyed myself walking around colorful and sadly sorta abandoned Murska Sobota and we even took a short ride over the border to Hungary where we had (of course) goulash, got shaken down for a few euros by some crossing guard lady who tried to explain stuff to us in Russian, and retreated back over the border after realizing that their language was so incredibly different from the handful that we were familiar with that we might get totally lost.

Here are some images so you get the idea.






Murska Sobota


just across the border (a 20 minute drive or so)


the goulash was eaten


we also had this dödölle (fried potatoes and onions with sour cream) which was excellent along with some yummy meat


too much decoration in hungary


more Murska - this was one of like three diferent "Bar Africa"s that I saw in this region. what gives?


alongside our hotel


Valentine's dinner at the restaurant. It was heinously bad


Murska Sobota, an aerial view


shamefully weird valentine dessert in Murska Sobota

All in all, I am grateful for the opportunity to see more of the country and I am glad I went. Thank you to all the super friendly people of Murska Sobota!