It all got

a bit out of hand towards the end.

Spread poetry, not fear

and Antoine Cassar, the guy from Malta who started it.

And I will also do my bit of sharing poetry, so here it is:

Spring has come

Spring has finally arrived

and it is a glorious sunny morning

over winter

some turned to begging or turning tricks

and many became  homeless

people are starving and a lot of them will not see the end of spring

because they failed to upgrade the selected few

from stinking rich to XXX  filthy rich

(or however these graded quantifiers go) 

ambulances came rushing to the scene

but turned away in disgust when they saw it was only a middle aged tramp

who used to be a middle aged middle class father not so long ago

he was left in the middle of the street to have his epileptic fit

without a thought whether he will live or die

during his fit he hoped that he might actually die this time

‘cos he just can’t take it any more

his life turned around on January the first

when he came to work only to find out nothing was there for him

and nobody looked or turned around as he left the factory

nobody even nodded or spoke a word

because everybody who stayed was just glad it wasn’t him that had to leave

‘cos let’s face it - one in two are high odds when facing redundancy

at the end of the month his car was repossessed

and by February the twelfth he was thrown out of his small semi-detached

onto the exceptionally cold February streets

where he tried to build a cardboard shelter for his wife and 2 children

the elder, a daughter of nine,

the younger, a son of two - conceived during a rare optimistic summer night

 at the very beginning of what turned out

to be a much greater and longer recession

than anybody anticipated

by mid March he lost his two year old son who was suffering

from what at first appeared to be common sniffles

but soon turned into full-blown pneumonia

as the young child could no longer take the daytime frost

and the ice at night that slowly captured his shallow breaths

even though they took him to the hospital frequently

they were never allowed past the front doors

without a major credit card to swipe the door open

on the day the boy died

- it was a cold March the seventeenth

with a splash of shy sun thrown in  -

his wife walked away and took their daughter with her

he assumed and hoped she went to live with Frank

who always wanted to jump in bed with her

and who was one of the few to still hold down a job

and one of the even fewer to receive a salary

well - at least on most months

two days later

the only friend who still remained

crossed the road

to avoid him and his sad life

it was clear from his face

that he was afraid he might catch the bad vibe

spring has finally arrived

and it is a glorious sunny morning

as I take a cup of tea

to the grey haired Romanian musician

who lives in the car across the street.  

(April, 2013)


and to end on a high note, one of my rare optimistic ones

green haiku

rolling in the grass
rolling in the green green grass
rolling with you, love

(February 2011)

Thank you

In a week in which racism got way too much media coverage and in which even teachers publicly stated (to be fair it was only 24 teachers from one school, which was supposedly affected - as you know, it is in the same town into which 6 refugee children were planed to be settled) that children do not deserve to have a roof over their head, do not deserve to be fed and certainly do not deserve to socialise with their peers if they are not from Slovenia and in which others rallied on their tractors through the countryside yelling something unintelligible at least there was this performance which made me realise I am not alone. There are others who believe people come first and should not be judged by their skin colour, nationalism, religion, but by their actions. Thank you for that, Thank you for returning my faith in my humanity.

We are

what we choose.

Needed

a bit of positive creativity after contemplating all day how terrible people can be to each other.

I really

never intended to show this photo in this way on my blog, as this photo was taken as a promo photo for an upcoming piece in Glej Theatre, but today I woke up to the news that parents are willing to turn their backs on somebody else's children and actually stand up against them (really? rising against under 15 year-olds, who have found themselves in a strange country with nobody to look after them) just because they are the wrong colour or the wrong religion (because this is basically what it comes down to once you think about it). I have been trying all morning to get my head round this. And now I am trying to explain to you how I feel about this. And I can't. Because I find this is so opposed to everything I believe in that my otherwise (often over)analytical and down to earth brain can simply not wrap itself around this concept. As this has made me speechless, I will obviously not write a 25 page essay explaining in just how many ways this is wrong, nor will I attempt to explain that the problem is broader and of course does not address merely the issue as to how we treat these children, but also how we treat adults who are in a similar situation and people in general. Even though I am speechless and dumbfounded (and thus have a problem in writing anything coherent) by the current situation in this world I feel the need to say something about it, to tell the world that I do not agree with this.
I don't wont to live in a world like this, please help me change it.

Pssssst.

I'm reading (on the beach).

Saturday

relax.

A cute

French midweek concert.

Apparently

I was at the concert for the old people first (sorry RoRo, but that was what I was told)

and then I went upstairs to see what is happening amongst the young.

In the end

it is all about love (and decrepit relationships).

How did that song go?

It's only rock'n'roll

but I like it.

Probably

my favourite piece at the exhibition.

I always enjoyed

a touch of the avant-garde

I don't often

walk out in the middle,  so I am sorry girls that I did this time, but I really felt I could be doing something more worthwhile at the time.

Started off

the national day of culture with noon laughter at an impro show and then went to a Chinese restaurant to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

In the evening I needed something a bit more serious, so I went to a hidden small theatre for a mono performance

 after which I met up with Cris and we have what I can only assume was the first in a mini series of farewell drinks (and we did get a bit hmmm..., how should I put it... drunk maybe? - I know not really the right thing to do on a cultural holiday), but we did manage to listen to a concert while pouring the alcohol across our shoulders (or was that down the barrel?).

It is funny

how quickly you forget that Nik is doing the entire performance without any facial expressions (I just wish I could pass on his brilliant body language through my photos).

Ment - day 2

Ufff... I have heard and seen (as we photographers like to do) 7 bands tonight and that was quite exhausting...

It all started with this young French duo (Ropoporose), who had some really good energy on stage. They were followed immediately by 

Any Other (an Italian trio), who seemed to be holding back most of the time... Like they were afraid they might do something wrong if they really show us what they want to show us (they did manage to show us what they are all about in two songs towards the end, and I say: go for it). There was another band in the same venue, but I decided it was time to pack my bag and head downtown, to the old power plant where I was awaited by

Ana Ćurčin, who apparently forgot her band at home, so she had a quiet solo performance, which I am afraid I was to bubbly (I know, it sounds weird) for at the time (I crashed into a totally different mood then I was before, but I was terribly sorry I was in such a rush that I didn't buy a CD which I could listen to later on, as I often tend to be in a mood for such music - but not this night)... Once again, I packed my bag and this time I headed for the former military barracks, for what my friends in Maribor promised me would be an excellent concert (they saw this band a couple of days ago)

Cosovel, which I guess I should really of have gone to see two days later in Kosovelova soba in Sežana, as I am sure that they saved their best for there (not to say it was not good here, mind you). All the jumping in the front row (yes, I don't take photos of all the time, if I like the music I dance, or do something which resembles dancing, but you know, as FZ used to say: One of my legs is shorter than the other and both my feet too long) got me a bit tired, but I still went to see

Bernays propaganda as I always enjoy hearing them live and even though they seemed to have lost a little bit of their edge over the years they still give a great concert. When they finished I wanted to go and see another band but when I came there the venue was so packed they were not letting people in, and as I am people, I was not let in. So I went around and stopped to hear one song by The Canyon Observer (I didn't take any photos of them, as it was all darkness and fog and so many people I just knew that even if I managed to squeeze myself somewhere close to the stage I would not manage to take a photo that would please me), and then I dropped by top hear one song of

Pridjevi, but as I only heard a single song, I cannot really tell you anything about them (not that I told you much about the previous bands, as I am not a reviewer). After that In was told I should check out the Bosnian hip-hopper (and apparently I do as I am told)

Sassja. Once she finished I was about as tired as you are after reading my blog, so I decided I needed to go home, even though there was more to be had... but the old and wise man that I am, I thought to myself: tomorrow is another day, so I went home to check whether my bed was still empty (and yes, it was), knowing that I will return the very next day.

Ment festival - day 1

I often get lost composing my blog after I attended a concert or even festival with more bands. At the beginning I  really tried to stick to my original (as in first, not as in never ever seen before) idea that I will post a single photo every day, but through time the blog sort of evolved (yes, I am an evolutionist by nature) or at least changed if not evolved, as I might discover sometime in the future that the new path is merely a cul-de-sac (and, no it hasn't proven to be one yet, and I guess that if it does I am most likely to take a few steps back and find another path down another cul-de-sac, for that's just how life seems to be, a series of dead ends - just like this overly long sentence and blog post in general)...
Anyway, not to get too much into all this, here are photos from first day of the festival (but just one from each band, the rest you can find elsewhere). This first one is from Leyya, which I am sure I would enjoy if I was in a slightly different mood, but here I was all excited about the three day festival and all the new bands that I will see I almost forgot about all the love woes that constantly chase me.. But I will remember to listen to them as soon as the festival is over and I will fall back into my normal life....

Leyya was followed by an unplugged version of Noctiferia (is that even possible? A metal band unplugged? - It turns out it is).

And they were followed by Nina Bulatovix, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not find Nina anywhere... so here is the drummer of the band.

And Repetitor were back, but I  seem to see them on a rather regular basis anyway. Still haven't got bored with them and they were my favourite band of the evening (but I think I was kind of expecting that in advance, which is not really fair on all the other bands. But I tried to listen to all of them without prejudice)

The evening was brought to the end by ABOP, but I was a bit tired by now (some of us actually have to work in the morning), so maybe my heart was not all in it by this stage.

Haven't seen

the Wild Strings Trio for a while, and as it was a special birthday gig I thought I would check them out again. So: Happy Birthday Petra, Happy Birthday Toby and Happy Birthday Alex.

You step

into the gallery and 2426 pairs of eyes stare at you.