My Zagreb life of leisure.

So my life has been pretty busy in a crazy sort of way these last few weeks. There was the festival in Ljubljana, followed immediately by my trip to Oslo, and then since then, it seems that Zagreb is waking up for spring, and there has been so much to do.

I've started yoga classes again - Zen yoga, this time, randomly (it was the cheapest most convenient class I could find) and I have the sore muscles to prove it.

To counter the healthiness of that, there has also been a tent in one of the squares in town selling wine and a few different rakijas (like schnapps) at extremely reasonable prices. Especially when you get a couple of friends together and buy by the bottle! I seem to have partaken in quite a few bottles, mostly of Orahovac (walnut liqueur).

Last Thursday was Queer Zagreb's monthly film screening night, and I saw the french film "Juste une Question d'amour", which was good, but, at nearly 10 years old, felt a little dated in terms of attitudes to homosexuality. About right for this part of the world, though!

We followed this (after a decent interim spent in the wine tent) by heading to the women's night at Funk that happens twice a month here. It was crowded, but, as always, a lot of fun, and I'm glad it exists!

I've also had couchsurfers staying - Napoleon (my colleague from Sarajevo) came for a night last weekend, as the Madman (my erstwhile boss) has finally fired him as well (continuing his record of never having a native speaker finish a contract) so it was N's last chance to see the fair city of ZG before leaving the Balkans.

I also just hosted two lovely germans for a few days, showing them my side of Zagreb, which they seemed to appreciate, even if we did end up in the wine tent a little more than seemed sensible. They probably got the impression I'm a complete alcoholic!

Friday night there was a circus performance at Medika, the squat where I stayed my first nights in Zagreb back in October. I hadn't been back since, strangely enough, although now they have an agreement with the city for at least part of the building, making them all legal and secure, although no longer able to host overnight guests.

The performance was sold out, so some friends and I spent some time drinking yet more Orahavac (I was avoiding the wine-tent, but it came to me, instead!) outside, and then somehow ended up getting in to see the end of the show anyway. And then stayed the rest of the night at the after party, dancing to a very eclectic music selection, which was great.

And then last night (Saturday) I went to an 'unplugged' outdoor concert in celebration of Earth-Hour. Now, they seemed to have some idea of what Earth Hour is about, and the bands were mostly doing acoustic sets (apart from the electric bass and pianos) and the gig was all lit by garden torches, which was quite effective, but the amplification was so loud you could hear the music a block or two away, which seemed to me to negate the energy savings of the lack of lighting!

But it was good anyway. I finally saw Lollobrigida perform, and Lidia who directs my choir here was performing with one of her bands, Afion, as well. 

The other remarkable thing about the last week or so, is that I seem to be running into people I know every time I leave the house. And not just at the events, but randomly on the street as well. Friday, in particular, I saw pretty much everyone I know in Zagreb, most of them at Medika, but earlier in the day as well. Maybe it's just spring, and there are more people out and about, but it's kinda nice to live somewhere where I can run into people I know (and like!) on a regular basis. I can imagine it wearing thin, if I were to stay here any length of time, but for someone who is still new in town, like me, it's rather nice, and gives me a good feeling of community!

A Night at the Ballet

This evening my friend Anne and I went to the National Theatre to see Cinderella, the Ballet. We were accompanied by what appeared to be Sarajevo's entire population of 13 year olds, apparently on a school trip. This did not improve the experience.
Overall, it was quite an entertaining evening: the music (what I could hear of it over the kids) was good; the costuming was edgy and modern (I could tell because there were random bits of non-matching fabric sewn on some of the costumes in odd asymetrical places), and the choreography appeared to borrow somewhat heavily from such modern classics as the chicken dance, and often seemed to employ non-synchronised group movement and the occasional wobble motif.
And there were children dancers dressed as flowers.

So I'm being a bit mean. And I am by no means an expert in dance (I think that was only the second full length ballet I can remember seeing in my life.) But all in all, it reminded me of going to the opera in Istanbul, where I saw an oddly re-configured West Side Story, and The Magic Flute with a Queen of the Night who couldn't, quite. Dirt cheap, but a bit of a gamble. However, I also saw some good productions in Istanbul, so I will persevere and happily spend the few euro on the cheap seats to whatever is on next!

MOMA SF and I Love the Castro Cinema

I like hanging around with Micha and Tobi. They know people. Specifically, in this case, they knew someone who knew someone who works at the modern art museum here - MOMA SF, and got us three complimentary tickets. Useful when it's usually between 12 and 15$. So we went on Thursday, and I spent about 5 hours wandering around there, I think. We did a bit of a tour about 'what is art' and some of the pieces that have challenged this in the last century or so - matisse's colours, that so shocked everyone, and found art, and whole canvasses of one colour (it's *which* colour that is important...). There was also an amazing installation that involved a huge vaguely coffin shaped pile of 18000 used blue cotton shirts and pants, all neatly folded. In front of it, a volunteer 'attendant' sits for 4 hours each day erasing a book (a naval code of practice, I believe) from back to front using a pink eraser and his/her own spit. The human element becoming art was quite amazing really.
The other piece that I loved was this one by Anthony McCall (I even remember the artist's name - it must have made an impression!). It was a very dark room - kind of scary to walk into because you really couldn't see a thing at first - and a projector projecting a pattern of gradually changing white lines - a circle that breaks to become a lines that become a cross etc... Doesn't sound much, until you add the fog machine, and then stand in the middle of the screen looking at the projector. When the projection was of a circle, it was like standing in a tunnel of watered-silk-patterned light. Quite amazing, really. The fog makes the light seem solid. It was also amusing to stand back and watch others in there. And be completely un-seen until their eyes adjusted enough to get a fright that there was someone lurking in the darkness the whole time! I didn't mean to lurk - I was just admiring the art, really!

(I don't know these people - the pic is from google, as you weren't supposed to take photos in the musem)
The other wonderful thing I've done recently is go to the Castro cinema. This is a fabulous grand old cinema, with the red plush seats and gilded ceiling, gold velvet curtains and what appears to be the original organ! And organist! (not the original, though. He wasn't *that* old). And last night I went to a regular themed marathon thing where they screen three related movies in a row. I have to admit that I didn't stay for the last one, which started a midnight, but the first two more more than enough! The theme was 'switching schools sucks' and they showed: Pump up the Volume (1990), Footloose (1984), and Massacre at Central High (1974) (now maybe you see why I didn't stay for the last one.
And I think Pump Up the Volume is my New Favourite Movie. I can't believe I had never seen it before. And I can't believe I hadn't seen Footloose, either, but I knew I would get to one day, and this was probably the best way - with the organist before it started, previews for upcoming films there (I now REALLY want to see The Incredible Shrinking Woman which is on here in two weeks!) and a crowd of people willing to laugh in all the right moments, and respond amusingly to the film ('You can't just yell Fire in a crowded theatre and then walk out!' said the film. 'FIRE' yelled someone in the audience....).


And today, which seems to be starting very slowly, I plan to ride my bike (I haven't blogged about my bike, but I have one - it was free, it fits in the back of the van and it's cool) to the golden gate bridge and ride across that, which is apparently a Very Good Thing to do. I might ride the longish way too, which goes along the embarcadero and past Fisherman's Wharf. And then I might check out some of the beaches near the bridge before putting my bike on a bus and taking the easier way home!
And then tomorrow, or maybe Monday, though I think I would prefer tomorrow, I'm heading north again - back to Portland for a few days on my gradual way back to Vancouver.

A Pirate! Horror! - Brisbane, Australia
visited May 15, 2006
That's not "A Pirate Horror" either. Pirates of Penzance is shaping up to be very nice, now that we are in a real thatre, and not in some basketball court that happens to have a stage, as we were for the last performances in Scarborough. The Powerhouse Theatre is great, nice lighting, lots of space, excellent dressing rooms. It opens tomorrow night!

A Young, Edgy Rock Opera - Brisbane, Australia
visited May 5, 2006
Rent! See Sean's blog for details: I'll write later. http://lettherebeblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/525600-minutes.html

Queer Film Festival - Brisbane, Australia
This place was Average visited Apr 4, 2006
I very cleverly organised to go to Sydney during the Brisbane Queer Film Festival. It's a lesson in effective calendar use for me. However, all was not lost, as this year the BQFF is bigger and better than ever, and started on the Tuesday. My flight wasn't until Wednesday, so I was able to go to the opening night! Just as well. I have only missed one year since it started 6 years ago, and that was last year when I was living in Berlin. In fact, the year before that I came home (from Berlin, by coincidence) on the second last day of the festival, and still managed to see 3 films. The opening night film was called "50 ways of saying fabulous", which is a New Zealand film based on the book of the same name by NZ author Graeme Aitken. I had loved the book - we studied it in Quook, the queer book club at UQ, years ago, so was keen to see the film. It was lovely, and will hopefully get a wider release, and when it does I suggest you all go see it. Or catch the second screening at the Powerhouse sometime this weekend (www.brisbanepowerhouse.org for details). After the film there was the required drag show, accompanied by free drinks, nibblies and the most disturbing iceblocks I had ever seen. If anyone ever offers you a paddle pop "bender", say no. Just do. It was nice to be at a queer event in Brisbane again, but it was yet another reminder of how long I have been away (or possibly an indicator how the community has grown in the last few years). I only saw one person I knew! Apart from the people I was with, of course. Oh, and the guy handing out the free beer knew me, though I didn't remember him at all. Apparently he was my dancing partner in HMS Pinafore years ago. That was a rather Brisbane moment.

2 nights at the Opera - Istanbul, Turkey
5 Stars This place was Amazing visited Dec 13, 2005
After the sad performance of West Side Story (see my earlier post) we were slightly trepidatious at spending another whole 10AUD on two more tickets to the opera, but I have wanted to see a production of Carmen for a long time, so we decided to risk it! I'm very glad we did! Far from the mess of WSS, Carmen was a wonderful production both visually and musically - the costumes were beautiful and colourful, the sets incredibly elaborate, the dancing polished (I think they might have actually rehearsed more than once!) and the singing beautiful. There were a few moments when I thought a little more drama and actual acting would have helped those of us who were having trouble with the turkish subtitles (opera is hard to understand in any language and the non-native french was mostly impossible to decipher) but overall it was a great experience. I don't think I had ever realised just how much famous music there is in Carmen. Hearing it all at once was fantastic. On the strength of that, we bought tickets to Madame Butterfly this week - another famous opera I have often wanted to see. Again a very traditional performance, with elaborate sets (well, set, this time, in the singular) and traditional costumes. Actually very traditional costumes - possibly modelled on original costumes from the 1904 premieres - designed by someone who had had a kimono described to them, but probably had never seen one! Butterfly's dress was something like 1900's dress with japanese features, such as long rectangular sleeves and an obi on the back! Quite pretty, of course! Like 'Carmen' the music was wonderful, though a few moments could have done with a little more drama to help those of us who couldn't understand their turkish-italian diction or the subtitles. I had to stop myself trying to understand the words after a while - both in Carmen and Butterfly, I found myself getting a headache after the first act or so - from trying to decipher singing in one language, subtitles in another and translating what I could into English for Kate! And it wasn't just the multi-lingual aspect that got to me. I suddenly realised at one point that we were australians watching a opera set in japan about an american sung in Italian performed by turks. Argh!

Worst Side Story - Istanbul, Turkey
2 Stars This place was Poor visited Nov 23, 2005
We've discovered the opera here! The Ataturk Cultural Centre (the performing arts complex here) has an opera theatre and a program full of famous names, and the most expensive tickets are only AUD10! And it's a quarter of that for the top balcony! Not wanting to splurge that much, or sit up in the gods, we've decided the mid priced 1st balcony is our favourite spot! Tonight we saw West Side Story, figuring that whatever language it was in, we both knew it well enough to follow, if not recite the entire thing ourselves! It was with some excitement that we took our seats in the 'Big Hall' (such an original name for a theatre)and took a moment to appreciate the 70's decor (It's very similar to QPAC in Brisbane - both inside and out) and get freaked by the gold face of Ataturk leaning out of one wall at us (that guy is EVERYwhere). The appreciation started to wain when the orchestra started playing the overture. And then the 'dancers' came on and it wained further. And then they opened their mouths. Oh dear. We didn't leave. It was sort of compelling - in a 'how much worse can it get' sort of way. The dialoge was all in Turkish, but the songs were in English - with Turkish subtitles on an electronic signboard above the stage. For some odd reason they had significantly changed some of the words - even the ideas of the songs, and some of the new lyrics were definitely not written by a native speaker. The oddest part was where they changed the song 'America', which is originally a sort of musical duel between the Puerto Rican men and women, into an all-girl event, with one lone female playing the men's anti-US part. Very odd. Apart from that, the orchestra were sloppy and the dancing all over the place, which is odd cos the performers certainly weren't singers, so they must have been chosen for their dancing. The 3 main characters were definitely singers - Anita in particular was excellent - but the lovers themselves looked more 40 than 14. All in all it was an interesting experience, but we're really hoping that next week's performance of Carmen is a whole lot better!