grasswire

I’m number two. Today’s number comes from a McDonalds ad in Ljubljana. Don’t know if this was a work of local adbusters or just high school kids killing time, but the subversion came out nice. Made me remember the advertising rule we were taught, that people only remember the first one, the winner, the largest etc. Like most people would remember Neil Armstrong but not know the name of Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon. There is another possible reading to the number, to give “two” in Slovene slang means to break-up with someone…
Talking about visual subversions, click here to check out this scene from the flea market that can be read as a nasty comment on the pope, although I do onder if the guy actually noticed this juxtaposition :)

Here is my latest flea market find – a children’s illustration book. There are a couple more nice illustrations on the inside but I like the cover best, particularly the contrast between American illustrations and the Cyrillic caption. Since Tamara still puts everything into her mouth, I will probably just frame it. BTW, I bargained it down to 2€.

This morning on our way to the vegetable market, we stopped in an old watchmakers shop. It is one of those small, family-owned old shops, run by a very friendly elderly couple. We have peaked in many times before but never went in, but today CC had to get a new battery for her watch and she picked that shop. I will definitely go there at least once more to shoot lots of photographs, the word genuine lingered all around the place, as did the old clocks. The old lady was instantly charmed by Tamara and as a sign of her affection, she took the clock handle on one of those cuckoo clocks that look like Bavarian houses (this one was a splendidly kitschy specimen) and moved it to ten so that the it started making sounds and the cuckoo flew. Tamara loved it. The ringing that was not on time and probably attracted attention of her husband who emerged from behind the shelves and after seeing Tamara, repeated the trick himself.  The fact that there are still some kind people in town made our Saturday morning coffee a bit nicer.

Kamnik-Ljubljana trains offer a valuable lesion in visual culture to attentive observer. And I don’t mean the colourful graffiti that give a fake illusion that we live in modern, urban society. The compartments are decorated with children’s drawings which vividly display how perspective is nothing more than socially constructed convention, how it is not a necessary element or realist representations - which was in fact part of my yesterday’s lecture.
But there is more to these slowly fading drawings than the unconventional mode of representation. They are remains of times gone by. I can still remember the concourse organised by the railway company in the mid 1980’s. All primary schools in the country participated in it and I was soooo disappointed when my drawing was not selected. I guess now I remember the feeling of disappointment far more vividly than my not accepted drawing. But imagine if your drawing was accepted… You could be riding this train more than 20 years later and your drawing would still serve as a backdrop for tired faces of early morning commuters. You could even have a child of the age you were when you drew it. I wonder how many people actually take notice of them, or see the inscriptions “Yugoslav Railways” or “JŽ” in many of them, which always elicit a slight smile on my face.

I had recently been tagged by two blogers, an invitation to share seven random facts by someone who does not believe in coincidences and a You make my day award by a person that makes my days beautiful too. It took me a while to respond so I combined the two into one post.

Seven random and/or weird things about me:
1. I notice and remember tons of obscure details.
2. I forget names easily.
3. I used to be notoriously late (apparently it all started in kindergarten…).
4. I normally don’t open bank statements.
5. I get amazed/amused by what other people buy at grocery stores.
6. I don’t buy music CD’s.
7. I am terrible with numbers but would probably make a great creative accountant.

Blogs that make my day:
- Camila Engman (simple and serene)
- Simply photo (photographic esthetisation of everyday life)
- Amstersam (technically, it’s not a blog but a very lively Flickr page - great photos and funny comments)
- Design*Sponge (always a pleasure to browse through, especially sneak peaks and before-afters)
- Print and pattern (an inspiring collection of items I would never find by myself)

While I had a hectict start of a new semester, Tamara set several important new milestones in her development, like walking backwards or dragging a toy on a string and the like, but none elicited such enthusiasm as the slide. We took her to the playground yesterday and put her on the slide just to see if she would like it or not. By the fifth time, she was already pushing herself off from the top with both hands and a big smile on her face that brightened our faces as well.

Conferences are one of the better parts of working in academia. I got accepted to a big one in April in New York and will have to start working on my paper soon (on my half of the paper, to be more precise). It will be on racial food packaging and I’m co-authoring it with this really cool guy I met in Tartu. Must admit am not so much concerned about paper and presentation but more on showing my passport, adorned by Syrian and Iranian visas. Perhaps I should have a new one made ;)
Should anyone know of reasonably priced hotel on Manhattan, drop me a note. The pic is from Vienna airport.

I guess you didn’t think that there were no numbers in Macerata :) The number I’ll remember most will probably be thirteen because I learned in Macerata why it is considered to be unlucky number. According to a certain book on Italy (under section superstitions), it said that the number equals the apostles plus Jesus - with a traitor among them, i.e. the bad luck and the rule of not sitting thirteen people at the same table. Mind you, the superstition section of the book was mere one page while insults in the phrases section took almost four pages, neatly arranged according to references to body parts, animals etc.

Our days in Macerata, awakened by coffee and the sound of street cleaners, were all about pasta, salami, cheese, and sweets, topped with evening passegiatta and washed down with a glass of wine. The pale red brick houses and narrow streets of the walled city were perfect backdrop for this debauchery for taste buds.
Here is a short selection of pics, you can also click here and see more pics on my Flickr page:
- Saturday evening passegiatta
- still advertised, but not sold for years
- waiting
- monument (shot with Holgos)
- bar(red) window
- found still life with graffiti
- black-eye at carnivale 1
- black-eye at carnivale 2 (specially for ex-Daisy people)
- Tamara as kozmonaut

No, I was not plunged into the abyss of after party depression.
Quite on the contrary – after sending the first two chapters of my thesis to my supervisor on Thursday, we headed for a mini break in Italy to visit our former professor and his wife. I must say that after plunging the yellow envelope into the giant yellow mailbox in the middle of the night, the seven hour drive through fog and rain that followed still seemed like a giant relief :)

This is just a sneak preview, more pics and text to follow.