Filed under: Life in general | Tags: alternative, art, bad reputation, Goucher college, Ljubljana, Metelkova, nightmare, Tamara, urban
One of the highlights of the week that just flew by was definitely our Monday visit to Metelkova. We actually went to see the launch of a website on Metelkova that a group of American students have produced as a part of their media production course but you should have seen the look on our nanny’s face when we told her that “her” Tamara was at Metelkova the day before.
For the uninitiated, former army barracks of Metelkova are the urban alternative culture/art/activism/place in Ljubljana that has over the years acquired a somewhat demonised public image. Probably, what she had in mind was something demon-like as the wall art piece above. Or even more nightmarish as this reflection of the same art piece in the window of Ministry of Culture.
The place is actually the opposite, a laid back alternative where one could really enjoy a slow afternoon drink or two. Especially if one would be there without the little storm trooper :)
Anyway, to learn more about Metelkova in English visit: http://metelkova.goucher.edu/
Filed under: Black eye cafe, Life in general | Tags: commute, graffiti, train, urban, urbanity
The end of spring semester means reducing my commute since I’ll spend most of the next month banging on my keyboard at home. It will mean less train rides, which I like not just because I’m able to sneak peak into the problems, vocabulary or media and reading habits of my fellow passengers. Or because I’m not waisting time (and environment) driving but also because it gives me a false sense of urbanity through the very option of being able to commute to work by rail. And of course, through the surprise of a new graffiti that stands in sharp contrast to the semirural setting the train rumbles through.
Filed under: Life in general, Things as they are, photography | Tags: Barthes, decay, dilapidation, Ljubljana, photography, picturesque, texture
What exactly is the underlying libidinal economy of infatuation between photography and decay, this amour fou of dilapidation? And don’t say it is Barthes and his photography and/as death. Is it texture? Colours? Our reading of imagined history into the image?
Filed under: Black eye cafe, photography | Tags: bus, color, colour, graffitti, Ljubljana, yellow
Tired of waiting around for a new post? Well, me too!! It’s just that the writing from my last post has turned into grading. Have about two, three more kilos of student papers to do, than I’m back to writing. And commenting. To see why I prefer to measure the papers in terms of weight and not in terms of numbers, click here.
