Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: literature, nightmare, paper, PhD, references, thesis
Last Monday, I finally submitted draft version of my PhD. Have been moving tons of papers and books back to office and library ever since (to put things into perspective, the bloody thing ends with 18 pgs of references or 484 units of literature).
Filed under: Travels and trips, Uncategorized | Tags: door, doors, doorway, Estonia, paint, symmetry
To wrap up Estonia posts, a classic theme. Doorways. Only, there were none to photograph., no doors left open halfway to offer an inquisitive flaneur a sneak peak of the interior. But there were lots of beautifully ornamented and painted doors. Closed. Probaby locked.
I would not want to start making any conclusions about the climate or national character (especially since the latte is a highly problematic concept). So let’s just say that there were no half open doors because otherwise it is impossible to admire their symmetry-based beauty.
After a week of fairly careless indulging rightly called Labour day holidays, we’re back and getting attuned to normal rhythm – we spent a few hours on the swings cleaned the apartment, went grocery shopping and saw the ugly local drunkard making his rounds. Emails are more or less checked and alarm clock set. You will of course get a more detailed Tuscany rapport, but for now here is one of the standard fares – some of the tiled doorways we came or walked across.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 15, meter, motorbike, Piran, semiotics, sign, traffic sign
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: David Sedaris, living, Me talk pretty one day, moving, New York, short stories, The Great Leap Forward
“..and then the New York skyline would appear on the horizon and we’d all stop talking. If you happen to live there, it’s always refreshing to view Manhattan from afar. Up close the city constitutes an oppressive series of staircases, but from a distance it inspires fantasies of wealth and power so profound that even our communists are temporary rendered speechless.”
David Sedaris, The Great Leap Forward
I have been reading Sedaris’ Me talk pretty one day on and off for some time now, taking one story at a time whenever I feel like it. This particular story (The Great Leap Forward) really got me thinking, probably since we are currently contemplating the various possibilities of where to move. And no, New York is currently not an option under consideration. You start thinking differently once you have kids, you really do. I remember walking the spring sparkled Manhattan last year thinking this looks fine but not a place where I’d want my kids to grow up. Where would they play? Ride a bike? Or pick unripe, sour apples from the trees and run like hell from the screaming neighbours? (OK, I realise the last one will be a pretty tough one these days)Also I could not stop thinking what a large share of modern economy depends on basically exploiting young people, willing to trade in their personal lives or its quality for what they call careers (which once they reach 50 turn out to be little more than mind numbing or nothing underpaid jobs). Much like the infantry in Razzman’s post, only this is how the system deals with the educated bunch .
But this is not what I had in mind. In The Great Leap Forward Sedaris talks about his ’adventures’ as a mover in New York and one of the things he brilliantly describes is how your success in life comes to be measured through a location of your home. He talks about how moving from Manhattan is always considered a step down, children being the only (half) valid excuse for moving to ‘neighbouring burrows’. A failure of not being in the ‘center’, regardless of the price you have to pay.
I bet Sedaris didn't ahve this part of Manhattan skyline in mind
This ‘center’ thing I guess is universal – we have it here in Ljubljana and we are talking a mere 350.000 people capital. Our moving to Kamnik (20 km) was considered a step down by lots of people. And yes, we are talking about those who would go to the center perhaps once per month and skip all the galleries while they were at it. I wonder what will they “think” if we move to one of the secret locations we are toying around with :)
Filed under: Uncategorized
You didn’t think you would get away without these, weren’t you – doorways, numbers and black eye finds.
For the love of tiles
One of our colleagues was about to turn 28.
Things my black eye just happen to see.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Estonia, Mati Karmin, mines, recycling, Tallinn, WW1
Now this is what I call proper recycling. I re-discovered this in the pile of old magazines and papers that we threw out during the past weeks. This peculiar piece of furniture by Estonian sculpturer Mati Karmin are recycled WW1 sea mines that apparently still lie scattered all across one of the islands northwest of Tallinn. Actually, I kind of like the idea of such an impressive chair for my office :)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: charm, Dance with me, Nouvelle Vogue, weekend
Out of bed at eight AM
Out my head by half past ten
Out with mates and dates and friends
That’s what I do at weekends
OK, the lyrics don’t exactly match our current weekend routine, first of all, it was out of bed at seven AM due to our cute little alarm clock that has no “off” button. And neither “snooze” for that matter :). Anyways, was fun, spent lots of time with my girls, had my two coffees of the week, now I’m back to job-related emails and photo theory readings (you’ll all get a share of that in the near future). One of the more pleasant things of the weekend was the discovery of the band Nouvelle Vague – I have infatuatedly listened to their album Bande A’Part over and over again the past few days (luckily, CC likes them too). Here is my current fovorite - Dance with me. They go particularly well with a glass of sweet white wine. Its simply charming.
Speaking of charm, the pic needs a short translation for the few billion people that don’t speak Slovene. Originally, the sign said Sock shop. The place is under renovation (Tamara nevertheless had a quick sneak peak, workers were not thrilled) and currently, the remaining undestroyed pink part of the sign reads sth. like charm or magic.
