SQUISH

Yesterday was a real "only in Serbia" moment.
I was riding the bus down to the main busy street that runs by Ada Cigalnija (wikipedia it for an idea of what it is, although my spelling is almost certainly wrong) when I noticed a massive traffice snarl. It was clearly an accident, and it appeared to have happened at the intersection ahead. I expected a fender bender or at worst some idiots who got Tboned because of driving too aggressively through a red light or something.
The sight that finally greeted my eyes was far more, um, arresting. I can only make a best guess at what happened, and I may be off the mark, but the basic facts were pretty obvious. There was:

A) a large public bus stopped some 20 meters past the accident, with its side sporting some significant scratches, dents and marks, and a few of the windows smashed in.


B) a gypsy cart, badly mangled, although the passengers apparently did not suffer any injuries. As a sidenote, I should mention how original these gypsy vehicles are; they are almost always built completely from scratch from scavenged parts, the ultimate in do-it-yourself. They're powered by lawmower and tractor engines, run on anything from wooden wheels to bicycle wheels, usually have some sort of large space in the back for carrying cardboard boxes or people, and yes, they drive these hodgepodge creatures on all the main roads just like any other car. It's quite a sight to see one cough and sputter by right in the middle of the center of Belgrade, right among BMWs, Mercedes, and of course the ubiquitous Yugos.
This particular gypsy car, however, and perhaps this was the crucial factor in the accident, was not engine powered. It was propelled by...


C) one big ass horse, splattered all over the road in a humongous pool of its own blood which had been spread a good quarter mile down the road by the tires of passing cars.

That was it, no explanation, no crying or hysterical people, just two cops waving people along while a photographer documented various details. Everything had a very "business as usual" feel to it, adding to the already surreal feeling the scene created.

Squish.

Compte Rendu, s’il vous plait

So, where to begin on updating all the stuff that’s happened since I stopped regularly updating here? The lack of updates have been due to me being significantly busy, so there are almost limitless things I could talk about, making it quite difficult to focus on just one thing at a time.

I guess I’ll start with the event(s) of the week, which would likely be Exit festival. Exit is a huuuuuuuge music festival/gonzo spring-break style party that takes place in Novi Sad, a city about an hour and a half north of Belgrade, and has been going on for about 6 years consecutively. It has always been, and remains, a resounding success, and is by far the biggest single yearly event that takes place in Serbia that’s not a holiday or something. I did not go this year, a result of poor planning, budgeting, and just general organization, but it’s definitely something worth checking out. On the bill this year were Prodigy, Beastie Boys, Snoop Dog, Wu Tang clan, and many, many others, all top-notch A-list artists. Sunday night was the last night of Exit. I actually don’t know *that* many people that went this year, as most of the Serbs I know have been there enough times in previous years that that itch has been scratched for them, but it’s definitely a goal of mine now to make it next year.

Completely separate from Exit, Belgrade also hosted on Saturday night what will undoubtedly be the biggest band to come here for many, many years: The Rolling Stones. By all accounts, the concert was a huge success. Initially slated to play in the Belgrade hippodrome (horse racing track), which would have made it the largest venue on their European tour with a capacity of 100,000+ people, it was later moved to a different location due to… horses.

The organizers of the club, realizing that the insane decibels of the Stones concert would almost certainly cause the horses all around the area significant stress, decided to deal with that problem in a delicate manner: by ordering several dozen tons of horse tranquilizers and knocking the animals flat on their asses for the concert. Well, I suppose that it woulda worked… However, the Stones, along with, I’m sure, animal rights activists everywhere, upon hearing of this dastardly plan, felt sorry for the horses, and thus the venue was changed.

The concert was such a big affair that the Serbian government went into a state of alert to deal with it. There were cops and security *everywhere*. I had flashbacks of Presidential speeches next to my office in DC with all the security, except this was for Mick Jagger and Company. I did not go see that concert either, but it must have been quite impressive since Serbs tend to be quite demanding of foreign bands that come playing here…

Last month the Red Hot Chili Peppers came to play in a town somewhere, uh, in the middle of nowhere in Serbia (Indjija), a similarly gigantic and ambitious event. After making tens of thousands of people wait for hours in the rain before coming on stage, they played a lackluster 90 minute set (13 songs) before dashing off. Even worse, the concert promoters/organizers/whatever, in a totally amateurish lack of planning, made absolutely no provisions for what to do *after* the concert, so it was a total free for all between about 70,000 people to squeeze out of *one* parking lot. Basically, anyone who went to that concert ended up coming back to Belgrade, one way or another, the next day at 7 or 8 in the morning. The incredibly hyped experience left a great many with a bitter taste in their mouth.

Similarly harsh criticism has been leveled at many other big acts that have made it to Belgrade this year, such as Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent, and others… So, I suppose the Stones must have done something right, since rave reviews from Serbia are definitely not just handed out freely.

I suppose the whole point of this illustrates the fact that Belgrade is now firmly and definitely back on the “mainstream music” scene, speaking globally. The New York Times article from 2005 about Belgrade mentioned how the place is an “up and coming touring location for major bands” (something like that, not a direct quote). I would correct that by taking out the “up and coming”. Belgrade is now firmly back on the list of major cities to visit for the world’s biggest bands, right alongside Paris, London, Rome, etc, and I would estimate it is quite likely that this trend will continue to move in this direction quickly in the next few years here.

As yet more evidence of this, my own personal FAVORITEBANDOFALLTIMETILLETERNITY (yes, that’s the official title, don’t forget the caps), Tool, is coming here in September. I must admit that is nice to have a clear date and event that you can pinpoint in your life and say that once it has passed and you've lived to see it, you *can* die and at least will have accomplished one thing that mattered. I never thought I would even get to see the extremely reclusive and rarely-emerging Tool even in the U.S. of A., and figured I had pretty much missed my chance forever to see them live when I left. I *never* for a second dared to hope they would come to Belgrade… Maybe Budapest or somewhere else nearby in the area or something, but not BG… and yet it’s going to happen. And I will be there. I still am kind of scared to believe in it. Basically, if anything or anyone keeps me from going to that concert on September 5, 2007, it/they will die a gruesome and most certainly painful death, no exceptions and no mercy.

That happy note concludes this update. J

A bientot!

Appuyez sur le bouton “Restart” s’il vous plait

No, the blog is not dead; it was simply stalled for a while. With apologies to any readers, I’ve decided to try to revive in with a more focused approach. I started writing here in an aimless and hesitant fashion, relatively unsure of what to do with this type of platform.

Instead of being keeping the focus on my own personal developments like if this was some personal diary, I’ve decided to switch to a slightly different approach and try to come up with shorter, relatively unrelated anecdotes about life in Serbia. Hopefully this will give me more flexibility and ideas for more frequent updates.

Time permitting, I will also try to figure out how to get pictures online and onto the blog more often as well, although I make no solid promises there.

So, more to come on stuff that’s actually ABOUT Serbia and living here very soon…