Found at another blog (source, thanks Adriaan): Condé Nast Traveler asked six designers to each rebrand a country of his or her choice for its September issue, and Paula Scher selected Slovenia for her effort.
“I’ve been to Slovenia twice and loved it. But most Americans don’t know what or where it is, which is something I wanted to address” says Scher. By highlighting Slovenia’s proximity to Italy, she made the country appear both physically accessible and “like it has great skiing and great food, which it in fact does.”
Although, as she commented in the article, “I don’t think countries should have logos. Logos are for corporations.”
While it may be difficult to shake off the feeling of being categorised as Italy’s appendix and the “love” bit of the word Slovenia has been used a zillion times in various similar solutions, do take a look at Paula’s other ideas at the source.
Savica Waterfall - photo by dr. filomena, September 2007
Today is Blog Action Day with the topic being the Environment. Here is a link I found interesting, Greentips - environmental ideas in action prepared by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
If you are still questioning how far-reaching the effects our actions have on the environment or have already realized that time to act is now was yesterday, you’ll have plenty of reading ahead of you if you take a peek here: list of environmental issues.
This is what Gorenjska Region of Slovenia looks today and the way we’d love to keep it for future generations. - photo by dr. filomena, September 2007
The full quote I chose for this post’s title comes from the indigenous people of America and goes like this:
Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children. We are more than the sum of our knowledge, we are the products of our imagination. “
So many things have been going on lately… but hey, what else is new. I haven’t posted to the blog in a while because I either didn’t have the time to (or rather spent it in another way, say playing squash - yippie!) or being unsure of how to convey my thoughts to you guys.
A week ago I finally got to meet Camille, a fascinating young woman from New York City who’d decided to move to Slovenia… for love. I’d “met” her in the blogging community. Hey, you guys are real flesh and blood! More on that later. Anyway, after having met up with her for lunch and seeing she’s as cool in real life as she is on her blog, I offered to take her out for a night on the town. So last Saturday, we started the evening chatting in my home and finding the right dress etc.. you know, girl stuff… then drove off downtown. My car’s glove compartment is filled with CDs and as Camille is studying Slovene now (go C!!! - you should exchange notes with Adriaan and “the girls”) we opted for Alenka Godec.
After a stop at Cutty Sark to say hello to another blogger, Pengovsky who DJd at the place that night, we made a tour of the most popular places, such as Global. More on that later. On our way up we shared the lift ride with four young bouncer types, one of them lovingly holding on to a large cut of red meat in a plastic bag. What gives? The place being empty, we were instructed to go to Opera Bar first. Lo and behold, there she was. The lady from our choice of CD in the car. Alenka Godec.
An old friend of mine turns out to be the new assistant manager of the place that was just celebrating its third anniversary… above is the photo she took of “Camille and the two Alenkas”. Alenka has an amazing voice and came across as a really nice lady as well.
Afterwards, we returned to Global, where we wished we’d brought along our own DJ from Cutty Sark or, alternatively, that C’d been given a go at it (her brother is a DJ, too!) Still, the music was at least ok - at least at times - so we actually got to dance a little bit. I do believe C had a bit of a culture shock with the way people danced. “Dirty dancing” was not all that dirty in comparison to a few of those couples. Thanks for the good company, C, hope to do that again sometime soon.
A day later, I found out about the (probably same one who was nice to us) bouncer at Global beating a young man just a half an hour or so after we’d left the place. He died in hospital on Wednesday. This photo was taken yesterday on site where he lost his life. Such a senseless waste.
On a happier note, yet another blogging friend, buba švabe, came to town from Krško to see us on Friday. The visit turned into a real bloggers’ gettogether with 14 bloggers present, among them all three of SiOL’s new “in-house bloggers” (the top bloggers hosted there per users’ vote who’d been given contracts now), namely Fetalij, Irena and Chef.
Photo by Pi.Roman
It was such a pleasure to meet a bunch of interesting young people in one go, all of whom can think, write and actually have fun in real, offline life. Pi.Roman took a zillion photos before Kandela finally took his toy away, and among his subjects were Mojca, Deus.X.Mashina, Nina, Barbara and last but not least, the infamous Sex. We met up at the Skeleton Bar and then moved on to Cutty Sark. This ‘event’ deserves a separate post someday…
All in all, it’s been quite a week, meeting so many interesting people, among them an incredible number of bloggers. Seeing a vibrant young lady move from one continent to another for love, taking a pic with a local celebrity, partying at a place that effectively became a murder scene a half an hour after we’d left, playing squash, travelling to Slavonski Brod for a day (seeing houses still heavily damaged by the gunfire of a decade ago was slightly surreal), hanging out at an ad hocbloggers’ meeting where I realized half the people were political science majors, enrolling in the second year of my Political Science MA programme and last but not least, spending a wonderful Sunday in equally wonderful company and enjoying the fact that He Cooked Again.
Stuffed tomatoes for a refreshing dinner snack: fill with the extracted tomato pulp, young cheese, cottage cheese, a bit of olive oil, chopped up fresh basil and salt/pepper to taste. Chill in fridge for half an hour.
Having just had a glass of Los Pagos Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile, all I can say is that I have no idea what the meaning of life is, but what I’m sure of is that we should all do our best to enjoy the ride while it lasts.
My condolences to the family and friends of Goraz Čamernik who died so needlessly at the hands of the club bouncer. May he rest in peace.
Ok ok so like I said the kitchen remodelling’s not finished yet and still no fresh paint job. Does not affect the food being served, though Adriaan, I know… I know… but like I said, you’re welcome to join us for dinner
EDIT: This quote seems appropriate
I find that principles have no real force except when one is well fed.
-Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)
So you see Adriaan, it’s all about maintaining rock-steady principles.
So that the food obsession plaguing this blog as per Adriaan may be extended to drinks as well let me share this pic I took at an Austrian store yesterday. It seems that one has to go to Austria to find out that at least according to the selection of this large store chain, one of the finest South African wines is the 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon produced by… ahem… Laibach.
OK so which of my Non-Slovenian blogging friends know what Laibach is when not in reference to the music group? Stop that google-friendly finger right now!!!
