Daily Gleaner 1865

I took these photos in Fredericton, likely while walking to UNB and CHSR to do my radio show on 4 April before I flew to Budapest.

I noticed a piece of clapboard missing from the side of a house on the corner of George and Carleton streets. Saw newspaper where the board was missing. On closer look saw that it was newspaper from spring of 1865, two years before the creation of the Dominion of Canada. A long time for it to be on the side of a house, to be the house wrap of the day during construction and to still be there. Said something about the quality of insullation in that house. [But I am currently in a house with one- to two-foot thick brick and mortar walls, with an equally bad crawlspace excuse for a badement.]

My camera can take close-up shots. I got a few that show readable details of that newspaper. This one has classified ads for fish products and grocery supplies.

American Clock and garden seed available for purchase by one and all.

T-shirt: Bagad Kelc'h Keltieg Kombrid
loc: lost file recovery
temp: 24 C, partially cloudy
sound: that three sisters-witches show set in San Francisco (HU dub)

prison song 05 platter

As hung in Fredericton Arts Alliance Casemates Artists-In-Residence Exhibition: Emerging vs. Established Artists in City Hall Gallery, Fredericton, here is the finished collaborative platter by Ursula Sommerer and me. It looks great. I want to see it in person.

Photo by Liz Haines. Thanks!
Just "heard" (read in an email) today that Ursula and family will be leaving Fredericton as her husband, Bob (or Dr. Robert) Kavanaugh, has left his position at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design for a position at Dawson College in Montreal. They will be missed: two potters who are active and really do stuff.

T-shirt: ochre golf shirt
loc: Senta
temp: 22 C, sunny (w/ a chance of showers)
sound: vacuum cleaner & The Cure Wild Mood Swings

Three Maps: Where's Joe?

Confusion seems to abound on where I am these days. Few family or friends seem to be able to visualize the Balkans well enough to have a clear picture. My grandmother thinks Beirut or Belfast when I've mentoned Belgrade or Beograd. My flying in and out of Budapest, Hungary has only confused her more . . .

Not even certain that they will help, today I am posting three maps to help locate me. If one can visualize or find an older map or globe that shows the former federation of Yugoslavia—on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, in the Mediterranean Sea, east of Italy, south of Hungary, north of Greece—it would be the basis for the simplified map below.

Serbia now stands alone from its recent economic & political association with Montegegro (Crna Gora) since Montenegrans voted in a May 2006 referendum to go it alone en route to joining the EU. Serbia is now a landlocked country. Its surface area of 88,412 km sq is 1/113th that of Canada. On the simplified road map below I have added both Senta, Serbia in the north (where I am living) and Pale, Republika Srpska (where I am teaching) to the west of Serbia in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The area within the thicker blue line is shown in considerable detail on the third map.

Click on the map below to enlarge it to optimum size. Senta (west of Subotica) and Pale (west of Sarajevo) are underlined in pink. A line of yellow dots has been placed on the road route of the bus from Senta to Novi Sad and then of the van to Pale. Most times that van travels from Beograd (so I'll be busing there first). We always cross the Serbian border at Loznica and, if coming from, or going to Beograd, we take the Beograd-Zagreb tollroad between the Ruma exit and the Beograd airport.

Senta sits at a low elevation of 80m (almost exactly the elevation of the Swanton Drive house in Dartmouth). Pale sits at 900m but some of the mountain passes crossed to get there are as high as 1500m. [By comparison, Banff, Alberta is 1483m above sea level but the mountains climb another 1500m above the town.]

It's a good six hour drive plus break(s) from Beograd or Novi Sad to Pale: cobblestone main street through some towns, farm tractors, horse wagons; narrow, twisted roads over the hills and mountains with no slow vehicle lanes, and alongside the reka Dria with it's numerous cliffs, tunnels, and the ruins of an old Turkish Ottoman fort. Winter snows (have heard that Pale gets 3-4 metres of the white stuff) and weather will make for a longer drive.

T-shirt: Joe Canada
loc: Senta
temp: 23 C
sound: Jeff Healey & The Jazz Wizards It's Tight Like That

Ruskie bike

I knew before I left Canada that I would want access to a bike to continue my active riding for exercise, for getting about and seeing the town of Senta and the surrounding countryside.

After my arrival, I was told that there were two Russian-made bikes in the garage that JA's parents (and likely grandparents) used around town. I went looking in the adjacent storage shed full of old furniture, scrap wood, car parts, toys, etc. Found them!

Old-looking bikes, they look like the frame is hinged and bolted together. They're hand-painted over the old grey-green original colour; one mostly red; one mostly bright green. One bike smaller than the other. Both have small wheels. I had to buy an adjustable wrench in the open market to loosen and raise the seat for my long legs, to change its tilt to horizontal, and to tighten the pads on the pedals. They have no gears. I guess one could say they are one-speed bikes but, really, they're just bicycles. Ones with only a simple front wheel hand-lever brake that is very soft, whines, and is slow to bring the bike to a stop.

Thankfully, there's not much in the way of downslopes and hills in, or around Senta. None really, just the slopes of the built riverbank walls in town, access to both ends of the bridge, and riverside dykes.

Today, I biked upriver out of Senta. Above the 129 km post on the dyke was a red tractor and high wagon with a crew of four men loading bales of hay cut on the sides of the dyke. It was a very warm afternoon and very, very quiet out there. Amazingly quiet, except for occasional commands from the men with pitchforks spearing bales, and the unseen frogs. Presume that the 129 means 129 kilometres from the river mouth, where the reka Tisa joins the reka Dunav (Danube).

Unexpected found two dead snakes flattened and dehydrated on the sun-baked tires tracks atop the dyke. I wonder just how far upriver, out-of-sight from Senta, around the bend and further, is the next bridge? Could I make cycling trip loops?

T-shirt: Alaska humpbacks
Loc: Senta
Temp: 25 C
Sound: "Secret Agent Man" & "Rawhide" on 98.6 ITM Radio (Choka)

Sevali macevi . . .

One for the Gagetown MAC club members back in Lyndhaven and other medievalists. Found this yesterday in the Blic newspaper of 11 Septembar 2006. An ability to read Serbian would be useful for the text. I'll try to get a condensed translation here a.s.a.p.

T-shirt: SFRJ
loc: Senta
temp: 26 C
sound: Pete Seeger American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 4

Filozofski Faculty, UIS

Zelijko, in the red shirt, is the Filozofski Faculty's driver who collected me outside the Novi Sad bus station. One of the professors from Beograd is seen here in the van, a Volkswagon Transporter. Eventually, Zelijo has rounded up seven of us in Beograd and Novi Sad for this week's run to Pale.

This is a dusk photo of the Filozofski fakultet building opened for or during the past university year (months before I visited in April). To its right [not pictured] is a similiarly constructed law faculty building in browns. These two buildings constitute the whole of the campus of the Univerzitet u Istocnom Sarajevu (University of East Sarajevo). I believe that there still exists some sort of affiliation between this university-campus and the now mostly-Muslim populated University of Sarajevo (but I'm really not clear about that). Elsewhere in Pale, I've been told, are student accomodation buildings. The professor apartment that I was in is one of several located on the nearest corner of the highest full floor of the building.

Morning in the ground floor caffe in Filozofski fakultet building with several students in the raised seating by the windows.

Inside the clean (but it's so very new, that even in April these rooms were not available) but very basic apartment. No television. No fridge. No stove. Just two single beds with a wardrobe between them. A small table with student study lamp, two chairs, and two glasses. One "HOTEL" towel, folded, atop each bed's pillow. No toiletries. No radio or alarm clock.

An arrangement of bottles, glue stick, and lamp on the mall table. The red wine is from Krušvac, Serbia (where I read in April). The beer, Sarajevsko, is a hops-flavoured premium lager that's existed since 1864.

One from the road: Love this painted yellow tree trunk in a yard beside the M19 in the mountains. I think that I would like to collect the story of this tree . . . but that's not ever going to happen with me a mere passenger in a van full of university- or home-bound professors.

shirt: grey
loc: Adjanska 14
temp: 18 C
sound: Stone Temple Pilots unplugged

Pale, Republika Srpska

A view from near the university buildings in Pale of a small section of the hills-mountains that surround this town. As the town is seeing new apartment and retail buildings pop up in fields and where other buildings existed, I suspect that the sawmill's days in the centar of Pale are numbered. Pale is located in the autonomous Republika Srpska adjacent the larger (but not "large") Federation of Bosna i Hercegovina within the more complex nation state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. How the government works, I don't rightly know. Some or all of it is in the midst of an election campaign with a vote scheduled for sometime in Oktobar.

After registering with the police (I was accompanied there by the English Department secretary, Vera, and the Filozofski Fakultet's lawyer who had to sign a legal form taking responsibilty for me) for a short-term permit, and then going through crazy office runaround in an Italian-build medical clinic (including a meeting with a cigarette-smoking doctor) I've applied to the Ministry of Labour (Republika Srpska or BiH I don't know) for a work licence to teach at the university.

A part of the view inside a store in Pale that seems to specialize in Orthodox ikons, traditional stuff, and local landscape paintings. Haven't yet been inside but I do want a closer look at things seen here.

Rain-wet fresh paprikas outside a store. They have these pale white-yellow peppers (that turn orange then red) rather than green bell peppers like we have in North America. Hot paprikas / peppers on the right.

But all might not be well. I found copies of this poster in Pale. It's a publication of the Salamander Task Force of EUFOR (the 1,500 peacekeepers stationed in BiH from France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Morocco and Albany). Believe it's mostly Italian forces based in Republika Srpska. Know that here are still issues of weapon caches, ammunition, and various types of nasty landmines and similar pressure-triggered devices. Would make for a dangerous form of extreme skiing to get caught by one of them on the wrong slope.

This appears to be a warning of another hazzard in Pale. Seems to me, that this painted wall is a sign or cautional tale of what happens when one goes too deep in one's dependence on shopping and consumerism . . .

T: SFRJ
loc: Adjanska 14
temp: 23 C
sound: Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium

Bosnia-bound

Today, I will travel to Bosnia for the first time since arriving in Eastern Europe just over three weeks ago. We're finally talking real terms at the university; have made an exchange of ideas, proposals. Classes start next month—far later than expected and far later than Canadian universities start their autumn term.

Half an hour from now I'll be walking to the Seventrans bus station here in Senta to buy a ticket for 480 dinar (about $8 CDN or 5.85€) to Novi Sad; get on the 12 noon bus. Zeljko, the Faculty's driver, is to meet me at the Novi Sad bus station on Bulevar Jase Tomica before or after picking up professor Koljevic at his apartman building for our drive west across the souther reach of the Hungarian plateau, or plain, and up into the mountains for the town of Pale.


Accomodation will be on the top floor of the Filozofski fakultet building—the new one just opened this past school year. I was put up in a small hotel in April where I visited this university so I've no idea what to expect of these faculty provided accomodations. During the university year they also provide us with breakfast but other meals are out of pocket. I'm told that we'll even have internet access in the building. We shall see if I can blog from there and/or whether I should take my laptop there (or even have time to use it?) once classes commence.

T-shirt: Mojo
loc: Adjanska 14
temp: 22 C
sound: wind in cherry trees, neighbours on the courtyard

Senta Photos 3

Viewed from the bridge over the Reka Tisa, this is one of the sets of grain silos in Senta. This one has a flour mill, Zitopronet Mlin (the same as Dover Mills on the waterfront in southend Halifax). The other set of grain silos is in the industrial park. I don't know if they're attached to another operation or unto themselves.

This is a sugar beet in my hand: rubbery, mealy, white flesh. It's one that bounced of a loaded high trailer behind a tractor. In Austria and elsewhere they make a wicked rum from the sugar beet, but here it's primarily a source of sugar and raw molasses.

Alltech-Fermin is one of the largest companies in Senta. An American-run manufacturer of yeast-based products for animal feed and other purposes. They have a series of directional signs to the factory on all the major roads into Senta.

A faded and grafittied Senta sign on the edge of town, as soon as one crosses the reka Tisa from the territory of Choka.

t-shirt: SFRJ
loc: Adjanska 14
temp: 26 C
sound: Hot Toddy The Salty Sessions, Vol. 1

Saint George

Finally, Saturday, the statue is revealed! Definitely believe it's a riverman but need to get some Hungarian text translated to better understand what I've seeing . . .


On the the riverside road, just up from the statue, there were men in big capes and girls in some period's clothing. All with carrying carafs of wine and glases or short plastic cups. Their anchor was a special tent with this "Bacskai Szent György Borrend" banner and small kegs or barrels on the table. The men were posing for pictures with or for people sitted at the nighttime concert's beer tent tables. Everyone had wine. Even I was given a glass to be filled gratis.

Days later, I've uncovered that this was a wine tasting [new wines likely, but I don't know for sure] by one of a network of wine brotherhoods or societies across Europe. Perhaps the wines were locally grown grapes pressed?


Here's a pic taken while three of the brotherhood were posed with two of the yellow T-shirt-wearing Friends of Senta Committee, for a photo taken by a man to my left. the cape-robes are elaborate—especially the embroidered grapes and vines. I've no idea what is on the medalions, but would suspect it's more of this wine-tasters association. Buddy in brown is likely the head.

T: grey
loc Adjanska 14
temp: 24 C
sound: Ember Swift Dirty Pulse

Republic (HU)

Several nights of concerts happened during the Senta 500th weekend. The Friday night show was by these guys:

A Hungarian rock or Hungarian anthem band that appeared to be very well-known and well-loved by the crowd. A large crowd for the size of the town, thousands, it was. All ages: from babies in strollers and kids on dad's shoulders to teens in Exploited, Korn and System of a Down stirts and great-grandparents whose fashion stopped decades ago.

Several streets were closed off for beer tents and food & candy stands, grills, other vendors (the band had their own table-tent: CDs, scarves, pens, lightes, key fobs, shirts, hoodies, hats) including the near-requsite glo-stix and metallic heleium balloons. Matthew heard of this band when he was first in Hungary 14 years ago, but this is his first time seeing them perform. Like many a Canadian Celtic or Quebéc rock band they had a fiddle/violin in with all the electric guitars. They had a great many singalong songs, audience carrying the chorus with volume while dancing or waving scarves, even raising lighters . . .

But all Hungarian in a town in Serbia . . . Hungarian and Serbian politicians in the wings . . .

Above is one of my favourite photoes from within the riverside party concert crowd. This kid loves his balloon!

T-shirt: Bagad Kelc'h Keltieg Kombrid
loc: Adjanska 14
temp: 26 C
sound: Chicks with Sticks (Hungarian dub) on HBO

Side by Side Fall Workshop / Atelier d’automne Côte à Côte

Side by Side Fall Workshop: An Intensive Workshop in Creative Writing and Literary Translation
Fredericton, New Brunswick
Sept. 30 – Oct. 1, 2006
Part of the Side by Side Festival

We’ve designed the Side by Side Fall Workshop to give beginning and intermediate literary translators an opportunity to explore literary translation as a form of creative writing. The 25-hour workshop will include creative writing and translation exercises, group discussions, and literary readings and lectures by writers and literary translators.

Workshop Leaders: Jo-Anne Elder & Sonya Malaborza

On Saturday, Sept. 30, to celebrate International Translation Day, there will be a one-day bilingual workshop in theatre.

Application forms and details can be sent by e-mail. Fees include some lunches and snacks. There is a reduced rate for students and artists.

Write to Jo-Anne Elder, commandes_info@ellipsemag.org

---

dans le cadre du festival Côte à Côte :
Atelier d’automne Côte à Côte :
formation intensive en création et en traduction littéraire
à Fredericton (NB)
du 29 septembre au 2 octobre 2006

L’atelier d’automne Côte à Côte a été conçu et organisé par les éditions ellipse inc. dans le but d’offrir aux traducteurs et traductrices littéraires en début de carrière et en mi-carrière l’occasion de mettre en pratique les techniques d’écriture et de traduction pour réaliser des textes littéraires de tous genres. L’atelier consiste en 25 heures d’activités, d’exercices, et de discussions, ainsi que des tables rondes et des lectures organisées en collaboration avec des écrivain.e.s et des traducteur.trice.s de la région. L’atelier aura lieu pendant le festival Côte à Côte, qui se poursuivra jusqu’au 3 octobre 2006. Les langues d’enseignement seront l’anglais et le français.

Animatrices : Jo-Anne Elder et Sonya Malaborza

Le samedi 30 septembre, la Journée mondiale de la traduction, il y aura un atelier bilingue sur la création en théâtre pour les débutants. Les demandes et d’autres renseignements sont disponibles par l’Internet. Nous offrirons des conditions de paiement et des rabais intéressants aux étudiant.e.s, et aux artistes. Les frais servent entre autres à défrayer le coût de certains dîners et collations.

Communiquez avec nous : Jo-Anne Elder, directrice commandes_info@ellipsemag.org

Pour vous tenir au courant du festival et de l’atelier, consultez notre blogue :
Read more about the festival and the workshop on our blog: ellipsemaritimes.blogspot.com

retro republic

first time: everything ever
thrown away came back
unrecognized then familiar
washed up on shore burying
the beach and stilling waves
it piled so high the curve
of earth's horizon was lost
and i was pressed backward
by the enormity of everything
that had meaning or something
or had crossed my path

the next time it was me
adrift in the river—nose
and an eye above water—
seeing bodies all around mine
—some dead some alive—
and more falling or being pushed
by fighting—saber horse and gun
—back downriver one way
or hopelessly another with no
one looking for survivors except
ourselves if we made shore

third was the din the noise
of a gone-for-how-long-now
come-of-age and killed in garage
brought back by persistent request
no garlic paprika or horseshoes
dried flower wreaths by the door
everywhere zombies drop their heads
translucent slow life motion
mud and straw bricks crumble dust
over another half a millennium town
changing not so fast a sudden death

---

T-shirt: Alaska
loc: Adjanska
temp: 10 C
sound:

Mojo Club

Before 11 AM, it's closed evry day. Not just locked but gated with a welded iron grill. When open, it's posted hours are until 2 AM (except Sunday & Monday till midnight). Tomorrow night, some of Zenta will be celebrating its 500 years of existence while others will be gathering in Mojo to hear and feel a Nirvana tribute band from Beograd.

Inside is all dark wood festooned with stuff from their own past, and acquired from other bars, concerts and their patrons [a Picaroons beer coaster is going there as soon as I remember to take one]. There a pool table that gets covered on band/DJ nights for tabletop dancing. There's a British-style dartboard from a German bar that's never been used in Mojo else there'd be dart holes in other stuff on the wall.

It's a two-story pub with an open balcony all around the top floor that's most often used as a dining area (pizza, spaggetti, lepinje—a type of sandwich, chicken wings, etc.). There's a few skylights in the sloped open-beam ceiling. Turkish toilets only—a long way from the invention of Thomas Crapper in England and his successors. Takeout available for delivery on the back of a Tomas bike.

This place is truly a local, a great one at that. Everyone from grandparents to grandchildern and dogs in one place. Kiara's vet showed up there last night not an hour after he'd administered the three-month needle. The plumber who worked on the dying clothes washer (inherited with house) hangs there. As does the maker of the cold-wrought iron shelving; the mason who tiled the bathroom; the friend who came with his lawnmover before the funeral party . . . it's almost as if you could say, "If they don't go to Mojo, they're not the right person to do something for or with me."

Here's a view of some of the ceiling over the bar downstairs with the latest version of the club's t-shirt hanging above all. I still haven't made it to a live entertainment night (not so easy when one's partner has a 5-year old). Summer afternoons and night are great for sitting on the long bench at the converted sewing machine tables (mostly Singer bases, one Durkopp) on its narrow sidestreet. Plenty of converation, friendly people, cheap pivo (beer)—60 dinar (about $1 Canadian) for a 0.5 litre bottle of Jelen or Lav.

Jelena and I did hear some of the recent Reggae Night. It was all CD music (not live like Wednesday nights at The Taproom with Dub Antenna on stage).

Last weekend was busy with DJ Fraser (from Hungary) playing till 5 AM Saturday and that night the band Plug In played with their cover of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead and more . . . Both nights were great, we've heard. Once Matthew's vinyl arrives from Portland, Oregon I suspect that mrtigerstripes will DJ some nights @ Mojo.

T-shirt: Moose (by Red Crane)
loc: Adjanska 14
temp: 25 C
sound: Bon Jovi "Something for the Pain"

Meanwhile, in Fredericton

Meanwhile, in Fredericton, New Brunswick that loaded date of 11 September will see a large artists eexibition opening. I'm in the show, but it's impossible for me to attend the opening. I'm so till not sure that celebration our art making is what we should be doing on that date, but it's not my decision, not my planning . . . just the conclusion to another arts project that I was happy to participate in.

---

Fredericton City Hall Gallery presents
Fredericton Arts Alliance Casemates
Artists-In-Residence Exhibition:
Emerging vs. Established Artists

• Joanne Barfitt • Ned Bear • Jennifer Beckley • Joe Blades • Jacqueline Bourque • Carol Collicutt • Kyle Cunjak • Derek Davidson • Oliver Flecknell • William Forrestall • Tara Francis • Chris Giles • Carlos Gomes • Liz Haines • Chris Harding • Stephen May • Marilyn Mazerolle • Sarah Petite • Denise Richard • Ursula Sommerer • Shanie Stozek • Kim Vose Jones • Janice Wright Cheney •

Opening Reception: Monday, September 11, 6-7 pm
Exhibition Dates: September 11 - November 17, 2006
Gallery Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:15 am - 4:30 pm

---

T-shirt: Joe Canada 2006
Loc: Zenta centar
temp: 26 C
sound: ¡Cubanismo! Reencarnatión

Zenta: Civil Nap 2006

The house I'm living in used to be the servant quarters attached to a far larger mansion when it was build 150 or so years ago (so this brick and mortar Austro-Hungarian era mansion, with its freemason symbol still above the street entrance to the courtyard, with its large cherry trees, is as old as the City of Fredericton).

Earlier this week flyers like the one above appeared in Mojo Club and elsewhere. A few days later posters appeared in windows and on walls in the centar of town. [One will become the cover of a new journal I've started today.]

This weekend, along with an annual hot air balloon festival, Senta will be celebrating its 500th anniversary. There's at least one new statue (still under wraps) erected overlooking the river Tisa. There will be other activities that I think I might want to see. I've heard, having reached this half-millenium mark, that Senta will now be declared a "royal city". Whose "royal" I don't know, and am not sure I want to know . . . Austrian, Yugoslav in exile, or?

Weirdly (and annoying for some) all of the posters and stuff seen is only in Hungarian (not Austrian German), not in Serbian.

The celebration happens this weekend because of another historic occurrence here . . .

The Battle of Zenta (Battle of Senta)
Part of Great Turkish War
Result: Decisive Austrian victory

Combatants

Austria
Commander: Prince Eugene of Savoy
Strength: 34,000 infantry, 16,000 cavalry, 60 guns
Casualties: 500

Ottoman Empire
Sultan Mustafa II
Strength: above 80,000
Casualties: 30,000

The Battle of Zenta or Battle of Senta, fought on September 11, 1697 just south of modern Serbian town of Senta (German: Zenta), on the east side of Tisa (Tisza), was a major engagement in the Great Turkish War (1683–1699) and one of most decisive defeats in Turkish history.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So, at least here in Senta-Zenta, 11 September has had a positive memory for many Austro-Hungarian descent locals for a great many years. There's been a monument for this battle and a museum that covers it and more (which I've yet to visit).

T-shirt: Joe Canada 2006
Loc: Zenta centar
temp: 26 C
sound: Wonderful Madness

Found Photo du Jour

Found this morning in the farmers' market, Senta, Serbia. Clearly a passport or similar identification card photo. Usually one alone is not sufficient. Just today I got a list of materials needed for an upcoming undertaking of mine and "2 photos" for ID purposes is on the list.

T-shirt: Joe Canada 2006
loc: Zenta centar
temp: 25 C
sound: Milapojka Youheed Ghastly Beyond Belief!

radio void

tuesday. it's been over a month now since i've done a live radio show at CHSR. i don't think that doing the weekly ashes, paper & beans was a feather or wing of the albatross round my neck, guano on my shoulders and back, but after eleven and a half years on air it may well have been. i could be in denial that it was part of the a cause rather than a victim of how trapped and spun i've felt of late (or, according to some friends, the past several years). . . grants spiralling downward like birds shot out of the sky. tripping me up like raised broken sidewalk or roots on night-dark paths with no flash or moon illumination to light my way . . . creation itself isn't a problem. i think problems come from feelings of responsibility for those creations or things done with, to, for, because of creations: i.e. writing is one thing. wanting or expecting to do some thing with one's writings is quite another (especially if you expect to get, convince, make someone else do something with your writings. it's no fun begging. collaboration is good if everyone is open and clear out front. making a book, or getting a book made, of one's own writings is only another beginning. books on their own are as inert as a stone or argon gas. they do nothing but sit in boxes. a box of books on the back is dead weight. bill bissett once said, "all publishers in this country have bad backs, especially if they're poets." what does all this have to do with the radio show or the radio void in my life? i'm not sure . . . but i still have not posted what i spun on my last shows

T: plain grey
loc: Senta centar
temp: 26 C
sound: Bombay Dub Orchestra

Senta Photos 2

The very beautiful Senta fire station one rainy day last week.

Number 52 is a project for a handyman capable of doing a serious fixer-upper. There's no building whatsoever behind this remaining street facade. It's been gone so long that a good-size tree has grown in the doorway.

One of many grill tents at the first-Sunday-of-the-month open market in Senta. Everything is available there from live farm animals to furniture, used clothing, kiddie rides, candy, toy guns, footwear, secondhand equipment and tools and parts thereof, furniture, honey, secondhand armed force clothes, fruit and vegetables, sport fishing gear, firewood . . .

An exhausted Kiara and still lively Lara moment.

Part of the Senta skyline in last night's sunset. There's not much riging above the treetops: a few church steeples, the top of city hall, the fire siren/communication tower. The riverside grain silos are out of frame downriver (to the left).

Sunset on/from the bridge over the river Tisa.

T: grey
loc: Senta centar
temp: 24 C
sound: Los Lobos By the Light of the Moon

Photos, finally!

Fredericton, New Brunswick from the air just after takeoff. 23 Aug 2006. My last view of the city with my own eyes (though I have found a City of Fredericton live webcam, refreshing itself every 60 seconds, on the Weather Network site which shows riverside trail and part of the too-grandly named Port of Fredericton with the "SS Bradside" tied-up in clear view.

Munich, with some Olympic facilities visible, shortly after takeoff in a Canadair-built jet as we're about to turn and head over of the Alps for Budapest. 24 Aug 2006.

The city-wide, artist-painted moulded animal craze continues with cattle throughout sektors of downtown Budapest.

Happy Jelena on Saturday afternoon in the Csarda caffe-bar with friends on the bank of the Tisa just upriver from Senta.

Not the way I'd imagined spending one of my birthdays but, going with the flow, I'd spent the day of, and the evening before, with members of Jelena's extended family gathered in Senta from Beograd, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, and elsewhere for the funeral for Vela Neider. Vela was Jelena's uncle, and Eva's brother. Jelen's parents, Eva and David, came to stay here at her place, so family and friends visited here. I was party to it all, even while Jelena was at work on Tuesday. It involved much brandy, pivo, vino, food, and conversation mostly in Serbia with some French and a very little German, Russian and English. Afterwards, I was asked to take a Neider family photo at their grandparents' gravestone.

T-shirt: Mojo Club
loc: Adjanska 14
temp: 18 C
sound: Junior Brown Long Walk Back