Balkans

Zdravko ÄoliÄ was hugely popular in the late 1970s and 1980s. I was a kid when he filled the Red Star Stadium (which normally seats 90,000 people for the soccer games, when the field itself is not full of people). It is incredible to see him coming back after a 15-year break, visibly older (and not dancing on stage any more) and fill the stadium again! And all those thousands of kids who are singing along and know all the lyrics were not even born when this song, for instance, was a hit - 1985: Pogledom me miluje k'o da me dodiruje i svaki put kao da je prvi Ja stalno mislim prestat ce iz…
Plavi orkestar (Blue Orchestra) is one of the most popular bands from the territory of former Yugoslavia. Founded in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hezegovina in 1983. Plavi Orkestar / Blue Orchestra is described by music encyclopedias as one of the "cultural phenomenons of the 1980's and 1990s" (5 million copies sold). The band has remained popular to date, with 8 albums and more then 2500 concerts worldwide. The band was formed by Sasa Losic aka Losa who was the lead singer and songwriter of the group. Suada Ti si meni sve, ti mi dajes sve i kad tebe nema tesko mi je (2x) Ako te ikad budu pitali…
Yup, I had sarma for dinner tonight. It's been a while since the last time I had some, but Mrs.Coturnix fixed it today, inventing her own recipe along the way. It was delicious!
Galija was a popular band from Southern Serbia. Da li si spavala Da li si sanjala Kako se ruÅ¡i Avala? Da li te nervira Kad ti iz svemira PoÅ¡aljem leptira? Da li si sanjala Kako je nestala Voda iz plavog Dunava? Da li si patila Kada si shvatila Da si me izgubila? NaÄi ÄeÅ¡ cvet Å¡to po meni miriÅ¡e NaÄi ÄeÅ¡ cvet koji nestaje NaÄi ÄeÅ¡ cvet Å¡to po meni miriÅ¡e BiÄe to cvet koji umire. Da li si sanjala Kako sa istoka Putuje tajna poruka? Kada me ne bude Neka te probude Talasi požude. (2x) NaÄi ÄeÅ¡ cvet Å¡to po meni miriÅ¡e NaÄi ÄeÅ¡ cvet koji nestaje NaÄi ÄeÅ¡ cvet Å¡to po meni miriÅ¡e…
Kada gledam tvoje lice Uvijek osjetim vedrinu Koju nosi ljetna noÄ Dodirnem li tvoje ruke Uvijek osjetim toplinu Koju mi je dala moÄ Kad nas napuste voljena Sve radosti iz mladosti Äak i kada bude teÅ¡ko Sve do kraja svog života Od tebe neÄu poÄ I kad doÄe dan, naÅ¡ zadnji dan Kad proÄe san, nas zadnji san Kad nemiri budu dio nas I kada nam kucne zadnji Äas I tada Äuj, Deni, kao i sad Da te volim ja
For old Yugo-nostalgics: Tili ste drugog od prvog trena Cestitog momka iz najboje kuce Niste joj dali da postane žena Niste joj dali da je srce vuce. Tili ste drugog, to ste joj rekli I to da Å¡oldi ne rastu na grani Nego nek cuva sve ca ste stekli I ca ste za nju cuvali na strani. Jubi sam, jubi vaÅ¡u 'cer Ma niste tili marinera Tili ste momka na svom mistu Tili ste zeta inžinjera. Jubi sam, jubi vaÅ¡u 'cer Ja koji ne znam di bi sada Sad kad je davno tuda žena Ca vridi srcu da se nada. Niste joj dali ni da mi piÅ¡e Kako se budi kad se svega siti I kako more prica sve tiÅ¡e I kako cesto…
For the origin, see the comment thread on this post:
Bijelo Dugme (White Button) was the most popular rock band in Yugoslav history, and their most popular song (and they had dozens of mega-hits) was this early silly love song:
Yugoslavs will start crying now:
Last night at the wedding, DJ went around asking for song suggestions and I thought back about Serbian weddings and how many songs there are that are inappropriate for weddings there - so many songs are sad, melancholic romances about lost loves, about lives lost in alcohol after the only loved one got married to someone else. Heck, just a brief look at songs by Djordje Balasevic (aka George Nationale) reveals several of those, so I found a couple on YouTube and posted them under the fold for my Balkan readers - the lyrics are very difficult to translate as he loves to use localisms,…
Watch the entire thing:
Otpisani ('Written Off') is probably the most popular Yugoslav TV series of all times. It is surprising to me that there were only thirteen episodes - this was a cult production. We played them as kids (instead of cowboys and Indians). Two major movies were made. The cast reads like "who is who" of Yugoslav acting. The music theme is a local universal 'meme'. The IMDB reviewer does an excellent job of describing the phenomenon: Nowadays, over thirty years since "Otpisani" (aka "The Written-Off", a Serbian TV production, 1974) hit the Yugoslav screens, it is difficult to grasp the…
People have been cooking in Belgrade, Serbia, for weeks now. Last time I am aware of that the temperature was this high was when I was in pre-school. Today's pictures:
It's been a while since I last blogged about the Bosnian Pyramid (I did follow the story superficially, though, but was sick of trolls attracted to the topic), but I have to break the silence for this piece of good news: The Culture Ministry found the "research" conducted by Osmanagic's team to be questionable and the collaborators of Osmanagic to lack the credibility needed to allow for continued funding of their "project." Also criticized by the Bosnian government, according to Javno, is the methods by which Osmanagic et al presented their findings, particularly the fact that they routinely…
Not that it costs anything to have one... Yet, the Konsortium of science libraries in Serbia is seriously contemplating shutting down their KOBSON blog, an invaluable tool in science communication in the region. Danica, who the regular readers of this blog are quite familiar with as she is the Number One Champion for Open Science and Web 2.0 science in Serbia, has put a lot of effort into building the online infrastructure for Serbian scientific communication, including the KOBSON blog and the KOBSON wiki, as well as teaching and preaching to the local scientific community about the…
Explanation Actually, the picture (author is Antun Zuljevic, a birder extraordinnaire) is from the village of Svilojevo in northern Serbia (Vojvodina, near the town of Apatin on the Danube) where the Locust Trees have been cut, and nobody is building large haystacks any more, so the storks are forced to build nests in crazy places. This pair of White Storks was not successful in nesting on this factory chimney last year, but they had better luck this time around. Yup, storks prefer nesting on chimneys only in fairy tales. In reality, that is the site of last resort. Source: Google group…
Graduate of the University of Belgrade (Serbia), City University (UK) and UNC-Chapel Hill (USA), with a Masters from University of Belgrade, Danica Radovanovic is currently in Belgrade without a job and she is looking for one either in Serbia, in Western/Northern Europe or in the USA. Danica is the tireless Serbian pioneer in all things online: blogging, open source, Linux, science blogging, open science, social networking software, online publishing, eZine editing, etc. She is the force behind putting Serbian science online and making it open. She has done research on Internet use in…
From John I learned that Serbia is becoming a birding hot-spot! Two species of pelicans (Pelecanus crispus and Pelecanus onocrotalus), which used to nest in Serbia before but were driven out by draining of marshland for agriculture in the late 19th century, are back (not nesting yet, but some individuals are back) and you can see a picture of one of them here. A journalist for 'Birdwatch' magazine went to the very first birding tour in Serbia back in 2004 and he wrote about his trip and his impressions. This website provides a lot more information about birds and birding in Serbia. I wish…
First, as I reported earlier, Archy persuaded PZ Myers to host a one-time carnival about the opening of the Creation Museum - and here is the carnival - a lot of good stuff to read. I especially liked the only (so far) on-the-scene report by Martha Heil. I also tend to prefer posts that try to take in a Big Picture and place stuff in broader historical and/or geographical context, thus, I really liked contributions by Laelaps and Greg Laden. They are optimistic, though. The view from outside, from Europe, can be much more pessimistic. Also, some of the comments on this post remind me of my…
An interesting poll came out of Gallup yesterday: Despite Kosovo Intervention, Serbians Favor EU Membership On May 15, the Serbian parliament approved a new coalition government led by Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and President Boris Tadic, both moderates who would like to see their country join the European Union within the next decade. "Serbia's aspiration to become a full member of the EU is a clearly declared commitment of every party in this coalition," Kostunica told the parliament prior to confirmation. However, Serbia's refusal to compromise on any plan for the future of Kosovo…