Sunday, May 11, 2008
Sunny day in Sarajevo
Well, it is nice out, yesterday I stayed home, it wasn't nice out, and frankly I didn't feel like going anyplace. I was kind of spoiling for a migraine. I have a light one today. I don't know what set it off, but changeable weather tends to set it off, so that is what I am blaming! :) I was just tired. I attempted to watch 'Gluvi Barut'. The film is good in places, but it portrays a fairly brutal and unfortunate series of events. It actually covers a group of Serbian Partizans, v.s. a group of Cetniks. Things started off tense, and proceeded to get messily ugly. The music is by Goran Bregovic, so it's good. Lots of nice horses and sheep. Interesting people, very good costuming*, majestic landscapes, but do not let little children see it, it is pretty violent.
*I kind of wondered about the women in this film. This story was set in a Bosnian Serb village, but an awful lot of the women seemed to be wearing face veils....I don't know if they were captive women, or what?
I noted stecci in the village graveyard. So the village can't have ALWAYS been Serb! :).
I watched last night, part of 'One Night With The King'. This is about Queen Esther, who saved the Jews in Persia, the holiday Purim celebrates this. Again, some violence, wonderfully anachronistic costumes.
Queen Vashti had the best dress! It was a Bollywood looking Rajasthani wedding dress, magnificent, probably worth at least $1500 in U.S. funds! Maybe more considering the condition of the dollar at this point. it wasn't bad, just that I am about fed up with anachronistic historical dramas. It is not that hard to do the research and have things right. it isn't even that expensive most of the time to have things right. The actors were fairly good, again lots of nice horses, lots of cool buildings, which were probably above the technological level of the period in question.
I kind of got tired of the fuzzy picture on the channel with 'One Night With the King' and returned to FTV and watched half of 'Pecat'. That series really is good. Ranko is turning into a very interesting character.
I feel bad for Sanja, the daughter of Marija. Her parents, Mirza and Marija keep sending her to her room. She is probably around 20, and that is NEVER a Good Thing!
I gave up sending my kids to their rooms well before that age! That doesn't mean I never yelled at them, sometimes I would be frustrated with them and about HAVE to yell at them, but one place didn't really have rooms, so we all had places we sat and sulked, or I would go out, or they would go out, into the big yard. It depended on weather, and whether it was day or night. I didn't really do curfews either. I would ask them to tell me where they would be, who would be with them, and told them, I'd pay for a cab home if things were not what they should be.
I did tell them, if they wanted a drink or even to smoke at home, it was allowed, I'd buy the stuff for them, but they were not to do either of those things among their friends, because they would get into trouble that way. I did say, 'do leave anyplace if you notice any drugs or alchol in use, it tends to get people into totally unacceptable trouble. Call a cab, I will pay for it.' They didn't go to a lot of those sorts of parties, I never had to pay a cab.
So I had a few late nights, no kids came home drunk, stoned or knocked up, and no one got into horrible trouble.
Sometimes I think that the lure of forbidden fruit is too much for young people. the best way to deal with these issues is to be totally blunt and practical about them. To point out that their friends who give in to that stuff now have lives which SUCK! To point out the financial aspects. Kids do notice that money isn't all that easy to get.
Of to another tangent, I noticed in yesterday's 'Oslobodenje' an ad from KBR in English, a fairly high register American English, for employment in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. Anyone here who's English is good enough to read that ad can probably get a safer job!
The interviews are at the Holiday Inn, and you have to register online to get an appointment. Again, anyone with computer skills up to getting registered, probably can get something safer.
Of course the ad doesn't appeal to whoever wants a safe job, and I noticed the fine print pointed out that this was a risky job, in dangerous territory and that you could get hurt.
Just thought it was interesting. Often when job ads are in English, there is a corresponding ad right next to it in Bosnian. This was not the case with this ad.
*I kind of wondered about the women in this film. This story was set in a Bosnian Serb village, but an awful lot of the women seemed to be wearing face veils....I don't know if they were captive women, or what?
I noted stecci in the village graveyard. So the village can't have ALWAYS been Serb! :).
I watched last night, part of 'One Night With The King'. This is about Queen Esther, who saved the Jews in Persia, the holiday Purim celebrates this. Again, some violence, wonderfully anachronistic costumes.
Queen Vashti had the best dress! It was a Bollywood looking Rajasthani wedding dress, magnificent, probably worth at least $1500 in U.S. funds! Maybe more considering the condition of the dollar at this point. it wasn't bad, just that I am about fed up with anachronistic historical dramas. It is not that hard to do the research and have things right. it isn't even that expensive most of the time to have things right. The actors were fairly good, again lots of nice horses, lots of cool buildings, which were probably above the technological level of the period in question.
I kind of got tired of the fuzzy picture on the channel with 'One Night With the King' and returned to FTV and watched half of 'Pecat'. That series really is good. Ranko is turning into a very interesting character.
I feel bad for Sanja, the daughter of Marija. Her parents, Mirza and Marija keep sending her to her room. She is probably around 20, and that is NEVER a Good Thing!
I gave up sending my kids to their rooms well before that age! That doesn't mean I never yelled at them, sometimes I would be frustrated with them and about HAVE to yell at them, but one place didn't really have rooms, so we all had places we sat and sulked, or I would go out, or they would go out, into the big yard. It depended on weather, and whether it was day or night. I didn't really do curfews either. I would ask them to tell me where they would be, who would be with them, and told them, I'd pay for a cab home if things were not what they should be.
I did tell them, if they wanted a drink or even to smoke at home, it was allowed, I'd buy the stuff for them, but they were not to do either of those things among their friends, because they would get into trouble that way. I did say, 'do leave anyplace if you notice any drugs or alchol in use, it tends to get people into totally unacceptable trouble. Call a cab, I will pay for it.' They didn't go to a lot of those sorts of parties, I never had to pay a cab.
So I had a few late nights, no kids came home drunk, stoned or knocked up, and no one got into horrible trouble.
Sometimes I think that the lure of forbidden fruit is too much for young people. the best way to deal with these issues is to be totally blunt and practical about them. To point out that their friends who give in to that stuff now have lives which SUCK! To point out the financial aspects. Kids do notice that money isn't all that easy to get.
Of to another tangent, I noticed in yesterday's 'Oslobodenje' an ad from KBR in English, a fairly high register American English, for employment in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. Anyone here who's English is good enough to read that ad can probably get a safer job!
The interviews are at the Holiday Inn, and you have to register online to get an appointment. Again, anyone with computer skills up to getting registered, probably can get something safer.
Of course the ad doesn't appeal to whoever wants a safe job, and I noticed the fine print pointed out that this was a risky job, in dangerous territory and that you could get hurt.
Just thought it was interesting. Often when job ads are in English, there is a corresponding ad right next to it in Bosnian. This was not the case with this ad.
# posted by Katja R. @ 1:57 AM 
