Living in Switzerland

party time!

balkanekspress @ Stall6
Freitag 26 Oktober 2007
Stall 6
Gessnerallee 8
8001 Zürich

www.stall6.ch

B-Ekspress 3rd Station Serbia: Darkwood Dub (SER), Prekmurski Kavbojci (CH) & balkanekspress
Samstag 27 Oktober 2007
Konzerte ab 19.00 Uhr
afterparty mit balkanekspress

KiFF
Tellistrasse 118
5001 Aarau

www.darkwooddub.com
www.p-k.info
www.kiff.ch

WILD WILD EAST – mit Let3 (CRO) und balkanekspress
Samstag 10 November 2007
ab 22.00 Uhr

DJs
Alain Ford, Yuzni Wjetar & Sunny Icecream
Balkan Beats, Russendisko, Klezmer- und Gipsy Grooves

Kraftfeld
Lagerplatz 18
Sulzerareal, Winterthur

www.myspace.com/lettri
www.kraftfeld.ch

balkanekspress: Vlatko Stefanovski Trio (MAC)
Freitag 21 Dezember 2007
Konzert ab 20.30 Uhr
Party ab 24.00 Uhr

moods im Schiffbau
Schiffbaustrasse 6
8005 Zürich

www.vlatkostefanovski.com.mk
www.moods.ch

****
balkanekspress: PREKMURSKI KAVBOJCI (CH, SLO) & DOBRA NOTCH (UKR)
Freitag 23 November 2007
Konzert ab 20.30 Uhr
Party ab 24.00 Uhr
DJ.Mr Paan/Berlin und Balkanekspress

moods im Schiffbau
Schiffbaustrasse 6
8005 Zürich

www.myspace.com/prekmurskikavbojci
www.moods.ch

****

Wild Wild East - Durch den Wilden Osten mit LET3 (Cro) und balkanekspress
Samstag 10 November 2007
ab 21 Uhr

The Nr. 1 in Croatia! Balkanbeats-Elektropunk-Turbofolk

Anschliessend Party mit balkanekspress & Sunny Icecream - Balkan Beats, Gipsy- und Klezmer Grooves, Russendisko.

KRAFTFELD
Lagerplatz 18
Sulzer-Areal
8400 Winterthur

www.myspace.com/lettri
www.kraftfeld.ch

****

B-EKSPRESS: 3RD STATION SERBIA
Samstag 27 Oktober 2007
DARKWOOD DUB (SERBIA), PREKMURSKI KAVBOJCI (CH) & balkanekspress (ZH)
Konzert ab 19 Uhr

KiFF - IG Kultur in der Futterfabrik
Tellistrasse 118
5001 Aarau

www.kiff.ch
www.moods.ch

****

Balkan Gypsy Brass Beats
Freitag 26 Oktober 2007
ab 22.00h Party mit
balkanekspress

Stall 6
Gessnerallee 8
8001 Zürich

****

balkanekspress: Amira (BiH)
Samstag 13 Oktober 2007
Konzert ab 20.30 Uhr
Party ab 24.00 Uhr

moods im Schiffbau
Schiffbaustrasse 6
8005 Zürich

www.snailrecords.com/Schaal/amira.html
www.moods.ch

I didn’t post for quite a while - not that I didn’t have an inspiration but I was so busy lately - and then I read the first part of the new Annabelle article called something like “Being mother is the sole happiness”. I must say I am speechless. Not that I have (or would have) anything against mothers or being a mother (on the contrary) but then, I still don’t understand why is the role of the mother always connected to the role of the housewife or/and a woman who is abandoning her career?

My first thought was if that’s just a new modern kind of brainwashing* called “let’s all of us (women) be housewives” but then I went to the Kiosk, bought the magazine and read the whole article. I must say my fears disappeared when I read what the Annabelle journalists and especially the readers are thinking. There are no worries mates: the trend is not really popular among educated people. Phew, what a relief!

BTW, did you read it and what do you think?

* I come from the country where the brainwashing was the “normal” thing in your life. Luckily I was too young at that time so I am not damaged but that just made me more observable for some other types of brainwashing.

Few weeks ago I’ve been on a concert of the No Smoking Orchestra in the X-TRA. It was really fun, a great show, almost better than a concert. You know what I mean: funny breaks between the songs, getting girls from the audience on stage and a lot of entertainment. Very similar to the concert (scenario) which I saw in the Rote Fabrik in the summer of 2001. Pretty the same. Anyway, isn’t that actually the purpose of the concert, to entertain the fans? And “The No Smoking Orchestra” surely succeeded that.
Emir Kusturica, “the best director among the guitar players and the best guitar player among the directors” - as Dr Nele Karajlic would say - asked us if we are ready to start a revolution. The confused fans gently said yes! He would then come next week and remind us of that, he said. Sure. He knew and we knew that something like that is impossible. He was wearing the Che Guevara T-Shirt rounded with the look which I can’t actually describe. In my opinion, some mix of wisdom, boredom, stubbornness and happiness.

At the end of the concert, I couldn’t help but wonder if that is the best of the Serbian music which can represent my country in Switzerland and the world. Surely not. Although Kusturica is one of my favorite directors and the band is good I would like to hear Disciplina Kitschme playing here, for example. But, besides the brass orchestras this kind of mix of punk rock, ethno and folk is very popular among Swiss people, too. No wonder then that the open-air Paleo Festival in Nyon is dedicating the whole Village du Monde program to the bands and artists from the Eastern Europe. They call it the “schizophrenic journey”. I would recommend you to check that.

BTW, you would probably like to know something more about Kusturica’s ex-colleague and partner Goran Bregovic as well as about the history of the Zabranjeno pušenje group.

Somebody hacked the ticket machine in Kloten and look out what they’ve managed!
Still, I prefer the “I love you” hack.

For all those who haven’t heard yet.

Just in case you didn’t know, there is a Swiss Top 100 Blogs ranking list. You can read more about it here. But, if you get hooked on it, please don’t blame me.

… where you could play music very loud and go wild. No, but not here. Here, you are not supposed to play loud music in your appartment and surely not after 22:00. So, we organized a small “sitting and eating party” (sedeljka in Serbian) which was fine, too. I hope no one got ill of our food or wine and that everyone got home safely.
Maybe you would ask me about the music we played which is actually the separate story. For example, I tried to “bring up” the music of a serbian punk rock group Goblini to my swiss-german friends. Actually I was encouraged (in Serbian I would rather say: “I took the chance”) by one of them who (somehow) knew about Goblini. So, they politely listened to three of my favorite Goblini songs, including “Anja volim te” (Anja, I love you) and afterwards we switched back to good old neutral artists like Jamiroquai, Coldplay and RHCP. I wonder what would happen if I (by any chance) tried to play Boban Markovic Orchestra or something like that. Well, either we would loose our appartment or some of our friends, or both.
Anyway, it was really pleasant non-smoking evening. Pitty that my serbian friends from Bern didn’t want to camp at our place but had to pick up the train very early, already at 22:30. I hope next time everyone will stay a bit longer.

PS: Apropos scheduling the parties and especially the “until” part, I like to remember the story told from a good friend of mine living in USA, where you are invited for a party from (for example) 17:00 until 19:00. Isn’t that funny? And I always thought Swiss people are well-organized.

So here we are. The circle is closed. Zürich is the first swiss city I visited and after 5.5 years I am living here. I remember these four sunny days in July 2000 and a grandma near Münsterplatz who couldn’t understand my german. Sure, I visited Zürich many times since then, but everything looks a bit different now. I discovered some cute streets I didn’t know and saw some well-known buildings getting renovated, even my new object of desire called the Pestallozi library.
Although I really love Bern I have to admit that Zürich is beautiful and glamourous. I think it will be fun to live here.

I’ve just found one interesting publication called eSEEurope Regional Information and Communications Technologies Sector Status and Usage Report: Building an Information Society for All. Sure, the situation in my home country is of the most importance for me, so for example here’s what is written on the page 54 under “Readiness for information society”.

Serbia has to invest in human capital. Permanent education of knowledge workers and production of skilled entry-level workers for the new economy was identified as the most important issue. Economy will need thousands of high-school level workers, proficient in basic ICT skills. Special emphasis must be given to basic training in latest programming languages and standards: Java, ActiveX, Flash, C#, XML, etc. Additional hundreds of thousands of entry-level workers capable of using computers in their everyday jobs will be needed.

…

What should be kept in mind is the fact that thousands of workers are unemployed and many more will become so during the process of privatization and restructuring. Social programs should be used to retrain them for the new economy by emphasizing training in ICT skills and reducing the number of retraining programs for the old economy jobs. It is important to create national electronic job market that is skills based.