I was in Belgrade,
a late night nostalgia

Vuk Cosic

I spoke to Irena while we ate our breakfast in the "Aca" bakery, best in town. We talk about everything, and that is nice. She likes to come to Belgrade with me, and this is our second time. We bought lots of funny badges and photos of the demonstrations later, and have even made a little web divertissement about Milosevic’s wife, the cannibal.

<!— If I’m not to tired, I’ll put it on the server after I write these paragraphs. Check: http://www.ljudmila.org/~vuk/mira/ —>

I spoke to my friend Milos who is a Saatchi designer, making New Moment, a known magazine about nothing. He is probably the nicest man in town, and thinks NL is the country to live in ("best design and best people"). When people make noise for the tv news, he puts his guitar amplifier to the window and tunes an old strato for half an hour. He now has a new girlfriend Marija that I liked very much - Milos likes Irena and we joked about switching.... but never told the girls. I think I don’t like that.

I spoke to my friend Talent who is a very good artist (and I will do a web site with him one day). He told me of his brain tumor, and I was sad. Then we went to the flea market where we had a great time. We bought things. Once, when we were leaning against a cordon of armed policemen, he was shouting at people that wanted to talk to these killers who hurt about 300 people the previous night on the bridge. Talent is very nervous at times, and I hope he’ll be better soon. I often think of him as of my best friend, when I am confronted with a form that asks me that question. He comes to Ljubljana a few times a year, and everybody loves his work. I am so proud.

I spoke to my friend Tanja, she used to be Talent’s girlfriend, but is now with Dusan the famous sax player with whom I went to Paris for some education. Tanja is an architect and nervous (many Belgrade friends are). She is always carrying her whistle, and other paraphernalia... I think it looks good on her, but I didn’t find the good moment to tell her that. She is now learning some 3D graphics, but doesn’t want to tell me more. One evening we were all sitting at my place when Philip called to say we should stay in because the police were beating everybody that wears a badge, or a whistle, or tennis shoes - Tanja had all of that. That was the bridge night when all those people were hurt. Sasa came then to install some extra RAM in my brothers computer, and I showed some net.art to my dearest friends that night. Later Tanja said it was a nice night.

I spoke very little to my friend Dejana, she is Talent’s girlfriend now and makes amazing art fashion. I think she’s a bit of a maniac when it comes to her work. She is also using the humorous interface very nicely, and I like her very much too.

I spoke to my new friend Drazen, he is running B92 net activities, and is a hero of Real Audio. We always make lots of plans, and I think that is typical for people that first met online, and then have to use every moment of the actual meeting to plot. This is pathological with some people I know, such as myself. We will meet in Rotterdam tomorrow, Drazen and I.

I spoke to my friend Sonja, and she is one tough bitch. On the wall in her office there’s a photo of Al Gore who is vice president of America, and America is a big country. She’s one of my mother’s dearest friends actually, and is head of Soros, so I now know all about their satellite and non-satellite connectivity problems. We spoke of old times, but she remembered some real old ones, so I left. There I spoke to one more of mother’s friends; she is Vera, and is very dear to me. We wrote a poem together for my fanzine fifteen years ago.

I spoke to my friend Mileta who is a painter and a writer. He gave me a mountain of his new books and catalogues. Other friends call him the minister because he will be one in the opposition government, once it will be made. He spoke seriously about the demonstrations, and gave me some juice that was real good. On the way back to my place I saw very many people in their windows whistling.

I spoke to my friend Dejan who runs SCCA, we exchanged plenty of materials, and I gave him ZKP3.2.1. He was at our first meeting in Venice, I dragged him there from an opening. He met Diana in Novi Sad and got the ZKP3. He reads a lot, and appreciates these volumes. He told me of that "Cordon Bleu" week - that’s when the students made a cordon in front of a police one. They stood there for a week and have organized a real program for the policeman. Well, Dejan told me of the "art cordon" when artists came with plenty of mirrors. He said that’s the only time the police didn’t look dangerous. And he said he shivered.

I spoke to my friend Debeli (that means "the fat guy", and we call him that because he is tall); he makes films. Some people I don’t know came to his flat, and I met the organizers of the strike at the national TV. They told me how the boss tried to bribe them with mobile phones. They said no, and are heroes now.

And I spoke to many other people too, the taxi drivers, the Skart designers, and more. They were all talking almost only about Milosevic, and I had a great time listening to how critical a critical mass can be. The last day of my stay, Milosevic said he will recognise the elections results that have started the demonstrations. Nobody believed him, and I left satisfied.

Now I am very tired and have no great ideas about how to end this intimate report.