BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?

Subject: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 03:32 PM

Thos other threads have been like shooting fish in a barrel. Lets have a real challenge.

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Search for "done for us" threads

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 03:51 PM

For a start, here is a link to the Folk Slovenia Cultural Society. With links to various singers and groups including Katice, with a sound file.

And here is the Cultural Society's "Mission statement" - incorporating the Slovenian contribution to our perennial Mudcat debate "What is folk" :

Any music is performed in a certain time, here and now. The one "here" is characterized by all kinds of music performed by our ancestors, those varieties of music that never ceased passing by and that still keep coming from all parts of the world, and those that in one way or another have found a place to live in our midst. The Folk Slovenia is bringing together the experiences of fiddlers and singers, i.e. ordinary people who lived with music in a way different from ours, with the experiences of modern musical production subject to the ways and rules of modern musical production. The rich musical and singing tradition of the Slovenian world should therefore be valued beyond its function as a mere source enabling us to understand the past. It is a cultural capital left to us by anonymous musicians and singers; it would be unforgivable to lose it through neglect.

While cultivating a positive attitude to it, the members of the Folk Slovenia Cultural Society do not idolize it as an object of worship. They more or less regard it as an inspiration for their own work, be it in the realms of art or entertainment, either as a culturological or an activational platform. Today's musicians and singers learn from folk fiddlers and singers while giving their work a touch of their own personality.

The foremost goal of the Society is to bring together those who care about the future of folk music and folk songs within the borders of the Slovenian cultural sphere. The crucial object of its activities is to familiarize the public with various ways of experiencing traditional music and song in a modern context, while raising the public awareness of these values to a higher level. In addition to yearly and other occasional concerts and entertaining events, the Society also organizes different workshops, panel discussions and lectures whereby it informs the broadest public on the possibilities of adapting traditional music, song and dance to the spirit of the present times. It is also engaged in the publishing of music records and other material to document its own activities and the work of its members, both groups and individuals.

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 04:24 PM

Slovenia?

Ummm...

Don't know, but my dad is from Prague. Does that help?

- LH

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: Big Tim
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 04:33 PM

Slovenia, I love it. It's only 3 hours by road from Salzburg, it's given us very nice and dignified people, the totally amazingly Julian Alps, Lake Bled (pronounced blade), cheap skiing, cheap wine, virtually no crime, and a gorgeous, ancient capital city, Ljubljana.   

Kevin, welcome back!

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: Big Tim
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 04:44 PM

I forgot, it's only a second away from NE Italy too!

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: Mudlark
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 06:17 PM

Big Tim...thanks for the pronouncing help on Bled....how about doing the same for that L word?

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 06:32 PM

Sounds lovely, Big Tim.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 07:14 PM

Karel Chopek invented the word robot.
The first version of Frankenstein was set in Prague.
They make REAL beer there.
What more do you want?

Subject: Well IRE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 08:28 PM

Well I hate to be pedantic(ha ha) but Prague is nowhere near Slovenia.Unless theyve moved the boundaries recently.

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 08:29 PM

Slovenia - an independent republic which used to be part of the Yugoslavia.

Not to be confused with Slovakia, which is the country that used to be the eastern end of Czechoslovakia. (Where Karel Capek or Chopek the roibot man came from).

Not to be confused either with Slavonia, which is part of Serbia, which was heavily bombed in the Kosovo war. (I bet you the peole in Slovenia and Slovakia mnust be glad that Bush wasn't in the driving seat, or they'd have likely been flattened as well.)

Why it's almost as confusing as having an Ohio and an Iowa and an Idaho. Or a Hertfordshire and a Herefordshire.

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: Don Firth
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 08:33 PM

Then Al Capp goes and discovers Slobovia. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 09:01 PM

And then there was Syldavia, where Tintin rescued King Ottokar's Sceptre.

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 09:10 PM

Scraping the barrel, guys

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 09:29 PM

Good music is good music,and Slovenia's got that, and that's a full enough barrel for me. And it looks great in the pictures too. I found a page with a list of all its famous people, and I'd never heard of any of them, and I like that too.

That's a good little country. I want to get to visit it some time.

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 09:33 PM

Whats Harlow ever done for us??

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 09:35 PM

Actually. Ive just had a browse, and for a country so small the sugar beet production looks very impressive

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 10:17 PM

Dammit, misophist, not only did you confuse Slovenia with Slovakia, but you confused Slovakia with the Czech Republic. It's not bad enough that you confuse one of my ancestral homelands with some cheesy Balkan nation (Slovakia is cheesy, too, but not Balkan), but you have to confuse us with those half-Jerry bastards in Prague, as well? Grr. ;)

So, I guess Slovenia has given us 'confusion.' Slovakia and Slovenia are even more confusing if you look at their flags, which are almost identical. Look here for info on the differences.

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 09:54 AM

Thank you. It is truly a pleasure to have riled so many so quickly. I really just wanted to work in the Golem.

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: mousethief
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 12:37 PM

Isn't that were marischino cherries are (originally) from? And dalmatians? Or is that further down the right coast of the Adriatic?

Alex

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: Big Tim
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 12:50 PM

Lake Bled = Blejsko Jezero in Slovenian. The Lake has a roped off lido for swimming. The water is crystal clean and clear, fed by alpine rivers, and full of large trout, which find their way into the local restuarants (not tho for Tim and Mrs Tim who are veggies). In summer the water is as warm as the Agean. In winter it freezes and is is used for skating, tho with global warming it doesn't freeze as hard as it used to do. The skiing around Bled is pretty much beginners slopes. Great skiing can be had at Kranjska Gora a few miles into the mountains. The world record for ski jumping was set there a few years ago, not by Eddie the Eagle!

On the Lake is a small island, the only one in Slovenia (!), with an old church. The locals have a nice wedding custom. The wedding party cross by boat to the island and the groom carries the bride up the steps, quite a few and steep, to the church door. Everyone smiles and cheers! It's about four miles around the Lake, a beautiful walk (in my case a run, 26 mins, not bad for an old man!)

A couple of miles out of town is the Vintgar Gorge, not quite the Grand Canyon but spectacular enough. There's a boardwalk the length of the Gorge, more than a mile, again more trout! The buses all run on time and the drivers are well trained and courteous and all seem to speak good English. Fares are very cheap and the roads very good. German used to be the first foreign language taught (used to be in the Hapsburg Empire) but now it's English. A lot of the young people want to emigrate to English speaking countries. The fools, the fools... (!) The standard of living is said to be poor tho there's little visible signs of poverty. It's a relative thing. Plain clothing rather thn designer stuff at three or four times the price. You therefore see people dressing more individually. The houses are those beautiful alpine chalets, ginormous by average British standards, flower bedecked, with balconies.

Slovenia enters the EU in 2004. Hopefully it won't sell is soul, like my own dear green place Ireland, for the filthy lucre.

There will almost certainly be lots of pics of Bled on the net. There's also a nice picture of it on the cover of the Lonely Planet guide, showing the island, the steps and the church, the 11th century Bled Castle, which I forgot to mention, and the Alps in the background.

It's only a two hour flight from London. Do yourselves a favour and go!

Hopefully the Tourist Board will see this and send me a fat fee!

PS Slovenia has also given us some nice coastal scenery on the Adriatic, down near Trieste in Italy, where James Joyce used to hang out. If you're willing to make a really long day of it, a day drip to Venice is possible from Bled.

Subject: RE: BS What has Slovenia ever done for us?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 01:53 PM

For yet another inaccuracy, we can thank the Croatians for cravats and neckties.