“I have never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able to do that.”– Pippi Longstocking Marjan Marinšek was the managing director of the Cultural Centre in Velenje, Slovenia. Astrid Lingren was … well, Astrid Lindgren. Marjan and Astrid were friends. In the late eighties Astrid brought Pippi Longstocking to Velenje – … Read more
(This is the first of kite aerial stories about the forštats (Vorstadts, faubourgs) of Ljubljana; now integral parts of the city that were built just outside of city walls. Ljubljana has seven forštats: Saint Peter’s, Poljane, Carlstadt, Trnovo, Krakovo, Gradišče, and Capuchins’ forštat. This one is about Saint Peter’s.) This kite aerial photography session started … Read more
This KAP session started rather innocuously … It was a somewhat sunny day at Ljubljana Marshes; the wind was nice, the bugs and mosquitos were active, the swallows were chasing them around the sky, the crops were blissfully ripening. A typical middle-augustian Saturday afternoon. We were at a place we rarely visit – because we … Read more
A great Calvin and Hobbes strip (almost all of them are great, but this one is really exceptional) shows the main characters chilling on a meadow under an intense blue summer sky, with Hobbes commenting that the sky looks really pretty, when Calvin suddenly declares that it “is too blue” and that it “needs some … Read more
It’s been a long time … the summer is never a good kite flying season, with the oppressive heat, with the air either standing still or whirling like a dervish, with storms springing up from nowhere in a matter of minutes. So when a semi-acceptable opportunity presented itself, we ran to our usual place in … Read more
There were two kites lying on the grass. Abandoned, almost done; the edges were reinforced correctly, the spars were taped down in place, the cover art just a couple of strokes from perfection – but the tails were missing, the bridle was not set yet, and they were both a bit crumpled. Say they were … Read more
“¡A lo mejor!”– Javi We were a couple of pints deep in Guadalquivir – well, in a discussion about Guadalquivir, having re-ignited the ancient debate of riverine salinity. It was late (or early); we were kinda loud while Javier was, as a proud sevillano, trying to keep a low profile, since we were closer to … Read more
This was supposed to be a poetic – or at least a not so informative – article, since we flew our kites here more than we care to count. We told you pretty much everything about this beautiful place in the Ljubljana Marshes landscape park and the river Ižica meandering through it. But … A … Read more
Cyclops were never cool. Κύκλωπες, circle-eyed, one-eyed monsters, relics of a strange and magical past, giants different and bizarre, quintessential Others. Polyphemus of the Odyssey was a Neolithic man, a pastoralist, dabbling in sheep transhumance, having nothing in common with Bronze Age long-distance trading farmers, artisans, boar-helmeted warriors. Cyclopes inhabit strange, scary, inaccessible places – … Read more
Ljubljana is a funny city. It is one of those instantly recognisable Austro-Hungarian towns that can be found all over Central Europe, from Lviv to Linz, from Brasov to Plzen. Cozy, nice, clean, clear, ordered, disciplined, boring, shallowly happy. But Ljubljana has a different feel – something southern is in the air, something Adriatic. Ljubljana can be seen … Read more