A burning quest

Da! Spaljivanje potraga je! Ja probuditi jutros na spaljivanje potraga!  Oh dear, if I write on Teksikanski or hrvatski or something who knows what this morning, just go with me please.  I have not had my coffee yet! Ne mogu think bez kafe.  And yet I must to think!  The quest is calling me.

A burning quest awakens me from a dream so sweet I dare not write about it.  Your ears would burn and then your body would be ablaze and I dare not do that to you.  I won't do that to you.

I heard her speaking softly in my ear and it was dark.  Oh yes! Oh yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!  And then I heard her say so sweetly and so distinctly:  "Does it mean the same thing it means in english?"

I startled straight up in my bed suddenly fully awake.  It was 0400.  I couldn't sleep anymore. The question: "Does it mean the same thing it means in english?" became the  spaljivanje potraga, the burning quest, that took me away from the dream so sweet I dare not write about it.  Kafe! Oh for a cup of coffee, but there's no time.  I must find the answer to this.  I must! I simply must know!

See, it all started yesterday when I chanced upon a YouTube video wherein Klapa Ragusa is singing "Dobri moj caca."  Such a beautiful old song to which I've listened many times with my brain in low gear or turned off.  In truth I usually just listened to the dulcet tones and ignored the lyrics - who knows why? - except that I must confess that I did not know what is "čača."

"Čača" is not a word in the teksikanski vocabulary.  Well, of course it is but not from the hrvatski side of the teksikanski vocabulary.  Čača is there from the spanjolski side of the vocabulary.  Caca, like Klapa Ragusa sings it, sounds like cha cha - you know - like cha cha cha, the dance but the rhythm of the Dalmacijan song is most assuredly not a  cha cha cha.  So, what means this čača?  Donno.  Brain back into loafing mode.  The song is pretty so who gives a flip?  Just enjoy the music!

Yesterday it was suddenly in my face.  I could not miss it.  This Dobri moj caca is spelled Dobri moj ćaća.  Whoa!!  Klapa Ragusa is singing "čača" and spelling it ćaća. Suddenly it became clear.  Grimm's law of consonantal slips was working here.

This is ćaća like tsa tsa.  Like in car or tsar.  Oh yes the folks who write the engleski dictionary somewhere want to tell you this is derived from caesar.  Idijot romanophiles.  No way. Remember, for example, we took Pannonia away from Rome pretty much like the Amerikanski took Kentucky away from some "Indians."  We just moved in.  The Romans were actually pretty primative, barbaric.  The Amerikanski no call their leader "Big Chief."  We don't either.   We Slavs have our own way to come to that word and its ours way, not belong to some "Big Chief" in some primitive village somewhere over accross the Jadrana. Nope, but we digress.

Nobody does Grimm's law of consonantal slips more dramatically than we Slavs can do it.  We take the prize every time.  The further south you move, the more dramatic we are about this.  We south Slavs are the drama queens and kings of the universe. We can slip  and slide, jump, leap, and turn back flips more gracefully than anyone anywhere can do it.  No one comes close to measuring up to us.  We take the prize.  We are the best. 

Every day I write responses to comments made now in at least 18 or 19 different languages, 15 of which are Slavic languages and mercy mercy do I know about consonantal slippage and vowel shifts.  You don't think I'm smart enough to actually know that  many languages do you?  No way, but I do love my people and like any lover, I just feel my way along.  Čača <- ćaća <- tata.  Oh!  Now I know what a čača is, or rather ćaća pronounced like čača.  Its tata.  Yeah!  Ding! Ding! Ding!  Grimms law!  Grimm's law!!  Cool.  Now the song makes sense to me  and I listen to the tekst as well as the melody and love it all the more. 

I was so proudly sharing my discovery with CJ yesterday when she asked the question:  "does it mean the same thing it means on english?"  I responded something like, I don't know but in this case means on english "daddy."  The song is about "My Good Daddy."  We talked about other things then and her question faded away.  Until 0400 this very morning!  In the middle of that dream I dare not write about when her voice said so distinctly in my ear:  "Does it mean the same thing it means on english."  That sweet voice jarred me from my sleep. I  had  to find what "tata" means on english.  I had to know. Thus began the burning quest.

Google.  Wikipedia.   Where else do you turn when you need help in the wee hours of the morning?  What is "tata?"  Its India's largest business group and multinational company.  Its Jamsetji Tata, the father of Indian industry.  Nelson Mandela was known as "Tata."  There's an Argentine boxer nicknamed "Tata."  There is Tata a city in Hungary, a city in Morocco.  Tata is an elf in Tolkien's Middle-earth.  Its the station code for Tatanagar Railway Station. 

Then there is Tata Young, a Thai singer, model and actress.  I listened to a couple of her songs hoping to find the meaning of "tata."  I found "Mila mila."  That sounded pretty Croatian to me.  Oh boy!  ~fans himself.  ~fans himself faster.  Whew!  That song almost came close to describing the dream I'm not going to write about, but there wasn't a clue in there any where about what means this "tata" on english.

I'm a desperate man now.  What means "tata" on english?  Molim! Molim! Someone out there hurry and tell me what means this before CJ awakens this morning.  I can't have her thinking ja sam neki stranac koji ne mogu govoriti na engleskom jeziku dobro!!!  I speak on english good.  Well, most of time anyway.  Dobro dobro, sometimes on english I speak ok good.  But I do not know what means this "tata."  Someone please to help me brze brze.  Tell to me so I can sleep please.  I want to go back to that dream.  What means "tata" na engleskom?   That's the burning question!

Embrace the finches!
Happy misdeeds!

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac, a man on a burning quest!

ULICA JORGOVANA - Darko Domijan

I like Darko Domijan's work.  He is almost always cool. Ulica Jorgovana is one of his best.  I like it.  The way I hear the song the lilac he is looking for on Lilac Street is his very own lady, so yes of course, this is another one for CJ who is my lilac on Lilac Street.

Darko Domijan, born 5 February 1953 in Karlovac, is pop singer who was most popular in the 1970s and 1980s. 

In Karlovac, where he grew up,  Domijan attended the school of music where he studied the cello.    In 1972 he entered the school of music in Zagreb.   His first recording "Marija" was released in 1973 and a year later came "Ulica Jorgovana" which catapulted him into the charts.   Domijan's "Ruže u snijegu" in 1983 sold over 250,000 copies making him one of the most succesful singers in the former Jugoslavia.  In 1988 he released the album "Čuvam te anđele"  and in 2001 "Sve najbolje."   He appears occaisionally these days but his main concern has been his law firm in Zagreb.

Tekst:
Plavi veo,
zlatna žica,
nježan vjetar,
mnogo ptica,
raspukla se svaka grana
nad ulicom jorgovana.

Odsjaj jutra,
rosa blista,
cvijet do cvijeta,
list do lista,
pčela sanja bijeli vijenac
dubok kao gorski zdenac.

Jedna klupa, tiha luka,
tvoje usne, moja ruka,
opet bukti ona vatra
zgasla davno ispod hrasta...

Gori zemlja, gori kamen,
sunce ugljen, nebo plamen,
to u sjenci lome krila
zaljubljena dva leptira.

Plavi veo,
zlatna žica,
njezan vjetar,
mnogo ptica,
raspukla se svaka grana
nad ulicom jorgovana.



on english:
Blue Veil,
gold wire,
a gentle wind,
many birds,
cracked every branch
the street of lilac.

Reflection of the morning,
dew glistens,
flower to flower,
list to the list,
bee dreams of a white wreath
deep as the mountain well.

A bench, a quiet port,
Your lips, my hand,
Again it is a fire rages
zgasla long under the oak tree ...

high country, burning rock,
Coal sun, sky fire,
to break in the shadow of the wings
two butterflies in love

Blue Veil,
gold wire,
gentle wind,
many birds,
cracked every branch
the street of lilac.

I always try to look around on YouTube before I do a video.  I really don't want to step on the toes of any of my friends.  I  value all of you.   Its getting harder and harder to be sure about this but I do  try to  be careful.  Sometimes that means I have to do the less well known songs by a particular performer but that's quite alright too.  That challenges me to make the best video possible.  As far as I can find, the only one of my friends who has this song is Peugeot, who has Domijan singing live on stage.  If you want to see his live performance, go see Peugeot255, she has a wonderful video of this song on her channel.    Peugeot has been gracious and kind also to recieve this little video as a "video response to hers for which I am thankful.  You can look here for my interpretation of Ulica Jorgovana:

Embrace the finches!
Happy misdeeds!


Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

SCHÁZÍŠ MI LÁSKO - Eva a Vašek

I awakened this morning long before the Danica opened the gates of the Dažbog's palace so it was still dark dark dark outside.   CJ was not awake and so I prepared my coffee in silence and came to the computer to continue to reply to the comments on Eva and Vašek's "Krásné s tebou".  There were rather a lot of them so it was going to take a while.

I soon realized that the comments and thus my responses were going to be in about fifteen different languages.  Someday we Slavs really need to think about developing a language in common among us besides english, but ... we are the way we are.  A lot of folks in the West don't understand that we pretty much have a new language every fifty miles and its still really all some kind of Slavic somehow.  So I was faced with about fifteen languages including portuguese, spanish, and english.  There were a couple of comments which I could read and respond to but I would really be hard pressed to tell you what language in which those were actually written - they were some sort of south Slavic I think, but who knows what.

So.  I began to work.  Its a work of joy for me.  I love all my fans where ever you are from.  You are all a bunch of really nice people who encourage one another and who try to build up and support one another.  We are an international community the way an international community should be - a community filled with love for one another.  Hmmm, Jesus said something about that somewhere ... It is true that there are some ancient hurts here and there.  I've written about some of those.  While these are real matters which aren't going away soon, my final word on everything is "glazba, ne rat."  Music, not war.

Anyway, I began to work.  But soon I realized I wasn't accomplishing much.  The silence was over bearing.  CJ was sound asleep and I didn't want to disturb her.  But the silence was crushing.  I wanted to hear her voice.  I needed to hear her voice.  I longed to hear her voice.  "Scházíš mi lásko" came to mind.  I found it in my collection of music and began to see the slikopsis that need to accompany it.

There are a few of the photos perhaps I should explain.  The first picture you encounter - the sun rising over the field of flowers could be almost anywhere in the polje south of Blanco, Texas in the springtime.  The second picture with the gate and the sunrise could easily have been the gate to our little house in Blanco in the 1950's.  The road leading away from the viewer is very much like some of the roads in the hills in that region when I was a child. 

The next picture I stole outright from Sylvester, whom, ummm some of you know on YouTube and on Facebook.  The man is an amazing photographer.  His shot of the creek looks amazingly like a creek I once played near in the Blanco area.  The very next picture is from the Blanco river near Wimberly Texas, another place I fished and hung around as a young person.  The photo following that one was taken near Blansko in Moravia.  If you begin comparing the terrain, you see that the locations are very similar.  Both are on karst containing a lot of caves. Where the deer came from is a mystery but there were plenty in the Blanco area all the time.  The butterfly creatures are Balkan/Carpathian pure and simple.

After the two cuddling  birds the landscapes alternate between Blanco and Blansko until you get to the house which is the Blanco area.  The interior view of the house I believe is from Blansko.  The church could either be the baptist church as I remember it in Blanco or the Catholic church in Blansko, Moravia, take your pick.  They both look pretty much alike. 

We talked about why I would make these particular choices for a video by Eva and Vašek last time.  The little Texas town has its roots both in Moravia and in Slovenia with a few Surf's Up Indians thrown in for good measure.  By the time I came along, most of the young people with boys in the second grade were anglos so I was the lone mohican if you will.  That had its drawbacks, and that had its special pleasures too, which I have previously talked about. 

So as it happens, a man who was longing for his dear while she slept, prepared a song which expresses deep longing.  In fact, it was just about ready when CJ awakened this morning.

The tekst on Czech is:
Jak ránem procitám a probouzí mě chlad
mé srdce je zlomené,tak prázdné se zdá.
Jak dlouho budem každý sám,proč kapek deště ptát se mám
jak dlouho tě nespatřím, ptám se jich, ptám.

Refren
Scházíš mi lásko čím dál víc,smutek můj je bez hranic.
věčně živý v mých vzpomínkách zůstaneš.
Scházíš mi lásko čím dál víc,smutek můj je bez hranic.
Slzami se ptám jak moc ti scházím já.
Na polštář stékají, mé soužení však nezmění.
Večer se tvé fotky ptám,když v slzách usínám
proč mám strach zase ráno vstát
kdy tě spatřím se ptám

my interpretation on english is approximately:
As I awaken in the cool of the morning
 My heart is aching, it seems so empty.
 How long all of us like this, why drops of rain I ask
 how long you I not see, I ask them, I ask.
 Miss you my love more and more, my longing is boundless.
 forever alive in my thinking remain.
 Miss you love you more and more, my longing is boundless.
 Tears, I ask how many tears I meet
 Run down on the pillow, my but does not change my pain
 In the evening, I ask your photos when I fall asleep in tears
 But why should I fear in the morning to get up again
 when you want to see me

So, now you know what was on my mind when I did this video:

Embrace the finches!
Happy misdeeds!

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

Blanco - davno davno

As you've read elsewhere in my writing and general blathering like the old man that I am, you know already that I wasn't born in Texas and neither were my parents nor grandparents.

We are Hrvat, Slavonijan in the old sense of being from the ancient Kingdom of Slavonija over on the western end in what is now the area of Bjelovar.  In fact the family has been in North America longer than there has been a United States of America, which sometimes gives some of us a perspective which other "Americans" do not necessarily share.

If I've told you part of this story before just bear with me.  I'm an old guy and I get to rattle on.  It's one of the rights you get when you get old.  The family arrived in North America just in time to provide munitions to the Americans and the British in the French and Indian War thing.  It seems we brought better water power technology from the Balkans than the British folk had at that time. In the late 1700's some of the family joined the ustanak in favor of the Amerikanski and their new  Constitution.  Hej hej, I'm a paid up member of the Sons of the American Revolution. 

Nonetheless, after several adventures a large part of the family continued to migrate to the west.  Let's see, dive into my head with me a minute or two.  Let the drums beat and the washboard rub.  Let the tambura strum and that one stringed thing screech its sound while the old ones tell some of the stories.   Shhh, listen!

Some of these sometime probably ought to have their very own article but for now there was the little matter in Pennsylvania where the gun powder works blew sky high taking with it two of the three brothers and some other people whose families were not at all forgiving of the incident.  Then there was the U.S. government grant to build a toll road the length of Alabama which went just fine until the U.S. government decided that neither it nor its contractors need to pay any tolls.  Then there was the "Emporium of the West" on the Tennessee River.   A major flood on the river swept that dream away.

The Hapsburg family who had so much wanted to exterminate us in Europe welcomed us with open arms as we entered Spain.  To be clear, they welcomed us as we entered New Spain.

The old gunpowder mill "irons", with some repairs, are the basis of the waterwheel in Stover which is now a tiny historical park.  The Hapsburgs saw a future in Texas beef being shipped overland on the hoof to the United States, thus the family was granted the rights to somehow ship cattle between Orah Vode (Now Walnut Springs which is approximately downtown Sequin, Texas) and Stover, Missouri.

One of the family was granted the exclusive rights to the Trinity river and all the lands which it drained by the King of Spain.  The family had dreams of shallow draft boats navigating the river and turning it into a major highway from the Gulf of Mexico to the interior of New Spain.  There were too many twists in the river and too many sandbars in the summer to make that feasible.  Then, there was the small matter of the cattle on one barge all moving to one side of the barge.  Zbogom barge, zbogom cows.  Swim for your life!  Someone in the family later attempted the voyage with a steam powered paddle wheel, but too many twists and curves and too many sandbars and sunken logs in the river for that to succeed.

The United States government and the government of Texas usually uphold those old grants given by the Kings of Spain in those times, but, let's see, Dallas and Fort Worth are at the head waters of the Trinity.  Hmmmm can you imagine the clean up that would be required to meet the current water quality standards.  It would require trillions of dollars in investment.  Its much better to let the Trinity River Authority, a Texas agency have their way.  Oh dear, our family's contribution to socialism is letting the government control what by rights should be our private property.

Texas.  We Croats have been here a long time.  Explored the place.  Did business in the place and contributed to its settlement. 

Orah Vode was one of those places.  I lived near there for a few years and silently smiled to my self when some people considered me a "new comer."  Heh heh, I'm smiling now.  We were there before there was a United States, before there was a Texas,  when Mexico was a Vice Royalty of the Holy Roman Empire. 

Blanco, Texas.  Blanco = španjolski "white"?  Da.  Istina.  You betcha that's what it means from jezik španjolski.  Sigh.  Blansko is the proper name.  Wait!! That's the name of a selo in Moravia, right?   This is the selo in Moravia where Eva and Vašek the musicians live today.  So how did the name of a Moravian town find its way to Texas?   Now this is the part which may blow your mind into smithereens.  Blansko got its name from actually by way of the Peneteka (running foam i.e. "the surf's up") Comanches.

Some of you Slovenijan folk have been wondering about where some of your folk went when they came to Texas.  Uh, well, some of them ended up with names like "Running Wolf."  I sincerely hope that doesn't hurt your feelings but its just the facts.  Blansko had folk from all over eastern Europe who somehow hung in there and built a life.

One of the "chiefs" of the Surf's Up Indians was named Ketemoczy.  An Indian with a Carpathian or Balkan sounding name?  Yup, its a fact jack.  You see, the settlement of Texas didn't take place by thousands of boats bringing hundreds of thousands of people all at once to the place. Nor were there there thousands of covered wagons penetrating the place all at one time.  That looks good in the movies, saves the producers a lot of time developing their story but its not how it was.   A lot of the settlement, at least from the Balkans and the Carpathians came a few families at a time usually with nothing except the clothes on their back and their skills.

We have talked about the early settlement of Brownsville / Matamoros where there were no "indigenous" people around at first.  Along the edge of the Llano (pronounced like Ljano) where the waters run swift and clear there were already some Indians around.  Not many, but some.  When our first settlers from the Carpathians encountered the Comanches in this area they said for pozdrav and smiled.  Smiles so often go a long way you know, so does a smile along with a nicely said pozdrav. 

the "Old Courthouse" in Blanco

By the time the German settlers began arriving the small community of Indians and the small community of Carpathian folk had merged sufficiently for one of the Carpathian fellows to be considered a "chief."  Baron Otfried Hans von Meusebach wisely chose Lorenzo Ružic to accompany him into the territory of the Surf's Up Indians.  Ružic could govoriti the jezik of the Surf's Up Indians so they worked out a treaty.

Part of article two of the treaty says on english: "In regard to the settlement on the Llano the Comanche promise not to disturb or in any way molest the German colonists, on the contrary, to assist them, also to give notice if they see Indians about the settlement who come to steal horses from or in any way molest the Germans – the Germans likewise promising to aid the Comanches against their enemies, should they be in danger of having their horses stolen or in any way to be injured."  Meusebach's German settlers mostly preferred the area around Fredricksburg to the south and so the Surf's Up "Indians" were pretty much left alone after all.

This treaty has the distinction of being the only treaty between "Indians" and any one else in the lands of the United States which has never been broken by either side.  For what its worth, most of the German and Anglo settlement of the region has come since the US Civil war.  Where are the Surf's Up Indians?  Ummm, they are still around.  Now they pretty much all speak on engleski and study about "Native Americans" in books published in New York or some other foreign country like New Jersey.

the old movie theater is still there

I lived in Blanco in the 1950's.  I have a lot of very very fond memories, some of which I may share later.   Shhh I even sometimes wore  a turkey feather head-dress.  But for now

Embrace the finches!
Happy misdeeds!

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

KRÁSNÉ S TEBOU ŽÍT - Eva a Vašek

The duo Václav a Eva Ševčíkovi are successful Czech musical performers whose repertoire consists largely of older music including dechovka, folk, country, pop, and so forth which have long been popular among Czechs.  Besides their own compositions, they also sing Christmas Carols and music from Croatia. 

Václav was born 6 December 1953 in Brno. At the present they live in Blansko about 19 miles north of Brno.  There one may find a statue commemorating the Battle of Zborov on 2 July 1917 in which the Czech Legions appeared for the first time. I once lived in a Texas town named for this town in Moravia.  Blanco, Texas is not named for the Spanish word "white", as some people suppose,  but after Blansko from which its founders came to Texas.  I have fond memories of the town.  Kind of makes Václav and Eva  seem a bit like vicarious kids from my own backyard.

Eva and Vasek's CD "Jadranska," which they sang with Inga was released in 2003.  Some critics accuse the couple of low musical and artistic quality but their fans and their financial success tells altogether a different story.

Krásné s tebou žít (Life with you is beautiful) is a romantic song based on "Vela Luka" made famous by Oliver Dragojević who was himself a native of Vela Luka.  One place on the internet bills Vela Luka as the town made famous by the romantic song.  "Vela Luka" is actually based on a song by Ahlert, "Where the blue of the night meets the gold of the day," made famous by Bing Crosby (whose wife was native to West Columbia, Texas which is where the Conoco Phillips refinery at Sweeny isn't).  Ahlert's song in turn was based on "Amenecer glorioso" (Glorious Morning)  an earlier work by C.A. Blackstone who between the mid 1800's to the mid 1900s.  In any of the forms which the song has taken it has remained beautiful and romantic. 

All day today I have been feeling a romantic glow light all around and so here for you is a touch of my feelings.

Embrace the finches!! happy misdeeds!
Canovals a.k.a Slavonac
24 Listopad 2011

PENSAN SE - Gustafi

Rumors have been flying everywhere over the weekend. 

The first rumor concerns the reported break in Canoval's "zero nudity" and "minimum skin" policies in his videos.  There's no mistake. At thirty-five seconds into this video,  the woman's clothes are all on top of the post by the water trough in the middle of the pasture.  You know there's not a stitch of clothing on her body other than her hat. She is stretched out in the cool water relaxing her body on a hot summer's day.

Yes, my dear fans, in order to keep up with the fashion of the times on YouTube, I have finally relented and given you FULL nudity.  Well ok, full shoulder nudity - from behind, but it's still bare skin - that's what you wanted, wasn't it?

Guys, I know that as you watch this video, your heart begins to beat faster and faster and you begin to pant as you rise on tiptoe to peer over the edge of the water trough as it races toward your eyes.  Suddenly you realize the  horse is the only one who can see more than her naked shoulders and her naked blonde hair cascading from under her hat. 

The black cat all covered with suds is bathing with her and you see his eyes nearly pop out.  Next you see his feet as he passes out.  He couldn't handle it.  The vision of all that beauty was just too much for him. Poor cat.  All he has been able to do for days now is stutter:  "Mi mi mi mi mi mi auuuuuuu!, mi mi mi mi mi auuuuuuuuu!, mi mi mi mi mi auuuuuu!"   He shakes and trembles when he does this too.

People have been asking me is this CJ in the water trough?  What do you want me to tell you? CJ reads this too you know.  If I say it isn't her, then I'll probably get "What's the matter with you?  Aren't you proud of me? I'm not pretty enough for you or what?"  If I tell you it is her then she will probably say "I knew it!  There you go smearing my photos all over the internet!"  Oh Jeez meneez! I'm a dead man!  I care about CJ more than I know how to say and I may be about to share the fate of so many men who have posted a photo of their lady on the internet.  Until she kills me, enjoy her bare naked shoulders.  That's all you are ever going to see. Look quick!  That's all I'm going to say about this.  Subject closed.

On to Gustafi: 

I love their beat, I love their style, I love their music, but, sigh, they are a bit rowdy sometimes.  How do you handle a song whose word's are  "F*** me baby, F*** me baby, F*** me tonight?"  In my case, you simply do not, but they have several really nice romantic songs as well. A lot of their songs are simple fun. "Pensan Se" was a lot of fun.

This is Gustafi according to Gustafi's "Band Profile" on Facebook.

Hometown: Kanfanar, HR
Genres: Rock
Members: Edi Maruzin, Vlado Maruzin, Cedo Mosnja, Boris Mohoric, Edin Pecman, Barbara Munjas, Dino Kalcic, Romano Hantih, Nikola Bernobic, Alen Bernobic, Vlado Ikac

The group Gustafi was formed in December 1980. in a small town, in Istria (Croatia), Vodnjan. An amateur theater group named "Gustaph y njegovi dobri duhovi" (Gustaph and his good spirits) held their first performance on 27th Decembar 1980. That performance was ment to be their only performance, but that's the mysterious ways of the Lord - band is still here and it works flawlessly. Members Čedomir Mošnja, Vlado Maružin and Edi Maružin are playing together for over 30 years. They have ten albums, and soon the eleventh and over 2,000 performances.

The two remaining initial members Livio Morosin and Igor Arih leave the band, Igor remains a subcontractor, and since then big number of musicians walked t[h]rough the band. At the beginning experimental punk rock influences later replaced by the Istrian folk music, as well as other world ethno scene from which it has created a distinctive sound Gustafi at which they were now known. A mixture of everything that they listened and heard (from blues, country music, texmex, cajun, Celtic music, traditional Balkan music, russian and ukraine music to orthodox Istrian songs) have created an infectious sublimate to persuade people wherever they come... from Portugal, Spain, Switzerland to Israel and Brazil. Full of rhythm, and positive emotions they have created friends and fans everywhere.

They play everywhere, from weddings and inns, taverns, bars, clubs, to major concerts and sports halls and festivals all over the country, and increasingly in Europe. Much beloved by critics, the last studio album "Chupacabra" on which they make a major shift towards the roots, with lots of experimental sounds, found sound, computers, have released the 2009th year and by critics, it is one of the best if not the best album of Gustafi. Album "FF" which was recorded 2006th won the "Porin" for best rock album. Soon will be released next album.

Current members, make Edi Maružin, texts and music, singer and guitarist, Vlado Maružin - guitar, Cedomir Mošnja - drums, Barbara Munjas - vocals, Dino Kalčić - bass, Boris Mohorić - trumpet and vocals, Nikola Bernobić-trumpet, Alen Bernobić-trumpet, Edin Pecman - keyboards and accordion, and Romano hantih - tuba. We look forward to moving into new campaigns, music... Always full of energy and dance, we're looking forward to every gig popular[l]y called "Štala".

General Manager:ourselves

Artists We Also Like:  Los Lobos, Pere Ubu, Manu Chao, Dr. Feelgood, Marc Ribot, John Zorn, Nortec Collective, Latin Playboys, Amy Winehouse, Calexico, Bob Dylan, John Lee Hooker, Coco Rosies. ....

Influences: All kind of music we hear y tu mama tambien

Band Interests: Playing gigs including sex, drugs & rock'n'roll (this means that we must make money playing our music )

Press Contact gsm:00385 98 214094      

Booking Agent:  Edi Maruzin

Tekst for "Pensan Se"
Pensan se ovi dan ki je kurac oven svitu
Kamo greom i do kada će durati
Daj mi ovo, daj mi ono
Daj mi kunu, daj mi krunu
Znaju samo me pitati

Daj mi dim, daj cigaru
Daj me smiri, daj mi sviri
Daj mi savjet kako umriti
Armando, Armando, daj mi piti
Ne rabi ti valja platiti

Daj mi biru, daj mi griz
Daj mi liz i ljubav, daj mi cice
Ma sve ću ja van dati
Samo mi ga zvadite z guzice
Daj, daj, daj!!!

Na ti! Na ti! I nemoj me
više nikad niš pitati
Na ti! Na ti! I nemoj mi
više nanke blizu stati!

tekst on english:  This is Istrian, rock, and Gustafian so who the heck knows exactly what the words say on engleski - does in matter?  Bee bop a loo ah!

These day s the hell oven svitu
  Greom Where and when will Durata
  Give me this, give me what
  Give me a dollar, give me the crown
  They know just ask me

 Give me a smoke, give a cigar
  Let me calm down, give me to play
  Give me advice on how to die
  Armando, Armando, give me a drink
  Do not use you must pay

 Biru Give me, give me a bite
  Give me liz and love, give me breasts
  Oh I will I give out
  Just give it zvadite z asses
  Give, give, give!

 For you! For you! I do not say
  never ask nothing
  For you! For you! And do we
 nanke more close fit!

PENSAN SE - Gustafi

Embrace the finches!! happy misdeeds!

Canovals a.k.a Slavonac
24 Listopad 2011

Embrace the finches!

So, here we are writing on engleski.  For why we are doing this?  Is because we have so many friends and everyone is speaking on different jezik.  Engleski maybe is only language we all have together unless everyone is speaking on "old slavonik."   Do you speak on "old slavonik?"  Me also I do not speak "old slavonik."  So then, engleski is jezik we are using here.   Ok ok, maybe sometimes a little teksikanski slips in here also. 

Some of you are using Google Translate to keep up what I am saying here.  You do not know how much I appreciate the fact that you go to so much trouble just to read what I say.  Thank you.  Hvala ti.  Muchas gracias ... 

Please do be careful how you use Google translate!  Last Sunday morning as I am leaving the house to go in church I write someplace to CJ:

"Dobro jutro!! Sretna Nedjelja!  Zagrljaj za tebe!"


When I return, this is the message I see:
"Google translation
11:10 AM 
Good morning! how are you? happy misdeeds! Embrace the finches
11:11 AM 
And so I say, right back atcha! Happy misdeeds (on Sunday no less) and embrace the finches! hahahaha"

Embrace the finches!  Did you ever try to catch a finch so you could embrace it?   Did you ever wish your lady friend "happy misdeeds?" And on Sunday! Oh dear! Oh dear!  Be careful with Google, it might say something we do not intend to say.  Sometimes it can  be funny ...

Dear friends, embrace the finches
and until we meet again


happy misdeeds!


Canovals a.k.a Slavonac
20 Listopad 2011

THE LONGSHIPS - Enya

It's such fun when you dig back in history past the point when the languages still used the now lost yers and yats and so on which are no longer used in the south anyway except in ultra archaic forms like in my own surname.  There used to be a  place called Halych–Volhyn.  Volhyn.  Wet.

I mentioned earlier that I was born among the Mvskoke.  I am not Mvskoke and so I do not have any tribal rights associated with them, nor am I a citizen of their almost invisible state in the middle of North America, but I do understand their history a bit.  Hehehe, my father had an unwitting impact on their "traditional" music, bless his heart.  Wet.  Mvskoke = Wet. So many words in Mvskoke jezik talk about "wet": a fast running creek, a slow running creek, a boggy creek, a dry creek, a river, a pond, a lake, a big lake, cold water, hot water, etc., etc., etc., each has its own word to describe it so there is little need for adjectives to attach to one of the "water" words.  Volhyn = Wet, but not on Mvskoke, on Volhynijan.

Volhyn was situated in the Buh river basin, a sometimes wet place and a major obstacle to the migrations into Europe.  Over the years the region was under a number of administrations including that of Małopolska and Krakova.  Among others, Aelfred the Great of Wessex mentions us.

The Germans and some of the tribes traveling with them moved through the Volhyn area on their way west.  A vast horde of them the old songs say.  With their great wagons, they wanted no part of the marsh lands so we stepped quietly back into the forests and into the marsh lands out of their way and let them pass.  They would be gone soon enough, and they were.  When the most of them had emptied out to the west we came crawling out of the marshes like so many cockroaches of a Texas coastal summer's evening back into our own land.  Haraldr harðráði's chronicler says in the Heimskringla: "Tryggvi ok Tvívívill höfðu komit 12 skipum: Læsir hafði skeið ok alla skipaða með köppum" which is to say: "The Laesir, they have arrived on the large, and long-ship ..."  Hmmm Maybe I've heard a story like this put another way: "Sju tusen 777 sjösjuka sjömän,"  (seven thousand seven hundred and seventy seven sea sick seamen).   Ok, say that three times fast on Croatian and see how your mouth feels:  "sedam tisuća, sedam sto, sedamdeset sedam morsku bolest pomoraca"  This was the moment when Haraldr harðráði, the last fierce Viking, encountered the Hrvats.  

The Laesir, as the Swedes called the Bielo-Chorvats or "White" Croatians were on the move too.  Some modern historian types wonder what happened to them.  If they were to listen to the old songs they would know.  When the time came, they loaded their wagons and moved.  Some of them again boarded "the large and long-ship ..."


Some were left behind.  Their fate was not so good.  As usual, someone wished to harm them and they did.

Of those who had the prescience to leave, not every one had moved at the same time.  My ancestors went south about a thousand years ago.  Some Bielo-Chorvats whose families had remained in more northerly regions arrived in Ohio in the early 1900s.  Adolf Emil Kannwischer arrived in North America from the region in the 1940s as a refugee from the Nazi's and the Communists and the general disorder which prevailed at the time. Was he "German?"  Ummmm.  Was he Ruthenian?  Ummmm.  Was he Polish? Ummm.  Was he Russian?  Unh uhhh - he made that super clear, no!  To all the other questions, the answer is yes.  And no.  Kannwischer was Volhynijan and more specifically, he was Evangelical (Lutheran) and Hrvat.

His father was Emil, born during Advent in Wartrowka in 1879.  Not far away in Nowopol there were some of my relatives.  These were relatives whose ancestors were the same as mine, who had made the trek south and had lived in Western Slavonija near Palešnik for generations before the troubles came.   (Did you read my story about TS Takt from  Palešnik?)  This I know because they knew the same story songs as I know - up to the point of the wagons with wings which flew over the long water.  Their ancestors had been protestant and on their way with the Palatine immigration to North America when word came that they were welcome back in the Volhynija and so they had gone.  Now they had come away from the Buh river and had gone to Kansas to gather up with others who had come away from where is now Russia.  

In the Volhynija they were Evangelical (Lutheran), here they were Mennonite, Kannwischer was Southern Baptist, go figure. There were a couple more families in Houston in support of the young people from their selo who were doing "Alternative Service" in the hospitals during the Vietnam War.  That's another story for another time.  Eighty-six dollars and a few pence per month for four years at twelve to fourteen hours a day.  It was impossible to live in the metropolis on less than poverty wages so hundreds and hundreds of our youth bunched up and bundled up.  Mess with us and we know how to survive.  We are Hrvat.  You can not knock us down and keep us down.  Its stupid to try, but that's why my relatives sought me out - they were rural and I already knew my way around the big city by that time so I could help them stay on their feet.  We were putting together a new selo. Somehow I think Kannwischer helped them find me.

I looked Dr. Kannwisher up on Google.  There was precious little to find any more.  He was an author of a number of books.  Its amazing how a man who was so much in the public eye in his lifetime could fade from view so quickly.  A winter 2006 newsletter from Houston Baptist University said "Ruth Kannwischer, passed away Oct. 29. She was a longtime supporter of HBU and was a member of the HBU Auxiliary for many years, serving as president. She donated the HBU seal in the center of the Walk of Honor in Dr. Kannwischer’s memory. Dr. Kannwischer passed away in 1994."

I hed met Dr. Kannwischer in the spring of 1965.  The place was called "Houston Baptist College" in those years. Kannwischer taught all the "Sociology" there was to be had in the school at that time.  I was there on a scholarship, don't ask how.  I took every class Dr. Kannwischer had to offer in the 1965-1966 school year.  The man sent me on adventures I'll never forget.  Some of them I might even share with you someday.  Hmmmm which ones?  Maybe Bugaloo George on midnight to dawn radio in the Third Ward?  Maybe.  We'll see.  Another time perhaps.

Meantime let Enya tell the story commemorating  that glorious day along the Buh when the Vikings exclaimed:  "The Laesir, they have arrived on the large, and long-ship ..."

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac
19 Listopad 2011

regarding my post 12 listopad 2011

Some one near and dear to me sent this as an idea for a gift for "That woman"  ~~spit~~ about whom you may have read in the last blog entry.  Appropriate I believe.  Yes.

The wonderful person who sent this told me that her advice to God was that "That Woman" should spend a lonely eternity in Hell.   One of her forbears was once one of God's advisors so I suspect God is in the habit of listening to her.    It's just possible there may be a few Godly women left in the world.  That's encouraging.  All I need is one, so lets find one for Joe now.

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac
12 Listopad 2011

Razismo - Racism

Everyone is opposed to racism, except, of course, avowed racists.  So the Mexicans complain that the Texas policeman is being racist when he asks for a "Brown" person to show his papers.  This gets a little funny when the policeman's name is something like Sanchez and he himself is "Brown."

No one seems to notice that this is working the other way around and always has.  I can not tell you how many times in my life that Mexican law enforcement has demanded to see my papers. Joe's girlfriend is an illegal immigrant and she has never been asked to show her papers.  Why has she not been required to show her papers?  She lives in Mexico and she is "Brown."  The Mexican authorities assume that because she is "Brown" she is Mexican. Racism?  You bet it is.

Speaking of that wench, if you are a woman, maybe you better just stay out of my way today.  I'm ticked off.  For those of you using Google Translator that does not mean there is an insect biting me today.  Nor does it have anything to do with the "ticking" in a mattress, or the tick tock of a clock.  It means I am jako grumpy upset and if you don't like it go stick a rubber hose up your nose or be really extra soft and sweet around me for a few days.  Ladies, you probably ought to be ticked off about that wench too.  She did all of you ladies a mighty diservice.

The wedding was set for 1600 today.  Alejandra called at 1530 to tell Joe the wedding was off.   Now understand this, she called on an American cell phone which is inoperative past el puente in Mexico.  She was on this side granica u Teksasu when she called.  In fact she was only a few blocks away. I didn't mention it, but this is the third time she has walked away from him at the Altar. 

So perhaps that was a wedding which shouldn't have happened anyway.  Da, istina, for sure true.  What can I say?

I think she wanted a nice boyfriend to pay her some attention.  He was a feather in her cap, an honest respectable gentle man, and a gentleman too, besides being a caballero, but she is unwilling to actually invest emotionally in their relationship.  Funny how so many women want a man to be faithful to them while they don't invest themselves and their emotions with him. Those are dangerous games ladies.  It will work for awhile, but there are limits. Yes, its even worse if you lie to the fellow "oh I love you!  Yes, I'll marry you! blah blah blah blah blah blah."  Its almost funny how the woman almost always acts betrayed and disappointed when the man wanders on. 

I suppose there are plenty of men who do  the same thing.  Jebote kopilad! Kuja! Shame on all of you. You make it awfully hard on the men and women who just want to love and be loved. May your mothers walk backwards blindfolded in the dark, knee deep in slimy mud along the riverbank looking for you for eternity. 

Joe told her "since you can't commit and you cannot keep your commitment you have to understand that the first woman who shows interest in me will get a piece of my action and you have nothing to say about it." 

I'm probably in trouble enough for writing this much so I'll shut my yap now.  No I don't think any one is going to like what I've just written so don't feel obligated to "like" it.  In case you are wondering - yes I'm weeping my heart out for my friend today.  This should not have happened to such a decent man as my friend Joe. 

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac
12 Listopad 2011

PEANUT POLKA - Sunny and the Sunglows

On the label it says "La Cacahuata."  Ok.  That's what it says.  Its an instrumental performed by the Sunglows whom about all of us south of what would eventually become US Interstate 10 knew as "Sunny and the Sunglows."   No Sunny, no Sunglows that's how we saw matters.  Later they called themselves "Sunny and the Sunliners."

You have to learn to say this right:  "Sunny and The SunLIIIIINers!"  Hmmm how do I record in writing just how that was said -  the "i" in "liners" was held in your voice a little - especially when Mary on radio stanice Ka Efe Ere De announced that she had just played "The Peanut Polka" as she began her portion of the morning show on KFRD each weekday. She was on immediately after the Polka show each morning and the poor dear knew that most of us were changing our dials over to KULP in El Campo at that very moment for their morning Polka show which is still on the air after all these years. 

We stayed with Mary until the end of the Peanut Polka because usually the News on KULP was finished by that time and the music started over there.   I remember one morning when Mary said "I know a lot of ya'll will be leaving me right now to go on over where it is you go at this hour.  Zbogom, dobre den, have a nice day, and be good until I see you tomorow."   CJ just asked me if I had just a twinge of guilt when she said that all those years ago.  I answered "no, not even a twinge."  That's what we did you see, we  station hopped to get our polka music and that's how we lived everyday.  Nope, no guilt at all.

KFRD is gone now I think.  Joe Gavranovic was the DJ over there for lots of years.  chkelly1 over on YouTube has one video with Joe Patek performing "The Cradle Polka" from long ago.  KFRD used to be Fort Bend Broadcasting Co, Inc. in Rosenberg, Texas.  

I found an obituary on the Internet from October 6, 2000 for Clyde Morgan Jeffreys who was the Director of News and Talk Shows for KFRD for over 30 years.  He was born 1 Oct 1913 in Columbus Muscogee County Georgia and is interred at David-Greenlawn in Rosenberg. Buried nearby is Gonzalo Rodriguez, who was the first Program Director of the famous Spanish Program "Progreso Latino" at KFRD 980 AM in Rosenberg, Texas, in the late 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. He started with a little 15 Minute Spanish Music Format Show. The Show was so popular, eventually it went all out in a few years to 24/7 Tejano-Spanish Programing in the Greater Houston Area...with listeners all the way down to near Corpus Christi and near San Antonio to Beaumont, Galveston and beyond. In the 1980's the programing was transfered TO KFRD FM 105(aka KMIA FM 105). He was born 28 September 1902 and died 19 April 1982.
 
Last I heard, Ben Oldag was still kicking.  Ben performed live with Texas Rhythm Boys at KFRD and got a job reporting the agricultural news and later added his polka program.

Today I found a notice about Daniel Segura's death.  He was the DJ for Puro Tejano on KRFD.  The notice says "Marcua Rodrigues remembers him fondly.  Segura died 29 July 2008. I don't know how this all figures out but the Univision website says that along the line KFRD became KMIA - 10/05/1990.  KMIA became KMPQ-FM - 10/04/1993.  KMPQ became KLTO - 3/06/1995.  KLTO became KOVA - 08/01/1998.  KOVA became KPTY - 11/20/2001.  KPTY became KAMA - 12/4/2007.  The station is now owned by Univision and the Polka show is long gone but the memories remain of how Mary always always played Sunny's Peanut Polka at the end of the Polka show and the Beginning of the Tejano show every day but Sunday when the churches were on the air in the mornings.

KFRD is gone but Sunny Ozuna remains.  He is still alive and kicking, still performing although he left the Sunliners.  Sunny and a trio of close friends (Freddie Martinez, Augustin Ramirez, and Carlos Guzman) better known as The Legends, earned themselves a Grammy in 2000. According to his website "currently there is strong talk about more work with The Legends as well as many various shows and appearances by Sunny Ozuna himself in the near future."

The Peanut Polka like we used to hear it:

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac
11 Listopad 2011

INTERNATIONALE - on Croatian

I am NOT a communist.  I had to say that right away because these days almost everyone connects the "Internationale" to the communist movement.   But that's because very few people know that the song was in both the Baptist and Methodist hymnals in North America quite sometime before the modern communist movement sprang up.   The song is about brotherhood and holding hands across all social boundaries in a spirit of cooperation for the good of all.  All in all, unless you are an avowed autocrat, the "Internationale" is really a wonderful song no matter what your politics.  Its too  bad politics has marginalized the song in a lot of the West.

I'm putting the "Internationale" here for the sake of one very wonderful young person still full of ideals.  I was young once and full of ideals.  I'm not young any more but guess what?  I'm still  brimming with ideals.   My young friend, you know who you are.  This is for you.  I saw that you did not have the "Internationale" on Croatian language, so this is for your collection.  By the way, you can not watch this on my channel.  You have to have the URL to see it, or watch it here. 

Please watch the video first and then let's talk about the images in it.

The first image is Marshall Tito who led the Balkans in the quest to throw out the Nazis and the Fascists of all sorts.  Then there is the Bleiburg Memorial commemorating the deaths of perhaps a million Croats many of whom were also idealists and dreamers.  They had dreamed of an independent and free Croatian nation after nearly a thousand years of foreign domination.  History precluded them from trusting the Americans or the West.  They trusted someone who, as it turned out, was not to be trusted.  Their dream turned into a nightmare - and for this they were massacred.

And then there is another image of Tito followed by the flag of the new dream, a "people's" dream.  Look at the flag again please.  The traditional red and white checker board is missing.  We are asked to follow the dream of the "Internationale" without  being allowed to be us.  How can we stand with the nations of the world when we have disappeared from among them?  

Came the spring.  The Croatian Spring.   Savka Dabčević-Kučar  was the first female head of state in Europe outside the monarchical system.  Woot!!! We Croats were way ahead of the game!  Savka made a mistake.  She trusted the people.  For this she was asked to resign her position. 

Are you beginning to get the picture? The people's" government couldn't stand one of the "people" who trusted the people.   In a way they were right, you know.  The people can't be trusted.  Ooops, that sounds so un-marxist, but that's the one place Marx went wrong.  The people, not any of them, not any one person even, is to be fully trusted.  The Holy Scriptures say "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."  The Scriptures are right in this of course.  All.  

So now there are two choices left.  One is to accumulate all the power into the hands of one, or a few.  Bam!   That's fascism.  That's what happened, and in the Balkans, Fascism wore a Red Star on its cap.

The next image is an image of the water tower at Vukovar and shots of the Vukovar monument commemorating the atrocities committed there in the name of the people against the people.

Next you see a photo of a young man half carrying an old man who is a victim of the aggression against the people.   Then you see some soldiers escorting some young men out along a road way and then you see the shadows of the soldiers as those same young men lay there dead, executed, massacred.   The old man in the graveyard, Srebenica, the woman weeping tell their own stories.  Don't see these as just some Muslim radicals like the ones who did the Twin Towers or someone from Grozny.  These people are Hrvatski just like us who happen to be Muslim largely  because of history.  They are ours, people like us, and they were killed because of that.

The power was collected into a central government controlled by people not like us who wanted our language, our history, and our churches and mosques and synagogues to disappear into thin air.  And they didn't mind a bit if we disappeared too.  I'm not blaming the Serbs.  That's not it.   Read a couple of posts back where I commemorate the life of a wonderful Serbian singer.  I am not anti-Serb.  Its not the Serbian people who are to blame.  I am blaming the system.  The system did not respect the people and did not trust the people to take care of themselves like they had always done for thousands of years. We Croats had our selo system long long before Marx thought it up.  We predate him in this by about three thousand years so don't nobody go telling us how to do this.   For us, Marx is kind of like Al Gore "inventing" the internet.  We know how to do communal when its in our interests to do communal and we know how to do it individually when that's best too.  The problem here is that the central system felt threatened by us and so it had to kill us.   Fascism wore a red star in its cap.

A better system would be to see the people as sovereign, to keep the government severely limited, to stay out of the people's business, to trust the people, and to let the people do their own thing in their own best interests the way they want to do it.  Until we have this, the dreams and the ideals of the "Internationale" are just idle dreams and nothing more but idle dreams that lead to a swath of dead bodies and tears.

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

7 Listopad 2011