For Home!

In Croatia just now, there is a horrid war of words. Most Croatians aren't really certain about what is going on, so it would be a surprise if many of my American friends had a clue. Perhaps, in my stumbling way, I can help.

The US has recently experienced a spate of monument destruction. These monuments have been in place for decades, and, in some cases, for more than a hundred years. First, plaques with the Ten Commandments were targeted. When the usefulness of that tactic wore thin, the target became statues commemorating anything at all to do with the Confederacy. Mostly, leftist "activists" have been spearheading these actions. Some people have noted that these leftist organizations have been notably absent in the relief efforts for those adversely affected by the recent Hurricane in Texas.

In a similar manner, in Croatia, leftists have been bent on removing plaques honoring defenders who fell during the Homeland War, or the War Against Greater Serbian Aggression, that took place in the nineties.

The howling is ostensibly aimed at words on the bottom left of these plaques. I say ostensibly, because centered on each of these plaques is a Croatian Cross. As in America, a goodly portion of the "left" has little love for the Cross. In staunchly Catholic Croatia, however, a good way to lose an argument is to challenge the Cross, so the target is the phrase "Za Dom Spremni," which the leftists decry as a "Nazi" slogan and, not so oddly, the western press echoes without checking the facts.

The facts are these: In 1866, Franjo Marković and Ivan Zajc wrote a patriotic song, "U boj, u boj" (To the fight! to the fight!). Zajc incorporated the song as an aria in his Opera, "Nikola Šubić Zrinski" in 1876 which honors Zrinski as the defender of Croatia, and thus, of Europe from a Turkish onslaught. In the song are the words:
"Into the fight, to the fight!
For the home, for the home now to the fight!"
For those who were taught that these words were the words of Zrinski himself in 1566 as he addressed the remnants of his troops before their final fatal charge into the Turkish lines where the Sultan was killed and the Turkish army fled the field, these are words fraught with a high degree of patriotic emotion.
"Nas mal, al' hrabar je broj!
Tko, tko će ga strt'?
Smrt vragu, smrt!
Za dom, u boj, za dom u boj
Za domovinu mrijeti kolika slast!"
which is to say:
"We are few, but courageous!
Who, who will bring him down?
Death to the devil, death!
For the home, to the fight, For the home, to the fight
To die for your homeland - such a delight!"

In the 1800s, Ban Josip Jelačić greeted his soldiers with the words "Za dom!" For Home! The troops replied with one voice "Spremni umrijeti!" Ready to die! There were no Nazis around for more than a hundred years so the slogan is certainly not "fascist."

In the Croatian language, "For the home!" is "Za dom!" Za Dom spremni recalls the words of the famous and beloved Ban Jelačić whose statue stands in the square named for him in the center of Zagreb, the capitol. So now you see where the slogan comes from, and surely you see that it arrived in the Croatian consciousness long before the Nazi folk were around. The slogan is ours, not theirs. As it happens, the fascists did use those words, even if wrongfully. Croatia is and always was ours, not theirs.

As it stands now, the HDZ, Croatian Democratic Union, does not have sufficient votes in parliament without the "support" of the HNS "Croatian Peoples Party" who insist that "Za dom spremni" are not words they wish to see, and so the present prime minister, Plenkovic, is hustling ways to remove the plaques. One was removed from a private residence because the owner did not have the proper permits. The howling and furor over the issue is deafening and, as in the United States, the left seems to have a poor knowledge of history, and much like the left in the US, they seem to like it that way.

So that's the story for now. Each day seems to bring a new permit to install the plaques and a new furor to have them removed. Here is a picture of what the complaints are about:

David Byler, aka Canovals

AMAME LENTO - La Prisma

Amame Lento - take the time to love me slowly

Between 1969 and 1998, I was one of about 500 million people who sat down every Sunday night, no matter what, to watch Raúl Velasco's "Siempre en Domingo," (Always on Sunday) modeled loosely after the "Ed Sullivan Show" of another time and place. Among the performers who performed, many of whom made their debut, on the show were Selena Quintanilla Pérez (THE Selena from Texas), Luis Miguel, Gloria Trevi, Lucía Méndez, Dulce, Vicente Fernández, Rocío Dúrcal, Enrique Iglesias, Shakira, Gloria Estefan and many many others.

Some of the other acts which appeared on the show were ABBA, Tina Turner, David Lee Roth, Whitney Houston, Bryan Adams, Peter Cetera, Richard Clayderman, Richard Marx, The Bangles, Cyndi Lauper, Olivia Newton-John, Barry Manilow, Laura Branigan, Village People, Donna Summer, Shaun Cassidy, Gloria Gaynor, Sheena Easton, Crowded House, Boney M, KWS, Spice Girls, Sammy Davis Jr, Andy Gibb, Jimmy Osmond, Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, Level 42, The Outfield and Sting.

Raúl Velasco began this program as co-host of a Sunday afternoon special in 1969 called Domingos Espectaculares (Spectacular Sundays). One of Raúl Velasco's catch phrases was, "Aun hay mas" ("There's more to follow"). For a short while, Siempre en Domingo was known as Aun hay mas because Raúl Velasco would always say these words prior to each intermission or commercial, with the hand gesture that corresponds to a request for a commercial break, similar to what Frank Sinatra might have said or sung, The best is yet to come. . . The phrase and hand gesture became popular in Mexico as a result. (y aún hay más... amigos!)

Raul Velasco's funeral on 26 November 2006 was a national event. His body was buried in the “Panteon Frances” where many fans, performers, and press congregated to give Raul the last goodbye.

One evening when the show was riding high, Silvia Tapia Alcázar, a.k.a. "Prisma" appeared on the show. After that first evening she delighted the millions with many repeat appearances. This was the era of vinyl records and cassette tapes - back in the day, millions bought her recordings. Today, Google has mostly forgotten her, but listen to her and hear for yourself why La Prisma has a growing following in the Balkans, a market which Peerless Records/Warner Music Latina never even attempted to penetrate. I cannot help but wonder if Silvia smiles knowing that people in her grandmother's native Croatia are receiving her music and responding with their hearts ...

do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,
David Byler a.k.a. Canovals
19. rujan 2016

"BOOOOOM!!!"

Part II of a series

(part I of this adventure is at dorucak na granici , there will more to follow)

"BOOOOOM!!!" My eyes were instantly open.  Instinct propelled me to drop and roll.  Of course dropping and rolling from a prone sleeping position placed me on the safety of the floor between the bed and the wall. My brain wasn't on yet.  I couldn't get it on.  My brain doesn't reboot from my sleep any faster than my computer reboots from its sleep.  

After that one single "BOOOOM!" everything was silent.  No dogs were barking. No cats were miauing.  No possums (we call them tlacuatches here) were rustling.  No night birds were clucking.  No bat wings were flapping.  I listened intently for the soft sound of my tarantulas scuttling through the grass.  Nothing.  Not a sound. 

No sound even of a truck on the freeway not far away.  Odd, even at that hour. I kept my head low as I eased over to the computers near the foot of my bed.  One was black.  The other had just rebooted.  The computer's clock told me that it was 0300.

I concluded that the "BOOOOOM" was not mortar fire.  By this time I was awake just enough to decide that it wasn't a shell from a cannon. I couldn't hear any AK47s firing and heaven knows there are plenty of those around here which people fire off on Christmas, New Years, Fourth of July and whenever else they get drunk.  Anyway, we weren't being invaded and it wasn't the sound of a border drug war like we hear the sounds from all too often  from just three or four miles away.  It was still silent as a graveyard.  It couldn't have been a katyuska - who on earth in their right mind fires off just one of those things and expects to do any damage?  

I was still groggy when I remembered that the Iranians were sending warships toward the coast somewhere. Maybe they had lobbed an atomic bomb at us.  People have always said that it would take an atomic bomb to wake me up in the night after I have gone to sleep.  That seemed logical then.  The Iranians must have bombed the Port of Brownsville.  I was way too sleepy to handle that, so I went back to bed and slipped back into a sound sleep from which I didn't awaken until late this morning.

A few weeks ago, Nenad Bach called me.  He was so apologetic and concerned that he had awakened me.  Nenad is a kind and considerate man.  I assured him that if I had been asleep, I wouldn't have heard the phone.  That was the truth of course -since it takes an atomic bomb to wake me up (see above).  Actually, that was not an atomic bomb last night.  I can't blame the Iranians.  Even so, the noise was so loud it was heard all over the city.  This morning on Facebook Brownsvillians were trying to triangulate the source of the sound until the weather service explained that we had some unusual lightening along with an inversion layer which amplified the sound.

Gotta learn more about how this works.  Imagine getting control of this phenomenon somehow and placing a rock band in the middle of it someway so the sound would go out over a whole city.  Awesome thought.  Someone should work on this sometime.  

Anyway, that night a few weeks ago, Nenad told me about "Ethnic Day" at the White House in Washington DC.  He wondered if I might be interested in being part of the Croatian - American delegation.  Of course I wanted to go.  There were a few details to work out and all that went well.  While I was in Houston for Ambassador Paro's presentation at the Holocaust Museum we planned for the delegates to meet with him at the Embassy while we were there, so everything was set. Washington DC here we come!

We have all heard stories about how the TSA sometimes gives people a hard time during their screenings.  I'm an old guy so too much hassle could be a problem.  I picked up the phone and called the TSA to find out what to expect and what to do.  The man explained everything to me and told me to be sure and let the agents at the airport know that I am partly disabled.  

At the airport, I was received with great dignity.  Security found a way to check me and my luggage out without any hassle at all.  I like the idea of flying safely and I like the idea of being treated with some decorum.  The TSA accomplished both.  I was so impressed that I called the TSA help line again today just to say "thank you" because somehow I doubt they hear a "thank you" very often.  Soon I was on the airplane traveling to Houston and on to the capitol city. 

There was one detail I learned after I was in the hotel in Washington.  The White House was insisting on two things:  1. That we present identification which matched the identification which we had sent in earlier and 2. That this identification be US Government issued.   

I was depressed.  I've been around the block a few times, in the US military and so forth.  I know that there is exactly such a thing as US Government issued identification.  There are military driver's licenses, passports, and border crossing cards.  I had given my Texas Driver's license number.  Texas is Texas and not the US Government.  There is a difference.  Here on the Texas border we are acutely aware that this is an important difference.

It wouldn't have mattered a lot really if the White House had refused my identification. Somehow seeing where the President lives was not nearly so important as meeting one of the greatest musicians of our time. Nenad Bach was live and in person there at the rendezvous point.  My purpose in being there was accomplished.  It was good to meet my friend for the first time in the flesh.  The rest of the adventure would be icing on the cake. 

The rest of the delegation are all especially fine people too - the sort that make a person extra proud to be a Croat.  We will talk more about them as we go along.

The Croatian - American delegation approached the first White House check point and it seems that our state driver's licenses were quite acceptable after all.  Apparently what the White House had meant to say was that we had to have identification issued by an official entity of the United States, such as one of our respective states.

One observation on this experience so far:  All of us hyphenated - Americans speak on english pretty darn good (except perhaps when I write miau instead of meow for sound cat makes) but it really might be helpful if the Americans would learn to speak on english also.    

There is more to this adventure, so do please stay tuned .......


do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,
David Byler a.k.a. Canovals
12. veljače 2014

Doručak na granici

"America."  Everybody in the world knows where is "America."  The fact, however, is that "America" is a continent.  Actually there are two of them, North and South.  Still, everybody in the world knows that "America" is the "United States."  Even that is a wee problem because in North America there are two "United States."   There is Sjedinjene Meksičke Države and there is Sjedinjene Američke Države.  Despite those little technical difficulties no one in the world is confused about which one is "The United States," or just "America." 

It wasn't always so.  When the first Croats showed up in the waters around America, America was still America in the broader sense.  Those early Croats shared the continents with Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands, the Muskogee, the Cherokee, the Comanche and others.  What's more, Croatians, along with others,  helped build a few countries in North America like Texas, California, and even the Kingdom of Hawaii out in the Pacific.

With no independent Homeland back in Europe, these Croats were, for the most part, uninvolved in empire building or "colonialism" in the usual sense of that term, but they were having great adventures.  One of those adventures has to do with what I am eating this very morning. 

The histories all show that Napoleon III withdrew French troops from Mexico but hardly a word is written about the Croatian Hussars who were in Mexico with Carlotta's husband even though everyone loves Carlotta.  When the Emperor was captured and shot, the Mexican officers with Benito Juárez asked him what to do with all these soldiers.  Juárez is reputed to have said something like "We have cut off the head, the body of the snake is harmless."

So now, you are a Croatian soldier in a strange land far away from home.  You have no money in your pocket and no way home.  Besides, why would you want to go home? What is there for you? You have little future except perhaps to be a fisherman or a farm worker on some large estate owned by one of the Austrians who run the place.   

You are hungry.   Your belly is crying out to you.  You've managed to steal two eggs out from under a chicken, one stale tortilla, an onion and a tomato.  Beside yourself, you have three companions to feed.  What do you do?

You crack open the eggs and you put them in the mess kit you were issued by the military. As always, te dvije oči jaja su namigujući on you.  Those two eyes of the eggs are winking at you. What next?  You crumble up the tortilla into the eggs, you cut up the tomato and the onion and you mix everything all together in the pan over the fire.

The war was vicious as all wars are.  There is a shortage of young Mexican men. The smell from your cooking attracts the attention of a young Mexican woman carrying water home from the well. You try to explain your recipe to her.  There is laughing and giggling.  She tastes your meal.  The closest she can come to saying all that about the eyes of the eggs winking is just "migas."  Close enough.  A new dish, a new word, and a new love has been born in the same hour.  You are married and you have children.  Your neighbors love your music.  Eventually the community around you forgets that once you were a stranger.

Two generations later, Mexico cracks down on the Catholic Church.  Your grandchildren don't remember exactly why, but they are Catholic among the Catholics and they find themselves across the border in Texas.  They bring with them their Mariachi tradition also born in Eastern Europe. Your great grandson composes a song for his daughter for her wedding but he has been taught that it is not permitted for him to play and sing in church. But somehow a Croatian - American pastor who knows and understands what he is seeing insists that the father serenade his daughter at the end of the wedding service INSIDE the church.  Perhaps he will not forget that day the rest of his life.

I know his daughter has not forgotten because, you see, I was that pastor.  This happened about a decade ago.  My musician friend is Croatian - American in the wider sense of that term. Mexican culture has mostly but not entirely forgotten there ever was such a thing among them. Homero Prado's family knows, and a few other musician families know.  All the average Anglo - American sees when he looks at my friend is one more "Mexican." As a matter of fact, all the average Mexican - American sees is one more "Mexican."

My musician friend is one of those Croatian - Americans like those which Ambassador Joško Paro spoke of a few nights ago at the Croatian Embassy in Washington D.C.  My musician brother knows some about the Croatian part of his roots and he is interested in knowing more.  He is proud of his ancestry and he treasures that part of the culture he retains.  Is he, or any of his extended family interested much in modern Croatia and other Croatian people?  No, not especially.  He is content here in South Texas where he can live his life as he wishes playing his music on special occasions. His children and grandchildren however just might be tourists in Croatia someday.

My friend is an example of one of those ethnicities about which neither Mexico nor the United States have any awareness.  That's not surprising considering hardly anyone except us old ragged grey-haired historian types know about the Jews and the Arabs who also live in North Mexico and in Southern Texas - people who were exported from Spain and who lived under the thumb of "religious police" for several generations. Throw in the descendants of several Indian nations whose states disappeared long before they migrated into this area, a few modern Croats, some Poles, a handful of Polish Jews, and some "Anglos" and you begin to see that down here at the Rio Grande we are a rich and complex tapestry of "ethnicities" even though the statistics want to lump nearly everyone together as "Hispanic" just because almost all of us speak at least a little on Spanish.  

Being Brownsvillian is complicated.  We are not all the same, yet we share a lot in common.  Being Croatian - American is complicated.  We are not all the same, yet we share a rich heritage.  Being Croatian is complicated.  We are not all the same.  Being South-East European is complicated. Being East European is complicated especially when you hyphenate any of that with "American" and then you discover that the US National Security Administration doesn't even know where East Europe is, much less anything about South East Europe.  What hope do we have that they know anything much about Croatia or Bosnia.  God forbid that they should need to know about the Sandjak or the Vojvodina or anywhere else in our neck of the woods. God help anyone from anywhere else.   This is the start of another story ... its important, so I will write about that a little later.  Do stay tuned for more over the next few days.

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

David Byler a.k.a. Canovals

10. veljače 2014

PLOVI BROD IZ AMERIKE - Džo Maračić-Maki

A few weeks ago when I heard this song again, I was reminded of all the Croatian seamen who go out into the Gulf of Mexico to fish, to shrimp, to dredge for oysters, to work on the oil rigs, and who are on ships carrying cargo back and forth from here to Europe and really to the whole world.

 

Some of them spend months away from home, others are gone for years.  Some never get to go home.   Some never go on board a ship.   Some stand barefoot in the sand looking out across the sea towards Home with hot tears running softly down their cheeks.   For some, the last voyage Home is the Last Voyage forever.  But we all wish the same things.  We wish freedom and prosperity for the Home and somehow, sometime, we wish for that boat sailing from America towards the beaches of Home. 

 

I asked Džo Maki if I could dedicate his song on this video to all the Croatian seamen especially in the region of the Gulf of Mexico.  He agreed.   I met Džo Maki last April at the Croatian - American Ball in Houston.  He is a very personable and fine gentleman, very talented and very gracious.  I am honored to count him among my friends.

On 8 July down here we shall have the "Blessing of the Fleet."  Perhaps you will see some of that on video right here.  Perhaps you will see the Croatian flag flying too! 

I wrote my own little "poem" as a dedication to Maki's song -

from Florida to Tampico
 there are hundreds and hundreds
 even thousands
 Croatian seaman go to their boats
 in the hours of the morning
 which other people name as night

some are away from shore for hours
 others are upon the sea for weeks
 some remain upon the shore

everyone dreams that one day
 he will be upon a boat from America
 which will find the coast of his beloved Homeland

for some this happens every year
 for many this never happens
until they are a box of ashes returning

everyone lives as near the shore as possible
 even when we are old
 we look across the sea to the east
 some dampness in our eyes
perhaps someday
someday there will be plovi brod iz Amerike
carry us to the coast of our Homeland

with Džo Maračić-Maki's permission
 the tiny Croatian community in Brownsville Texas
dedicates Maki's wonderful song
and this small video
 to all those Croatian men
 who are each day upon the Gulf of Mexico
 or who stand upon its shores
 and who all dream one dream together ...
There is one woman in our lives
who is above all others
she wears a blue skirt
and a red blouse
she wears a white sash
tied together with a red and white checkered buckle
she is our favorite lady
her name is Hrvatska
we wish to see her again before we die.

I hope you understand about the woman with the blue skirt.  These days, its the only skirt in her wardrobe.  With the help of God, it will always be the only skirt in her wardrobe.   Any other woman who has ever come into my life has had to understand that I would lay down my life for my lady in the blue skirt and red blouse.   She has always been and always will be my true mother, my true sister, and my true love all in one.   That last statement might be incomprehensible to anyone who is not Croatian in their heart, none-the-less, it is true. 

Join me in listening to this song
as we stand in the sand
looking out across the waves
waiting for that boat
which will finally sail from America
to our Home

PLOVI BROD IZ AMERIKE - Džo Maračić-Maki

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

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

28  Lipanj 2013

 

Radio, Television, and YouTube

I have informally extended a project about Croatian internet radio in which I was invited to participate by Nenad Bach and which we talked about on the last post. There is a lot of information floating around which suggests that many people are moving away from traditional radio / television to the internet. Google's whole business model is based on the notion that this move has already been underway and is substantial.

 

Over the years, I've had a few modest experiences with broadcasting on radio/television in Southern Illinois, Central Tennessee and in South Texas.  In each case the population within the reception area amounted to about three million and the stations presumed from their studies that the audience might be around 300,000.  The fact is that for any particular broadcast we didn't know how many listened.  We knew that some people tuned in because they wrote letters.

It is difficult to compare "traditional" transmissions to internet transmissions where we can have hard data. On YouTube for example - we know how many times a video was clicked and we know in the aggregate how many minutes people stayed on that video.  The algorithm which YouTube currently uses to "rank" a particular video takes into account "engagement" which includes "comments","like / dislike", and now its important to somehow keep the viewer on the video all the way through.

 

On YouTube we do not actually know where someone is located.  We know only where they say they are located so I did not take location into account.  My specifications were simple:  channels which broadcast a fair amount of music by Croatian performers were included.  In this group were channels operated by what appear to be Croatians in the same five continents where we found internet radio, as well as Slovenia and Serbia.  A few I know to be operating from France, Germany, and Sweden.

 

A few channels have dropped out in the last few years.  A few more have been hit with DCMA complaints and have been dropped from YouTube.  If memory serves, those may have amounted to as many as forty million views between them.  I did not take into consideration channels with under a hundred thousand views. 

 

Among the remaining top seventy Croatian/Croatian friendly channels the views amount to about 300,000,000 since 2006.  I've informally kept up with the top 20 or so channels for several years and I'm aware that the vast majority of those views have come in the last twenty-four to thirty months. 

 

This sounds impressive until you realize one Korean fellow made one video with one song which has gone over a billion views.  If you discount that one as a fluke it still sounds impressive until you look around just a little.  As a "group" we've accomplished a lot but we have a long long way to go.

 

There was a time when all one needed was a killer song to get a lot of views.  That's still important, but now it works best with a video which keeps the viewer "engaged" throughout the song.  It is no longer sufficient just to have a lot of music on a channel and it is no longer sufficient to have a wonderful piece of music and a killer video although all that is important. Now it requires that the broadcaster continually "engage" the audience and it requires that we find ways to find and engage our potential audience.  It also requires that we engage the performers and that we engage the companies which distribute the music.

 

Can I tell you how to do any of this?  No I can't.  I am still learning, but there is plenty of help.  Lisa Irby  has information on YouTube for us.   You will have to follow your nose among her extensive information and you will have to adapt it to suit your style but her information is solid and a good place to start. Lisa  also has a blog with a world of information on it for us.  This isn't about promoting Lisa, this is about learning how to promote us and our performers.  YouTube  provides us some help also. 

 

We have to out perform radio.  We have to out perform Television.  We may have to use FaceBook, Twitter, blogging of some sort, or whatever is available to us.  Oh yes, we might even have to somehow use some radio and television along the way. We have to use every legitimate means at our disposal to accomplish this task. 

 

We are broadcasters. We are DJ's at the party. We have a product to sell.  That product is the music of our beloved Homeland and her singers where ever they are in the world.  Its our job to sell this product and not the job of the performers and it is not the job of the Record Houses.  The performers task is to compose and perform.  The record companies job is to make the records and count the sales. We are the sales people.

 

We are closer to the people, we are closer to the market than anyone else could ever hope to be at this time.  If we want to keep our jobs and continue to have access to the product, then we must succeed at our task.  We must  engage as many Croatians in Croatia and in the diaspora as we can.  We must engage other people as well. The Japanese already know "U boj, U boj," so we have a good start on this project. 

 

Along the way we must discover and help our performers know how to make a little money on the work we do to promote their efforts.  The record houses must see an upswing in sales.  We must put the music out there so people of  all kinds want to hear it and want to buy it.  That's the task.

 

Yes, we are competitors but we also have a common goal - our Homeland, our culture.   We can either play around with this or we can get after it and have a great time doing it. Are you ready?

 

Za Dom, Spremni!!

 

 

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

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

14 svibanj 2013

TOPOĽČIANSKE PIVO

Alright.  Here's the story.  Near Hrad Topol'cianske was a pivovar, a brewery.  They made beer there. They sang about it.  This is the song they sang.  They closed the pivovar.  There is now no more beer from Topol'čianski.

So that's the end of the story.  No!!! Not even close to the end of the story.  To get to the end of the story, we have to find the front of the story.   "Don't you mean that you have to find the beginning of the story?  What's the matter for you?  Don't you even speak English?"   Alright.  Have it your way.  You find the beginning.  I'm going to the front.  You can come with me or not.  Your choice it is.

To find the front, we must first learn something about the Vezérlő Fejedelem.  After all, if you want to go  to the front of the line, you must first find who is first in line.  He is called the Fejedelem, the Prince.  As you know of course, the word "Prince" means simply "the First."  As it turns out, the Fejedelem in our story is the son of Rákóczi Ferenc and Jelena Zrinska.  Jelena Zrinksa was the daughter of Petar Zrinski with whose neck the empire had had some interest.  Jelena Zrinska was a neice of the Nikola Zrinski whose poetry placed the exploits of his ancestor Nikola Šubić Zrinski at Szigetvár against Suleiman the Magnificent into the hearts of every Croat in the all the world for all time.  "U boj! u boj!  ... Za dom! Spremne!" 

The family lived at this time near Mukacheve around which the borders of the Ukrajna have been drawn since the Second World War - you know- there in Mala Polska.  Look at the map, you can find it.  During the battle of Trenčín, whose environs are visible from the ramparts of the  Topol'čianski  Rákóczi Ferenc's horse stumbled and he was knocked unconscious.  His soldiers presumed his death and fled the field, ending the "Kurac" rebellion.  As a result, the Hussites in Czech and Slovakia were at a fatal military disadvantage as were  the Lutherans in Hungary  and in Croatia, all of whom had supported the notion that the purpose of the state was to protect the people rather than the people to serve the state. 

Oh, did I mention in here anywhere that all this began with the emperor suspending the constitution of the empire? Oh. Perhaps I should have. 

Had Rákóczi's horse not stumbled, the chances are that Central Europe might have been mostly  Protestant thereafter.   One of the Croats who rode rode with Rákóczi from the Topol'čianski that day was my ancestor.  Was he one of those who fled in panic?  I would like to think not, but I don't know.
 

My ancestors on my father's side began arriving in America shortly after all this, during the period when the Hapsburg government was interested in the necks of almost every member of the family.  Oh.

Topol'čianski Hrad was one of the strong points held by Rákóczi.  It lays astride an ancient roadway leading from Krakova in the north to Bjelovar and on south to Tirana.  It was the roadway by which many Bijelohrvati  moved south over a period of time into that which is modern Croatia.  It was the roadway by which merchandise, ideas, and the news traveled for many centuries.  Those ancient travelers left their mark.  Their path can be easily traced with the help of Google maps.  At Bjelovar the road intersects with the ancient highway to Osijek, Novosad, and points east all the way to China.  This was the ancient "Silk Road" which European  mariners spent so much effort to replace with a more secure water highway with which the Ottoman's and others could not interfere.

There's more to the story.  Important but little known history whispers through the breezes on the battlements of hrad Topol'čianski. If I have to, I will tell some of that history later.  Freddy, you know who you are Freddy. I am going to give you a days to respond before I go public with what I dug up in the castle courtyard.  I would much rather you told the story, but if I have to I will.  You do not wish me to do that. 

Just a few miles  north of Hrad Topol'čianski is the pass where the Germans massed just prior to their invasion of Poland.  Auschwitz lays just a few miles further, just off the old road to Krakova.

So why is an old Croat featuring a song called TOPOĽČIANSKE PIVO?  Topolčianski is in Slovakia isn't it? Yup.  It sure is.  Hrad Topol'cianski was our castle.  It was one of my family's castles.  It was a Croatian Castle on a highway connecting Croatians in the north with Croatians in the south.  The once mighty stari hrad is now a crumbling oddity.  The once major highway across Europe is not even passable by automobile all the way up to the castle.  The castle is crumbling.  The Croats are gone as are others, all long gone, and now, so is the beer.  Placem.

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

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac
 24 veljača  2012

HVALA TI ZA LJUBAV - Ana Štefok

Like the rose that she was, Ana Štefok was born amongst thorns.  Trnje (Thorns) is south of the railway between the Sava and Sava and Ulica Heinzelova.  It was there, amongst the thorns, in a church where her clear soprano voice was first heard in public. 

Soon, she was being heard at festivals in Zagreb.  Her unforgettable performance of Balada with Ivo Robic in 1964 set her on the path to stardom.  In 1968 she sang Kemal Montena's "Molitva."  She became known for her songs in Kajkavian.  By 1970 in Opatija she sang "Želim malo nježnosti" (I want a little tenderness).

That little bit of tenderness was however lacking in her life and her career suffered because of that.  By 1989 Ana has withdrawn almost completely from her singing career, appearing only as an occasional guest in HRT's programs.

For the next several years Ana was taking care of her father, Francis Štefok from Donji Kraljevec, who was an invalid until he died in 2005.  The expenses of her father's illness was more than her 3500 kuna (about $650) per month pension could cover and she was left penniless and in ruinous debt until the end of her own life.

                        
The media was fond of calling her the "Croatian Edith Piaf," or the "Croatian Connie Francis."  All that seems odd to me.  I remember Connie Francis, but I remember Ana Štefok better.  I liked them both, just it was that I listened more to Ana Štefok as soon as her recordings came around to us.  She was good. 

I see the media is already talking about this and that in her life.  Maybe so, maybe not.  If you think that she was rich please you think again and remember musicians were not paid so much in the time of her popularity.  They aren't paid so much today either.  Very few musicians have a lot of money.  I do know that she had something more than money.  I do know that she sometimes encouraged others to just be their best.  What else can you ask from anyone?  Remember her voice in church and then remember her voice for our people in Croatian language all over the world.

The same as many of you, I wept when the news came to me this morning that she died today at home in her tiny apartment in Zapruđe, just south of the Sava in Zagreb.  

Today I made little video with her "Hvala ti za Ljubav" in her memory.  "Hvala ti za Ljubav."  Thank you Miss Štefok for the love which you gave to all of us.

Tekst:
oh hvala ti, oh hvala ti za ljubav svu
za srecu tu
za svaki dan
za svaki san
za ljubav sto kraja
sto uvijek si tu

On english:
oh thank you, oh thank you for all the love
for every happiness
for every day
for every dream
for love to the end
I always have this

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

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac
4 studenog 2011

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

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

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

OH MARY DON'T YOU WEEP ...

I remember the day it was time for me to report to the U.S. Air Force induction depot.  That was so very long ago.  I knew there was quite a trip ahead of me to the training base so I had some reading material in my pockets:  a New Testament, and "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin. 

"The Fire Next Time" is really two essays - "My Dungeon Shook — Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation," and "Down At The Cross — Letter from a Region of My Mind."  In the book, Baldwin says “A vast amount of the Negro problem is the white man’s profound desire not to be judged by those who are not white, not to be seen as he is."  That rang a bell with me.

We've talked before about how it could be dangerous in those days to admit one's Croatian ancestry.  I could easily substitute in my head the words "A vast amount of the Croat problem is the anglo's profound desire not to be judged by those who are not anglo, not to be seen as he is."  Hmmmm, different but similar life experiences. 

Baldwin also said "We are controlled by our confusion, far more than we know, and the American dream has therefore become something much more closely resembling a nightmare, on the private, domestic, and international levels. Privately, we cannot stand our lives and dare not examine them; domestically, we take no responsibility for (and no pride in) what goes on in our country; and, internationally for many millions of people, we are an unmitigated disaster."  I didn't see that as a "Black" issue, but a wide spread issue becoming woven deep into the fabric of the country.

I was almost finished with the book when the bus arrived at the training facility.  The sergeant was Black and he was so very courteous at first.  "Empty your pockets please gentlemen," the man said, so I did.  Everyone did.  Men who had brought pocket knives and such were promptly relieved of those things.  The sergeant stopped and looked at my New Testament and my James Baldwin book and a frown furrowed on his forehead.  He looked me up and down.  "I'll have to take these," he said, "You are a thinker and that's not allowed here," and that was that. 

A line from the song "Oh Mary don't you weep, don't you mourn" was the source of the title of Baldwin's book.

God gave Moses the rainbow sign
No more water, but fire next time.
The title of his first essay came from another couplet
The very moment I thought I was lost
The dungeon shook and the chains fell off.

I was familiar with the song because me and my friends we sang the song in the fields and in the churches.  The choir at Riverside Baptist over on Wheeler Avenue in Houston, Texas could really belt it out all swaying with the music and everything.

Oh Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn
Oh Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

If I could I surely would
Stand on the rock where Moses stood.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Mary wore three links of chain
Every link was Jesus' name.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

One of these nights about 12 o' clock
This old worlds going to reel and rock.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

God told Moses what to do
To lead the Hebrew children through.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Moses stood on the red sea shore
Smotin' the water with a two by four.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

God gave Moses the rainbow sign
No more water, but fire next time.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Mary wore three links of chain
Every link was Jesus name.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

The very moment I thought I was lost
The dungeon shook and the chains fell off.
Pharoah's army got drownded
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Anyway, "The Fire Next Time" came to mind today when the Texas Forest Service revealed this morning that as of today 3.8 million acres of land had been burned so far in the fires in Texas this year.  Let's work out what this means.  Montenegro has about 3.4 million acres.  More land in Texas has been burned away than a whole country.  Croatia has a little over 13 million acres so a space equivalent to thirty six per cent of Croatia has been burned away in Texas.  That's about thirteen percent of Serbia including the Vojvodinja which has been burned away.  If you just look at the Vojvodinija by itself that's about 60 percent of that place up in smoke and its a space about half the size of Bosnia or Kosovo more or less.  Got the picture?  The fires in Texas have burned vast areas this year.Pick a Balkan country - any Balkan country and fires of this magnitude would have be devastating.     Aren't you glad I didn't pick Cheech and Chong's "Up in Smoke" to illustrate my thoughts and feelings about all this?  Here is some one's version of "Mary Don't You Weep"

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

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

30  Rujan 2011