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Zdravo

They say Chicago is one of the most blue collared cities in US.
I met Boris in a crowded club, -“Zdravo” ?
-What ? man you are drunk!
Boris has nice huge whiskers, dark haired, with pointed glittering piercing Balkanian look.
-“Italiano, si? Ciao!
-“What’s your name?” He is Boris. He’s from Serbia.
-What the heck are you doing here?
-Came for a ..ucking conference named ISIT. You know Bruno Grosi? He is in Italy.
I don’t know him. I’ve never been to Italia.

“Arrgh.. I told you I don’t dance with anybody. Leave me alone!”
“She is right” Boris says with a drawl.

“Man, see it is a common tragedy which pulls us together, puts us in the same balcony above the world of stupidity.” His eyes sparkling. ” look it makes you simple distrustful, the savagery of the war and human being. Once you see it you will never be faithful to the green fields of self assurance.” He gasps rapidly. “One of my friends was killed on a bridge bombed by UN or NATO. ”
“I thought people had fun on bridges” I remember another one telling memories from bridge parties
-“Moron, first time you see the big lie, it’s the last time you see world that concrete. Big good kind words would not exist anymore. First time seeing real blood makes the whole war histories and details we studied at school, as light as a feather. It’s the reality of the concept itself which sits in the place of manageable words. These politicians are players for the words, they exchange the credits, they are dealers. Like buying with credit cards not hearing the jingles of the coins, you see what I mean?”

PS: Such a small world, I saw him again.

Amazon

“You know what, do you remember the story by Marquez, the one there was a guy struggling to begin a conversation with the girl next seat in the fly to Mexico city or Lima, I don’t know where else might be .. and he lost her when they got off the plane? “
Emma has no memory trace of something like that. “It’s the difference you feel when you sit in a starbucks place like this with this empire-state shadowing you. it’s so different in Argentina, and Brazil. Just imagine German girls in tropical amazon.” She says.
“I can imagine how it can be. It’s the whole point.” I said pondering what exactly this shocking hint means, contemplating different haunting scenes, like screening the Scandinavian chicks in green lust of amazon.
“I’m gonna visit my grandma first, there’s a family ceremony, on Sunday. We spent time together on Sundays. Here in NY I missed my family” she says.
-You mean you guys go to church all together?
-Nope, idiot, it is an informal gathering just for having fun, gossiping.
-When is the flight to Buenos Aires?
-5 hours left.

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Shattuck, Berkeley; a long bearded homeless asked for change.
” I do not speak English ” I said, with some ridiculous alienated accent.
“Which language are you speaking, son?” He replied.

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“You ‘ll get used to it, here people go shopping to have fun”, Some random guy sometime told me.
Not fun, sth more subtle, the American indulgence:

From “White Noise” by “Don Delillo”:
“… And this is where we wait together, regardless of age, our carts stocked with brightly colored goods. A slowly moving line, satisfying, giving us time to glance at the tabloids in the racks. Everything we need that is not food or love is here in the tabloid racks. The tales of the supernatural and extraterrestrial. The miracle vitamins, the cures for cancer, the remedies for obesity. The cults of the famous and the dead.”

Experiment

First time I got to psychology department ‘s basement north west of the quad was late at night. Best time to visit the happening place of “Stanford Prison Experiment”

Smile

I have always considered human’s record of defeating nature and story of civilization as a project promoted by remarkable men and women. A continuous and very surprisingly not obvious coherent and consistent set of improvements. I have never been pessimistic about Human’s future, I’ve ruled out all possible ultimate catastrophes.
His eyes sadden and freeze on my face with a smile: ” Hasn’t your opinion changed over the years?”

Spartacus

Our conversation about Information exchange and gossiping in networks soon turns to an interesting set of questions about how Alexander the great did it. Tom says: “How was he stabilizing the countries on the behind? And he died when he was about 30..
Kirk Douglas shouts in Spartacus: Hey fellas let’s gooo…! And everybody, all tens of thousands respond: yesss.. It ‘s impossible to do that.. How the commands were spread among these people? It ‘s sth we never see in the movies.”

PS, Feb. 2nd 05: By the way, I watched the movie. I hope it was made theatrical intentionally; otherwise it is a disaster, very cheesy.

Watched pot

Debate about inherent probabilistic behavior of nature which is reinforced by quantum mechanics is a dillema going back to Plato and Socrates. Suspicion about the meaning of a “fact” or “state” gives birth to pleasant mind benders like ” watched pot never boils”. I guess a Wittgenstein is needed here.

The Hands That Built America

It has been years since the days I could wander around on gloomy gray shores of Caspian sea. Days has passed since the times I could walk away brooding under rains pouring from a close sky..

Jim says: you know, after a while everything looks the same, people cry and laugh and love the same way, who expects sth new in this world? I do not feel like traveling like old days.

“… it’s a long way we’ve come
From the freckled hills to the steel and glass canyons
From the stony fields to hanging steel from sky
From digging in our pockets for a reason not to say goodbye…”
By U2