may 1971.
The typical pose, all leg.
Roughly the month. Or a couple of months ahead or abutt.
Went to the movie in "Vojvodina", the cinema situated in the corner of the brewery building, next to the Great bridge. Saw "Timon", with Boris Buzančić and I'd hazard to say Jagoda Kaloper. Within the first ten minutes she's leaving the bathroom naked, with her gorgeous bush up front. Unforgettable [and unrepeatable, when I got hold of a copy of that film, some fifty years later, that scene wasn't there]. And the rest of the movies is the usual parallel between the shakespaerean play in which his character plays the main character and the essence of the play repeating itself in his character's real life. It being this movie theatre, where you can't understand a word in any domestic movie, watched it as if it were silent.
The cinema being along my path to school, I kept watch on important movies, and saw a lot of them, though sometimes I'd miss them - if they were scheduled to run thursday to sunday, I'd plan to go saturday afternoon, but by then they'd remove that and run some western or godzilla or kung fu thing, because the number of tickets sold on first two days was less than a handful. So I took to watching them asap.
On 3rd, Tejka came to announce the big news - she's now with Pišta. The twins were famous around, not to say notorious. Don't remember what fame, though, but had some aura. So... all the girls are taken by older guys. This one is an adult (ie. 18 or more), Beštara is senior (wrong, our generation, but I didn't know that). Yup, I was depressed.
Around this time the wax matches (voštane šibice) appeared, or rather paraphine. I almost thought I imagined them, because on multiple tries I couldn't find a photo on the webs. I kept getting church candles, wax crayons, something produced in Voštane village, Palma's museum of wax figures in Jagodina, move-a-match puzzles, all of it topped with about twenty shots of various guys, all titled the same „he almost got beaten up“, fuck me if I see a connection. Eventually found this shot, which is exactly the model, the brand, the packaging. These were frequently found on the table when the three would come to play remi (or did we graduate to canasta already?). They were screwy for being almost half shorter and requiring a firmer press against the black stripe, not good if the pressing finger is somewhat sticky. But they were popular, specially because they wouldn't become wet.
I've quickly edited what tape I shot about Zova and Sredljak sneaking out of class to play pingpong. I had some 27 DIN (ie. highly sensitive... for the times and for the tiny frame, would be like ISO 400 today, perhaps 800). It was sheer bullshit, but was fun while we made it. We shot the sneakout during Sonja's class (too dark, nothing to see there). There's all of just nothing visible but the ball and windows panning while the camera tracks it. I recorded the sound by placing the microphone of Džok's cassette recorder under the net. The title will be "Oh how I killed him last night" (phrase uttered by Zova once). The festival in Kula is soon.
On 12th I decided to visit ruža after a while. Dad almost kicked me out, just go go go. Obviously I'm not myself these days. Though, the gang has almost dispersed, only the silt remained.
Accidentally met Đica and T. (who is as pretty as can be, just a bit short of being a full beautie... amazingly, her face came to me, in a dream, some fifty years later... I wonder whether I'd recognize her at all, haven't seen her since). It's their prom soon, they're in explosive mood, bursting.
Thirteenth. The Security day. Us in DC-99 having borrowed equipment from militia so many times, that Bolex camera, hallogen lights and that incredible Velbon tripod, we had to do a bit of work for them too sometimes. One was that I went and shot the minute-by-minute congestion on the beginning of the Miletićeva, which they needed as evidenct to support their claim that the intersection requires a semafor (traffic light, which was indeed installed, and still works). The otehr thing was that today I had to visit the SUP [secretariat of interior] to shoot their party... at least the part when they give speeches and hand out medals and diplomas. Then we stayed for the snack and chat - I, Dimče and Miloš, the latter leading the traffic education sekcija in Zmaj.
The news of the season was that the alcotest for drivers, with glass ampules with some white grain inside. If one blows through it and there's enough alcohol in the breath, it greens. Not extremely reliable, but reason enough to take those to whom it went green for a blood sample in the hospital, to measure the exact amount. The volunteer guinea pig was none other but Miloš. After one vinjak it stayed white, after two it was undecided, after three it greened successfully... Technology to the people.
The drivers acquired some skills over the years, once they learned that the ampules aren't reusable. If it goes green, driver pays for it, if it doesn't, the cop pays. So they'd pretend to be drunk just to fuck them up, and then these guys also got wiser and didn't say „let's see you blow“ so easily, and who knows how many just got away with it. This cat and mousing never ceased.
Mentions: DC-99, Dimitrije Josin (Dimče), Đurđica Oraški (Đica), Gradivoj Sredljev (Sredljak), Miloš Šandorov, Milovan Sebešćen (Beštara), Pišta Rac, remi, ruža, sekcija, Sima Veljin (Džok), Slavica Tejin (Tejka), Sonja Savković, vinjak, Zdravko Smetovački (Zova), Zmaj, in serbian
29-XI-2020 - 17-V-2026