19-VI-1972.: Pozorište
A long series of shots from the gimnazija yard, the last of those with the old run down façade, they'll remodel the whole building during the summer. I imaged pretty much anyone who was in the mood, for as long as I had tape. It looks surreally pretty nowadays.
This is the gang from II1, at least the girl sitting on the stairs and Višnja (from behind). She has that fabled coat from march, which she cared for so much, who knows, maybe it was a bit chilly that morning, this was shot around noon, half the folks are shortsleeved. The other three should be younger. I somewhat remember the one in the middle, by likenesss if not by name, kept seeing her on the way to school, should be from, roughly, my end.
Spot the one far back left under the tree. Those were called domindžos skirts ('do mindže' - up to the cunt), the word dopičnjak wasn't in fashion yet.
This sitting one had an interesting friend, got her on the adjacent shot, whom I remember for wearing green nylon stockings, which looked unexpectedly cute on her. Though, I never learned even their names.
In the same series there's one of me and Duca by her entrance, loosely embraced, leaning on someone's lada (still called Žiguli then, the word 'lada' appeared eventually when they opened a factory in Belgium, gave up on explaining how to pronounce), parked snugly by the entrance. Of course nothing serious, she was already strongly with Joška, this was just to remember. Next shot she's there with him, with Dragana joining them for the third.
On a series I shot returning home, by sdk there are three shots. One, Gavra making a face into the camera, on the other Mima, Savka and Milica - one to catch a bus to her village, right after the bridge, on Žitni, the other two to ruža. This is the third, I snitched Spužva in his characteristic gait. Somehow typical of folks of smaller stature to strive to make up in movement what nature failed to afford them. He was about the only guy I knew then to wear this new type of briefcase, which look like a black thin suitcase.
The bridge is still new, less than a year. Within a year or two the white tiles will start popping out, and then they'll begin renewing the surface an unknown number of times. One can almost guess the year of the photographs by simply looking at surface of it, what tiling is there. Presently (2025) it's smooth concrete on the bridge, granite slates on the city side and on the slope down to Žitni.
Of course I shot a whole string in the classroom. It being in a corner, facing more or less northwest and mostly in the shade of the other wing, it had poor light. This is why I tried this... with long exposure, a second or two I guess, pressing the regula down on the desk. Sitting at teacher's desk, Bajče. Standing, Zova. At the blackboard, Jasmina.
The flimsiness of everything is plain to see, the desks with bent bars where still present, the plastic piping around desktop boards long gone missing, the hardwood floor worn out, the walls painted with simple oil paint in some greenish grayish hue, the mortar already crumbling at the bottom. Of course, last two-three years the maintenance was near nil, the means being saved towards this reconstruction. Well, we'll see in the fall what'll it look like.
On 19th I went to the theatre to get paid. Met Aćim and one of the young actors. At police HQ didn't manage to get the ID (between age of 16 and 18 it's optional, I just wanted to get some immunity in case there's another raid like that one on 01-II-1972.. Didn't hear of any other such event, but just in case they get another such stupid idea... The reason I didn't get it is that they couldn't find me in the citizenship books. They did it regularly until 1947 and then stopped, the books being federal allegedly didn't sit well in some circles. So they restarted the practice in the late fifties, now with citizenship per republic, so I was supposedly a citizen of SR Serbia but couldn't prove it. Well write me down. Can't, because you were probably automatically written in your place of birth. That's here. Then your father's. Aaah, okay. If not, then they'll issue you a certificate saying that they don't have you, and we'll enter you here. Okay, so that's one trip to Zajač, at some point.
On 20th had the full house - the mummies in full composition, Tejka with parents and Dragana for good measure. Then they start simmering me to go out. Which was just a pretext to get Tejka away from her mom, of course, and I was some kind of warranty. So I'm okay when she needs me, on other days she can scream at me. So we negotiated back and forth and finally I relented because of Dragana. At Dom didn't do much, had long talk with Čarga about who knows what, then on the way out met Aćim and talked more. Came home around midnight.
Meanwhile, the bugojanska group crosses the austrian border and goes to raise a rebellion to renew the NDH. As many times before and after, the governments in the west didn't mind terrorist groups as long as they were anticommunists.
On 21st finally shot that crazy movie (which I absolutely don't remember, whaatt?) with Gavra in Zmaj's yard, then came to my place. He tried to lift some pics, specially those of Višnja, which I guarded and mostly stopped showing to guys after that. Ate something and went to town. And there in Dom saw, imagine, B. Dropped by immediately to say hello, and she remembered me, and she was back to pretty... and then I noticed a friend of hers standing by all the time.
- Ah, we aren't acquainted, I'm...
- We won't be, either*.
- So. How are you? You in second?
- Yup.
- I thought so but wasn't sure, I saw you there but you could have been there for just a visit.
- And what do you do?
- Lots. Today I was making some crazy movie with Gavra. You know him? He was standing with me just a minute ago.
- Don't remember knowing him.
- Never mind. A crazy movie, big laugh, something like silent movies... ah here he is. This is Gavra...
- B.
- Can't hear you. To my ear.
- B!
- Heard you now. (to the other) Acquainting would be in order.
- I don't acquaint anyone today.
That's how it began. We turned to B. and started telling her about crazy ideas we had, which are a rule in DC-99. When we mentioned the bloody green color, the nameless one barged in and started mocking us, which we returned. She mentioned our lack of culture, to which we reacted by more loud dispute. This lasted full hour. Five times she asked to move to the side so she could observe the person she loves. Well let me take a picture of the guy. You don't know who he is. Never mind, I'll do it with eyes closed, you just put him in front of the lens.
The telling moment was when he said we're still good cultured and haven't shown all the aces up our sleeves yet. She thought we're gearing up for a fight (!). She's obviously oblivious that we're mocking her at low rpm, and that we could have fucked her up (verbally) as much as we wanted to, had we wanted to.
By that time we had an audience, who just stood and listened in. Some were rooting, some tossed ideas into the fray, all in all it was a collective effort to bring her nose from the clouds down to Earth.
Next day he wasn't there, they weren't there, and then soon I wasn't there either.
Mentions: 01-II-1972., 26-V-2024., Branislav Bačikin (Bajče), DC-99, Dom omladine, dopičnjak, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Dušica Tošin (Duca), Gavrilo Taroški (Gavra), gimnazija, Jasmina Vlajin, Joška Rac, lada, Merima Tabarski (Mima), Milan Šebrcan (Aćim), Milica Erceški, regula, ruža, Savka Čajkanić, sdk, Slavica Tejin (Tejka), Velemir Prokin (Čarga), Višnja Lazin, Zajač, Zdravko Smetovački (Zova), Zmaj, Žitni, in serbian
23-V-2025 - 10-XI-2025