The big evening of DC-99 - we are making a movie of the concert of Korni grupa tonight at Dom. There were three of us (Š., whose father used to own the bookshop downtown, and Tarča). Š. wasn't planned, just met him downtown when he was buying cigarettes.
We brought a 500W reflector from the club, and perhaps three spools of 2x8mm ORWO tape, I think at 27DIN, so we'd manage with less light (or at least our light would cast farther). Three cameras, extension cord (but I had to go home to get a splitter), Tarča even had a new still camera. We even shot some of preparation - setting up the amps, mounting the drums, tuning the moug (I know it's pronounced mowg, but we got it as moo:g, and so it remained), even the crowd at the box office.
Had fun with the band in the wardrobe (i.e. office) - Zlatko was asking about some Gavra's neighbor; Boček was trying to handle the camera, Furda appeared with two packs (!) of drumsticks. Bata we caught in his underpants, for a second, when he was changing from travel into concert trousers. From the audience I pulled Dženk, volunteered him to hold the reflector (which he corrected into "light engineer"). Zlatko asked for a piece of špaga, nobody knows what exactly is that. Jozo, how do you say špaga. Well štrik, štranjka. Aha, Š. tells the waiter to bring a meter of twine. He then ties it in a hangman's noose and hands it to Zlatko. He laughs, unravels the knot, takes his belt with huge buckle and ties the twine instead. Furda says look at coming down into the people, poor guy, ties trousers with a string, doesn't even have enough for a razor... The string was too long, and couldn't find any knife, scissors or that razor, so it was shortened by a lit match. Š: appear like this on the scene, it will have effect. (nobody mentioned short wick)
With Boček one never knows when he's just kidding - he's never quite laughing and never quite serious. Our kind of guy.
Hreljac: why the cameras? Why do you have three cameras?
Furda: that's because of three dimensions.
We managed to get some decent minutes behind the scenes (and one sort-of indecent, where Bata Kovač was in his underpants). That's in the wardrobe, someone's office actually. Zlatko ditched his big buckle belt in favor of some twine. Boček remembered I was the guy who took shots a year or so ago, wanted to get those shots, will pay. Well, how do I get them to you? We'll play here again, Bata has an aunt somewhere in the city.
What were they playing? Well, their usual mix of underground (good version of "Not an ordinary life", sounded better then than on the bootlegs I acquired later) and, of all things, "Satisfaction" (which was Š.'s first answer the next day, when someone asked what did they play). They should be forbidden to play "Jedna žena", if they can't do it like they once did. Zlatko, amazingly, did get the audience on their feet (to liven up, that is, there were no seats), they even sang with him, which was almost unheard of, probably a first.
One little busty groupie, some Snežana I'd say, the one who regularly dances alone in front of Sleš's booth, who this time danced in front of the crowd and later kissed Zlatko on the poster, says she heard the 2nd album will be published in Italy in a couple of months. But they'll do a tour first, as Zlatko said, "for us singers there's no bread without mother Russia".
We packed everything and took it to the club. In the following days, I developed the tape, edited it down to about 9 minutes (so perhaps we did have four rolls?) and put together some background music. We didn't have the means to record sound - heck, this was shot with my soviet Quartz camera, with fix-focus lens and the wind-up motor. Putting a magnetic stripe on the tape was also out of our range - I don't think we had a projector with a magnetic head at all. So the sound went on a 9,5mm reel-to-reel tape (wasn't it 6mm, quarter inch? um... checked later, yes it was, and it used the same 8mm spools), and one hoped that the frame rate at projection will be as close to 16fps as possible (make that 18fps for super 8), and that the sound will start on cue. Then you held your thumbs that it won't be too far off by the end. The sound was usually recorded to last about 15% longer, in case the film tape was too slow.
I had both club's tape recorders in my room for at least a week, so I could do some sound editing - via cable, not cutting tape (like I heard some guys were doing). I did splice the tape myself a couple of times, but only when it broke.
One trick I remember I tried at the time was to see what happens if I try to fake stereo. The newer recorder was a big Grundig (or Polish knockoff thereof), and it could do either two mono channels or stereo on one pair of tracks, and then when you switch reels it would do that on the opposing pair. Pretty much the same as the stereo cassettes started doing around that time (which I'd start seeing in a couple of years). I'd take one song, something with a brief intro which would serve as a cue to when exactly to start recording. I'd record it on the first channel, then rewind to as close as I could to the same position and record, on cue, to the other channel at the same position on the tape. The first two or three attempts didn't quite work, they'd be off by almost a whole second, and the two tracks sounded like a mad echo in a tunnel. But I finally got it right. Now when played as stereo it wasn't much - it wasn't a real stereo to begin with, perhaps had a bit of a left-right shift on percussion, but that was all. But when played as a mono mix (both buttons on: stereo, one button on: mono of that channel, both buttons off: mono mix of both channels) I got a weird effect. Then I remembered where I heard that effect - the drums at some point in "Lazy sunday afternoon" and perhaps "Good vibrations". So this is how they did that, eh? Later, much later, I heard how Leslie works, and this was close.
The point, technologically, was that my error in timing the starts was less than what ear can detect, i.e. doesn't register it as echo. However, the speed control on these machines wasn't perfect, so the song wasn't recorded at exactly the same speed both times. So the time difference between the left and right wave was changing, and came somewhere below the period of some frequencies in the song, or some of its harmonics. And this was a lucky accident that the interference between them sounded just great.
Anyway, this was the time when I learned a lot about sound - recording, equipment, microphones, physics thereof.
At school it was mostly boring. The grades were concluded (I somehow managed to get all fives). On tuesday I didn't even have a bag, went straight to komitet instead, the semestral show. Sredljak, Tejka, Bilja, Baki, Bajče, Zova, Žara, Biljana and Mjedac were already there. The show... just bad. But when Oli Boj finished her number, we gave her very loud support, soccer fan style.
Marko Bozon had his true bullshit moment: Bajlo, Mandža and Sredljak got a reprimand and a four for conduct because of, watch this, unjustified absences. Of which Sredljak had only two really unjustified ones, the third one was iffy. He also crapped something about haircut, just for form's sake, without any zeal, I guess he also had enough of that. Afterwards I just ran around the main street looking for my parents, didn't find them, ran home. Found mom there - what, you aren't at the PTO? Nope, I'm on diet. So what? It's a water diet, I have to go quite often. So well okay, I ate something and went back to city, find dad and drag the car keys from him, saying I should go pick her, she should be in town alredy (well I saw her roommate at komitet). And she really was, so we went back to town, pass the keys back to dad, and we went to the club for a preview of the Korni tape (looks good!), took the tape and went to school to wait for dad. He was there, standing and talking with one of Smetovački (I guess Zova's dad) and Veca's mom (whom I made promise to be rough on the girls for still not having come to pick Rudolf's stuff). We came home, and had fun with mom while dad was getting the car into the garage. She asked where's dad and we went "what, he's still not here? We saw him in the komitet...", about six rounds of that until we guessed he's almost done with it (has to open and secure the gate, open and secure the garage door, drive slowly backwards some 15-20m, close the garage door, close the gate). "Okay we came together - he's in the garage".
On wednesday (16th) can't find calf liver anywhere, folks are massively on a diet. Wanted to do some positives in the evening but Veca came with her mom to pick Rudolf's stuff. Played "JC superstar" for her, and "Rare bird" (which Dženk bought from Rudolf, keeping it for a while, enchanted).
On thursday went with Dženk to some guy, played the "you too?" gimmick for a few vinjaks worth. In the evening did the rest of the pictures for that guy, and the Korni from december 72 to send to Boček.
The guy came to pick the pictures the next morning, sat with me while we dried them. Dad was in Novi so he left the car. I went to pick mom from work, then drove her colleague water dieters to their places too, and picking her wasn't on the route, had to go separately. She gave me two of my letters that I specifically asked because of the pearls-of-wisdom in them, for the collection. Also got the song "Dahomean tiktikar song of the dead", by certain young Vanji. The photo to go with the song was shot this summer, 29th or 30th of august in granma's room.
On saturday Veca and Sneca went to visit Rudolf. Not that I often wandered who is their walker now, since I eased myself out of that uneasy position and have better things to do, and the answer came without any effort. Their mom visits my folks often enough, and Borče's name came up whenever the context demanded company. Well, that's it for this year. Come october, we'll see who will study where.
Met her in the disco in the evening. "Smak" were playing, the same guys whom I announced over that illegal radio in Kragujevac last year. Or was it some other evening? Asked mom, says they played "Londong fogs" episode of "Theatre in the house", which ran at about 18:30, then had to wait for dad to watch the cartoons (19:15-18), then we went to garage to check the car's other leaking hose (good enough to go). Arrived at 20:15 and she already had the ticket. I got mine from, imagine, Arpi. We haven't seen "Smak" at all, we sat in the other hall, the disco, less crowded. Then it turned out we left too early, let's sit somewhere. (... 32 words...)
"Do you know when the good old times were? Right now."
We set the next day to be on foot, half we drink half we treat the rest. We made a year. Though, the 21st is on monday, but doesn't matter.
Next day at the club showed some slides and the working version of kornians. Morava is going to the vojska. Forgot to bring her tobacco in the evening so bought some on štrafta. Then we missed that much so had to scrounge around, from Gavra and a few others, to buy wine in Dom. When we had enough, Žika the waiter told his second to pay us, when we return the bottle, in petoparci (0,05 dinars is 5 para, and the coin was very small, perhaps 6mm)***. She had no dinner so we said I drink double. We treated Vanji, the newly bearded, and Kid. Went looking for Gavra but found Hazim, then Vanji again. When we finally found him, there was barely 0,1l.
Next day, on 21st, went to Sredljak but Borče took him and another guy to Radnički ("Workers'") stadium, next to skrobara, to shoot some basketball. Came to me then, sat, mucked around. He complains how Marko Bozon screwed him with inventing the third unjustified absence, and then the reprimand and four for conduct. And his mom mentally still treats him as if he was still in the elementary, doesn't change song. I dumped a couple of years of Ilustrovana, from 1967, took it to his place (other side of kombinat) and then went straight to her. Managed somehow to persuade Oma to let her go to Belgrade the next day, miracle unseen. She still can't understand how I pulled that. Had to promise to return her by 21:00.
Got up at 5:15 (!), dad didn't even know that she's coming, so he was surprised to see me so early. Then sent me to fetch her while he makes coffee. She was already up, sweetly spruced with a cute little bag. When we got home, mom and dad were already sipping their coffee. We got mom to her work and then took off. Dad didn't let me drive... well I'll go hitching this summer vacation. But he did have an idea, said if we ever go to Germany, we go via Warszawa to visit our folks from Bralići, whom we haven't seen for five years. Just fanned my imagination, I kept catching myself thinking up some big travel, that she and I would go... A real travel fever got me, I barely wait for the summer. And um, yah, she has to pass all the exams. It will be tight.
In Zemun dad showed us around faks*. He got obviously younger just by appearing as a student. Then he went to have the exam, and we buzzed around town. Looked for some sprocket for her dad's bicycle, books for her faks, and passed Jugobicikl by 10m without seeing it. Sat on a park bench behind the faks (yup, 22nd january), kissed to warm up. Then went inside to wait. Found "Šterka" (accusative case of Šterk, who was a hard-to-pass professor, whom many a student remembers bitterly) carved into a stone pillar. Ask on bannisters, cobweb in the corners, behind the glass a collection of malformed piglets - two heads, six legs etc, in formaline. Dad passed. Went into the basement restaurant, they don't have tax stamps, he'll find them elsewhere. Left us there while he handled some paperwork - probably to close off the semester and apply for the last batch of exams. We sat there for half an hour, then we went to Novi Beograd, the department stores. The RKB is the same as here, but the assortment is better, for Belgrade there just has to be, no matter what it is. In Mercator (granma would say Merkurator**) found an excellent lamp to screw on furniture - red, with flexible neck, must have that. Looked for cloth for my prom suit, shit, it's all gray drab mousefart, killed my mood. The shops overheated and me in the šinjel. Wish they had something white and firm, as for safari.
uncle Staja wasn't at home, we left a sack of potatoes for him (may as well have come from that Gorica's family). She had a long chat with Anica. Went to old town, ate at "Atina", looked again for the five-prong cogwheel for the rear head of the bike, cloth for the suit, translation of 1984... and it all came down for dad treating me with a double Arsen (Dedić), the "Homo volans" album.
Came back before six, and still didn't let me drive.
Then we went behind the gas depot to use the last twenty minutes, but my rear wheel got stuck in the mud on the shoulder. Sine guy with a fića came by, but can't hook the wire to it. His girl, though, drives a škodilak, so we put her to steer while we lifted the rear end - and it worked. "Thanks, pal!" "None at all, we've both come here on same business". Just when he left and we started, some girl hitches. I thought she got ditched or something, but no, they are in the forest, stuck to the axle... the local poet, one of the choir from that evening in 1972, who published in the same booklet with Vanji... so I took her home (10 minutes late, not horrible) and come back to the forest, manage to hook them and drag them out. Took a whole hour, because we didn't have any proper light. But at least this was two škodilaks, so we knew where the hooks were. And now I had a true excuse why the car was muddy.
Except I didn't need one - when I got home, tetka and uncle Staja were there. We from there, they after us. Talked rubbish until midnight, then moved on to important matters - the inheritance. Granddad's wife is muddying the waters, trying to push some option, now whether it's her own cunning (for lack of smarts) or was it granddad's brother who's promising things to her in return for this, we can't know, sounds like a triper. The end goal may be that she'd claim to be our responsibility, just what we needed.
Wednesday-thursday (24th-25th) at the library - copying needed text for my grad work, there's no borrowing from the science department, sit there. In the morning Tejka came by. It's becoming obvious that we have almost nothing to talk about. She and Dragana are in a completely different company now, with which I have nothing in common.
On saturday, 26th, went to Belgrade again with whole family, lots of store browsing but bought almost nothing - just that red lamp to screw on the shelf.
Opec's embargo went full tilt, and scumbag Nixon limited the road speeds to 90 km/h, to save fuel. We didn't feel a thing, being nonaligned and big friends with whole arab world, weren't embargoed. In Britain, the work week is shortened to bare three days, the miners are on strike and they ran out of coal. We have a cook-up with Trieste, ours put the border stones between the zone A and zone B, and Italians consider both zones to be theirs. This will be reheated during the year. Ei Niš made its first color television set. The Chineses cunted up somewhat with the Vietnameses.
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* see school levels
** merkur - Mercury; kurat (adj.) - from kurac, dick - with a big dick, dicky, so this slip of the tongue was unintentionally funny
*** this continued in back and forth... the next time he really counted our change in petoparac coins. The tiny copper coin was not much by either size or weight, but it took a hundred of them to pay one beer. Which we did, we took our revenge on Žika by collecting the coins for a few weeks, and when we got our two beers next time, the weight of the cash was more than that of beer. It took him until the end of the shift to count them, so to recounter us he started keeping them to give us as change whenever we appear. We played maybe two more rounds of this and then decided to call it even, the joke wore off.
6-IX-2014 - 15-V-2026