BOJAN'S BLOG

Fog, Boston Globe, building fences

2008-07-02T22:33:14Z

CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUT TO SMALL ISLANDS DOCUMENTARY PROJECT.It’s foggy. Miss F is terribly disappointed that the Canada Day fireworks have been postponed two days in a row. She used to be terrified of them. Last year she really enjoyed them and was looking forward to this year’s show, but the weather is working against her. Here are some interesting photojournalism links: The Boston Globe is trying something different with their feature The Big Picture. It’s worth checking out. Time magazine photographer Antony Suau has been tracking the progress of the fence construction in the southern U.S. on the border with Mexico. This kind of thing horrifies me. Building fences is not going to solve the problem of illegal immigration.This is Coast Guard site at Loyalist Landing.Croatian word of the day: svjetionik lighthouse [s vie teo neek]

Canada Day, Small Islands Project Fundraiser

2008-07-01T15:50:42Z

CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUT TO SMALL ISLANDS DOCUMENTARY PROJECT.Happy Canada Day!In Saint John, Canada Day means pageantry of Loyalist costumes, veterans, local politicians, a massive flea market and fireworks over the harbour.This Canada Day, I would also like to announce a new project I will be working on for the foreseeable future. For now I am calling it Small Islands Project and you can check the project blog I set up for details. All of the pages are now functional and have at least some content. I am also going to ask for your help in funding this project. Instead of simply soliciting donations, I have set up a little contest opened to everyone (with some restrictions-read the rules). So click here or at the top of this entry to play. Updates on the project will be posted here as well as on the project blog.Croatian word of the day: otok island

Muggy, The Wars

2008-06-23T21:04:04Z

Today felt exactly like this- out of focus, muggy and wet.I finished Timothy Findley’s The Wars. As someone who does not like Timothy Findley’s overwritten and oh-so-clever prose, I can say that The Wars are indeed a good read- brilliant at moments. All Quiet on the Western Front still remains unsurpassed if you ask me..Croatian word of the day: sparno muggy

Fair grounds, Don McCullin interview,

2008-06-22T08:41:08Z

Fair grounds.Alex Majoli’s piece on sexual abuse in a remote Alaskan native village.An interview with Don McCullin.Croatian word of the day: lunapark fair rides

Fair rides, Afghanistan pipeline story

2008-06-20T21:39:06Z

Yesterday, the Globe and Mail run a front page story about a natural gas pipeline running through Afghanistan with high strategic importance to American interests in the region. It turns out that Canadian forces will probably be called to provide security for the project. The first story generated more than 500 comments. It would be funny if it were not so tragic since most of the information in the story has been around in one form or the other for some time. All you had to do is read Asian Times, for example. I happen to think that there is (or was) a role for Canada and Canadian military to play in Afghanistan. Supporting crazy American projects is not it. We could have supported the brave women of RAWA, for example, or any number of organizations operating in Afghanistan. Good for the Globe for running the piece and following up with more details.In other news, Croatia is out of EURO 2008. Lost to Turkey on penalties…Fair grounds.Croatian word of the day: izgubiti to lose

Neighbour troubles, EURO 2008, Cro soccer jokes, Is google making us stupid, HCB documentary, LEGO photography

2008-06-18T16:55:15Z

Dave is having some issues with his neighbour. Go help him out. Croatian B team beat Poland in EURO 2008… Mwahahahaha… My dad has a blog. This is funny, but you need to be from the former Yugoslavia to get it. Interesting story in the Atlantic (Is Google making us stupid?) on the impact of internet age on our reading and thinking habits. Check out this wonderful documentary in ten parts on Henri Cartier-Bresson.Also check this out: classical photographs in LEGO.Under the causeway.Croatian word of the day: susjed neighbour [soos ied]

Apology to First Nations, Father’s Day, The Lazarus Project

2008-06-15T19:49:04Z

A truly historic event took place this week in Canada. Prime Minister’s apology to Canada’s aboriginal peoples is a brave and remarkable act. The text of the apology is available here and I find that simple, clear language was effective and powerful. There are dozens of reasons to distrust this Prime Minister on this issue, but I’ll leave those to Dr. Dawg for now. For one hour this week, Canadians have come closer to understanding the hurt inflicted on First Nations and I think that is an excellent start to a process which ultimately should bring about the healing Native communities across this land so desperately need. Giant kudos to CBC for the Stolen Children section on their website. Well used opportunity to help create an accurate and accessible historical record of those events and the current developments. Also, happy Father’s Day! I have to admit that I always looked at Father’s Day with suspicion – it just seemed like a marketing ploy to sell more cards. Miss F, however, was so thrilled by it that it would have been cruel not to get infected by her enthusiasm. We had a perfectly lovely weekend spent mostly outdoors flying kites and reading books. I finished reading The Lazarus Project. It’s an interesting book and it felt eerie at times to recognize so much of myself or my culture in it. It’s a meandering read in the best of Slavic tradition and it will probably drive English speakers around the bend. Velibor Božović, a Bosnia photographer who lives in Montreal, provided most of the photographs for The Lazarus Project. I was quite intrigued about the co-operation between the writer and the photographer, but was hoping for a bit more interaction between the photographs and the text.Princess Street.Croatian word of the day: otac father

One year old

2008-06-07T20:10:52Z

Little Miss F was one year old yesterday. I can’t believe that it has been a year.Croatian word of the day: rodjendan birthday[NOTE] My PowerBook is officially dead. Can’t even start it up. So, I am updating for now from an old Dell laptop and cannot be held responsible for colour or tone accuracy.

Saint John Jewish Community, photographs from Israel

2008-05-31T22:14:02Z

This is a snapshot of the interior of the Saint John synagogue. The sound is a Maritime Magazine piece I did about a month ago and never posted for unknown reasons. The piece is about 18 minutes long. Israel is celebrating its 60th birthday this year. There are not many places in the world that have been as extensively photographed in the past six decades. Here is a collection of some recent as well as older work by various photographers. This is, by no means, an exhaustive list:CBC’s slideshow The Birth of Israel.Micha Bar Am’s book Israel: A Photobiography. Rina Castelnuouvo’s work for New York Times on Israel’s Arabs is here.Yoav Galai’s work on Palestinian life in East Jerusalem.Larry Towell’s book Then Palestine and a multimedia feature by Paolo Pellegrin on the evacuation of the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.Croatian word of the day: sukob conflict [NOTE]: Sorry about the wonky sound. Everything is wonky on this machine. I'll try to fix it.

Little Miss F

2008-05-30T22:10:22Z

Little mischief maker.