08-VIII-2005.
In the morning Zina came by again, took a few pictures. Mom smokes golden domestic, rolling her own. Using the tozna I left her, I got another.
Šuca Sejin also came by, sat for at least half an hour, I see he's glad to see us. There's a bunch of photos of him. Of course, he grew into a guy who walks the street in sportswear, okay only the top this time. About the guys who wear the pants, and now I've seen lots of girls too, I don't have much of an opinion. Not that I'm some staunch champion of formal clothing, may hundred flowers blossom, but this feels like the guy's out in his pyjamas, that's the attire for exercise and sweating, but when I see a guy like that, the first thing that comes to me is to send him to shower.
The bus is the same model as I remember it, just it's not the standard dark blue color (but it was pure blue, not hinting to gray or purple, like it does on the NYC subway pillars), it's now pure pink. Incredible, I never thought I'd live to see a pink bus in Zrenjanin. It's all crummy inside as it always was, what with the five seats above the engine, in the šaraglje*.
The house visible through the window is on the corner, behind which Zmaj is. They used to have fence there, and a little flower garden behind it, then in the nineties built some kiosk-like front where they sold fruit and vegetables, always having stacked crates in front. Now I see they built it for real but I don't see what they sell now. The whole stretch of the street, almost to the railroad, is now all shops, because the 25. maj is across, lots of customers. I once counted a total of four houses without a cash register, but then there are many with two or three.
Making lots of shots along the way. Some things changed, like the bus and this multitude of shops in our old street, and some things are the same as they always were - it's beginning of august and the peasants bring bostan and sell it from their tractor trailers. This is smack in front of Lesnina. I see the once furniture salon is now the oilery retail. Don't know how much of assortment may they have - two or three kinds of oil, three kinds of mayo, up to four of margarine, end. Perhaps they sell wares from some other survivors from the once kombinat.
In the afternoon we met at the dentist's again. He cleaned the plaque off my front teeth, said one tooth is ripe for extraction, but no time for that now. (the tooth was actually extracted soon... in 2020; served well until then)
There's a movie theatre now in the komitet.
This shot Go later took as a model, I guess she liked how the sunset reflects on the (now metalized) windows of vodotoranj against the background of clouds so frowning as if it's gonna rain shit, and painted the view as she saw it, rather faithfully except the vodotoranj widens as it goes up, which is the common illusion on most of the shots - she did it as real.
While we had coffee out before zelenozvono, I snuck out to make this full panoramix of the whole square, about 370°, no headache from the excess. There are several versions of the patch; on this one the ends meet in the middle. When shooting, I started and ended at the museum's corner, and on some versions it appears on far left and far right.
Shot also the display of theater's posters. I see Aćim is still active in the doll [theatre], he directed (and maybe also wrote) one show.
Went for a walk, and I wasn't lazy, repeated the panoramix from the opposite corner, this time only 270°.
Met Grne on the štrafta, Lena made at least five shots of us. Walked over the Žitni square and tried to buy a jacket or something for Lena in the shop of that lady who once had the skill to pull the exact wad of banknotes from her bag without looking. No matter how small scale operation, this is confection**, so of model, size and color you may find no more than two that you'd like in the same piece.
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* šaraglje are the rear side of a horse/ox cart, the one that can be removed for unloading. By analogy, the rear row in a longer vehicle is called the same.
** a false friend - konfekcija here means industrially manufactured garment
Mentions: 02-II-2023., 25. maj, bostan, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Grne, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), kombinat, komitet, Lesnina, Milan Šebrcan (Aćim), Sejini, štrafta, tozna, vodotoranj, zelenoZvono, Zina, Zmaj, in serbian