In a small town in Central Serbia called Guca, the "Festival of Brass Music" takes place since 1961. The main event is an epic trumpet competition which Boban Markovic has won 5 times. (You might have heard his playing in several films by Emir Kusturica, most notably The Underground.) Now there is also a film about the festival , which begins this year on the 30th of August.

The festival is an insane mixture of Oktoberfest, Carnival of Rio and folklore show with a Serbian twist.

Some examples of the music to be heard on the festival. And if you like those, you'd better check out Fanfare Ciocarlia and Taraf de Haidouks too.
posted by hoskala on Aug 19, 2006 - 16 comments

Hey, Soba has a website! Is what I thought when I finished Joe Sacco's War's End -- a heartbreakingly frank, lovingly illustrated snapshot of life during the Bosnian War . Naturally, I had to see this S(h)oba fellow's work. Of them all, I dig this one most, prolly.
posted by undule on Jul 7, 2005 - 9 comments

Yugoslavia chapter closed: The Archduke, the Maverick Communist, and the War Criminal. After a storied, and often violent, 20th century, the (nearly) all-encompassing Balkan federation is no more, and what remains may not survive. Even in the shadow of a violent breakup, though, some former republics are moving on, though others remain a concern.

The roots of the region, of course, lie much deeper.
posted by apostasy on Feb 5, 2003 - 9 comments