Sve je lako kad si mlad

Friday was sort of a microcosm of my experiences here. It started of as a usual Friday, going to the City Museum Library for my two hours of research week there. At the end, Danka, the librarian (she is the entire library staff in fact) asked if I wanted to come by any other days over the next couple of weeks, because she knows I am almost out of time and would really like to spend more than one more 2 hour session there. By doing this she is really stretching the rules of the museum. But, as per usual here, rules are more like guidelines and she has taken it upon herself to adjust them to the situation. Ultimately, the rules are designed to keep people from distracting her (the library exists to support the museum staff, not the general public) so it makes perfect sense that she can bend them.

Following that I headed over to the library on the other side of town (well, I stopped off for lunch first) to catch up on newspaper research. This really was catching up because I was redoing some work I did last November before I had really set my routine. I had some old newspaper stories I had found by just looking though a bound volume of papers after digging out a specific story. Problem was I hadn't taken a picture of the front page and the pages themselves didn't actually have the year on them or the newspaper name, so I really didn't know which of the two papers I'd been looking though that day they were from. So, I requested both months from both papers to sort all of that out. I found the stuff I was looking for, but since I had already had them go through the work of digging the extra two volumes out I decided to look through them too. And, of course, I found even more stuff. On one level it is satisfying that I can basically pick up any given newspaper for any given time period (the course of 2 or 3 months) find things that support my thesis. On another level it is frustrating because I will leave here knowing there are so many things I haven't found yet.

So, finally around 4pm I decided to head home. But, since the City Library is kind of on the way home figured I would stop by there and get a book to look though over the weekend. The book I was looking for was Sve je lako kad si mlad (Everything is easy when you're young, which is also the title of one of their most popular songs). It is the "biography" of the band Prljavo Kazaliste (Dirty Theater), which is important because they played a huge concert on the square in 1989 that was a big deal because one of their songs was considered very nationalist (it is actually pretty mild). The title of the song at the time was Mojoj Majci (To my mother), but everyone started calling it Ruza Hrvatska (Croatian Rose). [Well, there is a line in the song about being like two fingers, which is an old saying about two people being close, but the Croatian vitory sign is also two finger, so, there could be some double meaning there.] So, I wanted to get the story about the concert from the band's perspective (the book is an official biograhy of the group). Not a big deal, the book was in the computer catalog. The City Library supposedly had 5 copies. One was checked out and due back some time last year, but the other four were supposedly on the shelf. Well, when I got to the City Library I filled out my little "signatura" request and turned it in. A few minuets later, the librarian called my name (always and adventure here, as it has not just one but two letter combinations/sounds that don't exist in Croatian) and informed me "Zao mi je, nama." Which means, "I'm sorry, we don't have it." Once again, I am the victim of pilferage. This is, unfortunately, very common at the City Library. They (unlike the library across town) have no security system so books literally go out the door on a regular basis.

Up until now, that really hasn't been a huge issue because the library across town actually has as large a collection (if not larger) and better security, so books that are missing from the City Library collection I can get there. But not this one. The other library only has one copy, and it was due back on 15 March, but wasn't returned on time (also not uncommon for any library). So, basically I was out of luck. Any way, I was low on cash at that point so I walked up to "flower" square (which isn't actually named flower square, but that is what everyone calls it) to use the ATM and walk off my frustration. I then went to a book store that I thought might have a copy of the book, but I wasn't expecting to find it. Books are printed in small runs here, so if you don't get a book when it is first published, your odds of finding it diminish rapidly over time. And, no luck.

Finally on my way home I decided to stop at my favorite "old book" store on the off chance they might have it. Amazingly enough they did. And it was actually an unused copy (the "old book" stores also sell new books, but they usually only get one or two copies of new print runs) with the accompanying CD of the groups Christmas Concert from 1996 (I think, I have to double check that). So, finally, about 6:30 I made it home, with the book (which I now own).

And why does all this matter? Well, besides the concert in 89, the group also did an album in 1980 call Hero of the Street (that's the cover up top). If you notice, there is a clock in the picture. That mean it is on the square (because that clock is on the square). The song Hero of the Street is about a guy who is trying to find the courage to ask a girl out. The album cover makes that point because of the clock. So, the clock, and therefore the square, are at the center of the process of social reproduction (courtship) in Zagreb. And since the square is a national space, Croatia was still at the center of social reproduction. I'm not sure that makes any sense to anyone else at the moment, but it makes perfect sense to me (though it will probably take me at least 10 pages or so to explain it properly).