… and a really cute butt …

We have been on the coast for four days now and I’m slowly getting into the swing of things. Combination of exercise (biking and swimming) with periods of absolute laziness (reading and napping) are doing me good. I’m reading a book by Ante Tomi? and having a blast. Off to eat some fishes now!

*Like kidney in fat

Zagreb was a bit empty because of the four day weekend. We got here just in time to watch Croatia lose the place in the second round of the World Cup to Australia. There are six or seven Croatian players on Australia team so people here did not take it too bad.

To escape the concrete jungle we run off to Maksimir Park and checked out the Zoo. The Zoo is holding its own in this day of safari and grow-our-own-eucalyptus-trees Zoo trends. As always, Zagreb Zoo ain’t too shabby.

Yesterday we checked out the gay pride parade. Hopefully in five to ten years there will be more gays than cops, but you’ve always got to start from somewhere.

I saw all the Fringe I am going to this year. Chris caught a few shows more but I was too stressed out about preparing for the trip to join him. So if you’re in Ottawa and would like to check some shows out here are my Fringe findings.

Pentecostal Wisconsin
This was the most energetic show. The storyline is similar to Complicated Kindness but without the desperation and family disappearing into nowhere. It has the added bonus of singsong.

Cassandra
A nice play about effect of a mediocre self-help book on a 9 year old girl. It is hard to take charge of your life before you hit double digits. I had fun and bought a button.

So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz!
Yet another fun play about Jewish summer camp. It was not as great as Swimming Lessons with Paisley Kite from two years ago but it had us rolling on the floor laughing.

Trevor Thompson’s Very Disappointing First Play
I don’t know about this one. It was more of a stand up routine than a play. Some jokes worked though.

Aphrodite’s Turn
This play is of a sort that seems to come from the left field (wherever that is) and it grows on you.

So Close To My Skin
Another singsong drama. The use of technology was amazing. At first I was surprised that the actor was using a microphone with only 20 or so audience members sparkled around first three rows, but with distortion and ambient noise he created unique sound texture that complemented the performance.

My friend Jimmy pushes buttons. He tells people their haircuts are bad or that their ethnic cuisine is smelly or that they should go kill themselves.

Underneath this veneer of infantilism he is really funny and smart. In fact, when I’m down there are only a handful of people who can make me smile and he is one of them. Despite our steady friendship every once in a while he’ll try to make me upset. He’ll say something like Croats stink or something equally absurd and ineffectual. This amuses me greatly and I’ve often wondered if he’ll ever figure out how to actually upset me. I also wondered about what he could possibly do to upset me. Well, he finally did something that made me feel like crap.

The best part about is that he didn’t do anything out of character or anything much worse than what he’s said or done a million times before. In fact, he did something frivolous and of very short-term consequence. It is just that he finally found my button. You can tell a lot about people from their buttons.

Go Jimmy! It took you seven years to make me flinch. Here’s to another seven years of you guessing wrong!