circa 1978 – Zagreb
Mom dancing with me to “U razdjeljak te ljubim”, Djordje Balasevic’s first single. I don’t remember the event, being quite new to the world at the time, but I do remember choreographing his entire albums in elementary school.

circa 1988 – Zagreb
Dad and I go to pretty much every concert by Zagrebacki Solisti, an excellent string assemble, that season. I was in the classical music phase at the time with particular interest in piano and harpsichord.

1989 – Summer camp in Veli Losinj
I bring my Beatles tapes to the summer camp. Other kids conclude that I have an old fashioned taste in music. I have the last laugh when, two years later, kids around me discover Beatles long after I moved on.

On the way to the beach in Veli Losinj

1993 – French class at Sacred Heart School of Montreal
I give a presentation on how important music is and how much I love listening to music. Mme Habachi is very impressed with my maturity. I am very glad that I kept the speech ambiguous since everyone thought I was talking about classical music when I was really referring to Pink Floyd.

1994 – Sleepover at Maria’s place in Montreal
I get to stay in Maria’s sister Anuska’s room. Anuska is rainbow coloured Political Science student totally into underground culture. I whine about not being able to hear anything other than classic rock and contemporary mediocrity on the radio. She tells me about Brand New Waves and CKUT radio.

1996 – Summer camping on a small island near Murter
My buddies are intrigued with my mixed tapes of Japanese noise, black metal and opera. One of the guys unequivocally declares that the two of us can never agree on music since I don’t think that Freddie Mercury is a stellar artist.

Murter Island

1998 – Playing sink in the snow on Lakeshore in Ste Anne with Luisa, Chris and Jon around 10:30 at night
Out of the blue I say “I was walking down the street around 10:30 at night”**. Chris sais “A lot of people around here go to bed around 10:30 at night.” I knew right away that he’s my man.

Today – Last xmass my wish was to get many CDs spread across the year so Chris got me one of those “buy 10 CDs – get one free” cards from Record Runner. I think this is definitely one of my favourite xmass presents. I’ve been really enjoying the music lately.

* reference to a film about Glenn Gould
** reference to Dead Kennedys