Stray Satellite

Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996 arrives as both a sonic balm and a reminder that Ukraine is not merely some liminal backwater pitchfork.com/reviews/albums…

Test-driving Tesla's new improved Cybertruck

The wonderful Andriy Kurkov puts it in a nutshell

Finished Vera Mutafchieva's The Case of Cem the other day — it's one of the best books I've read this year, and it's not getting nearly the attention it deserves. It's a Bulgarian historical epic about the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. Why isn't everyone reading it?!

"Karakaš presents the past as a dark recurring fable" A reminder that Damir Karakaš's haunting contemporary Croatian classic Celebration now published in US by @TwoLinesPress (and in UK by @SelkiesHouse). Review of original ("Proslava") by us here in 2019 #Content" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">straysatellite.com/year-of-nines/…

Another great book about Central Europe (and ideally suited to our present focus on the benefits of the train) is @jaroslavrudis 's lyrical, personal non-fiction collectn Rail Travel: A User's Guide - in German for now, another great tome that well deserves an English translation

@jaroslavrudis's rollicking, continent-spanning novel Winterberg's Last Journey (@JantarBooks; trans Kris Best) came out two months ago but still deserves a reminder of quite what a grand tour it is. Our review of the original from 2019: #content" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">straysatellite.com/year-of-nines/…

Cult of the leader/cult of youth: relay runners carry the ceremonial štafeta or baton 'through all regions of the homeland' before delivering it to Tito in Belgrade on May 25. (Zagreb magazine Arena May 22 1964.)

Worthy winner of this year's @DublinLitAward is Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu (transl. Sean Cotter). Our take on this "brick-sized odyssey through a phantasmagorical Bucharest" is here: #content" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">straysatellite.com/territory/#con…

excellent choice

May 5 1964: Ilustrovana Politika dedicates its front page to the military parade held in Belgrade four days earlier. Yugoslavia held May Day parades like this up until 1965; after which the date of the parade was switched to May 9 & they were henceforth held every few years only.

It's May 3 1966 and Dartford ensemble Roling Stouns finally make it to the front cover of Belgrade magazine Džuboks

Another refreshingly non-ideological May Day front cover from Zagreb's Arena magazine, May 1 1964.

May Day round the corner... April 28 1977's front cover of Zagreb magazine Arena

April 24 1973: Ilustrovana Politika's front cover celebrates the 25th birthday of Novi Beograd, the Corbusian new city begun in 1948. Its population by 1973 was already 130,000, projected to rise to 250,000 by the city's 'completion' in 1980. (Actual population in 2022: 209 763).

Julie Knifer, born OTD in 1924, the outstanding Croatian abstractionist engaged in a lifelong pursuit of the perfect black meander. There's a display of his works at @MSUZagreb; this from our archives is a review of his major MSU retrospective of 2015 #content" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">straysatellite.com/knifer/#content

February 14 1984 in Sarajevo: 21-year-old Slovene Jure Franko wins olympic silver for Yugoslavia in the Giant Slalom (front cover of Danas 21.02.1984)

It's February 8 1984 and the Winter Olympics have just opened in Sarajevo. Here is Olympic mascot Vučko adorning the front cover of Zagreb TV listings mag Studio.

Getting the skates on at the Kalemegdan Tennis Club's ice rink.. Front cover of Belgrade magazine Ilustrovani List, Feb 3 1929