You ask me am I crazy for playing the cello in a war zone

One night, I dreamed that I was meeting my friend, a poet named Mariana, in Sarajevo, the city of love. I woke up confused. Sarajevo, a symbol of love? Wasn’t Sarajevo the site of one of the bloodiest civil wars of the late twentieth century? Then I remembered. Vedran Smailović. The cellist of Sarajevo…

You ask me am I crazy for playing the cello in a war zone, he says. Why don’t you ask THEM if they’re crazy for shelling Sarajevo?

His gesture reverberates throughout the city, over the airwaves. Soon, it’ll find expression in a novel, a film. But before that, during the darkest days of the siege, Smailović will inspire other musicians to take to the streets with their own instruments. They don’t play martial music, to rouse the troops against the snipers, or pop tunes, to lift the people’s spirits. They play the Albinoni. The destroyers attack with guns and bombs, and the musicians respond with the most bittersweet music they know.

We’re not combatants, call the violinists; we’re not victims, either, add the violas. We’re just humans, sing the cellos, just humans: flawed and beautiful and aching for love.

Susan Cain, “Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole” (Crown, April 5, 2022)


Image: Manny Becerra via Unsplash

SMWI*: Winter’s over. But this, this is something to see.


“In his constant pursuit of new challenges, wakeskating pioneer Brian Grubb paid a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina and headed for Olympic mountain Bjelasnica, 25 kilometer from Sarajevo. His vision was to take wakeskating completely out of the summer environment and put it in winter conditions. And, to spice things up, to combine water and snow elements for the first time. His quest brought him to Studeni Potok (Icy Creek) on Bjelasnica plateau, near the village Umoljani. What they’ve found there was a snowy wonderland amidst untouched mountain wilderness. Icy Creek lies at the bottom of a snow covered valley, winding its countless curves through the thick white blanket. The locals also call the creek Dragon’s Tail. Preparing combined snow/water course in heavy terrain and weather conditions was quite a task. Pulled by one of the longest winch lines (1300ft), he carved his way through the deep snow at one moment, wakeskating in the creek at next, back to snow, then creek again – performing some of his favorite tricks on water and snow. It´s a sort of mixture of wake and snowskating… something that lacks a name?”


SMWI* = Saturday Morning Work-Out Inspiration

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