17 January 2007

Happy Skanderbeg Day!

Today is the official holiday of Albania's national hero. If I were more linguistically adept, and if I hadn't gotten an extremely pricey law degree that limits me to U.S. history, I would totally write about Albania. There's just an incredibly rich and unexplored history in that country, though more books have started coming out in the last few years. I recommend the novels of Ismail Kadare, Albania's only Nobel Laureate, for a taste, especially Broken April, about the blood feud tradition in the north, and Palace of Dreams, a surreal political parable.

In utterly unrelated news, OK Go announced the winners of their YouTube video contest today: synchronized treadmill dancing is clearly the fitness wave of the future.

2 comments:

marie said...

you know, i made out with an albanian immigrant regularly this fall. he spoke five languages, and, if you will allow me a moment of objectification, he had great muscles. and he said i would love it in albania, and i only thought he intended to kidnap me for a few minutes...every saturday. be proud of my worldly behavior, c-lo. albania....check!

Cabiria said...

You make me very proud. Albanians are definitely hotter than most other Eastern European post-communists. It's the proximity to Italy, methinks.