Happy New Year from Film City, Kosovo!

I never thought in my wildest dreams (and I have several of those) that I would be spending New Year's Eve in Kosovo. I mentioned that to a few soldiers at midnight as 2008 was passing the gavel over to 2009 and they all had the same thought.

But I digress. Back to the beginning.

The plan for our NY Eve gig was to go to the NATO installation about an hour away to Film City. It is called Film City because before it was a NATO base, it was an area where Eastern European porn films were made. Really. Once there, we would check out the venue and have a NY Eve dinner with the local soldiers there. Film City is a multi national NATO base with 29 countries represented there. Their mission is peacekeeping and to aid this new, struggling country to get on its feet and prosper.

We were scheduled to play at 8 at the Norweigan "club" using a local Kosovo band's gear. The local band would then play and ring in the new year after we packed out.

Meanwhile, Thom, Todd and Renae had to leave early in the morning to play for a small group of US soldiers at an area called "Nothing Hill" where we patrol the Serbian border and keep it safe. Apparently it is called Nothing Hill because there is absolutely nothing there except 30 US soldiers doing their job. We found out that Thom's little performance was the first show there. (Unfortunately, I couldn't go with them, so I'm nudging Thom to contribute a post in this blog with pics). Then we would rendevous with Thom at Film City.

So off we go to Film City:



On our way, our driver Marcus informed us that if we get somehow detoured off this highway and have to get out of the car to
ABSOLUTELY do not step off the blacktop. There is a huge threat of mines present everywhere and no one really knows where they all are. Fortunately, we stayed on the main road without incident.

We passed through Prishtina, which is the capital of Kosovo, and by a local hotel - the Hotel Victory:



On the way, we saw tons of incomplete houses, especially without windows. Turns out that when a house is completed, they leave the windows out so they won't get taxed until the last minute:



And true to its reputation, guess what we found just before we entered the post:



As we waited for Thom and company we found out they had been in a little fender bender and were delayed having to give statements to the local Kosovo police. So we went ahead and had NY Eve dinner with some soldiers:



Thom showed up and we went to the venue to meet the local band we were opening for:



Here is a pic of the area just outside the club:



After setting up, the band kicked in gear:





They did a non-stop 2+ hour set. I got to chime in:



Renae really got "close" to the troops:



(That is Stephan from Germany)

And Ben practiced his diplomacy with an Albanian woman:



By the way, Ben is a horn and keyboard player in his own right and has toured with Jason Mraz and even played on Jason's latest cd. Cool.

The band just keeps getting better. It was a great, great set and the crowd loved it all.

When our portion of the music was over, we set out to the American club to ring in the New Year. On the way we found a bunch of Spanish soldiers "parading" in the New Year:



Then to the American Post "SAMS Club" (not a discount store). SAMS stands for Soldiers, Airmen, Marines and Sailors:



There were a lot of Missourians at SAMS. Here are a couple of them:



That is Brett from Kansas City on the left. We talked Chiefs, KC barbecue, wives, family and everything else about home.
On the right is Marty from St Louis. We talked Rams, KC barbecue, wives, family and everything else about home.

We finally left about 1:30 and by 2:30am we collapsed into our beds bad at Camp Bondsteel. It was a night we will never forget.

Time to go for now. I'm almost finished touring our camp and hope to post another blog soon, so check back in for a "local" tour.

Soon,
Jerry