Hello, dear Steemians,

Greetings from Slovenia, the home country of Slavko Avsenik (inventor and ambassador of slovenian folk music/polka and waltz), the skiing legend Tina Maze, the basketball players Goran and Zoran Dragic, the hockey player Anze Kopitar, and of course America's first lady Melania Trump (and many others).

A couple of weeks ago my son told me about this new social platform and I was thrilled. For about a month I was watching Steem on the coinmarketcap and I got courious about Steem. You can hardly compare Steemit to the other known social platforms. The idea to be rewarded for your posts is incredible. I think it gives you a kick and a great motivation to find your talents and bring them to the community!

Who am I?

My name is Drago (aka Al Drageau). I am 60+, born in Belgrade, grew up in Vienna and Munich, and I live since 1974 in Slovenia, a beautiful small country that offers everything you need to be happy and satisfied: clean lakes, a lot of mountains (Julian Alps, Kamnik-Savinja Alps, Karawanken Alps), the Karst (with beautiful caves - Postojna cave and Skocjan caves), a small portion of the Adriatic Sea - Piran, Portoroz, etc.), a lot of forests (jungle forest in the region of Kocevje with a lot of bears), untouched nature, fresh air and clean waters, excellent wines and food, Kranjska klobasa (sausage) and Sauerkraut, and about 2 millions friendly people who mostly speak English or German.

BTW: Slovenia, with its capitol Ljubljana, is known as the safest country in Europe, so come and visit, don't be afraid, nobody will bite you. Food, drinks and accomodation are good and affordable, everybody is friendly, everybody speaks English.

(my ex-girlfriend)

What do I like?

• Music:
  Soul, funk, smooth jazz, blues, rock, country.

I especially love Al Green, Al Jarreau (look at my Steemit Name), Aaron Neville, America, Bill Withers, Bobby Caldwell, Chaka Khan, Champagne, The Commodores, Chicago, The Chi-Lites, Christopher Cross, The Crusaders, David Sanborn, Desree, The Detroit Emeralds, The Detroit Spinners, The Eagles, Earth, Wind&Fire, The Floaters, Fourplay, Freddie Jackson, George Benson, Gerald Albright, Gino Vanelli, Jamiroquai, Jeff Lorber, Kenny G, Kool and the Gang, Larry Carlton, Lou Rawls, The Manhattans, Michael Bolton, The O'Jays, Paul Carrack, Regina Belle, Rick Astley, The Rippingtons, Sadao Watanabe, Spyro Gyra, The Stylistics, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Teddy Pendergrass, Tony Joe White, Vulfpeck etc.

So if you like some of the above mentioned artists, we certainly have something in common.

• Technology
  I am a technology freak for the past 49 years / from vintage HiFi components (record players, tape recorders - Revox, Marantz, Pioneer, Thorens, Nakamichi...) to guitars (Gibson, Fender, Paul Reed Smith), bass guitars (Fender) and guitar tube amps (Mesa Boogie, Rivera, Fender), drums (Ludwig, Gretsch).

• Computers, hardware and software (my first computer was an Atari). I began to use computers in 1985, which was revolutionary in our country at that time (of course, we were some years behind the States). And nowadays it's Steve Jobs's products that I love and use (iMac).

• Cars: the only cars I really like are from Jaguar. Especially the E-Type and the old Mark models from the 1970s. Of course I could not afford any of them...

• Good food and wine
  I like to cook since my 20s and it tastes perfect. Slovenian wines are perfect.

Hobbies

Playing guitar and singing, "slappa da bass", playing a little drums.
Of course, I am not a shredding guitar player, I enjoy playing and I do it for fun, family and friends and since today also for the Steemit community.

An old hobby of mine is also photography. I began in 1968 with an used Asahi Pentax, best analog camera I ever had. No electronics, no battery, only pure photography.

Another hobby is watching movies and series. It is so relaxing. I have the strangest ability to forget every movie that I watched within a day or two, so that I can watch it again in a couple of weeks/months, as I had never seen them. My genres: action, Sci-Fi, Phantasy. My favorite series are: various Marvels series, Person of Interest, Power, Smallville, Superboy, Supergirl, Spartacus, all of Stargate*****, Supernatural, The 100, Under the Dome, The Blacklist, The X-Files, dr. House, Luther, Lie to Me, The Good Wife, Sons of Anarchy, Dexter, Star Trek, Narcos, Suits, Roots, Fringe, Banshee.

Smoking pipe - a big hobby of mine (best and only pipe tobacco in the world for me: Danske Club Black). Bad thing: I have to drive 120 km in one direction to buy it.

If surfing the internet is a hobby, then it's also a hobby of mine (from the very beginning of the internet era in our country, about 1994).

I always wanted to be an actor (perhaps a comedian). Unfortunately, Hollywood didn't want me. They took Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington, Harrison Ford, George Clooney, Al Pacino, Will Smith, Marlon Brando, Ben Affleck, James Dean, Eddie Murphy, Jason Statham, Wesley Snipes, Nicolas Cage, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Silverster Stallone, Keanu Reeves, Gerald Butler, Liam Neeson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan ... instead, but I really like them all.

My contributions to the Steemit community will be:

• my own music videos of the songs I love and maybe you will too (I love to play/sing country music and oldies)
• some good videos from my favourite singers and bands
• some of my photographs
• some articles about my home country Slovenia (which is totally underrated) and the second country I love the most: Montenegro, etc.

So if you are interested in these themes, please watch my videos, upvote and follow.

So, folks, have a good time, enjoy yourself, enjoy Steemit, enjoy life & make love, not war.

Al Drageau

P.S. Followers (young & old) are welcome, your comments and upvotes are highly appreciated!