peachie in prague

Korunni

2008-08-10T15:07:00.001-07:00

I want it.

This is the closest thing to my dream apartment that I've ever seen. Balcony and all!

Swans

2008-08-04T23:03:00.000-07:00

There are paddle boats the shape of swans on the Vltava. Sheet lightning flashes above the castle. I found a building with my best friend's name on it, an owl in gold and green.

"What is his name? What is his name?" the shadow asked as I crossed the street to his side, dimmed by eerie trees. I lit a cigarette for protection. I'm tough; I could poke your eye out with this. He bent me over in a bathroom stall. "You came here for this, but what is his name?" Who knows.

I'm impaled on the city of 100 spires. Riding the tram in the mornings around the castle compound. Having fairy-tale fantasies: I want to put my bare ass on every holy structure I see. I've fallen through some trap door. I don't care what happens to me here. O compared herself to Alice. I'm neither one; just me.

I fold inward with loneliness, and then change color and shape as if tumbled through a kaleidoscope. Every time I'm turned by art, the crowd, the sights, your hand, I break down into fractals, brilliant and sharp.

My time's almost up. Someone extends a háček from stage right, and slips it around my neck, pulling me away. I'll wear it on the journey home, under my shirt like a hidden passport.

**

Thanks to Kate, who read this in early June and didn't advise the journalist to stick with her day-job writing. Well, she didn't advise me to share it either, but I wanted to now.

The weirdest thing is, I'd had the lines about the spooky street and predatory sex in my head for weeks, and then on one of my last nights in Prague, I actually witnessed some misbehavior on that street. I heard a hiss, then turned to see a man not six feet away jerking it beside a tree. He said obviously solicitous things to me in Czech, and I felt a rush of adrenaline, but the surprising thing was the sound that came out of my mouth: "Ahh!" Like finding a spider in the sink. I did it twice. He mocked me and I kept walking at the same pace, correct that he was a harmless perv. But worried that I had created a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts...

EROTIKON: Scandal!

2008-07-29T23:52:00.000-07:00

I started planning this burlesque show from Prague, after seeing Gustav Machatý's Erotikon, from 1929. It's actually happening in a couple of weeks, and I'm super nervous! I've never produced a show before. But I'm getting a lot of help from Tata's and the ladies, who seem to be excited about the theme, and the Rendezvous even ordered me a bottle of absinthe (or that which is branded as absinthe) to make a drink special: the Royal Absinthe Fizz. Champagne makes it fizzy! :)

My new act is princess-themed, because I had many princess fantasies while wandering through Praha. My colors are pink, silver and rose. ("Mah culahs ah blush and bashful!- Steel Magnolias). Half of it is to a Smiths song and the other half to a Hildegarde cabaret song from 1935. It's a shame I wasn't able to link up with the burlesque troupe in Prague. But it's fun being able to draw on my experiences there in a creative way, now.

Synch Fest

2008-07-16T12:52:00.000-07:00

My coverage of Synch, a travelogue really, is up today at Resident Advisor! Hope you enjoy :)

The view from Anafiotika...my future summer home (in my dreams)!!

Athens and Berlin

2008-07-16T00:03:00.000-07:00

It's going to take me a while (and a paid Flickr account) to get all my Prague pics online, but here are two sets for now:

Athens!
Berlin!

And here's what I've been taking pictures of since getting back:

It's my friend Lolita "Ta-Ta's" Valentino at her Big, Bad, Dirty and Pink Prom on July 2. She's looking glamtastic!

I performed my "John, I'm Only Dancing the Mambo" act, which ends like this...

(Photo by Chris Blakeley) I'm trying my best to hide my Pilsner baby with that vintage record!

It's Not Svickova

2008-07-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

Behold! The mysteriously delicious dish:

This is the first and best of 3 servings of the Czech classic that I had in Prague, with Kim at Kolkovna one afternoon. What makes it so divine? Apparently, a lot of vegetables that go into making the sauce...and end up nowhere near the plate. :)

Back home now, my TV dinner of turkey with mashed potatoes and veggies will have to do, until I can muster the power to cook up a stirfry or something healthy (tomorrow!). My beer is also not the amazing Pilsner Urquell but a refreshing Pyramid Hefe, which I did miss. And thankfully, the Caesar salad I'm eating is actually one, devoid of a strip of bacon, hunk of cucumber, or other curious ingredient found in the various Czech versions.

I miss my Prague life already! I'll continue this blog for a little while by uploading some photo sets from Prague and travels, and then start posting again regularly in my old blog, Another Big Riot. If you want to keep up with me, check there. For a while it may not be as interesting since I'm mostly concerned with finding a job, sunbathing (the weather is glorious in Seattle!) and burlesqueing. That a word?

Here's a word to everyone that made my trip possible, and so fantastic. Thank you to: Mom and supportive family/friends/roomies, Steffen, the Post, Lucie, Pat, Christine, Sarah, Ross, Kim, Stephan, Evan, Min, Melanie, Nush, Sylvie, Andi Neate, Angello and Dino, Steve @ Fringe Fest, Nils and friends, and David in Berlin, Tami and all @ RA, Axel and friends, Alex in Athens, Aimee and Burak, the ladies who brunch, and the produce lady and Odkolek employees who kindly suffered my requests for fruit and baguettes every day. I think that's it! I met waay more people than I expected, and I hope to return the kindness if anyone is ever in Seattle or vicinity. Děkuji vám and much love.

How Does it Feel

2008-06-27T04:02:00.000-07:00

to sleep on a concrete banquette while stranded in JFK for 20 hours? No, how does it feel in my arms...

I've been wondering who sang the song that I've been hearing all over Europe, and of course it's Kylie! At first, I didn't find it exciting or annoying- it was just there. But then the chorus got into my brain, and I started humming it after passing the last of the sausage stands all blasting it from the same radio station. Now I'm getting emotional listening to it. I'm in America now, where some people love Kylie, but where her face isn't plastered on public transit. Here it is:

And here's the video for her cover of "Locomotion," one of the first pop songs I remember hearing in my life. 1987. Whitney was my first tape, and Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine was my first concert. Hehe. Anyway, in between these two videos was the time period when INXS' Michael Hutchence made the famous quote about his favorite hobby- "corrupting Kylie." Hot. I once knew a guy who had At Folsom Prison and Kick prominently displayed in his room- I thought that was hot too. I digress.

I just wrote a paragraph complaining about missing the flight and blah blah, but fuck it. I am truly pissed about waking up every hour on the hour (to vacuums, screaming children, angry airport workers, snoring-of-dude-next-to-me, arcade games, men screaming into walkie-talkies, chipper early morning travelers, etc) for my 28th birthday, but I don't feel like expressing any further negativity. I'm anxious enough about returning to Seattle that it's easier to just take a Zen approach to it all.

In my waking times since arriving at this airport, I've read about Timbuktu and Patagonia in Vogue, gossip in the New York Post (why is Page Six on pages 11-12?), some fantastic Open Letters by former Czech president Vaclav Havel, and listened to some African jazz via Matos, as the sun rose pink and gold. I fantasized that I was off to another locale.

***

Aside from some hellacious cab fares due to my not-subway-friendly luggage, NYC was a lovely sojourn. Annie and I found each other pretty quick despite our phones not working, and made our way to Jersey City to stay with her awesome friends John and Beth. We hung out in the West Village and LES- piano bar, wine bar, and some burlesque at the Slipper Room for my birthday! Best stage name I've heard in a long time: Clams Casino. She did acts to Van Halen's "Jump" and Hendrix's "May This Be Love (Waterfall)" that were great. Janice de Milo did a hilarious act to one of my favorite songs, the Shirelles' "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" I can't give away the secret, but her sense of humor in regard to the song was perfect. I met a woman taking the workshop with Jo "Boobs" (NYC's Miss Indigo), the woman's bf formerly of Seattle, and then Jo herself. Awesome! Then Annie's friend Brian, who had joined us for the show, took us around and I felt like a local. I love it that every time I go to NYC, I spend time in completely different neighborhoods.

The show got me excited to get costume-crafty...right before I left Prague, I used my limited Czech to buy some very Bohemian/sound-of-music-esque ribbon, cloth roses and yellow rhinestones with which to make a hip belt. To have success with a transaction significantly more involved than "sunkou a syr bageta, prosim" was awesome. I actually had a few moments like that in my last week- the beginnings of what felt like conversation with people. Of course, when I'm about to go...

Two blog things I want you to see:
this picture post from Christine.
My new friend Fantastikoi Hxoi's latest LP and art, available for your download, which you will not regret.

Also: what should I do with this blog, now that I'm no longer in Prague? I could let it go to the graveyard like other variations on 'Prague Rock' blogs- there are a bunch that were obv. intended to document a specific time and haven't been updated since. I have lots more Prague pictures and stories I could retroactively post. Or I could keep posting and change the title. Anybody?

At Sea

2008-06-23T02:05:00.000-07:00

I spent last night in Anděl (Angel), feeling a breeze pass through a room which shows Vyšehrad from one window and Prague castle from another. Listening to a thunderstorm, and waking up to a beacon. On the walk to the tram I took a picture of a building covered in script, including "I love change. I sail all the seas."

People keep asking me what I want to do when I get back to Seattle, and besides looking for a job, and having some lillet and lettuce at Presse, I just want to relax. I'm living life as usual until the last minute of having to leave (which is 10 a.m. tomorrow). That's what normally happens. I'm thinking of heading to the San Juans as soon as I can when I get back, for some true downtime. I'd love to rent a car and drive there, listening to music, and then sit on my favorite rock, and have a cod sandwich at the Brown Lantern. Mom, you in?

This pic was taken on my rock in Anacortes last July, when we were there for Shipwreck Day. Hopefully this July isn't so chilly and misty. Seattleites, you must attend this on the 19th: the whole town dumps its junk and antiques on the main drag. It's a trash-and-treasure trove, with an emphasis on nautical things you wish you could find a use for, like giant anchors and old steerage. It always makes me think of the wagon-wheel coffee table that causes so much distress in When Harry Met Sally.

So yeah, yeah, yeah, I feel adrift. But in a good way. And the party never stops: my dear Annie has decided to spend the two days in NYC with me! Her flights in and out are almost exactly the same time as mine. I haven't seen Drinky Crow since last Christmas so this is a real treat. We will sleepily take the city by storm!

Kino

2008-06-20T02:03:00.000-07:00

In my time at the Post, I've reviewed: 27 Dresses, Into the Wild, Iron Man, Sleuth, There Will Be Blood, Gone Baby Gone, Doomsday, In Bruges, Indiana Jones, Shutter, Vantage Point, What the Bleep, Kinoautomat, Speed Racer, What Happens in Vegas, 21, My Blueberry Nights, Sex and the City, Forgetting Sarah Marshall...

So it's been a really mixed bag. But today I'm pleased with my review for the terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad movie The Happening. It actually generated some response!

Says "Justin": Just saw that movie, and your review nailed my thoughts exactly.
Says "Peter": Thank You for saving me some money....

That doesn't look like much but believe me, it's validation! Are writers masochists? We accept breadcrumbs with such joy. But seriously, people usually don't take the time to respond to anything unless they have a complaint. At SW, I used to have a file of positive breadcrumbs (so to speak) that I'd saved, to look over when I felt particularly like I was working in a vacuum. So TWO responses, both in agreement, is really exciting. And that movie really is a piece of shit, ya'll. He's never going to beat The Sixth Sense.

The next movie I'm looking forward to is East of Eden at the outdoor cinema on Sunday. I saw it for the first time last year and it blew my mind. The quality of acting, the story...I was watching a lot of Tennessee Williams at the time too. I wish I had my notes on it. But OMG! Watch this video of James Dean and Paul Newman, via Nerve's excellent Screengrab blog. It's before the filming of Eden, when Newman was up for the role of Dean's character's brother. It takes a second for the sound to kick in. Wait for it, and try not to get too hot and bothered at your desk.

příští zastávka

2008-06-19T01:15:00.000-07:00

next stop

I've been having a great few days with Aimee. On Monday I took her over my favorite bridge and to the Louvre for dinner. Tuesday, we drank some honey pepper vodka she brought from Ukraine, went to the charming restaurant Lekha Hlava (on Boršov, Prague's shortest street!) for her birthday dinner, and then gazed at the castle a little bit afterward. They were super nice to us at dinner, letting us sit in the star room and putting a candle on Aimee's dessert. And last night we saw a ballet at Narodni Divadlo, and were joined by a handsome man for a drink outside in Staromestska. We sat between Tyn and the astronomical clock at sunset, watching a football match on a huge screen. France vs. ?

I'll link to it when it goes online, but Lucie wrote a review of the ballet she recommended to me, the National Ballet's last of the season, Santa Says, Cut It/Carmen. I hate the title of the first piece, but L explained that Santa in this context means 'saint.' It was about freeing your sexuality, as L wrote, and was certainly erotic enough. It began with people dancing in rigid, robotic formations and then stripping down to corsets and booty shorts, and kind of discovering each other and different ways of moving. "Imagine if you were here on a first date," I said to Aimee. "I feel like I'm watching the kama sutra...oh, look at that one...well, I can't get my leg up that high, that's for sure..."

Which reminds me of one of my most awkward first dates ever: going to see the midnight showing of Shaft at the San Marco Theatre in Jacksonville. We were having some nachos and beer, all good, then suddenly there's a 10-minute bubble-bath scene, with Shaft running his hand all over his lady's soapy ass. It wouldn't bother me now, but when I was 20 it was just a little mortifying.

Anyway, Santa ended with a blank stage and two explosions (from the catwalk) of cross-shaped daggers which pierced it quite dramatically. We both burst out laughing--"It's not your grandmother's ballet," Aimee said. Carmen was great other than some of the costumes reminding me of Disney on Ice. I thought Carmen was a wonderful dancer. (The original Carmen, an opera singer named Galli-Marie, is in the photo above.) And her torero boyfriend's outfit was great. Ever since I saw Almodovar's Talk to Her I've wanted to do something subversive with a matador outfit...alas, that's what burlesque can be for! And every time I see a ballet it makes me want to take dance lessons- any kind- immediately, and get better at yoga.

I'm really glad I was able to squeeze some performance in for Aimee's visit...and tonight, it's back to culture at the beer garden!

Hellas

2008-06-17T04:14:00.000-07:00

The Greek name for Greece!

I've always liked the motto "I do not regret the things I've done, only those which I didn't do" or "have yet to do," but there are some minor regrets about my weekend in Athens.

I do regret:

Not trying the baklava or ouzo
Not reaching the sea
Not sending postcards
Not accepting a cigarette from Andrew Weatherall...or telling him what an impact Screamadelica (which he produced) had on my life.

I do not regret:

Eating mostly street food, because it was cheap and delicious.

Turning around at the entrance to the Parthenon when a friend called to me to come to a cafe, and spend the afternoon with him instead.

Spending most of my time at the festival- the music was fantastic. My interest in dubstep grew further (through Kode9 and Headhunter), and I was really wow'ed by the more experimental/psychedelic stuff like what Kieran Hebden (of Four Tet) and Steve Reid are doing together, as well as Toronto's Holy Fuck who I think must be one of the best live bands right now. At their best, carrying on where the mighty Out Hud left off! But my best discovery was this dude Fantastikoi Hxoi ("Fantastic Sounds"), who restructures Greek music from various decades past into something new, psychedelic, danceable, wonderful. A French DJ called Pilooski played the most purely fun music of the whole weekend...inciting loads of ridiculous dancing.

More later, with pictures...

On je děvkař

2008-06-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

She gets around

I've just researched all the musicians at Synch that I didn't know of before, and there are many I'm looking forward to. There'll be future soul a la SunTzu Sound, electro, French hip hop, acid house, City Centre Offices-style ambient, 8 bit, Holy Fuck, Yo La Tengo and my friend The Field, who I saw about 6,200 miles from here at this same time last year!

But about language. Almost as useless as the "Romance" section of my Czech phrasebook--"Neboj se, udělám to sama", anyone?--are some Greek phrases, minus the pronunciation, on Wikitravel:

"Authority"

I haven't done anything wrong.
Δεν έκανα τίποτα επιλήψιμο. (...)

It was a misunderstanding.
Ήταν μια παρεξήγηση. (...)

Where are you taking me?
Που με πηγαίνετε? (...)

Am I under arrest?
Συνελήφθην? (...)

Can I just pay a fine now?
Μπορώ απλά να πληρώσω ένα πρόστιμο? (...)

Even simple things..."toilet" is pronounced almost the same as it is here, but I could never tell by the spelling.

me: check this out
Where is the toilet?
Που είναι η τουαλέτα? (poo ΕΕ-ne ee too-ah-LEH-tah?)

Annie: oh my
it's greek to me!

Well Dino and Angello told me not to be scared, so I won't be! I'm off to H & M to buy some flip-flops and maybe a spangle or two so I can feign high glamour at my hotel. Ciao and have a beautiful weekend!

Seen on the Street

2008-06-11T16:11:00.000-07:00

Praha, Florenc bus depot, confirming the career choice of TEFL teachers everywhere:

Bratislava, under the on-ramp to Novy Most, "mmm, the smell of Axe Body Spray is making me think funny thoughts about the desert landscape..."

Berlin, everywhere, Desperate Housewives' Eva Longoria representing an ice cream company called, yes, Magnum:

When we were in Cesky Krumlov, I asked Lucie and her bf Martin what was up with the fascination and advertising for ice cream. Martin joked that in the communist days, people's only pleasures were sex and ice cream. They insisted I didn't take that to heart but I can't help it. Every time I see an old man with an ice cream cone near Wenceslas, I imagine that it's the sensual highlight of his day. And it's one you can enjoy in public!

Luxe calme et volupte

2008-06-10T02:52:00.000-07:00

Is my next stop Paris? I didn't want to see it on this trip with such limited time- would rather spend a week or longer there, especially in Kiki's Montparnasse!

Because it's spring and I'm feeling romantic, here are some things that clutter my brain that have to do with France...Pink Martini's "Sympathique." I put some of the translation below because the video is cuter when you know it.

My room is a cage
The sun streams through the window,
the bellhops are at my door
like those little soldiers
who want to take me away.

I don't want to work,
I don't want to lunch
I only want to forget him
and then I smoke.

Long ago I knew the smell of love,
a million roses didn't smell as sweet.
Now a single flower in my way makes me sick.

I am not proud of this life
that wants to kill me.
It's magnificent to be sympatico
but I have never known this.

And my favorite part of my favorite poem, Baudelaire's L'invitation au voyage:

Vois sur ces canaux
Dormir ces vaisseaux
Dont l'humeur est vagabonde;
C'est pour assouvir
Ton moindre désir
Qu'ils viennent du bout du monde.
— Les soleils couchants
Revêtent les champs,
Les canaux, la ville entière,
D'hyacinthe et d'or;
Le monde s'endort
Dans une chaude lumière.

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,
Luxe, calme et volupté.

See, down the canals,
the sleeping vessels,
Those nomads, their white sails furled:
Now, to accomplish
your every wish,
They come from the ends of the world.
The deep sunsets
surround the west,
The canals, the city, entire,
with blueviolet and gold;
And the Earth grows cold
In an incandescent fire.

There, everything’s order and beauty,
calm, voluptuousness and luxury.

The highly-underrated (IMHO) Stars album Nightsongs opens with a woman reciting this from "Les soleils," which is where I first heard it. Thank heaven for Google...sometimes I dream of/dread a Google brain chip (assuming our brains will someday be able to be online or otherwise wired)...It seems insidious and lazy, but I really don't think it'd be much different than being able to call up information at your fingertips on a screen as we do now. And as much as I use it, I still get information from actual humans and books. While ethically tricky, I would probably be most concerned that people turn it off while playing Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit. I also wish that the Babel Fish were real. Ok, I'm being a nerd. Back to work.

Pomoc, NYC!

2008-06-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

Help!

Anybody in NYC or Brooklyn with an extra bed for a weary traveler on the 24th & 25th? Just checking! I can provide dinner and drinks at Bonita- or elsewhere- for your trouble. :)

Little Sister

2008-06-09T03:04:00.000-07:00

Europe has re-ignited my love for a lot of different kinds of music. Or, my desire to rediscover things and learn about older eras. The time-warp/everything-but-the-kitchen sink quality of what's popular was first annoying and is now really fun.

Right now my mind is on early rock and rockabilly...last weekend kids at that cabaret were dancing and having a blast to Roy Orbison, and yesterday in a cafe in Bratislava, I heard "Little Sister" and thought, that's it, I have to start listening to Elvis.

Bratislava was a dark Prague, a little sister in a way. It felt much more recently-communist, and featured lots of crumbling, graffiti-bombed buildings. I went with my writer friend Pat and we talked music nonstop while not at the festival or seeing the few sights in town: a "bland castle" (way to sell it, guidebook), the UFO-esque Novy Most and a communist-built housing community for nearly 200,000 towering blandly behind it. There was a charming Old Town, where we saw a particularly hilarious stag party clash with chanting football fans, and other random slices of life. Best of all, we stumbled onto a fish soup festival, where everyone was cooking from wood-burning cauldrons! The park smelled amazing. 100 Slovak crowns bought you four kinds of soup. There were teams, many singing and playing accordion, and the police team's soup was the best I tried.

Wilsonic Festival: I had no idea how foxy Christian Fennesz is. The man wore a leather jacket while creating mountain-sized feedback on his guitar and laptop...I got 100% lost in his 20 minutes of music. The sound was way off for Apparat, and his fellow singer was not very good, so I regret to report that that was disappointing. Skream played a ferocious set around 3 a.m. Hearing dubstep on a huge soundsystem is the only way to go. And the damn smoke machine actually felt appropriate, as everyone danced in a murky golden fog.

I had a dance partner for most of 2562's set- people were very friendly although nobody was speaking English. I kind of felt like I had crashed Slovakia's party that way. The surprise of Friday night was Montreal's Deadbeat, who absolutely killed it. I wasn't on assignment for once, and being a tourist I drank too much pivo, so you'll have to take the tourist's word that it was blissful music. We ran into him and complimented him later, and he was very gracious to my drunk ass in particular. Sheesh.

Saturday night was interesting as the line-up was heavy on locals, so I just wandered and soaked it all (and only a couple of beers) in. Czech hip hop guys Indy & Wich were excellent performers. Like listening to MC Solaar (who raps in French), it'd be nice to understand the lyrics, but the music and flow still sounds great. If I can figure out how to upload my little videos of them, I will. And I'd like to recommend MC Solaar's "Obsolète," which someone put on a mix for me in college...where are all those mixes people gave me?? God there was a long time in my life when every new friendship began with a mix trade, and certainly every new or might-be romance. Bring it back, sing it back to me...

**

Now that my most major assignments at the Post are done, I can talk about my big adventure!

As Ross gears up to attend #1 on this list- and I'm so jealous!!- I'll be heading to #3, Synch Festival, this weekend in Athens!!!! My grandmother went to Greece in her 80s I believe, and it was a very big deal. Because of that I always thought of the place as ancient, special, somewhat unreachable. I feel super lucky and amazed to get to go at this time in my life. I'll be working so if interested you can read my review for RA afterward. There's some downtime on Saturday and I look forward to exploring the Plaka and maybe a beach. I read that outdoor cinema is a big thing, and there's a few with views of the Acropolis. I probably won't get to that, but wow!!!

R.I.P. Yves

2008-06-06T04:56:00.000-07:00

"To be beautiful, all a woman needs is a black pullover and a black skirt and to be arm in arm with a man she loves." – Yves Saint Laurent

One of my favorite fashion designers died this week. Here he is with Catherine Deneuve, who he so exquisitely dressed in Belle de Jour.

If I could afford just one tailored wardrobe of YSL and Chanel knock-off's, my fashion situation would be solved for at least five years. Maybe forever.

For now, I go in my jeans and T-shirt...sigh...on a bus to Bratislava and the Wilsonic music fest! I'm very excited to hear Noze, Fennesz, Skream and Apparat's new band. My Muxtape isn't done yet, but I threw up Apparat's "Arcadia" for you as well as Broker/Dealer's "Midnight" and Zero T's "Heartbreak Ridge," which are my jams of the moment.

Hezky víkend!

Football

2008-06-05T08:07:00.001-07:00

The text reads: "Four long weeks of WORLD CUP FOOTBALL. From the 9th of June."

I'm envisioning some heated debate over this ad. Not over whether or not it's too risque, this being Europe, but I bet anything the women in the office made a case that no vibrator should have dust on it in the first place. Proper storage, people.

The other day, I got this text about calling up Euro updates on the phone. I'm loving that every citizen gets this automatically, LOL:

"Vse o deni na turnaji EURO 2008. Zpravodajstvi ve forme SMS- 2 az 4 zpravy denne. Pro aktivaci poslete ++EURO na 4616. Cena balicku 49 Kc. Vice chytejte.cz"

Using the logic of sentence structure to figure out "To activate send ++EURO to 4616" was also minorly thrilling.

From today's Czech newspapers:

EURO 2008 in Prague streets. Everybody who doesnt like soccer should leave Prague for some time, because you wont be able to avoid seeing it everywhere. Apart from the sports bar, there are going to be large screens installed on Václavské and Staroměstské squares where people can gather and support the Czech team. On Staroměstské square there is also going to be a rich cultural programme, bands like Žlutý pes or Divokej Bill will perform on stage there. The screen installed there is supposedly going to be the largest one in CR (size 7x5 m). It is not going to be used only for matches of Czech team, but for all matches so that tourist can come to watch and support their team as well. Fans watching on Václavské náměstí can take part in various soccer competitions and there is also going to be a soccer-school. Also on Anděl there is going to be a large screen and Prague 5 mayor Milan Jančík hopes that it will help drag young people to sports. (Lidové noviny, p. 6)

And here's a Nike commercial I saw at the screening for Indiana Jones, and thought was pretty cool. It puts you in the position of someone who just got signed to Arsenal. All I know about soccer is that Ronaldinho is in this clip, and that Ronaldo recently got busted with three tranny hookers. What a bad break. Anyway, if I were a player I'd want to be on a team called Arsenal. It has to be the most badass team name ever. Simple, swift and deadly!

Peachie for Obama

2008-06-04T01:40:00.001-07:00

Some people have been looking at me cross-eyed for being excited to go back to the States, but this fall is going to be something else. Wouldn't miss it.

Via MSNBC at midnight:

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois claimed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night, NBC News projected based on its tally of convention delegates.

By doing so, he shattered a barrier more than two centuries old to become the first black candidate ever nominated by a major political party for the nation’s highest office.

“After 54 hard-fought contests, our primary season has finally come to an end,” Obama told cheering supporters in a victory celebration in St. Paul, Minn., at the site of the convention that will nominate his Republican opponent in the fall, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

“Tonight, I can stand here before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for the president of the United States of America.”

Obama, 46, of Illinois, hailed his Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, for having “made history in this campaign, not just because she is a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she’s a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight.”

“Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton,” Obama said.

But after splitting the last two primaries of the election campaign with Obama, Clinton refused to give him the unalloyed victory he sought.

***

I was for Clinton at Caucus-time but have changed my tune since. Unfortunately our country has been revelead to still be blatantly and horribly sexist as a result of her campaign. And I still say Obama sounds too good to be true, but I'll take that over the alternative. Four years ago I was dying my hair on election night, as we despondently watched Kerry's defeat unfold. I remember watching the debates at the Vera Project (loving James' commentary) and trying super hard to muster the excitement for our leaden candidate. Obama's personality in comparison shines like a diamond. Now how about his policies...

***

I've amended this post because I don't want to get my hopes too high up. I will shut up for now! Here are two contrasting viewpoints, which I both agree with, from the Huffington Post on how Hillary has handled this news:

Con by Beverly Davis in Hillary: It Ain't Over Yet!

Pro by Erica Jong in Being Gracious in a Sexist World

Around Me

2008-06-03T16:58:00.000-07:00

I've spent so much time in Mala Strana and Kampa recently...it's absolutely my favorite area of the city. I'm having a little trouble articulating how much I love Prague, which is why I sometimes talk about everything else on this blog. I'm starting to get sentimental though since I don't have much time left.

The weather's been phenomenal. In the upper 70s at least every day and night. No jacket necessary. Every afternoon around 4:30 the breeze picks up, the sky gets dark and it rains for a while. It feels quasi-tropical, oddly like Florida. I was even caught in a hailstorm on Sunday and the air on the pub deck I took refuge on was still warm. Last Saturday night, while I was waiting for a midnight cabaret, I was walking to meet Lucie, very slowly across Most Legii because of how the air felt. It was raining lightly and I stopped in the middle of the bridge to listen to the thunder. Sheet lightning above the castle competed with fireworks in the distance. A lot of people were alone and doing the same.

Before I'd turned down that road I had finally walked up to the creepy memorial to communist victims on Ujezd, and took this picture of it from behind:

A marker explains: "The memorial to the victims of communism is dedicated to all victims, not only those who were jailed or executed but also those whose lives were ruined by totalitarian despotism."

And here's something creepy I snapped above the door of A Studio Rubin:

Here are some of the many rosebushes (in red, white, orange, and pink) that have exploded in front of the flat:

And here are my spring shoes, the only nice thing I've bought myself in Prague, which are already getting ruined by the otherwise delightful weather:

Červen

2008-06-02T03:48:00.000-07:00

I'm absolutely beat from Fringe Festival. I saw so many great performances and met loads of interesting people...will definitely be posting more about it in the next couple of days.

June, month of the summer solstice and my birth, the Countdown To Aimee (she'll be here in 14 days!) and the premiere of the Sex and the City movie! This + the new Wong-Kar Wai tomorrow = a fairly thrilling week in terms of film reviewing. I'm expecting to find major flaws with both but am still excited. WKW is my #1 favorite director. But the preview for My Blueberry Nights was troubling because:

1. Jude Law and Norah Jones as the main characters. Although, my opinion of Law was recently improved by the brilliant re-make of Sleuth.

2. Candy colors, but not from Christopher Doyle.

3. Natalie Portman, once again (from the looks of it), not being given enough to chew on.

4. The worst is hearing the dialogue...flat, sentimental, and pseudo-deep...and wondering if his movies have always been like that, and do I only enjoy the dialogue of In the Mood for Love and Happy Together because it comes to me through layers of translation? I've often wondered this about foreign films in general. I think I noticed it first with Amelie. Is the story really that charming, or does the element of lost-in-translation, the base exotic quality of it being foreign, and the novelty of reading subtitles add layers of charm that the script itself really doesn't deserve? It doesn't deter me from seeing films or feeling how I feel about them. I love plenty of ones that other people think are insufferably precious in any language. But my point is, if My Blueberry Nights were in Mandarin, would I like it better?

For now, I'll daydream about what song(s) WKW will use in the new movie--he has a signature of looping one or two over and over--and revisit another that features a waitress: 1996's ChungKing Express

Finally, times two

2008-05-27T02:59:00.000-07:00

I've been kissed on the Charles bridge by night! After months of watching other people do it, my time has arrived. The old "Nice hat," "Nice shoes" routine, and then a not-so-suave slinking away from the bar. I had been drinking, singing and banging on a table with a bunch of Fringe performers (and Greek tourists) playing guitar and crooning about women and the devil.

Note the poster! A Wink and a Smile has its SIFF premiere tomorrow at the Egyptian at 9:30 p.m. All the girls will be there in feather boas and it's going to be a heck of a party, so if you're free, check it out! There's another screening on Saturday at 4 p.m. My SW successor, Erika, reviewed it, although all she told me was "I saw your boobies!" I'm thinking my part in it is small, which is just fine. I'm thinking of my classmates and teachers every day and wishing I were there so much!

In Wink's honor, here's the inimitable Gypsy Rose Lee being herself. She's divine.

Do you believe for one moment that I'm thinking of- art? Well, I certainly am!

Ach jo!

2008-05-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

I love that phrase. It simply means "gah." As in, I am so tired...

It had been three weeks since I'd gone out in Prague on the weekend, so I overcompensated for it the last couple of days. Friday I met Sarah in Holesovice for the beer fest- she had found a bunch of money in the subway, so she bought my entry! Diky! I said her finding the $ was good karma, but then we saw a dead cat in the street. I still choose to believe it was good karma. A couple of hours later I met up with Evan to go to a club called Abaton for a drum & bass night (finally). I needed sustenance, so we ducked into Cross Club, which was every bit as interesting as I'd heard it to be. I can't wait to go back and take pictures of all the weird machinery and structures that make up that place. I had a couple of bramboracky (potato pancakes) and, maybe unwisely, a couple of puffs on a european. What followed was a surreal cab ride to a suburban Prague, or at least a part of Prague the likes of which I've never seen. I think that guy took us for a ride in more than one way.

Abaton was enormous- it looked like a palace, but Evan said it was a warehouse. All I know is there must have been 1,000 people in there, off their faces for drum & bass. As were we. The sound was crystal clear, and D-Bridge and Break played excellent tunes. To get home, we followed some Czechs down a path that led to a tram stop, the tram which seemed to lead to Nowheresville. I haven't been so out of my element in Prague and it was really nice to have a friend along. Luckily all the night trams end up at the same place...eventually...and so I found myself in Mustek in time for smazene syr and a dawn walk over the Charles bridge. I was the only person on it...quite unlike this afternoon, when I approached it, mentally said "Hells no" and took a huge detour to the next bridge. One thing I've realized here is I may not be a good traveler for supercrowded cities. I wish I could just chill, but it irrationally pisses me off when I have to slow my preferred pace for an extended time.

Anyway! I was home long enough to sleep and download my two XLR8R albums for the month, which are both fantastic. One is the Traum 100 compilation--my favorite label right now, whose big anniversary party was in Berlin this weekend. I had really wanted to go to that, ah well. Every track on this piece is divine. Then I had a nice walk to Ross and Sarah's to begin another evening Odyssey. Brandon's friend from mpls is in town and we couldn't find the hostel he was playing music at, so we continued on to karaoke. I had been to the private rooms before with Pat and Christine, and this time I made up for not taking pictures of that night, with 100 goofy pics and videos. We drank slivo and did some suicide karaoke, where other people pick out songs for you. I made Sarah do "99 Luftballoons" auf Deutsch. And I tried my hand at a song by Jana Kirschner (image above). Ever since I got here she's all over the billboards for C & A, a clothing company. Finally I wiki'd her and saw that she's a famous Slovakian pop singer. My Slovak pronunciation left something to be desired. After this we had pizza and then popped into a herna- all-night gambling parlor- because I'd never been in one. The machines didn't seem to want to take our crowns, which is just as well.

I woke from a weird dream on their futon in time for Christine's brunch down the street. Someone ordered a "Neverending cup of coffee" and I thought to myself, what I want is a neverending glass of tap water, with ice. Not because I was hungover but just because you aren't getting that in Europe. That's old news to all you travelers, but I'm a novice. Here you're paying 18-25 crowns for 12 oz. of water in a glass bottle. I can drink that in one gulp. ACH JO! A new friend, Melanie, walked with me to Wenceslas and we had some ice cream. Later we met up for my first Fringe show, a really good performance of Sartre's No Exit. It was in one of those cave-like theaters, which was perfect to create the claustrophobic atmosphere of hell. I saw three more impressive/absurd performances and ate dinner at a cantina. I greeted and ordered in Czech and the server looked at me like, "Quit trying." Sometimes you just can't win. Later, inexplicably, he turned friendly.

I'd like to sleep for a week now, but Fringe demands that I'm out for six more nights. It's an annual theater/performance art festival that I'm covering in Steffen's absence, and I'm to see as many of 40 shows as I can. So I may not update PiP for a few days.

Dobrou noc...good night, for now! Here's my favorite pic of Ross & Sarah from last night. They did a lot of duets :)

Poslouchat

2008-05-22T01:32:00.000-07:00

Listen in

Last night I was telling Kim how my clock radio woke me up with "WOAAAHHH, We're halfway there!! Woaah-ohh! Living on a Prayer!!" - which put me in a great mood - and she said the DJs probably do that on purpose. I guess I hadn't thought about that. I know, of course, that there are morning/drivetime shows, but I'm so used to computerized playlists that it didn't occur that they might time it right down to when peoples' alarms go off. Like, let's hit the 8 o'clock people with the b-52's and the 8:30 people with Bon Jovi. I hope it's like that! I never was up early enough to listen to John Richards so I don't know if he does that on KEXP. At any rate, I see the beauty now of being a morning person.

It just seems that I don't get the middle or downtime of these songs- a key part of them is playing when my alarm goes off. This morning it was "It's like Raaaa-eeee-aaain!! on your wedding day"- Ah, Alanis. When she rolled through town with Matchbox 20 this year, Aja succinctly noted, "What year is it, 1994??"

Here's what I've been digging when not being swept along by the CR's 80s and 90s infatuation:

Minilogue- "Hitchhiker's Choice," in a great animated video below. Can't wait to get these Swedes' new album Animals.

Dial Records' Pantha du Prince, whose This Bliss I finally got deep into on my 6-hour bus ride. Plug his name into electronicbeats.fm for a sublime new mix that goes from Autechre to Burial to Gui Boratto to Green Velvet. It's "Advanced music, life and style powered by T-Mobile," but whatever, I'm a T-Mobile customer...haha

Four Tet's slamming and inventive podcast for RA has Villalobos, Hot Chip, Alex Smoke, Benga, Lindstrom, and even MJ Cole's "Sincere"!

My weekly dose of dub, leftfield and experimental comes via BBC DJ and biker chickMary Anne Hobbs. I love this show because 1/3 of the time I can't stand what she's playing, but it's always, always interesting enough that I listen to the whole thing.

Thom Yorke - Cymbal Rush (The Field Late Night Essen Und Trinken remix)

The combined knowledge and hard drives of 28 of Seattle's music-geekiest, The Division List on Last.fm!

My buddies SunTzu Sound's City Soul radio show, "2 hours of soulful music from around the globe" streaming live (Fri 9-11p) or archived at KBCS online, or you can listen on iTunes.

And finally, Riz's Wednesday night Variety mix. Plunder the archive here for his latest show. I miss drinking champagne and knitting with Jessica while listening to the manifestation of this man's impeccable taste. Unfolding over four hours that are always full of beautiful twists and turns...

Freitag zum Sonntag

2008-05-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

Friday to Sunday

in Berlin, the only city I've loved as instantly and completely as Seattle. I knew I would! Everything I wanted to happen, happened. I'll attach a slideshow of my few pics in a little bit, but in the meantime here's an article Ross sent me, one of the best I've ever read on the current art/music scene there. It ends this way, which is exactly how my Freitag unfolded. Except I rode the subway:

"Piling into taxis, we made for Alexanderplatz and an anonymous office building, where on the 12th floor the thump of house music barely stops for most of each weekend. It was still Saturday night, if I remember correctly, when we stepped off the elevator and into a dense aural wash and a mixed crowd that was sweaty and beautiful and young.

Because this is being written from my desk in New York, it seems certain that we left the club at some point. It says something about how good a time was had that, even now, I cannot remember when."

Scheisse

2008-05-16T14:14:00.000-07:00

The U smells of sweat and beer on the way into central Berlin. Thats because its hot, and everybody is drinking one! No open container laws to be found here. Im in Kreuzberg, and my hostel is quite the happening place. Very easy to find. I did get lost looking for the bank and decided to stop into a store for a bier of my own. The guy working poured it into a cup for me... service!! he said. freut mich! then he offered me a marlboro red. my gauloises were too light for him. everyone is laughing at me for asking how close the hostel is to berghain\panoramabar, oh well!! its time to dance.

oh and 'scheisse', because the dollar sucks. 'its our time now' said the guy who booked me in.

thank you aunt s and uncle r for the time out berlin shortlist guide. i am doing educational things with it tomorrow, but its indispensable for sure! xoxo

Strč prst skrz krk

2008-05-16T02:56:00.000-07:00

A Czech and Slovak tongue-twister meaning, "Stick your finger through your neck." I kind of want this shirt.

Wiki sez there's an even longer phrase with no vowels:

"Prd krt skrz drn, zprv zhlt hrst zrn" ("A mole farted through grass, having swallowed a handful of grains"). Hehehe

I read about the first tongue-twister in my phrasebook, which gave this helpful hint: when you encounter words with no vowels, just make a little 'uh' sound where the R's are. So it might sound like "Sturch purst skurz kurk"!

Other things I have trouble with:

Čtvrtek = Thursday, sounds like "cht-vur-tek"
Pohořelec = my tram stop, sounds like "Po-ho-zhre-lets"
čtyři = four, sounds like "cht-ee-zhre"
Jiřího z Poděbrad = George of Podebrady, Ross and Sarah's metro stop and nobody can pronounce it except the computerized metro voice

Things I like:

the absence of "a" and "the" ...pivo is just pivo!
the háček, or "little hook" diacritical mark and how it changes words
when locals say "Děkuji moc, na shled!" (sounds like "dee-koo moats, na sklad!") on the phone

First time I really felt like a snob here:

When the guy next to me at a mob-scene McDonald's got SIX people involved, including the manager, because he didn't want pickles on his Big Mac. Neither do I, buddy. Just take it off!!

I'm off to Berlin!!! Hezky vikend!

TRAMix

2008-05-15T08:40:00.001-07:00

My first review written with a global audience in mind. It shall not be the last!

I'm stoked. I've read Resident Advisor in the past, but really started using it once getting to Prague. It's an excellent resource for party info and podcasts, and I think the event reviews are super fun to read. Hope you like mine :)

Crashed Nettles

2008-05-14T06:07:00.000-07:00

In reviewing a movie this afternoon, I was researching that awful statistic about how many single women outnumber single men in NYC--turns out to be around 210,000!

This led me to the website of a new book that looks really intriguing, Richard Florida's Who's Your City? He also wrote a recent book called The Rise of the Creative Class, of which I believe I'm a member. Hmm...

The new book comes recommended by Seattle-born celeb chef Mario Batali, who says: “Who’s Your City is another breakthrough idea by urban life genius Richard Florida. The power of place has everything to do with our success well beyond our own recognition. If you are contemplating a move or know someone who is, or are even vaguely interested in the idea of place as self, this book is a must read.”

Officially on my birthday list! I'm really slacking on my non-fiction reading. Last year I only managed to read two: the incredible In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick, and the outrageous Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin. Oh!! Also on my birthday list is Alex Ross' The Rest is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century. I've been wanting to read that for months.

Speaking of the Batali's, last year I had a delicious birthday lunch at Salumi. I wish I had been in a better mood for it. My golden birthday (27 on the 27th) was ironically the first year I didn't feel like celebrating. I blamed it on Mercury retrograde and two full moons in June. This year will be better, though I wish I hadn't planned my flights so that I'll basically be sleeping through it. ?!? was I thinking...

Two funny bits from yesterday's Czech news:

May 13 - The International Cocktal Day. Prague bars report that Czechs especially favor mojitos, gin-tonics and cuba libres. Cocktail makers say that Czechs has learnt to drink and enjoy them but they are still very conservative in their choices. "I got goose-flesh when somebody is ordering mojito," says Lukáš Zabloudil from Prague bar called Postel. During one night, he can shake up to 150 mojitos. But when mojito was introduced here in 1996, Czechs were very sceptical about it. They used to say that they were not going to drink crashed nettles with ice. Young Czechs are also willing to experiment more with cocktails than their parents. Those old folks prefer to drink beton (Becherovka + tonic), or Bavorák (Fernet + tonic). On this day in 1806, the american magazine Blance published the first written definition of cocktal. (Hospodářské noviny, p. 4)

Sausage stand disappeared suddenly from Wenceslas square over night. When Prague 1 clerks accompanied by municipal police and a distrainer arrived yesterday to Můstek to remove the first sausage stand, they found out there was nothing to move away. The stand disappeared. According to the witnesses, the stand was there on Sunday afternoon and on Monday morning it was gone. The owner of the stand didnt want to comment. (Lidové noviny, p.6)

Day for Knight

2008-05-13T15:20:00.001-07:00

Bad, bad pun, I know. But life here does have its surreal moments of absurdity and spontaneous discovery.

Here's Lucie and I having a tourist moment, posing on the arms of our boyfriend in Český Krumlov.

She and her bf Martin took me to this lovely 13th-century town and castle in Southern Bohemia on Saturday. I ate some bony, paprika-spiced carp (the "Christmas fish," like our Thanksgiving turkey) at our lunch on an outdoor deck, while watching kayakers tip over in the Vltava. We sought out ice cream and I bought some nice postcards in the Egon Schiele museum. I decoded some of the names around town...Lásky náměstí equals Love Square, Hotel Zlatý Anděl equals Golden Angel...I would feel proud, except these are totally recurring words in the Czech language. :)

Then we went to another small town, whose name I can't remember, to gaze at another castle. How many times can I say, "it was gorgeous"? I wandered a hedge maze...Lucie made a flower chain...I must mention the numerous German motorcyclists dressed in all leather, chowing down on the famed pork knee at any given countryside restaurace. (One of the fantasies I'm having, only encouraged by sights like this, is of motoring through Europe on a Cafe Racer). Anyway, Martin had some pivo and Lucie isn't proficient with a stick shift, so I got to drive back to Praha! Around this time last year I drove my party through the California desert to Coachella, and this drive was just as fun. I love getting behind a wheel out in the boonies! We chased the spectacular golden-pink-purple sunset almost the whole way.

Sunday I was late to brunch at a cute spot called Fraktal, and the table was full up, so I sat at the next one with a friendly expat who owns a Tiki Bar, and his two adorable bugaboos. They were enjoying a fruit-filled crepe while I enjoyed my massive breakfast enchilada. The weather was perfect. I spent time at the Letna beer garden with some nice Australians, then Pat and I discovered some surreal architecture, a carnival, and an outdoor dance (mostly older folks) in this massive woodsy park. I do love how you can take your 20-crown megabeer down the woodsy lane, but not how you have to later pay someone 10 crowns to piss in the public bathroom. The bladder can only hold one Czech-sized beer at a time. They know what they're doing. Check this out--there's also a bar in town called "The Peach Pit":

Otherwise... I went dancing to hip hop last Thursday with some great ladies. So much fun to hear Beyonce and Jay-Z in a club again, even if the DJ trainwrecked it all. It took a miserable Friday afternoon of carrying heavy bags through humid Zizkov and being late for interviews which made me finally get a Czech SIM card. Painless! I've screened two good summer flicks: Iron Man and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Had the humbling experience of having to watch the first hour of a play slouched down in my seat in order to read the English titulky waaay up high (moved to the balcony for act II). Kim showed me new parts of Mala Strana after dinner yesterday, including Nový Svět at twilight, and I fell in love. And dreams do come true...I got my economic stimulus check! Thanks GWB for this bizarro parting gift. I've read about people donating theirs to charity, but mine came just in time for groceries, some lotion that makes me smell like a caipirinha, and a bus ticket to Berlin. Wrong economy? Whoops...

Release Me

2008-05-12T03:12:00.000-07:00

This morning I dreamt that I was roller-skating through a futuristic shopping mall, and then my clock radio woke me up with (once more) "What is Love?" It was amazing. I should've immediately risen and done the Night at the Roxbury dance to get my day going.

Here's the second-best scene from My So-Called Life, from the "World Happiness Dance" episode. This is for Sarah in Prague, Jenn Jackson, and everyone who adores this show. This is 9 minutes of delight- Angela just twisting the knife in poor Brian Krakow, then seeing Jordan looking all nonchalant while the music starts thumping like her heartbeat...and best of all, Rickie and Delia's dance to "What is Love?"

I realized a few days ago why I've been tripping out on '90s nostalgia: I'm missing my 10-year high school reunion this summer. It's been a kick-ass decade and I'm not looking back, but I'm getting melancholy about it anyway. I mean, 10 years??! went by so fast. I didn't have a grand plan in 1998, so I'd say things have turned out as expected or better than expected. In 2003 I made a loose five-year plan, accomplished most of my goals, and now I'm making another.

There was a time when I thought that Jenn, Jinna and I would meet every Christmas Eve for a dacquiri at the Hwy 27 Lounge. And that I would spend the night before Christmas eve with Crystal, which was our tradition for 10 years. And that I would keep in touch with my own Jordan Catalano...the crazy thing is, though, I think I'll always be able to find out what he's up to. I think he'll always live and work in relatively the same place I left him. I've truly loved two men in my life, and he was one, even though he was a boy. It was real. He married the girl who told me, when she was 14, "You'll never love him as much as I do." And now their baby may not be a baby anymore.

Prague stuff in next post! Including pictures of Český Krumlov, tales of Southern Bohemia, the beer gardens, Radost FX, František Langer's Periphery, and cute kids at another fantastic brunch.

Den vítězství

2008-05-08T04:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Liberation Day! Today marks the anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe in 1945.

In honor of this day, I'm posting some crazy young Europeans dancing "Jumpstyle"- also popular in Holland and Belgium, apparently- underneath the Eiffel Tower. The music and the fashion is awful, but freedom of movement and expression is grand.

Jaro

2008-05-07T02:52:00.000-07:00

More musings on spring

To hear real gypsy pop music from the rolled-down windows of a busted and rusted Škoda. To see people cramming into a pub for pivo at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday. To have banana/strawberry zmrzlina (yes, WTF?) with Lucie after lunch. To finally break out my Rizzo outfit from last summer (denim pencil skirt and red patent flats). To smell sweet and savory things from the open windows and doors of a creperie. This is just like home, where the glass garage windows of businesses on Broadway and 12th open up to let air and light in.

This isn't a rusted and busted Škoda, but it's the one I wish I were tooling around in. Behold the 1960 Felicia convertible:

Thank you Mom for the birthday camera!! Now I can stop using wiki pictures all the time. In a way, it's been very freeing to walk around and absorb the sights...now I know exactly what I want to take pictures of, like some particularly ornate doors on Ujezd and Nerudova. The German gravestones from the 1700s hidden in a park near my flat. The colorful Metro stop names underground. And the graffiti that reads, "Wu-Tang" and "Police Fuck Of," naturally.

Outrageous

2008-05-06T06:06:00.000-07:00

Would you like some house music and beer on your commute?

How about some full-frontal nudity along with your Internet newscast?

I'm cheating a little bit here, since the tram party is only once a month and the naked newscasters are "not real news, just fun for men" as Lucie says. But still they're two things you wouldn't see in Seattle!

Here are two more things you wouldn't:

The first openly gay man running for Senate is called a "homosexual deviant" by his peers, among worse things. “Next we’ll see pedophiles and zoophiles claiming their place in society.” -Michal Ševčík, spokesman for the National Party.

[In 2008?!]

[Jiří] Hromada lightly dismisses such comments. “Uninformed stupidity cannot be weeded out,” he said, pointing out that, despite such sentiments, “There is no rise in homophobic feelings. That illusion is caused by the tabloidization of the press, which gives unwarranted coverage to extremists.” He also added his belief that the loudest opponents are usually latent homosexuals who are afraid to admit the truth. “They are the most aggressive toward our community, because they envy our freedom.”
-from the Post

Balls of steel!

And nearby--

"Slovak print media have a well-tested method for drawing the eyes of the public. In tense political moments when scathing critiques become so common they fail to even raise eyebrows, newspapers voice their protest through a last resort: the blank front page. During the recent debate over a bill limiting the freedom of Slovakia’s press, the editors-in-chief of the country’s leading dailies have undertaken such measures all too frequently.

Championed by Prime Minister Robert Fico, the bill, which Slovak Parliament approved April 9, seeks to amend the current press law through a “right of correction and response” clause described by international watchdog groups as “severely restrictive of editorial independence.”

To voice their opposition to the bill, a majority of the country’s daily newspapers responded by removing all routine copy from their March 27 and April 11 front pages, replacing it with a proclamation describing the press bill’s “seven capital sins.”
“How would you like it if your favorite newspaper was not written by reporters, but by someone else? This could be the result of a press bill from the smithy of the governing coalition,” the statement read.

Czech media have also gotten involved. Sympathizing with their Slovak counterparts, the editors of five leading local periodicals printed an open letter April 15 urging Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič to veto the bill.

In Slovakia’s young history, March 27 and April 11 represented the third and fourth dates on which newspapers printed blank front pages in protest of the government’s attempts to limit press freedom.

During the reign of often-controversial former President Vladimír Mečiar, dailies twice printed blank front pages in 1995 and 1997, protesting against a proposed bill raising tax for print publications. However, the row over the current press bill is unprecedented in that the blank front pages appeared just weeks apart."

I love the concept of the blank front page as protest. Unfortunately, the President signed the bill into law last week anyway. It essentially means that anyone who has a problem with what you write can dictate where, when, and how you correct it in print. Scary. The follow-up is that "the national journalists' syndicate and publishers' association are turning to the Constitutional Court to repeal the law, which goes into effect June 1."

Karlštejn, Weekend

2008-05-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my flatmate Kim and I set out to visit Kutná Hora and the famous Sedlec Ossuary there- a church made entirely from 40-70,000 human skeletons! It reminds me of the H.R. Giger bars in Switzerland that I've heard about, only this piece is made from dem bones. How intriguingly macabre. It'll have to wait for another weekend though, because we missed our bus. We decided to hop a train to the village of Karlštejn then, to visit the castle (above). The train ride out there was about $4 RT! Obviously, it was a thing of wonder and beauty. Prasky Hrad is definitely a castle, but it looks to me more like a gigantic palace with a Gothic church tucked inside. Karlštejn looks more like a fairy tale. It was founded in 1348 by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, and was the home of the Czech coronation jewels for almost 200 years.

I'm curious about who occupied the space during all that time- what persons actually resided there? As we explored all the nooks and crannies we could without paying for the tour (next time), I kept wondering things I can't possibly find the answers to...was there ever a party, and maybe someone got too drunk, and fell off this massive column into the forest? Is this alcove where a princess sat while watching for her knight on the village road below? And also sensible questions, like How do massive columns get built like this anyway (and in the 14th century)?

The tourist vendors were doing a brisk business selling sugar wafers, postcards, beer bubble bath, brass knuckles and Chinese stars. You know, the usual stuff. There was even an Erotic City outpost way out there in the country! I was almost reeled in by a man selling little hand-bells. I'm not sure exactly what to call them, but when I was sick as a kid, my Mom would sometimes put a bell on the nightstand for me to ring. I'd jingle it and she'd bring me jell-O and cold pancakes made into the shape of an "R." I'd sit and bed and read Archie comics all day ringing my bell. That sounds like a spoiled brat but I think my Mom got some kind of kick out of it. Lately this memory came back to me and I thought I should find myself a bell in preparation for whoever might need some TLC. So I almost bought one here, but held back...then, I was almost moved to let a man dressed as something medieval put a bird of prey (a lovely, wide-eyed owl) on my arm for a 20-crown picture. He was standing there with his beautiful bird and a sign reading "Hello Tourists, I offer you a bird of prey picture" in 6 languages and I was becoming sad, like a true sucker tourist having a nostalgia attack, that in this modern age, nobody finds this idea charming. How hard they're trying to offer you not just a trinket but a memory! I'm making fun of the frivolity, but it is true: when I was 9 or 10, someone gave me a baby alligator to hold for a similar pic in St. Augustine, and I've never forgotten it. Just in the nick of time I saw a little boy and his dad get real excited about the owl, and I was satisfied that the world still contained reverence and romance. I bought the delicious and unfortunately-named Trdlo pastry (with nutella inside it) instead.

I had started a knitting lesson with Kim on the train ride over, but our train back was like night-and-day. Rickety and dirty and we stood up most of the way home. The country station looked pretty similar to the one in Closely Watched Trains:

I watched that film on Steffen's recommendation before coming, and loved it. I've seen many French New Wave films but that was my first from the Czech New Wave...very charming, very sweet. There's a scene of great playfulness and eros that you can watch on Youtube but I think is much better with the rest of the movie surrounding it. See it ASAP (even Hollywood video has it)! I'll send you 5 crowns if you don't like it.

When we got back to town, Kim took me to a restaurant for svíčková, the most delicious beef dish I've had in years. The meat and knedlíčky (dumplings) was smothered in this incredible sauce- I don't know what it's made from- and went perfectly with dark, sweet Kozel beer. Walking home we stumbled onto a Cuban restaurant with a very active patio. A band was playing enticing music and I misread a sign, thinking 30-crown mojitos were on offer. So we sat down and had a much more expensive mojito, but I think the atmosphere was worth it. I felt like I was in Miami, til I looked across the street.

Later we went to a party of a co-worker, where I met many nice people. It took a long time for a dance party to erupt in the kitchen, after which it was moved to the larger room, then moved back to the kitchen because "this doesn't work." LOL. Every party everywhere is all about the kitchen. People just feel comfortable there. The music was a total mish-mash but things kept popping up that are songs that I listen to in secret, which was really weird, like Groove Armada's "Superstylin'" or "Saltwater" by Chicane.

Sunday was also lovely. I spent most of today getting a tan in the park while listening to Kings of Convenience...ahh, Spring!! But first- I've done some glamorous things in my life, but going to a girls' brunch off a charming side-street in Prague has to be one of them. Thanks to Christine for the invite and to The Globe for the chorizo scramble. I've really been missing brunch with my ladies and fellas.

Regarding fellas, I managed to pull two local phone numbers this week. Although, one of them was perhaps more interested in rolling his spliff at the time, and called me "Borat" for my pronunciation...and the other, I believe, is about 19. Now, I know I went home with that 21-year-old Timberlake lookalike last summer (seriously, he played me the piano and sang and everything), but 19 is a little outrageous. I'll remain crushing on someone who lives neither in Prague nor America for the moment. Nice and safe!

Swede Harmony

2008-04-30T04:53:00.000-07:00

Yep, spring is definitely here. Our office is situated on the 3rd floor of a cluster of apartment buildings, and my window faces the courtyard and these great, tall old buildings with orange roofs. I just heard, blasting from one of them, Lime Life's "'Cause You're Right on Time." A 1989 track heard in various incarnations (Black Box's version, extended remix, whatever) all over Prague. I can't find any videos for it, so here's Robyn's melancholy yet hopeful and very colorful "With Every Heartbeat" to herald spring. Am I ever late on the boat with this one!

I love her hot, androgynous style and Richie Hawtin haircut. I can't believe she's my age! I remember "Show Me Love" from the 90s and I thought she was already grown then. I also just found out that she did the remix of Snoop's song, which really is titled "Sexual Eruption," so I was wrong about that! Ooh-woah!

Dietrich and DiMaggio; Slivovic and Witches!

2008-04-30T02:40:00.000-07:00

Now is the appropriate time to share one of my favorite youtube discoveries- Marlene Dietrich singing "Hot Voodoo" in Blonde Venus. I wouldn't have known about this movie if not for Roger, who said (in different words) that it was one of the most bizarre and wonderful things he'd ever seen. I do miss wine Fridays at work with Roger and Matos, who taught me a lot about films. "Why Hopsy, you ought to be kept in a cage!" They'd quote lines like that and howl with laughter, and I'd scramble to write down whatever it was they were referencing.

If you have 8 minutes, you won't regret watching the whole thing. The transformation is so blase and sexy, and the lyrics are priceless. Hot voodoo, make me brave/I want to misbehave...I going to blazes!

This is in honor of last Saturday night, which I spent with Prague's handsomest gays in a subterranean dance club in Vinohrady. My weekends have assumed a pattern: Old Lady Fridays, Party Monster Saturdays. After a great dinner with my flatmate, I met people at a bar, running into Frank Gehry's "Dancing House" for the first time on the way. It's a site to see unexpectedly at midnight!

I had grand plans of dragging people to a squat in another part of town for a dubstep party, but we had independently assessed the map and decided against it. The directions seemed to sort of trail off into a field... so instead I tagged along with Ross and Sarah and a bunch of drunk TEFL teachers to the aforementioned gay bar. Here I heard the best club music yet- Madonna, Underworld- and finally danced! "Tiesto! Tiesto! Tiesto!" screamed one excited man, jumping up and down. We talked about making T-shirts with that name on it, to see how many shout-outs we'd get walking the streets of Prague.

Ross had heard of an afterhours place nearby that was notoriously seedy, so we set out for it, asking almost everyone we saw for directions, with hilarious results. Poor Ross...not only did he get propositioned/teased by a promiscuous guy outside of Bordo, but when we finally got to our destination, he was the only person charged (for being a male, presumably) and swiped with the security wand. Sarah and I got in just fine, however, with our switchblades and eight-balls. Kidding! It was 3 a.m. or a little after and the bartender pointedly told us, "You're early." We were the first people to arrive at this place which looked exactly like the Dream Club I would've designed when I was 16 years old. You know...red velvet and zebra-upholstered furniture, shiny silver stars on the ceiling, sparkly net hung over random things, dark mood lighting, a big fake mushroom sprouting in the corner. haha. One detail I wouldn't have fantasized about were the mirrors jutting out at eye-level in the bathrooms! I've never done coke and probably never will, but the club soon filled up with people who do.

We were joined by a group of about 15 international medical students who had been to an 80s party and were dressed terribly. One guy had pink sunglasses, acid-washed jeans, and an airbrushed t-shirt featuring a prominent ass. He was very proud of having bought the jeans for something like 20 crowns (a buck) and shredding them himself earlier in the day. These people were hilarious and very polite and friendly. We took a shot of slivovic and absorbed the hubbub as the place came to life. (We're practicing for our trip to Berlin and Panoramabar, which doesn't begin until 4). I talked to more strangers, moving through the room, than I have since being here. It was really nice in that regard. I was going to crash in their hood but when we walked outside the sun was up, and the metro had started running again, so I took that instead. Surreal riding at 5:30 a.m. with assorted stragglers...

Slivovic is a plum brandy, the national drink of Serbia, and I find it delicious! Sarah said her friend takes a shot of it every morning to stay healthy in Prague. Becherovka is something else I've been enjoying. It's a Czech-made herbal bitters with anise and cinnamon...with tonic it's a "Beton," also meaning "concrete" in French. 'Cause if you drink enough, your head will feel like that in the morning. :) Actually, both of these would probably taste fantastic with champagne.

Well I missed seeing the Crown Jewels because I didn't want to get up so early on Sat. and on Sun. I was going to bed when I should've been standing in line. They locked them back up yesterday and I could've gone as a press photographer, but would need a badge and all these things...I let it go. Lucie said I can come back in 5 years when they elect the next President and bring them out again. I just might!

I'm trying to finish all the week's work today, because tonight and tomorrow are major special occasions. Tonight:

"One of the popular Czech traditions is The Burning of the Witches Night on the 30th April when people make bonfires and burn witches made from straw and old cloth to end the long winter that the witches keep around. There are many bonfires throughout the country, accompanied with roasting sausages and singing favourite songs."

I'm going on a witch walk that starts in the center of Prague and goes along the river, and then meeting people at Tramix, this once-a-month party on a tram that was just written up in the NYT. I'm curious to see what the crowd and music are like, and whether it's awesome or if we'll look annoying like Ride the Ducks going through Seattle, blasting their disco at you while you're just waiting for your damn bus. Tomorrow Pat and Christine are having a Worker's Day BBQ. Yum! I love reading about May Day mayhem every year, like this story from 2000, when London protestors smashed every window of McDonald's and put a green mohawk on a statue of Winston Churchill. Lucie said there aren't demonstrations here, but that Czechs look at it as a day to kiss your sweetie under the cherry blossoms for good luck. It's too bad that all of mine are hundreds of miles away!

I have Skype now and it rules. After not hearing my Mom's voice for a month, I was able to have two hour-long gossip sessions with her, for free, brilliant! If you're on there and want to chat, hit me up at r.shimp. It's the first time in many years I haven't chosen the handle hungryghost or randomsummer. hehe. Have a great week!

We Own the Sky

2008-04-25T12:49:00.001-07:00

Holy moly, y'all, the new M83 album is...I'm going to refrain from saying 'incredible,' because repeated listens of their albums have burned me before, but so far...quite gorgeous. I love loud, lush music but the last album was too bombastic-fantastic even for me, although I loved the "Don't Save Us From the Flames" Superpitcher and "Run Into Flowers" Jackson remixes that sprung from it. But this one...I walked home in the chill air listening to "Too Late," looking at a sunset, and felt like I was falling in love.

TMT hates it, but oh well. Ever listen to MBV? I don't care if they're saying "soft as snow but warm inside" or "it's laundry day"... Pitchfork loves it. More and more these days I find myself agreeing with them. Anyway, thanks to my Austin buddy Mike for the file :)

The image above is M83 itself, a southern pinwheel galaxy, with a brand-new, really cool picture available here.

I feel like I worked around the clock this week, with screenings at odd hours and freelance work. I want to get up early tomorrow and stand in the line to try and see the Bohemian Crown Jewels. They've displayed them for one week only! So I'm staying in tonight with some books Lucie checked out for me at the library. A couple of Czech classics she recommended- Mala Strana Stories by Jan Neruda, and The Grandmother by Božena Němcová. She's on the 500kc note, an influential 19th century author. Lucie said everyone reads this book at some point growing up. Babička. a very nice sound to that.

Also keeping me company tonight is Erotikon, a silent film I discovered while compiling my listings. Apparently it scandalized Czechoslovakia in 1929, for showing a love scene via the woman's face throughout. So naturally I went straight to Bontonland and bought it- how cool that the Tower equivalent has something like that on hand. I'll report back on whether that scene has stood the test of time. :)

krásný sloh

2008-04-21T15:34:00.000-07:00

beautiful style

A particular color palette has been appealing to me in the past few days. Everything my eye lingers on gives off a pastel smudge but also a really sharp relief. The colors of twilight, just before a skyline explodes with artificial light, like those fast-moving cities you see a lot in movies. Hot pink. I have a lot to say but it's starting to mentally pile up like things can do when they come in an exciting succession. I've kept journals in the same 3-subject notebooks for 15 years, but in recent years, when I enter a period of high activity, damn near nothing gets written down except to-do's, quotes, directions, data. 20 pages of Scrabble scores and grocery lists with one unsent love letter smashed somewhere in between. I'm not interfering with that cycle anymore; there's some other me that needs to process experience differently sometimes. So I'll be really quick about this weekend.

Saturday Lucie and I saw Gregory Crewdson's photos at the Galerie Rudolfinum. I'd never heard of him but he's got a staggering body of work. I didn't like all of it, but there were two staged dioramas- one with a dead fox lying in berry bushes, one of bright purple butterflies climbing up blonde braids- and one panoramic image of a small-town street with a dark sky that made me think of driving around the South. One similar to the cover of a Yo La Tengo album I love. And the above. Gregory Crewdson's Photo Alchemy on NPR.

That night the XLR8R posse met at a pub where we watched an entire family, from teenagers to grandparents, take turns putting vodka in their mouths and then lighting it on fire. We went to a party, then to a great hipster bar, then to the best karaoke box I've ever seen at 3 a.m. Every room had a theme, a touchscreen you could order sushi and beer from, and...tambourines!! I have no idea what I sang, except for Frank Sinatra's "Something Stupid" which is weird because it was my first burlesque song and I've heard it in restaurants here a lot. Much like the "Friends" theme song and anything from Dirty Dancing (which I don't mind at all!) "Have you heard The Neverending Story theme yet?" someone asked me. Can't wait. I finally caught up on U.S. news, in particular the election today. And I'd like to apologize for my crappy e-mailing habits...I hope to catch up with everyone this week. Now, colors!

praha at night

seattle coming from the south

two of my beautiful housemates there

where i'm fantasizing about going for a festival in june

who is probably there right now

Robert Johnson

2008-04-21T00:03:00.000-07:00

When I say "I like techno" in Prague, people blanch. But Seattle knows what I mean and so does Germany...the first podcast on this page is what I'm talking about...it's so good I have to tear myself away to go work. I can resume there!

This is a club that Jess and I heard about from some random guy at Decibel festival. He kept shouting at us that it was the only place worth going in Germany- "Robert Johnson!!" After some research I found that it was owned by DJ Ata from Playhouse, who has impeccable taste. And that it's near a lake outside of Frankfurt making it even more enticing...

robert-johnson

Hezký víkend!

2008-04-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

Every day, someone in the office types up and distributes a run-down of some interesting items from the Czech papers. This one made me LOL.

"Czech PM Mirek Topolanek didnt find his way through bouncers in Cyprus. During his 3-day official visit of Cyprus, tired of all the official meetings, Mirek Topolánek decided to have some fun in of the best bars in the centre of Nicosia. Bouncers at the entrance couldnt believe their ears when this guy was claiming he is the Czech PM. (Supposedly they have heard this so many times :-)). "Right, You are the Czech prime mister," said one of the bouncers according to Cyprus Mail which informed about the incident. Eventually Topolánek could enjoy couple beers inside the club when somebody from his company got in touch with the club owner who talked to his bouncers. The spokesperson of Czech embassy in Cyprus refused to comment on this, saying that they know only about the official program. What PM does in his free time is his private thing. This club evidently attracts celebrities and Topolánek wasnt the first one who got in trouble. Six years ago soccer stars Zinedine Zidane and Thiery Henry didnt get inside smootly but were questioned at the entrance. Fortunately, one of the bourncer's colleagues recognized them eventually.
Topolánek spent 3 days in Cyprus, April 12-14. (www.tyden.cz)"

PM getting more nightlife action than me! Haha! This blog is being re-named Rachel Talking About All the Drum and Bass She's Missing in Prague. Tonight Andy C and MC GQ are playing and I have a wicked cold. It's also 350kc, about $20. Too much! Exxxcuses. I need a rendezvous. This is ancient news I'm sure, but I discovered that some renegades have posted up entire movies on Youtube in installments, so last night I watched half of Heathers. I searched for Pretty in Pink and what turned up was this, which I'm re-posting for Jessica:

Counter Culture

2008-04-16T03:13:00.000-07:00

Pun intended. The rest of the workday was long and busy, with a nice lunch break and window-shopping with Lucie. At 7:30 I met Lior- in town for a conference and on his way to Munich- underneath this sculpture in Lucerna Passage, near my work.

It mimics a much larger, rightside-up one in Wenceslas Square nearby, right before you come to the National Museum. David Černý has put wacky sculptures up all over Prague, including giant black babies crawling up the TV Tower in Zizkov. I have yet to see this weirdness up close!

I've been wanting to go to some of the grand cafes, and also this place I keep passing by on the tram, and the two made a great contrast for one night. I just realized yesterday that there's streets upon streets of interesting things that are parallel to the path I always take, so we took this new path from one cafe to the other. Peachie has found her places in Prague. First is Cafe Louvre, from 1902, frequented by Kafka and Einstein back in the day.

It was just the same time of day as in this picture when we arrived, and we sat in a room near this painting. Here's another of the gorgeous area by the windows and the waistcoated servers.

Then the Shadow Cafe on Ujezd (ooh-yesd, I love to say this) street for a couple of pilsners. This place has an associated bar in another neighborhood that plays drum and bass or reggae (or ragga, for that matter) almost every night. Dark, relaxed, pop/street art, and good music. I thought they were playing Tricky's Maxinquaye mixed with trance, but the bartender revealed it to be three Faithless albums on shuffle. Faithless again! I hadn't given them a thought since "God is a DJ" and "We Come 1"...classic P.L.U.R. The way people dance in the video for the latter, I remember that, dancing as if you're beating back authority itself. In places like the Soulhouse in Gainesville. It didn't matter who was playing. Maybe that's where I'll find any shred of it again, going through this weird period of nostalgia- by letting go of expectations completely.

Tangent over! Here are a few snaps from Shadow's website.

Lost in Translation

2008-04-16T02:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was such an incredibly long day, it warranted a visit to two cafes in the evening (see next post). I had been in the theater by 8:30 a.m. (ugh) to watch Untraceable (ugh), and it was shitty DVD quality and "simultánním překladem." Steffen had warned me about these. This means that a man stands in the back and reads the script in Czech over a microphone, even "Mommy!" and "Hallo?" when Diane Lane says them in English. I strained to hear the dialogue and also to not fall asleep drooling in my comfortable stadium seat. A fellow critic that I see in the bathroom after every screening commented on how awful it was, and I enjoyed the brief camaraderie :)

Unfortunately In Bruges tomorrow is going to be the same way as Untraceable, although Shutter on Friday will be as usual I think- even if not, Japanese horror and its remakes are generally more about the ghostly staring children than the dialogue. I always want one of these kids, which a character will find sitting on top of his bed or lurking in the corner, to open their mouth and calmly ask for a bowl of cereal.

I've only made a misstep with the screenings once so far, with Paris Je'taime. I should've known of course that 2/3 would be in French with Czech subtitles...but I got the gist of the shorts, and only really cared for Tom Tkywer's True anyway. It's magic. Here's the 7-minute version that was used in the film: I hope you love it!!!

I Hate Tesco

2008-04-14T12:35:00.000-07:00

This spoiled-brat post was bound to happen. My flatmate warned me. The "Hypermarket" at the Andel station isn't so bad, but the department store version closer to work and my tram stop is like this:

groceries
produce
toilet paper
paper towels
batteries

everything on a different floor. And you can't move between them of course, without paying for your one item here, one item there. The grocery level is the one underground- far worse than the Broadway & Harvard QFC whose lighting I loathed so much. No sunlight shines on this broccoli. I was telling Lucie about that fake thunderstorm that happens to the produce in Safeway- when you hear the crackle and then see the miniature sprinklers showering everything. I mean, that is some brilliant trickery to grow up with. Not in this claustrophobic dungeon, where I pretend to be a Middle Ages peasant girl when fighting for my baguettes. Lines as long as the post office! (Although Steffen told me the P.O. is actually the "most civilized" one he's ever been in; I'll find out tomorrow). And if you need contact solution, you go to the optic shop. If you need aspirin for a headache and you haven't gotten to the lekarna (freestanding drugstore) before it closes, you'll have to put cucumbers on your eyes until morning. Cause it's not for sale in Tesco.

Blondes, Brunettes and Redheads

2008-04-14T03:56:00.000-07:00

I have to have it! Matt Hughes From London saw me writing in my Moleskine city notebook (thank you so much Jay, it's been indispensable), and asked if I'd ever heard of Smythson of Bond Street? He specified the BBR book, but there are other great ones such as:

'Make It Happen,' 'Brunches, Lunches, Suppers, Dinners,' 'Blue Sky Thinking,' and 'Princess Notes.' Then, there are ones that I definitely don't need, such as 'New York, The Hamptons' phone book, 'Cat Poems,' and 'Yachting Log.' LOL

The existence of which was the only valuable thing I learned on Friday evening. I ended up not going to the drum & bass party because it was too far out for my mood, so I went on the search for a club I'd walked past once near Tyn. I finally found it and stayed there way too long staring at the bartender, the most handsome man I've seen so far in Prague. He was like an angel.

I did try dancing at this place but the cavernous basement area was so smoky and sweaty, and the music was eh. The DJ killed the dancefloor with "Rhythm of the Night," which I didn't understand, because people loved every other Eurodance song he played, and that's a really good one! (And yesterday I heard Haddaway's "What is Love?" while buying milk. I wish Kate Silver were here. She once made me the most amazing '90s hi-NRG mix.)

Saturday I journeyed with my co-worker to a baseball game in the middle of nowhere. It was the opening day of the Czech Extraleague- apparently the highest you can go in baseball here. Very different than catching a Mariner's game @ Safeco...he and I are writing an 'Around Town' column about it so I'll post it here later. That night I tried nightlife again with another XLR8R writer, Ross, and his lady and friend. Prague isn't Berlin, that much is certain. I can't quite figure the dance scene out yet. The music was slightly Baltimore Club-ish, booty remixes and stuff like that; the crowd either supermodel types or 16-year-olds. Two gigantic ZOO YORK banners hung off the DJ tables. I walked home while eating smažený sýr (it was awful!) and listening to the Raveonettes' Lust Lust Lust on my headphones. It took over an hour and by the time I got to the castle steps I felt purged of my homesickness. The present fully took over-

And I woke up feeling awesome, despite the late night and bad snack food choices. I wore my red lipstick in the bright sunshine and old women smiled at me. I had a picnic in the orchard at the bottom of Petrin hill, with blossoms on the trees and the castle in full view. Birds chirping, people playing frisbee, a really great spring day. Then I climbed to the top, but not the observation tower (a mini Eiffel tower). I went looking for a cafe and couldn't find it but did find a souvenir shop underneath the bridge- "Get Rhythm" by Johnny Cash was playing while a row of chandelier crystals dazzled in the sun. ("When you get the blues.") People were outside on decks and watching soccer in little hidden pubs I kept running into while turning corners. I bought two lilies at a florist and decided it was too hot to drink coffee, so I had a beer, and met some very nice people from Jerusalem.

In that cafe, The Hanging Cup, you can buy an extra coffee for a stranger that may need it, which is signified on an abacus in the doorframe. And the cermaic ashtrays were '50 or so' years old, said the bartender, foot-wide blue icebergs with polar bears perched on top. They make it really hard to not smoke in this town. In my brain, an inanimate object that works so hard to be charming would be insulted if not put to use.

I Want More

2008-04-13T12:46:00.001-07:00

Future Shorts on Thursday included so many good ones. In particular, an animation of four losing-your-virginity stories, told from drastically different perspectives; and one of a scientist who synthesizes a chemical that lets humans become dogs overnight. They chase cars, terrorize cats, overturn garbage cans, and hump each other. They've never experienced such unbridled joy. The scientist's "K9" chemical becomes an illegal drug, and cops don't know how to apprehend users, because they look the same as regular dogs until dawn. Haha! I'm thinking of getting the DVD and I highly recommend seeing as many on their Youtube page as you like.

This one has stayed in my mind. It's a Faithless video using clips from a documentary called A State of Mind. The doc follows two North Korean families as their children prepare for the mass games, which I'd never heard of before and whose existence is blowing my mind. Look at these wild pictures! I realized I know nothing of Korea, North or South, and haven't even seen much Korean film except for the quiet gem 3-Iron. Some great thoughts on the film and info on the differences b/w N & S Korea here.

In Prague, asking people my age what they recall about communism is akin to asking me about the Gulf War. But they have insight from their parents...it's fascinating. And I learned just now that over 100 years ago, Prague had mass organized gymnastics as well, called the Sokol movement. I think it was quite less terrifying than the mass games. These guys look happy about it, eh?

A Wink and a Smile

2008-04-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

A Wink and a Smile has been accepted to this year's SIFF!!! Congratulations Deirdre!!

The bad news is that I won't be there for its premiere. For those that don't know, I'm in an upcoming documentary on Seattle's burlesque scene- in particular, Miss Indigo Blue's Academy of Burlesque, which I graduated from last October. :) The 10 of us women who enrolled in the fall session were filmed in class, at rehearsals, in private sessions, at home, out on the town, etc. It was a nerve-wracking, amazing experience and I'll save the big, explanatory essay for later. A new trailer will be ready on May 6 and I'll post it as soon as I can. I'm thrilled to join the ranks of other recent Northwest documentary subjects i.e. Blood on the Flat Track, about the Rat City Rollergirls, and Girls Rock!, about Portland's Rock & Roll Camp for Girls, where Carrie Brownstein and Beth Ditto are teachers! Of course in this scenario I'm a camper, and the stars are the teachers like Indigo and the rest of Seattle's glittering professional scene. I look forward to seeing those profiles and that footage.

I don't know what I was thinking going out of town when I'm about to be in a movie! I was looking forward to getting glammed up and partying with the girls at the premiere. What a moment to miss out on...it makes me sad...but life is about moving forward. Can't break my stride, can't hold me down, I guess!

Anyway, taking the class was my project, and the film is Deirdre's. I don't know how good of a subject I was, because I felt a journalistic kinship with her and approached everything with that detached/analytical eye. Meeting her through this was inspirational. Besides sharing an interest in burlesque, she was that woman with big, audacious ideas, and follow-through, that I strive to be.

There's a .pdf version of the latest OnScreen magazine, which has a great Q & A with Deirdre on the film (Mom, I meant to send you the hard copy ages ago, naturally). And there's an interview with her on KUOW here.

***

I'm going dancing tonight, damn it. Says a blog of Cross Club: "Rotating and twinkling statues; lights with shining, octopus-like tentacles; Bar chairs with tank shafts; numerous corridors with orientation maps; tables with four-stroke engines; the interiors look just like the inside of a huge sci-fi robotic whale. To grasp the genus loci of that place is quite impossible – maybe by this: It cannot be compared to anything from our world."

Sisson told me it was the perfect place to hear drum and bass. Sigma is playing tonight and they're on DJ Zinc's label Bingo Beats. Jenna G's "Woe" is on there, and D. Kay, whose "Desire" was the last hard-edged d & b track I could deal with in recent times. All you have to do to please this lady is drop an "oh yeah" in with your wobbly bass and too-much-snare-drum. So...most of ya'll know I was a raver in college, and d & b was the final frontier, the last genre I could still dance my heart out to, and I had a mini-renaissance in 2005. I discovered BBC 1xtra radio, and began a book idea that I'm still not done with. I met Kid Hops (expand your website Kyle!), and Tanya, who wasn't quite done with the genre either. I got Jess and Brian to go out with me. I kissed a hot Brazilian guy at the Marky show. You know. And I resisted the nonsense of being "too old" for the "boys club" as long as possible. You really want to say "give me a break" when it comes to gender, but the last few times I went out, I had to admit I felt completely alienated. I can still dig this music and talk about it with people but is the dancing aspect of my enjoyment really over? Well, I'll try again in Prague. Will everyone be 17, and male? Will I be ignored? Here goes.

I just had a killer idea.

More plakáty

2008-04-10T05:40:00.000-07:00

OMG look at this one for John Huston's The Misfits! This is going on my wall, Bjork-style. I had a subway-sized poster of her Post cover art up in various habitats of mine for years. Even after I stopped taping all of life's flotsam and jetsam to my walls, as teenagers do, I kept that thing tacked up. It added a perfect, muticolored but not obnoxious brightness, like a prism. Like this!

Visual stimulation

2008-04-10T05:01:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm going to the launch party for the Czech branch of Future Shorts, a worldwide monthly festival of short films. Above is On S'Embrasse, a short from 2000 that was part of the February (love-themed) package. They're also playing it tonight- it's super sweet. Beirut's video for "Elephant Gun" was also shown in Feb. I'm more into this guy's aesthetic than his music- the video is like a cupcake for your eyes.

The show tonight is at Svetozor, an arthouse theater that's attached to a shop selling vintage and original Czech posters of beloved films. As if the originals weren't cool enough! As much as I want the Princesse Tam Tam bathing suit in this fancy boutique across the street as my European souvenir, my next stop is back to Seattle rather than the French Riviera. So I'll definitely be picking up a couple of these plakáty for my walls...if any of you want me to look for a particular one, let me know! Here's the Czech version for two of my favorite movies.

Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless:

Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris (though I like the new version with George Clooney better):

And I have to show you the one for Godard's Pierrot le Fou ("Crazy Pete"!), which I haven't seen yet:

Beautiful!!

Maakies

2008-04-09T10:13:00.001-07:00

Speaking of dumbwaiters...

I just thought of that issue of Sock Monkey that Annie gave me, where the model ship and its crew come up on the dumbwaiter to shoot cannonballs at Drinky Crow and Uncle Gabby (a plush crow and monkey come to life.) A and I used to slip into their Victorian slang when we had enough to drink. Dook dook dook, strumpet! In Seattle we're lucky to have a weekly Maakies strip in the paper, also by Sock Monkey creator Tony Millionaire. See Maakies for pure hilarity.

Paternoster

2008-04-09T03:54:00.000-07:00

It's a dumbwaiter for people!

"It's not important," said the woman who took me to the Finance Office this morning, when I asked her to write down the name of this contraption for me. People keep telling me not to bother with Czech words because I'm here for such a short time, but I'm insatiably curious! I asked for six postcard stamps in Czech yesterday and it was wonderful. I made the woman laugh and then we had a nice conversation. I carry on with people in America too; it's the Shimp way. Here it gets old, only saying Dobrý den and Na shled. I need to be able to make unnecessary niceties with people.

Anyway this is the paternoster, and it turns out to not be a Czech word at all.

"First built in 1884 by Londoner J. E. Hall as the Cyclic Elevator, the name paternoster ("Our Father", the first two words of the Lord's Prayer in Latin) originally applied to the device because the elevator is in the form of a loop and is thus similar to rosary beads used as an aid in reciting the Lord's prayer."

Yes, pray you don't trip and crack your head open on your way out!

Týnská, Čachtická pani, words and names

2008-04-08T03:38:00.000-07:00

My weekend was very quiet--I did indeed park it in a cafe. Friday night, Lucie invited me to Týnská literary cafe, on the tiny street that twists around the church of the same name. Another local secret, because the cave-like place is wonderfully cheap. And smoky, as it is everywhere. Saturday night I had gone looking for Bar & Books (pictured above), which ended up being directly opposite the cafe (doh). It was more like the Hideout, my favorite bar in the world. I.E. the low lighting not actually good for reading, and the atmosphere one I'd rather share with a friend on a splurge (a lychee champagne is $9!). So as I was admiring the contrast of the swank B & B with the cafe- two wooden doors with the name written in black script on the wall above it- across the way, I ran right into Sylvie, who I'd met last week. So back into the cafe we went! We talked about men and traded regional terms of endearment. She told me a great one that wasn't in my phrasebook: broučku- "little sweet beetle."

The phrasebook includes zlatíčko (my gold), and miláčku (darling). I've noticed that in translation of the American films, miláčku is used for almost every endearment- dear, sweetheart, darling. Also I think it might actually mean "little darling," because I've learned that you can make something like ulice (street) become ulička (little street) by changing the spelling, which changes the sound from "ts" to "ch." Kava (coffee) becomes kafíčko (nice, little cup of coffee). Cute!

Both nights I walked home around midnight across the Charles Bridge, which was filled with lovers taking pictures, gazing at things or each other, kissing. There are people kissing all over this city. There are also dachshunds everywhere, which I love. My childhood pet was a black dachshund named Libby (RIP). She was the best ever. Another thing about the bridge is that I haven't noticed many panhandlers in Prague, but there are usually some at night there, and they're prostrate. It's spooky. Their foreheads touch the ground with their hands or hat open near their heads, and they usually don't say a word. I also haven't noticed any depressed areas like Seattle's 3rd & Pike bus stop, that smell of piss and drugs, but then I haven't been everywhere in Prague yet.

Sat. I had also gone to Vinohrady for the first time, to meet a fellow XLR8R writer (there are 3 of us here!)at a great cafe, Meduza. The neighborhood reminded me of Brooklyn a little, with its Brownstone-sized apartment buildings, young people with strollers, and dogs. It was leafy and green too.

Sunday, Lucie had an extra ticket to see a ballet called "Čachtická pani," which is a legend based on the Slovak Countess Elizabeth Bathory, "known as the most infamous serial killer in Central European history and is remembered as the "Blood Countess" and as Bloody Lady of Čachtice, after the castle near Trenčín, in Royal Hungary, present-day Slovakia, where she spent most of her life." So that was some ballet- gore, rape, strobe-light-aided slow motion sequences, a pas de deux with a riding crop- we left at intermission and went back to Týnská for hot wine.

However...it was held at the Estates Theater, so I got to see the inside of this marvelous building, which I hope to go back to at least once more. Here's an interesting article on its history. It's famous for being the site where Mozart conducted his Don Giovanni opera for the first time in 1787! We sat in our own little booth on the first tier...it was truly spectacular. I felt like a princess. There were people of all ages there, in various states of dress, much like in Seattle. Some super casual, and others glam. I went half-and-half by wearing my simple black skirt and sweater, but putting my hair up and wearing a pair of Oma's earrings. Here's the theater:

Final bit of ephemera for now...Czech names- there's one for each day, and you can celebrate both your birthday and your 'name day.'

"During the Communist era, parents needed special permission form to give a child a name that does not have a name day on the Czech calendar. Since 1989, parents have had the right to name their children as they wish, provided it is used somewhere in the world and is not insulting or demeaning. However, the common practice is that the most birth-record offices look for the name in the book "Jak se bude vaše dítě jmenovat?" (How is your child going to be called?), ISBN 80-200-1349-0, the semi-official list of "allowed" names. If the name is not found there, offices are extremely unwilling to register the child's name.[1]"

And then you have Venezuela. The U.S. seems to be moderate...I knew a Porsche in high school, but also many Jennifers. :)

High & Low

2008-04-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

Lucie has been amazing this week. She's revealed to me so many secrets, from where to get cheap delicious lunches today to how to navigate seznam.cz, CR's Yahoo. On it I can figure out what the closest transport stop to my destination is, then use that name in the city's journey planner to find a route. And the Czech-English dictionary is infinitely helpful. Today I misspelled some simple word and this came up instead:

a pak se dala do pláče - "and then she began to cry"

Kinda fitting for the last couple of days, although I sucked it up quick. My first week of work had a few seriously hectic moments, which was to be expected, and one unexpected humbling one. Yesterday in particular was a farce of brilliant things and shitty things happening in waves. First in the brilliant category, I spent the morning at a press conference for a Euro film festival, held at Czernin Palace, the current seat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The palace is open to the likes of UN ambassador Angelina Jolie, and President Bush (who met with a bunch of dissidents there last year, strangely enough), but not the general public. So I got to hang my coat among some wonderful art, visit a spectacular bathroom, and hear French translated into Czech translated into English for two hours. This bathroom was one of the best I've ever been in. Light and airy, low marble sinks, a giant pot of lilies on the floor, and a view of exquisite garden out of the window. (I keep forgetting to mention that Czech bathrooms so far are super-private. Each stall is a little room you can lock yourself in, totally sealed off. And there's never anywhere to hang your coat.) The sitting area outside this bathroom had a massive crystal chandelier and chairs made of gold (a word I'll use often on this blog and hereafter meaning, "or something that looks like gold") and light green velvet. Beautiful! Here's the outside of the palace:

Next came my humbling moment at work. That's it. I give more space to the brilliant things, see. At 7:30, I ran to meet my boss at the Rudolfinum concert hall, the seat of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. They weren't playing; he had tickets to a series of modern classical performances and an extra one for last night. There were four pieces and I loved each one. They were tumultuous, emotional and stormy, what I always want from classical music but don't know how to look for. The final one featured an opera singer who was a vision in this floor-length red dress with billowing sleeves. People audibly sucked their air in when she came onstage, even before she sang. Here's something lovely outside the Rudolfinum:

Afterward we went across the street to the U Rudolfinum pub, the first one I've been to where you order the beer as traditionally, by showing a thumb for one and a thumb and forefinger for two. How many you have is kept track of on a slip of paper, and they keep pouring more for you when you're starting to get low. Smoke is everywhere. A scraggly artist is holding court at a large table, surrounded by hangers-on, and all his previous sketches are on the walls of this pub. The men at the cigarette machine say "Dobry vecher" (good evening) to me in solicitous tones.

My lovely night was then ruined by getting a fine on the tram for having an expired ticket. I've been so dilligent about that ever since I got here, but my "I didn't mean to" was futile to the ears of The Man, who took my weekend money on the spot, for me being 20 minutes past. !~^%@!^%#$ I had planned to go to this drum and bass party. I really enjoy some of this guy's productions:

But now I'll take my book and park it in some cafe. Have a great weekend :)

Milan Kundera's Prague

2008-04-02T04:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Tara for sending me the link to this story in the NYT on Sunday!!

I haven't read The Unbearable Lightness of Being since I was a teenager looking for erotic writing that also passed as (and was) literature. I had to hide my Anaïs Nin books but Being was one of the few that I think flew under my mom's radar. Sneaky me. Hehe. I brought Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting with me on this trip, and I'll start reading it as soon as I'm done with The Love of a Good Woman, by Alice Munro. I haven't been so into a writer's oeuvre since I finished with Mary Gaitskill. And now, my mom likes the same books as me. Munro that is. Gaitskill might make her faint.

Nosferatu & the Czech underground

2008-04-02T02:35:00.000-07:00

All my life is watching movies. I screened Vantage Point yesterday and must see Sleuth today, so last night I wasn't sure I wanted to see another for fun. But I'm so glad I did. My co-worker Lucie put an announcement on my desk about a screening of Nosferatu, with a live score. I'd never seen it, and it made me think of Jon Todd's live score to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari so many years ago in Jacksonville. (Which led me to researching all of the current projects of Tim Massett, Jax's film programmer extraordinaire, who still seems to be doing amazing things. I can carry on about midnighters at San Marco Theatre, the Pit, and pirate radio KRAD some other time).

The screening was at the performance space La Fabrika, which I'd heard of from the Prague Burlesque website. Prague is divided into sections- I live in Prague 6, work in Prague 1, and Fabrika is in Prague 7. (The boonies would be areas like Prague 20.) So I took my longest tram ride yet there, but it was easy to find. There were at least two hundred people there, a packed house. The girl sitting next to me went up to get a glass of wine and suggested I come with her, and I made my first Czech friend (outside of work)! The intro to the show was neverending. When people would laugh, Sylvie would kindly explain what was funny. The narrator of the show was Pavel Zajíček, and the score was played by a bunch of talented violinists, cellists, programmers, bassist, and a percussionist, heavy on the gong. Here's a sample of his awesome voice, and the music:

I learned that Zajíček is a legend in underground Czech culture. From Praguetv.com:

"Fronted by poet Pavel Zajíček, DG 307 was one of the key bands in Prague's 1970s underground rock scene. Zajíček formed the group in 1973, with his friend Milan "Mejla" Hlavsa, who also founded and led The Plastic People of the Universe. DG 307 took its name from the code given to a diagnosis of clinical insanity - a diagnosis the Communist regime often applied to dissidents.

Following a government crackdown, Zajíček was imprisoned for a year in 1976, along with Hlavsa and other members of The Plastic People. Outrage at the government's actions led to the publication of a manifesto called Charta 77 (Charter 77), from which a dissident movement emerged, led by playwright Václav Havel, that would eventually topple the regime.

Following Zajíček's release from prison, DG 307 - now minus Hlavsa, who was concentrating on his main band -faced continued government resistance. The band managed to put on only two live shows before Zajíček was allowed to leave Czechoslovakia, in 1980. He lived in Sweden until 1986, before moving to New York City, then moved back home in 1992.

Back in Prague, Zajíček again worked with Hlavsa, producing the album Uměle ochuceno/Artificially Flavored at around the same time that DG 307's 1970s material was finally getting an official release. While Hlavsa's involvement with DG 307 ended there, the band has continued to record and play live regularly, showcasing Zajíček poetic lyrics and powerful vocals."

Wow! The '60s and '70s underground culture was also expressed in Samizdat, clandestine zine-making. A Post writer did a piece last week on a 75-year old artist Vladislav Zadrobílek, known for his samizdat. It's very interesting- read here if you like.

All in all an extremely educational/recreational evening. I did find a good cocktail too, by accident--I asked for a Gambrinus and the hot bartender thought I said 'caipirinha'! Really?! I know where to go in Seattle for one, but you never know who's going to know it; even when I was in L.A. I had bad luck. It was great. But, I should've just asked for pivo, rather than the type of beer. Sylvie and her friend talked with me about movies (she loves Miyazaki and Jarmusch), music and Seattle. Going there was their teenage dream, as it was mine. :) She gave me a tram ticket that I squeezed the life out of by taking a combination of 3 trams/2 metro lines home, because I was tipsy and my original transfer stop was utterly deserted and weird. That accomplishment plus this morning's--I navigated to work after construction/tour bus accident/broken down tram madness, w/o looking at any street names--have me feeling more confident about the city. Yes!!!

Birch month/Oak month

2008-03-31T02:55:00.000-07:00

Bye bye, birch month. Hello, Prague Castle and many other places that open for sightseeing. Says my phrasebook: "Unlike most European languages, Czech doesn't use the Latin-based words to name months. The Czech names for months have Slavic roots dating from before the onset of Christianity and reflect the seasonal changes in the world of nature." I love the pagans!

Here they are:

* January -- leden (ice month)
* February -- únor (month when ice drips)
* March -- březen (birch month)
* April -- duben (oak month)
* May -- květen (flower month)
* June -- červen (month of worms)
* July -- červenec (month when fruit ripens)
* August -- srpen (sickle month)
* September -- září (month when the sun shines, but isn't hot)
* October -- říjen (rutting month)
* November -- listopad (falling leaves)
* December -- prosinec (probably from "prasinec", the month when pigs (prasata) were slaughtered) Or from "prosit" - to request

I like how 'leden' reminds me of 'leaden,' or how a large enough quantity of solid ice feels. 'Rutting' has to do with mating, now there's an archaic term. And I like 'listopad,' like padding around the forest in your socks, and also 'Moby Octopad'- for you Yo La Tengo fans. I actually think that will only make sense to Jessica.

Sometimes I think I should study linguistics. Then I remember that not everybody who enjoys music should study musicology, and I check myself. Susan Faludi's partner and former Mother Jones editor Russ Rymer says: "Linguistics is arguably the most hotly contested property in the academic realm. It is soaked with the blood of poets, theologians, philosophers, philologists, psychologists, biologists, anthropologists, and neurologists, along with whatever blood can be got out of grammarians."

Neděle

2008-03-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

Sunday.

I'm at the office writing up my review of that chick flick I saw yesterday, at the incredibly bright and shiny Nový Smíchov mall. So far I've been to four different theaters--the arthouses Kino Světozor and Evald, Atlas, and now this multiplex. You're assigned seats in the theater and not allowed in until 5 minutes prior. There are way more commercials than in U.S. theaters, so people were trickling in a good 15 minutes past showtime--now I know! I also know that the multiplex ticket costs nearly twice as much as the other places, naturally, but argh. I could've bought 5-7 pivos, in a bar, for the same price! All the American movie previews were in Czech, and I had a moment of dread that I hadn't read the schedule right, and had chosen a dubbed version instead of a subtitled one. "Česky titulky?" I asked the usher. He said "Ano" (yes), so I went back in to enjoy Katherine Heigl's very expressive face. Fortunately I could also understand her words. Being here working is interesting. I don't think many tourists are sitting in movie theaters in springtime Prague--actually, I know they aren't, because they're all on the Charles Bridge!

Still I'm thinking of myself as a tourist/visitor. I did go to an expat bar on Friday, to meet some co-workers. It was the 14th anniversary of the place and to celebrate, the bar staff (all female) were dressed like Snow White, Princess Jasmine, etc., and the chef made a burger about 3 feet in diameter. It was good times until I fell into a time warp and came out close to 2 a.m. listening to a string of horrible songs being karaoke'd impromptu. Metallica, Bananarama, Nickelback, a medley from the Grease soundtrack?! Czech men next to me were laboriously wresting cups made of ice from their molds, doing one shot of vodka from them, and tossing the cups they spent so much time on, in a fruit bowl. People smoking...I was used to the ban in Seattle. A man from Texas kept me company all night, but disappeared just as some middle-aged Englishmen proved to be no gentlemen. Time to leave. I hadn't figured out my night tram, so my colleague helped me get a taxi whose price was only mildly outrageous. I was drunk enough to try the street food Smažený sýr (fried cheese, usually camembert with mayo), but I didn't. I did go home and drunk-email some people though, and I regret it! Not having heard anyone's voice in two weeks is tripping me out. It feels like much longer.

Last night after the movie, I bought some tights and garish green sunglasses at H & M (there are 3 here, I keep running into them). Then I went down every aisle at Tesco trying to figure things out. Spices come in instant soup-sized paper packs. You can buy 20 kinds of pasta but only one kind of tomato sauce and the can is very small. Very little of the produce is refrigerated, and people can be seen contemptuously tossing back inadequate heads of broccoli. Apples are still not good anywhere. We only have one working burner on a hotplate, and no oven or microwave, so that limits things. I bought very different things for the fridge than I would in Seattle. Masses were congregated around the deli and the beer aisle. Saturday night! I bought one Hoegaarden and drank it in the bath while finishing my book. And awoke to a blazing sunny day. I can't remember the road's name, but it's one of two I take into town. On the L you see endless stairs leading to a pub, on the R the expanse of Petrin park and hill. There's a nunnery, a community vineyard and fruit trees (nothing on them yet), flowers just blooming, and beyond that the observation tower. Birds were singing and people were sitting in the sun. And I'm sitting at a desk! Not next weekend :)

Comeback

2008-03-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't been away long enough to miss Seattle, but as I was just reading SW's website for the first time since I left, this blurb of Aja's made me wish I were there tonight:

Comeback's 4 Year Anniversary Bash with Tronik Youth, Miss Toats & Joee Irwin, DJs Colby B, FITS and Porq
What's the craziest thing that's happened during one of Seattle's filthiest, sweatiest, most innovative queer dance nights since its inception at Chop Suey four (already??!) years ago? "Probably the guy in the chicken-head mask that got his briefs ripped off while go-go dancing and then stage-dived into a writhing mass of wasted queers too drunk to catch him—ouch," recalls co-founder Marcus Wilson, aka Ursula Android.

That's so Seattle. I love the humor that Wilson comes to his projects with...that November night at his short-lived Pony was one of the best times I've had in Seattle, ever. It was the ideal Random Event with Some People. Everytime I listen to Joy Division's "Disorder" I think about that trashy dancefloor with the broken photobooth, the '70s porn they projected on the walls, the first time Naseem and I hung out, all the 7-ft-tall hot gay men, and the only straight one putting his arm around me at 5 a.m.

On that note, I'm reading Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body. I tried to read one of her books ages ago (hi Annie!) but it didn't stick. This one is brilliant. I've dogeared many pages. It sort of applies to my recent relationships in different ways, being about passion/loss/ambivalence and a certain emotional recklessness.

love: I will hold on to this pulse against other rhythms. The world will come and go in the tide of a day but here is her hand with my future in its palm. She said, 'Come upstairs.'

loss: The earliest pilgrims...the journeys they made were beyond common sense; who leaves the hearth for the open sea? Especially without a compass, especially in winter, especially alone. What you risk reveals what you value.

ambivalence: Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights; the accumulations of a lifetime gather there. In places the palimpsest is so heavily worked that the letters feel like braille. I like to keep my body rolled up away from prying eyes.

recklessness: Is it nobler to struggle for a week before flying out the door or should I go and get my toothbrush now? I am drowning in inevitability.

Now, something about Prague! Above is Malá Strana, and these storefronts look similar to where I had my first authentic Czech meal, of roasted pork, dumplings and cabbage. The dumplings are like thick potato cakes that you use to sop up the juice of all the other stuff. I had two monstrous glasses of Krušovice lager, and an apple strudel for dessert because I was really hungry. But wow...I think I'll save that kind of eating for special occasions. I was stuffed, and passed out before 10:30 p.m., despite (or maybe because of) having to walk up 1,000 stairs immediately afterward to make my way home. So the good news is I think the exercise balances out the calories. Here's the area I walked through to get home, adjacent Černínský Palác (Czernin Palace). You'd feel perfectly in the past if it weren't for the packs of college women singing, "Sexual Eruption! ooh-Woah!" (that would be Snoop Dogg's "Sensual Seduction") behind you.

You might be surprised to learn that I've been up by 8 a.m. every morning, in the office by 9:30ish, and alseep well before midnight. Some magical after-effect of jet lag, I'm sure. Hopefully I can sustain it long enough for my transformation into A Real Adult to occur. Hehe. Well tonight is my first night without Steffen here, and what trouble will I get into? Who will give me shortcuts and help me pronounce words? And tell me the stories of the statues? I asked him a million questions in the last few days. My goals for the weekend are: find black tights, a hair dryer (it turns out mine will probably short-circuit the electricity), a good cocktail (the food critic laughed at this suggestion), to review 27 Dresses, and to tackle the supermarket. And also to look at some beautiful buildings, but that's a given. Hope you all have a good weekend!

Soudný den

2008-03-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

That's Doomsday, to you. I walked clear across town this morning for a screening of this British killer-virus film...the heroine looked just exactly like Victoria Beckham, and I wished it were her instead. On the way, I got an amazing breakfast bagel from Bohemia (for Kate) and a káva sebou (coffee to go). The smells of coffee and cinnamon all the way from the palace through Staré Město and across the bridge are marvelous. I learned many new landmarks from the route Steffen outlined for me, including the Týn Church (above). Construction for this piece began in the 14th century...amazing for my eyes to see. The oldest thing I've ever come across is the city of St. Augustine!

Also, in case you don't read the whole wiki entry: "The great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who worked for Emperor Rudolph II, was buried in the church in 1601. His beautiful marble tomb slab is located inside." Lucianne, the tram stop closest to my flat is right in front of a statue of Brahe and Johannes Kepler :)

Things I learned from Doomsday, other than in the event of social apocalypse, you'll still be able to find purple dye for your mohawk somewhere:

dobre chlap = good man
mluv = speak!
Rozumím = all clear/copy that
ulicka = alleyway ---> i particularly like the sound of words like this, and devicka, which are pronounced "ooh-lits-kah and "deh-vits-kah"
kurva = fuck
moo (like a cow) = buuu (with umlats, i can't make it work)

Bollocks Airways

2008-03-25T04:47:00.000-07:00

Finally...three days late...my bag arrives in the nick of time, as it looks like Christmas morning out here! The ground is blanketed with hail and flurries are flying about. My paws have been numb, and my feet sore, but no more. Now I have sweaters, socks, and sneakers! And I finally feel at ease, knowing I don't have to replace my entire wardrobe, and lose the irreplaceable items like my 30s dress. On the trip back I'll be sure to pack those things in my smaller case (the one that had Oma's jewelry and which I got back earlier) and try to carry it on. I guess this is your PSA against taking every single material thing you love with you on a long trip...off to training now, at last.

Ah, I meant to say that the only thing BA was good for was the in-flight entertainment. I watched Juno (finally, Jen!) and Enchanted (too cute), and listened to Mark Ronson's Version. His re-creation of Britney Spears' "Toxic" gave me my next burlesque act idea. Of course, the thing sounds ilke it was made for the Pussycat Dolls...I'll have to try hard to infuse just a smidge of true glamour into the naasty proceedings.

Krtek, the little mole

2008-03-24T10:38:00.000-07:00

The shop windows contain: marionettes, Swarovski crystals of all kinds (from miniature animals to ornate chandeliers), Russian fur hats, garnet jewelry, nesting dolls, and little plush moles. The mole is Krtek, created as a children's cartoon in 1956. Just about the most disgustingly cute thing I've ever seen...although I say that all the time. Here's one of the cartoons, "Krtek a zelena hvezda," or "Krtek and the green star." It's what he finds when he does spring cleaning! Pshaw...I only found some lost CDs and dust bunnies.

Pomlázka

2008-03-24T02:00:00.000-07:00

Easter Monday is called Pomlázka in the Czech Rep., and there's an interesting pagan ritual that's survived to mark it...says pragueexperience.com:

"On Easter Monday people get up early. The boys and men set off on a whipping trip through the village. Boys stop at people’s homes and whip the legs of every girl and woman who live in the house. Small boys are required to recite an Easter carol as they go about their whipping.

As if the whipping is not enough, a popular custom is also to grab the girl and throw her in a bath of cold water, known as an "Easter dousing". The whipping and dousing is performed to chase away illness and bad spirits. They may not appreciate it at the time, but it is actually good for the girl!

Once all the whipping and dousing is over, the girl, strangely enough, rewards the boy with one of her painted eggs. She then ties a ribbon around his whip and he moves on to the next house.

As the boys progress through the village, their bags fill with eggs and the whips become more and more colourful, with many bright ribbons. For older boys, the gifts of eggs and ribbons have latterly given way to the man being offered shots of alcohol. By the time the men arrive home, they can be fairly happy!"

Of course, it's not like this in the city. It's manifested for me as getting smacked on the ass downtown last night by a devious teenager, and once this morning on the Charles Bridge by a smiling older man. Steffen says the smacking is to keep the women fertile and beautiful, which is why they'd traditionally reward the men for doing it. I've seen people get smacked for less. I think it's charming.

Time for me to start my job training! I'm at the office now, with nice window and scary elevator. "It's padded so if you get stuck, nobody can hear you scream." Ha, ha.

One more thing, that I wrote in my journal last night after a fruitless late-night search for food:

Local man noticed my sniffling in the Mustek metro station and gave me a scratchy tissue. This is noteworthy because: 1. The man was handsome, and this allays my fears of only encountering males of the "rowdy British stag party" variety. 2. all paper goods in Prague so far are 1-ply and scratchy. And I do mean all. Ouch!

Easter Sunday

2008-03-23T07:34:00.000-07:00

In Prague, and it was snowing when I woke up! Ano ("yes"), I made it! It's absolutely gorgeous here. I was so out of it yesterday on arrival...British Airways lost my bags (have found one, but still not delivered it), so I spent all day worrying about my stuff and being cold. I have one pair of shoes, thank god they're flats, because these cobblestone streets are no joke. And I just bought some underwear at an H & M situated in a building where Kafka once worked. Something feels slightly wrong about that! Steffen showed me around our neighborhood, Hradcany, plus Mala Strana ("little quarter," around the foot of the castle), Stare Mesto (old town) and Nove Mesto (new town), yesterday. I was in a daze as we walked past so many charming and ancient structures. We had thai-style food in a cozy, cave-like restaurant. He says cozy- "komorny"- is a big concept here. Again when I wanted some coffee to drink while walking across the most (bridge), we ended up seated in another cave for espresso. "Take-away" coffee isnt' a big concept here, but apparently take-away hot wine is, I see it everywhere and can't wait to get some. But, my latte came with a small glass of water and a dark chocolate, which I broke into little pieces and dropped inside. I can see that I'll have to get used to some things, like slow service and not having every convenience as I'm used to. I remember hearing someone say recently, in regards to the election, that people want change, but not too much. They actually value comfort and predictability/dependability more. I've been thinking about that and hoping I'll be open-minded in this travel adventure and future ones. And of course, I'm just talking about a dumb little thing like coffee. Well, and my weird hot dog on two pieces of wheat bread that I had for lunch. BUT I ate it while sitting outside the National Museum in Wenceslas Square!

I just changed some money and am trying to figure out if it's any better than the Euro. I think a little, but not by much. I'm going to do a breakdown of what I get with this initial $100/1449kc. There are tourists everywhere...yesterday I stood at St. Vitus Cathedral and looked up at the gargoyles, that resemble howling man-dogs. Steffen said when it rains, the water comes pouring out of their mouths. There are a lot of creepy/beautiful things I hope to document for you with pictures, when I get my hands on a camera. Am really regretting not getting a cheap one on Craigslist before I left the US. I feel very disconnected right now as my phone is seasonally shut-off, and no Internet. Although, my flatmate said we'll be getting wireless this week, if not tonight.

I should get out of this Internet cafe. I was here earlier but had forgotten my passport, so I had an adventure getting home and back, and now I know the route. Woo hoo! On the way back, I listened to Booka Shade on my headphones while taking the metro and tram, and will do the same now, one ear open for my stops, "Malostranska" and "Pohorelec." I can't wait to spend the weekends taking the metro to all the stops, and wandering the streets of Mala Strana. And finding the 20-somethings in Zizkov, and drinking pivo in the pubs and coffee in the grand cafes. Oh! I missed one of my favorite drum & bass producers, High Contrast, by one day! If I can afford it, I'll go to an Easter concert in one of the cathedrals tonight.

Na shled! xoxo

na shledanou, nyc

2008-03-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

That's "Goodbye/See you" in Czech.

Ahh, my stay in NYC (Brooklyn, I should say, because I didn't actually go into the city once) was perfectly relaxing. I feel somewhat caught up with the clock. I didn't see Starshine Burlesque last night, unfortunately, but it was cold and blustery out. We just had some drinks at a local bar, played Scrabble, and got Chinese takeout at home. Takeout!! My housemates and I have been fantasizing about that... this afternoon, Andy took me to the other Bonita for more Mexican corn and some delicious eggs & poblanos. I've decided I really, really like Brooklyn...the preponderance of hip parents is something else, though...hehe

Ok I'm boarding soon, so see you on the other side of the ocean...gulp!

hello, prague blog!

2008-03-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends and family! This is the first time I've made a super-public blog with the intention of keeping interested parties up to date...so I'll try to keep it free from the in-jokes, obscure song lyrics, and celebrity nattering that my most recent blog fell victim to. I've also been inspired by my former housemate Aimee's around-the-world blog, as being able to spy on her adventures in Bangkok and Phnom Penh has been great.

This blog is to share with you my time in Prague and show you pictures like the one above. That's Hradčany (pronounced hrad-cha-nee), the castle district, and my neighborhood for the next three months! Wow!! Because I'll be living in the shadow of this ancient beast, I'm using this particular picture of myself, taken by my talented friend Dave, as my profile image for now. hehe. Dave has previously made andy appear on a Mcdonald's billboard in Seattle, and Brian in some chi-chi glasses in Flaunt magazine, for the millions to see. i want to thank Dave and Michelle again for helping me get some pictures ready for my burlesque portfolio before I left town. In the blog's title, "Peachie" refers to one of my burlesque alter-ego's. "Nora" is the one in this picture, but Peachie sounds better with "Prague." I'll make a myspace for these girls in the coming weeks, and probably dump my more frivolous posts there.

At the moment, I'm chilling in Fort Greene, NYC, with my old Jacksonville friend Timmy. He just finished a record under the name Power Douglas, check it out. I can hear him telling somebody, "It's kind of out there, it's hard to describe," although it's not "japanese classical music/western swing" as myspace reads. postscript: I just read the Urb review that'll be out in a few days...pretty spot-on. I'm so proud of Timmy.

I flew from Seattle yesterday at the ungodly hour of 7 a.m. to a dark and drizzly NYC. n.b.: Delta seats are wider than United, and not having a connection for once was great. Jess, they showed August Rush, and thank god I slept through the whole thing, listening to Pop Ambient 2008 on my headphones (thanks Cha Cha!!). I was dead tired upon arrival, because I'd stayed up all night packing and getting the room ready for the guy who's subletting it. My ladies Jessica, Kate, and Rebekah came over with some Ezell's fried chicken and champagne earlier in the evening, to help me get ready. I'll miss you!!

Back to the present, I was nodding off in the cab while coming in to Brooklyn. Timmy had just gotten back from that bbq beerfest, SXSW, so we just walked around in the rain, ate some mexican corn, and watched a couple hours of planet earth. I slept for about 12 hours and now I'm finishing some dining guide assignments for the Weekly, and listening to someone do an improv rap in the other room that sounds really awesome. Pratt is right around the corner...Andy's hood is too, and I'll see him tomorrow. Creative NYC...maybe I should spend more time here in the future. hmm...are there any cheap burlesque shows tonight?? "Brookyln Ed's NYC burlesque calendar"(ask and you shall receive!) says YES.