Korunni

I want it.

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

Swans

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

"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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!