Blondes, Brunettes and Redheads

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.