April 2010

Czech and Slovak events abroad: May 2010 / Ceske a slovenske akce v cizine: kveten 2010

7923_164059361354_516916354_4099770_8210122_n Calendar for May is done! Don’t miss out on Houby Days Festival in Cedar Rapids or Nebraska Czechs festival in Lincoln. Also, if you haven’t seen a Czech movie called “A little piece of heaven” rent a little plane on May 12th and fly to Washington DC – a piece of cake.

CZ: Je tu kalendar na kveten a s nim veleznamy Houby Festival, nebo Nebraska Czechs of Lincoln festival. Jestli jste jeste nevideli film zvany “Kousek nebe”, 12. kvetna nasednete do privatniho jetu, smer ceska ambasada ve Washingtonu.

1. Cedar Rapids, IA

What: Houby Days festival

When: May 15

2. New York, NY (Czech Center)

What: “Kriess” concert (performs European music of 13th to 15th century)

When: May 6

3. Astoria, NY (Bohemian Hall)

What: 1910 Costume Ball (100th anniversary of Bohemian Hall)

When: May 1

4. Lincoln, NE

What: Nebraska Czechs of Lincoln Festival

When: May 2 [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: art, festivals, movies

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Slavonice is reaching for the stars! / Slavonice oslnuji talentem!

Slavonice google imageSlavonice is a quaint little town of 2,500 inhabitants, just a few miles away from the Austrian border. Normally quite the quiet place, the town is now buzzing with excitement since the Slavonice choir was chosen to compete at the international music festival in Canada.

More of this exciting news (and how you can help) can be found here (click here).

CZ: Slavonice je malinke mestecko lezici na hranicich Moravy a Rakouska, ktere obyva kolem 2500 obyvatel. Normalne tu panuje pokoj a klid, ale v posledni dobe tu panuje naprosta vzrusuici atmosfera. Slavovnicky detsky sbor byl totiz vybran, ze bude reprezentovat Ceskou Republiku na Mezinarodnim hudebnim festivalu v Kanade.

Vice si o teto vzrusujici zprave prectete v blogu Zuzany Kulhankove (kliknete zde).

Also, here is a neat YouTube video which introduces the kids choir as well as the town of Slavonice:
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Tagged as: celebrity, Czechs in Canada, music, travel, YouTube

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Communists tore down the most beautiful station in Central Europe / Komuniste zbourali nejkrasnejsi nadrazi ve stredni Evrope

Tesnovske station /lidovky.cz imageIt has been 25 years since the most beautiful railway station in Central Europe was shamelessly destroyed by the Czech communist government. The Tesnovske station (formerly called Denisova station) was replaced by a horrendous highway which now runs right through Wenceslas Square – the heart of the historical center of Prague (see image below). How could the communists be so insensitive? Well, the railway station was not as productive as the very functional planned freeway – that is why. It fits perfectly with the communist ideology. “The communists considered historical buildings to be a backsliding architectural style. Such structures were symbols of bourgeoisie and the communists hated them,” explains Zdenek Lukes, the architectural historian. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: communism, history, Prague

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Fun times with the Czech meteorologists / cesti meteorologovove maji smysl pro humor

Bismarcova rozhledna google image The Czech city of Frantiskovy Lazne has the wittiest meteorologists. Read this board which is hanging off of the Bismark observation tower.

-translation follows

CZ: Jak se zda, tak Frantiskovy Lazne maji velmi vtipne meteorology. Prectete si nasledujici nastenku, ktera je povesena hned vedle jakehosi vseznameho lana.
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Tagged as: humor, travel

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REVISED list: Where to find Czech and Slovak groceries in the US stores / Kde najit Ceske a Slovenske potraviny v Americkych obchodech

rohliky google image

Many of us , Czechs and Slovaks living in the US, have been on a desperate hunt for Czech/Slovak groceries. Some were more successful than others so  I got the idea to ask around and here is what my friends (thanks you guys!!) and I put together.

PS: I read through your great comments and added most of the new goodies in (highlighted in red).

CZ: Vetsina z nas, Cechu a Slovaku zijicich v USA, ma ten samy problem. Jsme totiz na nekonecnem honu po ceskych. (nebo alespon podobne chutnajicich) potravinach Nekteri jedinci byli uspesnejsi nez zoufajici vetsina a tak jsem dostala napad optat se v okoli. Toto je list, ktery jsme vytvorily s mymi kamaradkami (diky holky!!).

PS: Procetla jsem vase vzacne komenty a vetsinu novych vecicek jsem k listu pridala – jsou zvyraznene cervene

1. Trader Joe’s

  • Trader Joe’s Yogurt cups  (vanila & Cream yogurt) – tastes just like “Pribinacek“
  • Trader Joe’s rolls – Czech “rohliky“ (warm them up in the toaster oven)
  • Czech beers -  Broucek, Starobrno, Krusovice, Staropramen
  • “Slivovitz” (green bottle) – tastes the same as the Czech Slivovice
  • Meringues (Trader Joe’s brand) – Czech “pusinky”
  • TJ Potato chips – taste like the ones from the Czech Fair (chutnaji jako ty z poute: premastene a preslanene..vyborne!!)
  • Mineral water – taste just like the one in Czech
  • Melta (barley coffee-like beverage) – Pero brand is made in Switzerland, it’s very good [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: food, practical

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Martina Navratilova has breast cancer /Martina Navratilova ma rakovinu prsu

Martina Navratilova www.people.com imageA 53-year-old Czech-born tennis celebrity Martina Navratilova was diagnosed with breast cancer. Since the disease was diagnosed early the prognosis to a completer recovery is excellent. “I cried when I found out about this. It knocked me on my ass, really. I feel so in control of my life and my body, and then this comes, and it’s completely out of my hands.”

The nine-time Wimbledon champion was fortunately diagnosed with a non-invasive form of cancer, called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), which was confined to the milk ducts. Navratilova had a lumpectomy and will start 6 weeks of radiation therapy in May. “It was the best-case scenario you could imagine for detecting breast cancer,” says Dr Mindy Nagle, Martina’s ob gyn as well as her best friend. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: celebrities, health, sports

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A must-see documentary / Povinny dokumentarni film

kindertransport_film google imageMaybe you guys have already seen this World War II documentary but if you haven’t you definitely should. Tonight! “Into the Arms of Strangers” tells a story of a kindertransport, a train transport heading for England that saved the lives of over 10,000 Jewish children, from which many of them were Czech. In fact, one of the interviewed people was Eva Hayman from Celakovice, who was about 10 years old when she boarded that train never to see her parents again.

WARNING: This movie is a tear jerker.

CZ: Jestli jste jeste nevideli dokument zvany “Into the Arms of Strangers”, hned si ho dneska objednejte na Netflix, abyste na nej nezapomneli! Shlednuti tohoto filmu je naprosta nutnost. Vypravi se v nem o tzv. ‘kindertransportu’, zeleznicnim prevozu 10,000 zidovskych deti ze zemi jako je Nemecko, Rakousko, Polsko a Cechy, do bezpecne Anglie.

Jedna z  dotazovanych osob je pani Eva Hayman z Celakovic, ktere bylo kolem 10-ti let, kdyz do jednoho z techto vlaku nastoupila, aniz by se v budoucnosti opet shledala se svymi rodici.

VAROVANI: Film vas asi rozbreci

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Tagged as: history, movies

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Lada’s picture comes alive / Ladova Rvacka nakratko ozivla

lada-rvacka /google imageJosef Lada is a phenomenal, self-taught  Czech writer and an illustrator. Born into a poor cobbler’s family, Lada’s love for drawing made him a self-taught prodigy of a unique style of drawing. In fact, his style is so ‘Lada’ that it is almost impossible to make a mistake when identifying his drawings.

One of his more famous drawings is called “Hospodska Rvacka” (‘Bar Fight’) from 1943, in which he depicts about 50 individuals fighting in a local pub. Why are they fighting? Maybe the innkeeper told them there was no beer left to serve? Who knows… [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: art, weird stuff, YouTube

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Prague teddy bear tourism on the rise / Medvidci si v Praze pekne uzivaji

toy tourism /www.dw-world.de imageYou are not going to believe this. A certain Prague traveling agency is launching world’s first holidays for stuffed animal toys! For only 90 euros (and up) you can send your favorite teddy bear for a week trip to Prague. You know how boring it is for him to sit in the same bed for years? The poor thing wants to live a little too!

So once you send your dear one off to Prague you get a daily e-mail updates from him with pictures attached: teddy at the Prague Castle, teddy sitting by the Jan Hus statue at the Old Town Square, teddy having a typical Czech dinner…..

The creator of this ‘teddy bear tourism’ is a half-Czech, Prague-based enterpreneur, Tomio Okamura. “There are 1.2 billion teddy bears around the world, which is of course a very big group of potential clients,” says Tomio. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Prague, tourism, weird stuff

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Obama signs new arms control treaty in Prague / Obama podepsal novou odzbrojovaci smlouvu s Ruskem

Obama and Medvedev in Prague/ lidovky.cz imageToday was a big day for the Czech Republic. Prague was chosen to be the place where the US president Barack Obama and  the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev signed the so-called New START treaty. The treaty is supposed to reduce the 2 countries’ nuclear weapons by about 30% more than the previous deal.

The signing of the treaty was held in the historic Spanish Hall at the Prague Castle, only one year after Obama had his important speech on nuclear disarmament in Prague.

While the relationship between the US and former Russia seems to be improving some critics say the treaty itself is kind of impractical since the biggest nuclear threats are currently Iran and Northern Korea (not Russia).
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Tagged as: politics, Prague

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