Czechmatediary

So I thought I would brag a little and let you guys know that the krajane.net website made an interview with me, featuring this website (Click here). They call me the “first Czech-American blogger” - makes me feel kind of important

Unfortunately it is in Czech so here is the translation in a nutshell:

1/ Where do you come from? How did you get to the US?

– ( all found in the CMD “about” page )

2/What do you like about America? What do you dislike? (more…)

Hello everyone / Ahoj vsichni,

So July schedule of Czech and Slovak events doesn’t look so hot (unless you like polka!! We have got couple of polka dances going on). I guess everyone is still vacationing somewhere….Also, the National Czech and Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids - my important source of info - got flooded last month so they will be out of the business for a while as far as Czech events go :(( (more…)

One of the best goalies in the history of NHL ,Dominik Hasek, announced on Monday that we was retiring from hockey. He began to play for NHL (Chicago Blackhawks) in 1990 and over his 18-year long career Dominik managed to win the Stanley Cup (twice!), the NHL’s Hart Trophy (twice!), the Vezina prize for the best goalie (6 times!!) and other trophies. Of course, we cannot forget the fact that he led the Czech Republic to Olympic Gold at Nagano in 1998. I remember that year like it was yesterday. The streets of Prague were filled with thousands of drunk and ecstatic Czechs like never before - one would have thought that we had won the World War or something! (more…)

The Czech movie called “Kraska v nesnazich” (”Beauty in trouble”) is definitely NOT in trouble. Starting June 13th it will be shown in a number of movie theaters all over US, starting in New York (Angelika in Greenwich Village) and the Landmark Theatre in Washington. Depending on the success (or no success) the story will receive there it will travel to other places in the United States. The reason why is this movie already so close to the American viewers’ hearts is because of two reasons: 1/ the movie did great at the 2 prominent US Film Festivals - one in Denver (CO) and the other one in Santa Barbara (CA) and 2/ the American public is already in love with Ana Gaislerova from the former role in yet another great Czech movie Zelary. (more…)

Hi/Nazdar!

New calendar of Czech activities is out! Lots and lots of Czech festivals are out there and you know what that means: lots and lots of great Czech food!! So enjoy…

Calendar of Czech events for June 08

CZ: Tak se zda, ze je Amerika (zejmena US) dosti vylidnena, co se tyce Cechu. Od jedne “blogarske” kolegine jsem se dozvedela ze je pry “okurkove obdobi” - tedy ze vetsina Cechu odjizdi domu do Cech. I presto jsem ale nasla dosti aktivit, a to zejmena ceskych festivalu!! Vite co to znamena? Hodne dobrych ceskych dobrutek!!! Tak si to uzijte

Ceske akce pro cerven 2008

I was flipping the channels last night and guess who appeared on the screen: Vaclav Klaus! The C-span channel had him as a speaker to promote his new book called the “Blue Planet in Green Shackles” (see the whole speech by clicking here). Besides focusing on the environmental issues during his current visit to the US he is also going to meet with the vice-president Dick Chaney with whom he will be discussing the hot topic of Anti-missile radar base. Klaus is flying back home on Thursday afternoon. (more…)

Czech radio broadcasting has been going on in Chicago for about 50 years now. Vladimir “Jerry” Jirak has been in charge of it for the last 18 years. Although the passion for Czech culture is definitely there, Jerry is making one big mistake: he refuses to play rock music! “We play something for everyone; mostly folk music, polkas, tango, sometimes even something more modern, but we never play rock music.” (more…)

An ageless pop-star Karel Gott is scheduled to tour Canada for the first time. In May of this year he is going to bless 3 cities with his devine visit: Toronto, Vancouver and Edmont. Since the audience in Canada knows him mostly from the former years of his career Gott is planning to sing the classics but not only in Czech but in Slovak, Russian, German, English and Italian! (more…)

Hello Everyone/Ahoj vsichni,

Calendar for Czech activities for April (click here) is here!

Jakou dubnovou kulturni akci si tentokrat vyberete? Spousta zajimavych vecicek se deje kolem USA, jako je napriklad verejna konference s Milosem Formanem anebo turne kapely Garage & Tony Duchacek .

Dejte mi prosim vedet, jestli znate o dalsich ceskych akcich, ktere na seznamu nemam. Take bych uvitala nejaky ten “input” od lidicek z Anglie a Australie - tedy co se tyce kulturnich akci. Dik!

A world-known fisherman (and also the son of a famous Czech musician and producer, Karel Vagner) Jakub Vagner recently completed another record: while on his trip to Amazonia, Jakub caught a 190 kilograms (419 lb) catfish which is to be the biggest sweet-water fish ever caught. Not only did the fish “flew by” for over 400 meters before Jakub managed to even slow this thing down but the the size of this fish also destroyed all of his fishing gear as well as his hands…but it was well worth it. (more…)