FAMOUS Czechs & Slovaks abroad

Milos Forman on his Farm / www.travel.nytimes.com imageDo you ever wonder where does Milos Forman live nowadays? He cleverly covered both extremes – a rural farm in Connecticut and an spacey apartment in Manhattan. You can read more about his adventurous living conditions right here (click here).

CZ: Premyslite nekdy o tom, kde vlastne Milos Forman dnes zije? Zajistil si chytre oba extremni typy ubytovani – farmu v Connecticutu a prostorny apartman v New Yorkskem Manhattanu. Vice si o Formanovych zivotnich podminkach muzete precist zde (klepnete zde).

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One of you guys discovered this great video presentation on the transformation of Czechoslovakia since the end of the Cold War and its impact on international business. The presentation is done by a professor (Peter Petrik) who was born and raised in Czechoslovakia (today Slovakia) and who not only knows his history very well but can also give you some personal insight on it.

CZ: Jeden z vas, ctenaru, objevil vyborne video zabyvajici se transformaci byvaleho Ceskoslovenska od konce studene valky a jaky tato transformace mela efekt na mezinarodni obchod.

From Behind the Iron Curtain to Membership in the European Union from Slovak on Vimeo.

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sedackaThe Czechs have recently invented something incredible. What we are talking about here is a blow-up car seat which costs way less than the regular one. And if your children grow out of it you just blow it out, fold it into a little package and put it into the glove department until you have another kid. Do you know how much easier would it be to fly with this thing??? Complete heaven!!!

Not only that it passed the crash test but it’s also supposed to be super comfortable. The only drawback is that the BEDI car seat was created for kids 3 years of age and up (15kg and up).

This wonder seat costs less than 1,400 crowns (about $70) which is about 3 times less than a regular Czech car seat. You can order it via the internet and when shipped within the Czech Republic the shipping is free. [click to continue…]

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www.loc.gov.com image (FOR PART I CLICK HERE)

Do you know, what the first official Slovak organization in the US was? It was  Jednota (or The First Catholic Slovak Union of America), founded in Cleveland as early as 1890. Early after that The National Slovak Society (Narodni slovensky spolok) was founded in Pittsburgh. This time the organization was nondenominational and it still exists today. Its founder, Peter Rovnianek, had such a patriotic spirit that he also established a new Slovak community in Arkansas (about 300 people) and gave it a clever name – the Slovaktown (it looks like the town doesn’t exist anymore, however, since I tried to google it and I got only the ‘historical’ map of the place). [click to continue…]

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Michael Borek photography MICHAEL BOREK is like many of us. He is Czech to the bone and lives in the US. But he is also a photographer and a great one. I asked him if he would do an interview with me and he kindly agreed to it. I suggest you go on his web site and read this interview to get a better appreciation of his wonderful work :0)

CZ: MICHAL BOREK je jeden z nas: je totiz Cech do morku kosti a zije v USA. Je ovsem take fotograf a to nejen ledajaky fotograf – je velmi nadany! Zeptala jsem se ho, jestli by se mnou neudelal rozhovor a on s tim souhlasil. Doporucuji, abyste se mrkli na jeho stranky a precetli si nize uvedeny rozvhovor – budete tak moci ocenit jeho dilo do vetsi hloubky :0)

1/ Where you into photography even during your childhood? Were your parents supportive?

Yes, I did like to take pictures as a child, but I was not very systematic. When I wanted to actually develop these photos, the things got quite complicated: I had to take out the door out of our closet, put them on top of the bathtub, then put a bunch of bowls on top, each filled with a different chemical such as the developing bath, the interrupter and the fixer; I also had to put the red light bulb in  as well as the magnifier above the washer and that was all done in a a classic communist panelak bathroom, meaning that the space was VERY limited. [click to continue…]

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flickr mouth imageI have been living in the US for about 10 years now and I know that I have got (unfortunately?) an accent in BOTH languages. For those of you who are in the same boat as me, do you ever wonder how much of an accent do you have? Can you hear yourself that well so that you can tell? On a scale 1 to 10 ( 1 = the least amount of accent), are you like a ’2′ when it comes to Czech and like a ’5′ when it comes to English?
In case you would like to compare your Czech accents, I have attached a YouTube video of Petra Nemcova, a world-known Czech top model. Petra has left her home in Karvina (CR) also about 10 years ago and both of her accents are quite noticeable. However, one must also count it the fact that she may be quite nervous during her interviews, hence her accent gets stronger. [click to continue…]

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forejt_petr /radio praha imageHave you seen the movie Wanted yet? Well, you should! Never mind if it has some big stars like Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman or Hugh Jackman -  the most important thing is that it came to life practically because of this one talented Czech guy! Petr Forejt not only did all of the sound mixing for the movie but he was also nominated for the ‘Best Sound Mixing’ at this year’s Academy Awards!!! Although the movie did not get the Oscar at the end, the nomination is just an enormous success for Petr. He also did not expect it at all: “I got a phone call from a Czech journalist and I asked him why they were calling me and they said ‘you were nominated, what can you tell us’?“, says Petr.  Radio Praha made an interview with him and here are the most exciting highlights:

CZ: Uz jste videli film s Angelinou Jolie a Morganem Freemanem pod nazvem Wanted? No tak sup, sup na to! Jestli pry je to dobry film? No, to nevim, ale jiste je jedno: tento film prakticky ozil diky jednomu nadanemu Cechovi. Nenjenze mel Petr Forejt na starost vsechny zvukove efekty, ale take byl na letosnich Oskarech nominovany za ‘Best Sound Mixing’! I kdyz film nakonec Oskara neziskal, je to pro Petra obrovsky uspech, tak mu srdecne gratulujeme. Taky to pry vubec necekal: “Z niceho nic mi zavolal nejaky cesky zurnalista a ze pry jsem nominovany na Oskara a jake pry jsou me prvni pocity..”, rika Petr. Radio Praha s nim nedavno udelalo rozhovor a ja jsem z neho par zajimavych otazek vybrala:
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If there was an apple for every season how do you think the Christmas apple would look like? How about having an imprint of a real Bethlehem comet on its skin? Because that is what Josef Thor’s apples look like. Josef is a well-known apple grower who won the title of the “Apple of the Year” many times in his apple-growing career. How does he achieve such Christmas magic? The “magic” is actually a very simple science: just before the apple becomes ripe, Josef puts the comet sticker on its skin and then he waits. As the apple ripens, the star’s surrounding area becomes red while the area under the sticker stays yellow. [click to continue…]

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The celebrity Czech writer Milan Kundera was recently accused of collaborating with the communist police and snitching on a Western agent. Why do they accuse him 58 years later? The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes accidentally discovered a seemingly irrefutable document (see the picture bellow) which claims that Kundera went to a police station and turned Mr. Miroslav Dvoracek (a secret agent) in, knowing that Dvoracek would probably face death sentence for a treason. [click to continue…]

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If you saw Pavel Ivancic walking in the streets of Prague you would see a normal, nice looking guy. But a little would you know, that he is carefully evaluating your current outfit and probably thinking that you had no style at all. Who is this clean-cut looking guy? Pavel has been actually voted the Czech fashion designer of 2007. He studied in London, worked in Paris, met the most prestigious designers in the world and now he has its own fashion brand called “Muset”. Radio Prague did an interview with him and  I was surprised to find out that Pavel things there is no fashion business in the Czech Republic. Supposedly there is not a single store that would sell Czech designer stuff! [click to continue…]

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