Czechmatediary

Hi everyone, I was browsing the net the other day to find anything interesting that would relate to the Czechmate Diary and I found this guy! Bouncing Czech! Karel was born in 1951 in Holesovice (Prague 10, I believe) - that’s when Czech was communist Czechoslovakia - and managed to escape in 1969 when he was only 18. He traveled all over the world and ended up in California. Karel’s website is full of enchanting stories from his life from which I picked one for today’s post. It’s called the “Odors of Communism” and after you are done with reading the story you will be able to smell those odors yourself….(click here to read the story).

CZ: Ahoj! Tak jsem vam nedavno serfovala internet a nasla jsem velmi zajimave stranky! Jmenuji se Bouncing Czech a jsou plne pribehu jednoho pana - Karla. Karel se narodil v roce 1951 v Praze-Holesovicich, kde take vyrost. v roce 1969 se mu podarilo uprchnout a od te doby cestoval po celem svete s konecnym cilem v Kalifornii. Stranky BouncingCzech.com jsou plne zajimavych pribehu z jeho zivota, a ja jsem pro dnesni “hodinu cteni” vybrala Karlovu prihodu s nazvem “Zapachy komunismu” (kliknete zde):

Chotebor, a little quaint town in the Czech Republic, recently held the 4th Annual Championship in Dog Dancing. Not sure what “dog dancing” is? Don’t feel bad, I had to look it up myself. It is so far the youngest dog sport, “which mixes obedience, tricks and dance that allows for creative interaction between dogs and their owners”. One of the Dog Dancing Championship participants compares it to ice-skating: “The most important is the elegance and the synchronization of the moves”. Although the Czech Republic has currently only a handful of these dog-dancing enthusiasts, when compared to other countries, many of them have actually become very successful abroad. This year’s winners have become the Australian Sheppard named - now get ready for this - “All That Brandy Gentle Mate” (poor dog) and a chihuahua Anuska Vejvodova Dechristi; both dogs are owned by the same owner (OK, now everything makes sense!), miss Vanda Gregorova from Prague. (more…)

Czech beer has had a long history. A first brewery  is known to have existed in as early as 1118. It’s hard to believe but Wikipedia claims that the beer wasn’t really nothing special until 1842, when Josef Groll, a German brewer, was employed by a brewery in Pilsen. He invented the so-called cold fermentation larger method along with the miraculous golden Pilsner beer, which was the first light coloured beer ever brewed! From then on the Czechs - ironically, thanks to a German dude - were the kings of beer. The British newspaper The Times has recently published a list of the 10 best Czech beers/breweries and here is the verdict: (more…)

Did you know that since the year 2000 only 277 kids have been adopted by foreign parents? Why so little of them? Compared to the parents of other nationalities, the Czech biological parents tend to be very picky as to who gets their child. They require almost a warranty, which guarantees them that their child will be always healthy, extremely talented, get good marks at school and go to the university. (more…)

My blogging buddy Gary is an Englishman living not in New York but in Brno. He just recently created a blog (brnoexpats.com) for any foreign soul that is visiting or living in Brno. He also writes some great (witty + smart) articles so the blog is for anyone,really. One of Gary’s articles that recently caught my eye is about him struggling with the Czech language. See for yourself (click here):

CZ: Gary je jeden z mych blogarskych kamaradu, a nedavno vytvoril novy blog zvany brnoexpats.com, ktery je urceny pro cizince navstevujici  nebo i  zijici v Brne. Jelikoz ma ale talent na psani, blog je vlastne pro kazdeho. Jednu z jeho nedavnych historek si muzete precist zde (kliknete zde) - popisuje Greryho zapas s ceskym jazykem.

http://www.brnoexpats.com/drupal/node/9#comment-4

According to the polls, about two thirds of Czechs are opposed to the planned U.S. radar base on the Czech soil. Many people are scared of it thinking that some  of the not-so-friendly countries may “punish” them for it and their friendly connection to the USA. But what does the ex-president of the Czech Republic think about it? Undoubtedly, Havel is one of the greatest personalities of all times so maybe we should think twice about these quotes of his:

CZ: Kolem 2/3 Cechu stale nesouhlasi s proti-raketovou zakladnou, ktera se ma v budoucnosti vybudovat v Brdech. Mnoho Cechu se boji, ze za zakladnu - a take za jejich pratelstvi s US -  budou od mene pratelskych statu “potrestani”. Co si o tomto tematu mysli Vaclav Havel, jeden z nevestich myslitelu vsech dob? (more…)

Today is a big day! I am bringing you an interview with what I call the “Perfect CzechoSlovak Group” because they are just great. They come from New York/New Jersey and the organizer Michaela is always  on top of things (for what she was recently awarded bunch of flowers) - organizing Czech/Slovak Movie nights, going to restaurants, cooking Czech/Slovak food at someone’s house….you name it! They created a true “extended family”, as they like to call it and they are just loving it! I made an interview with them and it is just a joy to read something like that:

CZ: Dnes je velmi vyznamny den! Proc? Protoze vam prinasim rozhovor s mou tzv. “vzorovou Cesko/Slovenskou skupinkou” z New Yorku. Jejich organizator Michaela nikdy neleni (take za to nedavno dostala od svych “zacku” krasnou kytici) a kazdy mesic neco krajanskeho se skupinou naplanuje: bud se divaji na ceske filmy, nebo se sejdou v restauraci na pokec, nebo vari ceska/slovenska jidla…Nejdulezitejsi je ale to, ze dosahli to nejdulezitejsi - citi se totiz jako ze ted nekam patri, a ze tady za tou velkou louzi nasli novou rodinu. Rozhovor s touto skupinou me zahral u srdicka: (more…)

So about 400 hours later I think I am finally done with the Czech calendar for October. We have got so much stuff going on! Not only that the fabulous Czech singer and song-writer Jaromir Nohavica is touring but also the world-known Plastic people of the Universe are going to be performing all over the US! And that’s not all! We have 7 different Czech and Slovak festivals coming up!

1. San Antonio, TX
What – Czech Heritage Day Festival
When – Oct. 26th
Where – KC Hall
http://www.czechs.org/index.php

2. PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE TOUR

Where:
Denver, CO – Oct. 3rd
San Diego, CA – Oct. 7th
Los Angeles, CA – Oct. 8th
San Frencisco, CA – Oct. 9th
http://www.kandl.cz/plasticpeople/default.aspx (more…)

The Oscars are starting in about 4 months (22nd of January, 2009), so what Czech movie will be nominated this time? The Czech Film and Television Academy (CFTA) picked a movie directed by Petr Zelenka called “The Karamazovs“. It will be competing with other rivals such as the Slovakian movie “Blind loves”, French movie “In between walls”, the Italian ” Gomorra” and others. Ever since 1995 the CFTA recommended 13 movies to the Oscar Academy, from which “Zelary” and “Devided we fall” were partially successful, however only “Kolja” received the real-deal Oscar. (more…)

Although the town of Trebon has only about 8,000 inhabitants it  has been quietly sitting on the map of Europe since the 12th century. Once the famous royal family of Rosenbergs bought the town in 1366 it started to experience its “Golden Age”, mostly thanks to its - now very famous - fish pond farming. Because of the town being geographically located in between vast marshes as well as Trebon’s own fortifications and deep moats, it bravely managed to fight off the Hussite army many, many times. The fish pond building started around the 16th century with its most famous personality being Jakub Krcin from Jelcany. Jakub built 2 major masterpieces: a pond called “Svet” (the World) for which he was criticized quite a bit at first because, from the structural point of view, it disturbed Trebon’s abilitity to defend itself; that’s why Jakub first named the pond the “Ingratitude” (later he probably realized he was overly dramatic and changed it to “Svet”). (more…)