Czechmatediary

Today passed away yet another very famous Czech actor, Radovan Lukavsky. At the age of 88 Radovan died of serious heart complications. He was born in 1919 in Prague. His mother has led him to Christianity since Radovan’s early childhood, which led him to desire to become a pastor. His theology studies, however, were abruptly stopped when the Nazi occupation began. Radovan’s theological mind then had to be satisfied by the permitted studies of philosophy and acting instead. As a fresh graduate Radovan’s first acting job was at the Vinohrady Theatre. (more…)

The Milwaukee Art Museum is hosting an art exhibition called the “Modernity in Central Europe, 1918 - 1948“, devoted solely to photography of central Europe between the World Wars. Among the presented artists are also couple of Czech photographers, such as Karel Teige, Jaromir Funke and Josef Saudek. As the National Gallery of Art explains, ” In the aftermath of World War I, the face of central Europe had changed profoundly: empires had collapsed and fledgling nation-states had taken their place. (more…)

The winner of the Czech music awards the “Album of the Year for 2007″ in women’s category as well as the all-time winner became Aneta Langerova with her new album Dotyk. Born in 1986 (youngster!) Aneta showed her multi-talented personality from early childhood. Not only was she good at tennis, acting, and instrument playing (piano and guitar) she was also a great singer. Aneta got discovered via the TV show “Czech is looking for a superstar” where she sang the Alanis Morissette song “Thank You” and won 79% of votes.

1. The top male singer of 2007 became Daniel Landa (don’t care much about him at all) who:

• sold the most records

• was played most frequently on the radio that year

• sold most tracks via the Internet

(more…)

Did you like the movie “I, Robot” or “A.I.” (Artificial intelligence)? These movies are a pure rip-off of one of Karel Capek’s novels called the R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). In this masterpiece Capek introduces the now frequently used international word “robot” - the non-human intelligent being. The word itself was invented by Karel’s dear brother Josef and it is derived from a Czech verb “robotovat” which is an archaic word for “working”. Capek is one of the great - if not the greatest - writers of the inter-war Czechoslovakia. Beside being an author of numerous fabulous books what was he like? Don’t be misled by his meek look. He had quite an adventurous life: he was expelled from high school, later married an actress and becomes a good friend of the president (T.G. Masaryk). (more…)

An actor, writer and a poet George Voskovec, known as the “11th angry man“(from a famous American movie called “12 Angry Men“) definitely belongs to my favorite famous Czech American. He was born to a Czech father and French mother in Sazava in 1905 , went to high school in Prague, where he ended up meeting his best friend as well as the life-long acting partner Jan Werich. Together, while still university students, they joined the acting team at the Liberated Theater in 1927. Thanks to their wonderful acting and singing abilities the place soon became one of the most hip places in Prague. Even the German theater scene loved them until their performances became mostly anti-fascist which also led to closing the theater in 1938 and them immigrating to the USA in early 1939.

After the war both of them returned to Prague to their re-established Liberated theater where they again started happily performing until their humor became “not welcomed” by the communist party. Once again, Woskovec and Verich were under a political pressure. Voskovec did not feel like dealing with it anymore and went back to the United States, while Werich decided to stay in communist Czechoslovakia. (more…)

Part of the Prague Days in Chicago celebration is also an interesting exhibition entitled “Man hanging out“. You may ask:”What the heck does that mean?”? It’s a seven-foot, bronze-colored fiberglass sculpture of a psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, which is hanging from a crane on the top of a 15-story building at the Columbia College in the South Loop. The Chicago Sun-Times also says that the local police has been receiving numerous phone calls from concerned pedestrians thinking that the statue is actually a live body. What does Freud have to do with the Prague Days in Chicago? He was born in Pribor (Freiberg), Moravia, which is now part of the Czech Republic. The unusual sculpture of Freud was made by a 39-year old Czech sculptor David Cerny who is also known for painting a Soviet tank pink in 1991 as a war memorial in downtown Prague. If you would like to see this Freud guy he is planning on hanging out (literally) until August 31st. (more…)

Czech writer Jan Benes commited suicide this weekend. The cause of this action is not known but his unstable behavior was shown in the public about two years ago when after a conflict with a driver he pulled out a stun gun on him, threatening to “shoot his brains out” (http://www.spoleksalamoun.com/view.php?cisloclanku=2005110401).

Benes started his writing career in the early 60’s, but because of its anti-communist context the government forbid to publish his writings. In 1966 Benes was sued for treason and was to serve 5 years in prison for it. He was let go after 2 years and that’s because of the amnesty of president Antonin Novotny. After that he did not waste time and emigrated to the USA, where he started off his “new life” as a factory worker. It didn’t take long however (2 years later) and Benes was teaching at the University of Harvard (what a smart guy!). (more…)

”

(more…)