It is a Czech tradition to watch specific fairy tales on TV during Christmas and the New Year holidays. When I was a little girl, our country was rulled by communists so we were ‘prescribed’ to watch the Russian fairytale “Mrazik” (see the YouTube video bellow). It was pretty much on all the time and all of the kids knew the movie monologues by heart. Do you keep this tradition even though you live abroad now?
CZ: Tak co, divate se o Vanocnich prazdninach na ceske pohadky nebo jste tuto tradici v zahranici uz vzdali? Doufam, ze ne! Volte a pak si pripomente pohadku Mrazika v nasledujicim YouTube videu:
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Summer is here and if you are not going back to Czech or Slovakia and are practicing so-called ‘stay-cation’, you need to get the Czech vibes from somewhere else in the country. Most of us are migrating back to our motherland this month so that is why the list is kind of short but not too short for you to find something!
I have just recently discovered the two Wild and Crazy Guys skit from Saturday Night Live. I was pleasantly surprised and also proud in a sense that a tiny bit of Czech culture got into such a famous American show! Are you telling me that Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd actually impersonated 2 Czech guys?? That’s pretty cool!
While the world-known American Academy Awards are by far over with, the Czech-style ‘Oscars’ have found their new owners just couple of days ago. The Cesky Lev 2008 movie awards are not as flashy and crowded as the American ones but that does not mean that they don’t award good movies. The best movie for 2008 became The Karamazovs, a film adapted from a well-known roman by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Movie was directed by a talented director Petr Zelenka, who was also involved with other successful movies such as Samotari (Loners) and Knoflikari (Buttoners). Zelenka also received the Best Director of the Year award for this movie. 
Have 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. 
I have great news for you! Now you and your kids can watch Czech movies on-line! One of you guys, the awesome readers of Czechmate Diary, contacted me and fed me this tasty morsel (thank you Katka)! It is really simple:
January seems to be a sleepy month – everyone is recovering from last year, I guess. Either way, there is still plenty to do (especially in New York!) and if you have a Czech activity that you would like to include in this list, let me know!
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