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Tereza Kerndlova, the 21-year old daughter of a famous Czech jazz musician Ladislav Kerndl, did not make it into the Eurovision 2008 finals. The performing song called “Have some fun” have gotten her far enough mostly for her looks then the actual singing (see the YouTube video bellow). Teresa and her dancer crew even received a nickname from her fellow contestants - the Czech Beuties! Out of the 43 competing European countries only Serbia, France, Great Britain and Spain made to the semi-finals. (more…)

I was listing through the magazines the other day and found a a small article on Paulina (really “Pavlina”) Porizkova, the 80’s hottest model ever, and the fact that she is currently featured on one of the worst shows ever - the America’s Next Top Model. As I was reading the article, I thought to myself:”Hmmm, she would fit into my Famous Czechs/Slovaks category!” and decided to put her in the CMD Hall of Fame.

CZ: Tak jsem si pred nedavnem v cekarne prohlizela magaziny a natrefila jsem na kratoucky clanek o Pavline Porizkove (pracuje ted na dosti trapne reality show America’s Next Top Model). Jelikoz byla v 80tych letech jednou z nejpopularnejsich modelek na svete, rozhodla jsem se ji za tento modelovy “ulet” udelit pardon a zaradit ji na list Znamych Cechu a Slovaku zijicich v zahranici:

Paulina was born in Prostejov (former Czechoslovakia) in 1965. Three years later her parents emigrated to Sweden, leaving 3-year old Pavlina behind. For 4 years it was Pavlina’ grandmother who took care of her until her parents finally managed to bring her over to Sweden. (more…)

A famous Czech puppets, Spejbl and Hurvinek, are celebrating their 82nd birthday this year! Hurvinek and his happy-go-lucky dad Spejbl appeared on stage for the first time in Pilsen in 1920. During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia both puppets were forbidden to perform and got locked away in some secret Nazi safe. After the war was over Spejbl and Hurvinek moved to Prague where they continue to entertain yet another generation of Hurvinek-hungy children. (more…)

Maybe the Czechs (and all of Europe, actually) got it right: smoking is good for you after all! Don’t believe me? Watch this YouTube “medical report”:

Mozna, ze Cesi (a vubec cela zakourena Evropa) maji s tim kourenim pravdu: koureni podporuje zdravi! Neverite mi? Tak podivejte na toto “zdravotnicke” YouTube video: (more…)

The re-elected president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, was interviewed in March by the famous television host Glenn Beck on the issue of Global warming (see the YouTube video bellow). Whatever your conviction about this topic is, you have to admit that Klaus is pretty brave to be one of the “black sheep” and stand out against the mainstream opinion. Believe me, I do want to save the planet, but I agree with him on couple of things:

1/ there are not enough data to conclude that Global warming is caused by human activities (it may be a factor but not the main one) (more…)

The Czech singer and a pianist Marketa Irglova and her 17-year older Irish boyfriend, Glen Hansard, won the Oscar for the “Best movie song 2007″. Charming Marketa even got a chance - although cut off by the orchestra at first - to make a little speech in front of the zillion of celebrities (I bet she was sweating..). She thanked everyone and then proceeded to say that the prize was important not only for the two of them but also for the whole independent artist community. It gives other independent musicians and artists the courage to go after their dreams because “mirracles” can happen. (more…)

The Czech press calls her a modern-style Popelka (Cinderella). The American media love her for her pure, honest and meek personality. Marketa Irglova is a 19-year old country girl from Moravia who was chosen to sing together with her boyfriend Glen at the Oscars 2008 next week. She didn’t have to wait for the Hollywood spotlights for long; last year her and her Irish boyfriend made a low-budget but awesome movie called Once. Not only they play the main part but the soundtrack was also writen and sang by them. The movie signature song “Falling Slowly” became very popular in no time (see YouTube bellow). (more…)

A Slovak hockey player, Richard Zednik, who plays for the Florida Panthers lost 5 units of blood on Sunday after the player had his carotid artery cut by a teammate’s skate in a freak accident. After an hour long surgery Zednik is in a stable condition now. From the amount of blood that was covering the ice on that day people thought that he had actually cut the jugular vain as it was the case in 1989 with another hockey player, Clint Malarchuk. (more…)

As I wrote recently in one of my posts the old Czech folk song “Jozin z Bazin” has become a huge hit in Poland. Now the new development in this Jozin-z-Bazin mania is that the Polish made a YouTube parody of that song. As one of my commenters Maciej explains, “The parody makes fun of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and current politics in general to the tune of Jozin z Bazin. And the parody is becoming a hit as well but it will unlikely beat Jozin z Bazin”. Well, we will see about that because that video is FUNNY! (more…)

I LOVE THIS! Do you remember Ivan Mladek’s song called “Jozin z Bazin” (the Swampland Jozin) (see the words to the song by clicking here) ? Well, if you don’t, it is a 30-year old, folk song that became a huge hit at the time. The song is about this monster Jozin who lives in the swamps somewhere in Moravia and eats only people from Prague - the city snobs. Although he doesn’t eat the locals they are tired of him. That is why the town mayor makes an offer to give away his daughter and a half or the “JZD” (the communist word for the town farm) to anyone who destroys this monster. The Czechs still play it on the radio from time-to-time. Every time I hear this song it brings me back to my childhood: I am 7 years old, hanging out with my friends at my parent’s cottage during the summer and lazily munching on Nanuk (an awesome communist ice cream bar). Anyway - it’s crazy - but this song ( and the video) has just now become a HUGE hit in Poland! It’s been the number one song on most of the Polish Top Song list (in Polish it is Jozek z bagien). The teenagers have the disco version uploaded in their MP3’s and are dancing away, trying to copy the dancing style of Ivo Pesak. (more…)