May Day Prague flowers...

Since it is May Day (or Socialist Workers Day) and a holiday throughout Europe, here are a couple of pictures of some fields around Horomerice. The fields contain some kind of crop with amazing yellow flowers. I did a bit of research (ah, Google, is there anything you don't know?) and it seems that the plants are canola or rapeseed (are those two the same thing?). Anyway, it is a sight, indeed, to see acres and acres of these bright yellow flowers.

You can now email a post..

If you see a post on the blog that you think someone else would enjoy, now all you have to do is click the little envelope icon at the end of the post and you can email it to them. Very easy. And I'll do my best to post interesting stuff.

Noah's first baseball game of the season...

Baseball isn't big over here, but since ISP is an American school they offer at least some baseball. There are enough kids interested to have two teams in his age group and they end up just playing each other over and over. The first game of Noah's Marlins against the hated Orioles was Saturday. They don't fomally keep score but the kids do anyway (and somehow each side believes that they won). Noah can hit from either side, but prefers left. I'm trying to keep him in the habit of switching between right and left. Look at that form!

Peacock Park...

Another Sunday morning stroll while Noah was at Sunday school. The weather has been glorious lately and it was as well today. A little cooler - around 60 - but sunny and pleasant. We walked to a park near St. Thomas church that I had stumbled upon earlier. It is Vojanovy Sady and is about as big as a square city block. Fodos says of the park "the Vojan Gardens originally formed part of the Archbishop's Palace before becoming the property of the monastery attached to nearby St. Joseph's church. Hidden behind high walls, they form a peaceful retreat from the surrounding bussle." There is only one gate to get in and out and there are several peacocks wandering about. There are also two old chapels on the grounds. Here are some pictures.

Here is the park...

Here is one of the peacocks...

Here is one of the two old chapels on the grounds. Notice the trees growing out of the walls of the chapel.

Here is a sign in the shape of a peacock for a hotel located just outside the gate of the park...

Why come here to research a spy movie?

Last week we had acclaimed film director, writer and producer Michael Mann at RFE/RL to do research for an upcoming spy movie that he is working on. For those who are not familiar with Mann, he wrote, produced and directed the movies "Miami Vice" (2006), "Heat" (1995) and the upcoming "Arms and the Man". He also produced "The Aviator" (2004) and directed the Tom Cruise movie "Collateral" (2004) as well as "Ali" (2001). His TV credits are too numerous to mention.
From Prague he was travelling to Moscow to continue his research. I'm not really sure what he was looking for at RFE/RL, because while the CIA did fund operations for many years, that ended in the 1970s. Since then RFE/RL has been publicly funded by Congress.

More news on RFE/RL journalists...

BBG, RFE/RL Condemn Iranian Threat
To Keep Radio Farda Broadcaster in Iran
(Washington, DC--April 24, 2007) Broadcasting Board of Governors Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson and RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin condemned news that the Iranian government plans to keep RFE/RL journalist Parnaz Azima from leaving Iran for "two or three years," in defiance of Azima's wishes.
Tomlinson said, "The Iranian government's refusal to allow Radio Farda journalist Parnaz Azima to leave the country underlines that government's attitude toward basic human rights as well as its refusal to accept a free press and an open society."
For his part, Gedmin said, "I find it contemptible that Iranian government officials are, in essence, criminalizing the efforts of a daughter to visit her severely ill mother. Parnaz Azima is being kept in Iran against her will, in a form of virtual house arrest. I urge the Iranian government to release Mrs. Azima now, so that she can return to her professional duties and, more important, to her children and grandchildren living outside of Iran."
Azima entered Iran on January 25 to visit her ailing and hospitalized mother. On arrival, officials at the airport in Tehran seized her Iranian passport. Since then, Azima has tried unsuccessfully to reclaim the passport on several occasions.
Most recently, one of the lawyers representing Azima, Mohammad-Hossein Aghasi, visited the Security Department of Tehran's Revolutionary Court on Monday, April 23 to reclaim Azima's passport. During this meeting, Aghasi was told by an official attached to the Security Department that Azima's passport will not be returned to her any time soon and "she will remain in Tehran for two or three years." According to Aghasi, the offical dismissed all appeals to the letter of Iranian law in refusing to return Azima's passport.
Azima is a broadcaster with Radio Farda, the joint RFE/RL-Voice of America 24-hour, seven-day-a-week Persian-language broadcast service to Iran. She joined RFE/RL in 1998 and is based at RFE/RL's broadcast headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic. Azima endured a similar situation in Iran during the spring of 2006, when her Iranian passport was seized and held for several weeks before being returned to her.

Here's our ride...

When we moved here I thought I might buy a used Audi or BMW or even Volvo or VW. We only need one vehicle so the idea was that we could get something used and more upscale. Who doesn't want to drive a fine German (or Swedish) engineered auto? But we found out that car theft is probably the bigggest classification of crime in the Czech Republic and the car thieves target nice cars like BMWs and Audis. So...we ended up with a Ford Mondeo. What is a Mondeo? Well, Wikipedia says the nickname for the Mondeo is the Mundano - for mundane (bland). It is the European version of the Ford Contour. It had everything we wanted - 6 airbags, it's a little bigger than the average vehicle on the road here, it's a combi (the European word for station wagon), with none of the annoying style or performance that the higher end makes are saddled with. My guess is that our Mondeo has little chance of being stolen.
We have had the car for 6 months now, and have only put on about 6,000 miles. That is good since gas is about $5-$6 per gallon. I take public transportation to and from work and we only need the car to drive Noah to work and for Kathy to run errands and go shopping. We will use it to make day excursions around the Czech Republic and nearby countries - particularly Germany and Austria.

Of course, sometimes I would like to (as the VW commercials call it) "unpimp" my auto.

"oh, snap!!"

A Sunday morning stroll...

We are back to our typical Sunday schedule. February was bad with Kathy having her little medical situation, then we spent a weekend in Geneva, then I was gone for two weeks for my dad, then Danny came for a visit. This is the first Sunday in a long time where we did our usual thing.
Noah has Sunday school at 9:45 at St. Thomas church near Malostranska Namesti and then mass is at 11:00. That gives us about an hour to either take a walk or go for a cup of coffee at one of the many cute cafes nearby. Today was a sunny, crisp spring morning so we decided to take a walk. We went across the Charles Bridge and explored some back streets that we hadn't gone down before.


Here is a cafe overlooking the Vlatava river at the Charles Bridge.

This is a blind girl who regularly sings on the Charles Bridge. She sings opera and has a very good voice. She accepts "donations" and I think she does quite well.

Here is something interesting we saw on our little walk. It is a figure above a door with "CERMAK" above it. Cermak is the family name of my oldest sister's family.

A Saturday Night Out...

We went out to dinner with three other couples last night. Dinner was at La Bodeguita Del Medio, the only Cuban restaurant in town. The dinner was very good - I had a creole sampler - but the beer prices were the highest I have paid in Prague. It was 90 Crowns (about $4.50) for .3L of Pilsner Urquell when even at the usual tourist restaurants you can get .5L of Pilsner for about 60 Crowns. I think they try to steer you to the Mojitos (a rum based drink).
We skipped the dessert and elected to go for a walk and find someplace else to get something sweet. We ended up several blocks away at a place called Creameria Milano, a high end cafe specializing in ice cream. The picture is Kathy with the other three wives (Leslie, Dana and Meagan). We sat outside and although the temperature was probably about 60, they had gas heaters to keep things toasty. Kathy and I split an ice cream dessert that was about $16. The others were smart enough to walk inside and order a cup of ice cream for about $4.50. I'll have to remember that.
La Bodeguita Del Medio has a cigar bar and I will try that later. I've never smoked a Cuban cigar and they are legal here (well, they are legal everywhere ecept the US). All in all a very pleasant evening.

Feel free to comment...

I've changed the settings to make it easier to leave comments. Before you had to register to blogspot to leave comments, but now anyone can leave a comment even without registering.

More Embedded Video...

I've gone back through the blog and embedded the other videos that were originally linked. These are the two Radio Free Europe PSAs and the eToys commercial. Going forward all video will be embedded (as long as I have the Html code).

Hank's List...

Got an email from my buddy Hank criticizing my all-time favorite songs. Hank and I have known each other for about 40 years and we both like music - just different kinds. There is some overlap of artists and songs that we both like, but he is more of a KISS guy while I'm more Elvis Costello. Anyway, because it's so easy to make new lists on Finetune, here is collection of mostly 80's hair band classics. Enjoy, Hank.

Embedded Video (Nice pictures of Prague)...

I've figured out how to embed videos into the blog so it looks better than just having the link. I wanted to try it out and found this photo montage on YouTube. I t has some great pictures of Prague, although you also get a lot of pictures of the couple who took all of the pictures (I can live with that).

In Memoriam...

Today at the office we had a memorial service for Khamail Muhsin Khalaf, a journalist with Radio Free Iraq, who was kidnapped and murdered in Bagdad two weeks ago. Khamail was a well known and respected personality in Iraq, having served as a TV anchor for many years. She joined Radio Free Iraq in 2004 and, because of the danger her work entailed, she sent her three daughters to live in Syria. Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees U.S. foreign broadcasting, said two weeks ago "The tragic death of Khamail [Muhsin] Khalaf reminds us that each day Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondents risk their lives in pursuit of truth". Reporting the truth is very dangerous in many parts of the world, which is something we tend to forget in the safe confines of the US. In my 9 months here, this is the third murdered journalist associated with RFE/RL. Please keep Khamail's family in your thoughts and prayers today.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing...

I have added a couple more widgets. One just gives the current time in Prague. I specifically chose one that designates "AM" or "PM" since the time difference between here and the US is confusing. The other is a feature showing current news headlines for the Czech Republic.
I know I have gone a little crazy with the widgets. I considered adding a widget to show the scores from the current World Cup of cricket and that's when I realized I needed to step back. I will hold off adding anything else for a while and see how it goes.