Kathy and "le Sabrage" (Using a sword to take the top off a bottle of champagne)...

Kathy had what she described as one of her best days in Prague yesterday. She went on one of the "Let's Go" tours with several of her friends from ISP. This one was called "Surprising Spring Walk" and covered some hidden places in Mala Strana including the Palffy Palace (music school) and Royal Gardens.

It also included a stop at the restaurant U Maliru (literally,"At the Painters") which is described on-line as "A landmark restaurant with a history spanning 460 years, appreciated by kings, diplomats and politicians alike. Fine French cuisine among the restored frescoes or in the summer garden with a view of a picturesque little square on the Lesser Side. When the famous gourmet King Rudolf II sent his spies to investigate Czech pubs, a superb kitchen was indicated by one star, an excellent one by two. The only restaurant with three stars was this one."

U Maliru's sommelier, Dita Skrivankova, demonstrated a technique called "le Sabrage", where the top of a bottle of champagne is removed with a sword, sabre or knife. This tradition was initiated in France in 1812 by Napolean and used to celebrate victories in battle. She then let several of the women try the technique themselves.




Here is Dita Skrivankova with her "weapon".


Kathy tries out Sabrage on her own.


Here is a demonstration of the "le Sabrage" technique by a French-sounding guy on YouTube.

Grant's Prague Bike Blog...

An American co-worker here at RFE/RL has a blog dedicated to biking. He is a journalist by profession so it's not too surprising that his blog is very well written. Here's the link to it. It also has the benefit of being focused pretty much on a single topic (unlike mine, which flits around to and fro like the feather in Forest Gump). Amyway, Grant's blog is often linked in the Prague Daily Monoitor, as it was today.

Grant has a very interesting story about a bike ride to Okor, where he stumbled upon a childrens' fair with a small old merry-go-round and a shooting gallery from 1895. Here's the video of the shooting gallery:



Look at the whole post and the rest of Grant's blog. I'm adding it to my ever growing list of blogs on the left side of the page.

More YouTube Radio Free Europe video...

I found another video on YouTube that talks about RFE/RL. It says that it's a movie trailer but when I googled it I didn't find anything, so I'm not sure if this video is a piece of something bigger or not. Stoll, there's some good stuff here, including video of the effects of the bombing of the RFE building in Munich in 1981.

Funniest. Movie. Bit. Ever...

It's Friday and I needed a bit of the old Inspector Clouseau humor.

The last lecture...

Here is a great story about Dr. Randy Pausch, Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie-Mellon University. The university has a lecture series called "The Last Lecture" where professors give a lecture as if it was the last they would ever give. It's a way for them to decide and define what is really important in their career and in their life. Dr. Pausch, though, is dying of pancreatic cancer and is only expected to live a few weeks, so this may really be his last lecture. Here is a report on his "last lecture" that occurred just on Tuesday (Sept. 18th).

Radio Free Europe on PBS...

The PBS show Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg is focusing on RFE/RL in a broadcast that airs in some locations this weekend. I wasn't able to find it on the TPT channels in the Twin Cities, so you might have to wait until later to catch it. I hear that we will get DVDs of the broadcast and if we do I will report on the show after I see it.

Here comes Spider Pig...

In my review of the Simpsons Movie I mentioned a Tim Burton-esque version of the spider pig song that is played at the end of the movie during the credits. Well, ask YouTube and you shall receive. Here is the song over some stills from the movie.

The Simpsons Movie in Prague...

Today (Thursday) is the premier of The Simpsons Movie in Prague. According to the internet (so it must be true) the movie doesn't open until tomorrow in the US. Of course, the challenge here is finding it in English. Although it might be amusing to watch it in Czech, I would prefer the original voices, and a language I understand.

So I went to www.expats.com and started checking the web sites of the individual movie theatres, of which there are many. Starting at the top and working my way down I kep seeing the same words - Český dabing (dubbed in Czech). Doh!!! One after another, only Český dabing. Ah, but one theatre with three screens showing The Simpsons Movie actually had, in English no less, "in original language"! I'm saved. The theatre is Slovansky dum, where Kathy and Noah and I have gone for a couple of movies as part of a group from the international school.

So, tonight at 6:10 I will be in my comfortable stadium seat with my tub o'popcorn and 2 liter cup of Coke Lite all settled in to enjoy the movie. I will try to post my review tomorrow.

Note: It's been a long time since I have been to a movie where I have had great expectations. The more recent movies I have seen I expected to be bad, so that when they sucked less than I expected I judge them as being pretty good. I have the bar set pretty high for The Simpsons Movie.

Elvis Costello ticks off Lorne Michaels

Thanks to YouTube here is the video of Elvis Costello performing Radio Radio on Saturdday Night Live way back in December 1977 (when I was a sophmore at the University of Minnesota - and had just met Steve of the linked web site Thus Spaketh Styopa).



From the web site www.zimbo.com on hosts and artists banned from Saturday Night Live by producer Lorne Michaels:

On December 17, 1977, Elvis Costello and the Attractions performed as a last-minute replacement for the Sex Pistols, who were unable to obtain passports. NBC and the show's producer Lorne Michaels didn't want the band to perform "Radio Radio", since the song protests the state of the media. The band defied them by beginning to play their song "Less Than Zero", stopping, with Costello telling the audience that there was no reason to do that song, and telling the band to play "Radio Radio" instead. It infuriated Michaels because it put the show off schedule, and the band were barred from performing again.

Note: Eventually Lorne Michaels put his grievances aside, lifting the ban, and Elvis Costello would appear as musical guest in 1989 and 1991. He also reprised his performance of "Radio Radio" with the Beastie Boys for a 25th anniversary special aired on September 26, 1999.

When you read the lyrics it's hard to believe that they were at all controversial.

"Radio Radio"

[Originally by Elvis Costello]

I was tuned into the light of the late night dial
Doing anything my radio advised
With everyone of those late night stations
playing songs bringing tears to my eyes
I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver
When the switch broke cause it's old
Saying things that I can hardly believe
They really think we're getting out of control

Radio is the sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
Say you better listen to the Voice of Reason
But they don't give you any choice
Cause they think that it's treason
You had better do as you were told
Better listen to the radio

I wanna bite the hand that feeds me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
I wanna make them wish they'd never seen me
Some of my friends sit around every evening
And they worry about the times ahead
Everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
And the promise of an early bed

You either shut up or get cut out
They don't wanna hear about it
It's only inches on the reel to reel
The radio is in the hands
Of such a bunch of fools
Trying to anesthetize they way that you feel

Radio is the sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
Say you better listen to the Voice Of Reason
But they don't give any choice
Cause they think that its treason
So you had better do as you were told
Better listen to the radio

Radio
Radio
Radio

Music Video Theatre III - Elvis Costello's Veronica

I have always been a HUGE fan of Elvis Costello - since way back in 1977. He is one of the most prolific and versatile songwriters in the world. Surprisingly, he has not used music videos to much effect. Part of that is due to the fact that he hasn't had much success with top 40 singles - there may be only a couple, Everyday I Write the Book and this one, Veronica. Veronica is his highest charting US song - at #19.

Veronica, from 1989, is a very personal song about his grandmother who suffered from Alzheimers. The video whisks back and forth from the '20s to the present and back again, reflecting his grandmothers troubles with distinguishing between then and now.

A couple of other items about the song. While most artists lip synch to the song, Elvis, always the rebel, sings along much like you or I would to a song on the radio - not really caring if we are mimicking it perfectly. Also, the song was co-written by Paul McCartney as the two were collaborating quite a bit at this time. Elvis co-wrote a couple of songs with Paul on his album "Flowers in the Dirt". Forgive me, but the song sounds like classic Elvis, so I doubt that Paul's contributions were significant.




Veronica, written by Elvis Costello

Is it all in that pretty little head of yours?
What goes on in that place in the dark?
Well I used to know a girl and I would have
sworn that her name was Veronica
Well she used to have a carefree mind of her
own and a delicate look in her eye
These days I'm afraid she's not even sure if her
name is Veronica
Chorus:
Do you suppose, that waiting hands on eyes,
Veronica has gone to hide?
And all the time she laughs at those who shout
her name and steal her clothes
Veronica
Veronica
Did the days drag by? Did the favours wane?
Did he roam down the town all the time?
Will you wake from your dream, with a wolf at
the door, reaching out for Veronica
Well it was all of sixty-five years ago
When the world was the street where she lived
And a young man sailed on a ship in the sea
With a picture of Veronica
On the "Empress of India"
And as she closed her eyes upon the world and
picked upon the bones of last week's news
She spoke his name outloud again
Chorus
Veronica sits in her favourite chair and she sits
very quiet and still
And they call her a name that they never get
right and if they don't then nobody else will
But she used to have a carefree mind of her
own, with devilish look in her eye
Saying "You can call me anything you like, but
my name is Veronica"
Chorus

Music Video Theatre - Veronica by Elvis Costello...

I am a HUGE Elvis Costello fan and have been since 1977. I remember his performance on Saturday Night Live when he stopped playing his planned song (sorry, I don't remember which one) and switched to Radio Radio, an indictment of the radio industry. Because of that he was banned from Saturday Night Live for many years. Anyway, for as good a songwriter and performer as he is, he is not known for his music videos. Somehow, I think he felt that music videos were just commercials for the songs and wasn't that interested in them.

There is one that is very good, and it's Veronica. It's the story of an old woman (aunt? grandmother?) that he knows and the song is her dealing with Alzheimers and living in the past with little making it through to the current outside word. Elvis does a good job of personalizing the song before and after the song, but you will notice while most artists lip synch to the song he is purposely singing along slightly out of synch, like you or I would do if we were singing along with a song on the radio. Ah, always the rebel. I don't know who the woman is who plays the old Veronica, but she does a good job. The song is from 1986 - has it really been that long? Elvis has never been a Top 40 artist, but this is probably his second biggest commercial success, after Every Day I Write the Book.

Little known fact: The song was co-written by Elvis and Paul McCartney at a time that they were doing some collaborating - Elvis co-wrote two songs from NcCartney's album of the time, Flowers in the Dirt. But to my ear it sounds so much like a Costello song that I personally doubt that McCartney had much input.




Veronica

Is it all in that pretty little head of yours?
What goes on in that place in the dark?
Well I used to know a girl and I could have sworn
that her name was Veronica
Well she used to have a carefree mind of her own
and a delicate look in her eye
These days I'm afraid she's not even sure if her
name is Veronica

Chorus:

Do you suppose, that waiting hands on eyes,
Veronica has gone to hide?
and all the time she laughs at those who shout
her name and steal her clothes.
Veronica, Veronica, Veronica


Did the days drag by? Did the favours wane?
Did he roam down the town all the while?
did you wake from your dream, with a wolf at
the door, reaching out for Veronica
Well it was all of sixty-five years ago
When the world was the street where she lived
And a young man sailed on a ship in the sea
With a picture of Veronica

On the "Empress of India"
And as she closed her eyes upon the world and
picked upon the bones of last week's news
She spoke his name outloud again

Chorus:

Do you suppose, that waiting hands on eyes,
Veronica has gone to hide?
and all the time she laughs at those who shout

her name and steal her clothes.
Veronica, Veronica, Veronica


Veronica sits in her favorite chair
she sits very quiet and still
when they called her a name that they never get right
and that they'l know nobody else will

well she used to have a carefree mind of her own
with a devilish look in her eye
saying you can call me anything you like
but my name is Veronica

Chorus:

Do you suppose, that waiting hands on eyes,
Veronica has gone to hide?
and all the time she laughs at those who shout

her name and steal her clothes.
Veronica, Veronica, Veronica

Another vintage Radio Free Europe PSA...

Isn't YouTube amazing? Here is another vintage public service announcement (PSA) for Radio Free Europe, and it stars Ronald Reagan! It doesn't give the year, but a quick search of google (isn't google amazing?) yields that World Freedom Bell mentioned in the PSA was dedicated in 1950, so that would put this ad probably in 1951.



Upon doing a little more research on google I found that the symbol of RFE/RL until recently was the World Freeddom Bell. I had assumed that the logo represented the Liberty Bell. Our RFE/RL web site has some historical information, and it says:

"It starts with an account of how Radio Free Europe (RFE) came to take the bell as its symbol. It was not, as some people mistakenly believe, America's famously cracked Liberty Bell. The origins of RFE's logo are a 10-ton bell especially made in the British foundry Gillett and Johnston and decorated with a frieze of five figures representing the five races of mankind passing the torch of freedom. It arrived in New York in 1949 and traveled to 21 cities in the United States as part of the "Crusade for Freedom" drive to raise money to found and promote Radio Free Europe. More than 16 million Americans responded with contributions and RFE and its bell logo were born. Instead of the five figures, the RFE bell logo had a vertical divide into a darker and lighter side, generally interpreted as the divide between the democratic West and the communist East. But for many years now, Europe has been whole and almost free and both the dividing line and the bell have lost their meaning. The original Freedom Bell was permanently installed in West Berlin in 1950. Few people today know where it is, why it is there, and what it represents."


The web site Bells of Peace and Freedom says of the Freedom Bell "(it) has chimed every day at midday from the tower of Rathaus Schöneberg. Its sound has become the symbol of freedom in our city, the expression of American support for Berlin and the symbol of German-American friendship." One other note, the Rathaus Schoenberg (city hall) where the Feeedom Bell resides is where President Kennedy gave his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in June 1963.

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

With everything that is wrong with the world we live in, the visit to Berlin has made me reflect on some of the big and wonderful things that have happened in the not too distant past. Nazism was crushed in 1945 only to be replaced by Communism as the primary threat to mankind.
It was 20 years ago - June 12, 1987, to be exact - that President Ronald Reagan in a speech at the Brandenburg Gate, in the shadow of the Berlin Wall, challenged Soviet General Secretery Gorbachev to "tear down this wall". I went to YouTube and pulled up that part of Reagan's speech just to remember what a geat moment it was. Here it is.



Within two and half years, in October of 1989, the Berlin Wall was effectively down. Here is a part of a report from the late Peter Jennings of ABC News covering those events.



Despite all of our current problems there have been some huge successes against tyranny. I hope that 20 years from now we can say the same thing.

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).

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).

Another RFE/RL PSA...

Here is another public service announcement for Radio Free Europe, this time from 1971. Gone are the ominous tones of the 1959 PSA, replaced with a more upbeat attitude. Instead of somber scenes of the Iron Curtain we get an ultra-hip Hungarian DJ - replete with jacket around the shoulders and smoking a cigarette - spinning "On Broadway" by The Drifters. It's not freedom that those in the Communist bloc wanted and needed - it was American pop music. "The 'In' sound from the outside", indeed. This was the era of detente, after all, and the Soviet Union was a nation to be coexisted with, not feared. It wouldn't be labeled the "Evil Empire" by Ronald Reagan for another 16 years. Oh, how naive we were...

We interrupt the Cold War to bring you this message...

I stumbled across this old 1959 public service announcement (PSA) for Radio Free Europe. It's scary and ominous and refelcts the times in which it was made - at the height of the Cold war. You will notice that at the end they ask for ordinary citizens to donate to RFE. More on that at a later date.