Back to Minnesota...

I will be leaving for the airport within the hour for the flight to Amsterdam, and then the second flight to the Twin Cities. Travel has long since lost its excitement. I mean the physical transportation part of getting from one place to another. It's exhausting, especially international travel, the service and food aren't really very good, and there is always the decent chance that there will be some kind of delay. But heading back to MN to see my wife and family makes it very worth it. And it is still amazing to me that I can leave Prague at 9:30 in the morning and be in the Twiin Cities at 3:00 the same afternoon. Back in the olden days the trip would take weeks or months.

Anyway, I plan to keep posting while in the Twin Cities.

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

Arghhhhhh...

I have had great success with blogspot from the first day I started the blog. For someone as technically mediocre as I am, the fact that I could start a blog and make it reasonably appealing says more about blogspot than me. Last night I spent about 90 minutes researching and drafting a few posts since I like to get a few drafted and "in the bank" so I can post about one a day even when I'm busy or don't feel like blogging. I saved them but when I went later to post one of them they weren't there. They had vanished. Arghhhhhh...

I guess I'll try again, but not today.

Geographic bachelor...

Kathy and Noah boarded a plane out of Prague early this morning bound for Minnesota. We left the house at 4:40 this morning to get them to the airport for their 6:15 flight. The airport is only 10 minutes from our little village of Horomerice, which is good on days when we are traveling, but bad on most other days when the plane noice makes us feel like we're living in Richfield. Desite a slow line at the ticket counter I wathced them go through customs at about 5:20 a.m.

I now join several thousand other expat guys as a geographic bachelor. With schools out the families head back to wherever home is, with the guys joining for a week or two, but spending most of the summer alone in Prague. My previous longest time away from Kathy and Noah was just oen week - for numerous international business trips to places like Greece, Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. I will headback to MN this Saturday for two weeks and then come back here for three weeks before Kathy and Noah return. I hope the time goes fast. I miss them already.

Viennese mime...

Or is that "performance artist? I don't like mimes. I also don't like clowns. But I'm sort of afraid of clowns, while mimes don't scare me at all. I just find them annoying. While walking through the city center of Vienna we came across this mime/performance artist acting like a statue on a pedestal. If you threw some money into the container at his feet he would let you take a picture with him, after handing you a prop sword or gun. I let Noah toss a Euro coin into the can and the guy gave him a fake gun and posed with Noah while I took a picture.

It wasn't until later when I looked at the picture I took that I realized how bad the picture is. First, Noah is too far away from the guy (maybe he has mime-fear?) so he has to lean over to put his arm on him. But...if he's a statue why is he putting his arm on Noah? He should be standing straight like a statue. It ruins whatever suspension of disbelief that otherwise would be created. Also, Noah is holding the gun straight on to the camera, so you can't really tell it's a gun. For all the viewer knows it's bagette. Finally, I realized that if you didn't put money in his can you could probably get a better picture since he should just stay still and not bother you while you snap away. If I'm ever in the same situation again I will use this hard gained wisdom.

Vienna - the city...

I'm just about through posting about our whirlwind trip to Vienna last weekend. Here are some pictures of the city center. The center is compact, with lots of outdoor cafes lining narrow streets, with lots of wonderful architecture. The city center is also mostly car-free which makes strolls easy and relaxing.

Vienna's Schonbrunn Palace...

Our trip to Vienna was just for the weekend, and we had to head back to Prague by about lunchtime on Sunday. So Sunday morning we spent at Schonbrunn Palace and gardens. We decided we could spend several days here on the grounds - palace, conservatory, mazes, zoo, Glorietta, etc.




From europeforvisitors.com:
Summer cottages have always been popular with wealthy Europeans, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise when Emperor Leopold I--ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire--commissioned a hunting lodge near the old Tiergarten, or Zoo, at Schönbrunn ("Beautiful Fountain") on Vienna's outskirts in 1695. What was surprising was the grandiosity of his vision: He ordered Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, the greatest architect of the Baroque Era, to design a palace larger than Versailles. Fortunately for the Austrian Treasury, the emperor balked when the architect's estimate came in, and the Habsburg family settled for a more modest dwelling with only 1,441 rooms.

When Empress Maria Theresia ascended to the throne in 1740, she had Schönbrunn Palace expanded and redecorated in French Rococo style over a five-year period from 1744 to 1749. The palace was later occupied by Napoleon and surrendered to the Austrian Republic upon the abdication of the last Habsburg emperor, Charles I, in 1918. Today, the restored palace is both a national monument and an apartment house for a number of lucky Viennese.







Here's the view from the front of the palace looking up to the Glorietta.




Here's looking back at the palace from the Glorietta.




This is the conservatory. It reminded us very much of the one at Como Park in St. Paul. We didn't actually go inside, and will save this for the next (longer) trip to Vienna.







I have to include a picture of Noah. Here he is by the fountain

The Heurigen of Austria...

The “Heuriger” is a famous instiution the wine growing areas of Austria. A law - more than 250 years old allows Austrian producers of wine to sell their own wine and other products at their places with very low taxes. Heuriger is the name of the youngest wine. In September, soon after the first grapes are harvested, it is possible to enjoy the “Sturm”, the only partially fermented intermediate product that later becomes full wine. It is sweet and good but you could easily drink much more than you should. Most also sell food - simple meat and potatoes and other "stick to your ribs" German-type cuisine.




Here is the Heuriger we went to in Grinzing, Austria. Grinzing is on the far outskirts of Vienna, but it still only took about 40 minutes door-to-door from our hotel. A ride on the S-bahn and then a tram to Grinzing, and then a short walk.



Last Saturday evening in Vienna was gorgeous, and we ate and drank in the garden which is a standard feature of the Heurigen. There was a table of loud American tourists (or is that redundant?) but mostly it appeared to be Austrians.



There were two musicians - an accordian player and a violinist. Here an older gentleman patron wanted to sing a song that they were playing. His voice wasn't bad and you could tell that he was one of those guys who really loved life. He did a couple of songs before being distracted by a child at a table accross the way.

Fellow Minnesotans, welcome to Prague...

I was wondering why the hits on the blog took a jump this week, and then realized that it was due to my having registered it at twincities.com, the web site of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. It's a fairly new feature so there are probably a limited number of blogs registered yet. To those of you visiting the blog via twincities.com, welcome! I, my wife Kathy, and our 9-year old son, Noah, moved to Prague last summer. I work for Radio Free Europe.

I started the blog in April, and like most blogs, mine has a general theme - our experiences in Prague and elswhere in Europe - but I also digress often into other areas that interest me (from music videos to Stewie from Family Guy). I hope you like what you see and come back from time to time to see what's up. Feel free to send me an email or leave a comment. I'll be heading back to St. Paul on June 30 for a two week vacation, but will continue to blog from MN.

Again, thanks for stopping by.

The giant ferris wheel (Reisenrad)...

One of the stops on Saturday morning was the Prater, Vienna's best known amusement park, which is just outside the center of the city. The only thing we did here was take a ride on the giant ferris wheel, or Reisenrad. It's different from most ferris wheels in that it has cars of about 4 feet wide and 10 feet long that you ride in. It was mostly destroyed by fire during WWII, but it was quickly rebuilt, and it offers a great view of the city.

From the web site aboutvienna.org:
The Giant Ferris Wheel (Riesenrad) was erected in 1897 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the reign of Empereror Franz Joseph I. The wheel itself spans 200 feet (about 60 m.). 15 cabins and the upholding structure weigh a total of 430,5 t and rotate at the speed of 0,65 m/sec.
In 1914 the Giant Ferris Wheel was the location of a sensational film stunt: Madame Solange d'Atalide managed to complete one round on horseback on top of one of the cabins. This would not be the only time that the 'Riesenrad' was featured in major films: The Third Man or Before Sunrise to name just a few.
In 1944, at the height of World War II, the Giant Ferris Wheel burnt down, but was rebuilt in 1945 - at the same time as St. Stephen's cathedral. The Viennese Riesenrad is the only giant ferris wheel of its time which is still in use today.



Sorry for the bad exposure, but I'll just blame the nice older couple (Austrian or German) who took the photo.




Here we are at the top of the ferris wheel looking at the next car.




A great view from the Reisenrad!

Back from Vienna...

Well, we are back from our whirlwind trip to Vienna. It was 48 hours from leaving Prague to getting back. It's about a 4 hour drive each way. The point of the trip was to get a quick thumbnail view of the city to lay the groundwork for a longer trip later, and in that we were very successful.

The hotel was nice but not great. It was a "family" room that could accomodate three people, but in typical European fashion it was very small. Basically, there was room for a double bed and a single bed and not much else. Also on the negative side, the neighborhood didn't have much to recommend it. Not that it was a bad neighborhood, just kind of "blah". No cute shops or restaurants - just pretty much residential on the outskirts of the city. On the plus side, parking was free, breakfast was free, and it was right across the street from one of the many metro lines, so getting around the city was very easy.

We arrived at the hotel by around 9:00 PM on Friday evening after leaving Prague at 4:00. Traffic leaving Prague was horrendous, and not having a freeway around the city didn't help. We had downpours for the first two hours of the drive which didn't help our travel time. However, we got through the border to Austria quickly and without any problems. Surprisingly, both the Czech and Austrian border guards just glanced at our passports and gave them back to us - no stamps. We hoped for stamps.

We got up Saturday morning and had breakfast then went to the station and bought 24 hour passes that let us travel by train, subway, tram and bus. We hopped on the subway and went into the city.

There will be pictures from Vienna all week, but our first stop was Stephansdom, a church in the center of the city. The "Steffl" as the cathedral is called, was damaged by WWII bombers but was rebuilt and is a fine example of Gothic architecture. The foundations date to 1147.



The cathedral has an interesting mosaic tiled roof.


A mass was about to start so we had to stay in the back. It's truly a beautiful cathedral.


Kathy and Noah lit some candles at a side alter.

And then we are off to Vienna...

We are taking a quick trip to Vienna - leaving late this afternoon and coming back on Sunday afternoon. Vienna is only about 3 1/2 hours away by car and is generally regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. This is meant as just a little exploratory trip to get the lay of the city for future longer trips. I'm not bringing the laptop so no posting until maybe Sunday evening when I may be able to put up some pictures.

Noah's last day of school...

This is Noah's last day of third grade and he finishes up at noon. It's a little different here than back home since the nature of expat life means there is a turnover of about 25% every year. So there are quite a few of Noah's friends that he won't see after today. He is both happy at completing the year and sad at losing some friends. However, the good news is there will be a whole flock of new kids when he gets back at the end of the summer.

Class Picnic...

Today Noah's 3rd grade class had its end of the year picnic. There was pizza and games and a good time was had by all. Thanks to Kathy, Mette, Tuana and a few other moms for organizing and running it. I can't beleive that Noah finishes the current year on Friday!