Kuky just wants to go
home. Directed by Academy Award
winning Czech director
Jan Sverak, this yet to be released film is loosely based on stories of the flooding of
Bohemia in 2002. With design elements reminiscent of the
beautiful flash games created by
Amanita Design, it is visually stunning. No word on any North American distribution (boo), but opening on May 20 in the Czech Republic (yaay!).
posted by Ohdemah
on May 15, 2010 -
10 comments
The puppets Pat and Mat are beloved everywhere their Rube Goldbergian antics have been shown on TV. A couple of inventive handymen they consistently solve simple problems in outlandish fashion. Pat and Mat traveled far afield from their Czechoslovakian origins thanks to their short running time and silence, which made translation unnecessary. Considered ideologically impure by Czech authorities, creators Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek were allowed to make around 30 episodes by the Slovakian arm of the state television corporation. They continued making new episodes after Communist rule ended and production was kept going after they passed away. First, let me present my sentimental favorite,
Wallpaper. Below the cut are all the episodes I could find online.
[more inside]
posted by Kattullus
on Sep 7, 2009 -
27 comments
Music in Czech lands in the 20th was tumultuous, to say the least. The artistic freedom of the early 20th century shifted during World War I under Nazi occupation, flourishing again after the war. With the rise of the
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, arts were "
destined to play a great role in the socialist education of the masses," which meant artists were to portray "life as it should be according to Marxist theory." Some bands shifted to more politically acceptable performances, while others went underground. The
Velvet Revolution lifted limitations, and artists who had performed illegal shows in private now shared their underground sounds and sights with the world. The
Plastic People of the Universe (who some
credit with bringing the Revolution) could be considered to embody the Communist repression of the 1970s and 1980s in their gloomy, despair-driven music, with
Už Jsme Doma showing a different side of Czech music,
representing the exuberance of liberation.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 4, 2009 -
17 comments
The Czech Republic
offers surgical castration as a "voluntary" option to sex offenders, whose rate of recidivism in some studies then drops precipitously. Officials at the
Council of Europe are
outraged, calling the punishment "invasive, irreversible and mutilating." Atul Gawande
noted 10 years ago that, despite his reservations, castration works - at least against a subclass of offenders: the pedophiles and sadists.
posted by shivohum
on Mar 14, 2009 -
86 comments
The czech magazine
Respekt, known for its investigative reporting, has published a
story claiming prize winning author and anti-communist dissident
Milan Kundera denounced a young exile who was back in Prague to the communist secret police.
[more inside]
posted by lucia__is__dada
on Oct 14, 2008 -
22 comments
How To Fake An Atomic Bomb Blast On Public Television. [
YouTube] This past June, the early-morning live weather report on Prague television station CT2 was being delivered on top of live panning sweeps of the beautiful Czech Republci countryside and a seemingly par-for-the-course summery day. But as NYT reported today, "
Then came the nuclear blast." The immediate reaction by the viewing public? Somewhere between a semi-collective shrug and minimally raised eyebrow. Yet months later, CR art-prankster group
ZTOHOVEN [Czech] are presently enjoying international attention and wide-spread accolades for this classic piece of culture-jamming.
[more inside]
posted by humannaire
on Jan 24, 2008 -
18 comments
The
Black Light Theatre of
Prague ("Černé Divadlo" or simply Black Theatre) is a
Czech performance style characterised by the use of black box theatre augmented by black light trickery. Although this performance style can be found in many places around the world, nowhere is it more prolific or specialized than in Prague. Some sample images:
1 2 3 4. YouTube:
1 2 3.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Feb 8, 2007 -
13 comments
The Story of a Czech SuperStar Contestant. The Czech version of Pop Idol (or American Idol, if you prefer) is finally starting to get good. But it may not be for the reasons the show's creators wanted. Anna, known also by her SuperStar number 3469 or better yet as "Dajdou," has become the most famous of all the contestants so far, precisely because she is what the Czechs refer to as an "antitalent." (via Living in Europe)
posted by Ljubljana
on Mar 14, 2004 -
9 comments
So how will you spend Easter? Are your plans just a tad pedestrian? If egg hunts leave you cold, perhaps you need a bit more edge. For many, things begin this week. In Czechoslovakia, men carry woven willow sticks and
whip girls on the legs, but in Taxco, Mexico, it's all about
self-flagellation. In the U.S., many go theatrical with a
living last supper; in the Philippines they favor more authenticity - every year about 20 people
re-enact the crucifixion, nails & all. If that's too real, you could
order supplies to build a backyard
corpus shrine for next year.
- more -
posted by madamjujujive
on Apr 14, 2003 -
23 comments
Kashmir...Palestine...
Sudetenland?? If you've been suspecting that old territorial squabbles never go away, you're probably right.
posted by gimonca
on Jun 9, 2002 -
4 comments
