December 20, 2005

A familiar arctic chill hugged the air which reeked of hot mulled wine the stalls of the Christmas markets hawked authentic Czech cultural souvinirs complete with made in China stickers and an elderly man with a violin sang blue suede shoes by Elvis Presley followed by a beautiful rendition of Shabut Shalom...  

     Why is it that things that are meant to be substitutes for the real stuff are considered “the default” in the Czech Republic?      I’m at a party and the hostess comes out of the kitchen to take orders for coffee. The question each...  

I never dreamed I would one day meet him but, little after the Revolution, when I was President [of Czechoslovakia], Zappa came to Prague. He arrived in a period still vibrant with revolutionary energy. He participated in jam-sessions with local musicians and visited me in the Castle, and we went to drink ...  

I’m back from Moscow and Karaganda now, and I’d like to present my own variation on the Czech phrase: “Všude doma, dobře nejlip.” (Everywhere’s home, but good is best.) In Moscow on Saturday night, my hosts took me to a pretty good restaurant called Dacha, but when the bill...  

W. H. Auden introduced Bruegel to me in high school. I copied out Auden's poem, “Musée des Beaux Arts,“ and taped it to the inside cover of a notebook, above a copy of one of the Pietr Bruegel (the Elder) paintings mentioned in the poem - The Fall of Icarus. The copy was a Xerox, and hard to make out,...