Topic Archive Culture
Jazz legend Emil Viklický
It has been a good year for Czech jazz legend Emil Viklický, beginning
with a Presidential Medal of Merit and ending with the release of two new
albums, one in Germany called “Spring Awakening” and another in Japan,
where he plays regularly, called Kafka on the Shore, a Tribute to Haruki
Murakami. In the first part of a wide-ranging interview with the pianist we
began by talking about his English, which he told me he originally picked
up from his black fellow musicians in the 1970… More
Panorama
In this week’s edition of Panorama: a student orchestra packs concert
halls with famous movie soundtracks, a computer as a work of art, chocolate
as the ultimate gourmet experience and kangaroo Vendelín becomes a
household name.
More
Tomáš Zilvar – magazine publisher focused on future media
Back in the mid 1990s Tomáš Zilvar quickly moved from putting together
DIY fanzines to publishing glossy titles like Tripmag and XMAG, magazines
that were focused on electronic music at a time when that genre was really
taking off among young Czechs. Today Zilvar, who is still in his early 30s,
has two jobs: running the Prague office of the hip New York-based magazine
and website Vice; and offering digitalisation services to Czech media
outlets and authors keen to enter the age of e-readers. More
Karel Mareš - Czech pop-music composer
In today’s Sunday Music Show we will feature the greatest hits by the
Czech pop-music composer Karel Mareš who died last month at the age of 84.
A composer, lyricists, pianist, screenplay writer, theatre and film
director, theatre manager as well as an occasional actor, this
inconspicuous “man at the back” had a significant influence on the
development of Czech popular music of the 1960s. More
The prison poet: remembering Ivan Martin Jirous
Last month was the end of an era in Czech poetry. The man who practically
embodied the poetic underground of the 1970s and 80s, Ivan Martin Jirous
– alias Magor, or Loony in English – died at the age of 67. Not only
was Magor one of best Czech poets of his generation, but also the driving
force behind the underground rock scene. He embodied the longing for
rebellion and freedom, as so-called “normalization” sucked the air out
of Czech and Slovak society. In Czech Books, David Vaughan talks to one of
Magor’s close friends and associates. More
Reflections of modern Czech history in Simon Mawer’s ‘The Glass Room’
A Czech architectural landmark has provided the backdrop, and indeed
central theme, for a book which has been creating a stir in the literary
world. The Glass Room by Simon Mawer tells the story of a modernist villa
in a Czech town, from conception to construction, eventually to seizure by
the state. The Glass Room has been receiving a great deal of publicity ever
since it was nominated for the prestigious Man Booker Prize. Over the phone
from his home in Italy, author Simon Mawer voiced his bewilderment as to
why his book was proving so popular in Britain at the moment: More
Jiří Trnka: an artist who turned puppets into film stars
It would be hard to meet a Czech whose childhood was not touched (perhaps
unconsciously) by the art of Jiří Trnka, a painter, puppeteer, illustrator
and above all, the founding father of Czech animated film. His poetic
drawings brought immortality to books that would otherwise be long
forgotten. And his animated films bestowed dozens of puppets and drawings
with life. More
Rudy Linka – a guitar virtuoso bringing world renowned musicians to Czech cities and towns with Bohemia Jazz Fest
The world-renowned jazz guitar player Rudy Linka was born in Prague but
moved to Sweden at a young age. After half a decade there he left for the
US, and has been living in New York for nearly a quarter of a century. In
recent years, however, Rudy has been home in the Czech Republic every
summer, organising the Bohemia Jazz Fest, a great free event which brings
world class jazz musicians to a number of Czech towns and cities. We met at
Café Slavia, one of the haunts of his teenage years. More
Berenika Kohoutová, la Femme Plastique
Berenika Kohoutová is a name you are probably going to hear more and more
in the coming months and years. Here a successful actress, there a rising
star of the Czech music scene, the talented 20-year-old is making a good
name for herself both on TV and in appearances on stages around Europe,
formerly with the ska ensemble Disco Balls and now with her own project
Femme Plastique. More
Debuting director Miroslav Ondruš on his new psychological thriller Vendeta
In this week’s Arts my guest is a new film director Miroslav Ondruš
whose debut feature film Vendeta is now in Czech cinemas. The film, as the
name suggests, is a psychological thriller with revenge at its dark heart.
It stars an intense Ondřej Vetchý as a father who loses a loved one and
is already being described as one of his finest performances. More
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