Beautiful Lady

Tonight I led a Shema movie night and discussion about M. Night Shyamalan’s most recent film, Lady In The Water, which went pretty well. It prompted me to go back and re-read what I had written about it after I watched it opening day last year. This was in my personal journal pre-dating this blog, but I feel it’s appropriate to publish here since so few people have seen this movie.
Here were my first impressions:

July 21, 2006
“I have a confession to make. I really liked M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie Lady in the Water. I really really liked it. And from the looks of critical consensus, I may be the only one. It’s a different movie (yet still includes his signature themes of dark and light, the supernatural, and spirituality). Some will claim it’s entirely ego-driven. Maybe so. But it moved me.
The movie is about so much: realizing your true potential/discovering who you are meant to be, the importance of community, and redemption among them. It’s also a fairytale or bedtime story. It doesn’t purport to be anything more. And yet critics seem to think it is much more than that and are drubbing it hard.

And I wonder if I saw the same thing. I found myself glued to the screen in rapt attention. I wanted to hear the story. I wanted to be touched. And I was. I had chills during some scenes and even cried at one point (during Cleveland’s prayer to his family).

So I just wanted to put that down. I am unlikely to be backed up by many, but I’m glad Night had the conviction to make this film and I hope enough people aren’t put off by the critics that it has a chance to make an impact.”

Next Homecoming

As a general FYI, I will be returning to Ohio for about a week in June for my cousin Ashley’s wedding. My tentative schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, June 5th: Arrive in Columbus in the afternoon
Wednesday, June 6th-morning of Friday, June 8th: Cincinnati
afternoon of Friday, June 8th: Pickerington
Saturday, June 9th: afternoon wedding in Marysville
Sunday, June 10th-Monday, June 11th: Pickerington
Tuesday, June 12th: Fly back to Geneva

If anything’s going on during this period (or you want to schedule something to be going on), please let me know. Hope to visit with many of you then...

Prague, Czech Republic Part 5: Sights and Misc.

All good (and overly drawn-out things) things must come to an end, so here’s the final installment of the Prague journey.

St. Vitus Cathedral
Atop the highest point in Mala Strana (and I think all of Prague) is the castle area, highlighted by St. Vitus. We bought a ticket to visit some of the highlights of the castle, but in the end that seemed more like a tourist trap to me than anything else (Royal Palace = lame, Basilica of St. George = nothing compared to the churches in Assisi, Golden Lane = an old street turned into shops to buy more crap). St. Vitus was by far the most impressive thing there and it was free to enter.

Here are some exterior shots, as well as more of the beautiful stained glass windows.


Detail from one of the main doors

Flying buttresses out the wazoo

A look down the nave


Good ol’ St. Francis





This domed room in the Basilica of St. George was one of the few non-disappointing parts of the castle ticket


Jewish Quarter
On Sunday afternoon we headed to the Jewish quarter, a trip made even more interesting since we were accompanied by Yonaton, an Israeli guy staying at our hostel. His insight into various traditions and even his translation of some of the Hebrew on the buildings gave some nice gravity to our visit. The ticket we bought for that area was a much better value than the castle one—it got us in to 3 or 4 synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetary, which the Nazis did not destroy.

Yarmulkes: free to rent or available for purchase


Some images from the Old Jewish Cemetary, the only place photography was permitted




Stones laid atop one of the graves


The Spanish Synagogue was incredibly beautiful, so much so that I whipped out the camera to take this quick shot. It features an organ which a rare feature for a synagogue.


Complete Randomness
These photos didn’t really fit with anything else, so here they go:

A quick glane into the lobby assured that this was definitely not a museum dedicated to James Brown…


Soldiers on their way to the changing of the guard at the castle. Pay close attention to the small child be whisked out of the way in the lower right


Really neat clock on one of the churches in the Old Town


One day we stopped into a music museum and Natalie and Nadia decided it would be a good idea to buy these paper mask-things. I decided it would be a good idea to walk several paces away from them


And that’s a wrap. Fun times, lots of walking, and restless sleep (from the snoring, if you remember all the way back to part 1).

Prague, Czech Republic Part 4: Easter

One of the reasons for picking Prague for the long Easter weekend was because they really get into the spirit there—at least secularly. There are Easter markets in many parts of the city (although after a point, they seemed pretty standardized. You can only see so many ugly beer steins and candles…) and on Easter Monday little boys buy or make little switches that they use to playfully whip the girls they like. At least that’s what the guidebook said. I can’t say I actually witnessed that.

Being on “vacation” over Easter was a little odd, similar to the time in high school when I was on the New York spring break trip and the holiday didn’t seem real somehow. Natalie, Nadia and I found an English speaking church that had a nice service, though not really the same as being at home. Still, the festivities around the city were at least a welcome beginning to spring.

An Easter tree rising above one of the markets


This doesn’t necessarily fit with the theme, but the gardens were in bloom so it feels like spring to me. Hooray for self-timers (and balancing cameras on tree branches!)


Floral excitement


The main stage in the Old Town square featuring some traditional (maybe) Czech music


Eggs are almost as big a deal in Prague as they are in the Ukraine. Here’s one of many many stands selling them


A man etching into some eggs and a girl painting on some



And some eggs themselves


Some considerably less-traditional music on the stage. (Yes, that woman is playing a washboard…)


To be concluded…

Prague, Czech Republic Part 3: Food

Anyone who knows me pretty well probably knows that I enjoy food. Especially good food. Fortunately Prague is both cheap (compared with Geneva—it’s right about on par with U.S. prices) and international, offering a variety of dining options in addition to its own staples. As has become something of a pattern over the last couple months, I took several pictures of my meals and various dining establishments during the trip.

Oh yeah. Prague also has really good beer. And really cheap beer. Much cheaper than America. Like, the equivalent of dollar drafts everywhere.

From what I understand from our local contacts Josh (a UC grad and friend of Nicki) and his wife Susanna (a native Czech), regional food is typified by goulash and bohemian dumplings, as well as pork. Fried bread is also popular (and delicious). So our first night out I had some delicious “beer chili goulash” with bread dumplings


Granat: one of the many beers I sampled over our four-day trip


I was quite surprised to come across a Little Caesar’s in the middle of Europe. I was also pretty happy. I ate there Sunday night and got 1/4th a pizza, crazy bread with sauce and a bottomless fountain drink for about $5


This is Natalie reacting to her destruction of an apple strudel


Nadia in Coffee Heaven (literally the name of the place), a nice Starbucksy chain. They also had clever no smoking signs (below)



We had a great lunch (and later a nice breakfast) at Bohemia Bagel, a restaurant started by an American ex-pat that apparently is faring quite well. You just can’t get hot pastrami (or bagels) in Geneva…


As part of the Easter festivities (more on those next time), there were several stands of traditional foods and snacks. This thing was called “Trdlo” and was sort of like an elephant ear—basically baked cinnamon-sugary dough




This guy was making baked apples (with rum-soaked raisins, honey and cinnamon). I had one of those as well


And finally, Mexican food. Yes, I’m a broken record, but I love the stuff. Between Berlin, my birthday dinner, and Prague, I’ve actually had the good stuff 4 times over the past 2 months. Maybe not as much as home, but better than this fall. Prague actually had fast-food options too:


My last meal in the city was at a place in Mala Strana simply called “Cantina.” I had a terrific pork quesadilla with guacamole. This photo does not do it justice, nor do you likely care. But it was great.


To be continued…

Prague, Czech Republic Part 2: Arts

Alphons Mucha
I honestly didn’t know much of anything about Prague before going there. Even after looking at a couple of guidebooks I only came up with one thing I absolutely had to see: the Mucha Museum, a collection of the works of Art Nouveau artist/designer Alphons Mucha. I suppose I’ve been trained to appreciate his work from a very young age since my dad has devoted our guest bedroom (which is now where I usually sleep when I’m home) to Art Nouveau and Art Deco motifs. The line quality and color of the work is exquisite and seeing examples of the original posters even increased my appreciation.

It wasn’t too terribly far from our hostel so we decided to check it out the afternoon we arrived. The collection was a good mix of work, including prints, posters, proofs, sketches, and even reference photography from his Paris studio.

Proof print of the breakthrough “Gismonda” poster, showing that it had to be lithographed on two stones because of its size


A look at a few more posters. An original copy of the Gismonda poster is in the center and another proof (without the final black ink applied) is on the right


The museum also features a nice video about his life and influence on the art community and society at the time.

The city also has a tourist-trappy restaurant and cafe themed around Mucha. I didn’t eat there, but some of our group did.


There were also no shortage of boutiques selling Mucha-themed pieces, such as this collection from a storefront window.


The beautiful St. Vitus cathedral includes an interesting array of stained glass windows in a number of artistic styles. Mucha designed one of these and his is very impressive.

The whole shebang


And a couple of details. I can’t wrap my head around how they achieved the color of this in glass



I’ll share some more pictures of St. Vitus in a future post.

Marionettes
During one of our explorations, Nadia, Natalie and I came upon a few amazing shops dedicated to mannequins. It is hard fully capture how intricate and beautiful they all were on film, but here are a few images.
Also, it bears noting that while we were in the shop “What is Love?” (popularized by SNL’s Roxbury Guys) began to play on the radio. We resisted the urge to bob the mannequins’ heads in unison, but it was tough. Furthermore, we would later hear the song again during the course of the trip. Apparently Prague’s about a decade behind us in music.






Sculptures
Ran across a variety of interesting sculptures and statues during the travels. Here’s a look at some of them.

This was above the entrance to an apartment building. Pretty interesting…


At the end of the Charles Bridge, looking across the river towards the Mala Strana quarter of town


Stylized crucifix from the Basilica of St. George


The base of a lamppost near the castle


Outside a random restaurant. The medallion, which is lost in the glare, says “Hands Off” hence my pose…


These three are from a really cool fountain we found while getting a little lost. That’s me in the middle of the last one, though I now realize my air-guitar is for some reason being played left-handed




I have absolutely no clue what’s going on here. We were walking through a little mall and this was in the middle. The girls kept walking, prompting me to ask, “How can you possibly have no reaction to that?” Apparently they’d seen it earlier


Franz Kafka statue by the Spanish Synagogue


Memorial to the victims of Communism and totalitarianism, near the Hunger Wall


I think this statue has something to do with oppression or torture, so I guess my expression isn’t that appropriate


John Lennon Wall
There’s a wall outside a church in the Mala Strana quarter that was graffitied with an image of John Lennon after his death. Since that time people have added their own messages of peace and love. It’s not the most obvious thing to find in the city, but I managed towards the end of the trip.




Miscellaneous
Some other random arts-related photos from the trip.

Frank Gehry designed this “Dancing Building.” While I don’t always like his work, I think this is pretty effective due to its glass facade (rather than his seemingly-favored metal).



Quite possibly the best poster ever


Saw these cartoon characters in several stores. I liked them a lot, especially the hedgehog



Outside of a pub, called—that’s right!—the Red Lion


The last thing I did in the city was visit UPM, the museum of decorative arts. They had a nice collection of Czech graphic design as well as glassware, clocks, etc. The special exhibition featured Japanese poster design and was well-curated. Photography was prohibited so all you get to see is the poster


To be continued…