Prague Journal

Monday, January 10, 2005.

We were not able to get tickets for the Svandovo theater’s hosting of a “conversation” between former Czech president Vaclav Havel and American singer-songwriter Lou Reed (leader of the group “Velvet Underground”) this evening. This evening’s event had been planned for some time, but had been postponed because of Havel’s poor health. It’s not surprising that it sold out quickly. At a press conference before their appearance at the Svandovo theater, Lou Reed was quoted as saying that U.S. President George W. Bush is an exceptionally dangerous person. Reed said that he is “disturbed, angered and shocked by Bush, who claimed he would unite people and instead put them against one another. He also said that Bush has helped the global situation deteriorate.” Reed also said that “Bush and his policies have negative effects on religion, the position of women in society and the poor.” Havel, on the other hand, refused to comment on Bush, but said that politics is not a career that need necessarily be tied to lies. “What often happens, however, is that a person cannot say everything or is more careful than normally.” While Havel was president, he supported the war in Iraq, but later he said that the war and the occupation were not well planned and that the allies lacked good arguments on why to attack Iraq. Reed said that he considers Havel a real hero that the world needs more of. He also said that he hopes Havel writes another play.
Havel and Reed met for the first time shortly after Havel was elected president of the Czech Republic in 1990. Reed interviewed Havel in Prague and then performed his songs with Czech musicians for whom the Velvet Underground had been a huge inspiration in the dissident days. Monday night’s on-stage discussion in Prague was a rather unusual event, with Vaclav Havel and Lou Reed discussing everything from the writing process to their meeting at the White House. According to Radio Praha's online service report, the musician made fun of some of the moderator’s questions but seemed to enjoy himself, while the former president was in fine form, witty and looking relaxed. The night ended with Lou Reed, once again backed by the Velvet Underground Revival, playing the VU classic Sweet Jane.
So instead of seeing those two talk in person, we had to content ourselves with meeting with our Czech tutor and conversing with mlady (young) Richard and Brenda, who, like us, are struggling with the rudiments of the language and embarrassingly poor pronunciation skills. Today there were only four of us, since Rut was in London. Irena, the teacher, is not only patient, but she’s fun to be around. And there’s a certain camaraderie and enthusiasm that learning a language seems to foster, especially in a small group like ours. We’ll meet again on Wednesday, this time adding a few of the folks who were in the fall class together.
The good news of the day was Rick’s completion of a refereeing project. Both of us are still trying to check things off our end-of-year to-do lists. Truth be known, we’re not too far behind. In my case, most of the delays concern meetings with entrepreneurs more than task aversion or laziness. This is exam week at the university, so professors are rather preoccupied and students stressed. Next week students will have some time off while professors grade exams. So glad we’re not in that loop just now.

posted by JWinn @ 10:46 PM