Prague Journal

Saturday, July 2, 2005.

Saturday, July 2, 2005.
Rick left for the airport around 10am to rendezvous with Howard and his friends for their flight to Split, Croatia. Howard has chartered a yacht for a week-long cruise around the Croatian coast, as a pre-birthday party (he will turn 60 next spring). Rick is honored to be considered such a close friend, and delighted to have been invited on such an adventure.
I am left alone today—such a lovely reprieve from the fast-paced week of guests and activities—to get ready for my conference presentations in Brno tomorrow (and catch up on a week’s worth of blog entries).
Meanwhile, the Tour de France started today. The first stage of Lance Armstrong’s final Tour started badly when his right foot skidded off the pedals after 100 meters, but the incident did not prevent him from taking second place to American David Zabriskie. Zabriskie, who left Armstrong's Discovery Channel team this season to join Danish outfit CSC, beat the Texan by just two seconds at an average speed of 54.68 km/h in the opening stage, one of the fastest individual time trials in the history of the Tour. But Armstrong, bidding for a seventh consecutive Tour success, humbled all his rivals for overall victory and especially German Jan Ullrich, who he overtook three km from the finish on the small Atlantic island of Noirmoutier.
Twenty years ago, television viewers were glued to MTV’s coverage of Live Aid, the pop music world’s valiant, if ineffective, effort to combat hunger in Africa. Today, I joined millions of viewers watching live streams of Live 8, Live Aid founder Bob Geldof’s bold effort to get the world’s eight top economic powers to relieve debt and boost trade in Africa and Third World countries. Live 8 brings together more than 100 artists - including U2, Coldplay, a reunited Pink Floyd, Jay-Z, Destiny's Child, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, Green Day, Elton John, the Killers, Paul McCartney (an interesting rendition of St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with Beetles look-alike backup musicians), Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Neil Young and the Dave Matthews Band - in 10 cities around the globe. There should be more concerts and protest activities in anticipation of the upcoming G8 summit in Scotland next week.
I watched fireworks from my balcony at 10pm. More Canada Day celebrations? Part of Live 8? In anticipation of Lance’s 7th Tour victory? Or early U.S. Independence Day celebrations?

posted by JWinn @ 10:36 PM