I was wandering about yesterday evening after a day at the library, when I heard what sounded like bagpipes, Balkan style. (And for those who associate bagpipes solely with Scotland, no, different varieties are found in many countries!) I headed over in that direction and discovered a crowd around a troupe of costumed line-dancers.
Long ago, I used to design lighting (in a fairly primitive way) for folk dance concerts, so the type of dancing I was seeing, as well as the style of music, struck me as south Slavic and definitely not Czech. The costumes provided clues--the men wore sashes of red, blue, and gold stripes--but I'm not that familiar with every country's national colors and so wasn't sure whether they might be Montenegrin, Bulgarian, or what.
Before long, however, there were some speeches, and I discovered that rather than being part of a folk festival (and there was one just days ago), this event was in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Armenia's First Republic. Now of course I knew that 2018 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia's First Republic, but I confess I hadn't realized Armenia had even had a First Republic. When I think of Armenia 100 years ago, I'm afraid I think of the Armenian Genocide.
There was some more dancing, and then some more speeches. One of the dancers turned to me and asked in English, as the speaker was using Armenian at that moment, if I knew what the event was about. Since I had been standing there long enough to have picked up the gist of things, I was able to say that I did know it celebrated the 100th anniversary. The dancer noted that while Armenia has existed for thousands of years, the First Republic was a brief one. I commented that it must have come soon after the Genocide, and he agreed that it had. He asked where I was from, so I said the United States, and he commented that we have a large Armenian diaspora. I agreed, and began to say that growing up I knew a good many Armenian-Americans (as many Armenians settled in California), but at that point one of his colleagues moved him back into the main group.
It was an interesting and moving, not to mention unexpected, celebration, and I was glad I happened along just at the right time.
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Monday, May 28, 2018
Prague-Brno Train Travel Gets Trickier
On Saturday I headed for Brno on a day trip to go to a museum or two. In the past I've often taken the yellow Student Agency bus, which is a great option--very comfortable, with drinks and movies. On the other hand, if traffic slows to a crawl between Prague and Brno, there's nothing much the bus driver can do about it.
And, it looked like the museums I wanted to go to were a very simple walk from the Brno train station, so this time around I opted for the train. I looked up schedules on idos.cz, wrote down the most promising few, and set off for the station to buy my return ticket and go.
My day in Brno was pleasant, if a bit on the warm side. I saw some art, although the paintings I had gone especially to see were not on display, being removed for conservation or loan. (Right, the signs didn't specify which, so I have no idea whether these works are on display in some other city or secreted in a basement lab!) I also visited Brno's design museum, a gorgeous building inside, which turned out to be entirely taken over by a design biennale. I wanted to see that, but didn't find it as interesting as I had hoped.
I headed back to the train station, where my notes indicated I could catch the 5:09 back to Prague. The return ticket I had purchased was valid for trains going through a range of towns--there was only one town listed as not valid. Pardubice was on the valid list and the 5:09 train went via Pardubice, so I climbed aboard, saw a window seat that wasn't marked reserved, and planted myself. A young woman then sat next to me, the train started, and I began looking at the scenery.
A young man arrived with bottles of water and, to my mild surprise, asked for my ticket. (Conductors and refreshment purveyors are not, in my experience, the same person.) He informed me, pleasantly enough, that my ticket wasn't valid on this train because my ticket was from Ceske drahy whereas this was a Regiojet train.
Well, this was news to me because in my experience Ceske drahy sells the tickets for all train trips in the Czech Republic. Never mind whether the train originally comes from Germany or Hungary, if you buy your ticket in the Czech Republic, you're buying from Ceske drahy. But apparently Regiojet, which is part of the same company as Student Agency, has somehow obtained the right to run its own passenger trains that require purchase through that company.
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, Student Agency and Regiojet are very good at what they do. Their buses and trains are new and comfortable and not particularly expensive. And despite my ticket not being valid, I was left in peace the whole way to Prague. (I was going to get off at Pardubice and change to the next Ceske drahy train, but when we got to Pardubice the woman next to me was sound asleep and didn't respond to my voice or nudges, and her tray table was down, so I figured it wasn't worth it to shake her awake.)
On the other hand, I really don't like the idea that now the traveler has to worry about multiple companies and whether the ticket is good for the next train. The UK broke up their train system into a gazillion different carriers, and while their trains are nice too, it can be difficult to figure out just how to get to your destination. It's my impression that in the UK, it's at least divided up by region, but none of the companies seem to be able to provide any information about anyone else's train and so when I wanted to take the night train from London to Arbroath, I was unable to determine whether it had couchettes or if so how I would reserve one. (Perhaps I was incompetent, but I did spend quite awhile once fruitlessly trying to find out more about the Caledonian and eventually just dozed in an ordinary seat.) In the case of Ceske drahy and Regiojet, the trains are in direct competition on the same tracks.
Just when you think you know (mostly) how something works, you learn you don't after all.
And, it looked like the museums I wanted to go to were a very simple walk from the Brno train station, so this time around I opted for the train. I looked up schedules on idos.cz, wrote down the most promising few, and set off for the station to buy my return ticket and go.
My day in Brno was pleasant, if a bit on the warm side. I saw some art, although the paintings I had gone especially to see were not on display, being removed for conservation or loan. (Right, the signs didn't specify which, so I have no idea whether these works are on display in some other city or secreted in a basement lab!) I also visited Brno's design museum, a gorgeous building inside, which turned out to be entirely taken over by a design biennale. I wanted to see that, but didn't find it as interesting as I had hoped.
I headed back to the train station, where my notes indicated I could catch the 5:09 back to Prague. The return ticket I had purchased was valid for trains going through a range of towns--there was only one town listed as not valid. Pardubice was on the valid list and the 5:09 train went via Pardubice, so I climbed aboard, saw a window seat that wasn't marked reserved, and planted myself. A young woman then sat next to me, the train started, and I began looking at the scenery.
A young man arrived with bottles of water and, to my mild surprise, asked for my ticket. (Conductors and refreshment purveyors are not, in my experience, the same person.) He informed me, pleasantly enough, that my ticket wasn't valid on this train because my ticket was from Ceske drahy whereas this was a Regiojet train.
Well, this was news to me because in my experience Ceske drahy sells the tickets for all train trips in the Czech Republic. Never mind whether the train originally comes from Germany or Hungary, if you buy your ticket in the Czech Republic, you're buying from Ceske drahy. But apparently Regiojet, which is part of the same company as Student Agency, has somehow obtained the right to run its own passenger trains that require purchase through that company.
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, Student Agency and Regiojet are very good at what they do. Their buses and trains are new and comfortable and not particularly expensive. And despite my ticket not being valid, I was left in peace the whole way to Prague. (I was going to get off at Pardubice and change to the next Ceske drahy train, but when we got to Pardubice the woman next to me was sound asleep and didn't respond to my voice or nudges, and her tray table was down, so I figured it wasn't worth it to shake her awake.)
On the other hand, I really don't like the idea that now the traveler has to worry about multiple companies and whether the ticket is good for the next train. The UK broke up their train system into a gazillion different carriers, and while their trains are nice too, it can be difficult to figure out just how to get to your destination. It's my impression that in the UK, it's at least divided up by region, but none of the companies seem to be able to provide any information about anyone else's train and so when I wanted to take the night train from London to Arbroath, I was unable to determine whether it had couchettes or if so how I would reserve one. (Perhaps I was incompetent, but I did spend quite awhile once fruitlessly trying to find out more about the Caledonian and eventually just dozed in an ordinary seat.) In the case of Ceske drahy and Regiojet, the trains are in direct competition on the same tracks.
Just when you think you know (mostly) how something works, you learn you don't after all.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Image Acquisition Continues
This year's Czech trip has several purposes--among which are doing research for new projects and seeing friends--but the more pressing project is, of course, image acquisition for Magnetic Woman. I knew when I began that image acquisition for art history books generally takes quite a bit of time and money, but each book has different needs and I didn't really have a clear sense of where my own time and money would end up going. I did know that I had taken a lot of photographs myself of Toyen's book illustrations, which meant that while I'd still have to pay copyright clearance on those, at least I wouldn't have to pay for the photos.
Yes--payment is usually a two-step process. First you get a photograph (these days typically a hi-res digital image) of the work, which can be anything from free to hundreds of dollars per photo, and then later, if the work is under copyright, you pay to clear copyright. In other words, you tell the copyright clearance people what you want to use this image for, how big, whether in color or b&w, etc., and they tell you how much it will cost.
An area where I've made nice headway since coming to Prague is that of getting photos of Toyen and her associates. I knew that the Památník národního písemnictví (PNP), which although an archive of Czech literature nonetheless is a major repository of art-related materials, had some of these photos. I also knew that the design museum (UPM) had purchased Jindřich Štyrský's photos, which included at least one of Toyen. I've worked with both of these entities before and am pleased to say that both responded very appropriately and professionally to my inquiries about photos and that I have now paid for and received most of what I requested. (One photo still has to be scanned by the PNP, and there are one or two artworks I may also request from them which are handled by the art side rather than the literary side.) This is all good and a great relief.
There remain some photos I'd like to get--photos of photos, that is--but I'm not sure who has them. Usually publications provide individual credits of who something belongs to, but some of these photos have been published without a specific credit, which is unhelpful.
Acquisition of photos of paintings remains even more difficult than I had anticipated. I knew that it probably wouldn't be easy to locate photos of privately held works, but it never occurred to me that several museums and galleries would simply not respond to emails. Kudos, therefore, to the museums that have already provided images, whether free or fee!
Yes--payment is usually a two-step process. First you get a photograph (these days typically a hi-res digital image) of the work, which can be anything from free to hundreds of dollars per photo, and then later, if the work is under copyright, you pay to clear copyright. In other words, you tell the copyright clearance people what you want to use this image for, how big, whether in color or b&w, etc., and they tell you how much it will cost.
An area where I've made nice headway since coming to Prague is that of getting photos of Toyen and her associates. I knew that the Památník národního písemnictví (PNP), which although an archive of Czech literature nonetheless is a major repository of art-related materials, had some of these photos. I also knew that the design museum (UPM) had purchased Jindřich Štyrský's photos, which included at least one of Toyen. I've worked with both of these entities before and am pleased to say that both responded very appropriately and professionally to my inquiries about photos and that I have now paid for and received most of what I requested. (One photo still has to be scanned by the PNP, and there are one or two artworks I may also request from them which are handled by the art side rather than the literary side.) This is all good and a great relief.
There remain some photos I'd like to get--photos of photos, that is--but I'm not sure who has them. Usually publications provide individual credits of who something belongs to, but some of these photos have been published without a specific credit, which is unhelpful.
Acquisition of photos of paintings remains even more difficult than I had anticipated. I knew that it probably wouldn't be easy to locate photos of privately held works, but it never occurred to me that several museums and galleries would simply not respond to emails. Kudos, therefore, to the museums that have already provided images, whether free or fee!
A Preview of a Possible Show
I come from a large extended family--both of my parents were descended from fertile immigrants. I have quite a few first cousins, and at last count, over 300 second cousins. (Maybe it's over 400 at this point; it's a bit tedious to count them although my genealogy program does produce a handy list.) With that many second cousins, it's perhaps not that surprising, statistically speaking, that my second cousin Larry ended up marrying a Czech and retiring to the Czech Republic.
On Saturday Larry and I ventured down to the Prague suburb of Radotín, where a filmmaker of his acquaintance was previewing a rough draft of the pilot for a TV show he hopes to create. The idea was to get feedback from a small select group of Czechs and Americans as to whether we found the characters engaging, the scenes intelligible, the pacing good, etc. Neither Larry nor I had ever critiqued a project like this before, but as he is a former newspaperman and I've belonged to various writing groups and have taken both film history and photography courses, we were reasonably well qualified to participate.
So, if a downloadable TV series called Cizince (Foreigners) should ever appear on your screen, know that I offered comments at the very first preview!
On Saturday Larry and I ventured down to the Prague suburb of Radotín, where a filmmaker of his acquaintance was previewing a rough draft of the pilot for a TV show he hopes to create. The idea was to get feedback from a small select group of Czechs and Americans as to whether we found the characters engaging, the scenes intelligible, the pacing good, etc. Neither Larry nor I had ever critiqued a project like this before, but as he is a former newspaperman and I've belonged to various writing groups and have taken both film history and photography courses, we were reasonably well qualified to participate.
So, if a downloadable TV series called Cizince (Foreigners) should ever appear on your screen, know that I offered comments at the very first preview!
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Margalit Fox's New Book
Newsday just posted its list of the best summer books and among the temptations therein is Margalit Fox's new title, Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World’s Most Famous Detective Writer.
Many readers know Margalit Fox through her highly regarded New York Times obituaries--one of her last and favorites is "Dovey Johnson Roundtree, Barrier-Breaking Lawyer, Dies at 104," but although I admire her obituaries, I myself first became acquainted with her through her husband George Robinson, as George and I were both active in the National Writers Union and co-chaired the Book Campaign for a time.
Margalit Fox is leaving the obituary-writing trade to focus on writing books, and after her fascinating The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code (about how Evans, Kober, and Ventris worked to decipher Linear B), I am looking forward to learning about Conan Doyle's own detective case.
Oh, and I see there's also a book on the photographer Weegee on Newsday's list!
Many readers know Margalit Fox through her highly regarded New York Times obituaries--one of her last and favorites is "Dovey Johnson Roundtree, Barrier-Breaking Lawyer, Dies at 104," but although I admire her obituaries, I myself first became acquainted with her through her husband George Robinson, as George and I were both active in the National Writers Union and co-chaired the Book Campaign for a time.
Margalit Fox is leaving the obituary-writing trade to focus on writing books, and after her fascinating The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code (about how Evans, Kober, and Ventris worked to decipher Linear B), I am looking forward to learning about Conan Doyle's own detective case.
Oh, and I see there's also a book on the photographer Weegee on Newsday's list!
Monday, May 21, 2018
And on to Holešovice
After my two weeks living out near Bílá Hora, I was able to move into a flat owned by a historian of my acquaintance, who commutes back and forth between Prague and Vienna and therefore doesn't live in the Prague flat all the time. This takes me to the northern Prague district of Holešovice, a place I was mainly familiar with through the train station there (not Prague's main train station but an important station all the same).
The flat is on the fifth floor and on the corner of the building, so it gets lots of light, which I appreciate as the hotel room was a bit dim and for that matter my house, while a very fine place in most respects, is not that well endowed with natural light.
So far I'm definitely enjoying being close enough to the center that I can easily stop at the flat in the middle of the day (although I haven't yet done so) and knowing that I can spend the whole day in the flat if for some reason I want to (which one can do in a hotel but it really disrupts their cleaning routine).
There are lots of small cafes nearby and the big tržnice (an indoor and outdoor market of small proprietors, mostly Vietnamese in this case) is a block or two away, meaning easy access to Vietnamese dining.
So, lots to like, but this morning there is construction noise right below (jackhammers and all), so I'm going to finish up my coffee and head for the library!
The flat is on the fifth floor and on the corner of the building, so it gets lots of light, which I appreciate as the hotel room was a bit dim and for that matter my house, while a very fine place in most respects, is not that well endowed with natural light.
So far I'm definitely enjoying being close enough to the center that I can easily stop at the flat in the middle of the day (although I haven't yet done so) and knowing that I can spend the whole day in the flat if for some reason I want to (which one can do in a hotel but it really disrupts their cleaning routine).
There are lots of small cafes nearby and the big tržnice (an indoor and outdoor market of small proprietors, mostly Vietnamese in this case) is a block or two away, meaning easy access to Vietnamese dining.
So, lots to like, but this morning there is construction noise right below (jackhammers and all), so I'm going to finish up my coffee and head for the library!
Sunday, May 20, 2018
Moving About a Bit, Starting with Bílá Hora
It had been my hope that this summer I'd be able to rent the same apartment as when I lived in Prague 2005-2007, but regrettably it was not available, so I am instead doing a combination of lodgings. For the first couple of weeks I stayed in a pension out near Bílá Hora, which for those who know Prague will recognize, is on the western fringes of the city. It's at the end of a tram line, in fact.
Why did I choose to lodge way out there? Well, several reasons. First off, it was one of the less expensive options, and that's always a consideration. But secondly, I rather like seeing different parts of Prague. While I'm very fond of my old apartment near the Dvorce tram stop in Podolí, which is near a greengrocer's and has good access to a wonderful riverside path (where I learned to rollerblade!), every part of Prague has its merits. Bílá Hora, famous as the site of the historic battle (Bílá Hora/White Mountain) which altered the course of Czech history, is also near Hvězda, a place I'm quite fond of.
Hvězda is not a major tourist attraction, but it's an interesting building, hosts some good small exhibitions generally relating to history, literature, and art (the exhibitions are curated by the Památník národního písemnictví), and there's a large wooded park plus a nice little cafe. It's a great place to go and relax, whether by walking the paths, sitting on a bench under a tree, sunbathing on the lawn, taking in an exhibition, etc.
So, spending a couple of weeks taking the tram back and forth from out there seemed like a pretty attractive notion, and on the whole it worked out just fine.
Why did I choose to lodge way out there? Well, several reasons. First off, it was one of the less expensive options, and that's always a consideration. But secondly, I rather like seeing different parts of Prague. While I'm very fond of my old apartment near the Dvorce tram stop in Podolí, which is near a greengrocer's and has good access to a wonderful riverside path (where I learned to rollerblade!), every part of Prague has its merits. Bílá Hora, famous as the site of the historic battle (Bílá Hora/White Mountain) which altered the course of Czech history, is also near Hvězda, a place I'm quite fond of.
Hvězda is not a major tourist attraction, but it's an interesting building, hosts some good small exhibitions generally relating to history, literature, and art (the exhibitions are curated by the Památník národního písemnictví), and there's a large wooded park plus a nice little cafe. It's a great place to go and relax, whether by walking the paths, sitting on a bench under a tree, sunbathing on the lawn, taking in an exhibition, etc.
So, spending a couple of weeks taking the tram back and forth from out there seemed like a pretty attractive notion, and on the whole it worked out just fine.
Saturday, May 19, 2018
A Small Progress Report
These last few weeks have been a busy time for me. As usual, I have several projects underway, but I also had to get ready for this year's research trip to Prague and then get settled in.
Image acquisition for Magnetic Woman is moving along, although never as quickly as I'd like (each month I hope that I will finally wrap up this phase of the book!). Just prior to leaving the US, I discovered that the library of the Art Institute of Chicago has some of what I was looking for, so I hurriedly made an appointment to go up there. In recent years, the Art Institute has acquired numerous examples of Czech modernist books and journals--they now have a real trove--and the librarians were very helpful. I was able to take my own study photographs of all sorts of things plus order reproduction-quality photos of some items for the book.
After arriving in Prague, I set out to obtain copies of photos of Toyen and other members of the Czech avant-garde. Quite a few have been published in the past, but not always with clear indications of their provenance. I knew, however, that the Památník národního pisemnictví (literary archive) would have some and that the UPM (design museum) would also be a good place to inquire. The Památník was able to offer me a selection of photos they had already scanned, plus when I went to their central depository in Litoměřice and rooted through Vítězslav Nezval's personal photos, I saw other interesting options. For the most part it must be said that Nezval's snapshots of his friends are small and not terribly clear, but I did find a more professionally done photo from an event that struck me as worth using in the book. Nezval's photo stash also included a set of entertaining pictures of him on an outing with Roman Jakobson, Jan Mukařovský, and a young woman who was very cozy with Nezval, and as Nezval, Jakobson, and Mukařovský all figure in my book, I was tempted to include one of these photos. However, there was not a specific one that was really quite right for my chapter, so with regret I passed on this even though I would have enjoyed showing that Mukařovský had a less serious side than one might gather from his scholarly work.
The UPM, meanwhile, is preparing a digital file of one of their photos for me.
So--there's progress, although I'm not happy about museums that don't respond to my inquiries.
Image acquisition for Magnetic Woman is moving along, although never as quickly as I'd like (each month I hope that I will finally wrap up this phase of the book!). Just prior to leaving the US, I discovered that the library of the Art Institute of Chicago has some of what I was looking for, so I hurriedly made an appointment to go up there. In recent years, the Art Institute has acquired numerous examples of Czech modernist books and journals--they now have a real trove--and the librarians were very helpful. I was able to take my own study photographs of all sorts of things plus order reproduction-quality photos of some items for the book.
After arriving in Prague, I set out to obtain copies of photos of Toyen and other members of the Czech avant-garde. Quite a few have been published in the past, but not always with clear indications of their provenance. I knew, however, that the Památník národního pisemnictví (literary archive) would have some and that the UPM (design museum) would also be a good place to inquire. The Památník was able to offer me a selection of photos they had already scanned, plus when I went to their central depository in Litoměřice and rooted through Vítězslav Nezval's personal photos, I saw other interesting options. For the most part it must be said that Nezval's snapshots of his friends are small and not terribly clear, but I did find a more professionally done photo from an event that struck me as worth using in the book. Nezval's photo stash also included a set of entertaining pictures of him on an outing with Roman Jakobson, Jan Mukařovský, and a young woman who was very cozy with Nezval, and as Nezval, Jakobson, and Mukařovský all figure in my book, I was tempted to include one of these photos. However, there was not a specific one that was really quite right for my chapter, so with regret I passed on this even though I would have enjoyed showing that Mukařovský had a less serious side than one might gather from his scholarly work.
The UPM, meanwhile, is preparing a digital file of one of their photos for me.
So--there's progress, although I'm not happy about museums that don't respond to my inquiries.
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