How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Accept the Ubiquitousness of Starbucks...
Well... here I am, in the airport lounge of Gate C29 at Copenhagen Airport, about to start the final leg of this strange (and I DO mean strange) and incredible journey. But first about day10… my last in Prague…
After getting back to the apartment to drop off my bag from London, I headed out and went to see one of the SIX ACTS Projects… these were teacher-led/student-created pieces that are happening all over Prague as site specific performances created by the leader/teach and the students. I never caught if they had given it it’s own title, but at least on the ‘boards’ it was called SECOND ACT and was led by designer/professor Roma Patel. They did it in the basement underneath the Bethlehem Chapel, in an area called the Lapidarium… It was a very interesting installation…You went down a winding stone staircase into the first basement, and had to inch along a tight corridor where they had placed lighting instruments shooting obtusely along the wet stonework, creating some really interesting shadows. You then entered a small antechamber of stone that had an installation of playing cards, an antique lamp and a soundscape, you then had to turn up a short stone stair and were then asked to go thru this hallway-like contraption made of gauze and netting. You then emerged into this large, low ceiling-ed room and had “stations of scenic installation… the first projected flames onto tinfoil that was arranged in a away that it reflected the flames at strange angles around a corner. Another had projections of flowing water hitting and passing thru netting that was hitting a wet stone wall behind it… and you had to traverse in between layers of netting to get to the next area, which had hundreds of nails suspended by fishing line, so that they looked like big raindrops that tinkled against each other…. Oh , and the floor in various areas was covered in mud-caked women’s shoes… What it all meant… I have no clue, but it was visually and aurally interesting. Afterwards I headed back to Havelska market to get a couple other trinkets and things, and then headed back to the Veletrzni Palace to walk thru the exhibits again and see how things had progressed in the American Student Exhibit..
Had I not, stupidly, put the camera cord in my CHECKED luggage, I’d include pix, but alas, that’ll have to wait until after I get home. Sorry.
I met up with ALESSIA (a grad school classmate, and the Assistant Production Manager for the whole of the USA’s exhibits here) and we went to a lecture session on mentorship at the Canadian National Exhibit and then headed back to the American exhibit to see Paul Zaloom (aka Beakman) perform his 1-man political satire puppet show… THE ADVENTURES OF WHITE MAN, which was really quite funny. He uses normal everyday objects to create physical worlds and puppets that comment on society in harsh and yet funny ways… WHITE MAN is about a American astronaut who goes exploring in space and finds a planet inhabited by aliens, whom he decides to “help” by bringing human technology and American mass-media to their world. It’s VERY tongue-in-cheek, and spoke amusingly to the American need to “civilize” others. I then walked back down from the VP thru LENTNA across the Stafanikuv Bridge, and thru Old Town down to the National Theatre where I re-met Alessia to see the THIRD ACT, which was on the island in the Vltava (forgive me I can’t remember the name at the moment) right adjacent to the National Theatre. It was a site-specific performance led by British auteur Louise Anne Miller. It was charged with ”revealing thru performed tableau the history and myths of this particular island of Prague”… It was all outside… it was starting to rain, and it was so crowded you really couldn’t get much out of it.. I’ll chalk that one to the LOSE column… but kudos to them for attempting something so different!
Alessia, myself, and one of her grad scudents from Univ. of Montana then hit “the most famous pub in Prague” according to Alessia, it goes by the name of U FLECKU, and was just a couple blocks away. Perfect! It certainly landed somewhere in the GERMAN side of Czech food and décor all the way to a roving accordion-player in liederhosen, who seemed to have a penchant for Argentinian tangos?!? We were each served a shot of Berechkova, a very… tangy very Czech variant of whiskey… it is incredibly spicy and very much with a cinnamon-aftertaste. Alessia despised it, but I thought it quite good… and rather powerful… most of you know that I’m not a big drinker of alcohol, but between two shots of Berechkova and the dark house ale.. lets’ just say that I was “feelin’ it”. I had a variant of Svichkova a braised steak in gravy with dumplings… again… REALLY good. It was a lovely and peaceful end to my last night in Prague.
As to today (day 11) I got up as quickly and quietly as I could and snuck out to get to the train to get to the bus to get to the airport…all in all it took about an hour 15. It’s funny, I was actually a little leery of how to get from the airport into Prague, but it turned out to be rather easy each time.
The flight to Copenhagen was uneventful, although the plane was oddly situated… we entered thru the rear of the plane and there was luggage directly behind and between the cockpit and the cabin. Granted it w s a half-full puddle-jumper with full-on propellers…
The Copenhagen airport is GORGEOUS ( again I REALLY wish I could show the pix).and I had my last European meal… a Danish variant of the Indian dish Chicken Tikka Masala.. slightly odd, but still, quite good.
Wow! Is this journey really ending? It still seems more than a little surreal, but I’m so grateful for having the opportunity. There are a lot of thoughts still swirling about that haven’t solidified yet in my mind…. The question of European design and its’ relationship to American practice… the amusement of the varied moneys and languages I’ve experienced... but those’ll need to wait. We’re about to board and I want to get this posted quickly…
There are also a number of things I left undone… in part because I was trying to not break the bank (though the overage charges on baggage for the return flight have blown THAT hope out of the water), but in large part because I like doing many of these things with Janna. The Kafka Museum was really the only one I did… I really wanted to hit the Museum of Decorative Arts, the interiors of Prague Castle, the National Museum… I didn’t see anything at the National Theatre or Laterna Magica, or the gardens of the Petrin area of Prague that requires a funicular ride to get to them properly. Nor did I get down to the Cubist houses just a few blocks south of where I was staying… There was simply too much to do, and I hope to make the trip back there with Janna at some time in the future.
Oh well… to the fun of this time! And the excitement for the next time!
Pictures and a final wrap up coming tomorrow… or the next day depending on how exhausted I am!
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