Czech Update

Czechs celebrate anniversaries of Jan Hus and Cyril and Metoděj on successive days

admin — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:35:05 -0400

July 5 and 6 represent successive holidays commemorating two corner stone events of Czech history and myth. They are successively the brining of literacy to the Czech lands (or Great Moravia) by Cyril and Methodius in 863 and the burning for heresy of the Czech reform priest Jan Hus in 1415. Both events are amply described around the internet including YouTube.

Czech crooners (dead and alive) on YouTube

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:37:28 -0400

Karel Hála, a star of Czech big band pop music since the 1950s just died as reported by Lidové Noviny. Here's a cliop of him and another stallwart of Czech pop Karel Gott.

Czech Worldmusic via Čankišou on YouTube

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:02:08 -0400

Czech folklore music often counts as World Music but this is Czech musicians having fun with what they perceive to be the music of the world. I found out about this video via an American friend who saw it on a World Music channel.

Irglová: Czech singer and actress reaps fame rewards after Oscar win

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:55:19 -0400

"Co Čech to muzikant" (Scratch a Czech, find a musician) goes an old Czech saying (going back to 1800s at least) that used to be known around the musical world. And now it is again! A little bit and on YouTube where there are dozens of clips of her singing including on David Letterman or Later with Jools Holland.

AFP: Fairytale rise to fame for Czech singer turned actress PRAGUE (AFP) — With low-budget musical movie "Once" winning awards from Hollywood to Moscow, and its soundtrack ballad "Falling Slowly" climbing the charts worldwide, Czech youngster Marketa Irglova has experienced a fairytale rise to stardom.

Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly (Later)

People speaking Czech on YouTube 1: 10 Survival Phrases

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:01:29 -0400

Sometime ago I started a theme of Czech music on YouTube but never followed up on it. Here's an extension of it: People speaking Czech on YouTube. There are lots of people speaking Czech on YouYube, sometimes the clips are funny, sometimes interesting and informative, and sometimes obscene. The first example is a run down of top 10 phrases from travellinguist.

Note that strictly speaking How are you? is not a particularly useful phrase for a tourist in the Czech Republic since Czechs only use it with people they know and never with someone they just met!!!

Strčprstskrzkrk.com launches

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:42:08 -0400

I've owned the StrčPrstSkrzKrk.com domain for a year but only now did I find a few minutes to make it live. All it contains is a video of me pronouncing the phrase. But with any luck, I will be adding more Czech tongue-twisters there, as time goes on.

Čechomor - Czech You Tube Pick of the Week

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:59:52 -0400

Song Velické zvony by a folklore rock group called Čechomor. You can get both the lyrics (sorry Czech only) and the guitar chords at Akordy.sk. The song is about a funeral for a man poisoned by his lover who is now crying for him.