Mailbox
This week in Mailbox: A Foreign Ministry award for the Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center, looking for a song title, Renee Zellweger at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, a Radio Prague story about male synchronised swimmers. Listeners quoted: Mary Lou Krenek, Tomas Tousek, Mike Talbot, Christine Conlow.
"The wonderful Czech-Texans who spearheaded this cultural center in La Grange, Texas deserved the Gratias Agit Award this year. They have worked real hard to preserve our heritage here in Texas. [...] I particularly liked the Texas map with the Czech flag which by the way resembles our Texas Lone Star State flag. I want to believe we can influence our great state with our Czech heritage of democracy from the traditions of President Tomas Masaryk; 'an open ended system with a human face.'"
Tomas Tousek, who forgot to mention where he is writing from, sent us this question:
This one was not difficult to guess unlike some other songs our listeners ask us about. It is called "Tata" or "Dad" and comes from the 1999 album "Kapradi" by the band Buty who come from North Moravia and sing in the local dialect.
Our regular listener Mike Talbot is writing from the Isle of Man:
"I was pleased to see that Renee Zellweger is a star attraction at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Her recent movie, called 'Miss Potter', was shot largely in the beautiful Isle of Man as well as the remarkable English Lake District. I thought I'd mention this as the Lake District (Beatrix Potter's home area) appears to take the headlines and our island usually is not mentioned - despite our local film industry and government having a substantial financial stake in the production costs."
Thank you for that comment. The festival starts next week and as every year, Radio Prague will bring your reports from the venue.
Christine Conlow from Germany had this query concerning a story by Jarka Halkova about male synchronised swimming.
"I read this older article about the male synchronized swimmers from the Czech Republic and found it to be very interesting. Is there any contact information for this group? I am writing a blog about men in synchronized swimming and would like to let them know about it, I hope that through this blog they will be able to communicate with other people who support men in this sport."
As a matter of fact, the website of the group www.krasoplavci.cz is mentioned in the article http://www.radio.cz/en/article/66409. They have an e-mail contact there, too.
And finally, one last chance to hear our June competition question:
This month we would like to know the name of a composer who was born in 1860 in what is now the Czech Republic and lived here until the age of fifteen. Later he studied music in Vienna and worked as a conductor in several Central European cities, including Ljubljana, Budapest, Vienna but also Prague and Olomouc. He also lived and worked in New York for some time. He died in Vienna at age 50, leaving behind nine symphonies and a number of vocal works.
You have one more week to send us your tips to [email protected], or if you prefer Radio Prague, 12099 Prague, Czech Republic. Mailbox will be back again next Sunday.
