David Černý and other humor in Praha

Today the penny dropped. David Černý is the same artist who ran afoul of the EU with his installation celebrating the Czech presidency of the EU in which he ridiculed just about every European nation by using mean stereotypes in the project. The same David Černý who designed the babies, the hanging Freud, the peeing men in front of the Kafka museum, and painted the former Russian tank pink (now floating on a raft in the river). Ruth and I had a mission--find all the various Černý installations around the town. Accomplished (except for the TV tower, which is just too far, and there are representative babies by the river).

The peeing duo at the Kafka museum supposedly write out quotations of famous Czech people, and people there can text messages so that they will write out that message.

One thing is certain, his art is meant to be interactive, and the tourists here do just that. They climb on the babies (oddly disturbing)and play with the peeing statues' winkies or just rinse their hands in the stream.

Photos to follow!

Rituals

Rituals

After talking with Ondrej and his Hanna, I've been thinking about rituals.  His included rolling cigarettes (with the small filter hanging out of his mouth while he prepared the paper and tobacco), making coffee in a mokka-kanne, and brewing tea by a variety of processes.  I asked out the rituals associated with absinthe, which permeates this city:
1. Collect absinthe, a fireproof glass, a perforated spoon, a sugar cube (invented in CZ!), and matches.
2. Balance the spoon on top of the glass.  Place the sugar cube on the spoon.
3. Pour absinthe over the cube into the glass.
4. Light the sugar cube and let the flame melt it into the glass.  The absinthe in the glass will also be aflame.  Let it burn for about 5 seconds to burn off some of this (very) high proof alcohol.
      -alternate method: pour a thin line of sugar onto the center backbone of the perforated spoon, dip this carefully into the absinthe already in the glass to moisten it, place the spoon over the glass and light the moistened sugar
5. Put out the flame:
     Men: put palm over the burning drink (tough guys)
     Women (who should not even be drinking this):  place a coaster over the top of the glass.
6. Drink slowly and have ABSOLUTELY no more than one drink per evening out.
7. Follow with a glass of orange juice and/or water.
  OR: with an espresso to experience a unique effect of the absinthe opening the arteries and the espresso providing a caffeine buzz.

Seems like a lot to do to enjoy the bitter, slightly medicinal drink.  But why not allow the ritual to make the drink special?   

What other rituals do we follow? And do the rituals bring their own form of enjoyment and enhance that pleasure?  

The first thing I (and I am sure many of you) do in the morning is to make and drink coffee.  For this adventure I packed tea bags just in case I could 't get coffee immediately.  Well, the hotel neither has a coffee maker nor a water boiler, and I have to wait for coffee until the "Bohemia Bagel" shop opens at 7:30 am to get coffee.  Their coffee is very good, and they serve a bottomless cup, so I have no complaints, but I miss the ritual of grinding beans, measuring the water, hearing the water begin to boil, and finally smelling the brew. On the basis of just this one example, I'd have to say I enjoy and need my rituals.

Traveling provides the opportunity to examine habits and rituals, as well as the necessity of adjusting rituals and adding new (if only temporary) ones.  In the last week and a half, I've changed my laundry routines (daily rather than weekly), my eating habits (big cooked breakfast since it's included in the hotel price) along with lighter cold lunch and dinner, my walking habits (more in general and many more steps), etc.  So what traveling really does is to force me to live a bit differently in a different place by removing or changing rituals.  I bet coffee will taste wonderfully familiar when I get back home.