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This week’s Friday night was special for all fans of Czech movies. The Czech Film and Television Academy revealed their nominations for the Czech Lion awards. The contest, which is very much similar to the American Oscars awards, revealed thirteen different categories but the movies selected in each of them did not seem to vary. The list of top movies looked rather repetitive giving us, viewers, less imagination about who will be the top winners in March 2009.

The top best movies nominations were the Karamazovs, Tobruk and Country Teacher. The same movies were also nominated in other categories:  best music, director, and script. On the other hand, this year’s nominations brought more variety by bringing a new category of the best documentary. You can view the nominations in the list at the end of the article.

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Článek v ČEŠTINĚ dole (Klikněte na “Read the rest …”)

Avocado (images.teamsugar.com)

One of our readers from the Czech Republic asked us for help. She bought her first avocados but did not know what to do with them. Her passion for trying new foods inspired us to start a new sequence named “New Mood - New Food.”  During communism, every average customer in Czechoslovakia did not have many opportunities to eat exotic food from other countries outside the Eastern Bloc. Even bananas were so rare that people had to wait in lines for hours to get one kilogram per person. Today, both countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, have open markets that bring new varieties of food items that their citizens are learning to eat. Today, as you may already expect, we introduce to you avocados and a recipe for guacamole - a great dip for crackers or tortilla chips.

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To mark its presidency over the EU, the Czech government wanted to create a sculpture of all countries, named Entropa, of the European Union. These pieces of art were supposed to be the work of artists from each country of the union. David Cerny, a Czech artist was selected as the leader of this project that would be displayed in Brussels, Belgium. When the final work was revealed, it not only shocked everybody due to the fact that the only author of this work was Cerny and his affiliates, but the sculpture itself humiliated several countries, such as Germany, Latvia, or Bulgaria. Many European artists wanted to react to Entropa and created caricatures of the Czech Republic through their eyes.

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Gerník

Where do you think you can find the most preserved Czech culture, language and traditions? If you guessed Romania, you just hit the nail on the head. If you visit Czech villages in the south of the Romanian Banat, you will feel like at home. People in Banat have preserved their heritage for more than 180 years by simply passing it from one generation to another.

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Who doesn’t know Josef Lada, a writer, caricaturist and illustrator of cartoons of Svejk (The Good Soldier Svejk), Mikes (Mikes the Tomcat), beautiful Czech landscapes, and pictures from everyday lives? His self-taught drawing technique is known around the world. You may have seen his Water Sprite (Vodník), Hog-killing Time (Zabíjačka), Czech Bethlehem (Český betlém), Czech Countryside (Česká krajina), or Fracas in the Pub (Rvačka v hospodě). The lastly named illustration brought so much attention to the Czech public and organizers of Josef Lada’s Museum that they decided to reconstruct this scene with volunteers dressed in Czech historical costumes.

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Both countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, finally announced their athletes of the year for 2008. As separate countries, they both continued in this tradition that is already 50 years old. The Czech athlete of the year became Barbora Spotakova - a world and Olympic champion and the world record holder in javelin throwing. Slovakian athlete of the year was Michal Martikan- a slalom canoeist, an Olympic champion and world champion.

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Would you like to learn about the Czech Republic, its history and paths that lead the country to the European Union that it is presiding over? You may like the following animation that describes just that in the Czech language with English subtitles. The movie is called From Forefather to Union (Od Praotce k Unii) and the author of this cartoon is Pavel Koutsky. Even though the movie is animated, people of all ages can enjoy its simplicity and brilliance that captures all important aspects of Czech history.

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(www.icm.cz)

Two weeks ago we announced the official celebration of the Czech Republic assuming the EU presidency. We also provided you with the first video that described a summary of the initial activities associated with this rotation. Since some of you would like to keep up with the series, we have created a whole page that will be updated with each new sequence. You can, of course, find the videos at the Czech TV website in the section iVysilani. Unfortunately, the videos are mostly for Czech or Slovak native speakers since we are not able to provide periodic translations for all the videos. We will, however, keep you updated in our English/Czech articles in the future.

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It has been twenty years since the fall of communism and when we look back, we are amazed how different we used to live. It may seem that the former Eastern Bloc countries have moved on towards independence and freedom, but is it really true? The recent affair with Russian natural gas showed us again how much these countries are still dependent on this powerful country. This was a tough time for Europe, but it showed that EU countries could overcome this burden by helping each other during tough times. What will they do to make sure this won’t happen again?

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Many of you found our survey link and answered our six multiple choice and three essay questions. As we promised, we are revealing the results so you can learn about your fellow readers. We are also including a more comprehensive summary done by a third party that describes our visitor diversity and interests. Still haven’t participated in the survey? You can still go ahead and give us your feedback since we will continue collecting feedback from our visitors. Our survey button is on the right top of the page or you can CLICK HERE.

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K. Čapek

Karel Capek (1890 - 1938) was a Czech writer, political thinker, and philosopher that was known around the world. You have probably heard about him as an “inventor” of the word “Robot.” He was not only known for his resistance against the Nazis but also the Communists and always promoted a free and democratic Czechoslovakia. His work and pure democratic beliefs are just two of many reasons to read his great books that have been translated into many other languages. You may also find another reason to read his books - it has been 70 years since his death and anybody is able to freely publish his books, making them even more available to the world.

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atm (www.wwatm.com)

Today, it has been exactly 20 years since the first ATM was installed in Prague at Wenceslas Square. It was not an on-line machine, as you know nowadays and was originally only available to employees of the Czech State Savings Bank. Later on, other, more sophisticated ATMs appeared and were available to the public, but even today Czech and Slovak ATMs have room to grow.

What does the ATM acronym really mean? It stands for Automated Teller Machine thus when ATMs are used for withdrawals or deposits of cash, no human intervention is needed. Moreover, you can use the service any time of the day or week. In the beginning, Czech and Slovak ATMs, were not that sophisticated as in other countries at that time but they somewhat evolved more than in other countries.

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