07 October 2007

Czechs & Slovaks in American History


The Library of Congress offers a "European Reading Room" with a special projects section on their website. Each provides a historical timeline for the important contributions of particular immigrants to helping shape the USA, or what is most commonly referred to as "America" when abroad (sorry, Canada).

Czechs in American History

Slovaks in American History

There are also links to pages on the Finns, Germans, Portuguese & Luxembourgers on the main Special Projects page.

22 September 2007

Goth Poetry Generator

In an earlier post I provided a link to the Post-Modernism Essay Generator, which creates the kind of schlock written by many unfortunately aimless academics.

Well, here is a parallel machine geared for many of the black-clad hipster students who worship these sad professors... It's called the Goth-O-Matic Poetry Generator, and a few moments with it yields the kind of poetry many overworked editors must reject daily (in order to maintain some semblance of esteem in the literary landscape).

Types of goth poetry you can generate include:
Supernatural Violence & Horror
The Feeling Very Sorry For Yourself
The Fear of Religious Persecution
The Eternal Love of Vampires
The Black Abyss of Righteous Hatred

09 September 2007

Czech Black Humor

Czech & Slovak humor is something I can relate to well, most likely since my dad's grandparents came from this region of Europe. It's a humor that holds nothing back -- nothing sacred -- for if humor can't encounter any hypothetical situation or topic, then what can?

During the summer of 2007, a Czech group known as Ztohoven (think of a modern version of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters) hacked into a morning TV segment in which cameras pan across the country's terrain. What resulted was a fairly realistic rendition of a nuclear bomb going off in some godforsaken village during the breakfast hours.

Immediately, both TV station representatives and other municipal authorities promised justice against these "terror-inciting hackers" (paraphrase). First, read Ztohoven's response, then watch the video footage and judge for yourself how much harm could possibly come of it.



To me, it seems anyone with half a brain could tell this was a prank simply by switching to other channels. Remember 9/11? On every channel. If something like this were real, it too would be on every channel.

19 July 2007

More Prague Pics



Click for more Prague photos -- winter 2006-2007, as well as miscelaneous sites around town, JESUS SIGHTINGS, and a trip to Bratislava, Slovakia.

17 July 2007

Free WILCO


As you may well know, WILCO has been one of my favorite bands since I picked up their first album AM from a discount bin in the early 90s. Now you too can experience their music for very little cost: only a few moments of your time. CLICK HERE for a free downloadable EP album made available on the WILCOworld website.