Václav Havel We Usually Stop, Examine the Statesman, the Artist Our Lives...And Ultimately 8 Horoscopes Determine That We’Re Powerless to Change It, Any of It
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free/zdarma #01 January/Leden 2003 MUSIC · D I V E R S I O N · S T Y L E · F O O D · F I L M HAVEL Z HRADU plus STUDENT GUIDE HOROSCOPES goesTHE WEEKEND abroad WANDERER Ticketstream pull-out guide / programová příloha Your Guide to Prague... PRAGUEPRAGUE JANUARY/LEDEN 2003 PUBLISHER Ann Lysek SENIOR EDITOR Miguel Tuason GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Douglas Rogers Miguel Tuason THAT GUY Mervyn Murray CONTRIBUTORS Lilian von der Ahe Ryan E Clontz Lenka Dostalková Jennifer Hamm Mark Hopkins Andrea Jurčová Ajay Madiwale Missed Manners Big Rock Joseph Silber Hilary St. John Mick Swiney PHOTOGRAPHERS Thomas Boullé Ryan E Clontz Ajay Madiwale Douglas Rogers www.clubber.cz ADDRESS Sokolská 22 120 00 Prague 2 Czech Republic NEW EMAIL [email protected] 3 FROM THE EDITOR Welcome to 2003. 5 Missed Manners As this time of year rolls-in, 6 FAREWELL Václav Havel we usually stop, examine The Statesman, The Artist our lives...and ultimately 8 horoscopes determine that we’re powerless to change it, any of it. And anyway, we’re The Meaning Of Life 10 thinkSTUDENT GUIDE having loads of fun living it. So this month, think again 12 Weekend Wanderer wants to say, “Hey, it’s okay, America’s red-neck region rozumime.” Spotlight From a deep look into the Meaning The PULL-OUT guide to your inevitable future of Life, to a meaningful tool into the beginning of school, this issue 15 FILM focuses on the way it is, right here, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers right now... January Premieres Now it’s your turn! Tell us what 16 STAR RENTALS YOU’d like to see, and what YOU’d Super videos to make you feel like a kid again like not to see. And look in future issues and see what YOU said, in 17 FOOD print. FOUND: The BEST Chinese in Prague Radost F/X - Late night eating that keeps you healthy Send your letters to: think again 18 STYLE Sokolská 22 January Make-Over: NAIL IT DOWN 120 00 P2 Georgie’s Box Or email to: 19 DIVERSION [email protected] Crossword Book excerpt: Four Blondes All letters become the property of think again and may be edited for 20 MUSIC length or clarity. MELODYctionary Plastic People of the Universe CORRECTION: Due to printer-error in Weekend 22 NEbulous MOments Wanderer (December), the line: Kolín = Kutná Hora 26 theBACKpage should have been: Kolín =/ Kutná Hora We hope we didn’t offend anyone from either city. Cover Designed by: Doug Rogers Issue #1 JANUARY2003 LEDEN i s s e d M M a n n e r s The Meaning Of Life new year, a new beginning. And But what about this life business, while perhaps, time to take stock anew of we are distinct, and conscious as ourselves? Does just what on earth we’re doing with our it have meaning? A lives. Just what, exactly, should we be No. doing anyway? What is the “meaning” of life? Not ultimately. But that does not mean it Here we are, grappling with what is doesn’t matter. probably the world’s most misphrased question. Some might conclude from all this that Life has no more inherent “meaning” than does a nothing matters but the way we perceive things tree. What is the “meaning” of a “tree,” we might – that reality is relative and many-sided and, thus, as well ask. the universal is amoral. While this may, strictly But let’s begin at the beginning. All speaking, be true, the relativity is concrete enough matter is 99.99% vacuum. The Universe itself is through the interconnectedness of all things to a sea of swirling matter/energy. And as the First make the behavior of one entity to another matter Law of Thermodynamics tells us, energy cannot profoundly. The Universe may be amoral, but as be created or destroyed – it merely changes forms. long as you’re standing here on two solid feet You, that table you are sitting at, the drink you’re you’d better behave, Buddy. Every other entity enjoying, the wall, your keys, your eyes, the air, light, – whether a fl y, a dog, or a chicken – has as much and heat – all are in motion on a quantum level right to its brief shining moment of consciousness and are mostly vacuum, mixed with ricocheting as we do: So do no harm, and help if you can. particles. (Which is why it is theoretically possible Alternatively, those with a nihilistic bent for you to pass your fi nger through the table might be tempted to conclude that nothing really or walk through a wall. If only all the colliding matters, since there may not be a God or other particles would politely get out of each other’s Supreme Being to reward and/or punish them for way, and allow their respective material substances their actions. But honestly, even if the teacher’s to merge. But I digress. We might just end up falling not looking, do you really want to throw Sally out though the fl oor anyway.) the window? Now an infi nitesimal portion of this We – along with other conscious entities vast, swirling matter/energy of the Universe – are the way the Universe looks at itself, grasps makes up organic life forms that are conscious. itself, appreciates itself. If we don’t enjoy it, who We perceive ourselves as distinct entities from all will? And what a dark universe indeed it would other things, and in relation to what is around us. be without enjoyment, without pleasure, without We are no longer At One with the all-swirling, a appreciation and wonderment. mere unconscious part of its motion. Hence the So enjoy it! Even the pain, if you can angst, and sometimes loneliness, that is conscious – study it, dissect it, experience it fully. It’s all so existence. fl eeting, and one day you will be utterly unaware But consider that your consciousness of any of this. We have the rest of eternity to be lasts for a mere blip relative to the life span of the profoundly oblivious. So thanks, Oblivion, I’ll take Universe. You get to be aware for a brief window a rain check. M of time, to look around and think, “Wow!” Then M your energy gets sucked right back into the swirling mass and ends up pushing planets around Questions? Dilemmas? as gravity, or light, or dust. Missed Manners professes to be a wealth of All major religions address this process. random tips, social and otherwise. No question Whether they refer to it as becoming One with too small, no inquiry too profound. the Universe, or being At One with Buddha Please send questions and musings to: consciousness, or playing harp with God in [email protected] heaven, it’s all the same idea: returning, after death, to the All. JANUARY LEDEN 5 farewell President Václav Havel Soon, the heart light will be turned off and with it, will go a remarkable and compelling era in Czech history: Václav Havel as the nation’s president. he neon heart above Prague Castle, a replica of President Jacques Chirac, he’s made strong friendships tthe one Havel often draws under his signature, is part and alliances with leaders that helped bring his nation of his farewell as president, a position he’s held since greater prestige and power. But more than shaking just after the collapse of communism in 1989. Like the hands and throwing parties with other presidents, Havel president, the pulsing piece of modern art, which was has also done the roll-up-your-sleeves kind of work to put on display last November, has drawn a wide array of accelerate the Czech Republic being brought into the criticism and praise since the moment it appeared. western fold. There is perhaps no greater example than his lobbying efforts to secure the nation’s invitation to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. After first suggesting the idea to Clinton in 1993, Havel turned up his efforts in 1997. And in 1998, he went to Washington, D.C. to meet with politicians one-on-one Whatever your opinion of the playwright- to convince them of expansion. The following year, the cum-politician, or his heart, one thing is clear: the Czech Republic became among the first of the former country will not be the same when Havel steps down as communist nations to join NATO. Indeed, the staging president in early February. of last November’s NATO Summit here – the first And nowhere will that be more clear than in to be held behind the former Iron Curtain – was an the strength the Czech Republic will have on the western acknowledgement to Havel’s pull with his counterparts world’s radar screen. Havel is almost entirely credited in the west. During the two-day summit, Havel hosted with giving this small nation in central Europe a relatively a farewell dinner, in which he widely praised the dozens big voice in both Washington, D.C. and Brussels. Since of heads of state who attended. Chirac described Havel taking office as president of Czechoslovakia in 1990, as the “friendly, humble, soft but vivid light of the iron Havel has won-over three American presidents and man who, in the dark depths of jail, in the abyss of far more world leaders. Whether he was jamming with totalitarianism, never weakened.” It is this image of the President Bill Clinton or waxing philosophy with French dissident-playwright, who spent five years in jail, and was 6 dijon vu - the same mustard as before.