I’m half lost in thoughts, half abstracted, walking down the nightly Prague like a robot. Off my way to buy chocolates.

— Sir?! Can you hear me? Come back please!

I’m turning my head slowly, seeing two coppers standing in front of a zebra, shouting at me. I’m slowly coming to face them, pretty sure what will happen next. Do I get what I’ve done? Have I seen the lights? I’m keeping mute; trying not to show any emotions, though it’s bubbling inside.

— Can I see your ID? — the copper with a strong Moravian accent asks.

I’m quickly opening my wallet and handing him my driver license. My NSW gold driver license. They both look at it with a kind of amazement. Their disbelief transforms into few stuttering words after a while.

— You, you speak Czech? — the Moravian one asks.

— Yo — I get myself to answer, not very convincing, trying to hide my delight seeing their astonishment. They obviously weren’t ready for such a treat.

— That’s a 2000 crowns fine, sir. You have money to pay? – Moravian tries to get things back on track.

— Nah — I say in even less convincing broken Czech. There’s no cars around at this hour and the whole episode looks quite bizarre. Yet I’m probably the only one realising the truth.

Now they’re stuck. It’s well after midnight and they don’t look they want to put down the report to fine somebody who crossed the deserted street, ignoring traffic lights. Moravian sighs. The other one just looks at me puzzled. Moravian hands me my ID back and tells me to be careful.

I’m crossing the street again. In the middle of the road, I look up to check the lights — and it’s a bloody red again! Turning back, I see those two standing in awe. I can’t help myself now, I burst out laughing and return.

They shake their heads — but hey, they’re laughing, too.

We used to call it meeting bingo, though some people use more explicit bullshit bingo instead and Wikipedia calls it nicely buzzword bingo. Still the same game. Impatiently crossing square by square, waiting for the release.

Fate it seems is not without a sense of irony, as Morpheus put it. Now, when I’m compiling a presentation I’m happy to add a vogue word here and there. Market growth, cross-selling, deliverance, goal-driven, partner activation, continuous campaigning, volatile market, streamlining, ease of use, in the pipeline — these are just few that made it to my last one. One could easily throw up just reading it, not even mentioning watching my pigface presenting such blatant nonsense.

But hey — I’m only doing it to hear BINGO!!! yelled at me at some point. ‘Cos I can leverage on my audience being activated by my streamlined presentation. In the volatile market, market growth results in the pipeline are all about goal-driven partner activation, continuous campaigning and deliverance through cross-selling and ease of use.

What was I talking about?

Just want to mention two personal experiences I had with Pink Floyd.

First, it was 1994. It was early September and Pink Floyd were cruising Europe with their Division Bell tour. I hanged out in Prague on the eve of 7 September and I was hesitating if to go to Pink Floyd concert or go home and see a girlfriend of mine whom I didn’t see for some three weeks. I guess you all know what I chose. Life’s always about making decisions. I’m not sorry and I’m sorry — it’s schizophrenic, I know. That’s the way it is.

It turned out to be the very last Pink Floyd tour; they disbanded afterwards and seeing them live became an unreachable dream. Well, until…

Second, eleven years later, 2005. I just returned from Australia, coming to Prague just in time for Live 8. And for my girlfriend’s birthday. I could swiftly fly to London and back, no problem, but Gabriel told me he wasn’t going there either. So I watched the concert simultaneously online and on the TV, almost crying hearing Shine On Your Crazy Diamond and them sending their love to Syd. That time I knew that was it. There won’t be any more chances. When Rick, Nick, Dave and Roger hugged on stage, it was the end. A very vivid but inevitable end of the legend.

We’re three years later and Syd and Rick are already over there, playing the great gig in the sky.

And I am not frightened of dying
any time will do, I don’t mind.
Why should I be frightened of dying?
There’s no reason for it, you’ve gotta go sometime.

If you can hear this whispering you are dying.

I never said I was frightened of dying.

Auto-correction is certainly helpful when using English (or any other supported language of your choice). John Gruber arguments that iPhone keyboard without auto-correction would become utterly useless. I wish it could actually. Is Apple assuming everyone is typing in one of the supported languages? I wonder how that could be possibly true even in the US, not to mention UK/Europe.     

I for one switch my typing duties between English and Slovak. I twitter in English. I write most of my SMS messages in Slovak. I write emails in both. And I switch between them frequently.

Nowadays you can turn on multiple keyboard formats and switch between them on the fly (provided you selected so in the International Keyboards settings). Well first of all, current list is far from being complete. Perhaps it’ll change with the updates, but I’ve heard Telefónica O2 Czech Republic is not going to have the Czech keyboard available on launch date and it seems they’re are too aware of the problems (that is plenty of hysterical customers) it’ll bring. And I bet not only for them. I’m also afraid that once Slovak and Czech languages are added, they’ll use words with diacritics, which are rarely used in everyday communication (SMS and emails), and therefore pretty useless anyway.

The only option I have is to type with one of the dictionaries active, hence I have to reject every suggested word. Which is very frustrating. John Gruber about typing without auto-correction in MagicPad:

“Half the words I type are misspelled, some beyond recognition.”

Now double that count and you’ll know how many misspelled words I end up with, because iPhone simply refuses to remember any of my own words. After month’s use! Simple example: we have two essential prepositions, one character each: s (with) and z (from), both dangerously close to a (which by the way means and):
  

Apple, please, just add an empty language (one that doesn’t suggest any words or only the ones that iPhone remembers – functionality I have yet to see working anyway).

Incidentally, I found out that words Obama an McCain are present in English (UK) keyboard dictionary. I wonder what these two, no matter how important they might become for the future world politics, have to do with the British dictionary? I would expect having at least Churchill in there too then.

Yes, it was me inline skating. My first attempt ever.

First off, I found it extremely difficult to stand — and once I managed to put myself to an upright position, even more fun started. Something that could vaguely remind someone of skating, I’d say. However, only vaguely, as I was unable to turn, unable to brake, unable to skate uphill or downhill.

Particularly downhill skating seemed to be the biggest issue. As I was unable to break — unless you wish to call a jump to a nearby bush breaking — gaining critical speed rolling downhill made me understand the value of life.

Yet I’m glad to report that I survived; so you hopefully get a chance to see the newest attraction of Prague — the waving wretch on skates sometime next weekend again.

It was surprising seeing him coming to Trenčín, Slovakia to support Müller, with whom he recorded two albums. Müller hasn’t appeared in front of audience for some two years, since announcing his hiatus. The one-off gig was highly anticipated and proved how serious Müller’s condition is. Müller’s fighting demons of depression and consequences of years of drug abuse.

And Hiram? He beamed on stage. Audience loved him and he radiated energy, playing his guitar like a genius he was. Not a shadow on his face gave away what he was going through. I could never imagine I’d be writing these lines today.

For both of us at tm91, with great respect, we thank you for being with us. You’re going to be sadly missed.

Rui built The Love Lednička — lednička means fridge in Czech. I’m putting it exactly as he had — half English, half Czech. The four-wheeled lednička was equipped with a freezer (for drinks), a seat (for kids during the presentation, for Rui during the race) and breaks (a really essential part). Painted in blue and green, with a spoiler and with a crew of five crazy misfits dressed a bit hippie, with large bushy wigs, funny glasses and unstoppable good mood, the gang of Flower Power was ready to rock and roll.

Fun started on Saturday night. Roughly 200 contestants were united in a party, together with bunch of great looking Red Bull girls. Without going too much into detail, truth is that vodka with Red Bull is a killer drink. Everybody knows, though.

Sunday was boiling hot. Competitors were presenting their vehicles to endless brownian-motion-like moving crowd and trying to find an inch of shade wherever they could. Heat was hardly bearable, waiting for our turn was agonising.

What we did to kill the time and entertain the spectators was… a song. Rui was singing Marley’s Is This Love and playing guitar so we quickly changed the words. Our world-class collaboration brought this Red Bull song to life in less than ten minutes:

I want Red Bull
And drink it right
We have Red Bull
And a cool life

We love Red Bull
Help us win the fight
We drink Red Bull
Every day & every night

This is love
This is love
This is love
This is love
Love lednička

Those few simple lines were enough to last us until it was Rui’s turn to trip downhill. He went down with grace, waving onlookers as he passed by. And the breaking at the finish was top-notch. Overall, we earned the sixth place out of 45 teams!!

And I’m already thinking about another trolley or maybe a plane… And more so, about another beautifully senseless song.

1. Life Is a Miracle (2004) (Serbia and Montenegro/France)
Knowing previous Kusturica’s movies, there is no surprises. Partly unusual comedy, partly bizarre drama supported by great sceneries, awkward characters and energetic music. A story of an engineer finding himself near the front line of a rising war in Bosnia and losing his family for a short time-being. It is imaginative and multilayered, nevertheless feels a bit slow and somehow tiring.

2. Down in the Valley (2005) (USA)
I enjoyed this one. Starring Edward Norton as mentally unstable modern cowboy (read drifter) and Evan Rachel Wood as underaged object of his desire. What starts as a romance after a casual sex changes into a psychodrama, or rather a drama with a psycho. The change is gradual so viewers get to acknowledge Norton’s character as a weird hero, before he metamorphoses into a freaky anti-hero. Nice indie film. Recommended.

Take The Beatles. I can link their music to the particular time of my youth. I was listening to Help! when I was in the seventh grade; Rubber Soul was my favourite in the eight one. White Album by the summer of that year, just before Let It Be took over completely. Lennon came next and Plastic Ono Band ruled my days as I advanced to the grammar school.

I remember discotheques by a DJ’s favourite track. T Club, a Uni club where I used to hang out while underaged — Forever Young. A high school ski trip — What a Wonderful World. A disco at school premises — I Love To Hate You. My last trip to the border of civilisation with a bunch of young mathematicians — Violently Happy. I could go on and on like that for hours.

Mentioning What a Wonderful World, there’s something else crossing my mind. Songs that are forever a part of one’s memory because of technology: people have learnt to set their own ringtones or alarm tunes that follow them through months until they become annoying and get changed. I had few ringtones replaced, yet I’ve been waking up to Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s rendition of What a Wonderful World/Over the Rainbow since 2005, and it seems it’s not giving up.

Then, there are numbers that are shared and have untouchable intimate quality… ‘Cos one happened to listen to them while being with someone exceptional; and those are moments that are rendered unforgettable. It may be ironic enough that one can recall also tunes used to heal (or enjoy) a broken heart. How good is Stand by My Woman or Into My Arms? How weird can Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft sound?

And a very special category are the songs written for somebody. I managed to pen one or two clumsy ones (with indisputable Gabriel’s help) and seeing they work, they give a loved one goose pimples or make her cry — because she’s been touched! — is the most rewarding experience. Simply amazing.

Of course, fame and money would not hurt either. (But hey, that’s just me trying to be sarcastic to hide that I’m sentimental…)

“I haven’t played this guitar for at least 100 years,” he says.
“It was a gift from Laco Lučenič. What a pity he doesn’t see me now, he’d be proud of my virtuosity.”

Good to hear a hint of self-deprecation humor. Well, he has English mother after all. He plays one-chord riff as I expected, then stops and lets the band play the rest — that is Cesta zakázanou rýchlosťou, one of his rare rock driven tunes.

After seeing Miro “Meky” Žbirka for a second time in London, I’ve decided to mention it. Somehow. Besides, I have to count Miro among my influences, surprising as it may be.

His first concert was acoustic without drums/bass. It was great anyway; audience did sing along and everyone enjoyed themselves. Miro has a distinctive voice with enough strength to make his melodies captivating in any scenario.

For his second appearance in London on Friday he brought the whole band as he promised year and half ago, therefore able to play the aforementioned song, which deserves a full electric arrangement.

Now why is the song a core of this article? Is it his best song? I guess not. But if I’d ever have to play live again, I’d be certainly tempted to put this tune into our set now and then. Although more likely the English version — She’s Out of Control. Good work Miro.