Annual Czech Independence Day Festival (& Tom Verlaine)

On October 7, 2006, Manhattan held its Annual Czech Independence Day Festival from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. The festival was located at 83rd Street between Madison and Park.

I spent the day walking from my place at 86th street to 59th street where the Crate and Barrel had a 12" Analon cooking pan I wanted for half off! On the way to the C&B, I came upon the festival being set up. I proceeded on to my destination, got my wonderful cooking pan and proceeded to walk back to my home.



I stopped at the festival, which by that time had been completely set up and was just about to get the stage events started. There was Czech music, food, books, programs for children, souvenirs, free raffles and more. The annual Czech Independence Day festivities commemorate the foundation of Czechoslovakia on 28 October 1918. Performances by Cechomor, Limbora Slovak Folk Ensemble, local Sokol groups, Teatr Novogo Fronta, Laco Deczi & Celula New York, Czech School, and Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, etc. all for free.

First things first – I of course had to try the cuisine. There is a bar called The Bohemian Beer Garden (http://www.bohemianhall.com/) It is the only Beer Garden left in NYC. Without knowing it, I ordered all my food from there. Chris, my coworkers, friends and I have been to this bar numerous times because there is a lot of room and tons of different types of beers, and I never had their food until this festival. I totally will be ordering food there from now on!!!
The below picture is of the Beef Stew and some Czech open-faced potato salad sandwich. The name however, I will have to get back to you all on – it is on a piece of paper at home but I forgot it!!

Anyway, the first band on the stage was Celula New York (http://www.lofish.com/laco/). They rocked and they had a new bass player that just blew me away. I of course went right by the stage and bought the last CD they had. I was so desperate that the CD I bought was already opened haha. I just wanted to get my hands on whatever they played so I could take it home with me hat night. Here are some pictures!

Second, during the day, the Beer Garden is a Czech School that teaches Czech children how to read, write and know Czech "grammar not only out of text books, but also during painting, singing, dancing, social games and education in drama. During this interesting program the children are getting an education in Bohemian history, geography and ethnic life style." It is pretty cool. So, the little lovelies got up and did a little singing for us.

Followed by the older children who did the dancing! So Cute!:

Then we get this very scary rendition of physical theater. (http://www.tnf.cz/wwwroot/?lang=enlang=en). This one guy comes out and we all think he might turn out to start acting like a clown. No – we were dead wrong! This loud revolutionary music comes on and you hear bombs and shooting and he acts this rendition of him getting killed, killing other and the children all start crying – I mean who planned that crap? It was great but just not for the audience who was watching I suppose hahaha. Here he is:

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I was introduced to Tom Verlaine through the www.Radio.com website. You enter in the band you like and after playing a few choice songs by the artist you choose, the site will start playing songs by artists that have a similar sound to the artist you initially picked.

So, I had created a Steve Kimock radio Station through this site and after a while, I ended up hearing numerous song from Tom Verlaine. Check him out because I can't explain the awesomeness!!!

I can't find a specific site about Tom Verlain but here are some related to him in one way or another:

http://www.marquee.demon.co.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Verlaine