It's been a fun few days

Saturday I was in Letna Stadium watching soccer team A.C. Sparta kick the crap out of F.C. Chmel Blsany, another Czech team. By a fluke, because I certainly didn't know what I was doing, I ended up with a great seat just left of centerfield. (I was so close that when #17 on the other team was kicked in the ankle and went down, I heard it.) A cultural highlight: there were a couple of chants in English, "Let's go, Sparta, let's go!" (or what sounded like "Lis go Sparrta lis go!") and "Fight! Fight! Fightfightfight!" Also, the poor Eurotel (cell phone company) cheerleaders must have been freezing in their bikini tops and super short skirts. I was wearing long underwear, jeans, an undershirt, a wool sweater, a heavy jacket, and woolen hat and scarf. I would have liked gloves, too, but I haven't found any I want, yet.

Sparta played brilliantly, or at least I was really impressed. The other team, though, would get the ball and then pass it way down field to... no one. An empty spot, usually. They did manage to score 2 to Sparta's 5, so that's something. It should be exciting to watch them against Slavia, a team more in their league, I hear.

Vienna! I love it! If I spoke German this city would be on the short list of where I want to move to. I'll post pictures once I get back to Prague. There's so much that it would take a very long time to tell it all, so I'll stick to Viennale, the film festival going on now until October 26th. Last night, I decided to see a documentary that I knew nothing about (my criteria was that it be in English) called, Leaving Home, Coming Home. Directed by Gerald Fox, it was about a photographer that I'd never heard of, named Robert Frank. (And, despite my own history with photography, I had never seen any of the work shown in the film.) The quirk about this film is that Mr. Frank has stipulated that it may only be shown twice a year (partly why I was the sixth person to rate it on it IMDB.com), so because it was shown in Rotterdam earlier this year, no one else will see it until next year. This is a shame, obviously, because it shows the vulnerability of being an artist and dealing with the life through one's work. (It also shows his crazy artist wife June Leaf. How much fun to be a crazy artist.)

Time to get in line to get tickets for tonight's film. :)