Czech One... Czech One Two

This past weekend I took part in the annual Lednovy Underground Music Festival in Kralupy. As a second-year veteran of this grand event, I'm proud to report that I was upgraded to Czech singer.

You may recall a post last year about this time regarding the same festival. Basically the school I work for, as well as a number of local companies and radio stations sponsor this 7 1/2 hour event featuring a half dozen of the Czech Republic's most promising musical groups. This year featured such bands as Miou-Miou (Czech/French Electronic/Alt-Pop), Sto Zvirat (trans. "100 Animals" : Ska/Swing), November 2nd (Czech/American Alt-Country/Rock), Jablkon (trans. "Apple tree": Czech Folk) and Milo (Czech Folk-Rock).

Not only did I get free food, drinks, and backstage pass, but was also asked to play a few songs to open the show with my school's headmaster and another Czech friend. At their request we played Neil Young's "Heart of Gold", John Denver's "Country Roads", and Emanuel Frynta's "Anglicane" (a Czech tune about the burden of learning the English language.) I sang half of "Country Roads" in Czech, and provided backing vocals for "Anglicane." All went well, and I think I even managed to build a bit of rapport with some of my "harder to teach/like" students.

I've used lots of parentheses and quotation marks in this post. What kind of English teacher am I?

In honor of a highly mellisonant weekend, I submit the following albums for your listening/thinking pleasure.

Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself
Derek Webb - Mockingbird
Lizz Wright - Dreaming Wide Awake