What are my impressions? Really there are too many emotions , and ideas  swimming around in my head to succinctly summarize. But there are a couple of things that come to mi

It’s amazing how much we can travel and NOT see – This is my third  time to Prague. The first time I came to this city was when I came with my hip hop group the spooks to film our Karma Hotel Video.  The spooks shot Karma Hotel in a Mausoleum that I remember painfully, shamefully little about. I remember being amazed at the architecture here and meeting some people but I felt like I didn’t’ really get to take the city in. Even as cultural ambassadors, many of us entertainers travel in bubbles , leaving our continents but not our comfort zones. Our scripts of how to perform and what to do have already been written out for us. Our PR people have already adjusted them to account for the minimum dosages of “Cultural Sensitivity” Why change these  scripts? Besides there’s too much work to be done. Videos to shoot.  Too many body parts to sign autographs on.  Too many clich�d Americanized club scenes to live out in different parts of the world.

 I think to begin to grasp a city like Prague, some historical context is required. As an American entertainer I didn’t really have any background on the history and culture of the Czech republic. Okay so WWII didn’t knock down the architecture- cool.  For us that meant cheap video sets and affordable labor. Awesome we get to shoot a video where they shot “Blade II.” Marilyn Manson is in our hotel so this place must be on to something. For us that meant an “exotic” and even authentic Karma Hotel. I talked to some radio hosts, and even did a show while we were here. But I didn’t really come to know the city.

I didn’t get that fact that this is a city still in economic, political, cultural and psychological transition from a difficult communist era. I didn’t get that this is a city just beginning to grapple with both the promises and pitfalls of corporate capitalism I didn’t get the fact that while I’ve always thought of Prague as Eastern Europe, it is in fact Central Europe . I didn’t get that the naming of Prague as Eastern Europe (despite the fact that it is West of Vienn), is symbolic of a larger marginalization. I didn’t get that the often serious and yet warm manner of the Czech people is multilayered, multifaceted reality. It is the wisdom, resolve, memory, and focus of a people who have endured, adjusted and prospered.

But now this time around I’m starting to get it.  Eating traditional Czech foods, trying to speak the language, and letting Pilsner flow liberally through my bloodstream has begun to plug me into a glimpse of the feeling of cultural memory, an intangible but real sense of what connects the Dark Gothic church rooftops, Neon signs,  the eyeliner, the Goulash , the beer, and the sincere but cautiously welcoming smiles of this city.  But voices from the past have already begun to speak to me and I hope that they continue to. I’m listening this time.

Location: Prague, Czech Republic