An Island

AnIsland_Painting

©Charly, all rights reserved.

This is a coloured sketch to one of my paintings. I cannot unfortunately make a picture of the final painting, because I gave it to my brother who now lives 400 km from me. All the paintings I gave him are at the moment not fulfilling their function, because my sister in law has stashed them away.  They “do not fit with the color scheme of their new appartment” which I did not take kindly, because they could keep the paintings during the renovations in mind if they wanted to. Click for full size.

A bummer – I have just reminded myself that a lot of my sketches are ruined or damaged. A few years ago I was reconstructing the roof and the workers have moved my stuff around without heeding my instructions. The impromptu cover was also built sloppily and my warnings that I live in very windy area were dismissed as needles worrying of an amateur. Inevitably the drawings were stashed under the impromptu cover which got ripped off in a gust of wind. And rain poured on them. I only found out a few months after they left, when everything was mouldy.

It would take a lot of time to airbrush it in Photoshop, so some of the pictures will unfortunately have maps on them.

Behind the Iron Curtains Part 1 – Growing Up

These are my recollections of a life behind the iron curtains. I do not aim to give perfect and objective evaluation of anything, but to share my personal experiences and memories. It will explain why I just cannot get misty eyed over some ideas on the political left and why I loathe many ideas on the right.

Kids are kids everywhere, at least when they are not dying from malnutrition. In at least somewhat functioning society they like to play, run around and nag their parents with incessant questions about the mundane as well as the profound. “Mom, why is the grass green? Mom, why does rain fall down? Mom, what is a whore?”

Children in eastern bloc behind the iron curtains were not different. We liked to play and chat, and we did so whenever possible. But one thing that many children from that time shared, some more, some less was fear.

Fear of nuclear annihilation.

Later in life I learned that people in the West were afraid of those evil aggressive USSR commies who wanted to wipe them out and were held in check only by superior military power of magnificent NATO. Well, on our side of the border it was those trigger happy evil capitalists led by evil imperialist USA who were held in check by superior military power of magnificent Warsaw Pact. And in reality both sides committed war crimes and atrocities, there were no angels in the hot spots of the cold war.

Adults might have had their doubts and objections regarding the veracity of all this fear mongering, but for kids it was definitively all real. The regular “fallout drills” at school, regular alarm drills, signs how to react in case of nuclear attack hanging in every office. Once we were playing with my cousins in the garden and we heard a noise from the sky we did not know. What instantly gripped us was the fear that these are the nuclear missiles heading for Prague. Where I live this feeling was exacerbated by the very real presence of the iron curtains.

From every window of my house I see across the border to Germany. If I were to walk in a straight line in any direction from my property, I will end up in Germany within a day’s walk. Going mushroom hunting was allowed only in certain directions and certain areas of the forest were taboo. Big signs “Caution, State Border Ahead” everywhere. I still remember that one of the signs was riddled with bullet holes. The only time in my life I have seen a real thing riddled with bullets

And the curtains themselves…

Due to the signs and restrictions on movement, they were not usually seen in person and I never touched them. Mostly I knew they are there, somewhere in the forests. But the train track was driving very close o them, so whenever we were riding train to visit the inland, I could see them from the window.

Three meters high, double fence of razor wire. Roundup sprayed shooting corridors. And a macadam road for easy military access.

To a child, that was a terrifying sight. I loathe to see such structures being build again.

A very brief introduction

So. Testing, testing. Is this thing working properly?

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Caine asked for some help with blog content and after a consideration I offered to do it. She has handed me the keys to her blog and I will do my best to not scratch it. Hopefully my blogging skills are better than my driving (you really would not like to lend me your car, and I would never accept it).

Most people reading this blog know me already from comments. So just very briefly who I am:

I am male, Czech, living in CZ. First third of my life I lived behind the iron curtains – literally. After it fell I graduated in teaching of biology and chemistry, and I also briefly studied psychology and arts. Currently I am working in Germany and in the course of my work I often find myself in situations like in YouTube sketch “The Expert“.

You are free to guess who I can relate the most with. I have already once said about one of my managers that he is an incompetent buffoon with whom I refuse to work. I expected to be fired after that, but instead the boot has hit his ass.

My hobbies are gardening, photography, woodworking and knifemaking. In the past I was also drawing and painting, but alas I do not have time for that anymore. But I hope to have again sometime and I will post some of my former works. I was not magnificent, but I have on occasion managed to do a decent job of it.

Thinking under a tree

©Charly, all rights reserved.

Politically I am left of center in my country, but I would be considered to be a radical leftist in the USA.

I consider the most important skill to have to know when to shut up. It is also the most difficult skill to acquire and hone.