Jon Searles' photos

About two months after Fluff Fest, I got to see Gattaca again at Klub 007 in Strahov. As this was only my cameraphone, it was hard to get anything that wasn't blurry, but I tried anyway.

About two months after Fluff Fest, I got to see Gattaca again at Klub 007 in Strahov. This was only the setup and soundcheck, which enabled me to get a better look at some of the gear.

Cafe na pul cesty often hosts outdoor concerts during the summertime, with some of these being in Centralni Park Pankrac, and others on a stage attached to the venue. In this case, Taras Bullba were performing on the outdoor stage.

Cafe Platyz, while it inhabits on older building (you can tell from the ceiling), dates to the 1930's, and has old photos on the walls showing that it hasn't changed radically since. I took a number of cameraphone shots on this particular day, but this was the one I settled on for iPernity. Anything I was going to post would be a crop, and even this one took some effort to crop attractively. I haven't been able to determine 100% why Platyz is hard to photograph. It may have been that I was using a cameraphone.

Although I attended the After Fluff show at Cafe na pul cesty, this was actually over a week later, when Shut Up Twist Again performed a regular gig. The Cafe has been renovated twice since this cameraphone shot was taken, once during Covid, and again immediately after. The current renovation is actually closer to the 2015 look, but still different. Most of my concert photos taken at the Cafe don't show much of the venue itself.

This is maybe the dish most associated with the Czech Republic, "Smazeny syr," or fried cheese, with tartar sauce and one or another potato side, in this case baked potatoes. Usually it's served with beer, but it was a work day when I was having lunch at Havelska Koruna, so I ordered some kind of cola. In this case, I think the cola was Kofola, which is another traditional Czech product. Havelska Koruna, incidentally, is a traditional Czech "jidelna" or fast-food restaurant, serving traditional Czech pub food. Havelska Koruna is and was unusual in that it's located close to Mustek in the tourist area of Prague, and not in a working-class neighborhood where these types of restaurants would normally be located. More impressively, it's survived for the long-haul, as it is still in business today: www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g274707-d2018223-Reviews-Havelska_Koruna-Prague_Bohemia.html

I took this photo immediately after returning to Prague from Fluff Fest, and initially I had skipped over it, not planning on an iPernity upload. However, while reviewing one last time, I decided to include it, as I liked how it was composed. If you look carefully, you can see "hlavni nadrazi" reflected in the train window from the platform sign.

Piper Cherokee isn't a band, but the (probable) model of that plane. It could be something related, actually, as Piper manufactured several models with a similar airframe to the Cherokee, and there are probably some replicas in circulation, too. This was taken at Fluff Fest, though. As I said above, I'm guessing the type from the shape, as I haven't been able to determine 100% that it's a Cherokee. At least one of the planes I spotted at Rokycany airport (I've forgotten in what year), where Fluff Fest was held, had a registration assigned to a Cherokee, though, this is likely it.

I managed to get relatively few good cameraphone shots at Fluff Fest 2015, but I had a few. This shot is of Trial, on Saturday.

I managed to get relatively few good cameraphone shots at Fluff Fest 2015, but I had a few. This shot is of Hibakusha, on Saturday.

I managed to get relatively few good cameraphone shots at Fluff Fest 2015, but I had a few. There were a number of old favorites at the festival, including Gattaca, but I didn't manage to get good shots with my cameraphone. This was one of my best shots from Fluff Fest 2015, with decent lighting, and a shooting location close enough so that I didn't have to use digital zoom. This set was on Saturday, soon after I arrived.

Someone sharper on the history of art (or the history of this building, which is now occupied by the Alchemist Bar, on the corner of Na Mustku and Provaznicka), would know the century of this ceiling. I'm guessing it's pre-18th Century, probably pre-17th Century, but beyond that I'm just guessing. I was happy to see that it was preserved, though, even in a chain restaurant like Costa Coffee. This is actually on the 1st (or in American terms, the 2nd) floor, although Costa Coffee used both floors. Today, the ground floor is used by the Twenty4Seven Wine & Food Store, one of many similar businesses that emerged in the wake of Covid-19, and the partial rollback of tourist-oriented businesses in the older neighborhoods of Prague.

I took a number of cameraphone photos at the Rabie Babies show, but only two of them were any good. This was because my Nokia 301 phone didn't have such a great camera, although to be fair in 2015 hardly anything did. Basically, this is the other photo.

One of my friends made me aware of the Rabies Babies back when I was still on Facebook, so when I saw a show advertised, I was sure to go. My friend never showed up, I called her, and she didn't even know the show was happening. Any case, they were one of the best punk rock bands I've seen live, albeit more traditional than most of what I had been seeing in 2015. They still occassionally play out, but my understanding (from their Facebook page) is that family pressures have forced them into semi-retirement, however non-punk rock that may sound. I would certainly go to another show, if they're playing nearby and if I know about it.

I don't normally put the month in the titles of my photos, but in this case it's significant, as this was less than two weeks after the death of Nicholas Winton at 106 years old (he died on July 1st, 2015). Wikipedia describes him as a "humanitarian," which doesn't do him full justice, as he became best known for having rescued 669 children from the Nazis, arranging for their transport to London (by rail, sea, and air, but primarily by rail) on what became known as the Kindertransport. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindertransport en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Winton The bronze statue behind the candles was actually added within his lifetime, as was another memorial in the passenger tunnel from the platforms, portraying a train door. The candles were added to both memorials to commemorate him after his death.

This was the Class 471 "City Elefant" EMU that took me back to Prague. Having said this, the photo is too blurred to get the road number.

This was the colour-coded recycling bin on the platform of Nadrazi Cernosice-Mokropsy. I took this picture because it included a bin for metal recycling, something that wasn't generally offered in Prague (and, as far as I know, still isn't), in spite of metal being one of the least complicated things to recycle.

This is the station building at Cernosice-Mokropsy. This building looks like it could have been built since 1933, although some buildings in 1933 already looked like this. Ceske Drahy still advertise a staffed ticket office here (as of 2024).