I gotta say the Czech Republic was *WAY* cool!
To fill the rest of you guys in, we went to CR to film the first European cowboy/western action shooting championships for COWBOYS!, our new show premiering (also in HDTV!) in January and hosted by five time SASS World Champion and all around good guy Richard "Tequila" Young. I figured the idea of European cowboys had just enough TWILIGHT ZONE spin to it to guarantee a great show and a good time. I also figured since I was "in the neighboorhood," I'd go by CZ, get them to open up the vaults and let me shoot all those itsy-bitsy cool machine pistols that never make it to the United States (back in my brief tenure as a war correspondent, I found a Skorpion in Grenada and was sorely tempted, but THAT'S ANOTHER STORY!).
Everything worked PERFECTLY! I've done a lot of international travel (as has my crew), but CR was like being at home in a place where you can't read the street signs. The Czech language is hopeless, by the way. I tried to ask for bread using a guidebook and pronunciation guide, which lead to gales of laughter from the waitress and the nearby diners. The people, though, still like Americans (not the case with the DAMNED ENGLISH at Heathrow, I might add...made me profoundly sorry that my ancestral Scots--McBane, doncha know?--didn't turn the tables on 'em at Culloden Moor). The country's also dirt cheap, the food is great and...please, women on the list, forgive me for what I'm about to say, even though I''m trying to be as non-sexist as possible...the Czech women apparently won the genetic luck of the draw.
One quick Czech story:
We're in Pisek, a little town near the Austrian border and near where the match was held. It's, like, 8PM, and the town looks like a set from the post-apocalyptic thriller 28 DAYS LATER...not a human being on the streets, all the little shops closed, etc. So me, Tequlia—in full cowboy drag, including the hat—and our videographer, Craig Incardone (whom we stole from slasher films) go to a mon-and-pop Czech restaurant that the Lovely Eva, owner of the hotel we were staying at, recommended as, "You know, like Czech McDonald's sort of..."
We get there and the place is mobbed, like the entire town of Pisek is chowing down in this place. We walk in and, just like in the old western movies, things get very quiet, everybody's eyes on Tequila's hat. Quiet as we're show to a table and given menus, in English. Quiet as Tequila studies the menu. Then Tequila points at an item on the menu. "BULL GLANDS!" he says in LOUD Texacan. "You've got BULL GLANDS! We want BULL GLANDS and PILSNER!" The waitress translates, and suddenly the sounds start back up. People--even people in weird hats--having bull glands and pilsner are HOMEBOYS!
Michael B
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