Mission 5: To do something for the nation

Suur tänud, paldies and thanks (...)

... to captain Roman and Dagne, to Kristaps and Baiba, to Viktorija, Gundars, to Sirke and Allan for the music, to Kristiina for the flag, to Arno for the text. Also to Kadri, Piret, Tiina, Märt, and the other people of Ruhnu. To Alyona, Anete, Karlīna, Laura, Miķelis of the invasion forces. And to many more. Listen to Alis P (LV) and Sirke (LV) as well as Vennaskond (EE). Marvelous music. And tomorrow, we go to take back Trinidad & Tobago.

P.S.: Tobago was a colony of Courland for a while, back in the 17th century; Courland is part of modern Latvia.

Rudis' missions on TV

I will do some of my next missions together with the Latvian TV show "Bez Tabu" (without taboo) on TV3! Until end of October, they are searching for the 'real Latvian' - and after all, that's pretty exactly what I want to become. So I'll be about twice a week on "Bez Tabu". The next shows will be on air:

Tuesday, September 29th, 18.20 (CET):
Rudis is superstitious.

Thursday, October 1st, 18.20 (CET):
Rudis changes his looks, and turns into a sexy Latvian.

You can watch Bez Tabu online here!

Missed a show? Don't worry. You can find the show archives on this site.

Updated Mission 4: Get into and go through Latvian media

These are parts of a broadcast of Riga's alternative radio station, Radio NABA. (...)

Marika, who's doing the "French Connection" show, invited me last Saturday. This time I brought some Swiss rock music, but maybe some day I'll have a chance to show off my favourite Latvian tunes.

Originally a pirate radio that was run by university students, the music radio NABA is nowadays the official fifth channel by Radio Latvia. Since all their people are volunteers and work simply out of enthusiasm for their channels, this station is really a colorful and genuine alternative voice besides all the commercial channels. Currently (and in the future) financial support is missing, so that radio NABA is unlikely to survive... but a Latvian culture landscape without radio NABA is really something I don't want to imagine.

Listen to radio NABA here.

Big thanks to Marika! I was pretty nervous, speaking for the first time into a radio microphone, and that in three foreign languages at once. But joking around and dancing a little in the studio made it rather easy in the end. You can (and should!) listen to Marika and her French Connection in Latvian-French-English at the same time every Saturday evening at 22:00 CET, 23:00 local time in Riga.



September 12th, 2009: Portrait about me in Sestdiena, the weekend supplement of Latvia's biggest daily Diena, written by Janis Rozenbergs. The text has also been published online (in Latvian), and has received a lot of comments, which seems to indicate how important these questions are - about identity, about becoming Latvian, and perhaps also about staying Latvian...




September 15th, 2009: A video report about my project by Inese Trenca from the news agency LETA. This was the first interview I tried to give entirely in Latvian. Of course with a lot of mistakes...! You can watch the film (in Latvian, no subtitles) on various Internet portals, such as TVNET or Apollo, again with lots of comments by viewers. The video isn't in the "arts" section of these portals, but under "life" - and hey, maybe that's really a better classification!


More information and interviews in Latvian media are probably going to come soon...

Mission 3: Becoming superstitious

Many Latvian feels connected to their pagan roots - and it's not only during the midsummer festival, St. John's Day, when you can see that. It can easily happen that your friend won't shake your hand because you're standing in the doorway. Superstition is a part of everyday life, and thanks to the comments of many of my readers, I could finally enrich my life with some superstition. Here's a selection:

1. If you left your home but you need to return, because there's something you forgot: You should look into the mirror."
   





2. If you whistle inside a room, you're inviting the devil."





3. "If someone wants to present you a sharp object (a knife or similar), you have to give him a symbolic amount of money in return."





4. "If bread falls on the floor, you must pick it up and kiss it."





5. "If you eat fish on New Year's Eve and put the fish scales into your wallet, then money will keep flowing into it during the year."
   





6. "If you place gloves on a table, you won't have money."





7. "You should always have a bit of money with you, because if your wallet is empty, the devil will come and shit into it."
   





8. "If you wear your clothes inside out, you'll get drunk fast."

These little animations were created in cooperation with David. Thanks also to Anete, Inese and Mikelis for their help. More ideas about superstition you find in these (Latvian) comments.
Want to see more of David's animated gifs? Visit his gifmemore-Blog.

Mission 2: Picking mushrooms

First day, and second day (two separate videos).

Thanks to:

Thanks to Rene and David for filming; to Valda, Ansis, Janis and the whole family for helping me so much; to Elina und Mikelis for their help; to Edgars and the band Gaujarts for their songs; and to you for watching again!

Mission 1: Leaving in order to arrive

(To switch on English or German subtitles, start the video; then click the triangle icon in the bottom right corner of the video frame; and select the desired subtitles from the second icon from below (a red shape with two white lines).)

Finally, my dear friends:


This took some time, but finally it's here: The video about my very first mission. I had quite a few technical problems, and a little argument with my computer. But in the end, it's done.

My very happy thank you goes to: The Swiss embassy (for a nice party). Daiva (real Swiss). Roberto (real consul). David (real tears). All the guests at the embassy reception who played along so nicely. Elina and Hannes for helping with the video shooting. Edgars and the band Gaujarts for their beautiful song. And finally, thank you for waiting and watching!