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.

Schizophrenic situation in football game?

I enjoy that my Latvian readers are actively joining in here, writing comments and starting small discussions on my blog. Thanks for that! The most active writer, "Anonymous", wanted to know what I think about the recent football game of last year's Latvian champions FK Ventspils against the Swiss champion FC Zurich in the Champions' League group stage qualification. You should know that not only for FK Ventspils, this was a very important game...
This qualification period is also FC Zurich's third attempt to finally reach the Champions' League group stage. Also for Switzerland, every time a club qualifies for this competition, it's a small miracle.

I think that the day before yesterday in Skonto stadium, the smarter team won. A 0:3 is maybe a bit much, but the Ventspils defense indeed had more holes than any Swiss cheese. And regarding their attack - well, if you manage to miss the target with a shot from four meters distance, then that's obviously not the 1:1, but very, very bad luck.

I myself wasn't torn between the two teams at all. I was as hopeful as the Latvian fans. And not only because I know how important it would be for Latvian football if a team would qualify for the first time for the Champions League (even though the UEFA Europa League is pretty good, too). But it's also an old fight deep down in my heart, because the team I'm rooting for is not from Zurich, but from Bern, and its colors are yellow and black. This team is called "Jang Bois" oder "Jaunie Puiši", as Latvian journalists might write.

But I admit that before the game, I was a little annoyed: Swiss newspapers reported that the Latvian hosts had tried to play all sorts of little psycho games with their guests. Suddenly almost all the hotels were booked, and the guest team apparently wasn't invited to practice on the official pitch - instead, FC Zurich was told that they had to rent a pitch for 400 Euros per hour. Well, hello - that's not exactly normal, and it's not exactly how you treat a guest team, do you. I'd say that all the Rimi cashiers and central market sellers together are friendlier than these football apparatchiks.
After Zurich's officials were reacting rather angrily, it was reported that the hosts suddenly became cantingly nice and friendly. In my view, this sort of behavior has a bad smell of dark old times. It's the kind of behavior with one would expect when buying illegal alcohol, and not the way you want to be seen abroad. Unfortunately, not even an advertising film about Latvian Spa centres can correct too much of that kind of image...

What I appreciated a lot during the game, though, was the Ventspils fan club. They were the true football fans, colorful and loud, and even when their team was 0:3 behind, they still waved their flags and chanted their songs, mostly in Russian. My respect! Well, I could imagine that quite some Latvian spectators had mixed feelings about these fans and their Russian-language banners and songs. But how important can it be in what language you support your (ultimately Latvian) team, also considering how many of the well-known Latvian football players have Russian roots. 90%, someone told me, but I'm not sure if that number is correct. Anyhow: When the Swiss national team is playing, you could also hear the fans in two or three different languages. By the way, the Latvia - Switzerland world cup qualification game is up in early September...!
Though maybe, if I want to become Latvian, I have to start being bored of football, and switch to ice-hockey instead? But I couldn't give up football, I like it too much for that...

P.S.: Here's the legendary advertising film for Latvian spas by the Latvian Tourism Development Agency - a film that made every Latvian I ever met shiver in embarrassment... firstly, a significant amount of money (around 60'000 Euro?) disappeared for the production of this piece, but then, at least some of the people responsible for this advertising disaster had to disappear, too...

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!

The beginning

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).