Cultural life

I often suffer from a lack of free time. It isn´t easy for a young person to find the time to enjoy culture. Children aren´t generally interested in culture at their age, while adults are short of free time. Despite being so busy, almost everybody finds the time to go to the cinema, the theatre or an exhibition. Cultural life in our town isn´t so rich as in large cities. In spite of that, there are some ways how to spend leisure time. We can go to the cinema, dancing, or we can stay at home and listen to the radio, watch television and read books. In our everyday life we also meet with works of the fine arts, either architecture, sculptures or paintings. Film, cinema

In 1877 the English inventor Edward Muybridge discovered a way how to take photos very quickly one after another. Eleven years later in 1888 the American George Eastman produced the first celluloid film. Then in 1893 Thomas Edison invented the kinetoscope. It produced film of a very low quality, and only one person could watch it at a time. Then brothers Limierr invented cinematograph. This machine allowed a large audience to watch moving pictures. Important is also the silent era of cinematography. It´s called the silent era because there wasn´t recorded sound at all. Since this time the cinematography has made huge progress. Hollywood changed film into a branch of entertainment industry.

Cinema belongs among the most popular cultural activities. For projection of a film all that´s needed is a movie screen and a reel of film. If we want to go to the cinema, we must buy a ticket. The price of tickets varies greatly. In the past it was necessary to book the tickets for a performance in advance. Nowadays we can get the tickets straight away at the cinema, about half an hour before the performance. People are lazier to leave their place, have less free time and own televisions, video recorders and DVDs, so they don´t need to go to the cinema. I think that going to the cinema with friends is much better than sitting in front of TV. You enjoy the film and then you talk with friends about it. The atmosphere in the cinema is quite strange and it´s great if you can become accustomed to a part of one of the actors or actresses. Theatre

Small towns provide little opportunity to see theatre performances. People, who go to the theatre are theatregoers or playgoers.

To the theatre people usually come dressed up, they take off their coats in the cloakroom and there they can also hire opera glasses. You can get tickets to the stalls, pit, gallery, dress circle, upper circle, balcony, gods and boxes. People usualy read the programme before the performance to see who stars in the play and who plays the supporting roles, something about the story and who designed the stage scenery and costumes. The curtain goes up and the performance begins. Between two acts there is an interval. You can walk in the foyer, smoke, buy some refreshments or share opinions of the performance with your friends. When the performance is over, the audience bursts into applause. Sometimes the actors and actresses are called out. The play may be the tragedy, a serious play about great suffering, or the comedy, which is light and amusing.

Our Czech theatre enjoys great popularity not only in this country but around the world. Czech actors even travel abroad to perform. Many foreigners also travel for theatrical performances to our country. Our best known theatre is the National Theatre in Prague. Tickets are expensive there and must be bought well in advance. In Prague we can also find many other theatres. A person who truly loves the theatre acquires a different view of the world. Radio and TV

Radio and television are also a part of people´s lives. Some people have the nasty habit to put on television immediately after coming home. Some people like watching TV, but some are against that. You can learn from TV foreign languages and it´s wonderful source of information, but on the other hand there is a lot of crime and violence. Nowadays watching television is very popular. Sometimes watching TV is only waste of time, but everyone can choose those programmes which prefers. If you have satellite, you can choose from channels such as Hallmark, HBO, HBO 2, MTV Hits, MTV Base, VIVA, Pro7, RTL, Eurosport, Spektrum, Discovery and many others. You can watch horrors, westerns, adventure films, thrillers, soap operas, action, psychological, romantic and science-fiction films. You can watch quizes, competitions, educational programmes, TV news or weather forecast, too. I think that bad TV programmes are stupid competitions, where you don´t need to know anything to win some money. I think it´s quite unfair, because if it´s competition, you should prove something of your knowledge. In Great Britain, radio and TV broadcasting is mainly provided by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which has four radio and four television channels.

The first channel presents almost news and information programmes, the second and third channels are for light programmes (such as films, soap operas or competitions) and the last one presents the cultural programmes. The channels of radio BBC have the similar kinds of programmes. In Britain there are also some independent TV, for example ITV – Independent Television, which is the biggest rival to BBC. Others

Literature
Reading is another source of knowledge and culture. When we read for pleasure, we usually pick up a book of fiction, such as novels (romantic, historical, ...), short stories, long stories or poetry. We can buy books, or we can borrow them in a library. If we need information, it´s good to have various dictionaries, encyclopedias and atlases close at hand.

Museums, exhibitions
We can visit museums, too, but not every town has a museum. There are many kinds of museums. These can be museums of history, agriculture, industry and so on. Most museums are concentrated in our capital, Prague. In museums and art galleries, which display sculptures and paintings, we look at statues cut in sandstone, granite, marble, carved in wood or moulded in clay, plaster or bronze, and at paintings painted in oil and in watercolours, drawings, graphic art, engravings, etchings or woodcuts. Many of us, however, also visit art exhibitions. In museum take place many exhibitions. People who visit such exhibitions are mainly experts in fine arts and students of art schools. In entering an exhibition hall we must usually pay a certain fee. Besides the exhibition of paintings, there are exhibitions of photographs, statues, as well as exhibitions of objects made of wood, iron, glass etc. My cultural experience

When I was small we used to visit castles with my parents. Nowadays, my parents are quite busy, so they don´t have much free time to go sightseeing. In my opinion, visiting castles, churches, cathedrals, fortresses, memorials .. is another way how to acquaint with the culture of the Middle Ages. I´ve visited castles in Kroměříž, Lednice, Opočno, Bouzov, Český Krumlov, etc. I like sightseeing. There is one cinema in our town. It shows twice a week, on Wednesday and on Friday. I go to the cinema with my friends three or four times a month. Tickets aren´t so expensive there, they cost 40 crowns in average. Films I´ve seen recently: Finding Nemo, Facing Window, American Pie: The Wedding, Good Bye, Lenin! and some others. In our town there isn´t a theatre, so we have to go to Prostějov or Olomouc to see performances. When I was 8, I saw the wonderful ballet. I like Shakespeare´s plays.

By reading books, you can pick up new vocabulary. I like reading.

I´m interested in almost all books, but I prefer books, which I need to read for school. My favourite books are Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hours by M. Cunningham, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Flowers for Algernon by D. Keyes, etc. I don´t often listen to the radio. I prefer listening to my favourite CDs, for example Chinaski. I'm not a TV addict. Sometimes I don´t watch TV for 2 days. I don´t have time for watching it. I think that Television Nova isn´t very good channel. There are a lot of shows and stupid action films.