In the morning, I stayed in. At 3:00 I was meant to be meeting Milena at the office. The office is just off Wenceslas Square, on the main thoroughfare across the Square, near the Semafor theatre. Občanske semafórum!1 I went to look for the Cultural Section of the British Embassy on Jungmannova. Got lost and turned up at 3:30 after being redirected by Ezra whom I had bumped into. Prague is a small city. Hurried to Milena’s lesson. She later told me some of the class have been giving her venomous looks about her departure. I left after one lesson.
In the evening I went to ‘Miss Punk 90’ at a large theatre-type night-club2 near the centre. It was just like being 13 and it being 1976. Drunk punks staggered around, the bands tried frantically to be The Sex Pistols or The Clash. Everyone was drinking pink lemonade because to drink beer is to seem working class. Miss Punk for which there seemed to be only one candidate, was not obviously elected or crowned, perhaps, in typical Czech fashion, they awarded her the prize backstage. At 11:30 the place shut.
Misty, Kimberley and I went to a medical student party which had been going since 4 in the afternoon. The party was stopped by the doorlady who was the biggest dragon you ever saw.
Waited half an hour for a tram and caught a taxi home. On the way back the taxi, a Škoda, had a race with a Fiat 126. It cost 50 crowns. I was glad just to be alive, intact as the mad taxi driver screamed off into the night.
A pun on the name of ‘Civic Forum’ — the political party Václav Havel represented.
I think this is probably Palác Lucerna. Built by Václav Havel’s grandfather. Young-Toby will go to a number of gigs there. He’ll see Allen Ginsberg here very soon.
In a small city, you check out whatever’s on. This means you sometimes have a richer cultural time, because you can’t pick and choose whatever’s to your taste. Young-Toby would never have gone to ‘Miss Punk 90’ in Oxford or Glasgow. For one thing, he’d have been scared. But in Praha, as an outsider, as a curiosity, he feels like he can float through scenes. No-one’s going to call him on not having a mohican. And even if they did, someone else would probably step in to rescue him.
Already, young-Toby is changing, becoming more outgoing. He has new friends who’ll say, Hey, I’ve heard this is happening — d’you want to come? And quite often, he’ll say yes.
He is earning some money, too. He doesn’t have to angst over very pound, because it might be the one he needs for the electricity meter. Though at 50kčs that taxi driver is really ripping him off.