I grew up around Třebenice and Lovosice on scouting, the guitar and books. In my twenties I fell for phonetics, film and theatre. I make short films, but I carry opuses of epic proportions in my head. I write, I compose music, I don't usually finish anything.
I grew up learning English, which is the only language I speak at a native speaker level. But I enjoy Spanish the most. It sounds beautiful and you can get along with it in Spain, a wonderful country I would emigrate to if I ever had to.
Say the word Fender in front of me and avoid the word Gibson. I will, however, be happy to sing with an acoustic guitar around a campfire, in a wine cellar or elsewhere. I played in several bands focused on blues, rock, and rock'n'roll. I've also composed my own CD, but don't have the energy to finish the recording. Time, time, time... I don't even play the guitar anymore. And I hardly listen to anything.
Hiking in the mountains takes time, so nowadays I indulge in it rather rarely. I love the views, the empty landscape and the steep hills. They often go together. But in recent years you can find me nicely settled in Mikulov in the Krušné Mountains, where we escape from the big city.
I studied phonetics - the science of the myriad aspects related to human speech - and I do phonetics for a living. I teach at the Institute of Phonetics at Charles University (here you can find my professional CV and publications). I am interested in comparative phonetics (especially English), voice studies, perceptual research, phonology and last but not least the history of phonetics.
Lately I've been crazy about the R programming language, in which I now do everything. How did I survive before?
I prefer longer distances, ideally around ten kilometres. But the worst thing is to actually get to it, I often have several months of downtime. Anyway, I'm making up new movies as I run, so cheer me on to run as much as possible!
I read and I write. As a reader I prefer novels but I don't despise shorter works. I won't list my favourite authors, there are many, most of them British or American. As an author, I tend to focus on shorter pieces like short stories or plays. I've finished about four pieces. Then I got tired of it, because I got a whiff of screenwriting, which suits me better in terms of scope and writing principles.
Since 2017, I have been active in the theatre association Teatritis, which was created through a targeted collection of travelling actors in connection with the launch of Šárka Pichrtová's comedy "Reforma". Next bite Woody Allen and his "Curse of the Jade Scorpion", and most recently Neil Simon and "The Plaza Suite". Be sure to come see us sometime!
I started out as a spectator - I got enchanted by films on the big screen. I go to the cinema (I don't go to multiplexes), I collect Blu-Ray discs, I love watching almost anything with others. But I've also been writing scripts, filming, directing for some time now. Movies and everything related to them have totally ousted all my other hobbies. I've made three shorts so far. I'm gradually building a team to collaborate on other films.
With the breadth of options and materials available today, an aspiring filmmaker no longer needs to apply to film school. The greatest school involves two things: watching and analyzing films, by which you learn directly from the masters, and the painful practice of making your own films. Nowadays I can only manage to watch about 60 films a year, which is really the minimum for a director. For aspiring filmmakers in particular, I recommend the year-long Free Cinema courses.
My favourite dishes are Indian and Vietnamese. But I don't shun Italian or French cuisine either. But classic Czech food has no oomph and is too greasy and salty. When I have time, I like to cook, bake bread or grow my own vegetables/herbs. Meatless meals are great, inventive and beneficial - however, I am a semi-vegetarian, I like to have meat occasionally.