Lodziņš uz Latviju, a
literal ‘window to Latvia’ for Latvians living in the US! The monthly webcast incorporates political and
historic info with fun facts and familiar faces, bringing a little bit of
Latvia into our home.
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| Source: here |
Living in South Carolina we have a small (though
dedicated!) Latvian community; when it comes down to it, our children are not
exposed to the Latvian language and culture as much as we were on a daily basis
growing up. We speak only Latvian at home and to family, but another easy way to bring the language into daily life is through media. Some of the boys’
favorite movies are in Latvian (Lidmašīnas
dzēš un glāb - Planes 2 and Ledus sirds - Frozen!) and we listen to a lot of Čikāgas piecīši, Prāta Vētra
and other Latvian tunes. However, a more recent discovery is Lodziņš uz Latviju, and over the years
the boys have grown to know and love Ilze Jegere and Jānis Labucs, the driving
force behind what is now a familiar show at our house.
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| Interviewing Nikolajs Veidis |
Prior to our recent visit to Rīga, Mikus and Lauris had
watched one of the “GVV sveiciens” episodes, recorded especially for the
Latvian Center Gaŗezers summer high school students. When their conversation
turned to the places they thought Lodziņš
uz Latviju should be filming, I
suggested they write LuL with their ideas. We sent off a letter that was warmly
received, and the hint that the boys best like views of Rīga was
followed up with a backdrop of the Brīvības
piemineklis in the next episode.
And then we were in Rīga, and I managed to get word to Ilze that the boys would like to meet the two stars of the show, and before you knew it there we were, being interviewed! (Good thing we brought chocolates!!) Here’s “GVV mini pēdejais,” the last episode of the summer:
Musical accompaniment for Lodziņš uz Latviju is provided by Imanta Nīgale and Katrīna
Dimanta, otherwise known as dynamic folk duo Imanta Dimanta. Just out with a
new disc (and now playing on spotify!), we managed to coordinate the interview
with an autograph session... <Spoiler> The CD is amazing, we can’t stop
listening to it!
It doesn’t hurt that many familiar faces and places
appear on Lodziņš to Latvija on a
regular basis, but the boys love watching and often request previous favorite
episodes. Topics ranging from Porzingis
to Dziesmu svētki to the weather to
Latvian geography are covered (with material interesting to kids and adults), and
it’s no secret that we are anxiously awaiting the new season.We wish Ilze and
Jānis luck with their endeavor, and can’t wait to see what they’ve got in store
for us next!
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| Filming with a backdrop of Bastejkalns |
Here’s Ilze’s youtube channel: Lodziņš uz Latviju:
You can also follow them on facebook for outtakes, live
videos, links to interesting articles and alerts on new episodes.
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