Vratislav Brabenec, one of the original members of the Plastic People of the Universe, puffed on a cigarette outside a Chelsea lounge after a performance Nov. 11, pausing to reflect on the life of former Czech President and dissident Václav Havel.

"He was a protected animal," Brabenec said.

The Plastic People were in the city for two shows, helping to celebrate Havel's seven-week residency at Columbia University. Havel may be passé in the Czech Republic, but he's been in the New York papers ever since he touched down, deftly mixing the artistic and the political.

The one place he's kept a low profile is Columbia, turning down an office and campus housing arrangements there, and declining requests for interviews. He's not teaching any classes, either. So far, the majority of his activities have been off-campus.

On Nov. 13, two nights after the first Plastic People show, Havel appeared at the band's second concert at the Knitting Factory, a Tribeca club, with an old friend and former Czech dissident-turned-ambassador to the United Nations, Martin Palouš.

Palous said his old friend Havel "is an artist by profession, a politician by coincidence."

Gary Lucas, the lead guitarist for the opening act Gods and Monsters, said Havel was "smiling from ear to ear" backstage as he socialized with David Byrne, the former Talking Heads frontman.

Havel shares history with the Plastic People. The band was arrested and held for several months in 1976, one of the events that prompted Havel and other leading dissidents to issue Charter 77 the following year, which reverberated around the world.

For U.S. audiences, the band is part nostalgia and part history. The crowd at both shows was decidedly unwrinkled, and most were likely not old enough to recall the band's early days.

Havel also had a celebrity turn in the footlights, toasted by two New York theaters that organized the first-ever festival featuring all of the playwright president's works. Havel was even in the audience a few nights.

The social whirlwind continued Nov. 14, when Havel was in the stands for a New York Rangers game, at which Czech ice hockey star Jaromír Jágr scored two goals. At the United Nations Nov. 16, Havel publicly co-signed and presented with Elie Wiesel a report calling on North Korea to observe human rights.

In between those two events, Havel shared the stage with former U.S. President Bill Clinton in a discussion billed as the marquee event of his Columbia residency. An audience of 1,200 students and friends of the university was in attendance Nov. 15 for a friendly exchange between the two men about the challenges of the post-Cold War world.

"I love that, after all he went through, he still maintains the things that are important to him: his manners, his respect for his neighbors and human rights," said third-year Czech student Destiny Long.

During their encounter, Clinton also heaped effusive praise on Havel. He placed him alongside Gandhi and Nelson Mandela as one of "three great figures who, through nonviolence, changed the course of history."

Even Havel acknowledged being "a little bit embarrassed" by Clinton's kind words. He characterized himself as "the pioneer of the Czech ex-presidency," a position that stood in contrast with the United States, a country "full of former presidents."